The Light Within

The Light Within

Sermon for MCC New Haven

December 24, 2012 (Christmas Eve)

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

In the words of St. Julie Andrews, “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.” All of our readings tonight are about the beginning or the origin of our human reality. Most of us are familiar with the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis, the very first book in the Torah. The creation narrative is told, that YHWH creates the universe and calls it “good.” We are given the beautiful image of the Spirit or Breath of God moving over the waters. We know through the blessing of science that the earth did not form over seven rotations of the earth on its axis, but rather over billions of years. But our knowledge of facts does not make the truth of our faith untrue, it just saves us from the dangers of biblical literalism. Through our rich Scriptures (and also through the sacred texts not found between the pieces of leather that contain the Bible), we can receive wisdom.

So we can also read the lesson from Proverbs, and the lessons from the Prophet Isaiah, and the Gospel according to Luke that we will hear throughout this service, knowing that though they come from an ancient worldview, we can still find truth to live by today.

In the reading we just heard from the book of Proverbs, we see the author imagining what Wisdom would sound like if it were personified. The author of Proverbs makes Wisdom female and says that she has been with God since the very beginning, witnessing all the wonders of the Universe. She says, “I was beside God like a little child; I was God’s daily source of joy, always happy in God’s presence.” It’s a sweet image really, a little girl keeping God company from the very beginning. We get a wonderful sense that the author of Proverbs really valued the power of Wisdom in the human experience.

Jump with me now to the first chapter of the Gospel of John in the Christian Testament. We read, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” What is translated as “Word” here is the Greek word “Logos,” which is a synonym for “wisdom.” We can see John’s inspiration from Proverbs here. We can also see the similarity in how both texts highlight the importance of this Wisdom.

Now what does all of this have to do with Christmas? Tonight, we will hear the story of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth from the perspective of Luke. These readings tell us of the importance of the birth of this Jewish peasant child, said to be the Child of YHWH. This Christmas, I am not going to talk about the scene that we usually see on the front of Christmas cards. You will be able to imagine all of that on your own in hearing the text read. Rather, the focus of my message tonight has to do with questioning. And our main questions tonight are, “Why did God send this Child into the world? What was this Jesus all about?”

The answer can be found in a couple passages to remember by heart. The first is from John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The thief that Jesus speaks of here is not a personification of evil. Rather, that thief is oppression. That thief is injustice. That thief is fearful and hateful worldviews and actions. Jesus says here that in the face of these thieves, he came that humanity may have Life, and have it ABUNDANTLY.

The second verse to remember by heart comes from the Gospel of Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of God is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…” This verse says nothing about coming to separate the “saved” from the “unsaved” or about judging people for who they are. No, Luke tells us that Jesus came as an anointed prophet to bring Good News. Condemnation is never good news! And contrary to the ideology of the Religious Right, Jesus does not say that he has come to keep the rich rich and make the poor poorer. Quite the opposite, Jesus’ mission was with the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.

This is the Good News of the Christmas story for us tonight. As a Queer people on the margins of society, the Christ Child is born to us today. And more importantly, Christ is born through us today. There is a song that says, “Love came down on Christmas.” That phrase reinforces an ancient worldview in which God literally lived above the clouds. Instead of “Love came down”, let’s profess tonight, “Love came out on Christmas.”

The theme of coming out is important to us in the LGBT community. Each of us comes to points in our lives when it is necessary to put out into the world a truth about ourselves that lies within. We often know from early childhood our sexual orientation and gender identity. Only later is it safe to identify publicly (and in many places around the world it is never safe to self-identify as LGBT publicly). In the same way, it wasn’t safe for Jesus to publicly identify with the message of God’s Unconditional Love that burned within him. The dangerous act of living with integrity led to his very public execution. But tonight, we focus on a miracle, that Divine Love was born in a baby, in a barn two thousand years ago. A truly Enlightened One was born.

A Course In Miracles teaches that “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle.” On that Spring night so long ago, this kind of miracle occurred. A child was born who had the potential to change the world forever. The Holy Wisdom that he embodied shined brightly from within to a people who had all but lost hope. He showed not only that he was the Christ, the one to save us from loneliness, despair, and degradation, but that the Christ presence lives within us. Jesus said, “The Real of God lives within you.” Folks, regardless of your beliefs or doubts about God, religion, and spirituality, that Divine Spark still lives within you. It is not something that you need to search for outside yourself. You are indeed, Mary, perpetually pregnant with and simultaneously birthing Christ. We are all Mothers of God. We may not be virgins, and I doubt that Mary was either, but we are anointed of God with the mission of birthing God into the world each day, letting our Inner Light shine.

In the words of spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson, “The significance and power of the light of Christmas is that it emerged into the midst of darkness. The birth of Christ two thousand years ago did not occur at a time when things were good, but at a time when things seemed hopeless — as to many they seem now. Suddenly, there was hope and its name was love. The star of Bethlehem led to our salvation in the tender scene of a mother having given birth…It bespoke the miracle of love…The birth of Jesus is more than a historical reality. It is a spiritual reality that occurs every moment when our hearts are open to love…Where there is love, God is…”

Especially after what happened in Newtown last week, we may find it easy to close up our hearts. We feel anger. We feel fear. We feel grief and loss. This is all a natural part of the human experience. But what we must refuse to do is close ourselves off to the power of Love. Because it is our only salvation, our only hope.

We open our hearts tonight to give and receive love at once, as the Scriptures assure us that “Perfect love casts out fear.” If you are missing loved ones tonight, let love cast out fear. If you are experiencing pain in body or mind, may you feel Love Divine wash over you. If you need spiritual nourishment tonight, may you find it at Mother God’s breast.

I close tonight with a selection from retired Episcopal Bishop Steven Charleston, “What a wonderful thing to be on the eve. On the threshold. On the night before. At the very dawn of something new. It is the linguistic sign of ultimate expectation. It is the spiritual sign of immanent contact with the divine. I pray this day be the eve of your life. May it fill you with the energy of knowing that something new and empowering is about to happen. This is the turning point. This is the hinge time, the moment when reality begins to change. Now is your eve, your countdown to a fresh beginning. What has happened has happened: now hope is at the door.” And so it is! Amen.

