Faithful Stewardship at MCC New Haven

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Faithful Stewardship 2013/2014

At first glace, you may look at a stewardship campaign and think a number of things: 1) “It must be that time of year again.” 2) “The church must need money.” or 3) “What’s stewardship?” I’ll answer those questions transparently.

First, we do not have a “stewardship season.” Though all members vote on our budget once a year, we continually evaluate how we can be better stewards of the many blessings God has given us. It is always time to be part of the divine cycle of giving and receiving! Remember the words of Luke (6:38) “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." We give continually, not purchasing an experience or a feeling, but rather in trust that God’s cycle of blessing requires joyful giving.

Secondly, yes, the church does need money. In fact, our weekly offering only covers about a third of our expenses (much less our budget). The rest is taken out of investments to cover expenses, but that can’t last forever. Our Board of Directors has done all it can to trim expenses down to absolute basic needs. Our pastor is only paid part-time though he works full-time. (Remember the words of the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 9:14) “[Jesus] commanded that those who proclaim the Gospel should get their living by the Gospel.” We can currently only afford to pay a pianist to play twice per month. We also require more technology in order to improve our worship experience. We have completely emptied our building fund. The need is indeed great. But don’t panic! God has not given up on us, and we have not finished our calling!

Thirdly, stewardship is the prayerful process of assessing the mission of our individual congregation, looking honestly at what it will cost to live it out, and dedicating together to making the dream happen. Stewardship involves each member and friend of the congregation taking ownership of the church’s purpose by making a covenant together. This covenant involves a promise to give Time, Talent, and Treasure. There is no doubt that the majority of the congregation intends to give in these ways in some form, but making a promise in a tangible way keeps us all accountable to working toward our dream together and making it happen.

Today, you will receive a Pledge Card. One side allows you to update your current basic information so that we can best keep in touch with you (even if you think we already have it). The other side allows you to write down how exactly you plan to fulfill your ministry areas of Time, Talent, and Treasure. Do you dedicate to making it to Sunday services and other church activities as often as possible and on time? What hidden talents do you have that the church could benefit from? How much of your income can you pledge to give in the coming year?

That number can be difficult to figure out. Some of us have been part of churches that have a tradition of tithing. Tithing is a principal from the Hebrew Bible in which God’s people were required to give back ten percent of their earnings in order to ensure that the community was taken care of. For the farmers of the time, that meant ten percent of their crops. Though we do not live in Ancient Israel, the idea of looking at percentage rather than just dollar amount still rings true for us.

Today’s economy has made living difficult for the majority of the U.S. Though the recession started five years ago, we are still feeling it. That factor is fully understood. But also keep in mind that other than small fundraisers, weekly offerings are our only income. We do not receive any other outside funds. We give 12% of our offering every month to our denomination, Metropolitan Community Churches. In return, they provide much-needed programming, training, and support for local churches and they do work around the world spreading God’s message of Unconditional Love. Our denomination requires a tithe from local churches, and the local church strongly encourages percentage giving from members as well.

So we come back to that same question: “What percentage works for me?” We suggest a method for choosing:

1)                    Look at your financial records and see how much you have been giving on average per month.  If you didn’t write it down, do an estimate.

2)                    Take that number and divide it by your monthly take-home pay. You should come up with a decimal. For example, $200 offering divided by $2,000 take-home pay equals “.10”. This means you are giving 10% of your income.

3)                    If the number you came up with has a zero (or several zeros) after the decimal point, you are giving less than one percent of your income.

4)                    Choose a percentage to give:

Percentage	Take-Home Pay	Multiplied By	Equals Offering
1%		.01
2%		.02
3%		.03
4%		.04
5%		.05
6%		.06
7%		.07
8%		.08
9%		.09
10%		.10

            Just seeing the number won’t necessarily tell you what percentage to choose. You may see a number and think, “Wow, I could do a lot with that money!” Yes, that is true. But beyond your basic needs, does the work of sharing the All Inclusive Gospel not deserve a strong portion of the fruits of the labor God has blessed you with the ability to do? Pray about it. Talk to God about it. God will lead you to generosity.

            In Luke’s book, The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, verse 32, it says this: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” (NRSV). We may not be a Christian commune, but we do believe in taking good care of each other. Sometimes that means bringing someone hot soup when they aren’t well or giving someone a ride to the hospital. Just as importantly, it means giving our “best gift” each Sunday so that there is a place for joyful and inspiring worship for us all to start off the week.

