reallifepastor

            That song is a great meditation on today’s Gospel story (“Mr. Simon,” by Ken Medema).  Thanks for singing it, David.  Beautiful as it was, though, I think this one might work even better:

Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble // when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror // ‘cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me // I must be one real righteous man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble // but I’m doing the best that I can.

            Based on how Jesus portrays him in this parable, humility does seem hard for the Pharisee.  He comes to the temple to pray, to have a little one-on-one time with God and in the midst of praying, notices someone across the way, someone everyone knows is a sinner… which, happily, reminds the Pharisee of just how good he himself is. 

Now, there’s a great reason to keep your eyes open while you pray.  It gives you a chance to look around, compare yourself to others, and assure yourself—and God—of just how good you really are.  When the Pharisee does his little bit of prayer-peeking and compares himself to his fellow pray-er, he hits the jackpot.  He’s no sinner!  He’s no thief or rogue or tax collector, like that guy over there!  He fasts twice a week.  He tithes.  “I thank you, God, that I’m not like that loser over there!”  Rather than praying to God and giving thanks for all he has, the Pharisee tells God how good he, the Pharisee, is.  How lucky God must be to know him!

Luke tells us that Jesus “9”””   told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”  Jesus “told this parable to some… some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.  So, if we don’t trust in ourselves that we are righteous, can we just skip this parable?  Can we skip the sermon and head straight out to Trunk or Treat and see what the Durkees have cooked up this year?

            I guess we could skip this parable…but if we trust in ourselves that we don’t trust in ourselves, um, aren’t we trusting in ourselves?  Man.  That Jesus was a sneaky one, wasn’t he?  I guess we’d better stick with it…just to be safe.  I’m sure the Durkees will wait.

            So, whether Pharisee, tax collector or innocent bystander, what might this parable say to us?

            It’s a story, right?  The formula likely would have been familiar to the hearers.  Kind of like, “A priest, a rabbi, and a Baptist preacher go into a bar….”  A joke like that works because of characteristics we’ve come to associate with priests, rabbis, and Baptist preachers.  The priest is going to refer to the Pope; the rabbi is going to refer to worshiping on Saturday; and the Baptist preacher is going to take up an offering.  That’s just how the format works.

            So, when Jesus starts out, “Two men went to the Temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector,” the hearers would have been prepared for the Tax Collector to be the butt of the joke.  Because everybody hated tax collectors.  And Pharisees were some of the most faithful people there were, at least according to the Pharisees.  So, when they heard the beginning of the story, Jesus’ hearers probably were settling in for a story about how the tax collector was a sinner.

            Except, that’s not what Jesus does, is it?  He turns the predictable formula on its head when the Pharisee prays loudly about all the sins he hasn’t committed and the Tax Collector prays fervently for all the sins he has committed.  And who goes down to his house justified?  The faithful Pharisee?  Nope.  It’s the Tax Collector.  And why?  Because he is humble. 

            Humility.  Now there’s a popular topic.  Mac Davis is right.  It’s hard to be humble….but not as hard as I once thought it was, not since I discovered the Rule of Benedict.

            Benedict wrote his Rule in 5^th c Italy.  He’d been living in community but then had enough of that and went to live in a cave as a hermit.  He was happy in his cave, but a group of men who wanted to live as monks found him and asked him to be their leader.  Old Ben sighed deeply, then relented.  The Rule represents his ideas about what it takes to live in community.

            The Rule is the longest continuously used monastic guidelines in existence.  It’s over 1500 years old.  It’s the Rule followed by the nuns at “my” monastery, Our Lady of Grace.

            The thing I like about the Rule is just how practical it is.  If someone doesn’t read well, Benedict says, they shouldn’t be a reader in worship.  If someone doesn’t sing well, please don’t ask them to be the cantor.  And that first psalm everyone sings at prayer?  Sing it slowly and sing all the verses…that’ll give people who are running late time to get there.  And for heavens’ sake, please don’t pray long prayers.  Nobody likes that.  My favorite practical tidbit is to give yourself time to go to the bathroom before you come to prayer.

            The chapter I didn’t like initially was chapter 7, the one on humility.  Benedict outlined 12 steps of humility.  And in contrast to the rest of the Rule, it’s pretty harsh sounding stuff.  Closer to humiliation than humility.

            Which is why I’m glad Sr. Joan Chittister has “translated” Benedict’s idea of humility into 21^st century terms.  I won’t go into all the 12 steps…you can read Sr. Joan’s book for that.  If you boil the Benedictine concept of humility down to its basics, though, it means to “understand (our) place in the universe,” to have a sense of our unique place in life, the only place we are put together to occupy.  (Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, 55)  We don’t think of ourselves more highly than we are; we don’t think of ourselves more lowly than we are.  True humility is knowing ourselves as we are, which is knowing ourselves as God knows us.

When we know—and accept—ourselves as we are, it becomes so much easier to accept others as they are.  It’s when we start inflating our own worth—or deflating it—that we become annoyed with or disdainful of or afraid of others.  If we are in sync with our own location in the world, other people occupying their place in the world won’t bother us.

So, when the Pharisee spends all that time in his prayer inflating his own worth and deflating the Tax Collector’s, he’s not being honest about himself.  He’s not being honest with himself.  He’s not being himself.  Instead of using his prayer to connect with God, he uses it to hide from God.  Not being honest about his own foibles, he’s not able to receive justification or grace from God.  How can you receive forgiveness and grace if you never acknowledge you’ve done anything wrong?  The Pharisee leaves the Temple that day exactly the way he came in.  Which, when you think about it, is just plain sad.

The Tax Collector, though, goes home “justified.”  Why?  Because he knows he is a sinner.   As a tax collector, he was part of a corrupt system that gouged the poor and enriched the wealthy.  (NIB, 215-17)   When he goes to the Temple that day, the Tax Collector understands his place in the universe.  He’s remorseful for taking more—way more—than he needs…and exploiting the poor in the process.  Aware of himself and his sin, the Tax Collector comes clean before God.  And because he comes clean—with himself and with God—he is able to experience forgiveness.  And grace.  And wholeness.  He goes home justified.  He goes home feeling God’s love.  He goes home a new, more humble man.

I haven’t done it in a while, but occasionally for the Prayer of Confession, I’ll introduce it by saying, “Tell God how it is with you today.”  Do you ever do that?  Just tell God how it is, no editing, no religious language, no here’s-what-I-think-I’m-supposed-to-say?  Sometimes it’s hard simply to be ourselves.  We have to be so many people, wear so many hats, so many masks, for others, that it’s hard sometimes simply to be ourselves, perhaps especially with God.

Anne Lamott has a new book about prayer.  She’s a great pray-er!  As you can imagine, though, not many of her prayers are appropriate for Sunday morning worship.  But for individual prayer time?  They work very well!  One of my favorites:  “God, please help me not to be such an ***.”  See?  That’s an authentic prayer.  (Help, Thanks, Wow.)

If you were to tell God how it is with you today, I mean, how it really is with you today, what would you say?  As we sing a hymn of reflection, take some time to tell God how it is with you today.  (Sing, “Just As I Am”)

Just as I am, without one plea but that your blood was shed for me, and that you called inviting me, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, Fightings and fears within, without, O lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, you will receive, will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;  Because your promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, your love unknown has broken every barrier down; Now to be yours, and yours alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and hopes for our wholeness.  Amen.

Kimberleigh Buchanan  ©  2013

Luke 18:9-14  (NRSV)

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” ¹³But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

(This sermon was preached by Rev. Laurie Moeller at Pilgrimage UCC.  Thanks, Laurie!)

On our back deck we have this enormous poplar tree growing through the middle.  Every few years we have to cut the hole a little bigger to accommodate its widening trunk and every year we marvel at how big it has grown since we moved into the house.  The tree offers marvelous shade in the summer and plenty of work in the fall clearing off its discarded leaves.  We love this tree.  One day my oldest daughter was looking up through the dense green leaves flitting about in the breeze and said – wouldn’t it be great if God made this tree grow money.  And we all laughed about the perils of having a money tree in our back yard.  Neighbors coming over to steal from it.  No way to protect it.  Eventually someone would come and cut it down while we were away and try to take it away.  We all quickly realized that the money tree idea was fraught with problems and potential peril. 

