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Ambassadors of Paradise (podcast)

3/10/2013
Rev. Kim Wells

The recording begins with Liturgist, Roger Jackle, reading the scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, followed by Rev. Wells’ sermon. To listen, click the play button (little triangle) in the audio player at the bottom of this post (it’s a black bar).

If you experience problems playing the podcast with the player embedded below, download the file from
lAmbassadors of Paradise (podcast) and play it from your computer’s media player. To download, if you have a two-button mouse, right-click the link and select the save option. If you have a one-button mouse (on a Mac), press and hold the “Control” key and click the the link and select the save option.

Lent Devotion 25

Have you done any weeding lately? Maybe you don’t have to bother with that anymore in your living circumstances. Maybe you are not capable of weeding. Maybe you are putting off weeding so haven’t done it for a while. Well, I did some weeding in a bed of dense growth. It was a matter of getting all the miscellaneous little plants out that don’t belong there. And because of the dense ground cover, you have to really look at each little section of dirt and examine all of the leaves to find the invaders. It is definitely detail work. And there were a lot of weeds.

As I weeded I thought about how it had gotten this bad. I thought about how tedious and painstaking it is to clear out the weeds. I thought about how if I did this weeding more often it would not seem so burdensome and overwhelming.

In many ways, weeding is like the spiritual life. You may wake up one morning and wonder, how did this happen? How did I get to this point in my life? How did things get this bad? Why haven’t I done anything about it? Maybe you are ingrained in an addiction. Or having severe difficulties in a primary relationship. Or feel isolated and alone. Or don’t feel connected to God/the sacred/ love. Perhaps someone makes a comment to you or you read something and a light goes off and you suddenly see how far you are from where you intended. Time for some weeding to get to where you want to be.

As with weeding, the longer we let things go in our spiritual lives, the longer we procrastinate, or stay in denial, the harder and more painstaking it is to address the problems. Staying on top of things prevents issues from getting worse and makes them easier to resolve. As usual, the best cure is prevention. And in terms of the spiritual life, that means vigilance. Paying attention. Noticing what is going on. To do that we may need to turn off the TV/iPod/radio/computer/cellphone and make sure we are giving ourselves quiet time and space to think and feel and reflect.

Lent is the perfect time to create or re-establish your connections and to do it through quiet reflection.

Prayer: May we have the discipline and desire to pay attention to our spiritual lives. May we also have the courage to address the problems, concerns, and issues that we notice. By maintaining constant vigilance we make the way clear for divine love flow through us and bless the world. Amen.

Lent Devotion 24

Today 5 of us headed over the Skyway Bridge to Palmetto to serve lunch to over 100 people who are on the Fair Food March sponsored by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers from Fort Myers to Lakeland to the Publix Headquarters. We set up the burritos, apples, chips, and drinks on tables under the trees on the lawn of a Methodist church. All was ready. Then along came the marchers. Young children, young adults, middle aged and older adults. Some Euro, some Afro, some Latino. An eclectic array. And here we were, 5 middle American white people serving lunch. There was plenty of food. And much gratitude.

And there was a fair amount of conversation. What was memorable? The young children who are walking. The senior citizens who are walking. The college age students who could be spending their break at the beach but instead are walking in solidarity with those who provide our food. The workers who are in the midst of prime picking season and are taking two weeks off, unpaid, from working in the fields to work for justice. This is necessary income for these subsistence workers, and yet here they are. Missing two weeks pay. What would you give up two weeks pay for? Would it be to advocate for justice? And walking many miles, which may very well be easier than the work that is done in the fields.

Those of us who served lunch offered time to prepare and serve the food. We offered the food which we had purchased. We offered ourselves as listeners. We offered the support and solidarity of our congregation. Ed Helm offered a rendition of Mark Twain. But I think that each of us would say that we received far more than we offered. As I told them in my brief remarks, “We have given you food for your bodies, but you inspire us and give us food for our spirits.”

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” [Deuteronomy 8:3] Today, I believe we heard God speaking.

