Pentecost - sermon

                I feel like it was just Easter, but fifty days have past which brings us to this day, a call it the best kept secret of the church.  Christmas and Easter are the big days in the life of the church, but so should be Pentecost.  Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people.  God at work in the world, God’s breathe stirring life into God’s people.  Wind, breathe, Spirit, and a sacred connection.  In Easter, we celebrate life over death, we celebrate God’s yes in the face of the world’s no.  Pentecost continues the story, continues the message of the resurrection, continues the story of life returning to places that can speak of death. 

            I am going to put you all on the spot today.  How many of you want to make a difference in the world?  Raise your hand.  How many of you actually feel like in some way, either large or small, you are actually making a difference in the world today?  There is a movement in our greater society to seek ways to make a difference in our world.  We are constantly being asked to make a donation to this cause or that cause; sometimes it is at the grocery store – would you like to donate a dollar to the St Jude’s fund?  Or it might be in purchasing an item: for every item purchased, a dollar goes to bringing fresh drinking water to a thirsty child.  And even our pets are included in this, for every bag of dog food bought, twenty meals will be given to dogs in shelters.  Last year, I bought pink ribbon earrings and a percentage went to breast cancer research.  It goes on and on.  How do we see this?  Do we see this as marketing strategies to prey on peoples’ desires to do good in order to sell things?  Or do we see it as the Holy Spirit moving upon the waters of consumerism seeking to do the better good? 

            Pentecost is upon us, it is here, not just on one particular day, but each and every day, each and every moment of time.  The breath of God’s life is pouring out upon us if we are open to hear its call.   

            As I wrestled with our first text today, that of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones, we could do a very in depth conversation group on this.  One of the resources I read, asks this question:  Has anything of great importance died in our own community?  Where are the places that are crying out for rebirth?  And I love this one:  Can our dreams dance again?  As I thought about places that have died, other than the war torn areas of our world, I thought more specifically to our own country and towns ridden by various addictions such as meth and heroin.  While living in Florida, there was the bad part of town, and as the police and drug enforcement agencies seized crack houses, the houses were turned over to the town for community resource centers.  I had the opportunity to teach ESL in two such houses, once used for drugs, now used to empower people through education:  Life out of death, hope out of despair.  Throughout our nation there are small towns that have literally become ghost towns, with a handful of people still living there, there is the city of Detroit, an entire city going bankrupt, the foreclosures and extreme poverty. 

            And so as I thought about rebirth, for the power of dreams dancing again, I thought about Waco Texas and Chip and Joanna Gaines and the work they are doing to restore homes throughout the city.  They have truly changed this town, they have brought hope into a town that had been struggling for so long.  They have put a positive name on a place that seem to only know bad press.  Ours is a God that continually offers life, offers life in what even might seem to be a dying world.  We can view the world through the negative lens that things are just bad, or we can view the world through the lens of faith, through the promise of God, through the hope of our scriptures that even in destructive times of history, God is restoring life. 

            Can our dreams dance again?  As the Holy Spirit continues to pour out upon this world, as the breathe of God continues to renew and restore creation, our dreams based in God’s love can come to life, can be a reality.  Pentecost is being lived out this week, as Ledgewood Baptist hosts families that are currently homeless.  Families, all across our nation, but also right here in our own community, without a consistent place to come home to.  I can’t even imagine it, but through God’s love, through the power of the Holy Spirit the agency Family Promise is at work to find permanent housing for these families as well as to provide them the resources they need for this transitional time in their lives. 

            Can our dreams dance again?  For three families, they will soon be receiving a home through Habitat with an upcoming Building blitz over in Mine Hill in June.  Why will 150 people give 9 days of their lives to build three houses?  Why are people so willing to help others?  Why do people take to the streets in order to voice their message of hope and justice and love for each other?  Because God is at work in this world, because there is incredible power in the Pentecost story, because God puts a message of hope in our hearts and a passion to make this world a better place. 

Mother's Day - sermon

                Mary, the mother of Jesus, takes center stage in the beginning of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in what we call the Nativity story or birth story of Jesus.   But then, she seems to almost disappear completely.  She is mentioned a few more times in various ways, but no longer are angels coming to her, no longer are shepherds or wisemen coming to visit her and her child. 

