Category: Sermon Texts

Date: Sunday Sept. 11, 2016
Sermon: Shaped by Love
Scripture: Jeremiah 18:1-11 and Luke 14:25-33
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

When I was young, grown ups used to talk about where they were when they heard that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In the grocery store. At home. At work. The heart-wrenching shock of it. The tears – even in public, because people just couldn’t contain themselves. As that fades to distant memory, today people share stories of where they were on 9/11. How they heard. What is was like. The memories are deeply etched into our psyches.

I remember seeing the World Trade Centers going up. There were articles in the Scholastic Magazines that we were given in school, and my grandmother lived in New York so several times a year when we went there, we would watch the progress of the towers growing higher and higher. A marvel to behold. An architectural triumph. For years, the tallest buildings in the world.

The last time I saw them was in the summer of 2000. We took our kids and walked around the buildings and the plazas looking up, way up!

By then, the World Trade Centers had become a symbol of: Capitalism. Consumerism. Economic disparity where the few succeed on the backs of the many. The power and triumph of the 1%. They were seen as a symbol of American imperialism. American exceptionalism. America’s perceived superiority and domination.

And then the towers came down. And now One World Trade Center has gone back up. With another one to follow once there are tenants to fill it.

I heard someone on the radio this week talk about the address: One World Trade Center. He said it is the most prestigious, recognizable address on the planet. You don’t need to say the city, state, country or zip. Just One World Trade Center. And everyone knows where it is. Period.

To some, this is vindication and triumph. Well, it is, of a kind.

This morning we heard from the prophet Jeremiah about how God established the chosen people of Israel to be a model of justice, compassion, and right relationship among humans, with the Divine, and with Creation. But Israel has fallen short – oppressing foreigners, widows, orphans, and others who are vulnerable. Even killing those who are innocent. Doesn’t this sound timely? The same critique could be made of America today. Then we are given the image in Jeremiah of a potter taking a clay pot, ruining it, and reforming it into something new. God doesn’t just want to toss the whole mess. God wants to remake the community to conform to God’s aesthetic of justice, compassion, and righteousness. The people seem to be in a position with two choices. Be destroyed. Due to their own evil. Or be remade according to God’s vision and dream. Jeremiah’s job is to convince them to pick the second option.

Like every time and culture, there are forces forming and shaping us. We live in a time which I believe is primarily shaped by economic drives. I recently listened to an interview with 87 year old Noam Chomsky, linguist from MIT, premier intellectual of America, and he talked about how those with concentrated wealth and power are intentionally trying to drive our natural human inclinations toward compassion, solidarity, and helping others, out of us, so that we look out for number one, see others as competitors, and live in fear, because this undermines people banding together for the common good against those at the top and thus fuels profits for the already wealthy. [Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky.] This intentional agenda is meeting with great success. Just look at things now compared to 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago, and you can see it. Labor unions have lost power and influence, people don’t know their neighbors, and the list goes on. So we live in a society where those with wealth and power are actively working against the basic human values of compassion, solidarity, and helping others.

My son recently told me about a series, “Century of the Self,” which talks about the history of advertising in this country and how the move was intentionally made from commercials that were based on information about a product to commercials that sell a lifestyle. There used to be commercials for laundry soap in which we saw the dirty pants, covered with grime and grass stains, and then they came out of the wash looking like they had just come off the rack at the store. So, you were supposed to be convinced to buy that laundry soap because it does such a good job at getting the clothes clean. Now, commercials try to convince you that by buying a product, you are investing in a way of life, a world view, a version of happiness. Maybe you saw the commercial during the Olympics with Maya Angelou reciting her poem about the common man. I loved hearing the poem with the pictures of the faces every time it came on. But what does that have to do with buying Apple products? What does a feel good poem about the human family have to do with buying a computer, a phone, or a watch? They want you to think that by buying Apple, you are supporting a vision of the human family in which every unique individual is treated with dignity and respect. I wonder how that goes over with the employees of the plants in China where most Apple products are made? At the Pegatron facility where the iPhone is made there are about 50,000 workers. They work 60 hours a week for regular pay and up to 80 hours a month in overtime. It takes about a month’s pay to purchase an iPhone. [http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-behind-the-scenes-apple-china-iphone-factory-20160426-story.html ] I wonder if they have seen the common man commercial? And, I confess, I am guilty of supporting this arrangement as I have an iPhone and an Apple laptop.

But the point is that advertising, using psychology, moved from selling a product to selling happiness, a lifestyle. And we keep buying things to make us happy. The latest. The fastest. The newest. But are we happier? Not really. So we buy something newer and faster. And the cycle continues. And corporate America is laughing all the way to the bank – which is often off-shore. Ha. Ha.

And so we have sweet Marie Kondo from Japan, reminding us that “we’re enticed into the false illusion of happiness through material purchase.” [New York Times Magazine, July 10, 2016, Stuff: Marie Kondo and the ruthless war on clutter, Taffy Brodesser-Akner]

And all of this not only has implications on labor arrangements in this country and around the world, but it also has significant environmental implications. All of this stuff that we are brainwashed to buy to make us happy involves natural resources, energy, transportation, and disposal. That contributes to environmental catastrophe and global warming. It’s no wonder in this election season we are seeing that so many people are angry. There’s good reason to be angry.

The prophet Jeremiah would be mighty busy today with a scathing critique of our culture and economy and he wouldn’t need much of a primer – greed is still greed. Taking advantage of the vulnerable is still taking advantage of the vulnerable. Power abuse is still power abuse. And violence is still violence.

We can well imagine Jeremiah’s God wanting to take our society, like a clay pot, and break it down and reform it. We are reminded in this image that the clay is still good. The materials are still considered worthy. The capacity and potential for a good society is still present. The raw material is still fine and can still be used to form a community of compassion, solidarity, and justice.

And this is just the vision that Jesus is sharing with the crowds and his followers. He is telling them about the realm that God intends for the human community. He is reminding the people of what Israel was originally called to be. He is showing them what it means to live out of Divine justice, mercy, and love. He is showing people that the human community has the capacity to be reformed into a community of mutuality, respect, and equality, with no abuse, no taking advantage, no haves at the expense of have nots. He is showing people a social order where everyone thrives, is cared about, and is valued. A community where all can express themselves, engage, have a constructive role, and be treated fairly and justly. He is modeling a society in which every life is sacred and there is abundant life for all, all creation, not just humanity. Jesus is inviting people to live from this vision, to be part of creating this kind of social order.

