localpastor

07/30/2023 ~ Ninth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Proper 12 ~ Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 128; 1 Kings 3:5-12; Psalm 119:129-136; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 ~ https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/850935259

The Love of Christ

“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Hardship? Distress? Calamity? Persecution? Famine? Hunger? Nakedness? Peril? Danger? The sword? Violence?” — Romans 8:35 [ILV]

The late Rev. Dr. Glenn Miller, was my Church History professor in seminary. Glenn was a Southern gentleman and very laid back. Nothing ruffled him.

I was once standing next to Glenn when a student approached and asked a very silly question. “Dr. Miller, you’re offering a survey course in Church History this semester.” Glenn nodded. “What does that cover?”

Dr. Miller remained calm and said, “Well, it’s a survey course… in Church History.”

“Yes,” the student insisted on pursuing this strange line of inquiry. “What does that survey cover?”

Glenn smiled. There was a twinkle in his eye. I could tell mischief was afoot. Glenn reached out the left hand as far as possible. “Jesus, was resurrected over here— about the year 30 of the Common Era.”

Then reaching out the right hand as far as possible Glenn offered this. “Jesus will come back sometime over here… we don’t quite know when.”

Glenn then looked back and forth across the imaginary line created by the distance between the two outstretched hands and made a pronouncement. “A survey course in Church History covers everything in between.” (Slight pause.)

I was reminded of that story because of an article in the magazine The Christian Century. It reported American students don’t know much about the history of our nation.

When tested, most sixth graders can’t explain why Abraham Lincoln is important. Only 2 percent of high school seniors could name what the Supreme Court addressed in Brown versus the Board of Education ruling.

Lendol Calder, of Augustana College in Illinois, the article said, had been exploring this issue. At the start of a survey course in American History this professor asks students to write a short paper on the history of the United States. They are required to do it in the first class of the semester but write it without using any resources— just work from what they remember, what they think they know.

The students think they are being tested on factual knowledge. They are not. Calder’s goal is to find out what the students think the story of the United States says.

Over the 15 years Calder has used this exercise, the number of students who see this country’s past as a story about gaining freedom has consistently and constantly dropped. It is now less than 20 percent. And that’s not even the real problem.

The real problem is this story has not been replaced by another story— for instance, a story of specific groups gaining freedom. Over 80 percent see the American past as just one thing after another— a jumble of disconnected events. Calder wonders if the American narrative cannot be seen as any kind of unfolding story, not even one about freedom, but simply a set of facts, then does it wind up as seeming to be meaningless?

Indeed, if there is no narrative framework, is it possible students cannot and are not able to see themselves in that story, unable to see themselves as inheritors of freedom. If people have no narrative sense of the American story and its movement toward freedom, is it possible they will be susceptible to ideologues who weave their own versions of the past in order to manipulate emotions? (Slight pause.)

That Church History professor, Dr. Miller, insisted history is not about dates and facts. History is about narrative, about story, and more specifically about movement over the course of centuries, like the still ongoing American movement toward freedom.

History is, therefore and paradoxically, personal. It is personal because we, now, are a part of the story. But history cannot be personal unless we can see ourselves as a part and as a continuation of a story.

Further, a story can span years and does not happen overnight. Lincoln was president from 1861 to 1865, a fairly short span. But the Era of Lincoln — that specific story about enslavement and freedom, ran at least from 1840 to 1870, the era when slavery was contested and overcome.

Brown versus the Board of Education, separate is not equal, happened in 1954. But the work of equal rights continues even today. It is a human struggle. And we need to see all of us together— here, now— as a continuing part of a story about freedom.

Unless we come to grips with any narrative and how it effects us, personally, see ourselves within its framework, we are left thrashing around wondering who we are, as we try to figure out what’s happening around us. Unless we see history as part of our own story, there are only disconnected events. Indeed, unless we see ourselves in the context of the story we lose a part of ourselves. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the work known as Romans: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Hardship? Distress? Calamity? Persecution? Famine? Hunger? Nakedness? Peril? Danger? The sword? Violence?” (Slight pause.)

Can we, do we see ourselves as a part of the story about the relationship between God and humanity? (Slight pause.) One premise with which I approach the Bible asks this: what does the Bible mean beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation— the whole arc?

Here’s my take: the narrative of the Bible says God loves each of us and wants to be in covenant with all of us. That’s the whole thing, the whole story in one sentence.

Hence, to ask what this verse says over here in Leviticus or to ask about this verse over here in Romans is always inadequate. We need to ask how a verse in Leviticus or a verse in Romans fits into the basic story— the story that says God loves each of us and wants to be in covenant with all of us.

Indeed, if we look at one of those verses and decide it says God does not love someone or that someone is outcast, we’ve not just misread the narrative. Either we really do not know the narrative or we’ve twisted the narrative beyond recognition.

Further, the narrative needs to be personal. We need to see ourselves in the narrative, this story which says God loves each of us and wants to covenant with all of us. So to say it again, the basic narrative, the basic story of the Bible is really this simple: God loves each of us. God loves all of us. (Slight pause.)

So, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” If we do not see ourselves and everyone else as a part of the narrative of the love of God, all of those aforementioned things— trouble, hardship, distress, calamity, persecution, famine, hunger, nakedness, peril, danger, the sword, violence— will separate us from the love of God. They will separate us— and note: not God from us but us from God— there’s a difference— we are the ones forcing the separation— these will separate us from what God has done for us in Christ.

I need to be clear about something else. What I am not saying is that trouble, hardship, distress, calamity, persecution, famine, hunger, nakedness, peril, danger, the sword or violence will cease to exist because of the love God offers. You see, as Christians, we believe the peace of God is with us.

But the peace of God is not the absence of trouble, hardships, et cetera. The peace of God is, rather, the presence of God.

And, as Christians, we believe Christ lives. We believe the presence of Christ is with us, the presence of God is with us— here, now.

A relationship with God is like any other relationship. It’s personal. And once we realize that nothing can separate us from Christ, once we see ourselves as children of God, as a part of that story, then the relationship becomes very, very personal.

Why? Because we then see ourselves as loved by God in Christ, Jesus, and we see ourselves as a part of the story— part of the story called the love of God. And I think the love of God is the greatest story ever told. Amen.

07/30/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Two things: remember Mr. Frog. Second, Another seminary student, not the one from the earlier story, once said to me that the reason the professors wanted us to write so many papers is they wanted us re-write the Bible. ‘No,’ I said. ‘They want to empower us to know the story of the Bible so well that we can tell others what Bible says using our own words.’ I think that illustrates the relationship we need to have with Scripture and with God. It’s about God so it’s about relationship. It’s personal, therefore.”

BENEDICTION
Let us recognize that the transforming power of the love God offers is forever among us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.

07/23/2023 ~ Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Proper 11 ~ Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24; Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19 or Isaiah 44:6-8; Psalm 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Alpha and Omega

“This is what Yahweh says— the Ruler of Israel, the Redeemer of Israel, the Sovereign of heaven, Yahweh Omnipotent— “I am the first and I am the last; apart from Me there is no god.” — Isaiah 44:6

A couple weeks ago at A Time for All Ages I displayed a little globe of the earth. Since there happened to be no youngsters here that Sunday I felt it was O.K. to throw out some adult ideas, adult numbers about the earth.

I said the earth rotates at about 1,000 miles per hour. Also the earth and therefore our solar system along with us and with it, is traversing through interstellar space at about 67,000 miles per hour. I then said the number of humans currently living on this fragile globe as we hurtle along through space is 8 Billion souls.

Now, for the sake of clarity I then pointed out an easy way to tell the difference between one million and one billion. One million seconds spans approximately eleven days. One billion seconds, however, would be around 31 years. Just to pile on with the numbers game what I did not say is a trillion seconds would be about 31,000 years.

I did not say this at that time: we all know there are billionaires but it’s probably hard for us to understand that much money. Equally and for the sake of clarity, the current evaluation of Apple Computers is 3 trillion dollars. (Pause.)

When I start a class for the process of Confirmation in an effort to help those involved grasp the reality of the universe and thereby our minute place in it, I often begin with some related large numbers. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.

That means light travels 5.88 trillion miles in one year. The radius of the known universe is 46.508 billion light years. And as I said, each one of those light years is nearly 6 trillion miles. If all those numbers do not make our heads hurt just thinking about it, we’re doing it wrong. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. “This is what Yahweh says— the Ruler of Israel, the Redeemer of Israel, the Sovereign of heaven, Yahweh Omnipotent— “I am the first and I am the last; apart from Me there is no god.” (Slight pause.)

We need to realize the titles of God at the start of this passage— the Ruler of Israel, etc.— are what the writer says about God. Then it is God Who says I am the first and the last. Next, please notice how this reading is laid out on the page. I hope it’s evident we are looking at, hearing some form of poetry.

But scholars tell us these words are more than just poetry. This is a lyric, a hymn. The Hebrew Scriptures have a multitude of hymns. In fact, I sometimes refer to the Book of Psalms as the hymnal of the Second Temple. (Slight pause.)

Now, some of you know this about me; others do not. I am a member of A.S.C.A.P., the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. I am a professional lyricist. The lyricist in me could do at least an hour lecture on how a lyric is different than a poem, but we don’t have that kind of time.

Briefly, a lyric must pay attention to not just what’s happening in the tempo, meter and tune. A lyric also needs to work with the chord structure which supports the tune. Indeed, the meaning, the deep emotional content of music, is found in the chords. Besides matching everything else, the words need to match that meaning, those emotions. [1]

You heard about emotions and music because of the quote from Yip Harburg in our Thoughts for Meditation— “songs make us feel thoughts.” Music, therefore hymns by definition, carry significant emotional content. That needs to be recognized. [2]

As for the hymns found in Scripture, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news: as I indicated, the Bible is riddled with songs, hymns. The bad news: we do not have a clue as to what any of that music sounds like.