Boundless Love

“Boundless Love”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

December 23, 2012

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

         Who was this woman, Mary, the mother of Jesus? And with so little written about her in the Christian Bible, how have Christians around the world come to know her as the Virgin Mary or Virgin Mother, the Mother of God, and the Queen of Heaven? How have millions of Catholics and others come to pray to her daily? I think we can all agree that within and beyond what Scripture tells us, “There’s something about Mary.”

         From historical records, we know very little about Mary. We know that she was a Jewish peasant girl, probably only around thirteen years old when she finds herself pregnant out of wedlock, which was punishable by stoning. But a man named Joseph promises to marry her, therefore making her his property and responsibility instead of her father’s. Notice how Mary’s parents are nowhere to be found in any of the gospels. Perhaps they had shunned the young Mary so that she would not bring shame on them with a bastard child.

         But Mary knew that she could go to her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary knew that in her trouble, she had to trust those who loved her unconditionally, not those whose love ran dry when it was found out that she had broken the law- and in a very serious way. Even girls who were raped in that time were blamed for the act. We know that blaming the victims is a millennia-old sin. Those of us on the margins know too well what it means to be loved conditionally and to be blamed for misfortunes like hate crimes happening to us.

         Mary went “with haste,” the Scripture says, to Elizabeth’s house. She was deeply afraid for her own wellbeing and for the wellbeing of her unborn child. But Elizabeth showed radical hospitality and took this unmarried pregnant teenager into her home- for three months. And according to Luke, Elizabeth’s unborn child danced in her womb at Mary’s voice. There’s no way we can take this as a historical event, but it is essential to the story, because Elizabeth is convinced that through this shameful circumstance, God is at work.

         Other gospels not found in our Bible add to the story. In one Gospel, Mary’s parents are named: Joachim and Anne. And according to Catholic tradition, Mary was the product of an “Immaculate Conception,” meaning that she was not born with original sin. The story goes that Joachim and Anne were perfect in their obedience to the law and free of personal sin, so Mary was blessed without original sin. This, not the virgin birth of Jesus, is called “The Immaculate Conception” and Mary is sometimes called “The Immaculata.”

         In yet another gospel not found in our Bible, Mary’s midwife checks Mary to make sure that she is a virgin before she gives birth to Jesus. (In other words, she checks for her hymen.) Even in this ancient Christian literature, we are given the graphic details of the human body. Fundamentalists to this day teach that the virgin birth was absolutely essential for God to be incarnate.

         But for progressive and New Thought theologians like myself, none of this really matters. In MCC, we profess in the words of Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox, we are born in “Original Blessing,” not original sin. We profess that from before our birth, God has called us His children, Her beloved. Not a single infant that comes into this world is inherently evil, no matter how much they may make parents unhappy with constant crying and soiling diapers J.

         But to those who wrote our gospels in the first century, virgin birth was a common narrative about important people such as kings and emperors. In Greek and Roman mythology, gods regularly impregnated women. Julius Caesar was said to be a child of a god. So to say that YHWH impregnated a woman was not completely absurd to people in the Greco-Roman world; it was just absurd to the Jews to say it about YHWH.

         Of course the very fact that Mary was the mother of Jesus of Nazareth is enough to make her an important figure in the Christian tradition, but there is something much deeper than that in human history that makes Mary as a divine figure much more meaningful. And that something is not often spoken of, something scandalous, indecent even.

         In essence, the various traditions of Mary or what is called “marianism” are all rooted in indigenous faiths that worshipped goddesses or “the Divine Feminine.” Most Christians are taught growing up that God is masculine. At times, it even seems that “He” is a holy name for God. Yes, YHWH was considered masculine most of the time in the Jewish tradition. And yes, Jesus did call God “Abba,” which is an endearing Aramaic term for Father such as “Papa.” But from the beginning of the Jewish tradition and throughout the Christian tradition, the Divine Feminine has not disappeared.

         Modern archaeologists have found a plethora of goddess statues at the sites of ancient Jewish cities. And in the Christian tradition, as I will go into more detail about, the character and image of Mary become very goddess-like. So regardless of how patriarchal Judaism and Christianity have been, Jews and Christians have still longed for that mothering figure, that feminine energy in their idea of the divine.

         For those of you who grew up Roman Catholic or have spent time among Catholics probably know the most well known Marian prayers. The first is the Hail Mary: “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” Notice that this prayer is modeled after the scripture that we read from the gospel of Luke today. The first line is exactly what Elizabeth says to Mary. Catholic tradition then named Mary “Mother of God” since Mary birthed Jesus, God in the flesh. And they also hold the belief that the saints are intercessors for the living who pray to them for help. Protestant reformers considered this idolatry and forbid praying to anyone but God. But Catholics and others still pray the Rosary daily, which is based on the Hail Mary prayer.

         The other prayer is called “Hail, Holy Queen”. I will spare you the details of this prayer, but its historical significance is that since the Mesopotamian era (nearly 7,000 BCE, 9,000 years ago), the name “Queen of Heaven” has been used for goddesses.[1] So we can safely say that the veneration of Mary today is primal. In the depth of our psyche, we long for the feminine.

         Today’s Advent theme is “Love.” And this theme fits perfectly with our focus today on Mary. Sure, Mary was probably a very loving mother. But beyond that, for the first 1500 years of Christianity, she was the primary symbol of God’s love. Few people know this, but the Cross did not become the primary symbol of God’s love in the Christian tradition until the Reformation when the printing press allowed printed pornography to sexualize the breast. Before that time, it was the image of the nursing or lactating Mary that Christians looked to in seeking the love of God.[2]

         Mary was called “Maria Lactans” in Latin or “The Wet Nurse of Salvation.” She was often portrayed in art as giving Christians her milk as the expression of God’s love. Saints were even pictured suckling at her breast. Today, we may find this strange. Mothers in our society are encouraged to hide their breast while breastfeeding in public. Since the breast has been so sexualized and since we still hold to the sex-negativity of our Puritan ancestors in faith, the beautiful meaning behind the lactating Mary has been nearly lost.

