Second Congregational Church

Love God. Enjoy this life. --Matthew 28: 1-10-- April 16, 2017–Easter

There is a Peanuts cartoon strip by the late Charles Schultz when Snoopy is feeling particularly great. "In the first frame he says, ‘Sometimes life is so good I feel like dancing.’ In the second frame he says, ‘Sometimes I want to take into my arms the first person that I meet and dance merrily through the streets.’ In the third frame he meets grumpy old Lucy. In the fourth frame Snoopy says, ‘Sometimes I want to take the second person I meet into my arms and dance merrily through the streets.’" [told by Rev. Vernon Hunter]

"While it was still dark...."- John 20:1-18-- Early Easter, April 16, 2017

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb...." While it was still dark.

It’s hardly the way we’ve come to expect world-changing events–in the quiet dark. We’re used to blinding lights and blaring sirens. Shock and awe. Displays of power that rumble through our bodies and assault the senses.

Before that became our custom and expectation, before computer-generated-effects and apocalyptic bombs, it was in the dark, the "rich and holy Eves," as Nancy Rockwell calls them, that the world changed–"times of wonder and power, times when people go out in darkness and gather by candlelight." All religious cultures have "rich and holy eves," and Christianity has several–Christmas Eve, All Hallows Eve, Easter Eve. "They teach us we cannot find God simply in light alone," she says. [The Bite in the Apple, 4/2/17]

So here, this morning, just as Easter Eve is fading, we join our sister Mary Magdalene as she comes to the tomb, "while it was still dark," and see that the stone has been rolled away. In the dark, the world has changed. Not in a blinding flash of light, but "in holy darkness, muddled in mystery, [he has risen] not spectacularly but surprising us with joy." [Rockwell]

We’re not used to thinking of darkness in a good way. We talk about "darkness descending over the land," spreading gloom and heaviness. We imagine demons and ill-intentioned figures stalking in the darkness. We say we live in "dark times," when terror holds the world captive, when ignorance and lies are rampant, division and mistrust tear us apart, with wars and rumors of war all around. Or maybe it’s the weight and darkness of depression, the light gone out of our world with the loss of a loved one, the unknown future of unemployment. "While it was still dark" may seem like the perfect description of our day.

But God is the Creator of both dark and light, of both night and day. Nancy Rockwell reminds us that "Every good thing God does among us arises in the dark–slaves leave Egypt. Jonah discovers faith inside the whale. The Ark bobbles on the sea of survival in forty dark days. A child is born. And Easter happens." [Ibid.]

Even now, in our "dark times," God is at work, changing the world, bringing new life, raising the dead. The darkness may hide this holy power from our sight, but that does not mean a new heaven and new earth are not being created even as we sit here. We may have to feel our way through the darkness, better yet, hold another’s hand in the darkness, keep vigil over the places where we can wait for God, and then allow our eyes to adjust in the coming dawn. "In holy darkness, muddled in mystery," God is surprising us with joy. God is calling us by name, feeding us with grace. Even now, while it is still dark, new life is dawning. Thanks be to God!

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

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"Forgive Often"-- Palm/Passion Sunday-- April 9, 2017

"Be the church." "Forgive often." Peter asked Jesus just how often we have to forgive. "Lord," he asked him, "if a brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

In other words, just keep on forgiving.

So two stories of forgiveness for this Palm Passion Sunday. One is about 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, as told in a recent editorial in The Christian Century–

Fifty-six years have passed since six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Ruby was black; the other students were white. Her walk into that school, surrounded by federal marshals (later immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s painting "The Problem We All Live With"), signaled a major development in desegregation. Before her first day of first grade had ended, parents had emptied the school of white children in a massive boycott. Ruby learned alone that year, taught by the one teacher willing to remain.

Huge crowds of protesters gathered daily outside the school to shout slurs and death threats at Ruby. Film clips from the day are hauntingly difficult to watch. Throngs of angry whites waved Confederate flags, and some even shove before Ruby an open child’s casket with a black doll inside. These expressions of public hatred remind us how unrestrained fear can quickly spiral into mob mentality.

When psychiatrist Robert Coles was studying children in the desegregating South in the ‘60's, he took a personal interest in Ruby. Her display of strength, stoicism, and bright cheer in the midst of a daily hell caught his attention and puzzled him. He began to meet with her every week.

One day Ruby’s teacher told Coles that she had noticed Ruby moving her lips as she was walking into school. So Coles asked her, "Who were you talking to, Ruby?" "I was talking to God and praying for the people in the street," she said. "Why were you doing that, Ruby?" "Well, because I wanted to pray for them. Don’t you think they need praying for?" Coles responded affirmatively but pushed further. "Where did you learn that?" "From my mommy and daddy and from the minister at church. I pray every morning [when I come to school] and every afternoon when I go home." Coles continued, "But Ruby, those people are so mean to you. You must have some other feelings besides just wanting to pray for them." "No," she said, "I just keep praying for them and hope God will be good to them...I always pray the same thing. "Please, dear God, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.’" [Peter Marty, The Christian Century, March 29, 2017, p. 3]

The other story, as you might have guessed, is from the events we observe at the end of this week.

Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing.

Be the church. Forgive often. Who is it you need to forgive, maybe for the first time, maybe for the seventh time, maybe the umpteenth time? Is it yourself? It doesn’t mean they didn’t harm you. It doesn’t mean they didn’t crucify you even. It just means that to be the church, to be the Body of Christ, we must forgive often. Forgiving often opens us up to be filled with God, keeps the bitterness from poisoning us; forgiving often leaves the vengeance and judgment and healing up to God. "Please, dear God, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing." "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Be the church. Forgive often.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

Singers

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Every Thursday the Singers at Second Congo practice at 7 PM with our dynamic director Matt Edwards. We are growing as singers, as a group, and having fun together! Come enjoy the music every Sunday at 10 or come practice and sing with us Thursdays!

Busy Bees

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Busy Bees: Members of the Church's Earth Advocates and Climate Advocates Bennington are fast at work Saturday April first making paper maché bee bodies for the Climate March in Washington. Next workshop 3 PM Friday April 7th at the Hudson-Knapp House, 2674 South Stream Road, Bennington. Anyone who wants to help will be welcomed and appreciated!

The group also appreciated a visit from Senator Brian Campion with a great discussion of his work and hopes for turning around challenges to our climate! It was awesome to learn what our senator has been doing!

"Celebrate Diversity"-- Ezekiel 37:1-14, Galatians 3:23-29-- April 2, 2017

25 years ago on a cold January evening, this congregation voted to make bold its openness to "people of faith or in search of faith, without regard to age, race, sex, economic condition, disability, or sexual orientation." And further, that we "invite all to share in the worship, life, leadership and employment opportunities of the church." As you can read on the insert in this morning’s bulletin, after more than 2 years of study, discussion, prayer, and deliberation, Second Congregational Church became the first Open and Affirming Congregation in Vermont. "There is no longer Jew or Greek," as the apostle Paul wrote, "there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; there is no longer gay or straight [we might add], for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

"Be the church." "Celebrate diversity." But honestly, we are not the most diverse congregation in Vermont, as if there were a contest for that. We are mostly white, mostly older, mostly educated, mostly able to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. We have a little racial diversity, a little age diversity, a little economic diversity, a little sexual orientation diversity; and we are from a variety of religious backgrounds–quite a few former Catholics, some Presbyterians and Lutherans, an astonishing number of retired United Methodist clergy, a few who actually grew up in the United Church of Christ, and a number from, shall we say? "mixed" religious backgrounds. We are native Vermonters and quite a few flatlanders. We are from Switzerland, Germany, Thailand, from Italian, Irish, Scottish, British, and Polish ancestry. Some are even from Kansas and Oklahoma. "Be the church." "Celebrate diversity."

There are some who feel they are in a definite minority here, whose element of diversity is not celebrated, and that would be those of a more conservative political persuasion. Too often we make assumptions that everyone agrees with our assessment of a particular leader or policy and don’t take the time to listen to and learn from those with different opinions. I hope, though, that unlike the students at my alma mater, Middlebury College, we will allow others to speak and certainly not cause them physical harm.

When I came to this church some 22 years ago, I certainly knew that it was proud of its Open and Affirming stance, but it took me a while to figure out what difference it made. Yes, it takes a certain amount of courage to make a public statement of welcome, especially when there are churches who seem to go out of their way to condemn and exclude. And yes, I certainly experienced this congregation as welcoming and open, but then I’m straight, white, educated, with the female part being problematic for some–"You couldn’t find one good man??" I discovered that the few lesbian and gay members felt judged by many in the congregation, certainly not celebrated. So we have been finding our way over these 25 years, sadly given the opportunity to publicly witness when Matthew Shepherd was killed in Wyoming, testifying in hearings about civil unions, joining since in demonstrations at the Four Corners to affirm our solidarity with those who have felt particularly threatened in the current political climate. A rainbow flag hangs near our front door. New members are given Walter Wink’s booklet entitled, "Homosexuality and the Bible," and as I tell new members we are Open and Affirming not in spite of the Bible, which only has about 6 verses that refer to homosexual behavior (and none of these on Jesus’ lips), but because of the Bible, whose overwhelming witness is one of love and breaking down barriers–"There is no longer Jew or Greek, ...slave or free,...male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Of course, as our understanding of gender and gender identification grows, it is probably time to re-visit our statement that merely includes "orientation." The range and spectrum and fluidity of gender we know now is mind-boggling, as the issue on Gender in National Geographic of a few months back explores. "Be the church. Celebrate diversity."

