September 18, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Metanoia: To Be Perfect is to Change Often

Scripture:
Luke 15: 1-10

Luke 15: 1-10
15 All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. 2 The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over the one who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives.
8 “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? 9 When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ 10  In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one who changes both heart and life.”
 
Two figures have dominated our news in recent days,
         Queen Elizabeth, the Second of Great Britain
                  and Vladimir Putin, the first, of Russia
 
One brought a sense of stability for generations
          the other profound instability to the world. 
 
One, who led as her nation moved beyond its
         conflictive, often tragic empirical past,
                  The other trying to recreate the past empire
                           by any means necessary.
 
As we consider what Jesus says today,
         about what God is hoping for in us
                  let’s see what he may have to say
                           about Elizabeth and Vladimir and us.    
 
Luke begins this passage by telling us that
         the Pharisees, the legal officials of the synagogue,
                  are grumbling that Jesus eats with sinners.
 
Pharisees declared that the reign of God was coming
                  and that people were to live as if that were so,
                  to live righteously, according to the Torah.  
 
Jesus believed this too,
   but, Pharisees also believed that
         that to stay pure,  
                  the righteous should distance themselves
                           from the unrighteous.
 
Indeed, the word Pharisee comes from Hebrew word
         parush – meaning the one who is separated. 
 
So, they are upset that Jesus mingles with those who aren’t
         Torah keepers, and so condoning them.
 
         It remind me of those in our own
                  denomination who are committed to
                           the purity laws
                                    that sat say who is
                                         righteous and who is not
                                             who may lead,
                                                 and who may not
 
         and have decided to separate from the UMC
                  rather than be tainted by those
                           who are mingle with the unrighteous.
                                    without condemning them.
 
Anyway, In response to the Pharisees,
     according to Luke,
         Jesus tells them stories: 
                   
First, don’t you love that instead of getting mad at them
         he tells stories
               He so wants to bring these brothers
                  into the story that is unfolding in him.
 
He tells them about a sheep who is lost
         and a coin which has been lost.
 
He reframes sin as lostness.
         Not as bad action or even as a bad person
                  neither a sheep nor a coin is bad
 
and that seems so right to me.
         Vladimir Putin, I believe, is lost.
                  but it does not make them without value
                          Indeed, they are of great value
                           not shunned, but sought by God
 
Who wants their lostness to end
         how does it end: 
                  Jesus says: 
I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels
         when the lost one has, and then comes our word
                  metanoeite
 
         Meta – which means to change, to shift,
                  and noia – which means the mind or thinking. 
 
         Metanoia - To shift or change one’s mind or way of thinking
                           or outlook.
 
I tell you, says Jesus,  joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels
         when the lost one changes their way of thinking
                  and living.
 
And, to me, it seems, Jesus’ story is really about the Pharisees        themselves, they are the lost ones
                  who are so sure that God is a punitive rule maker
                           so disappointed in us fallable humans,
                                 rather than one who created and delights in us
                                    and continuously invites us into a
                                             new ways of being for our own
                                                      and for God’s sake.
 
But, we got stuck in that moralism ourselves.
       when those in Rome translated the word “metanoia’      
          from Greek into Latin translators used the word,
                  paenitentia:
                           “to look back with regret and judgment of one’s self.”
 
You know the word from penitentiary –which we build to
         separate the righteous from the unrighteous
                  Which sounds a lot more like the Pharisees
                           way of thinking than Jesus’.
 
and so Metanoia was translated into English as repentance.
         which has a very different tone from “
                  changing your mind, shifting your understanding.
 
Throughout the centuries, starting in the second century,
         theologians have challenged this
              in the 1800’s a Boston scholar
                  wrote to those working on a new English translation,
                           how did such an extraordinary mistranslation
                                    get into our New Testament.
 
And, he found to his surprise, that everyone agreed
         with his scholarship,
                  but said that such a modification was impossible
                           since the committee felt that the word
                                    repentance had become so much part of our
                                             Christian language
                                                      to that it had to be retained.
                           and it was up to preachers and teacher to explain it.
 
So, here we are, in 2022,
         two thousand years after Jesus told this story
                  invited into a metananoia
a new way of thinking,
         like the Pharisees, invited to a change of mind and heart
                  that allows us to
                           to see the fuller reality within us and around us
         to open our minds to the Kingdom Jesus proclaims
                  not because we are coerced          
                       by the fear of a retributive God,
                           but loved into this change
                                  by a God who is love itself
 
        
John Henry Newman,  an English priest in the 1800s
         He sensed this call to metanoia deeply in the church
                  that the church
                           needed to remain open to the continuing
                                    revelation of God
He said, growth is the only evidence of life, he said.
         and
                  to live is to change, and to be perfect
                           is to have changed often.
 
I think this is so helpful –
         because the changes that Jesus speaks of
                  he metanoia he longs form
                           comes, usually, in small shifts
                                    that that over a lifetime,
                                    transform us into new beings.
 
I have seen this in persons I love
         as they age, hold their truths less tightly
                  more open to the reality unfolding before them.
 
I believe this happened in Elizabeth Winsor
         and I believe that God is working on Vladimir
 
And God is working on us,
         for we are all a little lost,
                  and God is seeking us all out, 
                      for we are of great value to God. 
 
And God rejoices when we are open
         open to the shifts of mind and heart and life
                  open to the good news of unconditional
                           love and acceptance
                           by a God who is love
         and who rejoices us in
                  and all who are willing to fully and freely
                           live their lives in that truth.
 
May we so do. 
Amen.
​

September 11, 2022
Deep Water
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Luke 5: 1-6

​5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 
 
I’m glad its September,
      its wonderful to have the choir back, and our Sunday classes back
                        and Sunday School for kids back and you back in these pews.
 
When I was a child, September meant going with my grandmother to get a new dress for that first day of school. 
                                    I had such anticipation. 
 
This is the first September in 3 years, when it feels like that again,
                        like we are finally if gradually emerging
                                    from this long, difficult season of fear and death,
                        and uncertainty and separation wrought by COVID 19
                                                            when things are back to normal.
 
And yet, I am not sure I want them to be normal.
    Aren’t things supposed to be different, after you’ve come through such a time?
                                    Aren’t we meant to be different?
 
My parents were born during the Great Depression
            so, I grew up with those stories and they gave me the sense
                                    that everyone who’d lived through that time
                                                learned something fundamental about life
            what it was like to be hungry, or out of work,
                                    to be compassionate to those who were,
                                                 to respect the hardship people face,
                                                when asked:   Brother, can you spare a dime?
 
We hope that we would learn similar lessons  from the pandemic;
            that we are emerging not just weary but wiser,  
            not just thankful we’ve survived while millions did not,
                                    but more aware of life’s gifts
                                                of our miraculous lungs and medicine,
                                                            our families, and our places of worship.
 
            the gift of shared meals, and seeing one another’s faces,
                                    and hugs and handshakes, and singing together. 
 
And beyond what we had,perhaps we want something more.
                        we want all of that which we went through
                                    to have widened our worldview, broadened our kinship,
                                    made us aware of disparities between persons and nations
                                                and yet our sameness as humans.
                                                            When are asked “Brother, Can you spare a dime?”
                                               
We had an appreciation of essential workers, 
            we realized that to be essential has nothing to do with wages or status.
                                                Will that revelation last?   
We hope so.
            We hope we have grown, that we have taken this trauma
                                    and allowed it to change us. 
. 
Change is the first thing Jesus of Nazareth talked about, and did. 
 
In Mark, and early in Matthew he says,  Metanoeite!  The Kingdom of God is here.
                  Believe this good news. 
 
(mετανοείτε) from Metanoia, a Greek word meaning
                        to change one’s mind or worldview. 
So he is saying,  Change your mind!  The Kingdom of God is here.  Believe it! 
 
And in the Gospel of John his first action is to attend a wedding
                        and change a barrel of water into wine,
                                    Changes the everyday gift of water into a celebration. 
 
And in our story today in Luke,
            he boards Simon Peter’s boat and tells him to change course
Put out into the deep waters, he says, set your nets down there.
                                    and the fish that had evaded them  flood in.
 
and Peter and the others are startled and when they reach land
                        they set down their nets and follow him.
 
