posts

This is Me

by Tony Minear

“This is ME.” Powerful words. To be able to proclaim them aloud in the presence of another takes courage and strength. For before I can make this proclamation, I have to find the audacity to utter these three words to myself.

“This is ME.” Strengths and faults, “This is ME.” While I may not yet be able to fully embrace all facets of who I am, I say to myself and others, “This is ME.” While there may be areas of my life I want to grow in or change, today, I proclaim, “This is Me.”

Throughout my life, a factor so real to me that it became human like consistently kept me from claiming these words. Meet Expectations. Initially, Expectations was a stranger to me. As an infant I had no awareness of its presence. Eventually, I was introduced to Expectations by adults and peers. Its objective was clear, to shape me into the likeness of the majority of people around me. The same people Expectations had already worked its magic upon. Expectations’ creed was “This is us” not “This is me.” I share with you an example of how this played once played out in my life.

New Scene

I had been in my new church for only a few weeks when a church member, who had been part of the team that hired me, confronted me.

“Tony, I think we hired the wrong person,” she said.

“Don’t freak out. Remain calm.” I told myself. “Look confidant.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You talk about Jesus way too much in your sermons and you hold the Bible far too long. Once you read from it, just set it down.”

This event was not a major issue. Initially, none of them were. They were, however, forecasting the weather over the horizon. Sure enough, the big storm blew in and left destruction in its path while carrying me off with it. For four years I used every trick up my sleeve to make “ME” work at that church. Unsuccessful. With time and distance, along with help from others unloading the crap of self-doubt I had piled upon myself, I finally realized that woman was right. They hired the wrong person. They hadn’t hired “ME.” They hired the Tony who they thought they could mold to fit their expectations stemming from a long tenured previous minister. Some of these expectations they probably weren’t even aware of. However, the more I became aware of them, I found courage and strength to start living out the words, “I am brave, I am bruised. I am who I’m meant to be, this is ME.” I didn’t do this on my own. One church member in particular, a psychiatrist, believed in ME. He encouraged me to remain true and steady to my convictions and values in a loving yet powerful way.

This experience helped me realize the further out you are from the accepted norm, the greater the effort exerted by others to bring you into conformity. To bring this about a variety of tactics are employed. At first, they are subtle, pleading and cajoling. Nonetheless, if the appropriate results don’t come about, they hand you an all-expenses paid ticket to Guilt. If you return from the trip looking and acting the same, assorted expressions of disappointment and anger await you at your front door. Eventually, out of sheer hopelessness and despair, they roll out the cannons and start firing cannon balls with the word “Rejection” engraved on each one.

Benj Pasek, one of the writers of the hit, “This is Me,” from the movie The Greatest Showman, at one point experienced some, perhaps even all of these tactics. “For myself, I was a closeted gay man who as a teenager felt like the world was inundating me with messages that you’re not good enough or you’re unlovable.” Therefore, when Director Michael Gracey started looking for “an anthemic song for the people who had lived in the shadows their entire lives and had stepped in the light, declaring they would be seen and love themselves as they are,” Pasek found that wounded place within and begin to compose a song that would resonate with many of us.

New Scene

The Bearded Woman, from the movie The Greatest Showman, sings “This is Me” in the midst of the nobles while surrounded by the rest of Barnum’s misfits. Misfits, the ones you might drop a few bucks to go gaze at and find entertaining; not the ones you expect to see outside of their environment and especially not in yours. If you watch the scene closely, you might catch the cameo appearance by Jesus. Jesus’s makeup and wardrobe make him difficult to spot. Some have thought they saw him disguised as Tom Thumb or Fedor Jeftichew, the Dog-Faced Boy. That doesn’t surprise me. The historical Jesus would have fit in perfectly with Barnum’s motley crew and sang with gusto as he harmonized with the Bearded Woman, “This is ME.”

New Scene

Jesus reclining at a table with those who have been pushed to the margins of society. Jesus appears at ease, comfortable, a smile on his face interspersed with lively laughter. As he receives a slice of bread from the young man who has lost everything because he couldn’t keep up with his debt, Jesus says to him, “You know that you deserve love (Oh-oh-oh-oh) ’cause there’s nothing you’re not worthy of.” Between sips of wine, Jesus makes eye contact with the physically disabled woman seated across the table, “You’re marching on to the beat of your drum (marching on, marching, marching on). Don’t be scared to be seen. Make no apologies. Proclaim with pride, “This is ME.”

“This is ME.” Powerful words. May you and I find the resolve to claim them for ourselves. May we find the passion to support and empower others to do the same.

