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—Liza Neal

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
“When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it, and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place which the Lord you God will choose, to make the Lord’s name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord your God that I have come into the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and we cried to the lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders; and the Lord brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land, flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; and you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord you God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.”
Luke 17:11-19
“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus; feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Philippians 4:1-9
“Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
I entreat Eurodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And I ask you also, true colleague, help these women, for they have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all people know your forbearance. The Lords is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.”

Village Church
November 18, 2007

There are two things that I love about the Bible that I want to share with you this morning. The first is how incredibly human and real all the characters are. The lepers in the story in Luke are not your picturesque angel victims suffering silently. They are in fact lying by the side of the road screaming for Jesus. They don’t keep silent about their misery, or pretend it doesn’t exist, or really it’s not that bad, or that it’ll get better when they know it won’t.
  And Jesus is all right with that. He appreciates their honesty and their boldness. He appreciates the fact that they have called for him. It is a sign of their faith that they have cried out for mercy. Chances are Jesus’ entourage would probably have rather passed on by. Leprosy is a grotesque disease. People are covered in oozing sores and it is highly contagious. Naturally though, Jesus stops and listens. Jesus is always willing to listen when someone calls out to him.
  It’s interesting though. Jesus doesn’t heal them immediately. He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Lepers were cast out of society, excommunicated from all contact with others. However, if one thought they were healed, he or she could go to the priest. The priest would make the decision on whether or not they truly were. With the priest’s okay, they could become a part of the community again. Jesus does not just want their bodies whole he also wants their places in the community to be made whole again. He wants their spirits and minds and families and friendships and relationships to be made whole.
  Still he doesn’t do it all at once. He makes them go through the process. He invites them to set out towards health with no promises that they will actually get there. These people must have had so many disappointments before this. It required a huge leap of faith to get up from their spot and set out rather than wallowing in their despair and hardship. Walking along must have been incredibly frustrating, wondering why they were bothering again, wondering why if he had the power to heal them that they had to head out like this. Yet it is on that journey, both a physical one and a journey of faith, that they are healed.
  Jesus seems surprised that only one of them turns back to thank him for healing him. To me it seems incredibly human. How often do we thank God for what God has done in our lives, especially if we have to wait for it? How much more often do we just go on about our journey, satisfied and busy moving forward, as if we are just getting what we deserved all along and don’t need to take the time to have gratitude for it.
  In the story it is only the Samaritan, the foreigner, who returns to praise God. Why is that? Was he just the nicer person? I don’t think so. I think the Samaritan returns because he is the one who didn’t expect it, who didn’t believe that he deserved it because of who he was or what he had done. He hoped for it, he had faith that Jesus could do it, but he had humility in his heart. He knew that Jesus was a Jew, and so if Jesus was willing to heal him then certainly it was out of the kindness of Jesus’ heart and not out of something that this man, a sworn enemy of the Jews, deserved or had done to merit it. It was a pure gift and because of his lack of privilege he had the openness to receive it as such.
  How many gifts are we given without feeling any sense of gratitude? Even more, how many gifts are we given that we don’t even recognize, or that we wish were different or better or feel aren’t as good as we should be getting. Instead of opening ourselves to one another and God in gratitude, we are stuck by the side of the road in our misery, complaining about what we don’t have, or about what we do have.
  The Bible, though, is very practical. That is the other thing that I love about it. All three of the texts we heard this morning give us a prescription for our misery. Luke’s we have already heard. It’s what the Samaritan leper did. When you are suffering, don’t sit there in silence. Call out to God. Then, whatever the answer, set out on a journey towards healing even if you feel that you don’t deserve it, even if you feel that it won’t happen to you, even if you feel like it’s a waste of time. Set out on the journey. While you are doing it though, be present. Healing may come to you along the way when you least expect it, when you are not looking. When it happens, don’t just keep going. Stop, take a moment, praise God for what the Lord has done for you. Remember, you and God are in partnership with one another. Your faith has made you whole.
  Philippians and Deuteronomy give us prescriptions for happiness as well. In Philippians the brokenness is not in body but rather in their relationships. They are trying to work together and build the church but instead they are arguing with one another and not supporting the women who have come to help them. Paul gives them a recipe that is not unlike the one in Luke though.
  First, rejoice in all circumstances, not just the good ones. Since you do not actually know which circumstance is the one that is going to bring you wisdom and healing, what direction it is going to take you in, rejoice at all times. So that you do not spend all of your time lost in despair, so you do not forget the joy you have been given, rejoice.
  Second, when you call out to God, do so in thanksgiving. What in the world does that mean? It means two things. It means that whatever the circumstances, there are still gifts that you have been given. It also means it is okay to ask God for anything. Don’t hesitate. Say whatever you want. Call out to God.
  Third, don’t worry. Well, there’s a tough one. I don’t know about you but I worry whenever I say goodbye to Kelly or drop Becca off at school. Worse than that, we know terrible things happen and we are not immune just because we know that God is with us. This is where faith comes in I think. Faith that whatever sorrows may come our way, God will not abandon us. It will not be the end. Joy will come again. That even when we lose the ones we love, this will not be the end. We will see those we love again.
  Finally, Paul tells us, to dwell on that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, worthy of praise. Consider for a moment how often you do this. Consider now often how often instead do we dwell on what is wrong. How often do we focus on the negative in our lives. How much time do we spend complaining. Paul tells us that if instead we meditate on that which is good, THEN peace will be with us.
  Last of all, this morning anyway, we come to Deuteronomy. This situation is not just about the body or about relationships but rather about the state of the entire community after a time of huge transitions. Yet their prescription for happiness sounds remarkably similar.
  First, when you get where God is taking you, give the very best of what you have to God. While you are doing it, remember how you got there. Remember also what God has done for you. Give to God the best of what you have. Then spend some time with God. Finally, rejoice- rejoice in what others have as well as what you have. Whatever that is, rejoice.
  Let us pray.

