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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.

03/16/2025 ~ Second Sunday in Lent ~ Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35 or Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYQo_rirGEM ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1066992117

Covenant Made

“On that day Yahweh, God, made a covenant with Abram…” — Genesis 15:18.

A couple weeks ago I regaled you with a story about the time I worked at The Actors’ Fund of America. Telling it must have dredged up memories about those thrilling days of yesteryear— the 1970s. Here’s another story from that time.

One of my volunteers at the Fund was a woman named Caterina Jarboro. She was an African-American classically trained opera singer. She died in 1986 at the age of 90.

Some of Caterina’s story refers often forgotten theater history. Some of the story concerns American history, also often forgotten, but history which we should not forget. (Slight pause)

Despite being a classically opera trained singer, early on Caterina worked on Broadway. She was in the original 1921 Broadway production of Shuffle Along, the first Broadway show ever written and produced by African-Americans.

Theater professionals were skeptical this show would appeal to Broadway audiences. They were wrong. It ran for 504 performances and earned $9 million, a long run and a large sum for its time.

It had a score written by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake— and if you know about song writing, you know them. The best known song in the show was I’m Just Wild about Harry— you know that one? (The pastor entones the first notes). [1] O.K. Especially in his later years Eubie Blake became quite famous and in 1981 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan.

Back to Caterina— her United States opera debut was in a 1933 New York City production of Verdi’s Aida, the first time a black woman had the lead role in an American all-white opera company. Both before and after that she had toured for a number of seasons in Europe but returned to the States when WWII started.

Now, the well known African-American classical singer in that era was Marian Anderson who, in 1938 was prevented from giving a concert for an integrated audience at Constitution Hall. So instead she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Millions listened to that concert since was heard nationwide on the radio.

Now when Caterina did return to this country she approached an agent to see if she could get a concert tour started here. The response? She was told there was room for only one black female classical singer in America. That was Marion Anderson. So there would be no room in this country for a Caterina Jarboro tour. One black classical singer in America was enough, thank you. (Slight pause.)

Caterina taught me a lot by her attitude, by how she approached her volunteer work at the Fund. She was precise, dedicated, faithful. Her life spoke volumes to me.

And yes, she was extraordinarily talented but because of the world, the era in which she lived, she was never able receive the recognition she deserved. That must have been hard to deal with, even hard to comprehend.

But she persisted. She was relentless. She never surrendered, never gave up. She always moved forward steady, sure.

Because the world is what it is she knew there would be roadblocks. But she also knew there was work to be done. And she could be trusted, counted on to do whatever she could to help and to move forward with a sure and steady hand. [2] (Long pause.)

These words are in Genesis: “On that day Yahweh, God, made a covenant with Abram…” (Slight pause.)

Please notice several things about this reading. Abram gathers a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon. Abram even cuts the larger animals in two.

The darkness, the smoking barrier, the fire pot, the flaming torch, are all images fraught with the symbolism of covenant making in the Ancient Near East. So these are not meant as mysterious signs but are indicated symbols of covenant making in that era.

Now, when God says the words which establish and enacts the covenant, Abram is (quote:) “in a deep trance.” Therefore Abram does nothing to establish or enact the covenant. Nor does Abram even respond to the covenant being made.

Hence, there is no question about this. The covenant established by God with Abram and hence with us is not a two way agreement. It is not of our doing. The covenant is, like grace, a free gift. God is the prime mover.

So, what Abram has done is not about covenant making on his part. Abram simply participates, participates by gathering and slaughtering the animals, for instance. So what has Abram really done? Abram trusted God. Indeed, God reckoned this trust as righteousness, as being in right relationship with God.

You might ask, if Abram has done nothing to initiate, enact, establish covenant, what is our place in the covenant? What are we to do? I think the key is simple but sometimes hard for us to deal with it, in part because we firmly believe we are in control of everything.

So let me ask the obvious question again. What is our place in this covenant? (Slight pause.) We are invited to participate by God— participate— in the covenant. And again for us, mere participation can be hard since participating just does not feel like enough. We want to do more. So perhaps it seems like we do want to be in control. (Slight pause.)

I want to suggest there is something we can do but it’s not about control. It is about relinquishing control. We are called to do what Abram did. We are called to trust God. (Slight pause.)

Let’s go back to the story of Caterina Jarboro. She was in Shuffle Along, the first Broadway show ever written and produced by African-Americans. She toured Europe and was the first black woman to have the lead role in an all-white opera company in America.

But she was not able to receive the recognition she deserved since there was room for only one Marian Anderson in America. And yes, that must have been hard to deal with, hard to comprehend.

But what was she doing when I met her? She was volunteering for The Actors Fund. In volunteering she was raising money to help those in her profession in need.

What was she really doing when I met her? She was participating, persisting, being relentless. She had never surrendered, never given up.

She was always moving forward sure, steady. She knew there was more to life than roadblocks. She trusted that. (Slight pause.)

So, why was I reminded of Caterina and my work at the Actors’ Fund? Perhaps I was reminded just so I could share her story. Perhaps I was reminded so I could note that our real part in the covenant is to trust God. And that, I think, is not just our part in covenant. That is the real lesson of covenant: trust God.