And when it comes to the emotions being expressed, what God is says in this hymn is both a monologue and something of a rant. As a lyricist I need to say there are a lot of songs which are rants. In this rant a difference is drawn between God’s own self and other gods, the graven idols, being worshiped by peoples other than the Israelites.

But it’s possible, given these words were written during the Babylonian exile, that the Israelites have found the Babylonian graven images attractive. God is not pleased.

But this is more than just a rant. God presents Israel and thereby presents us with a challenge by asking tacit questions. Those questions: Who is your God? Who do you think your God is? Who do say your God is? Who do you worship?

There are other even more pointed questions implied. These include— can it be determined by your actions who God is? Can it be determined by your actions who you think or say God is? Can it be determined by your actions who you worship?

Along with those challenges, God clearly makes a statement about who God is. (Quote:) “I am the first and I am the last; apart from Me there is no god.” (Pause.)

Recently there was a scientific breakthrough. This quote about the breakthrough is from The Washington Post. “The very fabric of the cosmos is constantly being roiled and rumpled all around us, according to multiple international teams of scientists that have independently found compelling evidence for long-theorized space-time waves.” [3]

In short, time does not march smoothly forward. Time is flexible. Ouch! Now my head really hurts. (Slight pause.)

That science brings me back to God, God Who we hear about in this passage. This is a God Who defines time, defies time, is beyond time. This is a God for Whom our human sense of what time is does… not… matter.

After all, our claim is God spoke with the Israelites, that God became incarnate with the reality of Jesus, that Jesus lives, that the Spirit is at work in our midst. I am sorry to repeat myself but if that does not make our heads hurt just thinking about it, we’re doing it wrong. (Slight pause.)

I know a church where during the Seasons of Advent and Christmas the Deacons hang two very large Greek letters— Alpha and Omega— covered in evergreen branches and lights at the front of the meeting house. Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, tells us all we need to know about Who we should be celebrating during Advent, Yuletide, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, about Who we should be celebrating throughout the year.

We celebrate God Who is both incarnate in a specific time and all time, for Whom there is no beginning or end. We celebrate God Who defines time, defies time, is beyond time, a God for Whom our human understanding of time does not apply.

The claim being made in the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, the claim we Christians make at Advent, Yuletide, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide, throughout Pentecost, is that God transcends our understanding. This is our claim: God is eternal.

Tell me, what does that mean? How many light years is that? Can it be in any way counted? (Slight pause.)

I suspect we need to adjust out thinking about God even if that does make our heads hurt. We need to understand what we are saying, what Isaiah told us God said, is that God, Who is eternal, does not just transcend all numbers and all time. God is beyond our understanding.

Question: are we willing to live with that, live with a God Who cannot be measured, a God Who we cannot measure? Or do we want to fashion a God who is more understandable. Do we want to put God in a box. Do we want to domesticate God? Your call. Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
07/23/2023

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Earlier I said the passage was a lyric, a hymn. The renowned lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II said song is what happens when the emotions being expressed are too intense to be carried by mere dialogue. Even if it makes our heads hurt we need to, as well as we are able, explore the emotional content about God found in Scripture. And Scripture is riddled with emotional content about God.”

BENEDICTION: O God, Who by the leading of a star led the people of the earth to the reality of the Christ, lead us, who know You by faith, to Your presence, to Your reality where we may see Your glory in the lost, the weary, the outcast, in each of our neighbors. Help us to see, to understand, to witness, to live lives filled with Your grace. Amen.

[1] It should be noted that the closing hymn for this service, This Is the World of God had a lyric written by the pastor.

[2] This was one of two Thoughts for Meditation for the day and was read out loud at the start of the service: “Words make us think thoughts. Music makes us feel feelings. Songs make us feel thoughts.” — ‘Yip’ Harburg, Lyricist for The Wizard of Oz

[3]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/06/28/gravitational-wave-background-nanograv/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert

07/16/2023 ~ Seventh Sunday after Pentecost ~ Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Proper 10 ~ Genesis 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 ~ NOTE: Used Exodus 3:1-16.

VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/846310842

NOTE: below is the reading used for this sermon. The sermon follows. This sermon was a tri-logue (a dialogue for three people). Ken Chutchian and Eric Wohltjen, members of the Kellogg Church, participated in this presentation.

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

In part because we read these words I am about to offer in translation, certainly one of the things we miss is that God names God’s own self by using a form of the verb “to be.” But perhaps of equal interest is that God uses three different forms in stating that name. Think about that later— three different forms in stating that name. Hear now this reading as it is found in the work known as Exodus in the Third Chapter.

A READING FROM A READING FROM THE TANAKH IN THE SECTION KNOWN AS THE TORAH — Exodus 3:1-16 [ILV]

[1] Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, who was the father-in-law of Moses and was the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the beaten path, deep into the wilderness, Moses came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

[2] There a messenger of God appeared in a flame of fire from the midst of a thornbush. Moses saw this— a bush ablaze with fire and yet not consumed— [3] and Moses said, “Let me go closer and look at this remarkable sight and see why the bush does not burn up.”

[4] God saw Moses coming closer and called out from the midst of the bush: “Moses, Moses!”

Moses answered, “I am here.”

[5] God said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground!”

[6] Then God said, “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Rebecca and Isaac, the God of Leah and Jacob and Rachel.”

Moses looked away, afraid to look at the Holy One.

[7] Then God said, I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt; I have heard their cries as they suffer because of those who oppress them. I have, indeed, felt their sufferings. [8] Now I have come to deliver them, to rescue them from the hand of Egypt out of their place of their suffering and to bring them to a place out of that land, a place that is wild and fertile, a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. [9] The cry of the children of Israel has reached me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. [10] Now Go! I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

[11] But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

[12] God answered, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign by which you shall know that it is I who sent you: after you bring my people out of Egypt, you will all worship at this very mountain.”

[13] “But” Moses said, “when I go to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ of they ask, ‘What is the name of God?’ what shall I say to them?”

[14] God replied, “I AM WHO I AM.” God also said, I AM AS I AM. Then God further said, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

[15] God spoke further to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the I AM of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Rebecca and Isaac, the God of Leah and Jacob and Rachel, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever;
This is the name
you are to remember
for all generations.

[16] Now go and gather the elders of Israelites and tell them, ‘I AM, the God of your ancestors, ancestors the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Rebecca and Isaac, the God of Leah and Jacob and Rachel, has appeared to me and sent me to you. Say to them I have heard you, I have heard your cries and I have seen the way you are being treated in Egypt.

Here ends this reading from Scripture.

Baseball, the Bible and Trinitarianism:
A Tri-logue
(A Dialogue for Three People)

JOE: Greetings to all— I am not here to offer the usual sermon today. I am here to offer a serious academic lecture about the connection between sports and the Bible. I see some doubting looks out there. But I do need everyone to know that there is a definite connection between athletics and the Bible. In fact, did you know that strange as it may seem, the Bible is about Baseball.

ERIC: (At the start of this Eric is sitting near the front of the congregation.) Wait! Wait! Wait just a cotton picking minute. Hold on! Hold your horses! Baseball? How can the Bible be about Baseball? You probably know this. I am a really, really big Baseball fan. And if I know anything, I know Baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday. Legend has it Abner invented Baseball in Cooperstown, New York where the Baseball Hall of Fame is today. Now, on the other hand, Abraham, for instance, is in the Bible and lived in the part of the world we today call the Middle East. But Abraham probably lived about four thousand years ago. Moses is also in the Bible. And Moses probably lived in the part of the world we call the Middle East. But Moses lived about three thousand years ago. And Jesus is in the Bible. (You knew that, right?) And Jesus lived about two thousand years ago. But Jesus lived in the part of the world we today call the Middle East. So, they all lived in what we today call the Middle East. The Middle East— that’s thousands and thousands and thousands of miles away from Cooperstown. Even by jet, that would take better than a half a day to get from the Middle East all the way to Cooperstown, New York. I know that because I’ve been in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. And if there is anything I know, it’s that Doubleday invented Baseball in Cooperstown, New York. Baseball has nothing to do with the Middle East. Also, Baseball was invented in 1839 not thousands of years ago. 1839 is only about (Eric counts on his fingers)… 184 years ago, not 4,000 years ago, not 3,000 years ago, not 2,000 years ago.

KEN: (KEN has been sitting near the front of the congregation also and now jumps up.) Eric— I am sorry to say you’re wrong. Joe is right. Baseball is in the Bible. After all, don’t the first words in Genesis say: “In the Big Inning…”

ERIC: Oh, yeah?

JOE: Yeah. So you see? There is a connection between Baseball and the Bible— it’s real.

ERIC: Yeah? Well… well… well… who’s on First?

KEN: What do you mean, who’s on First?

ERIC: I just want to know the name of the player in the field, the position we call First Base. Who’s on First? I want to know the name of the player who plays First Base. It might even be a strange name.

KEN: That may well be right. Or at least you’ll think it’s a strange name.

ERIC: Well, yes! There are a lot of Baseball players have funny or strange names. I mean, in the past Baseball players have had names like Dizzy Dean who played for the Saint Louis team. Or Mookie Wilson who played for the Mets. Or Moose Skowron— he played for the Yankees. Moose— you’d think a guy named Moose would be from Maine and would play for the Red Sox. But no. He played for the Yankees. And there even was a pitcher named Joba— Joba— that name doesn’t even sound like the name of a Baseball player. That sounds like a character out of Star Wars. And there was this guy named Casey Stengel. Casey— he should have been managing a locomotive, not a Baseball team. But Casey said you can’t have a Baseball team without a catcher— but what would Casey know— he managed the Yankees and the Mets— not the Red Sox. So let’s forget about who the catcher is and start on First Base. I’ll say it again. If the Bible is about Baseball, who’s… on… First?

