localpastor

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.

01/12/2025 ~ Baptism of the Christ ~ First Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSMFwOYWxzo
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1047882907

Inviting the Spirit

“Upon arriving, Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit.” — Acts 8:17.

This may or may not be a confession. Bonnie and I are cat people. Of course, we do not own a cat since cats do not have owners. Cats have staff.

For sixteen years starting when we were in Bangor, we had two cats: Topsy and Turvy. These two passed over the Rainbow Bridge a long time ago.

A year later Tigger and Tortie adopted us. I know— these cat names all start with ‘T.’ Unfortunately Tortie has joined Topsy and Turvy in catnip heaven. But Tigger still rules the roost.

Now, we are not anti-dog. We like dogs. When we were young both our families had dogs. So, here’s a Connolly family dog and cat story. (Slight pause.)

At one point my family had three cats. One of them— Tinker Tim was the alpha cat, the one in charge of the other two— Tick and Tocc. Yep— three more ‘T’ names for cats.

In fact, a friend nicknamed Tinker Tim “Rex Pussy-catus”— king of the cats— and stuck a label with the title Rex Pussy-catus near the house doorbell. Why there?

When this cat was out in the back yard but wanted to be let into the house it often came to the front door, jumped on the banister of the stoop and rang the doorbell. We would go to the door expecting a person. What we would find was one very smart cat.

Then we got a border collie. If you don’t know about border collies this might help you understand the breed.

How many border collies does it take to change a light bulb? You line is “‘How many.” (The Congregation responds: ‘How many?’)

Only one. Why? A border collie’s reaction to changing a light bulb is immediate and simple: “Only one light bulb? No problem! I’ll also replace any wiring not up to code and put in new light fixtures. Can I, can I, can I do anything else for you?”— that’s the attitude of border collie.

And so, here you have a dog who is eager and compliant inserted into a house with three cats, one of whom is an alpha cat. What happened?

First, the dog discovered it could not come near the cat food. It would be swatted. Also, a normal perch for the alpha cat was on a dining room chair. If the dog walked near the cat, in a leisurely fashion just to let the dog know who was in charge, would reach out and swat at the nose or tail of the dog, depending on which end was close. Cats and dogs— alpha cats— they’re dangerous. (Slight pause.)

These words are from Luke/Acts in the section of that work known as Acts: “Upon arriving, Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Slight pause.)

Sometimes an Affirmation of Faith is a part of a service. Today we recited the covenant of this church. That is an Affirmation of Faith.

However, I think our society becomes attached to, ensnared by and enmeshed in literal content. We take words too literally. Words do have the power. Words have the power to persuade, influence, cajole, but also have the power to damage, inflict pain, be used as cudgels, weapons.

The bad news: our tendency is to give words more power than they really have. Here’s a church example: many recite the Affirmation of Faith known as The Nicene Creed as if it was not filled with paradox and contradictions, as if it is to be taken if not literally at least at face value.

Not only is this ancient creed filled with paradox and contradictions. The people who wrote it knew it was filled with paradox and contradictions. They did not think it should be taken literally. In fact, this creed is in the Pilgrim Hymnal— reading number 52. But I asked Stephanie to put it in the bulletin so you could readily see it.

That brings us to the story we heard in Acts. Some folks in Samaria had accepted the Word of God. What does that mean, that Samaria, the Samaritans accepted the Word of God?

From the perspective of the Jews, Samaritans are outcasts, an inferior branch of the tribes of Israel. That’s why the parable of The Good Samaritan is noteworthy.

But Samaritans are Jews. So, in the context of this time and this place accepting the Word of God means acknowledging God is in covenant with the people of God and has sent Jesus to be the Messiah.

This is also clear: these Samaritans have used the right words, preformed the right acts. They got Baptized in the Name of the Christ. Perhaps it could even be phrased this way: they understood the covenant and the Messiah in a literal way so they did everything right. They did veverything by the book.

Then Peter and John show up and lay hands on the Samaritans who suddenly receive the Holy Spirit. So did Peter and John have some special magic?

Well, no. That takes the story too literally. Just like giving words too much power, to take this story literally gives humans and human action— actions of both the Samaritans and the Apostles— too much power.

In case no one has ever told you this secret, we humans seem to like power. Why? We all want to think we are “Rex Pussy-catus,” an alpha cat, king of cats, in charge— we’ll fix anything.

That leads to a pair of questions: first, who is in charge? (Slight pause.) God is in charge. The Holy Spirit moves when and where the Holy Spirit moves. We need to wait on the Spirit. Waiting on the Spirit is not easy. It would be silly of me to say it is.

Second question: what are we called to do? (Slight pause.) We are not called to be “Rex Pussy-catus,” alpha cat, king of cats, in charge. We are called to do the will of God and walk in the ways of God. Great. How?

