Life-Saving Joy

Life-Saving Joy

Sermon for MCC New Haven

December 22^nd 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Psalm 30

Matthew 1:18-25

In the Christian season of Advent, today is marked as “Joy Sunday.”  I think that joy is a word that we have left out of our vocabulary too often. Think about it. When we experience a positive emotion, we will say, “I am happy” or “That makes me happy” or “You make me happy.” We don’t often say, “I am joyful” or “That gave me joy” or “You give me joy.”

Webster’s dictionary defines joy as the emotion of happiness or great pleasure. Those are good things, but this definition lacks depth. It does not explain the transformative power that joy can have in our lives. From the scriptures that we heard today from that Psalmist and from the Gospel of Matthew, I find a different definition of joy: Joy is the awareness of supreme satisfaction within your soul. It is the awareness that you are one with God always.

Some Christian theologians have claimed that the purpose of the Christian journey is happiness. I like the idea, but I would take it a step further. I say that the purpose of the Christian journey is to find supreme satisfaction within yourself in the knowledge of the God Within, helping others to find the same.

In the Matthew passage today, a messenger (or angel) from God told Joseph in a dream that Mary would bear a son and that he should be named “Jesus” because he will save people from their sins. The name Jesus in Hebrew is “Yeshua,” which we translate to “Joshua” in English. “Yeshua” is often said to mean “salvation.” The word salvation is almost a cuss word in our contemporary vocabulary because dogmatic Christians have been selling salvation like a cheap appliance in an infomercial. Their brand of salvation has proven to be a faulty product that should have been recalled long ago.

Instead of salvation, a better meaning of Jesus’ name is “Deliverance.” Doesn’t that feel much more liberating? When certain religious people knock on my door and tell me I need to be “saved,” I immediately feel judgment. What in the world do I need saving from? I’m not drowning! I don’t know that I would feel any better if they said I needed deliverance, but to me the word offers a different path to understand the meaning of Jesus’ life.

The need for deliverance is a very real need. There are many real life obstacles that keep us imprisoned. And I can assure you now that they are not the so-called “sins of the flesh” that Uganda outlawed this past week. Anyone found to be “homosexual” in Uganda can now face life in prison. The United Methodist Church in the United States also claims in their Book of Discipline that “homosexuality is not compatible with Christian teaching.” Under that church law, Rev. Frank Schaefer was defrocked in Pennsylvania for performing the marriage of his son and his son’s husband. The UMC formally claims that Rev. Schaefer needs to be saved from his sin. But the prophetic voice of Spirit is saying today that the UMC needs to be delivered from its practices of oppression and discrimination.

Remember that A Course In Miracles defines sin as “lack of love.” Who in these two scenarios are expressing lack of love? I overwhelmingly say, the Ugandan government and the UMC. What would it look like for the Ugandan government to love its LGBT citizens in the way of Christ? What would it look like for the UMC to love its LGBT members as Jesus did? I say it would be heaven on earth!

Jesus came to deliver us from many things, but what he did not come to deliver us from is God’s punishment. Too many people ask me if God is punishing them with the bad things that are happening in their lives. It makes me sad. Who ever began the teaching that if we don’t obey, an angry God is going to zap us with lightning or send a natural disaster? Several authors in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) expressed their concern that God did these things, but their writings were meant to be learned from, not taken literally.

There is a kind of deliverance that I want to first focus on: the deliverance from fundamentalism. Between 1910 and 1915, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (CA) published twelve volumes of a series called “The Fundamentals.” They were written in reaction to new findings about biblical history and science. Instead of allowing their faith to evolve, they decided to ignore new knowledge and put in stone what a Christian must believe in order to “go to heaven.” Thousands of copies of The Fundamentals were printed by a wealthy man named Lyman Stewart and were sent to conservative churches around the country. The texts have ever since been the basis for fundamentalist teaching.

Among those teachings are the literal virgin birth of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus, Jesus’ miracles as fact, the reality of Eternal Damnation and Satan, salvation only through Jesus, belief in Jesus’ blood sacrifice, the literal Resurrection, the literal Apocalypse, and others. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need any of these things to call myself a follower of Jesus the Anointed. They say I have to be saved from the dirtiness of my being. The God Within tells me that I need to be delivered from these harmful false teachings.