We are called not just to strive for diversity. In fact, many experts in "church growth" will tell you that homogeneous churches–churches with less diversity-- are more likely to grow. Clearly there is a growing movement in this country and across the world that argues for homogeneous nations, claiming that that is the way to reduce conflict and to make us "great."

The thing is, a "small but growing body of research" is finding that "homogeneous groups...can be less creative and insightful than diverse ones. They are more prone to groupthink and less likely to question faulty assumptions." [Moises Velasquez-Manoff, NY Times, 3/5/17] It’s not only true for groups but, intriguingly, for individuals as well. The research "suggests that [for example] multiracial people are more open-minded and creative....Being mixed makes it harder to fall back on the tribal identities that have guided so much of human history, and that are now resurgent."

Moises Velasquez-Manoff wrote in an op-ed piece in the NY Times a couple weeks ago that being aware that we all are made up of multiple selves–a daughter, a pastor, a mother, a swimmer, a dog-lover, a progressive, a friend–just to take some of my selves as an example–being aware and reminded of those multiple identities actually improved participants’ creative problem-solving abilities in a 2015 study at Duke University. "Somehow, having multiple selves–and especially being aware of them-- enhanced mental flexibility."

In other words, diversity–among people, and within people–may actually increase our ability to solve problems, to deal with the dizzying number of challenges we face today. So, as we strive to "be the church," we are not just to strive for diversity, but to celebrate diversity. "Diversity isn’t easy," though, as Velasquez-Manoff acknowledges. "It’s uncomfortable. It can make people feel threatened...That very difficulty, though, may be why diversity is so good for us. ‘The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise,’ Katherine Phillips, a senior vice dean at Columbia Business School, writes. ‘You have to push yourself to grow your muscles.’" [Ibid.]

"There is no longer Jew or Greek,...slave or free, male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." "We will rise. We are strong, we belong, we are one," the choir sang for us. We will rise like the dry bones in the valley Ezekiel prophesied to in his vision, rising up, adding sinew upon bone, and flesh to cover all that, and breath to give life...all those pieces coming together to make a nation great again. It’s the sentiment captured by a snapshot of Vishavjit Singh, an American Sikh man, dressed in a full-body Captain American costume, wearing a turban, and holding a sign, "Black, Muslim, Trans, Latino, Asian, White...We all Make America Great!" Be the church. Celebrate diversity. Prophesy to the dry bones–rise up, come together, be strong. Imagine the possibilities. Imagine that grace.

"Uncalled, unrobed, unanointed...Baby Suggs, holy, followed by every black man, woman and child who could make it through, took her great heart to the Clearing...[writes the great African American author Toni Morrison] After situating herself on a huge flat-sided rock, Baby Suggs bowed her head and prayed silently. The company watched her from the trees. They knew she was ready when she put her stick down. Then she shouted, ‘Let the children come!" and they ran from the trees toward her.

"Let your mothers hear you laugh," she told them, and the woods rang. The adults looked on and could not help smiling.

Then "Let the grown men come," she shouted. They stepped out one by one from among the ringing trees.

"Let your wives and your children see you dance," she told them, and ground life shuddered under their feet.

Finally she called the women to her. "Cry," she told them. "For the living and th dead. Just cry." And without covering their eyes the women let loose.

It started that way: laughing children, dancing men, crying women and then it got mixed up. Women stopped crying and danced; men sat down and cried; children danced, women laughed, children cried until, exhausted and riven, all and each lay about the Clearing damp and gasping for breath. In the silence that followed, Baby Sugg, holy, offered up to them her great big heart.

She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She did not tell them they were the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure.

She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.

"Here," she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it...It is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I’m telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, stroke it and hold it up...The beat and beating heart, love that too...Love your heart...

Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say while the others opened their mouths and gave her the music. Long notes held until the four-part harmony was perfect enough for the deeply loved flesh. [Beloved, cited in Imaging the Word, vol. 2, p. 166]

Women, men, and children, young and old, gay and straight. Our diversity is beautiful, challenging, threatening, life-giving, creative, holy. One loaf, one cup. So let us be the church, and celebrate diversity.

Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

"Reject racism"-- 1 Corinthians 12:14-20, Luke 14: 7-14-- March 19, 2017

In a recent survey of American households, 6% of white people said that racism is still a significant problem in the United States. So that means that 94% thought it wasn’t still a significant problem. In another study around the same time, 12% of the white people thought that Elvis Presley might still be alive. So that means that twice as many white people think that Elvis is more likely to be alive than racism is a significant problem in the U. S.! [UCC White Privilege, Facilitator’s Guide]

Why are we talking about "rejecting racism" when more people are looking for Elvis? Maybe our banner shouldn’t read, "Be the church. Reject racism," but rather, "Be the church. Let Elvis rest in peace." It would be funny if it weren’t exactly the problem.

We would do well to devote a good part of a year, let alone one sermon in this series, to addressing our mandate to "Reject racism." Here in the whitest state in America–why is that? Here in a denomination that included both the Puritans, who had a history of excluding any who did not believe a certain way, or act a certain way, perhaps who did not look a certain way, as well as some of the staunchest abolitionists, who defended the escaped slaves aboard the Amistad, and who spoke and wrote forcefully for the end of the institution of slavery. Here in this congregation of good, caring, socially concerned people, who, by and large, don’t have a clue how privileged and powerful we are. We would do well to let this one sermon annoy, anger, disturb, or intrigue us enough to commit to investing the time we need to engage in a long-term "Sacred Conversation about Race," as the UCC urges us to do, [and provides resources for us to do] and to explore the Privilege that most of us as "white people" enjoy. "White Privilege," a UCC poster declares. "If you can’t see it, you’ve got it." "Be the church. Reject racism."

Will Willimon, former bishop of the United Methodist Church and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, writes,

"Share Earthly and Spiritual Resources"- Acts 4:32-35, Luke 12:13-21-- March 12, 2017

I confess I didn’t anticipate the number of barbs sticking out of that harmless-sounding phrase on our "Be the Church" banner. "Share earthly and spiritual resources." Of course that’s what we we’re about–don’t we teach "sharing" as a value to our children? "Protect the environment" or "Reject racism" stood out in my mind as much more challenging subjects, even controversial. But "Share earthly and spiritual resources"? What’s not to like?

But as soon as I started investigating Biblical texts that might inform my thinking about this matter, I quickly came perilously close to that "third rail" in church conversations–money. And as if that weren’t bad enough, there appeared another deadly "third rail" in American Christianity, if you’re allowed to have more than one third rail–socialism.

Did you hear that description of the early Christian community in Acts?

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Oh man, let’s hope that isn’t what’s meant by "Share earthly and spiritual resources"!

Then there’s the story Jesus told about the man whose business had done well–his land had produced abundantly. The problem wasn’t that he wanted more or was particularly greedy. He just wanted to make sure that he had big enough barns to hold all the produce to secure his future. He was setting up his pension fund.

As someone who has just received her Medicare card and who is going to a pre-retirement seminar in June given by the Pension Boards, this is getting a little close, a little uncomfortable.

And I will say to my soul [the rich man says in Jesus’ parable], ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Needless to say, this is all just compounded for me by the prospect of having to distribute my mom’s possessions and resources, after the night when her life was "demanded" of her, which was really more like the night she handed it over.

"Share earthly and spiritual resources," tra la. "Be the church." No problem.

The United Church of Christ invited churches to enter a "Be the Church" monthly contest, with winners announced for each of the phrases on the banner. Land of the Sky UCC in Asheville, NC won the "Share earthly and spiritual resources" contest. Land of the Sky was co-founded in 2009 by two clergywomen–The Revs Sarah Wilcox and Amanda Hendler-Voss-- who had been awarded a New and Renewing Church Grant in 2012.

The purpose of the church is not simply to sustain the institution, [they write] but to bless the wider world and prosper the work of justice, and we are committed to that. We give not out of our excess, but from our first fruits and we invite those in our community to do that as well.

Granted, Church of the Sky does not own a building, but rather shares one with two other congre-gations. They give away their money first each month, not out of what’s left over after bills are paid. "We are always mindful of the generosity afforded us as we launched Land of the Sky UCC," the pastors write, "and so we are committed to creating a DNA that reflects generous living and radical grace."

We, of course, do own a building, and there are certain bills that must be paid if we are to keep this building not only for our own use but for the use of countless other community groups. Over a hundred community groups, in fact, and I know that there are times when I get a little defensive, a little possessive, when some group is meeting and "interfering" with something I had wanted to do, taking over space that is "ours." Just this past Friday morning, I found myself just the teeniest bit on edge when the HeadStart group who was here all day was singing "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round" outside the office when I was trying to get the bulletin done. "Be the church. Share earthly and spiritual resources." That is who we are called to be.

