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LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South  St. Petersburg, FL  33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date:  Sept. 24, 2023
Scripture Lessons:  Exodus 16:1-18, 31 and Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon:  Re-Programming
Pastor:  Rev. Kim P. Wells

Is this a simulation?  That is a main theme of the novel Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.  Are the characters living in a simulation of some kind?  The story involves life on Earth in the early 1900’s.  It involves life on Earth in the 2020’s.  It involves life on Earth in 2203.  But there is more.  The story also involves the first moon colony, the second moon colony, and the far colonies.  And the book features time travel as well as space travel.  And the question reappears, is this a simulation?  What is reality? 

In the novel Sea of Tranquility, one of the characters becomes involved in time travel to try to sort out an anomaly.  He goes to different locations and different eras and interviews people.  It takes years of training to prepare for this because he needs to learn about the time in history, the setting, the context, and the people, so that he can interact appropriately. 

To me, the church, faith, religion, the Bible are our training ground for life in the reality of God.  Here we learn what it means to be part of the Beloved Community here on Earth.  And while it may not involve time travel, it certainly can involve preparation for life in a different kind of reality.

In the New Testament, we see Jesus defining the nature of the reality of the realm of God, the commonwealth of God, the kin-dom of God, the reality of God.  Jesus is defining, describing, and creating an alternative reality, different in many ways from the reality of those who hear his message.  And this alternative reality, the reality of God, exists within people, and among people who choose, or are called, to be part of that reality. 

Again and again, Jesus is remembered for teaching people, “the realm of God is like” and then he tells a story.  Like the one we heard this morning.  A parable.  A story that creates a reality through multiple messages and meanings.  Jesus makes it clear that the realm of God involves being part of a reality very different from the social values, circumstances, and arrangements of the seeming reality around us.  We might say heaven on Earth, or on Earth as it is in heaven.  The reality of God here in our midst. 

In the gospel lesson we heard this morning a story involving labor and wages is used to convey a message that in God’s reality people are not primarily economic beings.  We are not primarily defined by work.  There are countless ways, day in and day out, in our current society, that people are defined by economics, finances, and money.   Economic value is the primary standard for defining worth.  That is the main source of human value in our culture.  In the story of the laborers, Jesus undermines that reality.  He creates an alternative reality in which each and every person is valued and taken care of.  Regardless of economic utility.  And in the story we heard, that offends some people.  Just like it does today. 

Living into the reality of God in its many dimensions takes training and that is part of the ministry of the church.  Here we learn to live in that different reality, in that beloved community.  We learn, and experiment, and practice, and examine, and test what it is like to live in the reality of God.  And given the gap between the reality of God and the reality around us, it can be a lifelong journey this learning to trust the reality of God within us and among us. 

We see some of the implications of that learning process in the story that we heard from Exodus.  The people have been liberated from slavery and are traversing the wilderness en route to a new home that will be an embodiment of the reality of God in its fullness.  This time in the wilderness is needed as a time of re-training.  The people need to become disentangled from the system of oppression and slavery even though it provided them with homes and food and water which they find lacking on their sojourn through the wilderness.  So much so that they find themselves longing for Egypt.  For slavery. 

And during this wilderness transition, they plead and grumble and each time God provides what they need.  It is a time to learn to trust and depend on God, their liberator.   But the lessons are hard learned.  Today, we heard about the quail and manna.  The people are hungry and have no food.  And suddenly they are provided with food that literally falls out of the sky.  Enough for everyone.  To eat their fill.  Day by day.  And even still, observe the sabbath.  And are they jumping for joy about this?   Are they stunned with gratitude?   Oh no.  This training in the wilderness, being weaned from oppression to liberation, it takes time.  It is hard to learn to live in the reality of the generosity of God instead of the entrenched bonds of slavery. 

While the people expect the desert to be barren, empty, it turns out to be filled with the glory of God.  The God that has brought the Hebrews out of slavery is continuously providing for them.  But they find this hard to see.  And even harder to trust.  As the story is told, the forty years in the wilderness provides the time for most of the people who were actually adult slaves in Egypt to have passed on.  The attachments to the old system dying with them. 

