Friday, December 27, 2024

What Child Is This?

 "I was given nothing to help me learn to live as the person I was created to be."

                  --Richard Wagamese, Walking the Ojibwe Path, p.43

This statement caught me short, and I had a loud, resounding question pop up in my brain: Do any of us know the person we are created to be?  If we consider all the accouterments of culture, education, family, and religion does anyone really know themselves, I mean in God's sight, as we're created to be?  I suppose it is impossible to spin time back to the moment of our birth and look at "Who is this child?" Likewise, few of us get born with a predetermined purpose - like Jesus' beginnings of the angelic" Son of God" proclamation to his mother-to-be. People who wind up doing big things with their lives, tend to get biographies written that imply they were "called" to be great in their early beginnings.  But do the majority of us?  Most of us go to public (cookie-cutter) schools receiving the same culturally pre-determined education that curriculums are based upon.  Those K-12 packages supposedly send us all out into the world on a "level playing field" - even though, in truth. they can't possibly. So what happens to any self-actualizing goal "to be the person I was created to be?"

Sure, some families put strait jackets on their offspring at early ages to follow in a parent's or grandparent's footsteps.  Then, depending on the child's created disposition, they'll take on the assignment with gusto or alternatively, go complete rebel and wind up in a wildly different place. That is what I am getting at -- how do we learn to live as we're meant to?

At its heart, I am addressing a profoundly spiritual question: who/what does God intend for humans to be?  Through the ages, undeniably, humans have veered off the "humane" track.  The laundry list of sins cataloged and treated by religion(s) as an illness needing correction reflects the course of departure from loving, peaceful, generous, cooperative, helpful, courteous... basics of the human soul that God likely intends.  While some social structures work at furthering these "positive" ways we are created to be, their commonality across the board is rare. 

For humanity to aim toward a more egalitarian, magnanimous world it would be necessary to change many of the assumptions on which our world's economic and legal systems are based. We would need more effective (and more widely available) methods for addressing mental illness, improved methods of breaking generational trauma, concerted means of addressing homelessness and poverty, and refined educational strategies to support self-esteem and self-actualization. 

All of these and hundreds of other ideas fly 180 degrees against the "traditional" social and religious attitudes reflective of crime and punishment and "making a living." So politically the leap to a New World remains impossible.  Still, there is a peace-filled place for dreaming the God-hope in our meditative imaginations and seeing in our souls the purity of divine intent for our existence. 

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Faith

Faith is one of the simplest words in the Christian lexicon.  Yet it also seems to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks thrown into the Christian Church. Why? Largely because The Church, long ago, got in its own way racing to define what one needed to believe if one was going to have "faith."  So, rather than faith being the experiential thing it is, it became prescriptive by order of the educated, who possess a well-honed recitation of narrow beliefs according to catechism and creed.  The Church said, "We will provide you with the right belief(s) so you can have the right faith" (And then if you don't hold precisely to the line, we can burn you at the stake as a heretic.)

Jesus never knew any kind of "catechism."  The closest he came was having a solid knowledge of the Law on which Judaism was founded. He could answer the questions when the synagogue/temple lawyers showed up to trap him, but he did not preach to his followers about them. In fact, he provided his own set of suggestions on how to live one's life through the Beatitudes. (I like to use the word play Be-attitudes for these.)  Jesus played up the power of faith (if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains) and downplayed the difficulty of faith (you need only the faith of a child.)

Simply, faith is a trust that we will have a tomorrow. Kids have faith that their parents will be there when they wake up.  We can have faith that even in death, life does go on. There are scads of people who spend their lives building guarantees into their faith whereupon their faith becomes grounded in the security of their investments, But that becomes an extremely thin line between "faith" and idol worship. Faith doesn't operate in the realm of guarantee nearly as powerfully as it does in the realm of hope. On the spiritual plane hope and faith keep us going (treasure kept in our hearts) far more than our investment portfolio (where moth and rust can steal or be lost.)  

In what do we have faith?  The four Sundays of Advent often include a weekly focus on four spiritual words that usually include peace, joy, love, and hope.  These four words strongly connect to the personhood of Jesus - his life, teaching, and ministry.  Likewise, they can be our words.  While there can be some instruction involved in teaching children the how-tos, the actual practice of them is a life-long laboratory of experiencing what they mean in the contexts we find ourselves in with each relational interaction. When we give/receive joy, when we practice/experience peace, when we give or receive hope or love we meet the elements of faith that radically alter our lives and those of the people we interact with. We don't need stuffy theological Ph.D.s cramming quilt and atonement and hell down our gullets - nothing about those elements fosters a speck of faith (far more worry if you ask me!).  They're just intellectual snobbery.  As the Apostle Paul ends 1 Corinthians 13: "Faith, hope, and love abide." Let your faith abide in you.  Have faith in the eternity of tomorrow. (Spoken like a great procrastinator, eh?)  

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

A Vulnerable Suggestion

At Christmastime, most Christian churches recognize and celebrate the belief that God came down to be with us humans. As the story goes, Jesus came as a lowly infant in God's swaddling clothes.  Like all babies, he was vulnerable, at first unable to hold up his head - a remarkably humble in-breaking.  That vulnerable way didn't change throughout his life.  Even at his trial with Pilate and the moments of his death reflected his open vulnerability to all aspects of the human lives around him. When I look at Jesus, it invites me to look at people differently, with a more discerning sympathetic eye. 

Being vulnerable is not something that is valued in American culture. Vulnerability is not seen as an attribute in the business or industrial world.  It's challenging to outfox one's competition with vulnerability.  Sports also do not encourage holding your opponent in mercy or compassion.  The word "success" immediately calls us to win at all costs.  To see the U.S. political climate, one quickly grasps that winning comes by doing whatever it takes, including cheating, lying, and even breaking the law if that helps you achieve "the goal."

When we look at Jesus' life, however, we don't see this kind of success or winning at play. Another set of values is at work: compassion, careful listening, and empathy for another's situation. He doesn't view a relationship as transactional—"I'll give you this if you give me that."  Jesus doesn't see "losers," and even among those of the times considered social "winners," Jesus sees them on the same even playing field with their own "logs in their eye" to be understood and healed.

The majority's extraordinarily high levels of stress are caused by the innate pressure to succeed and get ahead. Daily life is geared toward being in competition to achieve something - grades, life partner, income, career, outward appearance, power, among so much more.  What would our life be like without pressure on that level and only Jesus' goal to be kind, listen, and offer a hand?  Obviously, we would still need to consider our basic needs - food, shelter, clothing, etc.  But what would society look like without the "dog eat dog" mentality?  Without going whole hog off one's rocker, how could you start working to develop the simple habit of noticing others and offering the kindness of letting them know they matter?  Would the world be different?  It would be different for that one who is noticed, person by person until it hits a critical mass, which is how reality is changed. 


  

 

Monday, December 9, 2024

High Hopes

 

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. 
               -- John 1:5 (NRSV)

News over this past weekend was all about the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.  For many years, Syria, with borders on many of the Middle Eastern nations, has existed as an enclave of torture, war, and vile disregard for the dignity of human beings.  Tens of thousands of refugees have fled.  Thousands have reportedly been murdered in subhuman prison conditions.  Light in Syria under Assad's rule has been grimly dim.  