.  Money can really bring out the worst in people.  We know that is true – even in church.  Especially in church.  Money makes us crazy and irrational.  Each and every one of us struggles with having enough – no matter what our accounts contain or what our portfolio shows.  Money represents for us a comfort, freedom, status and security we cannot deny now matter how enlightened we are, no matter how captivated by the holy we are, no matter how old or young, no matter who we are or where we are.  Money has a hold on us – and it has a hold on our churches.

We of all people should be able to see that our comfort, freedom, status and security come from God and God alone.  We of all people should be able to see money as vaporous capital – a mirage of comfort and an imposter of freedom.  We of all people should be able to see stewardship as not on only essential to the life of the church in fact it is essential to the life of our souls.  This certainly may not be true for you, but is true for your Methodist friends – our sight, our vision, our ability to see clearly about the things of money is impaired. 

So how do we address that exactly – our vision problems.  Like most everything we face in the church – Jesus addressed our fading eyesight.  He heals the blind – with more than just spit and mudpaste. 

Jesus one day was walking along the outskirts of town when he saw something – 10 men with leprosy.  Luke tells us that he actually heard them before he saw them. They were at a distance as the law would dictate, and they were yelling out for him so he looked up and saw them.  And when Jesus saw them – he instructed them to go to the priests – and as they did they were made clean.  They were healed.  But, one of them, when he saw that he was clean, turned back to praise God. 

This 10^th guy – this guy received healing not only of this scaly body – but his eyes got fixed as well.  It was only when he saw clearly the miracle of his healing that he could turn back.  It was only when his gaze fixed not on getting to the priests for approval but on the truth of new life – of his new life that he turned back.  His vision was the miracle.  And I wonder even in the church – how many times do we see the healing – the gift of new life?  How often are we so focused on where we need to go next or whose approval we need now – do we miss it.  We miss the holy swirling about our souls healing us and restoring us?  If you are like me – we are blind by our business.  We are blind by our good intentions and filled calendars.  We are blind by the needs of the church so much so that we cannot see the needs of the world.

So I have to ask you – have you at some point been healed of your suffering?  Have you at some point felt the lifting of your burden or the easing of your sorrow?  Have you at some point awakened with hope after a long dark night of despair?  Have you known that Jesus saw you – saw your pain and hoped you would see it healed?  If you have, then turn back and praise God.

Have you at some point had enough?  Have you found yourself able to sit comfortably at a feast or have you felt welcomed to the table?  Have you felt known?  Have you felt loved?  Have you nourished deeply?  If you have, then turn back and praise God!

Has this church – has this congregation experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit?  Have you been able to keep the lights on and the pastor paid?  Have you come together to give abundantly to those in need?  Have you people who champion the cause of human suffering?  Have you people who see the need for all to be welcome – for those who are often turned away by your sister churches to have a place?  If you have, then turn back and praise God!

That day that my family was so excited about the idea of a tree that grew money – my husband said – yes just think if only this tree produced money instead of oxygen for us to breathe.  Just think how wonderful it would be.  It wasn’t until he said that – until he helped us see that even as we sighed about not having enough money – we were breathing in life sustaining oxygen given to us by our tree.  The very one we wanted to convert into a money tree.

We have to rub the sleep from our eyes and see the abundance of God’s grace all around us before we can ask ourselves what to do with our money.  We have to get clear about what is real and powerful and – we have to be the 10% of the population that turns back – that stops and says OH MY!  Look what has happened!  We have to be that one guy – that one person, that one church who is so very overjoyed with the grace of God that we can do nothing by sing songs of joy and thanksgiving. 

This week as you ponder both the needs of the church and the dreams of the church – consider first the abundance of God’s mercy and grace all around you.  Take a deep breath – turn back and give thanks!

Of all the places we could choose to be today, this place, for this occasion, would be last on the list.  Frank died too soon.   He wasn’t done yet.  We weren’t done with him yet.  We miss him.  More than words can say.

In posts to the CNN alumni Facebook page the day after Frank died, one phrase predominated.  Well over half the people posting called Frank a “good guy.”  Others called him “patient,” “caring,” and “fun.” “He was a lovely human being,” one person said.  The journalist in Frank likely would have commented—patiently—on the redundancy of so many “good guys”… but in this instance, we know better than Frank… because a single “good guy” won’t do.  We all know Frank was a good guy…but with his passing, we also all needed to say it…because Frank wasn’t just a good guy.  He was a good guy to us…to every person in this room.

For many of you at CNN, it was his leadership, especially on the overnights.  Or his help in solving crises or getting the job done and getting it done well….and always doing so with a smile.  One person said this:  “CNN was a much better place because of Frank Hyland…I am a better person for having worked with him and calling him my friend.”  The people at CNN know —from personal experience—that Frank was a good guy.

We know it here, too, at Pilgrimage.  One person learned it while running in her first Peachtree Road Race.  Frank ran along beside her encouraging her all the way.  Another person remembered Frank’s helping out with office work…even planning worship services and printing bulletins.  In the early days of Pilgrimage, the church likely wouldn’t have survived without Frank’s dedication.  Frank served in many, many, many roles in this church—as President, Deacon, Sound Guy, writer, putter-together of pictorial directories, changer of the sign.

One person relates how much she appreciated Frank’s leadership of the pastoral search committee.  “He treated everyone on that committee with respect and dignity,” the person said.   As the committee’s final candidate, I can say he treated candidates that way, too.  The “Hands that work for God” banner reminds us of how many of us experienced Frank’s “good guy-ness”— by all the things he did.

The Pride banner is displayed because Frank also revealed his “good guy-ness” in the stands he took, particularly his stand for inclusivenss.  When I asked the congregation for stories about Frank, one person wrote this.  “I cannot give a great deal of detail because this happened the week before we came to Pilgrimage.  We had called [the church office] and spoken with the secretary.  We were looking for a church that would take a stand against the Cobb County Family Values ordinance.  [The secretary] told us the minister was on vacation; a layperson would be delivering the sermon.  We decided to wait until the minister returned for our first visit. 

“The speaker was Frank Hyland and his message was “legend” by the time we joined.  It is my understanding that Frank challenged the church to not sit back and be silent on an issue that was tantamount to “gay bashing”.  His message was a pivotal event in the journey upon which the church embarked that led to our declaration as an Open and Affirming church.  In his own quiet, thoughtful way, Frank could challenge the rest of the church in a way that no one else could.” 

Frank was a good guy because he lived his belief in the dignity of every human being.

The third banner is the one I most associate with our Pilgrimage community.  The line “Let it begin with me” comes from the song we sing at the end of every worship service—“Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”  Frank lived the words to our congregational song.  He was a person of deep integrity.

One sign of that integrity is Frank’s long, strong friendship with his friend Mickey Sheridan.  Mickey is the guy with whom Frank traveled cross-country.  They rode their bikes—as in BI-cycles—from New York to California.  When they hit the Pacific Ocean, they headed back east and got as far as Lincoln, Nebraska.  In Lincoln, Frank got a job tending bar at a bowling alley.

One night, two sisters came in to bowl, one named Betty, the other named…Mary.  The rest, as they say, is history.   After graduating from THE University—that’s the University of Nebraska for those not in the know—Frank took a job with CNN…which brought him and Mary to Georgia…where they joined a church that had begun—where else?– in a bowling alley!

For health reasons, Mickey is unable to join us today, but he wrote this tribute that I’d like to share with you.

“The shortening days of autumn and the accompanying daily rush to twilight may serve as a metaphor for the loss of our beloved Frank; we are resigned to the winter of our sorrow and spring will never come to those of us who choose to contemplate that loss.  But we can be consoled in the knowledge that Frank’s life could surely serve as a model for any human being that strives for hard work, dedication to family and friends, as well as personal sacrifice in service to those he loved; his uncommon kindness, splendid intelligence, and great good humor also will live on in our hearts and minds always…

“Happily Frank had the great good fortune to have Mary as his wife for over thirty years, and he was the fondest and proudest father of Tony, Teresa, and Mike.  Then came the grandchildren; Teresa’s first-born, Aiden, who we learn will soon have a little brother.  Next was Tony and wife Sabrina’s son Ryan.  The newest will learn of their grandfather through photos and the cherished memories of their parents; Aiden will no doubt recall the happy times of his early childhood with Frank.