Luke 19:1-10
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a sinner.” And, Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

“Salvation Has Come”
Village Church
November 11, 2007

“Salvation, Salvation,
Has come to this place.
The whole wide creation is touched by God’s grace.
In glad celebration, join hand and embrace.
For the day of salvation is here.”
  When I was a little girl, I was in a play about this story. I was Zacchaeus and I can’t for the life of me remember the song I sang. That song though has stuck with me all these years. That is the song Jesus sings when Zacchaeus makes his promise. “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
  Each night we performed, Jesus would open his arms in joy, “Salvation has come to this place.” What is salvation? In the dictionary, salvation means ‘preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.” What harm, ruin, or loss is Zacchaeus delivered from in the moment he makes this promise?
  Jericho was a main trade route, and was an important customs center. As chief tax collector Zacchaeus had contracted for the right to collect revenues in the district. He is a wealthy man. Certainly he is not suffering any harm or loss in terms of the comfort of his lifestyle or worries over what harm may come. Not too much earlier in the text of Luke, in Chapter 18 vs. 24-25 Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” What does he mean?
  Some would say this refers to a realm in the after-life, a heaven. Some would say that salvation comes through believing in Christ, and when it comes one is saved from punishment in the life to come. Yet Zacchaeus does not declare any particular belief in Christ as messiah or God or anything else. Certainly he calls him ‘Lord’ but this is not necessarily a denotation of divinity, but rather a term that one would use for someone of great power and worthy of respect. Yet Jesus says ‘salvation has come to this place.’
  Not too much earlier in the text of Luke, in Chapter 17 vs. 21, “[when the Kingdom of God comes] nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you, in the midst of you.”
  The harm that Zacchaeus is delivered from is two-fold. It is not coming from some after-life punishment. It is in the here and now, in his very lifetime. One aspect of it is the state of his inner being. He has become a wealthy man by betraying his own people, by taking advantage of them, and filling his own pockets. He has become twisted with greed and domination. He is shriveled up inside. He has lost that which drives us to care for one another, to share who we are and all that we have. He has lost that which connects us to God and to our fellow human beings.
   This is the other part of what Zacchaeus suffers. His choice to put wealth over humanity has isolated him from his community. Though he is a ‘son of Abraham’ to others, he is a traitor. He has sinned not just by cheating but also by collaborating with an oppressive government. The sins of the Romans are his sins as well because he works for them. Because of this, his community excludes him from their lives. They want to exclude him so much that they even give wandering itinerant teachers a hard time for having dinner with him. His wealth does not protect him from being seen as a sinner. In fact it is a sign of it, and as such all those who associate with him are sinning as well.
  Jesus sees things a little differently though. It is not that he does not recognize Zacchaeus’ sins. As we heard him say, it is incredibly hard for a rich man to find the wholeness, healing, and peace that is the salvation of the Kingdom of God. Yet as difficult as it may be, Jesus tells us that ‘with God, all things are possible.” In fact, he explains that he has come to seek out and save the lost- all those who are hurting and broken, for whatever reason. And when he finds them what he offers them is not further exclusion and punishment. Jesus brings friendship. He begins by sitting down together, sharing a meal, treating that person as someone worthy of time, conversation, and love.
  Zacchaeus is so moved by Jesus’ presence with him that he declares that he will give half of his goods to the poor and if has defrauded anyone he will return it fourfold. Giving fourfold what he has defrauded is the requirement of the law in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It is a sign of his return to God and to the rules of his community rather than the rules of the Romans. Giving half of his goods to the poor is his transformation. It is not something that he does for someone else. He is not giving to the poor out of the goodness of his heart. He is not giving to the poor because they need him. He is not giving to the poor because of their desperate circumstances, or out of charity.
  Zacchaeus is giving to the poor because it helps him. He is giving to the poor for himself. He is giving to the poor because he is need. He is in need of what that giving will do for him. It is not just a sign of salvation; it is his salvation. Jesus, and Jesus’ kindness, is the impetus but it is the giving that transforms Zacchaeus.
  Zacchaeus is transformed from a small greedy traitor into a man of generosity, concern for his community, and hope. He is filled with the joy that comes with salvation. In the moment, everything changes for him. He is no longer the person he was. And it shows, in his actions, in his demeanor, and in whom he aligns himself to. The joy spreads outward to everyone whom he contacts, and it fills Jesus. It reminds Jesus, this is why Jesus came, to spread this joy and this love, this caring for others and this sense of one community, without barriers. For the son of man has come to seek and save the lost.
  Paul tells us that each one of us must work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Now the Greek words he uses are not meant to convey that we should be afraid, shaking in the dark, as we try to find truth. Rather they are meant to convey respect, humility, hard work, perseverance, and hope. We also must seek our salvation. We cannot just wait for it to come, or imagine that because we’ve chosen to call ourselves Christian or attend church, that we have found our salvation. We must seek out the presence of Jesus, high and low. Climb trees if we must. Invite strangers to our home. Listen to teachers. Provide hospitality. Engage in fellowship with those who are not like us. Recognize our connection to those who oppress. Repent for what we have done. Repay what we owe, fourfold. Give to the poor. Not for their benefit, but for our own. And then, the dawn from on high will break forth, and we will know the joy of salvation.
“Salvation, salvation has come to this place.
The whole wide creation is touched by God’s grace.
In glad celebration, join hands and embrace.
For the day of salvation is here.
Yes, it’s here.”
Let us pray.

Revelations 21:1-6
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
God will dwell with them as their God;
they will be God’s peoples,
and God will be with them;
God will wipe every tear from they eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a figt from the spring of the water of life.”
I Corinthians 15:50-58
What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O deth, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Amen.

Nov 4

Let us pray.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer.
These are the promises of God.
That death is not the end.
That we will be changed.
That the world will be changed.
Yet this does not happen as a miracle unconnected to us. It does not happen without our participation, our work, our commitment, our agony, our pain. We must first go through the journey of life, the journey of faith, and the journey of death, in order to be changed.
So,
let us begin the journey
a journey into loss
a journey into communion.
Those two are always connected.
Connecting to one another
precipitates our loss of one another.
Recognizing our loss of one another
precipitates our reconnection.
God promises us,
nothing loved is ever truly lost.
We stand in opposite worlds, yes,
but only just this side of each other.
How much easier it is to know this in the fall,
the brilliant beauty of loss,
surrounding us on all sides.
Red
Gold
Yellow
Falling leaves
wind
just a little colder today than yesterday
grass still green with life
brown leaves a sign
of the dying soon to come.
What will we do when it comes?
Weep
beat our breasts
wrestle in the agony of our
continued heart’s beat,
then
pretend we are
all right now,
knowing we are not,
continue moving
step by step
dry branches
surrounded by the white endless
blankness
until
it finds us
without our bidding
or even
welcoming,
that bit of green
stretching forth
despite the odds
into the new life
of another resurrection.
(pause)
This is the time of All Souls.
When the names we call out and the stories that we tell draw those people close to us,
so that we might share in one another’s grief,
and so that we might begin the process of transformation,
remembering who we were by who they were to us,
remembering who we will become by drawing them close.
Let us remember our beloved dead.
Time of Rememberance. (congregation contrbutes)
Let us pray.

Luke 4:16-20

“When he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives ad recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.”

Sirach 18:25

“In the time of plenty, think of the time of hunger; in days of wealth think of poverty and need.”