Why? The world is what it is. It can be hard. Caterina knew that. The world now is not the way God would have it. We know that.

And we need to trust God so we can be empowered to do the work of God and the will of God here in this very flawed, very broken world. I happen to think doing the work of God and the will of God is the result— the result— of trusting God. And perhaps when we trust God and simply participate slowly and surely the world will be changed. Change… the change that God seeks… what a concept. Amen.

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: “Theologian Walter Brueggemann said this (quote:) ‘Covenant (and, therefore, true spirituality), consists of learning the skills and sensitivities that include both the courage to assert self and the grace to abandon self to another’ (unquote). In short, covenant is not possible unless you recognize the needs of others. The needs of others— it’s that love neighbor thing which keeps coming up, isn’t it. And I would suggest to really love neighbor we need to trust God.”

BENEDICTION: Let our hearts take courage. Our God meets us where our needs rest. God is our shelter and shield. God’s blessings outnumber the stars. 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] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuffle_Along

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterina_Jarboro

https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/03/27/the-diva-worthy-life-of-wilmington-opera-legend-caterina-jarboro/69987163007/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jarboro-caterina-1903-1986/

03/09/2025 ~ First Sunday in Lent ~ Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-87Go7H5A
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1064807594

No Distinction

“…there is no distinction between Jew and Greek— all have the same Creator, rich in mercy towards those who call.” — Romans 10:12.

I’ve often mentioned I’m from New York City. Hence, I know a lot about how to survive there. An example: there are codes on the lamp posts in Central Park. Did you know that? If you know the code, it tells you what cross street you’re at, a north/south location, and it also tells you where you are relative to your east/west location.

Now, I grew up in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn in the 1950s. My parents always told me that this neighborhood was a nice neighborhood, a safe place. Even as a youngster knew that was at best an over statement. It was neither.

Well, when I worked on Wall Street one of my co-workers was a retired New York City police lieutenant. And as we talked I found out he had worked in that same Bushwick neighborhood in the 1940s.

So I asked him what it was like in the 40s. Was it a nice neighborhood, safe? His response? “Well,” he said as gently as possible, “I would not have wanted to live there.” So, no— it was neither nice nor safe. But I also need to say this: today Bushwick has become gentrified, upscale. I couldn’t afford to rent an apartment there now.

Despite the gritty reality of my youth in the 50s and into the 60s, the city does provide access to world class music and art. For reasons beyond me I was attuned to these. I preferred Beethoven and van Gogh over Elvis and Superman comics. In short, growing up there, in that atmosphere, is a part of me, a part of who I am today.

The phrase sociologists use to describe one’s origins and also one’s current time and place is social location. We all have a social location, a time and a place of our origins and a current time and place where we are now.

Social location is a very academic idea so here are two concrete examples. How much money someone has influences how a person sees the world. Race is also an obvious factor in social location in how one sees the world. Social location can even have an affect on what gets through to our brain. It can either block or illuminate features of the world which are salient, relevant, forceful, credible.

Whether we are aware of our own social location or not, it has helped us to shape, conceptualize, understand, make sense of the world. Indeed, if we do not recognize the multiple aspects of our social location which make up own life, we have our eyes closed to reality.

Again, that is somewhat academic. This is less academic. If you grew up with or are now familiar with wealth your take on a lot of things is likely to be different than if you grew up with or are now familiar with poverty.

Equally, if you grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, your take on a lot of things is likely to be different than if you grew up in San Francisco, California, in London, England, in Tokyo, Japan. And if you grew up in Harpswell…. well, you get the idea, don’t you?

The bottom line: exploring our own social location invites us to ask some basic, even hard questions. Here’s one: because of my social location am I aware of my own prejudices or am I blissfully unaware of them?

Being aware of social location invites us into a process of self examination. How did I become who I am? How does who I am affect those around me? (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the Letter to the Church in Rome, often called Romans: “…there is no distinction between Jew and Greek— all have the same Creator, rich in mercy towards those who call.” (Slight pause.)

Here’s a label which sometimes gets flung around. “Loser!” Most of the time those who used this are attempting to utter a pejorative, an insult, a put down.

However, the real purpose of invectives like “loser” is to set up differences, us/them dichotomies. What’s left unsaid is, ‘If there are losers, there are winners’— winners and losers— the way the real world works, right? But separating people in that way begs the question: ‘Why are these us/them lines, these separations drawn?’ (Slight pause.)

That brings us back to Paul’s proclamation about there being no distinction between Jew and Greek. To reiterate something I said last week, the season of Lent always brings us, brings the church back to basics, to issues which are bedrock, essential.

The texts assigned for Lent tend to ask us to reflect on where we, as communities and as individuals, stand in relation to these basics. One part of those basics is an invitation to self-examination.

And so the text challenges us to ask who is to be included in my community, in our community? Clearly the answer offered in this text is everyone is included. There are no distinctions.

Why do I say that? In a real sense given Paul’s time and place, Paul’s social location, if Jew and Greek are not the only two choices available they are at least the only two Paul is willing to consider here. Hence, Paul insists social location is not a determining factor about who is acceptable and who is not.

To put it in more modern language, Paul is saying there are no winners or losers. There are no outcasts. In the eyes of God categories do not exist. (Slight pause.)

