posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 10:59 AM
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20070326
20070325
Michael Denton
March 25th, 2007
Sam Il UCC,
John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to
- Greetings
- Prayer
When I was a boy, there was a tree out in front of my family’s home that I loved. I had an old Army back pack that I’d fill with a book or two and some sort or snack. Then, I’d climb to the highest, sturdiest branch of the tree, sit and read for hours. My favorite book, the book I read at least once every summer, was one called “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by the 19th century Southern American satirist Mark Twain. I’ve been re-reading this book recently and am amazed by how much social commentary went right over my head when I read this book with a child’s mind. It’s a rich, rich book that speaks to the American culture of that day with critiques of slavery, Southern etiquette, religion and government. Now, as I read it, intellectually I can see what a brave book it was when it was written and enjoy it on a whole other level. But, in my heart, I still remember reading it while sitting on the top branch of the tree and imagining that I was on these adventures with the main character, Tom Sawyer, or that I was Tom Sawyer himself. Tom was wise, funny, rebellious and mischievous. He got in a lot of trouble but seemed to get out of even more.
At one point in the book, Tom and a couple of his friends decide to run away and have themselves an adventure on an island in the middle of the
I remember, as a child, wondering what this could be like; especially at those moments I somehow felt underappreciated. When my parents, teachers or friends were upset with me, I’d sometimes feel as though what was good about me was ignored. In my imagination, I was sometimes hiding in the back of the church, with Tom, listening to some of the positive things those who knew and loved me said now that I was gone.
It’s not that this is an unusual circumstance. Praise can be a difficult thing to give. All too often, it’s treated like a commodity or a special gift by many. There is the suspicion that if we say something kind or complimentary, we are expecting something back. Those who are over complementary are considered with derision and distain as people who are trying to get something; money, a job or power. Our compliments become understood as more of manipulative tool than a genuine, outward expression celebrating the person in front of us.
There is a certain degree to which having someone else sing our praises is just as difficult to hear. As I mentioned before, there is that sense of suspicion but more generally, we’re just not accustomed to it and, when we do receive a compliment, we tend to be embarrassed. Frequently, we have this sense that, if we’re being complimented, the person giving the compliment is somehow intruding on a territory where they do not belong. We’re almost embarrassed for them. Actually, if we’re not a little embarrassed as the receiver of the compliment and don’t make at least some sort of attempt to deflect the compliment, some will consider us vain or egotistical. There is an etiquette of humility that we’re expected to emulate. The exact thing that we may have intended or expressed to honor the other person can accidentally cause either the giver or the receiver of the compliment dishonor.
The text from today’s gospel has some of these two kinds of themes running through it. When Mary took this bottle of expensive perfume and drenched Jesus in it, it was such an unusual act that it was written about in two of the gospels. It was a moment that stood out in Jesus’ ministry. There were really two primary circumstances during which perfume was used in this way and scholars suggest that the writer of the Gospel of John may have been trying to suggest both of these possibilities. In one circumstance, perfume was a gift of extravagance heaped upon royalty or the rich and powerful so this text could have been used to show the implication of Jesus’ importance and reality recognized by this one called Mary.
It’s also very possible that the last time Mary had used perfume to anoint someone’s body was when she used it on her dead brother’s body. Within Jewish burial tradition, this moment of death is a very intimate one. From the point of death until the burial itself, the body is not to be left by itself. During that time, the body is ritually and thoroughly cleaned and perfumed by those who are present. It would have been completely normal for Mary and Martha to have been the ones who cleaned the body in this case.
We also can’t forget that, sitting right there at the table with them, was Lazarus; the person Jesus had raised from the dead. He was in this same home with his sisters. Imagine if you were in their position. A family member of yours had died and you were certain you were never going to see them again and then along comes this Jesus who gives you a second chance with this person you loved. How would you feel? How grateful would you be? What would you want to give to this person who had done so much for you and your family? What could you give? The only person at that table that speaks against this act is Judas. Maybe it wasn’t just Mary that had thought this would be a good idea but Martha and Lazarus, too. Maybe they were all that thankful. Mary was so thankful that she actually used her hair to wipe the excess perfume from the feet of Jesus. This was such an act of gratefulness and intimacy that to some it had to be embarrassing. Although I, for obvious reasons, can’t imagine using my hair to do this, I encourage those of you with hair to think about it. How would you have to feel to be unselfconscious about drying someone’s feet with your hair?
These three different understandings of the use of the perfume help explain Judas’ complaint and Jesus’ rebuke. From Judas’ perspective, using nard in this way was an extravagant waste of money that could not be afforded and, if we’d been around at the time, many of us may have given a similar argument. This wasn’t just any perfume, this was an expensive perfume that was made from a flower that grew in what is now Northern India, the Himalayas and
One of the commentators I read made the comparison of how inappropriate it might have seemed if we were invited to a dinner where Mother Theresa was a guest and the host opened a bottle of her most expensive champagne. It would seem like a luxury that could not be justified; a resource that could have been used to serve those whom Mother Theresa served; a gift that was contrary to how Jesus preached, taught and acted. In the same way, suggest these commentators, Mary’s gift could be seen as an embarrassing breach of spiritual etiquette. She gave extravagantly in an inappropriate way. She intimately touched Jesus in a way that had its own extravagance. Judas rebuked Mary and, probably, embarrassed her. She had given this wonderful gift of love, appreciation and honor and Judas’ rebuked her.
So, in that same setting, Jesus rebuked Judas by honoring the gift and honoring the intent of the giver. “Leave her alone,” he says. “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” The writer of John is clear that this was a gift intended for Jesus’ death that was given early. We don’t know exactly why but, again, this family had just gone through the resurrection of a loved one. Can you imagine having that kind of second chance? It’s normal, at the point of death, for people to think about the ways they wished they would have said or done something differently to the person they loved. Now, this family had a second chance to think about doing things differently. That line between life and death had become very blurred. So, considering this, why wouldn’t this person see things differently and share this extravagance with someone while they could actually enjoy it. Why wouldn’t this person want to honor this person in their life as much as their death?
But that wasn’t all Jesus said, he also rejected Judas’ argument about how this resource could have been used to serve the poor by saying, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” This verse has frequently been misunderstood by those who’ve focused on the first part of this sentence. Some have suggested that Jesus is somehow saying that it’s not that important to serve the poor because there will always be poor people. Most commentators agree that it’s important to remember that this isn’t a general statement to all humanity but a statement made directly to his disciples. Jesus isn’t minimizing the fact that people are poor as much as he is reiterating his expectation that his disciples would always welcome the poor among them; to some degree, Jesus is making clear that this is such an assumption that the faithful are defined by the fact that the poor are with them. This is almost it’s own sermon so I’ll only touch on this lightly but basically, Jesus is saying here, in this little piece of a verse, that part of what makes a Christian community complete and whole is their work with and among the poor which could be extrapolated to say that if a community is not working with and among the poor, that’s not a community that’s following Jesus.
But, obviously, this is not what the Gospel of John’s Jesus was really emphasizing here. He took the presence of the poor as a reality but Jesus was suggesting to Judas that he was taking Jesus’ presence for granted. Now, that’s something to think about.
We get used to the presence of certain people in our lives and, as Tom Sawyer discovered, we all too only recognize their importance to us after they’re gone. We forget to be thankful of their presence in the here and now. The presence of Jesus in our lives is a different kind of presence. It’s not the same kind of presence as those whom we are able to touch or look in the eye or sit down and have a conversation with but it is a very real presence nevertheless.
The Gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “Where two or three have come together in my name, I am there among them.” There is this very real presence of the Jesus “among” us; this Jesus that is between us like mortar; this Jesus is the reason we gather. Sometimes, we forget this and get so focused on our own needs being served that we forget we were called together to serve Jesus. We become all wrapped up in the smaller things within our communal life. We become convinced that there is only one way to worship, one way to believe, one way to speak, one way to use the money we gather together, one way to use our buildings. We become convinced that there is only one way to do things and live our lives - in the same way that Judas suggested there was only one right thing to do with the perfume – and we forget that in everything we do we’re called to serve Christ.
The question we need to ask isn’t simply “What is the correct way to do this or that?” but “Why?” and “How?” Why do we gather together? How can we best serve Christ when we do? Why do we worship? How can we best serve Christ when we do? Why do we serve others? How can we best serve Christ when we do? Why should we share the resources we gather together? How can we best serve Christ when we do? Why is it important that we reconcile with each other when we find ourselves in conflict? How can we best serve Christ when we do?
If we work to discern these questions together, and don’t take the presence of Christ among us for granted, we will be constantly surprised by the answers. Although God, through Christ, has been the same for ever there are frequently different things needed of us in different times and places to best do what Christ requires in those different times and places. The Church of our mothers and fathers and of those who taught us about the faith needs to be honored deeply and reverently. However, what Christ is asking of us in this time and place needs to be honored more. We are in error if we only repeat what was done in the time and place of those who have gone before us and do not honestly and openly look for Christ’s guidance for how to serve Christ, this Christ present among us, in the hear and now. To do so can actually dishonor the faith of our parents and those who taught us the faith and, more importantly, dishonor Jesus.
We have to be open to the fact that the best way to serve Christ in this place and time may mean difficulty for us. It may challenge us. It may frighten us. It may mean that we have to let go of some of those things that gave us comfort in the past in order to best serve Christ, now. Christ does not change but we have to change the ways we serve Christ in order to be effective in this time and place.
As I read the text for today, part of the reason I’m convinced Jesus rebuked Judas was because Jesus could see in to the heart of Mary. It was very important to recognize the presence of Jesus at that moment and, out of a spirit of rejoicing in that presence, give what Mary gave. Judas was looking through only one lens and not seeing the genuine praise of Mary.
We are faced with a similar challenge in our churches. We are called to look beyond our own perspectives and celebrate and honor the ways others are seeking to praise Jesus. One of the most common problems in many of our congregations is a generational one.
In many congregations, the younger members see a particular kind of worship or church structure that does not speak to them and, because it doesn’t speak to them, they choose not to participate. They find it difficult to see that worship is not about them but about Christ and that the older members of the congregation may be served and comforted by this particular style of worship, service and praise.
However, to stop there would not be fair because, in many congregations, the older member hear the younger members suggest changes in worship and church structure that they are afraid will not speak to or serve their fellow elders and they resist making the changes the younger members suggest. They also refuse to see that worship and church are not about them. The older members sacrifice the opportunity for the younger members to participate in worship and the life of the church by refusing to be open to a style of worship and structure that would keep the younger members in church. The older members refuse to see that, in the same way that they are part of the Church because of the way it spoke to them in a particular time and place, Christ, through the Church, needs to speak to and for younger members in a different way in this time and place.
If there is any problem that seems to be the most predominant in most of our churches, this problem between generations of people in our churches is one of the most predominant and one of those problems that, when not considered seriously and faithfully, gets in the way of our service to Christ. The end result is our churches are aging out and closing. Young people feel so rejected by the church that, according to a recent survey, 80% of those under 20 years old claim they have no relationship with the Church. We are failing to bridge this generational gap and make our churches welcome places for young people. In this area, we are clearly failing to serve Jesus best.