KEN: I still don’t know what you mean by who’s on First? And what happened to the catcher.

ERIC: Never mind about the catcher. Here’s what I want to know: if the Bible is about Baseball, what’s the name of the player who plays First Base in the Bible?

JOE: What is not the name of the one who plays First Base on the Bible Baseball team.

ERIC: I know that! Who’s on First?

KEN: Who is not the name of the one who plays First Base on the Bible Baseball team.

ERIC: Look. Do either of you know the name of the one playing First Base on the Bible Baseball team?

JOE: I think we both know the name.

ERIC: Great. So can either one of you please tell me the name of the one playing the position of First Base on this Bible Baseball team?

KEN: I AM.

ERIC: You play First Base?

KEN: No.

ERIC: I didn’t think you were playing First Base. So, the name of the one playing First is…?

KEN : I AM.

ERIC: Look, you just said you are not the one playing First on the Bible Baseball team. And then I ask you the name of the one playing First on the Bible Baseball team and what do you say? You say, “I AM.” No you are not. You said you are not. (Turns to Joe.) O.K. You, you— maybe you know Mr. know it all about the Bible and Baseball can tell me. What is the name of the one playing First on the Bible Baseball team.

JOE: What is not the name of the one who plays First.

ERIC: I think we’ve already established that. So, let’s try this again: the name of the one playing First on the Bible Baseball team is…?

JOE: I AM.

ERIC: You play First Base? (Points to KEN.) First he said he’s playing First. Then you say you’re playing First.

JOE: No. I am not a good enough player to play First and who is not playing First, either.

ERIC: O.K. We got that straight now. (Points to Joe.) You’re not the one playing First. (Points to KEN.) And you’re not playing First. So, who is playing First?

KEN AND JOE (TOGETHER): I AM.

ERIC: No. Wait! You can’t both be playing First!

JOE: No. We’re not.

ERIC: So, who… is… playing… First?

KEN AND JOE (TOGETHER): I AM.

ERIC: All right. That’s settled. You’ve got two people playing First Base.

KEN: No, no, no. You don’t understand. When Moses asked God to tell Moses what the name of God is so Moses could tell the people of Israel that name, the word God used to identify God’s own self was the Hebrew word Yahweh.

JOE: And the Hebrew word Yahweh is, in Hebrew, a form of the verb to be. Hence, God’s name is…

KEN AND JOE (TOGETHER): I AM.

ERIC: No. That can’t possibly be right. Baseball players can have strange names but no one can possibly be named ‘I AM.’ It’s just… just too strange even for Baseball players.

JOE: Hey! If someone can be named Dizzy or Moose or Joba, how can you say ‘I AM’ is a strange name?

ERIC: Well, I guess you have a point. But I’ve heard people call God by lots of names. I’ve heard God called Creator. I’ve heard God called the Light. I’ve heard God called Rock— now that name sounds like a Baseball player— Rock. I’ve even heard God called Father.

KEN: Yes. God is called by a lot of names in the Bible. But of all those names you mentioned, Father is the one you will never find in the Bible.

ERIC: What do you mean Father is not in the Bible? Didn’t Jesus teach the disciples to start a basic prayer to God with the words “Our Father…”?

KEN: No.

ERIC: What do you mean no? We say a prayer that starts with the words “Our Father…” at nearly every service on a Sunday. And I know Jesus taught that prayer to the disciples.

KEN: No. The prayer Jesus taught the disciples was more personal and more intimate than that. Jesus told the disciples to pray saying “Our Daddy…”

ERIC: But this is God we’re talking about! That sounds way too…too… too… informal— “Our Daddy…”

KEN: That’s what it really says in Scripture when we read it in the original language— “Our Daddy.”

ERIC: All right, so where did we get Father?

JOE: We got it from the Romans. They called their chief God ‘Father.’ So you see, the term ‘Father’ is not in the Bible. It just started being used because the Romans were using it for their god.

ERIC: But the Romans worshiped a lot of gods; the Romans were… were… pagans.

JOE: I think you’ve made my point. They were pagans. And every time we call God ‘Father’ that’s a reference to a pagan God.

KEN: And since God is not called Father in the Bible, maybe we should just stick with the name Yahweh— “I AM.”

JOE: And you know what we just said: who’s on First? I AM is on First.

ERIC: I AM is on First?

JOE: I AM is on First.

ERIC: O.K. Who’s on second? Bet I got you with that one. Who plays Second Base on this Bible team? It ain’t ‘I AM’ is it?

KEN: No. It ain’t I AM.

JOE: Jesus is on second.

KEN: You see, one of the basic Christian beliefs is the one many people label as Trinity. And in Trinity Jesus is known as the Second Person— Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity— Jesus is on second.

ERIC: Oh, yeah? Think you’re smart with that one, do you? (Mocking.) Jesus is known as the Second Person of the Trinity. So, Jesus is on Second. Well, I know my theology too. And Jesus had two natures. Jesus is fully human and Jesus is fully divine. You can’t pin Jesus down that easily. So, maybe Jesus is not just on second. Nah, nah, na, na, na!

JOE: Shortstop.

ERIC: What?

JOE: Shortstop.

ERIC: Jesus plays shortstop?

JOE: You are right on that one, O grand inquisitor of all things Baseball and Bible. Our Christian claim is that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. So, Jesus gets to play second.

KEN: And Jesus gets to play shortstop too. Fully human and fully divine.

ERIC: Who’s on second?

JOE: Jesus.

ERIC: Who plays short?

KEN: Jesus.

ERIC: But how can someone play two positions?

KEN: Eric… Jesus.

ERIC: (Resigned.) Yeah…. right… fully human; fully divine.

KEN: Right.

ERIC: O.K. Explain that. Explain how someone can play two positions.

JOE: ERIC… it’s simple. We’re talking about Jesus.

ERIC: (Resigned again.) Right. O.K. It’s Jesus. But you still have the hot corner! You haven’t got to the hot corner covered yet!

KEN: The hot corner?

ERIC: Third Base! Where you have to be ready for someone dropping down a bunt. Where you have to be ready when the batters hit wicked shots down the line and you’ve got to dive for the ball and make a backhanded catch! And you don’t have third covered on the Bible Baseball team, do you?! Wham! Crack! And there goes a line drive over the bag…

JOE: ERIC. ERIC. ERIC. ERIC. Slow down. You know who covers the hot corner.

ERIC: I do?

JOE: You do.

ERIC: (Long pause. Quietly:) Third Base… the Spirit of God?

JOE: See? You do know your theology. The Spirit of God is sometimes called the Holy Spirit. And, speaking of many funny names, the Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Paraclete…

ERIC: Hold it! Hold it! Hold it! Nothing you’ve said so far proves the Bible is about Baseball until now! That the Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete really proves the Bible is about Baseball!

JOE: That the Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete really proves the Bible is about Baseball?

ERIC: Of course it does! The Holy Spirit must be wearing a pair of cleats.

JOE: Ahhh, right, right, right, right. Well, the Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Paraclete, sometimes called the Spirit which is present to us, sometimes called the Spirit in our midst… the point is the Holy Spirit is here with us. The Holy Spirit can handle all our situations, anything anyone hits to us… all those bunts which might catch us unaware and all the hot shots down the line. The Holy Spirit helps us with everything.

KEN: Yes, the Spirit of God is always with us. The gifts of the Spirit, sometimes called the fruits of the Spirit, these are gifts that God gives us and they are many: wisdom, knowledge, healing, prophecy, discernment, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, joy, peace and love. The Spirit of God is at work in our lives. And we can rely on the Spirit to guide us through life.

JOE: And when we consider our experience of God which takes in the faithfulness of the one called I AM, the example of Jesus and the guidance of the Spirit— that is the real reason we say Baseball is mirrored in the Bible.

ERIC: Why do you say that? What do you mean?

JOE: Eric, what’s the object of the game of Baseball?

ERIC: To score runs?

KEN: Close!

ERIC: Oh, I know! The object of the game is to avoid three strikes and you’re out!

JOE: Not quite right, either, although I think part of the point is to stay at bat until you realize that you can walk with God.

KEN: So yes, besides a walk with God, the real object of the game is to be safe at home.

JOE: And if we pay attention to the fact that God, the Great I AM, is on First…

KEN: And Jesus plays both second and short…

JOE: And the Spirit covers third…

KEN: And that God, Jesus and the Spirit is what Christians through the centuries have called Trinity and that God, Jesus and the Spirit are Trinity…

JOE: When we pay attention to all that…

ERIC: I know. I know. We will be safe at home with God.

JOE: Safe at home…

KEN: Safe at home…

ALL 3: Safe… at… home…

JOE: And you know, there are only two places people sing together in public any more. One is in Church. And one is in the ballpark for the seventh inning stretch. It would not be church and it would not be a Baseball game if there was not community singing. So, let’s all sing the song in the bulletin. It’s called Send Us Out; it’s right there in the bulletin. Elizabeth! Hit it!

LYRIC: Send us out, God, in Your Name
God be there in the crowd!
By You we live and we play and run.
We are a part of Your Three in One!
And it’s root, root, root, for the One God—
Maker, Redeemer and Flame!
And it’s one, two, three ways to know:
God’s beyond all Names!

KEN: Baseball and the Bible!

JOE: That’s a real Home Run!

ERIC: Amen, and again, Amen!

ALL 3: Amen, and again, Amen!

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “And I hope that was at one and the same time that was both silly enough and serious enough for everyone. And I want to give Ken and Eric another ‘Thank You.’ And just for fun here are a couple more Baseball quotes. “A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished.” — Joe Torre; “You may not think you’re going to make it. And you may want to quit. But if you keep your eye on the ball, you can accomplish anything.” — Hank Aaron; “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.” — Bob Feller; “To succeed in baseball, as in life, you must make adjustments.” — Ken Griffey Jr.

