Matthew 3:1-12

On the second Sunday of Advent each year, we always get to spend some time with a prophet named John. He’s the one known for baptizing people, as well as wearing camel’s hair, eating insects, and giving fire and brimstone sermons.

John has a very simple message for us: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!  Just one sentence.  But what does it mean?

The Kingdom of heaven is also sometimes called the Kingdom of God or the realm of God. We use these words when we’re trying to describe a time or a place or a reality in which God is in charge, and everything has changed so that it’s just the way God would want it to be.

Some people think that the Kingdom of heaven is something we have to wait until the end of time for.  And it may be that the Kingdom of heaven will not be fully realized until then. But John is one of many teachers, including Jesus, who tells us: look, it’s happening right now! Right here, all around you, the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near.

The Kingdom of heaven is drawing near, John tells us, so we need to repent.  I would guess that repenting isn’t on the top of anyone’s to-do list today. It sounds dreary, and hard.  But to repent is simply to turn. When we repent, we decide to change direction with what we’re doing. Sometimes we may need to turn all the way around, to make a 180 degree turn. Sometimes we just need a little course correction, a small shift that will make a big difference over the long run.

The kingdom of heaven is drawing near, and we need to turn. John asks us to turn away from all the things we do that harm our neighbors and God’ creation.  John asks us to turn towards any sign of the Kingdom of Heaven. We’ve got to pay attention, so that we can chart a path for ourselves that’s leading in a holy direction.

John is an intense guy, and he’s really serious about this life change we need to make. He says: everything that is not good in us needs to be cut away. Every habit we have that leads away from the kingdom has to be left behind or burned up. Then we will be ready when Jesus comes to ignite the Holy Spirit within us, changing us from the inside out.

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near! It’s a really good sermon in one sentence. But it is a little short on details.  How, exactly, do we turn towards God’s way?

For help with that, we turn to another prophet today. Her name is Ella Baker.  Ella Baker is a woman who spent 50 years fighting for civil rights and human rights in our country. She grew up hearing the stories of her grandmother, who had been a slave.  She knew where we had been as a country and she could see what still needed to change.  She came to believe that change happened locally: through the grass roots, through all of us and not just our leaders. She said, “strong people don’t need strong leaders.”

Although you may have never heard of her, you may have heard some other words she said: “Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of white mother’s sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.”

Ella Baker also said: “Give light, and people will find a way.”  Those words were turned into a song . I think it’s a great continuation of John the Baptist’s sermon, to help us get a sense of how we can turn towards the Kingdom of heaven together: giving light, teaching peace, and standing together.

Isaiah 2:1-5
Matthew 24:36-44

What will happen in the days to come? Our texts for this first Sunday of Advent show us a future of great promise.  In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus describes the arrival of the son of man.  The prophet Isaiah describes a time when God will rule from Mount Zion, and all people will seek her ways and her wisdom.

Why do we hear these texts at the beginning of Advent? Those who have heard of this season at all know that it is a season of preparation for something else altogether. Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. However, on this very first Sunday of our brand new church year, our scriptures remind us that this season is not only about looking backwards to remember a beautiful thing that happened long ago.  They remind us that what happened long ago was just the beginning of all that is still to come.

The promises in the book of Isaiah are many and beautiful.  We hear them often in churches during this season. It is Isaiah that Christians have turned to for many of our favorite images and names for Jesus: root and branch of Jesse; Immanuel; or as we hear in Handel’s Messiah: wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  Listening to Isaiah in this season, it would be easy to conclude that this prophet was a dreamer who failed to pay attention to reality. However, if we had started with the first chapter of Isaiah today rather than the second, we would have heard something very different:

“Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, we are utterly estranged!” Isaiah says, in the voice of God (Isaiah 1:4).  Isaiah goes on to compare the nation of Israel to a body covered with bruises, sores, and bleeding wounds.  He says that the people’s obsequious temple offerings do nothing to counteract their fundamental unfaithfulness. The only way out, the prophet says, is to: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord…” (Isaiah 1:16-18)

These are hardly the words of a dreamer disconnected with reality.  Isaiah sees terrible things in his homeland.  And yet, he says, a better time is on the way.  When the people begin to learn from God, and walk in God’s paths, they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4 and also Micah 4:3).

