November 20, 2022
Bless the Lord, my Soul
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Bless the Lord, my Soul
Thanksgiving 2013
                                                              
“We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing” 
 
I remember one particular Thanksgiving
         because of the blessing.
 
Rose was just 4 months old,
         I’d brought her home Vietnam
                           only a few weeks earlier. 
         So all the family – her aunts, uncles, great aunts,
                  great uncles, cousins and second cousins,
                           gathered at her grandparents’ house
         to meet her
                  and have Thanksgiving dinner together. 
                           Something we hadn't done for years.
 
One of her greatuncles, my mother’s brother
         made a comment about her beautiful Asian eyes,
                  if I’d planned to get them fixed,
We took our places around an extended table,
         and bowed our heads as he,
                  retired pastor, with a remarkable career
                           or service and charity prayed.
                                   
Dear Lord, he began,
         We thank you that you have gathered us here,
                  all of us related by blood.
                                   
the air went out of the room
   
my mind raced: 
 
…“all our us related by blood?”
Aat least half of those at the table,
         as well as this darling baby,
               aren’t related by blood,
                  they’d all married in.                  
                          
And, anyway, Thanksgiving is all about
         sharing food with those
                  who don’t share your bloodline.
 
What kind of God are we praying to? 
 
I barely heard the rest of the prayer
         the list of thank yous
                  the request to bless the food and us.
 
After the Amen.   
         a cousin to my right immediately turned to me and said,                      quietly,
                           "I will never forgive him."
 
And my mother, took a breath said in a voice we all could hear
                  Well, Harold, it’s too bad you aren't thankful
                           for your own wife! 
 
Beneath that prayer was an understanding
        
that our family was united by our bloodline,
         rather than love that. 
. 
that God’s blessing comes through our sameness
                  rather than our differences  
 
We gather together…..
 
 
This past week, I witnessed a couple signing papter
     to dissolve their marriage
          irreconcilable differences
                  and then yesterday attended
                                    the special session of the West Ohio                                      conference of the United Methodist Church
                                    where we did the same.
20 pastors
         and 80 churches had completed all the requirements
         to leave the denomination, with their church buildings, 
         and join a new denomination,
                  where they will know the blessing of sameness
                           of mind as to discipline and doctrine.
                 
                   
After all years of dialogue around tables
         of rancor in voting,
                  it was a quiet ending,
 
There are, clearly, irreconcilable differences
                  about our unity and sameness
                                    or in our differences.
 
The mood was sober,
         just as it was as the couple signed the papers,
                  as it was around that family dinner table,
 
How shall we live with one another,
         when so much separates us?
                  in our families, in our nation
                           and even in the church of Jesus, the Christ. 
 
        
Early in his writings,
         we find Paul quite dogmatic
                  about who is in and out,
but then, he was confined in prison in Rome,
         probably between the years 60 and 62,
               and something changed,
                  he was liberated inside,
 
He wrote to the church in Colossae,
         to hold them firmly together in their understanding
                  that Jesus is the Christ,  and other core truths, 
                           but to allow each other the freedom of
                                    differences of ways of living.                       
 
He advises them
                   
12As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
         clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
                   humility, meekness, and patience.
 
13Bear with one another and,
          if anyone has a complaint against another,
                  forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you,
                           so you also must forgive.
 
14Above all, clothe yourselves with love,
         which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
                   15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
                           to which indeed you were called in the one body.
                                    And be thankful.
                                                                        Colossians 3: 12-21
 
 
 
And perhaps that’s the recipe for how to survive thanksgiving,
         and life in a divided nation and church,
Bear with one another.
         clothe yourselves in love,
                  let peace of Christ rule your hearts,
                                 and then comes that last word,
                                    and the other great challenge
                                             and gift of this holiday: 
                                                        Be thankful, he says,
 
Now, I can find a nearly endless number of things
          to be thankful for,
                but I wonder all the time how other’s can. 
 
Those folks living on our frozen streets,
         the war victims in Ukraine, and Poland,  
                  facing bitter cold,
                        all those fleeing violence and rising tides,
                           and famine
and all those living in the winter that is grief,
                 
It is quite a call, that Paul has,
         to above all, be thankful,
 
But it is clear, that if we embody all these things
         if we bear one another in our differences,
                  forgive one another our humanness,
                           and find a way to be thankful in all things,
then perhaps we ourselves become the blessing.
 
Our psalm today, 103
         Bless the Lord, O my soul .
                  All that is within me bless God’s holy name.
 
This is not a superficial prayer,
            not something to recite or endure before we eat,
                  it is the prayer of our life. 
                          
This blessing isn't something we say,
         it is something we are, says Paul.
           
It is the prayer of our innermost being. 
         that part of us that understands more we seem to.
.                 that part that will live on with God, forever. 
 
The call is to our soul to bless the Lord.  
         even when our outermost being
                  is in too much pain
                          or too hurt,
                              or struggling with others,
 
to realize in our innermost being  that the one who give us life
         is always leading us toward it,
                  inviting us to be clothed in compassion, kindness
                           humility, patience, and above all love,
         and so letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. 
                  which allows us be thankful in all things. 
                           we  become the blessing to God
                                    and all creation, 
         we say with our lives: Bless the Lord, my soul
 
When we worry about our future, or those we love,
but know God has brought us this far,
Bless the Lord my soul
 
When we are uncertain about the future of the church
yet trust that God is in this with all of us,
Bless the Lord, my soul. 
 
When we see the divisions in the country
and recognize that we may also be a part of that,
 Bless the Lord, my soul.
 
