Speaker: Ivy Anthony

Connection Might Save Us

We are in our Fall Series called “We Are Reservoir.”  It’s a fun season — jumpstarting, reminding us of the beauty and presence of God in this community. Jesus at the center of all we do — all we dream and envision  — and even more than what we can imagine. We draw close to us (as best we can) the values of an open, inclusive, beloved community that Jesus calls us to create and grow. Staying open, eager, connected to the Spirit of God by which we move and breathe and have our being.

This series “We Are Reservoir,” while in some ways is a taste and a teaching of Reservoir’s expression of how and why we think about faith and God the way we do (I think is mostly an invitation to live a connected life. To live a vibrant life — with a vibrant faith — with a vibrant God right at your hip. It’s an invitation to continue your journey of faith, cultivated “yes” (in part) by your individual moments with this wondrous God) but mostly it’s a journey lived out with all the beautiful, complicated, messy, people…image-bearers of God among and around you.  

In some ways, “We Are Reservoir” isn’t really about Reservoir at all — it’s always been about what is beyond Reservoir. It’s the belief that God’s imprint is held and living in everyone. And perhaps our most vibrant faith — our most vibrant view of God will take shape as we seek to discover just that. As we live our lives tethered to a dynamic Spirit that promises to enrich our story as we uncover the stories of God exactly where our feet are.

I’d love to spend some time with you and the Spirit of God this morning — wondering together about why connection, why community is so vital to a healthy faith, a healthy life.  We’ll learn from the stories of the widows in the New Testament and we’ll ask ourselves potent questions,

“Am I lonely? Am I connected? Where am I finding community?”

Prayer: This morning, may we turn to each other – as we turn to you, God. Today we ask of you what is simple — but seems to take lifetimes — help us love one another, unto a community of saints and widows and students and tradesman and high-level professionals and all of us — help us to resurrect one another where parts of us might feel absent of life…help us to continue to see you the life-giving, resurrected one in our midst.  

YES DINNERS

Well back in 2016 (after a notable election) we started what we called  “yes dinners.” It’s the same design as the Beloved Tables that we are running right now. . .. our version of community dinners that allow you to gather around a table, meet some folks in this community and feel (hopefully) a little more connected — a little more known. 

And we completely stole this idea from a small grassroots organization called the People’s Supper. Who, in the wake of the rupture of the election and rippling division, vowed to hold 100 Suppers in 100 Days — hoping people would lean in and opt to connect around a table rather than hunker down in silos. This organization set out to equip communities with the tools they would need to build trust across lines of difference —

“realizing that social change moves at the speed of relationships, and that relationships move at the speed of trust.” (www.thepeoplessupper.org)  

Over the years I think this movement has grown a lot — realizing areas in which they needed to adapt and change — and realizing that these meals weren’t a panacea.

“They don’t inoculate against grief, or polarization, or futility. But still holding close to the belief that those moments in which we truly connect with each other matter. They move us from isolation to connection, and toward a shared humanity. And the absence of such connection actually diminishes us.” (www.thepeoplessupper.org)

There are ways that big national events –like elections and a global event like a pandemic spike our awareness of how disconnected we are. We are suddenly all paying attention all at once — to what has laid beneath the surface for a long time.

We are a lonely bunch.

We really are.

There are just tons of data to support this. I mean our social connection has just plummeted since the early 2000’s — so much so that Vivek Murthy our Surgeon General (the doctor of our nation) last year put out a Surgeon General’s Advisory report declaring that  we are enduring an epidemic of loneliness and isolation — one that has profound negative effects on not only our individual health but also societal health.

Loneliness is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Vivek says we will pay an ever-increasing price in the form of our individual and collective health and well-being if we don’t figure out how to build more connected lives and a more connected society.  

Social connection is our deepest fundamental human need, as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter.

“Just as hunger and thirst tell us that we need to eat and drink — loneliness is our natural signal that reminds us when we need to connect with other people.”  (Together, Vivek Murthy)

If left “untreated” Vivek believes we will continue to splinter and divide until we can no longer stand as a community or a country. Instead of coming together to take on the great challenges before us, we will further retreat to our corners—angry, sick, and alone.

Throughout history, our ability to rely on one another has been crucial to survival — in fact our ancestor’s default setting was “togetherness”! (hunter-gatherers and such). We human beings are biologically wired for social connection — we are made as relational beings. 

God embedded in the very design of the universe the energy of love and relationship….  Many scientists have pointed out that love is

“the very physical structure of the Universe.” That gravity, atomic bonding, planets, orbits, cycles, photosynthesis, ecosystems, force fields, electromagnetic fields, and evolution all reveal an energy that is attracting all things and beings to one another, in a movement toward ever greater complexity and diversity—and yet ironically also toward unification at ever deeper levels. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin) This relational energy is quite simply love under many different forms.” (Rohr)

You see the energy is not IN the planets, or IN the atomic particles – the energy is found in the relationship between them. 

It’s so beautiful — this ‘love force’ surrounding us at every turn — suggesting the very nature of our beings should just ooze with connection and good relationships — healthy communities. And yet it’s the hardest of things to do … we are often pretty bad at being relational beings. 

Vivek Murthy spent the first part of his term as the nation’s doctor embarking on a “listening tour” around the country. Listening to stories, of what people were going through on the health front, what their lives were like — and what he uncovered was that the most prevailing ailment that held many chronic illness in common was loneliness. 

Stories have always helped us feel connected and promote a sense of belonging. Storytelling helps us relay our values, purpose and identity and helps us bond emotionally.

“Ever since the first cave drawing we’ve been encoding our experiences in stories through words, pictures, music and rituals that are passed down generation to generation.”

Stories help us feel connected to one another. If I’m not sharing knowledge and emotions — bringing my true authentic self – my complex, diverse self – to a relationship — then I feel lonely. 

Connection Value

It’s why here at Reservoir “connection” is one of our core values. We value

“life-giving connections and are committed to pursuing God’s wholeness, love, and leading in every moment of our lives, transcending distinctions between sacred and secular.”

What feels especially Reservoir-y about this to me — is that we don’t define what those “life-giving connections” look like — or where  you’ll encounter them!  

As we move into the scripture this morning in Acts, I invite you to hold all these parts of connection and community — its complexity, its importance, the stories, the barriers and the ways in which you feel connected or not.

Let’s read this story in the early part of Acts

Acts 6:1-7

1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them

4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Here we have the early developing church in Jerusalem. A rapidly growing community of people that have come together with all their complexities and diversity, right? The 12 disciples themselves come from different social backgrounds, and opposing philosophical and political viewpoints. 

Matthew, the tax collector was seen as regarded as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers.  Simon the Zealot, was a member of a group that sought the expulsion of the Romans and the regaining of Jewish independence. . . and yet this early church community as it’s taking shape in Acts, is characterized by extraordinary unity and generosity. In Acts 4 it says,

“all the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.”

However, in the midst of all the ‘love force’ and relational capital — we have some internal division brewing among the community.

  • The “Hellenists” are presumably Greek-speaking Jews, which means that they originated outside of Palestine.  
  • The “Hebrews”  are also Jews, of course. But they are Palestinian Jews, whose first language is Hebrew or during this time Aramaic.
  • The “Hellenists” feel that, because of language and cultural differences, their widows — are being neglected by the predominantly “Hebrew” members of the community as well as the entirely “Hebrew”  leadership of the Twelve – the apostles.
  • They are being excluded from the daily distribution of food, from a meal, from a seat at the table.

Now this passage is often regarded as offering a quick, good response to a practical problem in the community — with the appointment of the first deacons to address it (and Greek speaking ones to boot). 

And as I read these verses I can acknowledge this — the apostles responded efficiently. “Check!” I mean it’s better than letting tension fester — or continuing to neglect an already under-resourced and excluded group of women.

However, I can’t help but wince at a couple of points as I read these verses as well. And rather than bypass them unto the happy ending in verse seven where we see

“the word of God spreading and the number of disciples and priests increasing in number…”

I want to press into those points that give me pause and see what we might be able to learn about connection and community.

If I may, I’d like to rewind a tiny bit to the Gospel of Luke — where we see a sequence of “widow” stories and Jesus’ interactions with them. That may help us with this story in Acts. Luke (also the author of Acts) spends a lot of time in his own Gospel talking about widows (and women in general), more than the other gospels. Noticeable enough that some scholars wonder if he himself was raised by a widow. Let’s consider four of these widow stories really quickly in the gospel of Luke:
(Much of this learning from F. Scott Spencer)

  1. Anna the Prophetess – we learn that she is an esteemed elderly widow who stays at the temple day in and day out — fasting and praying and worshiping. She is faithful, she praises God and speaks about Jesus to everyone as the Messiah. And while it might seem like the temple is her primary resource, the gospel of Luke paints the picture of the temple as an exploitative establishment, a

“den of robbers”

and likely not a great support to Anna.

2. In Luke we also have the story of the widow of Nain. – Jesus finds the widow of Nain at a funeral procession for her deceased son. And Jesus rises her only son back to life– and gives him back to her — which gives her back her social standing and her livelihood AND social connection.  He restores her primary means of surviving materially as well as emotionally. Jesus raises her from the death of loneliness. In the midst of pallbearers, and townspeople, and a large crowd — Jesus is the one to show compassion and make a “life-giving” connection.

3. We then read the parable of The Persistent Widow. Where for the first time in Luke’s Gospel, a widow is given her own voice.  She pleads for justice in front of a

“judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people”

and the widow is granted her request.  She makes a new way, receiving justice from an unjust system — expanding her story of what a relationship with a just and loving God could be.

4. Lastly we have the story of the Poor Widow who gives all she has — two coins to the temple treasury. And we see again Jesus 

“pitted against the temple authorities”

Jesus not only caring for the widow’s story but pointing out how the Sadducees used widows as subjects of debate and how the scribes used them as objects of exploitation. Jesus says,

“Truly I tell you, all of them have contributed out of abundance, but this poor widow out of her poverty has put in all she had to give.”

Jesus calls her worth and dignity to the surface — and at the same time criticizes the corrupt temple system which took all of her resources and offered nothing in return. No connection, no community.

This little rewind confirms that we shouldn’t be that surprised that resources and networks for basic economic, practical and social support are lacking for these Hellenistic  widows — But we might be surprised that the neglect we witness – here in Acts –  comes from the budding and growing community of Jesus’ followers.  *wince*

The apostles have holy reasons and holy words for this — they say,

“it is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.” 

But in light of the stories we just read in Luke their exclusionary explanation seems to place them in the

“unholy alliance of unjust judges, hypocritical scribes and an exploitative temple system.” (Spencer) 

This distinction of “the Ministry of the word of God” verses the “service or ministry of the table” makes me wince because notice that what is “not right” is not as much the widows’ predicament as it is the prospect that the 12 have to curtail their teaching ministry in order to help the widows. (Spencer)  Talking about what might be “right” or “wrong” feels ill-placed when the basic human rights and need for love and dignity is not on the table.

“In effect the apostles co-opt the widows’ ordeal: they suppose that their right to proclaim the word is as much in jeopardy as the widows’ right to receive food. While they proceed to map out an effective plan for meeting the needs, the Twelve still punctuate their proposal reiterating that , “We, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word”. (adapted Spencer)

And there’s a way to wonder — well, what’s the big deal? Everyone seems happy here — the widows are fed, the 12 get to keep doing their apostle-thing — all is good.

BUT — Luke’s Gospel repeatedly exposes the 12’s proclivity to promote the ministry of teaching and preaching at the expense of the service of food at table, in contrast to Jesus’ pattern of transcending any distinction between the “sacred” and the “secular.” What is deemed to be “sacred” on the surface — Prayer and teaching and preaching is not interconnected with Jesus’ presence, listening and liberating these widows from material and physical oppression.  

And the cost is that no life-giving connection is experienced — by either the apostles or the widows.  The widows plead here, in Acts, for recognition as much as for food. And the apostle’s recognition of the sacred in human form is missed.

As a scholar of this story says,

“The Twelve lay their hands on the seven men to be appointed to the “charity ministry of widows”– but keep their distance from the widows — they don’t lift a hand in that regard.” (Spencer).

WIDOWS

Quick action is taken — a solution is crafted and put in place (a fix!) — but in such quick action it seems apparent that there is

“a posture of trivializing not only the needs – but the personhood of the widows”

their voice, their complaints, their concerns — their full multidimensional selves. It doesn’t seem that the apostles get that curious about these widows, their stories — their lives.

The apostles lumped the widows into a stereotype — telling a story that had already been written for them. A lowly, destitute group. A group that was “needy” — that could belong kind of in an annex to the Christian community they were growing. Missing of course the need that would bind them all — the need of human connection.  

The widows were surrounded by people, by crowds, by whole people groups, by judges and court personnel, by the religious and the sacred — but personal and human encounter and connection didn’t happen. Their stories weren’t listened to — new stories weren’t possible.  They were lonely.

Can you imagine if the apostles had just given the widows a safe space to grieve and eat? Can you imagine the “word of God” that would have spread from these widows mouths — what a ministry that would have been. I mean not as much a “teaching ministry” — but a “living ministry” – I guess.


Vivek Murthy says that

“loneliness  is the subjective feeling that you’re lacking the social connections you need. It can feel like being stranded, abandoned, or cut off from the people with whom you belong — even if you’re surrounded by other people!* What’s missing when you’re lonely is the feeling of closeness, trust, and the affection of genuine friends, loved ones, and COMMUNITY.” (8 Murthy).

And there are three dimensions of loneliness

  • Intimate loneliness — where there is a lack of a close confidante or intimate partner —  
  • Relational loneliness — where there is a lack of quality friendships and social companionship and support
  • Collective loneliness — a hunger for a network/community of people who share your sense of purpose/interests.

*This explains why you could have a very close, supportive partnership – a great marriage — and still feel lonely for friends/community. (8 Murthy)

It’s why loneliness is considered a health crisis — it’s why the Surgeon General has laid out a strategy and commitment to taking actions to establish connection with others as a core value of this nation. 

It’s so important because

“such a world, where we can recognize that relationships are just as essential to our well-being as the air we breathe and the food we eat, is a world where everyone is healthier, physically and mentally. It is a world where we look out for one another, and where we create opportunities to uplift one another. A world where our highs are higher because we celebrate them together; where our lows are more manageable because we respond to them together; and where our recovery is faster because we grieve and rebuild together.” – (Murthy)

In 2016 after the election — The People’s Supper (org I mentioned at the start), visioned these very same things as they set out to hold those 100 dinners in 100 days post election. Yet in a nation whose relational social fabric was already so splintered — coming to the table was the hardest barrier to crack.

They underestimated the vulnerability, the trust and the time that it takes to come back to a table- a nation – a social fabric that had in many eyes failed them. Yet they keep trying. Their recent initiative called “breaking bread and building bonds” is a partnership with the mayor of NY holding 1,000 meals citywide — to these same ends — believing that social connection can mend and heal. Very much an on-going work in progress.

This is the holy work — cultivating relationships — inside and outside of a church building.

At Reservoir we are invested in continuing to grow and create the Beloved Community we are called to be — one where

“loneliness and nihilism are replaced with connection, sacred purpose, and respect for human dignity, where we recognize that our own wholeness and flourishing is tied to the flourishing of others” (Russell 231- 232). 

Where we not only welcome everyone without exception but we try our best to create environments of belonging. And learn with humility from the missteps we make. 

As you heard we are running Beloved Tables — meals for connection. I have been referring to them as the “warm up thing” that gets us ready for the “real thing” — for saying “yes” to community. But I think they actually are “the thing.” They are the tables where being seen, heard, and known is what’s being served. It is believing that every person and voice matters and embracing our diverse stories — held by the binding force and energy of God’s love that keeps our universe moving, where rich connection and constant curiosity exist.