When we look around our world today, we see plenty of conflict: swords and spears and war of many kinds.  Some of us have witnessed or participated in family conflicts during the Thanksgiving holiday. Nationally, our political divisions have only intensified since the election.  In Standing Rock this past week, tear gas, water cannons, percussion grenades, and rubber bullets were used against water protectors. Half a million children are trapped amidst escalating violence in Syria.

As we witness and participate in conflicts, and as conflicts intensify, we have two obvious options: Fight or flight.  We can go into battle on behalf of ourselves, and those we love, and those we sympathize with, using the biggest weapons we can find, attempting to obliterate the enemy.  Or, those of us who have the option to do so can flee the battlefield, and hunker down behind whatever privilege we can muster.

Neither of these options, however, has much to do with Isaiah’s vision.  In the days to come, the prophet tells us, justice will be realized through the power of God and radical disarmament.  What, exactly, would that look like? Just how far off are the days to come, and what path shall we take to find them?

There is no one answer for us, of course, when we consider what to do in each of the many conflicts we find ourselves in.  But I hope fight or flight aren’t the only options. It’s toxic for us to live in a perpetual emotional, ideological, or literal arms race, no matter how lofty our goals.  And permanently stepping away from conflicts, refusing to engage, is rarely helpful, especially if we have privilege and power to influence the situation for the better.

What are our other options? How can we find a different way forward?

The first step is to calm down. I don’t mean to minimize the seriousness of these conflicts, or the danger of their potential outcomes. But when we are acutely anxious, we cannot truly learn, or creatively problem solve.  In order to do anything productive, we have to find a way to breathe. We have to step back and consider our role in the larger picture.  We have to connect with the people and resources and the divine power that we need to tolerate and transform the conflict we are in.

The first step is to calm down. And then, if it is safe for us, if it is our work to do, and especially if we hold special power or privilege in the conflict, we need to engage one another across difference.  This means deep and open-hearted listening, followed by compassionate dialogue and shared brainstorming about what a peaceful future could look like.

The conflicts that we experience in this world are real, and serious.  There is no use in denying that they exist or scolding one another into pretending peace has already come.  We need to grapple with our personal struggles, and nationally with our differences concerning wealth, race, gender, the environment, indigenous rights, and much more.  We need to engage: and resolution will not be quick or easy.  We need to dig deep and stay connected if we’re going to stay the course.

What will happen in the days to come? Do not despair. Our God knows how bad it is, here, and yet still she believes that it can be better.  Our God invites us to find a path other than fleeing the scene in terror; he  sends angels to tell us, again and again, “Do not be afraid.”  Our God invites us to learn a way other than brutally defeating of our enemy: she sends prophets to tell us, again and again, “You can do better.”  With courage and persistence, we can make progress.  We can hone our skills in blunting sword tips, and learn the art of bending the spear blades, until the tools that started out as weapons can be used to tend the earth and provide nourishment for a;; people.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!  In this advent season, we await the birth of Christ our light.  Looking towards the future, we work together towards the days to come: when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall we learn war any more. May it be so.

Colossians 1:11-20

What a glorious inheritance we have.

This season we’ve been digging through the history closet and cracking the spine of our history book, remembering who we’ve been in the past 125 years. We remember the Covenanters, the women and men who first gathered in 1889 to share communion as we will today.  We remember all who have come since then, teaching and serving and leading and building. This community has changed in many ways since our official founding in 1891. Still, there are some markers of a consistent charism, a lasting spiritual personality.

Looking at the church dedication booklet from 1910, you can find this description: “[our church] has always been a peculiar organization in one particular. It is in fact and deed a Union church, and members of many denominations worship under its roof. There has always been harmony in feeling and work to a degree that some denominational churches might envy, and it stands today the only Protestant Church in the community where all may freely feel at home and receive a welcome.”