Well, what do we really mean when we recite some form of an Affirmation of Faith, some statement of belief, some creed? Are we to take affirmations literally or is something else going on, another way to understand what it means to believe? (Slight pause.)

I’ve said this here before: the word creed comes from the Latin word credo. Credo means I believe. But at its root, credo also means heart, trust, entrust, confide in, have faith in.

Credo means I, we, give our hearts to God. We entrust our hearts to God.

What credo does not mean is that any statement of belief we make is an absolute, provable thesis. Credo does not mean we are trying to finalize something. Credo does mean we affirm our trust in God, proclaim our trust in God. (Slight pause.)

So for Christians, God is in charge. Therefore, how do we, humans, need to understand that, grapple with that? (Slight pause.)

First, obviously, we need to grapple with the idea that we are not God— we are not God. That’s a hard task for some. Second, we need to know God chooses we humans to be conduits of grace. Third, we humans need to strive to be open to the Spirit of God as the Spirit works through us. (Slight pause.)

That brings us back to the Samaritans. We do not know what Peter and John said to the Samaritans. Perhaps all Peter and John did was suggested the Samaritans open their hearts to God, be conduits of the Spirit. (Slight pause.)

I think that is the issue for each of us— be open, be conduits. That is the issue for this church here, right now, today— to be open, to be conduits of God’s Spirit.

That is the issue for all who say the Spirit of God is with us. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: are our hearts open to the Spirit of God, God who seeks to work with us, work among us, God who seeks to be present, real among us?

When our hearts are open we can be empowered to recognize God’s Spirit as present. When our hearts are open we are empowered to work with God. When our hearts are open we can strive to accomplish the will of God. (Slight pause.)

The last time I looked the will of God had to do with some simple precepts: justice, equity, peace, freedom, hope, joy, love. And that’s not just any justice, equity, peace, freedom, hope, joy, love. That’s God’s justice, God’s equity, God’s peace, God’s freedom, God’s peace, God’s hope, God’s love. God is in charge. Amen.

01/12/2024
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: “Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest and theologian. She recently said this about being An ordained pastor. ‘Being ordained is not about serving God perfectly but about serving God visibly, allowing other people to learn whatever they can from watching you rise and watching you fall.’— the words of Barbara Brown Taylor. We who claim to be among the priesthood of all believers— we need to understand inviting the Spirit also means we shall rise and we shall fall. And we most assuredly we will never be alpha cats. And yes, people may be able to learn from us just because they see us rise and fall. But we shall rise and fall if and when we are open to the Spirit.”

BENEDICTION: Depart in peace for God’s promised covenant is real and is forever. 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.

01/05/2025 ~ Second Sunday after Christmas Day; Jeremiah 31:7-14 or Sirach 24:1-12; Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:(1-9), 10-18 ~ 01/06/2025 ~ Epiphany of the Christ ~ Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12.

VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1045425289

Cultural Noise

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of Herod, astronomers from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born ruler of the Jews? We observed the star of this child at its rising, and have come to pay homage.” — Matthew 2:1-2.

I recently read a 30 year old book, a biography of the song writer Irving Berlin. I got it at Twice Told Tales, the used book outlet of Curtis Library. My bet is even if you don’t know who Berlin is you know his song White Christmas associated with the 1954 film of the same name. But the song was first heard in the 1942 film Holiday Inn.

In that film there was an introductory verse to the song most people don’t know about. These are the words of that rarely heard introductory verse: “The sun is shining, the grass is green, / The orange and palm trees sway. / There’s never been such a day / in Beverly Hills, L.A. / But it’s December the twenty-fourth,— / And I am longing to be up North—” Then you get: “I’m dreaming of a White….” You know the rest of it, right?

Berlin, a New York City guy, felt trapped in Beverly Hills writing songs for movies, reason enough to dream about a white Christmas back home. But seriously, how many people over the age of about— let’s call it 50— really want a white Christmas?

We had a white Christmas this year but my experience is while people may dream about it, they don’t want to shovel snow or travel on hazardous roads. A white Christmas is simply a cozy cultural fantasy, something which makes us feel warm and fuzzy.

Berlin actually cut that introduction from the published version of the song. It’s very hard to find. Hence, the fantasy is prolonged. But equally, I think the our culture’s noise tries to obliterate the fact of the introduction’s existence since the fantasy, itself, is warm and fuzzy.

Cultural noise is fascinating to observe. A fantasy like a white Christmas is benign. But fantasies— things which are false— are too often not benign. Indeed, cultural noise can invite us not to think about what we hear, not to think about what see, not to think about what we read.

We hear a lot of cultural noise at Christmas time, especially around the Nativity stories. I’m going to list some cultural myths most people accept as Biblical fact, but are not; none of these so-called facts I’m about to recite— not one— are found in Scripture.

