Category: Sermon Texts

Date: Sunday July 17, 2016
Scripture: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Sermon: The Harvest
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

I grew up in Minnesota and though I lived in an urban setting I had friends, through church camp, that lived on the farm. In the summer I would go to visit them. It was eye-opening. Basically what I took from the experience was that the farm controlled the family. Livestock HAD to be cared for daily – there was no, I’m too busy, I have to see my boyfriend, I have an assignment due for school, I have play practice, I’ll be at volleyball. And when there was other work that needed to be done, everyone was expected to pitch in. Period. This was especially true at harvest time. And when would that be? Well, it depended on the weather, the growing conditions, and many other factors. But when the crop was ready, it was harvested. There was no postponing or delaying. To harvest too early could mean the crop was not fully ready and then would sell for less. Waiting could mean risking rot, or past peak produce, or ruining rains, or bird or insect infestation. The timing was very tricky with everything hanging in the balance. To lose a crop could mean extremely lean times for a family or worse yet, bankruptcy. This harvesting business was life or death. For my teen friends, things like going to the Twin Cities for the holidays, a new prom dress, a car, and much more that was important to them, were at risk – all depending on the harvest.

In the story we heard this morning from the gospel of Luke, we are told that Jesus senses that the time is right for the harvest. It is time to reap. So he sends his followers out in twos, to villages and towns, to spread the gospel. There were 12 disciples to account for the gospel being shared with the 12 tribes of Israel. Now Jesus sends out 70. Seventy represents the multitude of nations beyond Israel. Jesus sends these followers out to share the good news of God’s love and peace with the whole world. No one is to be left out. With no provisions, demonstrating their dependence on God, without distraction, these pairs head out into the world bringing God’s peace to those who were ready to receive it. Jesus senses that the time is ripe – people are ready, hungry, for the realm of God.

It was hard work, this harvest, as is any harvest. My high school friends had to work long days at harvest time; from before sun up to well after sundown, day after day. And the daylight hours are long that far north. Harvest takes everything you have and more. Jesus sends these pairs out on what he knows is a difficult mission. They are to take little with them. They are not to move around among households, looking for better quarters. They are to accept what they are given to eat, whatever it may be, kosher or not in this case. They are to stay focussed. And they are to expect rejection along the way. If you are not welcome, shake the dust off of your feet and leave. “I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.” That is pretty telling. But the harvest is of absolute importance. It is consuming. Everything depends on the harvest. Jesus knows this. So he must send his friends. The life of the world depends on it.

We look at the world around us, and we see many signs. I’m almost afraid to go out in the morning and pick up the newspaper off of the driveway fearing another calamity has occurred since I went to bed the night before. Falcon Heights. Baton Rouge. Dallas. Nice. Baghdad. The attacks, the murders, the social upheaval and strife are fearsome. There are racial tensions. Ethnic tensions. Religious tensions. We hear less about it, but there is also the simmering of economic inequity and labor abuse in this country and around the world. And there are environmental issues that are boiling slowly creating tension and conflict. The world seems to be seething with conflicts and animosities and stresses. We live in a culture of fear. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to hear the president deliver another eulogy.

Some want to dial back the clock – to when things were “better.” But when were they really better? Maybe better for some. But certainly not better for many. Today the targets may be Muslims and Mexicans. It wasn’t long ago that the targets were Irish and Italian. Some of us, speaking as a woman of Italian descent, are not so much for going back.

But what we see around us is a world that is ripe, ready, prime for harvest. The world is desperately longing for peace, for reconciliation, for a way forward that is based on compassion not conflict. And in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have what the world is longing for. The time is ripe for us to be spreading the gospel just as we heard about the 70 who went out to share the good news. The world is desperate to receive peace, to witness universal love and to feel the realm of God come close. The world needs what the church has to offer.

Now, I know that in the UCC we don’t talk much about evangelism because that has connotations that we aren’t keen on. Historically the church is known for evangelism that includes convincing people they are sinners and that Jesus died for their sins, and by accepting him, they will be forgiven and given eternal life in heaven after they die. The church is known for “selling” a belief system about a first century Palestinian Jewish rabbi being the son of God sent to die for our sins.

But let’s think about the story we heard this morning. Jesus sends the 70 out with a message. That message is not Jesus is the son of God come to die for your sins so that you can go to heaven. No. These followers are sent out into the world offering peace. Embodying peace. Demonstrating peace by their behavior – material simplicity, acceptance, sharing, working together. By embodying peace, justice, respect, compassion, and generosity they are showing people what the realm of God is like. They are offering people a new world view. A way to be in right relationship with others, even those considered enemy. Even under Roman occupation. Even in times of desperation and fear. They are demonstrating reverence for God, for nature, and for all of humankind. They are staying on with the people and helping them to create communities bonded by this vision of life as God intends it. They are bringing peace to the world at a time when it is desperately needed.

This is what the world needs from the church today. We need to be bringing peace to the world. We need to be flagrantly exhibiting our commitment to the realm of God where all people are sisters and brothers, sharing the light of one sun and one moon. One human family. With one home – planet Earth. People need to hear and see that there are ways for us to come back from the brink; that we can be guided by a different vision. We can move forward not with might but with mutual respect and understanding. We can show that success lies in service not in self-interest. Some people will see this as deranged. But just as evil is getting louder in this world good must come out from behind the rock and stand up and be counted. The time is ripe. We must not wait. The stakes are too high.

This week I heard about a local meeting of ministers in which one of the clergy present used a derogatory epithet for gay people. This person is a prominent, prestigious minister in the community. Apparently this was considered normal and accepted. Except that there was a new guy there. And he called this patriarch out. Let him know that that language and that attitude had no place among a group of Christian clergy, thank you very much. That new pastor is busy with the harvest.

