Week in the Word: Where Do We Go From Here?

Pastor Micah preached this sermon at Life’s Journey United Church of God, an open and affirming, God is still speaking, church in Burlington, NC. You can watch or listen to a video of the service where this was preached at https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/1076716776607127 And to support this ministry, go to https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/-/form/give/now 

Acts 11:1-18, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3 saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4 Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me. 6 As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11 At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14 he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” 18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

1 John 4:1-6 

1 John 4:1-6, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Sermon   Where Do We Go From Here?

Early on in my career as a minister, I was serving as an assistant pastor running a circuit between a few churches near Riverside, California.  The denomination I was in, which was not the United Church of Christ, but an evangelical one that liked to challenge folks to “blow the dust off their Bibles” because “the Bible was basic instructions before leaving earth”, had moved me there from some churches I had served in near LA.   While in LA, before moving to the churches near Riverside, I had gotten to know some people who were gay who had come to me with questions about the Bible, their sexuality, and their faith.   I found the questions they asked challenged what I thought the Bible said and, more and more, I became convinced that the verses I grew up hearing being quoted to condemn gay people did not but I had not had to make a decision about what to do with the questions I had floating on my mind.  

Yet while on  this new church circuit near Riverside, a neighbor who had confessed to me she was  transgender decided to visit one of the churches I was an assistant pastor at.  When she did, she also confided her journey to the senior pastor there. He then shared her private confession to the church board.  As you can imagine,  the church then was in uproar, demanding either not to let “someone like that” in their doors again or to give them a long laundry list of rules if they came.  The one thing we could not do was treat them like anybody else. The senior pastor sat me down and demanded I tow that line.  I did not think that was right, yet as a young pastor I thought if I said no, I might ruin my career and never be a pastor again.  I faced a big decision. Where do we go from here? 

Last week, Paula and I faced a decision that felt big, too, but maybe not so impactful as that decision of how to respond as a pastor years ago.  Now that Paula and I have moved into our new place after getting married, my old house is for sale.  Almost immediately after going on the market, my realtor contacted me with an offer, an all cash deal.  That sounded great at first.  But then he shared that it was one of those companies from another state that have been scooping old houses and renting them out as absentee landlord.  This is happening all over Durham and turning once good quiet neighborhoods into places no one wants to live.  Paula and I could use the money from a quick sale, sure – but could we do so in a way that might leave my old neighbors out to dry?  It felt like a big decision.  Where do we go from here?

Both of our texts deal with discerning the spirits, in other words discerning God’s will, in situations when it is easy to lose our way and not be certain of where God is leading us.

In Acts  Peter is challenged with the question will I cling to what I’ve been taught the Bible means, or will I make room to include others in the church who have previously been excluded?  Ultimately it is not a Bible verse that answers Peter’s question, but the voice of Jesus speaking in his heart through the Spirit.   

John writes to churches in 1 John where the members are facing stark choices, too.  He knows how easy it is for them to lose their way and forget what matters.  Like Peter, John challenges them not to just point to what they think the Bible says, but to pay attention to the living Jesus, to his example, in order to discern if what they are feeling led to is the voice of the Spirit leading them forward, or just a temptation.

John says that the key is to consider in such moments does what you are feeling led to come from recognizing Jesus in the flesh or not?  

When John writes his churches, Domitian, the emperor who ruled over the area where John’s churches were, proclaimed he, not Jesus, was the son of God, savior of the world.  

There seem to be two reactions to this crises faced by John’s churches. 

First of all, becaudr Domitian had begun to persecute, imprison, torture, and even kill those who refused to bow the knee to him as God-in-the-flesh, some in John’s churches had begun to renounce Jesus as son of God, as Savior, to stay in good with the emperor and his government.  They chose Domitian’s empire and its  way of might makes right over and against Jesus and his way.   Doing so let them buy and sell openly, let them work without fear in the public sphere.  Yes renouncing their faith in Christ might save your skin for the moment, John said but at what cost?   

Others reacted to this time of trial not by whole-sale rejecting Jesus but by instead soft-pedaling Jesus’ message.  They denied Jesus was in the flesh, imagining Jesus to be sort of only a good story, a myth.  And if Jesus was just a good story, a good dream, then there was no flesh to what he required us to do.  We could just go along without really changing how we live, or pushing against the culture around us.  We could  trust we have a place in heaven, maybe, but not think it ought to impact our lives here and now, in this world.   

In contrast to these temptations , the apostle John tells them and us in 1 John 3:16-18– “We know love by this, that Christ laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”   John says we cannot be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.  He calls them, calls us, to embrace Jesus as coming in the flesh by following in Jesus’s steps. To recognize Jesus as come in the flesh is to not just say we believe in loving our neighbor, or standing for justice, or living out compassion.  But to really do so.  We are to do so even when it might tire us out a bit sometimes, or even take some sacrifice.  It is, after all, people putting flesh on their faith by choosing to live out Jesus’ example and what Jesus taught, particularly in the beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, that turned the world of that day upside down, as the book of Acts says.  And it still does.

We still have these temptations today before us as we face choices in our lives.