The early Christian community could hold all things in common because they were so filled with spirit of resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If God could raise Jesus from death, why should they not have boldness of spirit to trust in God to give new life to them? Wasn’t there an abundance of power and plenty that overflowed so that no one should be in need? Weren’t they one in that Spirit? It used to be that the family was the social safety net. It was the family unit that took care of any in need, so regardless of what the family was like, you stayed within that rigid structure because your life literally depended upon it. As Greco-Roman culture became more cosmopolitan and people became more mobile, the church became the new family unit.

It’s not so different for us, as our families are scattered, our economic and social structures changing and eating too many people up. The churches and faith communities are still looked to fill in gaps where political and social structures fail, but/and the need seems to be endless. Until a more equitable distribution of resources becomes our political and moral will, we will continue to experience scarcity and need, with a growing gap–or chasm, really--between the haves and have nots.

"Be the church." "Share earthly and spiritual resources." Our Capital Campaign coming up in May will invite us to consider more deeply how we all can participate in sharing our earthly resources, as we look not only to our future but also the current needs of our community and beyond. We’re calling the campaign "A Bridge to the Future," and sharing our earthly and spiritual resources is the only way forward.

Then there’s the "spiritual resources" the banner proclaims. "Share earthly and spiritual resources." I am here with you this morning because I need the spiritual resources you have to share. Love, support, compassion, sympathy, wisdom, understanding, music, hugs ...how I need all of those today! And, I daresay, all of us have been in need of those resources more often than not in our lives. Who of us has not lost a loved one? Who of us has never felt lost or helpless? Not that our culture encourages us to admit that. Get over your grief. Power through that illness or injury. Pull yourself together.

How many people do you suppose turn to alcohol or heroin or oxycodone when what they are in genuine need of is spiritual resources? Something to address that "God-shaped hole" that is in each of us, as Blaise Pascal described it? "Be the church. Share earthly and spiritual resources." We have life-saving resources to offer, but we are too often embarrassed or afraid to offer them, too afraid to appear "religious" in our "non-religious" state culture. So people go looking elsewhere for them, too often to places that will do further harm to their bodies and souls. We must "be the church. Share our earthly and spiritual resources."

So, I have a confessino to make. That’s about all I could muster this week. "Share spiritual resources." I’m running a bit of a deficit this week, but we as a community are not. This is where speakers who run workshops and forums and seminars would have you turn to eah other and share with the person next to you what some of the spiritual resources are that you have to share. As an introvert, I always find those words–"Turn to the person next to you"–terrifying. I won’t do that to you. What I am going to do is invite us all to take minute here and just think of a time when you were in need of spiritual resources. When were you at a loss? Frightened? Worried" Maybe so full of joy you didn’t know what to do with it? Think of a time. Then begin to remember what helped...

As our time together continues this morning, maybe during the silence of the prayers or during Matt’s offering of music, think also about how you could share those spiritual resources that helped you. And finally, if you’d like tell someone–perhaps me, maybe somebody else– about your experience, WITHOUT using the words, "You know what you should do... or believe.." but rather something like, "What helped me when I was hurting..."

Be the church. Share earthly and spiritual resources.

"God, whose giving knows no ending," we’ll sing in a little while, "from your rich and endless store, nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom, costly cross, grave’s shattered door: Gifted by You, we turn to You, offering up ourselves in praise; thankful song shall rise forever, gracious donor of our days." We are loved by an unending love. Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

“Fight for the Powerless”-- Leviticus 19:33-34, Matthew 4:1-11 -- March 5, 2017

I remember walking through the Syracuse airport at 10:30 at night, looking for the passengers I was to pick up. And then I saw them in a dim hallway–2 vigilant adults and what looked to be a pile of blankets, suitcases, and, upon closer inspection, children. And so I met Abdullah and Miryam Hajer and their 4 children, ranging in age from 2-12. They had just arrived from Ankara, Turkey, and before that, a Turkish refugee camp and a hellish walk over the mountains from northern Iraq. They had almost had to leave Caji, whom I later came to know as a vibrant 6-year-old girl, who had contracted one of many respiratory and intestinal viruses along the mountain pass. But Abdullah had added Caji to his load of Kalishikov and ammunition and backpack, while his wife Miryam carried their 2-year-old on her back and the family’s 2 massive suitcases in her arms. The two older children had to carry what was left of their possessions.

At that moment in the airport, in that tired huddle of humanity, the Hajers completely captured my heart, and any power that I had to offer them–safety, lodging, food, medical care, the chance at a job, the chance for a new start–I would gladly offer. My humanity depended upon it. “I was a stranger,” Jesus said, “and you welcomed me.” An Epiphany moment indeed.

“When an alien resides with you in your land,” Leviticus says, “you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Jonathan Sacks, for a time the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, writes, “The Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to ‘love the stranger.’” UCC author and pastor Tony Robinson says, “I suspect the disproportionality (36 to 1) means that people besides me have had to hear it again and again: let love overcome fear. ‘Extend hospitality to strangers.’” Philoxenia–one of the Bible’s words for hospitality–philoxenia: love of the stranger. It is the opposite of xenophobia–fear of the stranger. [UCC Daily Devotional, 2/5/17] Which word do you suppose has become a commonly heard word in our lexicon–philoxenia or xenophobia? I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember ever hearing philoxenia.

During this season of Lent, we are looking at what it means to “Be the Church,” as the rainbow-colored banner in Webster Hall commends us to be. “Protect the environment” it begins, and we are working on reducing our carbon footprint throughout this season and beyond. Then “Care for the poor,” “Forgive often,” “Reject racism,” “Fight for the powerless,” “Share earthly and spiritual resources,” “Embrace diversity,” “Love God,” “Enjoy this life.”

“Be the Church.” That’s who we claim to be–“Second Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.” Just as Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, being tested on how well he knew who he was, what it meant for him to be the beloved Son of God, as God’s voice had just proclaimed him to be in his baptism, so we are invited to explore who we are, not only together as the Church but also individually as beloved sons and daughters of God. In this season of journeying toward the cross, we’ll look at both the horizontal dimensions–how we relate to others–and the vertical dimension –how we relate to the Divine–in this intersection of life’s many options.

“Fight for the powerless.” [Obviously, we’re not going in the order of the banner.] Who are these “powerless” that we are to be fighting for as people on this Jesus Journey to the cross? If you’ve ever had children, or little ones given into your care, you know that, without our bidding, a fierce protective urge or instinct comes along with parenthood. We don’t have to be told to “fight for the powerless” when the powerless are our children. Tales of mothers lifting cars off their children in an adrenaline/maternal instinct-fueled show of strength are not unheard of; nor are reports of fathers running into burning buildings to rescue their children. We fight for our powerless children because that is who we are as parents or guardians.

And, of course, we know that firefighters and police risk their lives for the powerless. “Serve and protect” is the motto of every police force. That is who they are, at their best. At their purest, the heart and intention of military operations is to “fight for the powerless,” whether by searching and rescuing, delivering aid, acting as a buffer between warring parties, or at last resort, engaging with violent means on behalf of the powerless. This is not the time or place to get into a discussion of military actions engaged in to acquire natural resources or land or political power, but rather to acknowledge that fighting for the powerless is the soldier’s most noble aspiration.

In our country today, many who have experienced powerlessness have begun to realize that there is power is raising their voices, in standing up for their rights, in demonstrating in the streets, in voting into office those whom they perceive will fight for them. And yet, in our country today, and in many countries, throughout time, it is and has been the wealthy and “connected” who still wield the power to control and dominate. It was not on a whim that the devil took Jesus up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All these I will give you,” he said to Jesus, “if you will fall down and worship me.” That’s where the power is. But notice that this was the only temptation where the devil didn’t begin with, “Since you are the Son of God...” Surely the Son of God would want to feed people, or ask God’s angels for protection, but let’s not kid ourselves about ruling the kingdoms with all their splendor.

“Fight for the powerless.” It is the poor, people of color, people without education or health care, many in the LGBTQ community, many women, refugees and undocumented immigrants who experience powerlessness in our nation today. In a new Pew Research survey, reports Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community, “almost half (47%) of Latinos nationwide worry about themselves or someone close to them being deported. Given that the U.S. Latino population is 57 million and growing, that’s nearly 29 million people who today are living in fear. Many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have loved ones who do have legal status, and these families are in greater danger than ever of being separated by our broken and inhumane immigration system.” (SoJo.net) Children don’t want to go to school, not because they don’t like math, but because they are afraid their parents will be taken away while they’re at school. “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me,” Jesus said to those turned away at the final judgment.

“Fight for the powerless.” We’ll have the opportunity to explore what it might mean for us to become a refugee-welcoming congregation over the course of these Lenten weeks, and whether or not that results in some formal action or declaration, I hope it will at least make us think more deeply, perhaps uncomfortably, about what it means to “be the church.” “You shall love the stranger as yourself.” Because the stranger is part of you as well. If Jesus’ message, his teaching, his life could be summed up in a sentence, one candidate might be, “There is no other.” We are one body, to use Paul’s image. We are one loaf, one cup, we affirm in this meal we are about to share.