"Haiti"
Village Congregational Church
October 28, 2007

  When I told people that I was going to Haiti this last week, they thought I was going on my honeymoon with Kelly. I was surprised to hear this, since I couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to go to Haiti on a honeymoon. But then I remembered Haiti is part of a Caribbean island, the other side of the Dominican Republic, where people do go on honeymoons. There are white sand and turquoise waters, swaying palm trees and hot sun, mountains beyond mountains of lush green. If you closed your eyes, it’d be easy to see the dolphin tours and hiking trips, tourist t-shirts and tropical drinks.
  But if you open your eyes, it’s quite a different story. Because when you open your eyes, you are surrounded by poverty. The streets are filled with potholes. Trash lines them because there are no sewers. For the first few days the smell of burning assaults your nostrils but eventually it just fades into the background of the day. Everywhere you go is packed with people. Shacks are piled next to and on top of each other. Each square foot is filled with someone selling something- paintings, carvings, fruit, clothes, shoes. Far more people selling than buying.
  We toured the hospital one day and as far as I could tell for an entire building there was one person on staff that day. Families surrounded each patient because they have to feed, clothe, bring linen, and care for them while they are there in addition to paying the hospital fees. One of our translators couldn’t remember the word for lunch; they just don’t eat that often.
  Being an animal lover, I always notice the dogs when I travel. I had been warned in fact about what it’d be like there. But I have to tell you that it was much better than a number of other wealthier areas I’ve been to. These dogs weren’t fat and well-fed like dogs here, but they weren’t starving and they weren’t afraid of people either. I think that says something about a society. If you can be so close to starvation yourself, yet still take care of the animals in your care.
  In fact there were a lot of things that amazed me about the people of Haiti. We went to visit Conaspeh, the Council of Churches. Most of Haiti is Catholic, Episcopalian, and Methodist. However, there are a number of small other Protestant churches on their own. 5800 of them have come together to form this Council of Churches called Conaspeh. In a ridiculously short amount of time after forming, they started a seminary, a nursing school, a women’s economic cooperative, a primary and secondary school for children, and started providing emergency assistance. They are bustling with activity and purpose, providing people with opportunity, jobs, and a future in a place where there is none.
  While the Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ was still considering whether or not they should give them some money, the founders Patrick and Francois did not wait but rather began their school anyway. By the time they did receive their assistance, students were graduating. In a country where there is 78% unemployment and 56% illiteracy, it is a very big deal to graduate. Somehow these people seem to have managed to make something out of nothing, to blossom despite dry rocky soil, weeds, and lack of rain. In some places of desperation, there seem to be a glut of ngos, or non-governmental organizations, and yet nothing being done. Yet here in the midst of a kind of misery we can barely imagine, the people of the country have come together to create something amazing.
  Conaspeh’s logo is an upside down tree because they believe our roots should be in God and from there we will blossom and grow. What do our roots tell us? What did Jesus mean when he stood up in the synagogue and said,
  ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
  What is good news to the poor? I’ll tell you. Food. Education. Health Care. Freedom from fear and oppression. God’s love demonstrated not by some abstract principle but by our very hands, our very determination, our very actions. These words were Jesus’ entire sermon that day. In fact they were Jesus’ entire sermon his entire life. In fact these words were his life, and they are what he has commanded us to do as his followers. So I ask you, what good news have you proclaimed?   What have you done? What has it meant for someone else?
I ran across this song on the internet. I wanted to play it for you but it takes some time to order it, so I’ll play it for you later. For now, I just want to tell you about it. It’s called ‘I See You.” Here are the words:
On the last night of a trip I took to Haiti
I was driving down this crowded city street
I can still see the diesel fumes lingering in the headlights
I can still see that little girl’s bare feet
She was wearing a tattered yellow dress
She was 4 or 5 years old I would guess
Another orphaned street kid, working hard to just survive
To be honest, I was hoping to drive right by
But the traffic was grid-locked to a standstill
And when she noticed my white skin, she came real quick
She leaned up against my window and then with one little hand
She pointed back and forth from her belly to her lips
At first she seemed a little bit too practiced
At pulling strings of guilt and sympathy
And then, I’m not sure why -- but I looked right into her eyes
And as I did these words washed over me
I see you. I see you.
Hey little girl, I won’t pretend that you’re not there
I see you. I see you.
Little girl Christ, I see you.
People tell me please, don’t give these street kids money
It just perpetuates their cruel dependency
And to be honest, I didn’t like the thought of pulling out my wallet
You never know who else is working these crowded streets
Compassion sure was feeling complicated
Mother Teresa called these kids Christ in disguise
But there was nothing that seemed right to try to do for her that night
And how often I have quoted that familiar cold statistic
32,000 children starve to death each day
A few more years, some high-heel shoes and lip stick
And little girls will do what they must do just to still those hunger pains
One more day
I could see the traffic up ahead was moving
But she and I kept looking eye to eye
And when the moment finally came to take my foot off of the brake
She shrugged her shoulders, and then she cracked this little smile
And as I drove away I made a promise
Little girl, I never will forget your face
And I’ll do what’s mine to do to change the world for kids like you
And when I hear 32,000, I’ll remember you and say...
I see you. I see you.
Hey little girl, I won’t pretend that you’re not there
I see you. I see you.
Little girl Christ, I see you.
Haitians feel entirely alone in the universe, cries seen and heard only by God. We are supposed to be God’s followers on earth, so I pray this morning, you will take a moment to hear the wooden bell.1
Let us pray.
(Footnotes)
1 The wooden bell is a traditional wooden carving inscribed with a cross and the saying, “no one hears the cry of the poor or the sound of a wooden bell.”

Luke 16:1-13
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him. “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg- I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose m job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
‘The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly and make it four hundred.’
‘Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
‘He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
‘The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest in very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
‘No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Exodus 32:1-9
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, “Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