But Jesus is a realist, not just some pie in the sky mystic dreamer. He knows that what he is talking about is a dramatic departure from the current circumstances of the people he is addressing. He is fully aware that the vision he is advocating requires a vast reorientation of values and relationships. He is fully conscious of the concept that there is a clay pot that needs to be broken to bits so that it can be reformed into a new vessel for the love of God to thrive and flourish in the human realm. What Jesus is presenting, appealing as it is, involves the transformation of the religious, cultural, economic, and social arrangements of his context. And that kind of change is challenging and it is costly. He pays with his life.

So Jesus is not secretive or shy about communicating the kind of transformation he is talking about and the commitment involved. Just in the few verses we heard this morning, we’re told that committing to the realm of God is going to fracture your family. In Jesus’ setting, the family was the only way to have a place in society. His words were jarring and radical. And the idea of being at odds with your family is not going to go over well here in the US either where the family has become idolized. And family has become code for look out for your own, take care of your own, protect and provide for your own in a way that completely undermines a sense of responsibility for the wider community and for the future beyond your immediate family. So, Jesus is clear. You won’t like it, but to follow me, to be my disciple, will require you to put God’s realm before your family, and that will create divisions in your family. Jesus is straight up about it.

In the verses we heard, Jesus is clear, you are going to have to take up your cross if you want to be part of God’s commonwealth. Cross. Sacrifice. Burden. Hardship. Risk. Personal cost and loss. Again, this is not something that sells well. People don’t want to hear that. In our situation, people want their religion to be something that makes their lives easier not harder. Something that makes them feel good and satisfied with the status quo, not something that makes demands of them. But again, Jesus is forthright. To be part of what God is about involves taking up your cross not just praising Jesus for taking up his cross.

And then there is the really sticky wicket, “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” Even the ones that bring you joy, sorry, Marie Kondo. The realm of God must be so important, that money, wealth, possessions, fade in significance. Material possessions are to be servants, not masters. To be a disciple, we must be disencumbered, free, even of our precious possessions. That’s hard for someone like me whose house is filled with stuff. This is directly at odds with the consumer capitalism that drives America.

Jesus and Jeremiah are talking about the reshaping of human community – relationships, economics, and religion. Breaking the old apart, destroying oppression, greed, selfishness, and violence, and reshaping, reforming, reconstructing society from a new model, a model of justice, the sacredness of each and every life – human as well as animal and plant – a model that does not rely on wealth or violence for dominance and control. There’s no pay to play politics. There’s no eternal war on terror. There’s no Islamaphobia. No Black Lives Matter. There’s no need. And you never get to peace, you never get to justice through violence, through domination and control. You get there through respect, egalitarian relationships, economic justice, attention to the sacred, and a communitarian orientation, not rugged individualism. Jesus is inviting those who are following him, those who are traveling with him, those who are listening to him, to become disciples. To commit. To make God’s realm their home and family here and now. He is calling us, just as we are, right here, right now, to be part of God’s commonwealth of justice, love and peace for all creation. Jesus is inviting us, like the clay pot in Jeremiah, to be broken apart and reformed, reshaped, and transformed by the goodness of God.

When the World Trade Centers went down on that horrific day 15 years ago, we were stunned. We were aghast. I had to call my parents that morning about something. I didn’t yet know what was going on. My dad answered the phone. He was suffering from dementia, so no longer a reliable source of information. He started to tell me about what he and my mom were seeing on the TV. He seemed a bit befuddled. That was not unusual. He was mentioning New York. The World Trade Centers. Going down. He said he didn’t understand. Maybe I could turn on the TV and see and I would understand. Obviously I thought he was confused, but I turned on the TV, and sure enough, unimaginable as it was, he had the basics pretty well in line.

Here we are 15 years later. A new tower has replaced the old. And another one is going up. Here were the pieces of the pot, and instead of something new, the old pot is being recreated. No transformation even of the symbol. There was the hull of a wooden ship found in the process of digging the foundation of the new tower. [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/new-york-future-flooding-climate-change.html] An omen that the day is not far off when the lower levels of the building will be immersed in water. Already the transportation hub at the site floods regularly on this bit of prime real estate reclaimed from nature which is now being reclaimed by nature. But even so, the symbol stands, for now.

But on the night of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a prayer service here in this sanctuary. About a dozen or so people gathered. We sang. We shared. We lit candles. We cried. We prayed. And Ron Pynn, a member of the church at the time, asked that we pray for those who did this. That we pray for our enemies. That we pray for those who caused this harm. In the raw, glaring gash of our shock and grief, it was as if Jesus was there, asking us, begging us, really, pleading with us, not just to follow him but to be his disciples. To commit.

May we let ourselves be broken, shattered, even destroyed, so that God can do something new with us. Something good. To bless this precious world. Amen.

Sunday August 28, 2016

Scripture Lesson:  Job 37:1-13

Sermon:  Learning from Lightning

Pastor:  Rev. Kim P. Wells

If you’ve lived in Florida for more than 5 minutes, it won’t surprise you to find out that Florida has more lightning strikes per square mile than any other state in the United States. [July 5, 2013|By Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-07-05/news/os-lightning-deaths-florida-20130705_1_lightning-alley-lightning-deaths-john-jensenius ] Our routine thunderstorms bring fantastic theatrical displays of lightning especially upon the backdrop of a night sky. Lightning is a familiar part of our exotic tropical environment. In recent years, our family has had two trees in our yard struck by lightning. It’s no wonder one of our dogs starts to quiver as soon as he hears the thunder which is way before we do!