When I was interviewing for the position of pastor, one search committee member called this church “scrappy.”  This fall, another leader remarked that we were a “motley group.”  Both comments were compliments. Formed by blue collar folks associated with the prison and the mill, there has been a long-standing commitment to inclusion here and a resistance to false pride. We started with economic and denominational diversity. Later, we invited in neighbors with developmental disabilities and made an Open and Affirming commitment. Today we are engaging in anti-racism work.  There’s a warm, small-church feeling here; and we’re working on being not just nice but truly and deeply welcoming.  Always, a work in progress.

What a glorious inheritance we have.

Our inheritance is not only the history of West Concord Union Church, but the traditions of the global and ancient Christian church.  We have two thousand years worth of scripture, music, theology, and practice to inform and support our faith.  There is plenty to be found in this service alone. We heard scriptures written in the early days of the common era.  We will celebrate the ancient sacrament of communion.  We will sing “Holy Is Your Name” in a few minutes, which was written in the 1980s but based on Mary’s Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke, which is in turn from Hannah’s song in the book of Samuel.

Another tradition our service relies on today is the tradition of Christ the King Sunday. Celebrated on the last Sunday of each liturgical year, the Sunday before Advent begins, it reminds us that, as Paul writes in the letter to the Colossians, Jesus is “the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might have supremacy in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven…” (Colossians 1:18-20).

I suspect that there are several among us today for whom the idea of Jesus as King is not very attractive.  Why should we use such hierarchical imagery for a boundary crosser, for someone who associated with the outcasts in his society, for someone who turned every power dynamic upside down?

Pope Pius XI is the leader who established Christ the King Sunday. But before you dismiss this Pope and his holiday out of hand, consider his motivations.  Pius was leading in the aftermath of World War 1. The war had ended, and yet nations were still uncertain of lasting piece. Europe was full of anxiety and fully armed. There was a rise in class divisions and an unhealthy, exaggerated nationalism.

At the Vatican in Rome the Pope had a close-up view of how Italy was dealing with this difficult time. The Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, was working systematically to break down democracy over the course of only a few years. By 1925, Mussolini had established a one-party dictatorship.  A champion of fascism, he elevated the state above all things.  As head of state, Mussolini declared earthly supremacy.

Think of what it meant for Pope Pius to declare Jesus’ kingship in this context.  This Pope declared that ultimate loyalty for Christians belongs not with an earthly ruler but with Jesus, the prince of Peace.  The creation of this holiday was an act of non-violent resistance: a statement of spiritual freedom within political oppression.

What a glorious inheritance we have.

Our greatest inheritance is Jesus himself.  The baby messiah whose birth we await in the coming season.  The teacher and healer who offered his disciples a renewed sense of what it was to live a faithful life. In a land where the Roman Emperor claimed dominion and divinity, Jesus led his followers to worship instead a God who cared for the lost and the least and brought strangers and enemies together.  When these followers witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection, they understood that no human authority can destroy the ultimate and eternal power of love.

Today we experience great anxiety and uncertainty in our own society. Our nation is trying to decide if whiteness and wealth and bigotry and war will have supremacy among us. Our values are being tested, our true loyalties questioned.

What a glorious inheritance we have: the example of our forbearers here at West Concord Union Church. The vast riches of Christian tradition. The ultimate gift of Jesus. We have been given everything we need — more than enough. We have been given everything we need to find the wisdom and the will to resist in our own time any power that demands our obedience while acting with violence and  hate towards a child of God.

What a glorious inheritance we have. What important work we have to do.  As we begin the next chapter of our history in this local church, let us ground our feet firmly in our history and our faith. Let us open our eyes wide and truly pay attention to the world around us. Every day is an opportunity for us: an opportunity to resist hate and to participate in the ultimate and eternal power of love.

Are you in? Shall we do this together?  I invite you to stand as you are able, and join in speaking aloud the WCUC Covenant of 1892, still relevant today.

We, as children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ, do unite ourselves in this Christian Church. We desire to worship and serve God, to walk in the liberty of [God’s] truth, and to minister to our fellow men [and women]. Feeling our individual and united need of divine aid, we desire, through this communion of the visible Church, to strengthen each other by mutual sympathy, forbearance and helpfulness, and in all things looking to his Grace which is ever ready to help us, to do our part to establish the Kingdom of God in the world.