Anne Applebaum from the Atlantic wrote this (as reported by Heather Cox Richardson):

...the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria.  There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair.  The fall of the Russian-Iranian-backed regime suddenly offers the possibility of change.  The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world."

Cynics dismiss hope as futile.  They discount it as a fool's errand. Yet for the human spirit the truth is without hope despair wins. We know that in those contemplating suicide, the last straw that triggers the act itself is the absolute sense of despair about overcoming one's situation.

Human beings are not just a bundle of biochemical processes packaged in skin.  We are extraordinarily unique in that while possessing the physicality for life, we also have mental and spiritual sides that add value, meaning, and purpose to our lives. The spirit part of a person is that part where hope exists.  Hope embraces the far larger perspective on possibility, on one's freedom to pursue those possibilities,  and to realize the euphoria of being conjoined with the ultimate successes of love.   

Advent and Christmas being placed as they are in the northern latitudes' darkest time of year can be the infusion of hope.  These religious holidays call to us from bleakness to envision the possibility bought by the freedom we each have to make life-changing decisions.  To see the world in a much larger dimension outside our personal situation. To commit ourselves to care about the world and the suffering people it harbors.  To generously reach for kindness, peace, joy, and lovingkindness.  In those small acts are the very seeds of hope. Hope that through love, a broken world can change, develop, and overcome the hostile rollercoaster humans are prone to. 


Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Occupation Forces of Peace

Most mainline Christian denominations observe the last Sunday of November as "Christ the King" Sunday.  It is the last Sunday of the Christian year, which begins again with the first Sunday of the Season of Advent (the four Sundays before Christmas Day.) The scripture readings for Christ the King Sunday are commonly a repeat of the Holy Week passages about Jesus' trial and crucifixion.  In other words, Christ rules over sin by dying.

Not much of Jesus' teachings dwelt on human sinfulness nor on adhering to a set moral code of "Thou shalt/shalt not.". Moral codes crept into Christianity at the time Christianity was usurped by Emperor Constantine.  Constantine latched onto the burgeoning population of the new Christian faith to increase his popularity and strengthen the empire's cohesiveness. A super-sized chunk of what people object to today about Christianity is the fruit of this root in Roman Empire history and colonization. 

So what was the Jesus Ministry about?  Sadly, the majority of Christians don't even know apart from self-serving perpetrators of the religious orders since the Dark Ages. And because they don't know, they sow more about State Religion or Nationalistic Religion (ala Constantine) than they do about how the Rulership of God works through Christ. 

So many races and nations have tried to claim "chosen people" status in a conveniently constructed Godhead that only their little following have "the truth" to tell. But the majesty and glory of God's unending love doesn't have to be taught.  It is accessible through the experience of beauty found in every corner of the earth.  Starting with the angelic beauty spoken of at Jesus' birth, Jesus brought to earth a message of unqualified love, acceptance, and a simple message: "Can't we all just get along?" Can you feel what he feels?

While the rest of the human race has been in a warring arms race nearly from the first day, from Jesus' first day, he was on a peace mission.  He went throughout the near Middle East without bias, healing the wounds of people hurt by exclusion due to illness, birth defects, mental illnesses, and the woes of an agrarian economy that left many out. He brought peace and compassion to a new level that made the religions in the area nervous. He made a big impact, and because he did, he was sometimes associated with revolutionary movements. However, they were, as a rule, too oriented toward violence over love for the gentle beauty of human love.  He recognized humans as social creatures who needed a strong community to survive and thrive. 

The world does not need more domination, violence, and war.  It requires a large occupation force intent on spreading peace, nurturing cooperation, and teaching to hear/see/feel/smell our fundamental completeness in beauty.  Through this approach, all eat, all thrive, all are healed, and all traumas stop being perpetuated.

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

It takes a mature spirit and maybe a compassionate heart to look at the world through Jesus' eyes.  Half of this great divide happening in the soul of the United States is precisely the same divide that has existed since before Jesus' time.

Jesus was no stranger to the cruelties and domination of government powers.  No stranger to religious competitions to establish authority and judgment over others.  He knew and witnessed the harm of social class, the abandonment, and disgust for those deemed "sinful, broken, too poor, too lame, or less than."

Jesus' eyes were not pulled into that world. God has always stood with one foot inside and one outside our humanly created reality.  God stands in a universe far, far bigger than our wee bowl of Cheerios problems.  But in Jesus, something dramatic happened in the universe as big as any supernova.  God put that over-lording perspective aside to become human and to experience for God's Self what helplessness felt like against the earthly powers of humankind.  God stuck to that commitment throughout Jesus' life through all the torments that empires and religious authorities put him through unto death.

He came through an earthly mother, born useless and helpless in the borrowed manger of farm animals. He departed useless and abused at the hands of fearful, angry, abusive, and hard-hearted humans.  What do discerning persons capture of the Jesus Love light?  The love he showed his followers, his dinner guests, his disciples, his healed ones, and his huge extended family?

First, this world is busy daily poisoning our eyes, causing them to see opposites of love as virtuous life goals.  There is daily fighting over scraps, clawing in money, and using any means to acquire wealth and power even if it means high body counts across the globe.  Viewed daily, it hardens our hearts, and we shrink into self-comforting, avoiding the hungering looks in the swollen eyes of the useless.  Everyone but those closest to us become useless, commodities, or worse - a monster preying at our doorstep.  Soon we find ourselves cheering for the arrests, the executions, the promises of strong men, and the bombs that take out our fears. 

But we are fearful of our own uselessness.  We are lost because we have lost Jesus' eyes, and he is no longer our way or of use to us.  So we put him on the shelf on a pretty little crucifix as a lingering crossed-finger hope that he might still have a spare blessing even as we vote for his antithesis.

This Advent, may we each experience the healing hands of Jesus touching our eyes and taking from them the scales he took from the blind man's eyes*.  Let us not give up easily because our eyesight will be blurry at first.  But as our vision clears, may we recognize the Risen God with the eternal light of Love that has shown out into the darkness throughout the eons, claiming us, proclaiming our value, our significance, our worthiness, and see our key spot at God's table is not ours only but all of humanity's too. 

*Acts 9:10-19

Friday, November 15, 2024

A Prophet Speaks

When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled. Isaiah 25:4a-5

Few things in life are more pitiful than Seattle's rain in winter.  37 degrees and raining - so close to snow but instead torrential cold usually with wind in the face or to turn your umbrella inside out. That bone-chilling cold aptly describes each new cabinet nominee that President-Elect Trump chooses to be in charge of a government that has been a "shining city on a hill for decades." Now it is on a toboggan ride down the steep slope of chaotic hate aimed at half of the USA population - immigrants, women, LGBTQ, the poor, people of color, "liberals," and political opponents - perhaps even just those who might issue a cross word about the President-Elect.

This sort of inhumanity is not something new in human history.  Nearly every empire that ever arose out of dust eventually met its demise soon after its leadership developed a hateful mental illness and began fomenting enemies, stratifying society (us against them), and then imprisoning/deporting/executing the masses. Israel has experienced this cycle repeatedly in its history.  So have many different religious groups, even Christianity, during its period of the Reformation & Inquisitions.