BENEDICTION: This is a prayer from the Melanesian Islands: Oh Jesus, be the canoe that holds me up in this sea of life; be the rudder that keeps me moving on a straight line; be the outrigger that supports me in times of trial; let Your Spirit be the sail that carries me through each day; keep me resolute and steadfast so that I can paddle steadfastly on the voyage called life. Amen.

07/02/2023 ~ Proper 8 (13) ~ Fifth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13; Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42 ~ The Sunday Before the Secular Holiday Known as Independence Day; Communion Sunday ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/842455016

Rewards?

“But the truth is whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones just for being a disciple will not lack a reward.” — Matthew 10:42.

Well, here we are— gathered in the 1757 Meeting House for worship. As I said earlier, in our Congregational tradition this building and the 1843 building across the road should not be identified by the word ‘church.’ The people are the church. Each of these buildings is a Meeting House, the place where the church, the people— you who are church— gather for worship.

To offer a little history many of us may already know, this Congregation, our ancestors in faith, the people who first gathered as church in Harpswell, pre-date even this building by two decades. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in public for the people of Harpswell from the steps of this structure.

In 1844 the Rev. Mr. Elijah Kellogg became the pastor. He remained involved with the community of Harpswell, despite leaving that post some 10 years later.

To slightly change location, while Kellogg was serving this congregation, Harriet Beecher Stowe received a vision to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin as she sat in a pew at First Parish Church in Brunswick. Many moons later I was a member at First Parish and they kicked me out and dispatched me off to Bangor Theological Seminary.

After serving churches in Waldo County, I spent 23 years as Pastor at a church in very rural Upstate New York. I was the longest serving pastor that church had ever seen. I mention this because there’s a connection which relates to history. The pastor whose record I bested at that New York church was the son-in-law of Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

I always felt the Beecher/Stowe connection with that New York church somehow completed a circle, perhaps a cycle of history. To come back to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and that era, it has been reported that because of her famous book when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he said, “Well, this is the little lady who started the Civil War.” Indeed, we Congregationalists were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement. (Slight pause.)

Most people don’t realize how terrible the Civil War was. Historians tell us there were at least 650,000 battlefield deaths during the conflict. That is equal to the total fatalities in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined.

Today, July 2nd, is the 160th anniversary of Little Round Top, one of many battles in which Maine’s own Joshua Chamberlain was involved. Indeed, we are in the midst of the three days— July First, Second and Third— which marks the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. During just those three days over 50,000 were killed.

Some say the civil war was simply a war of state against state and they make a states’ rights argument. But that ignores the deep reality of the Civil War.

The war was a fight which said there is no right to buy and sell people, human beings. It was a fight for freedom, a fight to free those who were enslaved in this nation, enslaved largely based on the color of their skin. (Pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Matthew: “But the truth is whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones just for being a disciple will not lack a reward.” (Slight pause.)

The cup of water we hear about in this passage is a symbol. The message of that symbol says the establishment of a new family is possible. The old, family which already exists and is full formed, can be bound together with a new, emerging family by a common commitment to do the will of God. Further, the new family is not there to replace the old family.

The new family is to be born and refreshed by the renewal found in the mission of the water offered by the old family. And this newly formed family which consists of the old and the new together is born in the context of mission.

Indeed, these words say community can extend beyond the current community because that new community is embraced and needs to be welcomed in the context of mission. Put another way, the old community, our community, needs to be aware we have a cup of water to offer, and extend it to the new community which is already there and ready to be welcomed.

The old community and the new community alike can be bonded together in the presence of the divine. How? Bonding is what happens in the context of mission. (Slight pause.)

We live in a world, in a society, that thinks everything has a price, everything can be bought and/or sold. Therefore, I think when we read these words from Matthew many believe the important part of the verse we heard is “…a disciple will not lack a reward.” We hear these words and react because we hear and see transaction.

But and therefore, we tend to ignore these words (quote:) “…whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these…” That dichotomy begs these questions: what is a disciple? What is discipleship? What does it mean to be a disciple? (Slight pause.)

Church historian Diana Butler Bass has said (quote:) “This is the real issue for churches today: Is the congregation one that provides a way of life, meaningful life, for people which can help them navigate through chaotic times. Is the congregation one that provides a way to be able to connect with God, to experience a new sense of the Holy Spirit, to be able to empower love and to be compassionate? That is what makes religious communities vibrant,…” (unquote). [1] (Slight pause.)

The Dominion of God is not about transactions, not about rewards. Neither is the Dominion of God is not about who has the most.

The church is not about transactions or rewards. The church is about striving to provide a way of meaningful life for people to help them navigate through chaotic times. The church is about helping people connect with the reality of God.

The church is about an experience of a new sense of the Holy Spirit, about empowering love, about being be able to be compassionate. The church is about community. The church is about… giving a cup of water.

The question before us, this group of people here gathered, this congregation, this community, is not a question about power or reward or even survival. The question before this congregation, this community is did we, were we, are we providing a way of meaningful life for people to help them navigate chaotic times?

Did we, were we, are we helping people connect with God, experience a sense of the Holy Spirit? Are we, can we empower love and compassion? Did we give a cup of water… simply a cup of cold water? (Pause.)

Earlier I said the Declaration of Independence was read in public for the people of Harpswell for the first time from the steps of this structure. And so, I said something in my comments from this pulpit last year which I think bears repeating.

Many feel the opening words of the Declaration of Independence about equality, life, liberty, the pursuit are the most important words in the document. And these days we tend to take those words personally, as if they were about each individual, as if they were about each one of us individually, indeed, as if they were about transaction.

However, I believe for the signers of the document who lived through those tumultuous times words toward the end of the Declaration were of at least equal importance. (Quote): “…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (Slight pause.)

“…we mutually pledge…” The signers of the Declaration accepted, indeed, embraced communal responsibility. (Slight pause.) Giving a cup of cold water— it’s about our mutual responsibility as neighbors, as community. Amen. [2]

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “One of the founding documents of this nation is the aforementioned Declaration of Independence. These are the first words of the other founding document, the Constitution: ‘We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…’ Please notice the challenge this presents to all of us. We always and constantly need to strive toward the never ending process of being more perfect. And why is it a never ending process. In the words of Thomas Aquinas, perfection is found only in heaven. That does not mean we should fail to continually work at it? No. Perhaps what community really demands is that we do need to work at it continually.”

BENEDICTION: Let us place our trust in God. Let us go from this place to share this Good News: by God we are blessed; in Jesus, the Christ, we are made whole. Let us depart in confidence and joy that the Spirit of God is with us and let us carry Christ in our hearts for God is faithful. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.

[1] . A summary of this is found at this URL.

Diana Butler Bass: SBC decline dispels idea that only liberal denominations die

[2] The closing hymn was My Eyes Have Seen the Glory. When the hymn was introduced the Pastor used the following words to explain the origin of the hymn.

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The Closing hymn today is My Eyes Have Seen the Glory. To see this work as a patriotic piece of music is to completely and utterly misunderstand what it says and what it means. Julia Ward Howe, suffragette and abolitionist, wrote the text of this hymn to a camp meeting tune when she witnessed a parade of Union troops near Washington, D.C. This was after the election of Lincoln but before the inauguration, so just before the onset of the Civil War. It is a hymn which expresses not patriotism but a clear sense of a religious call to action. It was a summons to proclaim freedom not just for the privileged in society but for all people, the outcast, the downtrodden, the enslaved. The hymn, if we are true to the sense of what the words actually say and mean, remains a call for all Christians to the kind of action that might ensure the freedom offered by the reality of the Dominion of God. It is a call to humanity for peace, freedom, justice and, hence, not about a specific nation or country. Therefore, to treat this hymn as a call to nationalism or patriotism misses the point of the sentiments it expresses. And so, singing this hymn should also be seen as a sobering experience. Indeed, as Christians, we need to pay particular attention to the last lines which read, “As Christ died to make us holy, / let us die to make all free / While God is marching on”— sobering, indeed. If this work stirs up anything resembling emotions in us, these emotions should inform us that injustice exists in our world, that injustice in the world is real, that acts of injustice are often violent and injustice is pervasive. We are thereby called on by God to respond. Again, the hymn is My Eyes Have Seen the Glory. When Elizabeth reaches the fourth verse of this hymn she will slow the tempo so we can offer that fourth verse with the reverence it deserves. And after the Benediction we will sing the refrain once again— My Eyes Have Seen the Glory.

06/25/2023 ~ Proper 7 (12) ~ Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/839788752

The Unexamined Life

“You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.” — Matthew 10:39.

Many of you know I came to maturity in the Roman Catholic tradition. Or as I have said here before, with a name like Joseph Francis Connolly, Jr. that is hard to hide.

When I was in parochial school the nuns taught us to prepare for the Sacrament of Confession. It should be noted in the Roman tradition Confession is a Sacrament and one is expected to go to confession, to confess sins, regularly, even weekly.

In order to prepare, a person should do what is called an examination of conscience concerning what sins one might have committed. Or so the nuns said. But what does that mean— an examination of conscience? (Slight pause.)

Perhaps the informative and first question to ask here is the obvious one: ‘what is sin?’ In our Western culture we have somehow decided sin can be defined only as specific acts committed by individuals.

Therefore, if little Tommy in Sister Mary Patrick’s 4th Grade class happens to accidentally lift a chocolate bar from the supermarket shelf and, unobserved, slip it in a pocket while shopping with Mom— well, as Tommy totals up what happened in the course of the week, that should count as a sin. Tommy needs to confess it.

In fact, Tommy needs to calculate what sins have been committed since the last confession and be ready to confess each of these acts, sins. This tends to be a practice to which many adhere from the 4th Grade forward until death. Assessing sin becomes a game of numbers. What was done which qualifies as an offense and how often has it been done?