Kyle Cook of Lakeland knows the power of nature first hand. He has survived a bite from a venomous spider while unloading a truck, an attack from a rattlesnake while he was mowing his lawn, and a lightning strike while he was at work on a construction crew. And he has lived to tell about it all. The lightning knocked him back about 6 feet, left him unconscious for about a minute, and induced a mild heart attack. He still gets nerve pain and loss of feeling on his left side. While he is lucky to be alive, his father says, “He’s a walking Murphy’s law. I walk on the other side of the mall.” [AP August 26, 2016, 11:41 AM, Florida man survives lightning strike, spider, snake bites
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-man-survives-lightning-strike-spider-snake-bites/]

With the profusion of the occurrence of lightning, you would think that we would know exactly how it forms and how it functions. While scientists tell us there are still gaps in our understanding of how lightning works they are clear about its incredible power and frequency. A bolt of lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun! And it occurs 40-50 times per second somewhere on the face of Earth totaling about 1.4 billion flashes per year. It’s amazing we don’t all suffer from astraphobia. That’s the fear of lightning! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning]

The formation of lightning is a complex process which involves ground elevation, latitude, wind, humidity, proximity to water, and temperature. Basically, a cloud becomes electrically charged and the charge goes out from the cloud to the Earth. The beautiful streaks of light in the sky are formed by the electrical charge from the cloud following paths of ionized air which have formed between the cloud and the ground. These paths of ionized air are called step leaders. Once these step leaders are formed, the electrical charge from the cloud is released along the path to Earth and we see the bright flash. Exactly how these paths begin to form has yet to be conclusively understood. But somehow paths are created through the air and the electric charge from the cloud follows the step leader path to Earth and lightning strikes bringing incredible heat, power, and energy to Earth’s surface. [John Zavisa “How Lightning Works” 1 April 2000.HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning.htm> 26 August 2016]

While we can see the amazing power of lightning our faith tradition reminds us that we attribute even more power to God. God’s power, energy, and force for life and good is ultimate. We can think of God as love, the most impactful force known to humanity. And all of this divine power and energy is manifest in creation.

In the verses we listened to from Job, we heard a beautiful portrayal of how the writer sees the power of God displayed on Earth in thunder, snow, wind, cold, ice, clouds, and, of course, lightning: “God loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter God’s lightning.”

When we think of the formation of lightning, it takes the ionized pathways through the air, the step leaders, to conduct the electrical charge from the cloud to the earth. When it comes to God, I believe that we, as human beings, are here to be the channels conducting divine love to the Earth. We are here to be pathways for love in the world. We are to channel God’s love and light to the rest of the human family and to all of creation.

God is a word, a symbol, for unity, goodness, justice, evolving life, love. The power implied in the concept of God is beyond any power we can imagine. That power needs to manifest, to enliven, to support and sustain reality. We are part of channeling that power to the world. That’s what we see in Jesus. He is a conduit, a pathway, for the power of divine love to enter the world in an impactful way that is creative and life- giving; that is reconciling and healing. It is power for individual and social transformation. Jesus channels divine power into the world. And this is why we are here to be like the step leaders that make a pathway for lightening to be conducted from the clouds to the earth.

The movie, “Interstellar,” is about an attempt to find a location in the universe suitable for establishing a home for humanity since Earth has become so compromised that it is loosing the ability to support human life. A crew is sent into space to look for the optimum location for the new colony of humans.

In a moment of crisis, with limited time and resources, the crew is out in space trying to decide which planet to go to that might be the most hospitable to life so that they can save earthly life. Dr. Brandt, an eminent scientist, guided by science, steeped in science, her mind completely formed and shaped by the discipline of science, has this to say about the power of love in a conversation with her colleague, Cooper:

Brandt: Maybe we have spent too long trying to figure all this out with theory.
Cooper: You’re a scientist, Brandt.
Brandt: So listen to me when I say that love isn’t something we invented. It’s observable, powerful. It has to mean something.
Cooper: Love has meaning, yes, social utility, social bonding, child rearing.
Brandt: We love people who have died. Where is the social utility in that?
Cooper: None.
Brandt: Maybe it means something more. Something we can’t yet understand. Maybe it’s some evidence. Some artifact of a higher dimension that we can’t consciously perceive. I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen in a decade who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends the dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that even if we can’t understand it yet.

Here we see a person of science recognizing the power of love, a power that we cannot fully understand, and yet that we perceive and know is at work in our lives, in the world, in the universe, and in all of reality, known and unknown. And we are called to be channels of that power, that force, that reality, into the world. It’s an awesome responsibility, and incredible charge.

Scientists tell us that the average lightning strike has an electric current of 30,000 amperes and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and 500 megajoules of energy. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning] Large bolts of lightning can carry much more electrical charge. If the energy of just an average bolt of lightning were harnessed for electricity, my physics teacher husband tells me that it could power our house for 200 years. And here we are with all this lightning striking all around us all the time. All that power. The time may come when we will learn to harness it and put it to constructive use.

So it is with the power of God. The power of Divine love is all around us, all the time, charged, ready, available, just waiting to be channeled into the world though our frail human forms which have been created for just such a purpose. How mysterious and miraculous! Well beyond our comprehension. Yet here we are meant to conduct goodness, justice, love and compassion into the world. Intended to power life with love. May it be so! Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Sunday August 21, 2016
Sermon: Shark Encounters
Scripture Lessons: Matthew 5:43-48 and Romans 12:14-21
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Who can forget the pulsing rhythm indicating the presence of the shark in the movie “Jaws”? I haven’t even seen the movie in full and yet I know that cadence. It starkly portrays the presence of danger, threat, and impending doom. In the movie, a shark inflicts two fatalities upon a beachside community during the busy summer tourist season. The mayor, concerned about the economy and the income from the tourists, resists closing the beaches. Finally, the decision is made to go after the shark and eliminate it. The shark is harpooned once, and then again. It is still on the loose. So a plan is hatched to eliminate the shark through lethal injection. This scheme does not succeed either. Finally, the police chief jams a pressurized scuba tank into the jaws of the shark, then climbs the mast of the boat and shoots the tank finally killing the shark. The danger, threat, violence, and evil are vanquished. But our fear of sharks remains.

Of course the spotting of a fin in the water at the beach leads to a chaotic, scrambling out to the dry sand. Yes, the presence of a shark leads us to panic and flee.

When faced with fear, danger, and threat, often our first instinct will be fight or flight. We either attack, confront and eliminate the perceived source of hostility and danger. Or, we get out of harm’s way. We extricate ourselves from a dangerous situation. Flee. Turn tail and run for the hills.

In the presence of a great white shark, doubtless our response is to flee, rather than fight. We know we are no match for the 300 serrated razor sharp teeth and the muscular strength of the two ton fifteen foot body which can swim 15 miles per hour. Fight? That sounds like suicide. Better to flee from this most fearsome predator of the sea.

It turns out, that when confronted with an actual shark, neither fight nor flight is the best option for self- preservation. As thinking people, creatures with rationality and intelligence as well as instinct, it is in our best interests to take a different approach when encountering a shark though it can be very hard to override our instinctual programming.