The prophet Isaiah, like all prophets, brings warning alongside hope.  This period in American history is a time of travail, a time of small men reasserting their puny idea of dominance. But dominance and strength are not from power-wielding mad-hatter rants at phantom enemies.  Dominance doesn't come from putting down others.  It comes from building others up so that together, we thrive in a community with all peoples' skills and talents.  The people embraced together for their differences and strengths is the Divine shade that protects a nation from the heat of anger and hostility.  May all people of true faith remember this most basic tenet regardless of doctrine.  May we rise up strong in compassion, powerful in equality and justice, and may reasoned gentleness and healing bind up what is obviously now broken in America. 

Friday, November 8, 2024

The Goal of Life

 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live.  Deut. 30:19

Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken" reflects on a daily occurrence.  Throughout our day we find ourselves multiple times at a fork: with a path running in (at least) two different directions.  In Frost's poem the person choosing takes the less traveled way. Some readers of the poem have seen in it a suggestion that a person should not take the easy way, but that the harder way will net greater reward.  The moral implied that all things worth doing take hard work.  It does happen that the harder one's life is and the harder one works the greater the rewards down the line.  But the opposite also frequently occurs. Many struggle throughout their existence on earth and die in the cold with only a cardboard box to hug them at the end.

The writer of Deuteronomy places us at the fork in the road of heaven and earth, death and life, curse and blessing and advises: "Choose life."  In living our daily lives, what does choosing life entail?  Of course, one set of choices and determinative factors is what is best for me and/or my family?  Into that mix is the reality that we each have differing sets of "givens," including all the resources we may have at our disposal.  But the writer clearly has a larger set of choices in mind as well.  Those are the forks that a larger community of which we are a part choose.  What determinative factors does a community of faith, or a nation, use to "choose life?"  That question should be what choices nurture and encourage the best for everyone? 

As followers of Jesus, the community choices can't be only about me and mine.  Brute selfishness by any member (or any small faction of members) tears at the fabric of what holds the larger community together. What holds a community together is the bond we have to each of the other members with whom we're in life together. The forks we come to and face together have to support life, blessing, and love for all. 

So expanding outwardly from small to large how do we embrace roads that lead to life for me, my family, my faith community, my town/city, my state, my country, my continent, my world?  For each bond of community we consider, the holy, most divine goal is how to be life-giving. 

Questions:

How did Jesus demonstrate the goal of being a life-giver?

In what ways are you putting the power of life-giving to work in each community of which your are part?

What practices might you incorporate into your Advent and Christmas holiday that give life to someone else?

Prayer:

We pray, O Most Holy One, that every fork in life's road we come to that we can clearly see the path that nurtures love and redemption.  Amen.  

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Why Bad Things Happen

The Pursuit of Holy Moments

Job1:1, 2:1-10, Hebrews 1:1-4

Mark Fredericksen, ND

Vashon United Methodist Church, October 6, 2024

 

The Book of Job is perhaps the oldest set of writings in the Bible.  It may have been written as recently as 2500 years ago or as long as 4000 years ago.  In many ways, it is a complete enigma.  As you heard, it has an entirely different idea of God, where God is the head of a council of God-like beings, one of which has the name SaTan (which should NOT be confused in any stretch with being the red, horned, god of Evil portrayed in horror movies and in some Christian horror-based theologies.)  SaTan is Hebrew for a prosecutor – one who metes out justice.  The book does not involve Jewish people (nor Christians), and it seems to have gotten incorporated into the Old Testament because it seems to answer an age-old question religious folks ask: why do bad things happen to good people?  But (spoiler alert) it doesn’t answer that, it turns out.  What it does do is argue the pros and cons of whether God acts with justice. The bottom line, after wandering through 38 chapters of his friends harping on their belief that Job MUST have done something to deserve his suffering, God speaks and essentially says, “Yeah, I am just, and you know-it-all humans don’t know the half of what I’m managing.”

So, inquiring minds still would like to know, control-freak-prone humans would like to know, and most populations around the world want to know why bad things happen.  We all grapple with that question!  Particularly when it is our own suffering!   I have had my share of suffering, physically and mentally.  I was born an empath, and as a pastor and as a doctor, I’ve been with a lot of people on the receiving end of suffering up to and including death in some pretty horrific circumstances.  I also cannot look away from the daily news, which seems obsessed with reporting every tragedy everywhere. Through all of my prayerful, meditative ponderings during my 69 years, I’ve come to an answer for myself.  It is a faith-based answer, but I’ll admit that it may not be satisfying for many. Nor can many accept it – especially if they’re in the throes of suffering at the moment. In the briefest (callous sounding) way, suffering is just what life hands us. It’s not punishment for anything, as that would negate the essence of Christ’s life and death. 

But we must remember that suffering is cast in a much bigger, grander, and more stunning frame like unto how God speaks to Job at the end – and I’d encourage you to look it up and read the closing 4 chapters of Job starting at chapter 38. If we are going to follow the spiritual journey and embrace the belief in God of the universe, my faith resonates with an understanding of Infinite Love, which is the generative power and energy of all that is – on every plane, from star & galaxy formation to the basics of life as we know it.  If we stand on a platform where we can see the full spectrum of creation, spanning all time and distance, our average human experience of life – averaging around 80 years -  is so danged brief as to be invisible – alongside eons and light-years.  The Psalmist indeed did hit on an excellent praiseworthy question: O Lord, what are humans that you are mindful of them? I’ll grant you that sounds quite existentialist and fatalistic– but there is more.  The Infinite Love that holds all that exists together with us IS unfolding on a spiritual plane that defies words of how to speak of something so truly magnificent and glorious. And we ARE held eternally in that plane.  ALL suffering vanishes there – and yet all suffering in this life teaches us important lessons – might I say even ESSENTIAL lessons.  We are children of the Most Holy One!  We have infinite value!  Suffering teaches us how to be good people.  When I suffer, I learn how to be with others when they suffer.  And that becomes the basis for us becoming more Christ-like good people.  Authors Matthew Kelly and Allen Hunt of “The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most define a good person as someone who knows how “to be honest, humble, generous, responsible, empathetic, selfless, patient, kind, moral, courageous, ethical, and grateful.”1

I think “good person” is what the author of Hebrews is speaking of in their writing about angels and Christ being in a higher, more noble place. Can any of us say that Jesus was not among the best good persons who ever lived?   Isn’t it fantastic that we live in an age where we can benefit from and know the teachings and love of Christ – largely through how we can be together?  One church, one eternal love, one sharing.  So we can benefit from the lessons passed down through ages of wars and Inquisitions, heretic burnings, torture, and exile – through crucifixion and death; spoken of, written about - by prophets, mystics, priests, pastors, and our family of faith so that we – WE -can trust in the deepest part of our souls that all suffering WILL end – come to its completeness and leave us the wiser better prepared for extending what Kelly & Hunt call “Holy Moments” to the world.

They define Holy Moments as moments in which a good person opens themselves to God and prayerfully follow what God is calling them to do.  It may be my empathetic doctor-y side biasing me, but I think one of our highest callings, in general, as the church is to notice the pain and suffering of others, to be present with them in the hard spaces, and lower the temperature of suffering wherever we can. This involves understanding exactly how Jesus lived and taught because he occupies a place – a crucial place in our spiritual lives, namely that place of Messiah at God’s right hand.

