God Is Shattering Our Chains . . . But, Why?

Pastor Don’s Corner . . .

An angel of the Lord appeared to Peter, tapped him on the side and said, ““Get up quickly!”

And the chains fell off his wrists.” (Acts 12:7 NRSV)

I believe with all my heart that, in Jesus Christ, God is shattering the chains which bind and enslave us, most of which are of our own choosing and design . . . much like those of Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol, worn by Marley and Scrooge. They are chains . . .

Ø  Of wealth, of bling, of being better than others;

Ø  Of power, experience, of age and maturity;

Ø  Of right, entitlement, of assumed place and privilege;

Ø  Of bank accounts, investments, or interest to be made;

Ø  Of color, race, ethnicity, nationality and journey;

Ø  Of politics, party, platform and perceived self-righteousness;

Ø  Of religion, of a corner on God’s goodness, of certainty how God approves or disapproves;

Ø  Of running water, indoor bathrooms, refrigerated food, and a purchased food supply;

Ø  Of technology which demands our every moment and instant communication which mutes our mind;

Ø  Of Sabbath which offers no rest, worship which serves no God but you . . . and the mindless drivel of prayers offered more for your money than your soul;

Ø  Of dependency on bombs for peace, of bullets for power and landmines for domination;

Ø  Of acceptable body shape, clothing needs and fitness of body and mind, yet lack of soul;

Ø  Of spirituality without community, of religion without mission and faith without mercy;

These, and so many more, are the chains which bind us . . . and it is far easier to see them in and upon others than it is to recognize their binding power in our own lives. Still, they are there. Still, they cling. Still their heaviness weighs our every step down. Still, God is at work in Jesus Christ, shattering the chains which bind. The empty tomb is God’s formidable, stark Witness of that truth. But, the haunting question lingers on, ‘For what?’ Why is God, in being God, so determined to shatter the chains we forge and design for our own lives? In ‘releasing us from’, what is God ‘moving us towards’?

I believe, too, there are ‘thin places’ between the Realm of God and the realm of earth – and every so often we glimpse here on earth a vision through the thin places of what already is in the Realm of God . . . and when we see it, we know it and God is in it. The chains are left shattered on the ground. We see such things . . .

Ø  When, regardless the poverty, everything is shared;

Ø  When national boundaries mean less than human need and safety;

Ø  When faith matters more than religion and faithfulness more than dogma or certainty;

Ø  When personal resources are the catalyst for communal health;

Ø  When personal contact takes priority over technological touches;

Ø  When the only advantages society seeks are those which build stronger communities;

Ø  When diversity is embraced, cultural differences valued and ethnic histories are considered sacred;

Ø  When the politics of nationalism are considered the handmaiden of the world community;

Ø  When the tail of popularity, wealth and power no longer wags the shared human experience;

Ø  When Sabbath is rest in God, worship feeds the soul and prayers invite the heart to be truthful;

Ø  When the ‘challenges’ of first world living giving way to humble sharing of available resources;

Ø  When the journey of faith is one of responsiveness to God in tending to the other with honor, integrity and respect;

Ø  And, When acceptability has nothing to do with the clothes one wears, the shape of one’s body or the level of fitness one maintains but, rather, in the mission and mercy in which one engages each day.

Our chains are being shattered that we might offer ourselves as servants, one to the other, all for the sake of serving the Vision of the One who sent Christ to lead us on the way. It is as simple as that, it is as difficult as that, for it requires that we humbly receive the Gift of freedom, embody the freedom of the Giver and, then, free others that they might glimpse the Realm of God in the places we dwell together on earth.

In the places of our temporal imprisonment on earth, God is guiding God’s angels to wrestle us out of our lethargy and indifference in the midst of our captors and is moving us towards change and possibility, allowing the chains of this world to fall off, now ultimately useless, and take up our cross to follow Jesus. For such freedom we are set free, for such a vision we have been given the sight of Jesus, and for such ministries we are empowered in the Spirit to serve.

God’s is not an idle freedom, neither is the Church birthed in the Spirit to be an unmoving Body, nor are we to be mute witnesses to an empty tomb. We are set free for dynamic, transforming servanthood, authentic in Love, committed in Soul and ongoing in a Joy no grave could ever contain.

