Tag: God - Page 2 - We Get There By Walking

Nothing and Everything

Tonight I have nothing to write about.
Yesterday I worked in the garden replanting flowers.
And being reminded that sunscreen and a hat are a must.
This evening I went for a walk with our dog.
Dark blue of the early summer night sky.
Bright crescent moon. Planet shining just above the horizon.
Spring peepers singing together in the pond.
Oblivious to our passing by listening to their chorus.
I had plenty of food to eat today.
I took a nap.
I turned on the air conditioning when the afternoon heat began to push its way into our house.
I remembered my father.
And, talked with my sons.

And, everything to write about.
On my walk this evening I found myself thinking about the quote by Bob Pierce, founder of the World Vision, who said, “Let my heart be broken by those things which break the heart of God.” My heart is broken and yours should be as well by the immigration crisis in our country.
Children being taken from their parents.
Families torn apart.
Mothers deported.
Children left behind. Warehoused. Sleeping in cages.
Jeff Sessions quoting a verse from the Bible to justify the action.
One verse out of how many while conveniently ignoring so many others and the long arc of the Biblical witness.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Love God and your neighbor as yourself.
Whatever you do to one of the least of these.
I could go on.
Proof texting a verse used a century or more ago to support slavery.
And, more recently to support white supremacy.
Did he not know?
Did he think others would not know or notice?
Did he not care or think we would not care?
Or, did he know?
And was, in a not so subtle way, sending a message?
Regardless, families are being torn apart.
Parents and children are being traumatized.
We are doing to them what we would never want done to our families.
In any situation or circumstance.
Yes, it is an immigration issue and a political issue, but it is also a moral issue.

There is more which breaks my heart.
And, your heart.
And, God’s heart.
It fills the news and sells the papers.

Welcoming people in worship this morning I said, as I often do, that I hoped that in some way they had a sense of God with them and among us. Yes, that was and is my wish, but maybe I was being foolish.
Here we were safe and sound.
Beautiful church.
Quaint village.
God, instead, was on our southern border and wandering around in refugee camps and on the streets of Nicaragua and in the home of a family who lost a loved on the the opioid crisis and…
Maybe looking for God we were looking in the wrong place.

Tonight I have nothing to write about.
And, everything to write about.

Before You Go… A Reflection for the Sunday We Recognize Graduating High School Seniors

Four years ago, when you were in Confirmation, there were probably one or two times when I said to you: “I want to make sure that, at least once, you have heard a pastor say this…” Whether that was about ways to read and understand the Bible or about sexual orientation and being inclusive or about my understanding of and relationship to those whose faith tradition is different than ours. Today, I want to that again. Before you go off to college and step towards that new tomorrow, given the public perception of Christianity, in particular, and faith/religion, in general, I would like to remind you of this. To make sure, at least one more time, you have heard a pastor who takes God and Jesus and faith seriously say this. Four things.

First, God is…
Maybe it is easier to begin with what I think God is not.
A number of years ago I attended a national gathering of church leaders. One of the buttons being handed out read: God Is Not a Boy’s Name. The message of the button was primarily about the patriarchy which is still prevalent in both church and culture, but it also serves as a reminder that, even though he is the pronoun used far to often, God is not male. Or female. Or up in the sky. And, God is not Christian. Or Jewish. Or Muslim. Or…you fill in the blank.

So, if that is not God, what or who is God for me?
I can respond to that question in several ways, but for this morning let me remind you of what I probably said to you four years ago in Confirmation. What if we thought of God as more of a verb than a noun. More as an action than a person. What if God is the source, the inspiration, to be found in acts of:
Compassion.
Kindness.
Justice.
Forgiveness.
Peacemaking.
Gratitude.
In those moments when you do those things or experience those things or see those things, there is God.

Here are places I see and experience God.
I experience something of God when the Cherub Choir sings. I see God when meals and conversation are taken to someone who is sick. I stand in God’s presence when we stand in front of a house we have helped to build in Nicaragua and the family talks about their 16’x16’ home as their mansion and the gratitude they feel. I am surrounded by God when I leave my phone at home and walk in the woods or look up at the night sky. God is present when I and we work with others to make our congregation and our community and our country and our world a bit better today than it was yesterday.
In all those times and places God is.
Where is God for you?
I hope you take the time to notice.

Second, how large a circle and which way will you face?
Religion or faith or God…whatever word you would like to use…is about the circle around your life and about which direction you will face. Some people use their faith to make the circle around their life as small and as tight as possible in order to define who is in and who is out and who is right and who is wrong. Do it my way or our way and you are in. Don’t and you are out. Believe this way and you are in. If you don’t you are out. Look like me. Talk like me. Dress like me and you are in. If you are different you are out. I think, more often than not, that way of thinking about God or faith or religion is harmful and does violence to others. And, those who define God that way look like a football huddle.
Facing inward.
Only looking at each other.
Backs turned to the world.