COMMUNITY GROUPS

You’ll have a chance today to learn more about our community groups by visiting this link. And my goodness I wish I could tell you all the amazing stories I’ve been in the presence of in community groups — how much embrace, how much stretching and connection has occurred — but they aren’t my stories to tell. But I CAN tell you they’ve influenced my story, they’ve broadened and expanded my view of God in ways that far exceed only the traditional “sacred” ways of knowing God — stories of musicians, and cancer-survivors and artists and rejection and heartache and parenting and single-hood and aging… it’s all there. The story of life. That we get to write together, with Jesus right in the center guiding us along.

Connection, my friends — it’s how we’ll thrive — it is what will save us unto the Kin-dom of God here and now.   

Prayer…

God we pray with trust and trouble and hope in our hearts. Help us oh God to find one another above the noise, and the distractions — help our fractured and sensitive hearts — Hearts that are made to love and scared to love too…bring us into your deep embrace and sustain us with meals, and mercy, laughter and learning, forgiveness and freedom — unto a community of beautiful people – who are still learning what it is to follow you today.

Help us today, God.  Amen.

Resources

Book: Together | The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, Vivek Murthy

“Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”, 2023 | The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the  Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community

Article:  “Neglected Widows in Acts 6:1-7”, F. Scott Spencer 

The Catholic Biblical Quarterly , Vol. 56, No. 4 (October, 1994), pp. 715-733 

 

 

“Hello” to Wide Open Spaces

Well folks this is the last sermon before we start our more organized sermon series for September and beyond. Next week we’ll start our series that we love to return to each Fall — “We are Reservoir” — followed by a meaningful new series that will lead us into October and November.


What I love though about our summer weeks is that while for the most part we preach on whatever we feel so led to speak on — our sermons sometimes unsurprisingly play off of one another. An affirmation not only that we pay attention and listen to one another, but also that the spirit of God is at work, summoning us to listen deeper. 

Steve’s sermon last week (if you didn’t have the chance to hear it, I encourage you to find some time to do so) it’s one of those experiences that completely undoes you and also somehow puts you back together again in a 25 minute span.

So if at some point this week you feel like

“You know what I need right now? To be totally re-arranged —  I need some heart whiplash!”

like in a good way — listen to Steve’s sermon.  He talks about the beauty, the ache of what it is to love, and the gift of what it is to be present to what is, the “‘what-is’ of now”,  to find reality as the friend of God. 

I had noted in our sermon planning document that this week I’d preach on Psalm 118. And as I listened to Steve’s sermon I thought,

“great! This follows suit” — one of Psalm 118’s more well known verses is “this is the day the Lord has made – let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

And I thought —

“oof, I need that truth as the summer ends (and the days get shorter, and colder and darker)… I need these words as an embodied practice as I look at our national landscape this Fall… and for all of the reasons it’s a beautiful daily reminder of what a gift each day can be.”

However, as I returned to the Psalm this week — I kept being drawn to the first few verses — would you read them with me? 

Psalm 118: 1-5 (Common English Bible)

1 Give thanks to the Lord because God is good,
    because God’s faithful love lasts forever.


2 Let Israel say it:
    “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”

3  Let the house of Aaron say it:
    “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”


4 Let those who honor the Lord say it:
    “God’s faithful love lasts forever!”

 

5 In tight circumstances, I cried out to the Lord.
    The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.

These are the verses we’ll explore and take in this morning. We’ll think about tight circumstances, wide-open spaces and what that means with a backdrop of God’s enduring faithful love  — and we’ll touch on a  couple of recurrent themes from last week’s sermon as well. 

Prayer

God of this morning and every morning —  help us to lean in as much as we can today. To you, to this community, to ourselves. Remind us what wide open spaces feel like. How it is to wander in them and explore and discover and be held by your loving presence even at the furthest edges – even when we are at the edge of ourselves. Help us to find the treasures of wonder and awe placed in these wide expanses and also placed in the micro moments of our everyday lives. Oh God of the ordinary and the holy — help us to find these truths wrapped around each other and us this morning. Amen. 

I’ve been remembering some of my “back to school moments” which has been a notable exercise. So many of my memories are so clear and detailed  — I can quickly feel the energy, the emotions — a lot of it really revolving around choosing those first day outfits. For me, this also entailed writing in sharpie on my white, canvas sneakers whatever brand name was in that year — Keds, Capezio, Esprit. Making sure I wasn’t labeled as the poor kid with department store shoes on, ugh — so many more memories — all of them key formative moments of my childhood. I could quickly tell you a story of every “Ivy” that was represented in each era. Especially the culotte era (which wasn’t of my choosing), but it overlapped with the Milli Vanilli era — which surprisingly worked really well together.  

Similarly, my first day of grad school was memorable — I met one of my very best friends in my first class. Who still is one of my very best friends. We synched up for a group project and she invited me to a Celtics game and we got to learning each other’s stories rather quickly in the nosebleed seats of the Garden.

She was at a pivotal juncture in her life — leaving a job in the corporate world of which she had hustled and put herself through college — and was now exploring this whole new field of public health and advocacy. The impetus was the abrupt death of her Dad, leaving her unmoored with grief and questions and a fierce drive and determination to make sense of it all, find answers and create a new path. *more on this in a moment*

Psalm 118

Psalm 118 is one of six Egyptian Hallel Psalms that were recited during the Passover and other major Jewish festivals. The Hallel Psalms celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

These Psalms (113 -118), much like the Hebrew word “hallel” from which the word “hallelujah” originates, give thanks and praise to God — highlighting the characteristics that distinguish God from other deities of the time. The repetition in these first four verses of “God’s faithful love that lasts forever!” is as much a profession as it is a lived experience of the ancestors and people of God. A song to be sung and a story kept alive of not only a God of the heavens — but one to be found in the fleshy, Earth-level journey of life as well. 

Parts of these Hallel Psalms ripple through the Gospels. On the occasion of Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem — annunciating the joy, the hope, the celebration of the messiah, the savior everyone had been waiting for. And it’s also thought that some of this Psalm was sung at the end of the Last Supper – as Jesus and his followers hoped that this good God could help as God had done in the past — make a way forward in the excruciating hours that would come.

 This is a Psalm of thanksgiving and of praise.

And what’s to be noted about a psalm of thanksgiving is, that first of all, it is a response to a heard lament. 

It’s why this verse 5 — after the rousing community praise of such a good God — stands out to me, let’s read it again,

“In tight circumstances, I cried out to the Lord. The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.”

I don’t know — it could be just me — 

But there is something about this verse, maybe this translation –  that just catches my breath. A knowing of that feeling in your body? Tight spaces. Points in your life — in a day — where you just can’t get enough elbow-room from your circumstances, or the thoughts in your head, or the hurt, or the worry, from the voices that threaten to shape you into narrower versions of yourself. Not enough elbow room for anything to slide in alongside — -not hope, not faith, not a prayer.

And yet it says,

“In tight circumstances — the Lord answers with wide-open spaces.”

Another translation says,

“in my distress – the Lord answers with freedom.” 

Gah.

Psychologists say that common causes of psychological distress include:  

  • Traumatic experiences 
  • Major life events (even if those major life events are positive)
  • Everyday stressors, such as workplace stress, family stress, and relationships 
  • Health issues 
  • Financial difficulties 
  • Losing a job, a loved one, or a familiar routine 
  • Discrimination, oppression, or microaggressions 

Which — sounds — you know, like a lot of life. Pretty all encompassing.

And so what do we do with that!? What’s the answer to such a plethora of tight spaces?

This too, is what my grad school friend was trying to get to the bottom of.

STORY

If there’s one thing about my friend that was and still is true — she loves a good answer. What’s that saying,

“there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers?”

Yah she would say,

“there are only good questions and good answers.”

And she was truly on a hunt for those good answers. Her Dad’s death had left her with mounting spiritual questions  — and also questions about what types of cancers get research funding, who gets into trial pools, who gets all the information about treatment and access — what societal barriers exist and how do we change them! She was going to shape those answers into being… if she had to single-handedly do it.

And while centering her life around this, while in the wake of immense grief — studying, interviewing and starting over — my friend also would find out that she was losing her hearing.

Throughout her life she had periodic appointments and adjustments to her hearing aids. But it was never clearly relayed to her that her hearing loss was progressive. So progressive at this point that hearing aids would no longer do anything. And her choices were to be implanted — to get a cochlear implant — or carry on as long as possible with lip-reading. And as you might imagine my friend felt locked in to a body that was betraying her — grief and fear were more audible than anything.

Grief and fear know no bounds. They seem to both prowl in the wide open spaces of our lives and also lock us into tight spaces.    

“Locked-in”

In the gospel of John there is a scene that plays out between the resurrected Jesus and his disciples that I think helps us imagine some ways to move from tight spaces to wide-open spaces with God. The scene reads like this in

John 20:19

“the doors were locked where the disciples were… for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19) 

Jesus appears among them. The last they saw Jesus he was being killed. But here is the resurrected Jesus — free of his tomb.  He stands with the disciples who are locked in a tomb of grief and of fear. Fear of the Jewish authorities, fear of themselves, fear of Jesus who is now with them. And yet Jesus appears and doesn’t chide or admonish, instead he says

“Peace be with you”

 which in the Aramaic of his day was simply a standard – ordinary – greeting.

“Hello.”

Hello

“welcoming them to a place of deep encounter: encounter with themselves, with their fear, with each other and with the incarnate one in their midst.” (Back cover of In the Shelter, Padraig O’Tuama)  

God’s faithful love lasts forever, and sometimes our way to experiencing that is by simply saying “hello” to what is in the room with us.

The good questions my friend kept asking on repeat, (in a variety of ways) were 

  • What does this all mean?

  • And what does this mean of God?

  • How do I greet this day? This life?   

We both were pulling from our childhood faith traditions and experiences (hers Catholic and mine evangelical), to make sense of these questions. Questions that she & I knew weren’t just hers but were universal questions of being human. And we were trying on answers that had long been formed for us.. Trying our best to evolve our faith — bringing new ideas and ancient paths together.  I absolutely know that early on in our conversations — our many, many late night conversations that I offered her answers — written in Sharpie — that kept her locked in a tight space. Answers that were “on brand” to the Christianity I was raised in —  like “well you know ….nevertheless God’s faithful love lasts forever.” And she’d call my bluff — she’d say “you know that’s fake.” 

Now, here’s the thing — it’s not fake. I do believe that faith is rooted in the unconditional never-ending love of God. And a verse like this one, “God’s faithful love lasts forever” is a promise of God, BUT IT IS also an invitation to a lived experience of such a promise, and such a  love and such a truth. And that is very different than an answer. It is something to discover in our loneliest places and our deepest questions, one to be explored, one to wander around in a bit, to be doubted —  as much as regarded as undeniable, unshakeable in our laments in our distress. Because then it really can  break open and give voice to what needs to be heard in our spirit in our body — and that is freeing.

In the midst of losing all of her hearing — my friend found she was listening to and greeting her life in a different way. She took on a spiritual practice of sorts of telling the truth of the things happening in her life — of saying “hello” to these things even if she didn’t like them, even if they weren’t convenient, or wise, or holy, or easy, or CERTAIN.

Jesus shows these disciples and us the art of greeting our life as it is — greeting it with fear or not fear — or greeting the fear with which you greet your life. Greeting it with integrity.

Jesus again and again throughout the gospels greets people who are in tight spaces or who have been put in tight places — and invites them into freedom. Most often, by greeting them where they are at — right where their story intersects with God’s story. As rough and undone as it might be.  This is an honest faith, a real faith.

The woman with the condition of bleeding — he greets her in the tight margins of her life, at the edges of society, at the edges of a cloak — and invites her into the abundance of compassion and belonging and love.

The woman at the well – – he greets her in her thirst for being known – and invites her into the expanse of compassion and belonging and love.

And he greets a tax collector Zaccheus, and he greets lepers, and a centurion, and a eunuch, and Matthew, Mark, and Martha, and Thomas and Judas, and Pontius Pilate, and Philip and Simon, and Mary, and you and me. He greets us with  “hello,” and opens our stories unto wide-open places — unto compassion and belonging and love and mercy and hope.  And to the wild and beautiful journey of this world —  where we hope our stories melded with the story of God can create more than destroy.

My friend got two cochlear implants. And I was with her on “activation” day, witnessing sound and music be part of her story again. Over the last 20 years (or so), I’ve gotten to witness her story evolve. Continue to say ‘hello’ to her real emotions, her on-going questions, and (quite literally) “hello” to new people she’s met — and ‘hello’ to becoming a public policy advisor at the State house for disability access. “Hello” to the director of disabilities for the State of Massachusetts. Her advocacy work was fueled by the stories she listened to — the stories of people who faced challenges and who challenged the status quo, the stories of people who were protested against and those who protested the answers of law-makers that said “it’s just the way things are.”

Their stories.

Her story.

God’s story.

Breaking open — wild and wide-open spaces — never before perceived.

I met up with her recently for dinner to celebrate clear margins after a surgery she had, “hello to beating breast cancer.” And as we clinked glasses, she said

‘everyday is truly a gift, if we could only fully unwrap it.’ 

I guess part of the gift is in the ongoing unwrapping — and the answers we so often seek are in our unfolding stories — who said,

“God comes to us disguised as our very lives?” (Paula D’Arcy)

I think that’s true — our very lives, our stories that aren’t finished. Our stories that are nestled in the story of God. These are stories that can’t be contained — In the gospel of John it says,

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did, many other stories. .. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Jesus is continuing to open and unfold our stories unto wide-open spaces .. they are indeed still being written as we live our very lives. Our lives, in the small moments of every day hold so much that is larger — so many treasures that allow us to feel the truth of,

“God’s faithful love lasts forever.”

“God’s faithful love lasts forever.” 

In these unknown months ahead, I need these direct promises of God front and center — without any nuance –  the goodness of God just laid bare. I need them to be spoken and shared as everlasting truths.  Through stories and through scripture and through cries — the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the steadfastness of God, the God that will never leave or forsake us, the God that is for us, that will help us. Believing that there is contagious hope in the power of such truths, believing that there is more wide open space than I can perceive. A wide open space where we can be curious, and dream and imagine together new ways of being human to one another – – to being a nation to other nations — new ways of weaving our stories together — ancient and new. 

And much of that starts with facing and saying “hello” to what is .… A potent spiritual practice. I want to leave us with a poem that is a prayer, a blessing, a practice all-in-one. Perhaps you can continue to unwrap it in the tight spaces you might find yourself in — and adapt it to be your own. 

I invite you to close your eyes — and take in the words of poet and theologian Padraig O’Tuama of which this sermon is greatly inspired by, here you go:

Neither I nor the poets I love have found the keys to the kingdom of prayer and we cannot force God to stumble over us where we sit. But I know that it’s a good idea to sit anyway. So every morning, I kneel, waiting, making friends with the habit of listening, hoping that I’m being listened to. There, I greet God in my own disorder. I say hello to my chaos, my unmade decisions, my unmade bed, my desire and my trouble. I say hello to distraction and privilege, I greet the day and I greet my beloved and bewildering Jesus. I recognize and greet my burdens, my luck, my controlled and uncontrollable story. I greet my untold stories, my unfolding story, my unloved body, my own body. I greet the things I think will happen and I say hello to everything I do not know about the day. I greet my own small world and I hope that I can meet the bigger world that day. I greet my story and hope that I can forget my story during the day, and hope that I can hear some stories, and greet some surprising stories during the long day ahead. I greet God, and I greet the God who is more God than the God I greet.

“Hello” to God’s Faithful love, that lasts forever. – -Amen

—- Padraig O’Tuama

 

 

Going The Extra Mile

We live in unprecedented times…at least it feels like that…

  • Wars
  • Famines
  • Storms
  • Division
  • Depression
  • Hatred
  • Suffering
  • Injustice
  • Loneliness
  • Anxiety

A decaying environment . . . on many fronts.