Neil Hammerschlag is a marine ecologist and director of the Shark Research & Conservation Program at the University of Miami. In an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, he gives this advice for how to respond when encountering a shark:

. . . if you do find yourself in a situation where you don’t feel comfortable with the shark, the best thing to do is not to run away or swim away. That’s what their food does; their food runs away from them. The best thing to do is actually just approach them, maintain eye contact, and I wouldn’t try to touch them or push them unless they came so close that that’s what they’re going to do to you. If they came to open their mouth, that might be a situation where it would probably be good to push them away. But probably the most important thing is just to maintain very strong eye contact with them and kind of follow them around. Usually they’re going to find that uncomfortable. [A Marine Ecologist On Swimming With Sharks And What ‘Jaws’ Got Wrong July 14, 20162:36 PM ET, http://www.npr.org/2016/07/14/486012072/a-marine-ecologist-on-swimming-with-sharks-and-what-jaws-got-wrong%5D

So, you come face to face with a shark, you maintain eye contact, approach the shark, follow it around. It will lose interest and swim away. Sounds good in theory. And, apparently, Hammerschlag has found that it works in practice. It certainly makes sense that swimming away in a flurry is prey behavior which could provoke prey attack. So, rather than fight or flight, the best tactic for self- preservation is strategic engagement.

In other situations in life, we know well our instinctually programmed fight and flight reactions. If someone is mean to us, we are mean back. Fight. If someone hurts us, we stay away from them. Flight. If we have a bad experience at a business, we go elsewhere in the future. Flight. If someone does us wrong in some way, we sue. Fight. We choose these options all the time. A coworker refuses to help us with something. When the colleague needs help do we pitch in? Not on your life. Fight. We don’t like what goes on at a relative’s house for a holiday and the next year, we make other plans. Flight.

While these may not be the most helpful responses, they are certainly commonly used – in interpersonal relationships, in work settings, in business, and in international relations. Fight or flight. Defend or retreat. Attack or withdraw. In the teachings of Jesus, we see that Jesus is not limited to these options. He opens the field of options in ways that are imaginative and creative. Jesus shows alternatives and additional strategies for use in human interactions and relationships. And what he teaches us is that this range of options is actually to our benefit. When we engage with each other in unexpected ways, we may get new outcomes which are better for the community as well as for us as individuals.

We listened to two examples of this kind of teaching this morning. From the Sermon on the Mount we heard one of the most notorious teachings of Christianity – “Love your enemy.” And then, “Pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus encourages us to honor our humanity and the humanity of others by recognizing the image of God in everyone. God does not differentiate between friends and enemies. God’s love encompasses all of humanity. When we focus our intent on loving our enemies, those who wrong us, those who harm us, those we perceive as a threat, we cultivate the image of God within us. We fulfill our own nature. We express the intelligence and consciousness that makes us unique in creation. We have the capacity to transcend instinct – fight or flight. We have been endowed with the capacity to love. Everyone. To seek the highest good for those we like least and perceive as enemy. In this way, we come to transcend our fears and live fully.

In the letter to the Romans the writer follows up on this mandate. Don’t repay evil for evil. In fact, we are advised to reach out in generosity and compassion for those we fear, hate, or perceive as a threat. Do good to those who hate you. This is a way of transforming the relationship. How long can someone hate you when you are good to them? When you help them? When you convey compassion for them? But even if you continue to be hated or threatened, you have maintained your dignity and humanity. You have not demeaned yourself to base self-interest and self-protection. How do we counter evil, hatred, violence? It is not through more evil, hatred and violence. It is goodness and love which conquer evil. That is the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The ultimate example of Jesus employing an alternative strategy based on love and compassion is his response to the threat from the authorities upon his own life. The authorities made it known that they want to kill Jesus. They expect Jesus to flee. Literally head for the hills. Get out of Dodge. Fade into the woodwork of the wilderness and stop causing problems for them. He didn’t do that. Instead, with awareness of the growing threat against his life, Jesus does the opposite. He heads for Jerusalem. The center of power. The locus of authority. The very place where the decisions are being made to pursue him and eliminate him. No flight for Jesus.

The authorities may have expected Jesus to fight. Take up arms. Use violence and attack those who wanted to do him in. Then the authorities could kill Jesus with justification. Eliminate this perceived enemy. There were those among Jesus’ followers who wanted an armed insurrection. They wanted to take out the authorities, Jewish and Roman. Set up a new shop. In the story we have of Jesus’ arrest, one of the disciples takes out a sword and Jesus reprimands him. In the story of the trial of Jesus, there is no defense. No case made to justify his actions. No fighting back in this antagonistic situation.

Fight or flight. Either way, the authorities would put an end to Jesus and his movement. But Jesus does not give them the satisfaction of fight or flight. He does not behave as they expected him to. Jesus choses another way. A way that does not lead to his people becoming the next regime of oppressors. A way that does not undermine the power of all that he has done. A way that is true to his teaching of anti-violence and forgiveness. By engaging, in a way that leads to martyrdom, Jesus gives the ultimate affirmation of the way of non-violence and thus spawns a movement that is strong, life-giving, and still inspiring the imagination in creative ways for the transformation of human community thousands of years later. Our presence this morning attests to that. The authorities did not succeed at getting rid of Jesus. In fact, the result was just the opposite because of Jesus’ commitment to love.

Yes, when confronted with a threat, with pain, with perceived danger, when feeling that we have been wronged, treated unfairly, taken advantage of, yes, our first impulse may very well be fight back – fire with fire. Or it may be flight. Get out of the situation. The relationship. But our faith compels us to explore further. Putting the teachings of Jesus to practical application, it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” And he had plenty of enemies! The gospel frees us from being bound by instinct and spurs us to consider alternatives that are constructive, life-giving, and transformative. Do good to those who hurt you. Help those who hate you. Love your enemy. This completely undermines hatred, violence, and evil.

When our son, Sterling, lived in New York, he was circled by a group of middle schoolers in the daytime in a park. He thought, “They look like my little brother and his friends.” One of the boys drew a knife. Sterling told the kid to put the knife away. He was not armed. He wouldn’t attack them; he would cooperate. What did they want? They wanted his money. He got out his wallet and handed them all of his cash. $8.00. They grabbed the money and let him go on his way. Then they proceeded to argue about what to do with the money. He talked them down and de-escalated the situation. He didn’t choose fight or flight, but constructive, creative non-violent engagement.

We’ve heard about people who find burglars in their home and welcome them, make coffee, and get to know them and they leave. No robbery. No violence.