         The sins of sexism and misogyny have stripped Mary and indeed all women of their sexuality and ownership of their own bodies. The sexual revolution of the 1960s has allowed American women to express their sexuality more openly after the Victorian era of sexual suppression, but it has also opened the way for women to become sexual objects. On the spectrum between denying the body completely and objectifying the body lies a holy Middle Way that we in MCC profess. We see the body and mutual, loving expressions of sexuality as holy. We recognize the functions of the female body as sacred. And last but certainly not least, we reclaim the Divine Feminine, recognizing that the Great Mystery and Ground of Our Being in whose image and likeness we are made includes the essence of Woman.

          Because of the way many of us have been indoctrinated, such assertions may seem like blasphemy. But from our social location as a queer people, these affirmations meet us right where we are, at the core of our lives, in the center of our experience.

         Today, hear the song that Mary sang in the Gospel of Luke as a song for your liberation:

“Our souls magnify the Lord, and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior, for God has looked with favor on us, God’s Rainbow People. Surely, from now on all generations will call us blessed. For El Shadai, the Almighty Breasted One, has done great things for us. God’s mercy is for those who honor God from generation to generation. God has shown strength; God has scattered the bigoted in the hateful thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their seats of power and has lifted up the marginalized. God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the greedy away empty. God has helped His queer servants, in remembrance of Her mercy, according to the promise God made to our spiritual ancestors and all their descendants forever.”

         Saints, you are descendants in a long line of bold prophets of liberation who have transcended boundaries and embraced a wider vision of the sacred. I know that some of you may always see God as only masculine. I affirm you in your understanding of God. But for those of us who feel that pull of the Holy Spirit within to hold a wider vision of God, we can believe without fear, for in the words of the Gospel of Matthew (23:37), God gathers us as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Amen.

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[1] Stone, Merlin. When God was a Woman, Harvest Press (1976).

[2] Gibson, David. The Washington Post “On Faith” (2012).

Joy Comes in the Mo(u)rning

Joy Comes In The Mo(u)rning

Sermon for MCC New Haven

December 16, 2012

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

  

Today is a bit of a paradox. In the Christian calendar, we celebrate the third Sunday in Advent, which has the theme of “Joy.” This third Sunday is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday, the word gaudete meaning, “rejoice” in Latin. We are given the opportunity within our waiting for the Christ Child to celebrate. That’s why we light the pink candle today, rose being a softer color than the dark purple of repentance. The paradox we face today is that it is difficult to rejoice, to feel full joy, when many children and adults were thoughtlessly murdered in New Town, Connecticut on Friday. When I read the words from Paul’s letter to the Philippians saying, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,” I wonder how we can always rejoice. Did the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes not write that there is a time for everything: a time to mourn and a time to dance?

I am reminded of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh), in which the Jewish people lamented the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6^th century BCE. One of the poems in this book says this: “Happiness has gone out of our lives; grief has taken the place of our dances. Nothing is left of all we were proud of. We sinned and now we are doomed. We are sick at our very hearts and can hardly see through our tears… Why have you abandoned us so long? Will you ever remember us again? Bring us back to you, Lord! Bring us back! Restore our ancient glory” (Lam. 5:15-21). What I like about the Book of Lamentations is that the writers don’t hold anything back. They fully express how they are feeling. They express their thought that what happened to them was a punishment for their sin as a people. They expressed their understanding God as angry and wrathful, and even absent.

The feelings expressed in Lamentations are very similar to what many of us are feeling this week: lack of safety, sadness and grief over loss of life, alienation, and fear. The authors of Lamentations do not proscribe for us a good understanding of the nature of God. We do not believe in a wrathful, angry, and punishing God. The God of Jesus is a God of Unconditional Love. But we can empathize with their pain because we know all too well where our minds go when tragedy strikes.

One of the best quotes I heard this week said, “I want to be angry with God and ask God why God didn’t do something. But then I realize that God would ask me the same thing.” We can be assured in sound doctrine that God not only would never make such a tragedy happen, but surely God wept as each human’s life was taken. We must also recognize that the heart of God aches each and every second as children around the world suffer, go hungry, and die all the time. As God is in whom we live and move and have our being, God feels our pain as intimately as we feel it ourselves.

So this is Joy Sunday, and I wonder what Good News the scriptures bring us today. Let’s look at the Gospel reading. Luke tells us today about John the Baptist and his rant against those who only wanted to be baptized because it was popular. They didn’t get the gravity of the act, that baptism was a sign of turning away from the ways of the Ego, not indulging them. Luke calls them a “brood of vipers.” That’s a pretty strong image! He tells them that they can’t ride on the coattails of Abraham to get out of facing their unloving ways. Because the one to come (Jesus, that is) will come to refine their lives- in a holy fire. Some people have mistaken these verses to say that Jesus will come to throw some people into hell. Biblical scholarship has shown us that that was just not the case. The chaff to be thrown into the fire does not represent us- the children of God. It represents our egos: our selfish, power-hungry, and fearful ways. John says that Jesus will baptize with the holy Spirit and with fire. I know that in Pentecostal traditions, baptism by the Holy Ghost and by fire involves a speaking in tongues experience. But what we see in their ancient context was something much broader: a total life-transformation.

The text we heard today from Paul’s letter to the Philippians explains to us what a transformed life looks like: gentleness, a worry-free attitude, prayerfulness, gratitude, and peace. Certainly in a world in which tragedies like what happened on Friday happen too often, we need to all practice and teach more gentleness. And though we are tempted to worry about our safety, we know that excessive worry just makes us ill. As for prayer, you don’t need to get on your knees, folding your hands, and say “Dear God” and “Amen” for it to be a prayer. Humming a beautiful tune is a prayer. Giving a hug is a prayer. Smiling at a lonely person is a prayer. Calling a friend in need is a prayer. Sitting or walking in silence is a prayer. An attitude of gratitude is a prayer.