And the truth is — if history has anything to say about this — is that all of those things are not unprecedented. Empires have been built, wars have been waged, people have exercised power that has tortured and destroyed before.

Perhaps it feels unprecedented because we do have *more than ever.*  The technological advancements and access to knowledge and resources that would suggest we’d be well served by not “rinsing and repeating” the worst of history. Suggesting we should be healthier, more relationally connected, wiser…

And yet we live in an amplified reality, with voices and opinions and overwhelming amounts of information in surround sound. And the depth of hatred, the breadth of despair is so visceral — compounded by the unhinged and scary clip by which we continue to tear apart our human fabric –this all does indeed feel unprecedented.

And in the wake of such speed and unrelenting bombardment of *everything* it is certainly easy to feel like “giving up,” or avoidance, or hiding behind the guise of “civility”, or escaping into whatever it is that’s easy for us to escape into … are the best ways to live. And it might very well be the ways by which we survive — but not how we flourish. Because what we start to lose — is not only our soul — but our sights of one another.

We gather here this morning because we seek to embody a faith. A living, life-giving, honest, courageous faith — a faith that courses through our blood carrying with it the voices of our ancestors who remind us that within our cruel history is also the remarkable and magnificent precedence of kindness, solidarity and love. Unending influence that is also seeded in our landscape today that keeps our strength from atrophying. And we gather here today in part — because we know that we need each other. We need each other to cultivate hope, to empower one another — to remember that we are designed for love —  to give and receive of it — with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength.    

And boy, do we need that reminder more than ever!  

Today I want to talk about how Jesus calls us to not give up — to “walk the extra mile” and to bend toward community as we do.

Prayer

God sometimes our souls can feel scraped raw from the injustices that are moving throughout our country. Our souls can feel tired, fed up. Could you help us this morning? Could you help us to center down? Could you refresh our hearts, reinvigorate our minds and bodies — and strengthen our souls for the work of our days. And for the work you call us to — which is love.

STORY — Getting Towed

A couple of months ago at the end of my highschoolers April school vacation — I decided to take them on a quick trip to Philly. My other daughter is in college near there, and while she was not on break, we thought we could basically follow her around campus until she had a moment to have coffee with us or something. 

Because roaming a college campus was our only agenda for the couple of days we were there — I made reservations for dinner in Philly for the last night so that we could have a designated intentional time together. And it was the best plan. We found a parking spot right next to the restaurant, it was lightly raining but we sat outside in this warm, cozy enclosure. We took our time, didn’t rush —  and it was just a good time where I was conscious of the “specialness”, the “extraordinariness” of the moment.  

We left brimming with *all the things* — satiated with food and laughter and I felt so grateful.

And then we rounded the corner to where I had parked and the car wasn’t there.

My heart sank — knowing this was not a great scenario.
I entertained the argument ensuing between two of the kids — one suggesting that perhaps we were just looking on the wrong street — – and the other insisting we had indeed obviously been towed.

Indeed our car had been towed.

Turns out Friday night at 8 p.m. is a great time to visit a tow lot in South Philly and learn a little bit about what Jesus might invite us into when he says that we should “walk the extra mile.” And I’ll circle back to this story in just a minute — but let’s take a quick look at where this phrase originated and the context.

SCRIPTURE

This phrase originates in the teaching of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew: 

Matthew 5:41

“If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”

It’s situated in Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount — where Jesus presents a radical and counter-cultural vision of what it means to live as a follower of God.  It challenges societal norms, religious practices, and personal attitudes , calling for a transformation of heart, mind, and action that reflects the values of God’s kin-dom rather than a super power empire.

Where this verse lands is where Jesus is flipping the Old Testament principles of reciprocal justice measure for measure —

“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Under Roman military law – Roman soldiers in the streets – could ask a civilian to carry their equipment — their “pack.” And as a civilian you were required to submit to this request. 

Often donkeys would carry packs – so this request is dehumanizing – it’s humiliating to Jewish civilians.

But under military law – a soldier could only ask a civilian to carry the pack “one mile”… to force the civilian to go further carried with it severe penalties for the soldier.  

So for Jesus to say,

“when you hit the one mile mark – KEEP GOING”

is not a move to aid and abet the enemy… It is a strategic, wise move.

Can you imagine as the civilian starts to walk the extra mile – the soldier having to say

“aw, please – can I have my pack back?”

It’s a subversive move for the oppressed to turn the tables on the oppressor – and assert their human dignity into a situation and recover the initiative.

 The rules in this time were Caesar’s (and they did not change immediately) – but HOW ONE RESPONDS TO THE RULES could be in real time and sustained those who had no choice, or freedom.

For us, this “go the extra mile”, is an invitation of how to live NOW. To live as we think human beings should live — in defiance of all that is bad around us. 

Speaking of bad —

Back to being towed in Philly.

As I stood there on the sidewalk in the rain not really knowing what to do, I called the phone number on the street sign for the Philly Parking Authority. In the midst of listening to the long, long automated message there was an option that said, “if you’d appreciate a call back from a person enter your phone #.”

I frantically did that — while simultaneously learning that the Philly Parking Authority would open on the next business day at 9 a.m. Which it was currently Friday at 8 p.m… meaning I had a chance of getting the car on Monday. I was scheduled to preach that Sunday — and every other preaching pastor was on vacation. So I felt ….… relaxed.

In that moment — my phone rang… and it was a woman from the Philadelphia Parking Authority who proceeded to give me the address of the tow lot, confirm that my car was there and told me how much $$ it would be to get my car out.

A 15 minute Uber ride later….

The four of us arrived at the tow lot. A super special place.

I can’t quite articulate how much dread flooded my body as I walked up the steps to this long narrow trailer — entering to find 50+ people squished in. Someone quickly filled me in on what the protocol was — you get in the first line (indistinguishable from any other line) — to pay your fine. And then you get in the next line to show your license, insurance and registration. Of course for 90% of the people the insurance and registration is IN their vehicle. Which means you need to go back outside and stand in line to access your vehicle beyond the barbed wire gate — and then come back to the trailer line and stand in line again to actually show your documentation.

Some people had been there for six hours, seven hours, eight hours. 

It was hot. People are breathing on you. 

I mean this is a perfect setup for people to lose their absolute minds… 

But people weren’t!

People were talking to each other, not looking down or at their phones — they were offering a seat to the mom who has been holding the wriggly two-year old — not worried about their spot in line. People were offering to translate for a couple of people who did not have any documentation and for whom English was not their first language — offering suggestions or ideas to help in some regard. My son was playing with little kids on the floor, and the staff was also helpful and willing and leaning ‘in’, listening … 

People were simply kind. Gentle even. Patient.

Not just civil to one another.

But actively kind. 

Which felt like … ‘care.’ Care of one another at a baseline.

Solidarity.

I’ve watched my husband Scott recently care for his mom who’s been sick — with this same attention — kind and gentle. Helping her eat, adjusting her oxygen tubes, raising a straw to her mouth,

“do you need anything mom?”

“are you doing ok?”

Palliative care. Palliative questions.

Palliative simply means — kindness and gentleness.

It is to offer comfort, dignity, and support — TO INCREASE the QUALITY of LIFE even as they face something bad, even as they die.

Friend of Reservoir, Gareth Higgins says that

“few of us feel like we’re dying — but all of us are…” 

This is just a plain fact.

But it also speaks to the state of our souls — and the soul of our nation….slowly dying. (Or rapidly!)

It’s got me longing for what a palliative nation could be — that tow truck trailer one micro example, an extraordinary example — and Scott’s care for his mom a very specific special example… but couldn’t it illuminate the ordinary.

And for sure — a more

“palliative world demands huge systemic and structural change. But in others, it only demands the tiniest of personal shifts.” (Courtney Martin)

And it might be what it means to “go the extra mile” for us today.

 Throughout Jesus’ life he embodies a palliative way of being. 

His attention to those left to die on the outskirts of the dominant culture. His invitations to gather at a table, to share a meal, to kneel, to turn, to see the face of, to physically heal — but to also bend people back to community — to restore people by way of social and spiritual reintegration.  We see this with his interactions with people afflicted with leprosy, the woman with the issue of blood, the man possessed by demons living in the tombs, Zacchaeus the tax collector , the paralytic, the disciples themselves — a bunch of outcasts and oddballs who again and again gathered at a table in community sharing purpose and meals.

Bending people back to community. Not just for the individual’s wellness — but for the community’s flourishing — and it’s more than just niceness or ‘welcome.’  Cole Arthur Riley, says that she has a friend who calls this mutuality, the truth that says

“we don’t just welcome you or accept you; we need you. We are insufficient without you.”

One part’s absence renders the whole impoverished in some way, even if the whole didn’t previously apprehend it. In mutuality, belonging is both a gift received and a gift given. There is comfort in being welcomed, but there is dignity in knowing that your arrival just shifted a community toward deeper wholeness… toward a better quality of life. This is the work of going the extra mile. 

Luke 7:11-17 New International Version

In the gospel of Luke we see Jesus raise a son back to life and return to his widowed mother.  In scripture it reads,

“As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”

17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

I didn’t remember this story when I was reading through Luke this week.

I remembered the story right before this — the one of the centurion and the centurion’s servant being healed, and I remembered the one of Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus — all raised from the dead.

Here we have “a widow and her son” — unnamed.

Jesus — making his way through a small town – to John the Baptist.

We don’t know the story of these two. 

There’s no obvious status. No power. No specific friendship or relationship with Jesus — just strangers along the way.

But we do know the underlying fundamental story of life and death. Of grief and sorrow.  Of suffering. Of life being ruptured by pain.

The story of being human.

Story Part #3

In the tow trailer — when someone would receive the approval to go get their car… we would all rejoice. And to me , the celebration wasn’t only “Wahoo — you are out of here– cheers!” it was “wahoo look at us — we behaved magnificently” …  We were human to each other — even to the guy with the incredibly offensive t-shirt. 

We defied the tug of all that is bad around us. .. and we defied the tug to behave badly. Because if ever there was a place to behave badly — I don’t know a tow lot trailer might be the place. 

And isn’t that a victory?

I mean isn’t that a daily victory.  It’s the extra mile we are invited to walk each and every day.

The tug of cynicism and pessimism and judgment and giving up — is strong.

Simple gentleness and kindness is defiance. Nnot just a way to bypass the injustices of the day — but a way to face them and create a new way — and that feels like a miracle when it’s experienced.

The “extra mile” that Jesus walked here isn’t in performing the miracle — it isn’t the raising of the dead… although I’d totally get that if you thought that.. You’d have a point.

The “extra mile” is his posture of the heart… right? The part where it says

“his heart went out to her.”

The noticing, the attention, the validation of what it means to be a widow in that context, and then the action …. 

“his heart went out to her.”

This is the news that spread of Jesus. His embodiment of care and love.

It’s here that the crowd can say,

“God has come to help his people.” 

He’s come to help. And

“Oh, don’t we need help!”

The help we need as Jesus shows us here — is to remember that the “meaning of life is about trying to learn how to love and be loved” — and to stand in the face of all that tries to decimate that truth.

I know in that tow lot trailer that some folks could have been experiencing the hardest days of their lives (and not the being towed part) — and part of going the “extra mile” is to tune our hearts toward that possibility, to not shut them down —

So that we can act like

“we know that everyone we meet is undergoing life as well as experiencing it. That it is likely on any given day that we will encounter people who don’t think they’ll make it to the end of that day, or who have reason to not want to wake up tomorrow.” (Gareth Higgins)

To go the ‘extra mile’ is to honor humanity and elevate dignity — even when you don’t know the entire story.

Today we stand in a national — a global landscape where it looks like it would take miracle upon miracle upon miracle upon miracle to restore the past. To bring all that is desecrated, decayed, dead to life. 

And that is right it would take a miracle.

And I don’t even know if that is the miracle we want or need.

Maybe we need to look forward — dream forward. If we hope to shape the world — for future generations — perhaps we might think of what we seed into this world. How we forge a way forward with growing abundant communities, living in a way that engages our full humanity. With simple kindness and honesty and courage and solidarity seeded into each long mile that we walk…. Seeds that fruit and when crushed — ferment – – and seed again.  

Dave Murray says that

“most of us want to be a force –and I’m all for that! — we need vigor and action —  but Jesus also calls us to be a taste.”

A taste of the kin-dom we want to create and grow here and now on Earth.

So can we go the extra mile?

Could we offer simple, kind, palliative care to ourselves — and to others?

Believing that prioritizing love over anything else is not only a human way forward — but it is also a sacred and divine way forward where Jesus comes alongside — calling us back to life — calling us to “get up.” Calling us to something better than we usually settle for — something we can only create together.

TAKEAWAYS

Here are a couple of practical tips from Gareth Higgins — founder of the Wild Goose festival. He’s a beautiful, brilliant writer,  — subscribe to his Substack if you want, The Porch. He recently offered some helpful thoughts that might get us going that extra mile together:

  • Tell the people you know that you love them, and that they matter.
    • Bend them back to the voices of the community of saints, that usher out the truth  saying “you are a beloved child of God, and no one can take that from you, no matter what.”
  • Reflect on your impact on others (unconscious and conscious)
    • Where it has hurt them — ask for forgiveness
    • Where it has been life-giving, do more of the same.
  • Ask for what you need before the need overcomes your ability to ask.
  • Don’t hoard anything but friendship, so that you can share it without becoming lonely.
  • Tend carefully what you “own”, and share it widely.  “Own” perhaps literally — but also resources, time, capacity, access to power — share it.
  • Don’t let resentment overwhelm your boundaries, and forgive quickly, or at least don’t take revenge.
  • In encountering strangers, act palliatively. For we are all, always, in rooms with dying people. We should treat them – and ourselves – with appropriate honor.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

As we end this morning, I want to give you a minute to consider this phrase, “going the extra mile” . . . what does it stir in you? 

  • Maybe it’s a posture of heart?
  • Maybe it’s something tangible? 
  • Maybe it’s a person that comes to mind?

Maybe it’s the nation. All of the above — and more?  Take a moment and consider what “going the extra mile” surfaces for you?

The Wisdom of Shiphrah and Puah

We are coming to the end of our “Wisdom” series – with one more week to come.  Where we’ve been dipping into some of the wisdom literature – Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms — to mine these books for wisdom – to line the pathways of our real lives. In hopes of helping our lives “work.” 

When we started this series — I didn’t realize we’d be finishing up right around the end of the academic year.  It’s when the energy in this Cambridge/greater Boston area shifts -*relaxes*- a little bit. With finals, and dissertations being submitted, with graduations — and celebrations — marking of another year complete. 

More drops of wisdom in the wisdom bucket.

I was talking with my college student, Elle — who is home for a bit — and I was like,

“Can you believe you’re officially a Junior?”

And she was like

“shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh — don’t say that too loud –it might be real…”

And between the shushing — was the tenor of things I’ve felt before – that I feel now – the expectation of being wise/er. The realization that with advancement (whether study, or years in a job, or age ) —  there should be a parallel “up and to the right” trajectory of wisdom.

And we give plenty of accompanying questions that set up that tenor over a span of a life — like: 

  • “What are you going to do with your life?” 

  • “What are you doing with your life?”

  • “What have you done with your life?”

I like to imagine how Wisdom herself would respond to those questions? Likely very directly.
“My life?” — well, I plan on living it. Or I’m currently living it, or I have lived it.  

And to offer those answers not smugly, but with clarity, with a deep immovable knowing.

Wisdom as we’ve been talking about these last few weeks is to live our very life as it comes to us, and as we come to it…. with the spirit of God alongside.

Wisdom is a nurturer, a cultivator of all life. Wisdom isn’t choosy or selective — it asks us to partner with her in ALL THAT IS this “wild and precious life” — and to take on courage as we do. Because “wild” doesn’t mean linear and predictable and “precious” doesn’t mean we get to choose what is “precious.” A life that “works” is to believe that we can and we will live ALL of this life (as many as the days we have), —  with all of who we are and with all of who God is — and it will matter to all who we encounter. This is wisdom.

