In our Gospel this week, John 13:34-35,
Jesus tells his disciples, after telling him that he would be going away
(which obviously worried them!) of his “new” commandment. “I give you a
new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Of all the
things Jesus could have “commanded” his followers, of all the lists of
do this but don’t do that, of all the rules and regulations, of all the
wise words of the rabbinic tradition, of all the things he could have
left them as most central to his revelation of God’s presence on earth,
he picked, “Love one another.” He could have heaped up all sorts of
words, but he carefully chooses “love each other.” All of the rest is
wrapped up in the simple commandment to love one another. If we get
that one straight, the rest will follow. If we get that inner
disposition of love to others right, kindly action and care for others
come naturally. It’s not the details that matter, it is the motivation. The details proceed more easily once the heart is loving.
But
it’s not anything “new,” despite what Jesus says. He’s been showing
love and inviting love for God and each other all along. Even if we
take that passage as Jesus further simplifying the Ten Commandments down
to one meta-commandment, it’s not even new for the Hebrew Scripture.
In other words, it’s not novelty Jesus is talking about, but emphasis.
“Really, people, I mean this, love each other. Seriously.” It’s not
the outward behavior; it is the disposition that the other person is
valuable and to be loved as yourself, that another person’s well-being
is your well-being.
And that is hard work, obviously.
Sometimes we don’t especially like what another does or says, or even
“like” the other person at all. If it was easy, Jesus wouldn’t have to
emphasize it! But that effort to love other people— even the people
closest to you when they are being themselves— is what sets disciples of
Christ apart from other groups. That’s how Jesus wants everyone else to see that those followers (and we who will come after them, because of them) are his disciples.
It’s
a commandment that takes effort, this loving one another. The good
news is that it is Jesus’ own love for us that makes is possible to love
one another.
In Christ,
David
I still
need a few more settings for small, informal conversations during May
and early June for people to share their experiences of this church over
the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the
landscape and history. If you are willing to host such a small group or
have a suggestion, please talk to me or email me at
interimpastor@fccithaca.org; I still need volunteers!
Texts For Sunday Worship:
Sermon: "The Spread Sheet"
New Testament Acts 11:1-8
Epistles Revelation 21:1-6
*Gospels John 13:31-35
Note:
These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an
asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Good things happen even during bad things.
Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor
No, the world is not going to hell in a handbasket.
At least, not any more than usual.
This last week has, between the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the Texas fertilizer plant, the investigations in Boston, and the usual wear-and-tear of people and family members of the congregation being hospitalized or stressed by circumstance, seemed worse than most, but on reflection, we’ve endured similarly or even more alarming weeks before.
Life is like that. Bad things happen. Bad things happen to good people. But even more importantly, good things happen even during bad things. That’s called grace.
After the Newtown school shootings, I used a lovely quote from Presbyterian minister Mr. Rogers that has been circulating again after the events in Boston. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers– so many caring people in this world.”
As much as after Sandy Hook or even 9/11, the memorable photos, video, and stories from this week show people (and not just official personnel) moving into the smoke in Boston or West, TX to help. Hold that thought. Tell the children in your life what Mrs. Rogers told little Fred; it is still true.
It is people of faith and good will (whether they are “Christian” or not) who keep being the handbaskets that pluck others out of those moments of hell. Look for the helpers. Be the helpers. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
And above all, remember Paul’s song to the Romans in the face of craziness: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ,
David
II remind you that in the next couple of months, First Congregational Church will be holding several small, informal conversations at various homes and the church for people to share with me and members of the interim planning group their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history. If you are willing to host such a small group or have a suggestion, please talk to me or email me at interimpastor@fccithaca.org; I still need a few more volunteers!
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 9:36-43
Epistles Revelation 7:9-17
*Gospels John 10:22-30
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
No, the world is not going to hell in a handbasket.
At least, not any more than usual.
This last week has, between the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the Texas fertilizer plant, the investigations in Boston, and the usual wear-and-tear of people and family members of the congregation being hospitalized or stressed by circumstance, seemed worse than most, but on reflection, we’ve endured similarly or even more alarming weeks before.
Life is like that. Bad things happen. Bad things happen to good people. But even more importantly, good things happen even during bad things. That’s called grace.
