There's a Manual for That

Mark 2:23-3:6

One sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Pharisees in the Gospel lesson today really don’t seem to have understood what the Sabbath commandment is really all about.  To be fair though, I’m not sure we do either.  The Pharisees were focused on WHAT people either did or didn’t do on the Sabbath.  Was he harvesting grain or traveling?  But that’s really what we do too, isn’t it?  Should we shop, go to the movies, or play sports?  Even Martin Luther thought about the Sabbath that way?  We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  In other words… go to church!

But when Jesus got to the Synagogue and saw the man with the withered hand, he chose to use that situation as an opportunity to challenge all of us to look at that commandment more deeply.  He wanted them to stop with the obsession of WHAT we do on the Sabbath for just a minute, and begin to consider WHY God might have put Sabbath as third on God’s big list.  The Pharisees weren’t interested in doing that and their silence left Jesus angry.  They refused to even TRY to go deeper.  This is the only time in the Bible we read in black and white that Jesus was angry.  Even when Jesus turned over the tables at the Temple, it might have looked like Jesus was angry there, but only here does his anger make it into print.

 

The Pharisees were unwilling to budge, because the rules themselves had become their god.  They were worshiping the letter of the Law rather than the Alpha and Omega who gave them the law!  It’s understandable really… WHAT we do to honor the Sabbath is something we can wrap our minds around.  WHAT we do is something we can make into a set and finite list and with that list we will know for certain if we are right or wrong.  But when we begin to think about WHY we do Sabbath, that involves a conversation with the infinite and  conversations with the infinite invites mistakes, it invites corrections, it acknowledges we’ll never have it all locked down on a lovely little list. 

The Pharisees were stuck because of their fear of the infinite but we don’t have to stay stuck the way the Pharisees did.  If we can embrace the truth that God did not make the commandments as traps to catch us, then we can be free to think about the question the Pharisees refused to even consider.  So, WHY do we do Sabbath… or maybe a better question is WHY does God think Sabbath is a thing we humans should keep?  “Because I say so”?  We know that’s a terrible answer even when WE use it!  So, WHY does God think a Sabbath is a good idea for us?  Well, it’s not because the Divine’s self esteem needs a boost and its not a way for us to somehow get closer to God.  God made every molecule that exists, including the ones that make up each one of us and the Holy Spirit runs in and out of us constantly as we breath, getting into our blood and touching every cell in our bodies.  I don’t think “getting closer to God” is something we can do better than God is already doing in us.   So then WHY Sabbath?

  

When Jesus said to the folks gathered in the Synagogue, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath” he hit the WHY of Sabbath, right on the head.  God has told us to do Sabbath… to take one seventh of our lives as off-time… time apart… down-time… battery-charging time… and God asks us to do that, because the One who designed us… the One who created us… the One who loved us into being… the One who is constantly running around inside of us keeping us alive, turns out to be the One who best knows how we tick as human beings.  God didn’t just create us… God also wrote the instruction manual for us!  

And this one-seventh off-time thing isn’t just meant for us humans alone.  God, it turns out, has designed all of creation to work that way.  Donkeys, oxen, livestock, migrant labor, men, women, boys and girls… everyone and every living thing needs one seventh of their lives spent in Sabbath time… a time of rest… a time of renewal.  As the theologian Lady Gaga reminds us, “we were born this way.”

Folks often think of the ten commandments and all of God’s Law as something put in place to get in the way of us having fun.  Either that or a set of random rules sent by a god who just waits for us to break them so He can zap us!  But that isn’t the WHY of the ten commandments… that isn’t the WHY of the Law.  The best way I have heard to think about God’s Law is that God’s Law defines the playing field for being human.  Following the law keeps us on the field… it keeps us in the game… it keeps us being fully human.  When we break the Law we go off the field, out of bounds, into foul territory… and when we do that, we are operating as LESS than the human being God created us to be.

  

Following the commandments was never about God setting traps for humans.  It was always about God, the One who made us, sharing with us how our human machine runs best.  God’s desire for us, and for all of creation, is for us to live an abundant, joy-filled, and purpose-filled life.  The WHY of Sabbath is that Sabbath is a necessary component of experiencing that abundant life!  So go and do Sabbath and live the abundant life you were created in love to live.  Amen.