Watch “This is Me” with Keala Settle, 20th Century Fox

“This is Me” Lyrics

I am not a stranger to the dark
Hide away, they say
‘Cause we don’t want your broken parts
I’ve learned to be ashamed of all my scars
Run away, they say
No one’ll love you as you are

But I won’t let them break me down to dust
I know that there’s a place for us
For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
Look out ’cause here I come
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh

Another round of bullets hits my skin
Well, fire away ’cause today, I won’t let the shame sink in
We are bursting through the barricades and
Reaching for the sun (we are warriors)
Yeah, that’s what we’ve become (yeah, that’s what we’ve become)

I won’t let them break me down to dust
I know that there’s a place for us
For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
Look out ’cause here I come
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh
This is me

and I know that I deserve your love
(Oh-oh-oh-oh) ’cause there’s nothing I’m not worthy of
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh)
When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
This is brave, this is proof
This is who I’m meant to be, this is me

Look out ’cause here I come (look out ’cause here I come)
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum (marching on, marching, marching on)
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I’m gonna send a flood
Gonna drown them out
Oh
This is me

Songwriters: Justin Paul / Benj Pasek
This Is Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

 

The Tyranny of Sunday

by Karen Richter

I was sharing work-related woes with a friend the other day. He was relating how there are some in his organization who have a penchant for making things more complicated than they need to be. Sometimes, he noted, work expands to fit the time available and some of us tend to be mesmerized by complexity.

“Your office needs a Sunday,” I told him.

The Tyranny of Sunday by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ

Huh?

Here’s a glimpse into church life: Sunday comes after 6 days of non-Sundays every single week. Let’s say your church has a great Sunday: the pews are full, the offering basket is full too. The message is inspiring; the choir knocks it out of the park. At coffee hour, conversation is lively and welcoming.

Awesome. Now do it again in 6 days.

Let’s say, conversely, that Sunday doesn’t go so well. It’s a holiday weekend and lots of people are elsewhere. The microphone makes crazy noises; the coffee is burned. Someone forgets to grab the bread for communion and the congregation sings flat.

Awesome. Now do better in 6 days.

What I call ‘the tyranny of Sunday’ is this: whether things are good or bad, you get another chance the very next week. Buckle up, buttercups! At my friend’s workplace, they seemed to need the time crunch of a metaphorical Sunday to keep projects moving forward. Sunday is a cure for beleaguered decision-making, perfectionism, and micro-management.

This is the way calendars work, of course. But it makes for good theology.

  • The pressure is on! Every week, church clergy and staff and musicians and volunteers strive to put together a meaningful experience of connection to one another, connection to our lived experience, and connection to the Mystery we call God. People depend on their church family, and this work matters.
  • But hey, no pressure! We never know what someone brings with them on Sunday. We can’t foresee what might be touching or meaningful to the people in the pews. We can’t bat 1000 every week, so we do our best and leave the results in God’s hands.
  • The consistency of weekly worship guides us through the liturgical seasons. The combination of regular gatherings and the poles of the Church year (Lent/Easter and Advent/Christmas) promote balance and growth.
  • A regular day is okay! I’m sometimes astounded when I recall that I really enjoyed the sermon on a particular Sunday, but now I can’t remember the topic. Being together as a worshiping community is often enough. Lifetimes are made from regular days and vibrant active churches are made from regular Sundays.

The Tyranny of Sunday by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ

Maybe other weekly rituals and tasks work the same way. If you’re a Saturday Night Live cast member, let me know your thoughts.

Take care, everyone. See you… on Sunday.

 

 

 

Embracing Sabbath

by Abigail Conley

I’m mulling over Sabbath. Maybe it’s the holiday weekend, when much of the country settles in for an extra day off. They pack bags, go camping, grill in backyards and things like that. Some pastors take off this Sunday, too, but for many, a Monday holiday doesn’t mean a long weekend. I’m in the many.

And still, I’m thinking of Sabbath. Here’s my confession: a while back, I stopped intentionally reading the news. My morning routine had long been to slowly wake up, picking up my phone and browsing through headlines in my favorite news apps. I read Al Jazeera English for a broader range of international news. I appreciated the backstories reported in Vox. I gave up HuffPost as it got fluffier and fluffier. I loved the long form stories of The Atlantic. With equal interest, I’d browse The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Economist. The list was long and varied—a nerd wake-up, I suppose.

About this time last year, I stopped doing that. It was Trump, in case you’re wondering. Reading the news under a Trump presidency became toxic, so I stopped for my own sanity and well-being. I’m aware that’s a place of privilege and feel plenty of guilt about that. Of course, I still get a reasonable amount of news. Some of it is sent to my inbox and other pops up in social media. I just stopped pursuing it and gave myself permission to check out of it all together.

I wish I could say it was a carefully thought out and pursued Sabbath. It wasn’t. It was a move of self-preservation. By the time I was making the decision, it was out of a place of pain, anger, and frustration of the damning variety. My soul could not bear it and remain intact.

