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06/08/2025 ~ Day of Pentecost ~ *Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17, (25-27) ~ Children’s Sunday ~ Christian Education Sunday ~ Seedling Sunday ~ Delayed from Previous Week Due to COVID ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAvt0DFc_o
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1094404579

NOTE: PENTECOST CELEBRATED DELAYED ONE WEEK DUE TO COVID OUTBREAK

The Radical Dominion

“Rabbi,’ said Philip, ‘show us Abba, God, and that will be enough for us.’” — John 14:8.

I am what in some quarters is called a late bloomer since I did not enter Seminary, Bangor Seminary to be precise, until I was 44 years old. Hence back in the days before remote leaning I had to move, from Brunswick to Bangor to be precise.

Most students had landed in Bangor without any prospect of employment so student jobs did provide a little income. And one does have to eat occasionally.

My last job before Seminary had been at the Mount Ararat High School library, the old building to be precise. So the job I got— it was at the Seminary library— was a perfect fit.

In his off hours the librarian, the late Rev. Cliffton Davis, created home brewed beers. Cliff found out I could, on my computer, print large, nice looking labels on sticky paper, so one of my duties became producing labels for the brews he concocted.

Now, one other duty for students working at the library was to write brief reviews of books which had been sent in by publishers and we wrote those reviews for a monthly newsletter. Cliff, had one dictum about how to judge a book before we read it.

“You can, despite rumor to the contrary,” he intoned, “judge a book by its cover. If the cover says the author has a Ph.D. from Oxford or Yale, review the book.”

“On the other hand, if the cover says the author’s a retired car salesman from Saint Louis who did some research on the Bible, don’t bother. Those go to the circular file.”

You would be simply be amazed at how many books on Scripture are written by people with little or no formal training. Now, I once wrote a review of a book by an author who seemed to have good qualifications, a Jesuit with a Ph.D. in New Testament.

This is the claim made by that scholar: no church in existence today is as radical as the church we find in the New Testament. Let me repeat that: no church in existence today is as radical as the church we find in the New Testament. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the Gospel According to the School of John: “Rabbi,’ said Philip, ‘show us Abba, God, and that will be enough for us.” (Slight pause.)

A confession: I remember neither the name of the book nor the author I just cited. But this claim is fairly common claim among real scholars. The New Testament church was by far more radical than any church in existence today.

I want to suggest this radical church of the New Testament is exactly the place to which the reading from John points. You see, Jesus says (quote), “Whoever has seen me has seen Abba, God.” One way these words can be perceived is to understand that in Jesus we see both a living expression and a foretaste of the Dominion of God.

That statement begs two questions: “What is the Dominion of God” and “what does the Dominion of God look like?” Now, older translations of the New Testament refer to the Dominion of God as the Kingdom of God.

Dominion should be used because Kingdom says there is a territory that has limits. One might argue Dominion implies the same thing but that’s not a Biblical understanding.

Why? Both Kingdom and Dominion are translations of the very same Greek word: bascillia. We get basilica from that, something we think of as a church building. But the buildings known as basilicas carry that name not because they are a building, a static, limited location, but because they are a part of a journey, a pilgrimage.

And a pilgrimage is about a journey on which we encounter God not a result, not a location. Hence, this Dominion is not about place or a territory but a journey and that is the very thing to which the word bascillia is pointing is that: a journey, not a place.

Well, this leads to this question: if the Dominion of God is a journey, an encounter God, what does that encounter, that Dominion look like? The answer is look at and look to Jesus.

Jesus is a radically new, radically different way of understanding existence, a radically new, radically different way of understanding God. Hence, the Dominion of God calls us to a radically new, radically different understanding of existence and of God.

Further, the Dominion of God is not just a way of encountering God occasionally. On the journey God is or should be encountered all the time.

And so what does this Dominion look like? It looks like the theology of a journey, the theology we find the journey: when the Dominion of God is present healing takes place. People are made whole. The needs of all are taken care of. We help one another all the time.

When the Dominion of God is present there are no barriers, no name calling, no walls, no impediments between people, ever. When the Dominion of God is present people respect one another no matter what differences might exist.

The very radical idea of the Dominion of God is that together, as one, we are called to a wholeness. We are not called to be tribes, not called to be separate.

Given that, the challenge of Pentecost is clear to me. Can we live up to the task God lays out before us? Can we live up to the task of helping this world become an suitable environment for the Dominion of God, where that Dominion of God is felt, lived out?

And yes, the Dominion of God is this very radical environment, very radical— where no one is homeless, healthcare is available, access to education is a given, no one, no one goes hungry. The Dominion of God insists human rights are a given.

And yes, this wholeness, this completeness, this integrity, this unity, this harmony, this oneness, this identity, this picture of the Dominion can be and is seen in Jesus. The Dominion is seen and can be seen in Jesus— now that is radical. (Slight pause.)

Well, on this day known as Pentecost, when we celebrate Pentecost, we need to listen for the amazing unifying cacophony found in the wind of the Spirit. This is the Spirit to Whom Jesus points in this reading, the Spirit Who gathers us together as one rather than the tribalism which clearly exists in the superficial, distracting, disruptive noise of our society.

Indeed, it seems to me too often society pursues a goal which is overtly focused and determined to tear us asunder. I, for one, am convinced the grace of God can lead us as together we work toward establishing the radical Dominion of God. Amen.

06/15/2025 ~ Celebrated as Pentecost Sunday But a Week Late
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: “Here is another way to conceptualize the message we can hear when we acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit says: Play nice! Play with each other! Play together as one! Don’t break out into tribes! Tribalism— it’s the cause of many large and small wars over time. But we need to see us, see humanity, as God sees us: we are one people.”

BENEDICTION: The love of God is abundant and steadfast. When we give God’s love away, it returns in breathtaking abundance. Let us willingly participate in the grace God offers. 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 nothing else and no one else. May the Word of God be on our tongues, the wisdom of God be with our thinking and the love of God be present in our hearts. Amen.

05/25/2025 ~ Sixth Sunday of Easter ~ * Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9 ~ Memorial Day Weekend on the Secular Calendar ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz8NwWwwpKA
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1088749837

Sociological Realities

“One of the women was named Lydia. She was devout, a worshiper of God. She carefully listened to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and was a dealer in purple cloth.” — Acts 16:14a.

I want to offer an overview, a view from a 30,000 foot level perspective if you would, of what I think was going on in the world since I was born juxtaposed with what was going on my life. Then I’ll add a general view the world has to the way Scripture is treated and the way Scripture is read into that mix.

First, here’s a reality about Scripture [the pastor holds up a Bible]: the Bible is not a book. It’s a collection of works gathered, compiled by people who lived in a multitude of cultures across ten centuries, a millennia. By definition it’s complex.

For about the first three centuries after the Resurrection the followers of Jesus did not even think of what we call the New Testament as Scripture. What we call the Bible, the Old and New Testament, was not thought of as anything close to a singular work for about a century after that.

I suspect this is obvious. In our culture, because of our culture, some people are blissfully unaware or willfully ignorant of those origins, that complexity. In fact, some insist the Bible was assembled in and by a unified culture with no earthly influences. When our culture says that— and it often does— it’s just flat out wrong.

Turning to my life, I was born during President Harry Truman’s first term, a very different world than it is today. And yes, some want to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, a return to some kind of imaginary greatness. But life cannot be reduced to a slogan, a cartoon or a limited set of rules. It’s too complex.

Indeed I, personally, do not see the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, etc. as any kind of golden era. If it was great back then, that certainly was not my personal experience.

Why? I’ve said this here before. I’m a ghetto kid from New York City. When I was about five from the front window of my home I saw someone being mugged. When I was born WWII— when 60 million people lost their lives— had recently ended. And after that this country was soon enmeshed in Korea, then got mired in Vietnam. By 1968 I was in that country wearing Army green.