It’s too late for the countless saints who have taken their own lives because someone used the Fundamentals against them. Their bodies have returned to the earth and they are at peace with God. But it is not too late to allow the Spirit of God to work through us to oppose damnation. The joy we share can quite literally save lives!

“This joy I have, the world didn’t give it to me! The world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away!” Did judgmental people give you the joy that you hold in your heart? No! Did homophobes holding stupid signs in the street plant a seed of joy within you? No! Did that relative that always gave you a dirty look show you the joy that is possible in life? I don’t think so.

The days of long weeping in the night can be over! We don’t have to beat ourselves up and call ourselves bad names in order to win God’s Presence. God doesn’t smile when we hurt ourselves; God weeps. The Psalmist wrote so beautifully, “Weeping may endure for the night, but JOY comes with the morning!” I don’t know a lot of things for sure, but one thing I know is that the sun rises every morning with a new day that is full of opportunities for second chances. God’s grace is fresh with each new day.

Mary found herself a pregnant, unmarried teenager. Joseph was going to call off his engagement (which was actually a gracious act since women were stoned when they were found to be pregnant outside of marriage.) The distress of that situation caused weeping for the night. Mary wept. Joseph wept. But after God spoke to Joseph and called him to be the guardian of Mary and Jesus, joy came in the morning!

God had planted something inside of Mary that could bring her and her whole family to shame. But Mary and Joseph took that gift and actualized it as the man called Emmanuel: “God is with us”. What has God placed inside of you that you are ashamed of? What are you pregnant with today that God has called you to birth?

For many of us, we know that God placed a sexuality or gender identity within us that we knew beyond the shadow of a doubt was God’s own creation. The time came in coming out that the beautiful child was born. Your expression of sexuality or gender identity is “God with us.” But God places so many more taboo things in the womb of our hearts. Perhaps your taboo baby is a desire for economic justice in our country and in our world. Perhaps it is a desire for erotic exploration. Or perhaps God has placed in you the desire to be a prophetic advocate for the poor, for a woman’s right to choose, for victims of domestic violence, for the legalization of healing things such as medical marijuana and stem cells. Or maybe your holy child this year is the simple practice of presence with those who are hurting. No matter what your child is, it is a creation of God. What the world calls a bastard child is the Holy Child of God.

All of these children of ours are the result of joy. Remember, joy is the awareness of supreme satisfaction within your soul. It is the awareness that you are one with God always. When we share regular time in God’s presence, miracles happen without us trying.

December 17^th marked 740 years since the death of the Sufi poet known as Rumi. His real name was Jelaluddin Balkhi (Gel-al-oo-din Balk-hee), but history calls him Rumi because he was from Roman Anatolia (now Turkey). From Rumi’s spiritual practices and writings came Sufism, which is a form of Islamic mysticism. You may know Sufis by the Whirling Dervishes (Darvish is the Persian word for “poor”, which means to them “poor in spirit” or “humble.”) The Dervishes whirl in circles with their tall hats and flowing robes, emptying their spirits so that they can fully embrace the presence of God in a state of ecstasy. (The word “ecstasy” means, “to stand outside oneself.”) In order to stay in place while spinning, they place a large metal nail between their first and second toes on the left foot. When spinning, one hand is cupped upward to receive God’s grace and the other is turned down to give that grace to the world.

Now, I don’t recommend you try this at home. But what we can learn from the Sufi tradition is that the ultimate goal in life is union with God. It is in that state that we find true joy. And what I may love most about Sufism is the practice of finding joy through dance. Rumi writes, “Dance when you’re broken open. Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”

Folks, empty yourselves of the poisons of the world that have stolen your joy in the past and just allow yourself to dance in joy! Repeat after me this affirmation: Nothing can steal my joy! Nothing can steal my joy! Nothing can steal my joy! Amen.

People of the God of the Living

People of the God of the Living

Sermon for MCC New Haven

November 10, 2013 / 25^th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

  

Haggai 1:15-2:9

Luke 20:27-38

 

         The prophet Haggai speaks of the first temple that had been destroyed Jerusalem.  He asks, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?  How does it look to you now?  Is it not in your sight as nothing?”  There’s no beating around the bush for Haggai. He gets straight to the point.  The people of Israel don’t want to face the fact that their temple has seen its last days.  They have beautiful memories of its past.  They remember when life was comfortable, normal, and without worry.  But now, now that the house of God is gone- how on earth can the people continue to meet God?