I suppose I did declare a Sabbath of some sort, knowing that I would return to my previous habits of devouring information. Some day. Eventually. But not now. Not for a while longer.

Part of my job is offering premarital counseling to couples. Most take it seriously and appreciate the work we do together. In the end, much of what we talk about and work toward is intentionality in their relationship. Plan dates. Talk about problems. Set goals. Talk about problems. Say no to things you don’t want to do. Talk about problems. Time and time again, people seem unaware that we actually get to make choices about what we do and how our lives work out in the day to day.

As I consider my own News Sabbath, I am also aware of how easy it is to forget that we have choices. I see people juggling the schedules and the commitments, seeming to forget that they can say no to softball or soccer even if it is good for their kid in some ways. It doesn’t have to be added on top of scouting and school and swim lessons. I see people desperate for some rest. I see people who think they are unable to linger over dinner and conversation. I see all the people who forget that we can choose things that are life-giving and life-sustaining. “Do not worry,” says Jesus. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink.” It has nothing to do with Sabbath, and yet has everything to do with Sabbath. That passage ends with, “Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Maybe it is worry more than anything else that drives us, since that is its own manifestation of control. Sabbath, after all, creates space and reminds us that we are not in control. Rest, weary one, for the world will go on just the same. It’s beautiful and haunting, depending on the person or the day. That’s generally the way the Gospel works.

So keep Sabbath this weekend, dear friends, for that is holy work, too.

This is a test. This is only a test.

by Karen Richter

Is life just one test after another?

Names below have been changed.

Now that my youngest child has hit adolescence, I seem to be harvesting the fruits of telling her since she started school that grades are not important to me. She’s testing my resolve… occasionally deciding that an assignment is not a priority. I’ve mostly stuck to my resolve, reminding both of us that there are more important things in life than 6th grade language arts.

Recently, I confided my struggles to a casual friend, Jenna, and a most interesting conversation ensued. Our tone was lighthearted, but the conversation revealed different ways of relating to life.

KR:  So, I’ve always told my children that learning is very important to me, but grades not so much. Unfortunately, it seems that Molly was listening all this time.

 Jenna:  I have not given Rianne that message… not at all. I tell her that she’s being graded and tested and judged all the time. At school, at home, out in public. You don’t do what you’re told – you’re being graded on that. You have a school assignment – you’re being graded on that. You have an interaction with someone you don’t know at a restaurant – you’re being graded on that. We’re always in every situation being tested.

 Is Jenna right?

Of course she is. Human brains are sorting, difference-measuring, weighing-up machines. Making decisions about people and situations is what we do. It has kept our species alive for many millennia. And we also recognize that we’ve all had experiences when we are told in ways both direct and subtle that we don’t measure up. We’re just not     ___ enough. Not good enough, not smart enough, not handsome enough, not thin enough, not athletic enough, not conforming enough. Our post-modern, hyper individualistic, youth- and wealth-worshiping society doesn’t exactly encourage us to accept ourselves and others just as we are. We do feel as if we are always being tested and being found deficient.

If I had more time in my conversation with Jenna (and if I had been thinking quickly on my feet), I might have said, “Yes, we feel the weight of others’ judgments. But we don’t have to take every opinion with equal weight. We can walk away from expectations and judgments. And more importantly, we need to share with our children the heart-deep conviction that their worth does not depend on the ‘grades’ given by others – EVEN IF those expectations and judgments come from someone they love and respect.”

Also recently, I’m diving deeper into Nonviolent Communication. At the heart of NVC is the idea that every human person has dignity and innate worth and personal agency. Our needs are both important and shared. When we interact in a way that honors human freedom, connections can be made that serve life.

This is an easy connection to my faith. We are called in ways large and small to freedom.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

What does this mean for Molly’s ‘History of Me’ social studies project due this next to last week of school? I don’t know, but I know that she will carry with her this idea that she is of tremendous value NO MATTER WHAT far longer than she will care about her 4th quarter grading report. And for this assurance, no matter how frustrating I occasionally find it, I am grateful.

Finally, what’s an alternative to Jenna’s worldview? How can we relate to the way life is, if not as a gigantic classroom with high-stakes testing? Maybe life is a garden where those planted can simply grow. Maybe Mary was more right than we thought… when she thought Jesus was the gardener (John 20).

Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love: we confess that often we don’t know how to relate to our own freedom or the freedom of others. We confess that sometimes our interactions with our fellow creatures don’t serve this freedom. Help us – open our eyes. We so want to live in grace and abundance. Guard in our hearts this vision of open futures and faith-filled garden paths. We pray in faith and gratitude. Amen.

A Rushing Wind From Heaven: Pentecost Activity Ideas for Children and Intergenerational Groups

by Karen Richter

I love Pentecost! The story of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 is full of exciting, energizing images and symbols that can make a meaningful formation experience for children of all ages and for multi-age, intergenerational groups. Here are some ideas for your faith community!

