God Sees The Heart

“God Sees The Heart”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 30, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

John 9:1-41

ACIM: “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle… Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.”

         Miracles are happening all around us every day! Every act of love is a miracle. Normalcy to us is being able to walk down the street without fear of harm. That’s a pretty good start since many people around the world do not have that luxury. News channels focus on the ab-normal, the extra-ordinary. They tell us about car accidents, shootings, drug busts, and outrageous things celebrities have done. (News has turned into such a tabloid!) They also sometimes highlight so-called “acts of charity” when people go “out of their way” to help others.

I saw a story this week about a police officer that wasn’t particularly busy. He saw a kid throwing a football in the air to himself, so he got out of his car and tossed the ball with the kid. I think this story is very sweet, but it shouldn’t be so extraordinary to make the news. Why is that so out of the ordinary? Remember, miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.

         Especially around the holidays, I see stories on the news about churches and organizations feeding families with turkeys for Thanksgiving or hams for Christmas. That is wonderful work that they are doing and I greatly appreciate and support it. But would the greater miracle not be for the gap between the richest of the rich and the other 99% of the population to close? It’s unfortunate when one individual shows lack of love to another, but it is catastrophic when a nation’s government and richest citizens show a lack of love to the rest of the population. Systemic sin is much greater than individual sin.

         The man blind from birth that we heard about from the Gospel of John today lived in a divided society too. He was a beggar on the street. Everyone knew him by face, but not even the Gospel of John gives the poor man a name. He was just, “that blind guy who begs.” The blind man did not ask to be healed, but Jesus approached him anyway. The disciples asked Jesus whether the blind man or his parents had sinned to make him blind. It was a common understanding in ancient times that sin caused disability.

In the Book of Numbers in the Torah, (14:18), it reads, “I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.” So I have migraines because my great, great grandfather sinned?? I really can’t accept that kind of logic. The only sins of the parents that could harm a child before birth are if the mother drank or used drugs during the pregnancy. But I highly doubt that is what the disciples were asking about.

Either way, Jesus does not agree with that logic either. He says plainly that neither the man nor his parents sinned to make him blind. But I have issue with what Jesus says next. He says that the man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. So let me get this right… God made this poor man blind from birth so that however many years later, Jesus could use him as proof that he comes from God… Yeah I’m not buying that logic either.

The God that I worship does not make people disabled or send plagues of disease. According to certain televangelists, God sent AIDS as a punishment to gay men. I can’t believe that for a second. As a person with a basic understanding of modern science, I know that disability and disease have causes that are just part of the natural world. In the womb, the eyes of the man born blind did not develop. That’s it, end of story.

So did Jesus actually do something supernatural by spitting in the dirt and putting it on the man’s eyes? I don’t know. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. Blind people live out full lives with the use of their other senses and most don’t seek out pity for their disability. What really matters is what this story can teach us. The answer lies in the best line of our reading from 1 Samuel: “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

It’s unfortunate that John decided to use the metaphor of blindness and sight to teach this, but it’s what we have to work with. But before we dive into the metaphor, let’s first hear from a blind Christian theologian about this passage. John Hull wrote an article titled, “Open Letter From a Blind Disciple to a Sighted Savior.” In it, he writes, “In the eighth chapter of this your fourth gospel you say that you are the light of the world and that the one who follows you will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life (Jn. 8:12) but, my Lord, I walk in darkness every day and have done so for twenty years.  Yes, I know that you only meant it metaphorically, but it is not very nice to be regarded as a metaphor of sin and unbelief.  Sometimes the metaphor is so graphic, that I can't help feeling a twinge of pain.” Can you imagine your weaknesses being used as metaphors for sin? What if your clinical depression was compared to a mind filled with evil? What if your bad knee was made a metaphor for not walking well with God? What if your cancer was used as a symbol for wrongdoing in the body of Christ? They are easy metaphors to go to because we understand our weaknesses, but they certainly do not make us feel any better about them.

Inclusive language is not about not hurting people’s feelings. It is about demonstrating with our language that we truly believe all people are created in the image and likeness of God. That is why in MCC, we change the words in Amazing Grace from “was blind but now I see” to “was bound but now I’m free.”