And there is that beautiful scene in “Les Miserables” when Jean Valjean is arrested for stealing the candlesticks from the church and the priest counters, no, the candlesticks were a gift. They were given to Jean Valjean. He did not steal them.

These inspiring responses show creative imagination fueled by compassion and love, not fear, anger, or hatred.

The gospel invites us to see that our options are not just fight or flight. When that coworker drives you nuts, think of something nice you can do for him or her. That neighbor that annoys you? How can you help them? That relative who grates on you? Invite them for dinner and cook their favorite dish. Is there someone you really don’t like? Get to know them better. Angry about those who free load off society on welfare? Volunteer at a soup kitchen or a shelter. This is the way Jesus went about things. It is not only about changing others, it is about changing us. We can choose to draw forth our better nature, our compassion, the image of God within us.

So, again, it is a shark encounter that reminds us of the creative alternatives presented to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This past week, a man was fishing in shallow water in Ocean City, Maryland. He caught a shark. After reeling the shark in, he removed the hook and let it go. The shark was so tired from resisting the line that it didn’t have the energy to swim out from the shore. The fishermen took hold of the shark in his arms and then transported it to deeper water and set it free. No fight. No flight. Freedom!

In the face of peril, hardship, hurt, and pain, when we are accused, oppressed, ridiculed, or bullied, our only options are not fight or flight. The gospel invites us to live from love and compassion, even for our enemy, and so to save ourselves. May we embrace the way of Jesus which truly sets us free. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: July 31, 2016

Sermon Title: Christianity and Culture

Scripture: Romans 14:13-17

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

The last time I visited Gordon Terrell was less than a week before his unexpected death in May. In that conversation, he referred to Narcissa Whitman and asked if I knew about her. I didn’t. Well, he told me, I should. This was near the beginning of our conversation that day. Before I left, he brought it up again. Made sure I had the name right so I could find out more about her. Whitman made a big impression on Gordon and he wanted me to know about her. So, now I know much more about her and soon you will, too.

Narcissa Whitman was born Narcissa Prentiss and lived with her large family in upstate New York in the early 1800’s. She and her mother and siblings went to the Presbyterian Church. It was the time of the Second Great Awakening and there were revivals and inspiring church services firing up believers. At one such service, Narcissa felt compelled to devote her life to God. Eventually she determined that the way she was to do this was by becoming a missionary. She read accounts of other missionaries, since her mother would not let her read novels, and she wanted a life of adventure and service. She made it known that this was her intent and she waited for the occasion to present itself. In the meantime, she was educated and worked as teacher.

As it turns out, one obstacle in her path was the lack of a husband. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sponsored by the Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Church, only sent married couples out to the mission field. To be a missionary, Narcissa would have to be married, and to someone who shared her passion and calling.

About the same time, Marcus Whitman, a doctor in upstate New York, heard about the initiative to send missionaries to the western region of North America, and he decided that he wanted to pursue that calling. He applied to the mission board, but he was rejected due to health issues. He applied again when his health was stronger and he was an appealing candidate, but, alas, he had no wife. Marcus was told about Narcissa, so he went to meet with her and after two days they determined that they would marry and proceed to the west.

About a year after they met, they were married. At the close of the wedding ceremony, the congregation sang a hymn with the words, “My native land, I love thee, Can I leave thee, far in heathen lands to dwell. . . Glad I bid thee Native land! Farewell! Farewell!” And with that, the Whitmans were married and they left for the west the next day. [http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10088]

It was 1836, and the Whitmans traveled 3000 miles in 7 months, by boat, wagon, horseback and foot, over the prairies, deserts, and the mountains to the Oregon Territory. There was a group of missionaries that went in hopes of Christianizing and civilizing the West. Narcissa and her female companions were the first women of European descent to cross the Rocky Mountains. They survived on, yes, buffalo meat, and fed their fires with buffalo dung, both of which were still plenteous in those days.

While the trip began as a great adventure, by the end it had lost its romance. The trek was exhausting and uncomfortable especially since Narcissa had become pregnant along the way. En route, they encountered various Indians who had never seen white women before and found the women to be curiosities. The four couples that arrived in the Oregon Territory as missionaries decided that they would start 4 separate missions hundreds of miles apart. As Cassandra Tate puts it in her essay on the Whitmans, “The same strong-minded idealism that fired people with Christian zeal made it difficult for them to cooperate.” [http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10088] The Whitmans started their mission among the Cayuse Indians near what is today Walla Walla, Washington.

Shortly after their arrival, their first and only child was born – on Narcissa’s 29th birthday. The Indians were captivated by the white baby and considered her Cayuse since she was born in their territory. But sadly, the child drowned when she was 2. This left Narcissa bereft and eventually she took in foster children and adopted a number of children some of whom were of mixed race – white and Indian.

At the mission outpost, the Whitmans introduced worship services, religious ceremonies, told Bible stories, started a school, instructed the Indians in white domestic chores and customs, and Dr. Whitman practiced medicine. This combination of religion and medicine made Marcus Whitman seem like a medicine man to the Indians. But Narcissa found it difficult to communicate with the Indians since she never learned their language, Nez Perce. She did not feel that they were making sufficient inroads in Christianizing the Cayuse. The Indians did not adopt white customs. They continued to practice polygamy. They did not take to farming and gardening and other aspects of the lifestyle of white Euro-Americans. Narcissa installed venetian blinds in their home to keep the Indians from looking in the windows. She would only allow the Indians into one room of their home. To Narcissa the Indians continued to be dirty, lazy and sinful. They ignored the standards of privacy and cleanliness that Narcissa was trying to impart.

Word reached the Whitmans that the mission board was going to discontinue supporting the efforts in the Oregon Territory due to lack of results. On behalf of the mission to the Cayuse, and the other 3 missions that had been established, Marcus Whitman went to Washington, D.C. to try to get the board to change its mind. When this was unsuccessful, Whitman returned to the mission with 800 white emigrants in tow. He and Narcissa proceeded to open a hotel and trading post. The next year 1500 more settlers arrived. And the pattern continued. Buildings went up, fences were installed, fields were plowed, walls were built, and the Cayuse looked on in alarm. The tribal leaders tried to express their dismay. They asked the settlers to leave. Their way of life was being destroyed and their land was being taken. Tensions mounted.