We may not have a political leader like an emperor claiming to replace Jesus as Son of God and Messiah, like Domitian did.  But we do have ones in our day claiming to be above the law – in fact one who famously said “I can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters,” while selling flags with his name on them which people — many who claimed to also follow Jesus — later waved while storming our Capitol with guns.   Though that is a stark example, it is not the only time a politician, preacher, or person in power in our world put themselves above others, while their followers looked away from their failings, blindly treating them like the voice of God themselves.  Anytime we put anyone but God and Christ in that place in our lives, we can find ourselves going down the wrong way, being misled, whatever their name or political party.

This can even happen about what we do as a church.  Far too often our comfort zones, what makes us happy can become the idol. Far too often churches make it about them, not God and others. As I’ve said before, I think the difference in the days ahead between churches that shut their doors and one’s that don’t just survive but thrive will be whether or not they can make what they do about others. 

Which flows right into John’s larger point that recognizing Jesus in the flesh means recognizing we can’t just give lip service to living out what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. We can’t just talk about loving outcasts and enemies, working to make peace, loving justice.  We have to put flesh on those words.  We have to act on them.  Even if it is difficult and tiring, even costly. Maybe especially then. 

As some of us talked about at Wednesday’s book club, it is easy to say “I believe in not being racist”, but it is harder to make the choice to really spend time with people and in communities that aren’t full of people who look just like us.  It’s easy to say “I believe in gay rights” but is harder to show up when called to be an activist, standing alongside gay and lesbian friends. Paying lip service is easy. Showing up and doing your part makes a difference. 

As we face decisions we need to ask, which of these choices will lead us to do justly more, extend mercy more, and walk humbly with our God more?  Which lead us to put flesh on our faith?  Sometimes the answers are easy and clear, and sometimes not.  But that question will never lead you wrong, and if you sit with it, though it may take some time, you will find God’s leading become more clear.  

For the questions I was struggling with that I shared in the beginning, here is where I landed:

I decided, believing it was the end of my career as a pastor, to walk away from that church.  I could not say I was walking with Jesus and put barriers to others worshiping him.  Thankfully, I was wrong about my career being over and Jesus opened doors for me to serve him I didn’t know were there.  I would not be preaching here, if he had really been done with me as I feared.

And last week, after we prayed and talked, Paula and I decided we would wait for a better buyer.  We might have to wait a little longer for my house to sell, but we are certain leaving as good neighbors to my old neighbors is what Christ would have us do.

The questions you are facing – I truly think as you name them to Christ, as you pay attention for the Spirit in your life, and as you ask “how can I walk with Christ in acting in love, with compassion, to do justice, to put flesh on what I say I believe” – I truly believe you will discover Christ leading you toward his next steps for you too.  

May we listen for his voice and follow.  Amen and Amen.

Week in the Word: Discovering our Birthright

Week in the Word: Discovering our Birthright

Pastor Micah preached this sermon at Life’s Journey United Church of God, an open and affirming, God is still speaking, church in Burlington, NC.  You can see a video of this service when this sermon was preached split into two parts at https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/438275448186242 and https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/456447162693341 .   

And to support his ministry, go to https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/-/form/give/now 

Scripture Acts 17:16-28

Acts 17:16-28, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor  he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

Scripture 1 John 2:27-3:3

1 John 2:27-3:3, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

27 As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

29 If you perceive that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who does right has been born of him. 3 1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Sermon Discovering our Birthright

During the civil war, there was a soldier who lost both his brother and his dad to death on the same day. He wanted to see the president and plead his case.  He was given a pass to do so.  He went to the White House but was told by the guard on duty, “You can’t see the president, young man! Don’t you know there’s a war going on? The president is a very busy man! Now go away, son! Get back out there on the battle lines where you belong!”

So the young soldier left, very disheartened, and was sitting on a little park bench not far from the White House when a little boy came up to him. The lad said, “Soldier, you look unhappy. What’s wrong?” The soldier looked at the little boy and began to spill his heart to him. He told of his father and his brother being killed in the war, and of the desperate situation at home. He explained that his mother and sister had no one to help them with the farm. The little boy listened and said, “I can help you, soldier.” He took the soldier by the hand and led him back to the front gate of the White House. Apparently, the guard didn’t notice them, because they weren’t stopped. They walked straight to the front door of the White House and walked right in. After they got inside, they walked right past generals and high-ranking officials, and no one said a word. The soldier couldn’t understand this. Why didn’t anyone try to stop them?

They reached the Oval Office—where the president was working—and the little boy didn’t even knock on the door. He just walked right in and led the soldier in with him. There behind the desk was Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of State, looking over battle plans that were laid out on his desk.

The president looked at the boy and then at the soldier and said, “Good afternoon, Todd. Can you introduce me to your friend?”  Todd Lincoln, the son of the president, said, “Daddy, this soldier needs to talk to you.”The soldier pled his case before Mr. Lincoln, and right then and there he received the exemption that he desired.

The difference between the access that Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s beloved son, had to him and the access others had who did not call Abe Lincoln “our father” is a beautiful picture of the inheritance both Acts and 1 John say you and I have as ones God has called “my beloved child”.  Just as Todd could boldly come right up to his father, curling up in his lap or sitting by his side, when others had to go through security, or staff, or might even just be turned away, so we can come right up to God and know, at any moment, we can be heard and embraced.  See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God… indeed. 

When John wrote these words reminding his churches and us that we are children of God, with an inheritance beyond our imagination, it was a time of darkness and danger.  The emperor Domitian had risen to power and declared himself the sole savior and the son of the gods.  Domitian demanded all the people in Asia Minor, where John’s churches were located, to worship him the emperor as a god.  If they refused – as most Christians and Jews did – they could be persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, or even killed.  

