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Blog – Love Your Body Day!

One Sunday after church recently, there was food left over at Fellowship. The hosts were packing up the leftovers for people to take home. The platter of fresh vegetables was brought over to me. The person offering them to me said, “We figured you would take the veggies because that’s all you’re eating at your house.” Well, that’s close to true. As some of you may have noticed from seeing me at church recently, I have been losing weight. In fact, this past Sunday, someone said to me, “You’re disappearing!” Actually, quite the opposite is true. I am losing weight so that I don’t disappear: Disappear to inactivity due to health issues, or even disappear to premature death. At my annual physical this summer, my doctor pretty much told me to lose weight or else.

I got to thinking about that. Lose weight. This is something I have never wanted to bother with. Who cares? What difference does it make? But then my doctor sounded the alarm of very threatening health concerns related to my weight. I could have been told that I needed chemotherapy, or radiation, or an operation. But no, I was told to lose weight. Not so bad, really. So, I am complying with the doctor’s orders. I am not dieting because I want to look better or younger or improve my self image by being thinner. None of that could motivate me to reduce. But health, that’s another story.

Today is “Love Your Body” Day. It is sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW). Here is the explanation of this celebration:

NOW Foundation celebrates another year in our campaign to educate and encourage women and girls to say “no” to negative stereotypes and “yes” to awareness, health and a positive body image. Our Love Your Body Campaign continues to counter unrealistic beauty standards, gender stereotypes and sometimes harmful images imposed by media and advertisers with a simple but powerful message to women and girls — Love Your Body.
[Quoted from an email from NOW]

The invitation to love your body and take care of it is part of our religious heritage. In the New Testament, we are told, “Do you not know that your body is a temple [sanctuary] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God . .?” [I Corinthians 6:19] This reminds us that our bodies are homes for the Divine. They are shelters for love. They host “God’s image” within. Our faith tradition teaches us to take care of ourselves so that our bodies are ready vessels inhabited by God and used by God for loving service. There are many ways that we may abuse our bodies: eating too much, eating too little, eating unhealthy foods, risky beautification procedures, smoking, drinking, drugs (legal and illegal), lack of sleep, unprotected sex, unsafe driving, exposure to danger, violence, and disease, and countless other hazards and threats. Each and every day, we need to appreciate our bodies as temples of the Spirit. Our bodies are not gods. They are not to be worshipped. But they are to be cared for so that God can dwell in us.

So, happy “Love Your Body” Day today and everyday!

Occupation 10/9

Date: October 9, 2011
Scripture Lesson: Exodus 32:1-14
Sermon: Occupation
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

They were fed up. How long were they supposed to wait? Really! It was time to take matters into their own hands. And so they did: With their leader a willing accomplice. Feeling deserted and abandoned by Moses, who was back up on the mountain to pray, the Israelites want a tangible deity to worship, not this remote, mysterious, mountaintop God. And they have no trouble getting Aaron to respond to their desires. Glorying in his new power with Moses gone and eager to be popular, he gives them what they clamor for – a golden calf. After all, you can do anything with enough gold, right?

God has given the Israelites everything! Creation, liberation from Egypt, libation, the water from the rock. God has given them food; manna and quail. God has given them values to live by that ensure the well being of the community. God has given them an alternative to oppression and empire which they have escaped from in Egypt . God has given them a social system in which everyone is taken care of and no one is exploited: A system of equitable justice. God has been faithful responding to the needs and desires of the Israelites. God has guided the people with the cloud and firey pillar and guided the leaders, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. They have a promising future, thanks to God. And God, even when angry, is loyal and devoted. God cannot be unfaithful.

Still, in the face of all of this, the golden calf! How does it happen? How do the people turn away from God who has done nothing but good for them and then put their trust in a lump of metal? People are weak. They are impatient. They feel insecure. People want immediate gratification. People like control. Leaders can be opportunists, seeking popularity, favor, re-election. And so, the golden calf.

We know this story. We live it: We are given God’s way for our highest good. We see it in the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus. Care for the earth. Care for widows, orphans, the most vulnerable, the least of these. A conception of economic justice – no exploitation, no greed, no usury, no slavery. Social values of dignity and respect for all even those we find despicable or call enemy. The dictate to do no harm. Forgive. Be at peace. Avoid violence. Serve and help one another. Be kind. We know all of this. As Imam Sadiki reminded us on September 11, these values are part of most world religions. Religion should be about helping us be who we are meant to be.

God gives us the values, the morals, the principles; we are to work out the details. We are not given a specific economic system. God doesn’t promote capitalism, or communism, or free enterprise, or monopoly, or state controlled economics. God promotes fairness, everyone having enough, devotion to the group well-being, generosity, honesty. What system we use is our human side of implementing the vision and values of God.

The same is true for governance. We aren’t told to fashion a democracy, a monarchy, a representational government, a dictatorship. We are called to have our societal life be peaceful, fair, everyone cared for, no one exploited, with leaders who are devoted to the well-being of society not self. Leaders who are loyal to this vision and these values, over re-election or party affiliation.

Our religious tradition teaches not about the rightness of one certain religion or culture or political system. It’s about creating a caring, just society, and religion that promotes the values that contribute to God’s dreams for the human community.