There are many not-so-good people who are manipulating the words and life of Jesus to claim what never was- to press their own agenda to foment power, greed, and exclusion and to scare us away from being good people to those from diverse other life experiences.  This is not and never will be something Infinite Love embraces.  It is not something we, with pure hearts and good morals, should or can embrace.  There are dark forces nibbling around the edges of our culture and our faith.  We must embrace lovingkindness and, despite the suffering in our own lives or that in the world, stand courageously hand in hand with the Messiah we know Jesus to be. A bit higher than even angels.  Alongside him.  Forever.

 

1 Kelly, Matthew ; Hunt, Allen R. . The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most (pp. 23-24). Wellspring. Kindle Edition.

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Are You Afraid

 Are You Afraid

A Sermon Preached at Vashon United Methodist Church

Mark Fredericksen, ND, MDiv

June 23, 2024

Job 38:1-11

Mark 4:35-41

 

When I was a wee lad, my sister and I would be left at my aunt and uncle’s in Soap Lake for a week or two in summer, and then my three female cousins would come to stay with us in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, for the same amount of time—giving both sets of parents a break from our hell-raising ways. I, being the boy amongst the rest, was never the troublemaker.  But I digress.  One of these summers in Soap Lake, I was around 8 years old; it was getting on toward evening, and a thunderstorm was moving in.  My uncle always felt sorry for my lone maleness amidst all the females and would try to do something with me when he got home from work.  On this particular evening, he said, “Let’s take my rubber raft to the north end of the lake and row back down to their house, a distance of probably a mile or two. My aunt, being a mom, raised questions about the sanity of this venture – “have you seen the weather?”  But my uncle – pshawed her – and handed her the car keys so she could chauffer us to the north end of the lake.  They argued on the way, my aunt memorably saying, “If you drown him, I and my sister are going to kill you.”

 

Fast forward to setting off in the rubber raft.  We got in the boat; you may be slightly relieved to know that he had brought a life jacket that he put on me.  You should also know that I am from another planet because, for my entire life, I’ve known that I cannot swim a lick – I have a denser mass than most humans, and I sink in water. Innumerable people have tried to teach me to drown, I mean float, and I just go straight to the bottom, so now I just avoid water over my head.   We started rowing.  We are making decent progress, and we’re about halfway; I’m having a ball. We’re cracking jokes.  The waves are getting a little higher; occasionally, one sloshes over the side of the boat, but it’s like a riotous fun roller coaster ride to me.  But the sky is getting darker.  Some lightning flashes are visible behind the cliffs around the lake. And a wind out of the south is blowing pretty large waves at us by now and even pushing us. More concerning, my uncle's demeanor changed from jovial to serious as he said, “We need to row harder and watch for large waves to turn the boat into them. The change on his face from smiling to grimly focused scared me.

 

So, when I read this gospel lesson, I am right on board with those disciples, knowing all about the fear of waves and storms. Jesus is not rowing.  He is asleep on a cushion.  So, while it was only on his orders that they had to “go to the other side,” putting them in this pickle, he isn’t helping at all.  And like me, they thought they were going to die.  We could take a simplistic surface view of this story and chalk it up simply as a miracle story of Jesus having authority over the wind and waves and move on with a “Trust and Obey” kind of hymn. And there would be nothing wrong with that.

 

But Jesus' question to them, “Why are you afraid?” (Other translations say, “Why are you cowardly?”) piques my curiosity.  Doesn’t it yours too?  To look a bit deeper, it’s helpful to explore the context of looking for the author’s placement and possible purpose in telling this story here in this way, as well as knowing a bit about the culture and geographical/demographic layout of the area.

 

So far in Mark, Jesus has been teaching and healing among the predominantly Jewish population on the right side of the lake to the point he’s exhausted.  Suddenly, with no warning, he is throwing a huge monkey wrench in his Jewish disciples’ wheelhouse stating flatly – “Let’s go to the other side.”  The other side of the dividing line – the Sea of Galilee – where on the other side meant going to the Gentile side, the side where no good Jews go.  The side where the riff-raff, weirdos, and unclean live.   So, the weather disturbance taking place on the water also perhaps reflects the disciples’ internal emotional state and discomfort being pushed out of their comfort zone.  He is pushing them beyond their safe boundaries.  And maybe I’m alone, but I always feel a little edgy or a crabby pants when I’m pushed out there.  In the disciples’ minds, a taboo is being broken, and meanwhile, Jesus is sleeping on a cushion.

 

The other note I can add is the gospel’s structural setup.  This story is happening as Jesus’ venue of ministry takes a marked shift.  What immediately follows this passage is that they land at Gennesaret, where they come upon the crazy man with a legion of demons in the cemetery; then, on those heels, they have Jairus’ dead daughter to deal with and the woman who had been bleeding for years.  So Jesus is widening faith’s boundaries – he’s reaching out to a far wider circle of hurting people where wealth, nationality, gender, and religion do not matter.  Along with this inclusiveness, is also woven Jesus’ sense of justice.  For Jesus, there is no partiality.  Oppression is oppression – in death, in mental state, in health, in spirit and it is incumbent on the faithful, if you’re going to be hanging out with Jesus, to be laboring for the sake of justice.

 

So, knowing what we know now, we return to Jesus’ words and his question: Are we afraid or cowardly?   Is our faith boundary set to avoid challenge and change?  If we stay in our safe harbors, letting Jesus snooze in the back seat, is anything won for the Realm of God?  Most of us may not feel like we’re in a storm-tossed boat. But was Jesus aiming his criticism at their fear of the storm or was it aimed at their inner grumblings of having to open their safe zone to mingle with Gentiles?  And to bring the question home, perhaps uncomfortably so, of whom are we afraid, or where is our cowardliness holding us back?  You can hear me starting to make the shift here  – where I’m posing the questions not just for you personally but also for the group/community setting.  All of Jesus’ disciples in this day.

 

If we can answer the who we’re afraid of question, then we can ask what is the faithful response?  In short, the answer is simple.  “Get in the boat.”  There is an old Christian symbol of a cross in a boat. We’re living in the boat. The waves around us can be or are substantial – personal and the church and the country writ large.  There are storms underway.  But without faith to steer the boat - informed by Jesus’ own acts -- WE are libel to drift either into purposeless anxiety or a stagnant backwater where change is not even possible. These same cowering disciples went out not just across the lake to the other side – but across out of their known world in order to bring Jesus faith and justice to a planet – the size of which they could not begin to imagine.  So I leave you with this to ponder and perhaps discuss among yourselves in the coming weeks or months.  What’s steering the Vashon United Methodist Church boat?  Is it Jesus-faith & justice?  Or is it fear?  Where are you being called?  Across to the other side?  Or closer amongst your own?   Amen.  

Saturday, June 22, 2024

The Realm of God is Like A Seed -

 The Realm of God is Like a Seed

Mark Fredericksen, ND, MDiv.

A Sermon Preached at Vashon United Methodist, June 16, 2024

 How many of you are gardeners?  My wife and I have gardened for a large portion of our married life, which is nearing 50 years.  In the Spring, we have the “garden debate” of whose job it is to do what.  I like to prepare the ground and plant the seeds, and for her to water, weed, and harvest.  Yeah.  She doesn’t like weeding any more than I do – so you can imagine the tensions that division of labor puts into our gardening.