Life will never be free of troubles. Things will never fully go your way. That’s just the way the world is. But that does not mean that every day is an occasion for sorrow. I believe that God made us in joy and takes joy in our every breath. So even in the midst of sorrow, there is joy. Lebanese Christian poet Kahlil Gibran wrote this about Joy and Sorrow: “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

Joy and sorrow are in a way the same emotion on opposite ends of a spectrum. They are both strong. They are both transformative. They are both part of being human. It is now a time to mourn, but at the same time, we can look into our hearts with gratitude for the joy that we each have in our own lives.

Today, I am reminded of a story in the Gospel of Matthew called, “The Massacre of the Innocents.” It is told that King Herod, upon hearing from the Magi that a king would be born in Bethlehem, ordered all male children under age two to be killed. Church tradition has recognized those children as the first Christian martyrs. Historians question whether this event actually happened, but that is not ultimately what matters. What matters is that our scriptures reflect to us the reality of evil in our world. It isn’t about blaming the devil or strange things going on in the spiritual realm. It is about recognizing that our lives are fragile and we are here to take care of each other. We are here to be our sister and our brother’s keeper.

One of my favorite Christmas carols is not a happy Jingle Bells- like song. It is rather a carol of lament. The name of it is the Coventry Carol. It was written in the 16^th century in England and has survived over the centuries in remembering the Holy Innocents. It goes like this:

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

The author of this carol imagined Mary singing this song about her own baby, Jesus, in fear for his life. The hearer is led by the song to feel the concern of all parents for their children, in the face of danger.

         We declare in MCC solidarity with the New Town community and with all who grieve the loss of loved ones around the world. And in doing so, not only do our hearts hurt, but we are also called to the joy that lies within our hearts always. So I ask you to remember today what gives you joy. What makes your soul soar? What do you do that really feeds your spirit? This week, pick one of those things and do it remembering the blessing of life that you still hold onto, a blessing that others near us have lost. In doing your joyful activity in memory of those children lost, I assure you your joy will be a deeper joy.

         There are still so many questions that are left unanswered. We wonder why people do the unthinkable things they do sometimes. We often quickly smack the “crazy” label on such situations. But insanity is not our only problem. We have a cultural problem that glorifies violence, fear, and all things ego. This is my basic understanding. But for the continuing process of contemplation, I leave you with a quote from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The character Celie writes this: “I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”

Keep wondering, my friends. Remember, God is the Mystery Beyond our Naming. I am here as a prayer and conversation partner in the coming weeks if you need a kind ear. May we all find the Peace of Christ within our hearts once again. Though weeping endures for the night, joy will come with the morning. Amen.

Prepare The Way of Love

Prepare The Way of Love

Sermon for MCC New Haven

December 9, 2012; 10:00am

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

You may remember from last week’s gospel reading the cryptic language about the so-called “end of the world,” which we identified as more so “the end of the world as we know it.” Since we know that various religious leaders over the millennia have proclaimed impending doom and nothing ended up happening, we can rest assured that in about a week from now, the Mayan prophecy will not come true… at least literally.

Do I wish for the end of the world as we know it? In many ways, yes. I wish for the end of poverty. I wish for the end of discrimination and inequality. I wish for the end of suffering, war, pain, and disease. Last week we lit the first Advent Candle- the candle of Hope. I mentioned special intentions for those living with HIV/AIDS in light of World AIDS Day. This week, we lit the second Advent candle- the candle of Love. And it is this principle that the gospel leads us to today.

Today’s gospel readings are both about John the Baptist, but they are a bit spread out in the text. The first reading is a poetic reading that is attributed to John’s father Zechariah. The story goes that the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth would have a child, though they were both very old. Since Zechariah did not believe Gabriel, Gabriel kept him from speaking until his son John was born. (Don’t you wish you had that ability sometimes? ;) ) Sure enough, John was born and two chapters later in the gospel of Luke, John the Baptist/Baptizer makes his debut as a prophet. (No, he was not an American Baptist, A Southern Baptist, or a Missionary Baptist. He was indeed a Jew that probably lived in the dessert with a Jewish sect called the Essenes who practiced purification rituals by water. So baptism as we know it today is deeply rooted in Judaism).

But before we go to the second gospel passage today, let’s look closer at the selection from the first chapter. It is important for us to know that Zechariah was a priest and that the angel came to him within the temple. Zechariah represents the power of the priests within the temple system. He has followed all the laws and has lived a pious life. But as part of the predictable power structure, Zechariah was caught off guard when he was presented with something very unpredictable: not only would he have a son but his son would be a prophet.

By shutting Zechariah’s mouth, the author of this gospel (Luke) expresses his desire to stop the voices of those in power that would seek to inhibit the radically inclusive Gospel. Luke tells us that Zechariah’s mouth was shut until John the Baptist was born. And at that point, he lets out the most beautiful proclamation of what his son’s life will mean to his people. He expresses the desire to be “saved from enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” How many times do we pray this prayer in the LGBT community? Salvation for us means deliverance from those in our world who would see us harmed or dead. Zechariah declares this desire to come true soon. Can we claim this desire for ourselves too, or in fear will we continue to say, “We will never be equal; we will never be free.”?

In his outpouring of prophecy, Zechariah also tells us about the nature of God. He names God as Divine Grace, as God looks upon us with favor (and unmerited favor is a definition of grace). He also names God as Divine Mercy, as much harm could come to the people but God’s tenderness will lead the way away from harm and toward peace.

The apex of our Gospel readings today is in this final phrase in the first reading. It says that the tender mercy of God will “guide our feet into the way of peace”. This passage is a sort of mirror image of the passage I love so much from the prophet Micah 6:8, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

These things that the prophet Micah proclaimed long before John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth were born would still ring true as the center of their ministries. In the face of a violent, angry, and fearful culture, John and Jesus would boldly walk in peace and unconditional love.