When we aren’t sure how to love those
who are different from us,  but long to,
Bless the Lord my soul
 
 
May we be a blessing to the Creator.
         may we live with courage
                  may we create goodness. 
                                 may we love the unloved
                                    May we be given enough light to
                                             find a way through dark times. 
 
Bless the Lord, my soul, and may I be a blessing.
         to you,
                  in Jesus’ name.
 
Amen.
 

November 13, 2022
What Gift Can We Bring?
Rev. Patricia Wagner
 
What gift can we bring, what present, what token?
What words can convey it the joy of this day?
When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing,
what song can we now offer in honor and praise?
 
Give thanks for the past, for those who had vision,
who planted and watered so dreams could come true.
Give thanks for the Now, for study, for worship,
for mission that bids us turn prayer into deed.
 
Give thanks for Tomorrow, full of surprises,
for knowing whatever Tomorrow may bring,
the Word is our promise always, forever,
we rest in God's keeping and live in God's love.
 
This gift we now bring, this present, this token,
these words can convey it the joy of this day!
When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing,
this song we now offer in honor and praise.
 
 
My father’s hands baptized me,
         dripped water over my head
                  and said the words,
The holy spirit work with in you that having been born of water and        spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
 
                  similar words were said over you.
 
And you have chosen to live out your baptism here,
Bill and Bobbie and Jim and Mary Kay and Christine and Ben
         and Sarah and Ellen, and little Amelia,
                  are here, most especially,
 because this is a community
         that says in word and deed that
         regardless of our God given sexual orientation and gender identity
                  or any of the different ways in which God has formed us
                           or how we vote, or what our families look like
                                    or anything else that distinguishes us
                                             one from another. 
        
         each person is God’s exquisite creation,
                  born of the Spirit
                          and an essential part of the body of Christ
                            
You are part of this body,
         We are part of this body,
                held together in the spirit,
 
Bound only by the bonds you make,
         and the commitment you choose.
 
We are here,  
         to wrestle with the experiences our life is bringing us,
         to comprehend them in the fullness of ancient truth,
 
We are here to explore the mystery of life itself,
         to delve into the meaning of our scriptures,
                  to know who Jesus is,
                           What Christ is to us,
                  to ask any question that comes to mind, 
                           and listen to the call upon our own beings
        
We are here because we seek to get to the
         the core of our own selves
                  the mystery that is our own given life, 
                          
and to move beyond ourselves
         to live out Jesus’ teaching in the world
                  in kinship with all creation.
         to bear one another’s burdens
                  to ease one’ another’s suffering
                           to stand with the oppressed, and
         to work together to care for the poor, as Jesus taught us.
 
We come because we long to be persons
         of love and mercy, grace and compassion
                  just and merciful.
 
We come because we long to be like Jesus
         and to live in the light that is the Christ.
 
And so we bring our gifts to this place
         We bring our minds and hearts to study together
                  to grow in faith and Christian community.
 
We bring our resources
         the fruit of our labors,
                  for we know all things come from God.
 
We bring our prayers
         our hopes, our love for one another
                  offering these, too, to God, as signs of discipleship. 
 
We are here because we are braver together
         we can face the challenges of our own lives
                  with others by our sides.
        
We can open our hearts to the souls God is leading here,
         and to the possibilities that are unfolding.
                           in a time of uncertainty,. 
                                    Yes, to the future that God is bringing us. 
 
 
 
So, as we end this Chrsitian year
and we receive the love that is flowing
 
But it flows from us because it flowed to us. 
 
From the waters of creation
and those of our birth
and our baptism,
 
We receive the love that has no end
 
We remember that we belong to God
that God is leading us to become who we will
and into the beyond.
 
a – I - m

November 6, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
All Saints Sunday - Enough

​         I woke up with a song in my head this week,
                  It’s the line of a pop song whose chorus goes;
                         it will never be enough, never be enough
                           never, enough, never, never, never
 
I know why it was on my mind,
         Someone had very explicitly made a comment
                  about whether I’d earned my keep,
                           and believe me its something every pastor
                                    worth their stole, wonders about,
         We know that we and all our staff and this whole enterprise
                  keeps going by your giving. 
                             
I am so aware of my shortcomings
                  in my work, my family, for myself,
I am sure you are too,  
         And no matter what we do,
                  how hard we work over our lifetimes,
                           we wonder as came the words of our anthem
                                         was I faithful?
                                               with the life I’ve been given, Is it enough?
 
That anthem is drawn from Matthew 25, verses 31-39
          that offers a vision of the last day,
                  when people will appear before the king,
                      and faithfulness will be judged
                           not by what we have believed
                                           but how we cared for those in perilous need
                                                 for in them, says, the King, I live. 
 
         I was hungry and you fed me, or fed me not
                  I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, or did not,
                           I was without a home and you gave me shelter,
                                             or did not.
                                     Naked, and you clothed me, or clothed me not.
 
It is a moving, and haunting vision
         Christ is in humankind
                  and caring for them is caring for
                                  the divine heart of the universe
 
it has inspired the church for thousands of years,
       it inspired this congregation
         for all its 102 years,
  all that you and those who came before
              have been able to do here
                   because we have pooled our resources
                        and offered ourselves, and this place,
                           and have supplied food, clothing, and shelter,
                                   monies to those enduring war and flood and wind
                                    and crises of health.
                                                       
And we carry on that mission – in addition to all the education,
         and recovery groups and children
                  that have been cared for this week
         on Wednesday, 10 Ukrainian American women  
                           used our kitchen to make hundreds of perogies                                                 to feed those in line for food at CRC. 
             and yesterday Ugandan Christians met here to organize
                   their new, more inclusive congregation.      
And there’s more,
         This past winter, we ran a warming center and
                  provided meals for the unhoused and those in line for food.
         And in the new year we hope we can put our remodeled kitchen                      to use and provide a weekly meal for anyone who needs
                         the warmth of food and friendship
 
It’s inspiring! 
This passage has inspired me for as long as I remember
      it propelled me into working with the very poor and oppressed,
            here and abroad, meaningful, soul lifting work.
                  and became the banner for my ordination ceremony
 
And yet, I’m haunted by the ways I have fallen short,
         particularly the poor I could not help
            Irene, who died from breast cancer without me next to her,
              Quan, who I couldn’t save from a brutal abusive mom,
                  Wesley, who succumbed to his addiction
                      Our friend on the patio here who lost his toes to frostbite
                                for my father for whom I did not get morphine in time
                                    before he died in agony.
 