Brother John of Taize describes that moment this way:
 
Simon Peter realizes suddenly that Jesus has revealed
            the difference between the life he’s been leading
                        and the unsuspected depths within him.
 
And he and James and John
            seem to understand that the meaning of their lives
                        the meaning of their existence upon this earth
                                    are not to be found in what they already know
                                                and have attained but in allowing themselves
                                                                        to be led to new lands. 
           
The last several months have been ones of great awakening to me.
            I have been led, by study, by listening,
                        into new depths of understanding,
                                    great changes in my thinking, in my
 
So much has opened up
            I feel like I am just beginning to comprehend who Jesus is,
                        What Christ means, 
                              and to sense the intimate connection
                                    that we have with all that is created
                                         to the loving heart of the universe
                                                in whom we live and move and have our being.
                                   
So, starting in May, I rounded up a crew of people
            and we spent a couple months discerning
                        what it would mean for us to go into the deep waters
                                    of being formed as Christians here
                       
                        in this moment in the world, in the church,
                                    for those who are new to the faith or this place,
                                    for those who’ve felt traumatized by the church or life,
                                    for those who’ve lost a sense of connection to the divine story
                                    for those who’ve kept it but want more.
 
One person said: I don’t want to go recover my faith
                                                            I want to keep discovering it
 
So, we’ve come up with a new season of study, including a Core Curriculum
             that will take place in three session over the course of a year.
 
That begins with leading us through a time  of focusing on the person of Jesus,
considering who Jesus was to us, perhaps as children
            and all the different ways we’ve thought or been taught to think of him,
                                                and who he actually is for us now. 
 
And then a course in comprehending the nature of Christ
            through whom we are all made, according John
                        in whom we can live, according to Paul,
            We will take in that enormous, holy mystery
                        and seek to see the Christ all around us, even within us. 
 
And then in the third part to take time to consider our own selves
            our own lives of great love and great suffering
                        our own journeys of meaning and truth-seeking.
                                    and to go deeper yet.
 
This core course is joined by many other opportunities:
            Sunday morning study and conversation beginning today  
The Kitchen class is looking at The Great Spiritual Migration –The description of their book reads:
 The Christian story, from Genesis until now, is fundamentally about people on the move—outgrowing old, broken religious systems and embracing new, more redemptive ways of life.  It’s time to move again.
 
I expect there will be similar transformative conversations in the
 Exploring Progressive Christianity Class with Eric Smoot
as they spend the next year  Living the Questions
 
There will be Deep dives into the scriptures of the day
            with Duane and Cliff in Word Among us
                                                           
We will soon start an informal Sunday worshipful conversation in the parlor
                        And starting today, Xema and Nicole are inviting parents of children
to consider the spirituality of parenting
                                                and the changes that brings to life and faith.
                                   
There are Topical classes, like the course on White Christian Nationalism that begins tomorrow, led by Charles and David.
 
Ongoing Monday Bible study with Cathy, as they Make the Road by Walking,
                 and Scripture study with Dick Igo on Friday afternoons.
                        and folks are invited to Walking and Talking the faith                                                        through Whetstone Park every week.
 
All these, and worship this season are an invitation to move into the deep waters
                        to let down our nets there and see what comes
                       
perhaps to share what these past years have wrought in us and around us,
                        and to see what questions lie below the surface
                                    what revelations might be found within
                                                and in community of faithful people. 
                                    as we enter into of this new season of our lives together. 
 
Metanoia, says Jesus of Nazareth,
            to each of us, wherever we are, whomever we are,
                        be open - to the deeps around us, the deeps within,
                                                for the Kingdom of God is among us. 
                                                            Believe it.   
 
           
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Maple Grove UMC

September 4, 2022
Pay Day Someday
Rev. Charles Hill

Scripture:
Genesis 32: 22-32

When I was a preschooler, growing up on our first farm, we possessed one link to the outside world. That was our Silvertone Montgomery Ward radio. It was powered by a car battery and it was used sparingly, but every weekday afternoon mother listened to  a “soap” and Cowboy Loy, who broadcast over WWVA, Wheeling WV. I still remember his theme song:
                                    Banners are flying todays the big show,
                                    cowboys are whooping the big rodeo,
                                    the announcers are busy, the horns give a toot,
                                    cowboys rush doggies to the end of the shoot.
           
Well, recently as I was looking at a report of the January 6, 2021, eruption in Washington D. C. I concluded that what happened there  was not a rodeo, although there were “banners flying.” Lots of them.  “Jesus ” flags, “Don’t tread on me,”  “Skull & Crossbones,” The thirteen star  “Betsey Ross,”  flag. And, of course the “Confederate” flag so defiantly carried through the building. Also, the QANON man, was there, horns and hairy chest.  And  Richard “Bing” Barnett, reclining in the Speaker’s chair, with his rugged he-man boots on the desk. It looked like a terror attack, yet from some angles it looked like kids playing war, or, it could have been some kind of comedy show.  It was, however, in all reality, a brazen, premeditated attack on the government of these United States.  And it was a wake-up call to most of us who love this country, telling us that something is terribly wrong right here in “River City,” and we need to look, evaluate and act to restore the Republic.
​
Now most of the actors felt really good about what they had done. They took selfies, and sent them flying through the clouds to family and friends, captioned with “I was in the Peoples’ House.” Yet, in a few weeks “The music stopped.” The music stopped, with a knock on the door and when the door opened a badge was flashed: “FBI, we want to talk with you.”

As I pondered this drama,  I began to recall a sermon I heard on a long play record more than sixty years ago; a sermon about Ahab and Jezebel killing Naboth and taking his vineyard. And in time, you remember that  Jezebel came to a horrible, horrible, death. That old preacher believed the unspeakably hellish  death, was because she and Ahab treated Naboth with unrestrained hatred. And that is the point of the sermon.  Again, and again the old guy returned to  the refrain of his message: “There’s a payday someday.” “Payday Someday.” The chickens always come home to roost.” The January sixers are facing their payday now. And for some it won’t end soon. And for some, well, they await the knock.                    
 
II. Now I have said all that to get your attention. To get the blood moving through your mental computer. So, now I can say, Jacob knew all about paydays, and he knew he had one coming. I am sure that some nights Esau appeared in Jacob’s dreams with a spiked cudgel in his hand about to bash Jacob’s skull, and Jacob might suddenly  yell, awakening  his wives with screams and punches in the air,  and then find himself awake and in a  profuse sweat.  You know the story. Jacob and Esau were twins. Esau was in the process of being born and Jacob reached out and tried to supplant him. Tried to grab his heel. But he failed. Gradually the boys grew up. Esau became the hunter. Jacob  evolved into more of a home boy.   And he also liked staying around mom and being special in her sight. And she enjoyed Jacob. I think more than she liked Esau. Always a bad deal in a family.
 
There came a day when in a moment of silliness  Esau came in , apparently empty handed, from hunting.  He was hungry and Jacob had a pot of deer meet, lintels, potatoes and carrots simmering on the fire. And Esau said, “I’ll give you my birthright, my inheritance, for a  bowl of that stew.” It was done. Esau thought it was a joke, but Jacob did not. And sometime later, Rebecca, the boys’  conniving mother,  designed a way to get old blind Isaac to  give Jacob the ultimate family blessing. It happened, and Esau was voted out as first son and Jacob was given the crown.  Even after Isaac knew he had been bamboozled he refused to correct it. He was like my first cousin who married an alcoholic who some nights would get his revolver, come into the bedroom and threaten to kill her. “Why didn’t you divorce him”? I asked. “Oh, I promised ‘for better or worse’ before God.” Isaac had given his blessing, and that was that. It was done. 

When Esau learned of their conniving plot, he prepared to kill  Jacob. Just human, you know. Rebekah could see it in Esau’s eyes. So, momma formulated a plan. She sent Jacob off to live with her brother, his uncle Laban. Now time has passed, years have flown, and Jacob has done well, in fact so well that Laban wanted  him to leave; to move on. For Jacob was accused of enriching himself at the expense of the Laban Clan. He, apparently had engaged in some  unethical practices against his uncle. And, of course,  Laban had done the same with him. They shared the same DNA, corrupted DNA. Maybe some of us have a bit of that DNA too.

