ever-widening, a sermon for August 29

Rev. Teri Peterson
RCLPC
ever-widening
Luke 13.18-21
29 August 2010, Ordinary 22C (off lectionary)

Jesus said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’
And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’


Have you ever noticed that Jesus is like the king of the one-liner? “love one another as I have loved you,” “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,” blessed are the cheesemakers…”…well, okay, peacemakers, but still…Jesus is good at the one-line sayings—he packs more into one sentence than most of the scholars who try to explain them can say in whole books, and certainly more than I can say in a whole sermon!

Perhaps this is also a case of the form illustrating the content—a one-liner, just a little sentence, whose meaning expands until it’s illuminated our understanding, our faith, our life as people of God’s kingdom…like the tiny mustard seed that grows into a huge plant, a weed really, an invasive species that takes over the whole garden. Or like tiny grains of yeast that lead to bowls of dough rising to overflowing.

My mother loved to cook and bake. I remember watching as she mixed yeast and slightly warm water, I remember watching it fizz and then seeing it disappear into the bowl of other ingredients…and then the whole bowl disappearing under a towel. A while later, like magic, it would have doubled or tripled in size…and sometimes, depending on what she was making, this would even happen in two shifts. In between there was the punch-down-let-the-air-out move and some kneading…and in the end we would have a huge loaf of something very yummy, or we’d have bagels, or a braid of bread. Whatever it was, it always seemed so mysterious how it worked. I knew that yeast was some kind of living thing, and that it grew and it involved air..and that’s about it. And actually, now that I think about it, all these years later that’s pretty much still all I understand about how yeast works, but I can see now the beauty of Jesus’ one-liner too—the kingdom is stealthy but kind of fizzy, it works it’s way out into the world, it’s full of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, it’s tasty…

What’s so interesting is that generally in the Bible, the holy things and holy days require unleavened bread—yeast was corrupt and unholy and impure and inappropriate for holy places and holy days and holy worship. Yet Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like yeast mixed into flour…as one of the scholars from our Saving Jesus class last year said, “until all of it was corrupted.” (Bernard Brandon Scott)

It’s hard to imagine this kind of parable—the kingdom of God is like yeast that was mixed in until all the flour was corrupted, until all of it was impure. Corruption has no place in the Kingdom of God, right? The kingdom is about purity and holiness, so unholy things don’t belong in the kingdom, so where did Jesus come up with this one? And come to think of it, why on earth would anybody plant an invasive species of weed in their garden anyway? Mustard is even worse than strawberries gone wild—it just grows and grows and chokes out other plants and takes over the whole space, not to mention looking kind of unruly!

For an idea about what Jesus could be talking about, I looked back at the story right before this one, right before the “therefore” at the beginning of today’s sayings. It’s the story from last week of the woman that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and the leader of the synagogue who was so angry about Jesus “working” on God’s holy day. The people in power, the people who depended on things being done they way they had always been done, the people who needed for others to stay in their place, were upset that Jesus healed a woman when it should have been against the rules…a little bit of unruliness in a system that depended on dotting every I and crossing every T.

Could it be that the kingdom of God, in its mysterious workings, looks, feels, and even tastes like “corruption” of the values of the status quo, the values of the world’s power structure? That healing, speaking truth, sharing love would be unruly and unholy according to the rules?

Could it be that grace, like yeast and weeds, keeps growing, wider and wider, pushing the boundaries of the bowls and the garden plots, taking over…leaving no room for hate, no room for injustice, no room for self-righteousness and self-serving systems?

Could it be that we are called to be the yeast of the kingdom in the midst of the world…fizzing and working gently and mysteriously to make room for Holy Spirit to move and blow where she will, widening the circle of grace until the Love of God has taken over the world…could that be what “your kingdom come” means?

If these things could be…then what does it mean for us to be the yeast of the kingdom? What does it mean to be the agent of corruption of this world’s power systems and values, to be the ones who work to change the world from the inside out?

One thing is for certain—yeast doesn’t do anything if it stays sealed up in its little package. Yeast works by being activated by water and air and then by being mixed in to other ingredients.

I know you can already hear where that metaphor is going, right?

If we’re yeast, we must be activated for service by our baptism—by water and the breath of the Holy Spirit…and then we’re sent out into the world to do the work of the kingdom wherever we are. We’re not only the church, the Body of Christ, the people of God, the yeast of the kingdom when we’re gathered together but also when we’re out in the world. We’re participating in God’s mission when we are at work, when we are at play, and when we are at home. Each of our jobs is a ministry in some way, each of our relationships is a place for the Spirit to move, each of our actions is a chance for grace, love, and peace to overtake the values of gain, power, and violence.

Jesus is good at the one-liner, but none of these are throwaway lines. Even the smallest sentence, the smallest seed, the smallest grain of yeast, the smallest action, the smallest person, the smallest change, can work to change the world into the kingdom of God.

May it be so.
Amen.

progress

On this day (August 26) in 1920 (just 90 years ago), the 19th amendment went into effect.