I want to offer a story from the Bible today that I revisit again and again in my own life — especially when I feel void of wisdom. It’s a story where courage and wisdom kind of go hand in hand (so you’ll hear me mention both sometimes interchangeably throughout the sermon)  — because it is almost always courageous to embody wisdom. 

This story is found in Exodus and it is of these two women. 

Two midwives.

Whose names are Shiphrah and Puah. 

They break open a whole host of helpful ways to think about wisdom – anchored to their utter belief and embodiment of the way they live their lives WITH God. 

Prayer

Thank you God for this new morning – – for your love that embraces us just as we are. Thank you for gathering us here — promising us that you have something in store for us — whether we recognize it, can name it — or not… could you help us to feel your presence. .. your comfort today, your rest, your joy, your peace — could you nestle it deep in our hearts, in our bones — and remind us that no one can take away such love. In the strength, the courage, the resistance, the creativity and the wisdom you give, Amen.

Story 

A couple of weeks ago a few of us from the staff went over to Wilson’s Farm and picked our own tulips. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the rows and rows of these flowers blooming in every possible color was stunning. So much beauty, so much budding life. 

And oddly – kind of right in the middle of all these rows was a square area roped off that said “bird nesting here”. As a couple of us drew closer to inspect — there she was this small bird, called a killdeer standing over three speckled eggs.

In the past I apprenticed on a farm for a few years and I knew this bird immediately. Killdeer love to lay their eggs in fields, Actually they aren’t picky at all they lay their eggs in patches of gravel wherever they can find it – sides of tennis courts, corners of driveways, parking lots (they prefer the ground) – and it often coincides with where there is a lot of human activity.

I don’t know about you — but this seems pretty unwise, not wise – without wisdom.

There’s so much potential for danger. So much potential life at stake.

Seemingly a consistent source of fear and threat.

And yet I stood there watching this bird – — standing so still — with three of us looming over her nest, her eggs, casting huge shadows.

And she was so Calm. Steadfast. Unflappable. 

So convinced she seemed of her role to be with her eggs, to stay… to stay so close. 

I said out loud:

“Good job momma.” 

It was kind of moving to me — this immovable tiny bird.

 Midwives

We often enter the story of Shiphrah and Puah through a more well known story  — the story of Moses.  Many of you probably have heard the epic story of Moses – this Hebrew baby that was drawn from the water and raised in Pharaoh’s courts and becomes not a prince, but a liberator of his people.  These people, the Israelites,  who have been enslaved and considered less than human by the Egyptians – it’s the story of the great exodus from Egypt into the promised land.

This story of Moses is the one we know… But we don’t as often visit the story of  Shiphrah and Puah –  the story that sets the stage for baby Moses to grow up and live, and a story that in some ways determines the fate of an entire people. 

So let’s read the story together:

Exodus 1

8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph.

9 He said to his people, “The Israelite people are now larger in number and stronger than we are.

10 Come on, let’s be smart and deal with them. Otherwise, they will only grow in number. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.”

11 As a result, the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work. They had to build storage cities named
Pithom (Pye-thahm) and Rameses for Pharaoh.

12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread.

13 So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites.

14 They made their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.

15 The king of Egypt spoke to two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah:

16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.”

17 Now the two midwives feared God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.

18 So the king of Egypt called the two midwives and said to them, “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting the baby boys live?”

19 The two midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re much stronger and give birth before any midwives can get to them.”

20 So God treated the midwives well, and the people kept on multiplying and became very strong.

21 And because the midwives FEARED GOD, God gave them households of their own.

A little context to where we pick up here – The Israelites had moved to Egypt during a time of famine and starvation. Joseph – had been sold into slavery in Egypt as a result of his jealous brother’s action – had helped the Israelites land here. Joseph’s time in Egypt was blessed by God – and he worked his way into high standing in Egypt – and the Israelites fared well. And for a while the Israelites and Egyptians coexisted without (that much) trouble.

Soon though, a new King came into Egypt – and it says “He did not know Joseph”. This means he didn’t know Joseph’s people or his God – and therefore he looked out at the Israelites with fear and suspicion and saw them as a threat, as the “other.”   

He attempts to limit the growth of the Hebrews – who only seem to grow in number, by dehumanizing them in systemic ways – by slavery, and forced labor and oppression.  These attempts however don’t seem to make a difference.

So Pharoah enacts a fear campaign, 

“What if we were attacked by our enemies and these growing number of Israelites –  join sides with our enemies?”

“We would be crushed!” 

And this fear messaging –  starts to shift the opinion of his people – and there’s more of a widespread buy in – to oppress and segregate.

Pharaoh’s xenophobia pushes him to take drastic measures to ensure these “outsiders” do not one day take over the land – and his latest attempt as we see here – is calling forth these two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Under government sanctions Shiphrah and Puah are enlisted to participate in the extermination of Hebrew baby boys. To bring death to the world around them. 

Now the text reads that these women were Hebrew midwives… and yet there’s a lot of conversation among scholars that suggests that these women were in fact Egyptian – but attended the birth of Hebrew women. So they were midwives TO Hebrew women.

I’m inclined to agree with this take – it makes sense to me that Pharaoh would want his own “people” to carry out this decree… 

This means Shiphrah and Puah likely attended both Hebrew and Egyptian births. And midwives were often thought to be women who couldn’t have children themselves, so they were often pushed to the edges of society. Shiphrah and Puah, are thought to possibly be Nubian midwives, from now Northern Sudan — meaning that their relationships, throughout their vocational lives – spanned cultural and geographical lines.

A midwife’s primary role is to usher in life, regardless of status, race or any other defining division… To stay close, to assist, guide and protect life.

So Pharoah’s quite strategic with his newest attempt to limit the growth of the Hebrews. He knows that these midwives are the touchpoint to life or death.. And he decrees, “choose death.”

I can imagine Shiphrah and Puah wondered what wisdom would say here —-  Because the options seem so stark — EITHER we are courageous and 1) we refuse to follow Pharoah’s orders and we likely die and likely our friends and families also die.

OR 

We aren’t courageous and 2) we follow Pharoah’s orders  –  and we promote the sovereignty of our state – and by the work of our own hands, bring death to the next generation of Hebrew males.

Thankfully wisdom’s favorite spot seems to be in these perceived “either/or” scenarios… it seems to be the very spot that wisdom cries out! Right in the middle of this gritty life — with threats all around wisdom surfaces in their path — in an unimagined way.

The text here says that Shiphrah and Puah

“fear God.” 

They revere and love and trust God.  Their belief in God – seems to be a way of harnessing wisdom and courage… and it seems as though it isn’t only found in this one high-stakes moment with Pharaoh – but it’s been built and developed over their WHOLE lives… 

Fearing God – helps them imagine beyond the binary – to reframe wisdom beyond having to have a “right” choice – a  “yes or  no” to Pharoah  – it’s instead about saying “yes” to LIFE with God. *And here opens the field of new possibility — right? — the birthing ground of wisdom*

These midwives – are courageous!  They are divinely defiant! And they are wise. They’re heroically brave in their refusal to kill baby boys, they’re clever in their explanation to Pharaoh of why baby boys keep being born,

“these Hebrew women are so strong and vigorous that they birth their babies before we can arrive!”

… the wisdom in that response – isn’t just an excuse to buy them time – it’s a subversive move to uphold the strength and dignity of the Hebrew people to Pharoah.

As I mentioned, Shiphrah and Puah were likely midwives who attended their own people’s births- -but also the births of their “perceived enemies.” 

These midwives were involved deeply… deeply at the center of women and their  community and family stories. To just go in and assist at a birth – is not the way of the midwife. A midwife is one who sits and STAYS steadfast with people in pain and confronts spirits that are full of despair and want to give up. 

Day after day – birth after birth they came along-side the “other” – these Hebrew women, who they should hate … and they take their hands and rub their backs… And they say  again and again … there’s a way here… “God is here”….  This breaks open a deep belief that courage and wisdom well up from inside of us…. That it’s not only found in taking on a piece of armor for a moment of courage or a moment of wisdom at a crossroads. Their God is one who sits alongside of them too – is in their reality – A God who doesn’t just go to the margins to serve someone else – but ONE who LIVES at the margins.”

These midwives do this, they live at the margins…. And in their vocation, take on a calling, an oath to “in all ways attend to all of life”… And the courage they dip into – is God’s, because they believe that God is truly with them. And they greet pain – the pain of childbirth and the pain of injustice and the pain of not being seen… with these virtues of God. A living God.

I can wonder if those questions —

“So what are you planning to do with your life? Or what are you doing with your life?”

grate on us sometimes because we wrestle with deeper ones already —  does what I do matter?  Does it touch real life? Has it brought forth anything new or wise into the world?

These midwives seem to encourage us that “yes” – wherever we are – whatever we do, whoever we talk to – matters. That if we do it with kindness and generosity and equity, backed by a God that is real… It all matters.

These 1,000’s of moments where they offer their laboring and birthing mother’s – cool washcloths to their foreheads… where they gently turn babies inside of wombs – where they listen closely for heartbeats … where they root for life! With their encouraging words, “yes push”, “you are almost there”… “life is coming”…

These times of being so intimately close to life – and so close to God –  rewire our pathways to see  the movement of GOD AND the movement of all of our LIFE as one… beyond political/authoritative decrees OR external circumstances or opinions or power – that try to inject fear.

For Shiphrah and Puah – these moments compile and develop a courageous heart – and whether Egyptian or Hebrew – male or female …the passion for justice and care for all of humanity – becomes a non-negotiable with a real, good, and living God close to us, who stands with us in the threats, the war zones of this wild life.

Omid Safi (a Duke University professor of Islamic studies) said recently that this closeness (to God),  is what allows us to see that the

“love we recognize in other people — people who love their babies and their community —  is the same love that we love our babies and our community with… AND when we recognize this same love in one another, we will not stand for having something happen to other people’s babies and community that we wouldn’t want to have happen to ours. That is simply what we call justice — and this work of justice is BIRTHED out of a heart wrapped in wisdom, courage and love. (Onbeing reference).

The courage and wisdom to say “justice and love” must go hand and hand.

This is the powerful picture of wisdom that Shiphrah and Puah give us today, one that they still invite us to!

Story killdeer

It turns out when killdeer feel as though their nest is truly threatened they put on what’s called a “broken wing act.” If a human gets too close to their nest, a killdeer will splay its wing out awkwardly and appear hurt, dragging themselves across the ground — moving away from their nests. It’s a subversive / distraction tactic that often lures humans away from stepping on their nests. Humans of course thinking they could help a tiny bird follow the killdeer — until they are a safe margin away from the nest — and then magically the killdeer flies away.

Their dedication to nurturing life is full of wisdom after all. 

Perhaps it’s bird instincts, primal — perhaps it’s this specific species genetic make-up — it’s been in their design, in their DNA — for centuries.

So is true for us my friends. The wisdom of Shiphrah and Puah and the spirit of God lives in our bodies — in our DNA — too.

I’m slowly beginning to realize that the question at hand isn’t either

“Am I with wisdom?”

OR

“Am I without wisdom?”

Because likely on any given day – I am both Wise and really not wise. The question is,

“can I harness the wisdom of a God that is always with me?” 

That’s a helpful reframe for me because life is hard… 

And otherwise – I think the threat of disparaging thoughts can take over –  Am I only destined to be a prisoner to the pharaohs of my day? Will I ever witness something other than pain and heartache?

But the words of Paul in Ephesians, fill out my truncated thoughts – with the power and realness of Jesus…

He reminds me that, 

I am not a prisoner of anyone else  – but of JESUS who wraps me in humility and gentleness and patience – who gives me the wisdom to continue to lean toward people with love – with an eagerness of heart that seeks to maintain the unity of the Spirit – this powerful Jesus who makes a way –   for the bonding posture of peace. … This is the power of Jesus.

Jesus makes way for wisdom that is ever- present, running through our veins,  on the tips of our tongues, in the palms of our hands as we touch life around us – and in our feet as we roam this earth.

We are all called to be wise and courageous. And to believe that our everyday posture of heralding life – in spaces where only death looks apparent – will produce change – somewhere down .. the line…

The outcome that Shiphrah and Puah witness after making their courageous move to not kill these Hebrew baby boys – could have felt disappointing to them….  Because Pharoah just keeps marching on with his plans to wipe out these babies – demanding that all his people throw them into the Nile River.  

BUT they did *briefly* prevent a genocide of children! AND what Shiphrah and Puah wouldn’t have seen at the time – is that their story – their WHOLE story of being women who courageously live at the margins, and who so wisely stood against power and oppression –  would and IS continued to be told. That their names will be kept alive – and whispered among the Hebrew women – that their names will be yelled out in the pains of labor, as sign-posts of resistance and hope, (when their land is vacant of it) – and that their courage to say “we fear God”, would give Pharaoh’s daughter, and Moses’ sister and Moses’ mother the courage to protect & hide and find and nurse him to life. 

These names of Shiphrah and Puah – are recorded! We get to see them written down in the text that we read today! This shows us that a lifetime of wisdom, empowered with the Divine – is worth 3,000 years of remembrance and legacy – and still worth talking about today….While Pharaoh’s fearful acts of dominating power and authority – leaves him nameless and less than 300 years of fame… 

Perhaps our role is akin to the role of a midwife – to cherish other life as our own – to regard it as “precious” – to stand right where we are in our jobs and roles and play and live – and reclaim these paths, these places as fields and gardens of abundant wisdom.  

Revised from 2017 sermon

Staying Found

This morning I want to talk about the concept of “staying found” and how it engages the theme of wisdom. 

“Staying found” is a phrase that I learned from the Appalachian Mountain Club. It’s often a concept highlighted in compass and maps classes as well as search and rescue training. Staying found  is a set of tactics and checks and balances that help keep you safe and aware for any adventure outside. Staying found acknowledges the reality that we will likely get lost at some point. That we will encounter the “unease” in our bodies when the well-trodden path no longer looks the same. When our intuition – the orientation to ourselves, to one another, to God – gets mixed up by the wilds of life.

I appreciate this lens because it makes “getting lost or being lost” feel less like an aberration or something bad — but actually a way to expand our way of doing life in a healthy and free way. Staying found suggests to me that we all have a compass available to us at all times, this being WISDOM.  And that wisdom herself is everywhere. In endless markers and landmarks along our journey –  but it takes a bit of practice – some risk, some mistakes, some joy, some delight,  some creativity – to truly engage wisdom. To become wise ourselves.   

We are new in this Wisdom series that will run until Memorial Day. We hope this series will open up the richness of wisdom found in the Hebrew bible, the Old Testament. Today we’ll look at the book of Proverbs – which is full of earthy and piercing and kind of funny lines of advice like:

  • “If you don’t have oxen, at least your barn is clean.” (14:4)

  • “Bad people trip over their own lying lips. Good people don’t have a lip problem.” (12:13)

  • “It’s better to eat veggies in a house filled with love than to eat steak served by someone who hates your guts.” (15:17)

As odd as some of the proverbs might sound they are full of specific, immediate, and practical instructions.

“Full of teaching of wisdom concerning respect for the poor, the importance of generative work, the danger of careless speech, the risk of deep debt, the hazard of having the wrong kind of friends.” (Brueggemann)

And while some of the Proverbs are conveyed through specific forms of conduct — they point us to these big questions:

  • What does it mean to be human and who are we to each other?
  • How do we want to live and who will we be to each other?
  • What makes life work? *Especially when we might feel lost.*

Prayer | Thanks for this space this morning to be together. I take it for granted sometimes. But it’s meaningful. Could you help bring that meaning to life. Could you move us — beyond words, and songs, and place — could you move us by your Spirit which is unexplainable — but oh so felt.  — Amen.