“Whom Do You Serve?”
Village Church
September 23, 2007

  Jesus turns the ethics of the world upside down. When we expect him to judge, he refuses. What we expect him to value, he dismisses. He tells us stories, which are so twisted that thousands of years later, we are still pondering. This morning’s story is a doozy. Here is this steward who is so wasteful that he’s about to get fired. Jesus in fact refers to him as the dishonest manager.
  And yet, the steward is the hero of the story. He makes the right choice. How is that possible? Well, we are told that he acts shrewdly. To be shrewd is to be sharp and piercing, to be marked by clever discerning awareness and hard –headed acumen, to be given to wily and artful ways of dealing, clever in judgment. He gives away half of his boss’s money, yet his boss praises his judgment. What does he do that is so praiseworthy?
  The steward learns what is valuable. He learns to value not money or even what his boss thinks of him but rather he values what his community thinks of him. He values whether or not he will be seen as kind, generous, forgiving. He values whether or not he will be loved, welcomed, and embraces.
  When he heard that his master thought he was wasteful, he could have made a different choice. He could have called in all of his master’s debts. He could have invested his master’s money. So that when his master came to see him, he could show him all the money that he had made him- thus proving that he was not wasteful and saving his job.
  Instead he chooses friendship with his community over money or saving his joby. He chooses graciousness and generosity over fear. He chooses to trust that reaching out to those around him will bring him more than continuing the ways of the world. The master, surprisingly, recognizes the rightness, the righteousness, of his choice. We are not told why. Perhaps the master is humbled by the risk he took. Perhaps the master was once forgiven a debt himself. Perhaps the master was only waiting for an indication that the steward would think for himself, that he would do something with the responsibility he had been given.
  We are, after all, expected to manage all that we have been given. We are expected to spend wisely, to forgive debts, and act shrewdly. Yet what are we to be shrewd about? Jesus points out that usually we are more astute in the ways of world than the ways of the Kingdom.
  We spend our lives learning how to save our money, how to call in our debts with interest, how to take what we have and multiply it so that we end up with more. What we have a much harder time with is spending the money we have on what is truly of value, giving away rather than charging interest, cutting debts in half or writing them off all together, letting go. In that way, we end up with more. More time, more community, more peace, more friendship, more light.
  The true riches that Jesus speaks of are not the riches of car or clothes, or status. The true riches that Jesus speaks of cannot be seen. The property that we may be given if we choose to be shrewd in the way of light is not land or house. The property that Jesus speaks of is heavenly property. And I do not mean a mansion in the clouds after you die. I am speaking of right now in your life. The property is in the Kingdom of God that is within you, property in the Kingdom of God that is all around you when you live the life that Jesus is calling you to live.
  Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters. It reminded me of the story of the golden calf in Exodus. The people of Israel have been delivered from slavery in Egypt. However, they are a long way from the miracles of the Red Sea, a long way from the hardship of oppression. They are wandering about in the desert wilderness, unsure of their future, where they are going and whether or not it will be any better than where they have come from. Moses has gone up into the mountains and disappeared, and Aaron just does not inspire as much confidence.
  The people of Israel are not ungracious. It is not that they do not appreciate what Moses and God did. They are just afraid. They want a god they can see and touch. They want a god who will be out in front, shielding them. They want a god who will be apparent, who will look impressive, striking terror in the hearts of enemies and building their own confidence so they have the nerve to continue to search for a home.
  Yet God will not demonstrate God’s self in an image, and will not allow us to make images of God either. God does not want us to box ourselves in, and God does not want us to box God in. God is more than any metaphor that we have, any image that we imagine. And that wide openness is terrifying sometimes. The world is a frightening place. Horrible things happen. It is hard in fact just to live day to day, trying to make ends meet, take care of one’s self and one’s family. We would like to draw God over us like a blanket, that we might be safe, protected, and covered.
  But God is unwilling to allow us to dwell in our childhood. God is unwilling to allow us to hide from our fear. God pushes us to a more mature faith. God pushes us to confront whatever we meet in the wildernesses of our life. Again and again, God asks us to choose.
  It is maddening of course because we have no assurance. We have no golden calf to stand out in front of us. We have no proof that the way of light will lead us to the Kingdom. We have no proof that choosing friendship over a job, community over wealth, forgiveness over punishment, generosity over strict accounting, grace over judgment will be the right choice.   We certainly have no assurance that it will protect us.
In fact no where does God promise that terrible things will not happen to us, only that God will be with us when they do, and that when we choose the way of light than we will dwell in the Kingdom of God.
  So it is up to us. To choose to push ahead away from the fears of world to a more mature faith, to choose whether we will live in the priorities of the world or the priorities of the Kingdom. We only know that we cannot serve two masters, and that even when it seems that God has disappeared God remains surrounding us with love and with the question, whom do you serve, and the power to make the choice.
  Let us pray

Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
 So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’
Jonah 3:1-4:4
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’
 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’

“Leaving the Lost Behind”
Village Church
September 16, 2007

  Jonah went through a lot to become a prophet. He never wanted to be one in the first place though. In fact he took off in a ship trying to run from God. I can sure relate to that. Have you ever run from God?
  Anyway, Jonah is in this ship and a huge storm rocks them from end to end. Everyone is terrified. Jonah, absolutely certain that he is the center of the world, tells the others this is all his fault and they should toss him overboard. Naturally, they think he is a nutcase. But eventually they give in and toss him into the sea.
  But the story is not yet over. A huge fist swallows Jonah to save him, as well as to give him some time to think. Three days Jonah contemplates inside the fish. He remembers the words of the Psalm we recited in our Call to Worship last week.
  O Lord You have searched me and known me,
You discern my thoughts from far away.
  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
  Even before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me.
  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
  Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
  If I take the wings of morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me fast.
  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You;
the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to You. For it was You who formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  I praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; that I know well.
  The fish deposits him on the beach. This time when God’s word comes to him a second time, he decides to give in. What happens when you give in to God? ‘Giving oneself over to such an [divine] encounter, [the poet Rilke] says, involves terror, as if such an angel “would come more fiercely to interrogate you, and rush to seize you blazing like a star, and bend you as if trying to create you, and break you open, out of who you are.”
  Jonah heads in to Nineveh and preaches. God is coming! Repent! And shockingly, unlike most prophets, they believe him. They repent. The word for repent is [word] and it means ‘to turn around.’ It means not only having remorse for what one has done but also changing, turning towards God and changing one’s actions. The people of Nineveh repent. And God is thrilled. God is thrilled because cause is filled with mercy and love. God is not looking to punish but rather to transform our hearts into hearts of compassion, and our lives into lives of light.
  Jonah, however, is pissed. He has preached punishment, and the punishment did not come. He doesn’t care about the change the people of Nineveh have gone through. What he cares about is validation of who he is. After all he went through to become a prophet, he wants people to know that he really is one. He doesn’t want them to think he is a fraud. If what he promised would come does not come, no one will believe in him. No one will know God really did come through. He doesn’t want them to be forgiven. He would rather be right.
  After the running away, the storms on the ship, the three days of darkness inside the fish, he committed himself to God’s path. He committed himself so wholeheartedly that he actually made change happen. But now, he is alone. Everything has changed. God’s path has changed. And Jonah is invisible again, just another guy. He is so bereft without his power and his righteousness that he wants to die. He sits underneath the fig tree and prays for suicide.
  Have you ever lost your sense of purpose for being? Has the world changed so much, has God changed so much, that you have lost your bearing? I have good news for you. Jesus has gone looking for you.
When we hear the word sinner we think terrible thoughts. Either we think that’s a word for murderers and drug dealers, surely not for us. Or we start beating ourselves over the head for the last time we told a lie or hurt someone’s feeling. The word sin means to miss the mark. We shoot for something and it doesn’t hit our target. We set off on a journey, and we get off track. We get confused. We get lost.
  Ever been lost? Show of hands. Sometimes we go in with all the answers; sure that God is with us. Charging ahead, ready to deal out how things are going to be, how things should be, leaving the lost behind. But then we find everything has changed. Instead of charging ahead with us and our self-righteousness, God has gone looking for the lost. Before we know it, the world has turned upside down, and we are the ones who are lost.
  I have good news for you though. Jesus has gone looking for the lost.
  I love the story of the lost coin for a number of reasons. One is that it is one of the several places in the bible where God is cast in the role of a woman. God is feminine, maternal, full of gentleness and concern. In this story God is a woman looking for a lost coin. We evaluate everything in our society by money, even people. We evaluate success and value through numbers. A large church is better because it has a higher number of people, and thus more money. But Jesus turns this around. In the midst of a society in 1st century Palestine that had no concept of individuality, he said each one is valuable. To Jonah, who was a Jewish prophet speaking to Nineveh a Gentile society, he said each society is valuable.
  Only you can know what God is trying to tell you this morning. Perhaps you have become sure of your judgment in the world. Perhaps you have lost sight of the lost, of compassion, of God. Perhaps your world is about to change. Perhaps you are the one who is lost.
  If you are lost, I have good news for you. Your world is about to change. Jesus is looking for you.
  Let us pray.

Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

I Kings 19:15-20
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’
 So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was ploughing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ Then Elijah said to him, ‘Go back again; for what have I done to you?’

“What Have I done to you?”
Village Church
September 9, 2007

  Jesus does not want everyone to follow him. This may come as something of a shock because we have become very focused on that point in the history of the church. We have even argued that if you do not follow Jesus you are in some major serious trouble. Yet in our reading today Jesus is actually telling the crowd to consider the cost before they follow him, and if it is too much, if in fact they don’t agree to certain costs, they cannot follow him.
  “Whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Why in the world would Jesus want you to hate your family or your life? Jesus is making a point here. He is not being literal. He is not advocating hatred, of others or self. The point is about attachment. Are you more attached to what your family thinks of you, or what God thinks of you? Are you focused on meeting the day to day details of your life, or have you considered what God wants for your life? If you are not willing to go against what your family wants for you, if you are not willing to abandon whatever society has set up for your life in order to do what God is calling you to, then do not follow Jesus.
  “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” The cross is not an image of universal suffering at the time that Jesus made this statement. So if you are suffering from some ailment to bear that ailment without complaint may be charitable of you, but it is not carrying your cross. Carrying the cross in Jesus’ time meant that you had been sentenced to death by the Roman government. This is what happened to criminals, revolutionaries, and innocent people caught in the crossfire of persecution. Carrying your cross was both to bear the persecution of injustice and to stand in the way of that injustice. Jesus recognizes the oppression of the world. He expects his followers to challenge that oppression. He expects his followers to speak for the poor, the abandoned, the silenced, no matter what the consequences are. He expects his followers to be persecuted by the power of the world because they are standing up to that power. Jesus expects his followers to be the voice of justice.
  “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?” We are not to follow Jesus blindly. We are to follow him with our eyes open. In fact, we are first to sit down and estimate just how much it is going to cost us. What will it cost you to follow Jesus? Well, now that depends on what it means, doesn’t it. If following Jesus just means showing up for church on Sunday and being a good person, then the cost isn’t so large. But what if it is more than that? What if it means the complete transformation of your life? What if it means considering God first before all things, even those you love most? What if it means spending your money on others, on the poor, on the church, rather than taking care of your own desires? What if it means being opening about your faith in situations when others would put you down or think you are fundamentalist or think you are ridiculous? What if it means getting involved in making changes in the world rather than sitting back and hoping that others will make changes instead?
  Jesus wants us to be able to finish. Honestly, we don’t even know what that means. We can imagine. We can hope. But we cannot know what it means to finish. We do know though that what we do in our lives lays a foundation for that finishing. Every action, every thought, every feeling, we are working on our foundation, either building it up or tearing it down. After all, it’s not just a one time decision. Jesus does not invite us to follow him so that he may then hand us the truth like keys to the kingdom. Instead, Jesus invites us on a journey, where each step we take transforms us so that we become living embodiments of that kingdom.
  Jesus gives everyone the good news of God’s love, open and free to all. But to us he has set a choice, to follow, to become a disciple. It may be that when we consider what it means to be not just someone who thinks Christianity is a good philosophy but rather what it means to be disciple, it may be that we will be like the king who considering the size of his troops decides to sue for peace instead.
  “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” There is a lot of debate over that statement, as you can imagine. St. Francis took it quite literally. He threw his expensive fashionable clothes out the window to crowds below and set out with nothing but a robe, sandals, and a staff. My New Testament professor thought it was said for shock value. So that you would understand that possessions were not important. So you would understand that God is what is important.
  Either way, what are we to do with Jesus’ words? They seem harsh when we hear them, judgmental and exclusive. We want to be able to follow Jesus without giving up our possessions, without detaching from our family and our life. We want to follow Jesus without cost.
  Elijah is the Hebrew prophet extraordinaire. He is so special that at the end of his ministry, he is taken straight into heaven via chariot without the inconvenience of dying. He is the one who is to come again before the Messiah. He is the one for whom a place at the table is set for at every Passover meal. During his time the political struggle and the religious struggle are one and the same. The prophet anoints the king, who then decides which religion and in what way that religion is practiced. It is a violent struggle, with king, priest, and prophet all enmeshed in bloodshed.
  So, there is Elijah, filled with his own power striding by throwing his mantle- which is like his spirit- over Elisha, thus choosing him as his successor. Which he does without even stopping. Elisha, regular farmer that he is, runs after Elijah and begs to be able to first kiss his father and mother goodbye. It is in that moment that Elijah suddenly realizes what this life will mean for Elisha, and asks himself, “What have I done to you?” He stops for a moment in grief over the regular life of family and land that will be lost to him, and compassion for the hardship that will lie ahead. Elisha is allowed to go back and say his farewells.
  Jesus does not allow for farewells. He tells his disciples they must lose their attachment. He does, however, allow for the choice. If you would rather not put God first in your life, then do not become a follower of Jesus. If, on the other hand, you are ready to put God before all other things, before your money and your possessions, before your family, before your needs, even your subsistence, then you can become a disciple. Do you think you are already a disciple of Christ? Then I ask you this: what has been the cost for you? What have you lost? Take a moment, have compassion for yourself, grieve, and let it go. The kingdom of God lies before you. Can you think of nothing? Has being a disciple cost you nothing? Then you have not begun the journey on which Jesus has invited you. You have been a member of the crowd, listening to the words of Jesus, watching the disciples, yet never becoming one yourself.
  I invite you this morning to consider the cost of discipleship. Jesus is calling you. What will you answer?