“Speaking personally, in over 43 years of having the privilege of Frank’s company, there was never a harsh word between us; surely a remarkable feat and a testament to our friendship, a friendship that will endure and that death could never erase.  May he rest in peace and may Mary, Tony, Teresa, Mike and all the family find comfort and peace in knowing how much he was loved and respected by all he met, and may Tony and Mike always be safe in their service to this country.  In the final analysis it comes to this—we were all the better for having known him.”  Indeed.  We are all better for having known Frank. 

We haven’t seen a lot of Frank the past few years here at church.  He stopped regularly attending Pilgrimage and started going on pilgrimages…on his Harley.

Those who knew Frank know how much he loved to ride.  It’s easy when something like this accident happens to slip into second-guessing.  In this instance—don’t.  When he died, Frank was doing something he loved—with the woman he loved like life itself.  This accident has taken Frank from us.  It took him too soon.  The grief of that loss is real; recovering from it will be hard.  But all of us can take comfort in the fact that at the end, Frank was doing what he loved.

We also can take comfort in knowing Frank was not alone when he died.  A man who saw the accident happen immediately ran to Frank and was with him when he died.  You all have told me that God sent John-Eric and Allison to Frank and Mary Saturday before last.  Here’s what I want to say:  God didn’t finish working the day of the accident.  God will continue to send people into your lives to help you as you grieve… because grief is not something we do on our own.  We need each other in times of loss.  And just as God became present through John-Eric and Allison, so will God become present–again and again and again–in the people who will come to you all, Mary, Tony, Teresa, and Mike.  The Psalmist reminds us:  “God is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Ps. 34:18)  One of the ways God draws near to us when our hearts are broken is in the presence of other people. 

God also speaks to us in the words of others.  Printed in your bulletin is a quote by one well-acquainted with grief.  Perhaps his words will help you in your own grieving process.

Do not hurry as you walk with grief, it does not help the journey.  

Walk slowly, pausing often: do not hurry as you walk with grief.  

Be not disturbed by memories that come unbidden. 

Swiftly forgive, and let Christ speak for you unspoken words.  

Unfinished conversation will be resolved in Him.  

Be not disturbed. 

Be gentle with the one who walks with grief.  

If it is you, be gentle with yourself.  

Swiftly forgive, walk slowly, pausing often. 

Take time; be gentle as you walk with grief.  

Mary, Tony, Teresa, Mike, be gentle with yourselves as you walk with this grief of losing Frank…because once you’ve gotten through it, once you’ve healed, you’ll be free to live joyfully again…and that joyful living will be “a really good” tribute to the “really good guy” we knew and loved so well, Frank Hyland.

In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and who is near to us…always.

Amen.

                The aptly named Jester Hairston was being playful when he wrote “Poor Man Lazarus.”  It’s upbeat, catchy, singable.  It’ll probably be stuck in our brains all week.

            The song is upbeat, but the story it’s based on is not.  “A rich man dressed in purple and fine linen feasted sumptuously every day.”  Lying at the rich man’s gate was Lazarus who was “²⁰covered with sores and ²¹longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.”  All Lazarus wanted were the rich man’s table scraps… But he didn’t even get that.  Why not?  Was it because the rich man hated him?  Was it because the rich man was cruel?  No.  Lazarus’ suffering worsened simply because the rich man was too busy with his sumptuous feasting to see him.

It’s a stark picture Jesus draws.  One man blinded by greed; the other dehumanized by poverty.  One man well-dressed and well-fed; the other man pushing away the stray dogs licking his sores.  One man has everything; and yet it’s the other man in this story who has a name.

Isn’t that interesting?  The rich man has everything a person could want in this life—except a name.  In this story, the man is completely identified with his possessions.  Without his possessions, he is nothing.  Some sources (including the anthem sung by the ensemble) refer to the rich man as “Divies”…but divies is based on the Latin adjective for “rich.”  So, even those sources that do name him still only identify him with his possessions.   

In contrast, the poor man is named:  Lazarus.  He’s not identified by his social class or ethnicity; he’s not identified by his possessions or lack of them; he’s not identified by his illness or clothing or appearance or even by his need.  He is identified by his personhood, by his humanity.  He has a name—Lazarus. 

The rich man and Lazarus both die.  Lazarus goes to heaven…and finds solace in the bosom of Abraham.  The rich man goes, yes, “straight to hell,” “where he was being tormented.  He looks up, sees Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side, and calls^*24 out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.”  Now the roles are reversed.  Lazarus has all he needs—eternal rest in God’s presence.  The rich man has nothing—not even a drop of water.

²⁵Abraham says, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus evil things; now he is comforted, and you are in agony.  ²⁶Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.”

²⁷He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house to ²⁸warn my brothers, so they will not also come into this place of torment.”  Man!  He still doesn’t get it!  He’s still ordering Lazarus around like a slave—actually, he’s ordering God to order Lazarus around.  And he wants his brothers to change their ways, not because it’s the right thing to do, but to avoid the torment of hell.  The rich man hasn’t learned a thing.

“²⁹Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” The man says³⁰, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”  Abraham says³¹, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

So, what would have convinced his brothers to follow the way of Jesus?  // What if they’d seen their brother caring for Lazarus?  The class system in first century Palestine was unforgiving.  If his well-to-do brothers had seen their wealthy sibling caring for the destitute Lazarus, empathizing with his suffering, looking for and finding the image of God in him?  If they had seen their brother acting with compassion toward Lazarus, might those men have been moved to change their lives?  Maybe.  But after he’s dead, he can’t teach them anything. 

Today is World Communion Sunday…a day that’s all about seeing each other, about looking for and finding the image of God in our fellow human beings, about sharing our resources and feasting sumptuously together.  One wise person has described World Communion Sunday as “the day we stop at the gate and recognize one another.”  It’s the day we welcome everyone to the table—no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey, no matter their social class or ethnicity or sexual orientation, no matter how many possessions they do or don’t have. 

Editor of the bi-weekly magazine Christian Century, John Buchanan relates this story told to him by a pastor in a small Scottish village.  The pastor had served as “an infantryman in the British army in World War II and ended up in a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland.  The conditions were dreadful.  There was no heat, and prisoners were given a single bowl of thin soup and a small crust of bread daily.  Men were starving, sick, filthy, desperate.  Suicide was a very real option.  All one had to do was run toward the perimeter of the camp and leap against the barbed-wire fence.  Guards immediately would shoot and kill anyone trying to escape.

“In the middle of the night he walked to the perimeter and sat down beside the fence to think about going through with it.  He heard movement in the darkness from the other side of the fence.  It was a Polish farmer.  The man thrust his hand through the barbed wire and handed the man half of a potato.  In heavily accented English he said, ‘The Body of Christ.’” (Christian Century, Oct. 2, 2013)

How would the rich man’s brothers have learned of the need to show compassion to others?  By someone coming back from the dead?  Probably not.  By seeing someone alive, someone they knew, someone who had everything the world could give… If the rich man’s brothers had seen him seeing—really seeing—Lazarus….not as a vagrant or an inconvenience, but as a human being created in the image of God, someone in desperate need of food and clothing and care…  If the rich man’s brothers had seen their sibling caring for Lazarus, might that have convinced them of the importance of sharing God’s love with others? 

Might our seeing and caring for others convince those around us of the same?

In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and hopes for our wholeness.  Amen.

Kimberleigh Buchanan  © 2013

Luke 16:19-31

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²²The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.^* The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.^{* 24}He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” ²⁵But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” ²⁷He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” ²⁹Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” ³⁰He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” ³¹He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

            “Wade in the Water; wade in the water, children.  Wade in the water.  God’s gonna trouble the water.”  These words take on a whole new meaning when you see pictures of the Colorado floods. 