STORY

I live close to the Blue Hills Reservation — like a 3-5 minute drive depending on where you want to go. The Blue Hills is a 7,000 acre state park with trails that stretch from Milton to Quincy to Dedham to Randolph.

I have spent A LOT of time in the Blue Hills over the last 19 years. 

When my kids were little — I would drop them off at school or preschool — and then head to the Blue Hills for a quick hike. I generally would go to one specific area because there were a lot of intersecting trails — so on any given day I’d be offered some variety. 

I knew the area pretty well and had gotten confident enough to not bring a map — having memorized most of the trail #s and markers.

One day a friend joined me. She is a serious hiker, bagging all the lists of all the hikes in the northeast — winter, spring summer fall – – all of it. So I knew we could cover the area I was used to moving in.

Timing wise I knew just about when to turn around to make that preschool pickup… from most points on these trails. This particular day we were hiking at a quicker clip and had picked up a different trail as we talked and caught up on life. And I thought it would be a simple “loop back” trail — but it wasn’t , or at least it wasn’t offering us that option in the time frame I needed. 

I realized we weren’t going to make it if we didn’t find a way back — quickly. We stopped on the trail. My friend offered some WISE options like

“let’s just take a minute and consider our options”

or 

“let’s figure out what direction we are heading in”

let’s think about what our last marker was and kind of pace that out… 

This could have been a moment for me – where “Iron sharpens Iron”....

But I wasn’t really listening. I was starting to imagine all the possible scenarios that would come from being LOST — and the embarrassment I would feel as

  • 1)the preschool flagged alarm when I didn’t show up, and as
  • 2) DCR sent out rescue crews to look for us — on this tiny little trail, and
  • 3) as the neighborhood Facebook groups blow up with chatter… 

And I was like we just need to go! We just need to go straight up! OFF trail — just to the top so we can see where we are and hook up with one of the trails and have a better perspective.  

And I just started going. Through bushes and over rocks and such.. Leaping and jumping like I was a regular mountaineer. And fairly quickly finding myself out of breath and unsure of how to continue about a ¼ of the way up. And only THEN wondering if I should have joined my friend in pausing — I also wondered if “wisdom” was a part of my actions at all? 


This is a small story that exemplifies the many ways in my life I have at times felt overwhelmed, stressed, turned around. Where I’ve second guessed everything —  in the everyday places and aspects of my life that I’m accustomed to. Where I have scrambled or sprinted out of fear or desperation or longing for some solid ground. 

I don’t know about you — but in moments like these I find myself eager to anchor to something solid that offers a sense of grounding and identifiable mooring. And yet when that isn’t quick to appear — I can berate myself and say I’ll be better “prepared” for next time… with more knowledge, more information — a map that will clearly delineate a trusted and familiar path. 

I want to be “smarter at life.”  

So I’m not so taken out by life. 

And this is a little bit of the mystery of human design – right? We have no lack of quest for information, knowledge, love. We all want to love, but as a rule we don’t know how to love well. And we all want more knowledge – but do we do so in a way that LIFE will really come from it? 

What we all need perhaps is wisdom.  

Proverbs 8 is a bit of an autobiography of wisdom – a self-announcement and speech by wisdom herself and it starts like this: 

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

1 Doesn’t Wisdom cry out
    and Understanding shout?

2 Atop the heights along the path,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand.

3 By the gate before the city,
    at the entrances she shouts:

4 “I cry out to you, people;
    my voice goes out to all of humanity.”

“Wisdom” has a voice — and it is not a shy one! Wisdom summons all of humanity.
Wisdom is a greeter — at the entrance to unknowns she is there.
Wisdom is a sign-post at crossroads — a guide .
Wisdom is echo-ing across the peaks and the valleys of all of our lives. Searching for us — making sure we are “staying found.”

As we read more of this chapter — Wisdom’s identity continues to unfold and we pick up more in verse 22 and hear more what wisdom has to say for herself: 

22 The Lord created me at the beginning of their way,

    Before their deeds long in the past.

23 I was formed in ancient times,

    at the beginning, before the earth was.

24 When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth,

    when there were no springs flowing with water.

25 Before the mountains were settled,

    before the hills, I was brought forth;

26     before God  made the earth and the fields

    or the first of the dry land.

27 I was there when God established the heavens,

    when God marked out the horizon on the deep sea,

28     when God thickened the clouds above,

    when God secured the fountains of the deep,

29     when God set a limit for the sea,

        so the water couldn’t go beyond God’s command,

    when God marked out the earth’s foundations.

30 I was beside God as a master of crafts. 

    I was having fun, smiling before God all the time,

31  frolicking with God’s inhabited earth

    and delighting in the human race.

Wisdom was present ‘before’ everything; she is the base layer of all existence. Before earth, and land and water. Before landmarks and paths and mountains and fields.

And wisdom was present ‘when’ God creates everything. When God makes and establishes and marks and thickens and secures. When shape and form are birthed.

All the while WISDOM is joyfully dancing, smiling, frolicking – she is up close and personal with God and the works of creation.  Wisdom is the very movement involved in the process, the active energy all around. All the time.  

 It’s really a wonder that we could miss wisdom at all. That we could feel ‘lost’ or disoriented with such a consistent voice and presence in the very architecture of our world. Shouting to us, crying out to us.

STORY  

I did not pause to consider wisdom — as I was lost that day in the Blue Hills. I didn’t care about “staying found.” I cared about “not being lost – not being seen as a fool.” And yet some might say my actions and decisions were fairly “foolish” — thinking “all things were possible through Ivy Anthony” —  incurring scrapes and slips and some serious scramble. I panicked and bolted. And when I got to the top I didn’t actually gain perspective that was helpful. It wasn’t any quicker to locate the trail we needed to be on.

As it turns out it’s fairly challenging to locate and garner wisdom. And I want to mention two reasons this might be so —

1) the first is because we can lose track of ourselves.

Howard Thurman

The theologian and mystic Howard Thurman in his 1980 Spelman commencement address says that we do miss wisdom.  And for valid reasons. 

He says,

“that there is so much traffic going on in our minds, so many different kinds of signals, so many vast impulses floating through our organism that go back thousands of generations, long before we were even a thought in the mind of creation, and we are buffeted by these…”

and we can get lost in these… 

So in the midst of all of this we have to turn to wisdom. And Thurman says wisdom is to

“find out what our name is. 

To ask,

“who are you?”

Thurman quickly answers,

“You — you are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom – your creative expression-  is the only idiom of its kind in all of existence. And there is something in everyone of us that waits, listens for the sound of the genuine in ourselves and if we cannot hear it, we will never find whatever it is for which we are searching.” 

The sound of the genuine is this place of wisdom within ourselves — where we are our truest selves, connected– anchored —  and belonging to the love of God. That we are always found — even if we feel lost.

We live in a time when we are bombarded with words, images, and messages. We live in a time when things move quickly and we are expected to react and think quickly, too. We are rarely given the opportunity to sit and reflect, to let ourselves sink into questions and nuances that are often ignored. We are rewarded for being quick and left out if we are too slow.

“Wisdom, however, rarely sits on the surface of things.” (enfleshed.com)

This is why pursuing wisdom is a personal spiritual practice. If it didn’t require our intentional effort, wisdom would not have to “raise her voice” or come to the center of town to try to call out to us. She comes in pursuit of us, because we are often encouraged in different directions. And there is so much that makes it difficult to hear her, perceive her, to recognize her.

But Thurman says if we cannot hear the sound of the genuine in us,

“we will all of our life spend our days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls…”

Thurman says “stay found.” “Stay found” — there is a lot — a lot that competes — a lot that drowns out the sound of the genuine, the voice of wisdom.

“Don’t be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are a part even of your dreams, your ambitions, so that you don’t hear the sound of the genuine in you, because that is the only true guide that you will ever have, and if you don’t have that you don’t have a thing.”

We need to cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in ourselves. This is wisdom. This is to *stay found.*

  1. The second reason wisdom evades us is because we are accustomed to wisdom in a particular form.

The markers of wisdom are often defined and found in very specific expressions. Often in the well-educated, those in power, the privileged.  

But Wisdom cries out, not only to the privileged of the world but to “all that live.”

She makes herself accessible to everyone. She does not require particular training or access to institutions. She meets us in the middle of our lives, where we already are. (enfleshed.com)

Jesus did this too, right? Jesus challenged sexism, patriarchy, misogyny and discrimination in general over and over, and shows us that the margins are sources of deep, divine wisdom.

But still we struggle to value wisdom when it comes in alternative shapes. When it breaks from the same, same, same paths that for generations we have trod – we kind of are comfortable in those deep ruts. But those deep ruts block the view of those who might stand at the crossroads crying out to us with wisdom and yet are again and again ignored —  loop after loop after loop.

I read recently that Einstein began his life with a profound faith in the social good of the scientific enterprise  — but he then watched German science hand itself over to fascism. He watched chemists and physicists become creators of weapons of mass destruction. He said that science in his generation had become like a razor blade in the hands of a 3-yr old. He began to see figures like Gandhi and Moses, Jesus and Buddha and St. Francis of Assisi, as

“Geniuses in the art of living.” He proposed that their quantities of “spiritual genius” were more necessary to the future of human dignity, security, and joy than objective knowledge.” (4 Tippett) 

“Knowledge is like flour — but wisdom is bread.” — Austin O’Malley

We have knowledge but it is falling through our hands – empty of its potential – when not mixed with all the ingredients, the voices, the beauty of those around us.

It would be wise of us to continue to interrogate who gets the mic – the press – the books – the power – the attention of the world. It seems that “spiritual geniuses of the everyday are everywhere. And yet those in the margins do not have publicists. They are woefully below the radar, which is broken.” (Tippett, 4)

So if our own radar —  of knowing who we are deep within — is a little wonky and off, and the radar that puts people on the map of humanity is broken. Then we do need a recalibration.  We do need wisdom.

CHURCH

Matthew Fox an episcopal priest, says we need wisdom-seekers who will

“shake up all our institutions—including our religious ones—and reinvent them.”

People who will not be afraid to  Imagine. Dream. Even “play” a little. Fox says,

“change is necessary for our survival, and we often turn to the mystics at critical times like this — a mystic being someone who goes beyond intellect. Jesus was a mystic shaking up his religion and the Roman empire; Buddha was a mystic who shook up the prevailing Hinduism of his day; Gandhi was a mystic shaking up Hinduism and challenging the British Empire; and Martin Luther King, Jr. shook up his tradition and America’s racist — white supremacist–  society.”

Scholars are in significant disagreement about translations of the verses in Proverbs that we read. Wisdom says,

“I was beside God as a master of crafts”

— some scholars believe the translation of “master of crafts” could be “child” or “nursling.”

Not like the definition of “master” we are used to — where we have conquered the learning, understanding, and knowledge of an area of study.

But like a child — a toddler — skipping and delighting — and exploring — and creating — and falling down — and trying again — a master of a playful, creative boundary-bending energy at work.  

This wisdom is necessary. Americans are fleeing churches and fleeing the Christian faith, including its evangelical expressions. The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) finds that around one-quarter (26%) of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, a number that has risen over the last decade and is now the largest single religious group in the U.S. 

Changes and reform are urgent, and we need new relationships, new networks, and new partnerships to do this as well as we can. We need wisdom.

Father Richard Rohr commented on how disappointed he is that “we” in the Church have passed on so little wisdom. Often the only thing we’ve taught people is to think that they’re right—or that they’re wrong. We’ve either mandated things or forbidden them. And this doesn’t make room for a) creativity b) our own intuition and sound of the genuine or c) even the value of failure that can lead to wisdom…. We haven’t helped people enter wisdom’s path. 

Wisdom though — seems to believe there are still possibilities among us.
She’s still calling, shouting, whispering to us — “you aren’t lost” — (not totally lost).
Stay found. Stay found.

I want to end with a spiritual practice that might help us orient to wisdom. 

The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) puts out advice* for when you find yourself off trail, or lose your bearings. And I want to share them with you because they effectively point us back to wisdom – and to the sound of the genuine within and around us.

  1. Grace.
    The first step is to extend grace to yourself, as God does.
    There’s no need to beat yourself up or inflict shame upon yourself — for the ways you feel like you’ve messed up –  or should know better or more… for the ways you are afraid or overwhelmed.
    The AMC says no matter how experienced a hiker you might consider yourself to be, no matter how many times you’ve been out on the trails, how many 4,000 footers you’ve bagged, how much expert gear you have… “You are not an experienced hiker when you are not on a familiar trail…. And even the same trails look incredibly different in different seasons — -just a little bit of leaf growth and underbrush — or snow cover —  can really change the landscape of a trail.

So start by extending grace to yourself.
Release undo responsibility and shame.  

Lord knows we all have a lot of hiking still to do in this life – and we don’t need that unnecessary weight.

  1. Stop. 

The AMC says, “Moving isn’t helpful until you know which way to go, and if you’re thrashing around in the forest, you can’t follow the next three steps they recommend.”

I invite you right now to stop. To truly be still. In your body, spirit and heart….

To fully stop in this way can feel discomforting and humbling – especially when it feels like every second is precious time that should be spent figuring out how to be “found.”

But the alternative, to charge, react, thrash our way through – without at least a brief pause – has the potential to make ourselves even more lost and disoriented.

So right now to the best you can, stop.

Quiet your heart.

Quiet your mind. Stop overthinking. Over analyzing.

Stop your body from moving.. Your leg from bouncing… Your eyes from scanning.. Your finger from tapping.

Just stop, and ask God to be close. 

Stopping is the most powerful action that allows us to orient ourselves to Divine Wisdom/God.

  1. Breathe. 

“Anxiety can lead to panic, but breathing can help cool your nerves. If you don’t know where you are, staying calm will help you think clearly and figure out your next move.”

Breathing helps let all the feelings tumble through us.  It lets the ones that we don’t need to hang on to, fall to the ground… and the feelings we do need to feel – to inform us – to help us clarify our next steps, stick.  These feelings are the ones that drive our next steps, because they are often the ones that show us where our deep passion lies. 

Possible next steps:

  • .. stay still or take a nap.
  • .. eat a snack. Drink some water.
  • .. look at your map again – with fresh eyes.

Take 3 deep breaths now. IN & OUT, IN & OUT, IN & OUT. 

As you do, fully stretch out your arms – so that breath reaches through all of you… 

  1. Look for landmarks.

    “This might be big, like a mountain, but it could be closer and more modest, like an unusual mushroom or a hollow log. The denser the undergrowth, the more observant you need to be.”

  • What are the landmarks of Divine Wisdom in your day?
    • Maybe something big – a stress-free departure for church — wooo! 
    • Likely there are also some small, more intertwined markers of God’s presence too – in the undergrowth, the ordinary moments of your day.
  • Take a moment to consider where you have already seen the markers of God TODAY.  

The more we take note, as a practice, to recognize these markers of God in our days – the more we can identify God in the brush, on the unmarked trails…. that we will surely journey on.

Lastly,

  1. Listen.

    “Most people who wander off-trail are within 300 yards of it—close enough to hear the voices of other hikers, which tells you which way to walk.”

So when you feel lost – listen.

Don’t just hear, but listen for God’s voice.

It’s there.   Always.
What might God be saying to you?

  • What kind of day is God inviting you into?  
  • What kind of path does God want to walk with you? Listen.

It is important when we are lost to stop & breathe, look for God’s landmarks & listen.  This work is important work –  not just for our journey – but for the next generation, and the generation after that, and the generation after that.

  • What trail markers will we leave?  
  • What new trails will we cut? 
  • What wisdom do we impart? 
  • These are the questions of today.

Prayer: “Dear Spirit of God, our TRUE NORTH – thank you for being our guide.  Help us to listen to your invitation to us now – maybe it’s that we don’t get back on the same trails we’ve been on so many times before… Maybe you want us to be bumped off trail right now..  But God could you promise to find us there…  Could you promise to guide us still – through the darkest and thickest of forest   – over mountains – and through valleys –  could you, dear God, dwell in our spirit – BE OUR COMPASS – no matter how turned around we get?”