Luke 14:1-14

  On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people o the Sabbath, or not?” But they were silent. So Jesus took him away. Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day? And they could not reply to this.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
He said also to the one who had invited him, “when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?
They did not say, “Where is the Lord who brought us out of Egypt, who led us into the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”
I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that did not profit.
Therefore once more I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children’s children. Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns than can hold no water.

“Message to the Prophets”
Village Church
September 2, 2007

Jeremiah is consumed by the wrongs of his world. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever watched the news and just broke down in anger over how much we hurt one another?
  Jeremiah was a prophet during the sixth century b.c.e. through three kings- Josiah, Jehokiam, and Zedekiah- until Jerusalem was taken into captivity. He lived through a hard time in Israel’s history. He was the son of a priest, and had never wanted to be a prophet. When God came to him, he said, but you know me. I can’t speak very well at all. But God has a penchant for those who’d rather be doing something else, and he was called anyway.
  In the beginning of Jeremiah’s prophetic career, Israel is going through a renewal. Society is well off, the kingship is stable, enemies are abated. So why in the world is Jeremiah so mad? He insists that people are going after things that do not profit.
  This is an irony obviously because they have been brought to a plentiful land with fruits and good eating. Their economy has developed. They have become powerful, changed from wandering nomadic herders to a wealthy kingdom. Their profits are high. Yet Jeremiah knows that these are not the things that profit the soul. And in fact, in our pursuit of them we may lose ourselves entirely. We, like the Israelites, go after wealth and power. The more we seek to have, the more others do not have. Our society becomes more distinctly drawn between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the oppressed. We lose sight of that which truly matters- our relationship to God and to one another.
Jeremiah calls God the fountain of living water. Living water is the difference between water that sits idly in a well and will run out, and water that flows freely from the mountains or an underground source. Living water does not run out, and without it one cannot live. It is the source of life’s beginning and continuing. To forsake God, then, is to forsake life. Without God, we lose sight of our source. We become dried up. We shrivel and are caught up in scrabbling between one another for fading resources, when all along God is here to provide.
  To know the source of living water, and to then choose to dig a cistern instead is madness. A cracked cistern may leach the water with minerals and sickness, whereas living water is fresh and renews. We take something that God gives us freely, and try to exert our own power over it. In the process, we make ourselves sick and pollute what we have been given.
  The prophets are consumed with anger because they are attuned to righteousness. They are attuned to the AIDs babies born this morning, the soldiers who are dying, the women murdered by their partners, the children being sold cocaine, the girls sold into slavery, the people malnourished and starving. They are attuned to our ignorance and our self-absorbed focus on our own small problems. They are attuned to all of our small lies, and small cheating, and small cruelties. Except they do not experience them as small but each one as a knife in their heart, each one a brick in between the wall between ourselves and God. The message of the prophets is to call us back from our apathy and our self-interest, into the heart of God, into our own heart, that we may feel the suffering and the joy of the world.
  Jesus is a prophet as well. Every one of his words and his actions serve to point us back to God. The Pharisees have made a distinction between themselves and this man with dropsy. Thus it is okay to pull out their child or their ox on the Sabbath, but not to cure this man. Their children and their oxen are important because they are important. This man, having no relation to them, is not.
  It is not just a matter of having humility, but also of understanding our place in connection with one another. Jesus is not trying to say that we are not important or that we must see ourselves as lowly and having no value. On the contrary, we are extraordinarily valuable in the eyes of God. What we are to remember is that those whom we think we have no connection to, whom we care nothing about, are just as valuable in the eyes of God. In fact, in the eyes of God, they are our brothers and sisters. God expects us to care for them as we would our own children.
  When we care for one another, not just our friends and relatives, but those who are so different from us, those who are oppressed, who are hurting, who are poor, then we find the fount of Living Water, which Jeremiah urges us never to abandon, lest we lose the very source of who we are.
Let us pray.

Luke 12:13-21

“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 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 towards God.’