            We must never forget that we are also building a future for those yet to come. Do you remember the first time you heard that you are God’s Beloved: Deeply Loved, Richly Gifted, Highly Favored, and Abundantly Blessed? That great cloud of witnesses that came before you made it so that you can have a faith community to call home. They paid it forward. It is now our time to do the same.

           

Our Financial Goals for 2013/2014

1)                    Every member and friend of the church pledges on a percentage basis.

2)                    We meet and surpass our budget each month.

3)                    We supplement our giving with a monthly fundraiser.

4)                    We raise the Pastor’s salary to full-time over 6 months.

5)                    We provide the Pastor with health insurance.

6)                    We hire a musician to play every Sunday.

7)                    We eventually begin to reimburse our Building Fund.

If we truly mean what we say each Sunday, that we are “Abundantly Blessed,” then we need to live it out. Instead of repeating negative statements like, “We are struggling” or “I don’t know how we are going to survive,” start saying, “We are on the way to thriving!” and “We are living abundance!” and “God really has blessed us!”

Please join our Pastor and Board of Directors in building the future of our beloved community together. If we all give 100% of our lives to God, we will see miracles happen! And always remember: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7, NRSV).

Laboring for Justice

“Laboring For Justice”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

September 1, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Hebrews 13:1-16

Luke 14:1-14

This man was a socialist. He was pro-choice. He believed strongly in separation of church and state. He advocated for the poor and worked for economic equality. His right-hand man was an openly gay man. This man is now held up as a hero in our nation. He even has a national holiday named after him. He was named “Michael” at birth but was renamed Martin after the German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther of the 16^th century. This man was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

         When talking about Dr. King, we wonder what new we can say. I could talk forever about what an American icon he is. I could praise him for his leadership and leave it at that. Instead, I chose to give you the lesser-known facts of his life.

         Dr. King was not a traditionalist. He was leery of traditionalism, especially considering that the traditions he knew came from a nation that had been run exclusively by White men since its founding. Yes, he was a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But I believe he truly understood the subversive nature of the Gospel. King did not seek to use the message of Jesus or the authority of the Bible to rule over anyone, as people have done for two millennia. Instead, King sought to liberate African Americans and other oppressed peoples through his understanding of Christ the Liberator, which is the way of Nonviolent Resistance.

         Yes, his enemies tried to tear him down by calling him a Communist, a homosexual sympathizer, and a false prophet. But King was surrounded by those who heard Truth and readily accepted it. They were hungry for freedom and King spoke eloquently about its arrival.

         When he spoke as the mouth of God from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago this week in 1963 when he was only 34 years old, he proved to all good souls that societal equality is indeed the Economy of God.

         Jesus demonstrated this exact thing in the Gospel reading from Luke we just heard. In this text, Jesus turns society on its head. In other words, Jesus “queers” societal norms. To “queer” something is not to make it homosexual. We all know that’s not possible. In the definition of Queer Theory, to “queer” something is to transcend societal boundaries, to turn injustice on its head. In the Luke text, Jesus is sitting with religious officials whose job was to make sure that the Jewish law was followed to the T. In short, they were extreme legalists. Their intention was good, but their impact was horrible and Jesus knew it. So Jesus did not hesitate setting them right.

         To set the scene, know that in ancient times the dinner table was a sacred thing. There was a specific place at the table for certain people depending on their relationship to the host. You may have had a similar arrangement in your home growing up. “Don’t sit in grandpa’s chair… or else!” But this was much more serious. Everyone invited to the table had to be on the same plane of the social hierarchy; no peasants or disabled people at the table. And in that game, the host held the power to rearrange the seating.

         Jesus stirred things up at that dinner party. He pointed out vocally that some people were taking the better seats first. He instructs them to instead allow the host to invite them to those seats. In an instruction on humility, Jesus tells them to take the lowest place. This is where we hear the famous line that sticks in many of our memories: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Try using this as a mantra in prayer this week.) This philosophy is not only the opposite of what was assumed in Jesus’ time, but also what is assumed in our time.

         We know the social inequality of our time. I have demonstrated to you before that the top one percent of our citizens owns forty percent of the nation’s wealth and the top twenty percent owns eighty percent of the nation’s wealth. Our capitalist system encourages everyone to strive for as much wealth as we can get. We see some people make it big on TV. They make it out of poverty, so we think we may just be able to break out of the lower classes too. We are told that hard work will pay off. But does it?