May it be so. Let the people say: Amen.

West Concord Union Church, 1893-1909

Isaiah 65:17-25

Why do we long for holy space?

The prophet we hear in scripture today is speaking to a people in despair.  The people Israel have endured war and defeat and exile in Babylonia. Now they have just begun to return and to rebuild.

The prophet speaks to these people, and his words are words of hope: God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, a new reality in which life together will be a joy.  Common hardships like poverty and illness will not exist in the new order. There will be economic opportunity and economic justice; everyone will enjoy the work of their own hands. Children will be born safely into a world that is safe for them.  Even natural enemies will be reconciled, and evil will be struck down. “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”

Fueled by faith in this vision, the people Israel took heart. They began to rebuild their homes. They began to rebuild their community.   And then, they began to rebuild their Temple.  Twenty years after their return from Babylonia, the great second Temple was completed, and it stood for 500 years.

Why do we long for holy space?

The West Concord Union Church had only been gathering for about nine years when our forbearers decided it was time to have our own building. The decision was quite practical: the community’s meeting space at Warner Hall was no longer available for public use.  Still, there were many benefits seen to having a space of our own. Therefore, a meeting was held at Rev. Campbell’s house to  “see about building a church.” (more…)

2 Corinthians Ch.8 & 9

Sometime around the year of 55 in the common era, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth. He encouraged the Corinthians to financially support their fellow believers in Jerusalem, where wants were many, resources were few, and conflict was intensifying between Gentile and Jewish followers of Jesus.

When I read Paul’s giving appeal, I have to laugh, because it has so much in common with how we encourage one another to give here at West Concord Union Church. If you read the 8^th and 9^th chapters of this letter, Paul starts by telling an inspirational story about other givers, Christians in Macedonia – just as we ask our members to share their testimonies to inspire us.  Then Paul reminds the Corinthians of how generous God has been to them – just as we remember how God has been generous in our lives and in the life we share together. Paul is careful to clarify that financial gifts should reflect a household’s means: “if the eagerness is there,” he says, “the gift is acceptable according to what one has – not according to what one does not have.”  Similarly, we emphasize the importance of discernment and the value of every gift.  Finally, Paul wraps up his message with these words:

“Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver…Share abundantly in every good work… [and] glorify God… by the generosity of your sharing.”

In the end, Paul says, make sure that you give joyfully, remembering what your giving is for: doing good work and glorifying God; in this case, lifting up the Christians of Jerusalem and binding them together.

Another appeal went out in the year 1909, as the West Concord Union Church decided to rebuild its meeting house: the first renovation! The intention was to rotate and expand the church to meet the needs of a growing community, keeping only the frame and foundation of the original 1893 structure.

We still have the gift list from this appeal. It makes for amazing reading. Two hundred and four gifts were received ranging from 5 cents to $500.  The most common gift was $25.  The top giver was the Ladies Union, and the second on the list is the Sunday School Primary Department. The Young Ladies club contributed $100 and the Sunday School contributed $50.  A few of the families who contributed have relatives here now or in recent memory: Damon, Montague, Hatch, Forbes. These saints stepped up to build this beautiful sanctuary almost from scratch.  I wish they could have known how many people would benefit from their gifts, more than 100 years later.  I wish they could have seen what good work would be done in this building, and how God would be glorified in this sanctuary.

This October, an appeal went out to all of you, asking for pledge commitments to support our shared ministry in 2017.  In the appeal letter, you can see pictures of what we do together and read quotes and descriptions about what happens here: music and prayer, fellowship and hospitality, learning and service.   We try to capture in this mailing how money gets turned into ministry.  But it’s so hard to fit it onto one piece of paper. There’s no way to tell all the stories.

For example, one of the smallest line items in our budget is for prayer shawls.  But the cost per benefit analysis on this line item is astounding.  The money goes mostly for yarn, which gets packed up into bags with patterns.  Then folks who are among you today pick up the yarn, and take it home. They put in stitch after stitch and prayer after prayer until there is a finished shawl; and then, after all those hours of work, they return it to the church. They do this, having no idea what will happen to that shawl, where it will end up.