I love the planting part because the seeds represent a potential for glimpsing the wideness of God’s Realm. I think I may have mentioned in my sermon here with you back in April that our concepts of God are too small. If our God is too small, then our faith will also be small.  So this week and next, I’m going to try to enlarge your glimpses of the God who cares for you, with a goal, hopefully, of blessing you with a more vibrant certainty because, as Paul said to the Corinthians, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” 

Because I have lived a large chunk of my life learning and every day using what is known about biology and chemistry with a little physics, I want to bring us around to view our faith in God from a whole different angle than we usually use when we’re in church. Angles are important.  If you want to see a rainbow, for instance, you have to be looking from the right angle. So here is another one.

It starts with seeds. Seeds, essentially, are power-packed stardust.  Jesus used seeds in parables intended to awaken faith.  He only had a tenth of the knowledge about seeds that exist today. The startling thing to me about them is that they’re so tiny relative to what they can become.  In the past couple of weeks, I have held a beet seed and a seed from a Sequoia tree in my hand, and they are about the same size & not that different in appearance.  But General Sherman, the name of one of the largest Sequoia trees in the world, down in California, is 31 feet in diameter and 275 feet tall, while a beet – well, you all probably know about how big a beet plant gets.  That’s really amazing, don’t you think?  God is amazing.  All the time.

But that’s just a simplistic beginning point. How do those two different seeds know what they’re supposed to become?  How did/does God write their calling into their being?  Thomas Merton, one of my favorite theologians, Roman Catholic, mystic and good-trouble-making priest (died too soon!), talks in his book Seeds of Contemplation how a tree gives glory to God just by being a tree.  It’s that simple.  You give glory to God just by being you. Just by being.  Being yourself. Not what you do, how much money you have, or what you accomplish by this world’s standards. The glory you give to God is just being you. Period. Now, let me insert here -- Glory is a tricky word that has always been hard for me to get my head around until I realized that it’s the God-Light, the interstellar glow of eternity that God places within each of us at our birth.  One of the old Catechisms asks, “What is the purpose of human beings?”  And the answer is, “The purpose of the human being is to give glory to God.”  So, how cool is that?  That God puts God’s-light, that interstellar glow of eternity --God’s glory-- within us so that we already have what we need to reflect that outwardly back to Godself.  Do you feel the glory?  Perhaps it’s like the mud Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer got slapped on his nose to stop the glow?  It doesn’t remove the glow; it just hides it.  All the shadows, negative self-talk, and ancient power games religious hierarchies played spooning us fear of hell in order to extract money or labor for big cathedrals and shore up a Bishop’s own lack of self-worth?   Sin it is labeled.  Maybe all we need to do is polish up our fogged-over mirror with Love such that through us, others can see God.  1 Corinthians 13 – at first we see dimly, but then face-to-face.  That’s a lot to take in.  Let’s just sit with this a minute and let it soak into our being.  At your birth, the glory, the God-Light, was bestowed upon you.  Nothing can take that from you.  All that is required is to be yourself the best you can be to fulfill the only real purpose God wants or needs from you. Faith is not about doing but about being. Some of us turn out to be Sequoia trees and some weeds, but you know it is all okay because all are equal in God’s sight, appreciation, love, and embrace.

How does a tree or any plant or any living being (or you) know what it is supposed to be?

I’ll tell you how—at least from what humans have learned about the process. It’s all wrapped in a complicated molecule we call DNA. How do I know that DNA is God’s tool of choice in making us? A) Because DNA is so foundational to the blueprint of life itself.  99.9% of your DNA is the same as anyone else you meet. You’re not very doggone different from the person you love or the one you hate.  We share 85-98% of the same DNA with other mammals.  Heck, we share 60% of the same DNA as fruit flies and bananas!  B)  Because of just how impossibly difficult and unlikely it would be for any life to be here at all. DNA is a very uniquely structured molecule. It is made up of thousands, perhaps a million atoms. Five essential atoms: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen were spawned along with the other 93 naturally occurring elements in the furnaces of galaxies and exploding stars light-years from here.  So what are the odds of those elements landing here by random chance?  Through eons of time, they randomly gathered here from comets and meteors and space dust and our galaxy’s and solar system’s movement through the universe.  Then we’re asked by the atheist to believe they just randomly coalesced into a very complicated DNA molecule.   Look – a simple 30-digit combination lock where you need 3 numbers to unlock it has 4,062 possible combinations. If you have 93 elements and you need those 5 particular ones to get together the odds are 1 in 5.2 million. But those five alone don’t make DNA.  They have to be combined into sugars and phosphate groups and nucleotides and bound in a double helix hundreds of thousands of times.  Making the odds mind-numbingly overwhelmingly remote that the first DNA could have just fallen together. Leading me to the conclusion that purposeful loving intelligence with powers to manipulate very, very large bodies as well as quantum-sized particles has been and is at work.  And I will be so bold as to claim, based solely on faith, that human beings are catalysts in the process of Love Unfolding from here on in.

But it has never been enough in God’s mind to have a simplistic black & white world.  Sure, humans have played that game – the game of limiting choice, cutting back freedoms, indoctrinating and controlling one’s own tribe or clan, diminishing or eliminating the other, and hoarding resources. All of that is the antithesis of Love.  It goes against Creation.  It is not who we were created to be.  From Love, we came. In Love, we live. To Love, we return.  And our purpose while on this earth is to reflect God’s glory simply by being the beloved & loving creatures that God instilled us to be. Are you in?

Sunday, June 2, 2024

The Connection of Gardening With The Cosmos

 "With what can we compare the Realm of God, or what parable will we use for it?  It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."  -- Mark 4:30

It's Springtime, and summer is approaching quickly. Gardens are getting planted or already are. I don't know about you, but every packet of seeds I open surprises me and amazes me with how small the seeds are.  However many billion years it has been since the startup of Project Creation, quantum particles, atoms, and molecules have been generated by the formation of stars and galaxies.  Those particles have traveled untold light years to coalesce on Planet Earth and form themselves into larger molecules that humans have come to call DNA - the blueprint for life.  Looking at a seed, the most amazing part is the DNA molecules packed into those seeds determine what the plant will be.  There is very little difference in size or weight between the seed of a Sequoia tree and a common beet --yet tiny differences in the DNA create all the different plants and their characteristics. The entire encyclopedia of fauna covering Planet Earth is present because of tiny seeds. Viewed even more broadly, all reproductive cells contain this myriad of physical properties we see in every form of life.

The act of gardening connects us through seeds, to the food they supply, and to the life that we possess for however long we have on Earth. We are all being fed by elements of stardust. Is that not a humbling realization?  Many people, a couple of weeks ago, marveled at the Northern Lights brought about by magnetic storms arising from sunspots,  Yet just as amazing is every seed that has ever taken root.  

So, how is this a parable for the Realm of God?  The Realm of God is grounded in diversity.  In all forms of life, enriching and expanding to interact and fill the Earth with good and beautiful things. It is rooted in the primordial birth of the universe, which I believe was (and is) the outpouring of God's love.  That may be too large to get one's head around, but then God incarnated in the form of Jesus to give us the tangible how-to manual on how to behave with one another.  Let's take that to heart. 




Saturday, March 30, 2024

Cruelty Meets Holy Saturday - Reflection Meets Politics VI

 And the silence of the dawn arose after "It is finished."

