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“Research portrays Americans as increasingly insecure, isolated, and lonely.” This comes from the book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by MIT Professor Sherry Turkle [p. 157]. This is a book I highly recommend. But this one observation is quite interesting to me. Insecure, isolated, and lonely. To me this is exactly what the church is supposed to be preventing. When you are part of a church, you celebrate that you and all people are loved. This undermines insecurity. As for being isolated and lonely, a church gives you a community in which to be yourself and be loved. Church brings people together with common values. Jesus’ ministry specifically addressed welcoming those who were outcast and ostracized into the community. In the mission statement of Lakewood UCC we commit to offering “the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.” The church should be all about combatting insecurity, isolation, and loneliness. How are we doing?

I would be interested in research that compares the rate of insecurity, isolation, and loneliness among people who go to church (or some other faith community) and those who do not. I have friends who do not go to church. And one of the reasons they do not go is because they feel church is exclusivistic, judgmental, and irrelevant. These characteristics would contribute to insecurity, isolation, and loneliness. If you feel that the church is continuously telling you that you are “unworthy” then what do you have to contribute to a relationship?

But at it’s best, at its truest and most genuine, the church should be directly countering insecurity, isolation and loneliness. We are created in God’s image to live in community. Research showing an increase in insecurity, isolation, and loneliness is but another reminder that there are many people who need the church. But do they know that church is available to them and what it has to offer? Maybe not. It is our responsibility to see that people know that at church there is an antidote to insecurity, isolation, and loneliness. Not only do individuals need this, but it will improve the well-being of our society. A culture of insecure, isolated, lonely people is a very scary proposition.

Prayer: We pray for all those who feel insecure, isolated and lonely. There is so much heartache in the world. While we have ever more ways of connecting, we can become more and more separate. We pray for hearts open to reach out and extend the love and communion of Christ to those who feel abandoned and alone. May we not be afraid to create community through shared honesty and vulnerability. Amen.

Sunday afternoon 9 people from Lakewood UCC went to the Publix Headquarters in Lakeland to be part of the finale of the farmworker march from Ft. Myers to Lakeland.
It was inspiring. There was an incredibly diverse group of people including many, many young people. People were there from all over the country. They had flown in specifically to attend this event. It made me realize that this is part of a much bigger movement. While we think of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) as a local group, which they are, they are also of world renown. The Coalition has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and they are known not only in Florida and the US, but around the world. They are considered a premier model for effective non violent change.

The motto for the CIW used to be “Se si puede” meaning it can be done or we can do it. Today there was a different chant. An adaptation. I was with Claudia Rodriguez, our Nursery Attendant, who speaks Spanish, and I asked her , “What does this new chant mean?” She said it was in the past tense: “’It has been done,’ or ‘We did it.’”

While the CIW is still trying to get Publix to come to the table to discuss the Fair Food agreement, they have successfully negotiated agreements with 11 other major food corporations including Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway and Pizza Hut. This “has been done.” So, there is a new motto.

Sometimes when we are working for change or trying to accomplish something that is important to us, we may be focussing on what is yet to be accomplished. And we may lose sight of what has already been done. Again and again in the Bible the people recount the amazing things that God has done for them in the past. This gives them hope and strength in the present as they work for a new future. It is important for us in our spiritual lives and in our life together as a church to celebrate how far we have come, what we have been able to accomplish, the positive change that has already occurred. This then inspires us to keep up our efforts and not to give up. Let’s make sure that we are not ignoring what “has been done.”

Prayer: Sometimes we can only see that the glass is half empty. May we have eyes to see how far we have come and to pay attention to the strides that have been made that deserve to be celebrated. This gives us strength and hope to continue the struggle. When we see what God has done and is doing, we can trust that eventually our efforts for justice will bear fruit. God does not give up on us. May we not give up. Amen.

Creation or evolution? Bumper stickers and candidates and school boards hold forth on this topic. Creation, Genesis style, by God who specifically images each life form and species. Or evolution à la Darwin, purported to be a godless, scientific explanation for the vastly profuse effusion of life.

While Charles Darwin may not have been a regular church-goer, it should be noted that the one book Darwin took on his voyages was Milton’s Paradise Lost, the epic poem on based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The third edition of On the Origin of Species ended with a hymn of praise to God. Darwin was awed that “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved. “ [Quoted in The Christian Century, 3/20/13, p. 8] Using today’s description, maybe we would say that Darwin was “spiritual but not religious.”

The design of an ever adaptive, changing natural world. Circumstances converging creating the “perfect storm” which resulted in a life-supporting habitat. A simple, almost unremarkable emergence of life gradually spreading and diversifying resulting in the current profusion of nature. To me there is nothing more awe-inspiring or miraculous than this incredible process. The theory of evolution is enough to prevent one from lapsing into agnosticism or atheism.

To look at the human species and the harm we have done to one another and the planet; that could drive you to agnosticism or atheism. But the examination of the natural world and affirming the system of evolution, it’s hard not to see a God of some kind at the heart of it all.

Creation or evolution? Yes! God creating evolution. That’s a God to which I will gladly give my love and trust.

Prayer: May we take delight in the glory of creation. May we see the hand of the divine in the natural world. May we celebrate that we are part of the amazing, awe-inspiring, miraculous creation. We hope to have hearts centered on the God of creation and to cherish and care for God’s miraculous gift. Amen.