In 1994, Nancy Eiesland wrote the book, “Disabled God.” The point of her work was to show that all people, including those we label as “disabled” are “imperfectly perfect” reflections of God. She points out that no matter healthy you are now, you can become disabled at any time. Instead of categorizing people as “abled” and “disabled,” she rather uses the labels “temporarily abled” and “disabled.” I remember how actor Christopher Reeve played Superman, the superhuman come to save the day. Ironically, the actor fell from a horse, broke his neck, and lived the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. These bodies of ours are resilient, but they are also incredibly fragile. God didn’t push Christopher off of the horse. He just fell. And that’s the messy stuff of life.

Humans try so hard to clean up life, to fix everything. Much of what we have figured out we can do through technology is wonderful. We have found cures and treatments to diseases. Thank God for that. But regardless of how hard we try, we have to accept that life is not neat and tidy. Many things will not go our way. Accidents happen. Life happens. Shit happens… But that is no reason to live in fear. Living with caution is common sense; living in fear is just senseless.

The true miracle of the encounter between Jesus and the man born blind was what happened in the blind man’s heart. Living as an outcast of society, perhaps he had doubted his worth. No one would let him work, so maybe he felt he had nothing to contribute to his community. But Jesus showed him otherwise. Regardless of the state of the man’s physical eyes, abundant life in Jesus was still available to him. In the beloved community Jesus was building, those whose disabilities were welcomed with open arms. A life of joy really was possible for him. The miracle was the man’s shift in perception from accepting the lies told to him to receiving the truth of his sacred value.

These final words from the blind theologian John Hull really touched me. He says, “What I want is inner healing, the healing that comes from acceptance, from inclusion, from the breaking down of barriers through mutual understanding, for an acceptance of different worlds, of different kinds of human life.” We each have our own worldview, our own perspective, our own understanding of the world. That’s just the beauty of God’s diverse creation. But Jesus calls us to perceive one thing in common: each fraction of a second, each holy instant, miracles are happening all around us. Pay close attention. God will make you smile. Amen.

Thirsty?

“Thirsty?”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 23, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Exodus 17:1-7

John 4:5-24

         Good morning church! I don’t know about you, but I’m thirsty! You look thirsty too! Somebody say, “I’m thirsty!” Jesus was thirsty when he got to the Samaritan city called Sychar. The name “Sychar” was a pejorative term the Jewish people used against the Samaritans. It means “liar” or “drunkard.” So Jesus went to the city of drunkards to get a drink… of water that is.

         A Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink. She must have gasped! It was against the law for a man to address a woman and it was highly taboo for a Jew to address a Samaritan. Remember, Samaritans were a sect of Jews that were left in Israel during the Babylonian Exile. The Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and claimed it to be the only place to worship, not the main temple in Jerusalem. When the Jewish people returned from Babylonia, they brought with them new teachings about the Torah that the Samaritans reject to this day.

         The Samaritans call themselves “Guardians/Keepers of the Torah.” Jews in ancient times called them the pejorative term “cuthim” referring to the city of Kutha in Iran. They were essentially saying, “These people are not Jewish. They claim to be descendents of Abraham, but they intermarried with other races, so they are not part of us.”

         When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, he did not care about rules of segregation. He saw the woman as a child of God, an heir of God’s promises, even if she was a Samaritan. Not only did Jesus speak to her; he asked to drink from her cup. Her lips were not unclean to him.

         Jesus takes the opportunity to teach her the message of the Gospel. Jesus tells her about a “living water” that will quench thirst forever. She takes him literally and asks where she can find this magical water so she doesn’t have to keep going to the well. Jesus responds with a sort of “word of knowledge.” Has anyone ever told you things about your life that they never would have known? These people have a special gift. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus had this gift. Jesus asks her to bring her husband to him. She responds that she does not have a husband. Jesus then says, “I know you don’t have a husband. You’ve had five husbands and the man you’re with now is not your husband.” Now this sounds like what we call in the drag community “throwing shade” or “reading.” This catty practice is done to show the other person their faults. For example, I could ask my friend Trisha, “Girl, who put on your makeup, an orangutan?” But of course I wouldn’t do that because she always looks perfect…

         Contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not talking down to the Samaritan woman. He was not calling her a slut for having had five husbands. No one knows why she had had five husbands but it was likely because they had died or dismissed her for some reason. Her story was not one of shame, but rather of misfortune. She had been tossed around as property and by now the man who she was with would not even take her as his wife. So Jesus showed her compassion, not judgment.

