Seeing it Both Ways

   On my desk I have a collection of words of praise and encouragement that were spoken over me by campers and staff this summer. One is a phrase I never really saw coming "Thinks before she speaks." But I realized that those words are becoming more and more true in my life - I think before I speak... at least sometimes.
   But I know that I need to think before I speak because I often see things that others do not see in situations. I am truly Methodists or "via middle" because I can see both sides of an argument or position or discussion. I get where both people are coming from. Even when I am passionate about something, I can understand why someone else may not be or why they may not agree with me.
   The funny thing is that even seeing things from both sides can cause problems. People want you to agree with them without question. They want to feel as if they are right and be affirmed that there way is the only way - and I'm generally not the person to get sucked into immediately agreeing. Instead, I hold a position loosely - looking at it from all sides. Listening, more than speaking. Asking questions more than giving answers. Especially as I get older.
   How do you find yourself responding in conversations?

Hope and Redemption:Hope In Chaos Micah 2: 12-13

At the beginning of August the church started studying the book of Acts together. As we began that particular study in chapter one, we set the scene together. The disciples were huddled in the crowded upper room, and Jesus kept appearing to them and then leaving, probably resulting in their own confusion as he spoke to them about things they did not yet understand. The average person on the street who heard bits and pieces of what they had experienced between Jesus’ death and what we refer to in the church as his ascension, probably felt disbelief. The Roman political leaders were mad enough to kill anyone claiming to be a disciple of Jesus as they seethed from their stone that had been rolled away from the grave. When we summed up this scene, the word we used was chaos.

But chaos was not unique to only that time in the upper room. Chaos reigned during the time of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we refer to as the Old Testament, as well. For the next two weeks we are going to be looking at the prophet Micah together. The prophet Micah is most commonly known for verse 8 in chapter 6 of his writings, which was the key verse for my particular seminary, And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. However, when we look at that verse in isolation we miss the context of the prophet’s writings in their entirety. 

The Jewish people had been through a lot. They had went through periods of growing closer to God, listening to the teaching of the prophets, and periods of rebellion, when they rejected the teaching of God and the words of warning issued through God’s prophets. They went through periods where they were proud to be the people of the covenant, the people of God, and periods when they wanted to be just like everyone else around them, demanding that they had a judge or a king to rule over them instead of looking to God. Their refusal to follow God alone ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem, their holy place of worship, and their lament.

The prophet Micah enters into this wondering and returning pattern of the people of Israel well before the great fall of Jerusalem, which is recounted by the prophet Jeremiah, when the people of Israel become captives to the Babylonians. Perhaps because the people hadn’t yet experienced a great destruction in their life time, they were prone to disbelieve this prophet standing before them speaking of the future destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria, calling for them to repent. Maybe his words about not only the pending destruction but also the restoration of Judea fell on deaf ears. And maybe his words telling them to turn away from idolatry and return to worshipping God alone was met with cold hearts. 

If I had to use a word to describe the time in which the prophet Micah was speaking it would be chaos. Idols were being bought by money that was earned through prostitution. The temple was being financed by dishonest business practices. The citizens didn’t have enough money to feed their families, let alone the orphans and the widows, and poverty was widespread, both in terms of money and in terms of spiritual relationship with God. Prophets weren’t prophesying because they had a message from God, but rather for money in their own pockets. It was total chaos. 

Just like the disciples during the time of Acts and the people of Israel during the time of the prophet Micah, we too understand chaos. Every day we seem to hear another story of heartache and destruction on the news. I have heard more sermons about just waiting it out until Jesus comes back or we fly away to heaven to count. We seem to be almost paralyzed with fear about what to do or where to go in this world of utter chaos. 

But here is the thing about the prophet Micah. While his prophesies were certainly addressed to a people in chaos, a people in desperate need, and spoke of everything they love and hold dear being destroyed his message does not end there. Instead, in the midst of all of this bedlam he had a message of hope. A message that we find in this morning’s scripture lesson. That Judah would be restored to a state beyond her wildest imaginations. She would shine farther and brighter than ever before. That God would gather together the people of Jacob and still call them a holy people, a remnant. That God would watch after them and care for them as sheep in a pasture. That God would break open a way out of what looks like no way and the Lord would again reign at their head. 

Some of you have heard me talk a bit about the semester I spent abroad during college in Australia. It was truly a formative time in my life and in my ministry. Part of that semester’s requirements was going on trips throughout the Australian countryside to learn how people in different parts of Australia live. One weekend we found ourselves in a rural area filled with farms with a task before us - to get the sheep in the pasture to come through the gate in order to be sheered. If I could sum up in one word what happened next it would be chaos. Australians and Americans joined forces to chase large bleating sheep into corners of their pen before one or more of us would capture them by jumping on them and wrestling them to the ground. Chaos. Then after the sheep would thrash around as they were led to be sheered. Even though they had to know that they would feel better without the extra heat of the wool building against their skin, they thrashed around and often ended up being cut by accident on the sheering block. Chaos. 