For those whose memory of just which amendment is which is a little shaky (as mine is), the 19th is the one that gives women the right to vote.

Ninety years of voting in a "democracy" that is 225 years old.

Meanwhile we expect the rest of the world to conform instantly to our current value system, though it took us two and a quarter centuries to get here.

Anyway...it's my opinion that it took a shamefully long time for women to gain the right to vote. (It's also my knowledge that President Wilson was not, as he described himself in the New York Times on this day 90 years ago, "the biggest proponent of women's suffrage." A visit to his birthplace and library in Staunton Virginia will quickly disabuse anyone of this notion, and highlight just a few of the misogynist things that man did, though he's awesome in some other ways...) It's also my opinion that women both here and around the world are still treated horribly in so many ways--whether it's voting or abuse or being harassed in the streets or being told where/when/with whom they can go or being forced into arranged marriages or being sold into slavery or being paid 70 cents for every dollar a man makes or anything else. We have a long way to go--voting was hardly the culmination of our struggle, though it was a huge milestone to reach.

And it took 135 years to make even that step.

I heard a story on NPR a few minutes ago about the women who sit in or are running for Parliament in Afghanistan.

Women. In Parliament. In Afghanistan. Over 300 women (maybe even as many as 408) are running for office in next month's election there. In Afghanistan. They risk their lives and their families lives sometimes, but they believe the struggle is worth it, they believe they are making a difference, they believe that things are changing for the better and they want to be a part of that movement. One woman they interviewed has been in the Parliament since 2005.

2005. In Afghanistan.

Yet we insist on pushing them (and other cultures too) farther and faster--because we believe it's right, we believe that women deserve equality, that no one should be oppressed...all good and valid reasons. I'm not one to give up or to say "give it time" or even "just wait--the day will come." In fact, I'm much more along the line with Carrie Newcomer's song "If Not Now, When?"

But let's also get some perspective, people. A LOT of the countries in this world are much much younger than we are. And many of them are tribally/culturally/geographically diverse from the outset (which, remember, we weren't...not really, anyway). Some are amalgamations of people groups that have never lived together before but were close enough geographically to be convenient for the UN to make into a country, but they have no idea how to overcome centuries of cultural divides and even flat-out hatred. They are often poor, lack infrastructure, and endure a great deal of other disadvantages and hardship.

And then they look over here, where we haven't even achieved full equality but are full of preachiness about the best way to be a nation.

Meanwhile, 3-400 women are running for Parliament in Afghanistan's second EVER election.

wow.

Those women of 90+ years ago may have done more good than they realized...

but we still have a long way to go.

buildings

When I lived in Egypt, one of the frustrations I heard over and over was about how the government (supported by the general populace) under Nasser took over church buildings (schools, sanctuaries, etc) with no compensation, and refused to give building permits for new church buildings--whether schools, community centers, or worship spaces. It was an extremely frustrating and oppressive situation, one supported almost entirely by the subconscious idea that "they" (Christians) don't belong. Religious freedom extends only to the right to exist as people, and to congregate in approved locations (for now, and as long as the government and the neighborhood continue to consider that location "approved")...but not to build new locations, not to plant new churches, not to evangelize/proselytize/talk about Christianity (illegal), not to convert to Christianity (illegal), etc. The majority population, undergirded by hundreds of years of "Christian" imperialism and terrorism, have decided where Christians belong, and that's nowhere near where they are or where their children go or where their important sites are.

There, we called it unfair, we called it discrimination, we called it oppression.

What's it called here?

vacation

I'm on vacation in Southern California, hanging out with my cousin Max (age 5). We've been to the Aquarium of the Pacific,

the San Diego Zoo,

SeaWorld (I totally teared up during the Shamu show as I was

thinking about how beautiful these

animals are and here they are performing for our benefit, very dance-

monkey-dance...), and

LegoLand.

Today: whale watching for my mom's birthday. Tomorrow: Disneyland. And Monday too.

Today's mom's 52nd birthday. She loved the ocean, marine life, tide pools, whales, dolphins, etc. Hence the whale watching trip this afternoon. We're also plotting what to have for dinner...so far we've agreed on salad and black-beans-and-olives (mmmm, yummy).

growth

So I've been involved in a number of discussions about "church growth" here at Church Unbound.

What's interesting about this to me is that even after a zillion unsuccessful campaigns to "grow" churches numerically, churches are still experiencing numerical and demographic decline, while the "no religious affiliation" demographic grows in number with every poll. And even KNOWING these two (dare I suggest related?) facts, people still incessantly talk about church growth and mean getting more people on the rolls and in the pews. For some reason church growth is pretty much only about membership.

Please tell me this is not what growth means. Because ultimately, the church is not the same as the purely capitalist economy, which must continually grow or die. Besides that, we won't even talk about how "membership" is an increasingly irrelevant thing, not just in the church but in all kinds of organizations.