  1. Wear red! Eat a red snack! Talk about the liturgical colors for different seasons.
    Colors of the Church Year:
  2. Collect red scarves or make finger-knitted red scarves. How to finger knit
  3. Build a “campfire.” People in Jesus’ time knew the power of fire – to warm homes, to cook food, to destroy. Build a safe inside campfire with a camping lantern, crepe paper and construction paper and a fire ring made of classroom blocks. Tell stories around the fire! Here’s a fire we made earlier this year. A Rushing Wind From Heaven by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ
  4. Language exploration: Invite people in your congregation to share snippets of other languages. Explore and discuss: what languages do you hear around you? Take note of the languages people speak in your school or community. When people don’t speak the same language, what are some ways we can communicate? Can we learn different ways to say “welcome?”
  5. Make kites or windsocks.
  6. Experience the power of wind… when air is warmed it MOVES! Stretch a small balloon over a water bottle. Watch the balloon inflate when you place the bottle in a bowl of hot water. How do we move when we are warmed by love?
  7. Paper airplanes!
  8. Song Writing: It’s birthday of the Church… a large multi-age group might have a lyrics context for a new birthday song. You may want to have an idea list of some familiar tunes to pair with new Pentecost words.
  9. Sharing a snack or bread. In Acts 2: 42-47, we learn more about the early church, how they broke bread together every day.
  10. Speaking up! Think about the strength in Peter’s words in verses 17-20 of Acts 2. Kids can take turns using their “outside voice” and talking about when to use a strong voice to speak out.
  11. Visions and dreams: provide a large piece of butcher paper or bulletin board background paper. Groups can share their visions and dreams from verse 17. For a multi-week activity, turn this art and the group’s ideas into a banner or other art project.
  12. What does church look like? For an older elementary or youth group, use a laptop and Google image search to compile a collage of churches in different contexts. Maybe begin in Jerusalem and move out in all directions.
  13. Art Form Conversation: Print some decent color copies of Pentecost art (thank you again, Google image search!). Strive for a fully participative discussion of art using the Focused Conversation methodology (also called Art Form Conversation). Begin always with Observation before moving on to emotions and meanings. Focused Conversation Basics
  14. DIY Godly Play: use wooden peg figures or Lego minifigs and classroom materials to re-create the Pentecost scene. You might have these materials on hand to spark creativity: felt sheets and yarn (clothes and such), crepe paper or tissue paper, wooden or cardboard blocks, small bowl and water (for tiny baptisms!), chenille stems. Peg people
    Perfection is not the goal… Here are my Palm Sunday peg people. Their palms are weeds from my yard: A Rushing Wind From Pentecost by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ

Let Pentecost be a Sunday for your community during which the Spirit breaks loose and sets fire to your imagination! Have fun with this wonderful liturgical holiday. If you use any of these ideas, share your experience. I can’t wait to hear those Pentecost / Happy Birthday words to Yellow Submarine or see your paper airplanes and windsocks.

Blessings on your Easter season and Pentecost.

 

 

 

Launching A New Church

by Ryan Gear

My wife and I are in the very early stages of planting a new church in the East Valley of Phoenix. We’re probably 9-12 months away from launching weekly worship services, so we’re prayerfully dreaming up what kind of church this will be. We planted a church six years ago and turned the leadership of it over to my successor who is doing a fantastic job of pastoring the church to continued growth of 175 in weekly worship. Now, we’re reimagining how we can start a new church that can reach some of the 1.5 million people who call the East Valley home.

Because church planting is a vital endeavor for any denomination or any congregation that wants to multiply, I thought I would share a quick overview of the process we used before and will use again to plant a new congregation. I did not invent this process, by any means. In fact, it is a collection of ideas from Adam Hamilton, Rick Warren, Nelson Searcy, Jim Griffith, and many other church planters and has been used countless times by church planters of every denomination or lack thereof.

Visioning Phase

Before you start telling people you’re starting a new church, you have to know what to tell them. In my experience, the most important task of any church planter is to answer these three questions that I first read in Adam Hamilton’s Leading Beyond the Walls:

  1. Why do people need Jesus?
  2. Why do people need the Church?
  3. Why do people in your community need this new church?

Your answers to these three questions will determine what kind of a church you’re planting and why you’re planting it. These questions will also reveal to everyone you meet whether this new church is needed in your community or not. The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) are perfect places to start, but your three answers will be specific to your theology, calling, personality, experiences, ability, hopes and dreams, etc.

In my humble opinion, the most powerful thing you can offer your mission field is to plant a church that is somehow different from the other churches in your area. If the new church is the same as the other churches in your area then, frankly, a new church may not be needed. It is differentiation that will fuel your congregation to growth and sustainability. How will this new church be different from the other churches in your area?