We first see this message being preached in the second passage from Luke we heard today. John tells everyone he encounters in the region around the Jordan River that they must be baptized, repenting of their sins.

Now, before we go any further, let’s break down these two scary terms: repent and sin. Repent simply means, “turn away.” It does not mean, “hurt yourself or make yourself feel bad for God.” Lord knows there are enough depressed and self-destructive people in the world already! Amen? In the words of poet Mary Oliver in her poem Wild Geese, “You do not have to be good. 
You do not have to walk on your knees 
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. 
You only have to let the soft animal of your body 
love what it loves.” I think Mary Oliver’s idea of “turning away” from self-inflicted struggle is much closer to John’s message than that of some preachers today who insist that Christians repent of things that are not sin.

A Course in Miracles teaches that “The word “sin” should be changed to “lack of love” because “sin” is a man-made word with threat connotations which he made up himself. No real threat is involved anywhere. Nothing is gained by frightening yourselves, and it is very destructive to do so.” Repeat after me: “sin” … “is lack of love.” We have been conditioned in our society to associate anything that involves pleasure with sin. Being in New England, we should know how that worked out for the Puritans of Salem. Pleasure per se is not sin. Pleasure is a gift from God. It is only when we take pleasure in lack of love that it becomes sin. Sin is acting as the Ego instead of acting as the Child of God.

So John the Baptizer’s message was to turn away from lack of love. And he invited people to be baptized so that they had a ritualized turning point in their lives. From that point forward, they would never be the same again. The past was left behind and the future was open for the Way of Christ.

See, a prophet is not a fortune-teller.  Miss Cleo was not a prophet. Prophets do not have 900 numbers. And as much as I enjoy TLC’s Long Island Medium, she is not a prophet either. Prophets don’t have special abilities to look into crystal balls and see the future or talk to the dead to predict what will happen. Rather, prophets are gifted with a fire within them to preach what is true in the face of falsehood. That is why in MCC we have called our founder Rev. Elder Troy Perry our prophet. Both John the Baptist and Troy would qualify as members of the Bear community, but that’s not their only commonality J… Troy didn’t look into the future and see what MCC would become. But he did use his God-given imagination, desire, and faith to start a church for LGBT people in a time when to do such a thing was very dangerous. In the early years of MCC (late 1960s through the 1970s), many of our churches were burned to the ground by those who hated or were afraid of same-gender-loving people. The KKK was a regular visitor at MCCs, but a very unwanted one. (Remember the line from the gospel of Luke: “…that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.”)

It is not popular to be a prophet. Often, your own friends and family will turn on you for speaking the truth. And I don’t mean turning on you because you try to convert them, because I turn away when anyone tries to make me something I’m not or tries to make me believe something I know isn’t good for my spiritual health. What I do mean is speaking the truth in love and speaking truth to power.

Many LGBT people over the years have told activists like Troy Perry to “stop making a ruckus! You’re just instigating violence by being so outspoken.” I recognize those as words of someone who has been abused. “Don’t speak out against your husband, he’ll beat you!” LGBT prophets recognized fearful attitudes and tactics when they saw them and claimed courage instead. Harvey Milk of San Francisco spoke out for LGBT rights, right up until his assassination. Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet when it wasn’t popular to do so and paved the way for many others in Hollywood to come out. And outside of our American context, LGBT prophets fight every day for basic human rights around the world. They know the danger of speaking out, but they do speak out because Spirit leads them to lives of integrity.

Folks, we will be walking this journey of Interim Ministry together over the next year. I ask that all of us can live as prophets in the process. Together, let’s watch as the mountains of oppression are made low for us and the crooked paths of fear are made right for us. Let us allow ourselves to be led by Spirit out of what at times has seemed like a wilderness into the fullness of what God is preparing for us. Today, we step forward on the right foot with the peace of God that passes all understanding and the wasteful love of God that has no bounds. Amen.

Inclusive Language Article

A Progressive, Inclusive, and Relevant Approach to

the Use of Language in the Multicultural Church

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

            One of the defining elements of liturgy, literature, and speech in Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) is what we commonly call “inclusive language.” Inclusive language is the practice of celebrating the experience of all peoples of all ethnicities, cultures, abilities, gender identities and expressions, classes, and sexual orientations. It is also the practice of affirming that if all people are made in the image and likeness of God, that the images of God we speak of and display must reflect the wide diversity of the human experience. God is therefore for us not just Father, but also Mother. God is not only the Light, but the deep Darkness of the mysterious night sky. And we also know that these are just labels that we use to try to understand the Mystery Beyond Our Naming. Those who come to MCC from another Christian tradition that does not practice inclusive language may find this practice to be odd. After all, who are we to change the Bible, tradition, and the language of hymns? Most churches are not sensitive about language that has been traditionally been used, so why should we be?

            These questions are first answered with another question: “Who and what do we give authority over our practice of spirituality?” Some traditions have claimed solo scriptura, that only the Holy Scriptures (whichever version of the Bible a given denomination chooses to call the canon) have authority over people’s lives. This movement was born out of resistance to unethical traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church concerning purchasing salvation (by a method called “indulgences”) during the 16^th century, spurring the movement we now call the Protestant Reformation. German Catholic priest Martin Luther (1483-1546) affirmed that humans are saved by grace through faith, not through works (Ephesians 2:8). His stance gave scripture authority over tradition. Such thought undermined the authority of the Western church hierarchy, allowing individual movements to determine from scripture how the Christian faith is to be practiced. With this historic movement came both freedom and responsibility.

            Another reformer, John Wesley (1703-1791), a priest in the Church of England, developed a model of four ways of experiencing the “revelation” of God in the walk of discipleship. We now call it the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The four (quad) ways are 1) Scripture, 2) Tradition, 3) Reason, 4) Experience. In the 21^st century, liberal theologians are finding that this model still holds true in seeking to find who we are today as God’s people and in seeking how we are to build the Realm of God.