Sisters and brothers, we are called to seek out the ways we can best serve Jesus and some of those ways may, indeed surprise us. But we serve a surprising Savior who healed the sick, gave site to the blind, spoke out for the oppressed and, in the biggest surprise of all, rose from the dead. We serve a Messiah who is so present among us that we are constantly surprised by the places we may be lead. We serve a surprising Jesus who speaks so brilliantly of human nature that, every day, we find ourselves surprised by the truth we find.
Sisters and brothers, it is an honor to be in service to Christ with you and among you and I look forward to the ways we will still discover we can serve Christ among us. Thank you so much to your pastor for the invitation to be among you today. I pray God’s peace for you all.
posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 9:17 PM
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20070312
Michael Denton
March 4th, 2006
Installation service for Jan Powell,
Pilgrim Congregational, Oak Park
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18: After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." 4 But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." 5 He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates...."
Greeting
Prayer
So, although this may actually explain a lot, this isn’t the kind of headline that a person in a position like mine is happy to see:
Meetings make us dumber, study shows
For many of us who attend lots of meetings, this one line has the potential to explain so much, doesn’t it? To some degrees, this confirms our worst fears or, at the very least, names an experience we’ve had. Alas, it’s not quite that simple. This February 22nd story from the MSNBC website goes on to say:
People have a harder time coming up with alternative solutions to a problem when they are part of a group, new research suggests. . . The researchers speculate that when a group of people receives information, the inclination is to discuss it. The more times one option is said aloud, the harder it is for individuals to recall other options, explained Krishnan, associate professor of marketing at Indiana University. Another contributing factor is variation in learning and memory styles. People store and retrieve information in myriad ways, so in a group situation, the conversation could cause individuals to think about the cues differently than they would if they were alone.
There are parts of that make a lot of sense. We’ve had this happen. All of us have had that experience of feeling as though we’ve been swept up in some sort of movement or moment, even though we may have had the feeling in our gut that there might be a better decision. There was a push to get the meeting done before the thinking was done so we go ahead and go with the idea that seems is going to come out on top, anyway. We’ve gone along with it, even though we knew there might be a better idea. The last line of the story is particularly important.
Krishnan said individuals . . . should take time to consider the facts on their own before coming to a consensus.
Again, in some ways, this is one of those common-sense-type of ideas. With more time to ourselves, we come to better conclusions within collaborative settings; we’re better able to get to a point where we can consider the information coming through our heart and our head; we’re less likely to feel as though we were pushed in to an answer. It’s no mistake that sometimes, some of the best ideas come out of those parking lot meetings where two or three people begin to discuss what they wish they would have said. It’s one of the reasons why a good search for a pastor takes such a long time; the process is designed so that people have time to read and think and discern on their own before they get to that point where they collaborate together. As you’ve experienced, frequently the best results from searches are the one’s that take the longest.
But I think there’s probably more to this than simply a description of how we work best in meetings. A lot of the work I do is with churches in conflict and I haven’t been in a single one of these churches where a complaint about worship hasn’t come up. The complaints about worship are remarkably similar, too. Inevitably, someone says something along the lines of “Worship doesn’t feed me” or “I don’t get anything out of worship.” When I hear this, I can count on that fact that one of the problems of that congregation is the personally practiced spiritual life of its members. For many people, their relationship with worship has become almost one of dependency where they count on all of their spiritual sustenance coming from Sunday worship. But, I’d suggest that in the same ways that meetings can make you dumb, worship can make you spiritually numb. Just to be absolutely clear, I continue to believe that worship is central to the life of a church and participating in worship is important for people of faith. I continue to believe that we can’t be Christians in isolation. I continue to believe that worship is one of those things we need to do together. But, in the same way meetings become unproductive without personal time to consider the facts, worship will become “unproductive” without church members taking the time to pray, study the bible and consider stewardship on times other than Sundays. When bible studies or Sunday School classes are offered, these aren’t offered just for the spiritual health of church members but they improve the health of the church. I’d even go as far to say that it’s the obligation of church members to participate in some of these activities, including taking the time for prayer and study at home. When we make the decision to become a part of a church a community, we’re also making a commitment to do what we can to make sure that community’s healthy. Our lives become tied up together.
This is really important stuff to remember on the day a pastor is installed. There is a particular promise that you are being asked to make as part of this service. At one point in the service, you’re asked to rise and say:
We the members of Pilgrim Congregational Church, United Church of Christ receive The Rev. Jan Powell as our pastor and teacher, promising to labor with her in the ministry of the gospel and to give her due honor and support. We gather with her and with the United Church of Christ as a sign of our mutual ministry in Christ’s name.
This is one particular place where I’ve see your church so some great work and I’m looking forward to seeing you continue it. The idea of “mutual ministry” is a key part of understanding ministry in the UCC. In the same way that the responsibility of the individual needs to be emphasized when considering congregational life, congregational responsibility needs to be emphasized when highlighting the installation of a particular individual minister. Even though having a really good minister, such as your pastor, is vitally important for a congregation, the ministry of that congregation should never, ever rest on the shoulders of that minister alone. All too often, a lot of the churches I work with want to talk about the deficits of their church’s minister without considering that these may actually be deficits in the whole church’s ministry. Maybe a pastor is a wiz at administration, finances and adult education but not so good at stewardship, working with youth and pastoral care. If that congregation recognizes this deficit they need to give up on the complaint and answer the call because that’s something their congregation needs to take care of. It’s a part of their mutual ministry.
Ministry isn’t just for the professionals, it’s something we’re all called to through our faith and authorized for through our baptism. Although there are some particular responsibilities that we’ve decided to confer to some through ordination these responsibilities can’t be equated to rights. In fact, the ordinand is giving up some of the autonomy a local church member has by becoming accountable to a local church and the denomination. Ordained ministerial standing is not a right guaranteed by the completion of an academic degree. The degree is only what the church requires as part of that individual’s particular responsibilities as an ordained person.
Too often, the pastor is treated as a church’s professional Christian: that they’re somehow hired to be a church’s representative Christian on behalf of all the members of a local church. Although a pastor is a clearly a servant of the people within the church, they are no more in service than any other member is called to be in service of their sisters and brothers. Now, again, I’m really not saying this because I’ve experienced this as a particular problem in this congregation. Without knowing any specific numbers, I’d guess that your church probably has a higher percentage of members who are involved with the ministry of this church than most churches I work with. Still, I like you folks so I don’t want to suggest that you still couldn’t do better.
Right now, in this congregation (and you know who you are) is someone who is feeling a call to become more involved with the life of this congregation at the exact same moment that someone who’s been working really hard needs to take a break. Right now, in this congregation, is someone who sees an area of ministry that they wish their pastor would take more time to focus on. Take that complaint, and recognize it as a call. How are you going to help make this ministry flourish? Right now, in this congregation, there is someone who has an idea of how to bring more members in to the life of this congregation. Don’t wait for someone else to think of it. You do it. Right now, in this congregation, there is someone who is fortunate enough to have more money than they need to survive. Imagine what this church could do with that money. What could be repaired? What program could be added? Who could be served? Right now, in this congregation, is someone who recognizes that they haven’t seen one of this church’s members in awhile or knows someone in this congregation who is ill. Give them a call. Let them know that you miss them and their congregation loves them. Right now, in this congregation, are dozens of people who are called to the mutual ministry of this congregation.
Sisters and brothers when this all is working right, there are some things done within this community that make our individual lives better and some things we do within our individual lives that make life in this community better. There is this ebb and flow, just like breathing, that takes place within the living of life where, when its working well, the servant is served and serving and served and serving. . . There is this ebb and flow that involves the community and the one who communes.
The biblical text for today has some of this ebb and flow in it. Now, right up front we need to recognize some issues with this text. Although God hasn’t changed, our understanding of God has. This text was written in a time when God was seen as solely being God for the Israelites so, if something was good for the Israelites, it must be God’s doing. So, of course there would be the understanding, in the time and place that this was written, that God gave Israel to one people and one people alone. It’s important to acknowledge that this is one of those places where we’ve come in to difficult disagreements with our Jewish brothers and sisters. Most Christians tend to believe that the same God who said “Do not be afraid” to our spiritual ancestors wouldn’t want our Palestinian sisters and brothers to be afraid, either. Although there isn’t universal agreement, most of the US mainline, Protestant denominations have indicated that we believe that the land given to the Israelites was no less given to the Palestinians.
It’s within this complicated, modern, socio-political context that we read about Abraham’s covenant with God. To our ears, this very particular sacrifice Abraham is asked to make seems kind of odd. It is a pretty bloody text. But, also remember that these weren’t pets. The fate of these animals at the altar wasn’t all that much different than they fate that was going to be theirs anyway. This was an offering of something that was of value to Abraham. These were possessions that Abraham was giving as a leader of his people on behalf of all of those God was promising would come after him. This early understanding, this covenantal understanding, was an understanding of a mutual ministry with God in which Abraham did Abraham’s part and God did God’s part.
It’s out of this initial understanding of covenants between God and God’s people that covenants between God’s people were established. Even though these promises were made between people, the base of the promise was to God. God was the one to enforce violations of the covenants and, if needed, be the arbiter in any disagreements. There was always some sort of sacrifice, some investment, that those who were part of the covenant had to make. Making a covenant is no small thing.
Today’s installation service, this service of covenant making, is no small thing. Your pastor is taking a risk and making a sacrifice to come be among you and work among you. Sometimes, the distance between the East Coast and the Midwest is a whole heck of lot more than a few hundred miles. She’s come to be among a people she does not know, in a place she’s never lived, within a community where there are few people she knows. There is risk in this covenant for her.
There’s risk and sacrifice in this for you, too. Beyond just the financial costs, you’ve got your emotional and relational risks and sacrifices you’ve had to make. You looked for this person for a long time. You took some risks in inviting her here. This covenant is no small thing.
Here’s the thing: Jan, you were faithful and Pilgrim Congregational Church, you were faithful so you did your things and God did God’s things and now I’m really excited to see all of the things we all get to do, together. God’s done God’s part, we’ve done our part. Now, we get to see what will happen next.
May we find our blessings to be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
March 4th, 2006
Installation service for Jan Powell,
Pilgrim Congregational, Oak Park
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18: After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." 4 But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." 5 He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates...."
Greeting
Prayer
So, although this may actually explain a lot, this isn’t the kind of headline that a person in a position like mine is happy to see:
Meetings make us dumber, study shows
For many of us who attend lots of meetings, this one line has the potential to explain so much, doesn’t it? To some degrees, this confirms our worst fears or, at the very least, names an experience we’ve had. Alas, it’s not quite that simple. This February 22nd story from the MSNBC website goes on to say:
People have a harder time coming up with alternative solutions to a problem when they are part of a group, new research suggests. . . The researchers speculate that when a group of people receives information, the inclination is to discuss it. The more times one option is said aloud, the harder it is for individuals to recall other options, explained Krishnan, associate professor of marketing at Indiana University. Another contributing factor is variation in learning and memory styles. People store and retrieve information in myriad ways, so in a group situation, the conversation could cause individuals to think about the cues differently than they would if they were alone.
There are parts of that make a lot of sense. We’ve had this happen. All of us have had that experience of feeling as though we’ve been swept up in some sort of movement or moment, even though we may have had the feeling in our gut that there might be a better decision. There was a push to get the meeting done before the thinking was done so we go ahead and go with the idea that seems is going to come out on top, anyway. We’ve gone along with it, even though we knew there might be a better idea. The last line of the story is particularly important.
