Constructive Faith

In today’s world, Satan seems superfluous. Who needs an eternal being, divine but corrupted, to be the source of evil, when we are so capable of evil on our own. Sand Creek, Nanking, Auschwitz, Memphis, 9/11, Paris… We do not need Satan, and indeed, many progressive Christians no longer believe, even if Jesus saw himself as in conflict with this dark power. Then again, Jesus was in conflict with someone, and usually multiple someones’ throughout his ministry. He cast out demons, chastised Pharisees, challenged Roman authority, and even called Peter “Satan” at one point. Still, there is this story, the formative story. So what are we to do with this passage, this threshold that marks the beginning of Jesus’ active ministry? Continue reading “Sermon for the Temptation in the Wilderness”

Of the many ancient Christian texts that did not make it into the scriptural canon, the Gospel of Thomas is the most famous, for we had the name but not the actual text for centuries before it was rediscovered after the Second World War. Sharing the name of the apostle, but otherwise completely unrelated, is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a document that has more in common with the Gospel traditionally attributed to Matthew in that it is written after the split between the early Christians and proto-Rabbinic Judaism, so casts Jesus as antagonistic to Jews, never mind that he was one. Like the birth narrative of Matthew, the Infancy Gospel is a fiction and an argument, trying to position Jesus in the Hebrew religious trajectory while also projecting developing understandings of Jesus back onto his boyhood. So you get this: Continue reading “Alien”

While it is true that many strands of Protestant Christianity came together to create the rainbow tapestry that is today’s United Church of Christ, the first of these strands, and the one that gives shape to our own church history, is the Congregational tradition of New England. Those brave souls were seeking religious freedom, but they also had a very specific idea of who and what they wanted to be. Their goal? To be a City on a Hill. This formulation comes from the 5th Chapter of the Gospel traditionally attributed to Matthew, and is part of a string that calls those who would follow Jesus the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” Continue reading “A Christmas Message: A City on a Hill”

Here in these disunited states, we continue to struggle with a pernicious racism, even though race itself is an artificial construct with no basis in biology. This fault line through our national conscience is nowhere more clear than in our relationship with our president. This week, Tea Party protesters stood in front of the White House calling for Obama to be lynched, and who can forget the “Put the white back in the White House” tee-shirts from the 2012 election. We’ve clearly got work to do, and while these problems may seem distant to us, Selma was a long way from the South Shore of Long Island. And yet, our pastor of blessed memory…

Dividing folks, us vs. them, by color of skin, ethnicity, how we celebrate communion, this is both incredibly human, and incredibly wrong. Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, touched on this theme more than once. Butter-side up or butter-side down?

It is then, with some trepidation, that I suggest dividing people neatly into three categories, but here goes… Continue reading “I do not think it means what you think it means…”

God of Work and God of Rest,
You call us to sabbath,
But all too often
church is just one more box to be checked
another obligation
a source of guilt.

Help us discover You
in song
in word
in silence.

Help us discover ourselves in You
and turn chore
into celebration.
Amen.

Back when I was young, you learned cursive writing. I barely use it anymore, except when I have to sign something, and as I understand it, fewer and fewer kids are learning it. It was part of the three “r’s,” reading, writing and ‘rithmetic… clearly spelling was not one of the “r’s,” since the “a” at the beginning of arithmetic was viewed as optional. Today, we are teaching a new set of “r’s,” reduce, re-use and recycle. And its a good thing, given the accelerating pace at which the human animal is destroying the ability of the planet to support life. But we’ll get back to the doom and gloom.

In truth, humans have been historically good at the “three “R’s” of reduce, re-use and recycle right up until the Industrial Age. Most humans had to re-use and recycle, poverty and limited supply meant it was what you did to get by, long before the fashionable term “upcycle” was even coined. And we didn’t just recycle hand-me-down clothing and stale bread. We recycled bits of culture too, stories, snippets of music. Britten uses Purcell in his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Joyce turns Odysseus into an Irish Jew wandering the streets of Dublin. Warhol turns the Mona Lisa into serialized pop screen prints in neon hues. We add and reconfigure and appropriate. It is good, creative, holy. It is what we do. Continue reading “Not in the expected form”

St. Thomas Merton spoke of uncertainty
and desire
And we come before you
Our Lord and God
Uncertain,
Of where we are going,
Of the road ahead,
Of ourselves.
But like Brother Thomas,
we have faith in you
that if we desire to do your will
you will guide us by the right road
Fill us with that desire
cover us in courage
and unfold your challenging word
in our worship and in our lives.
Amen.