Sources:

1980 Spelman Commencement Address | Howard Thurman

Enfleshed.org | 2019

The Fires That Shape Us

I’ve seen a house burn from top to bottom once in my life — thankfully only once.
Ten years ago in Maine, this time of year — I watched it burn from the 2nd floor of the house my Dad grew up in.  That 2nd floor was the perfect vantage point to watch birds float to the small roof below, and identify unannounced visitors  pulling in the driveway  coming to say their “last good-byes” to my Dad.   It also gave a nice view of that house directly across the road that sat at the top of a short but steep hill. .  . one that always was of interest in the winter as the owners gave test to their plowing and de-icing prowess – often skidding their vehicles to a merciful stop just before they joined the main road at the bottom.

Firefighters say that it only takes 30 seconds from the start of a fire for it to rage out of control. And only two minutes for it to overtake a structure. I think I had learned this fact in 3rd grade when Smokey The Bear visited our classroom. It scared me enough that I convinced my parents to put a metal escape chain ladder out my bedroom window for fire safety — which I happily used for many things unrelated to fires.

But on that unusually warm February night 10 years ago I bore witness – firsthand – to the uncontrolled power and speed of fire. The impact of the terror of fire – the screams and the cries …the damage, the destruction and the danger of fire.  

It is true that fire is scary as hell.

In one minute life holds shape – heartbeats, and flannels, and chimneys, and snow shovels, and dogs barking —  and in the next minute it is smoke and ash.

Today we’ll spend some time pressing into this theme of Fire as Danger – it is our 3rd week of Lent and we will wonder together:

  • 1) why has the church used the imagery and metaphor of fire to put terror into the hearts of so many who are eager to experience the love of God? 
  • 2) What do we do when we are burned? When those around us are in fires?
  • 3) And what potential does fire have to shape us?

We’ll look at the historic story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were thrown into a dangerous, fiery furnace and consider its contemporary messages for us today.

Before I pray for us, I would be remiss to not flag how intense this imagery of fire is… how it moves from the metaphorical realm to our lived reality in many ways. This week US Airman Aaron Bushnell died in the fires of self-immolation protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people. It is intense, hard, and it is real. As we move along in today’s service please take the space and care you need for yourself and the Spirit of God to be with you – with as much freedom as you need.

Let me pray for us:

My God(!) there is a lot to fear these days…so much is burning.  There is a lot to rage against and a lot to fight. And so today we ask for your warm presence as we gather together. Help us to remember that you call us by name – that we are precious in your eyes, that you honor us – that you love us unconditionally. 

And remind us that through every age of struggle, every era of hope, you are with us. And in the labors of liberation, could you sustain us with joy and courage? 

We praise you God, because your presence is a force OF, and FOR life. Your love is like oxygen to our spirits – that fans the flames of all good things.

In community, we pray – – AMEN

It isn’t that surprising to imagine why churches would gravitate to the imagery of fire — I mean it is almost a flawless means by which to control. Fire’s destructive power is an effective symbol for fearsome threats of eternal suffering and torment for particular targets of divine or human judgment.  *next week – fires of judgment.

Fire of course, leaves the symbolic realm and is a real experience of pain and suffering. We know – the minimal centimeters between the pleasure of warming your hands by a fire and the jolting pain of having them singed by fire – we know that a drop of boiling water, or a brush of skin against a hot pan — leaves its mark in blisters and searing pain for days. John O’ Donohue says

“a burn is unlike any other pain – it cuts to the soul.” 

Therefore — threatening people with a future that is an eternal burning was the ultimate threat that could be issued against them. And for followers of Jesus who had witnessed  heretics and witches and any other person deemed “deviant” burned at the stake –  this wasn’t a far off threat – it was convincing. 

FEAR – it’s how the church colonized the minds of its people with a blazing image of a controlling, angry, punishing God.  A conditional God – a conditional faith.  And even without an identifiable flame as a warning all the time,  or words like “damnation” or “eternal suffering” always spoken from leaders… the smoke of this fear is what has been absorbed into our churches, our nation, our society — and for many of us, our bodies. 

But… if we can roll back and look at scripture we can see that fire isn’t usually a weapon in God’s hands — it is violence from which God longs to rescue us. 

Isaiah 43:1-5 (Common English Bible)

1 Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;

    I have called you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched

    and flame won’t burn you.

3 I am the Lord your God,

    the holy one of Israel, your savior.

I have given Egypt as your ransom,

    Cush and Seba in  your place.

4 Because you are precious in my eyes,

    you are honored, and I love you.

    I give people in your place,

        and nations in exchange for your life.

5 Don’t fear,

    I am with you.

From the east I’ll bring your children;

    from the west I’ll gather you.

***
You will not drown. You will not be scorched. You will not be burned. I will be with you. 

These are the promises that Isaiah pens to those in exile who are under the empire of Babylon. A people who had journeyed and suffered, who had been enslaved — then free, and now in exile.  A letter to say “there is hope”, God has not forgotten you. 

Remember your ancestors who kept their eyes on God. God who came in the column of fire that lit the path in their nighttime travels … remember your God as fire & light. 

Remember fire that lit your ancestors’ way through the wilderness – that glowed as manna fell and warmed as the desert night temperatures cooled .. remember your God as fire & warmth & protection.

Remember that in the flame of fire — God spoke to Moses. The one who would lead your ancestors out of slavery.

God a column of fire. . . present, comforting, a spark of hope.

It’s a bold letter of promise. A promise on God’s behalf for rescue. To return home from exile. A promise that God is an unconditional God. An everlasting, proactive, persistent loving kindness – kind of God… toward all of God’s creation.

These were the promises I too believed. God will save. God will deliver those God loves from suffering. God will protect. These too were the promises my Dad believed.

They were the ones that stirred in our spirit as we watched the house burn across the street – as my brothers ran to help, as we called the volunteer fire department…

We clung to those promises because we too were watching as our father’s body was ravaged by a rare cancer that spread like wildfire through his body and engulfed his life in the blistering speed of four weeks time  – before the age of 60.

It’s why my four siblings and I were all in Maine, on that 2nd floor. It’s why we could watch visitors pull into the driveway. 

This house burning across the street at the same time – felt emblematic of our reality.

And we leaned on our faith — on these promises. We prayed the gut-wrenching prayers…

“God rescue.  God of miracles – rescue, please.”

At the heart of the promise in these Isaiah verses is the rescue from floodwaters and fire.  

But it is not literally true for everyone.  It wasn’t true in our case with our Dad.  There were Jews who died in the fires of Babylon used in their siege of Jerusalem.  I know many of you have experienced and witnessed fires – suffering, pain, oppression – that does burn, does scorch, does hurt. 

Here’s the thing when it appears that God doesn’t rescue or save… a conditional faith – with foundations of fear – develop/construct new promises that in suffering sound like,

“God has his ways that are bigger than ours,”

or

“everything happens for a reason.”

I heard those words over and over throughout the wake of my Dad’s death. And as so many of you might know — that is an additional fire to endure. Like a 3rd degree burn… I mean when you need a hand – or an emergency ladder, or a lifeboat or a lamp (as Rumi says), the worst thing you can be handed is a “reason.” That is not rescue. That is not the loving care of God.

It is a burn that asphyxiates and poisons again and again. It’s not the blatant “fire and damnation pounding from a pulpit” – but it is the same smoke.

Smokey the Bear says when you are in the presence of fire you should “Stop, drop, & roll.”  Functionally, it is a life-saving technique to cease any movement that will fuel the flames — and LIMIT the harm of fire by depriving it of oxygen. 

I knew if there existed one lick of this flame – of a conditional God – even way back in the corner of my subconscious – it would show itself, it would still be live.  And I knew I had to be fully rescued from this – needed to extinguish it.  I knew that it would be critical in stoking my own fire within for the good of this world, for the work of justice, and for the godly work of liberation. 

I want to invite you to consider the story we’ll read together of Shadrach, Meshach, and  Abednego. Perhaps a familiar story – it’s one that I remember from early in my childhood. One that was relayed to me as an example of the unwavering faith we were meant to have, the miracles that would unfold as a result, and a God who would cheer us on in such tests of life and faith. 

I invite you to consider – as we read this historic one- your own story.  The fires you’ve endured…the ones that you’ve been burned by — have been rescued from? How you have perceived God in those times.. And now?

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel were taken captive during the period known as the Babylonian exile when the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar – described by some as a narcissistic maniac –  besieged Jerusalem. These men had impressed Nebuchadnezzar and so had been promoted to administrative positions despite remaining faithful to their Jewish beliefs.  Except the conditions ramped up to show allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar – and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down in worship of a nine-story tall golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar had ordered built, and the king became enraged.

And here we pick up the story: 

Daniel 3:13-18 and 24-25 (Common English Bible)

13 In a violent rage Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were brought before the king.

14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: Is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I’ve set up?

5 If you are now ready to do so, bow down and worship the gold statue I’ve made when you hear the sound of horn, pipe, zither, lyre, harp, flute, and every kind of instrument. But if you won’t worship it, you will be thrown straight into the furnace of flaming fire. Then what god will rescue you from my power?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar: “We don’t need to answer your question.

17 If our God—the one we serve—is able to rescue us from the furnace of flaming fire and from your power, Your Majesty, then let him rescue us.

18 But if he doesn’t,….. know this for certain, Your Majesty: we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you’ve set up.”

Nebuchadnezzar has them bound up – and throws them in the furnace… and then we read this:

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in shock and said to his associates, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?”

They answered the king, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”

25 He replied, “Look! I see four men, unbound, walking around inside the fire, and they aren’t hurt! And the fourth one looks like one of the gods.”

The book of Daniel, set during the Babylonian exile, has something to say about history. It explores the vulnerability of people living under oppression. These three men — who were stripped of their Hebrew names — given these Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego  have something to say about the

“choices faced by those who must either support a repressive regime or face certain death. And just how quickly the dangerous fires of empire overtake… Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to bow—forget their heritage, forget their legacy, forget their journey, forget their God, forget their rights, and bow down.”

(Rev. Barber sojo.net) Forget who they are — and that starts with de-naming them.

The name Nebuchadnezzar literally means “one who will do anything to protect his power.” That’s why Nebuchadnezzar built his towers. He built his tower more than nine stories tall – he put his name on his tower and everything he built, and then he put gold on his tower, and he promised that he, and only he, could make Babylon great again, as Reverend William Barber points out. (sojo.net)

He wanted control. He wanted power. He wanted worship. He wanted to be God.

But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to fan this fire – they would not give oxygen to the flames of the religion of the king, the religion of greed, of fear,  the religion of racism, the religion of hate.

Under oppression, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew who they were. And they knew who God was. A God that was inside the trouble with them – in the fire. God who they declared,

“even if God doesn’t rescue us — still we will not bow”

an unconditional God.

And as they come out of the fire – the attendants to the King saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

And Nebuchadnezzar

“Praises their God! And these three men say, “they trusted in this GOD and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” (v.28)

This is  a “strong, miraculous, unwavering faith” story — AND it is a story that extinguishes the voice of the oppressor, and it is a story that shows that

“in the midst of the burning – the oppressed can again and again try to liberate (unbind) themselves to show something more deep, more honest, and more powerful than the blazing!” (Dante Stewart)

And it is a story that gives shape to an image of God as a larger, freer, and more loving God than even surfaced the imagination of Nebuchadnezzar.

And it is our story.

A story that suggests the fires of this life can shape and transform us.

Friend to Reservoir, Rabbi Spitzer — who’s book, “God is Here”, we used to form a series last year — offers an image of the Divine that I found helpful in this conversation and one that I want to share with you as we close. Because ANGER is a big part of what we feel when we scan the landscape of our lives. When we think about the people we’ve lost – when we see the fires of injustice, and oppression that are not extinguished, and the actual wildfires (Texas), and the endless, unanswered calls for ‘ceasefire’ — we are angry and sad and angry again. 

Throughout the Hebrew Bible – God’s anger does blaze as fire. Fire is unleashed at times – consuming complainers and rebels alike (188) – particularly when they refuse to accept the challenge of creating a new kind of society with God.

God as a “consuming fire” is also called “El qanna” (Kah-nah) – often translated as a jealous God. But also understood as a “heated divine emotion.”  Some scholars suggest it is an essential attribute of God. . .but more like the intense heat, fire, and lava that flows from volcanoes.

One scholar Nissim Amzallag suggests that while “jealousy” is a sufficient description in the human realm – it is not complete in the Divine realm.  When referring to God he says, it is more like the process of “Furnace remelting.”  An ancient process where a corroded copper object is completely melted down in a furnace and the molten metal is then shaped/reshaped into something new. 

In the ancient world it was not uncommon for divine beings to be associated with this concept – with the intense, transformative power of flame and heat.

Amzallag says

“this attribute of God was not viewed by Israelites simply as the destructive expression of anger by God. Precisely as in furnace remelting, it was conceived as a wonder– leading to a complete rejuvenation of creation” (189).

Completely reshaping of one thing into another. 

In prophetic texts, God’s anger and the divine qanna (kah-nah) are connected both to the condemnation of oppressors and to a vision of transformation.

Collective anger at injustice, like the flames that erupt when God is angry – CAN ROAR – and seem out of control. Yet out of those flames can also come disruptive and necessary transformation. Anger is the work of love that protests an unloving world.  And often the catalyst in the fire that opens up a new way through… a type of rescue that wasn’t given shape before. 

Smokey the Bear (this is the last time I’m going to mention him – I promise!), also says that when a fire is raging another action you can take is to shut the doors  – to limit the spread of damage. To protect & safeguard that which is susceptible to fire.  And yet – preferred above stop drop & roll and shutting doors is to just extinguish the fire as quickly as possible – to not wait to see what happens, or think it will probably amount to nothing.

Now some of us aren’t always able to do this — but some of us have the energy, the capacity, the position, the privilege, the power – to do just that. 

I took this role to be a pastor, a couple years after my Dad died – by which I took on a personal oath to “do no harm.” To spread no versions of God that demand unquestioning obedience, performance, exclusion of other people, political alignment, or conformity of belief. To never promote falsely constructed “reasons” for atrocities in the name of God — but to open up more ways that we can authentically find God in our lives with one another –  in the fire, in the doubt, grief, in the ashes, and in the rubble. Life is precarious and often beyond our control, and this is part of what it means to know God too. 

It wasn’t the “reason” that explains why my Dad died of cancer – but it did give new shape to my way forward… to see with clarity that to be a follower of Jesus — is to vow to shut the doors on any of the acrid smoke that tries to actually make Jesus unfindable.

Perhaps we do have an opportunity to hear a divine message coming directly out of our terror, our pain, if we are able to withstand it. And in moments when we can’t.. perhaps we need to hear again and again the promises from our ancestors that God will … as the verses in Isaiah say: 

Bring us through the waters and through the rivers and through the fires… 

And that in the midst of our times that suggest our world is indeed on fire – we might be able to hear these lines not just as poetic ways of describing tough times. But to remember that these words ring true of the most significant moments of liberation in Hebrew history. That with full context we could read those lines this way:

“When you pass through the waters like you did through the Red Sea out of Egypt . . and through the dry bed of the River Jordan into the promised land… when you walk through the fire like brothers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego…”

It might help us remember this faith and these miracles are ours too. These these three boys who endured unspeakable horrors. Who underwent two fires: a physical burning in a furnace, and a prolonged burning, set ablaze by empire. And remember that they didn’t simply make it through the fires, somehow just embracing the violence of the empire politely and passively — 

the miracle was their audacity. The miracle was their courage to stare down terror. The miracle was found IN the fire –  where there WAS A GOD who says,

“the violent flames of EMPIRE will not and do not have the last say.”