My understanding of the witness of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus is that we are to make the circle around our lives not smaller, but larger. Not only inviting people in, but moving it outward until it encircles more and more. The witness of the Bible is that all are made in the image of God.
All of us are named as children of God.
And we are called to be neighbors to each other.
And rather than facing inward and walking backward, we are to face outward; to see and to recognize those in front of us for who they are. And to walk forward until they are encircled.

Third, know the story.
I have never read the Bible cover to cover.
I have tried, but I have gotten bogged down in genealogies and lists and laws.
And, I am not asking you to.
But, I am encouraging you to know enough of the story that when those moments of decision or judgement or choice come up in your life you have a touchstone and a point of reference which will help you decide what to do or how to act or which can be a source of understanding and strength.
That story…
Our story…
Includes what I read this morning.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
You are the light of the world.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
And, what about the stories in the Bible about confronting giants, because there continue to be giants in our world. Or, what about the stories of not wanting to do what you know you are supposed to do or called to do? For those moments will arise in your life. And, what about the stories of sowing seeds of making a difference or being blind and then being able to see.
Know those stories.
And, notice I said story and not Bible.
That is intentional.
Again, going back to Confirmation. I urge you to read the Bible as story and poetry and not as science or a newspaper. The Bible is inspired and contains truth, but it is not meant to be read literally.

Fourth, community.
Look around you.
You probably know some of the people here.
You probably recognize a few others.
But there are many here you probably don’t know.
That is okay.
But, here is the thing.
All these people are the ones who, in ways large and small, have cared for you and prayed for you and supported you. These are the people your parents chose to stack around your life to help you grow up to who you are today.
As a community, we are far from perfect, but we try.
We try to care for one another.
We try to support one another.
We try to challenge one another.
We add our faith and our hope and our money and our energy to the community called Bedford Presbyterian Church in order to do what we can to make the world closer to what we think God intends.

The question I have for you is this. As you step towards what comes next in your life, what is that community going to be for you? The community which will support you and encourage you and challenge you to do and be your best?
Where are you going to find it?
What is it going to look like?
What values do you want it to hold out in front of you?
What I think I know is it will look different than this. Different from what I have known and from what you have known growing up here. What I hope is you is this:
That you have the vision and the courage to find it and shape it and to be a part of it. That it does for you tomorrow what this community has done for you as you grew up.

And finally…
The comedian, Jimmy Fallon, was the surprise guest speak at the graduation ceremony at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Do you recognize the name of the school? It is where, on Valentine’s Day, a fellow student killed 14 classmates and 3 staff members. Taking that that tragedy and pain, a number of those students launched the #NeverAgain movement and, this summer, will be traveling the country registering young adults and encouraging them to vote. I read Jimmy Fallon’s speech and would share this part of it with you because it applies to each of you, as well.

Most commencement speakers, they’ll get up here and talk in the future tense. ‘You will succeed. You will make us proud. And you will change the world. Most commencement speakers say, ‘You are the future.’ But I’m not gonna say that, because you’re not the future. You’re the present. You are succeeding. You are making us proud. You are changing the world, so keep changing the world and keep making us proud.

Don’t Fit In: A Reflection for Confirmation Sunday

I am certain you already know this, but just to make sure. I speak for Kathy as well as myself when I say that when she and I talk with you about what it means to follow Jesus or about how we think about and imagine God, it is more than just words and more than just what we are supposed to say or do. In all the conversations we had over the last year, we were sharing with you something that is an important part of our lives. Something she and I take seriously and, even though, like you, she and I still have a lot to learn, our faith is something we do our best to put into practice each day. For us God is not a man in the sky. Or a woman, for that matter. Or a person with a beard. Or a person period. A force, maybe. A presence, yes. At least for me. I can tell you there have been times in my life when I felt there was something more with me or around me or holding me up or pushing me forward.

But most of the time, for me, my faith in God and following Jesus is a choice I make. A choice about the type of person I want to be and about how I want to live and about how I want the world to be and not about believing a certain list of things or feeling a certain way or making it to heaven someday. Getting to knowing you from our Sunday conversations and reading through your Statements of Faith, I think you get that.

So, here is what I want to say to you today starting with a snapshot of the world in which you live.