         Jesus said, “In my society, no, it doesn’t.” Dr. King said, “In my society, it doesn’t.” That doesn’t mean that we all shouldn’t work hard and take care of our own. What it does mean is that the system is still unjust and has been unjust for far too long. Fast food workers have been on strike around the nation for weeks now demanding higher pay because they can’t afford to feed their families; even with the very food they serve. Farm workers across the country (the vast majority Mexican immigrants) make minimum wage doing backbreaking work that the vast majority of Americans wouldn’t dare to try. I don’t know anyone who would take minimum wage to pick and carry hundreds of pounds of oranges a day. And when a living wage is demanded, billionaire CEOs make the excuse that they could not afford to pay a penny more. The reality is that they could double every worker’s pay and barely feel the change. (The figure I heard most recently was 2% of profits.)

         Today is known as Labor Sunday, the day before Labor Day. Since 1894, Labor Day has been observed as a day of gratitude for workers. It’s a terrible irony that many workers will still return to work tomorrow while others vacation.

         Jesus would be raising hell over this kind of abuse. Dr. King did raise hell in his time over this kind of abuse. The March on Washington in 1963 was called “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Jobs were a monumental struggle for lower class folks and especially people of color in King’s time and in some ways that has not changed in fifty years. President Obama spoke from the same spot at the Lincoln Memorial King did fifty years ago this past week. He made this powerful statement, “To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency. Whether it's by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote or ensuring that the scales of justice work equally for all in the criminal justice system and not simply a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails -- it requires vigilance.”

         I do not attribute individual wrongdoing to the gross number of African Americans in prison today. Individual wrongdoing has been fueled since the moment African feet touched American soil by intentional social inequality. I hear from some bigots statements such as, “The Blacks are ruining this country. Why can’t they get their lives together?” The answer is plain and simple. Social inequality has never disappeared. Wages have never been made equal. Rights have never been fully upheld. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has not been fulfilled in this time and place.

         Jesus tells us in a bold instruction who should be invited to the table: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. In other words, the most marginalized of society. God’s table is not a country club where the few are invited and the rest are locked out. The table of God is open to all who are willing to be humble and accept that ultimately, God is the only one in control. In fear, we scramble for control over each other, but in due time, we are all dust. (Donald Trump will ultimately be a pile of dust with a toupee :) ).

         The New Testament Book of Hebrews has the same message. I have always been intrigued by the second verse of Hebrews 13: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Do we welcome each new person here as if she were an angel sent by God? A homeless angel? A transgender angel? A physically disabled angel? A mentally disabled angel? God forbid, a heterosexual angel??

         Equality has not been attained in our government. That is a fact, not an opinion. The fact that the Supreme Court repealed part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 just weeks ago proves that there is much work for our legislators to do. It is our job as citizens of this country and as followers of the prophetic Jesus of Nazareth to pressure them to fight for full equality… But equality also starts at the grass roots.

         The Holy Spirit asks your heart today, “Who are you not inviting to the table of MCC New Haven because of your own prejudices or fears?” That’s some tough love, I know. But the Holy Ghost doesn’t mess around! She has been wrestling with humanity for millennia to fulfill God’s vision of a Commonwealth where all are cared for and shown their sacred value and immeasurable worth.

The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you;” (Like Dr. King) “consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” What does it mean for us to imitate Dr. King’s faith today? I think President Obama answered that question in his speech this past week. He said, “Because they marched, America became more free and more fair, not just for African-Americans but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, for Catholics, Jews and Muslims, for gays, for Americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me.”

We are called to march each and every day. Marching is about showing your authentic self wherever you can. Those who filled the National Mall on that day in 1963 truly believed in equality and showed it in broad daylight. They had burned down the closet holding racial equality. The same can be said of those who marched in early gay pride parades. They burned down the closet of LGBT equality. Can you do the same? Will you be a Christian just in church on Sundays or will you be a Christian at work, at school, and on the street?

Prophets rarely give comforting words. Instead, they give us tough love in the form of challenges. We have a holy challenge on our hands to embody in this community. But I will remind you of this encouragement from Dr. King: “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (Here’s another mantra for your prayer life.) May justice and peace come to our people, to the people of Syria, to the people of Russia, and to the whole world “soon and very soon” as we see the Commonwealth of God unfold before our eyes. Amen.

Moving Forward

“Moving Forward”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 18, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Hebrew 11:29-12:2

Luke 12:49-56

         Jesus says in the Gospel of John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Then in chapter 16:33, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

         Juxtapose these verses with the words we heard read from the Gospel of Luke today and you may think they came from two different people. Jesus says in Luke 12:51, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

         Now before you think Jesus had a screw loose, let’s break down the Luke text. First, keep in mind that this is what scholars call an “apocalyptic” text or an “end-times” text. The most well known examples of end-times literature are John’s Book of Revelation in the Christian Testament and the Book of Daniel in the Tanakh. They are full of frightening images of fire, mythological beasts, natural disasters, and supernatural happenings.