That's Not the End!

John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Williamina Stevens was born in Dundee Scotland in 1857.  In 1877 she married widower James Fleming and in 1878 the couple and their son emigrated to Boston.  After her husband abandoned her and their young son, Williamina began to work as a maid for Edward Charles Pickering.  Pickering was the director of the Harvard College Observatory.  Pickering’s wife, Elizabeth, realized that Williamina had untapped gifts and encouraged her husband to give her a role at the observatory.  Williamina began working part time doing administrative work.  

Recognizing her talents himself, in 1881 Pickering formally invited Fleming to join the observatory team and she learned to analyze stellar spectra.  She was part of a group of people who analyzed data and did the complicated mathematical calculations to classify what the observatory saw in the sky.  From there she was put in charge of a massive project to classify as many stars as possible and in the process she developed new methods and a classification system which used not only what could be seen with the eye but also looked at stars in the ultraviolet range.  Fleming’s most notable discovery was the Horsehead Nebula.  

On the back of your bulletin is the black and white picture in which Fleming discovered that Nebula.  It’s that little nub to which the arrow points.  In that picture she captured the whole of the Horsehead Nebula.  But that picture was not the end of humanity’s looking, noticing, thinking, calculating, studying, discovering, learning, and wondering about the Horsehead Nebula. That discovery was not the end!   

Look at the next pictures in that series.  Those are pictures from the Euclid space telescope, the Hubble, and the last one is of just the tip of the Nebula’s mane, taken by the Webb telescope.  You can see SO MUCH MORE in them than you could in Fleming’s photo but still, even with what those photos show us… we know that an infinity still remains to be seen!  

In the year 325, the Council of Nicaea established the Doctrine of the Trinity.  Before that, the Church had within it, VERY different ideas about how to think about God.  Settling on just ONE idea as a place to begin wasn’t easy.  In fact at one point the Bishop of Myra, Nicholas, that’s St. Nicholas, you know… Santa Claus… punched another bishop in the face… but I’m sure it was in a loving, Christian way.  

But in the end, the Council settled on the Doctrine of the Trinity as a picture of the wholeness of God.  But that Doctrine was not the end of humanity’s looking, noticing, thinking, calculating, studying, discovering, learning, and wondering about God. That Doctrine was not the end!  On the contrary, that Doctrine put theologians in a similar place to where Fleming’s photo put astronomers.  BOTH are human descriptions of what people see when they look into infinity.  Neither are meant to give us the complete picture or give us the ability for us to wrap our minds around the infinite.  Rather, both are meant to be meeting spots in which people can gather, and from a common starting place, begin to further notice, to more deeply look, to more profoundly wonder, to more wholly think, and to more openly talk with one another about things we know we will never fully wrap our minds around.    

Williamina Fleming did not believe that she was done when she took that photo and in it discovered the Horsehead Nebula.  She took that moment as an invitation to look even deeper into something she knew she would never fully understand. The bishops too, in the Council of Nicaea, didn’t think they were done when they settled on the Doctrine of the Trinity.  They too took that moment as an invitation to look always deeper into what they knew they would never fully understand. 

That is our invitation as well.  Out there in the world we, like Williamina Fleming, are called to never stop looking more deeply each day into the gifts we have been given.  There is always more for us to discover and always more to share with the world.  That is also our invitation when we think about God and the Trinity.  We are are called to never stop looking more deeply each day into the depths of the Divine.  There is always more for us to discover and to share.  And finally that is our invitation when we read Scripture.  We are called to never stop growing or to stop looking more deeply into what we have been given.  Because when we read passages like “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” we must understand that is NOT the end.  There is always more!  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  No matter how firm a discovery we might make, when it comes to the universe, Scripture, or God… we must always remember there is always, always more.  Amen.  