It is time to stand up and let the chains fall off. It is time to move forward, allowing tradition to bury its own dead. It is time to witness to that for which we pray, “. . . in earth as it is in Heaven.” For such we are born anew each day and for such we pledge ourselves in every moment that the ‘thin places’ between the Realm of God and the realm of earth are made visible in Whose we are and in Whom we are becoming.

Have a blessed Easter . . . as the chains fall off your wrists and you are led to new life in Christ!

Pastor Don

A New Day Is Waiting In Lent

“The plans of the mind belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

All one’s ways may be pure in one’s own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

(Proverbs 16:1-3 NRSV)

With Presidential Primaries and Caucus’ bearing down upon us in every form of media available, I have become increasingly dismayed by those from whom we have to choose and the manner in which they present themselves. Fear, paranoia, distrust, half-truths, accusations and flat-out pandering to triumphant isolationism have become the hallmarks of far too many of the candidates. It would seem that each works unceasingly to perfect the fine art of lifting oneself up upon the backs of others, all the while convincing those upon whose backs they stand and make their living that it is only with them (that particular candidate) at the helm of the ship that the American people have a chance of negotiating these treacherous seas of domestic and international leadership . . . and the American people are the ones being drowned by their hyperbole. None of them, if elected, can alone deliver what they are promising, nor should they try, yet that does not deter them from making the assertions or catapulting new promises each day. Such is the way of those whose plans are only for themselves and their ego. Such is the way of the human tongue unbound by any Heavenly conscious and maybe that is what is troubling me most: There is little commitment to the way of the Lord outside the boundaries of their own parochial definitions of how ‘being faithful’ is defined. That is scary.

Such is the way we come to fear our neighbor, to be paranoid about who might come into our neighborhood – much less our country, to distrust anyone who looks ‘different’ – whatever that may mean, to spout mean-spirited half-truths about the traditions of others without any critical understanding of either them or their tradition, to accuse others of being ‘violent, blood-thirsty, savage or stupid’ – all the while hiding behind weapons of mass destruction and armies of others who fight our battles for us, while suggesting that if the American people stopped taking care of others we could really take care of ourselves – as if that is something any of these candidates or their vocal supporters have spent a lot of time actually doing, other than in a photo opportunity.  There is, indeed, much about which one can be cynical these days and much which could drive one to despair for our nation and our world. Yet, the word of God calls us to something more . . .

We are called to commit our work to the Lord, allowing the Lord to establish our plans. Hmmmmm.

Such is the reason the St. Paul U.C.C. faith family Lenten Journey is focused on coming to understand our Muslim sisters and brothers utilizing the Living the Questions curriculum, “The Jesus Fatwah: Love Your (Muslim) Neighbor as Yourself”.  It was Jesus who said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

(Matthew 22:37-40 NRSV)

Jesus’ Fatwah (judgment, legal opinion or imperative) is not just to be exercised in relationship to those with whom we feel comfortable: It is for the person of another color, a different ethnicity, another nationality, differing sexuality, even of another faith. Jesus articulates these commandments as complete in their nature and within the realm of God’s expectation of us to live them. We can either live into them from the basis of understanding and compassion that our Baptismal faith requires or we can do it based on the stereotypes others cast for us in the wilderness of our existence. We can choose to dwell in the waters of blessed new Life or in the desert filled with the scorpions of our own device, yet how we choose is the distinction between committing our work to the Lord or claiming our own judgment and wisdom as the imperative.

I, for one, am tired of the fear-mongering regarding so many others, so it is that this faith family will spend some time dispelling the myths around those whom, increasingly, we are being told to fear. Come and share the journey of understanding regarding those who are our sisters and brothers of the Muslim faith. Come and hear from Islamic and Christian scholars who, both, desire to do the work of the Lord. Come and claim for yourself the choices you have to make, the people to whom you will listen, the manner in which you will live and the faith you will embody. Come and dedicate your work to the Lord . . . all of it, not just the comfortable traditional stuff. Come . . . and walk with way with Jesus and His commandments. Lenten Blessings!