We heard the story of the missionaries going out into the world for the harvest, but let’s attend to their return. Do they come back discouraged, defeated, and depressed? No! We are told that they return to Jesus filled with JOY. They are amazed at the harvest! And it’s interesting that we aren’t told that the people they visited all became so good, so loving, so generous, and so compassionate. We are told, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” Then Jesus comments, “ . . . See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. . .” So the joy, the victory, the accomplishment, is in confronting evil. Think about it. If we see a scorpion or a snake we try to get away from it. We avoid it. We go around it or back off from it. But what we hear in this story is not avoid evil, but confront it. Address it head on. Don’t back off. This is important for us to hear. We can seem silly talking about peace, love, dove in today’s scary world. But this story reminds us that our commitment to God’s way of love involves calling out evil, wrong, and injustice in a spirit of love.

We don’t want to be put off by the language about demons. Of course, we don’t believe in little creatures taking people over and making them evil. But we see the evidence of evil around us – we see the demonic effects of greed, revenge, racism, self interest, privilege, violence, ecocide, fear, and arrogance. We see the power of these forces that destroy human community and subvert God’s purposes for creation. It’s not enough to just tell people to be good and do the right thing. To share God’s vision, to convey the reality of the realm of God, we also need to call out the behaviors and systems and assumptions and actions and attitudes that are undermining the realm of God. We need to convey the realm of God as a decided alternative to the current reality.

I heard a discussion about student debt on “On Point” with Tom Ashcroft this week. There was information about the enormity of student debt but Ashcroft also asked why we have this system that requires so many people to go so deeply into debt to get an education. And part of the answer is that public higher education is really becoming privatized, and there are people making millions of dollars on that education and on those student loans. Education debt is making some people rich. So, the bottom line is really greed. People don’t want to fully fund education through taxes, and some in higher education and the finance industry are making a killing on the loans. So, there it is. Greed. A demon to be confronted. Called out. And disempowered.

Taking the realm of God to the world, working on the desperately needed harvest, is more than raking in the good, spreading positive values, and being kind. It is also being bold in our analysis of the powers that are undermining the realm of God and confronting those forces. We say that love conquers all. We are being called to put love to work; to use love to defeat evil. Those teams in Luke were most impressed with how they were able to confront and disarm evil. We need to take that to heart even though some of us don’t like to be negative or condemnatory or critical.

Traditionally, the church has thought of the harvest as bringing people in, into the church, to maintain the church, to prosper the institution. In this story we see the faithful taking the gospel out. When others are attracted by who we are and how we live and what we do and what we say, we can tell them about our Christian commitment and invite them to experience a taste of heaven in the church. To experience the realm of God in the faith community.

I spoke with someone recently who said that in my job, I was lucky, I got to see miracles, positive transformation, and the good in people, on a regular basis, because I was part of the church. I told her, it’s not just clergy that have that experience. It’s everyone in our church. And she could come to church, too, if she wanted more of that in her life. The realm of God come close. It is here for all of us.

When you are part of a faith community, taking the gospel out into the world and coming back, you experience the joy. Not from your own power and accomplishments but because you feel you are partnering with God, with the Divine intention for the world, in lessening the destructive forces at work in the world and fostering the good. We are part of something far greater than ourselves and we are not alone.

The world desperately needs peace. In every city and town. In every land and country. In every culture and climate. Peace. As followers of Jesus, we are being sent out to meet this need. We are being called to the harvest. There is the sense of urgency. The critical moment that requires us to focus turning away from distractions and making this our priority. No postponing or delaying. The world is waiting; ripe for this ministry. The world is hungry for the way of life, not death, violence, and destruction. We are being called to bring peace to the world just like the 70 in the story. Today. As we are. No elaborate preparations necessary. Go and bring peace. Call out evil. Let people know that there is another way. The realm of God has come near. Is at hand. We will not return empty for the power of God is at work in us. God’s work may be strenuous and demanding but it is ultimately meaningful and satisfying.

Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore reminds us of the reward:

I slept and dreamt life was joy.
I awoke and saw life was service.
I acted and behold service was joy.

The harvest is ready. May our joy be full. 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: Sunday July 10, 2016
Scripture: Genesis 6:5-9:17
Sermon: Remembering
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Sea turtles go back to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs. Salmon go back up the stream they came from to spawn. Butterflies repeat migration patterns year after year after year as do birds. These impulses in nature come from some kind of mixture of instinct and memory.

The animal we associate most strongly with remembering is the elephant. We say, “An elephant never forgets.” As it turns out, the elephant actually does have an amazing memory.

Jenny was a resident elephant at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. When a new elephant, Shirley, arrived, Jenny became anxious and excited. Shirley, too, showed signs of excitement. The two elephants could hardly be contained.

As the animals investigated each other with their trunks, they became more and more animated. Carol Buckley, founder of the sanctuary, says, “Shirley started bellowing, and then Jenny did, too. Both trunks were checking out each other’s scars. I’ve never experienced anything that intense without it being aggression.” It turns out, the meeting was an emotional reunion. Buckley knew that Jenny had been part of the Carson and Barnes Circus before coming to the sanctuary. But she didn’t know much about Shirley. She did some investigating and found out that Shirley had been with the same circus for a few months – 23 years earlier! So the elephants had crossed paths. And they remembered each other even after all of those years! [Fact or Fiction: Elephants Never Forget: Do elephants really have steel-trap memories? Scientific American, James Ritchie, January 12, 2009 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/elephants-never-forget/%5D

In thinking about the memory power of animals, we are reminded of how important memory is. It is important to relationships – don’t forget to pick your child up after school or they will never let you forget it! Memory is important to survival to being safe and healthy. For instance, we need to remember to brush our teeth and be careful with electricity around water. And memory is important to human development for us as individuals as well as communities and as a species. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. [Attributed to George Santayana and others]

Our ability to remember is key to our development as individuals and as a species. As a history major in college, I am astounded by the lack of a sense of history that I see in many younger people today. There seems to be less of a focus on history in the public education system. Maybe history has been pushed out by the concentration on STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math. I am not against those subjects. I am married to a physics teacher. But without a good foundation in history there is no context for understanding life as it is today. Looking at history we can see our place in the wider scheme of things. We can see how relationships between countries stem from many past experiences. One example is the Middle East. We see the problems there and we look back, and back, and back, to ancient times, to Bible times, and we see the roots of the problems and the complexities which still influence today’s situations. In many areas of the world, for instance, the Balkans, what happened hundreds of years ago is still directly influencing what is going on today.