Krishnan said individuals . . . should take time to consider the facts on their own before coming to a consensus.
Again, in some ways, this is one of those common-sense-type of ideas. With more time to ourselves, we come to better conclusions within collaborative settings; we’re better able to get to a point where we can consider the information coming through our heart and our head; we’re less likely to feel as though we were pushed in to an answer. It’s no mistake that sometimes, some of the best ideas come out of those parking lot meetings where two or three people begin to discuss what they wish they would have said. It’s one of the reasons why a good search for a pastor takes such a long time; the process is designed so that people have time to read and think and discern on their own before they get to that point where they collaborate together. As you’ve experienced, frequently the best results from searches are the one’s that take the longest.
But I think there’s probably more to this than simply a description of how we work best in meetings. A lot of the work I do is with churches in conflict and I haven’t been in a single one of these churches where a complaint about worship hasn’t come up. The complaints about worship are remarkably similar, too. Inevitably, someone says something along the lines of “Worship doesn’t feed me” or “I don’t get anything out of worship.” When I hear this, I can count on that fact that one of the problems of that congregation is the personally practiced spiritual life of its members. For many people, their relationship with worship has become almost one of dependency where they count on all of their spiritual sustenance coming from Sunday worship. But, I’d suggest that in the same ways that meetings can make you dumb, worship can make you spiritually numb. Just to be absolutely clear, I continue to believe that worship is central to the life of a church and participating in worship is important for people of faith. I continue to believe that we can’t be Christians in isolation. I continue to believe that worship is one of those things we need to do together. But, in the same way meetings become unproductive without personal time to consider the facts, worship will become “unproductive” without church members taking the time to pray, study the bible and consider stewardship on times other than Sundays. When bible studies or Sunday School classes are offered, these aren’t offered just for the spiritual health of church members but they improve the health of the church. I’d even go as far to say that it’s the obligation of church members to participate in some of these activities, including taking the time for prayer and study at home. When we make the decision to become a part of a church a community, we’re also making a commitment to do what we can to make sure that community’s healthy. Our lives become tied up together.
This is really important stuff to remember on the day a pastor is installed. There is a particular promise that you are being asked to make as part of this service. At one point in the service, you’re asked to rise and say:
We the members of Pilgrim Congregational Church, United Church of Christ receive The Rev. Jan Powell as our pastor and teacher, promising to labor with her in the ministry of the gospel and to give her due honor and support. We gather with her and with the United Church of Christ as a sign of our mutual ministry in Christ’s name.
This is one particular place where I’ve see your church so some great work and I’m looking forward to seeing you continue it. The idea of “mutual ministry” is a key part of understanding ministry in the UCC. In the same way that the responsibility of the individual needs to be emphasized when considering congregational life, congregational responsibility needs to be emphasized when highlighting the installation of a particular individual minister. Even though having a really good minister, such as your pastor, is vitally important for a congregation, the ministry of that congregation should never, ever rest on the shoulders of that minister alone. All too often, a lot of the churches I work with want to talk about the deficits of their church’s minister without considering that these may actually be deficits in the whole church’s ministry. Maybe a pastor is a wiz at administration, finances and adult education but not so good at stewardship, working with youth and pastoral care. If that congregation recognizes this deficit they need to give up on the complaint and answer the call because that’s something their congregation needs to take care of. It’s a part of their mutual ministry.
Ministry isn’t just for the professionals, it’s something we’re all called to through our faith and authorized for through our baptism. Although there are some particular responsibilities that we’ve decided to confer to some through ordination these responsibilities can’t be equated to rights. In fact, the ordinand is giving up some of the autonomy a local church member has by becoming accountable to a local church and the denomination. Ordained ministerial standing is not a right guaranteed by the completion of an academic degree. The degree is only what the church requires as part of that individual’s particular responsibilities as an ordained person.
Too often, the pastor is treated as a church’s professional Christian: that they’re somehow hired to be a church’s representative Christian on behalf of all the members of a local church. Although a pastor is a clearly a servant of the people within the church, they are no more in service than any other member is called to be in service of their sisters and brothers. Now, again, I’m really not saying this because I’ve experienced this as a particular problem in this congregation. Without knowing any specific numbers, I’d guess that your church probably has a higher percentage of members who are involved with the ministry of this church than most churches I work with. Still, I like you folks so I don’t want to suggest that you still couldn’t do better.
Right now, in this congregation (and you know who you are) is someone who is feeling a call to become more involved with the life of this congregation at the exact same moment that someone who’s been working really hard needs to take a break. Right now, in this congregation, is someone who sees an area of ministry that they wish their pastor would take more time to focus on. Take that complaint, and recognize it as a call. How are you going to help make this ministry flourish? Right now, in this congregation, there is someone who has an idea of how to bring more members in to the life of this congregation. Don’t wait for someone else to think of it. You do it. Right now, in this congregation, there is someone who is fortunate enough to have more money than they need to survive. Imagine what this church could do with that money. What could be repaired? What program could be added? Who could be served? Right now, in this congregation, is someone who recognizes that they haven’t seen one of this church’s members in awhile or knows someone in this congregation who is ill. Give them a call. Let them know that you miss them and their congregation loves them. Right now, in this congregation, are dozens of people who are called to the mutual ministry of this congregation.
Sisters and brothers when this all is working right, there are some things done within this community that make our individual lives better and some things we do within our individual lives that make life in this community better. There is this ebb and flow, just like breathing, that takes place within the living of life where, when its working well, the servant is served and serving and served and serving. . . There is this ebb and flow that involves the community and the one who communes.
The biblical text for today has some of this ebb and flow in it. Now, right up front we need to recognize some issues with this text. Although God hasn’t changed, our understanding of God has. This text was written in a time when God was seen as solely being God for the Israelites so, if something was good for the Israelites, it must be God’s doing. So, of course there would be the understanding, in the time and place that this was written, that God gave Israel to one people and one people alone. It’s important to acknowledge that this is one of those places where we’ve come in to difficult disagreements with our Jewish brothers and sisters. Most Christians tend to believe that the same God who said “Do not be afraid” to our spiritual ancestors wouldn’t want our Palestinian sisters and brothers to be afraid, either. Although there isn’t universal agreement, most of the US mainline, Protestant denominations have indicated that we believe that the land given to the Israelites was no less given to the Palestinians.
It’s within this complicated, modern, socio-political context that we read about Abraham’s covenant with God. To our ears, this very particular sacrifice Abraham is asked to make seems kind of odd. It is a pretty bloody text. But, also remember that these weren’t pets. The fate of these animals at the altar wasn’t all that much different than they fate that was going to be theirs anyway. This was an offering of something that was of value to Abraham. These were possessions that Abraham was giving as a leader of his people on behalf of all of those God was promising would come after him. This early understanding, this covenantal understanding, was an understanding of a mutual ministry with God in which Abraham did Abraham’s part and God did God’s part.
It’s out of this initial understanding of covenants between God and God’s people that covenants between God’s people were established. Even though these promises were made between people, the base of the promise was to God. God was the one to enforce violations of the covenants and, if needed, be the arbiter in any disagreements. There was always some sort of sacrifice, some investment, that those who were part of the covenant had to make. Making a covenant is no small thing.
Today’s installation service, this service of covenant making, is no small thing. Your pastor is taking a risk and making a sacrifice to come be among you and work among you. Sometimes, the distance between the East Coast and the Midwest is a whole heck of lot more than a few hundred miles. She’s come to be among a people she does not know, in a place she’s never lived, within a community where there are few people she knows. There is risk in this covenant for her.
There’s risk and sacrifice in this for you, too. Beyond just the financial costs, you’ve got your emotional and relational risks and sacrifices you’ve had to make. You looked for this person for a long time. You took some risks in inviting her here. This covenant is no small thing.
Here’s the thing: Jan, you were faithful and Pilgrim Congregational Church, you were faithful so you did your things and God did God’s things and now I’m really excited to see all of the things we all get to do, together. God’s done God’s part, we’ve done our part. Now, we get to see what will happen next.
May we find our blessings to be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 10:06 AM
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Michael Denton
February 24th, 2007
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
St. Paul’s, Franklin Park
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 26:2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 26:3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 26:4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 26:5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 26:6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 26:7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 26:8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 26:9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 26:11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
Greeting
Prayer
The reading we heard from Deuteronomy is a story about our heritage. It talks about who we are and who we’ve been. We all have these stories from our biological ancestors that tell of who we are, where we come from, what our families aspired to and what the values of our families are. Even in those cases where some of us come from adoptive homes, the stories shared with us by our adoptive family are an attempt to share the values of those who tell the stories; the values of the families we are a part of. This reading today, is the same kind of attempt to pass on stories to the next generation. Most of us are not ethnically Jewish but we have adopted these Jewish texts that we call the Bible as our story – a story we choose to center parts of our lives around. There is something special about hearing a story that is particularly about us that does something for us and to us and that makes it clear we’re part of something that is bigger than us.
On my Mom’s side of the family, there is a particular story that my grandfather passed on to me in particular way, at a particular moment.
My great, great grandfather lived on the property of Count Baron Von Esterhazy in Hungry as a share cropper. It was far from an easy life. They had seven children to raise. They were always poor and, because of the way society was structured, always feeling poorer. Well, this grandfather of mine decided he wanted a different kind of life for his family. He heard about this promised land called Pahnesveela, Oheeo (a place we call Painesville, Ohio) and decided to move his family there.
He took some big risks. He bought a shotgun (the ownership of which was a capital offense in these days) and, late at night, hunted deer on the Count’s land (another capital offense). He hid the gun, in three pieces, in a secret compartment under the cow shed. He fed the meat to his hogs to fatten them up and, eventually, was able to sell the hogs for a good price on the black market. With this money, he was able to buy his way to the US where he worked in the salt mines and unloaded ships on the shores of Lake Erie.
For three years, he sent money back to his family until, eventually, they had enough to get the whole family to the US. After greeting his children and his wife, my grandmother took off the big babushka that she’s had resting on her head and pulled out the three pieces of the gun that had come to mean so much to my grandfather. At first, he was angry. As the story goes, he looked at her in disbelief and said, “What are you crazy? Do you know what the soldiers would have done to you if they’d caught you with this gun?” She replied, “I may be crazy but a soldier would have to be crazier to try and stop a mother, traveling overseas, with seven children in tow.”
I didn't know this story of my great, great grandfather until my grandfather was in the process of giving me that gun. He’d filed down the firing pins so that no one could even attempt to fire it. He cleaned it up and mounted it on a piece of an oak tree that came from another relative’s land. He told me the story as he gave me the gift. He also wrote the story down in his own hand and gave that to me, too.
Knowing this story has made my life different. I remember the feeling of sacredness and holiness that I felt as the story was being told. It was at this moment that I realized I was part of something; that my family was more than those who I knew and loved. This was the story of people I'd never met but if they'd never come here, I wouldn't be here. This is a story that just doesn’t speak to me but speaks about me. Although these things didn’t happen to me directly, it’s still my story to tell. It’s an important story to tell. It’s important that it’s remembered. It says something about my family’s intent to make life better for those who come after them. It’s an important story.