         Those who read these things in Jesus’ time would know that they were symbolic. The figure called Satan was a symbol for the oppressive powers of the Roman Empire. And the terrible events were predicted in the midst of great tension in the ancient Near East. Oppression sickness had permeated the Jewish population of Jesus’ time. Oppression sickness is when a minority group is oppressed by the dominant group and feels powerless, so they in turn oppress those even more marginalized.

         Though we pride ourselves in the LGBT community in caring for each other because of the widespread phenomenon of rejection from our families of origin, we still suffer from oppression sickness. We form our own cliques and say who can come in and who cannot. Wealthy gay and lesbian people disassociate with lower-class gays and lesbians. Homelessness is a pandemic among our youth, but we seem to have greater priorities. HIV-negative gay men disown HIV-positive friends. Gays and lesbians stay ignorant on transgender issues and too often exclude transgender and gender variant people.

         Oppression sickness is the evil that Jesus came to save us from. When Luke tells us in the Book of Acts about those who were “being saved,” it is telling us that those folks made a decision to be anti-oppression. To be baptized was to go under the water in death and to rise out of the water into new life. The ego is left behind and the God-Self is what remains. And the God-Self always works against oppression.

         Jesus did come to bring peace, but not without a cost. Genuine peace requires facing conflict. It doesn’t require war, but it does require facing the unspoken things that have become the norm. Genuine “shalom” peace is about complete wholeness within oneself and within the community. That kind of peace requires a very uncomfortable exercise: looking the “elephant in the room” straight in the eyes.

         In this passage from Luke, Jesus is pointing to the issue of conflict avoidance. He sees how his people have allowed themselves to be degraded just to “keep the peace,” so to speak. They were alive and could sometimes make a basic living, but they had lost their dignity. Their self-worth was nowhere to be found.

         So to stir up the people, Jesus had to say something more provocative than, “Hey you guys, let’s talk about peace.” Jesus was keepin’ it real! The fire he says he is bringing to the earth is the Refiner’s Fire. It is not a means of punishment, but rather a means of purification. When precious metals are purified, they must go through the fire to burn away the impurities. In the same way, those who choose to follow Christ must allow selfishness, greed, arrogance, malice, fear, and the like to be burned away. In the extracanonical Gospel of Thomas (82)(not in our Bible), Jesus says, “Whoever is near me is near fire; whoever is distant from me is distant from the kin-dom.” The choice is made clear: be near Jesus and be refined by his holy fire and be rewarded with Heaven on Earth or stay away from the fire and continue to live Hell on Earth.

         Our reading from the Book of Hebrews puts it a bit differently. It reads, “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…” Jesus instructs his followers that the oppression sickness will be burned away. The book of Hebrews instructs us to simply lay it down, allow it to just fall away. But within the same text, notice that it implicitly tells us that setting it down is not an easy task. When we have privilege, we cling to it like a frightened child clings to a teddy bear.

         But God calls us to a higher spiritual existence. We cannot claim spiritual maturity if we hold onto the spiritual toys of conflict avoidance, playing the judge or playing the victim, being the squeaky wheel, and the like. These behaviors are reflections of ego, not reflections of the God-Self.

         Yes, we have all gone through some hell in our lives. We have all had our struggles. It’s part of being human. But our struggles are no excuse for playing the victim. Through faith, we are bigger than our struggles. God is bigger than any struggle. The Hebrews reading gave us all the gory details of the different tortures people of faith went through. Many of those people never saw what they felt was promised to them. But they lived their lives anyhow, always striving to “higher ground.”

"The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway."

~Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council

         Being a person of faith isn’t about believing that the journey will be easy. But it is about knowing that the journey will be gratifying. Just as there will be moments of great sorrow, there will be moments of great joy. The journey isn’t all about the end result. The journey is about taking each step with confidence that there will be solid ground in front of you each day. And knowing that if there isn’t, you will be carried to the next part of the path if you only ask.

         What does it mean for MCC New Haven to run with perseverance the race that is set before us? Are we running or are we crawling? Are we on the right path? Are we on the Yellow Brick Road to seek our goals or are we in the Poppy Fields, getting sleepy? What might we still be carrying on our shoulders that is keeping us from running?

         Next Saturday from 10am to 2pm, we will flesh out these questions during our Visioning Retreat. Please be there, bring a potluck dish to share, and bring an open mind and heart. Together, we can do the work God is calling us to do. Please step forward in faith with me as we realize our great potential. And so it is! Amen.

