Advent Reflections

I grew up in a great home and the Advent/Christmas season was always very special.For one thing, Grandma always came for the holidays, and the moment she stepped off the airplane, we were showered with blessings for the stomach and soul. Our first stop on the way home from the airport was Sees Candy and this was just to hold us over until she had the chance to start baking. Oh my, Christmas cookies, coffee cake, rolls, chili, and more. Grandma and I played endless card games and she helped me practice my spelling words. Sometimes I would study her face as she sat in front of the stereo and listened to Handel's Messiah in a trance like state.

This was as close to a Norman Rockwell Christmas as one could get. However, I do remember observing a stress, tension, anxiety on the face of my mother and older sister who seemed to bear the responsibility for making Christmas perfect, especially when Grandma was no longer with us but the same expectations continued on.

Years later, as a pastor, I saw how difficult Christmas could be for people for a variety of reasons. I also saw how the ideal American Christmas did not match  reality for most people and did not match the reality of the first Christmas --- the birth of Jesus. Cow poop, genocide, and an unplanned teen pregnancy are not exactly what you find in a Norman Rockwell painting. But it is what you find in the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke's gospels.

The first Christmas was pretty messy, and life today is pretty messy --- but God shows up in the middle of the mess to bring goodnews of great joy! What are our own unrealistic expectations for the "perfect" Christmas? Maybe we can work on giving up on perfect and instead nurture simple awe and joy.

The election is over....the work is ongoing

Yes! The election cycle is over. I personally am relieved that Californians have passed prop 30. We are still in for hard financial times but I could not even think about the potential devastation to our public school system without its' passage,. As far as the re-election of President Obama, I am personally happy about this. Now, I know that our country is split almost right down the middle. There is a huge divide that is troubling. Pray for a spirit of tolerance and compassion and a understanding that we are all in this together.

I personally find President Obama to be intelligent, thoughtful, and a person of integrity. He values many of the things that I value --- tolerance, education, concern for the poor, care for the environment, access to health care for all, etc. I also know that his job is almost impossible and even with the best values and motives there are huge limits to what he can truely accomplish.

Politics is the art of compromise and working together, something that our nation is not particularly good at these days. No leader or group will usher in a golden age or the Kingdom of God. Faith communities guided by spirit and ancient wisdom must engage in the world and do everything we can to serve the common good and embody the best teachings of our faith. Spiritual communities should always be challenging nations to care for the least and to work for peace, no matter who is in office.

As the Hebrew prophet Micah reminds us --- we are called to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

I'm Angry

I felt angry the other day when I read about a young man who had done a very creative Eagle Scout project around tolerance and then was denied becoming an Eagle Scout because his sexual orientation is homosexual. This stuff makes me crazy mad. I love that we have such a great scouting program at Joyful Healer that includes so many kids in the community, but then I think about this policy of the Boy Scouts and how backward and homophobic it is, and I wonder.

Oh yea, then I remember that I am a United Methodist and my own denomination continues to be backward and homophobic. What is it that they say? -- "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." I have not left my denomination but have chosen to try to change it. I love the United Methodist Church and I love the Joyful Healer expression of it here in Humboldt County. But I don't want anyone to think that I agree with my denomination's intolerance of gays, lesbians, transgendered, and bisexual people.

There is a movement of United Methodists who are working for the full inclusion of all people in the church including the above mentioned sexual minorities. It is called the "Reconciling Network." Many United Methodist Congregations around the country have declared themselves "Reconciling Congregations." This means that they are openly welcoming of all people but especially gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Why do they have to be so specific? Well because the UMC has been specific in it's exclusion.

I wonder if the Boy Scouts of America have a similar movement for change? I hope so. I wonder if the United Methodist Church of the Joyful Healer should declare itself a Reconciling Congregation? It involves a process of study, discussion, and a church vote. What do you think?

I often think about what early Christian faith looked like. I mean really early -- like the first couple centuries after the earthly life of Jesus. What did it look like before the Roman Empire got a hold of it and made a state religion of it? I'm not so sure why many Americans want so badly to claim America as a Christian nation. Following Jesus was never meant to become the religion of any empire. Might I say that wearing a flag on one lapel and a cross on the other, has absolutely no resemblance to following a revolutionary Jewish holy man who was put to death by the Roman Empire. I am reading a book called "A People's History of Christianity" by Diana Butler Bass. She speaks of this early Church as focused on Jesus' great command to love God and love one's neighbor,. Here is how it got lived out:

 

Hospitality -- the practice of welcoming those whom Jesus calls the "least of these" into the heart of community

 

Communalism -- treating possessions as common property

 

Peacemaking -- the rejection of all forms of violence and the practice of pacifism

 

Strangers and aliens -- citizens of another reality --- settled migrants wherever they lived

 

The point is not to agree with all this, but that we be challenged by it. We want to be careful not to water down the meaning of Church to the point that we have just a nice social club or service club. The point is that we are participating in something that transcends political parties and geographical boundaries.

 

I will participate in politics to some degree and I will do my civic duty and vote for the candidates that I think best serve the common good. But my focus will be on communities of faith that embody the radical message of Jesus' teachings on caring for the least, sharing our goods, making peace, and caring for the stranger and the immigrant.

 

Empires will always fall short and must be challenged continually by prophets and faith communities. Let's not be casual about what we have here. Sharing life in a faith community is not about making room in a very busy calendar to go to church. There will never be enough time. It is about organizing your life around living out your faith in community. Do you see the difference?