There’s also the reality that, really, I don’t know if it happened exactly like this. This is the story my grandfather knows and told but, really? I don’t know if this is how everything happened. The story I was told was probably the most complementary version. There may have very well been parts left out that just wouldn't have sounded as good.
Just as importantly, perspective matters. There are parts of the story that, if told more through the eyes of my great, great grandmother might have sounded quite a bit different. Life in Hungary without my grandfather couldn’t have been easy. I’m sure there were times she hated this man who had left her and wondered if she was ever going to see him again. It had to have been awful.
Or can you imagine this story told through the eyes of the Esterhazy's? What would they say about this man who committed now one but two capital offenses? This man who hid a gun away and essentially stole the Count’s deer? Who left his family to fend for themselves in a world that was easy on neither women nor children? What kind of values might have they suggested this man had?
As well as we know any story, we can count on the fact that whoever tells the story effects the story itself. Unintentionally or intentionally, there is a reason a story is told in the way it is. The way a story is told has as much information in it as the story itself.
The current debate about immigration, for example, tells several different stories. Some see this as a debate between what is legal and illegal and simply see themselves as protecting the United State’s interests by doing everything to prevent illegal border crossing. Some of the language used treats this like an invasion, of sorts, suggesting that there is some sort of effort to actually take over the US by, specifically, Mexican nationals. Still others make claims and tell stories that reflect values that are, if not racist, pretty close to it. These are some that suggest that any influence of, in particular, Mexican culture is somehow a sign that US culture is in decline. There are intentional efforts to harass those who may have some pride in their Mexican roots and even attempts to pass “English only” laws thereby intentionally and selectively making life for some more difficult. I’m sure those who tell all of these stories with pride and tell some particular stories to emphasize their points, to reflect their values.
In the same way, there are also others who insist that their “Mexican” culture has long been a part of US culture and we might as well deal with it in a more open way than not. In the Louisiana Purchase and in battles over Texas, land was acquired that already contained the homes and farms of those who had previously been part of Mexico. There were folks who already spoke Spanish and related much more to the culture that was, now, south of our borders more than north of it. Others suggest that the problem isn’t as much a debate about what is legal or illegal as much as what is just and unjust. Some tell the story of how the passage of NAFTA and decisions of the Mexican government created such a poor economic situation for them in Mexico that they who come to the US as an economic refugees. They tell stories of villages that have been decimated by corporations that are selling their milk, corn and other produce in Mexico for less than it costs Mexican farmers to grow it thereby putting farms out of business and sending local economies in to decline. They tell stories of the promise of industry jobs that went unfulfilled and open jobs in the US that pay more than they could ever hope to be paid at home; jobs like those my great, great grandfather took.
How a story is experienced, told and perceived all depends on who’s telling the story, what values they’re trying to convey and what they think is important. Although, sometimes, the story is told in a certain way for a certain intent, I wonder if – most of the time – the meaning and values conveyed are much more unintentional; that we become so wrapped up in what we perceive to be reality that we tell a story that matches that reality or our optimism about what reality should be. Since humans tell the stories, these stories are bound up in human fallibility and prejudice and hopes and dreams and wishful thinking and fears and politics and self-interests; all of those things that make us so, so human.
None of these thoughts should be far from or mind when considering the stories we read in the bible. Although some biblical literalists suggest that everything in the bible was written by God’s own hand, we in the mainline church have a different attitude about scripture and see God more as the inspirer, as opposed to the author, of the stories in the bible. Today’s reading from Deuteronomy is a great example. Most scholars suggest that Deuteronomy was written by several people who were putting together a guidebook of sorts for the Israelites to suggest both how they should regard their story and live this story out in the days of the great migration – that 40 year journey – back to Israel.
And, in some ways, this is where some of this story stuff gets tricky because some of this applies to us in this time and place a great deal and some of it doesn’t apply to us nearly as much. There are parts of this story that are clearly our story and other parts of it that are clearly about the early Israelites. There are some parts of these verses today that speak to and inform our values and our behavior related to our values and some that don’t. Although, for most of us, this isn’t a story of our ethnic ancestors, this is clearly a story of our spiritual ancestors and that makes this story no less important. It is our story to tell.
There are some perspectives of this story that we do not know. We don’t know what it was like to be one of those who were living on the land when the Israelites came back after their 40 year journey from Egypt and made the claim, on God’s behalf, that the land was now their’s. We don’t really know what it was like for those other Jews who’d never left Israel and now had to figure out how to deal with these refugees from oppression. We’re getting one part of the story in today’s reading.
Still, as a people who have adopted this story as their own, there’s important values to lift up. I’m going to suggest that, within this text, there are three main attempts to pass on some important values reflected in the perspective presented in this story. The first is that, even though God may name this land as the land of the Israelites, ultimately the land is still God’s. When the first fruits of the land come, these are to be given as an offering. Not the leftovers, not even the second round of the harvest but the very first fruits. As the spiritual ancestors of the Israelites, this is an important idea for us to remember, too - this idea that everything we have is God’s – and that God gets the best of what we can offer. I think a lot of us are more than willing to give to God what is left over. (Smile) We offer the time we have (after everything else is done), the money we have (of the money that is left over), even the devotion we have (after we give to whatever else it is we’re devoted to). This text suggests that, instead, we get what is left over and we give our time to God (first), our money to God’s purposes (first) and our devotion to God (first). It’s an ongoing challenge to reorder our priorities and work to center our lives around God.
The second lesson is remembering what it’s like to wander and treat those who we find wandering with the same compassion our ancestors wish they would have found. At first, this seems to be one of those ideas that applies particularly to the Israelites as a part of their ethnic story as opposed to us but the reality is that every ethnic group had had this wilderness experience as a part of their history be it war or famine or disease or slavery or economic depression or immigration. As a part of all our histories, whether or not we remember it in our lifetimes, we’ve had this experience of painful wandering that is still affecting us. Alternatively, maybe the painful wandering that is most present for us wasn’t communal but personal. Maybe we have struggled with our own history of depression or drug addiction or joblessness or grief. It’s as important for all of us to know this history as it was for the Israelites to know about theirs because, from out of this knowledge of our history comes an empathy for those who are going through this kind of wilderness experience in their present. It means that we have a special responsibility to those who are in their own wilderness experience, now. This leads us to what I see as the third point of this scripture.
The third is too simply (or maybe not so simply) remember that to be thankful for getting beyond the experience of those painful wildernesses – that painful wandering - means that we share with those who are in those painful moments; that we celebrate how God has made us a way out of what seemed like no way; and that we give gifts out of pure thanksgiving to God’s purposes in this world so that our gifts from God are passed on to others. This means that when we consider the refugee and the immigrant we treat them in the best ways that our foremothers and forefathers were treated or, if they were treated harshly, we treat them as we wish they had been treated. It moves us from the hostility of some to acting out of hospitality for all. It means that the first fruits of our own congregations are used to welcome and to make a spiritual home for those who are away from theirs. It means that we reach out to those who, like us, suffer in the midst of drug addiction, depression, grief or any of the other conditions that human’s suffer and share those things we wish we would have had when we were in that position. It means we compassionately share our stories of thankfulness in a way that points towards hope and healing but doesn’t demand immediate embracing of hope and healing. Most often it means we give gifts of thanksgiving to God by simply being gently present with those who are hurting while recognizing that God is at work in those moments and may be calling us to do some of God’s work.
Sisters and brothers, we are a people of stories but the stories never really stand on their own. The stories we know are vehicles for meaning; are claims of current responsibility that God has on us and challenges to us as people who God has brought a very, very long way. God is a good God who loves us so much that God invites us to participate in the joyful, healing work of God. This God loves us so much that she is able to take out stories of pain and transform them in to motivation for current compassion. This God loves us so much that he is able to offer us opportunities to celebrate the abundance of life and love in those places where it sometimes seems as though life and love are absent. God is a good God who loves us very much and, ultimately, that is the fact that emerges from our stories. God is a good God who loves us. Sisters and brothers, we have stories to tell and are challenged by other stories that we can help have a happy ending. Amen and Amen.
February 24th, 2007
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
St. Paul’s, Franklin Park
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 26:2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 26:3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 26:4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 26:5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 26:6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 26:7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 26:8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 26:9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 26:11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
Greeting
Prayer
The reading we heard from Deuteronomy is a story about our heritage. It talks about who we are and who we’ve been. We all have these stories from our biological ancestors that tell of who we are, where we come from, what our families aspired to and what the values of our families are. Even in those cases where some of us come from adoptive homes, the stories shared with us by our adoptive family are an attempt to share the values of those who tell the stories; the values of the families we are a part of. This reading today, is the same kind of attempt to pass on stories to the next generation. Most of us are not ethnically Jewish but we have adopted these Jewish texts that we call the Bible as our story – a story we choose to center parts of our lives around. There is something special about hearing a story that is particularly about us that does something for us and to us and that makes it clear we’re part of something that is bigger than us.
On my Mom’s side of the family, there is a particular story that my grandfather passed on to me in particular way, at a particular moment.
My great, great grandfather lived on the property of Count Baron Von Esterhazy in Hungry as a share cropper. It was far from an easy life. They had seven children to raise. They were always poor and, because of the way society was structured, always feeling poorer. Well, this grandfather of mine decided he wanted a different kind of life for his family. He heard about this promised land called Pahnesveela, Oheeo (a place we call Painesville, Ohio) and decided to move his family there.
He took some big risks. He bought a shotgun (the ownership of which was a capital offense in these days) and, late at night, hunted deer on the Count’s land (another capital offense). He hid the gun, in three pieces, in a secret compartment under the cow shed. He fed the meat to his hogs to fatten them up and, eventually, was able to sell the hogs for a good price on the black market. With this money, he was able to buy his way to the US where he worked in the salt mines and unloaded ships on the shores of Lake Erie.
For three years, he sent money back to his family until, eventually, they had enough to get the whole family to the US. After greeting his children and his wife, my grandmother took off the big babushka that she’s had resting on her head and pulled out the three pieces of the gun that had come to mean so much to my grandfather. At first, he was angry. As the story goes, he looked at her in disbelief and said, “What are you crazy? Do you know what the soldiers would have done to you if they’d caught you with this gun?” She replied, “I may be crazy but a soldier would have to be crazier to try and stop a mother, traveling overseas, with seven children in tow.”
I didn't know this story of my great, great grandfather until my grandfather was in the process of giving me that gun. He’d filed down the firing pins so that no one could even attempt to fire it. He cleaned it up and mounted it on a piece of an oak tree that came from another relative’s land. He told me the story as he gave me the gift. He also wrote the story down in his own hand and gave that to me, too.
Knowing this story has made my life different. I remember the feeling of sacredness and holiness that I felt as the story was being told. It was at this moment that I realized I was part of something; that my family was more than those who I knew and loved. This was the story of people I'd never met but if they'd never come here, I wouldn't be here. This is a story that just doesn’t speak to me but speaks about me. Although these things didn’t happen to me directly, it’s still my story to tell. It’s an important story to tell. It’s important that it’s remembered. It says something about my family’s intent to make life better for those who come after them. It’s an important story.