For years, Holy Saturday felt weird to me. There was all the intensity of the prior week's ministrations—meals, solemn readings, funeral-esk music, sanctuary stripping, communion—and then this dead space of Holy Saturday. In my childhood church experience, the only thing that happened on Holy Saturday was my mother did her routine flower arranging for Easter morning and placed it on the altar at church for the next morning's anticipated celebration.   In my kid's understanding, Holy Saturday was a boring letdown.  My mom said that was the way it was supposed to feel.

"This is how it is supposed to feel"—when conscience and faith need to be consulted on the unfolding events in which one is involved. Holy Saturday is a pause. In one's conscience, what is happening? World events, even local events, can have disturbing impacts on our emotional life flow.  It is somewhat easy to push them aside with the brain's self-protection of, "It can't happen to me."  It feels as though that is our only means of coping. But the blows to one's sense of safety and protection feel the punch just the same.

  • A friend's cancer diagnosis or fatal heart attack.  
  • A mom and three children's lives are snuffed out by the flash of a teen's car speeding over 100 mph in a 40.
  • An innocent random woman minding her own business driving to work is hit & killed by a bullet from a shooter in the woods. 
  • A bridge collapses, and six construction workers are gone.
  • Miniscule parachute drops are falling to feed thousands of starving Palestinians ironically while the intentional counteraction of killing them continues its relentless climb toward a million dead.
  • The earth's "carrying capacity" is well beyond sustainable, yet voracious consumption of her resources continues, while in the halls of power, stuffed shirts quibble about the significance and validity of individual data points.

It is overwhelming to absorb all of the "it is finished" happenings.  We need a daily "Holy Saturday" to find a pause button and soak in the redeeming and calming silence—a day apart from the torrent—to reconnect with the Holy. 

Jesus' closing discourses were all about this life circumstance. Terror, destruction, and the end of life are not time-limited. They have always been and are a part of human existence—wars and rumors of wars, death, hatred, persecution—"yet not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives" (Luke 21:18)  . Some Pollyanna language is put in Jesus' mouth, but Jesus' life example was not rooted in Pollyanna. Rather, he was pragmatic and hands-on.  As we endure and hold tight to faith in eternal existence, "the former will pass away, and all things will become new." (Rev 21)

We have Holy Saturday(s) to bathe in silent reflection on how our very DNA is entwined with the eternal love of God.  In love, we were born.  By love, we live. Through love, we return.  Regardless of the horrors of daily "crucifixions," we cannot succumb to the oceans of tears. We continue the mission to serve with kindness and empathy.  We arise again day after day, even after being beaten down, to walk the Good Road, to be living witnesses to the Eternal Love that cannot be extinguished.  Ever. 


  

Monday, March 18, 2024

Reflection on Faith and Politics - V -What Do You Want?

At the end of Chapter 10 in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is passing through Jericho when a blind man, Bartimaeus, yells out to him.  Bartimaeus causes such a ruckus that, in spite of the crowd trying to hush him up, Jesus turns and asks him, "What do you want from me?" 

Indeed, what do the masses of people clamoring to claim the Christian faith want from him today?  Many people claim to follow him yet hold a stubborn, obtuse belief in their own privileged position with Jesus.  They claim special rights for themselves as though Jesus commissioned them, in particular, to gather in only their own close friends and family -- that they determine what act Jesus will perform for the downcast - the hungry, the immigrant, the poor.  They are no different than the crowd then - scolding the needy and pushing them to the back of the line.  Perhaps this selfish grasping to hold Jesus only to themselves is why there are so many different churches across the United States landscape?  Perhaps the social toxicity of white privilege bought worldly political power so they could demand that Jesus bless them in their blindness rather than heal them? 

Greed, fear, and hardness of heart are not acts of Jesus. Greed and self-protection are not bedrocks of the Christian faith. They do not permit lovingkindness to thrive or other virtues to lift a society's care for the infinite number of ways trouble and hardship can strike any one of us without warning. In fact, the hardness of heart and the clutching pearls of privilege fuel desperation, which in turn leads to responses of violence, crime, and war.  There is no better example of this escalation in war and violence than the Hamas v. Israeli conflict. Healing this kind of human blindness will take far more than the retreat into silos of vengeful self-justification or hiding in hopes it won't breach our doors.

What we all want is a true pathway to peace and healing of all ills—social, physical, and emotional.  We won't get there if we are the noisy crowd shoving the needy to the rear or only watching out for Number 1.  Jesus' response to need was to notice it and do what he could to help.  This should be the faith model we could all adopt, remembering that frequently, all another person needs is a smile and to be seen.     

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Reflection on Faith and Politics - IV: False v True Prophets

 "Stay alert or you may be led down a false path!" he told them.  "Many will come representing me, 'I am the Chosen One,' they will claim, and many will listen to their lies."  -- Mark 13:5-6 (First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament)

History is littered with false prophets and saviors  In each of their times and places, they have garnered their set of devout followers. To be a successful false prophet/savior the main ingredients have been personal charisma and the illusion of wealth or success.  Oftentimes, the ruse was most often aided by having a small cadre of conspirators to mingle in the crowd and "attest" to the miracles claimed by the prophet.  They are all in on the fleecing. Gallons of snake oil have been hawked on legions of gullible, unsuspecting souls. 

So what sets Jesus (or any truly helpful prophet/teacher) apart from the riff-raff?  How can we discern authentic wisdom, action, or advice?  I'd offer these suggestions.  

One is that the teacher/prophet does not gain financially from their followers. Authentic wisdom is not for sale. The corollary is also true—the more one has to pay to acquire the "wisdom" (or "secret"), the more worthless it is.

Two, if the profit motive is removed, then one's intuition or internal spirit voice can more accurately discern the truth or value of the advice.  If the person hearing can apply or incorporate the teaching into their life with positive net results, one can more readily trust the truth.

Third, most validly wise teaching/advice is grounded in furthering positive virtues such that not only is an individual aided by the teaching, but the larger community benefits as well.  Examples include virtues such as love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, restoration/healing, and sharing.  Obviously, if the advice fosters more fear, greed, xenophobia, or violence, beware of the lies and do not follow (or aid) that false prophet. 

It is vividly apparent in our present-day political field whether candidates or individuals for public office meet the criteria above or not.  Let those with ears hear. 

Friday, March 15, 2024

Reflections on Faith & Politics - III -- Growing Together

  I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing.  John 15:5

A very discordant social construct crept into humans' ways: the teaching that rugged individualism was noble. This construct metastasized during the U.S. "Wild West" (beginning roughly in the early 19th century.)  Caucasian individuals were given cheap or free acreages of land (taken from Native American tribes by force) to farm so as to develop the US from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.  The myth that lives on today is that these brave, honorable people "pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps" and "made America what it is today."  Politically, still, there is implicit hearkening back to how "the West was won."  It is a belief that often colors discussions about labor, immigration, and the social safety net. Not until President Obama did any U.S. leader explicitly argue that all we had accomplished was the result of very large teams of individuals taking on large development projects together that benefited everyone.

Jesus was also making this connection.  Nobody can thrive in a total vacuum.  Human mental, spiritual, and physical health is rooted in the need for strong social connections and interactions.  The "lifeblood" of a human community is the cooperation that takes place between people.  Jesus' use of the vine and branches is an accurate metaphor. Together we are all fed.  Apart from one another, apart from our life together, things do not usually go well - certainly not for a very large number of individuals - the growing homeless population being a constant example, or the implicit suggestions that keeping a gun under your pillow will keep you (and your family safe.) 