By the fall of 1847, over 10 years after the arrival of the Whitmans, there were 4,000 white emigrants living in Cayuse territory. And then there was an outbreak of measles. Dr. Whitman treated the victims, the whites and the Indians. But while half of the Indians died, including most of the children, most of the white children survived due to differences in their immune systems. The Indians felt this was calculated in some way. Why hadn’t their children been cured as the white children were? Had they been poisoned?

Finally, on November 29, 1847, things came to a head and several Cayuse attacked the Whitman outpost. Marcus and Narcissa were killed along with 12 others. 49 people were kept as hostages for a month. The situation escalated into a war between the Cayuse and the white settlers. Eventually, 5 Indians surrendered and were executed. At the execution the chief declared, “Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So we die to save our people.” [http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/whitman.htm]

So, why should we know about this story? Certainly the Whitmans are an inspiration in their devotion and sacrifice. They were well intentioned.   But the story brings up the complex interplay between Christianity and culture. This has been an issue since the first century and will continue to be an issue well beyond the twenty-first century. Where does faith end and culture begin? What is culture and what is Christian?

When I heard the story of Narcissa Whitman, I heard a story of the clash of cultures and a story of imposed colonization. I heard a story of power struggle and domination. To me, there didn’t seem to be much Christianity in the story. Yet the Whitmans were undoubtedly motivated by their faith and devotion to God. Narcissa Whitman was devout. She committed to giving her life to God. She faced peril and hardship to do so. She lived out of faith not fear. Her intentions were good and pure. But she really did not know how to separate faith and culture. To her, the Christian faith involved installing venetian blinds and keeping the Indians out of her home. It meant putting a fence around her house to keep her distance. It meant giving things to white people but not to Indians. It meant running a school for white children that Indians were not allowed to attend. Narcissa could not see that colonization was fraught with injustice and arrogance that is at odds with the message of the gospel. As a good Christian, she would have found the idea of stealing anathema. But she could not see how to the Indians, what the white people were doing was stealing their land and life. Her immersion in her cultural context made her blind to how her behavior was perceived by others and how she was betraying the very gospel she had given her life to.

Jesus was imbued with his culture AND his religious tradition. He was not outside of culture or beyond culture. In fact, what we see in Jesus is how to apply eternal spiritual truths and values within culture. We look at Jesus and see how he takes the theoretical concept of, say, universal love, and puts it into action within his cultural setting. Then we are inspired to think about how we are called to put universal love into action in our cultural setting. How does Jesus honor the image of God, the divine, within each and every person in his cultural context? We see the conflicts, the challenges, the consequences of that. This helps inform our understanding of what it means for us to honor the image of God in each and every person in our context. And it may very well be that when we are involved with someone of a different religion or culture than our own, we need to be even more thoughtful about what we say and our behavior so that we don’t undermine our own intent and betray our faith. There is no place in Christianity for arrogance, disdain, superiority, or condescension toward another person or culture or religion. Each and every person is to be treated as a manifestation of the image of God.

We see this message in the verses that we heard today from Romans. The writer is talking to this new faith community about how to deal with the cultural diversity around them and within their faith community. The writer advises don’t be judgmental. In other words, try to understand those who are different. Don’t assume the worst. Don’t put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of new believers. The message is don’t let culture get in the way of the gospel. In those days, the Jews were very concerned about food that was clean and unclean according to the dictates of the Torah. This created problems when Jesus followers from the Jewish tradition blended with Jesus followers who were not of Jewish heritage because the non-Jews did not have the same dietary guidelines. So what can and cannot be eaten? Paul tells the Christians in Rome that no food is bad, sinful, or immoral, in and of itself. To make things clear, Paul says that if what you are doing is injurious to someone else, then you are not walking in love. The gospel should bring peace and be mutually up-building. Well, we don’t see the Whitmans adhering to the teachings of Paul that we heard today because they were blinded by their cultural context. They were not able to separate out what was Christianity and what was culture, and to approach the Indians without judgment, in love, seeking peace and mutual up-building.

One historian, Michael Schaubs, assesses the Whitman mission this way:

The Whitmans early on made the mistake of being unable to separate the differences between faith and culture.  They quickly defined many tribal customs and traditions as “sins” and barriers to salvation.  The Indians must give up their songs, dances, gambling, horse racing, and everything else that Indian people found enjoyable.  The Indians felt that they were being told that to avoid Hell in the afterlife, they must exist in a living Hell in the here and now.  This message was not well received.

In 1843 he [Marcus] wrote Narcissa’s parents ‘It does not concern me so much what is to become of any particular set of Indians, as to give them the offer of salvation… I have no doubt our greatest work is to aid the white settlement of this country.’  Although doubtless Marcus never expressed this to the Cayuse, the fact that provisions, goods and services were freely supplied to emigrants as gifts, and the white travelers were openly invited into the home of the missionaries (a place which was generally off limits to the Indians), the Cayuse could only have interpreted to show that the Whitmans were working to displace them from their own country.  [http://www.mman.us/whitmanmassacre.htm]

The Whitmans simply were not aware of the clash between Christianity and culture in what they were doing. They could not see how their behavior was perceived by the Cayuse. We do not want to ignore culture or discount culture. It is part of our identity as human beings. It is part of the grand diversity of our species. What we need to do is be aware of culture. Of our own culture. The messages and rituals and assumptions and behaviors that form and shape us. We need to be very conscious of our cultural milieu. It can seem invisible, like the air we breathe, and yet we know it is there. We need to be aware of that. Examining and acknowledging our culture. And we need to be aware of our faith. We need to understand the values and commitments that are part of the Christian path. We need to study the example of Jesus. Reflect on the stories we have from his teachings. And look for the deeper meanings. Then we need to have that awareness be in conversation with our awareness of our cultural context. Where are the conflicts? Where are the consistencies? Where is the influence flowing from faith to culture? When is the influence flowing from culture to faith? How are our choices and behaviors influenced by culture? How are they shaped by faith? This kind of examination is an ongoing process. It is how we figure out how to live our faith in a way that is constructive and healing for us and for the world.

The story of the Whitmans reveals a toxic mix of Christianity and culture. And this is a common occurrence. We know the human propensity to use religion to further economic, political, and social goals. We can see it in the European colonization of the Americas.   We can see it in ISIS and the other expressions of extremist Islamic fundamentalism. We can see it in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Congo. It happens again and again.