            The Gospel of John has this unique story of Mary attending a wedding where Jesus and his disciples were also in attendance.  John does not have the birth story like Matthew and Luke do.  John starts with a Creation story, then the baptism of Jesus, and then he calls his disciples, all in the first chapter.  This is the first time that Mary is mentioned and her name is not even used, she is named as:  the mother of Jesus.  On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  She is described, not named, but she is mentioned before Jesus. 

            Once the Gospel writer sets the stage by letting the reader know who is there, he immediately names a problem.  Mary, Jesus, and the disciples are at this wedding, but the wine has run out.  Mary notices the problem and knows how to fix it.  She has raised this amazing young man and she knows what he is capable of.  The reader may not know, the disciples may not know, no one else at the party may not know, but Mary knows that Jesus is more than just another guest at the party.  So, in order to keep the party running smoothly she tells him that there is no more wine.  And his response is rather fresh.  Yes, he is a young adult, but he seems rather rude – he seems to rebuke his mother stating:  Woman, what concern is that of you and me?

            Well, Mary doesn’t let his comment stop her.  Some may say she is meddling, others might say she saves the day.  Maybe it is a close family member who is getting married and she does not want the family to be embarrassed that the wine has run out.  Maybe she is ready to push Jesus out into the public eye letting others know what she already knows about him, that he can perform miracles.  Whatever her motives are, she quickly goes to the servants and gives them a heads up.  Do whatever he tells you to do.  And sure enough, Jesus goes to the servants and has them fill 6 stone jars with water.  Now, I think we all know where this story is going right, no spoiler alerts here – the water has been transformed into wine. 

            Mary might not have a name in this story, Mary might even be called woman by her own son, but in this story, she prepares the way for Jesus’ first miracles, she paves the way for water to turn into wine, she paves the way for abundance instead of scarcity.  Perhaps this was an actual wedding or perhaps it is a parable or metaphor for God’s gift of Jesus into the world.  How ever we read the story, literally or symbolically, Mary is the catalyst inviting the presence of God to get to work. 

            Mothers just might know their children have special talents or a unique calling and sometimes they sit back and wait for the child to discover that talent or calling on their own.  Or, sometimes they encourage and nurture and maybe even push a little to help the child engage in that calling.  Or, sometimes the child feels pushed in a direction that they have absolutely no interest in at all.  Do I really have to take piano lessons?  Do I really have to play tennis?  Do I really have to turn water into wine? 

            There is a lot of deep meaning going on in this passage, as Jesus takes water jugs set aside for the ritual of purification and transforms water into wine.  There is some major forshadowing going on here leading into the sacrament of Communion.  In the Jewish faith, water was used for purification, just as we do with baptism.  But now, this water becomes wine.  It is not just wine for the party, but it is really good wine, usually the host serves the better wine first, but the better wine is that which Jesus creates.  For those that follow Jesus, for those that continue to follow him after his death, they will remember the story of the purification water transforming into wine and the connection to Jesus at the last Supper proclaiming that this cup is the cup of the new covenant sealed in his blood for the forgiveness of sins.  It is a new form of purification, a spiritual purification, cleansing our inner being. 

            And Mary paves the way.  Just is in the Christmas story, Mary opens her life for this miracle of possibility, she allows her life to be changed forever, she does not run from all the fears and questions that she has, but embraces the divine and becomes a servant to God, trusting that God’s plan is at work.  And then, after all the years of raising this child, she knows it is time for God’s plan to unfold even more, and again, she sets the stage to allow other people’s lives to be changed forever.

            We have much we can learn from Mary.  Mary learns that there is scarcity at the wedding, they are out of wine, but she also knows that God is a God of abundance.  Mary turns to the source of God’s abundance, she seeks him out, perhaps interrupts him with his buddies, and abundance is restored to the party.

            Where in our lives, where in our community, where in this greater world is there scarcity?  We live in such an abundant culture that sometimes it is hard to see the scarcity.   But just this week, we are engaging in two places of scarcity and we will bring, through God’s love, abundance.  We have been collecting coffee in honor of Mothers and will bring from our abundance to Faith Kitchen coffee for those whose lives are so fragile and vulnerable as they struggle day to day in scarcity.     And then on Thursday, a handful of church members are fixing a meal, serving the meal, offering hospitality to several families in the Family Promise program.  These families are housing insecure, and Family Promise is the safety net of meeting them in their scarcity and lifting them up and providing a lifeline until the family is able to get back on their feet. 