In a book I am reading, the writer is discussing certain religious figures in India. One chapter focuses on a Buddhist monk and it shows the importance of history. The monk reflects: “We Buddhists believe in karma, and in cause and effect. An action has consequences; we are the consequences of our acts. Perhaps because there was a time in the seventh century when we Tibetans invaded China and tortured the Chinese, so we are suffering this torture now. It is our turn to suffer for what we did in previous lives.” [Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, William Dalrymple, p. 163] While we may not resonate with the theology we can relate to the need to think about how history is influencing events that are taking place today.

Remembering, a sense of the past, can help us to find understanding and healing. As people grow older, there is an important process of remembering that takes place. There is much to look back on. I often hear from older people about the past. As they talk about the past, the experiences often take on a different meaning looking back. Patterns emerge that could not have been seen earlier. Additional factors come to light over the years and things take on new meaning. It is very important to attend to that kind of reflection to come to terms with one’s life as well as to learn and grow wise and share that wisdom with others. A long life gives the opportunity to glean a rich harvest from the past.

Memory gives us context. It is a resource. It facilitates our survival and our growth. To me, the past is like a mirror, an encyclopedia, a self help book, a Bible, really. And, actually when we think about the Bible, it is a book of stories and teachings that convey how people experienced the presence of God in their lives and in their world. They wrote the stories down to remember. This helps us to know how to look for God in our lives and our world.

The story that we heard this morning is well known to most people in and out of the church. The animals and the ark. The catastrophic flood. And a new beginning from the remnants of the old. This basic schema has been used for many post apocalyptic movies which shows that the themes continue to resonate today. In the story of Noah, we think of the ark, the animals, the rains and flooding, then the dove, and finally dry land, the rainbow, and a new beginning. It makes for a great children’s book with pictures of all the animals though it is hard to get around explaining why all the other animals and people die. How do you explain to children that the world was being destroyed because the people were violent without planting seeds of fear in the child? But tucked into the story is a lesson about remembering. The ark is built and Noah and company are on board. The rains persist until the water has risen higher than the mountains. All the animals and people not on the ark are dead. “Every living thing that was on the face of the ground.” And the waters keep rising for 150 days. The way the story is told, God sets things in motion and the rains come, and the mission is accomplished in terms of destroying almost all life.

Then there is this verse: “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark.” God remembered Noah. What? God could have forgotten Noah? God may not have remembered Noah? From our human perspective, Noah and the people and animals on the boat are unforgettable. Noah is the main event. But maybe for the God of the story, the God of creation, the God of all the planets and galaxies, the God of the cosmos, there were many other pressing concerns. Or maybe God was tired and worn down after finding Noah, seeing to the ark, and sending the flood. Maybe God was taking a good long nap. But – God remembered Noah. That one little phrase reminds us that the story could have gone another way. God could have forgotten Noah. But God remembered. The God of the story did not forget. And that makes all the difference.

Then once the ark perches on dry ground, we have the ending of the tale with rainbow. And what is the rainbow? It’s a reminder. The rainbow is intended to remind God of the covenant God has made with humanity never to destroy the earth again. In the story, God tells Noah, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” The rainbow is God’s reminder. It’s like tying a string on your finger to remember something. The rainbow will remind God not to abandon humanity and the earth.

This story implies a God that has the capacity to remember and to forget, just like people. God has memory and remembering helps God to do the right thing, just like with people.

We need to remember. We need to remember the bad things that happen: The evil of which we are capable. The horrors of history. So that we do not repeat them. This was the life mission of Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who died recently. Apparently that message was truly taken to heart in Germany. I’ve read that most cities and towns have some kind of holocaust memorial. They want to make sure that everyone knows about the holocaust and that it is remembered so that it will never be repeated.

I wonder if things would be different here in the US if every city and town had a memorial to the Indians who lived here before the coming of the Europeans? What if every city and town had a memorial to slavery to help us to remember the horrors that occurred?

Remembering the past, and the awful things that have occurred, is important, not so we wallow in it, but so we learn from it and move forward in a different direction.

This is part of the recovery process for those who are addicts. They remember how awful it is to be active in an addiction to help prevent them from going back there and to help motivate them toward a more positive future.

Remembering is also important when it comes to the good that people do. We need to remember the wonderful accomplishments of humanity. It is important to recognize those who have done great things, helped others in important ways, engaged in acts of selfless heroism and justice. It is important to remind ourselves that we are capable of great good. We have the potential to be noble. We can accomplish great things. Remembering the eradication of polio, or the mission to the moon, or the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa remind us to aim high. When we remember our finest accomplishments we are inspired to bring forth our best.

Remembering also helps us to see what is and isn’t working and what change is needed. When we look back we see, for instance, that the US economy really isn’t improving. Things really aren’t getting better for most people. There is still a huge underclass at the bottom and an inordinately high concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. When we look back, we see that this goes on year after year, decade after decade. This shows us that major change is needed. This tells us that a new economic vision, a new model for doing business, a new set of goals for the economy is needed. Leaving things as they are is going to perpetuate the same result. But if we don’t look back and see the continued failure of the current system then we will keep doing what we are doing hoping for change. Maybe there’s a reason why the government wants education to focus on science, technology, engineering and math. Maybe they don’t want people to study history and see the patterns and demand change. Who knows? Are the politicians that smart? Many certainly are that self-interested, I know that.

Remembering is powerful. By remembering, God saves Noah, his family, the animals, and the world. By remembering, God has not destroyed the earth again. We may destroy the earth as we know it, but it won’t be God.