            Have you seen some of those pictures?  So much water—everywhere!  Life-giving water…in all the places it shouldn’t be.  Life-giving water…seeping, flowing, crashing into houses, ruining them.  Life-giving water…taking lives.  The tragic irony of it…the immense scale of it…the feelings of helplessness it evokes…  There’s something about floods that overwhelms,paralyzes, terrifies.

            That’s where the disciples are in today’s Gospel story.  It’s early in Jesus’ ministry; he’s been preaching around the countryside to beat the band.  People come from everywhere to hear him speak.  At one of his stops, Jesus is told that his mother and siblings are there to see him.  Rather than greet them, Jesus turns to the crowd and says:  “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”  

            After all this preaching and teaching and dealing with awkward family dynamics, Jesus is pooped.  That might be why, rather than traveling around the northern end of the Sea of Galilee by foot–and having to teach along the way– he and the disciples take the boat.  Out on the open sea—that’s probably the only place he could get a little peace and quiet.  Somewhere in that boat, the tired rabbi fell asleep.

            What a peaceful time it must have been!  Jesus asleep in the hold; Peter and James quietly discussing things he’d been teaching.  Andrew and Nathaniel passing around bread and water.  A nice rest in the midst of what quickly was becoming a tumultuous schedule.

            Except, tumults aren’t only to be found on shore, are they?  Sometimes, tumults happen off shore.  Sometimes, the tempest comes just when we’re starting to relax.  Sometimes, the storm disrupts our comfort and—before we know it—our lives are in danger.  That’s what happens to the disciples in the boat.  One minute, they’re having a nice, quiet trip across the lake; the next, the sea is raging and they’re scared for their lives.

            Our journey—“our,” referring to everyone on the planet—our journey is similar to that of the disciples.  We’ve been sailing along.  And what a pleasant ride we’ve had!  Plenty of food; plenty of clean water; predictable seasons; sufficiently thick polar ice caps; rain forests with enough trees to breathe for the entire planet.  We’ve been sailing along in relative comfort, reflecting quietly on the accomplishments of recent centuries, taking stock of what we’ve learned, heading toward a new shore, a new era of discovery and adventure…

            …then, without warning, it seems, the storm hits:  ice caps melting at a rate faster than expected; mass extinctions occurring at an alarming pace; clean water sources rapidly dwindling; carbon saturation in the atmosphere reaching the point of no return.  Like the disciples, our pleasant journey suddenly has turned terrifying.  Also like the disciples, we don’t just think we’re in danger.  We actuallyare in danger.

            So, what do we do?  In the midst of this storm of environmental crisis, wading through water that’s everywhere except where it’s supposed to be, in danger of losing everything we once held dear–What do we do?

            When the disciples found themselves terrified in the storm, they didn’t hesitate:  they wokeup Jesus.  “Master!  We’re perishing!”  In response to their desperate cries, Jesus rises, rebukes the storm, and there is calm.  There’s also a mini-lecture:  “Where is your faith?” their savior asks.

            The disciples don’t seem to hear the lecture, or at least don’t take it in.  They’re still too stunned by what they’ve just seen.  “Afraid and amazed,” we’re told, “they said one to another: ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’”  That’s something, isn’t it?  They ask Jesus to save them, then they’re “amazed” when he does.  Oh, those silly disciples!  Not brave enough to deal with the storm by themselves; not faithful enough to believe it when Jesus deals with it for them.  Those… silly… disciples ….

            Huh.  The disciples might have been silly, but they weren’t stupid, were they?  They had the messiah, the son of God right there on the boat with them!  And they didn’t hesitate to call on him.  They weren’t proud.  They weren’t guilt-ridden.  They weren’t afraid to confess their need.  They were in danger.  They were scared.  They wanted to live.  And they knew they wouldn’t be able to live without Jesus’ intervention, so they woke him up. 

            That option is open to us, too, you know.  In this tumultuous storm of environmental decline, we, too, can wake up Jesus—or maybe it would be better to say “wake up TO Jesus.”  Because Jesus isn’t asleep; but we’ve neglected him so long that we’ve gone to sleep to his presence in our lives.  Come on! You might say.  Isn’t that something Baptists and Pentecostals do?  We educated, progressive Christians—we don’t call on the name of Jesus, do we?  We don’t look at the frightening circumstances of our lives and ask Jesus to save us, do we?

            Why not?  Why not call on Jesus to save us from this tumult?  Why not trust the one in whom and through whom and with whom God created all that is?  Why not ask the person who reminds us that God loves the material world so much, that God chose to become part of it?  Why else would Godcome to us as a human being, except to experience fully the goodness and beauty and joy of creation?Yes!  Why not call on Jesus to save us from this storm?  (David sings “Lord of the Troubled Sea.)”   

Kimberleigh Buchanan  ©  2013

Luke 8:22-25

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, ²³and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. ²⁴They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

It’s the third week of the Season of Creation.  Depressed yet?  Even in my attempts to preach more positively about the environment this year, I’m still sensing some sadness from you all, some hopelessness.  Some guilt.  Or maybe that’s my own sadness, hopelessness, and guilt I’m projecting on to you all.  Could be.

I have something to share with you today, though, something that’s giving me hope as I seek to care for creation.  It’s a movement called “evolutionary spirituality.”  Evolutionary spirituality is based on the idea that not only is it possible to believe in both Christianity and evolution, but that evolution actually can inform and deepen our faith.  Some even believe that “Evolution is Darwin’s greatest gift to theology”

One of those people is Michael Dowd.  After a dramatic conversion as a young adult, Michael attended Evangel University.  One day he told his roommate:  “Satan obviously has a foothold in this school!”  “Moments earlier, he had stormed out of freshman biology class after the teacher held up the textbook they’d be using—one Michael recognized as teaching evolution.  How else could he explain why a Bible-believing, Assemblies of God institution would teach evolution?”  It must be Satan.  (Thank God for Evolution, 310) 

After a journey that led him to seminary, through some pastorates in UCC churches, and to a lectures series in New York City where he met his wife Connie Barlow, Michael now calls himself an “evolutionary evangelist.”  He and Connie travel North America preaching the gospel of evolution.  Yes.  That’s what they call it—the gospel (good news)—of evolution.

What is the good news of evolution?  The good news evolutionary evangelists preach begins with what they call The Great Story.  Dowd describes The Great Story as “humanity’s common creation story.  It is the 14-billion-year science-based tale of cosmic genesis—from the formation of galaxies and the origin of life, to the development of consciousness and culture, and onward to the emergence of ever-widening circles of care and concern.”  Last week we talked about the differences between the languages of science and faith.  The Great Story combines those two languages to tell a tale in which every person, religion, and culture; every plant, animal, and microbe; every planet, solar system, and galaxy plays a role.  It is, as Dowd writes, “the sacred story of everyone and everything.”  It is the Great Story.

So, how can this sacred story of everyone and everything help us heal the earth?  How can it make us happier, more hopeful, less guilty?  How is the Great Story good news for us? 

There are many bits of good news in The Great Story.  Today we’ll look at these three: (1) the universe can be trusted, (2) we are part of the universe, and (3) we are part of evolution. 

Those who are familiar with the Great Story’s narrative (geologists, paleontologists) assure us of this:  the universe can be trusted.  From the beginning, the Great Story has unwaveringly unfolded in exactly the same way:  toward “greater diversity, greater complexity, greater awareness, greater speed of change, and greater intimacy with itself.”  (1170) 

That means we don’t have to wonder how creation is going to evolve.  We might not know the precise details of the process, but the pattern has been going on long enough that we can trust it to continue unfolding in the same way.  So, as desperate as the state of the environment might seem, the Universe can be trusted to continue unfolding in the same way, a way that adapts well to changes.  That is cause for hope.  The first piece of good news:  The universe can be trusted.

The second piece of good news:  We are part of the Universe.  It’s easy when thinking about evolution to take ourselves out of the equation….to imagine ourselves on the sidelines watching evolution unfold rather than seeing ourselves as part of the process.