As we think about this image of the body–we are the Body of Christ, the church claims– listen to one last story from Sister Simone Campbell. You may know her from “Nuns on the Bus,” the tour that actually came to Sacred Heart St. Francis Church here in Bennington. Sister Simone tells of being on a delegation to Iraq in 2002.

It was in December before we invaded. And that night, the last night we were in Baghdad–it’s so funny–we had gone to an Italian restaurant, partially because we knew it had a generator, so they would have hot food. But when we came back, there was a wedding party in the light from the plate-glass window of our hotel, and there we watched the folk dancing going on. There was an accordion and a screechy old violin. We got drawn into dancing. And this guy, who stood about this tall, leans over and says to me as he’s trying to show me the folk dance, ‘How long do my niece and her new husband have to live in peace? How long until you start bombing us?’ That night it was so visceral for me that we are one body. This is the poem that was given. It’s called ‘Incarnation,’ and it’s my prayer for us that these bones might come together [referring to the image in Ezekiel of the valley scattered with dry bones]. It goes like this: Let gratitude be the beat of our heart, pounding Baghdad rhythms, circulating memories, meaning of this journey. /Let resolve flow in our veins, fueled by Basra’s [or Mosel’s] destitution, risking reflective action in a fifteen-second world. Let compassion be our hands, reaching to be with each other all others, to touch, hold, heal this fractured world. Let wisdom be our feet, bringing us to the crying need to friends or foe to share this body’s blood. Let love be our eyes, that we might see the beauty, see the dream lurking in the shadows of despair and dread. Let community be our body warmth, radiating Arab [or Latino or African] energy to welcome in the foreign stranger–even the ones who wage this war. Let us remember on drear distant days, we live as one this tragic, gifted life...
[transcript from Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, NY , 10/5/2016, Alternative Radio]

Fight for the powerless. We are one body. There is no other. So may we be the church. Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

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Mardi Gras

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Mardi Gras (which falls on February 28, 2017) is French for "Fat Tuesday," reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. It also refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, celebrated all over the world but especially famous in Rio de Janeiro and in New Orleans, during the weeks before Ash Wednesday. In countries such as England, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is derived from the word shrive, meaning "confess."

At Second Congregational Church, we celebrated Mardi Gras Sunday during February 26 worship, a celebration full of music and color. Music Director Matt Edwards, who is originally from Louisiana, led the choir and congregation in exuberant music. Altar flowers, given by Deb Perkins, were in the Mardi Gras colors of purple (representing justice), gold (symbolizing power) and green (symbolizing faith), as was the icing on the "King cakes" baked by the choir for the Sunday social after worship.

Tom and Nancy 60th

On Sunday February 19 we celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of Tom and NancyJean Steffen. After his retirement in 1994, Pastor Emeritus Tom Steffen has shoveled snow, made Sunday coffee for Sunday morning and other events, set up tables for the Sunday socials after worship, organized tables for events such as the Antiques Show and the Snowball Bazaar and taken on numerous other tasks. NancyJean is chair of the Board of Trustees, head of the huge Serendipity "recycled treasures" section of the Snowball bazaar, resource person for the church caretaker and office administrator, was one of the overseers of the sanctuary renovation, Director of the handbell choir for 20 years, and a person who notices what needs doing and gets things done in so many areas of our church endeavors. We can also celebrate this year being the 52nd anniversary of their "marriage" to Second Congregational Church.

The disciplines and themes of Lent offer a structure and Spring training"

for the struggles and dark times of our lives.

- daily readings from the Lenten Devotional booklet "Diving Lessons"

- messages in worship each Sunday on what does it mean to "Be the Church"

: Care for the poor. Fight for the powerless

: Share earthly and spiritual resources

: Protect the environment

: Reject racism

: Celebrate diversity

: Forgive often

: Love God. Enjoy this life

"Glimpses of Glory"- Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9 -- Feb. 26, 2017

I had the opportunity this week to read the radiologist’s report of an MRI I had had taken several years ago. Most of it was full of unintelligible (to me) medical terminology, but I did manage to pick up the phrase "grossly unremarkable." At first, I was a little offended. It sounded like something I would have said about myself in junior high, something I would have written in my diary–"I am so grossly unremarkable." [I still have my days!] But then I realized that in this context–on an MRI report–being "grossly unremarkable" was a good thing–nothing to be concerned about, no abnormalities or shady spots or anything, really, that warranted further tests or exploration. So, phew! Hooray! Grossly unremarkable!

It occurred to me that "grossly unremarkable" is just about the opposite of "transfigura- tion," our story for today. "Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. [If you think, as the ancients did, that God was "up there," then going up to a high mountain would be where you’d go to be with God.] And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white." Utterly astounding.

Author John Aurelio imagines it like this–

"When they reached the mountaintop, Jesus with his arms extended was dancing and laughing and calling out to Elijah to carry him home. The wind was blowing and the dust he kicked up swirled around him like a great cloud. The sun blazed behind him so that they had to squint to see him. ‘I have never seen him like this,’ Peter said to John. ‘Nor I. Isn’t it wonderful?’ John and James took Jesus by the hand and they circled and danced together."[Imaging the Word, vol. 1, p. 139]

Transfiguration. The opposite of grossly unremarkable. Transfiguration is not just going from vanilla to chocolate, as Donna Schaper says, but from vanilla to music. [UCC Daily Devotional, 2/23/17] This vision of Jesus, transfigured, shining like the sun, dancing and conversing with Moses and Elijah, seared into the disciples’ retinas, so that they might remember it in the days ahead, when they would squint into that dark light that shone behind the cross where this same Jesus hung nailed and suffering. "This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him." This glimpse of glory would remind them, as Tom Long says, that "Jesus was not victim, but victor, not the one despised and rejected by the world, but ...well-pleasing and beloved by God." [cited by Kathryn Matthews in sermonseeds, 2/26/17] In the agony and in the ecstasy, in the extremes of the human condition, God has experienced what we experience and is present with us wherever we are and whatever we are experiencing.

"Some have suggested that the problem of our times is ecstasy deficit," writes Bruce Epperly. "We have become so busy about our own affairs that we have lost the vision of beauty...[We have] tamped down wonder to consume, prophecy to profit, beauty to buy, and awe to acquire." We have turned this awesome, stunningly beautiful and diverse earth into a garbage dump. "We have become oblivious to the wonder of our own and others’ being." [B. Epperly, adventurouslectionary, 2/26/17] Too many seek ecstasy in drugs with names like "ecstasy," or heroin, or fentynol, or alcohol, or Oxycodone. An "ecstasy deficit."

It is not only Jesus who is capable of being transfigured, whose face and being shines like the sun, who is beloved of God, but also we ourselves. "The glory of God is the human being fully alive," as the 4^th c. bishop Irenaeus said. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote back in the 1960's that our "world is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time" and through each of us. "There is no way of telling people," Merton said, "that they are all walking around shining like the sun." [cited in sermonseeds for Women’s Week, 2014]

This is not only stunningly beautiful, but also terrifying, stuff. When the Voice from the cloud spoke and claimed Jesus as Beloved Son, the disciples "fell to the ground and were overcome by fear," Matthew tells us. One translator says the word is more like, "They were afeared." [Mark Davis, leftbehindandloving it] Mysterium tremendum is the phrase Rudolph Otto used for this divine presence. Writer Annie Dillard recommends that we wear crash helmets in worship–"Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?" she writes [cited by Matthews, op cit.]

And if this power, this radiance, is within us, we can no longer think of ourselves or others or act as though we were "grossly unremarkable." If, as Alfred North Whitehead affirmed, "the aim of the universe, the aim of God, is toward the production of beauty," then our response in alignment with that aim is to "bring forth beauty wherever we find it" [Epperly, op cit.] – bring it forth in every person we encounter, in the places we live, in the issues of our time. This ethic or morality of Epiphany, of catching glimpses of glory, does not then allow us to be "

complacent at millions of children dying and diminished by malnutrition, or choosing to prefer short term financial gain over protecting the planet." We live in such abundance–that’s what Epiphany teaches us–abundance of beauty, abundance of God’s presence, abundance of wonder, abundance of glory.

But–And–a glimpse of that glory is all we can bear at a time this side of death. We cannot simply set up a tent to dwell on the mountaintop, because life is more than that. Life is also service, life includes suffering, life includes struggle. "‘Master,’ Peter said again [in John Aurelio’s story]. ‘Why not stay here?’ He tried not to look in the direction Jesus had set his gaze, south toward Jerusalem. The sun was setting. It had been an extraordinary and eventful day. They were tired and happy. Jesus stared toward Jerusalem. ‘There is one more mountain to climb,’ he said. ‘In Jerusalem.’"