         He tells her something that would be considered blasphemy to both the Jews and the Samaritans. He says that soon, people will not worship in any temple. Instead, they will worship “in spirit and in truth.” Keep in mind, the Jews had destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BCE and it would not be rebuilt until after the Gospels were written in 135 CE. The Jewish temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt since the Babylonian Exile, but it would soon be destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, four decades after Jesus’ death.

         By saying that true worship is “in spirit and in truth” was affirming God’s omnipresence, that God is everywhere, so everywhere is where God should be worshipped. Jesus sought to unite, not divide. The Samaritans and Jews had been long divided and Jesus saw the reasons for division as petty. Also remember that Jesus was not trying to start a new religion. He was a Jewish rabbi who taught the truths of his own tradition, focusing on the God of Love that he knew and loved.

But what came to be known as Christianity through the efforts of Jesus’ disciples initially became a unifying faith. The apostle Paul preached to pagans throughout the Mediterranean region, converting them- not to the strict Judaism of his upbringing, but rather to a new faith in the truths of Jesus called the Christ. Early Christ-followers worshipped with the assurance that God’s Spirit was among them. They worshipped in Spirit, affirming the truth they had come to know. We too continue the long tradition of worship in spirit and in truth.

         Like Jesus, we are called to meet the “other” at the water cooler, at the pub, at the gas station, and in the church with a nonjudgmental attitude and a spirit of coexistence. Who is the Samaritan in our society? Perhaps it is the Muslim, the Sikh, the Hindu, or the Wiccan. Perhaps it’s the drug addict, the alcoholic, the sex worker, or the homeless. Or perhaps it’s the queer person in our midst that does not want to assimilate to heterosexual standards of gender and sexuality. Many of us are taught from childhood to identify the “other,” the “stranger” and to stay away from them. But this is not the way of Jesus. Jesus was a friend to all.

         According to the Gospel of John, Jesus made a follower out of the Samaritan woman at the well and she in turn brought others to follow Jesus. As Christians, Jesus’ Great Commission calls us to make disciples of all peoples. In the time of the Crusades, the commission was taken to mean that everyone who does not convert is to be slaughtered. We have come a long way since then, but that mentality still lingers. Around the world, people still kill in the name of Jesus.  And in the U.S., non-Christians are still very cautious of Christians who attempt to convert or “save” them. I know I’m pretty annoyed when a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon wakes me up on a Saturday morning!

         But that does not mean that we should not share our faith. A general guideline that I use for sharing faith is to only talk about what my faith means to me. I have my own testimony about what my faith has done for me in my life and I’m sure you have one too. In some churches, testimony is practiced regularly. In many other churches, it has fallen out of importance. In MCC, let’s never forget the power of testimony. Over four decades of ministry in MCC, we have fallen back on the notion that we will grow naturally by people coming to us after they have been wounded by other churches. This phenomenon still occurs, but we cannot rely on it. There are plenty of “spiritual but not religious” people out there who could benefit by joining in spiritual community with us. We do not tell people what they need to believe in order to earn a ticket to heaven or buy “fire insurance” from hell. We simply worship in spirit and in truth: teaching the Gospel of Unconditional Love that Jesus taught and basking in the presence of the Holy Spirit that we feel in our lives.

         Since religion has been given such a bad reputation, many people live in a spiritually barren desert. Remember that Moses led the Israelites through the desert… and they were thirsty! Someone say, “Thirsty!” The wilderness they were in was called “Sin.” That is not referring to sin as we know it, as in “error.” Rather, the desert of Sin was actually called Pelusium, which meant “clay.” So the dirt was probably clay with no water or vegetation. So the people complained to Moses, saying, “Why in the world did you bring us out here to die of thirst?? We’re thirsty! Give us water!” So Moses prayed and God told him, “Go to the rock at Horeb (“dried up ground”) and strike it with the staph you struck the Nile with.” So he did, and water gushed out for the people to drink. Moses called the place Massah, which means “trials and temptations” and Mirebah, which means “quarreling and strife.”