Brothers and sisters, the new Judea that the prophet Micah was speaking about wasn’t going to come easy. The people he was speaking to would have known how hard of a job God would have in taming the sheep. They would have known what it would have looked like for a sheep to be sheered and go through the gate. They knew it would be chaos. But out of the chaos would come hope. 

Church, we need a little more hope today. And I don’t mean the type of hope that simply claims we need to wait it out until we get to Heaven. That type of hope leaves out the message of a God who cares for us for so many who are yearning for such deep and abiding care. If the message that would have been presented to the people in Micah’s day was simply about destruction or how chaotic things were or that God was going to destroy them, hope would have been nonexistent. But that wasn’t the message being presented then and that isn’t the message that we have to claim now. 

Think about all that the people of Israel had been through prior to the words of the prophets. The exile. The slavery. The 40 years of wanderig. God didn’t end the story with those situations and God did not end the story with the destruction of Jerusalem or the destruction of the world. Instead the prophet boldly proclaimed that God was doing a new thing and the chaos of this world would not be the norm forever. That the King would pass before them and restore the people of God. 

All too often we get caught up in this pattern of only talking about hope in terms of the afterlife as Christians, forgetting that God is the God of this world too, despite the chaos that may seem to reign around us, and as a result of our God being above the chaos we have a hope in this world too.  A hope that the Kingdom of God will be known.  A hope that God is doing a new thing, even if we can’t perceive it with our human senses. And out of the chaos, hope will come. 

Do we believe that God can bring hope to small towns that are losing employment? Do we believe that God can bring hope into the midst of the violence we hear about day in and day out on the TV screen? Do we believe that God can bring hope to the broken hearted widow or the family being split up into foster care? Do we believe that God can bring hope to churches with declining attendance? Do we believe in the hope of God? 

The Jewish people had the belief that God would save them today - do we have that same hope today and are we proclaiming it? Because love and hope are inextricably linked. If we believe in trust in the loving heart of God we will have hope even in the midst of what others will perceive as hopelessness. And not just pie in the sky type hope, but the hope of a redeemer. Not just a utopian dream of hope that relies on the myth that this world will get better itself, but hope that God will conquer evil. Hope in a God that is putting this world right and will again call it “very good.” A hope that transcends. A hope that changes things. A hope that says that their is a future, even in the midst of the chaos, because our God is not done with us yet. Amen! 

You are Welcome Here

 I have found myself listening to Klove more and more. One of the songs they play pretty regularly is "Holy Spirit, You are Welcome Here." The first time I heard this particular song was in a church service: "Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Come fill this place and fill the atmosphere." I didn't like it. I felt that it was theologically uncomfortable to ask the Holy Spirit to be present, when we are told that the Holy Spirit is present among us whenever we gather together as believers.

And yet.

And yet the song is growing on me. I have found myself thinking of all of the times that we have not acted like the Holy Spirit is welcome among us as believers. When we judge. When we exclude. When we are gluttonous at the expense of our brothers and sisters. When we act as gate keepers for God. When we forget about the Kingdom of God and our mission. When we more readily speak about hell then about God's grace, love, and mercy. When we act as if our ways are always God's ways.

We really do need to ask the Spirit to break open our hearts by declaring that the Holy Spirit is welcome in and among us. Asking the Holy Spirit to move.

Then doing the hard work of listening and being attentive to the movement of the Spirit.

So Holy Spirit, you are welcome in me. Help me to breathe in and out your life to others in all that I do and say. Fill me and fill the spaces I enter. Not for my glory, but for yours. Amen.

Oh GPS

   I was driving home from vacation with two GPSs going - a wired one and one on my phone. I had two going because they were telling me two different things. The funny part was that both were actually wrong. I saw signs several times that I knew I should have followed, and yet I went with the electronic boxes talking to me.

 

  It made me wonder if we have lost our ability to follow our gut. To listen to the internal directions leading inside of us. We become so dependent upon outside circumstances and voices, that we leave behind the knowledge we have of ourselves.

  In the words of one of the groups I am part of, we trust that each of us knows what we need.

An Open Letter

Dear Director of Ministry Placement, 

It struck me today that I should tell you how I am doing. I am now in my fifth year of full time ministry and sixth year of serving churches. I have been thinking a lot lately how you said I would never pass the three year mark. That I wasn't cut out to be a pastor. That I was too much of a wanderer. 

You may not know it, but I considered dropping out of seminary because of your words. It took two deans who were also your bosses to talk me out of it. And I am so glad that I didn't let your words become truth in my life or poison me. 

