All Are Welcome

Sermon preached on September 11, 2011 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN 

Scripture: Romans 14:1-12

We all remember where we were 10 years ago this morning when we heard the news. It’s one of those moments in history that’s indelibly imprinted on people’s memories like the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the day President Kennedy was shot and the day the Challenger space shuttle blew up. 

We won’t forget, but what will we take away from the memory of September 11, 2001? Will we heal? Will we be allowed to heal?

10 years ago I remember hearing about and then reading about in the paper, an incident that happened at a local gas station. A couple who used to live in town because the husband worked at the college had an adopted son whose skin color was darker than most of the rest of us here in the Falls. He was harassed at the gas pump because someone assumed he was Muslim or from the Middle East.

That reminds me of several friends I grew up with in California whose parents and grandparents were in the Internment Camps during WWII. They were American citizens! They had nothing to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, yet all Japanese people were lumped together and put in the camps and most of them had to completely start over when they got out after the war.

Many of my Japanese friends were Buddhists but they celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas like every other American they knew. They just had more holidays because they celebrated their cultural and religious holidays as well. New Year’s Day was a big one for them and we used to be invited over for delicious Japanese food and delicacies to help them celebrate. One friend’s mother was a nurse who always volunteered to work Christmas Eve and Christmas day so one of her Christian colleagues could have it off, and then she wanted to be off New Year's Eve and day for her family festivities.

So… what does this have to do with Paul’s letter to the Romans, you may ask? Quite a bit, I think. In the early days of the church--there were both Jews and Gentiles in the new groups who became followers of Jesus. They brought their own beliefs and customs with them and sometimes there were conflicts as to what was right and proper. 

Those who still considered themselves Jews were concerned about eating kosher and not mixing meat and dairy and all those food rules that seem ridiculous to us but made some sense in the days before refrigeration and preservatives. Others believed it was OK to eat anything and that people who didn’t were just silly. They probably even told Paul the famous “7 last words of the church” way back then: “But we’ve always done it that way!”

Paul tells them their job is to welcome everyone, no matter what or how they eat, and even if they are “weak in faith.” I’m sure glad he said that! How many of us have had times in our lives when we are weak in faith? Thank God we’re welcome anyway!

“What Paul seeks in this passage is not merely the tolerance of diversity, [or] a grudging, acceptance of the inevitability of differences. Instead, he articulates an active welcome for those with conflicting views and practices. If Christ welcomed all people (Romans 15:7), then Christians must find a way to welcome one another and to respect the integrity of one another.” [1]

Today we live in a global world where we can no longer afford to be isolationists, even when it comes to religion. Not only do we need to learn to work together with other Christians who believe and practice differently than we do, but we also need to learn about the other great religions of the world and to respect the people who follow them. Of course there are fanatics in every religion and violence is wrong no matter who perpetrates it. But just because a group within a particular faith does something horrible, doesn’t mean that all people of that faith are horrible.

Paul also talks to the Romans about judgment involving celebrations, judgment involving eating and just judging people in general. He says “don’t do it!” That’s God’s job, not ours.

Back in the early ‘70s one of my cousins and his girlfriend got pregnant before getting married. His younger brother’s fiancee apologized to my grandmother that she had to know about their behavior. My grandmother--who I was sure didn’t approve of such things--said, “judge not, lest you be judged.” She might not approve, but it wasn’t going to stop her from loving her grandson and his wife and child. I was impressed. But then, my grandmother was one of the best Christians I ever knew.

It’s VERY difficult for us NOT to judge other people. It may be one of the biggest challenges we face. We’ll never succeed 100%, but according to Paul we’re all accountable to God, so we need to try.

On this 10th anniversary of September 11th, not being judgmental is a very important thing for all Americans to be thinking about. It’s time to heal, time to love, time to move forward.

Diana Butler Bass, whose book Christianity for the Rest of Us was read by the Wednesday morning study group awhile back, has some interesting thoughts on remembering this day:

“In order to heal, to ‘move on,’ as counselors say, one must do the hard work of death--to patiently remember the whole life of those who have died and to learn from the gifts that person left behind. Remembering is a process, a spiritual one at that, by which we come to terms with mortality and flawed humanity, as well as the power of courage and abiding love.

“We all have a memory of 9/11. But have we remembered?

“Silence makes room for remembering. ...I wish for empty public space, a communal practice of quiet, to reflect on not only what happened on 9/11 but in the long, sad decade since. For just a brief time, I long for, in the words of an ancient hymn, ‘all mortal flesh keep silence,’ in the face of the fear and trembling that gripped us one September day ten years ago.