            The first element is scripture. Accredited seminaries in the United States teach about the Bible within its cultural context. Seminarians learn about the values, mores, taboos, and various other sociological elements of the setting of each book of the Bible. Students are taught “biblical exegesis,” commonly known as “Bible interpretation.” Scholarly seminaries affirm that we cannot completely understand the message of the Bible by reading it literally outside of context because we immediately project our contemporary context onto the text. We find that detailed knowledge of the Ancient Near East and its cultures is essential to a clear understanding of scripture. It can in fact be a dangerous practice to read the Bible on one’s own, giving authority to a certain passage without knowing the author’s social location and probable intent. We instead must read the Bible with respect to our own social location, as it meets that of the author. For example, I can choose to disagree with the unanalyzed text of the two Deutero-Pauline letters that literally appear to say that slaves should obey their masters (Colossians 3:22 and Ephesians 6:5-9).

            When we give the unanalyzed literal text the authority to scare us, oppress us, or mute our existence as human beings made in the image of the Divine, we make the Bible an idol. Some call this “bibliolotry.” We worship God in Spirit and in truth by listening to the Spirit within and searching for the truth of the message we receive through reading. The message inspires us, not lords over us.

            The second element is tradition. In MCC, we come from many different backgrounds: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, and non-Christian. We are an interdenominational movement that respects the gems of each tradition, rejecting the unloving, essentially non-Christ like dogma that has formed through the privilege of individuals in these traditions. When we claim that we are an “inclusive” church, we mean that we celebrate the gems of many traditions. It does not mean that we embrace the oppressive dogma[1] of any tradition.

            African American same-gender-loving theologian Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder (MCC and United Church of Christ minister) writes, “Radical inclusivity’s primary goal is not to imitate the mainline church. The true church belongs to God and is the body of Jesus Christ; it cannot be owned exclusively by any denomination, person, or group. Further, adherence to religious dogma is not freedom. There are wrongs in organized religion due to oppressive theology, bibliolotry, and some traditional beliefs, which prevent freedom for all people and which we can never fully right. Radical inclusivity, however, is ministry rooted in restoration- believing that God has given the church the work and ministry of reconciliation and using the power of love to model and demonstrate the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ.”

            Reverend Flunder affirms for us that God transcends the boundaries that various churches and denominations have attempted to put on God and God’s blessings. Simply for who we are- God’s children, we access God right where we are in the ways that we show loving hospitality.

            The third element is reason. In the modern age, science and religion have been set by many as polar opposites, two opposite ways of understanding our existence here on Earth. However, people of faith are (obviously) humans and have been given the gift of reason too. We cannot in good conscience take life-saving medications, put faith in the cars and busses and airplanes that transport us, and plug anything into an electrical outlet and then deny the truths of science. Darwin’s theory of evolution does not have to be understood as the opposite of the creation myths found in the Book of Genesis. We can safely claim as our truth that the Life Force that we call God has been eternally omnipresent throughout time, in each single-celled organism and in the human heart today. The two creation myths in the Book of Genesis were not meant to be understood as literal history. Rather, they simply demonstrate how a group of Semitic nomads understood its origins. As all texts, we celebrate the gems of these myths without worshipping the dogma that has been applied to them in tradition.

            Reason saves us when we are tempted to deny our thinking abilities by handing all our power over to ancient worldviews. We worship God by using our God-given intellect to discern the ethics of any given teaching. Faith and rational thinking are not mutually exclusive.

            The fourth element is experience. We know through reading documents from over the ages that our experience of life is drastically different than the experience of those in the Near East between 4000 BCE (before the Common Era) and 200CE (in the Common Era). We also know that even in our own time, our experiences differ based on where we geographically live in the world and what cultures we affiliate with. A middle class 40-year-old Caucasian male American, a 60-year-old working class Chinese woman, a homeless male-to-female transgender African woman, a Polish 95-year old male holocaust survivor,  and a 10-year-old upper class South American boy all have very different life stories. Their life stories or “social locations” are the lenses through which they view the world, including the Bible tradition.

             African Americans have traditionally read scripture from a “liberation” perspective. That is, they have found themselves within the stories of scripture, especially those where the people of Israel are delivered from their oppressors. African slaves in the United States were forced to give up the indigenous faith they professed in their land of origin. They were indoctrinated with Christian tradition as a way to mentally control them. They were told that slaves should obey their masters (see above passages) and that dark skin was a curse from God to show who should be slaves (Genesis 9:18-27). Over time, African slaves made the Christian religion their own and in whatever ways they could, incorporated what they could remember of their indigenous traditions. Out of the struggle for emancipation and equal treatment under the law came soulful Negro Spirituals, African American hymnody, and Gospel music. A recurring theme of these songs is the same message of liberation from oppressors. The experience of African Americans has informed their understandings of scripture and tradition.

            Beginning in the mid-20^th century, feminist and womanist movements affirmed the equality of women in all aspects of life, including employment and family life. Liberated women found themselves in scripture, regardless of the patriarchal language the Bible was written in. They looked beyond the often primary male characters to find the often absent female characters. They also pointed out the many strong female characters found in Scripture. Feminist and womanist theologies affirm that ALL are made in the image and likeness of God, not just men. Only one of the two creation myths found in the Bible says that woman was made from one of man’s ribs (Genesis 2:21-23). The other myth says that they were made at the same time, both in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27).  But even if this were not so, women’s experience tells them that the God who pours out Spirit on ALL flesh (Joel 2:28-29) affirms their prophetic voice in the face of sexist and misogynist messages.

            And since gender expression and expectations are the subject of both feminist and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) movements, LGBT theologies have adopted the feminist notion that we too can find ourselves in scripture. Not only can we find same-gender love in scripture (such as between Jonathan and David, Ruth and Naomi, and others), we also find gender-queer characters in scripture (such as eunuchs). We can also, as feminists have done, imagine that just as about 10% of people today are primarily same-gender-loving, the same applies to ancient times and cultures. Such people certainly had to express their genders and sexualities in accordance with their cultural norms, however. Also, through intense study of the scriptures, we know that the six Bible passages that reference any condemnation of same-sex sexual behavior refer to cultural norms that do not translate to our current context. Our experience tells us that in our same-gender love, we find God.