I love my job more and more each day. I cannot imagine doing anything else. I see my gifts and graces being put to amazing use by God. 

I guess what I am writing to say is please watch your words. I know you didn't want that position. I know that it was only temporary. But your anger almost drove me not to follow my calling. Watch what you say so that your perception of truth doesn't block out God's Truth for the people around you. 

Many blessings on your ministerial journey.

A fellow Elder. 

No Longer Apologizing

As I have gown older I nor longer apologize for...
     My thick curly hair that has a mind of its own
        It just means I don't have to worry about trying to make it tame since it does its own thing
     Being outspoken
        It just makes me thankful my parents raised me to haves strong, thoughtful voice
     My short legs
        It just makes me humble enough to ask for help
     Being a vegetarian
         It just made me fall in love with the kitchen
     My story, all of it,
          Because it helps me relate to others with empathy, joy, loyalty, and compassion
     Being me
          Because I am wonderfully, beautifully, perfectly, created


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Torture vs New Life

    I had some time the other day and was just walking though a mall. And shat did my eyes see? A t-shirt comparing the torture practice of water-boarding to baptism. I started to text some of my theologically minded friends the slogan along with "thoughts?", because I was so taken aback that my mind couldn't put what I was thinking into words.
   Now I by no means think water-boarding and baptism should ever be talked about together, but at least the fact that I was given pause, taken aback from words, made me sit down in order to reflect on what I truly believe about baptism.
   I believe that baptism is s gift from God, an outward and public sign that you are a child under the claim of God's goodness and grace.
   I believe that baptism cannot be forced on anyone. I am in a denomination that does practice infant baptism as a sign of adoption into a local body of Christ who promise to take care of you and seek your blessing in congregational life until such time you make a commitment to Christ yourself. But that is not the same as using baptism as a bargaining chip: such as be baptized or be banished or be baptized or be damned.
    I believe that baptism cannot be earned.
    I believe that it doesn't matter at what age or how much water is used, it's about the heart.
    What do you believe?


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“The Sneetches” Galatians 3:28 James 2:1-4

We have now reached our last Sunday in our sermon series about finding the gospel message in the stories of Dr. Seuss. This week we are going to focus on one of the stories that isn’t as well known by the good doctor, The Sneetches, which my computer tried to change to “snitches” each and every time I typed it. 

The Sneetches tells the tale of a community where two different type of inhabitants live - the Sneetches with stars on their belly and those without - aptly called star bellied and plain bellied. One would think that society would be fine with these two different types of Sneetches living in community but that was not the case. The Sneetches with stars on their bellies considered themselves to be superior to those with plain bellies. They walked past them without acknowledging their presence. They wouldn’t share picnics together or let their children play together. 

Brothers and sisters, is this sounding a bit familiar? We, too, live in a divided society today -though we think if we don’t talk about it then it must not be so. But I’m reminded of the division in society every time I eat at a restaurant with my best friend, who is bi-racial, and the waiter or waitress, regardless of their race will always ask me to order first. Divisions are deep and real in this country still today. But what makes the entire situation sadder, for both the Sneetches and for us, is that those plain bellied Sneetches bought into the lie. They believed they were not worthy, were not of value, and instead of embracing who they are, they wanted to become like the star-bellied Sneetches - those who looked down upon them and despised them. 

If any people should be proclaiming that all people matter to God, it should be the Church. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatians that there are no distinctions in the body of Christ, no one is better than anyone else, and I can guarantee that made just about everyone angry. The Jews thought that they were better then the gentiles, as God’s chosen people - yet there is no Jew nor Greek. Those that were free look down upon those who were slaves, both indentured and those by birth - yet there was no slave nor free. Men thought they owned women as property, and all of the religious teachings and political laws of the time were set up to agree with them - yet there is no male nor female. For there is no distinction outside of the most important one that we all bear “child of God.”

Spiritual author Henri Nouwen rocked my world in college with his short piece Life of the Beloved. To date it is the spiritual writing that I have gifted and handed out the most. The pages are tattered, highlighted, and filled with ink. The book is Nouwen response to his friend Fred, who asked him to explain in simple terms why life mattered and Nouwen’s answer has changed lives for generations “You are the beloved.” That is what matters - we are loved by God. We are loved by God with such a radical love that all of the other distinctions and labels people try to put upon us don’t matter. That is the message the church should be proclaiming.

I’ve have been deeply grieved over this past year with the violence that has been seen - church shootings, churches being burned, hatred spewed out on the news, random acts of violence, the list goes on and on. And what has been the response of the church, chiefly the mainline protestant church, to ignore it all. To try to sweep in under the rug or justify it. We are no better then the Star-bellied Sneetches when we do so - and we certainly aren’t proclaiming the message that all are God’s beloved. 