The church is about being the people of God in the world. Which means we're supposed to be about loving people and creation, caring for one another, serving others, feeding the hungry (in all aspects of the word "hunger"), building community, etc...in other words, we're about living good news, exhibiting the kingdom of heaven to the world.

When people wonder why unchurched people are unchurched (or dechurched), I always remind them that the church is overwhelmingly known in our culture for *bad* news, not good news. It's hard to grow numerically when what we see of church is mostly exclusion, hate, and fighting.

But besides that, church growth shouldn't be about the number of people on our rolls. What if, instead, we measured as Reggie McNeal suggests--in numbers of people engaged in serving others or numbers of people who view their everyday jobs as ministry? What if "growing the church" was about communities cooperating with the Holy Spirit rather than trying to do what we think we're "supposed" to do as a church? What if growth has more to do with love and understanding than it does with numbers? What if growth is about people living the good news in every place where they are, about *being* the church in every context in which we find ourselves, about being the body of Christ out in the world...and has nothing whatsoever to do with how many people are in our Sunday School classes?

Nothing I'm saying is new or even news. (though some conversations I've had the past few days have shown me that it is a radical idea for some.) Jan and others have been talking about these things for a very long time, and I suspect we'll still be talking about them for a good long while yet. I just hope we can reframe the conversations into something not about a slick new marketing technique (because who needs more products, religious or otherwise, marketed at them?), conforming, and pew-filling, but instead about growth.

capsule

I love to travel. LOVE to travel. Travel feeds my soul—I get to see places, meet people, do stuff…
So I’m at the beginning of two weeks of travel right now. Today I left home in mid-morning and arrived at Montreat, several hundred miles away, only a few hours later. Saturday I’ll leave here and, through the miracle of time zones, end up 3000 miles across the country in just “4 hours” (including a layover!).

The downside of travel is the means of transportation. Here in the good ole USA we don’t have a lot of good travel options—it’s pretty much drive or fly. Driving takes forever (12 hours from my house to Montreat if you don’t stop. at. all.) and is fairly uncomfortable. Flying is getting less and less comfortable every day—long security lines, oppressive packing rules, people insisting their bag is carry on size when it is clearly not, and very small spaces in which to sit for the duration of your flight.

Today as I was getting on the plane (a small regional jet—the kind where you have to walk out on the tarmac and then climb a little staircase) AND, coincidentally, contemplating my woefully inadequate handling of the one-word project so far, I realized that the thing about flying is that all these people are basically crammed into a capsule—it’s an oversized Tylenol tablet (and you kind of need those to fly anyway!). It’s also, in some strange way, sort of a living time capsule. All these diverse people, their stories, their belongings, their hopes/dreams/fears about where they are going and where they are leaving…their dated hairstyles or latest fashion, their iPods and laptops and hot novels…all speeding through the sky at 35,000 feet, going hundreds of miles an hour.

I think shooting them off like rockets would make time capsules more interesting than burying them. Someone take a cue from airplanes, the living speeding time capsule!!

life storage--a sermon for Ordinary 18C

Rev. Teri Peterson
RCLPC
life storage
Luke 12.13-21
1 August 2010, Ordinary 18C

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’


Okay, be honest: who’s uncomfortable already, before I even start talking?
It just seems like we should get that little fact out of the way—we’re uncomfortable when it comes to talking about money, material goods, and all that other stuff that we all really like to have and some of which we even need…and we’re especially uncomfortable talking about it in church.

Unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable. He talks more about money and possessions than about any other topic, and basically nothing he says about it makes us feel any more comfortable—“sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, then come and follow me.” “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Today’s is probably the least offensive of the bunch: “life does not consist in the abundance of possessions…beware of storing up treasures for yourself but not being rich toward God.”

I’ll never forget my first experience in a Presbyterian church—I’ve told the story before, I think, of being hired to play the special music and hearing my very first sermon, which was about that story where Jesus tells the man to sell everything and come follow him…and the pastor said, “Jesus doesn’t mean that WE have to sell all our possessions and give away all our money.”
In my literal teenage mind, I wrote off the church then and there…it was obviously full of hypocrites who were more concerned about maintaining their own wealth than about following Jesus. God obviously has a sense of humor, since 15 years later I’m standing here, trying to think of ways I can make the story easier without resorting to the same words I heard that pastor say.

The thing is, Jesus does say those things. And they do matter, and they are just as important now as they were 2,000 years ago, and they DO apply to us, whether we want to think they do or not. And the other thing is: the church IS full of sinners, people who struggle with what it means to follow Jesus in the midst of all the other things of life. That’s what it means to be human, and a big part of what it means to be a Christian—that we work together to try to figure all this stuff out, we hold each other accountable when we fail, and we support each other in good and bad times.

Here, I think, is a way for us to think about the story Jesus tells. For the most part, actually, this doesn’t seem like a story of a foolish man, it seems like the story of a wise and practical man who wants to be a good steward of the bounty his land has produced, storing up for the winter or for a lean year, preparing so he can be self-sufficient, providing for his needs in the future.