Remember, Jacob worked seven years for Rachael and the morning after the wedding he woke up with Leah on his arm. (I have often wondered about that part of this story. I can’t believe Jacob was that naive). But, finally he had both daughters for wives.  Years passed and things changed, Jacob’s possessions grew exponentially,  and Laban’s clan turned against him, so he and his entourage left quietly in the night, like a renter who is six months in arears. And they were on the road for some time before Laban knew. He chased after his son-in-law and daughters. Caught them. They talked. I think loudly part of the time. Real loud. Laban complained that Jacob had stolen the household gods. Jacob knew nothing of that. But, Rachael did and was sitting on them as her father searched the tent.  She had stolen the gods. That’s like seminarians stealing stoles. Finally, when they had finished their negotiations and came to some kind of agreement, they set up a pile of stones and agreed that, “So long as neither moves past these stones we will live in peace.” Translated: Laban said, “So long as I don’t see your face, we are good.”

They sealed the deal with an oath: The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from  another. That is familiar to some because it was a youth benediction for years. What we didn’t know was the rest of it. If you ill treat my daughters, though no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between us.”  The implication: And God will take care of you.
Now Jacob and his entourage are approaching Esau country. Jacob is scared, as one of my parishioners used to say, “scared spitless.” He did not know what lay ahead. It is said that fear can focus our senses. I have a feeling Jacob was fully  focused. But being Jacob,  he had a plan. First he sent all his hired help on across the Jabbok, with all his goats, sheep, cows, camels and probably dogs. A little later he sent his wife and family on across. Some think he was willing to sacrifice some of them, even his family, so he might be able to get away, just in case Esau was still angry.

 With everyone across the river,  he then entered into the struggle; the struggle between the  “Conniving Jacob and the Honorable Jacob. I know, the Bible implies he wrestled with God. But what does that mean? What does it mean beyond struggling with the light and dark sides of himself?—And he, after an all-night struggle finds peace. Conversion is not easy. “Come forward & accept Jesus,” some say. “Get real and deal with who you are and who you want to be,” is more like it and more challenging.  It takes a life-time. But Jacob’s two sides, “Who he was and who he wanted to be”, struggled, until Jacob embraced a new person who he expected to become. A new life for himself. He was determined now to set things right between himself and his twin brother.  And as he headed across his Jabbok, he was left with a limp. Yes, according to the story, he didn’t walk the same. Now don’t let the limp bother you. He was changed and it showed outwardly. That’s the way real conversion works. God even changed his name from “Jacob” which means “Supplanter,”  or “Ouster,” to “Israel,” which means “The one who strives with God.”  Jacob was a changed man.  The Bible says, ”He wrestled with a man; but the writer also says “God.”  Jacob says, “For I have seen God face to face.” Some artists have angels standing nearby over the battle Jacob engages. They are always indicators of God’s presence. And they point toward change.

Bishop Gerald Ensley had an auto accident in  December of 1962. On Christmas day the family was called in to Riverside, for the doctors thought he was dying. But he didn’t. He began to heal.  And the following June, and I was there, at Lakeside, when he addressed the three thousand gathered in Hoover Auditorium. He said, “One does not hear the whisper of angel wings and remain the same person.”  Jacob limped. Maybe it was because he was now relaxed. Maybe it because spiritual battles mark us.—You know the rest of the story, Esau had already forgiven him, they embraced and lived happily ever after. Except for the next generations.                                                                                                          
 Conclusion:  We have all wrestled with God at some point in life. Maybe not today, we have settled the conflict with the Almighty. But someone here may still be struggling. Like the  woman who had carried a burden for 60 years. She had gone to be with her soldier boyfriend. They consummated their relationship, but never married.  Now her husband was dead. She had to tell the children. All over 60. She did, and they smiled; said, He was a good dad and husband. We don’t see the point. She must have limped after that. She had been on the banks of the Jabbok for scores of years.

But there is more. Collectively we are on the banks of the Jabbok.  We United Methodists will soon become United Methodist and Fragmented Methodists. Our struggle with God, ourselves,  our understanding of what God wants have not brought unity, but divorce. That sometimes happens. We are all ready limping, we just don’t quite know what it means.

But now we are in a Jacob-like struggle at one more level. The Democratic America is in major conflict with another faction that is seeking an Authoritarian America. Democracy is so messy, but a strongman can make decisions quickly. And the struggle is on. Some are eager to establish a Christian America. And for some that really sounds fantastic. But history does not give a positive report  where Christian or any other religion rules, or has ruled. At this hour the struggle within this nation is on. And each of us is being called to embrace the God who revealed himself in Jesus; the Jesus whose loves all people, the white folks, the black, brown, yellow, red, as well as Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sike, Hindu, and those who stand alone. The Inclusive Christ. That is our calling: to embrace who changes our and lives for the better. Then our pay day will be joyful, not tearful.
Jacob wrestled with God, with the two sides of himself. Now we are wrestling on the banks of the Jabbok. Some, individually, Some as United Methodists, Some who love this country and know if Democracy rules, it will require them to stay up all night and wrestle with God, or the two minds struggling within.—What ever the decisions in life, there is always a payday. Sometimes we receive Gold, other times it’s a cudgel. Either way we will walk differently. Amen.