             God calls us to those places of scarcity and to use our resources, our time, our talent, and our treasure to bring abundance.  We may not be able to literally turn water into wine, but maybe we can be like Mary and set the stage for the divine, the sacred, the gift of God’s abundance to be present in the situation, and who knows, who knows, perhaps instead of water into wine, we will have families with a home or hungry people with a meal or isolated people with a friend.  Amen. 

Earth Day Sermon

This year, the Earth Day Network’s theme is to end single use plastics.  I have been taking time this past month to look through my house to see how much single use plastic I use, and it is a lot.  Single use plastic is everything from shopping bags, to plastic spoons and forks, to water bottles, and even the gallon of milk which is a must have in my household.  As I have spent this time, I know there are certain items that I cannot stop using, such as the milk, but for so many others, there are other options, such as reusable shopping bags, water bottles, and just learning to make wiser choices. 

            So, yes, we should recycle, but even recycling plastics is not the long term answer.  Plastic does not recycle well and eventually it ends up in the landfill or the ocean.  Today, my sermon title is:  Life Giving Water.  Water, throughout our scriptures has a significant place in providing new life to God’s people.  Our God is the God of creation, and our God uses creation to remind us that we are spiritual beings, that we belong to God, and that we are called into a life dedicated to God. 

            Today, as we celebrate Earth Day, and use God’s gift of water in the sacrament of baptism, we remember how important water is.   Just as we use water to clean our dirty dishes or our dirty clothes, we remember that it is God that has cleansed our beings, washing us of all our sins and embracing us as beloved children.  Just as we use water to keep our bodies hydrated and to water our plants, the waters of baptism remind us that God is the living water, that it is God that hydrates our souls and provides the teachings that will nourish us in our journey of faith. 

            Water is essential to life and God uses it to emphasize God’s presence within our own lives.  So, why do we not treat water as holy?  Why do we allow our rivers, lakes, waterways, and oceans be filled with plastic pollution?  In this passage from Ezekiel, the prophet has a vision of water flowing and he proclaims that as the salty water enters into the Dead Sea, it becomes fresh.  The Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea for a reason.  It is so salty that nothing can live in it, and yet, and yet the water from the Temple of God will flow into it and bring freshness, and will bring life, because this water flows from the sanctuary, this is Holy water flowing into places where life has failed to thrive.  God goes into the barren places and brings life, brings renewal, brings hope. 

            As we embrace the holy meaning of water, as we remember God is the God of creation, as we learn more about how plastic and other garbage is choking our water ways and oceans, we should embrace the role of being the living waters of God flowing forth from the sanctuary bringing renewal and life to barren places.  We are beginning the process here within our own congregation during our fellowship times together.  Many years ago, the session of the church asked that we stop using Styrofoam during fellowship events.  Last year, we asked that we do our best to stop using plastic water bottles during church events.  We had the tap water tested to ensure that it is safe to drink, which it is, and we are using pitchers of water whenever possible.  This year, we would like to take it one step further and encourage our fellowship time to not use any type of single use plastic, such as plates, cups or utensils.  One roadblock to this was who is going to wash the dishes?  And so the mission began to replace the dishwasher which, thankfully has been fixed.  The less plastic we use, the less makes it to the landfill or accidently meanders its way into the ocean. 

            In the creation story, God asks humanity to have dominion over this amazing creation.  We, unfortunately have misunderstood the word dominion and have taken this planet for our own needs.  Dominion is a form of stewardship, dominion is a practice of intentional care.  It is not to use until we have our fill, it is to remember the harmony of how God created each ecosystem to work and for us to respect that harmony as we use what we need. 

            I wrestled with what New Testament passage to use for today, since there are a few that connect with the Ezekiel passage of the living waters, but I turned to Luke 10 for many reasons.  Luke 10 is the passage we use for Missional church, and this past week, as I participated in my monthly mission pastor study group, the passage of:  The harvest is plentiful, resonated with me.  Jesus is speaking of the harvest as people, as going out into the world and brining the good news of God’s love to people, but for me, this week, it is the harvest of our stuff.  The harvest is so plentiful that is becomes waste.  We live in such abundant times that we can just throw things away.  The harvest is plentiful, so let us be mindful of how we interact with the harvest, and let us prayerfully, and spiritually connect ourselves to how we consume these overly abundant, plastic wrapped foods and toys and clothes and household items. 