Remember. As Jesus comes to the end of his life, what does he tell his disciples? Remember. As they eat the Passover meal, a meal instituted so that the Jews remember God delivering them from slavery in Egypt, Jesus tells his friends to remember. When they drink the wine and eat the bread, they are to remember him.

If we truly remember Jesus, what will we remember? Was Jesus known for hate? Was he known for violence? Was he known for greed? Was he known for treating some people as less than? Was he known for revenge? Was he known for being mean and selfish? Let’s remember. No. He was not known for any of these things.

When we remember Jesus, and we have the gospels and the New Testament to help us, what do we see? We see love. We see generosity. We see empathy. We see forgiveness. We see community. We see peace. We see healing. We see equality. This is what we are to remember. I think it is very important for us to remember Jesus, the historical Jesus, his context, and the stories that were told about him because that shows us what we are to remember. That shows us the good, the highest good, of which humanity is capable. That is what we are to remember so that we can call that good forth from ourselves, one another, and the world.

In recent days, we have heard about how certain individuals have done awful things – killing 49 people in a night club, killing a man during a traffic stop with his girlfriend and child in the car, killing 5 police officers. These things and many more heinous actions should be remembered so that we name them as unacceptable, despicable, and wrong. By remembering, we can work together to make sure that these kinds of acts are not repeated. Never again.

But it is not enough to simply decry evil. We must also call forth the good, the best, the most noble impulses of which we are capable. We must call forth the highest good, from ourselves, from one another, and from the community around us. To do this, we must remember the good of those have gone before us. We must look to leaders, activists, and artists, who serve the public good with the highest moral intentions. And for us, as Christians, we must look to and remember Jesus. He is our best model, our deepest inspiration, the clearest embodiment of what is good and true. We must do all that we can to remember him.

Now in olden days, when people went on a religious pilgrimage, they put a sprig of rosemary in their shoe for remembrance. Rosemary was used at funerals to help people remember the one who had died. Rosemary for remembrance is mentioned in Ophelia’s speech in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Well, in recent years, scientists have been doing studies of rosemary. They have found that the scent of rosemary actually does help to improve the memory. So we have rosemary on the altar and you are welcome to take a sprig home with you to help you remember Jesus so that you will be inspired by him. [What does rosemary do to the brain? http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33519453%5D

And let’s not sell our memory capacity short. As a species, we have amazing memory powers. And in this day of memory cards and chips and drives and disks, scientists tell us that the best way to store the most information is on a strand of DNA. It is the perfect medium for copious data storage. So volumes of human knowledge and history are being downloaded onto DNA, the most efficient and effective way to store our collective memory. [Jacob Aron, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530084-300-glassed-in-dna-makes-the-ultimate-time-capsule/#.VOK6M7DLdA8?ref=curiositydotcom%5D

God remembered Noah. God did not forget. Created in God’s image, humans have an extraordinary capability to remember and when we don’t use it we suffer for it. With our incredible capacity for memory, may we always and constantly remember Jesus, the way of life. 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 3, 2016
Scripture: Job Chapter 12
Sermon: Learning from the Bison
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

For over 12,000 years, tens of millions of bison roamed the entire North American continent from Alaska to Mexico. The largest mammal of North America could be found in every state of the union. In describing the prolific bison, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge recalled in 1871, that the animals moved in herds “as irresistible as an avalanche.” [“Bison Bison Bison” by Elif Batuman, “The New Yorker,” May 13, 2016, http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/bison-bison-bison-americas-new-national-mammal%5D

This one species supported the lifestyle of the native peoples of this continent providing food, tools made from the bones and sinews, clothing, hides and skins for dwellings. Even the dried manure was used for fuel. The bison was the foundation that supported the lives of indigenous people of North America for some 12,000 years. Life depended on the bison. John McDougall, a missionary to the Stoney Indians, observed in 1865, “Without the buffalo they would be helpless.” [Bison Bison Bison, “The New Yorker”]

That was life in North America into the 19th century. And then, within 100 years, the bison was almost driven to extinction. The introduction of horses, improved weaponry, and the railroad contributed to the decline of the bison from tens of millions to far fewer than a thousand. We’ve all seen the pictures of people shooting bison from trains for sport.

But all this killing of the buffalo, another name for the same species as bison, was not just done in sport. The elimination of the bison was a policy pursued by the government to ensure the elimination of the Native American Indians. Government officials knew that Indians were dependent upon the bison, and getting rid of the bison would mean getting rid of Indian culture. It would make it easier for the government to coerce the Indians into doing what they wanted them to.

In 1873, Columbus Delano, who was the US Secretary of the Interior, wrote: “I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western plains, in its effect upon the Indians.” [“It’s official: America’s first national mammal is the bison,” Elahe Izadi, May 9, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/04/27/how-the-bison-once-nearing-extinction-lived-to-become-americas-national-mammal/%5D And this strategy worked. As the bison disappeared, the Indian cultures were weakened and inducing capitulation was all the easier.

Decimating the bison population did not just have the unintended consequence of bringing the Indians to their knees. The bison population was intentionally pushed to collapse to push the Indian population to collapse. Nature was used as a weapon against an enemy; as a tool of extermination.

The demise of the bison was furthered by industrial development in the US in the late 19th century. The hides were used to make elastic leather drive belts for textile mills. The bones were used in pigments, fertilizer, and sugar refining. In one year, the Michigan Carbon Works in Detroit processed 8 million pounds of bison bone ash, and 10 million pounds of black bone – all delivered via railroad. [Bison Bison Bison, “The New Yorker”]

While there were many factors that contributed to the decimation of the bison population, the survival of the species can be attributed to the efforts of just a few men. In The New Yorker article, “Bison Bison Bison,” Elif Batuman tells of the movement to save the species:

Luckily for the species, it had friends in high places. In 1905, the American Bison Society (A.B.S.) was founded by a group of wealthy New York-based zoologists and philanthropists, including William Hornaday, Andrew Carnegie, and Teddy Roosevelt, an avid buffalo hunter who felt, according to the author Steven Rinella, that ‘the total annihilation of the buffalo would do irreparable damage to the manly mystique of the West.’ In 1907, the A.B.S. set out to reinvigorate the bison . . . population by sending fifteen bison from the Bronx Zoo, by train, to the Wichita Reserve Bison Refuge. As Rinella observes in his book American Buffalo, ‘One of America’s great ironies is that not only did New York’s aristocrats help save the West’s buffalo from extinction, but they used New York’s buffalo to do it.’