August 28, 2022
Jesus and the Sabbath
David Kushner

Scripture:
Luke 14: 1-14

The Bible is perhaps best understood as meditation literature.  In brief, these texts are made to be meditated on, contemplated by Communities of Faith, and in so doing we are shaped and formed, and grow in our identity—both as communities, and as individuals.
--The Gospel of Luke puts some high significance on the meaning of Sabbath for the new Christian (largely non-Jewish) community. So let’s first consider the significance of Sabbath.
--What is Sabbath: rule/Law to cease from work on the “seventh” day.
--Sabbath calls us to behave like God
         --God worked for 6 days, then rested; so we work and rest.
         --Because we are formed in the Image of God, we are to behave like God
         --so what is God like? … well that is a larger matter—perhaps which comes into better focus as we move on.
--Sabbath reminds us of our contingency on God—because we are in God’s Image we depend upon God for our sustenance.
--Sabbath practices the hope of an egalitarian community. It reminds us that because we are all in God’s image, the rich, the poor, even slaves and aliens, are to rest, and all be reminded they too behave like God and bear God’s image. And in the the largess of God’s blessing upon us, we extend our wealth to ensure the rest and feasting of the marginal among us—as God has done for us.
--with this in mind, the Sabbath can be imagined as a time where we ritually imagine and inhabit the prophetic reality of all people together acting as God acts, regarding one another as co-inheritors of God’s image and presence in this world, enjoying together the bounty that blesses the rich and the poor, indiscriminately 
         --Sabbath is a picture of God’s way in the world where the Last are made First, and the First/Last.
--For these reasons, it was mandated as an essential part of their identity for the Community of Faith to rest from work on the Sabbath, and to enjoy the bounty of life lived together. And it is within this context that we return to Luke’s ruminations on the lord of the sabbath.
--is it lawful to do the work of healing on the Sabbath? The religious leaders previously have challenged Jesus on this point before (Chapter 13), and here Jesus inverts the situation calling on them to answer.
--Now we know that there are very serious laws and customs built around the tradition of honoring Sabbath, so it is no simple thing for a leader, whose identity, authority, and position are wrapped up in the maintenance of this to answer.
--This is a litmus test. To answer this wrong is to risk exclusion from God’s people. Will we give the wrong answer, saying it is OK to violate Sabbath? Do we run the risk of encouraging all the people to simply do as they will—like children, or is it better and even more caring to admonish the crowds to do what is “right”?
--It is worth asking ourselves what litmus tests we confront today: Can those who are more conservative or liberal than us truly worship together? Can gays and lesbians have full inclusion in the Church?
--Jesus’ response is that the Law of God is not simply about Rule Keeping, it is about People Keeping. We know we honor the Law of God if our actions bring life, healing, restoration and liberation. If our insistence upon a “right” way to be results in the alienation or hurt of others, it is not born from God’s law.
--Jesus behaves like God, bringing new life and healing so that another human can truly have rest upon the Sabbath.
--and so we see that Luke shows us: to be like Jesus is to honor the law of God. And to honor the laws of God is to participate in the healing of this world. We recognize and restore the image of God in one another, and we discover that God’s love empowers us.
--This sounds nice, and right—and it IS! But there is also a parable here. And parables have a way of catching us out. We often come to a parable feeling like we are on the side of God, and we often walk away troubled, unsure in some ways. Often we are simultaneously comforted and joyous, and also profoundly challenged by an ever higher call.
--We should embrace these ambiguities and meditate upon them, allowing the ways of God to ever speak to us, teach us, and challenge us.
--So Jesus here tells a parable and gives what seems to simply be wise advice. Don’t show up at a feast and assume the seat of highest honor: Just think how shameful and embarrassing it will be to be moved down the row! Rather, be wise, seek the lower seat, and then you will be honored when the host invites you close. Honestly, pretty good advice.
--Have you ever been at an awards ceremony and felt convinced that the anonymous person they are describing is yourself? I have. Nearly any time anyone is going to be honored—even if I know the honor has nothing to do with me—i believe that they will call out my name, thank me for being generally awesome, and send me on my way to the great applause and admiration of everyone. Perhaps this is just me. Not so bad when that aspiration lives only in our head—but woe to me if I stand up and start walking to the podium before the announcement is made! It is much safer to remain Walter Mitty and dream my days away—So I heed Jesus’ advice on such occasions.
--But on a more serious note, these Sabbath meals, like most sacrifices in the Bible, are a way of sharing with others the blessings God has given: so much that it allows us to take a whole day off from work. What better way to Honor God than to throw a big, rich expensive feast!?! and I can invite all those pretenders who think THEY’VE been blessed! So I use the feast that celebrates our common humanity, and God’s generosity, and I use that feast to esteem myself most—to make sure everyone knows I’ve been blessed more than them. Maybe I gain favor and stature. I ensure myself a nice seat when my rival throws his own feast. Suddenly this feast becomes an insidious thing; a celebration of hoarding and avarice. And I have the GALL to challenge whether Jesus’ healing is lawful? When my very actions celebrate hoarding, social posturing and self-protection, and deny the full humanity of those who suffer, and suffer from want who are near me… well. Well, what is that?
--So we can see a bit of what Jesus is on about here. Good thing I know better than to seek honor for myself. Good thing I would never openly oppress another person to make my own feast grander. And good thing I would never do that in God’s name.
--Well...at least not today, but maybe I will tomorrow. By wrestling with the reality that I am very much still a broken, fragile person, who still strives to gain honor, security and admiration, I may be molded into a humbler, more loving ambassador of Jesus’ love.
--Jesus’ parable commends us to invite the poor, the lame, the alien to our table and let them enjoy in the goodness of God’s blessing. It seems that only here, where there can be no expectation of repayment, do we honor the Image of God.
--Now if you know you will come to a party you would not be accorded honor in keeping with your person, would you even attend? Would I participate in a church where I know that those less educated, less socially well-healed, or less theologically correct might be honored more highly than I? Would I stay in a church run by fishermen?
--The world would say we should seek like-minded fellows, but Jesus calls the basis of our like-mindedness to be in a loving humility. Don’t seek the honor and security of being in the “right” group; rather find your security in behaving like God, who loves and restores all Humans, and through this love helps make us whole. What of that?
--Our categories of honor are perhaps different these days, and so we really must meditate upon the truths of these stories. We should allow them to challenge us, we should discuss and debate them with one another in communities of trust and faith, we should wrestle with God in the silence of our souls.
---We will often feel to have failed, or or that we are incapable of such a high calling, and just then we may feel the uplifting arms of God’s love and acceptance of us, or an opportunity to be a vessel of God’s love toward an enemy, or another who could never repay you.
--It is in this vulnerability that we discover truly who we are: contingent beings, loved, fragile and formed together into a community that reflects God’s love, an alternative reality; a prophetic community that continually reminds us and the world that there is a New way; a way of being Truly Human.
--Consider what is perhaps the oldest hymn of the early church, from the letter to the Philippians: “Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself taking on the form of a servant, even unto death. Therefore we are called to do nothing out of selfish ambition, or vain conceit—but rather consider others before yourself. Look to others’ interests, not merely your own.”
--Jesus shows us, and challenges us, what it looks like to behave like God. We do not have to constantly strive and seek position, security, and honor; we do not have to worry about always having the moral or intellectual high ground.
--If we know we are made in God’s Image, and we love those near us as those who also bear God’s Image, we will fulfill God’s law, and we will experience the Sabbath rest. A Rest from so much striving and hate that is the World.
--I certainly have not exhausted the truths of even this passage; together though we may go forth as contemplatives in action, meditating on the ways of Jesus’ kingdom, and bringing healing and love to a world in desperate need of a true Sabbath.
--I pray that wee each bear in our hearts the challenge Jesus puts before us. Let us carry the challenge and not grow complacent; rather, regularly meditating and discovery where God’s call upon us can form into ever more loving and humble Humans: May our lives bear our God’s presence in this world.

August 21, 2022
God's Dream
Cathy Davis

Scripture:
Jeremiah 1: 4-10
Luke 13: 10-17

Jeremiah - a prophet, known as the weeping prophet, whose name means God Will Uplift.
 
We just heard the story of God coming to Jeremiah when he was just a young man, probably no more than a teenager, according to Jeremiah “the Lord came to me saying, ‘I appoint you as a prophet to the nations.’”
 
Jeremiah was chosen by God… God told him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”  
 
There are other stories of chosenness in the Bible. There is Abraham and Sarah; Moses and Miriam, David, Esther, Paul, and of course, Mary – and many more. God is always choosing people. Author Father Richard Rohr says that “God’s chosenness is for the sake of communicating chosenness to everybody else!”  God needs people – God needs those who are to be willing instruments – for the sake of others.
 
For many years, here at Maple Grove, when Bill Croy was our Senior Pastor and Laurie Clark our associate pastor, Our Hands are Christ’s hands was our sort of byline.  It was; Maple Grove – Our hands are Christ’s hands.  It was our reminder that we are needed as willing instruments for God.  Whether it inspired by the Saint Teresa of Avila’s (Ah vee lah) prayer Christ Has No Body, or not, I associate it with that and I want to read that prayer to you now…
 
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
 
Saint Teresa knew we were chosen to be the body of Christ. It’s in everyone’s job description.
 
Jeremiah’s particular chosenness was that of prophet, and he was appointed to “uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”  And God assured him “I am with you.”
 
Jeremiah was to serve the people of Israel, to help bring them back into right relationship with God. He called them out for breaking their covenant with God, he told them they weren’t living up to the Torah and they were living in violation of the Laws, that the most vulnerable people; the widows, orphans and immigrants – were being taken advantage.  Jeremiah delivered the message of God’s judgment and warned them that they would suffer and be forced into exile.
 
Even with all that said, with harsh consequences before them, Old Testament scholar and theologian, Walter Bruggeman, says that being prophetic is not to be shaming, criticizing, nagging, or scolding – it is to speak of new possibilities. A prophet’s message carries with it a message of hope and grace. 
 
Bruggeman says that prophets put visioning front and center, “they offer an alternative consciousness.”  He says they are to “nurture, nourish and evoke a Yahweh consciousness.”  They are sent to dismantle the dominate consciousness and to plant and raise up, an alternative one.  The prophet knows, they insist, that society could be other than it is, better than it is.
 
Prophets imagine something beyond what already is.  Another way of saying it is that they share God’s dream with people. Author and pastor Brian McLaren reframes the familiar phrase God’s will be done, into God’s dream come true.  Jeremiah was saying to the people of Israel …. God dreams of a better life for you, God dreams of peace for you, of justice for you, of compassion, cooperation, reconciliation, and of freedom for you. God dreams of relationship with you.
 