            The laborers are few, but as more and more people understand the harmful impact plastic is having upon our lives, and most importantly upon our sacred waterways, the momentum will pick up and we will become a part of the solution.  Amen. 

Palm Sunday

Just this past Monday, I participated in a video conference with a handful of pastor’s scattered across the US.  Our topic of discussion was Announcing the Kingdom of God.  As we spent time in our conversation, one of the other pastor’s said:  How would people answer the question:  what does your life announce?  Jesus lived his life to announce the Kingdom of God.  What do our lives announce?  And I responded to him, thank you so much for that question, you have given me my Palm Sunday Sermon. 

            Palm Sunday is an announcement.  The crowds gather, the people cheer and sing, they wave palm branches and lay their cloaks on the road in honor of the one that comes.  The one that comes in the name of the Lord.  The people have lived in dark times and finally, finally, their king has come.  Hosanna in the highest, he is the One that comes in the name of the Lord. 

            Although I, personally, am not a fan of parades, we as people seem to be drawn to them.  Parades are held to commemorate people or important events.  Parades announce something that we feel is important to share such as  Memorial Day parades and Fourth of July parades.  Parades help us mark the transition in time: such as the Thanksgiving Day parade.  Parades can be held to celebrate victories such as for the Superbowl or the Rose Bowl Parade.  But they each announce something. 

            On this first Palm Sunday, the people are announcing their hope that Jesus is indeed their king.  That he has come in the name of the Lord to deliver them from Roman rule.  But Jesus announces something completely different.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem not on a horse fit for a king, but rather on a humble donkey.  His life is one that consistently announces the Kingdom of God, so although he has the ability to become the king of Israel, he has the ability to take a political stand against Rome, he is always pointing his life towards obedience to God, and his calling as one that shares the good news of God’s love, compassion, justice, mercy, healing and wholeness. 

            Jesus’ life, in a sense, was determined hundreds of years before he was born.  The prophets speak of the Messiah, the branch of Jesse, the eternal Kingdom of King David.  The angels announce his birth to both Mary and Joseph, he will be the Savior of his people.  Those that come to his birth announce his future role as a leader of God’s people.  That he will be the light that shines in the darkness.  The people had been waiting a long time for God’s anointed one to come to them, and now that he was here, now that they had seen the teachings of their prophets come to fruition, they were ready to celebrate. 

            And so as we celebrate Palm Sunday, as we celebrate the one that comes in the name of the Lord.  The one that announces that the kingdom of God is near.  How do we respond in the world today?  How do we live as disciples?  How do we embrace his life and allow it to be a part of who we are?  How do we announce ourselves to the world? 

            So, as I spent time thinking about this question, I came across a handful of videos that I was viewing for completely different reasons.  One video really inspired me.  There are two young ladies that live on the island of Bali.  While in school, they learned how plastic bags were deeply impacting the environment of their precious island.  At twelve years old, these two girls decided to make a difference and started a movement to end plastic bags altogether throughout their island.  They shared how difficult this journey was, but they were persistent and others wanted to be a part of this too.  Their movement grew and after several years of education, writing letters, and taking the steps to get the government behind them, the island is now plastic bag free for shopping.  These girls were passionate about something and dedicated their young lives to making a difference, the announced their lives for a better future for their island. 

            Just yesterday, people gathered throughout our nation to announce through their lives that they have had enough with school violence.  People may wear some sort of symbol or item to announce to others who they are.  There was a movement last year of people wearing safety pins as a way to announce to others that they are a safe person, that they support immigrants in our communities.  The rainbow has become a symbol for announcing to the LGBT that they are supported and safe in that specific place.  Teachers have put the rainbow sticker on their classroom door, or people have it on their car or churches have put them on their sign, announcing that if you are LGBT you are welcome here. 

            What do our lives announce?  Do we announce our love for God?  Do we announce the Kingdom of God?  Do we announce compassion, justice, mercy, and love?  I often find these Holy Spirit moments, because also this last week, I was reading a book for a book study group and the author writes: what if we lived out Matthew 25.  What if the church of today embrace this teaching: to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, to visit the sick and those in prison.  And I thought, well, we are doing pretty good at that, but are we announcing it?  Does the greater community know our commitment to Roxbury Social Services and Habitat for Humanity?  Does our own congregation know our growing call to Family Promise and Faith Kitchen.  Just embracing those four ministries and announcing ourselves to the greater world that this is our calling gives us meaning and purpose. 

