Worship Service

            I’ll admit it.  Being new to the whole thing, I was sorta startled that FCCI relocated worship the weekend of the Feed My Starving Children MobilePack.  Marcie Bishop mentioned that the sanctuary was used for group orientation, which does sorta bump into our regularly scheduled program!  In fact, I wandered around considering other places in the building we could hold a simplified worship service, but a few people reminded me that the whole facility is filled with activity, and even if a room would work, it might be hard to hear anything.  Duh, David.  But I felt a little strange about relocating.  That was probably the preacher’s proprietary feeling about the primacy of worship in the life of the church.  And maybe a bit of unconscious, reflexive territoriality that goes with the job!  Momentarily.

            But then I realized that the other side of my theology was really happy!  Worship is important, but not the only priority for a community of faith.  Mission is, too.  I’ve always known that and pushed for that… duh, David.

           My flitting feeling that the building is being invaded supposes that our facility is a refuge from the world, or, as some congregations and some architectures show, a fortress protecting it from the world.  A healthier perspective is that a church’s facility is a launching place into the world, a base of operations, a recharging station to have the energy to work the rest of the week for our neighbors’ well-being.  It is the garage, the workshop, the warehouse, the central depot from which the employees in their service trucks go out to do the job of faith.  The doors swing out.

            On this particular weekend is it much clearer to see that spiritual impulse to pack and mobilize for the good of others, but this congregation has it all year long.  I think that is a good thing.  Duh, David.

            I’ve seen a few church sanctuaries where over the doors is inscribed, “Our worship is over; Our service begins,” as people leave the sanctuary on their way out into the world and the rest of their weeks.  I’ve always kind of liked such theology.  This Sunday, First Congregational really does that!  Sure, I hope to see a handful of you at Cass Park for our outdoor worship, but I hope a lot of you support or participate in our literal service feeding Christ’s starving children.  Work and worship.  They go together.

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible     Jeremiah 18:1-11
From the Gospels             Luke 14:25-33

Labor Day

            Most of us would not have a long weekend if it wasn’t for Martin Luther.

            Even if you are not fond of those historical mental games, this one has significant truth to it.  Martin Luther provided a couple of key concepts during the Protestant Reformation that led centuries later to the modern labor movement.

            Luther redefined “vocation” in Europe and by extension the western hemisphere.  Vocation, said Luther, is a God-given calling for every Christian.  The Roman Catholic church at that time understood vocation as being church vocations, going into the priesthood was the highest calling, but the diaconate and orders like monks and friars and nuns were also vocations someone might be called into.  Then there was everyone else.  Sure, some were pretty important, like monarchs, but one was only “called by God” into religious vocations; everyone else just had an occupation.  There was a ranking in society based on your standing, and an aristocrat was morally better than a peasant, and everyone knew… and stayed… in their place.

            Luther upended that, citing a more biblical view that God calls everyone into their work.  God places the challenge to do any task, any occupation, in the service of others and for the glory of God.  If you are a blacksmith or baker, be the best blacksmith or baker you can be, doing it with all the care and diligence and spirituality as a monk scribing a Bible.  God calls butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers just as clearly as priests and bishops.  So your daily business is holy, just as holy as what a monk or nun does, just as holy and accountable to God as what a pope does.  It’s all a calling.  It’s all a calling from God.  So follow your path well.

            This of course, elevated secular vocation to the level of religious callings, beginning not just the flattening of all vocations to the same level— no longer was a priest “better” than a blacksmith or a lawyer— but set the intellectual underpinnings for the labor movement.  All work is god-given and in a sense holy and to be valued.  The factory owner was no “better” than the spinner or seamstress or machinist, and if you are equal in God’s sight, why should you be ranked in human estimation?

            When you add in a few more ideas from the enlightenment like the notion of social contract, modern economics, and moral philosophy, our protestant theology of vocation is a significant part of our culture now, leading to the power of the labor movements in the U.S., organizing, days off, collective bargaining, benefits, and all the rest we take for granted.  This coming Monday is more than a day off, so pause to reflect on how that sabbatical from labor is rooted in the protestant notion of Sabbath.  In a real way, this holiday is a holy day, too.
                                                                                                         
                                                                        In Christ,
                                                                         
                                                                                  David

                             

Texts for Sunday

From the Hebrew Bible     Jeremiah 2:4-13
From the Epistles            13:1-8, 15-16
From the Gospels            Luke 14:1, 7-14

Moving In

            I’m guessing that if you asked Ithacans about the word “ambivalent,” many of you would cite “moving in” weekend as an example.