When I was in college at Ohio State University, I took an art history course. During that course there was one work of art that rattled me a bit, causing me to examine my own thinking. It was a sculpture; I couldn’t locate a photo of it to tell you the name of it or the artist.  But as I recall, it was made from bent and formed metal, and it was a bunk bed in what appeared to be an institutional setting and there was a figure of a person, lying on the bottom bed and there was a thought bubble above the person of what was going on in their mind as they laid there in bed. And inside the thought bubble, was the exact image of the person lying in bed. I was struck by the idea of not being able to imagine anything more than one’s current circumstances.
 
To be sure there are times we all are unable to see alternatives, or to imagine new possibilities for our lives and for our world. And that is when we most need prophetic imagination. Of seeing God’s dream for us.
 
In the Luke story we heard today, Jesus saw an alternative to what had always been when he knowingly broke the laws of the Sabbath and healed the woman who had been bent over for 18 years.
 
Father Richard Rohr says that the “best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.” 
Jesus practiced the better when he said to the men ready to stone the women who had been caught in an act of adultery, “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”   And when against societal taboos, Jesus had a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus practiced the alternative consciousness when he entered the tax-collectors house to join him for dinner and again when he touched the leper. Jesus lived a Yahweh consciousness. One in which God uplifts.
 
In the 12th century Francis Bernardone walked away from a life focused on power, prestige, and possessions in order to live an alternative life, of simplicity, focused on God and in harmony with all creation as St. Francis of Assisi. 
 
God needs people to share God’s dream, to walk the path, to show what’s possible. God needs people who will let others know that God knows us well, and God loves us, God has good plans for us, desires and dreams for us, God calls to us, God will be with us and work with us to bring about God’s good.  God wants, dreams of, desires relationship with us and one another.
 
In chapter 29 of Jeremiah, he writes to the elders who have been carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, they have been forced from a land they treasured, it’s gone and it is not coming back and he tells them, where you are now “Build houses; plant gardens, marry seek peace, and pray for Babylonians well-being.” And he messages of comfort and assurance from God saying “I know the plans I have for you, plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
 
Explaining what today’s world has in common with the book of Jeremiah, Walter Brueggemann said, “Ours, like the time of Jeremiah, is a time of violence, it’s a time of loss, it’s a time of bewilderment, it’s a time of fear, and I think that the book of Jeremiah gives voice to all of that, and before it finishes, it also manages to give voice to hope.”
 
One way to help us find hope, is to be what Barbara Brown Taylor calls “detectives of Divinity.”  We need imagination, to believe in the possibility of God’s dream for us.  That may mean looking out into the world for signs of Yahweh consciousness and with Yahweh consciousness. Like when I heard Scarlett Lewis, the mother of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting, speaks and writes about Nuturing, Healing, Love – the words her son Jesse had written on the chalkboard in their home days before he died.
 
Or when I read about more than 1,000 Norwegian Muslims forming a human shield they called a “ring of peace” to protect a Jewish place of worship in Oslo in the wake of a synagogue attack.
 
And in London, when a neighborhood watch group called ‘Shomrin’ (Hebrew for guards) protects Muslims against hate crimes.
 
Or when in 2017, through the support of the West Ohio Conference and Maynard Ave church, the “Welcome Home” program began and offers supportive relationships to women impacted by incarceration.
 
Or when I found out on Friday that Ryan Van Bibber, of our AV team, has started an organization in order to provide scholarships for Columbus city school students so they have an opportunity to participate in otherwise unaffordable educational programs.
 
Or even when one-night last week, while sitting at home, intently focused on my computer screen I received a text from one of our Maple Grove homeless friends, telling me to look up at the rainbow.
 
Being detectives of divinity, doesn’t deny real world problems.  And yet, it views the world through the lens of promise, fall, redemption and resurrection.  It takes the pain and brokenness, suffers with, grieves for, and rises in love and resurrects through God’s grace.
 
To paraphrase Bruggeman; imagination from a Christian sense, “requires great will and great intentionality and great resolve to continue to bear witness to a world that contradicts the rest of our life.”   
 
We are all chosen is to participate in the dream of God.

August 14, 2022
What if the Universe is the Body of God?
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Colossians 1:15-20

​Dona Nobis Pacem
Bring us Peace.
Amen.
 
You know that I was at Chautauqua in New York state
last month, and this week’s attack
on a speaker there, Salman Rushdie,
has left me quite shaken. 
 
But together with the horror,
I am also moved,
moved by the accounts, that, when the attack began,
the whole audience seemed to rise and move toward the stage,
toward the violence, and dozens of regular folks,
leapt up onto the stage
toward an angry man with a knife to stop him. 
to try bring peace. 
 
Dona nobis pacem.
 
This morning, at this moment,
thousands of all faiths have gathered there for worship
in that amphitheater
as they come to terms with the violence that filled
that one-time Methodist Missionary retreat. 
 
Let us pause for a moment of silence with them.
 
There is criticism for that amphitheater’s openness
even if that is what the speaker preferred,
but openness is part of what life and faith
seems to require of us
as challenging and risky as that is. 
 
My week there brought challenges to heart and mind
part of a summer of great personal spiritual discovery.
including encounters with wondrous teachers, 
and study of scripture
which has brought a profound evolving of my
understanding of the nature of God, creation,
Jesus of Nazareth, and the Christ.
Openness changes everything. 
 
Meanwhile, this summer
the James Webb Telescope,
has been sending us from deep space,
images five so far,
with revelatory detail
that are changing our way of looking at the universe.
 
And today, I am putting these adventures together
Inviting you to travel with me
into the cosmos,
to give yourself time to see what is there,
and, with our scriptures and help from
wise teachers, Richard Rohr, Thomas Merton and Karl Rahner,
to open ourselves to be witnesses of
the beauty and love of the God of heaven and earth.

​Creation
Genesis 1: 1-5.46.  20. 
“In the beginning when God created[a] the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void
and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God[b] swept over the face of the waters. 
3 Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.
 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness, Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
1:15
 
Everything visible, without exception,
has come forth from God’s own being.
Matter is the eternal, outflowing movement
of divine presence into the physical world.
 
The universe is the body of God.
God is everything that was,
everything that is,
God is reality with a loving face,
and God is that power that is love,
that binds everything together.

​“Universe”
 
the word means– “brought into one”
 
We arise out of the oneness that we call God.
and all the uni-verse revolves around
one coherent center.
 
Not a fixed point,
but a divine presence
that centers everywhere
and circumferences nowhere.
 
A center that
connects and communes
and invites us, . 
 into conscious union
with all that God has made
and God’s own being
in which we live.   

​Here is the image astronomers are calling
“Deep Field”
 
The clearest and deepest view we
have ever had of the universe.
at
Those disks of light,
aren’t individual stars
they are galaxies,
and there are billions more than we thought there were,
each, like our own Milky Way,
 teaming with a hundred thousand million stars and solar systems.
 
When we look at this field,
we are looking back in time,
You see those red ones?
Some of those were formed
within a few billion years of the big bang
Their light has reached us,
but they are long since stardust.  
 
What a wonder. 
And if it I wondrous to us,
Surely God who has given us the capacity to wonder. 
is in love with this universe. 
 
As Genesis tells us,
God found it all good:
the first star that lit the sky
the waters that flowed,
the first fish that swam in the seas,
and the original fauna
first peoples.
 
God is in intimate kinship
with all that is made. 

​Since the beginning of time,
God’s spirit has been spinning out
glory and goodness.
 
God’s endlessly diverse energy and spirit
is visible in
every bird and leaf,
and the light from every star
 
and every story. 
yours, mine;
born of God,
all inherently holy and beloved.  
 
St Francis of Assisi looked at the heavens and earth
and claimed kinship with all he saw. 
Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
Brother Fire, Sister Water,
 
We are not alone, You are not your own,
we are inherently connected
to all things, to one another,
to the most distant of galaxies
 
All things have a place
all of us have a place in the heart of God
if we believe this,
and trust this
for now
and eternity,
then we never need be truly lonely again

​We search the heavens for signs of life
as we know it:
air, water, carbon,
and intelligence.
 
We hope for it
and we dread it. 
For if we find other life,
especially conscious life out there,
what would that mean
for our story,
for the story of Jesus,
our earth’s place in all that is? 
 