Living Into Abundance: Jesus’ Counter-Greed Vision

“Living Into Abundance: Jesus’ Counter-Greed Vision”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 4^th 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Psalm 107:1-9

Luke 12:13-21

In the words of the great theologian Mr. T, … “I pity the fool!” The parable that we just heard from Jesus is commonly called, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” And even after two thousand years, this parable is as relevant as ever. Amen?

Following the tradition of Moses, who was willing to judge on matters of inheritance and wealth, a man comes to Jesus asking him (as a Rabbi) to tell his older brother to share their father’s inheritance. Jewish law said that the majority of the inheritance went to the first-born son. So this latter son does not find this fair and he asks for Jesus’ help. Sensing that this man has enough already and is not living in poverty, he gives the man some wisdom. Jesus says, “Be on guard against all kinds of greed: for life des not consist in the abundance of possessions.” I believe that if the man had been homeless and in actual need, Jesus would have had a different answer. But in this case, Jesus sensed not NEED, but rather GREED.

Remember that a parable is not a historic event. It is rather a story, a fable, meant to make an ethical point. This parable related directly to the lives of the people of his time. He used a farmer as an example. The farmer’s crops did very well one year, so he decides to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so that he can save ALL of the crops and live in luxury. It never even crosses his mind in the text to share any of the crops.

The Jews listening to Jesus tell this parable would have known that at least 10% of the crop was supposed to be given to the poor under Jewish law. So not only was the man being greedy; he was being unlawful. Then Jesus tells us the inner thoughts of the farmer. The farmer says to himself (actually he says to his “soul,” which is a translation to English from the Greek word “psyche”)… The farmer says to his psyche, “Psyche, you have enough wealth to last for years without working. Relax and enjoy it!” I would translate “soul” to “Ego.”

This is the point in the parable where Jesus brings in the voice of God. The Ego had spoken; now it’s God’s turn. God says, “You fool! You’re going to die tonight. Who will have your wealth now?” Jesus is making the very simple point through this parable: You can’t take it with you! Again, “I pity the fool!”

Sometimes we each need a wakeup call to remember our finitude, to remember that none of our bodies can live forever. Sometimes it’s a diagnosis, or a car crash, or an injury. Sometimes it’s the death of a loved one. We do everything in our power to forget that we don’t have an eternity to live and love in this world. The multi-million dollar plastic surgery industry shows us how afraid of aging we are as a culture. And I think gay men especially buy into the denial.

We all know that our economy is in trouble and has been for a long time. This is where I’m going to preach politics. In order for a church to keep its non-profit status, it cannot endorse a particular candidate, make contributions to a candidate, or endorse a political party. So I will not do any of those things today. What I will do is what I think Jesus would do today: speak against greed. So here goes…

For starters, recent wars since the 2001 terrorist attacks have all but bankrupted our government. Listen to this carefully: The United States Military Budget for one WEEK could wipe out world hunger for one YEAR. I am not a complete pacifist, but I do know that this is terribly excessive. What ever happened to the words of the prophet Micah (4:3), “…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Or as it has been put by the old Negro Spiritual, “Gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the river side, down by the river side, down by the river side, gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the river side and study war no more…”  When will we learn to study war no more? War not only kills our soldiers and foreign men, women, and children; it kills our poor.

The other form of greed we face today is the distribution of wealth within our capitalist economic system. Over the last forty years, the top one percent of Americans has continued to get richer and richer. How rich you ask? One percent (that’s one out of every 100 Americans) now owns 43 percent of the nation’s wealth. The next four percent owns 29 percent of the nation’s wealth. The next 15 percent owns 21 percent of the nation’s wealth. Do you know what that means? The rest of us- that’s 80 percent of the population owns just 7 percent of the nation’s wealth. That’s the entire middle and lower classes together- just 7 percent. The other 93 percent belongs to the top 20 percent of the population.

The lowest portion of that 7 percent of wealth includes those who work for fast food chains. Across the country, they make as low as just over 7 dollars per hour, what we call “minimum wage.” But we all know that minimum wage is NOT a living wage. No one can feed a family on minimum wage. This past week, thousands of fast food workers went on strike, demanding higher pay. Even our current president has pushed consistently for raising minimum wage. Corporations respond by saying that they cannot survive if they pay their workers more. They say that they would have to raise the price of their food. But look at their profits in the last year and see that they are in the tens of billions of dollars. Instead of paying their workers that stand in hot kitchens for hours and repeat, “May I take your order” hundreds of times a day, CEOs decide to instead ‘tear down their barns and build bigger ones’. In Jesus’ words I ask, “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

A certain news channel named after a sly animal that steals from others… justifies this distribution. They say that if wealth were distributed more equally, the poorer classes would become lazy. They say that the poor would not strive for anything better because they already have enough. They say that those who are wealthy have worked hard to get where they are and deserve their wealth.