Things I Have Taught Our Kids

Things which make my children laugh, yet I remember as true:

• I walked uphill both ways to school, in three feet of snow, after milking the cows and doing the chores . . .
• I was a pretty good basketball player in Grade School. In my mind I scored from anywhere on the court and always under duress. Actual statistics can be cruel . . .
• When I was a kid life was simpler. We never had much, but we always had enough. Homemade ice cream was a staple of summertime evenings and swimming in the pond was a nice way to end a hot day of baling . . .
• We never baled hay unless it was at least 100 degrees, with 95% humidity, the hay shed was always nearly full so that we had to stack every bale directly under the tin of the roof, and all the bales weighed at least 100 pounds each . . .
• If I got in trouble at school it was guaranteed I got in trouble at home. Period. 
• The school bus ride back and forth to school was a country boy's first hot box of socialization and, often, the place where rank and privilege were first taught . . .
• Mom and Dad always knew what we did, even when we were sure they didn't . . . and now I know that because I understand they first did some version of everything I did long before I ever imagined it . . . the same way we, as parents, do now . . .
• Don't ever underestimate the power of a Dad's hand on your backside or the safety of a Father's embrace when you are in need . . .
• Mom sees what you do behind her back, including the faces you make while she is lecturing you, but continues to love you anyway . . . and is quite capable of leaping over that chair and wiping that sneer off your face with the hardened side of her hand OR pulling you into the embrace of her love at any moment . . . 
• A grandparent's job is to quietly dispute a parent's teaching about what the five food groups are and how much of each to consume . . .
• A grandchild's job is to encourage their grandparents in their work . . .
• Before there was cellular technology, we used our imaginations in games, rode bicycles to our friends homes, played outside by the hour, shook hands when we met, talked with each other, and believed that it was okay to disagree, even to fight, but also imperative that we make amends . . . after all, in the country we needed each other . . .
• A handshake was a form of contract and was understood to be binding . . .
• Your word was your bond - and you always knew who could not be trusted . . . 
• Lawyers were really only needed to do legal descriptions of land and property transfers or to deal contractually with people whose handshake or word you couldn't trust . . . which says something about the number of lawyers today . . .
• Especially when in town, when a funeral procession passed you always pulled over in a show of respect for the deceased and their family. Always . . . 
• When country folk wave at you with just their index finger in that slow back-to-forward motion they are being friendly . . .
• There is always enough food on the table for visitors, family and friends, regardless of when they show up . . .
• There are always enough chairs for everyone to have a seat at the table . . . 
• Visitors, friends and family have first choice of all dishes on the table . . .
• Your friend's parents had as much authority over your behavior as did your parents . . . 
• Even if you aren't caught in a lie, it is still a lie . . . the same with the deductions you take on your taxes . . . 
• One of the most telling ways to recognize integrity, respect and honor in a person is in the way they farm their land and keep their home place . . . the cleanest places aren't always the best and the messiest aren't always the worst, but where there is pride in the job there is heart for others . . .
• There are few smells more wonderful than newly worked soil, freshly cut alfalfa or corn pollinating on a hot Summer afternoon . . . 
• Every person has the right to remember their history in the manner which gives their life the best light - allowing, of course, that there will be an intersection of Truth and Accuracy somewhere in the general vicinity of where your story goes . . .
• Always remember: the person to whom you are busily telling your story also has a story to tell you, which is why God has given you one mouth and two ears. Listen more than you talk . . . which is a good place to end this rambling . . .

I pray you see a bit of yourself in where I have been and am in this journey . . . and give thanks to God for allowing you the joy and responsibility of passing your experiences on to the next generation, which kind of makes me wonder how their stories to their children will begin . . . 

Only time will tell . . .

Resolved or Not?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.

In all your ways acknowledge the Lord, and the Lord will make straight your paths.” (Prov. 3:5-6)

‘I promise to be different . . . ‘(which we have been explicitly taught to believe is ‘better’) is what we essentially say when we make a resolution at the beginning of a New Year. It is also what is essentially said when we confess our sins and seek God’s pardon. ‘I promise to be different . . .’

Not to be overly cynical but, in an effort to be transparent, rarely am I different for the sake of someone else or at another’s demanding, even that of God. God and others often help me to see there is a different way, yet until I choose that for myself it is little more than someone else’s notion of how I should live my life. A New Year’s resolution, like a vow ‘not to sin again’, made to satisfy another will seldom bear fruit, whether it is about losing weight, doing more exercise, trying to incorporate time spent reading or vowing to takes days off as I tell others to do. No, a resolution made for the sake of another is not my resolution. It is simply a means to appease, to acknowledge, or even acquiesce . . . it is not my own.