Gathering Phase

The usual goal of church planting is to attempt to get to 200 people in weekly attendance as quickly as possible, either by the Launch or soon after. Even when you know what kind of church you’re planting and why, when a planter is first starting, gathering 200 people to be part of a new church can seem like an insurmountable task. As the saying goes, however, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The first step to gathering people is to go public and say out loud to the world, “I am starting a new church.” Create a website, a Facebook page, and Instagram account for the new church, and start telling everyone you know that you’re starting it. Purchase Google Adwords to get your website noticed by people searching for a church in your area. Tell everyone you know your 30-second elevator pitch based on your answers to the three questions. Yes, some people will be indifferent, and some will not want to be part of it… but some will. That’s the first step.

There are many creative ways to gather people. You can meet with interested people one-on-one, host info parties, host felt-need classes in your home, join the Chamber of Commerce, volunteer and meet new people, go door-to-door, phone bank, create social media videos, etc.

As you gather people, you will be inviting them to serve on the Launch Team made up of the people who will accomplish tasks needed to start a new church— a worship leader and worship band, a kids ministry leader and teachers, a hospitality ministry team, an audio/video team, a portable church set-up and take-down team, etc. It can take 30-50 volunteers just to staff a fully functioning worship service. The Launch Team is a not a core group or a small church. It is a ministry team created with the sole task of getting to weekly worship services. Once weekly worship services begin, the Launch Team will disband.

Preview Service Phase

Once you have 20 or more people on your Launch Team and enough equipment and signage to give attendees a good idea of what your weekly worship services will be like, you can begin monthly preview services. Nelson Searcy recommends having six monthly preview services in the same facility you will use for weekly worship, likely a school, theater, or an existing church’s building. You challenge your current Launch Team to invite their friends and family, and then begin promoting that first monthly preview service at least a month in advance.

Your goal is to have more people at every monthly preview service and then to invite those new folks to join your Launch Team in the needed volunteer positions. With every preview service, your attendance grows, your Launch Team grows, and you and the Launch Team invite more people. Repeat.

Launch Phase

 After six monthly preview services, it’s time to go weekly. This is the Launch of the church. Treat it the way a new store treats a grand opening. Put signs all over your city. Make it an event. This is your one chance at a first impression.

However, there is one extremely critical caveat. The new church must have critical mass in order to launch weekly worship. Critical mass is the number of people in your worship service required for the perception that the church is healthy and exciting. In the U.S, critical mass seems to be somewhere between 75-100 adults. Less than 75 adults will cause people to silently wonder why there aren’t more people there, it’s tough to recruit volunteers, and ultimately it is a momentum killer. Your goal is to build attendance through your gathering phase and monthly preview services so that you will have attained critical mass by your first weekly service or before. If you can launch with 200 people or more, even better.

Post-Launch Phase

After launching weekly worship, Sunday has a way of coming around every seven days. Before you launch, you will want to have prepared some sermon series, or a bank of sermons if you use the lectionary. You don’t want to be staring at a blank screen on Thursday nights wondering what you will preach about on Sunday. There are lots of resources available for great preaching.

In addition, you will want to continue being an outreach-focused church and use the same formula that you used to build the Launch Team. When you have new people, recruit them to serve in the church. They will, in turn, invite new people, then recruit them. Repeat.

To close the back door of the church and disciple the people who connect, start a small group ministry, have monthly or quarterly fellowship events, and help people develop lifelong friendships within the new church. While people usually come to a new church for the sermons and music, they stay because of friendships.

You did it! You launched a church. Now, you have the call and privilege of doing your absolute best to lead the kind of church that will live out your answers to the three questions.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in church planting, three resources I would highly recommend are Adam Hamilton’s Leading Beyond the Walls, Nelson Searcy’s Launch: Starting A New Church from Scratch, and Jim Griffith’s Ten Common Mistakes Made by Church Starts.

Beyond Frightened, Terrified, Disbelieving, and Wondering

by Bill Lyons

This sermon was preached at First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Year B Easter 3, Sunday April 15, 2018. The text is Luke 24:36b-49

Oh, to have listened to the conversation in the upper room that afternoon.

The morning before our story took place the stone from the tomb in which Jesus had been buried was found rolled back and the tomb empty, the body gone. The women who made the discovery claimed that when they went to anoint the body two men in dazzling clothes announce that Jesus was raised from the dead. The women told their story to the other followers of Jesus who were hiding in the house where they’d eaten Passover with him, “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”[1] On the chance that the women had gone to the correct tomb and that it had in fact been violated, Peter ran to the grave and indeed, found the site just as the women had described it.