Yet, if all that is
flows from God’s own being;
if we all live in the body of God,
then we are not in competition
for God’s attention.
 
There are no insiders and outsiders
in God.
We are a part of main,
a piece of the whole.
 
You are an irreplaceable,
permanent and beloved member
of the reality of God.

​The only really absolute mysteries
in Christianity
are the self-communication of God
in the depths of existence –
which we call grace-
and in history –
which we call Christ.
 
                        Karl Rahner, priest and theologian. 
 
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2
 
 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
 
 
 
 
Colossians 1
The Christ, writes Paul,is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;  The Christ is before all things, and in Christ all things hold together. 18 
 
The Christ,
came forth in Jesus of Nazareth:
matter and spirit together,
making holy mystery visible.
 
Jesus
revealed the essential, universal truth
of God as love,
embodied that love for us,
invited the disciples into a new community
to love one another
beyond boundaries,
just as we are loved beyond boundaries.
 
And so challenged our human ways
that limit and restrict God.
 
To accept this required openness and change,
some could not and took his mortal life,
yet he still illuminates everything,
and through him we learn that the path of
life and death and resurrection
is the way of all creation,
of every star and creature,
of every one of us. 
 
Life, death and resurrection –
is the way we grow and change
and deepen  in love and understanding.
It is the way of the divine heart. 
 
If there is life elsewhere,
life, death and resurrection
is the way there, too. 

​Praise the Lord, all ye children of the earth
Let heaven and earth bless the Lord
our maker
who is leading us somewhere good.

August 7, 2022
What if the Church is Always Trying to Come to us From the Future?
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Luke 11: 1-13

I am coming out of COVID, 
         It first took my voicebox,
                  so I sounded like Barry White,
 
That was almost two weeks ago,
         the fever is long gone, and I’m not COVID positive anymore,
                  and I couldn’t give this virus to you if I tried,
                           but my ears feel full, and is head is buzzing,
                                    and its hard to think.
 
 
So, my pondering this week has been with
         plugged ears and slowed mind,  
                  and I keep coming back to that healing story       
                           where Jesus puts his fingers in the ears of a deaf man
                                 and says, “Ephatha!” Be opened! 
 
And thinking: That’s what I need,
            and then wondering:  maybe that’s what we all need
                        maybe that’s the whole deal
                                    for me, for you, for this whole wonderous thing
                                                that is the church.
 
I attended a wonderful lecture at Chautauqua,
         by a Jewish theologian and rabbi named Shaul Magid,   
                  who talked about how our religious communities are
                                    rooted in our history,
                                           our ancient stories and rituals and buildings,
                                             give religion authority. 
 
Think: How many businesses have opened
         and closed on this street
                  in the last 100 years?
 
How many empires have come and gone in the last 2000?
          and the church stands                                  
We have survived a lot
         learned a lot,
                  hurt some, helped a lot: universities began
                           by Christians, hospitals, too,
                                    so much wonderous, transformative
                                             work in the world.
 
But our long history can also be a weight.
         The culture is always moving,
                  scientific breakthroughs are expanding our knowledge
                            and
                           technology is endlessly connecting us.
                  Identity and family life in evolving                         
                           in interesting and often liberating ways,
                                    but also, in ways that are really challenging.
 
And in here, in our institutions,                                      
         things don’t change as fast as out there.
                  because we carry this weight of history around us.
                         
And there are people who get frustrated at how intransigent
         we seem to be, how incremental our change,  
                  how big our reach into laws and mores.       
 
They would like to be part of a community that gives hope
         and meaning and connection to ultimate reality, but                    
They see our minds as closed and our ears stopped, and
         our theology irrelevant to their lives.                    
                  So, find their identity and belonging
                           and a sense of purpose in other places.
                   
Meanwhile there have always been minds and hearts
         on the inside of the church, the synagogue, the mosque,
                   people that know our intrinsic goodness and say:
                       
What if there is something to this challenge?
What if God is in it?
What if it’s the spirit of Christ
that is calling us to a better homeland.
                                                a new creation?
 
When that makes us nervous we call those challenges
         heresy, worldly,
                Give me that old time religion, we might sing
                           and there is goodness in the old, too.  
 
But listen to what this letter to Hebrews says about our ancestors: 
         who struggled with tremendous change: 
 
         Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
                      the conviction of things not seen?
 
         If our ancestors had been thinking of the land that they had left                                         behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 1
                                                      6 But as it is, they desire a better homeland”
 
What happens when we, as persons, as the church,
         ask the the spirit of the Risen Christ
          to some how put their fingers in our ears
    and say Ephatha,  Be opened
  and to pray, as Jesus taught us:
                        Let your kingdom come. 
                                   
What would we look like?  
         What would the church of the Risen Christ
                  be like?
 
I’ve spent time this summer learning from
   Fr. Greg Boyle who has spent 30 years in L.A.
creating a community of faith and hope
         for generational gang members
                  caught up in that violence to the body and spirit.
 
 
It may not appear so on the outside,                    
         but there is a longing in these people,
          these brothers and sister,  
                  the same that is in you
                           and that was in our ancestors
                                    for another homeland,
                           one, full of grace, that is calling to them
                 
Those who respond to the invitation from Father Greg
          to join Homeboy Industries                         
are given the dignity of work, and therapy and community,
given freedom to be vulnerable to their own deep pain
Rather than return to the land they left behind,
         they lay down the weight of their history
                   for a better land.
 
And something happens.
In response to each, small, loving act ,      
    they begin to move, little by little,
from their small selves to their true selves.
          it is, in every sense, the church,
                  the word made flesh. 
 
Once, Father Boyle was to get an award
at a Catholic University in San Francisco.
but wasn’t able to go to the ceremony,
so he invited one of the Homeboys
named Pasqual Pena  
to accept it on his behalf.   
Pasqual was overjoyed.  
Oh, and you will also have to give an acceptance speech
Oh no, I’m not going to do that.
Just write out a little thing to say.
I’m too scared.
 
Pasqual gets there, its standing room only,
“…and accepting the award for Fr. Greg is Pasqual Pena…”.
and he had this little piece of lined paper
and he was trembling,
and he shares his story, and ends by saying: 
“Because Fr. Boyle at Homeboy industries believed in me,  
I decided to believe in myself
and the best way I can think of paying him back
is by changing my life
and that’s exactly what I did.” 
 
And now people are standing up and applauding and crying
and goes on for a long while.
and he says, to the person next to him.
Damn, they are sure clapping a lot for Fr. Greg.
No, they are clapping for you.
                 Na ah! 
                Yeah... they are clapping for you.
 
When we witness someone
      claiming the new homeland,  
                  and see and hear the transformation:
                            the goodness, the joy that brings,
                                    we weep with relief
                                             that the promises are true.
        
Ephatha, says Jesus,
         be opened, he says to us
            Your kingdom come, we say to God
 
 
The God of the unfolding, expanding universe believes
in us, in you, in us together.
    The Creator of all time and space                      
         all matter, dark and light
                  has poured Christ’s spirit out into us,
and invites us to be the church
         a community of boundless compassion
                  for all the earth
                          
The church of the Risen Christ, the new homeland,
         is always coming to us from the future,
 
We can turn back
         to the land we’ve left behind.
  or we can allow our smaller selves
         to become our truer selves,
                  our narrow church for an even wider church,
                           our amazing history
                                for an even greater, cosmic story,
                                      expansive in love and mercy,
                                             where holiness is everywhere
                                                      even in us. 
 
And who wouldn’t want to be part of that!
                                            
Be open, says Jesus to us.
            Your kingdom come, O God, we pray.
 
                  and the people say.  Amen. 
 

July 24, 2022
What if Tenderness is the Only Path to Mutual Transformation?
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Mark 5: 1-20

​Before I sent up to Chautauqua for few days,
I’d had an encounter with a man that had seared me.
was on our patio,
and was, clearly very unwell,
          but he would not go to the safe place
        
Its not safe for you here, and its not safe for people
to be around you.
 
I tried to say it with both clarity and compassion, but
          he left, pretty angry.
              and I didn’t know where he was,
                       and I was wretched. 
 