"Epiphany is about abundance," Bruce Epperly writes, "Lent turns us toward simplicity. Yet abundance and simplicity complement and inspire each other. Those who live by God’s abundance can live simply, so the planet might flourish." That true abundance prevents us from settling for ‘faux abundance’ and consumerism. It inspires us to generosity, to interdependence. Our task then is to be part of transforming the world, reclaiming the garbage dump we have made of the planet and creating a garden, restoring broken communities, welcoming the refugee and immigrant because there is enough to go around, reclaiming the radiance that may have been shamed or beaten or denied out of us.

So, one last story of Transfiguration. You may have heard it on Story Corps on National Public Radio this past Friday. It was a conversation between a father and son, the father now a judge in Cleveland, who began the conversation recalling his mother’s face.

"My mother had beautiful, big brown eyes and full, soft lips. I remember her lips from when she would kiss me. I adored my mother, but she was addicted to heroin. She and my stepfather were more concerned about their next fix than about whether we went to school or had anything to eat. I saw things no kid should ever have to see.... The way I escaped was going outside and playing. I would throw my little football up in the air, and I would go to the library and read every book I could get my hands on, anything to escape the reality of my home.... When I became a parent, I determined that whatever my mother and stepfather did, I would do the opposite. .... Other than the doctor, I was the first one to hold you when you were born. I kissed you and spoke to you. I would have given you the shirt off my back, my shoes, my socks, my underwear, I would have gone stark naked to clothe you. I always make sure you eat before I do.

"Is that why you get mad at me for not eating breakfast?" his son asks.

"Yes, because I went without breakfast for so long. I know I can be harder on you than other parents."

"Sometimes you are overbearing," the son says to his father. "But I know where you’re coming from, Dad. I only want to see you at home, or at my games, but never in court."

"You have been a wonderful son and I have loved being your dad," the father says. "And I love being your son."

That’s transfiguration. From vanilla to music. That’s the power at work in our lives and in the world. In the agony and in the ecstasy, in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. And we are shining like the sun. Thanks be to God!

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

Logo Lent 2 22 2017

"Love Epidemic"-- Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18, Matthew 5:38-48-- Feb. 19, 2017

"Turn the other cheek." "Walk the second mile." "Love your enemies." So many "quotes" here, as my brother-in-law refers to commonly heard sayings. And yet, like last week’s passage about not getting angry, never swearing, not even thinking unchaste thoughts, we keep these teachings at a distance. They stand out in front of us to judge us, because who of us can meet this standard? And then, just to put the cherry on the top, the passage ends with, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." That’s just terrific, isn’t it?

If it makes you feel any better, biblical scholar and activist Walter Wink says that Jesus couldn’t even have said, "Be perfect" because there’s no word in Aramaic for such a thing. Aramaic was Jesus’ native tongue, but Matthew and the other gospels were written in Greek. "Perfect" was a Greek idea, as in a "perfect circle," but the word used here is telos, which means the intended outcome. Be what you’re intended to be, just as God is the One God is supposed to be.

So, if we can just hold that notion of being who we’re intended to be, rather than being "perfect," for the time being, let’s go back to the "easy" commandments like "turning the other cheek," "giving the cloak off our back," and "walking the second mile." Walter Wink writes, "Christians have, on the whole, simply ignored this teaching. It has seemed impractical, masochistic, suicidal–an invitation to bullies and spouse-batterers to wipe up the floor with their supine Christian victims." [Engaging the Powers, p. 175]

Indeed, critics from the left and the right have dismissed this particular section of Jesus’ teaching which we’ve come to call the Sermon on the Mount as ridiculous. Ayn Rand, the darling of the Tea Party, wrote, "If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men [sic] have to reject." And, of course, on the left, Karl Marx wrote, "The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submissiveness, and humbleness."

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

"Jesus here is at his ornery best," commentator Jason Byassee writes, "offering ‘advice’ that makes no sense divorced from the nature of the one that is giving it." [cited by Mark Suriano in sermonseeds, 2/19/17] Nor does it make much sense divorced from the community and context in which it was given.

Take, for example, the first instance. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek,..." Why the right cheek? I’m going to ask Marsh to come up and help me with this. If I were to strike Marsh’s right cheek, I would have had to have done it with the back of my right hand. This was a right-handed culture, so I wouldn’t have punched him with my left hand. The left hand was reserved for hygiene . In fact, even to gesture with the left hand in the Qumran community, for instance, carried a penalty of 10 days penance.

So my strike of Marsh’s right cheek was clearly meant to humiliate him, rather than injure him. You strike a subordinate with the back of the hand. You punch only a peer with a fist. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." So, if Marsh turns his left cheek to me, my only option with my right hand is to punch him, acknowledging him as a peer, as an equal. [And, by the way, there were severe penalties for striking a peer.]

By turning the other cheek, those whom Jesus was teaching would have claimed their humanity, their refusal to be humiliated or treated as "less than" their oppressor. The one who had struck them would be startled, "flummoxed," we might even say, perhaps, after the shock had worn off, having this "uppity" underling beaten or thrown into jail, but not after having acknowledged that for a moment at least, power had belonged to the one who turned the other cheek.

Just so with the one who had been sued, most likely for non-payment of a debt. Jesus’ listeners were overwhelmingly poor people, oppressed by a system of indebtedness that was clearly stacked against them. Jewish law allowed them to give their outer garment, their "coat," as collateral, but it also forbade anyone from keeping a poor person’s coat overnight, because that was often the only thing they had to keep them warm. To give one’s "cloak," or undergarment also, would have left the poor person naked, yes, but the shame was on the one who looked upon another’s nakedness. By giving their cloak as well, Jesus’ followers offered their bodies to expose the utter injustice and oppression of a system that burdened so many with such debt.

And finally, Roman soldiers were allowed to impress inhabitants of occupied territories to carry their packs–often 50 or 60 lbs.– but only for 1 mile. Rome was smart enough to limit the dissension and resentment of their subjects. Imagine then a soldier ready to take back his pack, when the man refused to give it up but rather insisting on carrying it further. "What fresh hell is this?" as Dorothy Parker might have said. "If you don’t give the pack back to me, I can be reported and punished." "No, no, let me keep carrying it for you."

"You have heard it said...but I say to you..." Jesus is "waking up a generation of people [says Mark Suriano] for whom the [Jewish] Law – now so associated with the powerful who are guardians of its precise following – only presents itself as a burden and obligation....Jesus is calling for a deeper and more radical way of following it." [sermonseeds, op cit.]

This is certainly no way to "get ahead" in this world. This is no "prosperity gospel," but Jesus is calling the rules of this world into question, by modeling and giving instructions for living in what he called "the kingdom of God," or as Matthew calls it, "the kingdom of heaven," since Jews avoided using God’s name. Jesus certainly never advocated violent revolution, but he is laying the foundations for a social revolution that, if it reaches a critical threshold of acceptance, could indeed become a political revolution. [Richard Horsley, cited by Wink, op cit.] Imagine!

We read and talk about a drug epidemic, an epidemic of lies, an epidemic of gun violence. Rabbi Joshua Levine, in a 2009 article, challenged people of faith to spread a positive social epidemic throughout their communities–a new epidemic of compassion, honor, goodness, gratitude, civility, and respect." [cited by Dan Clendenin, journeywithjesus, 2/23/14] What if we actually put these teachings of Jesus into practice, and spread a new epidemic of creative resistance to injustice and hatred? What if we refused to sling back taunts and insults in our public demonstrations and discourse, but instead modeled dignity, respect, groundedness, love that was neither naive nor cowardly? What if we made our so-called "enemies" or "opponents" or those on the other side of issues uncomfortable or "itch-y" because our actions and responses were not what they expected, were, in fact, respectful, even humorous, not sinking to the low level of the usual discourse. What if we did indeed "go high" when they "go low"?

"Do not resist evil," Jesus’ words get translated, but the word for "resist" here really means, "do not mirror evil." "Do not resist evil with evil." This is not a teaching of non-resistance, or even strict pacifism. It is not training in cowardice, but it does require training, practice. The marchers who walked from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 didn’t simply set out on a walk. "They were taught how to be quiet, how to be still, how not to resist and fight back no matter what happened." [Sister Peace, Plum Village, in HuffPost, 2/16/17] They practiced being spit in the face, being called horrible names, having violent words literally thrown in their faces. They practiced holding on to one another, standing next to one another, reminding one another of Love at the core of their actions.

What if we were to spread love, instead of anger and lies, hatred and resentment? Brother Phap Dung of Thich Nhat Hahn’s Plum Village concedes that anger can bring about change, but it can ultimately lead only to more conflict. He lifts up the Buddhist teaching of inter-dependence, which says that "the people we perceive as our greatest enemies can be our greatest teachers, because they show aspects of ourselves that we find unpalatable and give us the chance to heal." [Huff Post, op cit.] Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies is a wisdom teaching, because our enemies have something to teach us. We are the ones who are changed by loving them, but in the process, our enemies may be changed as well.