“Are you sorry?” might not even be a part of the picture. Indeed, if one sees some act as sin but keeps doing it over and over and over, it becomes hard to envision a state of actual confession, some movement which might consist of real change.

Believe me, my 4th grade teacher, Sister Mary Patrick, used that little Tommy example of the lifted chocolate bar to explain an examination of conscience. But for many, the process of accounting becomes the only reality. How many times, how often?

Of course, lifting a chocolate bar from the supermarket shelf does seem to fall under the heading of ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Therefore, one might assume the act is a sin, something that you as an individual might do and something of which you as an individual might be guilty.

But is that sin? (Slight pause.) From the Biblical perspective, lifting a chocolate bar from the local supermarket shelf is, at best, a minor offense and probably not even worthy of the name sin. How is that true?

There are two things that need to be said about sin from the Biblical perspective. First, sin is a corporate offense, something done by the community or in the community. A sin, therefore, may be but is not necessarily done by an individual. Second and also therefore, what kind of act should be defined as sin?

The definition of sin from that Biblical perspective is quite simple. Sin is missing the mark. What mark?

This is the mark: in some way the covenant relationship with God has been broken and/or the covenant relationship with one another has been broken. However and again, from the Biblical perspective, sin is always considered to be so corporate, so communal, that the Biblical concept of sin says if any one of us— any one of us breaks covenant with God or one another, that is if any one individual breaks covenant, then we have all of us together— have offended God and one another.

So the Biblical definition says if one breaks covenant, we have all broken covenant. Individual blame, deciding who is at fault becomes something of a moot point.

I know— from the Biblical perspective if sin is not individual that sounds un-American, does it not? But it’ is theologically quite sound. To make the claim that sin is only individual is a secular way to look at it. Sin is corporate. And, I might add, sin is not a game of numbers: ‘how many times did I do what?’

All that brings us back to covenant. As I said, when we break covenant with God and one another, we miss the mark. It’s that simple. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Matthew. “You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.” (Slight pause.)

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived from approximately 470 to 399 Before the Common Era and is one of the founders of Western philosophy. This is among many things Socrates is famous for saying: “The unexamined life is not worth living”— “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

The examined life is what philosophy is about. Indeed, what does the word philosophy mean? Philosophy is a combination of two Greek words— philo and sophia.

Philo means love as in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Sophia, a common name for women, is also the Greek word for wisdom or virtue. Hence, philosophy is the love of or the pursuit of wisdom or the love of or the pursuit of virtue.

So, when we examine our lives what are we really doing? We are not addressing the lifting a candy bar off a shelf or an enumeration of wrong doings.

When we examine our lives— or as the Nuns would have it, when we examine our conscience— we should be trying to see is if we have fully pursued wisdom, virtue. If we have not fully pursued wisdom, virtue, or put the Christian way if we have not fully pursued adherence to a covenant with God and one another, we have missed the mark. (Slight pause.)

And that turns me toward another modern Western concept, the thought that we are constantly and always good, without fault. (Slight pause.)

The responsive Prayer of Confession I used during the Holy Thursday service here at the Kellogg Church this year started with me saying this: “I confess to God and in the company of the people of God that my life and the life of the the whole world is not whole.” Then the congregation responded, “May God forgive you, Christ renew you and the Spirit enable you to grow in love.”

Once that happened, the congregation said: “We confess to God and in the company of the people of God that each of our lives and the life of all the world is not whole.” Then I said, “May God forgive you, Christ renew you and the Spirit enable you to grow….”

This litany, at least in part, illustrates an examined life. Why? It says we might be willing to admit we are imperfect and are willing to forgive imperfection in and to each other. And that brings us directly back to the words attributed to Jesus (quote:) “You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.”

You see the love of or the pursuit of covenant is not about us, individuals. Nor is it about numbers or accounting. The love of or the pursuit of wisdom, virtue, covenant is about a purity of heart and doing for others.

An examination of life is about the continuing covenant with one another. And we need to come to that place— being in covenant with one another— because God is in covenant with us. (Slight pause.)

Matthew says (quote:) “…not a single sparrow will fall to the ground without the knowledge of Abba, God.” These words are not about sparrows. They are about what happens when we are in covenant.

Why would I say this phrase about sparrows is about what happens when we are in covenant? Because, as the lyric in the hymn we used earlier says, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

So yes, God’s eye is on the sparrow. And yes, God is in covenant with us. And God, Who is in covenant with us, invites us to be in covenant with one another. Why? We are all children of God. Or if you like, we are all sparrows.

And, as children of God, as God’s sparrows, we need to see to each other’s well being, to each other’s welfare, to each other’s well-ness, to each other’s wholeness. We need to see to each other’s holiness.

We need to see each other as holy, set aside by God. Striving to see each other as holy— that is what I would call being in pursuit of virtue, of wisdom, of… covenant. Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
06/25/2023

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Populist opinion says to repent means to be sorry or regretful. That is not true. To repent means to stop what I’m doing, any behavior, which is outside of our covenant with God and to change direction from what I am doing and turn toward God. In short, repent means to change. And this is a given: the examined life requires change. If that sounds challenging please remember there are sparrows, we are sparrows, and God watches after sparrows and God watches after us.”

BENEDICTION: God heals and restores. God grants to us the grace and the talent to witness to the love God has for us. Let us be ready as we go into the world, for we are baptized in the power of the Spirit. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.

06/18/2023 ~ Proper 6 (11) ~ Third Sunday after Pentecost ~ Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7); Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; Exodus 19:2-8a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23) ~ Father’s Day ~ Juneteenth Weekend ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/838347447

The Journey Called Salvation

“Then Moses went up to God; and Yahweh— God— called out from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you shall say to the house of Jacob, what you are to tell the Israelites: ‘You saw for yourselves that which I did to Egypt, and how I bore you, carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.’” — Exodus 19:3-4.

My experience of late Twentieth and early Twenty-first Century Americans is that there are only two kinds of people. There are Star Trek people or there are Star Wars people. Rarely does the twain meet.

I know those listening on the will not be able to see what I am about to do, but given what I just said I need to do this. (The pastor gives the Star Trek hand symbol and says:) May the force be with you!

For those listening on the radio I said the Star Wars tag line while I used the Star Trek hand symbol made famous by Leonard Nimoy. For some of you that probably made your skin crawl.

Having touched base on that bit of populism, let’s do something different. Let’s talk about the business of these movies, these franchises.

In 1977 Star Wars earned more money than any other movie that year. Over the years the Star Wars movies have earned over $10 billion— and you heard about billion earlier, didn’t you? [1]

Now, movie studios are corporations and seek a profit. Because of the earnings potential in the Star Wars model of movie making— the so called blockbuster model— studios recognized a very lucrative cash stream was available.

Star Trek started on television but corporation executives saw what happened with Star Wars. So just two years later, in 1979, those executives jumped on the cash cow band wagon and we get Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The estimated income of the Star Trek franchise is— guess what?— over $10 billion.

Now, many, many, many years hence, or perhaps even “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…,” historians are not likely to look at how much money these endeavors earned or how they changed the movie industry. I think the more likely topic will be “how did these films enter into, feed into, even meld with— to use the Star Trek term— with the psyche of America.”

Here’s an obvious question on that count. ‘What is it about the psyche of this nation which enabled, empowered these films to enthrall us?’ (Slight pause.)

Perhaps we need to ask what is Star Wars about… really? Is the film simply about Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, the Wookiee Chewbacca and Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or is it about something else, something more engaging, more central?

Is Star Trek about Captains James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard or Benjamin Sisko or Kathryn Janeway or Jonathan Archer?” Or is it about something else, something more engaging, more central? (Slight pause.)

To be clear about one more thing, Star Wars and Star Trek don’t just tap into the American psyche. They tap into the human psyche. These films tap into our psyche because they are about a very basic human experience.

What’s that experience? These stories are about a journey— a journey called life. Additionally, in the stories there is a sense of some kind of spirit reality, a reality beyond human understanding, which seems to be a constant presence. (Pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Exodus: “Then Moses went up to God; and Yahweh— God— called out from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you shall say to the house of Jacob, what you are to tell the Israelites: ‘You saw for yourselves that which I did to Egypt, and how I bore you, carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.’” (Slight pause.)

We Christians— especially Western Christians— often seem to be comfortable with what the early church would label as a heresy. That heresy says the salvation offered by God started with Jesus. The idea that salvation started with Jesus is a misunderstanding or at least an inaccurate reading of Scripture.

Even a cursory reading of the Exodus story should clearly tell anyone God offers salvation. (Quote:) “You saw for yourselves that which I did to Egypt, and how I bore you, carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” These words describe the action of God and action— especially that action by God— constitutes salvation.

Now my guess is especially Western Christians don’t count actions of God in our lives now as having anything to do with salvation now. Why? Besides the idea that salvation started with Jesus, Western Christians seemed to have grasped onto the notion that salvation is somehow postponed to an afterlife.

And that, indeed, points out a second way we misunderstand, don’t understand, fail to understand the message of Scripture. We equate only an afterlife with salvation.

Given that, I find it interesting that often oppressed communities clearly and obviously understand the salvation God offers can be seen as the present action of God. Oppressed communities understand salvation as something tangible, real, something which can happen and is happening now.

One proof I can offer about how oppressed communities see salvation as a possibility are hymns based in the experience of the African-American community. We used one of them today— In Egypt Under Pharaoh. This hymn references the experience, the salvation of God as something which happened in Biblical times and can happen now.

So, why do oppressed communities equate the experience of God right now, in our time, in our midst, with salvation? (Slight pause.) Let’s, for a moment, go back to Star Wars and Star Trek and explore how these films tap into the human psyche.