The truth is that our laws have allowed the lower class to be exploited. The “trickle-down economy” theory of Ronald Reagan did not work. Wealth didn’t trickle down; it evaporated up into the clouds of the one percent and stayed there. And dark clouds have continued to loom. Remember, you can see rain, but you can’t often see evaporation. You can tell when you have extra money to pay bills and feed your family. But the wealth of the rich is hidden in barns, or should I say, “Off-shore accounts.” The drought has lasted for much too long.

1700 years ago in the fourth century, St. John Chrysostom had a lot to say about greed. He was known for his great preaching abilities, which gathered great crowds to hear. He was given the name “Chrysostom,” which means, “mouth of gold” because he preached so well, not because he had gold teeth like Flava Flave J. Many of his sermons are now considered anti-Semitic because he pushed for Christians to not follow Jewish customs. But what I can praise him for is a sermon series he preached called, “On Wealth and Poverty.” I don’t agree with him completely because he essentially says that all the rich that don’t give to the poor go straight to Hell. In my opinion, God will determine our eternal fate. But I do know the wrong that happens in this world, so I will share some of his words.

John Chrysostom preached these words about the rich not giving to the poor in the year 388: “This cruelty is the worst kind of wickedness; it is an inhumanity without rival. For it is not the same thing for one who lives in poverty not to help those in need, as for one who enjoys such luxury to neglect others who are wasting away with hunger… Again, it is not the same thing for one who is troubled in his heart by misfortune and distress not to help his neighbor, as for one who enjoys such happiness and continuous good fortune to neglect others who are wasting away with hunger, to lock up his heart, and not to be made more generous by his own joy.”

John Chrysostom’s words echo exactly what the Apostle Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7, NRSV). Repeat after me: God loves a cheerful giver. If any of that 20% of richest Americans claims a Christian identity, and if any of those who determine military spending claim a Christian identity, I give them the challenge of following the Christian message of distribution of wealth.

So we’ve pointed out today the gross sin, the gross lack of love in the form of greed that is demonstrated daily by the richest Americans. But what about us? I don’t think anyone in this room is a multi-millionaire. If you are, I know for a fact that you don’t tithe J. So what is this parable of Jesus saying to us today?

In a few short weeks when we meet for our Visioning Retreat, a portion of our time together will be devoted to stewardship. You will be given the opportunity to hear about biblical principles of stewardship and how God is calling us all handle our finances. I know that some of us are struggling financially. I know that others have stable employment or are retired. We have a good mix of folks here.

But more importantly, we will examine whether we are each sharing with our church the portion that God is calling us to share. Do you embrace a spirit of scarcity when you give each week or do you embrace a spirit of abundance? Do you trust God with what you give or do you give based on whether or not your personal needs are being met by the church? Do you see worship as a time to be entertained or a time to share in beloved community together, experiencing the presence of Christ?

We must never forget that ALL that we have is a gift from God. Yes, we all work hard for what we earn. We are all tired at the end of the day. But without the grace of God, would you have the ability to work? Would you have a job in the midst of this economy? Would you have your pension? This church is not in the moneymaking business. It is in the ministry of saving lives in the midst of a fearful world. I am our only paid employee and I am paid part-time. I can assure you that this church is not greedy and neither is our denomination. We do not subscribe to the coercive tactics of televangelists who drive around in expensive cars and live in mansions. We don’t promise immediate financial return when you use some kind of ‘miracle water’ or ‘prayer cloth.’ In other words, we don’t sell indulgences. No, we strive always to follow the economy of God, which is the great vision Jesus gave us of a world of true shared abundance.

So today, we have two challenges. The first is to keep our lawmakers accountable. A living wage is a truly Christian ideal. Sign petitions, attend rallies, and talk with your friends and family about it. The second is to be true to what God is asking each of us to contribute to MCC New Haven. This church has the potential to work miracles in our community. Will you take Jesus’ words to heart and share whatever abundance you have in order to fulfill our mission of Celebrating God’s Unconditional Love, Caring for each other, Cultivating our faith, and Carrying God’s justice into the world? If so, say “Amen!” And so it is. Amen.