         In the prophet Haggai’s next breath, he reminds the people, “Yet now take courage, all you people of the land says the Lord.  Work, for I am with you, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.

         The still small voice in Haggai’s heart has told him wisdom of things unseen- I AM with you.  I AM- as in the Great I AM… with you, in you, around you, beneath you, above you, and will be- always!  God reminds the people that they used to be in slavery.  They used to be lost in a place that they could not call home.  They used to follow the constant commands of another people.  To you- both gay and straight folks, I can say, “ God is with you, according to the promise that God made you when you came out of the closet.”  When you came out of the bondage of fundamentalism, legalism, heterosexism…. For many of us sexism and misogyny.  We, the remnant of MCC New Haven, are here having stepped beyond the rubble of the church of the past because we remember the bondage we were once in under some other consciousness.  MCC drew us in because we recognized the presence of God here.  But what now?

The voice of God continues speaking to Haggai, “My Spirit abides among you; do not fear.”  I’m going to shake things up all over the earth and all the treasures of the nations will pour into a new house.  The splendor of the house to come shall be greater than the former- and this place will be given prosperity.

What I believe this scripture is saying to us today is that no matter where you are, Spirit abides with you.  Whether you are sharing Communion at this table here, or breaking bread with friends and family this coming Thanksgiving or even on any common day, Spirit abides with you. God shakes things up so that blessings can fall into your life!

You don’t need anyone else to experience the love of God because it lives within you.  BUT… But, community is where we have the wonderful opportunity of sharing together in the diversity of the Body of Christ.  In our diversity, we bounce off of each other and shake up our stagnant existence. Community is also where we can be encouraged for the journey and reminded through ritual and song the story of being a people of faith who together can change the world for the better.  That is the benefit of church, when done right.

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus encounters some religious leaders called Sadducees.  Whenever I read about the Sadducees, I remember the Sunday school song from my childhood that goes, “I don’t want to be a Sadducee.  Cuz they’re too Sad-you-see.  I don’t want to be a Sadducee.”  They are sad- you see, because they don’t believe in the resurrection, or in their understanding, life after death.  Even the knit-picky Pharisees believed in life after death!

Some Sadducees challenge Jesus with a ridiculous “what if…” question about the law.  In their understanding, if a man dies childless, the wife is required to marry the dead man’s brother so that a child can take on the legacy of the deceased.  They ask, if there is life after this, then whose property will the wife be of all 7 men she married?  Jesus isn’t stumped by their seemingly difficult question.  He simply tells them that all of this marriage business, this business of men owning women and children having to somehow fulfill the shortcomings of their parents- this business is not God’s business.  In other words, you have made up this game.  To God, after this reality there is no marriage.  After one dies, the controls of others over your life are released and we are free in God. Some queer theologians such as Ronald Rolheiser have suggested that in heaven, we are not married so that we will have the freedom to love and have pleasure with everyone, just as God does.

And Jesus isn’t talking about just literal life and death.  Jesus is talking to about death of our former perceptions.  We remember in the same gospel of Luke in chapter 9, verses 23-25: “The Jesus said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.  What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”  Episcopal priest and world-renowned preacher Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor speaks to this in her memoir of faith called “Leaving Church.”  She says… “Like every believer I know, my search for real life has led me through at least three distinct seasons of faith, not once or twice but over and over again.  Jesus called them finding life, losing life, and finding life again, with the paradoxical promise that finders will be losers while those who lose their lives for his sake will wind up finding them again.  In Greek the word is psyche, meaning not only “life” but also the conscious self, the personality… You do not have to die in order to discover the truth of this teaching, in other words.  You only need to lose track of who you are, or who you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat on the dirt floor basement of your heart.  Do this, Jesus says, and you will live.”

I know that losing the past has felt to many of you like losing yourself, or at least a part of yourself.  And with loss always comes grief- that is as long as there was some attachment to the thing lost.  I will never stop anyone from grieving and don’t let anyone else stop you from grieving either.  It is a God-given process of healing. As Barbara so wisely reminds us, you can only live when you have first become lost- and when you have allowed yourself to lose that which no longer serves you.

But when the grieving process is over, you can’t stay in that spiritual place. You may feel sad for a while, but sad is not what you are.  Make a habit of instead of saying, “I am sad” or “I am depressed,” saying rather, “I feel…” I AM is a powerful statement that taps into the stuff of God. Affirm what you truly are: a beloved child of God. At the end of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus affirms life after death by affirming that God is not the god of the dead, but the God of the living- and to God all are alive, even the saints of old.