What resounds with me with the word “beloved” is the image of a groom eagerly waiting at the alter for his bride. Waiting to honor and protect her. Waiting to commit to actively love her each day of their lives together - no matter what the circumstances. And as powerful as an image as that is for me - God loves each of us even more than that. 

Brothers and Sisters, when we sit by when violence rocks the world around us, when we sit by in silent apathy or agreement, when we fail to proclaim the message that we are loved by God despite all that humans have created to separate us from one another, we are sinning. We have unknowingly bought into the belief that has come from the fall that some people are better than others, that some people bear the sin of the world and others get a free pass, and that God favors races, genders, or nations. When we see people differently then God sees them - whether we knowingly act upon those beliefs or not, we sin. When we turn away from people in need - we sin. When we think ourselves better than other people - we sin. Because the truth is that we are family, united by Christ, our head.

Sadly, the Sneetches’ story goes from bad to worse. Sylvester McMonkey McBean rolls into town with a solution for their problem. If the plain bellied Sneetches pay him a fee they could have stars on their bellies. And they did. In droves. All of the plain bellied Sneetches now bore stars on their bellies and went to their star-bellied siblings and proclaimed that they were now just like them! But the former star bellied Sneetches couldn’t have that. They liked thinking that they were better then the formerly plain bellied Sneetches - so they went to Sylvester McMonkey McBean and for a fee had their stars removed. And the cycle went on like this - stars on and stars off until all of the Sneetches were out of money. 

Less we think this is just a silly story, I read an article in a book recently about a young woman who grew up in the 1960s and went to summer camp. One day during that week away her counselors decided to play a game. They had all of the blue eye children get together and identify themselves as being superior to those with any other colored eyes. All day they got the best things, were able to eat in line first, and were encouraged to only play with one another, while looking down on the other-colored-eyed children. Everyone knew that it was just a game, yet it began to deeply effect the non-blue-eyed children, to the point where even half way through the day they were starting to wish that they too had blue eyes. The girl recalling this story spoke of how deeply troubled she was by the whole thing - so she went off into the woods to pray to God, where she decided, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit to break the rules of the game. She, a blue-eyed girl, started to invite brown and hazel eyed children to join her at the front of the line. She shared what she had and treated everyone as equal. And you know what happened - the other blue eyed children got mad at her! They wanted to keep the rules of the game going so they got more perks, even if it meant their fellow campers were ostracized and made to feel less valuable. 

The book this story was found in, God in My Life: Faith Stories and How We Share Them, was published in 2008, almost 50 years since this camp experience, yet it shaped the memory of that young girl and who she became. It shaped how she treated people outside of the camp after that day - where she actively tried to live into accepting others as God accepts them.

The Church of Jesus Christ has a unique opportunity to model unity. To buck the actions and attitudes of favoritism discussed in James, who says that we cannot both show favoritism and believe in Christ. Hard words to swallow. Especially for folks who have come to privileges at the expense of others, privileges that are so engrained in us that we don’t even realize them any more. When we choose to learn from each others differences instead of judging each other by them - we are the Church. We are proclaiming with our lips and our lives that what matters most is that we are God’s beloved, and all people under the banner of Christ deserved to be treated the same way, with love, honor, and respect. 

Thankfully, the story of the Sneetches ends in a powerful way - they all realize that star or plain-bellied isn’t what matters. They forgot about the stars and started to treat each other as community, as family. What would we need to risk to pave the way for unity, Church? What are we willing to set aside or give up, for the sake of the family of God? Amen. 

The Story of Summer

My skin tells the story of summer
    Darker near the neck, from being burned at heritage days
    Farmers tan from time at camp
    A different hue on the left arm, from long summer drives
    Flip flop lines from tending to the garden out in the sun
    Tan line from my ring that needed to come off from the swelling of hands in the humidity
    The faint trace of my fit bit
    Pink edges from where my sunscreen didn't reach.

What are your stories of summer

The Paradox of Care

This past week I have been on vacation. Or rather I should say I have been settling into vacation. It took me a good day and a half to disconnect fro, taking care of folks back home, through emails, phone calls, and texts. But I found that I truly sank into the fullness of vacation when I let go of the need to care for others and let myself be taken care of.

Full time clergy in my denomination are given 4 weeks of vacation (minimum) a year including 4 Sundays. I am notorious for not using all of my vacation, but it isn't necessarily about guilt, or feeling like I need to be there for the church to function, so much as some of the voices of church folks in the past telling me I haven't earned my vacation. They site the corporate structure where you earn days off for years of service and are not given a set amount simply for working full time. Being a people pleaser I bought into the lie, working harder, more hours, and taking less vacation.