            What does your life announce?  What does your faith announce? What might our church announce?  So, this is a slight detour, but I do think that our meeting of the congregation today is a part of what does our church announce.  Outward appearances do speak, and so as we seek to restore our steeple, we are making an announcement.  We are announcing that we are proud of our history, we are announcing that we care about our building, we are announcing that we believe in ourselves and our future viability as a dedicated group of disciples here in this place.  Our steeple announces to the greater community that we are here.  As I did a bit of research on steeples, the steeples house the church bell and they needed to be up high to help the sound travel throughout the region announcing to the community it was time to gather for church.  This was before people had watches of their own and they needed a way to know how to be on time.  The bells were used for other things in the life of the community announcing danger or meetings that have long been replaced by other forms of communication, but we still ring the bell every Sunday just prior to our worship service, announcing to the greater community we are here, and we are called to worship God.  As we leave this place, as we go out into the world, our lives are to be the bell that announces to the community we are called to serve.   Amen. 

Lent week #3

Embracing our Emotions:

As we continue in this season of Lent with Barbara Brown Taylor’s book:  Learning to Walk in the Dark, this next area that we are exploring deals with our emotions.  As I read through this chapter, I, of course, immediately thought of the children’s movie:  Inside Out.  For those that have not seen this movie, it actually deals with topics that I feel are a bit too mature for children, a bit too deep, a bit too hard, because it really deals with sadness and depression and loss and grief.  Those aren’t really topics that we take our children to a movie to see.  Right, we want fun and happiness.  Which is pretty much what this movie wrestles with. 

            This movie takes place inside the head of a young girl named Ryleigh.  There are a handful of characters:  Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness.  As Ryleigh deals with her life experiences, these various characters interact with her causing her emotions.  Well, young Ryleigh’s family moves and suddenly the main character Joy finds herself being replaced by Sadness.  Joy is going to have nothing to do with this.  She does everything she can to keep Sadness in control.  Long story short, Joy finally learns that sometimes there is a place for Sadness and when we try and keep our true emotions hidden we can spiral out of control. 

            As Barbara Brown Taylor unpacks how we deal with our emotions, she shares that during the day, we do our best to keep busy, to keep distracted, and we don’t have to deal with the deeper feelings within us.  She then shares that during the night, during the time she calls Lunar Spirituality, those feelings can emerge and keep us awake at night.  I’ve been there, up during the night, tossing and turning and worrying about this and that.  We proclaim it when we know someone has done something wrong and we say:  I just don’t know how he can sleep at night.  Right, night seems to be the time we acknowledge dealing with the hard stuff.  Sometimes it can emerge as a bad dream.   

            What is going on with us in the night?  When all is quiet and the busyness of the day has silenced then we get real with ourselves or with the issues of life.  And we wrestle, we wrestle with the world in which we live, we wrestle with the decisions we make and the relationships in which we are involved and perhaps, perhaps we even wrestle with God.  Wrestling with God. 

            We even have a Biblical story of Jacob wrestling in the night, and the question is, with whom does he wrestle?  Is he wrestling with God?  In this story, Jacob is about to encounter his brother Esau.  Although he has come with gifts to appease his brother, He should have a lot of anxiety since he tricked his brother out of his birth right.  His brother just might be coming to kill him.  I think if I knew I was about to face a life or death fight, I might be up all night wrestling with fear. 

            As Jacob wrestles, he is injured, he is struck in the hip joint, but the fight continues, and as the day begins to dawn, the one with whom he wrestles instructs him to let go, but Jacob will not let go, until he is offered a blessing.  And so the dialogue between the two continues and it is here that Jacob is given a new name, he is to be called Israel.  And Jacob knows that in this encounter, he has wrestled with God, he has seen God face to face and has lived.  Jacob is never the same, he leaves the encounter limping, but he also leaves blessed, he leaves knowing that he has been with God.  If only we can take our middle of the night tossing and turning and listen to what God just might be saying to us as we fight being awake and finding sleep. 