In the story we see that it takes time, experience, and patience on the part of God to bless these people with a new reality.  They must be trained and encouraged and nurtured into a new reality.  The reality of God.

And we see the same process taking place in the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus teaches and heals and embodies the reality of God, the realm of God, so that people can become accustomed to that new reality.  It’s not time travel.  It’s not geographical travel.  But it is travel to a different moral, religious, and spiritual realm.  The traversing of a huge chasm from the cultural reality we have created and accepted to the reality of God which is our true forever home where all are cared for and provided for.  God makes life possible for all.  All receive what they need to flourish and thrive. 

Where are we on our journey to the reality of God?  Well, how do we react when confronted by lavish grace?  It’s fine when we benefit.  But when others benefit?  Are we offended?  How are we progressing at giving up our ledgers and accounts and score keeping?   How are we doing at living in a reality in which people are not defined by their economic productivity?   A reality in which things are not fair.  NO.  A reality which provides for all.  How are we doing with all of that?   

In the novel Sea of Tranquility, a main character, Gaspery, goes to the Time Institute for training for time travel and it takes years of preparation.  To me, we come to church, week after week, year after year, and here we acclimate ourselves to the reality of God.   We come here to be schooled in grace.  To recalibrate our orientation from rugged individualism to the communal good.  From the lure of making sure we have provided for our future, you know you need at least a million dollars to retire, we’re told, to trusting that all are to be provided for day by day by day.  Here we learn not to grab our due but to celebrate when others benefit from good fortune.  Here we come to be weaned from our false notion of independence to reveling in our dependence upon all that is being provided for us.  

Here we are schooled in grace that strips away privilege.  And entitlement.  And we learn to glory in all that we are being given.  Each and every day.  And here we are invited to be generous so that we partner with God in creating a new reality and we experience our giftedness and blessing.  Here we come to learn to accept the offense of grace:  Yes, others get more than they deserve.  And we are among them.  This all takes time and training.

There is a story told of two friends who were walking down the sidewalk of a busy city street during rush hour.  There was all sorts of noise in the city; car horns honking, feet shuffling, people talking!  And amid all this noise, one of the friends turned to the other and said, “I hear a cricket.”

“No way,” her friend responded.  “How could you possibly hear a cricket with all of this noise?  You must be imagining it.  Besides, I’ve never seen a cricket in the city.”

“No, really, I do hear a cricket.  I’ll show you.”  She stopped for a moment, then led her friend across the street to a big cement planter with a tree in it.  Pushing back some leaves, she found a little brown cricket.

“That’s amazing!” said her friend.  “You must have super-human hearing.  What’s your secret?”

“No, my hearing is just the same as yours.  There’s no secret,”  the first woman replied.  “Watch, I’ll show you.”  She reached into her pocket, pulled out some loose change, and threw it on the sidewalk.  Amid all the noise of the city, everyone within thirty feet turned their head to see where the sound of the money was coming from.

“See, she said.  It’s all a matter of  what you are listening for.”  [“The Cricket Story,” contemporary North American, in Doorways to the Soul:  52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World, edited by Elisa Davy Pearmain.]

May we listen for the gospel, for the Divine dream of love, and let that create and define our reality on Earth as it is in heaven.  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.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South  St. Petersburg, FL  33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date: Sept. 17, 2023  Charter Sunday celebrating the founding of the church
Scripture Lesson:  Mark 4:1-9
Sermon:  An Astounding Yield
Pastor:  Rev. Kim P. Wells

A year ago at this time, we were walking the Camino de Santiago Del Norte across the northern coast of Spain.  It was one glorious day of walking after another surrounded by stunning scenery.  I had with me a little book called How To Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh.  This book was recommended by Yoko Nogami, a former member of this church.  She read it each day when she was walking the Appalachian Trail.  So each day on the Camino I would read a page from How to Walk.  Inside the covers of the book, I made a list of each date we would be walking and beside each date was a name of someone from our Lakewood Church family.  So each day, I would hold that person or family in my thoughts as I walked.  On Sept. 17, today’s date, the name was Barbara Donohue.  Barbara is not here today because she wanted to go to Trinity Church one more time as they come to the end of their Sundays worshipping at their church on 49th Street before coming here to join with us. 