Let’s come back to our own social location for a minute. Compared to Paul who here thought in terms of those two social locations, today we have a vast array of social locations.

But the prime issue for us is the same one Paul addressed. And we, therefore, need to realize our very human tendency is to break people out into tribes, to catagorize people. Too often we break everyone into that aforementioned pair of tribes: winners and losers.

Here’s my take: the call of the Gospel counters that. The call of the Gospel is to live by the grace, in the grace, with the grace God offers. The call of the Gospel, the call of that grace, is to see everyone as gathered into in one tribe— the tribe of God.

To be clear, I don’t think the idea that everyone might belong to one tribe comes naturally to us. Why? I think we humans like to catagorize. The painful fact is too often we don’t just catagorize based on reality. We simply make things up. We make up groups.

I say if we think in terms of all humanity as being one tribe that invites us to explore, to identify, to examine our own shortcomings, our own failings, our own group making, our own tribe-making. I would also suggest through an examination of self, an examination of our social location, we can at least strive to avoid choosing up sides, avoid making up groups, avoid choosing winners and losers. (Slight pause.)

Sociologist Robert Putnam puts it this way. ‘Relentlessly— relentlessly exercising individual freedom at the expense of others can unravel the foundations of society.’ [1] I would add relentlessly exercising individual freedom at the expense of others can unravel the foundations of a church and can unravel the foundations of God’s tribe, humanity.

And yes, it is a challenge to us, for us, to refrain from picking sides, to love as God would have us love. But I am convinced the call of the Gospel is a call to examine and explore the world not as we see the world but as God sees the world. Let us pray for the vision and let us pray for the grace to accomplish that task. Amen.

03/09/2025
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 a précis of what was said: “Yes, I was a Catholic altar boy who grew up in Brooklyn. The nuns taught me examining myself— they called it examination of conscience— examining myself was important in exploring a Christian way of life. When I became familiar with classical literature I learned Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ And so let me point out one of our thoughts for meditation in today’s bulletin (quote:) ‘Lent is not a “penitential season.” Lent is a “growing season.’” Lent is a time for growth. So, let us pray for the grace to grow in service, grow in friendship, grow in love.”

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 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] This is a paraphrase of the words of Putnam from The Upswing, 2020 Simon & Schuster, pg. 19.

03/02/2025 ~ The Eight Sunday After the Epiphany and the Last Sunday Before Lent ~ A.K.A. Transfiguration Sunday ~ A.K.A. the eight Sunday in ordinary time ~ Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1062771341

Transfiguration and Reality

“Therefore, because we have this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.” — 2 Corinthians 4:1.

Most of you have heard me say I worked in professional theater. When I do that I often mention being a writer and lyricist. But that short changes what I did. Like many people in theater I did a myriad of things.

To highlight just one thing, I was an executive with The Actors’ Fund of America, now known as the Entertainment Community Fund. The Fund offers social services from financial assistance to employment training and operates the Actors’ Fund Home, a nursing and assisted living facility.

Now, when I worked for the Fund I was one of two people who went through the estate of Basil Rathbone and his wife Ouida. Those of you over 50 will know exactly who Basil Rathbone is. Those of you under fifty will probably have to Google him.

Rathbone, a British character actor, played heros and villains— Sherlock Holmes and Pontius Pilate to name one of each— and in the 1940s was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. After Rathbone and his wife died lawyers rummaged through their estate, got what they thought was of value and handed the rest over to the Fund.

Some of what to those lawyers looked like was junk was not. I got to plow through what was leftover. For reasons too long to explain, back then I had a reputation for evaluating theatrical memorabilia— items associated with significant theater people.

Now, when you go through an estate seeking something which might have value, rule one is when you find junk get rid of it. But discerning what has value isn’t easy. It’s not necessarily about monetary value. It’s about emotional value.

Here’s an example of the difference between memorabilia worth something and junk. Rathbone’s first Actors’ Equity contract on Broadway— valuable. An 8 x 10 glossy picture of a place setting from a Rathbone dinner party— not so much. (Slight pause.)

We hear this in 2 Corinthians: “Therefore, because we have this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.” (Slight pause.)

Every commentary I’ve ever seen says this passage is very complex. Hence, figuring out what Paul is trying to say is not easy. But I want to make a suggestion. Paul is encouraging us to go back to essentials, the basics— get rid of the junk.

I find it instructive that this reading is the assigned Epistle lectionary today, Transfiguration Sunday. That $64 word you heard earlier, theophany, is defined as an experience of the real presence of God, something which certainly involves our emotions. The Transfiguration is a theophany. [1]

That brings us back to Paul. The apostle brings up the Torah, the teachings, Moses. Then Paul says (quote:) “And we… reflect the glory of our God, grow brighter and brighter as we are being transformed into the same image we reflect.”

In New Testament times anyone would have recognized what Paul is doing using the word ‘glory.’ Glory— Kabod in Hebrew— means the real presence of God. And what is the Transfiguration? It’s an experience of the real presence of God.

And that is, I think, why Paul insists ministry is present through God’s mercy and we should not give into discouragement, should not lose heart. Indeed, Paul draws on the story of Moses to make the point that in Christ God enables all to participate in the glory of God because the glory of God is present. God walks with us.