Prayer: Help us not to get so absorbed in our own agendas and routines that we neglect the opportunities that are given to us to hear God speaking. May we listen for God in the many movements for justice which surround us. Lent is a time to listen. May we listen and know God in the voice and the face of another. Amen.

Note: Look for pictures of the march and of the lunch on the church website: lakewooducc.org

Lent Devotion 23

Are you the kind of person who wants to change the world? Do you want to make a difference? These are fundamental questions that affect how we live our lives.

We all know people who choose to be activists and truly try to make a difference. Maybe they write letters to the editor, or work on electoral campaigns, or run for office, or donate money to significant initiatives for change, or volunteer for social justice organizations, or live with environmental awareness, or work in jobs that change peoples lives and the world. We know many activists like this. Many of us are these activists trying to make a positive change in the world.

Are you the kind of person who wants to change the world? Some people may respond, “No. Not really. I don’t think so.” But what does that mean? If you are not an activist for change, then you are going along with things as they are. You are part of maintaining the status quo. What might that mean? It means continuing the destruction of the environment. It means widening the gap between the rich and poor. It means perpetuating a system in which only some children succeed academically. It means a tacit acceptance of racial, ethnic, and gender bias in society. It means maintaining a world in which thousands of children die due to lack of clean, safe drinking water. We could give countless examples of what it means to maintain the status quo. So, by not working for change, we may be passively part of keeping things as they are. So, we really are making a difference, because we’re keeping things the same; endorsing the inequities and problems that currently exist. As the contemporary adage puts it, “If you’re not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” In the New Testament, we hear Jesus saying it another way: “Whoever is not with me is against me. . .” [Matthew 12:30] There really is no “neutral” position. There is no “indifference” or “impartiality.” We are all making a difference. The question is what kind of difference.

Prayer: As followers of Jesus, we celebrate our call to live as he did, making a positive difference in the world, especially for those who are suffering, poor, or forgotten. We pray that our lives be focussed on bearing the fruit of justice, compassion, equality, and peace. Jesus’ commitment to the well-being of the world led to conflict, contention, and upheaval. May we have courage as he did to turn the world right side up. Amen.

Lent Devotion 22

Today is International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate the contributions of women to the well being of the world. And a day to remember the need to continue to work for women to have complete access to human rights and power so that they can offer their contributions to society the world over.

This is also a day to remember Tawakkol Karman, a journalist from Yemen who has spent her life working for freedom of the press, full inclusion of women, and democracy in Yemen, in Arab countries, and around the world. Karman was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia. Karman is the first Yemeni to receive a Nobel Prize. She is the first Arab woman to receive a Nobel Prize. She is the second Muslim woman to receive a Nobel Prize. And she is the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate in the history of the prize.

In her Nobel acceptance speech, Karman, a journalist referred to the strong religious traditions of peace that come from the Middle East:

Since the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, millions of people have died in wars which could have been avoided with a little wisdom and courage. The Arab countries had their share in these tragic wars, though their land is the land of prophecies and divine messages calling for peace. From this land came the Torah carrying the message: “Thou shalt not kill” and the Bible promising: “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and the final message of the Koran urging “O ye who believe, enter ye into the peace, one and all.” And the warning that “whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind.”


However, in spite of its great scientific achievements, the history of humanity is stained with blood. Millions have fallen victims in the rise and fall of kingdoms. That is what ancient history tells us and what recent history confirms! Today’s recent evidence tells us that the essence of messages calling for peace has repeatedly been trampled, and the human conscience has often been overrun by the voice of warplanes, rocket and missile launchers, bombs and all means of killing!

Karman offers us a stark view of the weakness of the church and the Christian community to truly adhere to the teachings of our faith. We have ignored and even rebelled against Christian teachings of peace. Many of the leaders of our country and countries around the world claim Christianity as their faith. Countless voters in the US and around the world consider themselves Christians. And what do we have to show for it? Where is the commitment to peace that was at the heart of the life of Jesus?

Prayer: We give thanks for women and men around the world who work for peace in many settings from their homes and villages to the community of nations. We pray that we would have the courage to nurture the teachings of peace at the heart of the message of Jesus. May we, like Tawakkol Karman, take the risks needed to truly be peacemakers. Amen.