Did you notice anyone else in the story?

I didn’t. The man uses exclusively “I” language—11 times—and never once mentions anyone else—whether a family, a community, a synagogue, a village, or even a friend.

Here is where the trouble comes—not with the bounty itself, nor even in the idea of storing things for the future, but in the fact that he kept it to himself. He didn’t share his joy with his village, he didn’t ask for suggestions in what to do with the excess, he didn’t make an offering or leave part for the poor, he didn’t turn to his community for accountability and sharing and challenge and joy and hope. He turns instead to himself and decides that because he has all this wealth, he is self-sufficient.

Well…newsflash. No one is self-sufficient. No matter how much money you have, no matter how big your harvest, no matter how big a storage unit you have, no one is self-sufficient. And when we start to believe that—when we believe we can store up our lives, when what or how much we have becomes a defining factor in who we are—then we are in danger of being full of plenty of things, but not rich toward God, the provider, the giver of every good gift. We’ll have so filled up with the good life that we miss out on Abundant Life.

The thing about Abundant Life is that it happens in community—God did not create people to be alone, but to be part of a community as vibrant and filled with love and challenge as the Trinity is. When we try to go it alone, when we believe we can be self-sufficient, when we put more trust in our cultural dream of a big house and lots of toys, then we are acting more like the rich fool and less like people who follow Christ. When we have storage unit companies called “Life Storage” alongside people who live on the streets and children who go to bed hungry, then we are as a culture and as a church acting more like the rich fool and less like people who follow Christ. And, dare I say it, when we bristle at these stories and the conversations about money and stewardship, and we go home fuming that Jesus would dare to talk about something so personal and so private…we may be acting more like the rich fool and less like people who follow Christ. We forget, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that we are dependent on God for everything—breath and life and everything else, none of it is truly “ours.”

There is actually a term for this—for those of us (and yes, sometimes I’m one of these people too!) who are perfectly willing and able to claim belief and love and all that stuff…as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with what we do and how we live outside of our church personas. The term is “practical atheism”—we may believe all we want, but in practice we often act like God has no claim on who we are and how we go about our lives and, in the case of this story, what we do with our stuff and how we use our resources.

Just as the love of God penetrates into everything we are and everything we do, so the challenge of Jesus worms its way into every nook and cranny of our lives—from how we manage our money to how we treat each other to how we vote to how we handle accountability and joy and sharing. The good news for us is that the strength of the Holy Spirit also blows its way through every aspect of our lives, empowering us to live as followers of Christ in every moment, every decision, every action. The Spirit forms us for community and moves among us so we can be the people God has called us to be. At the risk of sounding a little like that pastor I remember from years ago, I’ll even suggest that we are called not to merely become poor, but to become Generous…and so find ourselves rich toward God.

May it be so.
Amen.

fireflies

yes, the song. the one that's crazy overplayed but I still love for reasons unknown.

"you would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."

You're right, you wouldn't--unless you happen to be out among the corn and soybean fields in mid-summer, and then you'd find that there really ARE ten million fireflies lighting up the world with their teardrop shaped glitter. And you might just stand and stare...unless you're driving, in which case you might slow down to stare and the people behind you will be very annoyed until they too stop watching you and glance to the side of the road to see just how very cool that is.

Whatever, that's not dangerous--you'd be driving very slow. it's fine.

Anyway, it's super cool--this is one of my favorite times of year, because whenever you're out at dusk there's just glitter hovering over every grassy or soybeany or corny patch of ground. You can't get a picture of this, no matter how hard you try--you just have to experience it as fully as possible and then hope that experience will tide you over 'til next summer.

Tonight I also saw a hundred frogs hopping across the road, and a BEAUTIFUL sunset, and a bat! I hope the bat did not eat one of the fun and flighty lightning bugs... :-)

Friday Five: Decisions, Decisions

Songbird writes over at RGBP:
Since I've been in the midst of a discernment process, I've done a lot of reflecting on how we make decisions. But don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to reveal a dark story about a poor decision, or a self-flagellating story about an embarrassing one. Let's keep it simple and go with five word pairs. Tell us which word in the pair appeals to you most, and after you've done all five, give us the reason why for one of them.

Here they are:

Try not to pull on the big cat's tail when you answer. :-)

1) Cake or Pie: PIE! Wait...cake with fruity or creamy filling between layers and buttercream frosting! wait...mixed berry pie..apple pie...boston cream pie...PECAN PIE!! umm...YES.
2) Train or Airplane: I love the idea of trains, and if we could get our American train act together the way Europe has, definitely train. Until then, airplane. Unless we're talking about very short trips, like from my house into Chicago (1:23 by train, can't really fly there...). :-)
3) Mac or PC: MAC!! We've had Macs since the Apple IIe when I was in 7th grade. I defected briefly in seminary but I'm back with an apple vengeance.
4) Univocal or Equivocal: mostly equi-vocal, but sometimes you just gotta be univocal, sadly.
5) Peter or Paul: Peter!