So we come back to, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." As I said, there’s no word in Aramaic for "perfect." Walter Wink thinks Jesus most surely used the word shalem, meaning whole, complete, mature, undivided. It’s what shalom or peace comes from. "Be whole," he said, "be complete, be who you were intended to be, as surely God always is." We are intended to be in relationship, we are intended to do our part, to live into the kingdom of God that is always and everywhere breaking in through our actions, our words, our intuitions, our thoughts, and by the grace of God, breaking in in spite of us. Spread love, infect others with your commitment to justice and peace, make those who have settled with ease into patterns and systems of injustice and isolation–make them ill at ease. Remember who you are and Whose you are. So may the epidemic of love spread and grow and deepen until it infects us all.

Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

"Extreme Measures"-- Deut.30: 15-20, Matthew 5: 21-37-- Feb. 12, 2017

You may have heard the story from a Benedictine monastery whose primary rule was hospitality, to treat each guest as though they were Jesus. One day, a brother came to the abbot and confessed, "Father, some days, when I see yet another stranger walking up the path, I say, ‘Jesus Christ, is that you again?’" I have to say that there are times when I’ve felt exactly the same way, particularly around the 15^th of the month when we begin handing out $10 vouchers for gas and food. It is such a drop in the bucket of need, and when I find myself getting judge-y, I try to remember, "Jesus Christ, is that you again?"

So it was that this week, when I was wrestling with this challenging part of the Sermon on the Mount, that I heard the first line of our next hymn in a new way, "O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end!" What have I done? Promised never to get angry? Never to swear? Never to let a slight go unforgiven or unapologized for? I might as well cut off my arm or gouge out my eye, if this is the standard I’ve promised to live by!

The Rev. Amy Butler, who’s now pastor of NY City’s Riverside Church, once decided not to preach on the Sermon on the Mount, but rather just to preach it. She read the whole thing–2 chapters as we’ve arranged Matthew’s gospel–in the place of the sermon. During coffee hour afterward, a number of people came up to her and told her they really didn’t like "her" sermon. She might have said, "Tell that to Jesus," though I don’t think she did. But these are hard words to hear, let alone live by, aren’t they? They sound impossibly archaic–"old-fashioned" hardly describes it–puritanical, even ruthless.

I think back to President Jimmy Carter’s confession that he had looked upon a woman with "lust in his heart," and then think of the released videotape of our current president talking to a reporter about not only his thoughts but his actions toward women, and the gap seems as wide as the one between Jesus’ time and our own. With the divorce rate in our society somewhere between 40 and 50% now, how are we to hear Jesus’ prohibition against divorce or against divorced people re-marrying? It seems to me that if we were to take all of these words literally, we could well end up with a congregation full of various body parts and stumps, which none of us could see, because we’d all had to gouge out our eyes. "O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end...."

"See," God says to the people of Israel, about to cross over into the Promised Land, "I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity....I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants my live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God; for that means life to you and length of days..."

Choose life. Each moment is an opportunity for decision-making, [Bruce Epperly, adventurous lectionary, 2/1/17] though perhaps not so starkly put as "life and death, blessings and curses." "Many paths are available to us, some leading to abundance and beauty," as Bruce Epperly says, "others to scarcity and ugliness. Our choices are not just for ourselves. They shape our relationship to God and the world beyond us, including our future."

In his "Sermon on the Mount," which is really just how Matthew has chosen to arrange these teachings, Jesus is speaking to his community, whose very existence really did depend upon their living together in relationships of honesty and integrity. Since the ideal marriage partner was a first cousin, for example, you can imagine how divorce and adultery would tear apart a family-based society, let alone the fact that a man could simply write a writ of divorce against his wife, leaving her without resources or options. "You have heard it said....but I say to you..." Jesus was not discarding the tradition of his ancestors in faith, but rather going deeper into the heart of those teachings, reaffirming the spirit intended within them, recognizing that our thoughts and intentions can have as much power as our actions.

Professor Karoline Lewis cites a poem by Marilyn Maciel, which says in part, "if words could be seen/ as they floated out/ of our mouths/ would we feel no/ shame/ as they passed beyond/ our lips? If we were to string/ our words/ on a communal clothesline/ would we feel proud/ as our thoughts/ flapped in the /breeze?" [workingpreacher.org, 2/12/17]

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is God’s footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

We certainly don’t have any control over what we hear in the streets or in the media, but we can make the decision that we will not contribute to the coarseness or meanness that is so rampant. And as we consider the numerous issues of social and environmental justice facing us, we would do well to examine our own intentions and attitudes before we engage in behaviors that might simply add to the divisions and hatred and prejudice that are already tearing us apart. The new Secretary of Education–no matter what you thought of her nomination-- ought to be allowed into a public school to do her job.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo Baggins to Gandalf the Wizard in JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. He was referring to the pitched battle of the forces of Mordor against the forces of "men" and elves, a battle that to all appearances, looked doomed and dreadful to Frodo. "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo . "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

"See I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity...Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God."

"Our nation," says the Rev. James Alexander Forbes Jr,

has a right to expect faith communities to provide vision, vitality, meaning, purpose, responsibility toward each other, respect and care for our planet, as well as accountability and trust in God who is creator of us all. Lukewarm and lackluster religion will not be able to address the demands of these troubling times of polarization, destabilization, and lightning speed change. What is needed now is deeply rooted faith, firmly held convictions, and conscientious and courageous discipleship among the adherents of all our faith-based institutions. There can be no question but that we are called to help save the soul of our nation. Do we have the strength of character and moral and spiritual influence to tilt our nation toward justice, peace, compassion, and ecological responsibility? [Odyssey Network Scripture, 2/12/17]

"O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end..." There is no doubt the bar is set high here in the Sermon on the Mount, and I for one cannot promise perfection or unfailing success in serving God or the One who gave his life so totally in that service. What I can strive for is not to offer "lukewarm or lackluster religion" in that service. I have now added to my morning affirmations :"With all that I am and all that I have, I seek to serve you, O God."

Life and death, blessing and curse. Those are the choices before us. Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community writes,

Speaking the truth and acting on behalf of what is right will take all of us, at the deepest levels.

Preachers should preach ever more prophetically, teachers should teach formation and not just information, writers should write ever more honestly, lawyers should fight courageously for those who need their help, reporters should report the facts ever more diligently and speak the truth to power regardless of what the powers think about that, artists should make art that nurtures people and makes them think and inspires them to action. People who know climate change should fight on climate change, people working for living wages and economic justice should keep organizing, people working for human rights, voting rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, refugee rights, and LGBTQ rights should keep defending and advocating. We all should serve those around us. We all should watch for people being left out and alone. [SoJo.net, 2/10/17]

With all that we have and all that we are, let us seek to serve the God of Love and Life. Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

"A City on a Hill"- Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20-- Feb. 5, 2017

In our on-going local and national debate about energy resources–from renewable and non-renewable sources–one source that rarely gets mentioned among us is donkey dung. Or camel dung. But in Jesus’ day, and in the Middle East and many third-world countries today, donkey dung is a primary source of heating fuel, much more available and affordable than wood.

It was the duty of young girls to collect the donkey dung, mix it with salt, and mold it into patties to be dried in the sun, and then used as fuel in earthen ovens. A slab of salt would be placed on the bottom of the oven, and the catalytic properties of the salt would cause the dung to burn. After a while, though, the salt slab would lose its catalytic properties–lose its saltiness–and so would be thrown out, to provide traction on the muddy path, "to be trampled underfoot," as Jesus said. [cf. John Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Cycle A, p. 31]

"You are the salt of the earth," Jesus told his disciples, using the same word for "earth" which also refers to the earthen ovens. You are the salt which produces fire which produces light.

Salt was also, of course, used for flavoring and preserving–you give zest and flavor, Jesus said, you make things enduring. And salt was rubbed on newborns, used to seal covenants, sprinkled on sacrifices, understood as a metaphor for wisdom, for God’s gracious activity. [Ron Allen, cited by Kathryn Matthews in UCC Sermon Seeds, 2/5/17] All that–and more–in "you are the salt of the earth." Not only flavor, but an element of sacred activity, a blessing, part of a dynamic process that changes properties, stirs things up, sets things on fire, gives off light.

"You are the light of the world," Jesus said. "A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house...Let your light shine.." "Shine" is the third imperative, the third command, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, after "rejoice" and "be glad." "Shine." Three commandments so far–rejoice, be glad, and shine. "This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine..."

For almost her entire history, Israel had experienced oppression from outside forces, the latest being Rome, of course, in both Jesus’ time, and years later, when Matthew wrote to his community. And throughout that history, there had been a lively debate about the meaning of their suffering–Why is this happening to us? How could God let this happen? How are we to respond?

In Jesus’ generation, there were different factions who offered alternative responses–the Sadducees collaborated with the occupiers, the Zealots advocated violent revolution, the Pharisees looked to the Law, striving to scrupulously live according to it. "If one could not obtain one’s political independence," Kathryn Matthews explains, "at least one could preserve one’s cultural and religious identity as a people called and set apart by God; at least one could live in covenental righteousness."[Matthews, op cit., citing Edwin Chr. Van Driel] And there was a heightened sense of living in the end times. [I saw a cartoon recently that showed a man holding up a sign, "The end is near," and another man looking at it saying, "Is that good or bad?" There are days, aren’t there?!]