From the hallways of your schools to the seats of power and probably everywhere in between there are people who put other people down.
Who think it is okay to make jokes about those who are different.
Or, exclude those who don’t quite fit in.
All to make themselves look better or feel superior or maintain their place in the pecking order.

And, racism is real and racist incidents are on the rise.
As are attacks, both physical and verbal, on Jews. On Muslims.
On immigrants. On those who don’t have what you and I have.

And, there are some people use religion like a wedge.
Or, a hammer. Or even as a weapon.
My way or no way.
My way of thinking or believing or acting or you are wrong or bad or going to hell. So, get out of the way.

And, all that is only a start.

I find all that hard to understand when I believe all of us
Each and every one of us
Is a child of God. Made in God’s image.
I find all that hard to reconcile with the Bible when it says God is love. And, with what I know about Jesus who included those whom others did their best to ignore or to turn away or to exclude.

So, I am going to ask you to do something and to be something I am not sure I was able to do or be when I was 14 or 15. But, I am going to ask anyway.
And, that is don’t fit in.
Dare to be different.
Dare to think differently.
Dare to believe differently.
Dare to act differently.
Take what we have talked about this year and what you wrote about in your Statements of Faith and transform those words into actions. Make them a part of who you are and how you try to live each and every day.

And, don’t just be kind.
Be courageously kind.
Even if it means standing up or speaking out.
Don’t just be nice young men.
Treat others…all others…with respect.
Treat others…all others…the way you would like to be treated if you were in their shoes.
Take what you know about God
Take what you understand about what it means to follow Jesus
And live it.
Lead the way.
Whether about gun violence or inclusion or the environment. Or, about racism or sexism or how you answer the question “Who is my neighbor?”

Do that.
Then, push me and others to follow.
Please.

Caught Not Taught

This Sunday, we will celebrate the Confirmation of seven young men who have been a part of our congregation’s Confirmation program this year. They will stand in our midst. They will share their Statements of Faith, a snapshot at 14 or 15 years old of what they think and understand and believe about God and what it means to follow Jesus. And, as a congregation, we will gather around them, both literally and figuratively, knowing that the promises we made when they were baptized are not yet fulfilled.

I have led Confirmation classes and programs for forty years.
It is still something of a mystery and challenge of how to help young adults make room in their lives and thinking for that which we know and name as God and to ask and explore the question of what it means to listen to the words of a person who lived 2000+ years ago. And, to let those words reshape your life.

I don’t remember where I first heard it, but I think it is true.
Faith is caught not taught.
So my hope is that somehow in those hundreds of conversations over all those years I have been contagious. That something of my own life and faith, something of my own questions and searching, something of my own sense of the Holy and efforts to follow Jesus has rubbed off.

So, to those who are being confirmed on Sunday.
Go with God.
And, may your strength and vision be added to mine as we do our best to bend that long arc of history in the direction of justice and do our part of help God’s Kingdom come a bit closer for us and for all.

7 Questions: A Conversation

Following worship this morning, seven young men, who since last October, have been meeting on most Sunday afternoons with Kathy and me as a part of our Confirmation program, will meet with leaders of our congregation to share their Statements of Faith which they have been asked to write, and to talk about what their experience in Confirmation has been like including what they have learned and what questions they still have. Next Sunday we will recognize them. And celebrate with them and their families who they are and the faith and the questions and the hopes that are a part of their lives. It is a wonderful moment for them and for us.

A couple weeks ago, as Kathy and I were trying to wrap up the year and to pull together threads of the various conversations we had had, we came up with seven questions for our evening conversation. One question for each of the students. We wrote the questions on note cards and placed them face down on the table. One by one, each student drew a card, read the question and shared their response. Then the rest of us were invited to add our thoughts as well.

Which leads to this.
One of the comments I regularly receive as we approach the end of Confirmation is how impressed adults are with the ability of 14 year olds to put words around their faith. So, as I thought about them and what we ask them to do and thought about you and our time together this morning, I thought “Why don’t we give you the opportunity to do what we asked 14 year olds to do.” So, here are the questions we asked:

How would you describe God to someone who had never been to church?
What do you think prayer is? How do you pray?
What does it mean to follow Jesus (vs believing in Jesus)?
How would you describe BPC to someone else? And, describe why you are a part of BPC.
What does faith mean to you?
What do you do or can you do as a reminder of what it means to follow Jesus?
Is it possible to be a Christian (follow Jesus) and also believe other religions are just as worthy, meaningful and truthful?

We had a hour with them.
We only have 10-15 minutes with you, but we will give it a try.
Kathy has the cards and a microphone.
Who would like to chose one and start the conversation?
Besides being respectful, the only thing you are not allowed to make in Confirmation is “I don’t know.” That rule applies to this morning, as well.