In those days of yesteryear there was a plethora of violence, people murdered, lynched, connected with the civil rights movement. Three leaders of the movement were assassinated. In the 60s a President and a Presidential candidate were assassinated.

Another candidate was severely wounded while campaigning. Over time assassination attempts were made on four other Presidents. By the way, did you know the crime rate today is much, much lower than the 1960s? Or is the buzz of the current culture drowning that out? Those thrilling days of yesteryear… were not thrilling.

A reality: no matter what anyone says, earlier times were not the best of times. To insist otherwise is to live in a cartoon fantasy. (Slight pause.)

Having addressed the downside, here’s my personal experience of the other side of the coin. One of my Dad’s friends, Don Kennedy, a well know college basketball coach, owned a Summer camp in East Hampton which catered to very wealthy families.

In the Summers my parents worked at the camp without pay so their children got to go to the camp for free. I was able to see how what we euphemistically call “the other half” lives. Note: “the other half” is a euphemism since we’re talking about the 2%, not a half.

Through the camp my parents became friends with the chief engineer at the U.N. and as a youngster I got a personalized backstage tour of the U.N. Another contact was a producer of stage shows at Radio City Music Hall. I got a backstage tour there.

As an adult, I worked for the Actor’s Fund of America. At a dinner meeting with board member and Academy Award winning actress Beatrice Straight I mentioned I was trying to get a staged reading for a play I’d written. She said, “I’ll arrange it.”

The next day I got a call from the Executive Director of a prestigious non-profit theater who asked what I needed. It got done. All that’s the other side of my life.

And what was the rest of the world like from 30,000 feet? We developed computers to put a human on the moon and then built really small computers— cell phones. We changed how the world works in multiple ways multiple times.

And like it or not, our culture dominates the worlds of art, science, commerce. [A cell phone is heard ringing. Many people laugh.] Proving my point. [There is more laughter.] (Slight pause.)

This is what we hear in Luke/Acts in the section called Acts: “One of the women was named Lydia. She was devout, a worshiper of God. She carefully listened to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and was a dealer in purple cloth.” (Slight pause.)

Perhaps I’ve had a strange life. But our lives, our world is not simple. The world is not a cartoon. Life is not a cartoon, though some might try to convince us of that.

Life cannot be pigeonholed. Life is hard to define or explain and happens on many levels. So to reduce life to repeatable slogans, to cartoons, to limit it to a singular set of rules, is to diminish the reality of life, its hardships, its joys. (Slight pause.)

The tendency of our culture is to reduce the stories and the people in Scripture to slogans, cartoons. Many say the followers of Jesus, followers of the Way, were poor, uneducated and thrived in rural areas. Our culture wants us to believe that.

But that take reduces the reality of the New Testament to a cartoon. The reality: in New Testament times 90% of the population lived in what we would call slavery. An even smaller percentage could read and write. Illiteracy was rampant.

But the New Testament was written and circulated by literate, well educated people. The story we heard says Paul goes to Philippi, a city, to share the Word. Then he goes to Rome to share the word. Rome had a population of about 1.5 million in that era.

And who is this Lydia? She sells purple cloth. Purple cloth is worn only by people of wealth. Another reality: this is a lucrative business so it’s likely she’s wealthy.

Further, in that time this is patriarchal society. But no spouse is mentioned for Lydia. She is the head of the household. Why? How? Probably because she has wealth and stature.

What does all this say about the followers of the Way? It says the cartoon version of Scripture promulgated by our society is at best inaccurate. (Slight pause.)

Why do I bring all this up? I love and respect Scripture. [The pastor holds up a Bible again.] But our society has little time or use for the realities of life we find in Scripture. It much prefers to treat Scripture as a series of slogans, cartoons, a limited set of rules, rules which exclude love.

In that way our society undermines both the reality of Scripture and the reality of our lives. Our lives are not simple. Our world is not simple. Life is not a cartoon.

Life is hard to define, hard to explain. Life happens on many levels with hardships and joys. So to reduce life to easily repeatable slogans, to cartoons, is an effort to diminish the reality of life [the pastor taps on the Bible] and the reality of Scripture. (Slight pause.)

We need to take Scripture seriously. Hence, we need to realize Scripture has two parts— stories and theology. Its stories often describe how complex life really is if we pay attention. Even so, Scripture is not about the stories. To believe that still reduces Scripture to a cartoon.

The stories in Scripture are a vehicle to convey theology. Therefore, Scripture is about theology. That leads me to these questions: since this is a story about Paul’s mission, what is that mission? And what theology is found therein? (Slight pause.)

Paul’s mission is not— repeat, not— to make converts. Paul’s mission is to share the Word. So please note what the story says: Lydia listens. Hence, Paul does not convert Lydia. God invites Lydia to convert because she listens.

A message our society sends is it’s our job to convert others. But I want to suggest that today we, you and I, convert no one. Nor should we try. God invites people to convert through listening. Just as Paul did, our call is to simply share the Word.

This is clear: Paul shared the Word in an environment hostile to the Word. Given what I said about how our world treats Scripture, do you see the parallel? I maintain our environment is hostile to the Word.

So what is the essence of this Word to which we are invited to listen? I can guarantee the theology says this: God loves us and invites us to love one another. God invites us to share as we live through life’s joys, life’s hardships. You see, there is nothing slogan-like or cartoon-ish about the love of God and sharing God’s love.

So my message is this: respect life; take life seriously. Respect Scripture; take Scripture seriously. How can we do that? We can share God’s Word, God’s love. Amen.

05/25/2025
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: “Two things: I often say I take Scripture seriously, not literally. And earlier I said Scripture addresses life, real life. This is a quote from the United Church of Christ pastor Lillian Daniel which addresses life, real life. (Quote:) ‘Any fool can find God on a mountaintop. The real challenge is finding God in the company of others as annoying as I am.’— Rev. Lillian Daniel. That also says loving neighbor is hard. Do not pretend living out God’s love is easy. It’s not a cartoon.”

BENEDICTION: We can find the presence of God in unexpected places. God’s light leads us to places we thought not possible just moments ago. God’s love abounds and will live with us throughout eternity. The grace of God is deeper than our imagination. The strength of Christ is stronger than our needs. The communion of the Holy Spirit is richer than our togetherness. May the One Triune God sustain us today and throughout the infinity of what is commonly called tomorrow. Amen.

05/18/2025 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ * Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlFpJ5P-_CE
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1085831876

Repentance Means Change

Peter said, “…who am I to stand in the way of God?” — Acts 11:17-18.

Question: Has technology has changed how church works. Well, can you say YOUTUBE, email, electronic record keeping? The list goes on and on.

Here’s another change: I am now in easy contact with a broad range of pastors. I exchange ideas with colleagues across the nation, from here in Maine to California. How? Email, Facebook— the list goes on and on.

Perhaps, what technology has really changed is not just church but everything. We now do things faster and with more connectedness. I know that you know this. Cell phones have changed the world. And before that it was computers.

An example: when I did my Master’s Thesis thirty plus years ago, my advisor, trying to helpful, described how she compiled data as she worked on her Doctoral Dissertation in the 1970s. As she found things which might be useful, she took notes on 3×5 cards, making sure all the reference information for footnotes was there.

She then filed these 3×5 cards in shoe boxes, topic by topic. As she wrote her Dissertation, when needed, she went to the shoe box, searched for a topic, found a pertinent piece of information and recopied that information all over again.

Some twenty years later when I wrote my Master’s thesis I had a laptop computer. As I found useful information from some authority I put it in a word processing file with the necessary reference information in an footnote.

I had no need to arrange by topic. I just used the usual find function in a word processing program to search for a word. As I wrote my thesis, I looked for a specific word, found a relevant reverence, then copied and pasted it into the thesis.

The footnote section copied right where it belonged and even renumbered the footnote accurately. My advisor was computer literate by this point. But even so she was totally taken aback by what I did because doing it that way now at that time had never dawned on her.

The moral of the story: change happens. Sometimes we see it and use it. Sometimes we don’t and miss the boat. Further, even when we think we know what’s happening, we think we’re up to speed with where the world is now, we might not even recognize things have changed. Change can and will sneak up on us. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the work known as Luke/Acts in the section commonly labeled as Acts: Peter said, “…who am I to stand in the way of God?” (Slight pause.)

You’ve heard me say this. Our culture teaches that to repent means to be sorry. But from the Biblical perspective, repentance means to turn one’s life and heart over to God totally and wholly. (Slight pause.)

In her book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, Episcopal Priest Barbara Brown Taylor says (quote:) “When everything you count on for protection has fled, the Divine Presence is with you. The hands of God are still there— not promising to rescue, not promising to intervene— promising only to hold you no matter how far you fall.” (Slight pause.)

In Letter From a Birmingham Jail the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said (quote): “…the strangely irrational notion is that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively”— used destructively or constructively— our call.

Taken together, these two quotes would seem to indicate we need to do two things. We need to trust God in the midst of constant change and we need to do the constructive work of constant change God calls us to do.

Then when we add this story from Acts into this mix, I think we get a fairly clear cut picture of what that work might look like. We may not like it but life completely changes regularly.

Further, change is the place to which we are called. Indeed, the very witness of the journeys and the proclamation offered in Acts affirms a radically new idea has been ushered in with the resurrection of Jesus Who is the Christ.

What kind if change? Peter explains to those assembled that the sense of exclusiveness with which they had lived in their community was no longer operative. They had to look outward, look both forward and beyond their narrow prism.

Why? Because of Jesus the Dominion of God, the Realm of God is at hand and God insists everyone, not just a small tribe or group, is valued and invited to participate. (Slight pause.)

So, the community of Christ, both then and now, finds itself in an old, familiar ballpark but playing a new game, playing a different game, a game of change. The new game constantly demands not just change but a fresh start daily— each and every day.

Why very day? We may not like it but this game of change is constant. We, in this tribe called church, are constantly and daily invited by God to repent, be renewed and turn our lives over to God. (Slight pause.)

I get it. This sounds dangerous since we like to know where we are going, we like to know outcomes in advance.

But take what I’ve just outlined about change as a given from someone who was married but entered seminary in pursuit of a 90 credit Master of Divinity Degree at the age of 44. Risk is real. The result of change is never certain. On a personal level there was no guarantee that my journey would be worthy.

But we are also constantly, daily invited to trust God as we strive to recreate a welcoming community, recreate a community that invites change. We are invited not— not— to get new members. Rather God asks us to invite people to discipleship and to be disciples ourselves without being apprehensive.

But we are human. Perhaps because of all that, this is a time when apprehension, excitement and expectation are simultaneously real. And this apprehension, excitement and expectation— this time of change— is what makes it a time for us to fully trust God.

Indeed, the place to which we are continually called reflects the description I offered moments ago: old ballpark, new game, real tensions. And that— old ballpark, new game, real tensions stuff— is something that we need to realize both happens daily but defines change.

We also need to acknowledge change is the prime definition of repentance. It is a definition of repentance because it requires us to be humble enough to turn our lives over to God and to understand we need to do that, we need to renew that each and every day.

So, what does that really mean? Turning our lives over to God means to fully trust God. Why?

Because change is a given. And to paraphrase Barbara Brown Taylor who I quoted earlier, God will hold us when we allow change to happen.

And of course, both you and I know— things are changing outside these walls and inside these walls. Certainly part of our calling is to keep up to speed. Amen.

05/18/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This is a précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Do churches move slowly? Well, the great schism of the church is not between the Roman Church and Protestantism. It’s the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. That happened in 1054 of the Common Era. The first signs of some reconciliation between them happened in 1999, just short of 1,000 years. Now that’s slow. On the other hand one of the founding principles of Congregationalism is flexibility. That’s one of many things that sets us apart. Here’s another word for flexibility: change— change because we hear the call of God.”

BENEDICTION: Hear now this blessing: God is with us, always. When we love one another, God is pleased. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

05/11/2025 ~ Fourth Sunday of Easter ~ * Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjhrfvI1qdo
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1084966922

Miracle Workers

“Peter said to this one who had been paralyzed, ‘Aeneas, Jesus, the Christ, heals you. Get up and make your bed!’ Aeneas got up at once. And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon, upon seeing this, were converted.” — Acts 9:34-35.

Many of you know I was a congregant, a member the laity, at an Episcopal Church. That New York City church over time developed a significant ministry in what is commonly called healing prayer.

I want to take some time to explain healing prayer because many people do not understand what prayer for healing, praying about healing is. It’s often confused with what is commonly referred to as faith healing. No, it is not that.

To be clear, I think can explain the process of healing prayer not because I am now an ordained pastor. It’s because I was involved in the practice as a member of the laity. I was on what was called a “healing prayer team.” (Slight pause.)

Now, the first thing to be said about healing prayer would seem like a paradox to some. A person who offers healing prayer should never, while praying, make a claim about intervention on the part of God.

Intervention, healing in some form, any form, is the work of God, not the person praying. So don’t try to be like God. No one is up to the task. For sure it’s above your pay grade.

Second— one person should not pray one on one with another person, alone. This kind of prayer ministry needs to form teams, groups of people. Team members pray with someone asking for prayer.

So two or even three people should pray with someone seeking prayer. This is also important: members of a healing prayer team do not learn or offer a series of rote prayers. Indeed, any prayers voiced are not the important part of pray for healing. Rather, the important piece of healing prayer is listening.

In fact, healing prayer encompasses at least four kinds of listening. First, listen to the person making a prayer request. If that person is asking for prayer it’s likely the needs may be and most of the time are great.

Also, someone who seeks healing prayer may not be able to articulate their specific needs well. What they know is they need prayer. Hence, acute, deep listening, is necessary.

Once the person seeking prayer is fully heard, often what happens next is all the people present, the prayer team, the two or three people, join hands with the person seeking prayer. Joining hands should happen only if and when it’s appropriate.

Then yet another way of listening happens. Each member of the prayer team needs to listen to how the other members of that team responds, how each member able to prayerfully vocalize, speak in a prayerful way, reflect aspects of what was heard. It’s likely each member of the team will hear different facets of the request in different ways.

Another level of listening is the need to listen to and for the Spirit of God. Is the Spirit being heard, felt, recognized in that circle of people who pray?

The last level of listening happens over the course of time, sometimes days, something weeks, sometimes months, sometimes much longer. This is continued listening for the voice of God, the will of God. So prayer needs to continue as listening continues.

Why so much time? The voice of God, the will of God is rarely immediate. Most often the voice of God and will of God is heard and felt over a very, very long period of time. (Slight pause.)

Now that I’ve covered the process, I need to tell a story. At the Church where we did this, we usually prayed for people during a regular service on a Sunday morning.

After one service at the coffee hour, someone approached me who had never been to that church before, a person I had never seen before and said, “So, tell me about your healers.”

I said, “Healers? We don’t have healers here.”

She said, “Then what were you people doing when you prayed?”

I said, “We were praying. God does the healing. Not us.” (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Luke/Acts in the section commonly called Acts: “Peter said to this one who had been paralyzed, ‘Aeneas, Jesus, the Christ, heals you. Get up and make your bed!’ Aeneas got up at once. And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon, upon seeing this, were converted.” (Slight pause.)

When this reading was introduced you heard this passage purposefully references the Aeneid. It was written in the decades before the birth of the Christ and contains stories about divine intervention.

Back then a common feature in the secular literature was stories of divine intervention. Hence, if there were no stories with divine intervention in the New Testament, it’s unlikely people would have paid attention to the New Testament.