During this time, under this pressure, many Christians in John’s churches turned on each other, some even handing others over to the powers that be to be tortured or killed, to get out of the threat to themselves of such  persecution, torture, and death if they did not hand over others.

One of my favorite Christian writers, Henri Nouwen, tells us what the promise of being called children of God teaches us in trying times like John’s churches faced.  He says,“We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and, most of all, death. This fear takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom. Once we have come to the deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood. The apostle Paul expressed this experience of the complete freedom of the children of God when he wrote, “I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38–39).”

“Your true identity is as a child of God. This is the identity you have to accept. Once you have claimed it and settled in it, you can live in a world that gives you much joy as well as pain. You can receive the praise as well as the blame that comes to you as an opportunity for strengthening your basic identity, because the identity that makes you free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame. You belong to God, and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world.”

In the trying times John and his churches faced – in the trying times we may face in our lives – it could not be more important than ever to remember who God says we are and that God’s love for you will never be shaken.

 Not only is John reminding us and his churches of their and our identity , but John is drawing a contrast with what the Emperor Domitian says about himself.  Domitian called himself the son of the gods as a way of demanding blind obedience, and worship of others whom he said were not sons and daughters of God .   In our own day we too have figures in our world that likewise act as if they are above the law, demanding blind obedience don’t we? Instead of saying only one person, like Domitian or like them , was a child of God, John instead is clear that each and every person has this potential. In fact “everyone who does right has been born of” God according to John.   For John doing right means living out love for God and others in our lives.  So whoever chooses to embrace God’s love for themself and shares that love in the world with others is God’s child – not just some special leader or bombastic figure.    

Each and every one of us are then  royalty in God’s eyes.   This means both that no one has the right to lord it over others and also that there is not a person who deserves to be treated as second class – not for their race, not for their gender or gender identity, not for their sexuality, not for their background, not for their class or their amount of (or lack of) education.  Nor due to their citizenship status.  No human being is illegal. Each and every person deserves to be treated with respect and honor.  Each and every person deserves to belong.

Finally, John is reminding his churches that they are family so it matters how they treat each other.  In the midst of their fear, their anxiety, and their worry, they have turned on each other.  We have seen this ourselves the last few years, haven’t we? — how the stress of tough times have caused us to lose our sense of connection to each other, with longtime friends losing touch or coming to feel like enemies. John reiterates throughout 1 John that to be someone who truly knows God – in other words, who is God’s child – means to treat each other as having this same worth.  He again and again reminds people that you cannot love God – not really – and treat each other with hatred or even in ways that are calloused to being there for others.

I think these messages are important to us, in our day too.  In the midst of dark times, it is easy to forget our own worth.  It is easy to look for someone else to be of worth, to be our hero, rather than believing in ourselves.  It is so easy to forget we also have potential and worth in ourselves.  To forget we can make a difference in our lives and world. It is easy to forget to treat others with the worth they deserve.  It is easy in our pain to dismiss or overlook others, rather than to embrace each other in love.

Yet what a difference it makes when we learn to embrace the inheritance we and others share in as children of God!

Seeing ourselves, each and everyone of us, as ones who are called God’s own child, ones God loves, as each personally one in whom God delights, and as  each ones who personally deserves love and delight, changes everything.  It means realizing we are not alone, as Nouwen says.  It also means realizing we are enough and need to treat ourselves as such.  As Marianne Williamson once wrote,

“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

“We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It’s not just in some of us; It’s in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  When we talk of our birth-right as children of God this is what we mean.

Whatever you face this week, may you take time to see yourselves as ones so loved, loved with a joy and passion that will never let you go, a love that cannot be broken.  Know that no matter what you face, you are held in hands that can carry you through.  You are not alone.  And, no matter what others may say of you, you are enough.  You deserve God’s best.  You deserve love.  You deserve delight.  You deserve respect and honor.  For you are loved by the one who calls you God’s very own child.  You are loved by One who will never give up on you and always will be by your side. Amen and Amen.

Week in the Word: Christ Our Advocate

Pastor Micah preached this sermon at Life’s Journey United Church of God, an open and affirming, God is still speaking, church in Burlington, NC.  You can see a video of this service when this sermon was preached split into two parts at https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/569953224787522 and https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/504746791454854 .   

And to support his ministry, go to https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/-/form/give/now 

Scripture Acts 9:1-17

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing;  so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul[c] and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Scripture 1 John 1:5 — 2:2

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Sermon Christ Our Advocate

Some of you have heard that what Paula and me, and our family has been praying against, since 2019, has happened.  My dad, who is in his late 70s and has dementia, finally caught COVID.  We are hopeful he will not have a bad bout with it – with him being vaccinated and boosted, and having gotten paxlovid as soon as he had symptoms.   But it’s a scary time and one that makes me think about all the memories we share.

One of my favorite memories of my dad is when we would sit together at a family meal.  Before the meal, daddy would ask us to pray.  Now Daddy was not what I would call a man of many words and definitely not a man of fancy words, preferring to show his love and care by what he would do.  But in that moment each day, he would pour out his heart and care for each of us.   As we heard dad’s care for each of us when he prayed, it was easy, if just for that moment, to  really believe in a God who is loving parent, just as devoted to each of us as dad was.