Minister and author Bruce Sanguin writes about the moment he realized that he wasn’t apart from the universe but was, in fact, a part of it.  “Almost 20 years ago, on a silent retreat,” he says, “I had a profound experience in which I understood myself to be the presence of the universe in human form.  The dualistic separation between myself and the universe collapsed.  I wasn’t here as a visitor to a strange and alien pre-existing cosmos, I was its native expression.  I realized that, after 13.7 billion years, the universe had coalesced in form and consciousness in my own being.  I was a product of the evolutionary process of the cosmos.  More than that, the universe was continuing its evolutionary unfolding in and through me.”  (K -155 ff)

For the guilt-prone among us, this notion that we are part of the Universe and not apart from it is very good news…because it means that saving creation isn’t only up to us human beings.  No.  Because we are connected with the rest of creation—and because creation can be trusted to do its evolutionary thing—we can work with the rest of creation to help it heal.  Earth care isn’t something we do TO the earth; it’s something we do WITH earth.  The second piece of good news:  We are part of the Universe.

The third piece of Good News from the Great Story:  We are part of evolution.  So, if we aren’t apart from the Universe, but actually are a part of it, then the story of evolution is unfolding in us.  Right this minute!  And look what has happened through that evolutionary process:  we have acquired brains, brains that can conceive wondrous things.  Brains that, when applied to the problems facing creation, can affect—and even E-ffect—evolution. 

The idea that we can affect the way evolution unfolds is called “conscious evolution.”  It’s the idea that our brains, our ideas, our creativity are part of the evolutionary process…and that our consciousness has evolved in this way at this point in history precisely “to deal with the new human condition.”   Evolution doesn’t happen outside of us and our thoughts.  Our thoughts are part of the evolutionary process.  (When you realize that YOUR thoughts are influencing the evolutionary process of the Universe, it kind of makes you want to think more about science and love and literature than Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, and Project Runway, doesn’t it?)

I’ve been talking for how long? And I haven’t mentioned the Bible once.  Is that a sign that evolutionary spirituality has no room for the Bible?  Are our Scriptures simply too antiquated to speak to the spirituality of science-savvy, enlightened people in the 21^st century?

I’ve shared with you some really good news from evolution today—that the universe can be trusted, that we are part of the universe, and that—through our consciousness– we are capable of affecting the flow of evolution…and if we choose well, we can affect it positively.

But the real good news today comes from the Proverbs passage we heard read.  It begins: “The Lord created me at the beginning^* of his work^*.”  Do you know who the “me” is in this passage?  It’s wisdom.  Wisdom is personified and speaks.  The real good news for us who hope for the wholeness of creation is that we don’t have to do it all by ourselves.  As human beings, we do have the most advanced brains in the universe (that we know of), but we do not have all the wisdom.  Here’s the best good news of all for those who hope for the wholeness of creation:  Creation has a wisdom of its own.  Creation care isn’t something we have to do TO the earth.  Oftentimes, the best way to care for creation is simply to listen to it, to learn from it, to watch in wonder as its own story in its own wisdom unfolds.

I’m going read the passage from Proverbs again with a couple of tweaks.  As you listen, imagine the power of creation’s wisdom.  Imagine the power of your own wisdom.  Imagine how you might contribute to the flow of evolution.  Hear now a reading from Proverbs.

“God created Wisdom at the beginning, the first act of long ago.  ²³²⁴When there were no depths, Wisdom was brought forth–when there were no springs abounding with water. ²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, Wisdom was brought forth— ²⁶ when God had not yet made earth and fields, ^*or the world’s first bits of soil.  ²⁷When God established the heavens, Wisdom was there, when God drew a circle on the face of the deep and ²⁸made firm the skies above, when God established the fountains of the deep and²⁹ assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress the divine command, when God marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰then Wisdom was beside God, like a master worker; ^*and Wisdom was daily God’s^* delight, rejoicing before the Creator always, ³¹rejoicing in the inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”

“Before the beginning of the earth,” there was wisdom.  In every bit of creation, in every atom of the universe, in every electron, proton, neutron, and quark, wisdom—God’s delight—resides.  It’s important to do what we can to act earth into well-being.  And perhaps the first action to take—and the wisest—would be to listen to creation and learn from its wisdom.  In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and hopes for our wholeness.  Amen.

The gift of the Great Story is that it gives us a context for living out our individual stories—a context of creation, a context of interconnectedness, a context of divine love.  The stories of Devin and Wayne and Steve today are entering a new chapter—a chapter where they are a family.  And because they understand their family’s individual story to be unfolding in the context of The Great Story of divine love, they want to acknowledge the creation of their family in the context of this community.  And they want us to participate.  What better way to celebrate the love of our Creator than through baptism with water and through acknowledging in a worship service that they are at last, officially a family?  Shall we get to it?

(Baptism of Devin Williams Scott and Ritual of Adoption for Devin and his dads, Wayne and Steve.)

Resources on evolutionary spirituality:

If Darwin Prayed, by Bruce Sanguin

Thank God for Evolution, by Michael Dowd

http://thankgodforevolution.com/

http://thegreatstory.org/

http://evolutionarychristianity.com/blog/speaker-bios/

          “They should have sent a poet!”  That’s what scientist Ellie Arroway says when the hatch on her space capsule opens to a new, breathtaking world.  “There are no words to describe it!” she says.  “It’s so beautiful.  I had no idea.”  In the book Contact, by Carl Sagan, Ellie has complete confidence in science’s ability to answer all the questions posed by the universe…until she makes contact with a part of that universe that overwhelms her with its beauty.  At that point, the data and dicta of science fall short.  At that point, she needs a different kind of language, one that will help her express her awe, her wonder, her love for creation.

          This is the second Season of Creation we’ve celebrated here at Pilgrimage.  A few years back someone somewhere decided we should add a Season of Creation to the liturgical year, like the seasons of Lent and Advent.  At first, I resisted the idea.  I mean, the church hasn’t had a Season of Creation for hundreds of years, right?  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

          Except that earth is broken.  And maybe it’s broken—at least in part– because Christians haven’t had a Season of Creation for hundreds of years.  Maybe if we’d been setting time aside each year to celebrate creation from the get-go, earth wouldn’t be suffering now. 

          So, last year, I relented and gave the Season of Creation a try.  To prepare, I read books—lots and lots of books.  I wanted to know everything I could about the problems confronting the environment.  I read about global warming and carbon footprints and carbon content in the atmosphere…I read about the dire straits of phytoplankton and coral reefs and fresh water supplies…I read about expanding deserts and shrinking ice caps and sinking islands…. I tried to learn everything I could about what was happening to creation at the molecular level so that I could communicate it to you.

          I realized this week—as I was plowing through yet another pile of books on the problems confronting the environment—that, when it comes to the Season of Creation, I’ve been thinking “they should’ve sent a scientist.”  Despite the fact that I’m not a scientist, I’ve been trying to convince us all to do the right thing with earth care because science tells us we should.

          But what we do here on Sunday mornings isn’t science class.  It’s worship.  And the biblical texts we get for the Season of Creation aren’t science texts.  This year we get Job, Proverbs, and Psalms–wisdom literature that comes to us in the form of, you guessed it, poetry.

          As people of faith, we do have a calling to care for the earth.  And caring for the earth does require scientific knowledge.  That’s why it’s great to have scientists in our community.  They can—and do–help us understand the science.

          But science isn’t the primary language of faith.  It certainly informs our faith, but it doesn’t by itself adequately express our faith.  When it comes to caring for creation, we need something more.  We need a language that will help us express our awe, wonder, and love.

          We need something like Psalm 104, a poem that praises God as creator…a song that shows how interconnected all creation is…a confession of compassion for all living things.  For the most part, scientific language is a language of distance.  In order to observe something, a certain disinterested remove is necessary.  Not so with poetry.  Poetry assumes an intimate relationship between the poet and that about which she writes.

I suspect that’s why Ellie yearned for a poet when the hatch of her spaceship opened.  Her native language—science—necessarily distanced her from what she was experiencing.  In that moment, overwhelmed with the beauty of what she saw, she was hungry for a deeper, more relational form of expression.  She needed a poem. 