I'm a 7 on the Enneagram--I don't like to close off options, and I'm petrified of making a decision that might not make me as happy as the other one would have...you don't want to go to an all-vegetarian restaurant with me because I'll have to order most everything on the menu so we'll be there all day. LOL.

picnic

I kind of feel like I want to combine several of the one-word project prompts into one, but it seems that would not be in the spirit of the exercise, so I'm going to try to go with just one at a time. And on a sunny day like today, a day when I'm still finishing up with post-mission trip stuff, a day when I'm looking forward to new things, a day when it's absolutely gorgeous outside and I am stuck in my office trying to get stuff done, a picnic is just the thing.

In southern Louisiana last week we had a picnic, sort of, almost every day. Three days we ate at our worksite, balancing on random pieces of furniture or paint buckets, holding peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on our dust or paint covered hands. The other two days we went to a local park and had picnics at picnic shelters, sitting at picnic tables, surrounded by grass and plants and wildlife and water...and across the street from a sno-ball (snowcone) stand. yes, life is good.

At these picnics, the youth in my group discovered something that I can't believe they didn't know about me before: when I get tired of peanut butter and jelly (which happens about halfway through the first sandwich), I like to make sandwiches out of cheese and chips. wheat bread, whatever condiments are handy (mustard and mayo are best), some cheese (american cheese will do--which is good, since that's what we had--though I did have swiss and american one day), and whatever kind of chips I have. Some days I put Sun Chips, some days baked Ruffles cheddar and sour cream, some days baked lays (plain)...but always cheese and chips. It's so delicious! Crunchy yet sandwichy, a fun mixture of flavors, easily held together with no need to reach into the chip bag while your sandwich falls apart in the other hand...and PERFECT for the vegetarian in your life who wants to have a sandwich but only has meat and cheese and chips on hand.

I learned to do this at a church picnic many years ago--the first church picnic that Fourth Presbyterian held at the "new" (especially then!) Chicago Avenue site--back when it was just a parking lot awaiting a building, not a thriving community garden. We had this picnic there, and there was Not.A.Single.Vegetarian.Thing at the whole picnic. So I had a hotdog made of chips instead of hotdogs--bun, ketchup, potato chips...mmmmm.....and ever since, chip sandwiches have been my picnic food of choice.

Well, I still eat peanut butter and jelly sometimes (I even packed my own no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-no-sugar-no-chemical jam to take with me to Louisiana...and two of us ate the whole jar!). But it's not quite a picnic without a chip sandwich.

this week..

...i'm over here. check it out.

puppy

Before I tell you a story, you should know that I tend to use the word "puppy" to talk to or about any dog, no matter the dog's age or size. I think there's probably a bit of puppy in every grown dog, just like there's a child inside every grown up person--the question is whether we let it out.

So today, the 5th of July, was the Crystal Lake 4th of July Parade.

...

...

...

I don't understand either, so don't ask.

My friend Cecily is out of town for the long weekend, camping with her family in the Wisconsin Dells. So I get to take care of Bonnie, her adorable puppy...who is, umm, an unknown age. Probably older-ish. I'm not sure what kind of dog Bonnie is, but I do know she looks a lot like a bichon-frisee, but isn't one. She's very loving, very funny, and very good.

Anyway, the last few parades I've been to (well, okay, Memorial Day and 5th of July, for the past 3.5 years) have lasted around 30 minutes. And they begin just 2 blocks from Cecily's house. So I thought I'd pick up Bonnie and we'd walk over to the beginning of the parade route (literally right where the various groups stage and then enter the route) and watch the parade.

Our first spot lasted only a few minutes because there was a boxer puppy (a young one) nearby who just Could.NOT.Contain.Himself and wanted to come play/eat bonnie every few seconds, and his owner was *clearly* annoyed that we had taken up residence only 8 feet away. So we moved across the street, where I sat on a curb and let Bonnie run as far as her leash would take her (about 6 feet). There was a great dane nearby, but not close enough to be interesting or interested. There were also two small dogs (one VERY small and yappy) but they were interested in each other, though Bonnie wanted desperately to join in their fun. And so Bonnie frolicked, made friends with some small children, and did that thing where she burrows her face into the grass and rolls around. I watched the parade, which was a typical small town 4th (5th) of July parade--a truck carrying the community band, trucks carrying the praise bands of various local churches (including one church that, I'm pretty sure, doesn't even use a band in any of their worship services), trucks carrying people who work at local businesses, girl scouts, library workers doing drill-team-esqu routines with book carts, local high school pom squads, the Jesse White tumbling team and the South Shore Drill Team, the local drum line, etc. It's a good time. But pretty soon I noticed that I'd consumed my entire bottle of water, Bon-pup was getting restless, and there were still an unknown number of acts lining up in the staging area.