Black preacher and author Dante Stewart says,

“empires may be able to enslave our people, plunder our resources; they may try to destroy both our bodies and our future. But in the midst of the burning, we somehow try to liberate ourselves, again and again —  [‘remelting’]– giving shape to the audacious belief that one’s body, one’s story, one’s future does not end in this moment”

a promise of God… to ring in our ears today, as truth – and as a call to action.

Rabbi Spitzer says we don’t know if there will be a period ahead in our nation where a true “remelting” is occurring . One where the structures and the ideologies of racism will be melted down so that something new and better can emerge.  Embrace Boston released a Harm Report this week — connecting the past to the present – the history of fiery harms to their contemporary impact of Black Boston….action in this direction.

We don’t know if it will be a period — where we’ll care for and investigate our actions and their impacts on our environment and climate …

We don’t know if it will be a period where we’ll regard our nation as part of a global community. . .

But we can do our parts to shut doors, limit harm, extinguish dangerous fires — and keep holding on to a faith that promises to transform us if we can hang in – to bring power out of pain, mercy out of meanness, love out of hate, joy out of sorrow, good out of evil, hope out of despair, and life out of the fire.

May God protect you, keep you warm, comfort you, and guide you in the days ahead.

In the name of the fire, the flame, and the light – Amen.

Sources:

Amzallag, Nissim.“Furnace re-melting as the expression of YHWH’s holiness: Evidence from the meaning of qanna (קנא) in divine context.” 

Stewart, Dante. “Shouting in the Fire: An American Epistle.”

Casey Overton. Enfleshed.org

Reverend William Barber. Sojo.net “We Will Not Bow Down”

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

“Amen” An End & A Beginning

Today we are continuing in our new sermon series,  it’s called “How to Pray.” This series certainly offers us some mechanics of ‘how to pray’  specific prayer practices, like the Examen that Steve offered us last week, and a whole lot of “how-to’s” if you pop into one of the “prayer workshops” right after service. But today I want to ask us to consider “how to” regard prayer as a way to not give up on the kin-dom of God. 

How can prayer aid us in imagining and creating the world now, and as we dream it can be?

Prayer can help us step deeper into our lives with God. Prayer helps us intertwine the love of God – with the motion of our days, our schedules, the realness – the hardness …So that we notice it, recognize it, and we PRACTICE it wherever we go. 

Spiritual practices invite us into living our life more fully and wholly as possible.   

Spiritual practices – help us put our spirituality into practice, in the real world around us. 

A spirituality that pleads with us to not give up on the kin-dom of God.  To not give up on the deep love of Jesus that moves us and undoes us. And to see that our actions, our voices, our footsteps carry and communicate that love – that kin-dom of God here and now. 

It’s how we grow our capacity to love.

It’s how we grow stronger to love. 

It’s how we grow more tender to love. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his book Strength to Love said,

“God has two outstretched arms, one is strong enough to surround us with justice and  [and move us toward justice], and one is gentle enough to embrace us with [tenderness] and grace.” (8)

This is the beauty and the expanse of prayer.  And why practice is necessary. Like life and like love it always encompasses “both/and”  never “either/or.”  

  • Prayer helps us be strong and tender.
  • Prayer is listening and being listened to.
  • Prayer is asking and prayer is sitting.
  • Prayer helps us endure and prayer is rest. 
  • Prayer is change and steadiness.
  • Prayer brings us to our knees and girds us against collapse.
  • Prayer is weeping and prayer is laughing. (Cussing & silence.)
  • Prayer is beyond us and prayer IS us.
  • Prayer flourishes with faith and with doubt. (PO’T)
  • Prayer is a truth-teller and a lie-exposurer.

Prayer encompasses multitudes.. . . and so do we.

Prayer, whatever form, for whatever reason, in whatever circumstances – promises to rearrange us- unto love.  And in times of despair and nightmare – it promises to bring us back to the faith already inscribed in our bodies by the practices we keep.  

We practice prayer because it helps us not give up – on ourselves or each other. 

  • Not give up on the kin-dom of God.
  • Not give up on the kin-dom of God to come.
  • Not give up on the kin-dom of God here and now.

Today – I want to look at a familiar story in the gospel of Luke, the characters in the story. And wonder together in imaginative and informed ways, what we notice about prayer.

Let me pray for us.

“Oh God, Divine parent of us all – *in whom is heaven*.

Holy, Loving, Merciful one is what we call you. 

May your love be enacted in this world,
and be our guide to dream, to hope, and create the world now and as we imagine it to be.

Give us the morsels of your filling love that we need, in this wilderness.
Feed and fuel us for the work of our days. To love ourselves and neighbors well.
May we showcase your love, in mercy and kindness and humbleness, as you have shown it to us. 

And lead us into your big heart – that expands our own, for the greater good, the common good, and the stranger. 
Lead us not into self-isolation, scarcity, and new lines of division.

Lead us into your presence, apparent in every part of our days, 

where the glory of the power that is love, restores us all – now and forever.
AMEN. ( Adapted from the Lord’s Prayer)

My Prayer Life

That was a little riff on the Lord’s Prayer, if you heard some familiarity there… Ending with “amen, amen, amen.”

This word, “Amen” was the favorite part of prayer for me as a kid. Because it meant that the long, recap-style-prayer of whatever service, sermon, or meeting, or event I was at – was finally over.

These days “Amen” is often still my favorite part of prayer – because it signals the beginning of where I get to pick up the end of the spoken prayer – where I get to find my place in living prayer.  

 The trick is that sometimes the situation I’m praying for, or walking into looks bereft of ‘life’- like the story has already played out, the ending is clear.  And yet – this is precisely where the practice of prayer should show up, right? It’s not only for the ‘feel-good’ times, it’s so that the practice will keep working on us in times of despair — in bad times — when we don’t know what to do. 

 And that’s why I want to look at this scripture this morning – and see how a similar dynamic plays out at the scene after the crucifixion, how the character Joseph, the women of Galilee, and the crowds all engage in prayer.

 Scripture

Luke 23: 48 – 56

48 And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. 

49 But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

50 Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph. He was a member of the Jewish high council,

51 but he had not agreed with the decision and actions of the other religious leaders. He was from the town of Arimathea in Judea, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.

52 He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.

53 Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock.

54 This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin.

55 As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed.

56 Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.

**This is an intense scripture and one that is a lot to delve into a few weeks after Christmas. But even his birth was shrouded in violence and fear at the hands and killing of many innocents of King Herod. 

And here in this scene wailing, and mourning, and silence fill the landscape.  Maybe you could imagine voices echoing in disbelief asking, 

“Is Jesus really gone? Or Jesus are you here? Jesus!?” Show up! Come back – the way we once knew you. Where are you?” 

It wouldn’t be surprising, right? It is in fact Jesus’s own cry on the cross,

“God have you left me?”

Horror and violence appear to have had the last word. 

Death,

Despair, 

And Absence fills the space of where their friend, their hope, their Jesus just was.  

It doesn’t seem like a stretch to say that;

Death has won.
The empire has won.
The oppressor has won.

That this is the end. There is no new beginning.

There’s a song I’ve been listening to on repeat (much to my family’s displeasure) – and one of the lines says, “Don’t think the battle’s over just ’cause you say “amen”” 

And it is a battle.
To not give up on the kin-dom.

It is a battle to believe that Jesus is still here…. In our fragmented broken landscapes.

When so much blocks and challenges our view of Jesus.

When so much appears void of goodness & love.  

This resonates as true. In just my small sphere this week I’ve heard of a new cancer diagnosis, multiple people suffering in unbearable/untreatable physical pain, abandonment, addiction, kids in inpatient programs, legal battles, heart-breaking divorce, a sense of ‘nothing-ness’… 200 immigrants seeking at least one day a week, where they can find shelter, warmth, a meal – their human rights. 

It is hard to not give up. To not say, “the story is already written and it seems pretty depressing, pretty bleak.”

But prayer rearranges us – helps us sift the lies, sift the loud voices,  so that love reappears – surfaces in our hearts.

Joseph of Arimathea

If we look at this character Joseph of Arimathea.

I don’t know what Joseph’s prayer practice had been – if he had one even. But my guess is that it had something to do with, “disagreeing with religious leaders that sentenced Jesus to death – AND it had something to do with “waiting for the Kin-dom of God to come.” Both/And. Action and contemplation.

Maybe all along Joseph was the squeaky wheel in the room – saying,

“no that’s not true of Jesus.” No he’s not guilty. No, you can’t legally sentence him.”

Maybe all along Joseph didn’t know what to do to save Jesus. To fix the situation. Or the systems at play… But he showed up. He was present. 

Maybe his deep belief that there was a kin-dom of God to come – that there was a better way for everyone – a beloved community on the horizon — helped him not give up.

We don’t know for sure.

But we do know that he utilized his position, his wealth, his access to power in this moment to —- care, uphold the dignity of Jesus, and love Jesus —to put love on the surface. Going to Pilate and asking for Jesus’ body was a courageous move. Pilate does not like the group that Joseph belonged to… and under Roman law someone condemned to death had no right to burial. 

But Joseph is saying to Pilate,

“I would like to bury him anyway – lay him to rest.” 

And in doing so – as Joseph takes the body – he is openly identifying with Jesus – no longer a secret disciple.  

Even when it looks like there’s nothing left. Joseph is imbued with a deep love, boldness, a greater knowing of Jesus. 

Maybe prayer helps us see that justice is holding with reverence those that are cast aside.

The Women of Galilee

If we look at these women of Galilee – who we know have been alongside Jesus throughout much of his ministry – Mary his mother, the first to welcome him into the world – and the last to leave his body at death . . are all present. 

They have watched and waited, moved and acted, and watched and waited again.

This time of course their following Jesus and their waiting and watching unfolds as a nightmare against the backdrop of their dreams for this long awaited kin-dom.

Tomorrow we’ll celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the iconic words of his “I Have A Dream” speech from 1963 will fill our feeds. But may we also remember that a few years later in a Christmas sermon at Ebenezer Church, 1967 –   Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says these words: 

“This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human race. 

We have neither peace within nor peace without. 

Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt them by night. 

Our world is sick with war; everywhere we turn we see its ominous possibilities. 

In 1963, on a sweltering August afternoon, we stood in Washington, D.C., and talked to the nation about many things. 

Toward the end of that afternoon, I tried to talk to the nation about a dream that I had had,

and I must confess to you today that not long after talking about that dream I started seeing it turn into a nightmare. “

—- and he goes on to detail for multiple points the ways in which his dream has turned into nightmares, and I’m not going to read them because we are living them still… but MLK goes on to say —- 

“Yes, I am personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes.”

And his life would end with his murder – just four months later. 

Ghosts

Sometimes we can walk around feeling like ghosts-of-ourselves. When the breath of life is swept out of our belief, our faith, our dreams. When we ask,

“God are you here?”

and don’t hear anything back. I wonder if this is how the women – the friends of Jesus felt? I wonder if this is how so so many people who believed for the dream that MLK put voice to felt when he died. 

There have been times when I’ve prayed so hard, so long, in so many ways – for something to not “overtake.” For myself, the ones I love, the world…

“Please, God just please don’t let this play out like it looks like it’s going to – please don’t let this overtake.”

  • And then the cancer does
  • The division wins
  • The unjust laws passed in Congress
  • The heartbreak continues to come one after another – in ceaseless fashion.

Despair can seep deep and quick, turning us into shells of ourselves. Oooof, it knows how to set up just in the most tender spots of our heart – parts of our heart that were so open/vulnerable – that had to be because that’s part of ‘believing.” 

But prayer in all of its numerous expressions can help.
Here we see the women pray.  What do they do?

Given the danger they faced from the Jewish authorities and/or the Romans, these women could have prepared to quickly leave town. 

Instead, they linger at the site of their pain  – they honor what their bodies are feeling (a prayer in and of itself), and they honor and prepare spices for Jesus’ body.

A seemingly inconsequential, normal act. To dignify the body, to anoint the body in death it was part of the custom. Yet if we regard this movement as prayer – we can see that

“to prepare spices is a metaphor for every small act that refuses to succumb to despair.”  (thank you Dante Stewart for this).

And most days, this is what we can do. A small every day act, and regard it as prayer. “Pack the lunch for your kids, go for the walk, call or text your friend, offer a ride, do a soup-swap, listen, light a candle, show up where you can.” The faith of these women teaches us this: offering to one another the basic stuff of human dignity is prayer. 

These women can not in the moment dismantle the unjust systems that impact their lives. But these acts, these prayers  – rearrange their hearts – and in that process dismantle the authority and the space that despair tries to take up. That is what gets dismantled. Prayer dismantles despair, shame, lies, the voice of the oppressor and puts it in a more right-sized spot.

Preacher Dante Stewart says,  

“The oppressor wants to rob our spirits of peace. The oppressor wants us to work tirelessly and be unkind to ourselves. The oppressor wants to distract us. The oppressor is a liar.” 

Prayer is a truth-teller and a lie-exposer. 

These women want to love more than death can harm. They embalm, they anoint, and they stay close.  

Maybe prayer helps us to rub every ordinary act of our days, with the oil of holiness and dignity.

CROWDS

Lastly, let’s not overlook the prayer of the crowds. That first verse in this passage says,

“and the crowds, they went home in deep sorrow”

– in other translations it says they

“went home beating their breasts.”

I see myself in the crowd. The visceral physical nature of expressing such pain, and grief feels like the truest thing. And the truest thing is often prayer.
I imagine myself in the crowd, going home, saying “amen.” That’s it. And so it is. Jesus is dead. The end.

But I wonder if for some in that crowd that wasn’t the end – it was also the beginning? Perhaps they went home and talked of their grief – the reasons why they were grieved.. Perhaps they asked questions of one another, asked about

“the fails of their government, the fails of their religious structures, the loss of their friend, the shattering of their hope, the uncertainty of what’s to come. 

Perhaps they show us that prayer is also to come alongside one another and to ask questions that

penetrate the times and pierce the soul, questions of social conscience and moral discernment.” (Michael Connor, sojo.net)

A way to sit in the terror of a world undone, and to still trust that the things the human spirit is moved to do in defiance of despair is prayer. Perhaps it too breaks open a way to imagine a different way forward – all the while engaged in prayer – honor, dignity, anointing, asking questions, weeping – creating and growing beloved community, as well as our resilience to not give up on the kin-dom of God.  

The crowds, the women of Galilee, and Joseph all play their part. They all do what is truest to them in the spheres of their life. With the love of God anchoring them – and disrupting them unto greater vision, unto a greater world they can not yet see – and they pray, they pray, they pray their way into seeing a living, real, good, and loving Jesus in their midst again and enlivening this faith. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr ends his famous Christmas sermon where he talks more about nightmares  than dreams by saying these words that I’ll close with as prayer,

“I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward men. It will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing together, and the children of God will shout for joy.”

Amen – may it be so. . . and a beginning.

 

A Question That Keeps Our Heads Up, Hands Out, & Hearts Open In The New Year | “What Do You Think?”

Good morning! And Happy New Year’s Eve!  

Here we are – just hours away from 2024! A collective “Congratulations!” are in order – it’s no small feat to have made the journey of the last 364 days – and whether you arrive on the cusp of this new year feeling bedraggled or full of pep – or somewhere in between – here we are.

For me, there’s something sweet and comforting about being here on the threshold of a new year with all of you this morning.  To show up alongside one another  – with all of whatever our years have held – and still have an inclination to discover the love of God, the gift of community and the joy of living *TOGETHER.* Still trusting that somehow the Spirit of God is here too – and that somehow this matters as we teeter into a NEW YEAR.  I’m so grateful for that.

Five Sundays ago we began our Advent season with an interactive service where we populated the envelopes along the Sanctuary walls. “Cussing, Silence & Prayer” were three big categories that we invited you all to consider as you scanned the state of your hearts – and let’s just say, after spending time reading through these envelopes – “Cussing” takes a sizable lead.