It marks the beginning of the school year and the prelude to the church program year.  It is a horrible tangle of traffic and confusion and confused people, but it is also the go signal for why most of us are here in Ithaca one way or another: students.  It is kinda cute to see all the new arrivals, so young and green and optimistic and naïve, but it is also a pain in the hindquarters for residents.  Having been the cargo handler for two of our own, including our daughter moving to and then within Boston, I sympathize with the parents and returning students, but also have flashback of moving into the freshman dorm at Hamilton College way back when.  And for lots of us, the exciting beginning of school is the sad end of summer.  Yep. Ambivalence.

Yet for most of the arriving souls, it is beginning.  It is discovery.  It is new things and people and experiences.  It is bubbling with possibilities and new growth.

This is for many a time for moving into faith communities, and for faith communities, like the larger community of Ithaca to welcome in those folks, to scoot our chairs over to make a place at the kitchen table for new relatives.  Some will be cute and naïve, others well used to church life, some young, some older, some alone and tentative, some with families.  It may be easy to get annoyed by the changes, by the additional people in town or in our pews, but just as Ithaca exists to nourish many, many minds now descending, so churches exist to nurture new souls arriving. 

We may have to wait while someone unloads a sofa in traffic; the big choice is whether we get annoyed and seethe new ulcers or stay patient and realize someone is in a new part of their life’s journey.  We may have to be gracious to new souls attending FCCI for the first time; the choice is to welcome them in Christ’s name and with Christ’s hospitality and love.

Most of us are very willing to help the new folks moving in this weekend get settled and tell them where to find helpful things.  Let’s remember to share also with them the helpful things our congregation can offer and help them get settled in our spiritual community.  Let’s go that extra step and invite newcomers moving in to join us here, too!

                                                                                                  

                                                                        In Christ,
                                                                    
                                                                               David

Texts for Sunday

 From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 1:4-10
 From the Gospels                Luke 13:10-17

Tell your friends!

        Depending on where you are on your journey in life, this is the time of year when you either sigh as the summer is dwindling away or flat-out panic that fall is about to crash into you.  It is also when most of us begin to turn our thoughts back to our usual school, work, and church schedule and activities.  Shortly, the calendar section of the Sunday bulletin and Highlights will re-expand, and we will return to our usual levels of busyness.

       Part of that beginning-of-the-school-year ramping up is returning to church; for quite a few of our neighbors and family, it may be finding a new worshipping community here, either because their journeys have brought them to Ithaca or because where they are on their life journey has changed (children reaching an age when they want them to learn about faith, etc.).  So, whether you call it “church shopping,” visiting, or “auditioning” churches, in late August and early September we can expect more first time attenders.
So, welcome them!
 
       Sure, we should be welcoming to everyone anyhow, and folks here are really good at that, but sometimes long-time members get shy.  Often it’s not a question of social graciousness, since most here can be warm and welcoming.  Often it seems we are terrified we will welcome long-time members we think we should know and embarrass ourselves.  Get over it.  Some of the material for generous welcoming suggests opening lines like, “Hi!  I’m David Ashby, and I don’t recognize you.  It’s good to see you today.”  If someone answers, “Oh, I’ve been a member here for fifty years,” you can talk about that.  If someone says, “Oh, I’m visiting,” you can then offer a big welcome and offer help with getting settled.  If visitors have children, tell them about Sunday School and offer to show them the classroom.  If you aren’t familiar with such things, hook them up with someone who is.  Help them get oriented to the building and the worship service.  Offer to sit with them.  Actually the most important piece of hospitality sometimes is telling visitors where the restrooms are.

        For all our sanctuary with the remarkable quilts and the powerful music program and the spiritual formation we offer children and youth, what matters to new attenders most is the warmth and agreeableness of the people who inhabit our church.  Show ’em we’re nice.  Simple as that.

        One of the leading Presbyterian bloggers I follow, Todd Bollinger, posted a couple of weeks ago that their church was “no longer a welcoming church.”  After that rather provocative lede, he wrote that they had decided to become an inviting church!  I kinda liked that.  Welcoming, Bollinger said, is a somewhat passive posture, whereas inviting hints at actively encouraging people to worship and other church activities.
       