“How do you know what is important?”
Village Church
August 19, 2007

  How do we decide what is important? We learn from those around us. Parents. Friends. Culture. Church. Of course, we get conflicting messages. It comes down to the moment when we must decide for ourselves. Often times there are those things which we say are important to us because that is what we think should be important to us. And then there’s the reality of how we live our lives. My professor always used to say if you want to know what is really important to someone, look at their wallet and their date book. Money and time. How do we spend what we have, no matter how much or how little it is? As Jesus says, there are all kinds of greed. The things that we have distract us from the things that are most important. We spend so much of our time trying to get more or trying to keep what we have. We seek a life of a certain stature, whatever that stature may be, instead of seeking a life of simplicity.
  This parable is not just about wealth, though. It is not just about not hoarding your possessions but rather sharing with others. It is also about not waiting. It is about living your life fully now before it is too late to be lived. It is about not waiting to do the things which are most important to you, to have that conversation you keep putting off because it will be so difficult, to take that risk you’ve always held back from taking because you’re sure you’ll have more time.
  The truth is we are all dying. Life is a terminal condition. Not a single one of us knows how long we will have, even the youngest and healthiest. Yet we live pushing away that knowledge out of fear. Jesus urges us, instead of pushing that knowledge away out of fear, to use it to live a more full and Godly life. To store up our eternal treasure. Because the things that are most important do not depend on money or time or space, or even life.
  To help people with cancer a therapist started running a dying group. In it, the members would prepare for their death, doing all the things they had never done and speaking to all the people they’d hurt and had hurt them. It was such an experience for the therapist herself that she decided to run the groups for people who were not dying. In the process, wounds were healed, reconciliation was discovered, and people were able to continue living their lives more free and whole.
  It strikes me in this Gospel story that Jesus is unwilling to be the judge or arbiter. In a situation that seems pretty clear- a man has gotten an inheritance and refused to share it with his own brother- Jesus is unwilling to judge. Instead he tells the man, look to your self. Judge your own heart. Change your own actions. How often do we go to God wanting judgment on someone else, sure that we are the ones in the right? We want God to be a Judge, but what would happen if God was. Who would be able to stand? We want fairness in our actions, but we forget about our motivations and feelings, the words we use towards one another, and the love we have or don’t have. We see only our own immediate and selfish perspective. We forget about the other person’s perspective. We forget about God’s perspective.
  Even if we are truly being treated poorly, the only actions we can control are our own. Who knows where they may lead, if we follow a course of actions based in the openness of the love of God?
  When we were young my brother and I were very close. However, as he became an adult my brother became very conservative. When I first came out, we didn’t speak for six months. Eventually we spoke but it was mostly about a shared television show. When my father died he left his house in California to my brother. He had written a letter when he made out the will explaining to me that since I was gay and therefore not getting married my brother would need the house more. So my brother got the house and sold it.
  My foster-mother was furious over this. Still is, most likely. She thinks I have been treated unfairly; that my brother should divide the family inheritance with me.
  When my father was dying, we were very estranged. We had both spent most of the years of my life judging each other for various reasons. I had so much anger towards him that pretty much just the thought of him filled my stomach with nausea. Some of it was based in things he had done. Some of it was based in how different we were. And some of it was based on what I didn’t like about who he was. I judged just about everything about him, even though part of my anger was over his judgment of me. We had not really talked since I was about ten. It may seem a terrible thing to say but his dying was a gift to me. It made me go see him. It made me say all the things I had spent a lifetime holding in. It made his heart open enough to hear what I needed to say, and respond with a love he’d never had the courage or ability to show in his lifetime. When he died, I was sad for the life we had lived together, but completely at peace with our relationship and the death that we shared together.
  My brother, on the other hand, was in turmoil at my father’s death. They spent so much time together and yet they were never able to fully see one another, to fully be present, to fully say all the things they wanted to say to each other. As he went through the things in my father’s house to sell it, each thing was a painful memory never discussed, a good memory never explained, a moment lost between them because denial is so much easier than honesty. I suppose on some level, we all want more. We want more time with one another, we want to be able to do more, say more, love more, no matter how much time we have been given. But my brother needed that connection so much more than I did. He hadn’t let go in the way that I was able to.
  It changed my relationship with my brother in a number of ways too. In the midst of his angst over the unfinished business with my father and the guilt over his own actions, things changed. Not monetarily but in our relationship. We stopped talking about television, and we started talking about our lives. What is important to us, who we love, what we struggle with, what we hope for. We don’t always agree, we don’t always connect, but we are at peace and sure of one another’s love, fully as the person we truly are rather than the person we might like each other to be.
  We are here in the midst of this confusing and painful life to love one another, to learn a few things, so that our souls may grow. We are flawed, weak, and judgmental. We make mistakes. We get confused about what is important. We are distracted by the superficial. We get caught up in what we have, our money and our possessions. We get caught up in our stature in society that seems to depend on such things. We don’t know how to live simply. We are reminded, and then we forget again. The beauty of life is that we can make new decisions. We can risk again. We can be open, we can heal, we can go further on the journey that God has set out for us, calling us to it again every time we got stuck, bogged down, or lost. God is ever pushing us towards the treasure within that will never fade, even in the hour of our death.
Listen to the words of Mary Oliver.

  Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have.

I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons.

Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell;

Grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.
Let us pray.

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

Luke 12:32-34
‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The Opposite of Faith is Not Doubt”
Village Church
August 12, 2007

 What is faith? We use the word all the time. We hear it in the Bible, in the Media. We use it in our conversations pleading- have faith in me. But what does it really mean? Sometimes when we are going through a hard time, we are hurt or angry. We say we have lost our faith because we no longer trust that God is going to be there for us. Is faith trust?
  Sometimes we become so traumatized from the pain in our lives that we decide God was never there in the first place. Sometimes we become so overwhelmed by the sins of the religious community, that we decide we must have been wrong. God cannot be real with all the evil, suffering, and stupidity in the world. We say we have lost our faith because we no longer believe. Is faith belief?
  Abraham is the Father of our Faith. In fact, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all descend from his faith. In the letter to the Hebrews, he is our example of what it means to be faithful. Yet Abraham is not exactly a paragon of belief or trust.
  Yes, yes, it is true that he set out when God called him. He did leave his home and family just on God’s word that he would receive even more once he got to where God was sending him. But a lot of things went down on the way there.
  God has told him that he will have land and descendants. Presumably to get both he and his wife both have to be alive. Yet out of fear for his life- and a certain disregard for his wife’s life- he lies to the Pharaoh of Egypt saying that Sarah is his sister not his wife. Abraham is afraid for his life. He isn’t trusting in God to get him out of it. He’s lying instead.
  He hasn’t thought it through all that well though. When the king, believing Abraham, takes Sarah to be his bride, God steps in rescue her sending plagues. She returns to Abraham and they all leave the country. Practically a heartbeat later, they are in Negeb. Once again, the King notices Sarah. Once again, Abraham lies saying that she is his sister. Once again, the King takes Sarah as a bride. This time God is a little gentler with the ruler, sending him a dream warning him. Sarah returns to Abraham.
  When God comes to Abraham to tell him, his wife is going to have a son, he questions God. How in the world are you going to manage that? I am old, and my wife is old. Yet had God not promised that Abraham’s descendants would be like the stars? Abraham’s lack of trust and belief is such that when Sarah suggests that he have a child with her maidservant instead, he agrees. Sure God promised they would have a son, but it’s getting late and he doesn’t see any son. So Hagar is impregnated, Ishmael is born, and sure enough the son originally promised, Isaac, is born to Sarah- and their descendants are fighting to this day.
  What are we supposed to get from all of this? How can Abraham be our example of faith when his belief constantly wavers, he lies when he gets in trouble, and his trust goes out the window when he can’t see the answer right in front of him. Well, personally, I find some comfort in this. Abraham is immensely human. He is like all of us. He wants to believe, but mostly he believes when God is right in front of him. He wants to trust God, but sometimes that is just really hard.
  So what is it that Abraham does do right? If he is not a paragon of belief or trust- or honesty- what is he? He is engaged. No matter what Abraham does, or what God asks of him, or what happens in his life, Abraham always remains engaged in his relationship with God. God comes to him making many promises. When years have passed and he is still wandering the desert, sure he’s got some livestock, but he’s got no place to call his own. He’s discouraged and tired, but when God comes again to suggest that he carve the symbol of their relationship into his very body, Abraham agrees. A lot of the time Abraham doesn’t really understand what God is asking of him or why. He gets frustrated and he doesn’t believe half of it. But he never gives up. He never stops trying. Whatever his emotions towards God or whatever Abraham does wrong, he is always willing to stay in dialogue. And that is what faith is.
  Faith is engagement. Faith is sticking around when you are furious with God to let God know. Faith is pouring out your despair to God, casting your anger and heartache and blame and frustration and lack of understanding at God’s feet. Faith does not mean not having doubt, or grief, or fear. Faith means taking that to God, even when you think it is God’s fault. Faith means that even when you’ve done something wrong, you have not lost your dialogue with God. Faith means that even when you doubt that God is listening or even there, you still struggle with angels. Faith means that even when something does not seem worth it, you stick around for the possibility.
  Luke wrote ‘where your treasure is, there your heart is also.’ But it could also be said, that where your heart is, you can find your treasure. Do you want to find God? Do you want to find your faith? Engage your heart.
  Let us pray.