God is not concerned with the rubble of what was.  God will not bring gossip of the past into the present or the future.  God is concerned with all those who choose to live regardless of loss.  African American pastor and theologian Howard Thurman’s words, no matter how many times I hear them, ring true: “Don’t ask the what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it; because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  Folks, don’t let your love, your joy, your peace, or your passion die with the old temple.  Don’t confuse that temple with the true temple- the true vessel of God which is you- where those invaluable virtues are held without harm for the opportune time when you come alive and do what you have been longing to do all along- God’s transformational work.  Just as the legendary phoenix is said to rise from the ashes, may we each- and as a community be empowered to embrace New Life, vision, and prosperity by the power of the Eternal Spirit.  Amen.

Gratitude for Life in Love

Gratitude For Life In Love

Sermon for MCC New Haven

November 3, 2013 / All Saints / All Souls / Day of the Dead

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Ephesians 1:11-19

Luke 6:20-31

         I pause often to think about those I have known over my lifetime that have passed through the veil from this life to the next.  I think of relatives who held iconic places in my mind as I grew up- “the hermit uncle”, “the aunt who was taken too quickly”, “the grandmother who struggled all her life for her children”, “the soldier cousin who died for his country”, “the grandfather who loved his family selflessly.”  This past Monday, my paternal grandmother Dorothy Hutchison passed into the Arms of God at 91 years old. This past week, I have been in mourning. Please pray for me and for my family. She was a wonderful woman and I know she watches over me from the other side.

I also think of the friends and acquaintances I have lost: Twig- the perpetual jokester, Holly- the fighter in the face of adversity, Lexy- the warm hearted transgender woman, Scotty- the resilient, adventurous, and childlike.  The list goes on.

         I am sure you have your own list, those who have made an impression on your soul; those who have laid their handprint on your heart.  Pausing and thinking of them can bring sadness.  I sometimes regret that they are not here in body any longer to be family together- to joke together, go out together, share stories together.  And it’s okay to feel that sadness and allow it to pass through the moment of remembering.

         And it’s okay to feel anger that their passing was out of our control.  These people were something to us- on a very essential level, they were and are a part of us.  When we take in the breath of another in their presence, when we receive the life of another into our own, our lives become woven together.  And so when those we love die, it is as if our life’s fabric quickly tears where our life met theirs.  We know how painful it can be.

         There are several things that we hear from people who want to comfort us when someone we love dies.  They say- (and we sometimes do it too), “It’s okay, s/he is in heaven now” or “Don’t be sad- we need to celebrate his/her life!”  The best of intentions can be the wrong thing to say.

         Yes, it is a central teaching of the church that there is life after death.  We have been told that the faithful who believe will experience a bodiless heaven that is free of suffering and full of the joy of God.  I believe this to be true.  I don’t believe that the next life looks exactly as the writers of scripture envisioned it with literal golden streets and such, but I believe in Eternity.  But the danger that too many have fallen into is an otherworld mentality.  When the bereaved are grieving, hope that the beloved is in heaven doesn’t make everything better.  After all, heaven is far away, in the sky, where God and all the angels are.  Or is it?

         In his most recent book “Eternal Life: A New Vision”, Bishop John Shelby Spong writes about the damage that an otherworldly view has done to the world.  We don’t preserve our earth as we should because after all, no damage can be done to heaven, and we’ll be there forever, right?  In short, a distant heaven does us no good.  And it isn’t even the heaven Jesus taught about.  Jesus talked about heaven as the Counter-Kingdom, Kin-dom, Realm, Commonwealth, or Dominion of God.  And that place is not in the sky.

         In the Gospel reading today, Jesus teaches what we call the beatitudes.  What we take from them is that those who are truly blessed (or happy) are not those we would typically see as blessed: the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are persecuted.  These are all things that we do our best in life to avoid.  We work hard to have money, to have food on the table, and to be happy.

         Here’s the deeper meaning: blessedness or happiness is found in gratitude and humility.  In the worst of circumstances, we are most likely to appreciate the blessings of life.  It is when we lose a loved one that we most value the precious gift of life.  It is when we are at a loss that we recognize our humanity and our mortality.  We are most human.  We have needs, and we recognize the needs of others.