            Inclusive language is not about being politically correct. Being politically correct is about making sure people don’t say things that will offend certain groups and could be taken as derogatory or discriminatory. This could be used out of positive intent, but is often used simply to avoid conflict, not because of a genuine concern for another group. Political correctness can be sometimes taken too far to where we cannot properly communicate with each other without fearing saying something wrong. This process requires grace with those who are ignorant of other cultures and groups.

            Inclusive language on the other hand has to do with just that- inclusion. The vision of the Realm of God that Jesus preached, as written in the Gospels, is a vision of many peoples sharing in the Great Commandment: loving God and loving our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28, John 13:34). Our “neighbor” is anyone and everyone. And that is our great challenge! Loving all kinds of people in a multicultural church setting means that we take the gems found in all of these people’s experiences and we string them together into a beautiful necklace. Every gem is a truth that comes from one group’s experience, but applies universally to the lives of all present. Not only African Americans understand the truths expressed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And not only lesbians will be fed by the truths of Audre Lorde or Adrienne Rich. We all share the human experience.

            Difficulties begin to arise when in such a mixed community the dogma of tradition is dragged in with the gems of tradition. For example, many Christians are accustomed to calling God or Jesus “Lord.” They may not have given any thought to the fact that it is a gendered title. The English word “lord” is the male match to the English word “lady.” In the Hebrew Bible, the word Lord (usually in all caps: LORD) is a translation of the unspeakable masculine Hebrew name for God: YHWH (which has been pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah). In the Christian Testament, the word Lord is translated from the Greek word kyrios, meaning “owner”, “master”, or referring to someone higher on the social hierarchy. Jesus’ disciples called him kyrios in respect of his wise teaching and guidance, and in order to subvert Caesar’s power, not because they equated him with God. In Hebrew, the name for God is masculine in that language (like the word table in French (la table) is feminine). That doesn’t make God male. It just shows that the men who wrote and kept the scriptures in the Jewish patriarchal culture imagined God as masculine.

            Likewise, Jesus did not have to be male in order for him to be called “Christ.” The historical Jesus was probably born with a penis, as the scriptures say that he was circumcised on the 8^th day according to tradition. But his gender expression does not match the gender usually matched with male genitalia. Jesus crossed the lines of gender norms and regulations about who to not associate with or touch. He often denied his privilege as a man to instead put himself on the equal power plane of a woman. This does not necessarily make Jesus “transgender,” but he certainly did not fit gender norms. Also, if he was indeed the result of a rare occurrence in which a female becomes pregnant on her own without the sperm of a man (only observed thus far in non-human species that typically copulate), science tells us that the offspring of such an anomaly would probably be born intersex, with ambiguous genitalia. But for all intensive purposes, let’s leave poor Jesus’ genitals alone.

            Inclusive language is ultimately a matter of ethics. If we truly believe that it is wrong to allow one people’s culture to dominate all others within a multicultural worship context, we must labor to ensure that all gems are celebrated and all oppressive dogma is filed away as “history”. Unfortunately, one historically oppressed group’s dogma can be the oppression of another group. For example, though the Bible has been used against African Americans in order to justify slavery and inequality, some African Americans have used the Bible to discriminate against LGBT people. And though fundamentalists have used the Bible to condemn LGBT people, some LGBT people have used the Bible to oppress women. This is what is called “oppression sickness.” In this sick cycle, the struggle to be right and powerful trumps the struggle to be good and loving. One minority oppresses another, who oppresses another, who oppresses another… while dominant groups enjoy their privilege. The oppressed are busy trying to find someone else to dominate, forgetting that the only way to free ourselves is to free others.

            No matter what tradition we come from, oppressive dogma is never a gem. Exclusive language has been romanticized, so it may at first seem sweet to our ears. But if we put ourselves in another’s shoes, the same words sound like nails on a chalk board. Exclusive use of “Father” or “Lord” for God (never including “Mother” or other feminine images) implicitly sends out the message that God is solely male in character. Extensive use of the metaphor “light” for good and “dark” for evil implicitly sends out the message that light-skinned people are good and dark-skinned people are evil. Also, to call a person a “leper” is to say that their illness defines their life. We would not call someone a “cancerer” or an “AIDSer.” Rather, these are people living with leprosy (now called Hansen’s Disease), cancer, and AIDS.

            Language is a powerful tool that we can use for good or for wrong. It at times seems meticulous to make sure we include everyone’s gems in the great strand of Truth. It is often a terribly painful process to let go of dogmas that we once thought were gems. But if we are to respectfully, successfully and lovingly travel the path of faith together, this practice is imperative.

For more information on inclusive language, visit MCC’s denominational webpage: www.mccchurch.org/resources/mcc-theologies

**All opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the UFMCC or any given affiliated congregation.

©  2011

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[1] Though “dogma” primarily means “a system of principles or tenets,” I use this word to emphasize its negative connotation as used in the US. My working definition of dogma is “Teachings or rules that restrict the use of free thought and prevent the natural evolution of thought over time and according to context.”

Unshakable Wholeness

“Unshakable Wholeness”

Sermon for MCC New Haven (CT)

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

October 28, 2012

 

Texts:

Mark 10:46-52

Psalm 34:1-8

         Good morning MCC! Before I jump into the sermon, I want to first introduce myself for all those I have not yet gotten to speak with this weekend. I am Rev. Brian Hutchison and I am an ordained minister in MCC. I currently live with my husband of six years James in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where I am a staff minister at Sunshine Cathedral MCC. Before moving to Florida, James and I lived in Maryland where I was pastor of New Covenant MCC in Laurel, MD. Before that, I was a clergy intern at MCC San Francisco (CA) and a hospital chaplain intern for CPMC in San Francisco while I completed my Master of Divinity degree at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. Before professional ministry, I was involved with MCC Washington DC where I was a devoted member of the Gospel Choir (I love gospel music!) while I worked on my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. So needless to say, I have had time to grow within MCC and I am proud to call myself MCC clergy.