“I wonder what we would find there--of our selves, our neighbors, and God--in that void of words?” [2]

Whether we can do it or not, God loves and welcomes all people. This hurting world has many other moments of horror just as horrendous as 9/11. Technology and communications have made our world smaller and forced us to begin to try to understand one another and respect one another’s beliefs and customs and be non-judgmental. There is much in this world that needs to be healed, loved, and welcomed. Because all are welcome, we must all heal….. And here’s how to start:

To heal the Universe, we must heal the earth...
To heal the earth, we must heal the country...
To heal the country, we must heal the city...
To heal the city, we must heal the neighborhood...
To heal the neighborhood, we must heal the home...
To heal the home, we must heal the family...
To heal the family, we must heal the members...
To heal the members, we must heal the self… [3]

Love heals. God heals. God welcomes. ALL are welcome… even you… even me. AMEN.

Endnotes

¹ Texts for Preaching, Year A, Brueggemann, Cousar, Gaventa, McCann and Newsome, p. 484.

² http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dianabutlerbass/2011/09/09/911-let-all-mortal-flesh-keep-silence/

³ Author unknown. (I got it from John Vlasich on facebook.)

A New Heart

sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Hamly on February 13, 2011

at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Psalm 119:1-8 and Matthew 5:21-37

Wow! That’s quite a gospel reading isn’t it? It’s not one we get around to very often because we’re usually starting Lent by now. But this year Easter is really, really late--not until the 24th of April--so we have a few extra weeks of the Epiphany season and some texts we haven’t read in awhile.

The psalm doesn’t really prepare us for what’s to come in the gospel. It sounds really nice. Happy are those who walk in the law of God and keep God’s decrees and seek God with their whole heart and who do no wrong.

Oops! There’s one problem right there… NO one does no wrong (except Jesus)! We’re all imperfect so we all mess up at least once in awhile. But we try our best to praise God with an upright heart and follow God’s commandments and ordinances.

And THEN we come to the gospel reading……

Before we even start on that, we need to remember what Jesus said in last week’s reading. That was verse 20, immediately preceding the start of today’s reading. He said: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”[1]

The Pharisees, at least, were the most righteous (or maybe self-righteous) people there were and they devoted themselves to following the law to the letter. They had no room for exceptions, and of course that was one of the problems Jesus had with them. It would seem that if anyone was getting into heaven for following all the rules it would be the Pharisees! So, you weren’t getting there unless you did even better--or were more conscientious--than the Pharisees. And THAT was almost impossible! Basically Jesus was saying that following the rules the Pharisees sought to enforce was futile.

So… now, are we ready? Probably not, but let’s move on anyway.

Today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel is a rule-maker’s dream: You’ve got murder, hate, adultery, lust, divorce and oaths. Anyone quoting from a verse here or a verse there can find ample justification for shunning, judging, chastising and rejecting the ones who can’t live up to the rules.

Those of us who are old enough may remember all the flap over an interview Jimmy Carter did in Playboy back in the ‘70s where he talked about having lusted in his heart. Anyone who has ever looked at another person and appreciated their physical attributes is in trouble, according to a literal reading of this passage.

And divorce… that paragraph will make lots of people uncomfortable or it might even make them give up on the church altogether. The Old Testament said a man could give his wife a written divorce decree. But that meant she was out in the cold with no property and no one to take care of her. So what Jesus is saying is technically better for women because in those days women needed to be provided for by some male person, be it husband, father, brother, uncle or son.

And don’t swear at all. Well, sure, don’t swear false witness is a really good idea, but perhaps it’s even better not to swear on anything, good or bad.

But you know what? I think what Jesus was trying to get across to his listeners was pretty much the opposite of what he was saying. Sure, what he said was good advice to live by, but the thing is no one could do it--not 100%. Perhaps Jesus was saying, “You think you’re following the rules because you know the loopholes. But I’m telling you that it’s about more than just doing the minimum. And you’ve got to see that no one is going to be able to live up to these rules! No one! So stop beating yourself up when you fail. Stop beating up other people when they fail. Everyone fails at this!” [2]

We need a new heart that realizes we can try our best to live up to all the good things we should do and be, but sometimes we are going to fail and God’s grace will be there for us. God’s love will be there for us. And that’s the wonderful thing about God’s love and God’s grace….. God is always willing to give us another chance! With God, failing doesn’t mean “GAME OVER.”