So it was particularly touching that, on the morning Paula and I  flew out to our honeymoon, as  Paula and I dropped off some items on the way to the airport  at my brother Matt’s house, that daddy – who lives with my brother because daddy now struggles with dementia – offered to say a prayer for us.   We all held hands, like we had as kids around the dinner table, and daddy prayed words for us from the heart.  His words were very broken, and hard to make out, but still expressed his love for us as they had when I was a kid.  “God, keep these two safe, as they travel, way up north wherever they’re going.  Thanks for them.  I love them.  Alright, alright, alright!”  Sure, daddy forgot our names, why we were traveling, and even how to say “Amen”, and couldn’t use the easy language he used when I was a kid.  And yet, that will remain one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard, because it came from the heart.  And in that prayer, even in the throes of his dementia, my daddy was able to teach me another lesson, one that goes straight to the heart of today’s reading from 1 John.

In 1 John, after recalling how in Jesus God’s love had been sent as a message to each of us in a way that that apostle could see, touch, hear, and feel because it was lived out completely perfectly in the life of his friend and teacher, Jesus; and after challenging us to do our best to also live out God’s message of love in a way that others can touch and feel, hear and see, the apostle John begins to get very real with us about the fact that none of us, not a one, will do this perfectly like Jesus did.

Jesus lived out God’s love perfectly, John tells us, but if you think you do – and, apparently, there were many folks who thought they did and thought they were better than others in John’s churches, and so looked down on other people around them.  If you think you live a perfect life, John says, you’re only fooling yourself.   We all miss the mark.  Everyone of us. And guess what?  Everybody else can tell you do too. 

John describes the barriers to us living and acting as ones who, like Jesus, put flesh and blood on God’s love for the world, describing these failings which he calls sin and walking in darkness as also barriers to approaching God.  But, after doing so, John makes it clear that we should not use the knowledge that none of us can get it as right as Jesus did as some kind of excuse to throw up our hands, to give up, or to hang out in the shadows, hiding away from our relationship with God or our calling. Instead we should boldly come out into the light of God’s presence, just as we are, confident, because we have an Advocate, a High priest, in Jesus who can make us able to come to God fully accepted, as broken as we are.  Through Jesus we can know we are each embraced just as we are by our loving Father, Mother, or Parent in heaven.  It is when we accept this embrace by God Jesus makes possible – and only really then — that  we can learn how to begin again and make a difference in the world in the way we are meant to.  If we wait to get things right on our own before turning to God, we never will be “ready enough”.   We can freely come now, just as we are, warts and all – and only in doing so, can we really discover fully how to begin again and live the kind of life we are meant to.

For me, seeing dad pray as he did that morning after our wedding  in such broken language, so truly from the heart, out of his love for me and Paula as we began our honeymoon, was such a perfect picture of what John describes.  Daddy had confidence that though his words and his memory might fail him, he could boldly come before God and Jesus just as he was.  He trusted Jesus would hear his heart, putting his request before Daddy and Jesus’ own Father or Mother in Heaven, before God our Creator, in a form as beautiful as the most well-written poem or well-played song, no matter how faltering daddy’s  words or memory might be on his own.

You know we each can have parts of who we are that may make us feel we aren’t good enough, don’t know the right words, don’t look the part, which we can let cause us to avoid reaching out to God in prayer, in meditation, in Bible study, in other spiritual practices that connect us with God, each day. We may even believe the lies the world has told us again and again that God doesn’t want someone like us – whether that’s because of who we love, how we identify as in terms of gender, the failings or mistakes we’ve made over the course of our lives or even over the course of this day, whether its due to us not fitting another’s image, or because of the ways we’ve been victimized and later told “don’t come crying to me; it’s all your fault”.   We may also hear a call to serve God and others in some way – perhaps volunteering to help a neighbor or friend, perhaps a calling to take part in or start a new ministry in the church, perhaps a calling to take part in some community service or social justice activism, or even just a calling to join the church or begin the long journey of study to become a pastor – and we can feel we aren’t good enough, so we don’t even try.  In such moments we forget God could even call, as we were reminded God did in our first Scripture reading from Acts, a man with blood on his hands like Paul had, to turn his life around, and that God could make such a man a person of healing and hope for others.

Like daddy came boldly before God, knowing his words would be broken but that Jesus would stand in the gap for him; like Paul knew he had not only failed to live up to God’s best but harmed people in ways that could never be repaired and yet still turned to God to begin again, so each of us also can boldly respond to God, seeking out that daily personal relationship with God and answering God’s call to serve and share with others, no matter what others have said about us, no matter our limitations, no matter our mistakes or failings of the past or of today.

A few years ago I read the following, which speaks of the same: “Isaac was a day dreamer, Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper and denied Christ, David had an affair and tried to cover it up with murder, Noah got drunk. Elisha was suicidal, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer and he was way too religious.  Timothy had too many ulcers, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Rahab was a prostitute, Samson – well, he liked prostitutes. Isaiah preached naked for three years, John the Baptist ate bugs and had second thoughts about the very Messiah he baptized.  Jeremiah was way too emotional, Moses stuttered, Zacchaeus was too short, Abraham was too old and Lazarus was way, way too dead. God doesn’t call the qualified, but qualifies the called!  Never say to yourself, “God can never use me.” God is not looking for the qualified, God’s looking for people who would just say “yes, here I am, send me”. When Jesus called the 12, most of them were not even educated. Yet, Jesus equipped them, and they turned the world upside down.”  