Batuman goes on to tell us that, “A group of Comanche came up to the train once it reached Oklahoma; the adults remembered what bison looked like, but the children didn’t.”

Thanks to the American Bison Society and the efforts of Hornaday who was director of the Bronx Zoo, the species has survived. Once numbering in the tens of millions, the population sank to a few dozen. Today, there are about half a million bison in North America and most of them are in captivity. Apparently the biggest herd belongs to media mogul Ted Turner. They are served in his 45 Montana Grill restaurants which offer bison nachos, bison chili, bison pot roast, bison short ribs, bison meatloaf, bison steak, and bison burgers. [Bison Bison Bison, “The New Yorker”]

There is also a herd of nearly 5,000 bison roaming free in Yellowstone National Park.

While the bison is no longer in danger of extinction, the thundering herds no longer survive. What remains is a shadow of the massive presence that dominated North America for 12,000 years. Yet, the species remains and just recently received due recognition when it was named the official mammal of the United States. This recognition came as a result of an unlikely coalition of ranchers, conservationists, and tribal groups. In response to the efforts of this coalition, Congress actually banded together and took bipartisan action making the bison the official mammal of our country.

In the reading we heard from the story of Job, Job is getting lots of advice and counsel from his friends which he feels is basically useless and misguided. He thinks they are way off target in their understanding of his situation and God’s role in it. So in the speech we heard, Job responds to his friends, saying, “But ask the animals and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.” [12:7-8]  So on this 4th of July Sunday, we will see what we can learn from the newly designated official mammal of the United States, the bison.

Some would say that the church in the US in our time is being decimated and is in danger of becoming extinct. Church membership is down. The percentage of the population self-identifying as Christian is diminishing. The influence of the church in the culture is decreasing.

While the demise of the bison and its salvation were due to outside intervention from humans, from what I have observed, the situation with the church is due not so much to an outside threat, but is more a result of internal issues. Some Christians like to blame secularists, the government which they believe is hostile to the church, and the increase in immigrants that are not Christian as some of the causes of the decline of the church. I myself think that the church has mainly itself to blame for its decline.

The church is to be the body of Christ, a witness to the love and healing that we see in Jesus, freely offered to all people for the good of the world. But this is not what the church is known for, really. What is the church known for? There could be many answers to that question. I’ll give you a few of mine. I think the church is known for worrying about getting people into heaven after they die. And along with this, less of a concern for the quality of life while people, all people, are here on earth. I think the church is known for its big fancy buildings and comfortable clergy even in the face of glaring poverty and need. I think the church is known for unequal treatment of blacks and women and sexual minorities. That hardly speaks to Jesus’ healing love freely bestowed upon all people. I think the church is known for promoting hell and the fear of hell to motivate obedience. I think the church is known for demeaning and criticizing other religions and promoting Christianity as the only true religious path. This is seen as insulting and disrespectful to people of other religions.

I also think the church is seen as irrelevant. What are the big issues facing the world? Environmental collapse. Violence: from handgun violence to nuclear war. Economic injustice which is continually decreasing people’s access to the needed economic resources. As my son told me recently, “Mom, there are no jobs.” Then I heard it again from someone on NPR this week: “There are no jobs.” Jobs that pay a living wage. Then there is still the issue of equality: equality for women and people of color, and similar pressing concerns. But the church is not known for being outspoken about this unless it is for being anti-gay.

While the church as a whole may not be known for a high level of concern about these issues, there does seem to be one ray of light, in an international sense, and that is Pope Francis. He actually is addressing himself to these issues, even if the Catholic Church is not stampeding in support of his positions. He seems more concerned with being faithful to the gospel of Jesus than pleasing his subjects.

In terms of the decline of the church, another contributing factor as I see it is the archaic, magical, superstitious thinking that is associated with the church. It’s one thing to appreciate ancient rituals and the symbolism of archaic language. It is quite another to expect people to accept religious tradition as factual truth and to follow the Bible literally. For the post modern, educated mind, much of what is associated with the church simply cannot be accepted with integrity and authenticity because it conflicts with reason and science. So the church, in my opinion, largely makes itself obsolete and irrelevant.

For the most part, I see the declining trend in the size and power of the church as the result of the internal life of the church, not as coming from external threats. And this is due, in my view, to the church straying from the core teachings, message, and witness of Jesus. The New Testament shows us a church that is an all-embracing community of compassion characterized by radical diversity, acceptance, and love. Church was not something you did on Sunday morning. It wasn’t an extracurricular activity, a hobby, or a club. It was a person’s core identity, utterly defining their self concept. It was the air they breathed, the skin that covered their bodies, the blood rushing through their veins. The church was filled with Jesus-followers who were fearless and had radically departed from the society around them. They were imbued with the sacred and they knew it. They found God in every person and took delight in the relationships they formed. They were awed by life and the world around them infused with the Divine. That is the church in its glory, like the bison in their glory thundering in endless herds across the plains.

The bison have survived and can now be designated the national mammal because a core of people believed in their grandeur, their magnificence, and their symbolic importance. It was believed by some who went to great extremes that the bison was worth saving. And so, I believe it is with the church. While the church overall in the US may be in decline, I believe there are core groups that believe in the kind of radical, all-embracing community imbued with divinity that we see in the stories of Jesus. There are those who are committed to the survival of the message of compassion and justice that we have from Jesus. I believe there are still true Jesus-followers who are keeping the gospel alive in the world today. And this is not about self preservation. It is not for personal pleasure. It is not to hold on to power. It’s not to get into heaven. It is not a quaint obsession with antiquity, like Civil War re-enactors. There can be only one valid reason for perpetuating the way of Jesus, for being his follower, for living by the gospel, for committing to universal love, justice, and forgiveness, and that reason is the good of the world. The church exists for the world, to serve the world, to heal the world, to help the world survive. This precious world that is the self-disclosure of God. I’m not so sure it is a bad thing if a church that exists for the self-interest of its members diminishes, declines, and dies.