Can This Bone Live?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

“Mortal, can these bones live?” Mortal, can Israel and Palestine live together in peace?  Mortal, can your country come together?  Mortal, can you be healed from your trauma?  Mortal, can your depression, anxiety, addiction, cancer, dementia, joints, bones, heart be healed?  Mortal, can hate be transformed into love?  Mortal, can racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, greed, and fear be removed from the earth?  Mortal, can Christianity be recovered from the Fundamentalists and Nationalists?  Mortal… can these bones live?

Excellent questions God but let me start with the bones question.  They are…REALLY OLD… VERY DRY bones.  That’s not encouraging.  As if that wasn’t enough, check this one out… looks like a femur… it has a metal spear head stuck in it!  I’ve got to be honest with you, God, a spear head stuck in a completely dried out bone doesn’t scream "I'm alive" to me.   Look at these bones over here… the vultures and vermin have been at them for years… years!  The skeletons aren’t even all together anymore!  The leg bone ISN’T at all connected to the hip bone… Heck!  I don’t even see a hip bone anywhere around here!  This whole valley is a jumble of bones!  Here’s a skull… Alas, poor Yorick… there’s a mouse nest where your brain used to be… then where is the rest of him?  Could be anywhere.  This valley is FILLED with bones.  Can these bones live? 

It seems like a hopeless proposition… these bones living again.  Just like Israel and Palestine seem hopeless… just like a country tipping into Fascism… just like life changing trauma, illness, injury and disease.  It seems hopeless… these bones living again… just like the chance of raw, illogical hatred being changed into raw, illogical love seems hopeless.  Can these bones live?  I sure as hell don’t know… mere mortal that I am… as you’ve very correctly pointed out already God… but I suspect you know.

At that point God told the Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones.”  Prophesy?  What's that goign to do?  Why did God tell him to PROPHESY to the bones?  Because, you see, Ezekiel was a PROPHET and prophesying was what Ezekiel did best… Prophesy was his expertise… prophesy was his gift… his calling… his talent… his jam!  God was telling Ezekiel NOT that “prophesy” was the answer to the world’s hopelessness.  God was telling Ezekiel that pouring his gifts into the world’s hopelessness… WHATEVER those gifts might be… THAT was the answer.  If Ezekiel had been a musician, God would have told him to sing to these bones!  If Ezekiel had been a monk, God would have told him to pray for those bones.  If Ezekiel had been a nurse, God would have told him to comfort those bones.  If Ezekiel would have been a finance guy, God would have told him to make a spreadsheet for those bones.  Teachers would be told to teach.  Doctors would be told to heal.  Therapists would be told to listen.  Builders, bakers, and candlestick makers would be told to do the things they do best for those bones.

But what possible difference could a candlestick make to the devastation, pain, and fear that fills the people of Israel and Palestine?  What difference could prophesy make to a valley filled with bones?  Well, God says it can make ALL the difference.  It is, you see, when we pour our talents… our gifts… our expertise… our passion… WHATEVER THAT MIGHT BE… when we pour our talents, gifts, passion and expertise into the hopelessness of the world, things begin to happen.  It might start like a noise, a rattling, but then you will see that what was impossible will begin to come together, piece to piece. 

Looking out at that awful, horrible, hopeless valley of dry bones, God asked Ezekiel to use only what he already had within him at that particular moment of his life.  God didn’t ask for more than Ezekiel had.  God didn’t ask him to do something he’d never done before.  God asked Ezekiel to do the thing he did BEST and when Ezekiel did that… things changed all around him and there began to be life in a place there had not been life before.  

You may not have Ezekiel’s gift for prophecy, but it isn’t prophesy that brought life to those bones.  It was pouring the  gifts, talents, calling and passion that he had been given by the Holy Spirit into that moment… THAT is what brought life to those bones.  You and I are called to do the same.  To pour our own personal gifts, talents, calling, and passion that we have received from the Holy Spirit into the places around us that are dry and lifeless.  No matter how seemingly unrelated and irrelevant your gifts might seem to a situation... maybe even as unrelated as bones and prophesy, those gifts, in ways we will perhaps never really understand, WILL bring life to those places that are as dry and lifeless as a valley of bones.  So let us go… and bring the world… LIFE.  Amen. 