Spiritual Maturity: The Mystical Path

“Spiritual Maturity: The Mystical Path”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

July 21, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Colossians 1:24-28

Luke 10:38-42

         When I was twelve years old, I went on a middle school retreat with my Methodist church’s youth group. I was nervous because I was a shy kid. I wasn’t very social and I didn’t know what to expect from the retreat. We went into the beautiful mountains of West Virginia for Spring Break. Wildflowers were in full bloom. We stayed in cabins, took hikes, and took paddleboats onto the lake. On the second day there, I learned that Christians are fallible… because one of the chaperones went out on a paddleboat with me and a gust of wind sent his toupee into the lake. The words that came out of his mouth after that made me giggle. He didn’t find it so funny.

         On the last night of the retreat, we all sat around the campfire and took Communion together under the stars. It was probably the first time I had ever taken Communion. Our Youth Minister Wendy told us about Jesus and how much he loves us. And while looking up at a million stars and taking that simple sacrament, I asked God if we could be friends. And it was as if God said, “Of course! Let’s go on an adventure!”

         My inner life transformed from that point on. With all the turmoil and loneliness of my childhood, I finally had an Eternal Friend. Soon after that experience, I began preaching at the age of thirteen. I preached a few times a year in the church of my upbringing until I was 17. During that time, I led prayer groups, led worship, and attended wonderful retreats and Christian work camps. My faith became my strength.

         I have always known I was attracted to the same gender. I had crushes on boys since I was 4 years old. I actually started to wear my mom’s wig and clothes since I was 4 as well. Whenever I was alone in the house, I would sneak into my parent’s room and put on lipstick and stare into the mirror for hours. I didn’t want to be a girl. I was just fascinated with gender.

         I was also fascinated with God since I was a small child. I remember teaching myself to meditate without even knowing what it was called when I was 3 or 4. I had a special hiding place under the record player where I would sit and just be with the Divine. I remember feeling like I remembered being in the womb, safe and warm, and growing with potential.

         I have always been a mystic. A mystic is someone who has a natural inclination to feel the Divine on an intuitive level. Even before I knew the word “God” or went to Sunday School, I knew who God was. God was my friend then. But until my Middle School retreat experience, I all but forgot. “Growing up” began to erase that element in me. But I did spend most of my childhood in the State Park that led up to the back of my house in Maryland. Almost like Snow White, I befriended the trees and the animals of the forest. I played “Oprah” and interviewed the squirrels and birds. I took refuge next to the stream. I dove into my imagination about what had happened among those trees over the centuries.

         This is what I know to be what Jesus called “Faith like a child.” It is a faith with an open heart. It is a vulnerable faith. It is a trust that God will guide the path, even when I feel I am lost. It is a right brain, creative faith. It doesn’t require dogma, doctrine, creeds, or fear of a Boogie Man. All it requires is a deep love for life, and that I had.

         A deep love for life is a fundamental element of adult spiritual maturity. The paradox that Jesus gives in the Gospels is that we are to be mature through being childlike. Note that there is a huge difference between being childish and being childlike. Being childish is demanding what you want without regard to the needs and desires of others. We also call this ego. There’s an annoying element to being childish. Being childlike means embracing the creativity that we were born with. It means remembering that we are co-creators of our lives with the One who gave us life. It was once said that the creative adult is that child that survived. Being childlike is wise.

         The other element of adult spiritual maturity has to do with a willingness to be a lifetime learner. Even when we graduate from one school or another, we are always learning. A diploma is not an ending; it is a new beginning. My 90 year-old grandmother is still learning. You are still learning. Don’t be ashamed of it; embrace it! Some of my seminary colleagues were in their late sixties. They hadn’t given up on their dream of becoming ordained ministers and so they took a leap of faith and attained their goals. It is never too late to learn.

         Mary (of Mary and Martha) embraced the opportunity to learn when she could. She sat down at the feet of Jesus and listened intently. In Jesus’ time, that was not proper for a woman to do. Women were not supposed to listen to the wisdom of prophets. They were only supposed to serve them politely. So Mary’s sister Martha did as society told her. She worked away in the kitchen to entertain Rabbi Jesus. The Scripture tells us that she was “distracted”. Martha notices that her sister Mary is transgressing gender norms by placing herself as a student of Jesus and angrily asks Jesus, “Don’t you care that she left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

         Instead of catching himself off guard with the rules of society, Jesus tells busy Martha, “You are so distracted! Only one thing is important. Learn from Mary; what she has chosen is eternal.” This must have shocked Martha. “Who is this Rabbi to make women equal to men??”