         So that idea pushes the conversation from the narthex out into the rest of the week.  You know people.  You know a lot of people.  You know people seeking a spiritual community.  Don’t be shy about asking them if they would like to attend here some Sunday with you.  With you.  It turns out in all the church growth literature, the personal invitation to attend worship with you is the greatest key.  A familiar face and someone to sit with make a huge difference.  You know people.  You know this church… you know what to do to bring them together.

            So do it.  OK?

        Another of my crazy colleagues was a new church development pastor in a suburb of Rochester some years ago, and he loved to end meetings with a cheery, “Hey!  Invite your friends to church… and maybe even invite people you know you don’t like very much!”
Invite someone to join us this Sunday (and the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that and…) to meet this interesting lot of people on the journey of faith at First Congregational.

                                                                                 In Christ,
                                                                                  
                                                                                          David

        This week we welcome to FCCI the Rev. Dr. Wayne Gustafson, well-known to the congregation. Rev. Wayne Gustafson, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a Certified Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in New York.  Presently, he is an adjunct instructor, teaching Psychology at Tompkins Cortland Community College and a contract pastoral counselor and psychotherapist with Susquehanna Family Counseling Ministry.

Texts for Sunday

From the Epistles       Hebrews 11:29-12:2
From the Gospel         Luke 12:49-56

Waiting in Faith

            This week’s lectionary gets us thinking about faith, one of the key concepts of our faith, yet one we don’t spend much time describing.  Hebrews picks up on Abram’s faithfulness to God and trust in God’s promises.  Abram steps out in faith, pretty literally, as he leaves home to head for the promised land and a promise of many descendents.  But, despite the delay of results from God, Abram keeps plodding along, trusting God.  In fact, from the New Testament’s perspective, it was his diligent plodding along which defines his faithfulness.  He acts as if it is true, even without actual confirmation, even without tangible results.  As Hebrews puts it famously: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.”  Hanging in there for God to come through on God’s agenda is a solid working definition of a solid working faith.  That’s why the Bible keeps bringing Sara and Abram up as examples for us.

            We’re generally pretty good with that concept, and generally keep putting one foot in front of the other as we keep walking behind Jesus’ example.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep going, and sometimes we get really, really discouraged trudging along waiting for God’s something to happen.  Honestly, that’s why it’s called faith!  If we actually had it all coming together in front of our eyes, it would be easy reality; it takes faith to stick with the unseen program.

            Most of us keep the faith, personally, as we move through our days and years.  But one place I find churchgoers particularly prone to falling apart is in the arena of a pastoral transition.  Sure, we can have faith our grandmother will get well after surgery, but we go completely blank on trusting God to bring us a pastor in due time.  Actually, I think it is the “in due time” part we mess up on.  We and God seem to part ways on what “due time” is.  We think a couple of months is plenty of time to give God for the project, forgetting that God has a cosmic time frame not bound by human impatience.  In fact, sometimes I think God likes to take longer for things just to force me to slow down, think, pray, and wait…. wait in faith.  But like Abram, churches learn from the time they spend waiting in faith, so take a deep breath as we move into the planning for our next interim steps and remember that sometimes the lesson God is teaching is trust and patience!  And sometimes God is reminding us that Abram didn’t see the big picture all at once but in little bits at a time.  I like the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., that “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”  

            Let’s go exploring the staircases in front of us and in front of First Congregational.  Join your sisters and brothers this Sunday as we tiptoe ahead with faith in things not yet seen.  (And invite someone along with you!)

                                                   

                                                         In Christ,
                                                          
                                                                   David

Texts for Sunday

From the Hebrew Bible          Genesis 15:1-6
From the Epistles                  Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
From the Gospel                   Luke 12:32-40

Feed My Children

        One of my kids when making a peanut butter & jelly sandwich carefully spreads the peanut butter out evenly to the very edge of the bread, right up to a millimeter from the crust with equal attention to the depth being the same over the whole surface.  And the jelly is spread out as evenly, too.

         It is a sad, sad fact of the world that food, in general, is not spread out evenly across the globe, or even across Tompkins County.  Over the last few years the lines at food giveaways around here have lengthened.  Yet Ithaca has quite a few shops, grocery chains, and many restaurants purveying high-end food.  Even in Ithaca, which is far, far better than many communities about sustainability and food justice, there’s lots of peanut butter in the middle of the bread and real gaps and thin places around the edges.