There’s also the reality that, really, I don’t know if it happened exactly like this. This is the story my grandfather knows and told but, really? I don’t know if this is how everything happened. The story I was told was probably the most complementary version. There may have very well been parts left out that just wouldn't have sounded as good.
Just as importantly, perspective matters. There are parts of the story that, if told more through the eyes of my great, great grandmother might have sounded quite a bit different. Life in Hungary without my grandfather couldn’t have been easy. I’m sure there were times she hated this man who had left her and wondered if she was ever going to see him again. It had to have been awful.
Or can you imagine this story told through the eyes of the Esterhazy's? What would they say about this man who committed now one but two capital offenses? This man who hid a gun away and essentially stole the Count’s deer? Who left his family to fend for themselves in a world that was easy on neither women nor children? What kind of values might have they suggested this man had?
As well as we know any story, we can count on the fact that whoever tells the story effects the story itself. Unintentionally or intentionally, there is a reason a story is told in the way it is. The way a story is told has as much information in it as the story itself.
The current debate about immigration, for example, tells several different stories. Some see this as a debate between what is legal and illegal and simply see themselves as protecting the United State’s interests by doing everything to prevent illegal border crossing. Some of the language used treats this like an invasion, of sorts, suggesting that there is some sort of effort to actually take over the US by, specifically, Mexican nationals. Still others make claims and tell stories that reflect values that are, if not racist, pretty close to it. These are some that suggest that any influence of, in particular, Mexican culture is somehow a sign that US culture is in decline. There are intentional efforts to harass those who may have some pride in their Mexican roots and even attempts to pass “English only” laws thereby intentionally and selectively making life for some more difficult. I’m sure those who tell all of these stories with pride and tell some particular stories to emphasize their points, to reflect their values.
In the same way, there are also others who insist that their “Mexican” culture has long been a part of US culture and we might as well deal with it in a more open way than not. In the Louisiana Purchase and in battles over Texas, land was acquired that already contained the homes and farms of those who had previously been part of Mexico. There were folks who already spoke Spanish and related much more to the culture that was, now, south of our borders more than north of it. Others suggest that the problem isn’t as much a debate about what is legal or illegal as much as what is just and unjust. Some tell the story of how the passage of NAFTA and decisions of the Mexican government created such a poor economic situation for them in Mexico that they who come to the US as an economic refugees. They tell stories of villages that have been decimated by corporations that are selling their milk, corn and other produce in Mexico for less than it costs Mexican farmers to grow it thereby putting farms out of business and sending local economies in to decline. They tell stories of the promise of industry jobs that went unfulfilled and open jobs in the US that pay more than they could ever hope to be paid at home; jobs like those my great, great grandfather took.
How a story is experienced, told and perceived all depends on who’s telling the story, what values they’re trying to convey and what they think is important. Although, sometimes, the story is told in a certain way for a certain intent, I wonder if – most of the time – the meaning and values conveyed are much more unintentional; that we become so wrapped up in what we perceive to be reality that we tell a story that matches that reality or our optimism about what reality should be. Since humans tell the stories, these stories are bound up in human fallibility and prejudice and hopes and dreams and wishful thinking and fears and politics and self-interests; all of those things that make us so, so human.
None of these thoughts should be far from or mind when considering the stories we read in the bible. Although some biblical literalists suggest that everything in the bible was written by God’s own hand, we in the mainline church have a different attitude about scripture and see God more as the inspirer, as opposed to the author, of the stories in the bible. Today’s reading from Deuteronomy is a great example. Most scholars suggest that Deuteronomy was written by several people who were putting together a guidebook of sorts for the Israelites to suggest both how they should regard their story and live this story out in the days of the great migration – that 40 year journey – back to Israel.
And, in some ways, this is where some of this story stuff gets tricky because some of this applies to us in this time and place a great deal and some of it doesn’t apply to us nearly as much. There are parts of this story that are clearly our story and other parts of it that are clearly about the early Israelites. There are some parts of these verses today that speak to and inform our values and our behavior related to our values and some that don’t. Although, for most of us, this isn’t a story of our ethnic ancestors, this is clearly a story of our spiritual ancestors and that makes this story no less important. It is our story to tell.
There are some perspectives of this story that we do not know. We don’t know what it was like to be one of those who were living on the land when the Israelites came back after their 40 year journey from Egypt and made the claim, on God’s behalf, that the land was now their’s. We don’t really know what it was like for those other Jews who’d never left Israel and now had to figure out how to deal with these refugees from oppression. We’re getting one part of the story in today’s reading.
Still, as a people who have adopted this story as their own, there’s important values to lift up. I’m going to suggest that, within this text, there are three main attempts to pass on some important values reflected in the perspective presented in this story. The first is that, even though God may name this land as the land of the Israelites, ultimately the land is still God’s. When the first fruits of the land come, these are to be given as an offering. Not the leftovers, not even the second round of the harvest but the very first fruits. As the spiritual ancestors of the Israelites, this is an important idea for us to remember, too - this idea that everything we have is God’s – and that God gets the best of what we can offer. I think a lot of us are more than willing to give to God what is left over. (Smile) We offer the time we have (after everything else is done), the money we have (of the money that is left over), even the devotion we have (after we give to whatever else it is we’re devoted to). This text suggests that, instead, we get what is left over and we give our time to God (first), our money to God’s purposes (first) and our devotion to God (first). It’s an ongoing challenge to reorder our priorities and work to center our lives around God.
The second lesson is remembering what it’s like to wander and treat those who we find wandering with the same compassion our ancestors wish they would have found. At first, this seems to be one of those ideas that applies particularly to the Israelites as a part of their ethnic story as opposed to us but the reality is that every ethnic group had had this wilderness experience as a part of their history be it war or famine or disease or slavery or economic depression or immigration. As a part of all our histories, whether or not we remember it in our lifetimes, we’ve had this experience of painful wandering that is still affecting us. Alternatively, maybe the painful wandering that is most present for us wasn’t communal but personal. Maybe we have struggled with our own history of depression or drug addiction or joblessness or grief. It’s as important for all of us to know this history as it was for the Israelites to know about theirs because, from out of this knowledge of our history comes an empathy for those who are going through this kind of wilderness experience in their present. It means that we have a special responsibility to those who are in their own wilderness experience, now. This leads us to what I see as the third point of this scripture.
The third is too simply (or maybe not so simply) remember that to be thankful for getting beyond the experience of those painful wildernesses – that painful wandering - means that we share with those who are in those painful moments; that we celebrate how God has made us a way out of what seemed like no way; and that we give gifts out of pure thanksgiving to God’s purposes in this world so that our gifts from God are passed on to others. This means that when we consider the refugee and the immigrant we treat them in the best ways that our foremothers and forefathers were treated or, if they were treated harshly, we treat them as we wish they had been treated. It moves us from the hostility of some to acting out of hospitality for all. It means that the first fruits of our own congregations are used to welcome and to make a spiritual home for those who are away from theirs. It means that we reach out to those who, like us, suffer in the midst of drug addiction, depression, grief or any of the other conditions that human’s suffer and share those things we wish we would have had when we were in that position. It means we compassionately share our stories of thankfulness in a way that points towards hope and healing but doesn’t demand immediate embracing of hope and healing. Most often it means we give gifts of thanksgiving to God by simply being gently present with those who are hurting while recognizing that God is at work in those moments and may be calling us to do some of God’s work.
Sisters and brothers, we are a people of stories but the stories never really stand on their own. The stories we know are vehicles for meaning; are claims of current responsibility that God has on us and challenges to us as people who God has brought a very, very long way. God is a good God who loves us so much that God invites us to participate in the joyful, healing work of God. This God loves us so much that she is able to take out stories of pain and transform them in to motivation for current compassion. This God loves us so much that he is able to offer us opportunities to celebrate the abundance of life and love in those places where it sometimes seems as though life and love are absent. God is a good God who loves us very much and, ultimately, that is the fact that emerges from our stories. God is a good God who loves us. Sisters and brothers, we have stories to tell and are challenged by other stories that we can help have a happy ending. Amen and Amen.
posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 10:06 AM
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Michael Denton
January 28th, 2007
1st Corinthians 13:1-13
1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,£ but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,£ but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
- 1st Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
- Greeting
- Prayer
Herman Rhode is a member of our Chicago Metropolitan Association Church and Ministry committee and last week, after I gave the sermon at his church, he told me a story about an old fire and brimstone preacher. As he told the story, this pastor stood up to preach in the pulpit of his church, looked out at his congregation and declared, “The members of this church are all in danger of going to hell.” The congregants exchanged a few anxious looks with each other. A deep silence fell on that Sunday morning. Then the preacher, a little louder this time, tapped on the pulpit along with the words as he said, again, “All the members of this church are in danger of going to hell.” Most of those sitting in the pew began to have a little bit of concerned look on their faces. A few began to cry. But, before the preacher began to speak, again, he thought he saw one old man in the back row of the church with a little bit of a smile on his face. This infuriated the pastor and so he pounded on the pulpit this time and raised his voice a little more as he said, “All the members of this church are in danger of going to hell!” By now, the majority of the people in the church were crying or holding their head in their hands. Except, now, that old man in the back row was smiling bigger than ever. The preacher couldn’t take it any more he jumped out of the pulpit and pointed at the old man in the back row and yelled, “Didn’t you hear a word of what I just said? Weren’t you listening? Every, I said, every member of this church is in danger of going to hell!” The old man seemed to smile even wider as he replied, “I was just thinking it was a good thing I’m not a member!”
Paul’s words to the churches he worked with were an interesting mix of the stern, challenging and encouraging and, regardless of the fact that none of us are a part of the particular churches Paul was speaking to, there are reasons many of these words endure, today. Most people who’ve studied or read the epistles of Paul at all have somewhat of a mixed opinion of him. Sure, there are some things he wrote that are really quite beautiful and simple but there are also other things he wrote that are practically indecipherable; some things he wrote that have been used to oppress women as well as religious and sexual minorities; and some of his theology is a much better reflection of the Greek or Roman thought Christianity was reaching out to than some of the Jewish traditions he emerged out of.
The lectionary verses read this morning from this letter to the church in Corinth are words we're already familiar with. Chances are, you last heard them used as a part of wedding you attended in reference to the love the couple was being reminded to hold for each other. I've used this verse myself in several of the services I've officiated. It's always good to hear them, really, there's some comfort there. It really does name some of the romantic ideals of that love many of us aspire, to.
This morning, I want to suggest a couple other ways of considering this text, too. First of all, it's really important to remember that these words really weren't written to be read at weddings. Although, in it's essense, marriage should be relationship of mutuality that, in some ways, is like a very small community of equals, that wasn't the kind of community that Paul had in mind. He was writing to a community of believers that, like most communities, had found themselves involved in some cycle of conflict. Paul was a very utilitarian writer. He was trying to keep this early Christian movement flowing and had to constantly address those ways in which early communities were faltering. He did very little writing simply for the sake of writing. He wrote to address the problems of these emerging communities. The letter of Corinthians was written because there were problems in Corinth. The writer clearly believed that one of the central problems was a lack of love.