Having these shawls at the church is amazing, kind of like a reserve fund of love that I can dip into when things get hard.  It’s been my privilege to deliver them to many people in the years that I have served here. They are often greeted with tears.  Members of this community have worn them while praying for family members, while recovering from surgeries or accidents, and while receiving chemo.  I was grateful to receive one myself right before I became a mother.  Several of these shawls have been passed on beyond our community, to friends and relatives or strangers, going from one person to another as special needs came and went. Just in this fall I have seen our prayer shawls spread over a mother in a hospice bed and wrapped around a girl at her brother’s graveside.

Just $150 in our budget and through the service of those in our community and the work of the Holy Spirit, these shawls are a magnificent ministry, expressing love and offering comfort in the hardest times.  Talk about good work. Talk about God’s glory.

In the end, Paul says, make sure that you give joyfully, remembering what your giving is for: doing good work; glorifying God.  And so we dedicate our gifts here today, and throughout the year, taking part in the good work and the glorification of God that goes on through West Concord Union Church.  I hope you do it joyfully.

And I wonder: what other good work is there for us to do? How elsecan we glorify God?  This is a question each of us can answer only for ourselves, and a question for a lifetime. But I wonder if I might make two suggestions for this week.

• I hope that you will take part in the good work that is done by our nation by voting on Tuesday, letting the wisest and deepest parts of your heart guide your decisions, helping to build up the justice and hope of our country.
• I hope that you will take part in the good work of knitting together this beautiful and broken nation in whatever ways you can as the election passes by, stitch by stitch, step by step, prayer by prayer.

What good work is there for you to do joyfully? How can you glorify God with what you give, and how you serve, and who you are?

Children were invited up and the whole congregation joined in blessing the prayer shawls:

Holy God, we thank you for our people, who gave the funds for this yarn, and then knit it together, stitch by stitch, prayer by prayer, to bless those in need of special care.  We add our prayers to these shawls this morning: May they bind up the brokenhearted, and warm those who wait, and comfort those in pain. May they be messengers of your love, and of the love of this congregation. In your grace, may we all discover how we are bound together.  May our ties be strengthened through gifts, service, and the work of your Spirit. Amen.

On January 11^th, 1889, a notice went out in the Concord Enterprise to invite all who were interested to a Christian worship service in Warner Hall in Concord Junction, so that “all in the neighborhood who choose to do so may unite in some fitting covenant of Christian service and love.”  Thus the seventeen “Covenanters” came together, forming a faith community that officially became West Concord Union Church in 1891.

Our Covenanters included 13 women and 4 men. Most of them were associated with what was then known as the Concord Reformatory; men who worked there and women who had married prison officers, engineers, or instructors.  Three of the Covenanters were immigrants from Canada; a tradition that continues today. Some of the Covenanters’ time with the community was short lived, while others stayed for many years. George Knowles and Benjamin Russell were deacons for over 25 years. Reformatory chaplain and founding pastor William Batt (pictured) remained active for 40 years. Batt’s housekeeper, Anna Noonan, was active for even longer, baking bread for communion, serving as treasurer, and continuing to worship at WCUC until her death in 1932. The last surviving Covenanter was Alice Knowles, who died in 1937.

We don’t have a picture of the Covenanters, but we do have a picture of another group of faithful WCUC folks. These women and men were part of the cradle roll during the pastorate of the first settled minister, Rev. Campbell, and were still living in 1991 to sign a centennial covenant. Among them is Emma Mitchell, mother of Jean Moscariello – you may be able to discern a family resemblance.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be lifting up stories of our past, as we celebrate 125 years of this faith community. It seemed only fitting to start with our All Saints and All Souls celebration, when we remember and give thanks for all those who have gone before us. There are stories of so many of our early members and leaders in the history book that was written for our centennial – I hope you will pick one up in the hallway or the library or go home and page through yours to take some of those stories in.