Shockingly In Between

John 17:6-19

Jesus continued to pray, ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

We missed the Ascension.  It was Thursday.  It’s always on a Thursday which is why we always miss it.  The Liturgy police would NOT accept that as a legitimate defense, but what the Liturgy police don’t know won’t hurt us… and remember… snitches get stitches!  Anyway, the Ascension is when Jesus tells his disciples that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit and that they were to be his witnesses, starting where they were and then reaching out to everywhere on the earth.  Then, of course, Jesus “ascended”…he was lifted up and carried away in a cloud.  That’s when the Disciples were left on a hillside, mouths hanging open, standing there stuck in this awkward in-between time… In-between Jesus leaving dramatically and the Holy Spirit arriving dramatically on Pentecost.  

I feel like we as a church are in a time like that… An IN-BETWEEN time.  We’re in between those dramatic days when we created and launched ALL THE THINGS.  The time when  Trudy rightly labeled our congregation as “The Church of What’s Happening Now”.  We’re in between that time then and whatever it is the Holy Spirit will bring us next.

In those Church of What’s Happening Now times we did rainbow chairs and Berkstock fairs, Appalachian Trail tents, we had family pandemic meals sent.  We did classical concerts and Broadway cabarets, silent movies, and beer with hymns.  We did a cycling hospitality center, a memorial garden makeover and a complete Grey Cottage remodel.  We did a Big capital campaign.  We solar powered our church.  We made stewardship something palatable with Joe’s lasagna, and snacks while we put free money into baskets.

We dreamed up, created, and launched ALL THE THINGS… ALL THE THINGS!  But that’s not where we are any more, is it?  I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  It’s just where we are right now.  The pandemic, illnesses and injuries, life and deaths and all those dang years pilling up for all of us… all of that has taken us out of where we were then and into where we are right now.  Like I said, it’s not a bad place to be.  We haven’t failed.  We’re not unfaithful.  Oh my God NO!  We are still exactly in the place God is calling us to be right now.  It’s just not where we were AND it’s also not where we will always be.  But for now, God seems to have called us (as God called the Disciples back then) to be… in-between and as it turns out Jesus had a prayer for them in their in between time.  It’s that SUPER convoluted prayer that we heard in the Gospel lesson.  It’s a good prayer for people in those in between times… once it’s untangled at least… so here’s an untangled version for us:  

Hello God, this is Jesus.  You gave me these incredible people so I could tell them in person what you wanted them to know.  They’ve now embraced that message which is amazing!  Amazing for me, for them, and for You too!  While I was here I protected them from a world that is more interested in wielding crushing power than in loving one another.  Now that I’m heading home, would you please continue take care of them?  This world still thinks love, kindness, generosity, grace, mercy, and compassion are weaknesses rather than the world transforming powers You and I know they are.  As you know, Father, this world can get pretty hate-y toward people who live their lives in love.  So hold them as they live their lives in love, and keep using love to change the world.  Love is the truth.  That’s what I told them.  That’s the truth they’re now telling others.  It is beautiful and holy work they have joined us in doing for sure, but it’s also really hard, so please God, hang in there with them.  Always.  Amen.

Good prayer, right?  At least when it’s untangled.  It’s a prayer for those times when our mouths hang open, not sure how to be or what to do.  It’s a prayer that reminds us that in those times… those in-between times… that love continues to be the answer, regardless of the question.  That love keeps working to change the world even while we just wait for what the Spirit is bringing next.  It reminds us that God looked after us before.  God will look after us in what will come and God is looking after us in the in between as well.  

It reminds us that the work we did creating ALL THE THINGS was beautiful and holy.  It reminds us that the work we do now in the in-between, maintaining those things, is just as beautiful and just as holy; and it reminds us that the work we will most certainly embrace when the winds of the Holy Spirit shift into a new direction will be beautiful and holy as well.  It also reminds us that it is God’s love at work through us in this world and that God’s love continues to transform literally everything.  God’s love does that through all that we’ve done, all that we will do when the Spirit blows in a new direction, and even now as we wait together faithfully in the in between.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.