March 4 - Detours and byways

Signposts of Renewal

March 4                Detours and Byways 

Anchor: Signposts for Renewal

Frame: Detours

Thread: Signs Added Each Week  (I don’t know where I am, but I know I’m not lost.)

               

John 14:4-7

“You know the way that leads to where I am going.” Thomas replied, “But we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I myself am the way— I am Truth, and I am Life.     No one comes to Abba God but through me. If you really knew me, you would know Abba God also. From this point on, you know Abba God and you have seen God.”

In “Christianity for the Rest of us” Diana Butler Bass says: “Christians think that faith is like a set of MapQuest directions—that there is only a single highway to God. After all, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” He is the map. And Christianity is a kind of vacation destination, a place you wind up in to escape hell. Such Christians claim that God has a plan for your life, a route you must follow or you will be lost in this life—and damned in the next. They even have things like “four spiritual laws” and “forty days of purpose” that tell you how to get there. Like computer-generated directions, this road is predetermined, distant, and authoritative. You cannot exit this freeway or deviate from the route without peril. Taking a creative risk, as I did in my recent journey through Baltimore’s old neighborhoods, will not lead you home. Instead, it leads directly to hell and destruction. Who cares about a few spiritual traffic jams or construction zones? Better stick to the map. Follow the plan. But what if Jesus is not a MapQuest sort of map, a superhighway to salvation? What if Jesus is more like old-fashioned street signs in a Baltimore neighborhood, navigated by imagination and intuition? Rather than a set of directions to get saved, Jesus is, as his earliest followers claimed, “the Way.” Jesus is not the way we get somewhere. Jesus is the Christian journey itself, a pilgrimage that culminates in the arrival in God. When Jesus said “Follow me,” he did not say “Follow the map.” Rather, he invited people to follow him, to walk with him on a pilgrimage toward God. How, then, do we get there? How do we follow the Jesus way? You have to exit the highway, risk getting lost, and follow the signposts on the ground.”

Bass, Diana Butler (2009-10-13). Christianity for the Rest of Us (pp. 72-73). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

                When I am asked how many of these United States I have been in, I usually include West Virginia. Truth be told, I am not entirely sure that I’ve been in West Virginia, but I’m pretty sure I was. Back in college a buddy and I took a road trip from Minneapolis to check out graduate schools. Somewhere on the way to Raleigh-Salem, we decided to get off the Interstate and explore some of the more local roads. What these two sons of the prairie didn’t figure on was that roads in the Appalachian foothills don’t run straight. We soon lost our sense of direction and hoped that the next turn would finally take us back to the highway. We are both convinced that somewhere in that meandering drive we must have wandered into West Virginia. Y’all.

                What I remember about that drive was the few (well, maybe more than a few) times we stopped at an intersection hoping to gain some sense of the way back to where we knew where we were. The Interstate was the faster, safer, most predictable route. But it was not the only route to get where we were headed. And if we’d kept to the four-lane, we would never have visited West Virginia.

                My grandparents were great believers in the straight and narrow, and had they lived to see today’s society’s conversation about sexuality they would definitely have been on the straight side. They were of that theology and generation that believed that the goal of evangelism was to get everybody in the world to merge onto that grand superhighway of Christendom. They thought that God’s plan was to get all people on that straight and narrow road, confessing their sin and believing in Jesus. To them, the Hindu aphorism that there is one roof but many ladders would have been blasphemous and just plain wrong. But one of the characteristics of the new understanding of Christianity that is currently underway is that we see ourselves as one voice in the conversation of spirituality. And where our grandparents may have chosen the straight and narrow, many of us look for an interesting exit from the highway and seek to get a little lost out by West Virginia. Like Butler Bass’ description, the One Way of Jesus is not an autobahn, but is the act of following wherever Jesus leads us in this life.

In just the same way it took the Hebrews 40 years to go from Egypt to the Promised Land.  In fact, the biblical model is not the straight and narrow but rather the meandering path. In fact, the ancient Hebrew word for teaching, “halakhah”, literally means “the path one follows.”