But then my spiritual director pointed out to me, that those in non-profit positions, like the church, have a higher burn out rate then the corporate world. We simply are not compensated like the rest of the world - pay equal to experience and education. Instead we are paid a much smaller amount simply because there isn't money to be offered for salary, but we are given various types of days off that are more plentiful then the corporate world. We need to take them as a measure of self care.

Which brings me to this vacation. Pastors in my denomination who move to s new church are encouraged to take a week of vacation before the fall. Not a week to unpack or week to sort of work, but a week of vacation before the avalanche of fall and advent arrives. So I am on vacation at one of my favorite spots - a beach where I will probably never grace the sand (though I do love the beach itself) but instead relaxing in the home of two wonderful people who go out of there way to take care of others. They know of clergy burnout. They have seen the heavy burden carried in the bodies of those they love. So when I come here they take care - of me, of others. Letting me sleep in. Always having food we like. Simply letting us be. I'm not saying all vacations need to be like this, but for me, it is a way to reconnect with the side of myself that is oft forgot, the side that needs to be taken care of.

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Green Eggs and Ham Ez. 37: 1-11 2 Cor 5:14-20

“No. You can’t make me!” “No, I don’t like it.” Common phrases that we hear from small children, but phrases that don’t leave us as we become adults. Instead, the “no, you can’t make me, no, I don’t want to” response goes from one that we say outright to one that we internalize and try to find fancy words to wrap around. “That does not fit into my schedule.” “I can’t commit to that at this time.” “I’m too busy.” Same response - different presentation.

This week we are going to be looking at the gospel message presented through Green Eggs and Ham, perhaps Dr. Seuss’s most well know book and most certainly, according to Dr. Seuss, the book that preachers used for examples the most often from his library. Why? What makes Green Eggs and Ham so popular? I think its because we all understand it. We all understand wanting to say no, when other’s persistently tell us to say yes. 

The book starts out with a small character named Sam-I-Am having an encounter with an un-named character, whom Sam is trying to introduce to something new - green eggs and ham. At first the character simply replies, with his hand up in the air, as if to stop the green eggs and ham from getting any closer to his mouth, that he does not like green eggs and ham. 

But Sam doesn’t let the conversation end there. He continues asking if he would be willing to try them, here or there, in a house, or with a mouse. To which the unnamed character almost becomes irate saying that he will not try them under any circumstances, because he does not like green eggs and ham!

The prophet Ezekiel knows too many people like this unnamed character refusing green eggs and ham. In fact, Ezekiel knows a whole nation - the nation of Israel. Ezekiel was a prophet during a trying time in the nation’s history. They had been taken into captivity by the Babloyians. Their beloved Jerusalem had fallen. Defeated and destroyed they had been told by prophets past to get comfortable, because this situation is going to last a while. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah told them to go as far as to marry, make houses, and plant gardens, because they were going to be there for decades. 

In to this desperate disputation walks the prophet Ezekiel - telling them that he had a message from the Lord that he had tasted, one that was as sweet as honey. But in reality, that didn’t make the children of Israel want it any more. They didn’t want to hear yet another message from yet another prophet. No thank you. Under no circumstances. Not here or there, not in a house or with a mouse. Not anywhere. All they really wanted were words of assurance and comfort, and Ezekiel admitted that wasn’t exactly the message he had come to relay to them. In fact, up to this point his prophesy has been less than cheery, and now where we pick up with the prophesy today he is talking about unpleasant things - dry bones in the valley - symbols of the ultimate death. 

But the people of Israel were so set on not receiving what this prophet was presenting that they missed what happened next. They missed that God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel and told the dry, dead bones to come to life. And they did! God had sent Ezekiel to proclaim to this defeated people that God had the power to bring new life out of disrepute situations. Even destruction. Even death. Even their current state of exile. 

Back to Dr. Seuss. Sam-I-Am is ever persistent - asking if the character would eat green eggs and ham in a box or with a fox. In a car or in a tree. By now the tenor of the response has slightly changed from “I would not” to “I could not” - as if all power had been taken away from him, ephasizing that there is no possible way that he could eat this food being presented to him.

The people of Israel were not the only ones like this unnamed character trying to be presented with something that sounds less than apatizing - green eggs and ham. Jesus knew what it was like to try to get a stubborn people to swallow something difficult, but necessary for us - his death and resurrection. Throughout the gospels Jesus proclaimed the truth, that he was the son of God who had come to redeem us from the sin that had plagued our human nature since the time of Adam and Eve. He came and preached the radical and saving love of God. He demonstrated that love by freely dying on the cross for us, even when we rejected him. And the power of that love still resounds today because of his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus knew that we needed him to make it through life. He knew that people needed to see the love of God shining through him in order to truly find the way to God. But he was ulimately rejected by so many - the government and religious establishment, many of his disciples and friends. People who had welcomed him eagerly at the beginning of one week and would turn on him in short order by the end. Because his message was hard to swallow and they would not, could not accept him as their Lord. 