         Jesus, a mystic himself, had taught Mary to be a mystic. Jesus empowered women throughout his ministry to embrace the Spirit of God within them. When Mary did this, it absolutely shocked Martha. This may have happened to you too. People who knew you for a long time learned of your spirituality and were intrigued. Could you be a mystic too?

         Christian mysticism has been condemned for a long time by the institutional Church. Why? Because being a mystic means subverting oppressive power. When we are truly connected with God with an unsurpassable vulnerable trust, God takes precedence over the powers of this world. And that scares those in power; especially those who claim to speak on behalf of God.

         If you didn’t know, in the fourth century after Jesus, the Roman Empire chose to become Christian. It had long embraced the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses, but decided to embrace Christianity. This was a blessing and a curse at once. On the side of blessing, the Roman Empire would stop killing those pesky Christians who challenged the empire’s oppressive ways. On the other side, Christianity itself would be changed for the worse for the rest of history.

         When any group becomes the dominant group, it is destined to become tainted by power. As feminism teaches, only shared power is truly good. We know by historical record that for 1600 years, the Christian Church has used to name of God and Christ to oppress peoples around the earth. It has killed those who refuse to convert, such as during the Inquisition. It has embraced anti-Semitism (also known as the hatred of the Jewish people). It has officially damned all non-Christians to eternal torture. And remember, the Nazis claimed to be Christians.

         This kind of history alone is enough for millions of people to stay far away from anything bearing the name of “Christian.” But there is hope! Though the institutional church has carried this oppressive power for 1600 years, there has always been descent within the church from a minority that disagrees. Over the centuries, these folks have been identified as mystics. They were not necessarily ascetics, hiding away from the rest of society to just think about God. No, there have been many bold saints who stood up in the face of abused power and bad theology to say instead that ALL people are born with Original Blessing and are sacred children of God.

         Among that cloud of positive-thinking, loving, creative witnesses as living theologian Rev. Matthew Fox lists are Hildegard of Bingen of the 10^th century, Francis of Assisi (whom the current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church took his name), Francis’ close friend Clare, Mechtild of Magdeburg from the century, and Thomas Aquinas all in the 11^th century. And then there is Meister Eckhart, a German Christian theologian in the 13^th to 14^th centuries, who was declared a heretic by the institutional church, but has been revered by Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus alike for centuries. Teresa of Avila of the 16^th century reminded humanity that we are the hands and feet of Christ and that Christ is indeed our Mother. We never forget astronomer Galileo of the 16^th century who insisted that the world is spherical and revolves around the Sun. Then George Fox of the 17^th century who recognized the Divine Spark in every human being and founded the Society of Friends that we know as the Quakers.

         More recent on the list include African American spiritual leader Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, lesbian feminist Audre Lorde, and the list goes on.

         Are you in the list of mystics? Do you with your whole being embrace a trust in the Divine Mystery that created the Universe? Do you believe that the whole Human Family has been created good? Do you believe that human potential is always greater that human downfall? Do you value the Earth that God has given us as the most beautiful gift for our use and not our abuse? Do you recognize God in the world every day? Then you are on the list. You, my friend, are a mystic.

         Mysticism is not witchcraft. It is not a silly celebrity fad. It’s not confined to the category of “New Age” that fundamentalists warn people about over the airways. No, mysticism is looking into the sky as I did as a young adolescent and just standing in perfect awe of creation. It is saying, “Wow, I must be special to be alive in this Universe.” And it’s also saying, “Wow, this whole Universe also lives within me.”

         As we come closer to the time when we will define ourselves as a community in the future, I challenge you to “try on” the title of “mystic.” See how it fits. If it gives you joy unspeakable, if it feels right in your gut, and if it helps you to feel whole, then I encourage you to embrace it and move into the future. God bless our sacred, mystical journey together. Amen.

You also heard from the Book of Colossians today. The institutional Church has said for centuries that the Apostle Paul wrote it, but we now know that is not true. But we can still find truth within it, like we can in any text. We heard that the author felt a call to “Make the word of God fully known.” The author also says that the word of God is the “mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages, but now has been revealed.” Though God has probably been put in a box for you throughout your life, it is never too late to open your whole life and embrace that God is the Mystery Beyond Our Naming. We know that fireflies exist and that they are beautiful. We don’t need to keep them in a jar to light up until they die. We can observe creation and take in the beauty that fills our souls. In that experience, Colossians tells us that WE are the “hope of glory.” The word “glory” means “prosperity.” Think of that. WE are the hope of prosperity in the world. Hear and believe today.