But can we see it in our own culture and in our own religion? There are those who defend the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States that protects the right to bear arms as Christian. They see the Constitution as divinely ordained. So the right to bear arms takes on authority akin to the 10 Commandments. And this becomes a way of saying that God wants people in the United States to have guns. They are needed to defend our families and communities and churches. This is God’s way of protecting his own.   I say ‘his’ because this expression of God is always and exclusively male. So churches hire armed guards and offer training classes in how to use guns. And all this is seen as consistent with, even inspired by, the Christian faith.

Where does that leave the teachings of Jesus – Love your enemy. Do good to those who persecute you. The one who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Turn the other cheek. Well, that was for that time. That was for those circumstances. That was so that nothing would interfere with Jesus being killed by the authorities because that was God’s plan. Those teachings were for that cultural context, not ours, so the thinking goes.

Now, I specifically picked an example that most of us would find glaring and clear cut. But there are plenty of examples of things that you and I, who are probably not gun owners, do each and every day that are at odds with the values of Christianity but fully accepted in our culture.

We look back at Narcissa, we look at the second amendment defenders, not to point the finger at them, but so that they help us point the finger at our own inconsistencies. We examine the interplay of faith and culture so that we can learn to be more discerning about our lives and our choices. We look at the context of culture and Christianity so that we can critically examine how our culture, our economy, our fossil fuel dependent life-style, our diet, and our politics and all the rest stack up against the teachings of Jesus. The political conventions of the last two weeks and the election at hand give us plenty of food for thought.

Our religious identity always exists in a cultural context that should and does influence our practice of our religion. There is interplay, there is cohesion, there is consistency and there is conflict.   There has always been the allure of ignoring the tension. Some Christians have convinced themselves that they are purely Christian and that they are abstaining from participation in the culture. They think they have immersed themselves fully in the Christian life, in the church, and that there is no cultural influence. They go to Christian schools, Christian movies, Christian gyms, listen to Christian music, play on sports teams with Christians, etc. etc. etc. They think they have successfully eliminated the influence of culture and that they are living a purely Christian life. This also happens with other religions and it is not exclusive to the US.

Another way of dealing with the fraught interplay of religion and culture is to decide that your culture is reflective of your religion. You see the culture you are living in as Christian, or Islamic, or Jewish, or whatever religion you subscribe to. So, you believe that your religion and culture are fully in sync and so there is no conflict or compromise. Some people choose to believe that the US is a Christian country meaning that our culture is consistent with the teachings of Christianity. When there is something that seems amiss, the solution is to implement a Christian policy or solution. This seems simple but what version of Christianity is applied? What expression of Christianity has authority? What teachings of Jesus hold sway? Who decides?

What happens with both of these scenarios is that the heart of the religion, the deep teaching, the power of the spiritual path is compromised. Christianity at its most faithful is always in dialogue with culture. The way of Jesus always presents challenges because it confronts our innate sinful self-aggrandizing tendencies with pure goodness and love, honestly, without deception. Which is why it is a religion of love, forgiveness and grace.   To experience that love, healing, and grace, we need to be honest in our examination of the relationship between our faith and our cultural context.

Gordon Terrell, a wise elder of this congregation, thought that we should know something about Narcissa Whitman and I think he is right. We should know about Narcissa Whitman. Her story helps us to understand the intricate complexity of the relationship between Christianity and culture.

In one of her rare moments of self-reflection, Narcissa Whitman, who was a prolific writer and has left many letters and diaries, revealed to her family that she questioned her own motives for becoming a missionary. Had she done it “with a single eye for the glory of God or from some selfish principle”? She insisted she didn’t regret the decision to come to Oregon, but added: “I find one of my most difficult studies is to know my own heart.” (October 6, 1841). [A biographical article about Narcissa Prentiss Whitman by Cassandra Tate, April 13, 2012, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10088

] I think the same can be said for us and for our country. One of our most difficult studies is to know our own heart. May we invite Jesus to show us our hearts and then to heal them. Amen.

The following sources about Narcissa Whitman were used in the preparation of this sermon:

Whitman, Narcissa Prentiss (1808-1847) by Cassandra Tate, April 13, 2012 at http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10088

Marcus Whitman (1802-1847)

Narcissa Whitman (1808-1847)

at http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/whitman.htm

Mountain Men and Life in the Rocky Mountain West, Malachite’s Big Hole, The Whitman Massacre at http://www.mman.us/whitmanmassacre.htm

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

 

 

 

 

Date: July 24, 2016
Sermon Title: Intelligent Life
Scripture: Luke 10: 25-37
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Are plants intelligent? Are they an intelligent form of life? There is an active, intense debate going on about this issue among biologists, botanists, and others that work with plants. This debate necessitates defining “intelligent life.” One of the factors that is considered in defining intelligent life is communication. That is considered a feature of intelligent life. As it turns out, it has been determined that plants actually do communicate with each other. They share information about various things like the presence of threatening insects. They do this by emitting chemical signals that other plants detect and react to. It has also been discovered that plants share information about water and nutrients in the soil. One plant will convey to another plant where to get the sustenance it needs.

An experiment documenting this process is outlined in the article, “The Intelligent Plant,” by Michael Pollan, in The New Yorker, Dec. 2013. Pollan discusses a study done by Suzanne Simard, a forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia and her colleagues. Simard’s research documents how “trees in a forest organize themselves into far-flung networks using the underground web of mycorrhizal fungi which connects their roots to exchange information and even goods.” Here is a description of one of the experiments Simard and her co-workers carried out:

. . . They injected fir trees with radioactive carbon isotopes, then followed the spread of the isotopes through the forest community using a variety of sensing methods, including a Geiger counter. Within a few days, stores of radioactive carbon had been routed from tree to tree. Every tree in a plot thirty meters square was connected to the network; the oldest trees functioned as hubs, some with as many as forty-seven connections. The diagram of the network resembled an airline route map.

The pattern of nutrient traffic showed how ‘mother trees’ were using the network to nourish shaded seedlings, including their offspring – which the trees can apparently recognize as kin – until they’re tall enough to reach the light. And, in a striking example of interspecies cooperation, Simard found that fir trees were using the fungal web to trade nutrients with paper-bark birch trees over the course of the season. The evergreen species will tide over the deciduous ones when it has sugars to spare, and then call in the debt later in the season. For the forest community, the value of this cooperative underground economy appears to be better over-all health, more total photosynthesis, and greater resilience in the face of disturbance. [The New Yorker, Dec. 23 and 30, 2013]

What this research tells us is that the fir trees take care of their own, and then they reach out and take care of other species of trees in their vicinity. It sounds pretty intelligent to me. Imagine how much better things would be in the world if the human species were able to master the same skills! Take care of our own, especially our offspring, and then reach out to others and beyond our own kind.