On the other hand, a personal decision made to change direction, whether in the gym, in the church or in the very Presence of God is just that: A personal decision. Individual or corporate confession cannot coerce such a decision, neither can a resolution give voice to such a choice. It is personal, requires commitment and demands integrity for such a change of direction to be true . . . and includes accountability.

God could lead the Israelite children out of Egypt, separate the sea, overwhelm the Egyptian armies and guide them towards freedom, but God could not coerce the Israelites not to build a golden calf or murmur about quails and manna or even to stop complaining when they were thirsty. Upon entering the land, the Israelites had to make a personal decision about whom it would be that they would worship and follow, as Joshua said to them, “Choose this day . . . “

John the Baptist could exhort the masses to confess their sins and be baptized, but he could not force them to live the meaning of baptism, such were the brood of vipers.

Jesus could heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, address the powers and principalities, even take on the cross itself, but He could not keep the disciples from running away in fear, the crowds from thirsting for blood or even the remnant who stayed with Him from believing in the power of death. It was only when they chose for themselves to believe in the empty tomb, whether because they viewed His pierced hands and feet and put their hands into the wound in His side or because they heard from others and were convinced it was true . . . It was only when they chose for themselves to believe that they were able to ‘change direction’ and become truly trusting of the Lord with all their heart – and affect such change in others.

Change: You can want it for me, but you cannot demand or require it of me. It is the way we are made by the One who designs and creates still.

In the coming days I am committing my journey to living my humanity more fully in God, not so that I can be viewed as ‘better’ or ‘more acceptable to Heaven’ but, rather, because my heart of hearts longs for more than this world is capable of providing. What I have not found in money or position or politics or power or even organized religion, I am coming to discover and savor more fully in service to God with family, congregation, community and world. It is a state of being human without regard for that which government and media uses to separate and define us. It is a state of being faithful without distinctions as classified by religion or ethnicity. It is a state of identifying and embracing the holy and sacred in others, even ourselves, regardless the profane which permeates that which many accept as ‘the norm’.

It is not so much about ‘change’ as it is a hope for ‘fully living’ the life we are given, I am given.

Resolve away, confess to your heart’s content, set it all in stone before the administrators of the world, but until you choose the path to walk – and allow the journey to become holy and sacred in your soul – nothing will change, ever. Have a blessed New Year and may the Way of Christ and the trust of the Lord guide your steps towards the Home of your being, the Realm of God already becoming known in love as you are Loved. 

At Home

It is Saturday, the day after Christmas 2015, and it is raining, dreary and grey.

So it is that I am at home . . . in my Church Office, preparing for tomorrow's worship services - and I am grateful to be here. Truth be told, I am glad to be so at home in the worship and fellowship facilities of St. Paul UCC, Lebanon . . . I'm feeling the need to be at home in God today.

Earlier in the day I drove to the hospital and spoke with a person who is really struggling with illness and a chronic debilitating condition. Throughout this day my heart has been in constant prayer for friends who are deep in the journey of grief and healing. A few moments ago, I received word from another that a diagnosis had just been received in their life and it was not what they were hoping to hear. For such as these the Gift of Bethlehem comes.

I would invite you to continue the Christmas festivities and gather with me in the pleasure and need of talking with God concerning the world in which we live and our sisters and brothers who are longing for understandable, believable, Spirit-filled answers . . . Will you join me?

Will you join me in Christmas Grace by being gracious to others?

Will you join me in Christmas Joy by sharing joy with others?

Will you join me in Christmas Abundance by giving of yourself for others?

Will you join me in Christmas Healing by sitting with and caring for others?

Will you join me in Christmas Comfort by gathering the uncomfortable into you and your home?

Will you join me in Christmas Love by seeing in others that for which you pray God sees in you?

Will you join me in Christmas Rejoicing by welcoming the opportunity to tell the Story?

Will you join me in Christmas . . . in the Home of God's own heart by praying for others as Christ does for you?

Will you join me in God's Home . . . in the sacred space of family gathered, in community shared, in the quiet of prayer and the raucous wonder of hymns?

Will you join me in God's Home in this day . . . just for the sheer gift of being present with the One who, in Jesus, is Present for you?

The Gospel text for services tomorrow is the story of the 12 year old Jesus lingering in the Temple and saying to his parents, who had thought they had lost him, "Didn't you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father's house?" 

As it is for Jesus, may it be so for us all. Come, be at Home in God wherever you are, for God has come to be at home, through Jesus, in you.