And that is the reality we Christians claim, the claim of the Transfiguration, the claim of the Resurrection. God is present. God walks with us. (Slight pause.)

As Christians, we need to focus not on the idea that God is present to me, God walks with me. Rather God is present to all of us. God walks with all of us.

Further, Paul also says do not be discouraged. Are there are times I am discouraged, times we are all discouraged together? Yes. But that’s simply life, simply being human.

Indeed, if Paul possessed any human trait he also must have had those times of being discouraged. If that were not true the Apostle never would have never written (quote:) “we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.”

Why? Because (quote:) “We have this ministry through God’s mercy,….” And that, my friends, is not junk. Paul is simply pointing at the basics of life with God, the basics of our emotional life with God.

So, what do we need to do? We need to do something else very, very human. We need to look around and realize that ministry here and now, in this place, at this time, is granted to us by God. And yes, God is with us. God does walk with us. This is basic. This is about our emotional life with God. Amen.

03/02/2025
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 a précis of what was said: “Generally, we Congregationalists fall under the category, the heading, of the group commonly called Protestant. But we need to realize that the Latin root of the word is protestari. It breaks down this way: testari is to declare publicly, to testify, to witness. Pro means for. Hence, a Protestant is not someone who protests but someone who witnesses for. For what do we Protestants witness? We witness for the reality that God is with us. God walks with us.”

BENEDICTION: God heals and restores. God grants to us the grace and the talent to witness to the love God has for us. So let us live in the light God offers. And, therefore, let us be ready as we go into the world, for we are baptized in the power of the Spirit. 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] A theophany was explained when the Transfiguration reading was introduced.

02/23/2025 ~ Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40; 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtHMdJ9cDVE
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1061258659

Golden Rules

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” — Luke 6:31

One of my professors at Bangor Theological Seminary had an interesting background. Dana Sawyer was a Native American who grew up on the Penobscot reservation near Old Town. And he had a Ph.D. in Far Eastern Religion.

After acquiring the Ph.D. and numerous trips to the Far East he returned to Maine to teach at the University level. At Bangor he appropriately taught World Religions. In that class he said something more fascinating than his background. The religion most practiced in the world and most practiced in America, said he, was called folk religion— he called it folk religion— most practiced world wide and most practiced in America.

Further, he labeled fundamentalism as an American folk religion. Why? Fundamentalism has absolutely no basis in historic Christianity and began only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And it started here in America.

Following the Civil War, tensions developed among Christians here. Scholarly Biblical criticism, a practice which dates back millennia, was unacceptable to some because scholarly Biblical criticism examines social and cultural changes within the Scriptures. Why was that unacceptable to some? The implication was studying this reality in Scripture might encourage social and cultural change today.

And so The Fundamentals, a series of papers, was published in Los Angeles between 1910 and 1915. The publication was funded by an oil baron who wanted to resist social, cultural changes perhaps because of his status. The bottom line: Christianity had never seen anything like organized Fundamentalism before and big money supported and helped organize it.

Many think Fundamentalism is ancient but it’s a little more than 100 years old and it’s an American idea. Islamic Fundamentalism did not exist before that time and the idea eventually spread East. I’m sure the irony of that is not lost on you.

To put all this another way, fundamentalism is not a theological reevaluation of Christianity. It is a social, cultural movement whose mission was to resist change in society. I am not saying people who follow Fundamentalism are insincere. I am saying the movement, itself, stems from social and cultural resistence and has late origins. (Slight pause.)

From time to time many of you have heard me say I have Jesuit training. Since my father taught at a Jesuit High School for his entire working career, Jesuits were my friends. They came to family parties. I played softball and basketball with Jesuits. Jesuits staffed the Summer camp I attended.

Question: most of the time how do we really learn, learn about life, learn about how to behave, about how life should be lived? We learn from family and we learn from friends.

A competent teacher will tell you a significant chunk of learning happens outside of any classroom wall. When Jesuits are friends of the family, it’s hard to not be influenced by their thinking, to not learn from their thinking. (Slight pause.)

The Jesuit order defines their mission with these words. To work for reconciliation every day. To work with God, with humans and with the environment. To respond with intellectual rigor to the most challenging issues of our times.

To employ discernment in decision-making. To care for the poor, the vulnerable and the earth, the common home of all humanity. To serve God and the Church with creativity and fidelity. To bridge societal divides.

To foster understanding among diverse people and cultures. To collaborate regionally through partnerships and in networks in an effort to serve the people of God— that is the mission of the Jesuits. (Slight pause.)
This is what we find recorded in the work known as Luke/Acts in the portion called Luke: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Slight pause)

The quote you just heard is often called The Golden Rule. It’s found in many faith traditions, in many social traditions, in many cultures. It dates at least back to the Code of Hammurabi, 1,700 years before the birth of Christ. (Slight pause.)

Now, I think most of you are aware I had what might be called multiple careers before seminary. One piece of that was a stint working on Wall Street.

This is The Golden Rule on Wall Street: those who have the gold make the rules. A corollary: those who have power hoard power. Another corollary: those who dominate strive to perpetuate dominance.