         I call the beatitudes the “be-attitudes”.  Jesus is calling us to be, to embody new attitudes toward life.  The usual attitude is: “hate your enemies- they deserve it.  Curse back at people if they curse at you- don’t let them walk all over you.  Don’t give anything away- what if you ever go without?  No one will be there for you.”  Jesus’ new attitudes turn all of that around.  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  Turn the other cheek.

         It’s not easy to be these attitudes!  But what’s popular isn’t always right and what’s right isn’t always popular.  If it’s popularity that you seek, you’re not seeking Christ.  The Christ Kin-dom is about righteousness (which is just a fancy religious word for right relationship).

         When we live out these attitudes, we actualize Heaven among us.  We all experience little pockets of Heaven from day to day:  People who express underserved kindness to strangers.  Ways that nature shows us the grace of God.  It is in these things that those who have gone before us dwell.  The Great Cloud of Witnesses is ever present.  Because they, as we, are in the Mind and the Heart of God.

         Each second that goes by dies and enters Eternal Life.  Each cell that dies in our body from day to day is replaced, regenerated to create new life.  All is part of this great cycle.  In the words of St. Therese of Lisieux, “What a treasure this life is!  Every second belongs to eternity.”

We are called to a shift in perception.  All is a part of the Life of God.  All those we love, across the world and in our presence, and in the next life are present to us.  We are not alone.  And though death brings pain and grief, it does not have the final word.  Amen? Amen!

“May the blessing of God not bring saints to us alone, but make of us saints greater than any we imagine.” -Daniel McGill

You Are Entrusted

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“You Are Entrusted”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

September 22, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

1 Tim. 2:1-4

Luke 16:10-15

Genesis 1:29, “God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food… And it was so. God saw everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it was very good.”

         Evolutionary evidence has shown us that the world did not come together in six literal days. The creation stories are just that, stories. (Fortunately a recent attempt to put creationism into science textbooks in Texas failed.) But that doesn’t mean that we can’t find wisdom in our ancient scriptures. In the first chapter of Genesis, God entrusts humanity with caring for the earth. God calls all of creation Good and sets humanity out on a great adventure of discovering all the wonderful things God has made.

         Fast-forward to the industrial age. Humans have made a hole in the protective ozone layer by our carbon emissions. We have contributed significantly to global warming, which endangers thousands of species of animals and risks our quality of life in the future. The practice of fracking involves digging into the earth to harvest natural gas. In too many places, fracking has resulted in people turning on their tap water and being able to light it on fire because it is highly contaminated. The contamination is making them ill, especially with cancer.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 continues to make people living on the Gulf sick. The spill began on April 20^th 2010 and gushed for 87 days until it was capped on July 15^th.  210 million gallons of oil spilled into the ocean during that time. Some of the oil was collected by skimming the surface. But a chemical called Corexit was sprayed by plane over the water to disburse the oil. This method has made it extremely difficult to collect any more of the oil. Corexit also caused many on the Gulf to become ill, adding insult to injury.

         Even now, legislators are pushing for the Keystone Pipeline to be built across the United States, which would allow crude oil to be transported underground, stretching from Canada and the Northern United States to be processed in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico (of all places). Imagine the damage this could do to our country’s beauty.

         Nuclear waste from the Fukushima power plant explosion in Japan on March 11^th 2011 continues to pollute the Pacific Ocean.

         The industrial age has allowed humans to accomplish marvelous things. We can now travel faster than ever around the world. Our electronics allow us to work faster and faster in a world economy now based on information technology. We continue to excel in knowledge in all subjects. But what good is all of our knowledge if we don’t have the wisdom to treat the earth with reverence? Perhaps our money should say, “In Technology We Trust.”

         The effects of war also ruin our earth. Mahatma Gandhi made the point: “An eye for an eye until the whole world is blind.” In war, “A bomb for a bomb until the world is gone.” In the early 1970s, Dr. William Thetford said to Dr. Helen Schucman at Columbia University, “There must be another way, and I’m determined to find it.” She agreed and soon began to write A Course in Miracles. Now known commonly as The Course or ACIM, A Course in Miracles aims “at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance” (1).

         I would not be standing in front of you week after week doing what I do if I did not fully believe that “There is another way” and that the way is God’s love for all of creation.