         In August the Outreach Committee is again reminding us of desperation and hunger across the globe with a focus on Feed My Starving Children and the Ithaca Mobile Pack on September 6-8 and on ending food insecurity in our own towns through the Food Bank of the Southern Tier.  Not only is this a time to educate ourselves about the disparities and needs, but it is a time to act to ameliorate hunger here and starvation in other places.

          We are beginning to sign up groups and individuals for the Mobile Pack, so you really can get your hands involved in tangible help for children dying of malnutrition and those whose development and education are damaged by lack of food.  We are also encouraging those who pack and the groups they come from to bring non-perishable food items for the Kitchen Cupboard, the Food Bank, and many satellite programs.

          And, to really push the image of the peanut butter & jelly sandwich, I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is, too!  Consider making a contribution or an additional contribution to FMSC or the Food Bank so they can provide more foodstuffs to the hungering.  Even more than non-perishable items and toiletries, money can make a difference in getting nutrition to people the world over.  Money given here can purchase food there, where it is needed, helping those local economies.  The Food Bank and FMSC can leverage your donations with their buying power, literally multiplying it with God’s grace.  We are well on our way to underwriting the 300,000 meals for the Ithaca Mobile Pack, but it would be wonderful to have all of the money in hand before the pack.  So drop hints with the people that you know encouraging them to donate… and drop some money in the offering plates this month!

           On the first Sunday of the month we share communion at the Lord’s Table.  It is fitting that we begin an emphasis on the Food Bank and Feed My Starving Children.  As we are fed, let us remember to feed the least of Christ’s children.  Generously and graciously and joyously.  And let us share like their lives depend on it.  In too many places, it does.

            Join your sister and brothers this Sunday as we break bread together in Jesus’ love and all month as we share bread with the world.

                                                                                                        
                                                            In Christ,
                                                                  
                                                                           David

Texts for Sunday

From the Hebrew Bible        Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
From the Epistles               Colossians 3:1-11
From the Gospel                 Luke 12:13-21

Teach Us to Pray

            It’s a request from pretty much every band of religious followers asked of their spiritual leader, “Teach us to pray…”  It rarely means that the followers are totally clueless about the quick, instinctive pleas or relief or happiness directed to the holy presence.  The question is more asking “teach us to pray the way you think we should.”  Some is form, but much is acknowledging that the leader seems to be tuned in and we think we should follow that.  Sometimes it is almost like the followers want to get the secret formula, the hidden secret to connect with the divine.  Certainly many ancient religions around the Mediterranean believed that the right words— almost incantations, even— would bring fast results.  

            So it makes all kind of sense that the disciple wanted to get it right, to hook up with God the way Jesus seemed to be hooked up.  And it makes all kind of sense that Jesus’ prayer for the apostles was ’way simpler and more heartfelt.  He just touched upon the basics: we are related to God as children to parents, make things on earth like in heaven, take care of us, forgive us and help us forgive others, keep us out of trouble.  Nice, simple.  Not highfalutin’.  Rather in character for the informal rabbi with divine intensity.  Of course, the church in its early years touched it up and made it more formal and more suitable for liturgy and named it “the Lord’s Prayer,” and we still use it as a straightforward everyday model for prayer.  Even children can handle that!  Which is why we teach it to our children and include it in worship before they leave for their program.  It’s a children’s prayer that even adults can pray.
 

Anne Lamott called her recent book “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers,” which I think kind of recaptures the heartfelt simplicity of Jesus’ prayer and reminds us that the essence of prayer is not the heaped up theological words but the honesty of the emotions as we lean toward God.  Sometimes I’ve talked to people that think they need a professional like me to do the “right” prayer and that they are merely amateurs.  Jesus pretty effectively reminds us that the real pray-ers are the amateurs!  “Uh, I could use some help here, God” is every bit as good as the old Anglican “Prosper thou the work of our hands.”  Get it? Jesus is telling the disciples and us that simple and sincere is what he’s listening for, so relax and ask.  And then listen and watch.  There will be an answer sooner or later!

            Join your sisters… and brothers… this Sunday as we pray together in Jesus’ presence.

                                                                                                            In Christ,

                                                                                                          

David

Texts for Sunday

From the Epistles       Colossians 2:6-15
From the Gospel         Luke 11:1-13