What we see happening today in politics and socially is a sundering of cooperation and togetherness. The "Make America Great Again" slogan hearkens back to an era that never was and only exists in the lie of "self-made men"-- industrialists who robbed from the poor, destitute laborers, and vulnerable migrants/slaves.to hoard and amass tremendous wealth that in God's Realm on earth would have been shared equally with everyone. 

Jesus' teaching here encourages us to see ourselves as thriving plants that grow in response to connection to spirit and life. Together, we can bring kindness, understanding, and sharing for the good of all.  

   

  


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Reflection on Faith & Politics -II -- Follow Me

 If any of you wish to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke:923 

There are many messages (cultural & familial) and experiences in life that shape, mold, and color our brain's processing pathways.  These pathways are a major factor in determining our perception and interpretation of the world.  There are a number of social norms that feed into the inaccuracies we adopt.  Shame is a large one.  It plays havoc with our self-esteem. Shaming is one of the powerful tools used early in childhood to discipline and shape one's conscience and behavior.  Religion has always relied on shaming.  Another common social norm is winning is better than losing. In fact, to compete and win is drummed into us from the earliest team sports we are thrown into in elementary school.  I would posit that we don't even get to an idea of cooperation until several years later.  By that time, the message is set: beating your opponent is strength, and helping others is weak.  The third lesson taught through the subtleties of culture is that more is better.  Social norms strongly reward the "accumulators."  The one who has much is rich, and with wealth comes power and strength.  Each of these cultural influences subtly encourages hoarding, dominating, and even cheating to make up for any felt "weakness."  In turn, we see this powerfully reflected in the politics playing out, in the economy operating, and in our interactions with one another. 

To follow Jesus/"taking up our cross (our truest self)," likely means putting aside the pre-programmed social selfish ambitions. This is not denying the importance of ambition.  Healthy ambition is how human life broadens and expands.  Healthy ambition is the engine that moves the world in positive, life-affirming directions.  It is difficult, however, to find this part of ourselves if we've had parents, teachers, preachers, and coaches hammering the point that you only "make something of yourself" by getting ahead of all the competition. Most of us would accept the point that billionaires are probably at the top of the heap in this kind of societal game. But are they happier?  Is the world a better place?  Is the rest of the world happier as we all give up our own paltry worldly wealth that enables billionaires to hoard more of the money and resources (that do have a finite supply)?

In the First Nations Version (of the New Testament) this passage goes on, "The ones who hold on to their lives will lose them, but those who are willing to lay down their lives for me and my message will live.  How will it help you to get everything you want but lose what it means to be who Creator made you to be?  Is there anything in this world worth trading for that? (Luke 9:24-25)

These words are not meant to be taken in the literal sense. Rather, holding onto a life of shame, feeling like "a loser," or caving into the constrictions and external definitions of who we are by others will cause you to lose yourself and who God created you to be.  The ropes and chains holding us back from being our "true self" will diminish the full beauty of the created order as it was intended.  Love and happiness have a difficult time shining through the smudged-up glass of shame and hoarding. Imagine the difference we would witness in the world if love and helping hands were the rule and if striving (and finding) our intended purpose was the driving force in society.  It would transform politics and everything about how humans interact.  

Monday, March 11, 2024

A Christ-Follower's Reflections on Faith & U.S. Politics/Church

 U.S. History and Church history have always been my favorite subjects.  But in my almost 69 years I have never seen nor imagined that both entities would fall so radically out of whack.  Nor would I have thought it possible that basic institutions within each would be reverting backward in time to ages and battles already fought and supposedly settled.

 It is mid-March 2024 and the US presidential election is fast falling into full swing.  Except for the rubber stamping of respective political conventions, the main two candidates have been selected: Donald J. Trump for the Republican party and Joseph Biden for the Democratic party.  The differences between them couldn’t be starker.  One, the present incumbent President, is a near-life-long politician with extensive experience in Congress and the White House.  The other is a one-term President under multiple criminal and civil indictments with significant monetary fines already placed against him.  He continues making unproven claims of a rigged election four years ago.

The Church is in almost as much disarray. While there has been a wide spectrum from conservative to liberal churches for many decades, for the past decade or so, a polarizing spirit has taken hold. The soul representing the Church has become a cacophony of bickering voices, often with an angry, unforgiving pitch.  In addition, a large segment of disgruntled, angry, traumatized individuals have disaffiliated themselves from the Church and are openly hostile toward it. In all spheres, social media has mostly only magnified the intensity and list of grievances and wrongs.

This is going to be a set of treatises aimed at promoting daily faith reflection and, hopefully, providing an oar of hope with which to paddle one’s canoe through the roiling, oily, odorous swamp. We shall see.

Day One:

Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, asking for a sign from heaven to test him. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, “Why does this generation look for a sign?  I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to this generation.”  Mark 8:11-12

“Sighing deeply in his spirit…”  That captures it exactly. The challenges of dealing with the bubbling stew of competing “truths” and conspiracies/misinformation abound in a social pressure cooker that is pretty banged up and dented already from three long years of viral violence wrought by COVID-19, leaving most of us exhausted, stressed, on-edge, and weary.  Where can we find a sign or a signpost pointing us to relief from a sense of ever-building calamity?  Jesus’ response is not very helpful to us: “No sign will be given…”  But the sign they were looking for had already been given.  They just didn’t want to see it or couldn’t because their mindset blocked them from seeing.

The problem with mindsets, stereotypes, and crazy notions planted in our craniums is that, too frequently, they predispose what we see to a fantasy interpretation our brains paint.  It is like when a friend is speaking, and if they pause momentarily in mid-sentence, we jump in to finish their sentence for them, except that we get it completely wrong.

The Jewish hierarchy didn’t want to believe Jesus was the Messiah, and the works he was doing were so fantastic that “you’d be a dope to believe he was really doing that.” Jesus had signs all over the place, and they simply were never going to accept them because of their bias.

So, what biases and mindsets are predetermining what we see happening before our very eyes?  Perhaps just as important, can we use knowledge of Jesus and how our brains work to “pre-program” how we interpret what we see/hear?  What if we took Jesus’ signs and sayings as The Program?  How would we change our approach to the “news” or the vitriol/grievances flying left and right?

I’ll be laying out some possibilities and proposals in the coming days.

Questions:

What do you think about Jesus’ signs?

Who has had the most influence on your understanding and beliefs about Jesus?

Are you open to exploring other interpretations and understandings of faith? Why or why not?

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Lent 2 - Sermon

 A sermon preached at St. Luke Episcopal Church, Renton, WA on 2/15/2024.  The gospel passage was Mark 7:1-15 -- disciples eating with unclean hands. 

Dominance and submission – two startling words to start a sermon you don’t hear every Sunday.  They are two fundamental powers present in all human interactions.  The interplay of give and take with these two powers appears any time two people or two groups begin relating.  The range of possibilities are endless.  When they are in an ideal balance back and forth, it’s like a couple skilled at dancing where they are beautifully in sync and stunningly flow across the floor.  But when the two powers aren’t in balance, it can be like my wife and me dancing – where we don’t even try dancing anymore because we have never resolved in almost 50 years who is leading. In all human relationships, there is this dance, so to speak, between who leads and who follows.  In every conversation, these powers are at play.  Who, for instance. has not been in a work setting conversation where “the boss” gives us instructions?  Or when you’re with friends – have you noticed if the conversation is flowing smoothly, it is because each participant takes their turn with about equal time talking and listening?  But what happens to the conversation if one person dominates the conversation?