            How many feelings do we suppress during the day?   A few weeks ago, right after the school shooting in FL our local middle school in Parsippany went on lock-down.  I had my girl scout meeting after school, and a mom came a little late to pick up her daughter.  She was distraught, since she has an older child in the middle school.  She was trying so hard to keep it together, and I told her it was okay, she was in a safe place, and that she could release her emotions.  Why is it that we feel we need permission to cry?  Why is it that we try so hard to keep it together all the time?  And do we stop to think about what it might be doing to our own spiritual self? 

            Back before Thanksgiving, my cat got really sick and I knew it was her time.  She has been my companion for seventeen years, and so saying good bye was so hard.  I came home and spent the day crying, and what I found was that I cried not just for her, but for all of the other griefs of this life that I have kept hidden away.  I cried for Sandy Hook, I cried for the war torn areas of our world, I cried for people recovering from natural disasters, for all those places that I knew I should be upset about but just could not cry for, I found the release I needed.  And afterwards, I felt so cleansed.  I wish I could have a cry like that every few months.  Not just once in seventeen years.  My spirit felt lighter, I felt stronger, I felt less angry, it really was amazing.  And yet, we have learned to hold so many of our emotions in.  Perhaps we can learn a lot from Jacob as we wrestles with God in the middle of the night, wresting but also finding God’s blessing within the fight.  The thing is, when we wrestle with God, we might just emerge changed.   

            I partnered this passage with that of Jesus in the Temple overturning the tables of the money changers as a comparison of what can be called righteous anger.  So many people picture Jesus as this peaceful man, holding lambs and being calm.  But here we have a story of anger, of rage, as he sees how corrupted the religious institution has become.  This is not what God wants of the people, and yet, people have created their own practices based on greed, manipulating people as they come to the Temple to worship. 

            Perhaps Jesus had wrestled throughout the night before he entered the Temple and turned over the tables, or perhaps the very sight of the corruption in this holy place caused him just to act.  Perhaps some of the wrestling we do at night that keeps us awake should also call us into holy and righteous anger.  Do we wrestle with issues around hunger or homelessness, do we wrestle with issues of violence and war?  Do we wrestle with issues concerning our environment, protected land, and endangered animals?  Do we see the world as God’s sacred Temple?  Do we see each other as God’s holy children?  Or are we torn into too many directions that we just feel immobilized, frozen, unable to react at all?  I know from conversations, people want to make a difference in this world and in our local community.  So let us wrestle with God and let us come forth as force to be reckoned with as we seek through God’s calling to feed the hungry and house the homeless and care for our planet as we name our feelings and emotions and concerns and passions for change within ourselves and the world in which we dwell.  Amen. 

Lent week 2

The liquid edge between day and night

            Barbara Brown Taylor has a book called:  Learning to Walk in the Darkness.  In the introduction to this book, she shares that in our modern world, we as Christians focus a lot of our beliefs and understandings on what she calls Solar spirituality.  She explains what she means by that, we know and believe that Jesus is the light and being in the light is good.  We want the light, and in so doing, we push away the darkness as much as we can.  If light is good, then darkness must be bad.  Personally, one of my favorite passages is from the opening of the Gospel of John which states that Jesus is the light and the light shines through the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.  In my own faith journey, knowing that the light always shines has been my anchor during hard times. 

            In her book, she wants to explore this dualism that we find ourselves within.  If the light is good, where is God in the dark?  How many times do we hear when a tragedy occurs, where is God?  How did God let this happen?  Or even, is God punishing me?  So, instead of focusing on Solar spirituality, the bright light of the day, she decides to explore what she calls lunar spirituality which she says:  “in which the divine light waxes and wanes with the seasons.  When I go out on my porch as night, the moon never looks the same way twice.”   Her aha moment is she begins this process is to ask herself, what if she trusts God even in the rhythms of life just as she trusts the changing pattern of the moon.  So, as we journey through her book this Lenten season, we will ask the same question, does our understanding of God wax and wane through the seasons of our life, and do we trust that God is there, whether we can fully sense the divine presence or not? 