Jesus was born in the midst of winter. A star lit up the sky when the angels appeared. You heard me name this one a couple weeks ago: when appearing to the shepherds, angels sing.

A star illuminated the path of the shepherds to the stable. Shepherds were acceptable folks in polite society.

The animals gathered to see the baby. The role the innkeeper played was very pivotal. (An innkeeper is never mentioned.)

Some cultural assumptions we buy into are gender based and gender biased. The shepherds, the Magi, that nonexistent innkeeper were all… men. Says who?

Turning to the Matthew story, there is more cultural noise. The Magi and the shepherds gathered at the same time and same place to see Jesus. The Magi arrived right when Jesus was born, when Jesus was still an infant.

The Magi traveled on camels. The Magi were kings. The Magi were from the orient, whatever that means. The names of the Magi were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. There were three Magi, no more, no less, three. (Slight pause.)

Again, none of that list I just recited is in Scripture— none of it. It’s just not there. All of that is cultural noise, things made up which the culture teaches as truth. Each of these so called facts is unsupportable given what actually find in the Bible.

Further, Matthew and Luke are two very different stories, written at different times, addressed to different audiences. The culture mushes them together, adds falsehoods, lies. When we block out cultural noise the record in Scripture, not the noise can become clear. (Slight pause.)

This is from the Gospel known as Matthew: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of Herod, astronomers from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born ruler of the Jews? We observed the star of this child at its rising, and have come to pay homage.” (Slight pause.)

Question: is the birth of the Messiah meant as a message for all people, everywhere? (Slight pause.) One of my favorite Christmas carols is Carol Our Christmas. Not often heard in the Northern hemisphere, the carol is about how Christmas is experienced in New Zealand, where December is in the middle of the Summer. It will be our closing hymn today.

Now, I confess I am not immune to cultural noise. I sometimes get overwhelmed by it. That hymn from New Zealand helps cleanse me some of the noise since it makes it clear Jesus was born for all of us, not just Northern Hemisphere types. That carol helps me concentrate on the reality of the Messiah not the cultural noise which clutters the landscape at Christmastide. (Slight pause.)

The most important theological issue raised by the Feast of Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany is obvious. Who is Jesus?

Perhaps what we need to consider is the celebration is important not because of the birth, itself, but because of Who Jesus is. The stories in Matthew and Luke, not the made up cultural myths, answer that question. Jesus is the Messiah.

Specifically, a messianic claim made in Luke is the Messiah will be announced to the poor and outcast, since shepherds would have been among the poor and outcast. And a messianic claim made in Matthew, because the Magi are not Jewish, is that the Messiah is not only for the Hebrew people but for all humanity.

To be clear, the Luke and Matthew stories are littered with angels, shepherds and Magi. I don’t want to eliminate those details. They help the stories come alive.

But the details are not the message the stories intend to convey. Indeed, the point is not even that a baby is born. The point is the Messiah is among us, present to us.

I want to suggest once we try to filter out the culture noise we add to the Nativity stories we can readily see the very presence of Jesus illuminates the real meaning of the stories. And what the stories say is simple: Christ lives. Christ is with us. Because Christ is with us the continuing work of God lives. (Slight pause.)

All that leaves us with an interesting choice. We can choose to simply and only feel warm and fuzzy about the cultural overlays we place on the Nativity narratives. Or we can choose to recognize the point is that Christ is present to us, walks with us and the work of God is placed in our hands.

The presence of Jesus says the covenant is real and the invitation to love God and neighbor is our calling. All that leaves an obvious question: what current cultural noise, things our society insists on, prevents us— prevents us— from loving God and neighbor right now?

What do I feel warm and fuzzy about? Personally, I feel warm and fuzzy about the reality of the Christ, the reality that we are invited to participate in the work to which God calls us. Amen.

01/05/2025
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: “I have nothing against warm and fuzzy but not when it invites me to stop thinking. God does not ask us to check our brains at the door of the church. If we get overly distracted by cultural noise we have checked our brains at the door. Paradoxically, we also need to identify the cultural noise in Scripture, clear away the cobwebs embedded in that cultural noise to discover what Scripture might tell us. Another paradox: it may be easier to identify the cultural noise in Scripture than in our own culture since it can be fairly easy to identify cultural noise in another society. But our own culture surrounds us with noise and that makes the noise much harder to identify. But again, we are not invited to check our brains at the door.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go in joy and in hope in peace and in love and in light, for the one who has made covenant with us is present to us. God reigns. Let us go proclaiming God’s love and God’s light. Amen.