But we do need to understand this: both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament have a different take on divine intervention than the secular writings of the time. And secular understandings would have singled Peter out as a miracle worker.

But the passage says many were converted and later says because of a healing many came to believe Jesus is the Christ. So in Scripture what we often refer to as miracles are not about healing as in this story or even about miraculous phenomena— like changing water into wine.

If these stories were simply or only about miraculous phenomena, this would not be Scripture. This would be just like the secular literature of the time. Indeed, to say this was only about miraculous phenomena would be to reduce the Bible to secular literature.

In Scripture stories about healing and miraculous occurrences tell us one thing and one thing only. They tell us about the presence of God. They tell us God is acting in the process. They tell us God walks with humanity. (Slight pause.)

So, does this mean miracles don’t happen? No. Miracles do happen. I’ll name one: open heart surgery. Now, that’s a miracle.

But, if that’s a miracle does that mean I am saying prayer is meaningless? No. Prayer is full of meaning and we need to pray constantly.

But we need to understand the nature of prayer. Contrary to populist belief, prayer is neither transactional nor about results. Prayer is about listening for and to God, being in dialogue with God and our willingness to rely on the will of God.

So at the last, prayer is about belief and trust. Prayer is about a belief that we trust in God and rely on God as God walks with us in the process we commonly call life, just life. Amen.

05/11/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “In my comments I mentioned someone who was visiting that Episcopal Church I attended asked about the healers. I suspect eventually she came to a very clear understanding of what prayer for healing is about. Why do I say that? Today she is an Episcopal Priest.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go out from this place in the sure knowledge that God is at the center of our lives. Let us go out from this place in the sure knowledge that God’s love abounds. Let us go out from this place and strive to have our deeds bear witness to God’s love. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

05/04/2025 ~ Third Sunday of Easter ~ * Acts 9:1-6, (7-20); Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIE8Yi2-Ew

VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1082191243

Knocked Off a Horse?

“Now, as Saul was traveling along and approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed all around and Saul fell to the ground” — Acts 9:3-4.

The Rev. Carol Anderson, an Episcopal priest, one of my mentors in ministry, said among the disciples there are three examples of our relationship with God, archetypes of how that relationship works out. She labeled these as Peter, Paul and John types.

As a child of the 60s, I encouraged her to label them as them Peter, Paul and Mary. I did find out years later she changed it to Peter, Paul Mary but I am unsure to which New Testament Mary she was referring. So let’s stick with John and review these three types.

The John of the New Testament never seems to be in doubt about who Jesus was, is and what this disciple needs to do because of who Jesus was and is. From the cross Jesus asks John to look after his mother and there is no flack, no push back, as in “You want me to do what?”

In short, John is calm, secure, knows about life, the world, about God. Now if I had to guess, we probably all want to be just like John— never have any doubts. But it’s also likely none of us thinks we could be anything close to being that secure, knowing, compassionate. So instead, we tend to opt for wanting to be and hoping to be like Paul.

What was Paul like? Well, we hear what happened to this Apostle in the story from this morning’s reading. Paul’s route seems both obvious and attractive to us.

It’s common to say Paul got knocked off a horse meaning Paul was headed in one direction— persecuting the people of ‘The Way,’— and winds up going in exactly the opposite direction. And all that happens in an instant. We like that.

Changing direction is, of course, the real meaning of repentance. Repentance has nothing to do with being sorry or sad. Repentance is when we turn one’s life around toward God, turns one’s life over to God, to the will of God.

So, that’s archetype number two: get knocked off a horse and come suddenly into a new kind of clear knowledge, a new way of understanding. And this changes your life forever.

Never go back to your old ways of doing things, right? O.K. (Slight pause.) As I suggested, I think this is the method most of us would like— one where everything happens— and it’s over and done with in one swift act— quick and simple.

Then there is Peter. If truth be told, most of us would like to be like John, want to be like Paul but probably most of us are like Peter.

This illustrates Peter: in one story the Apostle says Jesus is the Christ. In another Peter denies knowing Christ. So yes and no and yes and no— that’s Peter.

Peter cannot seem to steer a steady, consistent course. Peter is all over the map. I suspect most of us are like Peter in our relationship with God: all over the map. Believe me, count me in. (Slight pause.)

So, here’s a trick question— Biblical trivia, if you will. I suggested many of us want to be like Paul and get knocked off our horse. But does Paul ever get knocked off a horse? (Slight pause.) No. Paul does not get knocked off a horse. (Quote:) “The Rabbi fell to the ground…” No horse is mentioned.

So, from where does the horse come? It comes from Christian Art, mostly out of the Renaissance era, much of it sub-par art even for the Renaissance. Mind you, one can assume Paul was riding. But if Paul is on a horse that’s a pretty long fall to the ground.

So what is the reality here? How does Paul fully come to some new and clear knowledge, a new way of understanding. Is there more to it than simply getting knocked off a horse or even just falling to the ground? (Slight pause.)

These words are from the work know as Acts: “Now, as Saul was traveling along and approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed all around and Saul fell to the ground…” (Slight pause.)

When the reading was introduced it was said Paul’s own account is in some tension with this story from Acts. Indeed, based Paul’s letters most scholars believe that any fulness of a public proclamation concerning Jesus from Paul did not happen for about 14 years after this incident, the point at which Paul returned to Jerusalem.

So, what happened for 14 years? (Slight pause.) We don’t know. But scholars do speculate that Paul spends that time in study, in reflection, in prayer, in meditation. In fact, the depth of and the integrated theology Paul exhibits and writes about in the Epistles strongly suggests this is the case. (Slight pause.)

So, an important question might be how does that apply to us? I actually think we can be knocked off a horse. We can have some kind of conversion experience. And that’s wonderful. But it’s not enough. It was not enough for Paul.

I think even if we have a conversion experience, we need to emulate Paul. How? We need to take time— time to study, reflect, pray, meditate. (Slight pause.)

I’ve mentioned this story here before. I was privileged to be at a series of lectures Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave in New York City before he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

At one those sessions he was asked how much time he spent each day in study, reflection, meditation and prayer. And said he spent at least two hours a day. Then he added that he spent at least two hours a day doing that except when he was under pressure from the governing authorities or had a lot of work to do.

When that happened he needed to spend four or five hours a day not doing that extra work, not paying attention to the authorities. That extra time was spent in study, reflection, meditation and prayer.

In short, it’s quite unlikely profound conversion just or only happens in an instant and then it’s over and done. Conversion happens every hour of every day.

And yes, we all lead busy lives. But when we repent, hand our lives over to God, that can open up new vistas. This handing our lives over to God, this repentance, means we need to study, reflect, meditate and pray every day.

This means every day in our life with God we need to seek to grow. And growth— that’s what true relationship is really about, is it not? Amen.

04/27/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “This is a quote from the late theologian Henri Nouwen: ‘You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.’— Henri Nouwen. So, in a real sense repentance means when it comes to our relationship with God we need to be taking action each and every day— action.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go where God leads us, for surely God leads us to embrace our neighbor with love. Let us follow where Christ has gone, and see the great commandment of loving God and loving neighbor as a watchword. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the knowledge, companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

04/27/2025 ~ Second Sunday of Easter ~ * Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBxsmcT0Ek
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1080532869

Doubt

“…the other disciples kept telling Thomas, ‘We have seen Jesus.’ But Thomas answered them, ‘I will never believe it without putting my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand into the wound of the spear.’” — John 20:25.

I have mentioned I’m a lyricist, a member of A.S.C.A.P., the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers. One of the people with whom I’ve collaborated is the composer Tom Rasely, also an A.S.C.A.P. member. The choir sang an anthem by the two of us at Christmastide.