These are cultural, secular golden rules. The question that presents to us is simple: do we follow a cultural, secular golden rule, or do we follow the golden rule to which God calls us and calls the church? (Slight pause.)

Occasionally someone will say to me there are liberal interpretations of the Bible. Others will say there are conservative interpretations. Nether position is accurate.

The challenges with which Scripture presents us are not that empty minded. The challenges are multiple, especially when it comes to the culture. The first challenge: identify the cultural trappings which are in Scripture because of the era in which Scripture was written.

That alone is not easy. Why? In the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, there are at least four different documents written over the course of a number centuries and then stitched together, effectively a fifth layer.

When these documents are read only in translation and not in the original language they appear to be one, single, singular document. In the original languages differences jump out at you.

Each of those documents, each written in different eras, need to be unpacked for the cultural content based in the era in which they were written. After we strive to identify and eliminate the cultural noise, the question for us becomes to where does God call us, right here, right now?

The next challenge: what does our culture, today, say to us? To identify what our culture today says to us— fundamentalism, for instance— and identify the influence of our culture on us, is an even harder task than looking at ancient cultures in the Scriptural text.

We may not be fully able identify all aspects of an ancient culture but we can identify many of them. Identifying today’s culture is a daunting challenge because we are living in and with our own culture. It’s just second nature to us. We don’t even notice it.

Just like we need to identify and neutralize cultural practices found in Scripture, we need to identify and neutralize practices in today’s culture. Once today’s cultural noise is located we yet again need to ask ‘to where does God call us?’

So a key question becomes ‘will we be overcome, be overwhelmed by today’s culture which surrounds us when we read Scripture?’ (Slight pause.)

That brings me back to my friends the Jesuits. This is a précis of the Jesuit mission in several words: discernment; reconciliation among all people and justice; be creative and faithful; strive to create a hope-filled future; care for the earth, our common home. (Slight pause.)

As I said, Scripture is neither liberal nor conservative. That summation of the Jesuit mission is neither liberal nor conservative. Why? Living into and with these ideals is about a way of life, about a way to learn about life, a way to learn how to behave, a way to learn about living together— that’s what these are about. (Slight pause.)

Christianity is not about rules. Christianity is not about the culture. Christianity is about a way of life.

Will anyone ever be perfect at the practice of life? No. The idea is to practice every day. Perhaps the important idea here is to strive, as well as we are able, to see the world as God sees the world. How does God see the world?

Certainly one step is what Jesus says in Luke: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” That is, however, not just a golden rule. That is a counter-cultural idea since those words are about God’s culture, not about human culture. Amen.

02/23/2025
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 a précis of what was said: “This is a quote from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘Nothing worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.’— Reinhold Niebuhr. The culture is temporary. God is not.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go in joy and in love and in peace. God reigns. Therefore, let us go forth in the name of Christ proclaiming the peace of God which surpasses understanding. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the presence of Christ be with us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.

02/02/2025 ~ Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30 ~ Also the Feast of Presentation of the Lord ~ Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 84 or Psalm 24:7-10; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotduEKNL-E ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1053427195

Agape

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” — 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a

You may be tired of me saying I spent 23 years at one church in Upstate, rural New York. As I think you also know (you may be tired of me saying this too), my ordination and my standing is with and in the United Church of Christ. Similar to the NACCC, your denomination, the UCC has Associations.

Congregational churches gathering into Associations dates from the 1600s. Whereas the NACCC has one Association in Maine, the UCC has seven.

Unlike the NACCC, the UCC has an encompassing body known as a Conference. In New York I was, at one point, on the Board of the Conference. Now, churches have annual meetings. We shall have one in a fortnight. Just like churches, Associations and Conferences have Annual Meetings.

A year before I came back to Maine someone approached me at a Conference annual meeting a Conference Annual in New York and told me they felt like I was an institution in the Conference. I responded with a smile and said, “Change can be good for institutions. It must be time for me to leave.” A year later I did just that. I left. (Slight pause.)

At the first Conference board meeting I attended, a lawyer offered a short course on the ethical standards expected not just of church boards but of all non-profit boards. Many points were made; lawyers do that— cover a lot of bases.

But one thing stuck in my brain from that talk. Many non-profit boards are made up of specific segments from a broad constituency. I represented my local Association.

However, the ethical standard for a board member of any non-profit, said this lawyer, is once on a board, that constituency, that affiliation, from which you come is a moot point. Each individual board member is responsible for representing the whole— non-profit standard— each board member is responsible for representing the whole.

In New York and in Maine I’ve served on many boards of my local Association and I did and do try to represent the whole. Representing the whole does not mean you fail to bring your sensitivity, sensibility, insights, intelligence to what’s being considered. It does mean you strive to represent the whole as well as you can. That… is the ethical standard. (Slight pause.)

These words are found in 1 Corinthians: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” (Slight pause.)

As was mentioned when this reading was introduced, there are six words in Greek for love. We speakers of English are confined to just one.

These are those Greek words with the short explanation for each. Eros is a physical expression of love; Philia— is friendship sometimes called brotherly or sisterly love; Ludus— playful love or the love of parents for children; Pragma— longstanding love; Philautia— love of self— not vanity, but protective love of self.

Next, Xenia is hospitality coupled with generosity and reciprocity. Last we have Agape. Agape is unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love. (Slight pause.)