Later that same Sunday, two of Jesus’ followers were walking to Emmaus when they met a fellow traveler. The conversation turned to the events of the last few days about “Jesus of Nazareth, who [they believed] was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how [their] chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 [how they] had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”[2] The traveler explained how everything that happened was necessary according to Scripture, and in they invited Jesus to spend the night with them. During the evening meal, when the traveler blessed and broke the bread they suddenly realized this was no stranger but Jesus himself! But just as quickly as they realized the truth, Jesus vanished.

The next morning they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others in the Passover room their experience. When they got their they learned that Jesus had also appeared to Peter. 36 While they were talking about [all of] this, Jesus himself stood among them and said…, “Peace be with you.”[3]

As you can imagine, 37…the whole group was startled and frightened, [beyond frightened – terrified] thinking they were seeing a ghost! [4]

So Jesus invited them to apply the ancient world’s test for ghosts.

  • He invited them to look at him carefully – Not just for their eyes to register him, but for their whole beings to perceive him with understanding. (v. 39)
  • He invited them to touch him, to check extremities (most easily, hands and feet) for bones, make sure that a person’s feet were touching the ground. (40-43)
  • He showed them his teeth were able to consume food. Eating with them meant he was really human! (vv. 41-42)
  • He explained the sacred writing to them in ways that opened their minds to possibilities about him and about themselves they had not considered or even imagined before. (vv. 44-47)
  • He declared them to be witnesses of what they’d seen and heard with him

When we try to find ourselves in the story we immediately relate to the disciples.  We are ourselves followers of Jesus. In this story the followers of Jesus are described with words like frightened, terrified, disbelieving, and astonished or wondering. It’s easy to find ourselves in those descriptors.

Brennan Walker, 14, woke up late Thursday morning and missed his bus to Rochester High School. The teen, without a phone after his mother took it away, decided to knock on a person’s door in Rochester Hills for help, FOX 2 Detroit reported.

“I got to the house, and I knocked on the lady’s door. Then she started yelling at me and she was like, ‘Why are you trying to break into my house?’ I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High. And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that’s when I heard the gunshot,”

Brennan’s mom, Lisa Wright, said, “We should not have to live in a society where we have to fend for ourselves. If I have a question, I should be able to turn to my village and knock on a door and ask a question. I shouldn’t be fearful of a child, let alone a skin tone.”

Lisa Wright said she was at work when received the call about her son. Her husband is currently deployed in Syria.[5]

There is plenty of terror to go around in Syria. If not from the atrocities committed by the Asad regime then by the illegal acts of war committed by the Trump administration. Open Doors, a non-profit that for 60 years has worked in the world’s most oppressive countries empowering Christians who are being persecuted for their beliefs tells us that in Syria 22% of the 899,000 Christians have experienced violence and 86% have experienced pressure in their church, national, community, family and private lives over their religious beliefs. In areas controlled by Islamist militant groups the numbers are higher. But the main perpetrators of persecution of Christians are extended family members.

My own fear escalated with the news of US attacks on Friday. My son-in-law is deployed with the Air Force in the middle east.

And if we are honest, we still wrestle with bodily resurrection of Jesus. After thousands of years of Christian witness and in spite of the witness of our sacred texts, some of us wonder. Some of us, like the disciples in that upper room, are disbelieving.

And like them, our joy in Christ is not grounded in human experience, but in our faith. That’s the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is rooted in our circumstances. Joy is grounded in what lies beyond our circumstances.

It was joy that flooded over me in Washington, D.C. on Palm Sunday weekend as I watched 800,000 people – the largest convergence on our nation’s capitol in history – most of them young people, commit themselves to creating a different future for our land. And tears of joy welled up in my eyes as I listened to Maya and Cecil from this congregation, and 11 other teens from around the Southwest Conference share what they experienced and learned and were going to do when they got home about the national sin of gun violence. It was truly joy watching and listening to them. The circumstances in which they walk into school everyday stole any happiness from the moment. The positive emotions I felt were held in tension with the possibility that any one of those teens could find herself or himself or themself in the midst of America’s next school shooting on the next day they walked into class.

It’s easy to find ourselves identifying with the disciples as they are described in our text: frightened, terrified, disbelieving, and astonished or wondering. But as post-Pentecost Christians looking back at these resurrection narratives, we are more than disciples of Jesus.

We are Jesus in this story. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians: Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.[6] We are the living body of Christ in our world. Together – the you in this verse is plural – we are the resurrected Christ in our world.

That means our joy in the Living Jesus pushes us beyond the fright, terror, disbelief, astonishment and wonder of our circumstances to do the things a back-from-the-dead Jesus does in the world. Our text invites us to 5 activities in our world as the Living Body of Christ. Over and over again we read about the earliest church doing these 5 things as the Living Body of Christ in their world. And we need to be about these same 5 things in our world if we are going to fulfill our calling to be the Living Jesus for our world.