That reminds me of a new game that’s all the rage right now. I wouldn’t call it a video game, but you can play it on smart phones, iPads and computers. It’s called “Angry Birds.” Apparently the birds are angry because the green pigs have stolen their eggs. So the birds fling themselves out of a giant slingshot (that’s where we come in, we have to pull them back in the slingshot and aim them toward the target) and try to crash through the barriers the pigs have set up to protect themselves. You progress through various levels and you have to figure out how to aim the birds so they can hit the most pigs.

Don’t ask my why it’s so addicting, but it is. There is some strategy to it and some skill in figuring out how to get through the different levels. But the most important thing about the game, I think--at least for our purposes today--is that if you fail, you just tap the retry button and go again. You can keep trying and trying until you finally succeed at that level and then you move on to the next. No total failure and no Game Over because you didn’t succeed at a certain number of levels.

That also reminds me of a movie many of you have probably seen, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. It has become a classic in a pretty short time and I know quite a few people who make a ritual of watching it on or near February 2nd every year. It’s kind of the same thing as Angry Birds. Bill Murray plays the part of a very stuck on himself news reporter who gets stuck on Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd) and has to live the same day over and over and over again. He finally begins to learn things from reliving the same day and he becomes a different and kinder person by the end. No failure there either, just keep trying until you get it.

Those are contemporary examples of grace. Grace is something that really ticks people off if they are the type who like to enforce the rules on others. But for those who know that everyone fails at one time or another, then grace is a breath of fresh air--and a break--from the hot air of the enforcers. [3]

So, I think this gospel passage is much less frightening or frustrating than it might appear at first reading. God gives us a new heart, but we often forget to use it to be compassionate toward others. So Jesus reminds us that the standards are set so high it’s impossible to attain them all the time. But God’s grace and God’s love are sufficient to get us through and give us another chance. AMEN.

Notes

1. Matthew t5:20, NRSV.

2. Rev. Kirk Moore,

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5L9vpi/revkirk.blogspot.com/2011/02/further-reminders.html

3. Ibid.

Outsiders

sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN.

text: Luke 17:11-19

It seems that the lectionary—which is the selected readings for each Sunday that are scheduled for 3 years at a time—never fails me! Here we are on 10/10/10 and we’re reading a gospel story about TEN lepers! Is it a coincidence or not? You decide.

Everybody always focuses on gratitude when they preach on or talk about this gospel passage. And it is about gratitude. But it’s also—and I think even more so—about outcasts or outsiders because there’s really a lot more going on here than 9 people seeming to have forgotten to thank Jesus for healing them.

We have to look at who they are and where they are and what the local customs were.

First of all, these people are lepers. They have dreaded and contagious skin diseases, so they are ostracized from “regular” society and sent away from their families and communities to live in colonies where they have contact only with other lepers. They are generally beggars because no one wants to be close enough to them to give them work, so they must form their own community and rely upon one another and help one another.

They are sent away from home, family and community to places where no one else wants to go or live. So, basically, you’ll find them in a kind of no-man’s land. This particular group, we are told, is located between Samaria and Galilee. You may remember that Jews and Samaritans didn’t want to have anything to do with each other and Jews would go out of their way to avoid travelling through Samaria. So, here is this group of lepers in the in-between place—the no-man’s land—that is probably pretty isolated and scary because no one wants to go there.

No one except Jesus, of course! This is not the only story in the bible that has Jesus travelling through places no other respectable Jew would go. [1]

Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem and his death. On his way, he encounters this band of ten lepers, a little band of them united by their suffering and their exclusion from the community. They don't come close, and this time he doesn't touch them, as he often does when healing the sick. Just a word, a command, sending them on their way—and as they go they are healed! [2]

Jesus knew the Law required them to see the priest, to show themselves, and to be certified as ritually clean so they could be restored to their community. That was what he tried to do for people—to restore them to wholeness and community, so that no one was left on the margins or in the lonely and scary in-between places.

So, when Jesus told them what to do, 9 of them went—gleefully I would assume—off to follow the rules. The tenth leper, though, cannot obey Jesus' instructions. He is a Samaritan. Samaritans, weren't welcome in the Temple in Jerusalem, and had good reason to expect ill treatment from those who saw the Temple in Jerusalem as being the only true Temple—the only true place to worship God.[3] So the 10th leper returns to Jesus praising God for the healing he has received and probably astounded that Jesus—a Jew—has included him—a hated Samaritan—in the healing of the whole group.