These and so many others for whom I have not been enough.
         it seems, and you may feel this, too,  it is never, never enough. 
 
I heard a veteran combat nurse who served in Vietnam
         looked back on her time
                  The only ones I remember
                           are those that died. 
                                    The ones she couldn’t save. 
 
Then she went to the Vietnam Wall in Washington,
         for a reunion of the unit she served with,
                  and someone came up to her,
                           spoke her name, it was a soldier she’d treated. 
                                    who said:  I came today to see you
She was seen,
         because she had been there,
                  willing to look into the face of suffering
                           to do what she could.
 
it’s a word of grace,
            and if there is grace in that soldier, in us
                  surely that reflects the grace of God.  
       
       When we doubt we are enough. 
                When we ponder what will happen at our death
                         when our life flashes before our eyes
                               and it is all somehow summed up
                                      will we be found wanting,
                                              scolded or enfolded into glory?
                           Will our obvious shortcomings affect
                                          God’s love for us?
 
To that, Paul says to the struggling church in Rome and to us:
 
No. 
         Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
                   nothing in life, nothing in death
         The Lord of heaven and earth sees us
                   comprehends us
 
The God in whom we live and move and have our being.
         who has nudged us
                  into every act of compassion
                                    every effort made with friend
                                             or family or stranger,
                                                      with the earth, and sky and sea
                                                               with all creatures here below. 
Divine Love that has given us eyes to see that
         the Christ who is present in every person
            of every station, every status, every condition.
                 lives, also, in us
 
And will bring our hearts to even greater compassion
         even more fulsome seeing in the days we have
                  and when our days are done. 
 
It is a good word. It is one to share:
                                   
This week, a miracle happened.
         After searching for 30 years,
                  The son of one of our unhoused friends
                              found her.
He did many things for her,
         but there was a limit to what she let him do,
                  and he had to leave, for now,
                            to go home to wife and children
He longed to do more, worried he hadn’t done all that she needed.
                  and it was my turn our turn to say, it is enough.
 
And I imagine the King of kings saying the same
         Remember, behind every good work
                  every loving action, received or not
                           successful or not, I am.
        
Together, faithful servant, we are enough.  
                                   
 
 

October 30, 2022
Beyond
Rev. Patricia Wagner

Scripture:
Luke 19:1-10

​Luke 19: 1-10                       
Jesus came to Jericho and was passing through it, and many people went to see him walk by. A man was there named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and wealthy, who was trying to get a glimpse of him, but could not, on  account of the crowd, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.
 5When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him  “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 
7All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 
8Zacchaeus stood there and said to Jesus:  “Look, Lord, half of my possessions, I will give to the poor; and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 
9Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Before we hear this anthem,
I was reading and a pastor, in the midst of COVID,
and wrote, when we have a choir again,
 this is the song I will ask them to sing:
 
In it you will hear the themes of this stewardship season.
 
Belonging to one another,
            Good travelers move in company.
            we travel together as one
 
Becoming
         we know not where the road will lead
         but we move in faith making love our creed
 
And Beyond
         Sharing bread with those in need
         giving help to those who fall.  
         Yet far beyond the setting sun,
         there shines a light of a victory won;
 
Now, the Chancel Choir,
accompanied by Adrielle Van Bibber
and directed by Greg White
with, “The Journey is Our Home” 
 
 
The Journey Is Our Home by Allen Pote
Awake, arise, the journey’s begun.
We travel on together as one.
We know not where the road will lead,
but we move in faith, making love our creed as we follow;
The journey is our home.
Good trav’lers walk with company,
sharing bread with those in need.
Giving help along the way to those who fall,
who wander astray as we follow;
The journey is our home.
Join with us in jubilee.
Celebrate God’s family.
Sing together joyfully.
Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Praise for evermore!
 
God moves with us as we go.
He hears our cry, our pain He knows.
Yet far beyond the setting sun,
there shines a light of a victory won;
The journey, the journey is our home.
Join with us in jubilee.
Celebrate God’s family.
Sing together joyfully.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia,
Praise for evermore.
 
------------------------------------------
 
Jesus is journeying,
         and passes through Jericho
                  Stories of his healing powers and the power of his words
                           have proceeded him
                                    and people come out just to see him walk by. 
 
Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector,
         he has bought that position, paid Rome up front,
                  and now collects more tax than is due and pockets it,  
                            and he is despised for it.
                              
He is curious about Jesus
                perhaps he has always felt small inside,
                         no matter how great his wealth
                  we can understand that,
                        Mister Rogers used to tell children  
                           how grown ups often feel small, insignificant
                                    on the inside, too
                                            
            Perhaps there is within Zaccheaus
                   a longing for something he can’t even describe
                           beyond anything he could buy.
                                        And we understand that, too. 
            Perhaps he is lonely,
                    Dag Hammerskjold’s the great Swedish leader
                  and head of the United Nations who wrote of his
                           own loneliness:
“       pray your loneliness is spurring you into finding
                        something to live for,
                                    something great enough to die for.”
 
and he wants to see this man who is inviting people
         into community and growth and more,
                  into belonging, becoming and beyond
 
so Zacchaeus climbs up a sycamore tree
         to see the holy man walk by.  
 