Jesus was rejected because of the message he was preaching. He was rejected because he was a man from a place that wasn’t very special, Nazareth. He was rejected because he wasn’t the type of savior that many people had envisioned - one that had come to lead a rebellion and over throw Rome, bringing freedom to Israel. He didn’t look like a Savior, until you started to spend time with him. 

Sam-I-Am kept spending time asking if he would like to try green eggs and ham. In the dark or in the rain. He would not accept that this character simply did not like green eggs and ham. He asked if he would try them with a goat or on a boat. Then Sam-I-am tries a different tactic saying “You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.” Worn out and weary the one Sam had been pursuing agrees, if only Sam-I-Am agrees to let him be afterwards. And wouldn’t you know, he liked green eggs and ham and proclaimed that he would eat them anywhere with anyone. In fact, he thanks Sam-I-Am for introducing him to them! 

When was a time in your life that you initially held off from trying something that you ended up liking? When was the last time you pursued someone until they tried something they liked? Or an even tougher question - when is the last time you pursed someone with the same zeal as Sam-I-Am to come to know the saving love of Jesus Christ?

The truth is brothers and sisters, we don’t live in a world where people automatically know about Jesus. We don’t live in a world where we can assume that the majority of folks around us know the basic bible stories. We can’t assume anything. The fields are ripe with folks who can come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior - if only we would introduce them to him.

But we give up far too quickly. Some of us before we can even start telling them about what Jesus means to us. We get scared that they won’t accept what we are saying, or that we will lose a family member or friend. We get scared because we have seen people talk about their faith so poorly that it has damaged other people. 

Others of us are willing to try to share our faith one time, but give up after that attempt saying its in God’s hands. Did Sam-I-Am give up after the first no? Of course not! He kept sharing. Kept asking. 

Here’s the truth brothers and sisters, the message of Jesus Christ is just as hard to swallow today as it was back when Jesus walked this earth. And people just as passionately don’t want to receive what we have to say, as the people of Israel were with Ezekiel. But we keep sharing - because someday the people around us who we love dearly are going to realize that they need Jesus Christ in their lives. Maybe when they are going through a difficult time or maybe when everything seems right in their lives but they still sense that something is missing. 

The apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth that we are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is one who acts and speaks on behalf of. We need to start representing Christ to the world, Church! Christ didn’t die so that we could continue to live for ourselves - he died so we could live for him. And he gave us a very clear mission to make disciples for him, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet, we aren’t bringing new people to Jesus Christ. We get more concerned with making new church members than disciples. How sad! We live in a world that is just crying out for people to passionately share their faith - at least half as passionately as Sam-I-Am shared his love for green eggs and ham -  but we are too scared to do it. We are surrounded by people who need to try a new thing - who need to come to know the love and hope of Jesus Christ in their lives. What are we willing to risk to make that happen? What are we willing to risk to share the love of God that changed our lives? Amen. 

Butter Battle Book Matthew 5: 38-39 1 Cor 13: 4-7

What if? A question that I frequently ask myself when I look around and see situations that deeply trouble me. What if we acted on the words of Christ? What if we lived into who Christ calls us to be? What if we acted like the beloved instead of misbehaving in a way that doesn’t glorify God? What if?

What if is also a question I frequently asked myself each and every time I’ve read Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book. While some of the books we are exploring are ones that I’ve had since childhood, and others I had actually never read prior to preparing for this series, this particular book was one I picked up while in college. What if the Yooks and the Zooks saw each other as children of God instead of enemies? What if the situation didn’t have to go this far? What if there was a different way to handle conflict? What if?

We are now in the second week of our month long sermon series looking for gospel truths in Dr. Seuss’s children’s book. The thing I love about children’s books is that there are deep universal truths in them that we are trying to teach our children, that we often need to be reminded about as adults. Today I want to address the biblical way to handle conflict.

The ‘C’ word. No one really wants to talk about conflict in the church. We seem to think that if we don’t talk about it then it might not exist - both within our corporate gatherings or in our individual lives, but this just isn’t the case. Conflict is part of life, because God has created us as unique individuals with different ways of communicating. But even if conflict is a part of life, it does not have to define how we interact or get in the way of glorifying God.

Christ knew that his disciples were going to have conflict. They were going to have people on the outside looking in who didn’t understand them and would try to stir up controversy in order to bring them down. But they also argued amongst themselves about who was the greatest and how to go about their mission of being disciples. The book of Acts shows the early church ripe with conflict between followers of Peter and followers of Paul, the Gentiles and the Jews, the authorities and the disciples, the list goes on and on. 