                So it should come as no surprise that the Lenten journey is full of twists and turns and intersections at which we need to determine where to turn next.  The ending of the movie Cast Away captures this open ended nature. Tom Hanks’ character has survived a plane crash, being marooned on a desert island, losing the love of his life and his direction in life. He has finally delivered the package he protected through all his cast away years, and now stands at a literal and metaphorical crossroads. His life, rather than being over, is now wide open. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvGHSvfnlsQ  And that is possibly the best kind of Lenten message: our lives are wide open. Following Jesus is not about one straight and narrow road, but happens down all sorts of turning and twisting roads. Discerning God’s will for our lives is not a process of divining the one immutable thing God wants us to do. It is discovering God at work in a multitude of byways and options.

                I don’t know where I am, but I know I’m not lost. That little piece of wisdom tells us to trust our journey. I think we should begin by affirming that there is not lost place along the Jesus journey.  On Ash Wednesday we used a poem entitled “Lost” by David Wagoner (thanks, Elaine!). In that we had all of 16 people at Ash Wed, I think we could use it again. The poem affirms that lost is not really lost.

Lent 1 - Construction Within - Feb 26

Feb 26             Construction Within                         (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Anchor: Signposts of Renewal

Frame: “Construction Within” (a sign akin to “construction ahead)

            How do we get ready for construction?

Thread: Signs added each week

When I am out driving, I dread seeing those orange signs: “Road Construction Ahead.” Sometimes they forecast: “Road Construction Next 13 Miles.” Sometimes the just let us guess how long it is likely to go on. Sometimes the construction is obvious with big trucks and rubble and workers in reflective vests. Sometimes you drive past a mile or more of orange cones set out to channel the traffic but see nary a sign of any work. We all appreciate the results of the construction. We like the wider, smoother roads. But most of us are at least annoyed by the inconvenience of slowed traffic, rough roads, of waiting for the flag-person to turn the sign from “Stop” to (finally!) “Slow.”

Internal construction is often greeted the same way. When we come upon a time of change and transition, it’s like seeing those orange signs. We know there may be rough road and slow going ahead, and often as not we have no idea how long the construction will continue. But without ongoing reconstruction our spiritual infrastructure will deteriorate, crumble, and fail to support us. We need the work to be done.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 says: "Behold, the days are coming, says Yhwh, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them up out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was their spouse, says Yhwh. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yhwh: I will put my Law in their minds and on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another or remind one another to listen to Yhwh. All of them, high and low alike, will listen to me, says Yhwh, for I will forgive their misdeeds and will remember their sins no more.”

Jeremiah’s time was one of painful, terrible destruction and reconstruction. The prophet saw that as long as the covenant of God remained an external addition it was for most people irrelevant and forgotten. It was time for a new kind of covenant: not one written on calf-skin and hauled around on a scroll. It was time for a covenant carried within one’s heart. There the covenant would shape and inspire and construct a life of justice, compassion, and peace. The people would not have to teach the covenant because they would live it. The people of Israel avoided this kind of construction within until they were finally conquered by Babylon. That conquest started one of the most painful but significant periods of construction for the Israelites, second only to the Exodus. Liberation and homecoming became their spiritual signposts, by which they were renewed, healed, and restored.

We live in a time when people are looking for “Christian” signs. Franklin Graham (son of Billy) says he can’t tell if Obama is a Christian because of the church he goes to (UCC!), because of his lack of moral stands (?), because of his soft gloves approach to Islam (!). He doesn’t see the signs he’s looking for. It seems like we get off track pretty badly when we look for signs of other people’s construction without observing those signs calling for our own.

So, how do we prepare ourselves for interior construction? While the 12 Steps are all about interior construction with the aim of exterior reform, I want to look at 3 Simple Rules. Back in the late 1700’s, as Europe was riding the crest of the Enlightenment, John Wesley proposed 3 Rules for changing one’s life and also thereby changing the world. In contemporary language those rules are: 1. Do No Harm, 2. Do Good, and 3. Stay in Love with God. Refraining from doing harm allows construction to be undertaken on our baser instincts: anger, hatred, greed, even apathy, etc.(example: not return the bird when flipped off on the road!) Doing good takes the construction into positive action: actually doing those things that make the world a better place (example: allowing the harried mom behind you check out ahead of you at the grocery store, [Oh! buying grocery cards to help SCUCC!]). Staying in love with God entails doing those things that open our lives up to God: prayer, worship, giving, sacraments, meditation, time with scripture and spiritual reading. As Lent begins, we can invite our people to take on 3 Simple Rules, as opposed to giving up stuff that we probably should give up in ordinary time anyway. This is one way of allow the covenant to be written in hearts and lives and not just on paper.