Each day on the Camino I would think about someone from our church family.  And I was in awe, day after day, thinking about the amazing people that make up this church.  You are an incredible group of people!  The stories, the spirit, the generosity, the concern for others, the activities and interests of folks – it’s really quite remarkable. 

This led me to think about how our church attracts such a beautiful mix of people.  What draws them?  How does it happen that we’re all here?  I contemplated this for some time on the Camino and beyond.  There are some things that could be said about this, but really nothing has come to mind that provides a satisfactory explanation for me.

Then I started to see this situation from another angle.  Maybe it is through being part of this faith community that people become so amazing.  Maybe it is being part of this congregation that moves us toward our highest good.  Maybe here we feel safe to share and be who we are in our fullness.  Maybe in this context we are being formed and shaped into our better selves. 

I know that has happened with me.  It is this community that has formed and shaped who I am as a pastor and as a person.  Here’s an example.  When I first started serving here in 1991, the church faced the decision about whether to continue to have a child care center here at the church.  The Fellowship Hall building housed a day care for about 60 children from the neighborhood.  There were issues with the program and we had to discern whether the church had the wherewithal to sustain the program.  It needed a major overhaul or to be closed.  Just to say – I would not have wanted my children to attend preschool here the way it was at that time. 

Closing a childcare center is a major decision.  It has a variety of implications for the congregation.  It is a decision that would have a huge impact on about 50 families from the community.  And, this decision would be a major public relations bust.  Oh, that’s the church that closed the day care.  The church that left all those families high and dry.  Not to mention the staff.

So here was this huge decision to be made by people who had just been through months of conflict and contention over the former minister.  How was this going to go? 

Well, the lay leadership of the church council decided this decision needed to be made by consensus among the council and then presented to the congregation as unanimously agreed upon by the leaders.  And these church leaders had a plan for how these discussions would go.  They consulted certain Quaker methods of consensus decision making.  They researched mediation techniques.  And the church council met, pretty much weekly, and sat in a circle here in this sanctuary, and had conversations week after week after week about all of the perspectives, implications, and facets of this decision.  And it was decided that we would keep meeting, weekly, until we had reached consensus. 

And – it worked!  The leaders did reach consensus.  Finally.  To close the childcare center.  And the congregation overwhelmingly agreed. 

Well, I can tell you this.  This was all new territory for me.  I had never seen a church go about anything this way.  Nothing like this was ever covered in my seminary training.  I had never seen this level of commitment – a weekly meeting to hash over the minutiae of this day care decision.  The techniques for managing the conversation.  I had never experienced anything like this – in or out of church.

And I could see the wisdom in it.  They did not want another divisive situation, with the congregation embroiled in another conflict.  And they had learned some things from their previous experiences.  And we have used some of those techniques subsequently when we have faced other contentious situations.

So, I didn’t come into this as the ‘expert’ with a bag of tricks.  I have learned from the congregation, from this community, about how to go about decision making in ways that are not divisive.

Another situation like this involved creating a new structure for the church which resulted in the system we have now with a group of advisors overseeing the operational matters of the church and leaving all other initiatives and events and ministries to the will of the congregation at any given time.  The task force that worked on this new structure intentionally sought to create a structure that was non patriarchal and non hierarchical.  They came up with those criteria.  And, of course, I agreed.  But I was learning from these church leaders about how we could more fully embody the beloved community as a functioning institutional church.  And I must say, after over 20 years, the system we have works very well for us.

I could tell you story after story like this – about how I am continually learning, growing, and deepening in faith because of this community. 