Tom and I started collaborating when I was a pastor in Upstate New York. We still work together but at long distance over the web. Back in New York Tom would come to my office and for ten or fifteen minutes and we would just shoot the breeze, hang out. One day our discussion turned to the topic of music literacy and, by extension, literacy in general.

Now Tom teaches, gives lessons, on how to play the guitar. But needless to say, it’s hard to offer lessons on how to play guitar without also offering some overall information about music— to address music literacy.

Tom put it this way, “I can teach someone to play something on the guitar. That does not mean they will know anything other than that one thing. They will not be able to go beyond it, integrate it with anything else unless there is an eagerness to see more, see the big picture, have some basic information which extends beyond the narrow.”

Indeed, with music in general an obvious question is do you know something about the field, the literature? Hence, if you want to be a composer or even just be literate about music but do not know what Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Duke Ellington, John Lennon, Stephen Sondheim, Paul McCartney or Taylor Swift wrote or are writing, the place you start in terms of knowing about music is behind the proverbial eight ball.

Equally, if you want to be a playwright or just be literate about theater arts, some prerequisite knowledge is necessary. If you know nothing about the works of William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, August Wilson, Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard to name just a few writers, you would not know enough about the history and the art of writing for theater. It’s these kinds of things you need to know in order to be literate about theater or even make play writing your art.

But that premise presents us with a paradox: an individual needs to know enough about a field so that they can begin to know what they don’t know. Knowing what you don’t know is when someone actually becomes both literate and grounded.

This is true of music, medicine, theater, banking, any field. You need to get to the point where you know what you don’t know. Everyone, even experts, need to strive to learn and strive to grow. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the work commonly referred to as the Gospel of John: “…the other disciples kept telling Thomas, ‘We have seen Jesus.’ But Thomas answered them, ‘I will never believe it without putting my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand into the wound of the spear.’” (Slight pause.)

Question: is doubt a necessary part of faith? (Slight pause.) What follows are a series of quotes from several writers and theologians on the topic. I shall name the author after I’ve offered each quote.

“A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it’s a superstition.” — José Bergamin. “Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond a doubt they are right.” — Laurens van der Post.

“If you would be a real seeker after truth it’s necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” — René Descartes. “Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.” — André Gide.

“Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.” — Miguel de Unamuno. “There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.” — Alfred Korzybski

“Faith requires something more than comfortable self knowledge. It requires difficult, uncomfortable things— doubt, repentance, observance— these are perplexing in our world of going with the flow and doing your own thing, a world of comfortable, personal space.” — Winifred Gallagher. “Doubt is as crucial to faith as darkness is to light… faith is, by definition, uncertainty.” — Carter Heywood. [1] (Slight pause.)

There are a number of passages in Scripture where faithful people express doubt. Here’s an example. In a post resurrection story in Matthew, Jesus appears to a crowd of disciples. And with the resurrected Christ in their midst the Gospel says (quote:) “When the disciples saw Jesus, they worshiped; but some doubted.” (Slight pause.)

This is what I think: if you do not know the literature, the Scriptures, you might not realize how central doubt is to faith. Indeed, the passage read today says these signs (quote): “…have been recorded so that you may come to believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Only Begotten,…”

The most important idea in that phrase is that you may come— come to believe. Coming to believe is a process. Further, belief does not happen without doubt acting both as a part of that process and as a continuing factor. And, as is clearly outlined in the passage, belief does not come without some doubt being a part of belief. (Slight pause.)

Well, I have just insisted that doubt is and needs to be a part of faith. But where does that place any of us on our life journey, on our faith journey? (Slight pause.) I said this— this is like knowing the literature in music or theater. Once doubt is realized as being a part of faith one begins to understand there are things we don’t know. When this happens, we can get to the point where we know we don’t know everything.

And, indeed faith is defined not by what we know. Unquestionably, a definition of faith, perhaps the central one, is we need to believe what cannot be fully known, what we cannot fully see nor fully understand. Faith, in short, is not about what we understand, see, prove. So, what is faith? Could it be that faith has something to do with what we feel?

So what is it that cannot be seen but felt? Well, let’s start with this list as examples of what cannot be seen but can be felt: love, trust, hope, joy. These can be experienced. These can be felt.

Here’s another way to put it: love, trust, hope and joy can be thought of as foundational. But, paradoxically, love, trust, hope, joy are not concrete [the pastor hits a hand on the pulpit], are they? So do love, trust, hope, joy really exist? I think so. (Slight pause.)

Having said that, how do we get on or rather continue on our life journey, our faith journey, our path toward faith? I would the first to suggest we need to learn and know the literature.

Here’s an example of not knowing the literature. Many insist Thomas does put his hands in the wounds. But read this passage carefully. Thomas does not do that. Proof is not a part of this passage. Proof is not a part of the life journey, the faith journey of this disciple. Thomas just believes. (Slight pause.)

As I said, belief, real belief, starts by knowing what we do not know. Faith is not about proof. Faith is not about a destination. Faith is a journey, a life journey. Here’s a key question for us. Are we willing to be on the life journey called faith? Amen.

04/27/2025
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 an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “The real issue in literacy, especially literacy when it come to faith, is making it one’s own. Personally, if my car breaks, I go to a mechanic. I take my taxes to an accountant. I don’t care, particularly, if I am illiterate about fixing cars or doing taxes. But faith deals with my soul. I don’t think I want to trust that to someone else. So, when it comes to my faith I need to be as literate as I can possibly be.”

BENEDICTION: Go out in the compassion and love God provides. Praise the deeds of God by the way you live. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

[1] . José Bergamín Gutiérrez (1895-1983), was a Spanish writer, essayist, poet, and playwright.

Sir Laurens Jan van der Post (1906-1996), CBE was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist.

René Descartes (1596-1650), was a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher who is considered a key figure in the development of modern science and philosophy.

André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869-1951), a Nobel Laureate, was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics.

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864-1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca.

Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879-1950) was a Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of semantics.

Winifred Gallagher (1950) is a science writer who thought she had left religion has traced her generation’s complex relationship with faith.

Carter Heyward (1945) is an American feminist theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970), 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual.

04/20/2025 ~ Resurrection of the Christ ~ Easter Day ~ * Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 or Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SMC8IjdgmM

VIDEO OF WHOLE SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1077944141

Trusting Truth

“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Upon getting there this apostle stooped and looked in but could see nothing but the linen cloths, the wrappings, on the ground. Then Peter left, amazed at what had occurred.” — Luke 24:12.

The disciple headed back down the road, exhausted. Peter had been running. Despite his age he was not in bad shape. But he was older than the others in the group. So they looked to him for leadership.

It may not have simply been running which led to the exhaustion. Another reason was he had fully expected to see the remains of the Rabbi in the tomb.

But over and over Jesus had said, “Wait three days. Just wait three days.” That insistence always puzzled Peter. And somehow, someway, Jesus was no longer in the tomb, no longer where Peter knew the body of the Rabbi had been placed.

So at least in part, the exhaustion Peter now felt was not from running. It came from the recognition that there was nothing in the tomb except wrappings on the ground. The reality of that truth left Peter emotionally exhausted.

Perhaps thinking it would somehow help control his emotions, Peter began to review everything that had happened since he first met the Rabbi. After all, Peter was there when Jesus preached all over Galilee, there when Jesus healed the sick, fed five thousand, recited parables.

Peter was the one who answered the pivotal question, “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, he insisted. And when Jesus was transfigured it was Peter who heard that voice, a voice which insisted Jesus was the Chosen One. Peter… was… there. (Slight pause.)

Then, when Jesus was taken as a prisoner of the state, Peter… was… there. (Slight pause.) Right after that Peter’s friend, Peter’s teacher, Peter’s guide, Peter’s companion— was murdered by the state, crucified by the Romans. Peter watched from afar as his friend Jesus… died. Peter… was… there.