I have a simple labyrinth that I think will fit on the floor in front of the steps. The labyrinth is a great metaphor for the road within. It is not a long labyrinth, and if we have read parts, the reader could walk to the center of labyrinth to read. Or as we lift each of the 3 Rules, it could be done from the center.

I see the 3^rd Rule as the heart of the day: staying in love with God. We might invite the gathered community to experience centering prayer. My labyrinth isn’t big enough to invite everybody to walk it at the same time, but it could be available after worship.

For our threshold moment, I see a construction worker sauntering up front with one of those signs that has STOP on one side and SLOW on the other (like a flag person in a construction zone). After getting set, this person then turns the STOP sign toward us and waits for everything to stop. They could listen on a walkie talkie, look at their watch, choose an album on their ipod. Finally, after getting the OK on the radio, they turn the sign to the SLOW and gives us permission to continue! They could come back in occasionally during the rest of the morning and repeat the actions (more briefly!). Even someone walking the labyrinth could have to wait…

Here is a video featuring Diana Butler Bass, whose book we are studying in Lent. While it does not use the specific language of signposts, it does talk about Christianity under construction and may be useful for our beginning Sunday (or some other Sunday).  http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00722

February 19 - We A-R-E Christians!

February 19 – We A-R-E Christians

John 2:1-10

Three days later, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there. Jesus and his disciples had likewise been invited to the celebration. At a certain point, the wine ran out, and Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replied, “Mother, what does that have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” She instructed those waiting on tables, “Do whatever he tells you.” As prescribed for Jewish ceremonial washings, there were six stone water jars on hand, each one holding between fifteen and twenty-five gallons. “Fill those jars with water,” Jesus said, and the servers filled them to the brim. “Now,” said Jesus, “draw some out and take it to the caterer.” They did as they were instructed. The caterer tasted the water—which had been turned into wine—without knowing where it had come from; the only ones who knew were those who were waiting on tables, since they had drawn the water. The caterer called the bride and groom over and remarked, “People usually serve the best wine first; then, when the guests have been drinking a while, a lesser vintage is served. What you’ve done is to keep the best wine until now!”

            Well, we’ve made to the culmination of our series on our SCUCC vision. SCUCC is a community of Artistic-Revolutionary-Evolutionary Christians. We A-R-E Christians. And this is the focal point of this whole process of naming and claiming who we are. SCUCC has for many years been an overt presence on the stage of Christendom, proclaiming that there is a rich diversity of Christian expression in the world. That is the heart of being unapologetically Christian. There are people around us who may not be aware that there is a Christianity that does not ask them to shut off their brains; does not condemn them because of doubt, lifestyle, gender, or orientation; that there is a Christianity that welcomes them and their questions.

            For those who have found close-minded Christianity to be a bland and lifeless dish, we have good news indeed: the best wine of all is just now coming to the table! The author of John’s gospel describes the episode at the wedding at Cana a Jesus’ first miracle. It was a public display at a public event. John is signaling us as gospel-readers that it is plain who Jesus is. Even though Jesus himself is shown as hesitant, the grace and gift of God cannot be hidden. The water changes to wine, really good wine, and in quantity enough to keep the party going a long, long time. I believe we continue to share that wine when we tell the world that we A-R-E Christians.

            And so it is show and tell time at SCUCC, time to show and tell who and what we are. Like Jesus at the Cana wedding, we need to be public. People need to see and hear and taste the kind of Christianity that welcomes, feeds, and rejoices. We have the best wine of all to share, not to keep it to ourselves.

            As we think about the Studio, one place to begin may be a wine tasting (rather, a skit about wine tasting, I suppose). The descriptions of various wines from utterly rancid to the really, really good stuff. The wines could be things like “Sermon” wine (dusty and flat, with a lingering aftertaste of moldy paper); “Judgment” wine (harsh, abrasive, with hints of iron and vinegar); “Easy Answers” wine (thin and fruity, with a pleasing nose but lacking in body and complexity). All these the tasters could readily spit into the dump bucket (as wine tasters do). But when the good wine arrives, nobody wants to spit!