The parade ended up being over an hour long. Bonnie was so tired and hot that I had to carry her partway home (much to the amusement of the police officer, who stared at me as I walked down the street with the 12 pound dog in my arms). And, of course, I have a RAGING sunburn. Because what fun is a parade without an unexpected sunburn?

I will say that I think I had more fun at the parade with Bonnie the lovely white puppy than I ever have by myself. She was fun to watch, fun to see kids interact with, and cute to carry home. Thanks, Bonnie, for a good afternoon. Hope you got a good nap and lots of water!

missionaries--a sermon for Ordinary 14 C

Rev. Teri Peterson
RCLPC
missionaries
Luke 10.1-11, 16-20
4 July 2010, Ordinary 14C

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”
‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’
The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’


There’s a lot going on in church life these days—and it’s pretty exciting! Yesterday I came home from a conference of 40 young clergy women of all different denominations and even from around the world—a conference during which we learned, we shared, we ate, we laughed, we cried, we sang, we made random art, and we encouraged each other on our journeys. Last night, around 11:30pm, the PCUSA General Assembly began its bi-annual meeting by electing a new moderator named Cindy Bolbach, from National Capital Presbytery. The 6 candidates for moderator gave speeches, answered questions, and then waited while the assembly worked through a bunch of technical issues and 5 rounds of voting before finally getting a majority for the only candidate who is an elder, not a pastor, and who talked insightfully and succinctly about issues like how we empower youth and young adults as church leaders. Next Sunday, seven of our high school youth, along with two adults, will head down to the Gulf Coast to work on houses, making them habitable for people forced out five years ago by Hurricane Katrina. A month from now, we’ll be feeding people right here in our church parking lot again. And, as you heard earlier, in just three weeks we’ll be meeting a candidate who might be the one God is calling to be our next head of staff. It’s a busy and exciting time to be the Church, the Body of Christ.

In the midst of all these goings-on, we have this story—a story of people going out into the world to do what Jesus calls them to do. A story of people learning what it means to live the gospel. A story of being the church, even outside the walls and at 2:33 on Thursday afternoon.

In this story, you might have noticed something startling. The 70 are traveling even lighter than the people who get to use the black-diamond-expert-traveler lane at the airport. No bag, no sandals, no extra clothes, no food, no money. Instead they have only the peace of Christ and some encouragement to practice what they preach. They talk about reliance on God, about the importance of community, about the good news of healing and wholeness for all, about the value of hospitality…and now they get to practice. So out they go, into the world, to receive the hospitality they would normally be giving, to experience life without a quid-pro-quo foundation, to wander with no agenda in mind other than to meet people where they are and prepare them to encounter the living God.

This is a little bit different from the ways we normally conceive of Being Church. We have this tendency, at least in this country, to equate being the church with going to church. Our culture, our tradition, and our history has taught us that church is a place where certain things happen or is a vendor of services—a place where we get what we want. So we go to a church that has great children’s programming, wonderful music, or fabulous education or fellowship opportunities. We equate going to church with Sunday morning worship and maybe Wednesday evening choir practice, but that’s about it. Church is about electing a moderator to do business, about the pastor in the pulpit, or maybe about short term mission trips.

But Jesus shows us here that this is not what church is. Those are things that The Church does, yes—but the church is not a building or a pastor or a program, the church is US, the people, the Body of Christ! So wherever we go, there the Body of Christ is. And Jesus commissions people to be the Body of Christ out in every town—in homes, in village squares, in marketplaces, in schools, in offices, in any place where people spend their time.

Think about the places you spend time—at work, whether you’re a teacher, an office manager, an administrator, an IT worker, a full time parent, a student. You probably go to work, to the grocery store or mall, to friends’ houses, to the drugstore and restaurants and maybe even the farmer’s market or the pool or the parade or facebook. In every place you go, you are the Body of Christ. In every interaction you have, every relationship and connection you are a part of, you have a mission: to let people see the living God, whose very nature is love. Whether you do it through teaching or learning, through building things or engineering or making art or answering phones and emails or any other type of work; whether you spend your time online or in person with others or even mostly alone2—your mission is to participate in what God is doing in the world. There’s plenty of work for all the laborers in the field. Mission isn’t just for missionaries in Africa or people who run food pantries or sit on mission committees—we’re all missionaries, every day! And we’re missionaries who travel light—we don’t need special equipment or special skills, we don’t need a masters degree or to speak several obscure languages. All we need, we have been given: The peace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Here at the table, we remind ourselves of these gifts—gifts that carry us out into the world to be the Body of Christ, gifts that nourish and empower us to do the work we have all been called to do, gifts that fill us up so that the love of God can overflow into the world.
Here at the table, we practice giving and receiving hospitality with no strings attached, we remember who is the true host of every meal, and we come together to share lives, stories, hopes, dreams, fears, and love.
Here at the table, we gather as a community to be re-made as the Body of Christ—in other words, we come to church so that we can BE the church.