Groups have these same dominance/submission power dynamics.  Let’s cut to the gospel lesson.  Judaism, at the approximate time the Gospel of Mark was written, had grown their Law from the 10 commandments in the days of Moses to just over 600 commandments covering every aspect of life… from what kettle you could cook vegetables in to who could sit where in the synagogue.  It was a way that the religion dominated their adherents’ lives.  As the adherent, you could be put out if you didn’t submit to the rules.  So, we see the Pharisees, who were basically the beat cops, calling out Jesus’ disciples for their slovenly eating behavior of not having washed their hands. They remind me of a kindergarten teacher scolding their students for not having sung the Alphabet Song slowly enough while washing their hands.

But Jesus jumps in to defend his disciples (shrewdly) by raising a question with the Pharisees about a law violation they themselves were committing.  He had noted that in their stumbling over themselves to prove their extraordinary piety and devotion, they were offering a lot of sacrifices or korban.  Sacrifices cost a lot of money.  So Jesus asks, in essence, with all you’re spending on sacrifices, what’s going to be left for you to take care of your aging parents – and if you can’t take care of them because you’ve given it all to sacrifices, how is that honoring your father and mother?  One of the key jujitsu moves to flip the position of who is dominating is to ask a question.  Here, Jesus asks the question about the Pharisee's incongruity in nit-pickiness.

It does seem to rock them back on their heels, and then Jesus, occupying a dominant position, teaches his followers, saying for the first time explicitly that the dietary laws (that occupied a large chunk of Jewish law) mean absolutely nothing.  What counts in his realm is what comes from a person’s heart.

I want everyone to be clear about the judo move Jesus pulled here on the Pharisees.  They’re in the dominant social position to issue fiats and orders and call people on the carpet for what they deem improper behavior.  And Jesus turns from a submissive adherent to the powers that be to a dominant place of teaching his faithful followers they can ignore the dietary laws in total. All by asking a simple question of the powers that called for an accounting of their own hypocrisy.

This is a skill we would all do well to have in our quiver for all of the times along the Good Way when we might run into the powerful, the bullies, the obtuse, the difficult, and the wrong-headed folks in the world. Have you ever had the experience of being confronted about a belief or behavior that we have then bowed to because their dominance/authority was strong enough that we lost our voice?   It happens to all of us, but I suspect that women and people of color find themselves in these difficult, lonely, silence-imposing tough spots with anyone claiming some kind of authority over us (real, assumed, or imagined.) There are many troublesome tales of rigid churches silencing women or demanding the right belief to be part of the community.  Or mansplainers at work who take your ideas and claim them as their own.  Or bosses who behave as if they own us and presume we will work whatever hours they throw at us.  In the church, there are many who don’t feel it appropriate or okay to ask questions about doctrine and theology or they get ignored and the message is clearly sent that questioning is not acceptable. Flipping it happens when we are brave enough to ask why those behaviors are okay.

I would call what Jesus demonstrates here: “Wild Spiriting.”  He didn’t need 600 laws to tell him what the right way was. As adults, if our hearts are grounded in God’s love, we really don’t need a bunch of rules or authorities telling us how to act, what to think, who to love or help, or how to behave. Love is a powerful guide.  Wild Spiriting uses the dominant spirit of love to call out love-stifling conventions, rules, and societal trends that are just wrong.  Wild Spiriting can guide and direct us in any relationship even those where we can sometimes find ourselves mute in the face of wrong.  Anytime something happens where we come away from it feeling less-than, guilty, or sorrowful about not having said/done something -- Wild Spiriting calls us home and reminds us to whom we belong. Wild Spiriting is where love, kindness, compassion, care, and certainty of God’s blessing upon us is the only license we need to step out of submission & confront the wrong or injustice we see or experience.

So Wild Spiriting and the Christian faith are powered by an alternating current of domination & submission.  It requires the submission phase of observing silence, study, and steady contemplation in prayer and listening to God with the flip into the dominance of getting one’s hands dirty – asking, working, leading, and challenging to broaden the Way/the Good Road/the Path for ever greater equality, compassion, and healing justice. 

Treading this path alone can be challenging.  The powers we face can be very intimidating.  But hopefully, here, in this church – I hope you can feel safe to use your voice to engage and ask questions.  To practice the jujitsu of flipping submission to domination and vice versa. To practice the fine arts of Wild Spiriting – where we encourage, name, report on successes, and get pulled up when all our responses to a sinful world have felt puny/weak. It is here where we’re reminded of our worthiness as God’s ambassadors and children. Never to oppress or flaunt, but to open dialogue, articulate clearly The Good Way, and, with our hearts leading, inspire the changes needed for a more perfect balanced world that can dance beautifully/gracefully across God’s majestic ballroom. 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Thoughts for Ash Wednesday 2024

 Ash Wednesday in mainline churches has historically been a liturgical day of repentance.  Many in non-Christian space or who have abandoned Christianity have expressed different issues with the Church and some, more specifically to do with penitence.  Without doubt criticism is not without merit, most especially in some of the ways it has gotten used to extract money in exchange for the forgiveness granted.  (As if the Church could have ever laid claim to granting what only God can give.)

I have a different take on repentance related to Ash Wednesday.  Most human beings have an internal sense of right and wrong that we call conscience.  Humans with emotional intelligence have the ability to experience guilt.  For most, guilt arises from one of three places: from within the self toward the self, from perceived wrongs done to or by other humans, and from perceived wrong done to/from the community or environment in which we live.  There is no need to be "Christian" to have experienced all three of these types of disjointedness with others. Sensitive souls would feel bad for having hurt another person, their community, or the planet.  A few super sensitive souls just walk around knowing they've hurt something or someone even if they can't name it. 

What the Christian tie-in is is the approach of how this "breach" is dealt with. Classic theology came up with a variety of ways to "restore" the wrong.  Many of these ways largely use a disconnected spiritual scapegoat (Jesus dying for our sins) rather than advocating any tangible "getting one's hands dirty" work to do.  But before we can get to restoring there is a first step of recognizing the wrong.  Ash Wednesday should be an annual date on the calendar when churches encourage folks to take an inventory of their conscience in a collective way.  Individual recollection of wrongs happen day by day or week by week but the collective meeting together, I propose, is the place for calling up the sin of the larger wholes -- the collective us that we do together-- the church, our city/county/nation/world.  

There are a huge array of collective sins that could be laid on the table, too many to name here.  I would argue that a large chunk of the animosity toward the Church is rooted in how the Church often has not taken the step to own the wrong, much less tried to address making amends to restore relationship. The Church, has not been particularly good at calling out the breaches and far too often has only sided with the oppression and harm-doing.  To make it worse, a large swath of Christianity is now taking up an anti-Jesus mantra to not feed, clothe, care for "the least of these." 

So, this year for Ash Wednesday may we take stock of the masses who are being wronged and reflect together on what tangibly can be done. And may we all keep before us a basic human guiding principle: "Do unto others as you would have done to you."