            I know that as we use wine as a metaphor we have a number of members in recovery. Our point is not that wine is good in and of itself, but that like the gospel of John we use wine as a symbol for the presence and goodness of Christ. If I were still in my United Methodist digs we might even go so far as to make Welch’s grape juice the best wine of all (no kidding, some Methodists would go there!).

            I know the Sugar Thieves will be with us this Sunday, and they are well=capable of getting us in a party mood.

            What makes us feel like partying? Or more to the point, what about our experience of Christ makes us feel like a party? Our vision statement says that it is the passion of artistry, the heart-felt desire for a better world, and the freedom to question and grow. We A-R-E those kinds of Christians.

Anchor: SCUCC is a community of Aritist-Evolutionary-Revolutionary Christians

Frame: We A-R-E Christians!

Thread: Never place a Period, Deep in Our Hearts (Who Are You video)

February 12 - A Revolutionary Community

February 12, 2012               A Revolutionary Community

Anchor: We are a community of Artistic, Evolutionary, Revolutionary Christians

Frame: How are we a community helping change the world?

Thread: Deep in Our Hearts, Never Place a Period

Amos 5:21-24

 I hate, I despise your festivals,

   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

 Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,

   I will not accept them;

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

   I will not look upon.

 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

 But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

The current campaign season makes it evident that something is out of whack with the world. The politicians of any and/or every party have their own take on what is wrong and how to fix it. As followers of Christ, it is the biblical perspective and the teachings of Jesus that inform both our diagnosis of the world and our approach to changing the world for the better. As the quote from Stephen Colbert says above, Jesus commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. Jesus’ way of changing the world was bottom up. He did not call Caesar or even Herod to be a follower. Jesus began his movement by calling laborers, foreigners, and outcasts. And as followers of Jesus even 2000 years later, we are still called to work to make the world a place that values the poor and the needy, and welcomes the outcast.

Some Christians want to change the world by making some brand of Christianity the ruling political authority in the world. We look at problems like world hunger, war, disease, and prejudice and it seems like it will take the force of an atomic bomb to change anything (and there are those who propose that methodology!). Yet the foundation of Jesus’ teaching is that no force can change the world. Rather, it is love that changes hearts, lives, and the world.

The image that speaks to me about this is one of those fountains made of a large stone sphere. The water of the fountain suspends the sphere, making it spin. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-wF6m_Tj_8) A four foot granite sphere can weigh up to 23,000 pounds, which would be impossible for a person to move in a dry socket. But in this fountain even a child can turn the sphere, stop it, and spin it in a new direction. One site selling these fountains says that the water lifts the sphere by only 1/4000^th of an inch, but that is all it takes. My image in this is that as followers of Christ, as Revolutionary Christians, we are the water that enables the world to change direction.

The prophet Amos speaks in God’s voice and lambasts the people for focusing on pietism instead of caring for the needs of people. We in Arizona live in an environment that brings Amos’ vision to life. Because of the people’s neglect of God’s covenant, Amos sees the situation as a desert dry and desolate. Justice and righteousness (the same word in Hebrew) come down like monsoon rains, filling the washes and wadis. But unlike the rains that roll over the washes and flow away, righteousness and justice become an ever-flowing stream. According the Amos, God expects justice and righteousness to always flow from us into the world.

A few thoughts about the Studio: 1. We could present a “Weekend News Update” where current events items highlight the ills of the world. The Stephen Colbert quote points out that most of the problems in the world are actually rooted in apathy, not inability. Maybe we could find the video clip where Colbert speaks the quote above. 2. Videos of Arizona flash floods as the waters comes rolling through the washes would be a dynamic visual of Amos’ call. 3. We could set up a fountain in the sanctuary, and at some point turn it on so the waters begin to flow, then invite the people to come forward and feel the flowing water as an act of commitment. 4. The video of the children spinning the stone sphere is good image of being literally “revolutionary.” I wish we could find one of those to bring in but they are both incredibly heavy and prohibitively expensive. 5. Finally, Ray shared with us a video of the latest images of our world from NASA (http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201202034). Becoming a Revolutionary community means among other things to learn to see our world in a new and different way. We need to learn to see beyond our borders and concerns and see the world as God sees it. 6. One of the most overt ways that SCUCC is a Revolutionary community is through our Open and Affirming affirmation. We are working to change a world rife with prejudice, fear and hatred of sexual diversity into a place where every person is valued and treasured.