One story that particularly struck me from our earliest period was that of Mary B. Lane.  Mary Lane was part of the Third Congregational Church in Westvale which merged with West Concord Union Church in 1895, bringing that church’s communion silver (my guess is that the pitcher on the table is from them).  Mary helped to found our first Sunday School and became its superintendent. She also served as a leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Marguerite Leighton, another saint of WCUC, remembered that Mary Lane “seemed to run the church in those days…We couldn’t graduate unless we knew the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Beautitudes, and, of course, the pledge.”  The “pledge” has since fallen out of favor in our modern Sunday School, but I don’t want you to miss out, so here it is: “God hover over me, I promise not to buy, sell, or give Alcoholic liquors while I live; from all tobacco I’ll abstain, and never take God’s name in vain.”  A testimony at Mary’s death proclaimed: “There was never any doubt about her devotion to the cause, her love of children, or her eagerness to lead young people into the good life as she knew it, making religion a personal, vital thing for every day use.” This is still a goal for us in every aspect of our church today.

In the second letter to the Thessalonians, the writer says: “We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith…We always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.”

As we approach 125 years together, we give thanks for the steadfastness and faith of so many who founded and carried on this church through many changes and challenges.  What a rich and glorious inheritance we have. May God make us worthy of her call and fulfill by her power every good resolve and work of faith we undertake, so that Jesus may be glorified in us, and us in him. Amen.

Genesis 32:22-31
Luke 18:9-14

What do money and prayer have to do with each other?

In the parable from the gospel of Luke, we meet two people who have come to the temple in Jerusalem to pray.  One is a shining example of religious devotion and ethical behavior. He fasts twice a week, and gives a tenth of his income away. This guy is doing everything right when it comes to money. But do you hear his prayer? “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, tax collectors.”  This man spends his prayer time trying to gossip with God, showing himself off and looking down on others.

The other man praying in the temple that day is very different.  He’s a tax collector, someone who collaborates with the colonial powers and takes a little extra from his people on the side.  This guy is doing everything wrong when it comes to money.  But when he comes to the temple to pray, he doesn’t even look up to heaven, he’s so ashamed.  He beats his breast, and cries, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Jesus says: “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exult themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

It matters, what we do with money.  And, it matters how we pray. Jesus tells us that greedy humility is preferable to generous contempt.  But I wonder if there aren’t more options for us. The story of Jacob’s wrestling match is actually from last week’s lectionary, but I saved it up for this week because I was struck for the first time that it is, at least in part, also a story about money and prayer. (more…)

Luke 18:1-8

The word “gospel” also means “good news.” I can’t tell you how good the news in this portion of the gospel of Luke sounds to me after the events of the last two weeks. Reading this gospel is like taking a long, cold drink of water.

Jesus is teaching the people, instructing them to pray always and not to lose heart. Then, he tells a parable:  In a certain city there is a judge who does not fear God or respect anyone. A widow comes to the judge, again and again, saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.”  The judge refuses each time.  But eventually, he tells himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she will leave me alone.” Jesus explains that even an unjust judge eventually yields to justice. Our God, on the other hand, grants justice quickly.

Whenever things get heated in our public life or hard in our private lives, it helps to take a step back and look at what’s happening through the lens of scripture.  This short passage has several powerful reminders that can change our perspective.

First, Jesus tells us, remember to pray and not to lose heart. We can look around us and see plenty of reasons to despair. The people of Haiti are in crisis.  Our political dialogue is sinking to unthinkable lows. We are experiencing painful losses in our small community;  there are those among us who are full of grief or many other kinds of trouble. Still, Jesus says: remember to pray and not to lose heart.

There’s nothing more infuriating than being told to pray when things are really bad.  If we’re in despair, it may feel impossible, even laughable, that God could give us comfort.  If we’re angry, it can feel like an insult, an injustice, to be asked to transform that anger, offering it up to God.

And yet. There is nothing more powerful than God’s companionship, nothing more sustaining than God’s hope.  The heart of our God is strong enough to bear with us whatever tragedies we face.  The truth and wisdom of our good news is profound enough to confront and change the most challenging situations.

So it’s good to be reminded: whatever is happening in our world, whatever is happening in our lives: remember to pray, and do not lose heart.