Lucky for us, we have this poem, Psalm 104…a poem that celebrates the interconnectedness of all living things.  Listen. 

“You cause the grass to grow for the cattle.”  It’s not, God, thank you for the grass; Thank you for the cows.  No, it’s—“You cause grass to grow FOR the cattle.”  That shows the relationship between animals and plants.  Likewise, “plants for people to use, ^*to bring forth food from the earth.”  There are the relationships among people, plants, and soil.  Oh, here’s a good one!  “¹⁵And wine to gladden the human heart.” (v.15)  Sometimes it’s okay to read the Bible literally.  “Oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.”

          And lest we think creation is just for us, the psalmist describes relationships among other living things, too.  “¹⁶The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly”–trees and water.  “The cedars of Lebanon that were planted”–trees and soil.  “In¹⁷ them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees.”  Where would birds be without trees?  ¹⁸ “The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.”  Ever heard of a coney?  Best I can tell, it’s a stocky little ruminant that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a mole.

          The psalmist goes on, now focusing on the relationships between creatures and the sun and moon. ¹⁹ “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.  ²⁰You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.  ²¹The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.  ²²When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens.  ²³People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.”

          The psalmist wasn’t a scientist, but the interconnectedness of all created things celebrated in this psalm does represent an important scientific concept:  biodiversity.  Naturalist John Muir said that “When we pick out a single thing in nature, we find it connected to everything else in the universe.”  And by virtue of that connection, every single thing that exists is interdependent with every other thing in the universe.  Biodiversity means that we’re all in this thing together.

          Here’s the scientific piece of all this, greatly simplified for (and from) my non-scientific brain.  Diversity among species is a good thing—biology depends on it.  Crop rotation makes for healthier fields.  A garden planted with different species of plants in close proximity deals with fewer weeds and bugs.  Animals, insects and all sorts of other creatures live—and thrive–in a delicate balance in all their respective environmental milieux.

          Species diversity is good—and necessary— to the continuation of life on our planet.  And yet, “’We are experiencing the greatest wave of extinctions since the disappearance of the dinosaurs,’ says Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.  ‘Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates.  Every hour, three species disappear.  Every day, up to 150 species are lost.  Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct,’ he said.  ‘The cause: human activities.’”  (Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, 417)   http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Ground-Ethical-Action-Planet/dp/1595340858/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379288526&sr=8-1&keywords=Moral+Ground

Do you ever wonder where species go when they become extinct?  I’m talking about the cells of their bodies, the atoms of their habitats.  Biomass is the technical term for it.  In 1965—the year I was born– human biomass was 50 million tons; in 2010, it was 100 million.  From where did the extra 50 million tons of biomass come?  It came from other species.  As author, Daniel Quinn says:  “The biomass we have added to the human race in the past 45 years has been taken, little by little, day by day, from the species around us…We are literally turning 150 species a day into human tissue” (Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, 432-446).  http://moralground.com/

So, as people of faith, what is the answer to earth’s ills, particularly to the unchecked annihilation of species?  As people of faith, the answer is to remember how much we love this planet and every living thing…. because every living thing was created by God and bears God’s image.  As poet and pastor Bruce Sanguin says it:  “Every body and every thing is a Post-It Note calling us back to a genetic covenant of love.  Thank you,” the poet says to God, “for being there, and there, and there…”  As people of faith we are called to remember our interconnectedness and interdependence with all living things…because we are all—every animal, plant, person, and microbe—part of God’s body.

I’ll close with another of Sanguin’s poems.  This one is called “A Harvest of Quirkiness” and comes from a book titled If Darwin Prayed.  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=If%20Darwin%20Praye#/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=If+Darwin+Prayed&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AIf+Darwin+Prayed

Gracious God,

How can creation sing your praises,

except with the red wings of blackbirds

flashing across blue sky,

and the croak and splash of frogs

playing hide-and-seek in the ponds?

How can the firmament proclaim your handiwork,

except in the wagging tail of a puppy,

and the focused attention of a toddler

soaking in the wonder of it all?

How can the heavens proclaim your glory,

except through a morning sun rising upon gold-green grass,

lighting up the face of lovers as Earth spins them

once more into a new day?

Your beauty and goodness, O Immanent One,

requires Earth’s diversity

and our own wildness,

breaking down—and out of—

the monotony of prescribed patterns,

choosing rather to take our place

in the dancing procession

of differentness,

the variegated life of Christ finding expression

in this body of the church

and the bodies of our kin-creatures.

Make a harvest, O Holy One,

of our quirkiness,

that we might be your radiant presence.

Amen.

In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and hopes for our wholeness.  Amen.

Kimberleigh Buchanan  ©  2013

Psalm 104:14-23

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
   and plants for people to use,^*
to bring forth food from the earth,
¹⁵   and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
   and bread to strengthen the human heart.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
   the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ In them the birds build their nests;
   the stork has its home in the fir trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats;
   the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
¹⁹ You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
   the sun knows its time for setting.
²⁰ You make darkness, and it is night,
   when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
²¹ The young lions roar for their prey,
   seeking their food from God.
²² When the sun rises, they withdraw
   and lie down in their dens.
²³ People go out to their work
   and to their labor until the evening.

            Job suffers.  He loses his livelihood, his health, his children.  He loses everything.  “Curse God and die,” says Job’s wife.  He doesn’t.  Instead, he sits in sackcloth and ashes pondering the question of all who suffer:  Why has this happened to me?

As he sits in silence, trying to make sense of the tragedies that have befallen him, Job’s friends drop by.  At first, they simply sit with Job in his grief.  What a gift silent presence can be when we suffer!  But then–they open their mouths.  And what do they say?  “Tragedy doesn’t strike unless someone sins.  The only explanation for what has happened is that you sinned.”  Can you imagine?  He’d lost his children. 

Job listens to his friends…and let me tell you:  they were some long-winded dudes!  Even so, Job listens to every argument they make.  He hears their message that:  “Bad things happen to bad people….so if something bad happens, you must be bad.”

Finally, when he’s had enough, Job cries: “Stop!  I have searched my heart and I know I’ve done nothing to deserve what’s happened.”  Then he turns to the heavens and—perhaps—shaking his fist at God says the same thing:  “I did nothing to deserve this!”

Job 38 contains God’s response to Job.  “Who are you to question anything about me or my ways?” God thunders.  “Were you there when I formed the earth?  Did you set the boundaries for the sea?  Have you walked in the depths of the ocean?  If you can’t understand something as basic as creation, how in the world will you understand suffering?”

The book of Job was written around 2500 years ago, probably as a play.  It makes sense that 2500 years ago, a playwright trying to make sense of suffering would put this “Who do you think you are?” speech in God’s mouth.  Our forebears in faith knew God best as Creator—“melek ha-olam” (King of the World) was a favorite way to refer to God.  The playwright drew on this understanding of God as ruler of the universe to make the argument that there really is no way to understand it or make sense of suffering.  The only way to understand suffering is to understand creation…. and the only way to understand creation is to have created it…and since we didn’t create creation, there really is no way to understand it or suffering.  Not the most satisfying answer to the problem of suffering, but it’s the answer the book of Job offers.  Who knows?  Maybe it worked 2500 years ago.

But would the same argument work today?  Let’s try it and see.  Let’s say something tragic happens, something that causes you to suffer.  You shake your fist at God and ask why this terrible thing has happened.  God responds with words similar to those found in Job 38.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” God thunders.  It’s true–we weren’t there at the moment of creation, but we do have some good theories to explain it… like the Big Bang theory (the scientific theory, not the TV show).

“Who determined the earth’s measurements?  Surely you know!”  God says.  Actually, we do know.  I found it on Wikipedia.  The first person to measure the circumference of the earth was Greek scientist Eratosthenes in the third century BCE.  He measured it at 5,000 stadia—or stadium lengths.  That translates to roughly 24,860 miles.

“Who shut in the sea with doors…and prescribed bounds for it…and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther?”  God might have prescribed bounds for the ocean way back when, but we—through our unrelenting use of fossil fuels—skooch them further out every day….to the point that some island nations already are making plans to relocate in anticipation of the day when their homelands sink forever.