Jesus added another voice. He pointed to the present in-breaking of God’s realm in their midst, "God is already doing a new thing," Jesus said, fully immersed in the tradition of Isaiah. "Be Israel–be God’s chosen people–here and now." Don’t throw out the Law, fulfill it’s purpose, live into its spirit. Be salt and light. Be part of the transforming and healing of the world.

What might it mean for us to be salt and light, a transformative community in a world that has grown cynical, fearful, enraged, mean-spirited? "You are the salt of the earth," Jesus says to his followers of all ages. You already are. You are the light of the world. Be who you are. Don’t put a bushel over the light. Imagine if we put half the energy we put into building walls and ducking under bushels, trying to hide who we really are, imagine if we simply put that energy into being salt and light?

Author Madeleine L’Engle described beautifully how simply letting our light shine can be a form of "evangelism"–"We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe," she said, "by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it." [cited by Matthews, op cit.] Let your light shine.

And remember that Jesus’ "salty" images are not just about beautifically "shining." The salt that we are can set things on fire, can alter chemistry. We must not hide behind our Christian or our white privilege. We must not just "get over it," when injustice and hatred and prejudice are rampant. By letting our light shine through the banner we’ve hung out front–"Immigrants and refugees welcome"–we have stirred up questions and concerns. We’ve received at least 3 phone calls asking if we’re harboring refugees, do we know if there are illegal immigrants living in our neighborhood or community? You are salt and light.

Many of us are alarmed by the tone and manner of the injustice and fear-mongering that is currently spreading throughout our country and the world, but we must not forget that injustice and prejudice and fear have been experienced by many of our brothers and sisters in the years and months leading up to now and have not been addressed adequately. Jesus’ words to claim our identity as salt and light continue to challenge us, though perhaps we can hear them in a new way now. Perhaps someday we will be able to perform the fast that God desires of us, as Isaiah said–"to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke...to share our bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into our houses, to cover the naked, ..." The invitation to that fast has been issued in every generation.

We are not the first ones to pass this way. "Turning back the pages of the calendar to Berlin in its dark years," writes pastor Nancy Rockwell,

we read [the words of] Pastor Martin Niemoller, who held onto his hope that his government could emerge from its self-created darkness for years, yet finally came into open opposition, for which he was arrested. In a sermon just prior to his arrest by the Nazis, Niemoller spoke of Jesus’ words, ‘You are the light of the world.’--

‘What are we worrying about?’ [he asked] ‘When I read out the names (of church members missing or arrested), did we not think: ‘Alas and alack, will this wind, this storm, that is going through the world just now, not blow out the Gospel candle? We must therefore take the message in out of the storm and (keep) it safe?’ It is ....during these days that I have realized–that I have understood–what the Lord Jesus Christ means when he says: ‘Do not take up the bushel! I have not lit the candle for you to put it under the bushel, in order to protect it from the wind. Away with the bushel! The light should be placed upon a candlestick!....We are not to worry whether the light is extinguished or not; that is His concern: we are only to see that the light is not hidden away. ‘Let your light shine before men! [and women and children]’...The city of God cannot remain hidden. Brothers and sisters, the city of God will not be blown down by the storm. It will not be conquered even though the enemy take its outer walls. The city of God will stand because its strength comes from on high."

[cited by N. Rockwell, thebiteintheapple, 1/30/17]

"If you remove the yoke from among you," the prophet Isaiah says, "the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." What an image to drink in!

We are salt and light. We are Christ’s body on earth. We are one loaf, one cup. That is who we are! Thanks be to God!

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

"The Way Less Traveled"- Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 5:1-12-- Jan. 29, 2017

The Beatitudes–these 12 verses at the beginning of Matthew 5–have been called by one commentator "Christianity for Dummies." You may have heard of that series of books–the "Dummies" series–I got "Robert’s Rules for Dummies" when I was moderator of the Southwest Association, and there are an astonishing number of subjects the series deals with–"Facebook for Dummies," "The Bible for Dummies," "Accounting for Dummies,""Acrylic Painting for Dummies," "Acid Akalyne Diet for Dummies," and that’s just the beginning of the "A’s"-- you name it, and chances are there is a "Dummies" book to help you through. The idea is to cut through all the jargon and intimidating details of a topic or system, "‘dumbing down’ their core concepts to their absolute essentials in a non-threatening, ‘how-to’ format. That’s exactly what Jesus does for us," this commentator claims, "in this week’s gospel," [David Sellery, This Week’s Focus, 1/29/14] in the Beatitudes. "Christianity for Dummies."

Well, you know me. Why make something simple when you can find layers and nuance and complexity?! I just find these sayings at the beginning of Jesus’ "Sermon on the Mount," as Matthew has arranged his teachings here, to be too challenging, too startling, too threatening to be dismissed as "for dummies." "The Be-Happy Attitudes"? as Robert Schuller called them? Really? "Blessed are those who mourn...blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you..."? Don’t worry, be happy?

Makarios is the Greek word used in all these sayings. It gets translated as "blessed," or "happy," but in a society that was based on honor and shame, like 1^st c. Palestine was, it really has more the sense of "honored." "Honored are you who are poor in spirit...honored are those who mourn...honored are the meek..." not shamed, not ridiculed. Those who heard Jesus’ teaching these things would have been shocked, just as we are, to hear this reversal of the world’s values and priorities. When had they ever felt honored for their poverty–of resources or of spirit? When had those who mourned felt good about it? When had hunger – for food or for righteousness– been regarded as a good thing, let alone rewarded?

"The Biblical tradition," as Disciples of Christ author and pastor Bruce Epperly writes, "is always counter-cultural in spirit. It agitates [others say it "afflicts"] the comfortable, whether conservative or progressive, by challenging our lifestyles and assumptions. And, conversely, as the saying goes, it also comforts the agitated [or afflicted], those at the margins of life, those with their backs against the wall, or struggling with debilitating life issues." [adventurouslectionary, 1/20/17]

Counter-cultural indeed, and getting more so by the minute, I have to say. While I wholeheartedly agree that the suffering and sense of abandonment of any of our citizens and brothers and sisters is cause for concern and attention, that is no reason to abandon the values of our Constitution or our faith, to discriminate on the basis of religion, or race, or station in life. "Honored are the poor...those who mourn...the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake..." It doesn’t get more currently counter-cultural than that.

"What does God require of you?" the prophet Micah asks those who have thought to buy God’s favor with elaborate offerings and shows of piety? How will God regard those who have devastated the land with their cheating and lying? "Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights?" God asks. "Your wealthy are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths..." "God has told you, O mortal, what is good [Micah says]; and what does God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Christianity–the essence of the Biblical tradition–for dummies.

Back in 1997, Apple Corporation launched an advertising campaign called "Think Different." It featured portraits of people who had dared to go against the grain, the game-changers, people like Neil Armstrong, Amelia Earhart, and Apple head Steve Jobs himself. "Think different," Jobs said. "We were here to put a dent in the universe; otherwise, why else even be here?" It was an appealing, attractive invitation to buy into (literally) Apple’s minimalist aesthetic and technology, which, could be argued, did change the world. But it was an advertising campaign, not only urging our consumption of a product but has now become an overwhelming conformity. "Think different?" Have those of you–those of us–who have entered into the world of personal computers and smart phones tried to really "think different" and turn off the machines? Take a break from social media, wrestle with an idea instead of just Googling it? And what might "think different" mean in an era of "alternative facts" or "fake news"? It gets curioser and curioser, doesn’t it?

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek [not Caspar Miquetoast types, but those who are empty enough of self to be filled with God], for they shall inherit the earth...." This is about far more than thinking "different"–this is about living "different." A life of "transformed non-conformity," as Martin Luther King Jr. said. A life of being joyful–not just "happy, " but being in harmony with the essential intention of the universe. "Be joyful," farmer/poet Wendell Berry wrote in Mad Farmer Liberation Front, " be joyful,/ though you have considered all the facts." "Practice resurrection," he said. Live different. Think of the portratis in that campaign–Jesus, Martin Luther king, Jr., Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Malala Yosefsay...

These 9 verses are less of a prescriptive "how-to" and more of a descriptive "this is what life is like." For example, you don’t have to go out and seek things to be sad about so you can be "blessed" or "honored." Sorrow and loss will find you. They are part of life. Not because you have done something bad or because you deserve it or God is punishing you. Even when you are mourning, you are "blessed," you are not alone, you will be given the capacity to endure. God is with you. So it is when you recognize how "poor in spirit," how prone to discouragement you are, how prone to bitterness, or judgmentalism, or prejudice; "I recognized I was powerless over alcohol, or drugs, or food," the first step of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous says; or, as Luke’s version says, when you are poor – period – which happens, which is part of life for an overwhelming number of human beings on this planet– "blessed," "honored" are you; you are not alone, you will be given the capacity to endure. God is with you.