            I love her description of what we call the sunset, she writes:  the liquid edge between day and night.  Here we have the blending of the end of day and the beginning of night.  It is not one and it is not the other it is the blending of the two.  When we want to separate things, when we want to easily define this is good and that is bad, in our own modern language we think in black or white, we don’t want the grey, well, the sunset is the grey, it is the merging together of what we try so hard to keep separate.  And yet, people are drawn to sunsets.  I think about all of the places I have traveled and how people flock to various spots at that particular place to watch the sunset.   Up in Maine, we were at Arcadia National Park and we were basically forced to stop as we tried to come down off the mountain, as everyone pulled off the side of the road to park in order to watch the sunset.  In Key West it is a party every night at Mallory Square for the sunset. 

            If only we could celebrate our faith in the same way, if only we could stop what we are doing and pull off the side of the road to attend to our spiritual selves.  Other than the sunset, how many of us even pay attention to the night sky anymore?  There is so much light pollution where we live, that we don’t get the full glory of the sky full of stars, but during the day, do we even stop and think that the stars are still out there, that they are still a part of the sky, even though we cannot see them?  Some of my favorite memories of visiting my cousin on the farm in the summer involves laying out on the lawn chairs at night and looking at the stars. 

            In our own spiritual metaphors, we have created the understanding that light, therefore day is good and dark, therefore night is bad.  I remember having the curfew fight back in high school and being told:  Nothing good happens after midnight.  Cinderella has to get home by midnight or the magic wears off.  It’s like whatever might be protecting us is only good until a certain time.  If we are not safe after dark, or after midnight, how do we interpret that spiritually?  Are we safer during the day, are we safer in the light? 

            I mentioned this on Thursday night, I wish by being a person of faith that we had some sort of forcefield over us, keeping us safe all the time.  And some people do believe that through faith God gives them extra protection.  Yes, spiritual protection, but there is no force field keeping us healthy from the flu, or from a car accident, or from any other illness or tragedy that might befall us.  And that is often when people give up on their faith, when they give up on the church and even give up on God.  How could this happen to me? 

            And so we enter Lent in the time between the day and the night, the liquid edge, where we cannot define one clearly from the other.  Where we believe God has created the world and created it good.  Where we believe God is in the darkness, and yes, that God shines through the darkness, and where we acknowledge that the darkness exists but does not overcome the light of God.

            As Paul writes in his letter to the church in Corinth – he lists these things that we could define as the darkness.  He states:  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.  Paul has an amazing foundation of faith and writes to others to give them strength and hope that even despite the challenges and struggles that they are facing, they are not facing them alone, but in and through Christ. 

            This is a challenging text but Paul begins with the statement – so that we do not lose heart.  He hears the doubt, he hears the suffering, he hears the challenges people are wrestling with but he encourages and offers hope to those that will hear his message, do not lose heart because we are in this ministry through God’s mercy.  If it was just a human concept, a human response to each other, then we would not have the power to overcome these things.   But it is more than just people gathering together as a cause, it is God working through people, frail people, clay jars that can easily break. 

Last year, during Lent we use the book – the Gifts of the Dark Woods and through that discovered that we can grow in our faith and understanding of God even in the darkness.  Barbara Brown Taylor agrees with this understanding, insisting that if we look deep within the Biblical Story we will see how important the darkness is within the work of God and the calling of God’s people. Just think about Christmas Eve and how we are drawn to gather in the darkness of the night to worship and celebrate God’s love for us born into the world.  And then again on Easter with the sunrise service, gathering just as the night transitions into the day. 

And so we find ourselves on the liquid edge between day and night, sorting through what is allowing us to be present with God and what is blocking how we feel and connect with our loving Creator.   In closing I share this passage from Barbara Brown Taylor, some have read it on facebook – but she writes:  God does not turn the world over to some other deity.  Even when you cannot see where you are going and no one answers when you call, this is not sufficient proof that you are alone.  There is a divine presence that transcends all your ideas about it, along with all your language for calling it to your aid, which is not above using darkness as the wrecking ball that brings all your false gods down, but whether you decide to trust the witness of those who have gone before you or you decide to do whatever it takes to become a witness yourself, here is the testimony of faith:  darkness is not dark to God, the night is as bright as the day.  

Lent 1: Wilderness

The season of Lent is upon us.  And the traditional text that starts this forty day period is that of Jesus in the Wilderness for forty days.  The text in the Gospel of Mark is very brief and leaves out the three temptations of Jesus that are included in Matthew and Luke.  Mark summarizes this wilderness experience into three statements:   And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³ He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 

            This story happens right after Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, a story that we examined in early January.  Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends upon him as a dove and the same Spirit drives him into the wilderness.  From baptism to wilderness, what does that mean? 