  • Invite the world to LOOK at us.

LOOK at the life-giving Power of God at work in and through us. Look at how the life-giving power of God is leading us into the glorious new life of God’s continuing testament – God is Still Speaking – into the glorious new life of extravagant welcome, into the glorious new life of changing the world by changing lives.

The living Jesus wants to show himself to our world, and the world needs to clearly see the Living Jesus when they look at the Body of Christ.

  • Invite the world to TOUCH us to let them know we are real.

They need to touch be touched by a living Body of Christ, to know that we have substance and that we are for real, to touch our bones if you will, our spine of justice and our hands of love, our feet that are solidly planted on the goodness and health of our earth.

  • Invite the world to eat with us.

We need to let the world experience our humanity. Not just that we eat the same food they eat, but that we share our food with them. Let our voice be the voice that calls people to their place at the table – the table of privilege, the table of power, the table of equity.

  • Invite the world to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures.

Progressive Christians aren’t just political liberals with a religious vocabulary. We are the moral voice of the prophets rekindled. Continuing testament, extravagant welcome, and changed lives is what our sacred texts tell us God has been up to from in the beginning. The Bible is concerned with more than human beings going to heaven. As Jesus did that day after his resurrection, let us open the world’s minds to possibilities about God and about themselves they had not considered or even imagined before.

  • Invite the world to be witnesses to the Living Jesus in their midst.

The witness of the world to the Church in their world has not always been flattering or what our God would hope people would be saying about us. We need to acknowledge that, repent, and let the world bear witness to our dying to our old selves and our rising to walk in newness of life (Rom 6). Tell your transformation story. Invite your neighbor into a transformational relationship with Christ and his Church. And celebrate the transformational stories of people changed by the Good news of Jesus. Let the w of terror and fear the Living Body of Christ showed up among them and brought them joy.

Beloved, the living Jesus wants to show himself to our world, and the world needs to clearly see the Living Jesus when they look at the Body of Christ. Our world desperately needs a moment when a living Jesus enters the room with an invitation to wholeness and an offer of peace! As the body of Christ we are that Jesus and this is our moment if we will take it. You may have come here as a disciple of Jesus. Let us leave here as the Living Body of Christ in the world. Amen.

 

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Lk 24:11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Lk 24:19–21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Lk 24:36). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[4] Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Lk 24:37). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[5] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/14/michigan-teen-misses-bus-gets-shot-at-after-asking-for-directions.html

[6] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (1 Co 12:27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

I Think You Are Lovable (Most of the Time)

by Davin Franklin-Hicks

I am a loving and caring man.
I look for the good in people.
I love it when others succeed.
I celebrate the successes of other folks.
I desperately want all people to have the best emotional, spiritual and physical life possible.
I want people to laugh.
I want people to have a sense of security in their living.
I am a pretty decent and kind guy.
Then I have to go outside.

At least a solid 85% of the time I totally dig others and am thoughtful and loving. Ok, maybe like 80% of the time. (“76% of the time”, my conscience whispers…
To which I say “No one likes a know it all, Conscience!”)

If there was technology that would map the route my brain takes when traveling from loving-kindness and compassion to baffled frustration and judgment, it would be a surprisingly quick trip.

Start at loving kindness and compassion.
Take three steps.
Step in dog poop.
You have arrived at “Everyone Is Stupid and Annoying And Dumb, Except Me”.

My deep kindness and loving ways fall apart when other actual living and breathing humans are around. I am so good at caring for all people, until people show up. People ruin my unconditional love for people.

I had a tremendous reprieve from this pattern recently. The reprieve lasted a full two weeks. The path I often take was re-routed. The route was full of wonder and love the whole way through.

The world became far more vibrant.
It all felt new and novel.
The journey was the entire focus.
I had people around me and not once did I get to that place of exasperation and harsh, judgment.
I was with people and I still operated in loving kindness and compassion.

The two weeks happened when my wife and I had the honor of hosting my youngest brother and his family.

My brother is nine years younger than me. I have called him Bear since the day he was born. I brought him in for show and tell in my fourth grade class. I have long been smitten. And remain that way still.

The trip afforded the opportunity to have my baby brother, sister-in-law and our soon-to-be three-years-old nephew in the sanctuary of our home and in our daily lives.

They met a few of the people we adore.
They watched shows with us that we love.
They ate with us, cooked with us, and lived with us.
It was the single best two weeks we have had since our living became riddled with loss and illness.

The difference that made this trip so special was rather basic, yet very powerful:

We wanted them here and they wanted to be here.
That’s the first step that led us to authentic connection.
Choice to be present. Choice to be loving. Choice for authenticity.

We removed the appearance of being perfect that we so readily hide behind in living. We ate outside whenever possible.
We enjoyed each other.
We laughed.
We played.
We shared deeply.
We even sang together, our joined voices gloriously out of key.
Nan and I rested a lot. I slept better than I had in two years.