My brother is a UCC pastor of a large church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  As he put it, “Your church is always moving you further to the left.”  Yes, it is.  Thankfully!  I could never serve in a situation like his where he is always trying to nudge his church just a smidgen to the left. 

What I have come to realize is that this church doesn’t just attract amazing people like a flower attracts a bee. This church is forming and shaping us into an amazing, incredible community of people.  It is just as it says in the story of the sower.  The seed has been scattered.  We have all received it.  And this church, this faith community, is our fertile soil.  This is where we take root and those roots grow deep.  This is where we are watered and fed.  This is where we are sustained.  This is where we are pruned when we need it.  This is where we are provided with all that we need to thrive and grow and bear fruit. 

So I am done worrying about how to attract amazing people to our church.  Instead, I am thinking about how we can support each other in manifesting our highest good, in healing from the battering life too often brings, and in taking care of ourselves, one another, and this precious, fragile, beautiful world.  How can we continue to be fertile soil?

In this blessed congregation, may we all find what we need to live, grow, thrive, and bear the fruits of love.  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.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South  St. Petersburg, FL  33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com


Date:  Oct. 1, 2023  World Communion Sunday
Scripture Lesson:  Psalm 104
Sermon:  Common Ground
Pastor:  Rev. Kim P. Wells

This week an extremely rare gift dropped to Earth in the Utah desert.  A capsule with about 250 grams of rock and soil that traveled 1.2 billion miles from the astroid Bennu was delivered by the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex.  UPS, Fed Ex, and Amazon, look out!    The sample was collected 3 years ago from the small astroid which is only 500 meters across.  This soil and rock will offer clues about the origins and development of rock planets like Earth.  The sample is being shared among 200 scientists in 60 labs worldwide for investigation and study.  What a marvelous story of humanity coming together to delight in the wonders of Creation.

And we know that that is as it should be.  The Cosmos is intended to evoke our awe and wonder.  This weekend the Florida Orchestra performed the symphony The Planets by Gustav Holst.  Maybe some of you heard it last night.  It is a beautiful evocation of the eight planets that were known to be in the solar system with Earth when the symphony was written between 1914 and 1917.   We can only imagine what Holst would create in response to the images from the Webb telescope!  The Cosmos is a mysterious, fathomless functioning whole, and when you think of Bennu, the astroid, created 4.5 billion years ago, we see that humanity is really only a blip in a much bigger picture! 

Here we are on Earth, as humans – for about 200,000 years, or for one year, or for four score and seven years, and each and every moment of this life a miracle.   Here we are to glory in the beauty and wonder of life.  And to take our place, play our part, in the unfolding drama of Creation. 

As we try to conceive of the scope and span of the Cosmos, beyond our human knowing, we realize that we are connected to it all, we’re part of it.  And religion is one of the ways that the human species expresses our connection to this much larger reality.  Our many different religious expressions and practices help us to engage with Creation in all of its holiness and wonder.   Religious observances help us to honor the sacredness of all life.  And when we think of the vast scope of the Cosmos and the incredible diversity of humanity, it only makes sense that there would be many different expressions of  religion and spirituality.  We try to conceive of a soil sample from Bennu.  Created 4.5 million years ago coming 1.2 billion miles to Earth.  It’s beyond our full comprehension.  So the idea that there would be just one religion, one spiritual path, seems utterly absurd given the incomprehensible nature of the Cosmos.

So, we are a species of many different religious expressions as we should be.  We are part of a worldwide human family that includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, BaHai’s, Buddhists, Sikhs, animists, agnostics, atheists, and many, many more!  Different people, different habitats, different cultures, different life experiences, different needs, different understandings, all of these things lead to a multiplicity of religious expressions.   Even within our own religion, Christianity, we see that there are many different streams of expression of our Christian faith.  And that is as it should be.  Trinity UCC has lived experience with the diversity within Christianity in the years that the church served as a worship center for four very different Christian faith communities.  How beautiful!