         Folks, you are entrusted! (Repeat after me, “I am entrusted!”) You are entrusted with the care of the earth. You are entrusted with the care of your friends and family. And you are entrusted with the health of your church. A group of nuns who call themselves “Green Nuns” (as in being ecologically green) sing a chant together. I invite you to sing it with me the second time. "Sacred is the call, awesome indeed the entrustment. Tending the Holy, Tending the Holy." You are not inconsequential on this earth. Every one of our actions has a consequence in the world and it can be for the building of the Reign of Divine Love on earth or for its detriment.

         New Thought Christianity teaches that even our thoughts have consequences. Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Watch your thoughts; They become words. Watch your words; They become deeds. Watch your deeds; They become habits. Watch your habits; They become character. Character is everything.”

         So let’s start at the thought level. Do you think that the earth is worthy of being loved unconditionally? If so, do your deeds reflect that thought? If so, do you have habits that support your good deeds? If so, does your personal character reflect your habit of good deeds?

         Next think about humanity. Does God call us to love all people unconditionally? If so, do your deeds reflect that thought? If so, do you have habits that support your good deeds? If so, does your personal character reflect your habit of good deeds?

         Finally, think about your church. Does God call you to give all you can of your Time, Talent, and Treasure for the building of God’s Commonwealth here and now? If so, do your deeds reflect that thought? If so, do you have habits that support your good deeds? If so, does your personal character reflect your habit of good deeds?

         Today is Harvest Sunday, as it is the first day of Fall, also known as the Autumnal Equinox. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called during this season to discern what the fruits of our labor are. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading from Luke that no matter how much you have or what gifts you have to give the world, your faithfulness is what counts. He says, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” Jesus continues, saying, if you haven’t been faithful with what the world gives you, then who will trust you with what God gives you? You can’t serve two lords. You cannot serve both God and wealth.

         Greed is what is rotting both our earth and our hearts. Greed for oil pollutes our world. Greed for wealth takes our spirits’ focus away from doing God’s work of love in the world and focuses it on the fear of lack. A scarcity mentality is a distrust in God. This is the prophetic word of the Spirit today: A scarcity mentality is a distrust in God. When we live with a scarcity mentality, we are putting wealth as a priority over God.

         How many of us have said, “If I only won the lottery, I would be happy.” Is that really true? I know that I would be happy to wipe out my student loans and pay off some other things, but luxury does not promise happiness. Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 6:20, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Commonwealth of God.”

         I am stunned to be quoting a sitting Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, but I can this week. He said in his sermon this past week, “Money sickens our minds, poisons our thoughts, even poisons our faith, leading us down the path of jealousy, quarrels, suspicion and conflict. It drives to idle words and pointless discussions. It also corrupts the mind of some people that see religion as a source of profit. … “But, Father, I read the Ten Commandments and they say nothing about the evils of money. Against which Commandment do you sin when you do something for money? Against the first one! You worship a false idol. And this is the reason: because money becomes an idol and you worship it. And that's why Jesus tells us that you cannot serve money and the living God: either one or the other.” I’m really starting to like this Pope Francis! He is the first Pope in history to take his name after St. Francis of Assisi, and he seems to be speaking in accord with the voluntary poverty that St. Francis lived and taught.

         Suffering is not required of us from God. God does not require us to nearly starve if we are to follow Christ. But what God does require of us comes from Micah 6:8, “to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God” (TEV).  I cannot tell you what is just, loving, or humble about Christian CEOs making seven-figure salaries while their companies pay less than a living wage. And I certainly cannot understand how Congress (which is made up of many who call themselves “Christian”) just a couple days ago cut $40 Billion from the Food Stamps program for 2014. What would Jesus say to 3.8 million Americans losing benefits and possibly going hungry or malnourished because of the greedy actions of Congress? What I know of the Gospel tells me that these things are a shame and a terrible sin.

         Lebanese Mystic Christian Kahlil Gibran wrote, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half [people’s] hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle [people’s] ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”

         Do you labor with the Love of God or just for the paycheck? Do you seek to climb up on others’ shoulders or do you seek to bring the hierarchy to justice? And finally at a level very close to you, do you seek to build up your church in every way you can or do you only give when you are certain you will receive something? We have a choice each day of choosing the Economy of God or the Economy of Ego. In the Economy of God, when we “seek first the Commonwealth of God and right relationship with God and others, THEN blessings will be given to you.” In the Economy of Ego, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.”