         Folks, the people in the desert are thirsty! There is plenty of quarreling and strife out there. People are thirsty for something else. There must be another way… and there is! Our own special brand of Christianity or anyone else’s is not the Living Water. The Living Water that Jesus spoke of can spring out of nowhere, just as it did in that dry desert long ago. You don’t need Moses’ staph to make the water flow. You don’t need some special incantation. All we need is a sincere desire to quench the thirst of our siblings in the human family.

         Don’t judge people’s resistance to anything called “spiritual.” They have every reason to be skeptical. Don’t ever tell anyone “I have something you don’t” or “You need Jesus.” Just live your life in such a way that the Living Water flows from your very being. And maybe, just maybe, someone will take a drink. And maybe, just maybe, someone will follow you back to this well we call MCC to share their cup with us. And maybe they’ll share their water with you too. Are you thirsty? I know I am. Drink deep with me. Amen.

Gone Fishin'

“Gone Fishin’ ”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 26, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Psalm 27

Matthew 4:12-23

Brace yourselves; I’m going to open with a corny joke. Feel free to laugh, moan, or both. “What do Spaniards use when they go fishing? Castanets.”

         That’s exactly what brothers James and John were doing when Jesus approached them at the Sea of Galilee: they “cast the nets.” They were doing their everyday job of catching fish. The Sea of Galilee was known to have an abundance of fish that allowed towns such as Capernaum to thrive.

The story seems simple at first glance. Jesus makes his home in a town by the sea and he starts recruiting disciples and preaching the gospel. Brothers James and John stopped doing their job and without argument decided to follow Jesus. The children’s Sunday school moral of the story: we should drop everything and follow Jesus too. The end.

But within this text, there is a lot of meaning written in. When we read Scripture, we need to keep in mind the meaning behind names. Let’s start with the setting. Capernaum means “consolation.” This city would be the starting place where Jesus began to show compassion, where he “consoled” those who were suffering. In the Hebrew Bible, Joshua named Naphtali as a place of refuge. In that region, Jesus would assure the people that God is their refuge. Galilee means “circuit.” Think of the Methodist circuit riders that went from town to town on horseback to preach the gospel. Jesus would travel all over the circuit of Galilee to preach his message.

Now what about the names of the people? The Hebrew version of Zebedee means “God will bestow.” John is the English translation of the Hebrew name meaning “God is gracious.”  James is the English translation (by way of Latin and Greek) of the Hebrew name Jacob. Jacob means, “May God protect.” Just within this family of a father and two sons, we get the message: “God will bestow grace and protection.”

From these meanings, we get a picture of what Jesus’ ministry was about. He came to show compassion, to give refuge, and to demonstrate God’s grace and protection. Go to the first verse of this passage and we see why the people need protection: “Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested.” We know that John the Baptist would soon be beheaded for his ministry. Jesus knew that as he empowered his people, they would need all the protection they could get.

After Jesus’ death, followers of Jesus were heavily persecuted for three centuries. They were crucified, stoned, beheaded, fed to wild animals, and the like.  They could not meet publicly, so they met underground in catacombs. They would mark the walls of the catacombs with an ichthys, which is the Greek word for “fish.” In the 20^th century, Christians started using this symbol again on bumper stickers. It’s commonly called the “Jesus fish.” The irony of our modern use of the ichthys is that it was a secret symbol for ancient Christians. If someone wanted to know if another was a follower of Jesus, s/he would draw one arc of the fish. If the other person was a Christian, s/he would draw the other arc to complete the symbol. They then knew they were safe with each other.

Before the Gay Liberation Movement began in the late 1960s, gay and lesbian people had their own symbols such as the lambda and code words to tell if the other person was gay. We too had to meet secretly, lest the McCarthy era agents find you and charge you with Communism and conspiracy against the government. The lambda stood for “liberation,” and in a similar way, that was the hope of those who drew the ichthys nearly two millennia ago.

Empire is empire. Oppression is oppression. Ego is ego. From Jesus’ time to today, there have been those who have sought to control the lives of others through force and fear. The Romans feared what the Christians could do if they organized, so they killed them. Then the Christian Roman Empire feared what the Pagans could do, so they killed them. Then the Nazis feared what the Jews could do, so they killed them. For centuries, the Jews and Muslims of the Holy Land have feared each other, so they kill each other daily. The KKK feared the freed slaves, so they lynched them. In 1978, Dan White was afraid of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and how he was organizing the gay community, so he shot Milk in the head. Hate crimes against all kinds of people still occur today, all rooted in xenophobia- the “fear of the other”.

If I were asked what the root of all evil was, I would say, “unnecessary fear.” The emotion of fear is natural. If I’m being chased by a rabid animal, my brain reacts with fear and I will run to safety. If I’m being chased by a rabid fundamentalist, I run to the safety of my God. Fear is natural. But unnecessary, ungrounded fear leads to oppression, suffering, and the disintegration of the human family and the earth.

The Psalm we heard today- Psalm 27- demonstrates what we should do when we face fear. The Psalmist so beautifully writes, “God is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? God is the stronghold of my life; of whom should I be afraid?” These are rhetorical questions, but their answer is plain: no one and nothing! Now don’t go testing God’s protection by putting yourself in a dangerous situation. God may have kept Daniel safe in the lion’s den, but that was just a metaphor. We all have lions (and tigers and bears, oh my!) in our lives. There are people who will seek your destruction. That’s not paranoia; that’s just the truth.

God has promised to protect your spirit from the teeth of the beast if you allow God to. I know some of you who have been bitten by spiritual snakes. But instead of turning away and allowing God to protect you, you went back to the snake again and again and kept getting bitten. Maybe being bitten and surviving makes you feel tough. Maybe the venom gives you a high. But what Spirit is telling us today is this: Stop it! Stop letting the snake bite. Stop answering those phone calls from poisonous people. Stop going to churches where they call you an abomination. Stop injecting yourself with the venom of worry over what may come to pass. Stop listening to preachers and political leaders that are trying to keep you down. And perhaps most importantly: stop storing those poisonous messages within your mind and your heart. God can only keep you in Her refuge if you turn away from the negative and focus on the positive. Positivity is the anti-venom.

Just like Jesus, we are recruiting today. We aren’t here to save souls from the fires of eternal damnation; we are here to save lives from a living hell. There is a lot of poison in the world, but it’s all an illusion. If anyone calls you anything less than a child of the living God, it is an illusion and a lie. Only Love is real because God is Love and God is Eternal and Omnipresent.

There is an image that I want you to keep in your minds this week. The Ojibwe Native Americans started the tradition long ago of making what we know as dream catchers. As the Ojibwe legend goes, the Spider Woman Asibikaashi is the protector of their people. But as the Ojibwe people began to spread out to different parts of the country, the Spider Woman had trouble finding them. So they began making Dream Catchers to represent her protection. It is said that when a person dreams, all dreams are filtered through the web of the dream catcher. The bad ones go through and out the window. The good ones get stuck in the web, trickle down the feathers, and return to the person.

There’s nothing magical about dream catchers or any other object. Many people wear crosses or other symbols around their necks as good luck charms or for protection. But the objects themselves do nothing. If a sacred object does anything, it reminds us of the power of God to protect. The dream catchers that hang above my bed remind me that I can allow God to filter my thoughts and my dreams. The ichthys reminded ancient Christians that God was their refuge and strength. The lambda reminded gay and lesbian people that liberation was on its way.

Whatever symbol works for you, use it as a daily reminder that you alone are in charge of your thoughts and feelings about what is going on around you. Not only is the positivity that results good for you; it is good for our church.

There is a fad in the New Thought community called “The Secret” or “The Law of Attraction.” It is said that whatever you think and feel, you attract more of in your life. Regardless of the hype behind the fad, I find this to be a spiritual truth. You attract into your life whatever you focus on. This law also works with communities. If our church chooses to focus on negativity, more negativity will walk through the door. But imagine the possibilities of our community if we all together chose to focus on the positive. Imagine what miracles could happen here if we all made positive thinking a spiritual practice.

I am calling you and I alike to repentance. Remember that to repent means to “turn away.” Choose today to turn away from the poison, turn away from the darkness, for “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” Do you hear Jesus calling? “Come, follow me. Let’s fish for people!” Cast your nets with me! Amen.

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.