            If we take a step back into the scriptures, the Hebrew people are in oppressed as slaves in Egypt.  God liberates them, they cross the Red Sea and enter into the wilderness for forty years.  Oppression to liberation with water defining the exit from one into the freedom of the other. 

            What is the wilderness?  Is it a bad place or a good place?  When we think of wilderness, we might think of camping, or going to one of our national parks to hike and enjoy the beauty of the undeveloped landscape.  The wilderness might be a place where we expect to see wildlife, where we look for Moose, or bear, or buffalo, or elk.  In our modern world, we have created rather clear definitions of what is our territory, our towns, our neighborhoods, and what is wilderness and we struggle a bit when a bear or other wilderness wild life find their way into our space.  Now, I don’t mind the cute little red fox and we actually think it is rather cool to see the bear, but I draw the line with the coyote and her pups living under our back porch. 

            So, Jesus is baptized, and the Spirit drives him into the wilderness for forty days.  Jesus is not in the wilderness as a punishment, and although he seems to be there alone, he is not there alone.  The Spirit of God is with him and, in Mark, the angels are there as well.  This is actually a sacred place, a place filled with God’s presence, a place that seems to be defined differently than the regular life of Jesus, but not a sinister place.  We often define the wilderness as a place of suffering, but this is not the case.  Yes, Jesus faces temptations, but let’s again go back to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness.  They too face great temptations.  They are full of fear of the unknown and wish feel it would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die in the wilderness.  They are hungry and cry out to Moses and complain against him.  They worship the golden calves.  And yet, God is with them.  God journeys with them.  Yes, their complaints and lack of faith and trust in God seem to make God rather upset, but God does not desert them, God remembers that there is a purpose for these people and God continues to mold them into the people God is calling them to be.

            Sometimes, when I am on a retreat, we are asked to go and spend time by ourselves, to take time to think about what might be holding us back, or what might be weighing us down.  Retreats are spiritual times, they are geared to feel connected to the Holy, and I have never thought of a retreat as being in the wilderness.  But, it is.  When we attend a retreat, or when we really spend time examining our inner most being, when we decide to name our own temptations or own moments of weakness, and are willing to take the next step in moving forward, of seeking ways to let go of a bad habit or to stop a certain behavior or move into emotional or spiritual healing, we have faced what the scriptures call Satan and are strengthened by God’s love within us. 

            Is Jesus having a spiritual battle in the wilderness?  I think he is participating in his true humanity.  In order for him to move forward into the ministry that God has called him into, he has to prepare himself for complete obedience.  He has to truly understand his call, he has to let go of his own agenda and ideas of what he might be able to accomplish.  When I entered ministry, I went full force towards youth ministry.  That was it.  I knew my calling and didn’t even consider anything else.  So, when I entered into a very hard time, a time that I called my wilderness, I had to do some serious soul searching.  What was God calling me towards?  What was my purpose within the body of Christ? 

            We can feel that way.  We can come to church, we can worship, we can serve on a committee, and we can still feel unfulfilled, we can still wonder if we are truly using our gifts to the purpose that God is calling us.  Lent can be that season of the church year where we dig a bit deeper into our own soul, our own spiritual selves and listen deeply to the Holy Spirit.  Instead of season of fasting or a season that is often connected to the temptations of Jesus, we can enter this season as a spiritual spring a time of renewal of our own inner being a time of asking what do I have to change in order to move in the direction that God is desiring me to move into? 

            Who knows what Jesus might have had to let go of, we hear in the other gospels that there is the temptation of food, the temptation of power, the temptation of testing God.  Maybe, just maybe, these are three things that Jesus has to release from his own inner being to move fully into the ministry that God calls him into. 

            If only we could call the whole world into the wilderness, into the season of Lent, into a deep soul searching of what we, as a human race need to let go of in order to live fully into God’s calling.  If only, if only we could let go of greed, of abundant waste, of corruption, of bullying, of discrimination, of harassment, of over development, if only.  If only we can find a way to be in the wilderness of God and not the wilderness of brokenness.  Forty days, Forty years, the number forty calls us into change, it calls us to listen and respond to God.  Let this be a season of our own spiritual spring.  Amen.