But, surprisingly,  it is Jesus who sees him,
        and calls him out, miraculously, by name,  
                        Zacchaeus,  come down to me.
                                    for I must stay at your house
          
Jesus, the holy one, insists,
         for perhaps he is like Mister Rogers in a crowd of children
                  he could always seem to find the most vulnerable ones
         Jesus Zacchaeus, recognizes the longing,
                  the searching heart behind his eyes,
                            and so, to the dismay of the crowd,
                                     invites himself into the home
                                              of the most unholy and despised of men.
                                     
This happens over and over in Luke’s account
         Women, men and children,
                  whom others see as without merit,
                           Jesus leans in with them.  
 
in this story, as Frederick Buechner says: 
         The mob points out that the man Jesus is talking to
                        is a public disaster.
                                    Jesus' silence is deafening.
 
The people watching him do not realize
    that Jesus is the Christ
         God’s grace, God’s love made known in creation,
                  and that love and grace moves beyond any line we might
                           think can’t be crossed,
                                    for there is nothing and no one outside of God.
 
                   God’s affection is constantly, continuously
                           coming toward us: 
                                in the light of every star
                                    and birdsong and
                                              leaf bright with glory,
                  God is ever and always present
                           and waiting for the opening of our heart
                                    of our mind, of our eyes.    
 
Jesus sees that Zacchaeus is looking for him,
         and he invites himself to his home,  
                  and, Luke says, Zacchaeus gladly receives him.
        
         Accepting, as we all must,
                  that he is accepted by that great love
                           which calls him down from the tree
                              and away from the ways he has sinned against others,
                                    to rest and be at home in his deepest self
                                             to be at home with the one
                                                    who has made his home in him.
 
it is our work too,
         to realize that the divine is calling our name
                  that, as much as the mob within us says
                           that we are alone, and unremarkable and
                                    small.
 
That we can know belonging, and becoming and beyond. 
     To accept, as Zacchaeus does,
          that God cannot not love us;
                  cannot not forgive us. 
 
To finally put down this burden
         of proving ourselves,
                  and know salvation, that is, wholeness,
                            
A wholeness that allows Zaccheus not only to truly love himself,
         but to move beyond that to love his neighbor as himself.
 
            I will make it right by those I have injured, he says,
                                    I will give away half of what I own
                                                I will repay them 4 times what I took from them. 
 
He receives grace, then offers it,
         and so is restored to his community
                  as Jesus says, this is a child of Abraham
                           he belongs.  
 
We, the church, this Christ’s church
      seeks to offer the gift of community,
                  of belonging.
         That is the heart of a reconciling congregation
                  that all may know they belong.  
        
We, this Church, this Christ’s church seek to
  acknowledge the work that God is doing in you,
         companion you in this process of interior formation
                  support you in your becoming. 
 
And in the midst of all that distracts and hurts and terrifies
         and upsets, of elections, and wars, and floods,
                  in the midst of life and death,
we climb the tree together
         to see that which is both beyond us
                  and beside us,
          and so to rest in that love
                  to be at home in this holy universe,
                           to be at home in the One
                                   who makes his home in us. 
 
A that moves us, beyond our immediate cares,
         to the cares of our neighbors, for the poor
                  to share our time, our talents, our treasures
                           as Zacchaeus has.
 
         to love our enemy
                  and our neighbor as ourselves
                           to do unto others
                                    to give our lives for our friends.
 
and so, with all our hearts, cry out
         For all that has been,
                        Thank you.
                                    For all that is to come, Yes!
 

October 23, 2022
Becoming
Jace Belz

​This morning I want to explore how we are shaped in becoming as unique individuals, in how we are becoming with God, and in how we see ourselves becoming in community.
 
We are complex human beings. When I think of the word “being”, though, I think of words like static, stationary, or non-moving. Wouldn’t it make more sense if we were human becomings? Becoming makes me think of motion, fluidity, activity, and change. You see, you are a product of everything that surrounds you. Most of what you experience as you go about your daily life is barely in your conscious awareness. And yet, you are changing all the time by these interactions. You are influenced by nature, animals, community, socioeconomic status, the culture in which you were born and in which live, educational opportunities, and so forth.
 
You are also becoming who you are through viewing the internet and television. We are more connected, interconnected, than ever before in our history. Although, I would like to think that what shapes us the most is our everyday connections with each other.
 
Most likely, you entered church the same way I did today, walking in off the parking lot through the main doors. Perhaps you were greeted by David before you entered the sanctuary, as I was. His greeting and smile warm my heart and make me feel welcomed. It sets the tone of our worship experience. Once you walk past the threshold of the sanctuary, the greeting becomes a part of your past. It is no longer something in your immediate present, however, you carry that forward with you. After that experience you look the same on the outside but in the inside of you, you are ever so slightly different than you were when you first entered the church.
 
As you cross the threshold into the sanctuary, I’m pretty sure you were greeted with smiles of recognition and friendship, maybe even a few hugs – today I got the most wonderful smile from Ellen Wharrey and I could not help but exchange that smile.
 
When you take your seat, those exchanges also become part of your past. Sitting in the pew, you listen to the reading of the gospel, the sermon, the wonderful choir, and more. But, when you leave the service, it too becomes your past. You carry it with you. Well, you might forget some particulars but not the sermon, right?
 