I went up to Chautauqua
       to hear and see Fr. Gregory Boyle who founded Homeboy
                  Industries,  who gives people jobs and hope
                           and community,
                   helping thousands of people
 find a way out of gang life
                           and the cycle of incarceration
 
Fr. Boyle spoke of Meister Eckart,
a Dominican priest of the 13th century Germany
who countered the prevalent image of an angry
         vindictive, violent God, saying: 
any talk of God that doesn’t comfort you is a lie. 
God is love, and we all receive the tender glance of God
 
Fr Greg spoke of Ignacious of Loyola, a Spanish Priest in the 1400s
and the word Ignacious used describe how God looks at us:   
Accaciamento,  to look with attention,
with “affectionate awe.” 
 
We know that God looks at us this way,
because we meet Jesus in these stories
and nowhere more powerfully than this one
told by Mark and Luke,
 
Jesus has crossed over the sea of Galilee
      This is not his home turf, these are not his homies. 
        The whole purpose of this trip,
   seems to find this man who lives among the tombs,
and inflicts harm upon himself
They have tried chaining him,
                  locking him up, like we tend to do here,
                            but he gets out of those chains
and hurts himself even more. 
          
“What have you do to with me, Jesus of Nazareth,
don’t torment me”
with your words of hope and love and peace,
there is no peace,
and you can’t possibly love me
and I know you can’t help me.
we are legion, there’s too much.
it’s all too much. 
 
there are so many who feel this way,
          whose pain and inner doubts, borne of trauma,
                  where no one soothed their pain,
                           and now they cannot do this for themselves
 
I spent a long time yesterday with a person,
borne into brokenness, who lashed out at me, 
        and my words of love and support,
      seemed to him, taunting.
 
It took everything in me to stay the course,
         it is scary to face the swirling struggle in someone. 
in my own self, . 
                       to transform my frustration at brokenness
                           into tenderness for the broken one.
 
Fr. Boyle brings members of his team with him,
Homeboys, or homies, they call one another,
and one time he brought Raul.
Saul had done 12 years in prison, he’d suffered a lot,
and was working in the bakery
and Fr. said, come on with me to Boston.
and he teared up, and blessed him
 
One afternoon, Father Boyle told us
     Saul, had gone off to look around the city
and was taking a picture of himself by an historic courthouse,
and some feet from him there was a little bench,       and two older, unhoused men,
        were sitting there. 
 
One guy says, Don’t take my picture,
who told you could take my picture.
and the other guy says,
Relax, he’s just taking a selfie,
but he continues to rant,  .
 
And Fr. Boyle says that Saul,
rather than backing away from the hostility,
approaches it.  and looks at these two men and says,.
Hi, my name is Saul, I’m from Los Angeles.
 
I don’t care where you are from, don’t take my picture,
and the other man says,
Don’t mind us, we’re crazy. 
 
And Saul extends his hand to the one who was screaming
and says,  That’s okay, I’m crazy, too.
and he finds out that the guy’s name is Louie,
and the other man is Bill,
and they talk for some time.
 
Finally, its time for Saul to leave. 
and the one who was yelling, says, now
in a different tone and stillness.
 
He says, Saul, I’ve lived my whole life in Boston,
you need directions or something? 
 
Saul had crossed the seas, had looked upon the broken man
with affectionate awe,
Louis felt seen and cherished, held and carried.
       It was the comfort of the God of all comfort.
 
Jesus is standing
in the lowly place, says Ignacius of Loyola,
Not outside the area pointing to it, but in the lowly place
 
And Fr. Boyle elaborates:
he is serenely standing there with the poor, the powerless,
the voiceless, whose dignity has been denied,
with the easily despised and the readily left out,
he is standing with the demonized
so the demonizing will stop.
                                                  and with the disposable,
                                                            so the day will come
when we stop throwing people away.
 
He is there not so much
     to comfort the poor in their powerlessness.
But a comfort that reminds them of their power,
a comfort that holds and carries us all.
 
No, you don’t come with me,
Jesus says to the man who was now well,
         but go and tell the people in your own place
                  what the Lord has done for you,
                           what mercies God has shown you. 
 
God looks at us with affectionate awe,
         looks at you
                  looks at the person in your life who is struggling
                           in ways you can’t seem to fix,
with affectionate awe
knowing we all want to be well
 
To believe this, to practice this, changes us, too. 
 
 A homeboy named Raul told Father Boyle,
       “What happened to me yesterday
never happened to me before.
                The train was packed but he was able to get a seat
           and there was an older guy, a homie, a little drunk,
and he sees the sweatshirt, and says,
You work at Homeboy, is it any good?
                                     and Raul says, It helped me,
 in fact, I don’t think I’m every going back to prison because of this place,
 
     And Raul stands, and asks the guy his name,
and he pulls out. piece of paper and
writes down the address of Homeboy Industries.
and he looks him in the eye and says,
Come see us, we’ll help you.
                             and the man said gently, thank you.
                          and then gets off
Raul sits down.
What happens to me next, he told Fr. Boyle
 has never happened to me before,
        Everyone on the train was staring at me,
was nodding at me,
Everyone on the train was smiling at me,
and for the first time in my life,
     I was admired.
 
What if tenderness is the only way to mutual transformation….
 
The whole world is barricaded, says Fr. Boyle
What if the only thing that can scale that wall is tenderness.
 
I am so grateful to be there, with them,
         and among this community where we are learning to practice that tenderness
                  that affectionate awe.
 
Some, I hope most of you have received a letter that informs you
         that the church was the victim of a
                sophisticated business email compromise
                        that resulted in loss of money. 
 
We had a meeting with leaders on Wednesday,
         and shared what happened,
              and what we have done and are doing about it,
                  and the question came quickly: 
        
How do we help other churches not experience this
         and folks were gratified to hear that we are working on that. 
 
The wound moved so quickly to compassion,
to tenderness for others,
and my gaze upon those gathered turned to affectionate awe.
 
And I hope that when our friend comes back to the patio,
         that will be my gaze,
and I will remember that he wants to be well,
                                    and that God is a God of comfort,
                                             and infinite tenderness,
                  who, if we allow it,
will bring forth that goodness in us.
May it be so.  Amen.
 
 
 

July 10, 2022
 What if We Lived with a Calm and Hopeful Trust?
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Scripture:  Luke 10: 38-42

​
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
 
I can’t literally remember an easy week,
can you?
               Maybe not since Christmas have we been able to sing
  “all is calm, all is bright.” 
                                                so I’m quite envious of Mary
                                                            having this time with Jesus.   
 
I wonder what they were discussing
Maybe he had a question,  something like:
          How is it with you? 
Maybe she had one that he answered,   
There are plenty I would ask him, particularly:
 
Will things be alright
        for all who suffer and struggle
for me, for those we love, all of us?
 
Perhaps she didn’t have to ask anything,
he would have just looked at her, and she knew
            the answers to her questions. 
      Anyway, its really how Jesus must have made her feel
that I envy:
That at she is valued
that her questions are valid,
that her heartbreak is legit and shared by God.
 
Of course, were Jesus at my house,
I’d probably be busy cleaning.
 
There is always so much to do
it is constant, and endless
                  and there is no avoiding it.
                                                           
Even though I can hear Jesus say,
                                    consider the lilies
                                                and the birds of the air
                                                            There is no end to work.                                               
 
…and worry.
    We hear that anxiety is prevalent into every age
            And every nation, 
 
Fear of both the present and the future. 
     Is, a poet said,
 a small trickle
         that meanders through the mind
                  until it cuts a channel into which all other
                             thoughts are drained."
 
Guess what is the most common phrase in the bible?
“Do not be afraid.”
 
Someone counted: its there 365 times!
one for every day of the year
            I’m no numerologist, but I’m wondering
                                    if that’s no coincidence. 
 
I bet Jesus would say something like that if he were here…
 
And I am, we are, like Martha,  distracted…
                      
           How close is your phone right now?
                                   
How quickly does attention disappear
 with the ring of a call, the ding of a text?
                          And if we don’t charge our phone,
                                    We get scolded, if silently: 
why didn’t you look at your text,
                                                listen to your message.
hear this news?
 