May it be so. Amen.

~~~

after communion, instead of the traditional "prayer after communion" we had "Commissioning God's People"...

All of you have responded to God’s calling to ministry here at RCLPC and throughout this community. We have been fed together at this table, nourished by God’s word and by the feast of God’s heavenly banquet. Now we go out from this upper room to participate in God’s mission in every place we go—school and work, store and square, home and online. As we go to be the Body of Christ, we answer these questions:

In your life each day, will you walk the way of Christ and proclaim the gospel of God’s love for all people?

As Jesus reached out to heal and to love, will you reach out in compassion?

As Jesus took time for every person who came to him, will you make time to build relationships with the people who cross your path?

As Jesus prayed for God’s guidance and strength, will you turn to God for help?

As Jesus sent disciples out two by two, will you work with the people around you to help bring in the kingdom of God?

Will you support each other with your prayers, welcome people warmly when they come into this community, and help and encourage one another as we seek to encounter the living God together?

Let us pray together.
Faithful God, you have called us to serve you with our lives, promising to be with us always. You have filled us to overflowing with every good gift, even with your very life. Give us strength and wisdom, compassion and courage, so that in everything we do, we may be witnesses to your grace. Bind us to you with the faith, hope, and love of the gospel; lead us on Your way; and bring us together again. Amen.

Friends, we are now commissioned as missionaries in every place that we go, every thing that we do, and every relationship we are part of. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the spirit of Christ, always giving thanks to God. Amen!

after the official conference...

...comes the unofficial conference. The one where we read, write, talk, send stuff back and forth, write more, talk more, and drink some wine to go with all that. The one where smaller groups of us go out for dinner and talk about life, how we'll transition back to the places we live and work (where there aren't many of us to be found to share a glass of wine!). Last night a group of 5 young clergy women from different traditions and different parts of the country gathered for dinner at Woodfire Grill (where the chef is that guy from Top Chef). We enjoyed an evening in a private room, laughing, telling stories, drinking some wine, and eating incredible food. We talked about ways to continue our fellowship and support of one another as we return home...and about perhaps having a little "retreat" that will just happen to coincide with my 30th birthday. :-) We had a serious church-dork moment in which we moved, seconded, discussed, and voted on becoming a covenant/affinity group...and even appointed someone to see if there's any way to get financial support for this fabulous group. We called ourselves "Wine and the Word"--suitably vague that we can cover fellowship, sacraments, writing, reading, and scripture all at once. :-)

Now Amy and I are working on our book proposal--we are very close to being ready to submit! :-) Thank goodness for Java Monkey (and their free wireless), for laptop computers, for good friends, and for the opportunity to gather with such fabulous people who inspire and challenge and covenant to support.

conflict style and stuff

Back in January we had the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center out at RCLPC to do a weekend workshop for the leadership about Transforming Conflict. We took these conflict style inventories and were issued name tags with different colors on them so that we could easily identify the people with various communication and conflict styles.

We haven't done a stellar job implementing or practicing our knowledge gained from that workshop, though I think we've tried a little. I'm hopeful we can continue practicing those skills, and maybe even have LMPS out again for more training.

In the meantime, this morning at the Young Clergy Women Conference we are discussing our conflict styles, and I'm reminded of that earlier workshop. We've been talking about the difference between collaboration and negotiation, the pros and cons of avoiding/accommodating and of persuasion or support...and we've just ended with a discussion of the levels of conflict escalation and how we can work in each of those levels to help people manage conflicts in healthy and appropriate ways. Good discussion....

Now if only I could remember the animals that LMPC assigned to each style, I could seriously add something to this discussion. (So far we've had mention of She-Ra and of raccoons falling through ceilings...)

talking, laughing, singing, and glitter glue

We had a great first day of the conference--creative worship opportunities abound, as does laughter, learning, and glitter glue.

That's right, glitter glue.

Because what's a conference about leadership without a little glam???

We made collages to help us think about the characteristics of healthy Adaptive Leaders...everyone's collage included some form of yoga (flexibility!). Ours also included such gems as a bird cage (don't keep people in the box), several pairs of eyes (gotta have vision!), and the statement "they love what they do and it shows." And, of course, plenty of glitter--a reminder to stay focused not on the shiny things but on the big picture and vision. :-)

So far we've talked about adaptive challenges, we've learned both from coaches and each other, and we've had some good late night conversations over a glass of wine.

And we've discovered that the hotel breakfast is...not. So right now I'm off to Panera before another day!

umm...

...we got lost this morning.

Emory = BAD signage.

But then we found it....

and we were the first ones there.

Now we seem to all be found! :-) Let the Young Clergy Women conference begin!

Getting ready!

I'm getting ready to be gone for a week...a week spent mostly at the Young Clergy Women conference. This year it's in Atlanta, which will be H-O-T but also has some serious advantages...the restaurants, for one. And the friends with whom I can stay for a couple post-conference reading/writing days for another.