If you could take a picture of all the moments just from this one morning, I bet you would be surprised at all the moments that made up your morning. You have probably seen those picture books where you flip through the pages and the scene develops. Each page has a slightly different picture. When you flip through it, it makes up a movie or you could say it makes up a lifetime. The individual pages stand alone as an event but each one before it is slightly different and each page is a new moment, where new decisions are made to go forward with the next event. You need the previous pages to lead you up to the new moment. I propose that this is how becoming happens. Each encounter, each person you connect with, or maybe it’s a walk-in nature, or a greeting by your dog or cat, it changes you into a slightly different person. There is movement, action inside of you. I can’t look at you and see what changed, but inside, you are becoming an ever so slightly different you from these experiences.
 
You are becoming. Constantly.
 
Fast forward though the day, and let’s say you go to lunch with a friend and they ask you how your day was. You tell them about the greetings, the choir, and how meaningful it was to you. And why would your friend believe you? Because they have known you and they trust your perception to tell them the truth of how this affected you. You invite them to this experience. And in exchanging this with them, they too become part of your becoming experience. And you are a part of theirs.
 
This is what is happening in the Gospel reading today. In First John it says:
1 We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life. 3 What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete.
 
The person writing 1 John is explaining his experience to friends and strangers about God and Jesus Christ. He is saying “Friends, I have seen him, walked with him, broke bread with him. And by knowing me and by knowing my personal experience, you too can begin to know Jesus. I bring my becoming experience with me to share with you.”
 
I would guess that you too have experiences of who Jesus is and has been in your life. You too have built a relationship with God. Rabbi Shapiro says that we think about ourselves as too limited. He says we should open our minds and our experiences to expand how we think. We carry so much more than the experience of our current life. Think of how much you carry of the moments with your parents. They carry moments of their experiences with their parents, your grandparents, and so on. All of the past is carried in some form in you. Rabbi Shapiro says we carry with us experiences in some form going all the way back to the beginning of the universe! You carry the spark of God.
 
You are becoming in and with your relationship with God as you return to prayer. Every time we return to God in thoughts or prayer, we are becoming more – slightly changing in that relationship. Some of these moments are not easy and some moments are heartbreaking. That too is part of our becoming with God. Not every becoming moment is progress or positive. These moments are precious moments to take to God, to involve God in how our next moment will begin. God walks with us. God delights to hear from you. You build a past with God that stays with you and you also carry the next possibility of how you and God will move forward. God is the ultimate knowing of all and God holds all memory, nothing is lost in the Divine.
 
You each bring such richness with you to share as we gather here at Maple Grove in this community. Yes, this spiritual/religious community is also always becoming. We are shaped by each other through sharing our daily individual experiences and our life of experiences with God. We share a history of 100 years. All those moments of the past are carried with us and they have shaped our experiences up to this present moment whether we lived them or not.
Think of all the events and moments that have been shared here. It’s more than we can comprehend. This community is just beginning a new century of events.
 
I wonder what future generations will say about our “becoming”? What history do we want to leave? What experiences of becoming will influence the direction we travel together? Each moment from this one is a new chance to participate in change or staying the same. God sees us as a potential for doing good but, we are the ones who must act on that.
 
I want to leave you with a few words from Diana Butler Bass. Her vision is one I share and maybe you do too? She said she longs for “a community where there is an intentionality, a dream, a disposition of the universe toward a table of openness and joy and equality and justice. A place where all are welcome and where every person is loved for exactly who they are and as they are. Where everyone is fed and everyone has a place at that table. Diana says “it is real, it is happening, we can participate in it and we can do this. Faith is to live in complete conviction that the healing, saving, making whole, loving, accepting, compassionate work of God is at hand and, she says, “we have a part in it”.
 
So, I invite you to think of your wildest imagination of a loving community, and to think about it becoming real. Remember that each moment is a moment we make decisions with God to a new becoming for the future. What will your part be in the next moments to come?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

October 16, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Belonging

Scripture:
Luke 18: 9-14

​9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
I officiated a wedding yesterday.
   and sensed their joy and relief
         in their profound sense of belonging, one to the other.
 
We all belong from the beginning,
         We take shape inside the body of another human being.
                          we are flesh of our mother’s  flesh,
                                bone of her bone
 
Once we are born
         we hope that that sense of belonging continues
                  for it forms our sense of self,
                           our trust in the world, and in a loving creator.
 
We grow,  seek autonomy, identity
                  our own sense of belonging,
                           to our own people,
                                    our own person.
                                     
and we find
         and connection and disconnection
                  and love and loneliness
         and we wonder if we belong anywhere,
                  if we are just here,
                           or if we really belong to God. 
 
I got a text on Tuesday.
            Hi Mike, how about lunch. 
I text back, sorry not Mike.
            I’m so sorry,  
Its alright, I’ve got lunch plans anyway. Enjoy!
 
She says, you are kind,
I’m MIdoro from Japan,
         I sell exercise equipment and clothing,
what do you do. 
         I’m a pastor from Ohio
                  and then brace for the quite get away.
Oh, dear pastor, she texts. 
            I have been told I am one of the sealed.
                        Here’s my Whats App number, let’s talk.
                 
Midoro means she is one of the 144,000 we hear about in
         a vision found in the
              7th Chapter of the Book of Revelations:
                  Angels place a seal of protection
                           around 144,000 servants of God
Jehovah’s witnesses interpret this to mean that
         just 144,000 of all those who have lived since Jesus’ death,
                  will be resurrected as immortal spirit,
                                    to spend eternity with God and Christ.
 
The ultimate in belonging,  to God and Christ. 
      And I say,  Good for her! 
         she has been told this good news,
                  and she accepts that she is fully accepted by God
                           and so lives with a profound sense
                                    of belonging now and forever.
 