Deuteronomy 8:11-16

Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep God’s commandments, ordinances, and statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humbly you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.

How many people here work in the same town that they live in? Raise your hands. I live in Holyoke, which as you may or may not know is 45 minutes or so from Cummington. That’s driving time. If I walked…well, I have heard of some youth who did it in a day and a half, but I’m not sure I have their stamina… If we did not have the roads that we do, I would not be able to have the jobs that I have. In fact, I spend a large portion of my days driving from one job to the next, one appointment to another. And I wouldn’t be able to do that if there were no roads, or if the roads were not paved and continually fixed. I never really stopped to think about roads before, how much they allow our society to be what it is. How many of us live within walking distance of a grocery store? Or the place we buy our clothes? Or where we go to school? Without roads we wouldn’t be able to do anything. Now, I haven’t taken a side job with the Department of Transportation, which is to say that I do have a point.
  We have an incredible amount of things in our life that make our lives easier that we never think about. Because it is easier for goods to reach us, they are cheaper. Thus we have access to a much larger range of goods than we would otherwise and we can afford to get more. We have shopping malls thanks to our roads. This struck me as I drove, or rather rattled and bumped and slid, down the roads in Juba in Southern Sudan. Since they were not paved, dust choaked the horizon so it was impossible to see. Still drivers had to weave left and right to make it around the holes. Only land rovers and buses could manage it, which of course meant that most people were walking- amidst the dust, the oncoming cars, the holes, and the goats, cattle, and trash. Slamming again and again into the roof and the window, I could hardly stand to ride for fifteen minutes, much less my usual commute of an hour or so.
  It is not just roads though that causes us to have an easier and richer lifestyle in the Western parts of the world. I didn’t have to pay for my primary or secondary school education. Of course there are some who go to private school in the United States, but it is a choice to pay rather than the only option. I visited a school in Juba that was literally sticks, mud, and tiny stones. The children and teachers built it out of the ruin of another building destroyed in the war. It was about the size of the entryway to the church, and 100 children packed inside of it. The roof was falling in. There was no light. The children chanted back to the teacher, as they had no books or writing utensils or desks.
  This is the school where the teacher introduced me to the children as the person who was going to build their school. In me they saw the West. I had something that they will never have, even if by some chance, the roads get paved and schools are built with light, desks, and supplies. I have access, access to the wealth and power of the West.
  I must admit to you this was a bit of a shock to me. After all, I am a small town preacher. I just barely get by monetarily speaking, and though educated, I’m not in politics or business. Yet, everywhere I went, people saw me as having access to the power and wealth of this country. After I got over the shock, I felt intimidated and overwhelmed. What in the world could I do? How could I possible make a difference? I did not have money or privilege.
  But that’s when I realized I did. I did have privilege. How in the world could I be traveling in East Africa and not think I had privilege? How in the world could I grow up hardly valuing the incredible education I got, driving every day on paved roads, using my own personal electricity for my own personal computer, and not think that I had privilege? It is that very access that gives me privilege. But then I realized something even more important. It isn’t just the things I have, or the luck of being born in a wealthy country, or even the opportunities, but rather my real privilege comes in my access. I may not have a lot of money or political power, but I have access to that. I have the ability to use my voice. I have the ability to speak about what is important to me, to raise money for CEAS’ water and education project, to lobby political leaders for change in Sudan. I have the opportunity, access, and ability to make a difference in any area that I want to. I only have to believe it.
  And so do you.
  The Scripture we heard this morning was written at a time when the Israelites were settled and living well. They did have houses and herds and a certain amount of money. Yet much like us they didn’t really consider themselves wealthy. They just considered themselves settled. The writer of Deuteronomy urges them to look back, to remember when they had nothing in Egypt, to remember when they were slaves, when they had to wander with no food, or water, or place to live. Yet this is written to the next generation. It is written to the generation that actually had not experienced slavery or wandering in the wilderness. How could they remember it when they had not experienced it?
  They were connected to those who had gone before. Their ancestors’ hardships were their hardships; their ancestors’ stories were their stories. God’s faithfulness to their ancestors’ was God’s faithfulness to them.
  We are not so connected to our histories anymore here. How many of you know the stories of your ancestors? Do you know what hardships they experienced coming to this country? Do you know what losses, what poverty? Are their stories part of your own story? You wouldn’t be here without them, yet many of us have little or no connection.
  Fortunately even if we do not know our family’s story, we are invited to share in this story. We have been adopted into this family- that we might connect to the memory of this hardship, and that we might know God’s faithfulness. Because just as God was faithful to the Israelites, God has been and will be faithful to us. Knowing God’s faithfulness to us, though, requires a response. We are invited to recognize- whatever our personal experiences are- the blessing of our privilege, and to remember God.
  Remembering God is not as simple as it sounds though. It does not mean just saying- oh, right, God, thanks! It means responding in our actions. It does not mean just being a good person and going to church or synagogue. It means taking responsibility for the privilege we have been given. It means helping the widowed, the orphaned, and the stranger. It means making a difference in whatever way you are called to. And rest assured, God is calling you. Let us pray.

Deuteronomy 10:12-19
So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to respect the Lord your God, to walk in all God’s ways, to love God, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and the decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set the Lord’s heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Hebrews 13:1-2
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

“Karibu”
Village Church
July 22, 2007

  Karibu is the Swahili word for ‘welcome.’ In the technical sense it is a response to thank you- ‘Asante. Karibu.’ Yet much like the phrase pole pole that I talked about a few weeks ago, it has a larger meaning. In Tanzania there is a long greeting process, part of which is expressed in the song we sang during the Children’s sermon.
  Jambo...Hello! Habari Gani? How are you? Mzuri Sana! Wonderful! Asante sana. Thank you very much. Karibu sana. You’re very welcome.
  When you enter a home or a store, people call out Karibu- welcome, come in. If you call someone’s name, they answer ‘karibu!’ It is a way of letting people know ask me anything, feel free to be yourself here because you are invited and accepted. Karibu is a way of being, an open and inviting intentional hospitality that leaves space for people to be whoever they are wherever they are from.
  The Maasai people are a tribe of people still living very traditionally in Tanzania and Kenya. They live in round homes made of mud with walls about a foot thick. They have no windows, just a tiny hole on either side. When you walk in the central area is very small and is taken up almost entirely by a blazing fire which is kept burning at all times. The fire makes the temperature of the home extremely hot but it is important to keep it burning all hours of the day and night, every single day, so that at any time, if someone dropped by, they could be fed and given tea.
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