My guess is that over the last five weeks this hasn’t changed much. There are things in our personal lives and in our public & global spheres that grieve us – make us angry, frustrated, and mournful… it’s why resolutions and intention setting to mark a new way forward can be so meaningful.  

I think New Year’s resolutions can be like prayers. They touch a deep longing in us – sometimes for freshness, sometimes to shake off and say “goodbye” to all that has been heartbreaking and painful  –  resolutions package our hopes into something that feels a little more do-able  – a ‘next’ good step or practice. And some of us love to set resolutions, goals, new rhythms … and some of us, as a friend reminded me, are still processing the year 2016, and 2018, and 2020, and 2021, etc.. 

I’m a mix of all of all of that…. and in the last few days as I’ve thought about this new year ahead.. I did as I often do, when things feel complex and non-linear – I turn to the poets.  I’ve been reading one of my favorite contemporary poets – Andrea Gibson. They are a Maine native – so I already have a soft spot for them, as a Mainer myself.  As a poet they spend much of their time reading. Their head down in books, essays, articles – words of literary experts & mentors of theirs – both for inspiration and creativity – but also for learning and knowledge…

Recently though they learned that their Stage IV cancer was back, and in the wake of this news – I heard them say,

“you know, I just don’t want to spend my time looking down. I just want to spend my time looking out at the world – even if it’s not guaranteed, even if I might lose it – because there’s so much to learn and love.” 

This really resonated with me – we don’t know what 2024 will bring…and the tendency to make some of it predictable whatever means that takes – often leads me to keeping my head down, and my heart busy. But this poet and the invitation of Jesus is to have more days than not where our heads are up, our hands out, and our hearts open –– and to not be so afraid of getting it wrong, or fumbling, or being messy – or whatever it is – that we forget to live! 

Heads up, hands out, and hearts open – this could be a helpful posture to greet whatever 2024 might bring. And I want to offer us a question that I think will help us sustain this posture – one that Jesus asks Peter in scripture that we’ll look at today – it’s a simple one,

“What do you think?”  

I’ll share a couple of stories that get us going in that direction – and then we’ll see where scripture and this question, “What do you think?” takes us.  Let me pray for us.

Thank you Jesus that you are the one who is always here. Always with us. And here we are, God – here on the cusp of a new year – with hearts that brim  with a pleading hope – oh god – for more of you if anything in the days ahead. More of you in our silent moments, more of you in our anger, more of you in our aches, and more of you in our celebrating, in the unknown, in our awe – more of you, Oh God – in all the manner of our days… Could you make your presence known God and convincingly true? So that we can lay our heads on our pillows each night and wonder,  ‘what manner of love is this?’ “what manner of love?” And say as we do this morning…“Thank you God, Thank you.”

A few weeks ago – I came home from work on a Sunday. It had been a full and busy day and it was rainy, and cold, and yucky outside… And my whole drive home I just couldn’t wait to get into my sweats and sit on the couch. Over the years it’s been a bit of a known agreement in our house – that for at least one hour – on Sundays I come home and I do not move. I don’t drive anyone around, I don’t do errands, or get anyone anything. And the way you love me the most – is by letting that happen!

But you know – nothing’s perfect. And this particular Sunday my son had plans to do something with a friend of his, who would be driving him. I hadn’t met this friend, and I’m not super comfortable in general with “other kids driving my kid” around. And I was taking in all this information, just as I walked through the door – and was quickly realizing this would require my energy and movement. I wanted to introduce myself,  and say something like, “don’t speed” – And all of it was making me a bit grumpy. 

A few minutes later I was sliding on someone’s slippers that were near the door, and shuffling/jogging out to the rainy sidewalk to meet this friend.  Hands in my pockets. Head down.  My son leading the way to the parked car on the street. I looked up for a split second and realized there was a big puddle right in front of where the car was, and as I was trying to negotiate in the moment… “whether I should go directly to the driver’s side – or introduce myself across the big puddle?”… but it didn’t matter because I tripped!

Yep – I tripped on a lip in the sidewalk and fell alllll the way down – face down, splashed right in the edge of the puddle… soaking wet – fell out of those slippers. Totally embarrassed, I tried to ‘hop’ up as quickly as possible, look not in pain – find my slippers…  and make my way nonchalantly to the window of the car… both my son and his friend were as you might imagine in shock…  

Resolution for the New Year – don’t run with your hands in your pockets… It’s not even a resolution – it’s just a good, normal, baseline tip! 

Jesus said,

“I have come for you to have (and live), life – and have it abundantly.” 

I was grumpy, I was tired, I was cold… my body posture – head down, hands in pockets -was a signal of how little I wanted to engage in this moment. What drudgery it was to pivot, and to show up anyway. . . In love.

And really what does a moment like that matter anyway? I was ok, nothing big was at stake – it was a small moment. Inconsequential. My son knows I love him  – I don’t think his friend cares if I love him or not. . . I could have shown up or not shown up.  What do you think?

Should we resolve to KEEP THINKING about WHY LOVE MATTERS – in circumstances, with people, in moments that are not mountain-top experiences? 

I think it would help us if we could.

Love can become a word that loses its depth – it can fall into disrepair in our human landscape.  We need to be deeply convinced at a feet-to-the-ground, face-to-face-neighbor level that love can be readily found in all of our spaces and somehow it does matter – puddles and all.

THE CONTENT of our lives – OUR LIVED LIVES – is how and where we learn about God.  I love reading someone’s pithy/hot-take on scripture – or a good story – or someone’s life work on theology, or an essay or a podcast of interesting, inspiring voices. They mentor me, they provoke me in good ways- but to look up and see the widest pages of life all around us, is also where it’s at.  When I’m too in the weeds with research, or doubting myself and trying to find some “expert voice” to back me.

The detriment is that I mute the convivial listening with the world and with Jesus – who I believe is always asking

“Well Ivy, what do you think about that?” “why does it matter”?  “How does it make you feel?” “Who does it affect?”

… and this is detrimental – because “What do you think?” is an intimate question of Jesus to us –  and one that is the authentic means to not only KNOWLEDGE but to LOVE. 

I was reminded of this as I was riding in a car with a long-time friend one Christmas. She was talking about her own journey in her faith community, excited about the idea of forming a “women’s ministry” – and hanging in the air around the conversation was perhaps the (unspoken), larger question of just what a woman’s role in the church should be.

Her faith community currently has no women on the Board, as deacons, or as preachers.  And it was interesting because,  our conversation bounced from what her male Pastor thought about women in leadership… to the reality that there are a lack of women mentors in the community … to the seminary books that she was harkening back to, that offered her interesting thoughts and truths to wade in and consider a woman’s rightful place.

It was clear to me that the question, “What do you think?”, was not a comfortable question – external knowledge found in books and other’s voices was more credible.

I wish in the moment I had paused to get a little more curious, and ask –

“well, what is your lived experience as a woman?” 

What do you notice about women who are not given platforms for their voices to be heard?  Why do you think there might not be women mentors in your community?  What do women around you who are pastors …ehm….. LIKE ME! In this CAR! … with you RIGHT NOW!!!!….what do they think? What have they experienced? How have they engaged with scripture?

“What do you think?” is a bold and direct question – slices right to the heart, if we let it, as much as the head.  And if we frame it as a question that helps us lift our head and look around and engage with the life around us, it becomes not a question that rests on a separate doctrine or theology (where we might think only Jesus is found),  but becomes a generative question that is born and explored from exactly where you stand  – and where lo’ and behold Jesus is too.            

Conceptual and Relational Belief
(McLaren,  Spiritual Migration) 

The interesting thing about what we think – is that it can quickly be tied into systems of belief. That can take on a life of their own – sometimes as an immovable creed or doctrine.

Here, I think it’s helpful to talk a little bit about conceptual and relational beliefs. 

Conceptual beliefs are beliefs that are often easily expressed as statements or propositions – and when expressed in a sentence- are often right alongside the word “that”. My long-time friend in my previous story might say,

“I believe that women can not be in church leadership.”  ‘

Or

“I believe that the headship of a church is only represented by the male gender”

…  it’s a stake, a claim that something is real, true or in existence.

In contrast, relational beliefs are often followed by the preposition in.   And they are less statements – and more birthed out of a personal authenticity, lived experience that offers a confidence and sense of loyalty which permits thoughts like, “I believe in you”, “i believe in scripture”, “I believe in peace”… 

It can get complicated pretty quickly – religion or churches for example, often demand statements of conceptual belief as proof of belonging.   And also – might offer rewards or punishments based on conceptual beliefs.

This gets us into the territory of replacing conceptual beliefs as a construct over our own thinking caps. Placing a thin, invisible barrier in our minds between the beauty and the goodness and the value of the world around us  –  and constricting our own experience of God’s love. 

But relational beliefs – allow for this question, “What do you think?” – in fact to some degree they are built on this – and therefore the freedom and the health that this affords an individual and a community- allows for a foundation of LOVE.  It allows us to stay in the car together – and see the passenger next to us, sort of speak! 

Without freedom of thought, we offer and experience only an impoverished love. 

Jesus invites us to love.

And much of his ministry is spent trying to expand the systems of his day – beyond the conceptual beliefs that so many of the religious experts of his day rest on…. At one point he says to these religious experts,

“how terrible it will be for you…. You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, mercy, and faith. You blind guides! You filter out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:23-24)

Oh, how I love it when Jesus talks about gnats and camels!

Here maybe we can see the conceptual beliefs for these religious experts is to uphold the belief that one should give away a tenth of their belongings to God… but it comes at the expense of a relational belief in people!  Where real issues of  justice, mercy, and faith play out.

You can’t have conceptual beliefs – and X -out all the relational beliefs and say you are truly “loving” God. Lest we choke on camels of pride and power.

Is love present?  Is love felt? In a system that erases the eye for our world…  What do you think?  And how do we think in this vein – if we don’t engage an active, living posture to the world around us? 

This is what Jesus keeps prompting us with – through all his provoking and quirky words, stories, and actions,

“Can we imagine a Christianity of the future that gathers around something other than a list of conceptual beliefs?” (McLaren,  Spiritual Migration) 

Let’s take a look at  this scripture I keep mentioning: 

Matthew 17:24 – 27 (New Living Version)

24 On their arrival in Capernaum, the tax collectors for the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

25 “Of course he does,” Peter replied.  

Then he went into the house to talk to Jesus about it.

But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, 

“What do you think, Peter? 

Do kings tax their own people or the foreigners they have conquered?”

26 “They tax the foreigners,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!  However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line.  Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a coin. Take the coin and pay the tax for both of us.”

Here’s a little bit of context: 

Peter has just come down from the mountain with Jesus, where he’s witnessed the transformation of Jesus.  He watched as Jesus’ face shone like the sun and his clothes turned white – and a voice from God, booming from the clouds said,

“This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him”

(Peter fell on his face in awe –  I imagine it was a good falling on his face, with his hands out of his pockets in praise!)

It’s a pinnacle moment – confirming his loving relationship to Jesus, the human who he’s walked alongside – and linking it to the mysterious love of God.

It’s a moment for Peter, that maybe is akin to one of your more moving spiritual moments in life – where you have felt as though you are on a mountain top – so close to God and God so close to you – that  that love and that experience feels almost unbelievable.

Only of course to be interrupted by the real facts of life. A phone call, a time constraint, someone tugging at you –  needing something from you – or as in Peter’s case a tax collector…. 

A tax collector asking for payment to the temple in Jerusalem that most Jewish men are meant to pay for its upkeep.

This moment of intimacy and love of God, felt by Peter on the mountain top, likely dissipates pretty quickly.

And we see here in these verses, I believe the dynamic again of conceptual belief and relational belief  on the table with the question at hand – should Jesus and his followers have to pay this tax?

Peter’s impulsive answer is

“Yes – of course my teacher pays the tax. I believe that all Jewish men should pay the temple tax.”

An answer that Jesus doesn’t seem to disagree with. But what follows in the text, I believe is a deeply powerful move, that demonstrates Jesus’ love and value of each of us – to keep THINKING.  To keep thinking about the conceptual beliefs that we impulsively answer to …. and to also hold, and not cut-out, the relational wonder-land of Jesus’ love in front of us…. 

He asks,

“What do you think, Peter?” 

It’s an invitation I believe that is going to help Peter see that the mountaintop experience is available in all his settings – even the most mundane and annoying.

If GOD’S LOVE, at its core is about connection of all things (neighbor, self, earth) – that this is what allows for our sense of belonging….then my hope is that the intersectionality of where I encounter God and where I encounter people is all the content and all the knowledge, that I need for an experience of God’s love.   

After I fell in the puddle, in front of two teenage boys (you know every middle-aged mom’s dream), I did go to the window – determined to introduce myself, and give the directive of “don’t’ speed!” that I wanted. But all that came out, as I made my way to the window of the car, was “OW, Ow, ow, ow, ow….”

And my son came over quickly and said “are you ok, are you ok?” And the dude in the car, was stunned and unbuckling to help me – and saying the same – “oh my gosh, are you ok?”  And after a few minutes of really figuring out that I was ok – we laughed, and laughed and laughed as we replayed the video that captured all of this  – from our video doorbell on the porch… 

We are all yearning and eager to be seen and known and included. I wanted my son to show me that love – by honoring my “hour of sitting on the couch.”  But I was shown even greater depths of love as he came to my side in the rain, and paused his plans to attend to me…  *this isn’t to suggest that we should all fall on our face, to experience the love of GOD*

I realize again and again in moments like these – on sidewalks, in the rain, in the most inconvenient moments of life – that I can find a living, breathing sanctuary in the form of another human being, in the midst of the most expansive sanctuary – our Earth. And this is where I want to keep thinking (with all of who I am) – where I go for knowledge… in these everyday, sacred spaces. It’s here that we rediscover our faith as a series of stories and as a series of encounters… as quirky and as insignificant and as messy as they might seem… but as powerful and sacred as all the prayer and scripture and spiritual practices we could muster for a new year. 

Paidrag O’ Tuama, an Irish poet says that

“belonging creates and undoes us both”

likely follows the same sentiment of love…. It creates and undoes us both.

Jesus wants Peter to be undone by his love….in all of life. 

Peter’s quick reply to the tax collector, might have signaled to Jesus that the tendency of his thinking might veer more conceptual than relational and that a mountain-top experience could be compartmentalized in Peter’s mind as a distinct experience, under special circumstances. 

It seems by Jesus’ next move, that a conceptual God is not the image that Jesus is interested in putting out in the world. 

Not only does Jesus ask Peter this most loving question,

“What do you think?”

as a way to bridge the conceptual and the relational systems.

Jesus also nudges Peter a bit.  He helps him get up off the couch and get to really thinking… he says,

“GO OUT.” “Go to the lake, go to the shore – go fishing.” 

A place Peter, as a fisherman knew incredibly well. 

And there Peter encounters a miracle – finding the exact tax needed for both him and Jesus – in the coin in the fish’s mouth.

The places we know so well where we work, live and play – it seems, are teaming with not only God’s deep love – but also miracles. 

Jesus I think says –

“Oh yeah, that’s the treasure… that’s the coin in the fish’s mouth –  discovering all of this in your EVERYDAY fishing zones.”

I wish my friend could have asked me in the car:  

“Ivy, what do you think about the role of women in the church?”

Maybe we could have discovered the treasure//the miracle in the midst of us. Sharing our stories as women, sharing our vulnerability, just how much it hurt at times – and trust that that conversation could have unearthed something we both couldn’t have known ahead of time.

As we THINK, As we become awake with our hearts, and minds and souls – with lived experience as our data and content. We start to perform the miracles of today…. By not only inhabiting  – but experiencing – each day as a sanctuary free of walls, full of God’s love.

May we resolve to fall in love with Jesus again and again in 2024. And may we receive his question,

“What do you think?”

as a way to discover our very lives with our heads up, hands out, and hearts open.

 

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