May we hear this call and answer. Amen and amen. 

“Being Built into a New Home”

Midweek Reflection

“Being Built into a New Home”

Midweek Reflection

You can watch or listen to a video of this message at https://youtu.be/cUfQG3mAMfQ 

Please also consider supporting our ministry at https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/Give 

I am sharing this week’s midweek devotional, with boxes all over my house.  I’m happy about it because it is because I’ve married an amazing lady and we are in the process of combining our two houses into one – which involved moving our things into the house we are sharing together, and sorting through what we will keep and what we will let go of.   I know some of you have shared with me the joy and frustration of the same process when you married or settled down with a partner, after each having homes of your own when you were single.

This process of sorting through what to keep or let go of from my life as a single person, while Paula does the same, to carve out a new life together, seems like such a great symbol of the spiritual life.   

C. S. Lewis describes this journey in a similar way in his book Mere Christianity, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what” God “is doing” God “is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently” God “starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is” God “up to? The explanation is that” God “is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but” God “iis building a palace” which God “intends to come and live in …”

The Scriptures tell us in Romans 12 that “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  To learn how to walk in Christ’s steps, which is what it means to live a Christian life, involves sorting out what to keep and what to let go of.

Sometimes what God calls us to let go of feels peaceful to us.  In a recent hospice visit, a patient’s spouse was telling me how she doesn’t let people get by with saying “I’m too fat, I’m too ugly, I’m too short”, reminding them that God made them and God doesn’t make any mistakes.   That idea they are too much of this or that was the very kind of being conformed to the patterns of this world – its not so subtle messages that unless you and I fit some unrealistic ideal, we aren’t good enough.   Its hard to let go of that lie, but it also means breathing easier and carrying less on our shoulders.

Sometimes though, as C. S. Lewis suggests, this process is painful, especially when we face into long held prejudices and assumptions.  I still remember when I sat down as a young, fresh-faced assistant pastor at an evangelical church in LA over spaghetti with a member who confessed to me “I’m gay” and asked me what we could do about it.  I was full of assumptions I had been taught by the culture at large and the church I was baptized by as a teenager about what that meant – assumptions I found out, as he shared his story, and as I studied the Bible with an open heart, was wrong.   It was hard to let go of that prejudice, but liberating.  And I lost friends and even family over the changes it has brought.

I’ve heard similarly challenging stories from people who had to give up addictions, face into an anger problem that is hurting their family, or learn to be more honest and set healthy boundaries for their life.   The changes we are called to participate in as God makes us into this palace are as varied as we are.  Yet they all are focused on helping us live into God’s vision in Micah 6 – “The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good,  and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”   Each take time and can be painful.  Yet each helps us live more fully Christ-like lives.

My thoughts so far are focused on our personal lives – being less prejudiced, being more kind and giving, having a heart for others, letting go of addictions and so on.  These matter.   But such re-organizing of the house is something not only should we do personally, but as a church, as communities, and as a world.

Martin Luther King talked about this by describing all of humanity as one “world house”.  He said, “we cannot be content to see” any “hungry, to see” any “victimized with ill-health, when we have the means to help them. In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied together.  They entered the same mysterious gateway of human birth, into the same adventure of mortal life.  All…  are interdependent. Every nation is an heir of a vast treasury of ideas and labor to which both the living and the dead of all nations have contributed. Whether we realize it or not,

each of us lives eternally “in the red.” We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we rise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world. In a real sense, all life is interrelated. The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich; the betterment of the poor enriches the rich. We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. “

As I sort through just such items as we consolidate our homes, I am struck by the fact that letting God renovate my life into a palace where the Creator can dwell means also thinking about the way in which life is structured on the street where I live, in the town I call home and the towns I work, in my state, my nation, and on our planet.  It is to ask how I can help also re-organize this world house, making choices that recognize the debt we all share to each other, recognizing the need for all to have more than enough to thrive.  I am not there yet and we aren’t yet there yet as a church, a community, or a nation.  But as we are mindful each day, we can make our small impact.  And we can challenge others to do the same.

Well, we’ve got boxes all around us at the Hardy-Royal house.  But we’ve cleared out and set up an exercise room, a bedroom, an office, and cleared a dining room table.  It’s something.  We feel more at home every day.

Just so, we won’t get there in our lives or our communities all at once.  But as we clear space more little by little, we and God will become more at home.  We will become more that palace where God is fit to dwell.  Let’s keep at it, and I look to see you Sunday!

Week in the Word: Love that Can Be Touched and Handled

Pastor Micah preached this sermon at Life’s Journey United Church of Christ in Burlington, NC – a God is still speaking, open and affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ.  Consider supporting us financially at https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/-/form/give/now  .   Also consider joining us in person for worship Sundays at 10:30 AM at 2121 Edgewood Avenue, Burlington, NC, 27215.  You can watch a video of the service where Pastor Micah preached this at https://www.facebook.com/lifesjourneyucc/videos/2083390025179454 and most Sundays a Facebook Live feed there.