It is fairly well known that in this passage Paul addresses Agape. And yes, as a community we should be aware that we are bonded in and by Agape, this unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love for one another.

But there is a larger idea behind Agape love. Agape love should not and does not end in this place, with those we know. The very meaning of the word should instruct us that we, this community of faith, who have bonded here in this place, who are bonded here in this place by unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love also need to move beyond this place.

In the practical terms of Congregational polity, each member of this church is affiliated with another church group— the Congregational Churches in Maine and also with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. So Agape love, as it relates to the church community, this unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love, extends to the Maine Association and to national level, both a broadening and an outgrowth of the universality of Agape love.

There is more. Agape love invites us to look at things with the eyes of another one of those Greek words for love— Philia love for all our brothers and sisters, for all humanity. But this is not just love for all humanity. Philia extends to love for all of God’s creation— all of God’s creation. (Slight pause.)

I need to add one thing. We Congregationalists have another name for Agape— did you know that? We call it covenant love. And covenant love understood well is quite demanding.

You see, what covenant love invites us to is… growth. Covenant love invites us to… learning. Covenant love invites us to… engagement. Covenant love invites us to… see new horizons constantly.

Covenant loves invites us to the idea that as we move forward we remember, honor the past… and understand it is past. Covenant loves invites us to deal with the realities of the present. Covenant love invites us to meet the challenges of the future.

Covenant loves invites us to see the whole. Covenant loves invites us to be responsible for the whole. Last, and perhaps the most important aspect of covenant love, is that it invites us to hold one another’s humanity and well being as precious. (Slight pause.)

It’s likely we all know and can probably recite by heart Paul’s famous words. (Quote:) “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and can endure all things. Love never ends.” The challenge for us is simple. Can we meet the standard proposed by Paul, this standard the Apostle called agape, called love? Amen.

02/02/2025
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: “Rumor to the contrary, the Bible does not tell us about faith, hope and charity, despite what the popular song says. Agape translates into Latin as Caritas. Caritas was then translated into the Anglo-Saxon language tree as charity. But when that translation happened the underlying word was still Agape, unconditional, altruistic, universal, inclusive love. So that kind of charity is not about giving something to someone. I hope I have just illustrated that Paul’s challenge is much more demanding than mere charity. It is about total devotion and surrendering of self.”

BENEDICTION: Let us, above all, surround ourselves with the perfect love of God, a love which binds everything together in harmony. 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.

01/26/2025 ~ Third Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoUOIiFDNi0
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1051182374

Understanding

“So they, the Levites, read from the book, from the Torah of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” — Nehemiah 8:8.

When I was in my last year at Bangor Theological Seminary a well known New Testament scholar, the Rev. Dr. David Trobish, took over the reigns of the New Testament Department. Trobish came to Bangor from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Was it strange that a scholar with an international reputation might choose to come to a small Seminary in a rural State? No. Why? The Rev. Dr. Trobish filled the slot of the late Rev. Dr. Burton Throckmorton, the professor with whom I studied the New Testament, also a scholar with an international reputation. That alone made this a prestigious position.

This is just one of Burt’s books, The Gospel Parallels, published in 1949. [1] )The pastor holds this book up.) Often used in both college and seminary courses on the New Testament, the book lays out the three synoptic Gospels— Mark, Matthew and Luke in three columns while referencing ancient Greek manuscripts. It shows where the words of the Gospels are, indeed, in parallel— meaning the underlying Greek is the same word. By definition, hence, it also shows where the underlying Greek is not in parallel.

Back to Dr. Trobish— I was never in a classroom with him since I was in my final semester when he arrived but we spoke, shared meals. That happens at a small Seminary. Just in doing that I heard many fascinating stories. This is one.

Germany has a very different church/state system than we do. Everyone is taxed by the government to support the churches.

Hence, seminaries are paid for by the state. Mind you, I think there is actually more separation of church and state in Germany than there is here, but that’s a topic for a 3 hour lecture, not a sermon, so I think you’re probably glad I’m not going there.

In Germany, if a person wants to be a pastor at a state supported church, even someone whose background is a fundamentalist background, that person has to go to a state sponsored seminary. When David taught a New Testament Survey Course at Heidelberg he started by asking the students to examine the ancient Greek manuscripts. There are thousands.

Each manuscript of exactly the same passage has many words which are different from one manuscript to another to another. It was at that point, when the students who thought Scripture should be taken literally started to examine the manuscripts, said David, that he could see the scales of that idea fall from their eyes.

In short, it is impossible to read Scripture literally once you examine the ancient manuscripts. The reality is, in order to understand what is there, the text needs to be interpreted. Meaning is not obvious. Meaning needs to be gleaned. (Slight pause.)

This is what we hear in Nehemiah: “So they, the Levites, read from the book, from the Torah of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” (Slight pause.)

One of the great precepts of the Protestant Revolution is everyone should be able to read Scripture in the vernacular, in their own language. Before that time people were burned at the stake for simply trying to translate the text into another language.

But one of the things we fail to ask about the era in which this idea, that anyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language was promulgated, is ‘who could read?’ Those who could read were a fairly small percentage of the population.