So, how does one get ready for a week spent with other women clergy under 35?

Well, first one buys enough of Jaci's cookies to last the week. (sorry, I only bought one for each day for myself--that's all I can pack--so the rest of you will have to drool over her menu in awe.)

One gets both a pedicure and a haircut, of course.

Then one prints out one's boarding pass, and uses the online time to check facebook and twitter.

Then one makes sure to eat as much of whatever's in the fridge as possible. (in this case, I'm leaving a bunch of polenta and some spinach, but hoping for the best. Maybe I'll take the spinach to share the bounty...)

Then one does laundry, and looks at the dishes that need to be put in the dishwasher (which may require unloading said dishwasher), but instead checks facebook and blogs, all while the Roomba does its thing.

Then one ensures there is enough cat food and litter for the week, and that the catsitter has keys (she does).

Then one buys a new fluff book for the plane and another new book that everyone's been talking about.

Then one talks to one's best friend and conference roommate to determine whether it's possible to share any of the packing (for instance, toothpaste, which for some reason never quite fits into the 3-1-1 thing.).

Then one chooses which clothes to wear, determines the availability of an iron at the conference location, and puts everything into the suitcase.

Then the cat sits in the suitcase as well, registering displeasure at the arrival of this black box on the bedroom floor. He/She may also be signaling approval or disapproval of clothing choices, but it's hard to tell when they're sitting on them.

then one takes a break from all this hard work (ha!) to check facebook and write a blog.

Then one pets kitties and contemplates the dishes again...but instead goes to stare at the suitcase and attempts to discern what is being forgotten.

Then one checks the weather to determine that it will in fact be very hot and humid and will likely thunderstorm every afternoon.

Then one facebook chats with a bunch of people, to pass the time even though it's beginning to get late.

Then, at last, one tackles the dishes, finishes the laundry, and closes the suitcase until the last-minute things (the 3-1-1 bag, for instance) need to be added in the morning.

And then there's sleeping.

And upon waking, there's going to the conference to be with fabulous other young women!!

storm

There have been a lot of storms lately--physical ones, I mean. I feel almost like I live in the South again, what with the daily thunderstorms. There have been tornadoes, lightning and thunder, hail, power outages, and crazy wind.

This past Friday night we had two huge and powerful thunderstorms come through. The radar was RED, the trees outside were bent almost to 45 degrees, and the lightning and thunder continued for hours. There were reports of tornado sirens (but no tornadoes) and of hail the size of a quarter.

Also over the weekend I was contemplating 1 Kings 19, where Elijah experiences a storm (wind, earthquake, fire), followed by silence. He's also experiencing a political/religious storm, of course. Not to mention his internal storm!

Three years ago I preached on this text and opened with "it was a dark and stormy night, both inside and outside Elijah." Then this year, when it was actually a dark and stormy night outside, I decided I couldn't reuse the line...too bad. (The Glee illustration worked just as well!)

The internal storms are harder to talk about--this is the stuff of novels and TV dramas. We all have them, and each person's storm is different. I think I pretty well covered that in the sermon below this post (not that I was intentionally identifying with Elijah...it just sort of happened!) I think the interesting part is that the silence, the calm, comes after the storm, not before. Usually we talk about "the calm before the storm" and mean that eerie silence when birds stop singing and there's not even a hint of breeze...the calm that means something bad is coming. But this calm after the storm is...well, hopefully is not just the calm before the next storm! It's somehow qualitatively different. It feels different, more...calm, I suppose, less anxious/filled-with-foreboding.

Sometimes the summer is the calm (both before and after the storm!) season for pastors, especially those of us who work primarily with programs. Programs tend to break in the summer, at least a little bit. It's a time to both take a breath and to look ahead, to plan. At this moment in our congregation's life, and in my life as the Associate Pastor of a congregation that is without a head of staff, we're doing more breathing and less planning...hoping to be in that lull that means that the worst is over and something good is coming.

Elijah left the mountain after the storm and found himself in a partnership with someone new. I'm hoping the same will be true for us--it's so much easier to face the next storm with a colleague by your side.

(send some good vibes our way, would you? we've been waiting for the Spirit for a long time on this one, so if we could just remind her that we're still waiting....LOL!)

energizers

When I woke up this morning, I had a mashup of Ants Marching (DMB), Istanbul (they might be giants), and Run Runaway (Great Big Sea) going on in my head.

How on earth did you guess that this morning I am up ridiculously early to teach some of our youth to lead energizers?

That's right, it's VBS and our VBS is in need of some...energizing. :-) We're in Africa for VBS--there are large african animals everywhere, there are Baobab trees all around the church building, and there are some suspiciously african looking (and sounding!) drums going on down the hall.

So this morning we'll have...completely NOT African-themed energizers. Because I don't have time (or energy, ha!) to make up a new one, so we'll be doing some classics.

So, my Presby-geek friends and fellow youth leaders, fear not! Another generation of energizer-crazed youth is on their way!





(I wonder if I can get a nap after the kids go off to their rotations??? LOL!)

(PS--wondering which of those energizers I'll choose this morning? Answer: none of the above. I think we're going with "Revolution" because it's so repetitive....)