But now, now this… this… empty tomb and the reality, the truth of the wrappings on the ground. So yes— Peter was… spent, exhausted, emotionally exhausted. (Slight pause.)

And so with the truth of this burden Peter trod toward Jerusalem, toward the house where the other disciples waited, knowing there was yet another emotional hill to climb. He needed to face the women who all the others had doubted.

It was the women who on the first day of the week, at dawn, went and found the tomb… empty. It was the women who were told, “Why do you look for the Living One among the dead? Jesus is not here; Christ has risen.”

It was the women who then told everyone about the empty tomb, about what they had heard, saw, felt. It was the women who… no… one… believed. The women were told their tale was… idle, nonsensical.

Peter was the only one who went to the tomb, the only one willing to face the reality of the empty tomb. Why? Peter realized if what the women said was true he needed to affirm the truth, needed to affirm them. He wondered if they now would, in turn, ridicule him because of how the others had ridiculed them. (Slight pause.)

Peter burst through the door into the large room where everyone was gathered, entered into a cacophony of chatter and raised a hand. What had been a wall of noise turned into immediate silence.

“It’s true,” he said, gesturing toward the women who were standing together away from the others. “They spoke the truth. The tomb is empty.” (Slight pause.) “I’m exhausted. Let me sit.”

Peter sat on a bench. Perhaps the flood of emotions had finally caught up with him. It suddenly felt like the weight of the world was pressing down on his back. He bent over and just stared at the floor.

The women were the first to notice this distress. From a corner of the room, a question was asked: “Peter, are you all right?”

Peter knew that voice. Was it Mary of Magdala? He thought so. She was perceptive. She knew before anyone else when something was amiss.

Peter, his eyes closed, responded. “Yes. I’m all right. I’ll be fine.”

Then Peter started to sob. His body quaked. Tears streamed down his face, his beard. He wept and he wept and he wept.

“Peter? Peter?” He was sure it was Mary’s voice.

The disciple felt a hand softly touch his shoulder. He knew that hand. The touch was tender, healing. “Mary is offering solace in my time of need,” thought Peter.

After a bit, the crying began to cease. Peter tried to force a sense of logic, order on the multiple emotions he felt.

Slowly he wiped away the tears. The hand which was resting on his shoulder patted three times and then lifted away. Peter opened his eyes.

Across the room he saw Mary of Magdala and the other women. Quickly he looked around. No one was behind him. No one had dared come near him.

“Mary! Were you just near me? Behind me?”

She offered a quizzical look. “No.”

“Someone was behind me. Someone was touching me. I felt it!”

Everyone in the room stared at him not knowing what to say. This was, after all, Peter, a speaker of truth, the seeker of reality, the one among them who saw everything clearly, the first one to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ.

He pointed toward the women. He shouted as loud as he could. “You have given me— no, you have given us the greatest joy imaginable!” he shouted. “Jesus is risen! Jesus is risen and you, you were the first to be told and so you shared that. You told us. What a wonderful gift.”

The women nodded and smiled.

Peter was emotionally drained but at the same time somehow filled with joy. Softly, Peter said it again: “Jesus… is… risen. Jesus… is… the Christ.” (Long pause.) Amen.

04/20/2025 ~ Sunrise Service and the 10:00 a.m. Service
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: “I need to say two things: first, in Aramaic, which would have been spoken in Roman Judea in New Testament times, to be saved meant to be made alive. We moderns do not seem to understand that. Second, I want to suggest to merely say ‘Happy Easter’ is not a Christian sentiment. So, let me make a suggestion: if someone walks up to you today and says, ‘Happy Easter’ smile and say, ‘Christ is risen.’ Why? ‘Christ is risen’ is the Christian sentiment.”

BENEDICTION AND EASTER ACCLAMATION

Hear now this blessing and then please join with me in the responsive Easter acclamation found in the bulletin:

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the love of Christ, Jesus, and in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit this day and forever. And please join with me in the Easter Acclamation.

ONE: May the love of God, the power of the resurrection in Christ, Jesus and the presence of the Spirit be with us always.
MANY: And the blessing of God surround us this day and forevermore.
ONE: So, indeed, rejoice! Rejoice people of God! Christ is risen!
ALL: Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

04/13/2025 ~ Liturgy of the Palms ~ Sixth Sunday in Lent ~ Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40 ~ Liturgy of the Passion ~ Sixth Sunday in Lent ~ Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYzqjuNXZ1k
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1076425325

In the Image of God

“Christ, though in the image of God, / did not deem equality with God / as something to be clung to— / but instead emptied self, / and took on the image / of oppressed humankind: / born into the human condition, / found in the likeness of a human being. / Jesus was thus humbled….” — Philippians 2:6-8a.

Some of you have heard me say dozens of times I served a church in rural Upstate New York for 23 years. Here’s what I mean by rural. It was a town of less than 7,000. By some standards, especially those in Northern Maine, that’s a good size town. In fact, it’s a good sized town compared to where I was serving churches in Waldo County.

But you did have to go an hour in any direction, get outside of that county, to hit a larger town. In between, there were hills, forests, some farms, not much else. The town was the county seat. So at least for that neck of the woods it made it a metropolis.

Despite its size, there were a bunch of Mainline churches— Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Congregational. Except for the Lutheran Church, all those churches from different traditions, were established before the mid-1800s.

Early in my tenure the Director of Music Ministries wanted to do a Palm Sunday anthem but it needed a larger choir than we had and good tenor solist. The Congregational choir had tenors but no soloists. However, the Methodists had a tenor who regularly did solos.

So she asked the Methodist choir director if it might be possible to put the choirs together for Palm Sunday. And yes, she did that without telling me. Then she asked me if I could talk to the Methodist pastor about joining the two congregations as one for Palm Sunday.

Why did she think this could happen? My choir director knew the Methodist pastor and I got along famously. And so that pastor and I met and we went out on a limb because we came up with what was, for that town at least, a precedent shattering plan.

Both congregations would meet at the Congregational Meeting House and start the Palm Sunday service with a blessing of the Palms. Then the members of both congregations would march out the front doors and processed the three blocks up the main street of the town to the Methodist Church for the rest of the Palm Sunday Service. A farmer in the area even supplied a donkey for the procession.

What happened as we processed? We waved our palms at people in passing cars. Guess what? Many drivers, smiles on their faces, honked their horns and waved back.

We repeated this year after year and by the time I left in different years and in different combinations at one time or another the Baptist, the Episcopalians and the Lutherans had all joined the Congregationalists and the Methodists in this public display of faith, this public act of worship.

And yes, having a procession out in the open was a very public act of worship, a public display of faith. But my read is, at least in part, each of us probably lays claim to the thought that religion, faith, worship, should be private. But is that accurate? (Slight pause.)

Here’s my take: faith is personal. But faith, by definition, is never, ever private. Why? Faith, at its core, is about two things: relationship with God and relationship with others.

Additionally, faith needs to be both something on which we act and a way of life. If it is about God, others and a way of life, faith is, by definition, public.

In short, faith is about acting on and through those aforementioned relationships with God and others. So faith is unquestionably personal but not private. Faith is public because faith involves a way of life and therefore involves action. (Slight pause.)

These words are in the work known as Philippians: “Christ, though in the image of God, / did not deem equality with God / as something to be clung to— / but instead emptied self, / and took on the image / of oppressed humankind: / born into the human condition, / found in the likeness of a human being. / Jesus was thus humbled….” (Slight pause.)

It’s likely at one time or another you’ve all heard what is commonly referred to the Prayer of Saint Francis. Francis of Assisi valued humility, simplicity, compassion, care for the poor and has come to be an example of what it means to live a Gospel life.

Now, I refer to the Prayer of Saint Francis as being attributed to this Saint. Why? There is absolutely no trace of that prayer anywhere before the year 1912, some 700 years after Francis died. Does that mean the words of the prayer are bad or should be ignored? No. It just means they are not 900 years old.