After the Newtown school shootings, I used a lovely quote from Presbyterian minister Mr. Rogers that has been circulating again after the events in Boston. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers– so many caring people in this world.”
As much as after Sandy Hook or even 9/11, the memorable photos, video, and stories from this week show people (and not just official personnel) moving into the smoke in Boston or West, TX to help. Hold that thought. Tell the children in your life what Mrs. Rogers told little Fred; it is still true.
It is people of faith and good will (whether they are “Christian” or not) who keep being the handbaskets that pluck others out of those moments of hell. Look for the helpers. Be the helpers. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
And above all, remember Paul’s song to the Romans in the face of craziness: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ,
David
II remind you that in the next couple of months, First Congregational Church will be holding several small, informal conversations at various homes and the church for people to share with me and members of the interim planning group their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history. If you are willing to host such a small group or have a suggestion, please talk to me or email me at interimpastor@fccithaca.org; I still need a few more volunteers!
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 9:36-43
Epistles Revelation 7:9-17
*Gospels John 10:22-30
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
They
are two of the great walk-on characters in theater. They arrive as two
courtier sent by Hamlet’s uncle to spy on Hamlet, and later are to
escort him home, but with a letter ordering Hamlet’s death. Hamlet
finds the letter, rewrites it to condemn the two plotters, and leaves
them to their fate. W.S. Gilbert wrote a comedy about the two in 1874,
but most of us know them as the protagonists of Tom Stoppard’s absurdist
play and later movie, in which they befuddle themselves along when they
are not onstage for Shakespeare. Basically, they are bit players in a
larger universe than they see from their corner of the world.
In Sunday’s lessons about Saul losing his eyesight on the road to Damascus, there is a similar person who plays a small role in the larger drama and then steps back into the shadows, Ananias, the mild-mannered believer God sends to restore Saul’s sight. Ananias is a reminder that sometimes the life of faith puts us in awkward or very scary places, doing very hard things for God or others, just because that is the part written for us for the moment. But he also reminds us that God keeps us safe when we take on such difficult roles. Sometimes we are actors in a larger drama than we can see from our place in it. But as my daughter’s theater friends say, “There are no small parts…” Let’s play our roles for Christ as graciously as we can!
Please join us as we introduce ourselves to a minor character with major faith this Sunday at 10 am. God will be there; I hope you are too!
In Christ,
David
In the next couple of months, First Congregational Church will be holding several small, informal conversations at various homes and the church for people to share with me and members of the interim study planning group their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history. If you are willing to host such a small group or have a suggestion, please talk to me or email me at interimpastor@fccithaca.org; I’d love to talk with you!
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 9:1-20
*Gospels John 21:1-14
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
In Sunday’s lessons about Saul losing his eyesight on the road to Damascus, there is a similar person who plays a small role in the larger drama and then steps back into the shadows, Ananias, the mild-mannered believer God sends to restore Saul’s sight. Ananias is a reminder that sometimes the life of faith puts us in awkward or very scary places, doing very hard things for God or others, just because that is the part written for us for the moment. But he also reminds us that God keeps us safe when we take on such difficult roles. Sometimes we are actors in a larger drama than we can see from our place in it. But as my daughter’s theater friends say, “There are no small parts…” Let’s play our roles for Christ as graciously as we can!
Please join us as we introduce ourselves to a minor character with major faith this Sunday at 10 am. God will be there; I hope you are too!
In Christ,
David
In the next couple of months, First Congregational Church will be holding several small, informal conversations at various homes and the church for people to share with me and members of the interim study planning group their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history. If you are willing to host such a small group or have a suggestion, please talk to me or email me at interimpastor@fccithaca.org; I’d love to talk with you!
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 9:1-20
*Gospels John 21:1-14
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Proof and Belief
Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor
Our scripture lessons this week continue to explore the intersection of “proof” and “belief,” one of the great unsettled, perhaps unsettleable, duos in faith and theology. While the debate goes back into the early centuries of the Church— St. Anselm finally came down that he believed his way into knowing, whereas rationalists went from knowing to believing— each generation, maybe even each person, must work out whether we go from some kind of tangible knowledge toward belief that God loves us in Jesus Christ enough to save us from death and mistakes or that we start with the leap of faith and slowly grow to know the evidence supporting our faith.