These "blessings" or makarisms are a description of life that is interdependent, fueled by sacrificial love, that may very well lead to persecution in this world which does not honor living "different," but is the way things work and are structured in God’s way, in that way less traveled, to riff on Robert Frost, and is the way to identify with the suffering of the world. This "letting go to transform the world" [Epperly, op cit.] is the only way it will be healed.

As we look for Epiphany moments in these days and weeks to come, we might look not only amongst the usual places and to the "usual suspects," but also in the unexpected, the unloveable, the un-beautiful, the unsuccessful, at least by the standards of our culture. We may find glimpses of God that shake us up, turn our assumptions and expectations upside down.

While I’m still not quite ready to call them "Christianity for Dummies," I do think that the Beatitudes and Micah’s 3 requirements – do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God–are worth knowing by heart. Add these to our commission and maybe the 23^rd Psalm to keep in your backpack of words to live by. In these days and weeks and even years to come, we may need to be able to call up these blessings to help us endure. Let’s see if we can do this–

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

"The Gospel is a word of protest," NT scholar Karoline Lewis says, and "The Beatitudes are a call to action for the sake of creating the world God imagines." [workingpreacher.org, 1/29/17] A call to action and a description of how God works in the world. "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice," the great Jewish writer Elie Wiesel said, "but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Protest with our lives, our words, our thoughts, our prayers. So may we "live different." So may we be part of the healing of the world.

Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark

Announcements

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BIRTHDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS THIS WEEK:

May 6 – Nora Parsons

Jacob Ranttila

May 7 – Colin Derby

SUNDAY:

5:00 pm Sunday Supper

TUESDAY: 7 p.m. Board of Deacons meets, Room 2

COMING UP:

- This is Kit Packing Week; we will be packing kits for shipping starting at 9:30am tomorrow through Wednesday or until done.
- Tues, May 2^nd Deacons Meeting 7pm in Rm 2
- Come and join us for the Fellowship luncheon on Wednesday May 3rd at noon. Sign-up sheet in Webster Hall if you wish to bring something.
- Fri., May 12, 6 p.m. “Bridge to the Future” Dinner
- Reading Group: The meeting of the Reading Group will be after worship Sunday May 14. (Sorry, it had to be moved from an earlier date announced in the Open Door because of schedule conflicts.) The theme is books by an author you expected to disagree with but which you read with as open a mind as possible. David Durfee

Plant Sale at Second Congregational, Saturday, May 20^th. We're taking inventory! Please let us know what plants you have to share. Nora (442-6766) and Lynn (375-6355)

OTHER NEWS:

Our Master Gardner extraordinaire, David, has announced that (at least for summer) our church gardens are available for adoption on a first-come basis. The church can provide water, some tools, and sunshine. “Your” garden may be tended at your leisure (except Sunday 10-11am) Sign up in the office!!

There is a sign-up sheet in the Webster Hall for the May 12^th Dinner “Bridge To The Future” PLEASE sign-up by May 8^th so food needs can be determined. Thanks so much!!!

“Many Paths to Follow”-- Psalm 27:1, 4-9, Matthew 4:12-23 -- Jan. 22, 2017

I’ve always found the story of Jesus’ calling his fishermen disciples a little “cult-ish.”
You just heard it–

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

It’s a little too reminiscent of the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” A little too suggestive of the need for an intervention to save a child from a cult.

But surely it’s a distilled version of what actually happened. Melissa Bane Sevier has a wonderful fantasy on what might have preceded this call. She imagines Zebedee looking at the backs of his sons as they follow Jesus down the beach and wondering how he’s going to tell his wife that they’ve gone. She tells the story of a typical family business, this fishing operation that Zebedee had inherited from his own father and hoped someday to pass down to his sons; the two boys, James and John, resisting being locked into that future, doing the usual grousing that teenagers and young men (and women) are apt to do, wishing that their father wouldn’t take some of the left-over fish after the day’s sales and drop them off at the shacks and small fires of the widows and poor families who lived along the way home, complaining and bickering as they mended the nets.

But then the boys, now young men, started hanging out with their school chum Jesus, who seemed to have matured faster than James and John. Sevier imagines–“Jesus often stops and talks with Zebedee at the end of the day and sometimes tries to help a little with the net mending. Jesus is terrible at mending. Even so, Zebedee continues to try to teach him, just to hear Jesus talk while they work together. He loves the things Jesus says about God. He loves what he says about justice for the poor.” [Contemplative Viewfinder, 1/16/17]

As the young men spend more and more time with Jesus, Zebedee notices that they seem to be growing kinder, less self-absorbed. He even notices that James is saving aside some of the widows’ favorite fish to slip to them on the way home.

And then one day, Jesus comes by and says, “Today’s the day. Come and follow me.” And of course they go–not without saying good-bye, but with no tears. And Zebedee is left with the other workers and his nets. He knows that he can’t leave. Not only is he too old for traipsing around the countryside, but who would take care of his wife and daughters and other sons? Who would catch the fish, let alone provide food for the widows and the poor? “Sometimes we are left behind for a purpose,” Sevier suggests.

President Obama, in his farewell address, issued a call to all of us to take up the work of citizenship. And President Trump, in his inaugural address, said that power wasn’t being transferred from one administration to the next, or one political party to another, but rather to the people. Democracy is not a spectator sport. It depends on the involvement and participation of its citizens for its very existence, to vote, to call our representatives to account, to support or protest as our conscience calls us. As my daughter wrote on her Facebook page about why she was participating in yesterday’s Women’s March–“because fear, despair, and apathy are the enemies, not people who are different; because our system of government requires engaged participation, because what we do as individuals affects our community, our country, and our planet.”

Being followers of Jesus requires no less–and probably more–participation, nothing less than our whole, unique selves, to discover just what it is that we were given so that we can be of service to the greater good, to live out our calling. The word “vocation” or calling often implies some grand, clear profession or role–like being a teacher, or doctor, or lawyer, a parent, an artist, a priest or minister or rabbi. And the “voice” who calls us is implied. I know that we talk about “sense of call” when we interview members in discernment for the ministry. Who told you you should be a pastor? Did you hear the words, “Follow me, and I will teach you how to fish for people”? The voice of my “calling” to ministry sounded more like a door slamming shut in front of me and another door opening behind me or to the side.

But what if our call is much more subtle? What if it’s less about what we should do and more about who we are?

As almost always, I find the words of story-teller and Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes to be wise and inspiring. “You could be the water,” she writes in a poem, called “The Rainmaker: You Could Be the Water”--1. You could be the water...
By the scent of water alone,
the withered vine comes back to life,
and thus…
wherever the land is dry and hard,
you could be the water;
or you could be the iron blade
disking the earth open;
or you could be the acequia,
the mother ditch, carrying the water
from the river to the fields
to grow the flowers for the farmers;
or you could be the honest engineer
mapping the dams
that must be taken down,
and those dams which could remain to serve
the venerable all,
instead of only the very few.
You could be the battered vessel
for carrying the water by hand;
or you could be the one
who stores the water.
You could be the one who
protects the water,
or the one who blesses it,
or the one who pours it.
Or you could be the tired ground
that receives it;
or you could be the scorched seed
that drinks it;
or you could be the vine—
green-growing overland,
in all your wild audacity ...
©2000,2016, poem “The Rainmaker: You Could Be The Water,” by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

How many ways there are to follow Jesus! Not only to drop everything and leave family behind to travel the countryside preaching and healing, but also to stay behind, to do your own work faithfully and full of love, to provide food for the people, or to deliver it, or to prepare it, or to make the place where nourishment is offered more beautiful. You could listen to people, you could remind them that they are Beloved. You could write legislation that structures our community more justly. You could thank or encourage a legislator. You could help clean up a stream or a river. You could pray. You could write songs or sing songs of praise or lament or justice. You could hold a child, or play with a child, or listen to a teen-ager. You could visit a mosque, or a synagogue and make new friends. You could sit quietly with someone who has lost a loved one, or give a foot massage to someone who’s depressed.

“Walk with me and work with me,” Jesus says in Peterson’s translation. “I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I’ll show you how to recover your life.” You could be the living water...or the ditch...or the vessel...or the tired ground...or the one who protects the water, the one who blesses it... The only option you don’t have is to do or be nothing.

The power of the story of the disciples’ dropping everything to follow Jesus is not their immediate, almost ruthless leaving of family and responsibilities. It is that we must indeed leave behind all that is not our way of serving the true God–we must leave behind all the other gods we spend our lives serving–money, success, possessions, family work, if they have become our gods. We must leave behind all those other false selves that are not our true self–let go of trying to be someone you’re not. “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde said, “Everyone else is already taken.” The great Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day wrote, “No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”

We pray each Sunday–perhaps each day–for God’s kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven. We are called to be part of making it a reality, of doing the “real work of Christmas,” as our anthem this morning sang about. It’s big enough for each one of us to take a little piece. In fact, each of us is essential. You could be the water, or who knows what else? “Come, follow me,” Jesus said. There are an infinite number of ways to do that. Pick one. Find one. Be that one.
Amen, and amen.

Rev. Mary H. Lee-Clark