12/24/2024 – 12/25/2024 ~ Nativity of the Christ – Proper I ~ Christmas Eve ~ Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14 ; Luke 2:1-14, (15-20); Proper II ~ Christmas Morning ~ Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20; Proper III ~ Christmas Mid-Day ~ Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12); John 1:1-14 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1042946860

The Child

“While they were there, the time came for her to deliver. And she gave birth to her firstborn, whom she wrapped in bands of cloth and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for cattle, because there was no place for them in the inn.” — Luke 2:6-7

The child lay against her breast. Blessed sleep had finally arrived. The child was quiet now. She could feel the steady tempo of slumber in the warmth of the breath against her skin.

It had been a long night, and the dawn was not far off. Colic in an infant is never fun. This night the malady was complicated by the surroundings. The stable was not the best place for her and the infant. She knew it. But for now, at least, there was some shelter, when before there had been none.

For several nights circumstances she detested dictated that they stayed in a stable, a barn. And it got very cold. But the hay stored there made for good insulation.

Her husband had taken it from the loft so it was clean, then piled it high, spread it out and this night together with the newborn child huddled in her arms, they burrowed into it. Just that little bit of extra insulation provided sufficient warmth to make it all through the night.

Her husband was a good man. He was not wealthy, not handsome, not well spoken. In fact, he spoke very little. But she knew his soul.

When she looked into his eyes, she could see a man who knew God, who cared about relationship, understood that relationship with God came before all. She could see a man who understood all relationships were based on one’s relationship with God. She knew he cared about her, cared about the child.

Even though he was so often silent, he seemed to be able to communicate with her on a plane which precluded verbiage. He had always been good to her. She hoped the child would learn from this example. Example was the chief way any person learned about life, wasn’t it?

She hoped for so much in the life of this child. Despite their poverty, or perhaps because of it, none of what she hoped for had to do with worldly possessions.

Primarily, she hoped the child would be a kind person. But she also hoped the child would understand, if only for reasons of self protection, that the world was not always a safe place.

She had known people to be cruel and seemed to often be cruel just for the perverse enjoyment of it. She hoped the child would see in life, in this time, something of God’s light, God’s love. She hoped the child would see these things even though this world so often appeared to be devoid of light, devoid of love.

At times she was convinced this was too great a wish for which to ask. After all, she had already seen more than she wanted to see of the occupying Roman army. They seemed to not care, to treat everyone as an annoyance, to be used then tossed aside.

She had also seen more than she wanted to see of local government lackeys making sure that they were first in line for any largess which might be available from the Romans. That people could be so mercenary was unnerving.

Whenever her thinking got too caught up in these realities, a ray of hope somehow seemed to appear: a friend giving advice, a shopkeeper who was helpful. In those moments she understood not everyone looked out just for themselves. There were people who did seem to make a positive difference in this world.

The child stirred, made a noise, stretched out a hand, and rested again. She knew in her heart that this child had already made the positive difference for her. She could see in this child all the brightness of God’s creation, full blown in the little hands and feet, in the dark rings of hair on the tiny head, in the bright eyes which searched deeply into hers. Searched for what? Searched for hope? For support? For love? For relationship?

For some inexplicable reason, she could see in this child all the warmth and promise of the relationship she knew God had promised, to which God was committed in the covenants, in the Torah. For some inexplicable reason, she could see in this child all the warmth and promise of the relationship she knew God was always seeking in this world which was so broken.

For some inexplicable reason, what she could see in this child was the warmth and promise of a God at work in the world and present in people. Was it this way with every child? Could this be seen in each baby? Or was this child… special?

She dismissed this thought. “All mothers think their child is special,” she assured herself. She reasoned, in a self-effacing way that God would not single her out or her husband or this child for anything special. (Slight pause.)

She heard a cock crow. The first streaks of light were washing into the yard. God’s life giving light was dawning on the new day.

With this noise the child stirred again, but again rested on her breast. “No,” she thought. “I have seen much. I will see more. But, no. I am not that special that God might choose me… for…”

She did not finish the thought, overwhelmed by the possibility that in this child she felt she felt she could see the dawn of a new era in God’s work, overwhelmed by the reality that that God’s work is always focused on the continuing work of relationship.

And she had no doubt that the continuing work of relationship was really nothing special. After all, relationship is a normal, daily, everyday occurrence because it was the place to which God invited all people.

And she knew the place God was calling her was to relationship. Was it not? So this… this place, this time… this child… was nothing special. Was it? Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
12/24/2024

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “We live in a very secular world. Hence, I try to avoid wishing people a ‘Merry Christmas.’ That’s a secular term. At Easter we Christians say Christ is risen. So if somebody says‘Merry Christmas,’ to me I say ‘Christ is with us.’ That is the real Christian sentiment of Christmas, the sentiment expressed in the Feast of the Incarnation— Christ is with us.”

BENEDICTION: Let us be present to one another as we go from this place for the peace, the presence of God is with us. Let us go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Let us go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Let us go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, Whose birth we celebrate is a light to the world that God, Who is steadfast, has shared with us. Amen.