            God goes on:  “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?”  I saw it this week:  You can now rent a hotel room on the bottom of the sea.  “Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?  Declare, if you know all this.”  We do declare that we know all this–at least the oceanographers do. 

When Job suffered, drawing on human beings’ lack of knowledge about creation made sense as a response to that suffering.  With scientific advances made in the 2500 years since Job was written, though, the argument doesn’t pack the punch it once did.  We didn’t create creation, but we sure do understand a lot about it…much more than people did 2500 years ago.  Come on!  We are part of the generation that discovered the “God particle!” 

So, if appealing to our lack of knowledge and naïve assumptions about creation won’t work anymore, what kind of argument might work?  What response to suffering might resonate with us scientifically-minded people in the 21^st century?

If we brought our suffering to God today, I don’t know this, but I wonder if God might not still direct our attention to creation…not as a given or as something we know nothing about and have no control over, though.  No, I wonder if, on hearing our cries of “why?” God might instead come, sit with us in our suffering, and say, “Your sister earth suffers, too.”  “Don’t tell me about the suffering of creation,” we might say back.  “I’m hurting here!  I want to feel better!”  “Earth wants to feel better, too.  You see, you and earth are kin.  In your health, lies hers.  In her health, lies yours.  Help heal her suffering, and she will help heal yours.”

In a movie about a severely depressed woman who remains hospitalized for weeks, her psychiatrist finally confronts the woman about a painful issue.  The woman becomes so resistant and combative, the psychiatrist leaves.  Enraged, the woman chases after her doctor, down the hall, and out the door, ready to give the psychiatrist a piece of her mind.

Before she speaks a word, though, she stops… looks up into the sky… breathes.  “Why do I suddenly feel better?” she asks.  “It’s because you’re outside,” the doctor responds.  From that moment, the woman begins to heal.

Were the author of Job alive today, I’m not sure how he or she would write it….but it does make sense, that, though the tack taken might be different, the argument still would be based in creation…. because we are kin with creation.  We suffer; creation suffers.  In creation’s healing, we find our own healing.  In our healing, creation, too, is healed.

We know too well some of the symptoms of Sister Sea’s disease.  As you’ll read in the bulletin insert, acidity in the ocean is increasing, threatening the life in it.  And as acid levels rise, so do noise levels.  Noise pollution in the ocean has become so prevalent that whales are diving deeper, seeking the quiet they once knew.  They literally are dying for quiet.  Sea turtles are eating plastic grocery bags–mistaking them for jellyfish–and dying when the bags get caught in their digestive tracks.  If you watched the TED talk on ocean pollution included in my eblurb this week, you saw the deleterious effects of water bottle caps.  Mama birds unwittingly feed them to baby birds, thinking they are food.  The baby birds can’t digest them and die.

Just thinking about trying to do anything to help the ocean can be overwhelming.  So, what say let’s not try to solve all of Sister Sea’s problems by the end of the worship service.  Let’s do this instead.  Let’s listen to the sounds of the ocean.  As you listen, remember your love for the ocean.  Remember times you have been at or on or in it.  Remember how it felt to be there.  As you reflect on your experiences of and love for the ocean, begin to imagine what you might do to act it into well-being.  It doesn’t have to be a big thing, just something little.  Don’t force this idea…simply let it rise up out of your reflections, your memories, your love.

If something comes to you—and it might not.  It could be that an idea of some action you can take will come to you later on—that’s perfectly okay.  But if an idea comes to you in the

next few minutes, I invite you to come up to the art installation, remove a piece of litter, and put it in the trash box provided.  If an idea doesn’t come to you, simply use this time to remember your kinship with the sea and your love for it.

[Ocean sounds…  5 minutes]

 In the name of our God, who creates us, redeems us, sustains us, and hopes for our wholeness and the wholeness of all creation.  Amen.

Kimberleigh Buchanan  ©  2013

Music for Reflection:  “What a Wonderful World”

Offertory:  “Sounds of the Humpback Whales”

Job 38:1-18

The Bible begins with a creation story in Genesis Chapter 1 (here abridged):

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky.

And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so.

And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind.

And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

The order of creation in Genesis was light; waters and the sky; dry land; sun, moon, and stars; sea life and birds; and land creatures, including humans. This is close to the evolutionary process that the modern sciences of geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology have shown to occur from the geological, fossil, and chemical record of the Earth. How could Genesis have gotten it so correct?

Now here’s the second story of creation in the Bible from Genesis Chapter 2 (again abridged):

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman.

Marcus Borg wrote about the creation stories in his book Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, published by HarperOne in 2001. Borg wrote that prior to the birth of modernity in the Enlightenment the factual truth of Genesis was accepted in the Jewish and Christian worlds without controversy. Theology and science alike took it for granted that the universe was relatively young and that the earth was created in very much the same form in which it is now. Common estimates of the time of creation ranged from 6000 to 4000 BCE. Bishop Ussher, primate of all Ireland from 1625 to 1656, placed the origin of the world at nine in the morning on 27 October 4004 BCE.

Borg wrote that the first creation story was probably written in the 500s BCE and is commonly called the “priestly” or “P” story. The P story (and the Bible as a whole) begins with the earth as a formless void, and then God creates the universe in six days. The second creation story was written earlier, in the 900s BCE, and is commonly called the “Yahwist” or “J” story. The J story focused on the creation of humankind and barely treated the creation of the world. The P story portrayed humankind as the climax of creation by having people created last, after everything else. The J story gave humankind priority by having people created first, before vegetation and animals. In the P story, humans as male and female were created simultaneously; in J, the creation of woman came later. Perhaps Jewish society had learned something of the importance of women between 900 and 500 BCE.

Borg noted that contemporary Bible scholarship does not read Genesis as a historically factual account of the worlds beginnings. Instead, it sees Genesis as ancient Israel’s story of the worlds beginning and interprets it as a profoundly true mythological story. Throughout the book Borg discussed using a historical-metaphorical approach for reading the Bible. He wrote that myths, such as he considers much of the Bible to be, are not literally true, but can be profoundly true, rich in powerfully persuasive meanings.

The Grand Design was written by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and published by Bantam Books in 2010. The book attempted to answer the questions:

• When and how did the universe begin?
• Why are the laws of nature so finely tuned as to allow for the existence of beings like ourselves?
• Is the apparent grand design of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion-or does science offer another explanation?

Albert Einstein wrote that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. Hawking and Mlodinow wrote that the universe is comprehensible because it is governed by scientific laws. In the history of science better and better sets of scientific laws or models have been discovered. There is a candidate for the ultimate theory of everything, if indeed one exists, called M-theory. M-theory is an extension of string theory in which 11 dimensions of spacetime are identified as seven higher-dimensions plus the four common dimensions (x, y, z, and t). Proponents believe that the 11-dimensional theory unites all five 10 dimensional string theories and supersedes them. The laws of M-theory allow for different universes with different apparent laws, depending on how the dimensions of a universe are curled up. M-theory has solutions that allow for as many as 10⁵⁰⁰ (a 1 followed by 500 zeros) universes, each with its own laws.

The multiple universes, or multiverse, idea of M-theory means that our cosmic habitat, the entire observable universe, is only one of many, just as our solar system is one of many. The environmental coincidences of our solar system that allowed for our existence are rendered unremarkable by the 10⁵⁰⁰ universes purported by M-theory. Richard Feynman was an American physicist who lived from 1918 to 1988. He won a Nobel Prize for his theory of the sum over histories, which says that when determining the path from one state of being to the next, every possible path from one state to the next must be considered, with the final path being a sum over the possible pathways. Essentially the sum over histories says that everything than can exist already does exist, although we may not be aware of it because its dimensions are curled up.

Hawking and Mlodinow noted that planets of all sorts exist in the universe, and that at least one planet obviously supports life. When the beings on a planet that supports life examine the world around them, they are bound to find that their environment satisfies the conditions they require to exist (or they wouldn’t be there to examine the world around them). Our very existence imposes rules determining from where and at what time it is possible for us to observe the universe.