I love that Pope Benedict XVI arranged for the viewing in person and TV and internet of the Shroud of Turin as a gift to the church as he left office. What people think of the relic has been such a wonderful parable of the complex, conflicted relationship of religious tradition and science, especially in the late twentieth century. Of course, since the 1978 STURP testing, the so-called clash of faith and science has gone back and forth over how the image might have been formed, but many people come to that interesting center position like the official Roman Catholic stand that it doesn’t take a position on how the image was formed but that the Shroud is valuable for deepening faith among the faithful. Frankly, it seems that shortly after physical testing reaches a conclusion, the next round of testing finds otherwise, and the cycle continues. And after each round, it still comes down not to science but belief. It always stays tantalizingly beyond “proof.” And, since as a Presbyterian serving a UCC congregation, I don’t have any stake in the Roman Catholic doctrine, I find it a wonderful ongoing parable of belief operating at a different plane as science, which may mean that they can enhance our understanding instead of being contradictory. God may be pushing human science and human religion equally!
Like most Sundays after Easter, the disciple Thomas, often known as the patron saint of Missouri, the “Show Me State,” arrives in this week’s Gospel reading. The key phrase for all of us is “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In fact, it is harder for us because we, millennia after that night in the upper room, never had Thomas’ opportunity to touch and convince himself that Jesus was really resurrected; we have to take it on faith. We have to believe having not seen. Sometimes I wish we had it as easy as Thomas and the others.
Yet that is exactly where the ongoing witness of the Church through all its years truly bridges those twenty-one centuries to help us believe and know and believe and know that Jesus is alive in our hearts and minds and souls. And that is what makes all the difference.
Please join us as we puzzle on this together this Sunday at 10 am. God will be there; I hope you are too!
In Christ,
David
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 5:27-32
Epistles Revelation 1:4-8
Gospels John 20:19-31
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
Our scripture lessons this week continue to explore the intersection of “proof” and “belief,” one of the great unsettled, perhaps unsettleable, duos in faith and theology. While the debate goes back into the early centuries of the Church— St. Anselm finally came down that he believed his way into knowing, whereas rationalists went from knowing to believing— each generation, maybe even each person, must work out whether we go from some kind of tangible knowledge toward belief that God loves us in Jesus Christ enough to save us from death and mistakes or that we start with the leap of faith and slowly grow to know the evidence supporting our faith.
I love that Pope Benedict XVI arranged for the viewing in person and TV and internet of the Shroud of Turin as a gift to the church as he left office. What people think of the relic has been such a wonderful parable of the complex, conflicted relationship of religious tradition and science, especially in the late twentieth century. Of course, since the 1978 STURP testing, the so-called clash of faith and science has gone back and forth over how the image might have been formed, but many people come to that interesting center position like the official Roman Catholic stand that it doesn’t take a position on how the image was formed but that the Shroud is valuable for deepening faith among the faithful. Frankly, it seems that shortly after physical testing reaches a conclusion, the next round of testing finds otherwise, and the cycle continues. And after each round, it still comes down not to science but belief. It always stays tantalizingly beyond “proof.” And, since as a Presbyterian serving a UCC congregation, I don’t have any stake in the Roman Catholic doctrine, I find it a wonderful ongoing parable of belief operating at a different plane as science, which may mean that they can enhance our understanding instead of being contradictory. God may be pushing human science and human religion equally!
Like most Sundays after Easter, the disciple Thomas, often known as the patron saint of Missouri, the “Show Me State,” arrives in this week’s Gospel reading. The key phrase for all of us is “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In fact, it is harder for us because we, millennia after that night in the upper room, never had Thomas’ opportunity to touch and convince himself that Jesus was really resurrected; we have to take it on faith. We have to believe having not seen. Sometimes I wish we had it as easy as Thomas and the others.
Yet that is exactly where the ongoing witness of the Church through all its years truly bridges those twenty-one centuries to help us believe and know and believe and know that Jesus is alive in our hearts and minds and souls. And that is what makes all the difference.
Please join us as we puzzle on this together this Sunday at 10 am. God will be there; I hope you are too!
In Christ,
David
Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament Acts 5:27-32
Epistles Revelation 1:4-8
Gospels John 20:19-31
Note: These texts will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
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