The message is less clear when we turn to the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. How should we find meaning in this story? (more…)

Psalm 146
Luke 16:19-31

Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem. Along the way he offers teachings to those who will listen. Two weeks ago we heard the parable of the Lost Sheep; today it is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

There is a rich man who dresses in the finest purple and linen, and eats sumptuously every day: figs and dates, meat and oil, bread and wine. At the gate of his house lies a poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus is so hungry that he dreams of eating crumbs from the rich man’s table.  He is so sick that he cannot prevent dogs from licking his sores. The fate of these two men could not be more different.

In time, both of the men die. Once again, their fates are very different. Lazarus is carried away by angels to lie in comfort and peace in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man is tormented in Hades.

The rich man looks up from Hades and sees Lazarus with Abraham. He calls to Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue with water.  Abraham explains that he has already received his good things.  Now a great chasm has been fixed between the two of them.  The rich man calls out to Abraham again, asking Abraham to send Lazarus to his family, to warn them to change their ways.  But Abraham replies: “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.”

What does this parable have to say to us?

In some periods of Christian history, folks have focused in on questions concerning what comes after death.  Where exactly is the bosom of Abraham located? Is Hades a kind of purgatory?  Where do we go between the time of our death and the arrival of the Day of Judgment?

We can also read this parable with questions about divine justice. If we suffer in life, will we, like Lazarus, receive a heavenly reward? If we are sinful, will we be punished? And are the sins of the rich man in this story, ignorance and selfishness, are these sins really bad enough to warrant an eternity of fiery torture? Is this what our God of love intends?

I wonder what Jesus is trying to teach us with this story. Personally, I doubt that he was offering a theological treatise on life after death or justice beyond the grave.  When he teaches, Jesus is mostly concerned with helping his listeners discover the kingdom of God within and around them. How could this story of extremes point us towards the kingdom?

It is a heartbreaking time in our nation. I’ll lift up just a few events from the past two weeks. On September 14^th in Cleveland, Ohio, 13 year old Tyre King was killed because he was wanted for questioning and was holding a BB gun.  On September 16^th, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 40 year old Terence Crutcher was killed after his car broke down; he was unarmed, and holding his hands in the air.  On, September 20^th, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 43 year old Keith Lamont Scott was fatally shot 4 times in the chest while sitting in his car; eyewitnesses are still debating whether or not he was armed.

In the past year or two, many white people in our country have slowly become aware of a phenomenon that is, tragically, not at all new. According to the Washington Post, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.  Of unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015, 40% were black men, even though this group represents only 6% of the population. How shall we explain this?

Let me be very clear. I do not think the police officers in this country are awful people. On the contrary, I think they are public servants who make great sacrifices to do difficult and important jobs.  I cannot imagine making the decisions they have to make as they try to keep themselves and the public safe in very complex situations. I am grateful for their service, and I hope that we work to make their jobs both easier and safer.

The disproportionate danger of police stand-offs for black people is not happening because police officers are awful people. It is happening, at least in part, because our society has racism as part of its founding identity.  This racism is visible not only in the institution of slavery and our history of segregation but also in property and voting rights, in mortgage and housing access, and in patterns of school disciplinary action and incarceration. It is embedded in everything from children’s books to Hollywood movies to employment practices. Racism does not just consist of individuals saying hateful things. Racism exists in all of us; and it naturally emerges whenever we feel under threat. As UCC Pastor Traci Blackmon says, “It is impossible to be unarmed when my blackness is the weapon you fear.”

Imagine that white society in America is like the rich man, dressed in purple and fine linen and feasting sumptuously every day. Across income lines, we are benefiting from a feast of white privilege that is invisible and unremarkable to us.  Right at our doorstep, just outside the gate, there are others who are suffering from a lack of what we have in abundance: people who are hungry for justice, literally sick from oppression, even dying as a result of racism.

As white society begins to wake up to the reality we’re living in and its consequences, we often follow the example of the rich man and begin to make demands. The rich man in the parable speaks to Father Abraham himself, telling him to send Lazarus to help him and his family out — as if speaking directly to Lazarus was beneath him; as if Lazarus was his servant. White culture, too, instructs black people to relieve us from the burdens of our racism, to explain it, and to excuse it, and to show us how to get rid of it.