These are the words of that prayer: “O God, make me an instrument of your peace, / Where there is hatred, let me sow love; / Where there is injury, pardon; / Where there is doubt, faith; / Where there is despair, hope; / Where there is darkness, light; / Where there is sadness, joy. // O Holy One, / grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; / to be understood, as to understand; / to be loved, as to love. / For it is in giving we receive. / It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, / and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.” [1] (Slight pause.) This prayer is filled with humility.

When pastors talk about humility, we are sometimes met with a strong backlash in church circles. In our culture humility is sometimes confused with humiliation, confused with making one’s own self less than one should be. And, after all, why should we not think of ourselves as great? God has created us in God’s own image. Right?

But thinking humility is about humiliation or making one’s own self less than one should be, proves our culture does not understand what humility really means. Humility isn’t about denying we are good (or even great). Humility isn’t about wearing sackcloth and ashes, beating up on ourselves, having low self-esteem.

Rather, humility is about refusing to deny who other people are. It’s about seeing others as created in the image of God. Humility is not about making ourselves ‘less.’ It’s about seeing everyone as standing together before God. (Slight pause.)

One message Palm Sunday proclaims is Jesus was very, very public about faith— public even onto death. And so we are presented with a question. What does it mean when the Apostle Paul says (quote): “…Jesus was thus humbled— / obediently accepting death, / even death on a cross.” (Slight pause.)

The humbleness expressed by Jesus is clear because despite being highly exalted Jesus sees others as created in the image of God. The self-emptying of Christ was the fulfilling of a vocation: attending to the needs of humanity.

Christ humbled self by resisting the temptation to follow an easier calling, which would have denied an authentic self. But there is no hint at all of self-deprecation.

So on Palm Sunday when we say, “Blessed is the One who Comes in the Name of our God,” we are saying Jesus is not just public about faith in God. Jesus is also humble. (Slight pause.)

Perhaps on this Palm Sunday we need to remember the humility found in that prayer of Saint Francis which says: “O God, make me an instrument of your peace,…”

Perhaps being and becoming an instrument is not personal, nor is it private. The very words— make me an instrument— invite us to action. Action is, by definition, public. Amen.

04/13/2025
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, faith is personal not private. If that were not the case there would be no need to gather as a community of faith. We would each worship our own personal God alone with no connection to anyone else. But this is clear to me: the Christian faith is enwrapped by and enfolded in community. That is one reason why the Congregational tradition exists. The word congregation tells this is an assembly, a group, a community of faith.”

BENEDICTION: God has written the reality of love within us all. We are empowered to live in this love, through the Redeemer, Jesus. In Christ, we experience God’s presence together. Where Christ leads, let us follow. Where God calls us to service, let us go. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of God, the love of Jesus, the Christ and the companionship of the Holy Spirit, this day and forevermore. Amen.

[1] Slightly adapted from the traditional words of the prayer as found on the wiki web site.

04/06/2025 ~ Fifth Sunday in Lent ~ Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3MvtdE_Lc
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1073981772

New Things

“Do not remember the former things, / forget the events of the past / ignore the things of long ago / do not consider the things of old. / Look! I am about to do a new thing! / Now it springs forth! / Can you not see it? / Do you not perceive it?” — Isaiah 43:18-19a.

The computer app called Facebook has caused some— no, a lot of controversy lately. For those who don’t know about Facebook or don’t have a computer, the denizens of Facebook have what’s called a wall on which you write. People you’ve designated can see what you’ve written and write something back.

So Facebook is not like a town square. It’s like a town fence where you scrawl a message but any message you leave can be spread by the town gossip or worse, used by the town bully to cause disruption. That seems dangerous. And that’s the controversy.

Now, there is an upside to Facebook. You can try to track down folks you have not seen, spoken to or even thought about in years, like the people you knew in High School. Now, I graduated from High School in 19… [the pastor mumbles].

Just like now, back in High School I was involved in music. I was the librarian for the school choir, the manager of the school dance band and in my Senior year I was deeply involved in the school musical, which that year was The Music Man.

You may remember this musical features a Barber Shop Quartet. Well, here’s how we put that Barber Shop quartet together. There were three guys who were— to use the vernacular of the time— “Greasers”— and they would hang out after school in stairwells singing doo-wop as they listened to the echo of their harmonies.

They were recruited for the show. I taught them the melodies of the songs— Lida Rose, Sincere, It’s You and then sang a bass part underneath their harmonies. It worked.

The character of Harold Hill was played by a fellow named Jeff Spolan. At that time we became friendly. After graduation we went our separate ways. He went to college and studied theater. I was drafted and went to a theater of war— Vietnam.

But we both wound up in professional theater. He was an actor. I was a writer. His passion was seeing the world— traveling. He did that by hooking up with non-profit companies which toured overseas.

My career was more parochial, confined to New York City, so our paths never crossed. That is they never crossed until we found each other on Facebook. Amazingly, at least four of us from that High School class went into professional theater. Renewing these contacts reminds me of how different my life is now than what it was at that time.

But I would not exchange where I have been and what I have done for anything. So perhaps what Shakespeare said in The Tempest is true: “What’s past is prologue.” (Slight pause.)

These words come from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah: “Do not remember the former things, / forget the events of the past / ignore the things of long ago / do no consider the things of old. / Look! I am about to do a new thing! / Now it springs forth! / Can you not see it? / Do you not perceive it?” (Slight pause.)

Scholars say this Prophet writes from the Babylonian Exile where the Jews are held in captivity. Given the situation, the Prophet makes a stunning statement.

Using an amazing metaphor— rivers flowing in the desert despite the dire situation of the Jews— the Prophet insists God will do and is doing a new thing. Further, their call is to be aligned with God in newness. (Slight pause.)

But how does this Word of hope, apply to us today? (Slight pause.) A colleague recently asked a question of the church he serves: “what makes ‘a church’ really ‘a church’?” (Slight pause.) He offered this list.

A church must trust God enough to welcome everyone and be as surprised by one another as we are by God. We need to let our hair and our guard down rather than pretend and defend, shoulder each other’s burdens, celebrate blessings.

We need to respect others as they are, not as we wish they were, honor one another when we differ, see creativity in differences and accept that we and the church fall short. We need to value doubts and ask questions while having faith and assurance, open ourselves to God loving us just as we are as individuals and as a group.

Thereby we, paradoxically, open ourselves to change, to growth and newness. We need to look to God for help with all this as we recognize, in ways subtle and glorious, Jesus is with us. [1] (Slight pause.)

It’s both the first and last piece on that list to which we Christians especially need to heed. Trust God; Jesus is with us. (Slight pause.) Still, the metaphor of “rivers in the desert,” wonderful though it is, is just a metaphor. How can this claim of newness be real for us? (Slight pause.)

I invite you to look around, to look at each other— I’ll give you a moment to do that. Just go ahead— look around. (Slight pause.) You may or may not know what each person does daily outside these walls but please start with an assumption.

Assume each of us strives not to do well but to do good. Each of us represents a reality based in hope, a reality that a river can flow in the desert, that each of us represents a belief God is among us, is present to us. (Slight pause.)

Reacquainting myself with old friends and old times is heart warming, even when it’s done over the Internet. But it also has made me aware of a reality: life has moved forward in ways and with possibilities I could never have imagined.

When we realize there are possibilities, perhaps we can be empowered to trust God, be aware that life with God is like a river, flowing, moving ceaselessly. Indeed, trusting God means being aware the love of God is present, real, tangible, life giving.

Trusting God allows us to realize the hope God wants for us is always forward looking. Hope may be written in the present tense but hope is realized in the future tense.