         I advise you as the reading today from First Timothy advises the church: “Pray for EVERYONE so that we may lead peaceful lives in being like God, retaining our dignity.” Prayers are like boomerangs. Throw them out far and wide and they shall return a blessing to you. May peace and economic justice prevail on earth! Amen.

Queer Sheep: Square One to Square Forty-Four

“Queer Sheep: Square One to Square Forty-Four”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

September 15, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Luke 15:1-10

         Rev. Elder Freda Smith was the first woman ordained in Metropolitan Community Churches in 1971. She was also the first female Elder in MCC and was Vice Moderator of MCC for decades. Freda Smith is significant to MCC’s history because she brought feminism to a male-led denomination. She insisted that our bylaws were fully inclusive of women. She also insisted that gender-inclusive language is used throughout our churches. So since 1981, MCC has had a policy of Inclusive Language, which has expanded to also include issues of racism, classism, ablism, and more.

         I mention Rev. Elder Freda today because the gospel reading today from Luke is one of her favorites. She has a famous sermon she preaches around the world called, “Purple Grass.” In that sermon, Freda imagines a flock of sheep. They are good sheep. They generally listen to the shepherd and go where he leads. They bleat their prayers before counting shepherds at night. But in that flock was one sheep that did not like to graze the way the other sheep did. The other sheep liked to eat green grass, while this sheep preferred purple grass. She had tried eating green grass but just didn’t like it. But purple grass- now that she found delicious! She would search the whole pasture just to find patches of purple grass to eat. The other sheep found this odd. They would bleat at her angrily for not liking the same grass as them. “Baaaaad!” This discouraged the poor little sheep. She knew she was different but didn’t know why there was anything wrong with that.

         One day, the flock bleated so angrily at the sheep that enjoyed purple grass that she ran away from the flock. She had been shunned. Cold and alone at night, she feared wolves. She missed her shepherd. She thought to herself, “I bet the shepherd wouldn’t mind if he knew I liked purple grass. I miss him.” Then seemingly out of nowhere, the shepherd appeared, happy to have found his lost sheep. He picked her up, wrapped her around his shoulders and brought her back to the flock.

         When they returned, the shepherd placed her right in the middle of a patch of purple grass. “He knows!” she thought. She happily began to graze away. Seeing how the shepherd had encouraged that peculiar little sheep to eat what she liked, the flock stopped bothering her. Finally, the flock was whole again.

         I didn’t tell this story the same way Freda Smith does. Freda tells it with a special radiance that has made it a well-loved tale. But the moral of the story still rings true for us all these decades later. It still has the power to touch our lives the way it has changed the lives of many over the years.

         I don’t know about you, but I love me some purple grass! I could graze all day, amen?? I first knew that I liked purple grass when I was four years old and I haven’t ever gotten sick of it. I know within the depths of my soul that God is the one who gave me the appetite for purple grass and I am no longer ashamed to eat it every day.

         Jesus asks in the parable from the Gospel of Luke today, “Which one of you having a hundred sheep and losing one wouldn’t have the heart to go looking for the lost one until it is found?” Fundamentalists tend to twist this passage to say that the so-called “sinner” needs to be brought back to the flock to stop sinning. He had wandered away from the straight path. She was on the road to hell. But this is all read into the text. The shepherd doesn’t shame the sheep for leaving. He doesn’t threaten to make her into lamb chops J. What does he do? He rejoices! He throws a party for finding the lost sheep again.

         Though this is commonly called, “The Parable of the Lost Sheep,” we have to remember a very important spiritual truth: we are never truly lost. Remember the words of Psalm 139 (7-12), “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

         Children of the Omnipresent God, there is nowhere you can go where God is not present for you! You can be in the middle of a natural disaster and God is still there holding you. You can hit rock bottom on drugs or alcohol or overeating and feel like life isn’t worth living anymore, and God is still there trying to breathe life back into you. God sits with those in prison. God plots against those who run the worldwide sex trafficking business. God was in every room of every floor of the twin towers when they collapsed twelve years ago in New York City. And God kissed the wounds of the children in Syria who were victims of chemical warfare.

         I believe the phrase, “Home is where your heart is.” And I also believe with all my heart that God seeks continually to lead us all home. When we sing songs about God leading us home, it’s not just about the afterlife. The Good Shepherd seeks to bring us home to ourselves, to our most authentic and loving selves.