But Jesus teaches his disciples to travel a different path when it comes to times of trial. To not follow the law as it is written in scripture, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but to do something new, something unheard of, and not seek revenge. Remember back to what happened prior to the law stated from Exodus about equal retribution - a person would feel wronged and would end up taking revenge to the degree they felt they were due. People were killed. Wars were undertaken. Families were divided. And that was all just in the book of Genesis. So when the Israelties were on their way to the promise land they were told that things were going to be different - no longer was it going to be open season on seeking justice - instead it was equal - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - just pushment that was no more than that which was culturally necessary.

However, Jesus taught his disciples on the sermon on the mount, and the way he lived his life and ultimately died his death on the cross, that it was no longer about things being fair and equal - instead it was about living in a way that honored God and honored your neighbor, even when they deeply wronged you. Instead, you are to pray for your enemies, and turn to offer your other cheek to them after they slapped you on the first. 

Now before you get upset and start claiming that Jesus is asking us to be doormats, remember that Jesus’ teaching about turning the other cheek is culturally nuanced as well. If a believer offered to one who struck him the other cheek, the person striking him or her would have to commit a cultural fo-pa - hitting with the demeaning side of the hand or with the lesser dominate hand - which was considered unacceptable. Essentially by offering the other cheek the violence ended instead of breaking out in a full fledge war or beating. 

Paul takes Jesus’ teachings one step further when he speaks about love. While 1 Corinthians 13 is a popular passage to read at weddings, it is actually speaking about how to love one another in community, specifically as followers of Christ. Paul tells it straight - he says what love is - patient and kind, and what love is not - arrogant, boastful, or rude. While we may agree with that cognitatively at first, Paul then pushes it a bit further - love does not insist on its own way.

How many of the conflicts we find ourselves in arise out of one of two things: either we insist that we are right and others are wrong or we don’t communicate well with one another? The irony of The Butter Battle Book of course, is that the fighting started over something as silly and simple as how to eat butter on bread. But from there, as things often do, they escilated. First to one Zook using a sling shot at one Yook to a full out war. We may laugh at Dr. Seuss’s example, but we do the same things in our own lives today. The different path of the way of Christ asks us to listen deeply to other people and try to understand where they are coming from - to not judge them for which way they eat their butter on bread, to use the metaphor of the book, but to listen and ask questions first. Let me be clear, we don’t need to agree in order to not be in conflict. But we do need to respect one another and treat each other as children of God. How could things have been different from the Yooks and the Zooks if they would have sat down and had a conversation about what they disagreed on - a real conversation - that didn’t start out with the agenda of convincing the other party that they were wrong, but just to listen and then honestly state where they were coming from? What could have been different if they looked at the world from each other’s perspectives before drawing the battle lines? What could have changed if they first and foremost didn’t see an issue before them, but other children of God who have value far above and beyond their differences?

Brothers and Sisters, it is sin that tells us something as simple as how we eat butter on our bread should define us. It is the love of God that declares that something bigger lays claim over us - that we are children of God. For far too long we have fought about things that don’t matter. We’ve become so distracted by our selfishness that we have forgotten how to behave as the redeemed children of God. When we act this way we are not following the commands of Jesus Christ to love God and love our neighbor. 

God has sent us out into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and some days we simply do a very poor job. We get caught up in the excitement of conflict and allow it to wash over us - instead of acting as Christ would act. We let things escalate instead of seeking to be in a relationship with those not like us in order to share the love and power of Jesus Christ. We seek to argue instead of listen. We demand to be heard instead of showing our love to others. Oh Church, is this what Christ died for? So that we could be the loudest? The best? The winner in our own eyes? 

I will be the first to admit that not all conflicts can be solved simply by listening. But I will also attest that listening will prevent things from spiraling out of control in misunderstanding. We’ve all heard the old story of the Hatfields and the McCoys - generations after generations fighting - out to destroy each other - but neither remembering quite why. The conflict took on a life of its own. We do the same thing today - both inside and outside of the church. 

Who are the Yooks and the Zooks in your life today? How is Christ calling you to respond? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Hitting back? Trying to one-up the person with the biggest and latest argument. Or by a different way? 

Jesus Christ changes how we deal with conflict because Jesus Christ changes our sinfulness - changes who we are. The love shown on the cross and love that we are to show as the Church, bears, believes, hopes, and endures. May you go out into the world to be the radical, loving, listening, creative hands and feet of Christ, shining forth the new path set forth by the cross. 