As I said, Star Wars is not simply about Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca and Obi-Wan. Star Trek is not simply about Captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer. These are merely characters in the stories. The stories are about journeys. It is the journeys, themselves, which get at a deeper, psyche probing, a sense of meaning.

So too it is with the Exodus story. Indeed, when this passage was introduced it was said the Sinai episode is at the center of Exodus, central to Exodus. And what should draw our attention about the entirety of that story?

The Exodus story taken as a whole has some basic ideas which tap into the human psyche. The story— 40 years in the wilderness— tells us life is a journey. The story tells us the journey moves us, moves humanity, towards freedom. The story tells us there is a spirit, a presence beyond human understanding.

I would suggest Star Trek people see boldly going forth as a spiritual journey, a spiritual reality. Star Wars people actually name the spiritual reality as the force. The Hebrew Scriptures call that spiritual reality God. (Slight pause.)

This should lead us to ask yet another obvious question. If that is a valid reading of the Hebrew Scriptures and accurately assesses how the Hebrew Scriptures address salvation, how should we be reading New Testament on the topic of salvation? (Slight pause.)

Street corner evangelists sometimes ask: “Are you saved?” The implication is somewhere, somehow there is a goal to be achieved. But what is the message Jesus has which can help us discern what salvation is about? (Slight pause.)

Jesus, the reality of the living Christ, affirms the presence of God in our midst. The presence of the living Christ affirms God walks with us now and forever on the life journey called salvation. Amen.

06/18/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “A friend of mine one said there is no such thing as coincidence. There is such a thing as God-incidence. So those of you who were here last week know I strung a series of stories together about my beard in my sermon and that produced some significant laughter. If you were not here you can see it online at Harpswell TV. That very afternoon, I was crawling around the web and came across a video clip of theologian who said if there is no laughter in a church, Jesus is not there. Coincidence? I think not. Please note: we are serious but do have some laughs here. I suspect Jesus is among us.”

BENEDICTION: Let God’s love be our first awareness each day. Let God’s love flow through our every activity. Let us rejoice that God frees us to be witnesses for God. Let us understand every day as a new adventure in faith, a new journey, because the Creator draws us into community. And may we love God so much that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.

[1] Earlier in the service the pastor explained that 1 million seconds is about 11 days but 1 billion seconds is about 31 years.

06/11/2023 ~ Proper 5 (10) ~ Second Sunday after Pentecost ~ Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 33:1-12; Hosea 5:15-6:6; Psalm 50:7-15; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 ~ Note: used Matthew 9:35-10:1, 10:5-7 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/835858341

Do What?

“As you go make this proclamation: ‘The reign of heaven has drawn near.’” — Matthew 10:7.

Anyone who sees me can recognize right away I sport a beard. I’ve often said the beard hides that fact that I have the face of Irish Catholic choir boy. On the other hand, I have reached an age at which, if I did shave it off, this choir boy’s face would probably show more than a couple of wrinkles beneath the fuzz.

I have had a beard sitting on this face for probably about 75 or 80% of my adult life. Some men can grow a beard. For others it proves difficult. For me it was easy.

In fact, it was something of a legend in my family that when I was still in the Eighth Grade I came to the dinner table and my mother told me to go wash my face. So I did.

Upon my return my mother said, “I thought I told you to wash your face?”

“I did,” said I.

After a closer look, without any explanation Mom said, “We’ll take care of this after dinner.” And after dinner she dispatched my father to instruct me on how to shave without cutting myself too severely. In short, by the time I was in the Eighth Grade, there was enough beard to be noticeable.

Generally, there were two periods in my adult life when my shorn face was inflicted on the world. The obvious one is when I was in the Army. What follows is the story of the other time my naked face shocked those who saw it. (Slight pause.)

When I moved from New York City to the great State of Maine to marry my wife Bonnie, I had a beard. At that point she did not know me without a beard.

Not long after I needed to make a quick trip to back New York because my uncle had died. I was there on a weekend and on Sunday I went to the church where I had been a member. I sat next to Mary Johnson, the wife of my best friend Paul. Paul is Bonnie’s cousin. Mary had just had her second child.

After the service a women sitting front of us who did not know either of us, turned around, saw the baby on Mary’s lap and told Mary this was a very pretty baby. Then this woman had the audacity to ask if I was the proud grandfather. That hurt a lot. Why?

Mary, the mother of that baby, is a year older than I am. I, right away, realized the beard might be presenting an image to the world I did not want to embrace— elder statesman.

A couple hours after I returned to Maine I shaved my beard off. Bonnie took pictures of the process. Once the beard was banished, she told me to keep talking because she recognized the voice but not the face.

So then I went to seminary. For reasons of which I am unaware the tendency of many men in seminary is to grow a beard. I did not.

As a consequence, I arrived in Norwich, New York, where I served that church for twenty-three years, whiskerless. Then I went on vacation at the end of the first year and I, of course, returned with a beard. How did I grow a beard with that kind of speed? Please see the story about me in the Eighth Grade.

When I led the first service after vacation one parishioner told me she saw a person in a pastor’s robe who she did not recognize. She assumed there was a substitute preacher…. until I started to talk. She told me she recognized the voice, not the face.

Frankly, I noticed once the beard was back in place I was treated differently. Why? I think there’s a cultural prejudice, inaccurate at best, when it comes to some professions. That cultural prejudice says when men sport a beard they are either an academic or an expert.

Believe me, I am not an academic. I know academics. One of my professors in Seminary would have the Greek text of the Gospels in front of him and translate the Greek on the fly while he was reading. That’s an academic. That’s not me.

I admit this: over the years I may have slowed down some and my bones are quite arthritic, but I like to think I’m still a person of action, not an academic, sedentary and staid. That is certainly my history. Why do I say that? I never even had a sit down job until I was 35. The sedentary, staid life— not my cup of tea. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Matthew: “As you go make this proclamation: ‘The reign of heaven has drawn near.’” (Slight pause.)

I suspect most of us prefer action. Most of us prefer doing. In fact, most of us learn not by reading or by studying but by doing.

I think that’s one reason why, when at the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says we should (quote:) “go and make disciples of all nations” we feel pretty comfortable with that idea. After all, it’s a call to action. We like that. We even call it the great commission.

But that the great commission exists opens up an interesting question. What was Jesus really asking us, telling us to do? What, exactly, is the action to which Jesus is summoning us and how should we being doing it? (Slight pause.)

Remember those sedentary, staid academics (also known as Seminary professors) I was just talking about? Those academics unanimously agreed Jesus had one message and one message only. It was, indeed, a message about action, but probably not the one we think it is.

I think most people think this call to action is about making converts. I think that’s in part because culturally we think of ourselves as people of action. When we hear what we think is an order to make converts our first reaction— and it is a cultural reaction— is to say, “Yes! And how quickly do you want that done?”

But what is Jesus asking us to do? Jesus calls us to make disciples. I think making disciples is quite different, a longer, more sustained action, than simply making converts. I think what this really means is Jesus calls us to teach. This is a very, very, very long term process.

The next question we need to consider is in the context of this ministry of teaching is what are we called to teach? I think the most succinct version of the message Jesus wants us to teach, wants us to spread is contained in these words. (Quote:) “…make this proclamation: ‘The reign of heaven has drawn near.’”

Please note: that sentence, those words are in the past perfect tense: The reign of heaven has drawn near. Put differently, the message of Jesus, the message Jesus wants us to spread is simple: God is near, now; God lives among us, now; God walks with us, now.

So, yes— Jesus does want us to be people of action. And how are we to be people of action? Jesus wants us to share, to teach, exactly the same message Jesus was sharing. What message was Jesus sharing? What message was Jesus teaching?

I’ve said it already. Here it is again. God is present to us… now. God is with us on our journey… now. Indeed, on the journey we call life God walks with us at all times and in all places and in all ways. Amen.

06/11/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is a précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “This is a quote attributed to the late poet Maya Angelou. ‘I am always surprised when someone tells me they are a Christian. I thought that took a lifetime to accomplish.’ As individuals, never mind worrying about another person becoming a Christian. But helping someone become a Christian is something which takes a longer time, takes more sustained action than most people realize. For me, personally— I’m still working on it.”

BENEDICTION: Go now, go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not. Go now, go in love, for love alone endures. Go now, go with purpose and God will honor your dedication. Go now, go in peace for it is a gift of God to those whose hearts and minds are engaged in the will of the One Triune God, Creator, Christ and Spirit. Amen.

06/04/2023 ~ Trinity Sunday ~ Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20 ~ Communion Sunday ~ Christian Education Sunday ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/833395168

God’s Reality

“God saw everything which had been made, was indeed, exceedingly good.” — Genesis 1:31a.

Phineas Taylor Barnum, P. T. to most, was a Nineteenth Century American showman, businessman, politician, remembered mostly for promoting hoaxes. A quote attributed to Barnum says there’s a sucker born every minute.

Are hoaxes perpetrated only on people who cannot think critically or are ignorant or willfully ignorant or is it even more broad than that? Maybe. But there are television shows in what seems to be courtrooms with (quote, unquote) ‘judges.’ These not real but a lot of people watch.

Many also watch all kinds of so called ‘reality TV.’ Reality? Just the presence of TV cameras recording what happens makes that a questionable premise. And now we have AI, artificial intelligence software. It’s likely that will really muddy the water concerning reality.

Indeed, if we could sell tickets back to reality how many buyers would there be? Perhaps these are or should be obvious questions for us: What is real? What is reality? (Slight pause.)

Actual reality can be frighteningly real and really frightening. We’ve probably all seen pictures from smart bombs exploding as they detonate on the unsuspecting.

These are genuine, real, but they look unreal. What’s the reality? The bombs kill people. This juxtaposition of true reality against what is the made up presents a problem: why do people suspend disbelief, abandon critical faculties? Is reality so porous we are readily fooled, sometimes happily fooled, by evocations which look real?