And so let us be aware the hand of God is with us, the Spirit of God surrounds us, Christ is present to us. Let us be aware that the reality of the Messiah helps us be aware that there are rivers in the desert.

Let us be aware the love, goodness, wisdom and peace of God etches its image in the sands of time while seeking out new horizons. I could be wrong about this but I think looking to new horizons is exactly what Habitat for Humanity seeks to do on a daily basis— what do you think?

And yes, these are the words offered by Isaiah (quote): “Can you not see it? / Do you not perceive it?” These words both present us with a challenge and help us to be mindful of the constant, faithful, present, forward looking love of God. Amen.

04/06/2025
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 an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Back in the 80s I had the privilege of hearing Millard Fuller, a co-founder of National Habitat, speak at First Parish in Brunswick. He said Christians really don’t agree on a lot. Now, Millard was from Georgia so he then said we Christians can’t even agree on how to say the Name Jesus. Those from the Deep South know it should be said “Jeee-sss-us.” (The pastor has moved an arm pulling the first down.) And you have to have the arm movement with that. Then he said we Christians can agree on one thing. People need housing. Here’s what I say— helping people get housing may be an old thing but every time a house gets built or renovated by Habitat it’s a new, forward looking thing.”

BENEDICTION: In Christ, we experience God’s presence together. Where Christ leads, let us follow. Where God calls us to service, let us go. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of God, the love of Jesus, the Christ and the companionship of the Holy Spirit, this day and forevermore. Amen.

[1] The Rev. Mr. Michael Caine.

[2] Note: the Brunswick director of Habitat for Humanity offered a Time for Mission at the start of the service.

03/23/2025 ~ Third Sunday in Lent ~ Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0g1SFNiHeU
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1069301613

The Ways of God

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, / so are my ways higher than your ways / and my thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:9.

You may get tied of hearing me say I was a theater professional. But I was. As a consequence, like a lot of theater folk, I had some odd jobs. Here’s a very odd one: I did presidential telephone surveys for the Harris organization in 1980. That was Regan vs. Carter.

Harris abided by some strict standards. I’m not sure that’s true of polling now. The standards: there should only be a few questions and it should last five to seven minutes.

The questions must be short— multiple choice, four options or yes and no. A valid poll also gets demographic data: age, ethnicity, faith background.

It was important the person who was called be allowed to give their own answer. But that’s a paradox because the poll taker offers all the answers— yes or no, A, B, C or D. But the person contacted must, themselves, repeat the exact words offered.

Last, all the questions needed to be answered. If one question is not answered, all the answers did not count— the industry standards in 1980.

This happened on one call. I dialed a random number, random since a poll taker was assigned an area code, the first three digits of a number and then made up the last four. In the 1980s this located the call in a specific region. That’s no longer true, is it?

The area I dialed that night— it was always in the evening— was in Alabama. On one particular call the presidential preference questions were successfully navigated. I turned to the demographic questions and asked the standard question about faith tradition: “Are you Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or other.”

The response? “I’m a Baptist.”

As I said, the person being polled needed to say one of the words I offered as an answer. I tried rephrasing the question. “Many people say the Baptist tradition is part of the group known as Protestants. Are you a Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or other.”

“I’m a Baptist.”

I said, “Some people think a Baptist should not be classified as a Protestant but falls under the category called other. Are you a Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or other.”

“I’m a Baptist.”

I then heard the phone slam down. Hence, all the valid answers this person gave were thrown out. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, the second Prophet in the Scroll: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, / so are my ways higher than your ways / and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Slight pause.)

Vince Amlin is a United Church of Christ pastor. In a blog post he said a parishioner asked this question: “What do you expect of me as a fellow church member?”

The question reminded Amlin he is a church member— a pastor— but a member. Therefore, this person was asking a fellow theologian— as church members we really are all theologians even if we don’t want to admit it— this person was asking a fellow theologian, a parishioner, what they expected from another theologian, a parishioner.

Now a question about expectations can be uncomfortable. You see, if I’m a member of any group— not just churches but any group— it means others in that group may make claims on me.

In any organization others make a claim on my time, resources. But in a church a claim is made on my heart. An individual might expect the other theologians in a church to pray for their father diagnosed with dementia, visit a parishioner who is ill, or even make soup or bake for a potluck.

Expectations might even come from a giver. There might be an expectation to need their care, invite concern, partake of casseroles. For some, expectations might be a terrifying aspect of the church— all that was from Pastor Vince Amlin. [1] (Slight pause.)

That poses a provocative question: to what is God really calling us? Is it membership of some form or another? After all, doesn’t church membership simply just break out into tribes, as in “I’m a Baptist?” (Slight pause.)

Mike Flanagan, an Episcopal priest, offers this reflection. “When I was ordained,” he said, “I was all about the worship, the liturgy being just right, good preaching.”

Today Flanagan sees his role as helping people discern their callings, talents, connecting those to the needs of the local church and the community. Flanagan adds, “I can be a member and do nothing. Membership is a much too passive idea.”

So this Episcopal priest no longer refers to parishioners as members but as disciples. “Disciple,” he says, “is not a passive word. [2] (Slight pause.)

Poet and Pastor Maren Tirabassi wrote a poem called Lenten reflection— I’d like a church— make mine double. These are her words.

I know a church / that only embraces prodigals— / tech industry nones / or folks who live in their cars, / those who identify as gender non-conforming, / formerly incarcerated, / in recovery, post-evangelical, / lapsed, doubters or inked.

I know a church / that celebrates long-timers, / the ones who CROP walk, / or teach Sunday School, / the ones who are life-deacons, / chaperone mission trips, / shovel snow, / visit nursing homes, / get wax out of / Christmas morning carpet.

What I want is— / a church like / the completely dysfunctional family / Jesus told stories about— / with the designated lover / always out on the road / to welcome in or argue back— / someone staggering from / a hit-and-run, / someone stuck in their ruts. [3] A Lenten reflection — I’d like a church – make mine a double by Maren Tirabassi.

That brings us back to Isaiah’s proclamation that the ways of God are not our ways. I think Maren’s poem gets at a truth that may be uncomfortable: God’s ways are not our ways, especially in a church.

To illustrate that, I think we need to realize the verse from Isaiah about the ways of God not being our ways actually refers to the first words in this passage (quote:) “I call out to all who thirst: / come to the waters; / and you that have no money, / come, buy and eat! / Come, buy wine and milk / without money and without price.”

God’s ways are not about a transaction, what we can purchase, trade, about how much we have. God’s ways are not about tribalism since tribalism by definition is transactional. So it’s not about what we know, who we are or with whom we align.

I think that reality should help us focus on the term disciple. This is a dictionary definition of disciple: a disciple is someone who accepts and helps spread teachings. (Slight pause.)

There are some basic teachings found in this passage. God abundantly and freely pardons. We are forgiven in the eyes of God.

God’s economy is all inclusive. This really is a free market— free — there are no transactions so it’s not transactional. We do not pay. (Slight pause.)

God’s club is all inclusive. Everyone is welcome. So, how can we, as disciples, spread the word about the ways of God?

Perhaps disciples need to incorporate God’s ways into their own lives, the method by which disciples really teach. Our lives do teach by our actions. (Slight pause.)

You have heard me say this. The message of Scripture can be reduced to four words: love God; love neighbor. These are God’s ways, God’s thoughts— love God, love neighbor. Amen.

03/23/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “I want offer a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: ‘In the end it matters not how good we are but how good God is. It matters not how much we love God but how much God loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t believe.’”

BENEDICTION: God’s steadfast love endures forever. Let us live our days offering thanks to God who feeds our souls. Let us go on our way with Christ as our companion. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

[1] Adapted for this context.
http://www.ucc.org/daily_devotional_raised_expectations

[2]
https://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/30951-trading-membership-for-discipleship-helping-churches-christians

[3] Posted on Maren Tirabassi’s Facebook page.