Scriptures  

Acts 4:31-37, NRSV Updated edition

 31 When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.  32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 There was a Levite from Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). 37 He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

1 John 1:1-4, NRSV Updated edition

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Sermon  Love That Can Be Touched and Handled

Today, in addition to celebrating Christmas in July, we begin a study of the letters of John, 1- 3 John, in our Bibles.  In our reading from 1 John, John talks of Christ’s coming which we usually celebrate at Christmas in terms of a message, or a word of love and life sent from God to us.  John talks about this message as a message that we not only can hear with our ears, but which, because of Christmas, we can also see with our eyes, and touch with our hands.   The story of Christmas is about God’s love putting on flesh and blood, so we can see, hear, touch, and feel that God is with us.  John saw this love personally lived out in the life of Jesus, his teacher. John’s words and the Christmas message reminds us that God’s love is unshakeable and unbreakable.   There is not a thing you or I can do or we can face to make God love us any more.  There is not a thing we can do or we can face that will make God love us any less.

This was important to John and the churches he wrote to in his letters.  They were going through a time when it was all too easy to feel God was distant.   The writings connected with John – the Gospel written in his name, his letters which we know of as 1 – 3 John, and the book recording visions for his churches, which we today call “the book of Revelation”, all were written in very dark times.   The law of the land had shifted with new leadership over the Empire – an emperor named Domitian.  Domitian wanted unflinching obedience, requiring all who lived in the empire to renounce their own personal religions and worship him first as their supreme god.   

This ended up causing persecution of Jews and Christians, including those in John’s churches.  As Jews and Christians would only worship the Creator as the only God and not any political figure like Domitian as divine, many of them were tortured or executed by the state.   Even those not directly tortured or killed now lived their lives under such fear.  When facing such trying times, it was easy to cry out as Jesus did on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  It would have been all too easy for John and members of John’s churches to throw up their hands and give up, believing God was no longer with them, and that God’s love was now as distant as the farthest star.  Yet John wrote these words because he did not want them to do so.

John reminds them and us that, at any time of year, Christmas means all year round that God-is-with-us.   We are never alone.   And though it may be hard to see it now, in this moment, God is yet always nearer to us than the air we breathe, nearer than the sunshine falling on our skin, or the heartbeat sounding in our chest.   What Isaiah said long ago was true for John’s churches and is still true for us: “thus says the Lord, the One who created you, … the One who formed you, … Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”   Such a promise, such love, has not been shaken and never will be.  It is still true for each of them then and for each of us now. It is ever and always true. 

Our times are not dark in exactly the same way as things were dark for John’s churches when he wrote to them, but there are parallels.  In our day, too, laws are changing with new people in positions of power whose agendas leave many people feeling threatened now as they do not fit other these new leaders’ views of what is acceptable.  As I mentioned in this week’s midweek devotional video, even during my honeymoon, news of such changes came down that shook me to the core.   So many people I know now are feeling anxious, threatened, and worried about their futures – some due to their basic human rights laying under threat following recent Supreme Court decisions and legal fights in statehouses across our country.  I know many women and LGBT people who have told me that such rulings and such fights leave them feeling more full of fear and anxiety than they were a few months ago.  Others feel their sense of God’s love being shaken due to health struggles they face.  Others have their faith shaken as they struggle to stretch their small pay check a little further in these days of rising inflation. The list of challenges goes on and on.   

In the midst of such challenges, John’s words echo across the ages, reminding us that the God who could be touched and handled by John and the other disciples who walked with Jesus in his earthly life can still be touched by our prayers today.  This God has never left us. This God is still near at hand and ready to lead us through life’s water and flame, if we will but let God.  We are not alone. God is with us.

The other side of what John reminds us and his original audience, his churches, about is pictured by an old story often told at Christmas.

“It happened one day near December’s end,” the story begins.

“Two neighbors called on an old friend

And they found his shop so meager and lean

Made gay with thousand bows of green

“And Conrad was sitting with face a-shine

When he suddenly stopped as he stitched a twine

And he said “Old friends, at dawn today

When the cock was crowing the night away

The Lord appeared in a dream to me

And said “I’m coming your guest to be.”

So I’ve been busy with feet astir

Strewing my shop with branches of fern

The table is spread and the kettle is shined

And over the rafters the holly is twined

“Now I’ll wait for my Lord to appear

And listen closely so I will hear

His step as He nears my humble place

And I’ll open the door and look on His face

“So his friends went home and left Conrad alone

For this was the happiest day he had known

For long since, his family had passed away

And Conrad had spent many a sad Christmas Day

“But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas Guest

This Christmas would be the dearest and best

So he listened with only joy in his heart

And with every sound he would rise with a start

And look for the Lord to be at his door

Like the vision he had had a few hours before

“So he ran to the window after hearing a sound

But all he could see on the snow covered ground

Was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn

And all of his clothes were ragged and worn

But Conrad was touched and he went to the door

And he said, “You know, your feet must be frozen and sore

I have some shoes in my shop for you

And a coat that will keep you warmer too.”

“So with grateful heart the man went away

But Conrad noticed the time of day

And wondered what made the Lord so late

And how much longer he’d have to wait

“When he heard a knock, he ran to the door

But it was only a stranger once more

A bent old lady with a shawl of black

With a bundle of kindling piled on her back

She asked for only a place to rest

But that was reserved for Conrad’s Great Guest

“But her voice seemed to plead “Don’t send me away

Let me rest for awhile on Christmas Day”

So Conrad brewed her a steaming cup

And told her to sit at the table and sup

“But after she left he was filled with dismay

For he saw that the hours were slipping away

And the Lord hadn’t come as he said he would

Then Conrad felt sure he had misunderstood

When out of the stillness he heard a cry

‘Please help me and tell me where am I?”