Here’s more reality. Daily real tragedies happen— disasters, wars, poverty, economic, emotional, physical violence so vivid we can feel them. Even when we do not experience it first hand, we empathize, hurt with the wounded, cry out for justice, want to act as peace makers. Our emotions invite us to respond as if they were our own reality.

All this gives voice to our particular dilemma. There are times it’s not easy to discern how we, as Christians, should respond to reality. We can spend more time debating among ourselves about how to respond than responding.

If we fail to respond, have we failed to recognize reality just by dint of inertia? And yes, perhaps our own reality is, at best, flawed, difficult. (Pause.)

This is a related question: what is God’s reality? (Slight pause.) Genesis says, “God saw everything which had been made, was indeed, exceedingly good.” Does the creation story tell us something about God’s reality and the reality of God? (Slight pause.)

Genesis is not concerned with how creation happened. Genesis tells us God and God’s creation is bound together in a distinctive, delicate way, by the gracious involvement of God towards creation. What can clearly be learned from this premise— that God and the creation of God is good— is the Good News of Jesus becomes possible.

You see, we can neither explain away nor adequately analyze the story of creation. Also we can neither explain away nor adequately analyze the story of Jesus. The good news of creation, the Good News of Jesus, can only be affirmed, can only be confessed. These are statements of faith.

In this relationship with creation the characteristic action of God is to speak, name, call, to breathe life. God creates the universe through language, with infinite creativity God authors creation.

Genesis does not use the language of command but uses the language of poetry. So the creation stories in Genesis are a blessing, a liturgy.

As such the creation story is not about scientific description or about origins. The story of creation is a theological, pastoral statement, and again, a statement of faith.

‘Literalists’ would have the Genesis text seen as a blueprint. ‘Rationalists,’ insist there must be a logical explanation and would explain the text as mythology. Both misread the text in a literal way. Both obscure meaning by claiming an overriding definitive structure exists when the essence of the writing eludes any kind of structure.

In its journey with God, Israel is not concerned about God’s technique but God’s intent. So in Genesis ‘good’ is not a moral quality. Good is an aesthetic, a virtue. As a virtue it can never be pinned down, because virtue is verb-like, an ever changing process.

The poetry of Genesis confesses a faith in the reality of the world as God intended it to be. We, God’s creatures, are given a vocation, granted an opportunity to nurture the world, to exercise responsibility as God has exercised responsibility.

The reality of God in Genesis is not oppressive but creative. And we are meant to collaborate in the productiveness of that divine, benign creativeness.

Therefore, we are not meant to swing the cudgels of oppression, wack with sticks of hate, wield hammers of domination. There is a serenity and a peace in God’s work and in God’s world. We are invited, by God, to be participants in that peace, in that world. (Slight pause.)

The words of Genesis, revolutionary when recorded, revolutionary today, offer a gracious, self-giving, present God, not a remote God who reigns by fiat. There is also a revolutionary view of humanity as beings who are not chattel, not owned by God, but possess the free will to seek the same graciousness which God exudes.

We are, hence, ones to whom much is given and from whom comes the fruit of the covenant with God, the fruit of the community. Further, as a community, we are called to engage in this process of creation, called to attempt to remedy that which is unpleasing to God: those disasters, those wars, those conflict, the poverty, the economic, emotional, physical violence.

This is affirmed as a community process because in the Hebrew words employed for the creation of humanity— in those words— the plural is used. This is, thereby, also a bold affirmation that God is reflected not just in us not as individuals, but reflected in the community.

The opening stories in Genesis, therefore, are about process: the process of creation, the initial creation and the continuing creation. This is also about the process of community, each of us engaging with one another as together we seek the will of God.

This is about the process of dialogue between the Creator and the created, the process of dialogue between our flawed perceptions of reality and the perfect reality of God. This is about the process of a faithful God by Whom we are called to fidelity and the reality of a benevolent God who allows for our freedom.

We can either delight in the hard choices with which the ambiguity, the uncertainty of the process presents us. Or we can despair in the hard choices with which the ambiguity, the uncertainty of the process presents us.

We can even choose to abandon the process, abandon any attempt to be both faithful and free. And yes, since we have been granted free will by a gracious God, that choice is ours. All that poses a final question. What reality shall we choose? Which reality shall we decide that we will be a part of? God’s reality or perceived reality? [1] Amen.

06/04/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is a précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “As I said at the start of the service, today is Trinity Sunday. I did not directly address that. So here’s a poem, slightly truncated— by Maren Tirabassi, a pastor and poet. ‘God is like a symphony, not a soloist. / God is like a family, / any shaped family / steps and blends and chosen, / water cooler family and / recovery group family… / not like a hermit. // God is like a soup kitchen / where everyone eats together, / worker and guest…. // God sounds like the United Nations / or a really big airport, / God doesn’t sound / like a national anthem, / anyone’s national anthem. // God is more like prayer concerns / than a sermon, / anyone’s sermon, especially mine. // God is like Facebook (oh, no!) / with pictures of dogs / and vacations / and grandchildren, not a blog. / (Have you looked at the mess / that is the Bible?) // God is like a rambling farmhouse, / or a trailer park / or public housing / all those many, many rooms….’”

BENEDICTION: May the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us; and may we go from this worship to continue our worship with work and witness, in God’s name we pray. Amen.

[1] This analysis owes its origin to Walter Brueggemann as it is found in Genesis— Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 1982. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press.

05/28/2023 ~ Day of Pentecost ~ *Acts 2:1-21 or Numbers 11:24-30; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39 ~ Memorial Day Weekend ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/831595496

Confirmation

“…suddenly they heard what sounded like a rushing violent wind from heaven; the noise filled the entire house where they were sitting. ” — Acts 2:2

Tom entered Bangor Theological Seminary a year after I did. He was about my age, in his forties. He was married and he and his wife had two young children.

In most institutions there is a tendency to take nubies, new folks, the uninitiated under wing, to mentor, to nurture. And at this point, more than a year into my studies, while I had not seen it all, as those things go I was an old hand.

I took Tom under my wing. Besides, what was there not to like about Tom? Gregarious, gentle, he had a quick wit, an easy smile. Like me, he had seen life, had been around the block couple of times. (Slight pause.)

Less than two weeks into the term my phone rang. It was Tom. He was blunt. “Joe, get over here.” (Slight pause.)

That was strange. Not, “Hi, Joe. How are ya’?” not, “Can I see you for a minute or two?” Just, “Joe, get over here.” It had to be a big problem. I went right to his place.

Tom had just started a class students at Bangor Seminary nicknamed “Baby Bible.” It’s a course which deals with what’s actually in Scripture as opposed to what many people think is in Scripture.

It presented basic information like Moses did not write the Torah, the first five books in the Bible, that in the Torah there are four documents, written at different times over the course of about five to six hundred years. These separate pieces are then woven together into something like what we might recognize today.

Tom was shocked and Tom was in shock to learn about this. A person of deep faith, he had been active in his church, been a deacon, a trustee, a moderator, chaired a Pulpit Committee. Now in these first weeks in Seminary he was having a crisis of faith.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, instead of trying to console him, I poured more gas on the fire. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” I said. “Right now, you’re only looking at the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures in class. Wait until you get to the New Testament.”

“You know the letters of Paul?” I said. “Paul did not write all the ones credited to him. And the Gospels are not the earliest writings in the New Testament. The true letters of Paul, the ones actually written by Paul, were all written before any of the Gospels.”

“The first Gospel recorded,” I continued, “was Mark, not Matthew, and that happened at least thirty years after Jesus was raised. Also, even though the Gospel of John separates Luke from Acts in today’s Bible, Luke and Acts are two volumes of one book written at the same time. All this has been pretty common knowledge for a long, long time.” (Slight pause.)

“Why,” asked Tom, “why have I never heard this before? Why have I never heard anyone say this from the pulpit?”

There he had me stumped. I had heard, read, learned about all these widely known facts when I was a Sophomore in High School. Unlike Tom, I had heard my pastors talk about this from the pulpit way before I entered Seminary.

Finally I said this to Tom: “The Bible is not a rabbit’s foot. Many people treat it like it is; rub it and get your wish. They try to get out of it only what they think they see, as if they were trying to impart it with some magic power.”

“But it is the Word of God, not a rabbit’s foot. It is inspired by God and it is transmitted through frail human vessels.”

“The people who wrote Scripture were like you and me, people who lived in specific times and places who did what they could to be faithful to God daily and to go the places to which God called them daily, do the things God called them to do daily.”

“They knew they were imperfect vessels. We also need to recognize they did not think they were writing Scripture when they wrote. They were merely trying to write about their experience of the presence of God, what it felt like.”

“For me, knowing this background helps the Bible come alive. It deepens my faith to know God worked among these folks who were just like us— less than perfect.” (Pause.)

These words are from Luke/Acts in the section called Acts: “…suddenly they heard what sounded like a rushing violent wind from heaven; the noise filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (Pause.)

Today, Pentecost, is the traditional day for the Rite of Confirmation. Over the years at different times I’ve worked with young people as they prepare for the Rite of Confirmation. I also recommend adults join with them in this because Confirmation is not just some teenage rite of passage, though many treat it that way.

In fact, I think adults should have the experience, go through the process which leads up to the rite of Confirmation every 15 to 20 years. Why? The goal of the process is to help someone to continue to grow and to strengthen and to deepen their faith.

So learning about Scripture in the course of the process is of great importance, Tom being an example of that. But the goal is not to just learn about Scripture.

The goal is to develop a toolbox, a way to help the person who goes through the process to cope during times when there is a crisis of faith. And at some point everyone has a time when their faith is tested.

As to the tools, I suggest participants think about several basic questions— not to answer the questions but think about the questions. The questions include but are not limited to: in what social context do I live? Put differently, who am I? Where do I live, small town, large city, in what State, in what country?