The internet that comes to us in all forms, brings an overload of
information, both important and not so,
                                    so that any kind of central focus
is instantly eroded,
                                                                        And we get accustomed to that,
                                                                                    maybe addicted to it.
 
Paul Tillich said: 
 "There are innumerable concerns in our lives
and human life generally,
which demand attention, devotion, passion.
But they do not demand
                          infinite attention,
           unconditional devotion,
                         ultimate passion.
 
They are important, often very important,
for you and me and the whole of humankind.
But they are not ultimately important...."
 
What is?
It may seem unbearably simple,
                        And you don’t have to have Jesus at your table.
God comes to you, says Fr. Richard Rohr,
disguised as your life. 
 
So, we have to do one thing:  fully experience it. 
 
There is, for each of us, at least most of us,
    A great, secret hurt
         that we carry,
that we may not even realize
or be able to name.
                                                one which Jesus would see
                                                            that the Christ knows. 
 
If God comes to us as our life,
    shall we not honor and receive that grief
as well as that joyful fullness, 
            or that profound longing that we experience
                        in this life,
                        and allow ourselves to realize that
                                    it is part of the sadness and fullness and longing
                                                of God? 
 
 
Jesus may not be coming to dinner,
 but we can meet the incarnate one,
    in the depths of our own selves,
            in observing and honoring the depth of our own
                        experience as human beings,
created by God.
 
We can our offer lives,
offer our workload and worry and distractions
            place our lives, full of gaps and holes,
                              at the center of our consciousness
and, as if Jesus is before us,
allow the love that radiates from him
to Mary and Martha
radiate now to you, as the Christ. 
 
Catch your breath,
            feel your hurt,
                        sense how you are falling
                                    and that which is holding you
                                                and helping you to endure.                  
 
Be in awe before the simple truth of your existence,
wonder at the depth and eternity of it
and an incomprehensible love
that can, release you from your busyness
                                                and worry and distraction
                                                            if only for a moment.
 
To trust, as Fr. Rohr says,
                  that there is a river.
The river is flowing
And that you are in it,
 
That we are in it
And allow that trust, that calm and hopeful trust
 to grow in you
                        that you can tend, and help others to find. 
----
Since my father died,
            the person who has been the one who leads
                        me into the presence of Christ
                                    is a wonderful old priest –
                                                humble, gracious,
 
I have taken nearly every confirmation class I ever led
            In Columbus
        to walk a prayer labyrinth with him
to feel that fully accepting love
radiating out of him, 
                            as Mary felt in the presence of Jesus.
 
Vinny is one of the priests whom the new bishop
is replacing,
so I will not have him
to physically go to, anymore. 
 
But, he would remind me,
as Jesus reminds Martha,
                        to remember that our lives are lived
                                    in the presence of eternal love. 
 
As the carol says,
Love has come, a light in the darkness,
        love has come and never will leave us
                        let us remember that,
                                    let us find a calm and hopeful trust
                                                and be not afraid. 
Amen.
Rev. Patricia A. Wagner

July 3, 2022
​What if Christ is in All Of Us
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Galatians 3: 26-29
 
 
Its good to sing a Christmas hymn in July
halfway between Christmases
 
We may be fretting about the price of everything  
and the downturn in the stock market,
but Christmas brings stories of a poor savior
         born in a stable,
     and Bob Cratchits’ family rejoicing
in each other and their modest feast,
     and the Grinch realizing what matters.
 
What matters, we all realize at Christmas
is the most important truth that we will ever know:
God poured Godself into one like us,
and we understand
ourselves and God
and the universe
and who we can be, through him. 
 
Just as in Jesus’ time and in his life,
there is adversity and discouragement
and doubt and death,
But there is a light that has been made known to us
that nothing can erase. 
 
That the light that was in the beginning with God
came into the world in Jesus,
and remains in the world,  in us, in Christ.
 
That’s the message at Christmas,
then why is it so hard to believe in July?
 
Just like how Christmas decorations seem quaint
and faintly ridiculous when left up too long,
that profound optimism,
that sense of the profound goodness of creation
can feel like a fairytale, or worse
a mocking those who suffer in the present. 
 
We put up the title of our summer series:
“What if everything is going somewhere good,”
on the sign outside.
The idea, as you know is
to encourage an openness to a reality
 beyond us, and around us,
 and in us,
even in devastating times
         that is leading us toward the good.
 
But on a week with seismic shifts
for environmental regulation, abortion,
rights of privacy,
church and state rules,
shooting death of police officers
and the migrants dying in the heat
         and the bombing of Odessa,
a woman called,
left me a personal, blistering voice message
that she was so stunned by the words on our sign,
                           that she had to pull her car over
to get her breath,
 
So angry was she at our obvious obliviousness
to climate change among other things,
how dare we say
“ everything is going somewhere good.”? 
when everything is going to hell.
She had even gone back, taken a picture of the sign,
and posted it to Twitter, to shared outrage. 
 
I could hear the tremendous pain,
         and it made me terribly sad.
               Know that I am very sad whenever I cause you pain,
                  by my action or inaction.
 
I called her back and I thanked her for telling me,
told her I was sorry for the hurt I’d caused her,
and tried to explain our intention,
to find a greater hope
        and courage
it wasn’t something she could hear,  
I let her know I would change the sign
since grief and anger was not what I had hoped to instill.
 
It’s not just this year that optimism is hard to hear;
humans, including Americans
 have always had reason to despair.
 
In the heat of the American war in Vietnam
and the brutal Civil Rights struggle
with Dr. Martin Luther King, jr
told us that the arc of the moral universe
 is long
but it bends toward justice.
 
 Maybe a bit overly hopeful, some thought
         then, some may think now.  
 
There is a utopian ideal in Judeo-Christianity
Wolves shall lie down with the lambs
                       &
They shall study war no more on all my holy mountain
                     &
Blessed are those who meek
for they shall inherit the earth.
 
and our lesson today: Paul’s letter to the Galatians
that the old law which codified our ranks is obsolete
        there is no language or culture
or status or gender,
there is  neither Greek nor Jew
slave nor free
            male or female
                  but all are one in Christ Jesus.
 
All these visions
are of a deeper , broader,
cosmic order
we see only now through a glass darkly
 
Divine love has poured out into creation from the beginning
and particularly in Jesus,
          divine love, that word made flesh,
 who did not abide by these distinctions,
who cared for men and women
gentile and Jew
and every status.
because, beyond his encounter with the Syrophenecian woman
those distinctions have no meaning to him
                  not reality
                           not really,
                                    not in Jesus
                          
Everything that is, as Richard Rohr says,
       everything that is visible to us
is the divine outpouring of God’s own self
         God’s being which is love:
                  everything, including you and I,
                          
The Christ, in the beginning with God,
was poured out into the form of Jesus
 
                  who becomes the light of the world,
   who teaches us that we are the light of the world
 
It’s a struggle for us to accept that    
        our life, is divine light and love outpoured
                  Jesus saw it in us,
                           even Paul saw it in us.
      male female
                        gentile jew
                                    bound, free
there is not religion or ethnicity or nationality
         or gender that can bypass or surpass this truth,
                  this reality. 
The divine love that made us
                claims all of us,
                       We are in Christ.
                           and Christ is in us,  all.
. 
including that woman who called me
so overwhelmed,
   She is right, to feel so,  that is divine hurt in her,
for we have forgotten the holiness of the earth
              assuming we have the some god-given right
                  to squander,
                           to destroy people and the earth
 if it meets our purpose.
 
So, not comprehending that the planet is in essence,
love outpoured,  that humanity and creatures of the earth
         are outpoured
                  is the great sin – falsely separating ourselves
                           from the one who has poured out Godself
                                    into all of us. 
 
So, there is work to do,
our work as Christ followers, of building hope,
         and faith,  and love, 
proclaiming , practicing
         that the earth is love made visible
                        and that this radiant, expansive
glorious reality of divine love
That Christ is within us and around us
                     and that the Creator of all that is
is with us, binding us together,
                                  sharing our joys and our sorrows
                                    guiding us toward a better way
                                           and all that is good news
                                              at Christmas and in July    
                                                      and every season.
 
                                     
                                                               Amen