Sir Isaac Newton published the law of gravity in 1687. Newton believed that our strangely habitable solar system did not arise out of chaos by the mere laws of nature. Instead, he maintained, the order in the universe was created by God at first and conserved by God to this day in the same state and condition. Hawking and Mlodinow contended that lucky coincidences pertaining to environmental factors allow us to exist in this universe. The shape of the earth’s planetary orbit keeps us constantly at a distance from the sun that creates a temperature that allows life to exist. The mass of our sun allows the right amount of solar radiation to reach earth to allow life to exist. Hawking and Mlodinow believe that these environmental factors arose from the serendipity of our surroundings, and the availability of 10⁵⁰⁰ universes, and not from a fluke created by God in the fundamental laws of nature.

Hawking and Mlodinow contended that the existence of multiverses can explain the fine-tuning of physical laws to allow our creation and existence without the need for a benevolent creator who made the universe for our benefit. Since everything that can exist already does exist, there was already a planet that humankind would exist on. The existence of multiverses containing everything that can exist can eliminate the need for Genesis and creation.

There are always discussions about creationism and evolution. What exactly is Creationism? Is it what is in Genesis or could it be something else?

Creationism refers to a wide range of beliefs of how the universe was created by God. Young Earth Creationists claim a literal interpretation of the Bible as a basis for their beliefs. They believe that the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, that all life was created in six literal days, that death and decay came as a result of Adam & Eve’s fall, and that geology must be interpreted in terms of Noah’s Flood. Young earth creationism is probably the most influential brand of creationism today and young earth creationists popularized the modern movement of scientific creationism.

Old-Earth Creationists accept the evidence for an ancient earth but still believe that life was specially created by God, and they still base their beliefs on the Bible. Among old-earth creationists gap creationists say that there was a long temporal gap between Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth) and Genesis 1:2 (the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters), with God recreating the world in 6 days after the gap. This allows both an ancient earth and a Biblical special creation. Day-age creationists interpret each day of creation as a long period of time, even thousands or millions of years. They see a parallel between the order of events presented in Genesis 1 and the order accepted by mainstream science. Progressive creationism is the most common Old-Earth Creationism view today. It accepts most of modern physical science, even viewing the Big Bang formation of the universe as evidence of the creative power of God, but rejects much of modern biology. Progressive Creationists generally believe that God created “kinds” of organisms sequentially, in the order seen in the fossil record, but say that the newer kinds are specially created, not genetically related to older kinds. Intelligent Design creationism descended from the argument that God’s design could be seen in life. Modern intelligent design creationism makes appeals to the complexity of life with arguments that have become technical, delving into microbiology and mathematical logic. In large part, intelligent design creationism is used today as an umbrella anti-evolution position under which creationists of all flavors may unite in an attack on scientific methodology. A common tenet of intelligent design creationism is that all beliefs about evolution equate to philosophical materialism.

When folk ask me about evolution I say that evolution is a fact based on paleontological evidence in the rock record of the earth, and that there are different theories on how evolution occurred. In the introduction to The Origin of Species, published in 1859, Charles Darwin asked who can explain why one species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied species has a narrow range and is rare. He wrote that the view which most naturalists until recently entertained, and which he formerly entertained-namely, that each species has been independently created, is erroneous. He wrote that biological evolution by Natural Selection, based on the species adaptability to prevailing environmental factors, has been the most important, but not the exclusive, means of modification between species to allow one to thrive and one to demise.

In the last academic book he wrote before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), Stephen Gould described the theory of punctuated equilibrium. Punctuated equilibrium is different than Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which portended that evolutionary transformations had to be gradual, and that natural selection pulled characteristics of a population in one direction or another, producing a record of continual transformation over time.

I learned about punctuated equilibrium from Dr. Robert Stanton in a graduate course on biogeology (it was the one B I got in a course during my Ph.D. studies). Dr. Stanton earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and studied with Dr. Gould. Punctuated equilibrium says that as environments on the surface of the earth change, species of organisms either evolve into newly opened environments or became extinct as environments closed. Natural Selection did not address changes in the earth’s environment. An example of changing environments is the super continent of Pangea, which existed about 175 million years ago during the Jurassic geologic epoch (when Jurassic Park was filmed). When Pangea existed there were limited coastlines and shallow seas for aquatic organism to evolve into, and there was only one continent so all land organisms intermingled and reproduced (except for the dinosaurs, which ate all the other land organisms).

As Pangea broke up, continents, oceans, and shorelines were created so that more aquatic and land environments were available for organisms to evolve into. This allowed species to diversify. This diversification lead to the evolution of unique aquatic and land species that exist in today’s different continents and oceans. This also lead to the phenomenon of invasive species, created for the most part by humankind’s travelling about the world, where unique species from one continent can invade and overwhelm unique species on another continents.

The punctuated part of punctuated equilibrium comes from the fact that environments of the earth change sporadically, with environments existing for long periods of time during which evolution of species and diversification reaches equilibrium. When things like plate tectonics, earth quakes, and volcanoes heat up (pun intended), environments can change quickly and mass extinctions can occur quickly, thereby eliminating equilibrium and punctuating the evolution and diversification of species.

Theistic Evolution says that God creates through evolution. Theistic Evolutionists vary in beliefs about how much God intervenes in the process. It accepts most or all of modern science, but it invokes God for some things outside the realm of science, such as the creation of the human soul. This position is promoted by the Pope and taught at mainline Protestant seminaries. Then there is Evolutionary Creationism, which differs from Theistic Evolution only in its theology, not in its science. It says that God operates not in the gaps, but that nature has no existence independent of God’s will. It allows interpretations consistent with both a literal Genesis and objective science, allowing, for example, that the events of creation occurred, but not in time as we know it, and that Adam was not the first biological human but the first spiritually aware one.

In Finding Darwin’s God (Perennial, 1999), Kenneth Miller wrote that the various objections to evolution take a narrow view of the capabilities of life, and an even narrower view of the capabilities of the Creator. They hobble God’s genius by demanding that the material of God’s creation ought not to be capable of generating complexity. They demean the breadth of God’s vision by ridiculing the notion that the materials of God’s world could have evolved into beings with intelligence and self awareness. And they compel God to routinely descend onto the factory floor by conscripting God’s labor into the design of each detail of each organism that graces the surface of the living planet.

Miller wrote that each of the western monotheistic traditions sees God as truth, love and knowledge. He contended that every increase in our understanding of the natural world should be a step towards God , and not, as many assume, a step away. If faith and reason are both gifts from God, then they should play complementary, not conflicting, roles in our struggle to understand the world around us.

I have degrees in physics and geology so you can imagine that my academic training emphasized things like M-theory and biological evolution. So how do I reconcile what I learned in college with what I learn at Pilgrimage United Church of Christ?

In The God We Never Knew (HarperOne, 1997), Marcus Borg wrote that within the popular version of the monarchial model of God, God’s creation of the world is typically understood as an event in the distant past and as involving the creation of a universe separate from God. Different than this, panentheists believe that God is imminent and transcendent, where immanence means God’s presence in everything or nearness to everything, and transcendence refers to God’s going beyond the universe and being with us always. In panentheism the universe is not separate from God.

Opposed to the monarchial model of God is the spirit model of God, with an emphasis on connectedness, in which one can see God’s creation as an ongoing activity, where God as spirit is always bringing the universe into existence. Creation may not be about what happened in the beginning, but instead may be about what is always happening. To speak of God as creator in the spirit model is not to speak of what God did in the past, but to speak of the ongoing dependence of the universe on spirit, where God as spirit is constantly vibrating the world into existence.

This is how I reconcile my academic training and my religious beliefs, drawing God as spirit into the science I learned. Maybe this vision of creation can serve the religious and scientific beliefs of Genesis, the multiverses of M-theory, creationism, and the various theories of how evolution occurred all at the same time, bringing us a step towards God, and bringing these beliefs together into a single truth and reality.

May it be so.

Jim Kennedy  (c) 2013

“If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” — Pope Francis, July 2013

Don’t really need to comment.  The Pope has said it quite well!