We might wonder why the foreigner did return to Jesus and the others did not. When all 10 of them were suffering from a common disease, they were bonded by their outcast status. When they were all healed, the nine returned to their life: their ethnic and religious life. The foreigner only had Jesus at that point—he could not merge so easily into his old life. And perhaps he had found his true home.

What’s it like to be an outsider? What’s it like to be different? We all know people who are outsiders. We all know people who seem “different” from everyone else. Maybe some of us are even outsiders ourselves.

I know quite a few of us here this morning are outsiders because we didn’t grow up in International Falls or the surrounding area. Some people are outsiders because it takes more effort to interact with them so not many people bother.

Some people are outsiders in much the same way the lepers were in Jesus’ time—because there’s something about them that sets them apart from everyone else and causes everyone else to be afraid of them or afraid of interacting with them.

There’s very little leprosy in the world today, but there are other things for which people are ostracized—such things as HIV/AIDS, mental illness, being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, being deaf, having epilepsy or cerebral palsy, or being otherwise mentally or physically handicapped.

In general, I think most people think we, as a society, have gotten beyond that. In my lifetime there have been great improvements in attitudes toward people who are “different,” but believe me, gender-based discrimination, homo-phobia, and discrimination against people with mental and physical disabilities is still alive and well in our local communities and in our country. There is also discrimination against the poor. Can you believe it?

But Jesus seeks out exactly those people whom society forces to be outsiders. He travels where no one else dares or cares to go, and by doing that he makes himself available to the outsiders. And he heals them, reconciling them to their communities so that they can become insiders once again.

And one would hope that their experience would make them kinder, gentler people. Do you think it does? When an outsider has been shown love, will they then pay it forward and show love to other outsiders? What do you think? What would you do? What have you done?

Do we know individuals or groups who are banished to the “in-between” places in our society? Will we help them or keep our distance? Can they help us see things from a different perspective that might just challenge us to live differently and be more welcoming?

Sometimes it takes someone else—even someone quite unexpected—to open our eyes to blessings and wonders in our lives. A person on the margins, on the outside, may have a better vantage point to look inside and see the heart of the matter. “[This] passage, then, confronts us with more than a push for the common courtesy of saying our thank-yous. It gives us an outsider whose unrestrained and spontaneous appreciation…dramatizes the essence of faith and who disrupts an otherwise easy perception that we know who the real insiders are.” [4]

The UCC urges all of its congregations to offer an extravagant welcome to everyone who enters our churches. The purpose of this extravagant welcome is to bring healing, wholeness and community to people who have been wounded and ostracized by churches in the past. By providing an extravagant welcome to everyone who comes to visit here, we let them know that their perspectives, views and opinions are valued by all of us as they are welcomed into our faith community. They will bring new ideas, and we must be ready to hear and consider those ideas. Together, all of us will have the opportunity to change and grow and to worship and praise God in new and exciting ways.

The in-between places can be scary, but they can also be a “land of opportunity” because God is still speaking and I believe we are really and truly doing our best to listen! AMEN.

Endnotes:

[1] See John 4, the story of the woman at the well.

[2] Kate Huey

[3] Again, see John 4.

[4] Charles B. Cousar, Texts for Preaching.

Reiki Q&A

When people ask me about Reiki, I find it much easier to invite them to just experience it for themselves, but Laurelle Gaia and Michael Baird from whom I've taken all my Reiki classes down in Sedona, AZ have now released a video of Reiki Q&A that I find very helpful. Take a look... then contact me for a Reiki session!

The Language of God

The Language of God from United Church of Christ on Vimeo.

This is the United Church of Christ's exciting new video that is spiraling around the world via the Internat today. Please watch and share!

It's time for religion with relevance. God is still speaking, ... in many languages ... to ALL the people!

Iced Crabapples, Anyone?

The Giving Response

today's sermon at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Psalm 46 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

How many of you have ever experienced an earthquake?

It’s very scary when the floor or the ground slides back & forth under your feet! And the sound of plate glass windows or sliding glass doors shaking is unnerving—to put it mildly. It’s freaky when you’re in the grocery store looking at items on the shelf and they start wiggling on their own and you realize it’s not being caused by someone on the other side stocking shelves. When your rocking chair rocks by itself with no one in it and your hanging plant starts swaying, you’re going to want to run for cover… but where? When you’re outside and the air is perfectly still but the tree you’re looking at is violently swishing back and forth as if it was in a huge storm and the car at the curb is bouncing up and down as if someone was jumping on the bumper—but no one is there—you might want to grab onto something for support. When you’re sitting on your couch reading the paper and glance out the window and realize the water in your in-ground pool is sloshing over the edge, you may have a hard time believing what you’re seeing.