But the dilemma for Midoro, as Jesus sees it,
         is when such an awareness, sense of belonging to God,
                  can breed a sense of self-righteousness,
                        and contempt for others’ relative lowliness. 
                          
                           a contempt which we logically assume
                                    God somehow shares.
 
Thank you, God, that I am not like this other person,
             says the Pharisee.
 
Jesus may be talking about the elite religious class,
         but don’t we all say that
                  or a version of that?
                           I do.
 
When we see someone who, is obviously
         going the wrong way.
                  someone whom we most vehemently disagree
                           on matters most important.      
         and we mutter, in so many words
                        Thank you, God, that I am not that person.
 
We think this politically,
         with the dictators and flawed leaders
                   and their followers, past and present.
         And is there a convinced Republican or Democrat
                  who does not utter this prayer
                  Thank you, God, that I am not like those
                                    on the other side. 
 
Our denomination is in the process of splintering,
      in a month, we will have a special session
                  of conference to vote on allowing
                           as many as 85 churches and pastors
                                    to leave the denomination
                                        with their property. 
         Either side of may be
                  tempted in to repeat the words
                           of the pharisee,
                           thank God I am not like them
 
And yet, if we believe,
         as scripture clearly tells us,
that everything that is
         comes from God’s own being. 
             that creation, all creation, all that is
                  every life, as well as every rock and scrap of metal,
                           every bee, flower, cloud, star,
                                    as well as you and the person
                                               you are glad you are not,
          are born out of God’ own being,
                           created from divine love
                                    and live in that love. 
And that God who is love
         is not standing outside of creation
            Where would that be=?
                  and if God is love, then surely this universe
                           is the material manifestation of love,
                                    is the body of love, of God
                                             in whom we, all of us,
                                                 everything,  dwells. 
          
If we allow ourselves to believe that,  as Jesus tells us
         as Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans,
                  that nothing is separated from the God
                                perhaps we would be less inclined
                                    to see others outside the fold.
 
Neither the Pharisee
         who is grateful for who he is
                  nor the tax collector
                           who is penitent for who he is not. 
 
They both belong, says Jesus
         one needs to know it,
                  the other needs the humility to see it in others.
 
Which is what church is about.
 
I was in youth group growing up,
         and even though I wasn’t among the pretty or athletic
                  or smart or popular ones in school,
                           I belonged, everyone did. 
                  That’s what made youth group special,
                            we belonged to youth group,   
                                             and we belonged to each other.
 
And when I moved just before my Junior year of High school
         and went to another church
                   in another denomination,
                           and joined another youth group
                                    Almost immediately,
                                             I belonged there, too.
 
Everyone who comes belongs, 
                  isn’t that the most important rule
                           of youth group?
Doesn’t everything else flow from that?: 
         respect,  cooperation, community? 
 
and isn’t that the most important rule for church
         as a whole,  
               this group of people
                  called out to be the body of Christ
                           in this life
                                    and, for us,
                           on this corner, 
                                    a community that we allow ourselves
                                             to belong to,
                                                      and be shaped by.  
 
You have chosen this body, this church, for a variety of reasons.
         Some of you grew up here.
                  Some found your way decades ago,
                           and some have just arrived.
                                    and you all sense a belonging.
                                             or a yearning to belong.
 
There is a sense of reliability, here,
             a financial grounding due to faithful
                  stewardship across generations, 
         and a maturity of spirit,  
                  a willingness to stay and love one another
                           across our differences
                                    even when it’s hard. 
 
Which means we believe what Jesus is saying in this story
         that we all belong,
                  we belong to God
                           we are truly all part of the body of Christ.
 
an d when we walk out under the night sky,
         and gaze upon the stars
              or look upon the trees in their firely colors,
                   or upon stranger or friend,
          there is no need to feel estranged
                  for the love that formed each and all
                           abides and each and all,
                                    knowingly or unknowingly
                                             abide in God.
 
From the beginning you have belonged,
         you, me, Midoro, and her 144,000,
                  and the Pharisee, and the tax collector,
                           and that belonging never ends. 
 
What good news. 
 
Amen.      

October 2, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
Christ for the World

Scripture:
Luke 17: 11-19
​ 
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s[b] feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
 
We have spent several Sundays considering the idea of Metanoia: the changing of one’s mind or way of thinking and being. 
 
Today, we focus on how Jesus himself undergoes such a change. 
 
In the 7th chapter of Luke, he is approached by a Centurion,  
                  A commander of the occupying army,
                           who believes Jesus can heal his servant
                                    from afar and begs him to do so. 
Never have I seen this faith in all Israel, says Jesus.
 
In our story today, in Luke 17,
         Jesus has healed a group of persons with leprosy,
                  from different backgrounds,  
         and he is amazed
  that a Samaritan, whom even Jesus knows
as a  social and religious outcast
                           is the only one of the healed
who turns back to thank Jesus
 and praise God.
 
In the next verses, a woman, from Syrophoenicia
                  therefore an outsider, a foreigner,
                           begs for healing for her daughter,
                               and when Jesus initially rejects her plea
                                    saying he is called to the children of Israel
                                      not to the “dogs,”
         but she persists, Jesus is moved
by her faith, and heals her child. 
 
Jesus lived his whole life between Nazareth and Galilee,
         Bethlehem and Jerusalem,  a region of about 100 miles.
               And we see in these stories how startling it is for him
    that those who were different from his tribe:
                           different language, religion, experience,
                                    have more faith than his own.   
 
Jesus himself is undergoing metanoia
         a change of mind, right in front of us. 
                  This is evident a chapter later,
                           When he is asked, who does the Torah say
                                    is our neighbor,
         And he describes how the faithful of Israel
                  pass by a beaten man,
                           and it is a Samaritan who shows compassion.  
 