“Finding the Gospel in Dr. Seuss: Horton Hears a Who!” Romans 8: 18-25, Psalm 24: 1-2

We are about to embark on an adventure together to find gospel truths in the writings of a beloved children’s book author, Dr. Seuss. “But Pastor Michelle, why are we looking at children’s books? Is that really Biblical?”. To which I would answer, yes it certainly is. We are not saying that Dr. Suess’s writings are the gospel. What we are saying is that the Bible speaks to the condition of our spirit. The Bible is a collection of stories and letters and laws that tell us about who we are. Because it speaks to human nature, those same themes can be seen in the world around us - movies, art, theater, literature. If only we take time to look. Further, Jesus preached using stories. He took things that people knew about family and farming and money and wove them together into narratives for the purpose of teaching people about God. For the next four weeks we are going to be taking modern stories, as presented by Dr. Seuss, and look at what they say about our human condition and what they can teach us, as Christians, about God, if only we look at them differently.

I’m sure many of you have noticed by now that I am quite short. Petite if you want to try to put it nicely. Standing less than 4 feet 11 inches tall, I have always resonated with a popular quote from Horton Hears a Who! - “a person’s a person - no matter how small.” I even have those words on a placard that hangs in my office. Because we all need a reminder that people are people - no matter what. We live in a world that teaches us to quickly judge people and decide if they are worth our time. Based on how they look - their size, gender, or color of their skin. The accent they speak with. The way they conduct themselves. We, oh so quickly forget that which Horton is trying to impress upon us - a person’s a person, no matter how they look.

The truth is all people are important to God. When God first created human beings in the Divine image, they, and everything else created by God was pronounced to be good. Very good in fact. When the people of God strayed, prophets were sent to declare that God was doing a new thing. A radical thing. And when the people of God still missed the mark, still didn’t live into their image of being very good because of the sin present in their lives, God sent Jesus Christ to teach us how to live, to give his very life for us to be  made new, and offer us the renewed hope. We are all that important to God. 

But even as Christians we fail to remember how important other’s are to God. All others. Not just those we like. Or agree with. Or those who look like us. Its as if we cognitively realize that Christ has come to save us, but haven’t taken the time to do the hard work of examining our hearts and seeing what sin we have in there - especially in how we treat other people. For when we sin against people, we sin against God, because they are God’s beloved. The Psalmist states in this morning’s scripture - the earth and everything in it is God’s alone. They belong to God - not us, and therefore they are not ours to judge and deem worthy or unworthy. 

So how can we honor folks in such a way that reflects God’s love for each and every one of them? First we can confidently witness to how we are experiencing God in our lives. 

Second, we can remind ourselves that God cares for people. God came to earth in Christ to save the people. Not just the one’s we like. We can value them as God does.

Thirdly, we can give voice to the voiceless. There are 6 billion people in this world who have immediate needs. We may not be able to help everyone, but we can help one person know that they are the beloved of God, and make a deep impact on their lives. 

I graduated college a semester early and had to decide how to best use my time for Spring semester and summer before I entered seminary. I found myself working for my church, and as part of that job, working for the local women’s shelter that the church wished to partner with. While working there, a woman, we will call her Mary, came into my life. Mary was having a child outside of wedlock. She had no idea how to care for a child, though the shelter was teaching her new skills every day for childcare. But Mary had nothing for her child, not a single blanket or bottle – she simply could not afford one. And without a supportive family, Mary had no one to help her prepare during this period of waiting for the baby to be born. I approached the Sister who ran the shelter and asked if I could throw a surprise baby shower for Mary. The Sister was astonished that I wanted to help her prepare for this child – a woman whom I did not know and other’s had deemed unworthy, dismissed to the point where had to live in a shelter that was not truly her home, and a baby whom I may never meet. What happened next was only through the grace of God. I took the list of supplies that Mary would need for her baby and gave it to my church. I explained what we were doing and how we only had about a month for collecting the items. The church not only collected enough items to get Mary and her child through the first year of their life together, but enough to help seven more women throughout the county who were in need of help preparing for their unborn children. 

Brothers and sisters, it still makes me sad this day that the Sister was shocked that I, as a young woman about to enter the ministry, wanted to reach out and touch the life of this woman and her child. Church we need to step up. We need to be the first place people think of when they need love and acceptance and to be reminded they are God’s beloved, not one of the last. We need to hand out more than items to folks who need basic necessities, we need to be offering Christ right along with them. We need to be the voice reminding folks that all people are children of God, who God desperately wants a relationship with. One’s that God is waiting to adopt if only they would accept the gift of God’s love and grace in their lives. We need to witness to the hope we have with our lips and our lives, because as Paul reminds us in Romans, hope that is not seen and witnesses to isn’t really hope at all.

There are people right here, in our community, that we know need to not only hear about the hope in God that changed our lives, but experience it through our love and actions. People who go through life each and every day feeling unheard, unrecognized, unloved, just like the Whos. What are we willing to risk in order to share our hope in Jesus Christ? Are we willing to be criticized? Looked down upon? Are we willing to give our all so that people can come to know Jesus Christ? May we hear and respond with love and hope to the cries of the world around us, for we know that our loving God is listening and just waiting for us, the children of God, to respond. Amen.