Next, what social context do others, who are not like me, experience? What is their experience of life?

Next, what is the church? Is it a club of friends or is it more expansive than that? That should lead to this question. How does the church fit into my life, fit into the social context of this community. How does the church fit into the social context of the world? (Slight pause.)

These questions are tools and there can be and probably are other questions. Also, the answers are not static— they can change. So the questions constantly need to be explored. Why? These question are tools but they also need to be versatile.

And like most tools, you need to keep them oiled, clean and use them. If they are kept, oiled, cleaned and used regularly then, when you hit a crisis, they will be there in the toolbox, waiting and ready. (Slight pause.)

The reality is, we all have times of crisis. There are all kinds of reasons for these from loss of a job to loss of a loved one. Crises are real. If you have nowhere to turn, nothing on which to fall back, no tool to use when crises hit, you’re left floundering, unsure of what to do, unsure of faith can help. (Slight pause.)

Let’s come back to this passage from Acts. I think our tendency is to concentrate on what seems to be magical in it— tongues of fire, speaking and hearing in a multitude of languages. But it is not meant to be read as magical.

The rushing wind indicates the reality of God is present. And one thing we fail to realize is no one is excluded from this display of the grace of God, the presence of God. Everyone is included at Pentecost.

In order that not even the least astute miss the inclusiveness of the moment, the names of places from which people who are listening live lists a wide area in the Greco-Roman world. What happens at Pentecost is, thus, no inner mystical magic experience, but an outpouring of the energy of God that can touch every life.

And yes, the Spirit does move; the Spirit is present. But God is not coercive. God does not force us to cooperate with the movement of the Spirit. Even if they did not realize it, the time the disciples were with Jesus was when they got their tools ready.

So it seems important to me that we get the tools we need, tools which will help us live life to the best of our ability. This might also help us know we are imperfect vessels who are simply striving to do the will of God. In short, it is imperative for us is to use our tools to work with and to cooperate with the Spirit. (Slight pause.)

And oh yes— Tom— what happened to Tom? Well, I guess you could say he did O.K. working with the Spirit, striving to listen to the call of God and to walk on the paths God might have him walk. Right out of Seminary Tom was called to serve as a Pastor at a church in Connecticut and stayed there until he retired. Praise be to God. Amen.

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Two things: first, I try to impress on confirmands is that this is the Rite of Confirmation, confirming faith. So it is not about conformation, not about conforming. Indeed, we Christians need to be about confirmation, affirmation, not about being the same, conformation. Second, I think the reading indicated this. This is what I sometimes say: God loves everybody. What part of everybody don’t we understand?”

BENEDICTION: Let us acknowledge our many gifts. Let us seek to use them for the common good. Let us commit ourselves as people of action. God, the creator, is at work in our midst. The Holy Spirit is present to us. Jesus, the Christ, lives among us. Let us go from this worship to continue our worship with work and witness. And may the peace
of Christ, which surpasses our understanding keep our hearts, minds and spirits centered on God, this day and forevermore. Amen.

[1] This analysis is found in The Interpreter’s Bible: the Electronic Edition in the section about this reading. Needless to say, this has the same information as the printed version.

05/21/2023 ~ Seventh Sunday of Easter ~ *Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/829473393

It’s Complicated

“All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as the sisters and brothers of Jesus.” — Acts 1:14.

I want to start with an obvious question: who is family? Please notice, I did not ask ‘who are your blood relatives?’ I asked ‘who is family?’ (Slight pause.)

In my family structure I had a cousin whose name was Roseanna Genevieve McCool, a name that sounds as Irish as mine. Rose was true family, a blood relative— a cousin, the daughter of my paternal grandfather’s sister.

When I was very young my grandfather’s wife died. One of the consequence was instead of being simply a cousin, Rose— already close to the family as a blood relative but on top of that she had introduced my Mother and Father to each other— Rose became much more of a grandmother figure in my family life, in the structure of my family.

Was Rose my grandmother? No. Was she a grandmother figure? Yes. So even within the context of blood relations, things can be… complicated. (Slight pause.)

One more family story: Bonnie and I have a niece whose name is Heather. She lives in Dallas. But she grew up on Deer Isle and as we all gather at the family property near Stonington in July Heather and her family will be back in Maine, something they do only sporadically.

Except what I just said about Heather being related to us is wrong. Well it is, in one sense, not wrong. But it is certainly… less than accurate.

How so? Bonnie’s brother is Jack. Heather is the daughter of Jack’s first wife from another marriage. So she not Jack’s biological daughter. Hence, we are not related by blood. Even though Heather is not related, after Jack got divorced from that first wife, Jack had custody of Heather.

Indeed, Heather calls Jack “Dad.” She addresses her biological father not with an intimate term like Dad but by his first name. (Slight pause.)

So, who is family— really? It is complicated, is it not? (Slight pause.) And even though it is complicated, we experience it, live with the reality of it, know the complexity of it, do we not? As I said— family— it is… complicated. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Luke/Acts in the section commonly referred to as Acts: “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as the sisters and brothers of Jesus.” (Slight pause.)

Over time it has become evident to me people are often not comfortable with what Scripture really says, with its reality, with its complexity. Scripture… it’s complicated.

I think in part because of that complexity we tend to make up things about Scripture. And the things we make up often try to simplify what Scripture actually says.

For instance— and as I have said here before— there are two Nativity stories, two stories of the birth of Jesus, in the four Gospels. The story in Luke has angels and shepherds and the one in Matthew has a star and Magi. These were written at two different times, by at least two different authors, addressed to two different audiences.

These stories do not exist to report the birth of Jesus but to make theological points about the advent of the Messiah. And what do we do with them? We speak of them as if they were just about the birth of a child and mesh them together as if they were one. How many Christmas pageants tell these stories as if they were one? We simplify the complexity.

And they are not meant to be unified. To illustrate that lack of cohesiveness, clearly one of many theological points Luke tries to make is the advent of the Messiah should be announced, proclaimed to the poor, the outcast. Clearly one of many points Matthew tries to make is to tie the story of the Messiah to Jewish heritage, especially the Exodus.

In simplifying these two stories, in meshing them together, we ignore and flatten out the theological points, make it bland, domesticate it, make the stories culturally acceptable while blithely ignoring their theological intent and emphasis. Also as I am sure you know, there are only two nativity stories in the four Gospels. Hence, two of the Gospels totally ignore the birth story.

Why would two Gospels dismiss the nativity of the Messiah so completely, especially when our own culture seems to make those stories so central? I would suggest those two Gospels discount the birth stories for two reasons.

First, those two Gospels have their own theological points to make and make those points without even considering a birth story. Second and as I already indicated, the nativity stories we do have are not at all about an actual birth, except from the theological perspective, except to make specific theological points. The truth— it’s complicated. (Slight pause.)

So, did you notice in the story from Acts Jesus has brothers and sisters. And not just one sister and one brother— sisters and brothers— plural? And have you noticed our culture pretty much obliterates that little detail? Indeed, from other passages in Scripture it is clear the Apostle James is plainly, unambiguously a brother, meaning a blood relative, of Jesus.

So… Jesus had sisters and brothers or at least that’s what it says. But from what I’ve heard I am fairly certain that populist religion, folk religion, popular culture is largely in denial about Jesus having had any brothers, any sisters. (Slight pause.)

Now, here’s yet a different question: ‘given what I said earlier, are these people who are labeled as sisters and brothers actually sisters and brothers? Or are they some kind of extended family? Again, who is family? (Slight pause.)

Occasionally someone asks me why I am so passionate about Scripture. This is the answer I give. As I read what Scripture has to say, for me the people are real, alive. The situations are real, alive.

Also the way I see it, the people and the situations we find in Scripture are like real life— complicated. Because of that, the people and the situations seem real to me.

And yes, the theology fascinates me because it leads me to ask what are these real people, these real situations, trying to tell me, trying to tell us? And yes, the theology both recognizes the reality of God and is wrapped in complicated stories. (Slight pause.)

I would suggest the theological reality of God is just like our own every day reality, just like all reality. Have I said this already? Real life— it’s complicated. (Slight pause.)

Here’s the paradox wrapped all around of this. My perception is we make the reality of God much more complicated than it actually is. How do we do that? We overlay the reality of God with our cultural trappings, impose culturally acceptable falsehoods, which have little or nothing to do with God’s truth. (Slight pause.)

That brings me back to the question: ‘who is family— really?’ Here’s my definition. Family: the ones with whom we share our life, share our love, share our reality, share the complexity of our real lives.

And what is God’s truth? God’s truth is we are all part of God’s family. And it’s that statement, that we are all a part of God’s family that is not complicated. As I have said here before, God loves us and wants to covenant with us. God’s truth it’s that simple.

God’s truth is we are all children of God, all a part of the family of God. And that, my friends, can be as complicated or as simple as we make it out to be. So, is the love of God, as that love is reflected in each of us, complicated? Your call. Amen.

05/21/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “The late, great composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim wrote this lyric: ‘Anyone can whistle, / That’s what they say— / Easy. / Anyone can whistle / Any old day— Easy. / It’s all so simple: / Relax, let go, let fly. / So someone tell me why / Can’t I? / I can dance a tango, / I can read Greek— / Easy. / I can slay a dragon / Any old week— Easy. / What’s hard is simple. / What’s natural comes hard. / Maybe you could show me / How to let go, / Lower my guard, / Learn to be… free. / Maybe if you whistle, / Whistle for me.’— Stephen Sondheim. Sometimes, especially when it comes to covenant love, we need to relax, let go, let fly.”

BENEDICTION: God promises to empower our witness. The Holy Spirit is present to us. Jesus, the Christ, lives among us. Let us go from this worship to continue our worship with work and witness. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses our understanding keep our hearts, minds and spirits centered on God, this day and forevermore. Amen.