Further if you could read, the odds were you could read not just the vernacular language of your own area, but you could also read Greek. Why? That literate people studied Greek was a given back then and the Scriptures were available in Greek.

Indeed, when Calvin came to the pulpit in Geneva, Scripture passages were read in the Greek. It was assumed everyone in the congregation would know what was being said.

Now, you may have noticed I try to avoid saying Jesus Christ. I say Jesus, the Christ. Why? Jesus holds the office of the Christ, the Messiah. I say it that way because most people today don’t know Greek and that’s what the Greek means. Jesus is the Name of the person Who holds the office known as the Christ.

So one of the things we need to consider when we, today, read Scripture is the fact that there may be a need for some extra information about the underlying documents and information about the eras in which the texts were composed. Hence, I always recommend when Scripture is read privately that it is good to start with the aforementioned Study Bible, [2] one with footnotes and articles which introduce various sections. [3] (Once again the pastor holds up a book.) This one tends to be the academic standard, the New Revised Standard Version and this was just updated just last year— the New Revised Standard Version.

And you may or may not be able to see that says SBL Study Bible. That’s the Society for Biblical Literature Study Bible.

And when Scripture is read privately it’s also good to have a reputable commentary next to the Bible you’re reading. Why? In order to understand what’s there, the text needs to be interpreted. Meaning is not necessarily obvious. Meaning needs to be gleaned.

A little more show and tell: this is a one volume commentary, a reputable commentary, the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. [4] The large version is in twelve volumes. This is the one volume version. Yes— I have it on my computer, all twelve.

Please don’t worry about what these books are. When published on my blog the text verison of this sermon will have footnotes where the books are named so you can look them up.

Back to Nehemiah— as we just heard, the people in the Fifth Century Before the Common Era, were not that different than we are today. Scripture needed to be interpreted; to draw a parallel, the Levites were the Rabbi’s, the teachers of that era. It was the Levites who helped interpret Scripture.

Now, there is something else to consider. How do we interpret Scripture? With what premise do we start? Theologian Bruce Epperly says many have forgotten about the reality of Scripture and portray God as distant and not interested in mere mortals or as a coercive power, Whose Word will separate humankind from lifeless nature.

Therefore, many turn away from the biblical vision of the goodness of creation. Many turn from our vocation as God’s agents of Shalom, God’s agents of peace, God’s agents of justice, God’s agents of love.

But, says Epperly, our call as beloved children of God is to repair breaches, to strive to mend the world, to use our intelligence to work out healing. God invites us to use our intelligence to experience the wisdom and love of God. God invites us use our intelligence to live in harmony with the world rather than see the world as a place to be afflicted with domination.

Indeed, It is up to us to use our intelligence to be agents of God and to take action. What action? The actions of peace, justice, equity, freedom, joy, hope, love.

Where are these actions made explicit? These actions are made explicit in Scripture… when we read it with understanding. Let us pray that we are up to the task. Amen.

01/26/2025
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— this first thing I’ve said earlier. I do not take Scripture literally. I take Scripture seriously. Next, this was said by theologian Walter Brueggemann: ‘The Gospel is a dangerous idea. Our task is to see how much danger we, ourselves, wish to perform in our own lives.’ I might be wrong but I suspect the dangerous idea in the Gospel to which Brueggemann refers are the actions we know as seeking peace, justice, freedom, joy, hope and love, the love of God.”

BENEDICTION: Through God’s grace, by being attentive to God’s will, our deeds and our words will change our world for we will discover ways to proclaim release from the bondage of narrowness. Let us seek the God of Joy. Let us go in love and peace to serve God. Amen.

[1] Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels, New Revised Standard Version; ISBN-13: 978-0840774842.

[2] The Study Bible was brought up earlier in the service.

[3] The SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Study Bible – ISBN: 0062969439

[4] The New Interpreter’s Bible One-Volume Commentary, Abingdon Press; ISBN-13: 978-0687334117.

01/19/2025 ~ Second Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1049339279

Revealed Glory

“Jesus did this, performed the first of signs, at Cana in Galilee; in this way Jesus revealed glory; and the disciples believed.” — John 2:11.

Charisma is an interesting word since it has multiple definitions. If someone is charismatic it can mean a person has divinely conferred power but it can also mean someone who has compelling attractiveness, charm, can inspire devotion in others.

But people who sell snake oil, from prelates to presbyters to politicians, can be charismatic. That does not mean you should buy snake oil from them.

Now, when it comes to the positive meaning of charisma, I have been afforded the privilege to be in the presence of and learn from teachers who have charisma in the positive sense— no snake oil. These are two examples from my experience.

One teacher is the well known writer of musicals, the late Stephen Sondheim— lyrics for West Side Story, music and lyrics for Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd among many, many shows— all these are his. Stephen would come by the A.S.C.A.P. Musical Comedy Workshop, a Master Class for aspiring writers of musicals to offer advice and support. I was a member.

I want to address how Sondheim worked as a teacher, as he had a distinct presence— charisma. There are YOUTUBE videos out there of Sondheim teaching. You can GOOGLE them, look at them, see him working with acting students as they perform his songs. These videos put Sondheim the teacher on display.