All but the swimming pool incident happened to me when we lived in California. In 1989 one of our seminary professors drove over the section of freeway that collapsed in Oakland 15 minutes before the quake hit. A family friend was at Candlestick Park when the quake hit at the beginning of the World Series. A seminary classmate who grew up near Boston couldn’t bring himself to go home to his apartment in San Francisco for at least 2 weeks—and his apartment wasn’t damaged. Another friend knew the truck driver who was rescued from the collapsed freeway but later died.

My grandmother experienced the Quake of 1906. She lived south of San Francisco. The temblor opened the barn door and the horse walked out. That night she could see the glow in the sky from the fires in The City.

I was at a bus stop at the BART station in Hayward, CA during the 1989 earthquake. While the ground slid and the tree waved frantically and the car bounced, several of us looked at each other wide-eyed and then we all grabbed for the bus pole at the same time, just as the shaking stopped. The bus driver was so freaked he went right on by and didn’t pick us up, so we had to wait another half hour for the next bus and then we heard about part of the Bay Bridge collapsing….

But what if most of your city collapsed? Can you imagine? I can’t. I can tell you what it’s like to experience an earthquake, but I can’t imagine the kind of destruction that happened in Haiti this week. I can’t imagine the horror, the fear, the grief, the loss… My seminary professor had to leave 2 hours early to drive the long way around from Berkeley to San Francisco airport while the bridge was being repaired, but that kind of inconvenience is nothing compared to what people are experiencing in Haiti.

And to top it off, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

The death toll is staggering. I read last night that the Director of the humanitarian relief agency of the United Methodist Church died before he could be rescued from the ruins of a hotel in Port-au-Prince. Others in the group were rescued and brought home, but they were all trapped in the rubble for 55 hours.

When I heard about the tsunami a few years ago, and Hurricane Katrina, and major earthquakes in various parts of the world in recent years, one of my first thoughts is of Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. … God is in the midst of the city; …God will help it when the morning dawns. …”Be still and know that I am God!” … The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. [1]

First there is the horror and the shock of it all as the news stories, photos and videos start coming in. We sit, transfixed, in front of our TVs and computer screens.

Next there always seems to be the weird and crazy statements by a few predictable sources telling us why it’s the victims’ fault. In this case Haiti is supposed to have made a pact with the devil. A quick-thinking person wrote that if Haiti had a deal with Satan they would have lots of banks and high rises, SUVs, botox, wealth, exclusive night clubs, glamour, talent and fame. [2]

And then, thank goodness, comes the giving response. Something new this time has been the option to send a text message on your cell phone in order to donate $5 or $10 for Haiti and then you just pay it along with your cell phone bill. Many people took advantage of that option and it was a great way to get help going quickly.

Paul wrote, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” [3]

We all do what we can do—both in this situation and in everything else we encounter in life. It’s amazing, though, how disaster generally brings out the best in humanity. The United States is sending troops to Haiti and Cuba is sending doctors. I read that American Airlines was flying relief workers over and that UPS was shipping packages to Haiti free of charge. You can go to McDonald’s (here in the Falls or in Fort Frances) and eat hotcakes all day today and next Sunday and the proceeds will be given to earthquake relief in Haiti. Whatever we give here at the church—today and next week—will be matched by the Endowment Fund. What a wonderful gift!

Everyone is doing what they can, according to the gifts they’ve been given. That’s all we can do and it’s what we’re called to do. The relief efforts, money and people flooding into Haiti are an example on a grand scale. On a much smaller scale, we each do what we can for our church. Today is one of the times we really see that when we elect our slate of officers at Annual Meeting. Some people have the gift to be on the property committee, others for the finance committee, others for evangelism, Christian Ed, deacons or church life. And someone out there has the gift that would make them an excellent church clerk—they just haven’t realized it yet! (Hopefully they will by the time we get to nominations from the floor!)

What makes the church work, or the relief efforts work, is everyone working together, using their God-given gifts and talents to help others, to serve God and to bring hope, comfort and love to God’s people everywhere in the world.

“Be still and know that I am God!” God is with all the people in the best of times and the worst of times. No matter who… no matter what… no matter where… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. AMEN.

Endnotes

[1] Verses from Psalm 46, NRSV.

[2] http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/81595442.html letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jan. 14, 2010.

[3] 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, NRSV.