The story of the survival of the bison shows us that even a small core of the church can be responsible for perpetuating the desperately needed gospel of Jesus Christ as a blessing to the world. My prayer is that we, who have the freedom to do so in our land of the free and home of the brave, may be part of protecting and saving the gospel for the good of the world. Amen.

Note: After the sermon, the congregation joined in singing 3 verses of “Home on the Range.”

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: Sunday June 26, 2016 United Church of Christ Anniversary Sunday
Scripture: 2 Kings 2:1-15
Sermon: Fifty-Nine and Counting
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Fifty-nine years ago this week, two predominantly white mainline denominations in the US merged to form a new church. The whole process was dominated by white men, mostly clergy. The Evangelical and Reformed Church had many congregants of German heritage. The Congregational Christian Church was strong in New England and the South. Both groups were the result of two previous denominations coming together. So this merger was seen as continuing a trend. The two churches had great differences in how they operated but were similar in their beliefs. They felt that their differences could be complementary. And so they came together to form a new organization of churches called the United Church of Christ.

They believed that their combined strengths would be even more effective in sharing the love of God and that this new union would be a spark to greater cooperation among churches. It doesn’t seem so earth shaking by today’s standards but at that time, it was an event that was rich in hope and possibility. It was bold and courageous.

It was a time in society of coming together. After World War II, the United Nations was formed. NATO was established. The World Council of Churches was created. And the National Council of Churches was formed. All of these efforts and more were aimed at bringing people together to work of the betterment of the world. Maybe after the divisions of World War II and the terrible destruction and loss of life, people wanted to try to cooperate instead of killing each other.

The formation of the United Church of Christ was full of expectation and potential. One of the primary dreams for this new church was that it would be the start of the merging of many churches and that the church, which had become very fragmented, would start to come back together. The formation of the UCC was to get the ball rolling and they were hoping for a snowball effect – expecting that the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and others would eventually join in. The idea was that these two relatively smaller denominations would get things started and the bigger ones would join in. It was thought that together, the church united could have a bigger impact on the condition of the world and the future of humanity. This was a big, beautiful dream!

Anticipating this evolving unity was important to the thinking of those who worked on the forming of the UCC. This is why the verse from the Gospel of John, “That they may all be one,” was selected for the motto of the new church. This hope for continued growing cooperation was also part of why the new UCC was formed with adaptability and flexibility in mind. If other communions were going to be joining, they would need to be accommodated to feel at home. This would be easier if the church was created with an openness to change and adaptation.

The new United Church of Christ adopted a Statement of Faith that we will recite later in the service. This was a statement of common belief without being a creed, something that had to be attested to. So churches could continue to use the creeds they held dear while adding this new Statement of Faith that was part of the new church. Indeed there are still UCC churches today that regularly recite the Nicene Creed and the Apostle’s Creed, and also use the Statement of Faith.

The new UCC also incorporated congregational polity. This means that each individual congregation is responsible for its own affairs and can function as it chooses. The national church does not tell the local church what to do or how to organize itself. A church can have deacons, or a consistory, or a board of directors, of trustees, or a council, or advisors, or whatever the church thinks will work best. And the individual churches are responsible for what they do with their money, how they worship, and what they do for mission. It was felt that this would work best in terms of being flexible and adaptable to accommodating churches of greater variety. It also was important to recognize that each church was responsible for knowing what ministry was needed and fulfilling that need.

This flexibility and openness that was incorporated into the new church was very much in keeping with the teachings of the Bible. Jesus shows us how this works in his circumstances. We see how his ministry met the hungers of the people of his context both literally and spiritually. He looked at what was needed and responded. And he did not insist on fixed beliefs or dogma or proper theology from his followers. Jesus looked to God and kept that connection strong so that he would know what was needed of him. He was not constrained by the religious ideas of his day. He trusted the love of God and he adapted himself to that. The UCC was formed with that kind of intention. Religion was not to constrain us but to free us to live and serve in the spirit of divine love. There is a flexibility and adaptability to that. We never know what the need will be and we want to stay open and ready to respond.

The kind of openness that we see in the ministry of Jesus is also evident in the tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures that tell stories of faith before the time of Jesus. We see this wisdom in the story of Elijah and Elisha that we heard this morning. Elijah has been a prophet of great renown and his ministry is coming to an end. His companion Elisha has been with him and is positioned to continue Elijah’s work. What will that involve? What will he be called upon to do? What will the circumstances demand? We don’t know. So, what does Elisha ask for to carry on? Money? A contacts list? Secret knowledge? A set of laws or principles? Five simple steps to eradicating other gods? Does Elisha ask for a piece of land? A book or scroll? No. Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit. He wants that whole heart, that pure intention, that undivided loyalty to God. Elisha has no idea what the future will bring. He has no way of knowing what will be needed of him. But he knows that he needs to be flexible and adaptable, willing and ready, for whatever God may need of him. So Elisha asks for that spirit of openness and willingness and boldness going into the future. That is all he needs. That is all he will count on. Everything else will fall into place.

The church is to carry on that bold witness. We are to assess the hungers and needs of our day. And to bring the eternal, universal love of God to bear on the circumstances of our time. This requires constant change and flexibility and adaptability. And the faster society changes, the more prepared the church needs to be to tailor is mission and message to the times. We must be nimble and agile and creative. And the bigger the issues, the bolder the witness that is needed.