 

Shalom,

 

steve

bring 2

Back in early June, I preached a message called "The Mustard Seed Conspiracy." In that message I said, "What if --- everyone here brought two new people to Joyful Healer this year and they stayed?" I dared you to engage in this kind of radical hospitality. We tend to be pretty bashful about inviting people to our faith community. We don't want to be obnoxious or misunderstood. We don't want to appear like those "other" Christians. Or maybe you are not even sure about this "Christian" thing -- but you know you love the Joyful Healer community and find it to be loving and non-judgmental. Maybe you feel inspired by the music, the message, the great feast and you feel connected to the Source of all that is --- by being apart of this.

I dare you to share this with a friend, family member, work colleague, or neighbor. You know, there are people out there who are not sure what they believe but they are sure they don't believe the traditional Christian stuff. I think we have a place for them here. There are people who are pretty sure that Church is non-sense and full of gay hating bigots. I think they might be excited to find that this is not the case here. I think they would find spiritually open people who share many of their questions and concerns and are allowed a fair amount of agnosticism. I think that they might find a community that is full of love and acceptance. I think they might like to find a place that loves this crazy Rabbi Jesus, his radical love and teachings --- and is not all that interested in "playing church."

So -- I dare you to take the challenge. Who might you invite to a Worship Celebration or some other Joyful Healer event? Bring 2!  

July 3 -- "The Unlikely Disciple"
This is a great book! A few years ago, 19 year old Kevin Roose, a student at Brown University, decided to study elsewhere for a semester. Fellow students were opting for out of country cross-cultural experiences. Kevin opted for something closer to home, but it might as well have been a different world. He went to study at America's Holiest University, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. That's right, Jerry Falwell's university, the founder of the Moral Majority.

His book, "The Unlikely Disciple," tells the story. I have to admit that I expected an attack on conservative evangelicals. Instead, I read an extremely sensitive and thought provoking story from a young man with an open mind and heart. I laughed and cried and learned from a very wise young man how intolerant I can be of people who see things differently than I . Kevin Roose wades right into the middle of the culture wars and teaches the reader sensitivity, grace, and to look beyond easy answers and categories.

Church of the Joyful Healer has ordered several copies to sell and folk will have three opportunities to discuss this book in August. Saturday the 11th in the morning, we will discuss it at Church Family Camp, Sunday August 19th at 12:30pm and August 26 at 12:30. Each time we will take a part of the book, read some paragraphs together and discuss the issues it raises. We will work at ways to bring peace in the midst of the culture wars rather than just keep the war going.

Get this book! I think you will enjoy the read.

June 12 -- "Prayers For Bobby" -- Wow -- one of my Joyful Healer friends gave me this DVD. She said I ought to watch it and keep it to share with others who may be struggling. I did not know what it was about -- my goodness what an emotional ride it was.

This movie is based on a true story about a conservative Christian family in the late 70's and early 80's from Walnut Creek, CA. This is the same area I grew up in a few years earlier. One of the boys in the family, Bobby, reveals to his parents that he is gay. They freak out -- especially mom. He is taken to a Christian support group, a psychiatrist who tries to "heal" him, and his mom tapes intimidating scripture verses all over his bedroom. They even arrange dates for him with the opposite sex.

Bobby is looking for support, love, and acceptance -- but he gets fear and pressure and condemnation. He gets more and more deeply depressed by the prejudice and bigotry of his own family. He violently ends his life and the rest of the movie is about the family's struggle (particularly the mother) to understand homosexuality and the intolerance that led Bobby to such despair.

This is a powerful movie that shows how scripture can be used destructively to reinforce bigotry and prejudice. But it is also about the power to change through experience and forgiveness. You will need lots of tissues to get through it.

We have come a long way toward understanding and acceptance since the late 70's but we still have a long way to go. If you know someone who is struggling to accept a gay son or lesbian daughter, I would be happy to loan you this DVD. Or perhaps you would like to rethink your own feelings and assumptions about this issue. Let me know.

The Summer Day

I love this poem by Mary Oliver. It speaks to me about life, prayer, time, and the preciousness of life. It is called "The Summer Day."

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean --
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand.

Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms, thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

How to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll thouhg the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Enjoy your summer days and your one wild and precious life. Pay attention..

Blackberries

I have been reading the absolutely zany 1980 novel by Tom Robbins called "Still Life With Woodpecker." It was a New York Times best seller -- about the difference between criminals and outlaws, the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. Mostly, however, it is about the mystery of love.

How did I miss this book in the early 80's? I must have been too busy reading serious stuff like theology. Oh well, I wouldn't have appreciated it nearly as much in those days. This morning I read this passage from the book:

Blackberries.
  Nothing, not mushrooms, not ferns, not moss, not melancholy, nothing grew more vigorously, more intractably in the Puget Sound rains than blackberries. Farmers had to bulldoze them out of their fields. Homeowners dug and chopped, and still they came. Park attendants with flame throwers held them off at the gates. Even downtown, a lot left untended for a season would be overgrown. In the wet moths, blackberries spread so wildly, so rapidly that dogs and small children were sometimes engulfed and never heard from again. In the peak of the season, even adults dared not go berry picking without a military escort. Blackberry vines pushed up through solid concrete, forced their way into polite society, entwined the legs of virgins, and tried to loop themselves over passing clouds.

To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God? Perhaps it is like blackberries -- obnoxious and invasive and unstoppable.