This two week period was full of wonderful, loving moments.
Those moments, though, would not have led to the experience of love we all had. Love emerged when we chose to be open.
It beamed when we chose the risk of vulnerability.
It flourished when we chose to see each other.

Then they had to go. We said our goodbyes and my heart started to ache.

What will I do with the silence that has replaced the sounds of my sweet nephew‘s voice and movements?
What will I do with the ache that has replaced the joy of shared laughter?
What will I do with the feeling of fear that attempts to overshadow the feeling of love I joyously basked in?

That familiar route started creeping back in. The world started feeling less great. I started feeling a bit more cynical, a bit more easily frustrated, a bit less loving.

I want to live a loving life. It’s my aim, my core value. It informs so much of my everyday. I think about love a lot.

I have learned some things that I don’t always remember in times of ache. I do, though, remember it fully when I return to my practices that cultivate a loving heart. From that place I can see so much more clearly.

I tend to confuse the presence of Love with the feeling-of-love. When I confuse this, I end up in a place of pain and loneliness because states of being change.
My access to the feeling of love sometimes teeters.
My awareness of love as it relates to my worth often shifts.

Circumstances do not change the reality of love.

Love remains.
Steady.
Sturdy.
Stable.

My capacity to give love is in direct correlation with the love I am capable of cultivating within. I do not feel loving toward others if I have not created space for love.

The reality then is this: At least a solid 80% of the time I am willing to do the work within that allows me to see you and hear you and love you. The other 20% of me distorts.

I had such an easy access to Love over those two weeks that the feeling of love was constant and was easy to come by. It made the world seem alive in a way that I didn’t have access to in such a concentrated way.

Then the lens of fear arrived again. That lens distorts life. It changes what I see in the mirror. I become ugly and worthless. It changes how I see others. It changes how I see you.

The lens of loving-kindness and compassion allows me to see you far more clearly.

You are beautiful.
You are seeking.
You are adjusting.
You are healing.
You are breaking.
You are grieving.
You are aging.
You are trying.
You are fearful.
You are hopeful.
You are resting.
You are exhausted.
You are forgetting.
You are remembering.
You are being.

I can see you again.
I see your light and I see your struggle.
I can see how much we look alike.
I can see it so very clearly now.
You, my dear one, are loveable.

100% of the time.

What a trip Love turns out to be.

Opened Minds – Hearts on Fire: Exploring the Easter Stories

by Karen Richter

I don’t know about you, but if I were writing the story of Easter… I would make it Extra. Extra miracles, extra teaching, extra healings, maybe a Big Finish.

I wouldn’t write the stories that we have. Someone told me this past week that the Easter stories just don’t seem that impressive. I concur. Well there are angels and fainting guards and earthquake (Matthew 28!). But walking anonymously down the road, breathing weirdly on people, cooking breakfast… I’ll take a pass.

The other day I made a super-nerdy Easter story matrix. Here’s what I learned:

  • As the gospel tradition moves forward through history (from Mark written about 70 CE to John written just after 100 CE), the Easter appearance stories get bigger: more complex and more weird. Mark’s Gospel originally has only the empty tomb tradition, with some risen vision stories tacked on later like a Holy Post-It note. John’s gospel has six different stories.
  • They’re all different from one another across the 4 Gospels, unlike other Jesus stories of our tradition such as the feeding miracles.
  • In each story, Jesus is somehow different and somehow the same. He’s not easily recognized even by friends, but he retains his Crucifixion wounds. Embodied, but transformed, maybe.
  • All 3 synoptic Gospels have angels at the tomb. This is interesting, since we associate angels with Christmas so much more than with Easter.
  • Jesus doesn’t do any last minute teaching in the Risen Vision stories. There are no “Remember the Beatitudes!” reminders or one last parable to share. For me, this speaks to trust. The disciples will be on their own soon. Easter is graduation day, or maybe confirmation, for them.
  • Jesus doesn’t spend his post-Resurrection time on miracles. The time for loaves and fishes and healing on the Sabbath seems to have passed. John does recount an extra large catch of fish and an extra strong net, but as miracles go, it’s pretty low key.

So if, as time passes, Resurrection stories and experiences expand, becoming more complex and more weird, what are our Easter stories? Maybe – just maybe – the most impressive and exciting Easter stories are yet to come. In Luke 24, the disciples have their hearts burning and their minds opened by their encounters with Jesus. What is our tale of Easter? How will we share our burning hearts and opened minds with the world?

Opened Minds – Hearts on Fire: Exploring the Easter Stories by Karen Richter, Southwest Conference Blog, United Church of Christ

One more Easter observation… Jesus seems to really like fish.

Eastertide Peace to you all.