I'd also like us to consider something else about this text. When we hear these words spoken at a wedding, they tend to be read in tones that are either pretty emotionally flat or gentle or kind. But, well, for any of us who've read Paul before, many of his letters don't really seem to exude gentleness and kindness. I imagine that he may have often sounded a little more like the fire and brimstone preacher telling his church members that he thinks they're in danger of going to hell. Imagine that these words from Corinthians weren’t the words of comfort we’ve become so used to. Imagine for a moment that these were words of challenge and maybe even a little bit of scolding. Hear these words read one more time and imagine them being a message to a community that Paul was a little upset with:
“1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,£ but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,£ but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
Maybe these words were an indictment of a community that had gotten all mixed up in all the wrong stuff. Maybe, Paul isn’t gently warning them but sternly warning them. Maybe this community was all caught up in insisting on spectacular preaching - this speaking in tongues - while being lackluster in their loving. Maybe this community was all caught up in the words of those who knew a lot and who had lots of degrees, but seemed ignorant in the ways of loving. Maybe this community had people who were willing to sacrifice everything but Paul suggests that even that is not enough. These verses mention “giving away all their possessions” but they also mention the phrase, “and if I hand over my body so that I may boast.” Another translation suggests that what Paul is talking about when he speaks of boasting isn’t just someone singing their own praises but the practice of martyrs who were burned as a punishment for not towing the line of the empire of that time and place. But Paul goes so far to suggest that even this - this offering of one’s life - is a hollow act if love isn’t involved.
The next part of these verses seem like a pretty clear scold suggesting that the church in Corinth doesn’t even really know how to love each other; that these people don’t even know what love is. He writes about some of the positive attributes of love and then names a whole bunch of things that love isn’t. I’m guessing Paul was pretty upset and naming those behaviors that he saw this particular community of faith displaying.
He repeats some of those things that this community thinks they do particularly well (such as prophesy, speaking in tongues and having deep knowledge) and reiterates the idea that, yup, these things don’t matter that much. Then he even calls them immature. He brings up that whole “when I was a child” thing and says, in his own way “Grow up. Stop acting so immature.” Paul continues to challenge this community to move beyond the idea that they’re enough, in and of themselves. He speaks, again and again, of the idea of incompleteness; the idea that they will only be “completed” with the coming of Christ in to their lives. Still, he doesn’t stop there. He rounds it all up by taking all of those things that are important in a person’s faith life – faith, hope and love – and even says that love is the most important of them all. Think about that for a moment. He’s saying that love is greater than faith; that loving is more important than what we believe. He’s saying the same about hope; that loving is more important than any promises we pray that God will give us. He’s saying, over and over again in this little scolding letter, that love is the most important thing of all.
When we read this text apart from its context, we read this beautiful poem about love but within its context, it’s something more. There is a challenge in this. There is a clear scold in this.
If we’re honest about it, we in the modern day church still need this challenge. If anything, it’s amazing how much we haven’t learned. We still forget those things that are most important in the glare of the less important. We sometimes get all hung up in the structures of church, whether they are on the regional level where I work or in the local church where many of you participate. We get all caught up in creating systems that are somehow devoid or separate from any emotional or spiritual value. Some, and I have been one of them at times, even go so far as to suggest that it’s the preservation of the institutional elements of the church that define who we are. There are others who insist that worship needs to be in one particular style or another regardless of whether or not it’s best serving the church or the community. There are others who define a church’s health solely by the standard of its financial health. Church giving is vitally important but only as an expression of love for God and neighbor. The church is a vehicle for love through mission work and advocacy work and a local church or regional church budget that doesn’t have this idea as the primary focus of their budget making and stewardship pledging is in danger of having a loveless budget. There are some who bring their prejudices to church to such an extreme degree that, rather than act out of love and open the doors of the church to all who may enter, there are subtle and not so subtle ways that “outsiders” are told that they’re not welcome. The reality is that the rigid conformity to any of these interests can be so inwardly focused and self-serving that those of us who are a part of the church push love to the side and lift up “consistency” or “tradition” in its place.
That’s not the only place that we get stuck. Simply because we’re human, we mess up and sometimes and just don’t get along with each other. Conflict within churches is natural and normal and, to some degree, can be really healthy. However, these conflicts move from being normal and healthy to toxic at the point when the conflict draws so much energy from the church body that it begins to destroy the healthy functions of the church. We’ve all been sick with a fever at some point in our lives and, as uncomfortable as that may be, it can be part of a healing process for awhile. However, if the time we have this fever and infection is an extended one and of this fever is too high, it can begin to damage the body itself. The same is true of conflict within a local church. If our church’s ongoing focus is on its conflicts with no focus on healing, reconciliation and forgiveness, we move in to a state of spiritual toxicity that begins to break down the body of the church. The church becomes less prepared to deal with any smaller or larger conflicts that may come up. The financial, structural and systemic health of the church is compromised and threatened. The church becomes a place of more and more secrets with groups that begin to look out more for their own self-interests than for the interests of the whole church. The church body begins to break down. It becomes immobile. It begins to die.
Paul was talking to a church that, at the very least, was in danger of falling in to these same unhealthy patterns and his suggestion of the antibody that was needed to cure this kind of dis-ease? Love. Love isn’t simply something that’s not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. The decision to love counters enviousness. It doesn’t boast but celebrates the gifts God has given all of us. Love counters arrogance with humility and counters rudeness with hospitality. Love isn’t something that just does not insist on its own way or is not irritable or resentful. The decision to love is a decision to be open to the ways that God may be challenging our communities to do something very different than what we’re used to. The decision to love is a choice to move beyond getting our feathers ruffled at something that we may not see as directly serving us and instead rejoicing, rejoicing, in how others are served. The decision to love means that we don’t hold on to resentments but actively seek to let them go, to forgive others and to feel God’s forgiveness for ourselves for those ways we may have acted badly. Loving doesn’t simply refuse to rejoice in wrongdoing. It is a decision to mourn the wrongdoing of ourselves and others and seek out relationships of accountability that help us in our “right-doing.”
I know that your church, this church, has been going through a difficult time. You’ve had a pastor recently leave when all of you, including that pastor himself, expected that person to stay longer. This leaving comes on the other end of at least a couple other pastoral leavings that were, at the very least, difficult moments for this congregation and the pastors involved. To feel some sense of pain, even betrayal and anger, is a natural part of these transitions. Sometimes, church life is hard because those of us involved in church life are all so human. We don’t know or expect what curves life is going to bring us - what mix of peoples and passions are going to complement or conflict – and we get surprised, sometimes. In those moments of surprise we may say or do things we regret. The church body itself may react in ways that can damage itself. We tend to see the symptoms of the problem as the thing that needs to be dealt with while unintentionally avoiding some of the problems at the core.
If we listen to these words from Paul, today, these scolding, challenging words, I think we find that what we have to work on more than anything else is loving each other. All of the other things we do matter very little if we don’t make the decision to love.
Sisters and brothers, you have already entered in to that interim time between the calling of your last senior pastor and minister for youth and the calling of your next ones. Although you’ll soon be having an excellent interim minister join you for a period of time, that minister, in and of themselves is not the solution to any difficulties you may find here but only someone who can help you, with God’s help, find the solutions among and within yourselves. His expertise is going to be vital, but so is your participation in the process and the work he lays before you. To make this interim time a fruitful one, you must participate in it.
Sisters and brothers of 1st Congregational Church of LaGrange, it’s also going to be up to you to love each other as deeply, fully and completely as you can. It is through that presence of love that God is present and where God is present so is healing, so is reconciliation, so is peace, so is faith, so it hope and, ultimately, so is even more love and more love and more love and more love. . .
And the secret about yourselves that you might not already know? You already have a lot of love to build on. Over the last few years, I’ve worked with many of those who are involved in the life of this church and it’s clear you’re not working from a place where you need to learn how to love. You know how to love. The challenge before you is simply to make the decision to love even more and, on the foundation of love you already have, I’m sure we’ll all be surprised by the gifts God gives to the world through you all. . .
Our God is a good God who loves us very much. So much in fact that, when we open ourselves to that love, it can’t help but to over flow. Where love is present, God is present. May you discover the presence of God among you in abundance as you make the decision to love. Amen.
January 28th, 2007
1st Corinthians 13:1-13
1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,£ but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,£ but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
- 1st Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
- Greeting
- Prayer
Herman Rhode is a member of our Chicago Metropolitan Association Church and Ministry committee and last week, after I gave the sermon at his church, he told me a story about an old fire and brimstone preacher. As he told the story, this pastor stood up to preach in the pulpit of his church, looked out at his congregation and declared, “The members of this church are all in danger of going to hell.” The congregants exchanged a few anxious looks with each other. A deep silence fell on that Sunday morning. Then the preacher, a little louder this time, tapped on the pulpit along with the words as he said, again, “All the members of this church are in danger of going to hell.” Most of those sitting in the pew began to have a little bit of concerned look on their faces. A few began to cry. But, before the preacher began to speak, again, he thought he saw one old man in the back row of the church with a little bit of a smile on his face. This infuriated the pastor and so he pounded on the pulpit this time and raised his voice a little more as he said, “All the members of this church are in danger of going to hell!” By now, the majority of the people in the church were crying or holding their head in their hands. Except, now, that old man in the back row was smiling bigger than ever. The preacher couldn’t take it any more he jumped out of the pulpit and pointed at the old man in the back row and yelled, “Didn’t you hear a word of what I just said? Weren’t you listening? Every, I said, every member of this church is in danger of going to hell!” The old man seemed to smile even wider as he replied, “I was just thinking it was a good thing I’m not a member!”
Paul’s words to the churches he worked with were an interesting mix of the stern, challenging and encouraging and, regardless of the fact that none of us are a part of the particular churches Paul was speaking to, there are reasons many of these words endure, today. Most people who’ve studied or read the epistles of Paul at all have somewhat of a mixed opinion of him. Sure, there are some things he wrote that are really quite beautiful and simple but there are also other things he wrote that are practically indecipherable; some things he wrote that have been used to oppress women as well as religious and sexual minorities; and some of his theology is a much better reflection of the Greek or Roman thought Christianity was reaching out to than some of the Jewish traditions he emerged out of.
The lectionary verses read this morning from this letter to the church in Corinth are words we're already familiar with. Chances are, you last heard them used as a part of wedding you attended in reference to the love the couple was being reminded to hold for each other. I've used this verse myself in several of the services I've officiated. It's always good to hear them, really, there's some comfort there. It really does name some of the romantic ideals of that love many of us aspire, to.
This morning, I want to suggest a couple other ways of considering this text, too. First of all, it's really important to remember that these words really weren't written to be read at weddings. Although, in it's essense, marriage should be relationship of mutuality that, in some ways, is like a very small community of equals, that wasn't the kind of community that Paul had in mind. He was writing to a community of believers that, like most communities, had found themselves involved in some cycle of conflict. Paul was a very utilitarian writer. He was trying to keep this early Christian movement flowing and had to constantly address those ways in which early communities were faltering. He did very little writing simply for the sake of writing. He wrote to address the problems of these emerging communities. The letter of Corinthians was written because there were problems in Corinth. The writer clearly believed that one of the central problems was a lack of love.
I'd also like us to consider something else about this text. When we hear these words spoken at a wedding, they tend to be read in tones that are either pretty emotionally flat or gentle or kind. But, well, for any of us who've read Paul before, many of his letters don't really seem to exude gentleness and kindness. I imagine that he may have often sounded a little more like the fire and brimstone preacher telling his church members that he thinks they're in danger of going to hell. Imagine that these words from Corinthians weren’t the words of comfort we’ve become so used to. Imagine for a moment that these were words of challenge and maybe even a little bit of scolding. Hear these words read one more time and imagine them being a message to a community that Paul was a little upset with:
“1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,£ but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,£ but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
Maybe these words were an indictment of a community that had gotten all mixed up in all the wrong stuff. Maybe, Paul isn’t gently warning them but sternly warning them. Maybe this community was all caught up in insisting on spectacular preaching - this speaking in tongues - while being lackluster in their loving. Maybe this community was all caught up in the words of those who knew a lot and who had lots of degrees, but seemed ignorant in the ways of loving. Maybe this community had people who were willing to sacrifice everything but Paul suggests that even that is not enough. These verses mention “giving away all their possessions” but they also mention the phrase, “and if I hand over my body so that I may boast.” Another translation suggests that what Paul is talking about when he speaks of boasting isn’t just someone singing their own praises but the practice of martyrs who were burned as a punishment for not towing the line of the empire of that time and place. But Paul goes so far to suggest that even this - this offering of one’s life - is a hollow act if love isn’t involved.
The next part of these verses seem like a pretty clear scold suggesting that the church in Corinth doesn’t even really know how to love each other; that these people don’t even know what love is. He writes about some of the positive attributes of love and then names a whole bunch of things that love isn’t. I’m guessing Paul was pretty upset and naming those behaviors that he saw this particular community of faith displaying.
He repeats some of those things that this community thinks they do particularly well (such as prophesy, speaking in tongues and having deep knowledge) and reiterates the idea that, yup, these things don’t matter that much. Then he even calls them immature. He brings up that whole “when I was a child” thing and says, in his own way “Grow up. Stop acting so immature.” Paul continues to challenge this community to move beyond the idea that they’re enough, in and of themselves. He speaks, again and again, of the idea of incompleteness; the idea that they will only be “completed” with the coming of Christ in to their lives. Still, he doesn’t stop there. He rounds it all up by taking all of those things that are important in a person’s faith life – faith, hope and love – and even says that love is the most important of them all. Think about that for a moment. He’s saying that love is greater than faith; that loving is more important than what we believe. He’s saying the same about hope; that loving is more important than any promises we pray that God will give us. He’s saying, over and over again in this little scolding letter, that love is the most important thing of all.
When we read this text apart from its context, we read this beautiful poem about love but within its context, it’s something more. There is a challenge in this. There is a clear scold in this.
If we’re honest about it, we in the modern day church still need this challenge. If anything, it’s amazing how much we haven’t learned. We still forget those things that are most important in the glare of the less important. We sometimes get all hung up in the structures of church, whether they are on the regional level where I work or in the local church where many of you participate. We get all caught up in creating systems that are somehow devoid or separate from any emotional or spiritual value. Some, and I have been one of them at times, even go so far as to suggest that it’s the preservation of the institutional elements of the church that define who we are. There are others who insist that worship needs to be in one particular style or another regardless of whether or not it’s best serving the church or the community. There are others who define a church’s health solely by the standard of its financial health. Church giving is vitally important but only as an expression of love for God and neighbor. The church is a vehicle for love through mission work and advocacy work and a local church or regional church budget that doesn’t have this idea as the primary focus of their budget making and stewardship pledging is in danger of having a loveless budget. There are some who bring their prejudices to church to such an extreme degree that, rather than act out of love and open the doors of the church to all who may enter, there are subtle and not so subtle ways that “outsiders” are told that they’re not welcome. The reality is that the rigid conformity to any of these interests can be so inwardly focused and self-serving that those of us who are a part of the church push love to the side and lift up “consistency” or “tradition” in its place.
That’s not the only place that we get stuck. Simply because we’re human, we mess up and sometimes and just don’t get along with each other. Conflict within churches is natural and normal and, to some degree, can be really healthy. However, these conflicts move from being normal and healthy to toxic at the point when the conflict draws so much energy from the church body that it begins to destroy the healthy functions of the church. We’ve all been sick with a fever at some point in our lives and, as uncomfortable as that may be, it can be part of a healing process for awhile. However, if the time we have this fever and infection is an extended one and of this fever is too high, it can begin to damage the body itself. The same is true of conflict within a local church. If our church’s ongoing focus is on its conflicts with no focus on healing, reconciliation and forgiveness, we move in to a state of spiritual toxicity that begins to break down the body of the church. The church becomes less prepared to deal with any smaller or larger conflicts that may come up. The financial, structural and systemic health of the church is compromised and threatened. The church becomes a place of more and more secrets with groups that begin to look out more for their own self-interests than for the interests of the whole church. The church body begins to break down. It becomes immobile. It begins to die.
Paul was talking to a church that, at the very least, was in danger of falling in to these same unhealthy patterns and his suggestion of the antibody that was needed to cure this kind of dis-ease? Love. Love isn’t simply something that’s not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. The decision to love counters enviousness. It doesn’t boast but celebrates the gifts God has given all of us. Love counters arrogance with humility and counters rudeness with hospitality. Love isn’t something that just does not insist on its own way or is not irritable or resentful. The decision to love is a decision to be open to the ways that God may be challenging our communities to do something very different than what we’re used to. The decision to love is a choice to move beyond getting our feathers ruffled at something that we may not see as directly serving us and instead rejoicing, rejoicing, in how others are served. The decision to love means that we don’t hold on to resentments but actively seek to let them go, to forgive others and to feel God’s forgiveness for ourselves for those ways we may have acted badly. Loving doesn’t simply refuse to rejoice in wrongdoing. It is a decision to mourn the wrongdoing of ourselves and others and seek out relationships of accountability that help us in our “right-doing.”
I know that your church, this church, has been going through a difficult time. You’ve had a pastor recently leave when all of you, including that pastor himself, expected that person to stay longer. This leaving comes on the other end of at least a couple other pastoral leavings that were, at the very least, difficult moments for this congregation and the pastors involved. To feel some sense of pain, even betrayal and anger, is a natural part of these transitions. Sometimes, church life is hard because those of us involved in church life are all so human. We don’t know or expect what curves life is going to bring us - what mix of peoples and passions are going to complement or conflict – and we get surprised, sometimes. In those moments of surprise we may say or do things we regret. The church body itself may react in ways that can damage itself. We tend to see the symptoms of the problem as the thing that needs to be dealt with while unintentionally avoiding some of the problems at the core.
If we listen to these words from Paul, today, these scolding, challenging words, I think we find that what we have to work on more than anything else is loving each other. All of the other things we do matter very little if we don’t make the decision to love.
Sisters and brothers, you have already entered in to that interim time between the calling of your last senior pastor and minister for youth and the calling of your next ones. Although you’ll soon be having an excellent interim minister join you for a period of time, that minister, in and of themselves is not the solution to any difficulties you may find here but only someone who can help you, with God’s help, find the solutions among and within yourselves. His expertise is going to be vital, but so is your participation in the process and the work he lays before you. To make this interim time a fruitful one, you must participate in it.
Sisters and brothers of 1st Congregational Church of LaGrange, it’s also going to be up to you to love each other as deeply, fully and completely as you can. It is through that presence of love that God is present and where God is present so is healing, so is reconciliation, so is peace, so is faith, so it hope and, ultimately, so is even more love and more love and more love and more love. . .
And the secret about yourselves that you might not already know? You already have a lot of love to build on. Over the last few years, I’ve worked with many of those who are involved in the life of this church and it’s clear you’re not working from a place where you need to learn how to love. You know how to love. The challenge before you is simply to make the decision to love even more and, on the foundation of love you already have, I’m sure we’ll all be surprised by the gifts God gives to the world through you all. . .
Our God is a good God who loves us very much. So much in fact that, when we open ourselves to that love, it can’t help but to over flow. Where love is present, God is present. May you discover the presence of God among you in abundance as you make the decision to love. Amen.
posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 9:45 AM
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20061113
Rev. Michael Denton
October 31, 2006
St. Peter’s UCC,
Men’s Breakfast Group
Today’s topic has really been an evolving one. As we began our discussions about my presence here with you as a more general discussion and that moved to the suggested topic of “How God is Still Speaking to Our Churches’ Seniors” to, “The Role of Seniors in the Church,” to, now, something more along the idea of what Seniors can give to the church. I always appreciate the opportunity to meet with people in our churches which is something that many people find difficult to believe because, although most of the time I’m invited to a local congregation in a role that is celebratory, instructive or even as a guide through the sometimes confusing maze of the search and call process, I’m also called to be with churches in much more difficult moments. It’s not unusual for me to be called when a church is in conflict; when a pastor is in some sort of crisis; when a church disagrees with a decision of the other churches that are a part of the denomination; or, fortunately rarely, when a church feels that there has been a difficult moment between a congregation and myself. Although all of these moments have their own stresses and strains, I still really do appreciate these opportunities. At the very least, it’s an expression that a local church takes its relationship with the wider church seriously.
I think the general topic you’ve suggested, however, is really fascinating. I don’t pretend to know all the answers for this topic which is one of the reasons I’m really happy there’s going to be an opportunity for further discussion after my presentation. I know that, sometimes, the expectation of someone in my position is that we’ll give some sort of party line but I try not to do that just for the sake of doing it. I’ve gotten to know some of you more than others and I respect you too much to do that. In a conversation like this, I really only do that if I agree with that part line. Today, I’m going to risk being provocative. I’m not going to give you some sort of boiler plate, politically savvy, general to try answer to the question about what the role of seniors may be. I’m going to avoid simply giving you answers only to try and make you happy, or even comforted, and try my best to let you know what I really think or am trying to figure out. All these thoughts are thoughts in process. And I know that some of the suggestions and perspectives I’ll give, from my experience, are not probably going to match up with all of your hopes or desires of what I might say. I’m not going to suggest that it is important to less of some things and more of others.
In order for this to be a constructive moment, let’s acknowledge a few things, too. First of all, I’m under no illusion that one presentation with you is necessarily going to be so challenging or so inspiring that it’s going to “fix” or “settle” anything. This is, simply, another part of the continuing dialogue that you’ve already been a part of within this congregation for several years, already.
One of the other things that we need to acknowledge, right off the bat, is that my experience in the Church, as a pastor and member, has been with seniors not as one. It may be seen as a kind of paradox to invite me as the person to speak on the role of seniors within the Church. I was born in 1968 and, at 38 years old, am the youngest person in this kind of Conference ministry role in the United Church of Christ (although I’ve heard that may be close to changing). Although I have hopes and prayers of how our church members, regardless of age, participate in the Church, and I’m getting closer and closer to being a senior I’m still 32 years from my own retirement, maybe longer if the retirement age is raised (something most of my peers expect and, in many cases, support). Not only that, but, we have to acknowledge that within the US Church, I’m in the minority.