So again he opened his friendly door

And stood disappointed as twice before

It was only a child who’d wandered away

And was lost from her family on Christmas Day

“Again Conrad’s heart was heavy and sad

But he knew he should make the little girl glad

So he called her in and he wiped her tears

And quieted all her childish fears

“Then he led her back to her home once more

But as he entered his own darkened door

He knew the Lord was not coming today

For the hours of Christmas had passed away

“So he went to his room and knelt down to pray

And he said “Dear Lord, why did you delay?

What kept you from coming to call on me?

For I wanted so much your face to see.’

“When soft in the silence a voice he heard

“Lift up your head for I kept my word

Three times my shadow crossed your floor

And three times I came to your lonely door

“I was the beggar with bruised, cold feet

And I was the woman you gave something to eat

I was the child on the homeless street

Three times I knocked, and three times I came in

And each time I found the warmth of a friend

Of all the gifts, love is the best

And I was honored to be your Christmas Guest”

The point of this story is that when we choose to respond to the hurting people around us with love and compassion, we also encounter God-with-us, in fresh ways we can touch and handle through them and we also allow ourselves to become God’s love in the flesh, God coming near to them, as God with-us to them, too.

In the midst of the challenges they faced, it would have been so easy for John’s churches to circle their wagons, to just tend to their own pain, and to forget the calling to be God’s love-made flesh for others.  And yet the very fear, pain, and anxiety that lay in front of them was an invitation for them to respond by being God’s love with skin on for others.

The same is true for us.  We don’t have to wait for Christmas Day like Conrad.  We can open our eyes and ears every day, even in the heat of July, for those hurting in these trying times around us and ask “how can we be Christ to them?”   The text from Acts we read earlier paints a picture of lots of ways we can do so: We can be love made flesh for others by refusing to be silent at the injustices and oppression around us, and instead speaking out with boldness for others facing such persecution in our society whose voices are not being heard.  We can be love with skin on by being all together with those hurting, making space to be with them and open our lives to them.   We can be love made flesh by sharing what we have with others beyond what we need for ourselves, to help meet the needs of those going without all around us, and they are many.  That’s a part of what ministries like Christmas Cheer, like Allied Churches, like our ramp ministry, each do.  And the list could easily go on, for the ways we can make God’s love touchable, feel-able, visible for others, are as many and varied as there are people and opportunities we face each and every day.  Let’s hear that call, whatever we face, this Christmas in July and every day.  Amen and Amen.

“A Yes to God’s Earth” — Life’s Journey UCC Midweek Devotional

You can listen to audio of or watch a video of this message at https://youtu.be/FhAqAvswCSE 

Please also consider supporting our ministry at https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/Give 

I am overjoyed to be returning to work with the church this week, on the heels of my marriage and honeymoon.  We are still in unpacking mode here, with boxes all over, as we consolidate our two houses into our one new home together.   But largely due to our lay leaders at Life’s Journey UCC stepping forward and also our guest preachers Pastor Jimmy, Pastor Tony, and Pastor Donna, Paula and I were able to focus on preparing for our wedding, celebrating our new life together in our wedding, and starting things on a good foundation as we begin a new life together.  We carry memories with us we will treasure our whole lifelong. So, thank you all for this time!

As I was thinking of what to share in this week’s midweek devotional, I remembered a jarring moment during our honeymoon.  We had set up to stay in a retreat style bed and breakfast in Maine.  And it was a retreat – overlooking the water, nestled in beautiful woods, with farm-raised breakfast food.  We really were able to put the worries of life aside.

One morning, as we prepared for breakfast, though, I looked and saw the shocking news on my phone’s News App – that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe versus Wade, a legal decision which cemented not only a women’s right to abortion but legally put in place the idea of women’s rights over their choices and decisions, and was a legal precedent that laid the groundwork for marriage equality for LGBT+ people.  That morning I was shook, and I felt the jarring reality that, even while taking respite to begin our lives together, Paula and I can’t get away from the challenges our world faces and they are many.

During our time away, women have had to fight again for their own rights in ways they have not had to in our country in the same way for years.   Threats have popped up toward LGBT people.  Racialized violence has occured from white supremacists.  The challenges of the world have gone on and they are huge.

In Paula and I thinking and praying together about what this new page we’ve turned in our lives means, I’ve been reminded of the words Deitrich Bonheoffer wrote to his fiance, Maria, as they awaited marriage.   After their engagement, he was thrown in jail for his standing against German leaders using their power to oppress and even murder minorities including Jews, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and racial and religious minorities.   He knew his life was threatened, and he also knew others faced challenges he did not how to right.

Bonhoeffer wrote to Maria,

“When I consider the state of the world, the total obscurity enshrouding our personal destiny, and my present imprisonment, our union—if it wasn’t frivolity, which it certainly wasn’t—can only be a token of God’s grace and goodness, which summon us to believe in him. We would have to be blind not to see that. When Jeremiah said, in his people’s hour of direst need, that “houses and fields [and vineyards] shall again be bought in this land,” it was a token of confidence in the future. That requires faith, and may God grant it to us daily. I don’t mean the faith that flees the world, but the faith that endures in the world and loves and remains true to that world in spite of all the hardships it brings us. Our marriage must be a ‘yes’ to God’s earth. It must strengthen our resolve to do and accomplish something on earth. I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth on only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too.” 