When we think about our individual life journey, we can see how we are changing and growing. We learn though experience and intellectual knowledge. Our ideas about God, ourselves, faith, the world, the Bible, change and evolve. We grow in wisdom and maturity. Changing times invite new awareness and understanding. To hold on to fixed beliefs and behaviors can stunt our personal growth. We remain immature. This causes conflict within ourselves, with others, and with the world. To be healthy human beings, we are expected to change and adapt in our consciousness.

We also see this constant change and evolution in nature. Tectonic plates are continually shifting. Land forms erode and amass. The beaches change. Animal and plant life adapt and change. Nature and creation are constantly in a state of change and adaptation.

So, of course, it makes sense that the church, as the body of Christ, would always be growing and changing and adapting to be an effective witness to the eternal universal love of God. A church with beliefs and actions that are not changing and adapting is dying, or worse yet, having a negative impact on society and the world.

Many in the church look to the past and want to reclaim the past. They want to go back. Or use the strategies, ideas, and theology of the past and apply them to today’s circumstances. That can be detrimental and destructive. Any church that preaches that homosexuality is a sin is contributing to a culture of intolerance and violence. Did Jesus promote intolerance? Hardly. In fact, he is known for just the opposite. Did Jesus promote violence? No, just the opposite. So the thinking of the past cannot be employed today without serious considerations of the consequences. And when those consequences are at odds with the way of Jesus, then the thinking and the message needs to be changed. The church exists to look at the world, to focus on the needs of the world today and tomorrow, and to bring divine love to bear in the world. This requires discernment, adaptation, and change.

The UCC has sought to be a church that is open and willing to be a witness to the God of love in the circumstances of today and tomorrow. As times change, as challenges emerge, the UCC responds. While we appreciate traditions, theologies, and wisdom of the past, we are not locked into that heritage. We learn from it and gain wisdom, but we are not tied to perpetuating the past. That is visibly demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus. He draws from the past but he extends it to meet the new circumstances and is not afraid to break new ground. “You’ve heard it said, but I say. . .” In the Hebrew prophets and in Revelation, we are told that God is doing a new thing. So our religion is devoted to a God that does new things, that changes, that expects humanity to evolve and grow in understanding and knowledge. As we say in UCC, we believe that “God is still speaking.”

Well, despite the grand hopes of the founders of the UCC, Christians have not joined together in this country to form one great church. There may even be more division among churches now. Many churches do not want to work with the UCC because we are considered too liberal. Too bold. Too unconventional. They prefer to be more tightly defined and controlled. Well, so be it.

But the openness and flexibility that the founders embraced has borne fruit in other ways. The UCC is able to make a bold witness and is not tied to perpetuating an institution but to living out a mission of universal love and community.

The founders of the UCC would never have expected the church they were establishing would bring a case to the Supreme Court of the United States to make marriage between people of the same gender legal. They could never have anticipated such a thing. When the UCC was founded, interracial marriage was illegal and gay marriage was not even on the back burner. It was unthinkable. And yet look what has happened in just 59 years. And yet maybe they would not be surprised because they were intent on forming a church that would be faithful and responsive to changing times. They wanted to be open to the spirit of God doing new things. They were hoping to embrace a theological openness and an organizational openness that would let God in and let love out – fully and freely without constraint.

Now in the UCC, we are expanding our understanding of our motto, “That they may all be one,” to the human family as a whole, and we are engaged in interfaith dialogue and working with other religions not just with other Christians. We are not staying tied to Christian exclusivity and superiority. We are welcoming God, still speaking, doing a new thing.

Like Elisha and like Jesus, the United Church of Christ is committed to the realm of God, one beautiful, diverse, human community living in harmony with creation. May we as a congregation be always willing, open and ready. Amen.

Father’s Day
Sermon Title: Orlando
Scripture: Luke 9:57-62
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Last Sunday in church, the unfolding situation in Orlando was mentioned and we prayed, but we did not know the full extent of the horror, and some people have told me since that they had no idea why we were praying for Orlando. They had heard nothing about it – yet. Now, we have heard maybe too much about it. I was glued to my laptop all afternoon last Sunday reading posts and watching video of the horrible scene. I finally had to make myself shut the laptop. Several times during this week, I have had to turn off the radio.

In the direct aftermath of the shooting mainly what I was feeling was anger. And it was coming from a self-centered place. I was thinking, we’ve been working for gay rights for decades and made many strides and still something like this happens? I thought, we have been working on interfaith relations for decades trying to cultivate bonds of mutual respect with people of other religions. And this is going to fuel more Islamaphobia. We have been working on celebrating diversity and acceptance of people of differing cultures and backgrounds, and this flies in the face of all of that. All those lovely gay, Latino people shot by a Middle Eastern Muslim claiming affiliation with ISIS. And we have been working on anti-violence, gun control, and peace for decades. And this violent episode just shows what has not been accomplished. My first feeling was anger that this one person was undermining all that we have been working for as a church for decades. One person. One place. One night. One heinous violent rage against gays and Latinos by a self-declared Islamic terrorist. That’s all it took to undermine our years of working for good. I was mad. Maybe you were, too.

For some this horror has brought on mostly sadness and fear: Much thought about the devastation to the families of those who are dead. The sense of loss of so many young, beautiful lives. And there is compassion for the first responders and all those involved in helping the victims and the families. And, of course, there is great suffering, unimaginable suffering, really, for those who have been directly involved in this terrible tragedy.

But I suspect that the level of anger one feels may be related to the level of involvement one has had in working for a just and peaceful world. It may be related to one’s devotion to a God of universal love. Maybe the more you have been involved in God’s work of justice the more angry you feel.