But the sin of the rich man is not Lazarus’ problem to fix. He has already suffered enough. A great chasm has opened between him and the rich man, and it is the result of the rich man’s failure to act. Father Abraham says: your brothers have Moses and the prophets.  If they want a different outcome, they should listen to them.

What does this parable have to say to us?

What if the white people here have the part in the story of the rich man’s brothers – alive, oblivious, and enjoying our riches?  What if the parable can be, for us, a warning bell and a call to action?  God has given us the great gift of Jesus, and Jesus in turn directs us to the wisdom of Moses and the prophets: Love your neighbor as yourself.  Thou shalt not kill. Or, from the psalm this morning: “Happy are those whose help is in the Lord their God, who executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets the prisoners free, lifts up those who are bowed down, watches over the strangers, upholds the orphan and the widow.”

Listening to these teachings, I hope that we as a community will be moved to action.  There are so many things we can do. We can open our hearts to truly grieve those who are killed and to cry with those who suffer. We can pray for our police officers, and demand changes to the systems in which they operate, rather than making them the scapegoat of our national crisis. We can continue to learn about our privilege, whatever forms of privilege each of us have; there will be at least two opportunities to learn about white privilege through our church this year, including a series on the book Waking Up White beginning in October. We can listen to black voices, and use our various forms of privilege to amplify them.  We can use what wealth we have to support black-led organizations that are working to protect and uphold black lives.

We’re not dead yet – and God has not abandoned us in Hades. She offers us all the teachers that we need to be a part of the movement to make her Kingdom come. Thanks be to God.

Here are a few resources I found helpful:

“Where to Go from the Anger in Charlotte,” by Charles H. Ramsey, a former Philadelphia police commissioner and a co-chairman of President Obama’s task force on 21st century policing.

A video from Black Lives Matter leader Alicia Garza clarifying the goals of the movement.

To All My White Christian Friends Regarding Recent Events, a blog post by Latrice Ingram.

Numbers 21:4-9

How do we keep going on a long journey?

In today’s passage from the book of Numbers, the Israelites are out of sorts. As you may remember, these are the folks who risked death to flee slavery under an Egyptian Pharoah.  They followed Moses across the Red Sea towards a promised land of milk and honey.  Forty years later, the promised land is still at a distance, and the milk and honey have yet to show up. Instead, the Israelites wake up each morning to another day of desert hiking. On the menu:  manna – which tastes, as far as we can discover, like a very bland cracker. Just imagine: forty years of nothing but crackers.

The Israelites are frustrated and impatient. They speak out against God and Moses, saying: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Forty years of crackers – it’s almost worse than not having food at all.

Soon, however, the people have more to complain about than crackers: God sends poisonous serpents among them.   The Israelites connect the dots and decide that the snakes are a kind of divine punishment for their complaints. They beg Moses to intercede with God. Moses prays on behalf of the people, and God responds: “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole.  Everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”  So Moses makes a bronze serpent and puts it on a pole; and whoever is bitten looks up at the bronze serpent, and lives.

What a strange story. I admit, if I wrote it, I would write it differently.  I just don’t buy the idea that God was behind those poisonous snakes.  We meet the first snake in our bible in chapter two, whispering in Eve’s ear, persuading her to go against God’s instructions and eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden of Eden. Serpents, or snakes, often symbolize evil and chaos or Satan himself in different points of the bible.

What if the snakes aren’t a divine curse?  They could be simply a natural desert hazard. Or maybe they’re a symbol for the ugliness that is brewing amongst the people in their distress. Perhaps in their hardship the people have become infected with hate or blame. These are poisonous serpents to have circulating in any community, and they can only increase suffering.

I would have written the story a different way. I just don’t buy the idea that God was behind those snakes. But however the snakes got there, and whatever they stand for, God’s response to the situation is brilliant. She doesn’t fix the problem.  She says: put a symbol of what ails you up on a pole, and take a good hard look at it whenever you get sick. That is what will help you to survive. (more…)