There has been a significant shift upward in the age of church members and clergy, overall, within our denomination and within all mainline denominations. In 1974, there were about the same percentage of clergy under 40 years old in the US Church as there were lawyers; about 25%. However, these numbers have changed in some frightening since then. At the end of 2005, the percentage of lawyers in the
So, here’s the ironic thing and maybe my most controversial point, this morning: I think one of the most important roles of seniors in the US Church is to work to help make it a place that has youth and young adults as a primary outreach and programmatic focus or, quite simply, the US Church may soon be in the same state of the European church without any of the government support for the upkeep of the buildings. With a few exceptions, most services of worship, programs and structures look and act way too much that the worship, programs and structures of the 1950’s or, in a few cases, the 40’s or 60’s without the same numbers of people. These churches worked, in the times they were booming, because they were demographically appropriate and attractive to the people they were hoping to attract. We need to remake our churches to be able to do the same, in this time, so that there can be a church for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc.
Now, when I suggest this, I’m suggesting this with the full knowledge that the renewed Church may very well be a Church that misses some of the elements you and I prefer. Personally, when I’m talking about the kind of church that I feel most comfortable with, I prefer a more European classical style of worship. It’s what I grew up with. I like the formality of it, the flow of it, the music of it and the pace of it. I love the sound of a good pipe organ, church bells, a good choir and a well constructed, classically constructed sermon. However, worship like this leaves a lot of people – most of the people we’d like to be in our churches - cold. They find the formality oppressive and the flow deadening. The classical music played on a pipe organ all sounds the same to them. They don’t want a choir that sings as much as they want to sing, themselves. They want to be surprised by variety in worshipping styles and for the sermons, if there even are sermons (as opposed to a dramatic presentation, a question and answer period or even a video). These folks we want to get in our churches want a service and some form of presentation to address contemporary issues from a spiritual practice angle, with very little scholastic theological rhetoric.
I prefer, for my own comfort, a structure of a church with clearly set responsibilities and meetings, preferably, run on some version of Roberts Rules of Order. But this structure is failing most of those who are looking for churches. Most folks work in, and expect, an atmosphere that’s more team based and consensus based; where people have the ability to help their organization grow through several different services and foci as opposed to the one initiative at a time process that many of our churches use.
I prefer a more traditional Sunday school program where the parents attend Sunday school at the same time as their parents and then attend at least part of worship with their parents. I prefer that the children involved in these classes are in a program that, in some ways, mirrors the secular school system where each year’s education is built upon the previous year’s education. But, these aren’t necessarily the programs children or adults are willing to participate in, anymore. As you already know, Sundays are no longer days for church but one more day to be busy. For some families, Sunday morning is the only real day they get to spend together and fewer and fewer families want to spend that time in church. Christian education, in its traditional form, is rarely the preference of most families. They want a less Sunday centered church that will meet them where they are in their lack of Christian education, develop programs that challenge them, entertain them and enable them to make their own decisions. This means that, in churches that are growing, Sunday has become less and less of a focus for programming and, in many cases, even worship. There are more and more options for small groups throughout the week, there may be several youth groups and Christian education integrated throughout the life of the church as opposed to simply being part of a few programs at a few times.
These may be places where you and I find we are in common agreement about what we prefer and what we may be the most comfortable with but, when it comes right down to it, what we prefer and what comforts us isn’t necessarily what’s best for the Church. The fact that I am under 40 and prefer many of the traditional worship, educational, programmatic and leadership styles of the church doesn’t mean that this way of doing church is actually still relevant or helpful to the vast majority of youth and young adults in this contemporary period. When you take the small percentage of people my age, or younger, who are part of the more traditional mainline church it may better show the percentage of people in my age group who are actually interested in this kind of church and the percentage of the population that we can expect to continue to be part of our churches in the future if we continue to “do church” the same way we have been doing. I think we can expect that if we continue to do church in the same way and involvement in the mainline church continues to decrease at its current rate that, by just 2036, the mainline
My brothers and sisters, we have a choice about what our legacy may be. We can either continue to do things as we’ve always done and the Church will continue to diminish or we can make the bold decision to say that today is when we decided to dedicate ourselves to end the decline of our Church; that today is the day we are going to set the foundations for a Church that will grow again; that today is the day we are going to work to not just allow, but encourage our Church to be relevant; that today is the day that we are going to say thank you for what the Church has been in our lives by making sure it has the opportunity to play a significant part in other people’s lives, too; that today is the we are going to assure that our Church has the same legacy of resources that was out fore-fathers’ and for-mothers’ trust to us. Brothers, today is the day we rededicate ourselves to that which we already know; that the Church doesn’t exist to serve us but we exist to serve God and God’s people and the Church is a vehicle for that. The Church is not about us.
How can we do this? This may be my second most controversial point but it’s an important point to make with any group that is asking questions about their role in the Church. I think one of the most significant things we need to begin with is taking responsibility for our own spiritual lives. Sunday worship is not supposed to be the only place that mature or experienced believers find spiritual sustenance. For too many, Sunday has become the day we commune with God the most or think we should commune with God the most. But, if Sunday is the main time we commune with God, we have a built in to our lives an unhealthy dependency on the institutional Church that takes the place of what should be a healthy, daily dependency on God. Our faith life becomes dependant on the human actions of those who are part of our churches instead of the divine actions of the one who gave us breath. The result of this is that when things within this very human institution become difficult because of a disagreement or change, we become as irrational, agitated and spiritually sick as an addict who is without his or her drug of choice. Although the practice of communal worship may be a central element of our faith-life, it should not be the only element of our faith life. We need to have our own active prayer life, our own active bible study, our own active retreat and reflection time outside of just Sunday morning; ideally every day. If we don’t, we tend to expect our own local congregation to feed all our spiritual needs and, when that happens, we’re bound to feel malnourished and uncomfortable most of the time. It is our relationship with God through Christ that serves our spiritual needs. To expect our church to be our sole sense of spiritual nourishment is a form of idolatry that gives too much power and responsibility to an institution that, in and of itself, is not divine.
This does move us in to another thing that seniors, in particular, do have the ability to contribute to church life. Retirement has radically changes. The time of retirement used to be that time that people were lucky to get to if their health was good. Retirement, by younger folks, may have been promoted as a time to rest but, in reality, many people saw this as a time to prepare to die. There was an idea that people should retire because, somehow, they got in the way of work place productivity. 65 years old doesn’t mean this anymore. Those who choose (or are forced) to retire now are healthier than ever and living longer than ever than they ever did. Retirement is no longer simply a time to prepare for the end of life but another opportunity to continue to live in to the fullness of the life that God has given us. As people of faith, there is one key question we need to ask ourselves every day of our lives because we don’t retire from being people of faith. That question is: What can I give to God, today? For many of us sitting here, that may mean direct service to the Church and service to the Church is about more than just what we want as individuals, it is about what the community of faith discerns as it’s vocation. To paraphrase one of the most famous lines in an inaugural speech ever, ask not what your church can do for you. Ask what you can do for your church.
This is especially important in a demographic moment when less and less folks who aren’t retired have a significant amount of time to give to the Church through volunteerism. It wasn’t that long ago when most households were one income households. During that time, women working at home had the flexibility in their daytime hours to give a significant amount of their time to support the church with volunteering and church had the added benefit of being a place to fight the isolation that many women felt at home. Although men frequently were in the formal leadership of the church, women lead and did a lot of the volunteer work to support the discernment work that took place in church meetings. It was also through this kind of volunteerism that a lot of the hands on mission work of the church really got done. When the tide shifted and most households had very little choice but to become two income homes, the Church really suffered and has never recovered. Too many of us who experienced a church in another age expect the same kind of vibrancy, activity and volunteerism as seemed to be present in the church we grew up in. As the volunteer numbers have shrunk, we’ve cut programs and expected more of our staff. As one of my colleagues suggested, its not that the current church staff are any more or less competent as our predecessors as much as that we have less human and financial resources to work with than before. Clergy work hours are increasing and, to be blunt, it’s killing our clergy. In the last 30 years, clergy have moved up from being in the 24th position of career positions most likely to suffer from heart disease to 8th. One of best friends in ministry is just a couple years older than me and he was put on the same diet as people with heart disease by his doctor. It wasn’t because he had any physical symptoms that were specifically worrisome. It was because this doctor had several other patients who were ministers and he treated ministry as an indicator of possible heart disease. He was put on a heart healthy diet as a preventative measure. Not only that, but clinical depression is becoming a larger and larger problem for clergy. Most of the information we have about this is more anecdotal but the Lilly family that makes a lot of its money on the production of Prozac saw this as such an issue that their foundation has put millions of dollars in to sabbatical programs that work to prevent clergy depression and burnout.
Beyond the health effects this has on pastors, this has a very real effect on the day to day work of pastors in churches because a lot of the work done by pastors, now, used to be done by volunteers in the past. The result? Pastors have less time to visit people; less time to prepare sermons and worship; less time to help guide stewardship campaigns, etc., etc., etc. When local churches ask me how they can best help their pastor improve their sermons, I always suggest two things; give constructive feedback and help the pastor have more time to work on their sermons by finding volunteers for some of the things the pastor is currently doing.
So, my sisters and brothers, now is not the time to take a rest and do less, as previous generations in your same age group sometime expected, this is the time to do more. This is particularly important in three main areas. I apologize for not going in to a lot of detail here but I recognize my time is almost over for this part of my time with you.
The first(and I really believe this may be the most the important is for the modern church) is helping your church connect with hands on mission and social outreach work. We’re nothing without mission and outreach. Churches without this focus tend to spiritually collapse in on themselves and then begin to devour themselves. Doing mission and outreach work is ultimately not a drain on a church’s finances but some of the sustenance that helps a church survive. Work with one of our UCC churches that serves the poor and help them do their work. Connect with the Heifer Project or Habitat for Humanity in a more direct way. Connect with another local organization through Church World Service or even an advocacy and service program like Bread for the World.
Secondly, become more involved in stewardship programs within the congregation as part of a spiritual practice. It’s not just about the money. It’s about being good stewards of all that God has given us and supporting the work of God in the world through the church. As part of that, it’s important not to just make assumptions about where the money goes but to really learn about how the decision to spend money is certain ways is made. Too many people don’t give as much time, money and prayers to the church as they could because they weren’t asked, they don’t understand the financial life of the church or they think that you give to the church to somehow buy what you want or control the life of the church. A spiritual understanding of stewardship moves us beyond that kind of thinking and in to a much broader understanding as our pledges, our time and prayers as offerings to God and the ongoing legacy of a Church instead of just our legacy within a church. Seniors also have a special ability to talk to their peers about planned giving so that we can continue to give to the churches that have been a part of our lives beyond our physical deaths.
Finally, the Church needs you to share what you have learned and what have experienced in both formal and informal ways. These may or may not be things that “typically” think are an important part of Church life. If you have some particular skills in financial management, teach a course for your church in financial management. If you have some particular skills in woodworking, teach a class in woodworking. If you have some skills in health care, teach a class in healthy eating. It may be a one time offering or it may be a several session class but communities are hungry for this stuff and churches offering life skills classes are attracting new members and serving their communities. But don’t stop there. Find other ways and opportunities to share the stories of your life and the lessons you have learned. This is the key role of elders in communities around the world; to share their life experiences with the community as a community resource. That doesn’t mean that the community always does what the elders suggest but it is one more way that a resource is shared. This may be something we talk about more during our conversation period.
My brothers and sisters, thank you so much for inviting me to be with you this morning and putting up with listening to me. Again, these are some of my thoughts and I’m looking forward to further discussion.
posted by Rev. Michael Denton at 10:25 PM
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