And so the conversation began.

What Would You Like Me To Do For You?

I remember the first time this story from Mark’s Gospel became more than just another story in the Bible for me. I had been on a Midnight Run on a Friday night. Handing out clothes and coffee and soup to groups of men and women at various locations in midtown Manhattan. Everyone was huddled and bundled against the cold. A faceless, nameless group anxious to get clean clothes and dry socks and something warm to eat and drink and then return to their cardboard box or their corner out of the wind. And we were anxious to get back in our vans. The next morning, still a bit tired from being out late on Friday night, I walked into my office to read through the scripture reading for Sunday and to make sure I was ready for worship. The scripture for that Sunday was the same as the scripture reading for this morning. Mark 10. Blind Bartimaeus. Son of Timaeus. Beggar who spent his days sitting in the dust on the side of the road just outside Jericho. That Saturday morning was the only time I remember ripping up what I had written earlier in the week to write something entirely different for the sermon for the next day.

My guess is you know enough Hebrew to catch the irony in the passage. Bartimaeus. Son of Timaeus. Bar. Meaning son of. As in Bar Mitzvah. Even though he had lived in that town his entire life, nobody knew his name. Only that he was Timaeus’ son. Bar Timaeus. This scripture and that insight changed the way I interacted with others especially those who were and are invisible to me most of the time. Those with whom I had interacted on that Midnight Run the night before. Those families and neighbors who I get to know on work trips to Appalachia or Nicaragua. Those whom I welcome when we host the Emergency Shelter Partnership. The check out person at the grocery store.
Now, I do my best to make sure I introduce myself.
And, do my best to notice or to ask them and then call them by name.
They deserve, at least, that much.

Something similar happened when I read through this passage again this past week and thought about and planned for this morning. Instead of the name, what caught my attention this time is the question Jesus asked. Reading through this story, the way I heard Jesus ask the question was not out of a sense of exasperation like you and I might sometimes do when being interrupted or being asked to do one more thing. Throwing up our hands and saying, “What do you want me to do for you?” But, as I read the story, I heard Jesus asking the question with a sense of openness and honesty and genuine concern for the person who now stood in front of him. Beggar’s cloak discard, Jesus could now look him in the eyes. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus said. “How can I help?”

I think one of the reasons this question jumped out at me, is that I had recently stumbled across and have been thinking about this reflection by the Rev. Gene Robinson, retired Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Robinson wrote: I think people often come to the synagogue, mosque or church looking for God and what we give them is religion.

They come looking for God and we give them….
What to believe.
How to believe.
What to do.
How to act.
We use our churchy words and say our churchy prayers and sing our churchy hymns. We stand up and sit down on cue. Please understand. I am not criticizing. All these things mean something to many, if not most, of you. They mean something to me. But, in light of the Gospel and Bishop Robinson’s reflection, I find myself asking the question.
Are there those who wait alongside the road?
Overlooked?
Invisible to most of us?
Waiting.
Looking.
Maybe even hoping for something.
Maybe not even aware that they are waiting or looking or hoping, but there. All around us.

Who are all those others who are NOT here.
Our children and our grandchildren.
Our neighbors down the street.
Our neighbors who look like us and those who don’t.
Do we see them for who they are?
Do we recognize them?
Do we care enough about them not just to see them, but to ask what they are looking for?
To ask what we can do for them?
Or, who we can be for them?
Is it true that all we have offered them is religion?
When what they are looking for…longing for… is…
Hope.
Forgiveness.
Awe.
Wonder.
Gratitude.
Welcome.

Here is what I know.
Or, at least think I know.
Two things:

I think Bishop Robinson is right.
I think we are more accustomed and comfortable in offering people religion rather than an experience of God. Or a window onto the Holy.
An indicator of this is that much of what we do and how we do it, while meaningful to us, is not connecting with others. All the demographics tell us that and trend in that direction.

Maybe that is because religion is easier and safer.
Because that experience of the Holy…
Our experience of God…
Is so personal and fluid we find it hard to put words around it.
How do you talk about that moment when you were saved?
Or describe that moment when awe buckled your knees?
Or, when you experienced a forgiveness which broke open your life?
Or, when that Something More filled your being to overflowing and changed who you are and how you live?

I don’t have any great wisdom here.
Let alone answers.
Just my intuition that Bishop Robinson is right and that the question Jesus asks Bartimaeus somehow connects with and has something to do with all of this. And, the belief that the more we ask and and the more we talk about this and the more we do our best to live out the question the more we create space for both us and others to turn towards that Something More which even today…even now…waits to turn our lives right side up.

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Several things I believe: