“Many Gifts/The Greatest Gift”

(January 17, 2010) Much as I attempted a segue between the two– right about 12m30s if you’re looking for just the second half, this recording really contains two sermons, or one sermon and one ’special comment.’

Each of us has a particular way in which we live out our spirituality, unique to us. We can, however, try to learn more about our spirituality type and so celebrate and strengthen who we are as spiritual people (rather than beating ourselves up for not being as spiritual as we think we should be!). Do you experience your faith with your thoughts and words, with your emotions, with your being, or with your actions? What are the things that move you and help you feel more connected to the Holy?*

Although there is no one right way to be a spiritual person, there are some wrong ways (like blaming victims of natural disasters for their plight), and there is one ‘greatest way,’ the way or the gift of love. This past week, we have seen powerful examples of those who gave the greatest gift, some of them with their lives, and we give thanks to God for their love and witness.** (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)

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notes:

*The tool I’m inviting my congregations to use to reflect upon their spirituality types comes from Discover Your Spirituality Type by Corrine Ware. Her work (particularly not the inventory of questions) is not reproduced anywhere online that I can point you to, but a couple of places have some resources based on her model, which may help illustrate what I’m describing. I will not, however, upload the specific tool I am giving the congregations, to protect Ms. Ware’s intellectual property.

**In my comments I mention the death toll in Haiti as 50,000, which was the American Red Cross estimate as of Sunday morning. Since then, especially since the likelihood of finding survivors has been drastically reduced, that estimate has at least doubled or tripled. Likewise, the confirmed North American victims have increased in number since Saturday night. Finally, I mention volunteer Jean Arnwine of Dallas, TX and Rev. Sam Dixon, head of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, having lost their lives. They were joined on Sunday by Rev. Clinton Rabb, leader of the United Methodist Church’s volunteer programing, who was in the same hotel as Rev. Dixon, meeting to discuss health care in Haiti. Rev. Rabb was rescued from the rubble on Friday, but passed away Sunday as a result of his injuries.

“My Beloved Child”

(January 10, 2010) Baptism is about many things: a calling from God, a commitment to a way of life and service, but first and foremost, a claiming. Baptism is a time when God claims us as children– or more to the point, when it is revealed to us that God has always claimed us as children. As we ‘remember our baptism,’ we do not call to mind a day or a ceremony, but a promise, an eternal truth: that just as surely and deeply s God loves and claims Jesus, God loves and claims each of us as children. (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22) [closing prayer section has been abbreviated].

“Lost and Found”

(December 27, 2009) Jesus gives his parents a scare when he goes missing, and they travel a day down the road before realizing he isn’t with them. How far afield do we get before we realize we’ve wandered away from Christ? Are we ready to rush back to find him in God’s house or wherever we may have left him? (Luke 2:41-52)

“Tidings of Great Joy”

(December 24, 2009) In a world addicted to bad news, the Christmas message is a powerful counter-cultural argument: that there is in fact good news for all people. As the imagined chorus of angels, we are freed to proclaim this good news far and wide. Christmas Eve 2009 (Luke 2:1-20).

“Tidings for the Downtrodden”

(December 20, 2009) On Christmas we don’t celebrate only how Jesus was born, but who he was and is, and for that we can get no better source than his own mother. In the passage known as the Magnificat, Mary describe what Jesus means to her, an unwed peasant girl: salvation, deliverance, and good news for the poor and the lowly. If we are to celebrate Jesus, then, we must hear his coming as a call to action for us, to bring good news to the most poor and needy in our communities and in our world. I suggest that for our community in Central Vermont, this might be the time for a call to action around housing and shelter for those who are without such, but challenge you to find the greatest need wherever you are, that Christmas might truly come for everyone alive. (Luke 1:46-55)

“Tidings of Possibility”

(December 13, 2009) We celebrate the birth of Christ as a miracle, but it sometimes seems that the miracle is not that he is born or how that may have happened. The miracle is that joy happens, even and especially in the midst of tremendous pain and fear and suffering. This is good news especially for those who are in pain or in fear this holiday season– that with God, all things, even unexpected joy, are possible. (Luke 1:26-38)

I didn’t watch the President’s speech last night.

In fact, while President Obama was addressing the nation, I was meeting with a couple to plan for their wedding at the end of this month. He’s in the military, and preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, and wants to be sure that his fiancee and their daughter are provided for, should the unthinkable happen. So they’ve moved up their plans for a big fall wedding, and are having a small, simple ceremony on New Year’s Eve.

That’s the human face of this decision to me.

I don’t mean the smaller, earlier wedding, I mean the fleeting look of fear in their eyes when they stammer past the reason for it. “You know, if– just in case.”

I’m a pacifist. It’s not a fun job. It’s actually quite difficult, because I am forced to spread my hands and shrug my shoulders when asked if we should have interceded to avert genocide in Rwanda, or entered World War II sooner to potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. When faced with brutal tyrants and people hell-bent on slaughter, the pacifist has little to stand on. In the hypothetical maniac-with-a-gun scenario, I am forced to admit that I would probably defend myself or my family out of sheer survival instinct, although I’d consider it a grave sin if I killed another even in self-defense, and then forced to consider yet again how that is different from someone who considers her country her family.

This is why I’m a pastor and not a politician, because the personal pacifism I espouse doesn’t work well on an international level. I recognize that the ideal of working for peace doesn’t happen all at once, and doesn’t necessarily, if ever, come from the top down.

Still, I’d hoped.

I’d hoped we finally had a leader with the courage to make the hard decisions, although I admit, I don’t even know what the right one is. On an international scene, I have no idea how to turn the other cheek or seek a third way, not when there are lives in the balance whatever we choose. But I’d hoped for a President who would try to walk that balance. Maybe I’d hoped that peace would start with *him*, because that would take some of the load off of me.

In the end, that’s the only place it does start. It’s a kind of rare thing for a hymn to convey truly perfect theology, but “Let there be peace on earth” is pretty darn close. The peace that was meant to be starts when we vow “to take each moment and live each moment in peace, eternally.” It’s hard on a day like today, but it’s my prayer anyway. A prayer for the world, for the President, for the troops on all sides of conflict, for the civilians for whom there seems to be good answer no matter what, for those who’ve lost loved ones and those who have loved ones that will be lost in the months ahead.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.