Blessings in this Christmas Season!

The deepest injustice of this world is the heartache.

The truest justice is God's Love come to Heal and Restore.

There is a pain in a parent's eyes when a child to them is lost. One can see it through the tears and the warning is cast: 'Heartache, Strained Faith, Pain!', then words of consolation become mute, arms of support hang limply by the side and well-intended presence goes absent. So deep the hurt, so clear the helplessness, so final the severing, it is as if an abyss is established between what once was in vibrancy, laughter, wonder and joy . . . and the dull unending finality of death, dying, and loss of hope. As hard as it is to see, most turn away. As deep as it is through which to live, many never recover.

For such as these: Jesus.

God can not, will not, turn away from the heartache. God can not, will not walk away . . . for God understands the loss of a Child. God broods over the violence our world can impart, the disease our living brings, the choices which lead us away. With the purest of pain in a Parent's eyes, God knows.

Bethlehem is not a romantic notion, nor a far away fairy tale. In the coming of the Christ-Child, God takes God's place in the heartache of every parent who has lost or is losing, who has endured or is enduring, who has suffered or is suffering. There will be no mute voices, for angel's gathering voices transcend the silence. There will be no arms hanging uselessly by the side, for the embrace of God becomes fully embodied in the hands and arms of a Baby reaching out, clinging tightly to a finger, giving Hope. There will be no well-intended presence going absent, for in the life of the One who comes the Parent speaks a name, Emmanuel, God-With-Us . . . You Are Never Alone.

The truest justice our Parent God can offer comes in the gift of a Babe, in tones of Love, Healing and Restoration.

Whether the parent's heartache is in disease, addiction, hatred, self-loathing, accident, suicide, fear, failure or inflicted violence . . The Parent's Justice meets the longing ones at the crossroads and brings Life, the gift of a Manger and an empty Tomb. From beginning to Beginning, God, our Parent, resides and makes new.

May it be so for you in the Child of God, in every season of your joy and heartache.

I think we should cancel Christmas this year.
Who can really believe that an angel came to Mary and told her she was going to carry the Son of God?
Who can really believe that the baby whom Elizabeth carried 'jumped' for joy when he heard Mary's voice?
Who can really believe that, in response to Elizabeth's blessing, Mary would speak, much less sing, what we now call the Magnificat?
Who can really believe that an angel of the Lord would appear to Joseph in a dream and tell him to take Mary as his wife, rather than quietly put her away for her 'infidelity'?
Who can really believe in . . . .
A Savior born into the world, yet the starvation & thirst continues?
A Messiah born to lead us to new life, yet human governments and high placed corruption continues?
The Prince of Peace comes, yet hatred, prejudice, injustice and bigotry continues, much of it in His name?
Emmanuel makes His appearance, still landmines are planted, violence is plotted and billions are spent on the newest technology to blow each other to 'kingdom come'?
I think we should cancel Christmas this year . . . 
Put Santa Claus and the elves, even the Elf on the Shelf, in the closet, package up the Christmas lights, take down the tree, peel the decorations off the lawn and discard the Christmas cards . . . until such a time as what humanity professes to believe is reasonably embodied by how we choose to live, one with the other, including the Presidential nominees;
until an embrace of Jesus is also an expression of our willingness to take someone far different from ourselves into our homes;
until our romantic acceptance of 'Ho-ho-ho!' becomes the realistic manifestation of 'Home-Home-Home!' for all God's girls and boys;
until such a time as God doesn't have to prove God's own existence for the satisfaction of people who believe more in their own intellect than in the God who made them from the earth;
and until, in our hearts, angels can fly and sing, shepherds can witness and run in, Wise Men can travel long distances . . . and the hungry are fed, the thirsty are given drink, the naked are clothed, the imprisoned are visited, and the sick are given care,
In think we should cancel Christmas this year . . . but I don't have a vote in it.
God is far more gracious, just, loving, capable of mercy and willing to give second chances than I will ever be . . . and God believes in you. God believes in your capacity to see things differently this year, to believe more strongly, and to act more faithfully. God believes humanity is redeemable.
So, God sends Jesus.
I only pray we are as ready for Him as God believes us to be . . . otherwise, we might as well cancel Christmas this year. Yes, I know, I don't have a voice in it. You are right and . . .
God is God.
Get ready. Here God comes! Meet God!
Have a blessed Advent and Christmas!