Yet we still get diverted, distracted, wooed, and drawn in by the golden calf. What lures us away from the divine will? Status, wealth, romance, greed, a quick fix, self interest, success, control, laziness, apathy, beauty, youth perfectionism, drugs or alcohol. We may get lured away by a particular cause, candidate, or party. Even religion can become an idol when it is about promoting a theological agenda over God’s goodness, compassion, and mystery. Idols beckon. Just a small disappointment, a bump in the road, a glance away, and we, too, may find ourselves bowing down to a golden calf, an idol of our own making. How do we find our way back?

For several weeks, I have been getting regular reports on the Occupy Wall Street movement from our son, Sterling, who lives in New York. He has two friends who have been part of the occupation and he has attended several events. Sterling’s first call after attending the occupation surprised me. He’s usually cynical, morose, negative, and brooding about any prospects for positive change – personal or social. Yet when he called after visiting the Wall Street occupation, he was energized, excited, and impressed with what he had experienced. People, predominantly young, were challenging the status quo and working for a new consensus of communitarian, just values, and calling for institutions to reflect those values.

So, when the occupation movement emerged in Tampa this past week, I wanted to go and see what it was like. On Thursday, I joined Dwight Lawton, of our congregation, for the demonstration against the war in Afghanistan. The Occupy Tampa people were coming to be part of the anti-war protest. And, eventually, they came around the corner, with home made signs, chanting, “We are the 99%.” People of varying age, ethnicity, and station in life. A rare and beautiful bouquet of diversity. One wave of people, then another, and another, and another. With signs saying:

War is not healthy for children and other living things

Corporations are not people
Don’t let them run our government

War creates enemies

America wake up

Power to the peaceful

To consider your neighbor an enemy is foolish

RIP Steve Jobs
RIP American jobs
They’ve both changed our lives

People over Profits

Land of the fees
Home of the slaves

Surge them home
You’ve stopped the economy, now stop the war

High times on Wall Street
Hard times on Main Street

Hard work is for those who can’t exploit the less fortunate

Trillions for war
Cutbacks for kids

I can’t afford a lobbyist

And from our own Dwight Lawton: How is the war economy working for you?

One Occupy Tampa participant started a wish list; a long piece of canvas on which people had expressed their hopes and dreams with rainbow colored magic markers. The list covered both sides of the canvas. I was invited to add my wish. I read the list, all of it, the expressions of at least 40 people. And I could think of nothing to add. Everything I care about, everything that really matters to me, was already there.

My experience at the demonstration filled me. At one point, I was on the verge of tears. I asked myself why I felt to moved? What was so compelling? Why did this touch my heart so? While the protest involved some government bashing and some politicking, for the most part, it was a kaleidoscope of visions and values that I feel are consistent with God’s vision for the human community that we spoke of earlier: A society that is just and fair, that cares for the weak and vulnerable, an alternative to exploitation, oppression, greed, and power abuse. These are the vision and values that form the ideal in the Hebrew Bible and are re-imagined by Jesus as the commonwealth of God. This is what I experienced in the anti-war/Occupy Tampa demonstration. I was moved by this theophany, this disclosure, of the Divine, this burning bush.

However, at the demonstration, I noted there were no outward, visible signs of church participation or religious support. Here was this beautiful manifestation of the Divine dream, but where were the faith communities? Maybe some of the people there go to church, or synagogue, or mosque. But, sadly, there was no clear expression of that. The church of Jesus Christ SHOULD care about these things.

America is a national Catholic weekly magazine published in the US that includes articles like, “Biography of Artist Stanislaw Wyspianski,” “Save the Altar Girls,” and “Just Parenting.” A recent editorial cautioned Catholics not to buy into “American conceits” such as, “the primacy of the individual, and the free market and the inherent inefficiency of government.” The editorial then offered a strong statement of the commitment of the church:

Counter to mainstream American culture, the church teaches that a society should be judged by how well it addresses the needs of its poor and vulnerable members. It demands a preferential option for the poor, not the Pentagon, when moral documents like the federal budget are prepared.” [Quoted from The Christian Century, 8/23/11, p. 9]

That’s a clear statement of Christian values. The things Jesus cared about. Yet where was the church at the demonstration in Tampa? It’s no wonder many people consider Christianity irrelevant and hypocritical. As I circulated among the people at the demonstration, I introduced myself and mentioned that I was pastor from St. Petersburg. I asked people if I could take pictures of their signs to post on our church website. I tried to let people know that there was one church, at least, that shared their passion, their vision, and their values.

The golden calves we create can be so dazzling, so consuming, so deceptive, so insidious. We may simply be blinded by their light to the reality around us, to the dreams of God, to our complicity, to their seduction. It’s no wonder God becomes angry in the story of the golden calf. After all God has done, the people still turn away, to their own peril, for such human idols and institutions will not ultimately be in their own best interest. Those who are supposed to be faithful, a light to the nations, run away. But God cannot abandon them or us. God is loyal and trustworthy.

The vision I saw in Tampa this past week was dazzling, bright, and glorious. It was a confirmation of God’s faithfulness. It restored my trust in God’s promises. With or without the church and the religious community, the Divine dream will come true. 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.