The Roman Empire had respect for things that were old. Their own pantheon of gods was derived from the Hellenistic culture of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. They were able to accept the Egyptian gods when they conquered that land. They were a little twitchy about the Hebrew god, because the Hebrews insisted on exclusive worship of Yahweh, which was just weird, and wouldn’t participate in the Imperial cult. This lead to a few conflicts, but ultimately, the fact that the Hebrew god was an ancient god was enough, and the Hebrews were tolerated. Continue reading “The Judgment of Solomon”

When I was young, a distant cousin was convinced that Skylab, falling out of orbit, would fall on her home and kill her. The threat was not real, but her fear was. It changed her behavior for several weeks, making her world a small and threatening place.

On 9/11, I walked from lower Manhattan, back to my home in Queens, crossing with thousands the Queensboro Bridge. Exhausted, anxious, at the bottom of the bridge I discovered merchants from that neighborhood handing bottles of water to anyone who would take them. Ironically, most of these merchants were Pakistani, and would find themselves anxious and afraid in the coming weeks as violence against Sikhs and Muslims spread throughout the country. I would succumb to fear as well, experiencing panic attacks when I was in high profile sites listed as potential targets by law enforcement and the news media.

Fear is a powerful thing, a weapon that is used all too often, to drive up ratings, to incite violence, to gain political advantage.

Ebola is a terrible disease. It has been around for years, and has reached epidemic proportions in West Africa, a region with repeated civil wars and ethnic conflict, with distrust of government, and with health systems that are primitive by Western standards.

There have been two cases of Ebola transmission in the US. Both cases involved nurses who had direct contact with the bodily fluids of a patient who contracted the disease in West Africa. There has been no casual transmission of the disease in the US. And, so far, the other cases treated here, those originating in West Africa and the two domestic cases, have not proved fatal. The first two patients have recovered, and one has contributed to the care of others.

Reputable news outlets have played a contradictory game with this crisis. I regularly watch ABC News, where they tease the great disaster one moment, only to have their in-house expert, a former Acting Director of the Center for Disease Control, play down those fears the next. Less reputable news outlets have manipulated the situation to further their extremist agenda.

Have you wondered why Ebola is the focus, and not Enterovirus 68, which is actually spreading throughout the United States, killing and crippling children? Could it be because Ebola originates in Africa, playing into the racist fears flamed by extremists in recent years? Is this one more case of “fear of the black man,” no different than the false charges that our current president takes too many vacations, a charge meant to invoke the “lazy black man” trope of the Jim Crow South? (When in fact, he takes fewer vacations days out of the White House than his predecessor.)

There are enough things to make us anxious without being lead into fear by those with an agenda, whether it be profit or politics. And fear changes us. We are less ourselves. A society gripped in fear turns violent, seeks scapegoats, from Kristallnacht to the murder of Sikhs after 9/11.

Be informed. Use common sense, both is responding to health concerns, and in choosing your exposure to the poison of fear-mongering. And remember, if we trust in our God and in the promises of Jesus, then we can choose to live into his instruction to those who would follow him. “Be not afraid.”

Blessings,
Pastor Gary

 

We speak of aimlessness and sin. We wash away sins in the rivers of baptism. We seek forgiveness for our sins. Some claim that Christ died for our sins, paying it forward across thousands of years for countless individuals. But what is this sin of which we speak? And is there anything “original” about it? Can it be passed on from generation to generation, as a blood guilt, as sinful genes, as a portion of today’s reading suggests? Continue reading “Sinful Genes: Sermon for the Decalogue”