In one video a song he wrote is sung by three people who intone the
three different parts of the song. Two of the three students are very good. The third does not have the level of execution, the expertise, displayed by the other two. That student struggles.

How does this composer respond? Gently— Sondheim does not berate the person of lesser ability but works with this individual. How?

Sondheim knows songs are not just ink blots on paper or sounds. Words have meaning, express emotion. Notes just don’t go up and down. Notes express emotion.

So Sondheim enters into a dialogue based not on what the words and notes say or how they sound, but what they mean. Indeed, he invites each of the three students to bring what they can to the table, encourages each student to give their own interpretation. Sondheim does this with the one who struggles and with the other two students each at their own level. (Slight pause.)

Another wonderful teacher I had is the late Dr. Ann Johnston, my Hebrew Scriptures professor at Bangor Theological Seminary. Ann was a Roman Catholic nun who had a PhD. in Hebrew Scriptures— an interesting combination to say the least.

She would assign at least four papers a semester. But for one paper Ann would always offer the option of writing a creative paper as opposed to an academic paper.

You could write an academic paper but alternatively you could write a play, a poem, a short story, draw, paint or sculpt something— that would be your paper. If you wanted to create a piece of visual art you did need to offer a short explanation. But that was simply for clarity.

Another student once said to me Ann just wants you to re-write the Bible. “No,” I said. “She wants you to be so emotionally engaged with it that you are able to convey to others what the Bible says but use your own words.” (Slight pause.)

This is what is found in the Gospel According to the School of John: “Jesus did this, performed the first of signs, at Cana in Galilee; in this way Jesus revealed glory; and the disciples believed.” (Slight pause.)

I’ve said this before. Stories in the Bible about miracles are not about miracles. To explore that, I’ll start with the obvious. Jesus and the disciples were Jewish.

Given that, what does it mean that Jesus revealed glory? Modern culture totally misuses and/or fails to understand the meaning of the word Glory as it is used in Scripture. In Scripture the word Glory often describes the real presence of God.

Indeed, the Latin words in a hymn used in the church for millennia are Gloria in Excelsus Deo. These can be translated as Glory to God in the highest.

But Excelsus Deo can also mean Highest God. And one title of God used in Scripture is Highest God. Hence, Gloria in Excelsus Deo can mean this Highest God displays Glory. In short, Gloria in Excelsus Deo can mean this God, called the highest God, is present.

And what does this passage which contains a miracle say about Jesus? It says Jesus revealed Glory. Put another way, in Jesus it is revealed that God is present.

Again please note, the point of the story is not the miracle, turning water into wine. The point of the story is the presence of God is revealed.

And the result of this— the result— is the disciples believed. But nowhere does it say the disciples knew about the water/wine transformation. So if Glory does not refer to the presence of God, the fact that the passage says the disciples believed makes no sense. Additionally, in John Jesus seems more God-like than in any other Gospel. Hence, when John tells us the disciples believed, what we need to hear is the disciples believed in the presence of God and this presence is revealed in Jesus.

All that brings me back to the word charisma and its definition. Charisma can mean a person who has compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion. Charisma can also mean a person who has divinely conferred power or talent.

In this story those two definitions to come together, merge. Jesus is not just a person who has compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, although some would have you believe that’s all Jesus is and that’s all Jesus does.

Jesus is not just a person with divinely conferred power or talent, although some would have you believe that’s all Jesus is or that’s all Jesus does. Jesus is both compelling and divine.

Coming back to my experience, Stephen Sondheim and Ann Johnston were good teachers because they realized people learn when they become emotionally engaged. And so Sondheim and Johnston taught their students, helped their students to learn, by encouraging them to engage on an emotional level. (Slight pause.)

I believe we all have charisma. I think a sign of real charisma is simply sharing. I also think we can all teach and we all have something to teach.

You see, teaching is about sharing— sharing your passion, sharing your emotional life. And when we share our passion, when we emotionally engage, we set an example. I also think the best way of setting an example is by performing acts of unconditional love. Indeed, I think Dr. King, whose day we celebrate, taught as much by example as by rhetoric.

So to reiterate, the miracle stories are not meant to encourage us to go “ooh” or “aah” and wonder about miracles. Miracle stories are there to encourage us to engage our emotions and become emotionally engaged about the reality of God.

We need to remember the words we find in Scripture are not just ink blots on paper, something to simply recite, just to know by rote. We are called to understand Scripture for ourselves and become emotionally engaged with what we find there.

I will speak for myself but I hope I am speaking for everyone. What I find in Scripture— and what I find in Scripture does engage my emotional life— what I find in Scripture is the peace, hope, joy, freedom, equity and love of God. Amen.

01/19/2025
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 a précis of what was said: “This is, of course, the weekend of National Holiday known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Dr. King wanted us to be emotionally engaged and this is a quote from Dr. King: ‘We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice, leaders not in love with publicity but in love with humanity, leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom…. a time like this demands great leaders.’ Of course, Dr. King died in 1968.”

BENEDICTION: The love of God must be lived and shared. So, let us go forth with the praise of God on our lips for the steadfast love of God will light our paths as God keeps us open to new ways of doing and learning. And may the love of God guide us, the word of the Christ empower us and the gifts of the Spirit dwell in us, this day and forever more. Amen.