         In the Gospel of John (10:14-16), Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as [Abba] knows me and I know [Abba]. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” In 1992, an international organization called Other Sheep began as a ministry to LGBT people around the world. In addition to MCC’s ministry around the world, Other Sheep has preached the Good News of God’s radically inclusive love to queer folks around the world, even when there wasn’t a faith community like MCC that would take us in.

         Square one of our ministry in 1968 when MCC was founded was to help individuals to accept themselves as children of God just as they are. After that, our mission was to change society to be more accepting. We are still doing that important work. But there are still more “other sheep” who avoid religion like a plague. Two of the largest demographics in the US are “spiritual but not religious” and “spiritual and also religious.” The number of people who have been either shunned from the flock or turned off by the flock’s behavior has risen consistently over the past thirty years. We now find ourselves in a postmodern, post-church world. We are not alone in struggling to attract new people. Our society is just plain tired of being preached at and chooses to stay estranged from the flock.

         You may have noticed that I use the word “queer” a lot. I don’t do it just because I like the word or because I personally identify as such. I know that there is a generation that had this word used against them. But today, if someone called me queer, I would smile and agree!

         In the wider sense of the word as it is used now, queer is not just an easier way of saying LGBT. “Queer” smears the lines between and among these modern categories. It recognizes that people do not fit neatly into boxes, into strict categories. And God is the same way. God cannot be put in a box! Christians have been attempting to seal God into chapels and cathedrals for centuries. But their efforts have never kept God out of the bars, the bathhouses, and the back alleys.

         If we want to be relevant in the 21^st century, we need to break out of the box as a community of faith. We can’t do things “the way they have always been done.” It has been said that the “Last Seven Words of the Church” will be “We have always done it that way.” There are some gems that are worth keeping. And there are some antiques that are worth restoring. But there are is a field of purple grass that God has prepared for our future. That is our dream. But in order for the dream to become a reality, you have to believe it. Will you believe the dream with me? If so, say “Amen!” Amen.

“Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions.” – Dag Hammarskjold, First Secretary General of the UN

Abundance in the Potter's Hand

“Abundance In The Potter’s Hand”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

September 8, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Jeremiah 18:1-6

Luke 14:25-33

·      The Potter’s House

o  Come on down with me to the Potter’s House!

o  The Still Small Voice of God calls us to where we should be at any given moment.

o  No matter where we are in the world, God will use the situation to teach us wisdom.

o  We are each vessels in God’s hands. God molds us to be the best we can be. But unlike clay, we have free will. So we can choose to be stubborn. We can throw rocks into our clay. We can dry ourselves up.

o  The best clay for God to work with is flexible, wet, and malleable. How do we stay wet and flexible? We have to dip into the waters of Deep Discipleship.

·      The Cost of Discipleship

o  Jesus warns those who want to follow him that it is not an easy path. It is an anti-empire path. It is an anti-oppression path. It may mean leaving some people behind who do not foster your spiritual growth.

o  In the words of ACIM, we must make the choice of shifting our perception from fear to Love. This process is counter-intuitive. The world teaches us to fear and that love shows weakness. It takes relearning love in order to live it.

o  Jesus does not instruct to “hate” your family. What he meant was that we need to love God above all else, even our own lives, comforts, and opinions. (The Good News Bible got it right.)

o  Following Jesus means also letting go of attachment to belongings. We are not required to sell everything we have and live in poverty. But we are required to be grateful for what we have and to value people over possessions and value God over people.

o  I have seen victims of natural disasters lose everything they own. They are naturally devastated, but they always say the same thing, “I have my loved ones and that’s all that matters.”

o  At the heart of Buddhism is the letting go of attachments. The Buddha said himself, “You only lose what you cling to.”

·      Building for the Future

o  Instead of attaching, Jesus gives us an alternative option: center in the Now and move forward.

o  Jesus gives us the analogy of preparing to build a tower. It’s a very simple metaphor that everyone can understand. You don’t start building until you have first planned out your materials, how much it will cost, etc.

o  We have the same task on our hands. As we look into our future, we cannot just hope for the best. We have to make an intentional decision to invest in our future as a community.

o  Do you realize what a beacon of light this community has been, is now, and can be in the future in New Haven?

o  When we have prepared ourselves to be true disciples, clay in God’s hands, we are ready to be joyful givers…