On Thursday evening I attended the Hospice event “Talking About Tragedy: A Community Conversation for Hope and Healing.” It was wonderful gathering and clearly needed by the community. The conversations dealt with issues around grieving and talking with children about death. That is what Hospice does beautifully and it is a wonderful service to the community. In the course of the event, the names of the patrons of Pulse who were killed were read, with the age, and a bell was tolled. You couldn’t help but cry for all those precious, promising lives ended. But it was clear this was Hospice, a secular organization, despite the responsive reading, the bell, and the ritual because there was one name that was not read. One name of a person killed that night that was not mentioned. One name of a person whom we believe, though he was clearly a tortured soul wracked by evil, was still a child of God, a human being, a vessel of the sacred. That name is Omar Mateen. As a church, we are followers of Jesus, who directs us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to turn the other cheek, to forgive. And so we, as Christians, must acknowledge and remember the life of Omar Mateen which also ended that night. And we must pray for healing for his family and loved ones not because we want to but because we must if we are to honor the sacredness of God and our own humanity.

Up on the window is the list that was posted at the Hospice event and because this is a Christian church, we will add the name of Omar Mateen, 29, to the list of those to be remembered. (I wrote the name and age on the list with the other names on the banner from the Hospice event.)

As the week went on and I was thinking about my anger, the lectionary scripture that we heard this morning spoke to me. Jesus is inviting people to follow him. They have excuses. They have reasons to postpone responding. They have other obligations and distractions which are also worthy. But from Jesus we get the message that this is so important, so urgent, it cannot be put off. Response is necessary immediately. The world is waiting. The field needs plowing – now. Yes, it does.

As we look at the horrible occurrence in Orlando we see issues around Islamphobia. We see issues around relations with Latinos; the discrimination and immigration problems. We see the surfacing of the ugly visage of homophobia. And we see yet another horrific display of gun violence. These glaring problems are all on full view.

And when you think about it, we, as a church, have been working on all of these things for years. We have been working to effect change in these areas. We have been actively involving ourselves in significant ways to address all of these issues. We have been on the job. With our hands to the plow. Not looking back. We have been doing what a church should be doing. We have been following Jesus. We have been addressing ourselves to the fundamental problems and issues of our society. We have been sharing the good news that another world is possible. In the story we heard today, Jesus tells one of his would-be followers: “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the realm of God.” We have been working to create the realm of God here on earth, as a church of Jesus Christ, because that’s what Jesus calls us to do. We have been working in just the areas where the church should be working in the world today. Orlando shows us glaring needs and we have been on it, addressing those needs, for years. We have been right on target.

While other expressions of Christianity may be obsessing over getting people on board with the band, or trying to protect the right to wear a cross at work, or arguing over what color to paint the bathroom, or – worse yet – declaring homosexuality a sin, working to protect the second amendment, and decrying Islam as the work of the devil, we have been behind the plow, not looking back: Working for full inclusion of people who are sexual minorities, working for acceptance of the legitimacy of other faith traditions and cultures, and working against violence in all its forms, including gun violence and war.

This church became a Just Peace Church in 1988. The church declared itself an Open and Affirming Church in 1998. And it was the Sunday after 9/11 that the tradition was begun of starting every Sunday service by renewing our commitment to peace using readings from many sources including the many different religious traditions of the world. We have been working on the problems that need addressing for years. We have been doing what we are supposed to be doing as a church of Jesus Christ. Orlando shows us that we are on the right track and that there is more for us to do.

This Father’s Day, the sermon was going to be about fathers and parents passing on more than DNA, money, and maybe sports team loyalty to their children. It was going to be about the need to pass on wisdom from generation to generation. A deep knowing about the world, yourself, humanity, and creation. We are part of a big, living whole, and we need to know our place and respect the whole enterprise. Wisdom, regardless of our religious roots or lack there of, regardless of our political inclinations, regardless of our economic status or cultural background, wisdom teaches mutual respect and compassion.

I mentioned earlier that in the direct aftermath of Orlando, I felt angry. This one shooter was undoing all the good that I/we had been working on for years. Maybe even for a life time. Then I thought of my parents. They, too, worked to end war and gun violence. They worked for equality for all people. They worked against racism and sexism and homophobia, advocating for ordination of gay people in the UCC back in the 1960’s. They were working on all these things for much of their life time.

And their parents? My father’s father died in 1927 when my dad was 5, so he never really knew his father. And his mother was overcome with struggling to raise two small children on her own. But when my dad was in seminary, for his thesis he wrote a biography of his father. He looked into the few documents that the family had and into other historical records. He discovered that his father was a very prominent man, both in Italy, his home country, and in the US, his chosen home. He came here as a young man under the auspices of the YMCA. It was an intercultural exchange with an educational component. Here, he studied for the ministry and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He founded the Church of the Ascension on 125th St. in Harlem. He was very active in providing help and services to immigrants who were coming in droves to New York in the early 20th century. He helped set up programs for the newcomers to learn English, to get jobs, and to adjust to life in this country so that they could be productive citizens. And these services were not only offered to Italian immigrants, they were offered to all immigrants from every country. He was also the editor of a daily Italian language newspaper and a speech writer for Fiorello LaGuardia. So, here my father, as a young seminarian, discovered that his father had been a pastor with a heart for what we would today call social action or social justice. His father was committed to the church being engaged in the world as an agent of transformation, working for justice and equality. I think that finding this out about his father spurred my father to a similar commitment which was then passed on to my brother and me. And we, with our spouses, have tried to impart this wisdom to our children.

The brightest spot for me around the Orlando event was the reaction of our 20 year old son, Malcolm. He was livid. Furious that anyone would do this to gay people. Furious that Latinos were targeted. Furious that it would fuel more Islamaphobia. Furious at religion for fostering these hateful ideas. Furious that it would generate support for Donald Trump. And, then he said, “And I am most upset about the violence, Mom. I just cannot tolerate violence in any form.” His grandfathers and his father are smiling.

So, while we are awash with anger, grief, fear, or even numbness, take heart. As a church, as an expression of Christianity, as followers of Jesus, we are addressing ourselves to the needs of the world. We are spreading the good news of universal love, no exceptions. We are sharing the vision of a world where all have a sense of acceptance, worth, belonging, and purpose. We have our hand to the plow, the row ahead is long, and we are not looking back. Amen.