Jesus sees the signs of God’s loving power
    present in the world, the culture outside his own,
          present in those who aren’t within the fold.
and he invites those who follow him
         into the same awareness, 
                           opening to what God is revealing to them
                                    within them,
                                             to a journey of metanoia.
 
I traveling in China , decades ago,
         just a few years after the country was opened up
                  after decades of isolation. 
I was on my own, and grateful when
         two young men befriended me when I got off the train
             in Guiling,
                  I was the first American they’d ever met. 
                           they knew some English
                               and walked with me
                                    through the town,
                                    and they helped me find lodging. 
 
One of them shared his story of his family’s
         struggles under the new cultural revolution,
                 
They wanted to show me the sights, particularly
     an ancient holy shrine,
         which they had never visited, and we
                  walked up the steep steps together
 
One of my companions was particularly curious about the place, 
                  He’s never been taught about any faith
                           of any kind.  
                          
We were in the gardens near the top,
    and he said, in almost a whisper.
         Sometimes, when I see poor people
                  I say “Oh God, help those poor people.”
                           and sometimes when I see something beautiful
                                    like a flower, I say;
                                             “Oh God…”
 
         Do you think that is prayer? He asked me? 
 
This young man, with no religious training
         was responding to something from within
             and from outside of him,
                  right in the midst of life,
                           awakening him to a deeper life. 
 
I heard this week the voice of a young Russian man,
         who was called up two weeks ago to fight in Ukraine.
He’d argued with his mother recently
        She supports their president,
                   He told her, No, mother, it is all untrue,
                      We are bringing harm to these people.
She told him she was ashamed of him,
         and he left for the nearest border
                  20 hours away.
The Russian soldiers at the borders called him a coward
         one who would leave his own mother. 
                  he said, I am not afraid to die in war,
                           but I would rather die
                                    than kill an innocent person.
 
This young man, of no evident religious faith,
         was responding to a call of God,
                  the call of the Christ, 
                           awakening him to
                                    a wholeness of being
                                             and a deeper life. 
 
Jesus, who lived his years,
         in constant growth, in completely openness
       to the Work of God in him,
                  would undergo the greatest of metanoia,
 
When those who killed him rather than themselves change,
         Jesus of Nazareth died but rose in death in Christ.
 
Christ who, John says, was in the beginning with God.
         Christ who is available and accessible to all,
                           regardless of creed or country or sect,
                                    or any religiosity at all.      
         Christ, the way, truth and life. 
                           by which we can all know God
                                                     
For did we not see Christ carrying strangers
                  to safety this past week in the typhoon? 
 
Do we not see the hurting Christ in that
         young man refusing to kill his sisters and brothers
                 and leaving all behind to follow the call within? 
 
And as those who go by the name of Christian,
         surely it we who must learn to recognize Christ’s face
                  all around us, 
                         to see Christ in the face of love
                                    no matter who is offering it,
                                    and in the face of suffering
                                    no matter who is weeping. 
 
This World Communion Sunday
         let us remember that Christ
                  is in communion with the whole world.
                 
Let us turn around, and give thanks
         for the Christ who lives and lives in us,
                  healing us, changing us,
                           Blessed be the name of the Lord.
                                    Amen.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Surely the Christ is In communion with him.
He all who died, and all who are traumatized by the
devastation of the hurricane.
 
So, what if we aren’t special.
I like what Etty Hillesum says:
 
“I don’t want to be anything special.
 I only want to try to be true to that in me
which seeks to fulfill its promise.”
 
Is not that it.
When we can see the Christ in others
in a perfect day,
in a service, as imperfect as this one is,
in the bread that we’ve baked,
in the neighbor helping neighbor
regardless of creed.
 
 
 
 
Just as the Samaritan man was invited, by his healing,
         Just as those residents of Ft. Meyer
                  helping one another,
                           Just as Etty Hillesum
 
Etty Hillesum was a Jew living in the Netherlands
       when she was forced into a transit camp
                  awaiting deportation to Auschwitz,
 
She has been rather less engaged with the world
         but then was surrounded by barbed wire,
         illness, hunger, children weeping for their mothers.
 
But rather than anger toward the perpetrators
         she felt called to go deeper,
                 
“All disaster stems from us. Why is there a war?
Perhaps because now and then I might be inclined to snap at my neighbor. Because I and my neighbor and everyone else do not have enough love. Yet we could fight war by releasing, each day, the love that is shackled inside us, and giving it a chance to live
 
“I know and share the many sorrows a human being can experience, but I do not cling to them; they pass through me, like life itself, as a broad eternal stream...and life continues...”
 
My life is one long, harkening unto myself
         unto others, and unto God.
 
 
A Samaritan of all people—the foreigner, the social and religious outcast, one who would not be counted under the elected but judged a heretic by most people in his time—epitomizes this kind of godly life and attitude. He demonstrates a faith that lays hold on God, that cannot and will not remain silent in response to what God has done in his life, that publicly, spontaneously, and joyfully directs its thanksgiving to God. Being grateful is not a precondition for being healed by Jesus; all the lepers find themselves cleaned as they show themselves to the priests. However, the Samaritan turns around and comes back. In Luke, as in the New Testament in general, “turning around” as a description for the believer’s reaction to Jesus’ work is certainly no accidental action, but filled with deep theological meaning. It describes a movement of the whole person, initiated by God’s graceful work, a redirection of orientation toward God. Jesus’ words, “Your faith has made you well” (v. 19), refer, therefore, not just to the medical healing the Samaritan has experienced, but to the holistic healing of this human being.
 