         As a minister, I bring my own unique gifts and talents that I am happy to share wherever I go. As I mentioned, I am a singer and love the power of music. I also believe in the power of ritual and its deep meaning in the human experience. And so I enjoy creating meaningful rituals that help individuals and congregations move from sorrow to joy, heartache to fullness of heart, and from woundedness to wholeness.

         And this is where I see the Gospel meet our experience today. Are you ready for some Good News church? (Yes!) Mark brings us some good news today. In the gospel text we heard today, Jesus and the disciples are walking either from or to Jericho (the translation is a bit ambiguous). Within the first five words of this text, a biblical image comes to mind. Remember in the 6^th chapter of Joshua when Joshua leads the Israelites in a march around the city of Jericho until the walls fall down. Then they kill all the men, women, and children in the city because they were different… which of course was the most loving thing to do…  But the thing in this text that comes most to my attention as an advocate for the oppressed and those on the margins of society is that God commanded that the prostitute Rahab and her family were to be spared because they had given refuge to the Israelites.

         We cannot overlook that in the genealogy of Jesus found in the first chapter of Matthew, Rahab the prostitute is listed there. The gospel writers followed in the Way of Jesus by themselves advocating for the marginalized. And this great gem is found in the first few words of this text.

         But it gets better folks! Our storyteller Mark tells us that this blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting by the road. Now let’s pause here again for a minute. The name Timaeus means “honor” or “honorable.” And since the prefix “bar” means “son of,” we come to an idea of what Mark is trying to tell us. Bartimaeus was the son of honor, but what was he himself? All we are told is that he is a blind beggar, and in the Ancient Near East, those with such a disability and misfortune were viewed as sinful. In their understanding of justice, this man must have done something wrong in order to become blind. Bartimaeus’ father was called Honor, so his name might as well have been Shame.

         And so here comes the Rabbi Jesus and his followers down the road. And in their arrogance, they hush Bartimaeus for calling on Jesus to have mercy on him. In the tradition of the Spirituals, I can almost hear him sing, “O Lord have mercy on me!” They attempt to silence him. How many times has the popular crowd or the majority tried to silence us as a community? Fundamentalist Christians even ask God to keep us quiet because we must be terrible sinners. But we see from Jesus’ answer that we will not and cannot be silenced.

         Jesus then calls Bartimaeus to come to him. So he throws his clothes off (amen?), jumps up, and went straight to his great opportunity for healing. He says, “Rabbi, I want to see again.” But let’s stop here again and for a minute, let’s assess our assumptions. We readily assume that Bartimaeus wants to physically see. In hearing the miracle stories, they make us wonder whether there was an “age of miracles” (as some say) that we are just living too late to get in on. We know that many of us face illness, but we cannot pray it away. Begging God to take away disease has been proven ineffective. This isn’t because God is merciless, but rather because finitude is simply part of our existence.

         But what I do know is that miracles do happen. According to A Course in Miracles, “Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.” In the teachings of The Course, a miracle does not have to do with a supernatural occurrence, but it rather has to do with a change in perception, a change in our vision so to speak. The miracle is a choice of love over fear.

         I think that in this story, Mark is trying to teach us about the way we see the world. Bartimaeus wanted desperately to escape a worldview that told him that he was “less-than”- less than human, less than lovable, less than a child of God. And Jesus brought this beloved child Good News: Your faith has made you well. At once, a shift in perception allowed Bartimaeus to shed the identity that had been given him, one of shame. In its place, he took on an identity of faith, especially faith in himself.

         How many of us sit by the side of the road waiting for Good News to come our way, hoping for the right thing to be said to us so that we can finally move on with our lives? Waiting for that person to apologize or for someone else to make it right. Friends, if any of you sit in that place of shame, know that you do not have to wait any longer. Jesus has already spoken the words, not just to Bartimaeus, but to you: Go, your faith has made you well!

         I know all the excuses for staying in that place of shame. I’ve been there myself.  “I don’t deserve wholeness,” or “At least in my shame I am in control,” or “I don’t know any other existence.”  Between the lines of Scripture, Bartimaeus may have said these things. But I can see Jesus just smile with unconditional love, and speaking those simple words that helped Bartimaeus to awaken from the terrible nightmare he was living in.

         19^th Century New Thought teachers Malinda Cramer and Fannie Brooks James wrote this, “Being whole must be our realization. We unfold health eternal. The individual, as an expression of the universal Life, can be only what that Life is. The Infinite created us out of its own health; healing is the awareness of that health as our nature.”  In other words, since God is Wholeness and we are made in the image and likeness of God in Original Blessing, then we are by definition whole as well. All around us may tell us otherwise, but the Divine Light within will always repeat the truth with each beat of our hearts: You are whole, you are whole, you are whole.

         Can you believe that, MCC? After all that you have gone through, after the stress and the pain, you are not broken. You are in fact perfect, whole, and complete just as you are. There is no need to compare ourselves to each other or to say that we are better than other groups of people because in the deepest parts of our humanity, we are ALL perfectly whole.

         If in this moment, this is difficult to accept or to understand, look to the Psalm that we heard today. The psalmist gives testimony to how s/he was saved. The psalmist writes, “God freed me from all my fears” and “God saves the helpless from their troubles.” And finally, “Happy are those who take refuge in God.”  In the same way, MCC Doctrine tells us that we are saved from loneliness, degradation, and despair. All it takes is a mind-shift from fear to love, from fear to the God that we know as Divine Love, from un-consciousness to Christ-consciousness. We have the power to not only set ourselves free, but through our loving word and touch set others free as well.

         Saints, the Good News today is that there is another Way. Oppressive and fearful systems and ideologies in our world do not have to have the last word. We have the choice. And with that choice, we can truly choose exactly what we are looking for: the peace of God that passes all understanding and joy that leads to dancing. Amen.