This morning we listened to a story that is very familiar to people of faith. It is a story about someone who is in desperate need of assistance after being a victim of a crime. The people we would expect to help, religious people, responsible people, community leaders, they walk by and do not help. Then a person who is considered “other,” enemy, sees the victim and helps. Maybe we can think about a young black male helping an older white woman who has been left under a bush after being mugged. Or an illegal, non-English speaking Mexican helping an old gent who was beat up waiting for a bus. And what about those we may think of as decent, white middle class working people who walked on by? The story is edgy. But it begins with the basics. A religious seeker is asking what to do be faithful, to be part of the life of God in the world. He already knows: Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself. But this seeker still yearns for some pearl of religious wisdom from this esteemed teacher. So, we are given the story of the Good Samaritan, defining neighbor as anyone in need – no exceptions. And there is the twist that the one who shows the proper understanding of neighbor is an outcast, an alien, an enemy. But the heart of the matter is very simple: Love God, love yourself, and love everyone else. You don’t need a big rule book, a degree, a large bank account, or access to the Internet to do this. To be part of the life of God in the world love God and love your neighbor as yourself. No creed, no doctrine, no dogma required.

When we think about this story, we may tend to see the extreme. My neighbor is anyone on the planet, so I need to be concerned about the people on the other side of the world. And yes, we do want to feel empathy for the situation of someone on the other side of the globe, like the people in Beijing that are dealing with the terrible condition of the air and the effect it has on children and lifestyle and health. But the person who helps in the story just happens to be going down the road and sees the person who needs medical care. What about our neighbors, our neighborhoods? What about the person down the street? Who needs to get to the doctor. Or who doesn’t have enough food. Or who is struggling with an addiction. Or who hasn’t spoken to their son in 10 years. What about these neighbors right here on our path?

And then there are our family and friends. We have so many people who come to the church for help who have no family and no friends to turn to for help. That can happen when those relationships are abused. And some do not want their family and friends to know that they are in desperate circumstances. It is so sad. What if we were taking care of our family and friends? This loving your neighbor as yourself can start with our own households, our families, our friends, neighbors and communities.

Some years ago, the church sponsored a mission trip to Miami to do volunteer work for a week. Someone from the church asked me why we were going to Miami when there was plenty of need right here in Pinellas County. Why raise money for this trip when we could do mission work and stay right here at home and give all the money where it is needed? These are good questions. A mission trip has focus and other distractions are eliminated. We can be open to new experiences and growth when we are out of our normal context. There is a sense of community that develops among those who go away together. Bonds are strengthened. And sometimes seeing the need elsewhere can open your eyes to the needs in our own context.

But fundamentally, I think the person who questioned the Miami trip has a point and is further along the spiritual path than some of us. Think about it. What would the world be like, or let’s just say the United States be like, if every family and close circle of friends looked out for each other, helped each other, took care of each other, and supported one another? What if this extended to neighborhoods, schools, and faith communities? People helping each other. Encouraging each other. Listening to each other. Working together for the common good. Just this, seemingly simple as it is, would make a vast difference in our society. It would drastically reduce poverty, disadvantage, and suffering. It would also dramatically decrease violence, crime, anti social behavior, and fear. And as we learn to live this way close to home, I believe it increases our empathy toward others further away – either literally further away geographically or figuratively further away separated from us by race, class, ethnicity, sexual identity, nationality, or other differences. As the saying goes, charity begins at home but it doesn’t stay there.

Think about the case of the Good Samaritan. The person needing help was right in the path of the Samaritan. He didn’t go out of his way to find the injured traveler. But the others who passed by did go out of their way, crossed the road, to avoid helping the man. They felt they had valid religious and social reasons for doing so. They would stand by their excuses and their choices. But Jesus sees things a different way. He sees religion drawing forth compassion and help regardless of separation. He sees religion as a bond cementing our common humanity regardless of the religion of the “other.” We can move in this direction by starting close to home.

I know that many of you have read the telling best seller, Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The title comes from James Baldwin’s book, The Fire Next Time, which was written in 1962. While I was waiting to get Between the World and Me from the library, I read the copy of The Fire Next Time that I had inherited from my parents. In my opinion, Baldwin, too, should be on the best seller list. Not only does Baldwin address race relations but he talks about the evil that white people perpetrate against each other, citing, as an example, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. That was “white on white.” We can cite many other horrors that are white on white. White people do not reserve their hatred and evil only for people who have skin of another color. There is plenty of white on white abuse, oppression, and violence. And so, Baldwin observes, “White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this – which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never – the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.”

To me, this observation echoes the words we heard this morning, – love your neighbor as yourself. When we learn to love ourselves and our neighbors, the person next door and down the block, when we teach ourselves to truly love, to look out for the well-being of ourselves and those around us, we will be solving the race problem and many other problems facing humanity.

If we truly learn to love ourselves and our neighbor, then we will not only see that there is access to health care, and a safe place to live, we will also want to have clean air to breath, and a healthy environment to live in. So we will eliminate the use of fossil fuels, we will embrace conservation and environmentalism whole-heartedly. We will not only have great schools but convenient, affordable, pollution neutral public transport for all ages. The lifestyle we are living now is ultimately harming us, our children, and our neighbors near and far. We are not providing a sustainable future for the next generations. We are not loving our neighbors, near or far, or ourselves, when we continue to destroy the ecology of the planet.

So, this loving your neighbor as yourself is accessible to all of us, right here at home, in our own context whatever it may be, and you don’t have to be a philanthropist to do it. We don’t have to go out and look for a foreigner who is in need of attention. The glaring needs of our communities and of the earth itself are right on our doorstep. And we have the capacity to embody divine love for ourselves and for our neighbors. Right here. Right now. Not in some other reality, some altered consciousness, some heightened state of enlightenment.

Science tells us of plants networking to help each other. First the mother fir trees help their offspring, then the other fir trees around them, but they do not stop there. They go on to send life-sustaining messages to the birch trees around them. They extend their network beyond their own kind. This impulse to reach out and connect to help is part of their genetic imprint. They are created with this ability and they use it. Is that intelligent life? We, too, have the capacity to support each other and promote the health of the community especially the next generations. Certainly we consider humanity to be a form of intelligent life. May we put our intelligence to use. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.