Remembering his words as we prayed together in Maine not only about our marriage but the startling news that we heard, I was reminded this marriage I have can be too a yes to God’s earth.  In our small way we can choose to shape our marriage so we are open toward others and partners in working to light candles against the darkness, helping be forces of hope and healing in a broken world.

It dawned on me too – all of our life can be that.  How I do my daily job with hospice.  How I support my neighbors and friends.  How I live out my life as a son, as a brother, as a friend.  How I engage my community.  How I vote.

It is easy to retreat into our shells in this moment.  To hide from the challenges around us.  But each of us can be a part of the calling, in our workplace, in our neighborhoods, in our family life, in our partnerships or marriages, in our singleness and independence, in our callings in church and in community service, to be ones who light the candle in the darkness.  We each can roll up our sleeves and make a difference.  As our Jewish siblings in faith say in their Talmud, ““Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, But neither are you free to abandon it.”  May we each find our ways to live into this truth, being a part of God’s answers to others’ prayers, and our own.

See you Sunday!

This Sunday we have a special Christmas in July service.  I hope you join us.

“A Yes to God’s Earth” — Life’s Journey UCC Midweek Devotional

You can listen to audio of or watch a video of this message at https://youtu.be/FhAqAvswCSE 

Please also consider supporting our ministry at https://onrealm.org/lifesjourneyucc/Give 

I am overjoyed to be returning to work with the church this week, on the heels of my marriage and honeymoon.  We are still in unpacking mode here, with boxes all over, as we consolidate our two houses into our one new home together.   But largely due to our lay leaders at Life’s Journey UCC stepping forward and also our guest preachers Pastor Jimmy, Pastor Tony, and Pastor Donna, Paula and I were able to focus on preparing for our wedding, celebrating our new life together in our wedding, and starting things on a good foundation as we begin a new life together.  We carry memories with us we will treasure our whole lifelong. So, thank you all for this time!

As I was thinking of what to share in this week’s midweek devotional, I remembered a jarring moment during our honeymoon.  We had set up to stay in a retreat style bed and breakfast in Maine.  And it was a retreat – overlooking the water, nestled in beautiful woods, with farm-raised breakfast food.  We really were able to put the worries of life aside.

One morning, as we prepared for breakfast, though, I looked and saw the shocking news on my phone’s News App – that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe versus Wade, a legal decision which cemented not only a women’s right to abortion but legally put in place the idea of women’s rights over their choices and decisions, and was a legal precedent that laid the groundwork for marriage equality for LGBT+ people.  That morning I was shook, and I felt the jarring reality that, even while taking respite to begin our lives together, Paula and I can’t get away from the challenges our world faces and they are many.

During our time away, women have had to fight again for their own rights in ways they have not had to in our country in the same way for years.   Threats have popped up toward LGBT people.  Racialized violence has occured from white supremacists.  The challenges of the world have gone on and they are huge.

In Paula and I thinking and praying together about what this new page we’ve turned in our lives means, I’ve been reminded of the words Deitrich Bonheoffer wrote to his fiance, Maria, as they awaited marriage.   After their engagement, he was thrown in jail for his standing against German leaders using their power to oppress and even murder minorities including Jews, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and racial and religious minorities.   He knew his life was threatened, and he also knew others faced challenges he did not how to right.

Bonhoeffer wrote to Maria,

“When I consider the state of the world, the total obscurity enshrouding our personal destiny, and my present imprisonment, our union—if it wasn’t frivolity, which it certainly wasn’t—can only be a token of God’s grace and goodness, which summon us to believe in him. We would have to be blind not to see that. When Jeremiah said, in his people’s hour of direst need, that “houses and fields [and vineyards] shall again be bought in this land,” it was a token of confidence in the future. That requires faith, and may God grant it to us daily. I don’t mean the faith that flees the world, but the faith that endures in the world and loves and remains true to that world in spite of all the hardships it brings us. Our marriage must be a ‘yes’ to God’s earth. It must strengthen our resolve to do and accomplish something on earth. I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth on only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too.” 

Remembering his words as we prayed together in Maine not only about our marriage but the startling news that we heard, I was reminded this marriage I have can be too a yes to God’s earth.  In our small way we can choose to shape our marriage so we are open toward others and partners in working to light candles against the darkness, helping be forces of hope and healing in a broken world.

It dawned on me too – all of our life can be that.  How I do my daily job with hospice.  How I support my neighbors and friends.  How I live out my life as a son, as a brother, as a friend.  How I engage my community.  How I vote.

It is easy to retreat into our shells in this moment.  To hide from the challenges around us.  But each of us can be a part of the calling, in our workplace, in our neighborhoods, in our family life, in our partnerships or marriages, in our singleness and independence, in our callings in church and in community service, to be ones who light the candle in the darkness.  We each can roll up our sleeves and make a difference.  As our Jewish siblings in faith say in their Talmud, ““Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, But neither are you free to abandon it.”  May we each find our ways to live into this truth, being a part of God’s answers to others’ prayers, and our own.

See you Sunday!

This Sunday we have a special Christmas in July service.  I hope you join us.