World Communion Sunday is holy day on which  Christians around the world with all of our different beliefs and expressions celebrate our unity through the sacrament of holy communion.  We come to a table to eat a bit of food reminding us of the life-giving love of Jesus Christ.  We come to celebrate how we are constantly being fed physically and spiritually through the wonders of Creation.  We come to experience a sense of belonging and our place in the larger reality of Divine Love.  We come to this table to feed the Christ, the potential for love and goodness, within us, which compels us to be in communion with people of all faiths and no faith because reality is one and God is love.  We come to give thanks for all that is being given to us.  All of this and so much more than we can ask or imagine.  At this table.

And today, at this service, at this table, we celebrate another communion.  We mark the beginning of a formal cooperative ministry relationship between Trinity United Church of Christ and Lakewood United Church of Christ.  Trinity was founded in 1952 as an Evangelical and Reformed congregation which later became part of the United Church of Christ when it was established in 1957.  The E and R church had German roots.  Lakewood was originally founded as All Saints Lutheran Church; the Lutheran church also having German roots.  Lakewood came into the UCC in 1967 joining  Trinity, Pilgrim, and First Congregational as the 4 UCC churches of St. Petersburg.  Through the years, our churches have worked together in various ways.  Our stories intertwine.  The founding pastor of Trinity, Bob Frey, and spouse Beth, were beloved members of Lakewood when they moved back to St. Petersburg in their retirement.  Bob served as an interim minister at Lakewood during several times of transition.  So the two churches have shared ministerial leadership. 

When Lakewood joined the UCC in 1967, Trinity supported and encouraged Lakewood.  In a letter honoring the 10th anniversary of Lakewood in 1977, then Trinity pastor Don Hafner, spouse of current Trinity member Colleen Hafner, wrote:  “We at Trinity Church are proud to have had a share in your beginning through our sponsorship and support of the Lakewood project.”  So, it appears Trinity actively supported Lakewood becoming established as a viable congregation and joining the United Church of Christ.  Lakewood is here in part because of the support of Trinity Church in those early years.

The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu says, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”  In terms of the journey of Trinity and Lakewood cooperating in ministry, it seems that single step took place over 56 years ago.  What we can see is that Trinity and Lakewood have already been in ministry together for a very long time.

In recent weeks, when I have mentioned to people this cooperative ministry undertaking, I have been a little surprised by the reactions I have gotten.  They are mostly on the order of:  “That must be hard.”  “That’s a real challenge.”  “You have your work cut out for you.”   “That must be a very difficult situation to manage.”  You get the idea.  Frankly, the responses have all been of concern and worry. 

Honestly, these are two churches, from the same denomination, in the same city, with similar interests and commitments, that have been involved with each other in varying ways for 56 years.  There is so much common ground.  And we see that we can be so much more together than we can be separately.

For people who believe in peace on earth and loving your enemy, why is two like-minded churches coming together seen as such a challenge?  I don’t get it. 

At a meeting we had with the governing boards of the two churches, one of the things we discussed was what we love about our churches.  There was so much common ground.  Frankly, it was one of the most moving, intense, exciting meetings I have ever been part of.  It really felt like we were being gathered up by the Holy Spirit and I’m not usually one to say things in that way. 

We are beginning this formal cooperative ministry to strengthen our witness to the unconditional love of the God of the Cosmos as we see it made manifest in the particular human life and ministry of Jesus.  It is about so much more than us.  And we start with so much common ground.
If a capsule with a little over half a pound of ground from an astroid 52,886,850 miles away can be delivered to Earth and examined by 200 scientists in 60 different labs around the globe, surely our two churches can come together in communion for the sake of this God-so-loved world.  Amen. 


The information about the soil sample from Bennu came from: 
“NASA asteroid sample parachutes safely onto Utah desert” by Steve Gorman, Maria Caspani posted on September 25, 2023 8:56 AM UTC.  The link is:  https://www.reuters.com/science/nasas-first-asteroid-sample-parachutes-into-utah-desert-2023-09-24/

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