Margit Ernst-Habib, “Theological Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 166.
It is difficult to know what tone Jesus uses as he questions the whereabouts of the other nine. Is he sad? angry? flabbergasted? What he does make clear is that this most unlikely one, this double outcast, has been embraced by grace. “Get up and go,” he says, “your faith has made you well.”
To practice gratitude intentionally changes an individual life, to be sure. It also changes the character of a congregation
 
Jesus and company are walking to Jerusalem in “the region between Samaria and Galilee” (v. 11). The word “Samaria” is itself a red flag, of course. Observant Jews did not go anywhere near Samaria or Samaritans. Samaritans were a despised group, culturally inferior, theological and liturgical heretics
 
Jesus and company are walking to Jerusalem in “the region between Samaria and Galilee” (v. 11). The word “Samaria” is itself a red flag, of course. Observant Jews did not go anywhere near Samaria or Samaritans. Samaritans were a despised group, culturally inferior, theological and liturgical heretics
 
John M. Buchanan, “Homiletical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 165.
 
Kimberly Bracken Long, “Pastoral Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 168.
 
I was listening to stories of folks
         who tried to save others
                  family, strangers, neighbors
                  in this terrible storm that hit the gulf coast of Florida. 
          
I was listening to stories of folks
         who tried to save others
                  family, strangers, neighbors
                  in this terrible storm that hit the gulf coast of Florida. 
          
I heard the story of a Russian man,
         who was called up two weeks ago to fight in Ukraine.
he’d been arguing with his mother,
        She supports their president,
                   He told her, No, mother, it is all untrue,
                      We are bringing harm to these people.
 
She told him she was ashamed of him,
         and he left for the nearest border
                  20 hours away.
The Russian soldiers at the borders
         ridiculed him,
                  he said, I am not afraid to die in war,
                           but I would rather die
                                    than kill an innocent person.
 
This young man, not of any faith,
         was responding to something from within
             and from outside of him,
                  right in the midst of life,
                           awakening him to a change,
                                    a wholeness of being
                                             and a deeper life. 

September 25, 2022
Rev. Patricia Wagner
How Shall We Know?

Scripture:
Luke 16: 19-31

Luke 16:19-31
19“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will change.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
According to Luke, Jesus sees that some in the temple
            care more about their wealth
                        than their neighbors
                                    and after a few one liners,
                                                he tells them a story
 
Once there was a rich man, dressed in purple of royalty,
            who ate sumptuous meals
while Lazarus. poor man,   is starving at his gate
                                    with only the dogs come to lick his sores.
 
for when they both die and Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham
             and the rich man is in agony
                                    he asks Abraham to send Lazarus,
                                                 to bring him water,
                                                            to serve him even in death.
It cannot be, says Abraham,
            for there is a chasm that has opened up
                        between you.
 
Then will you send him to warn his brothers
            begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn them
                        them that the same might happen to them
            Abraham says no again
                        for they will listened to no prophet
                                    neither will they when someone comes to them
                                                 from the dead
                        Then how shall they know, pleads the man..
 
it’s a disturbing story – I get confused
            when I hear of torment:
                        it doesn’t fit with God as Love,
yet the story’s  truths seem borne out from
      persons who have shared their near-death experiences.
            Persons who, in the time between their heart stopping
                         and starting again,
                                    had a startling shift in awareness.
                                                They perceived not a great light,         
                                                            But the pain they’d caused others.
 
One man recounts that he became acutely aware that he had
            Of the harmful abuse he’d inflicted on his wife.   
                        and now, in death, he was tormented by realizing
                                    that there was now a chasm between him and her,
                                                and he couldn’t cross it,
                                                            and repair the damage done. 
 
A young woman who experienced a sudden death,
            tells of own metanoia (change of thinking or consciousness)
                    for in that moment,
she realized she’d lived a self-centered life.
                                    indifferent to other’s suffering
                        The realization that
                                    she no longer had the opportunity
                                                to change her life
                                                            were the flames of hell for her. 
 
Both of these persons seemed anxious that we understand
the agony of regret.  Just as Lazarus wants to warn his brothers that a change is required in them, too. 
 
Jesus, invites us to introspection,
                        How might we be  like the rich man,
                                    Inattentive to the Lazarus at our gate?
 
Of course, we can get overwhelmed with all that need our attention
            And all that needs to be righted.
                       
I will confess that poor at our intersections are now so ubiquitous
             that I am mostly irritated                     
                        and try not to see them.   
                                   
But my daughter sees them.
            We will drive past an intersection, and she will remark
                        about what is on their sign
                               or how ill they looked and express her concern.
                                     
She always sees them
    She always did,
            like most children, she was never afraid of the poor
                        I remember the mangiest man walking toward us one day
                                    his face scouring, his hair wild, his clothes mangled.
                                                            and she lit up and said “Hi!”   
 
There wa no gate,
            no sense of distance or difference
                             She senses a kinship that, often, I cannot or do not.
 
You know people like this. 
 
Can we, a time of such division, between parties and nations,
           experience such a metanoia
                        that we might also comprehend one another
                                    across all the chasms of our own creation
                                                all the categories that we’ve formed
                                                            all the distinctions we have made?
                                   
May we see our essential kinship and live it
                        before our hearts stop and we feel the agony of regret?
 
Jesus in his story is inviting us to do so.
 
I was in a workshop last week with a wonderful man
            named Ron Heifietz,       
                        a Jew, who with all other Jews is today celebrating
                                    Rosh Hashana, the New Year, three days
                                                when creation is made new again
                                                   and there is opportunity to reflect
                                                            restore relationships with God and others,                                                             to change. 
                                                             
Ron spoke of learning to see everyone,
            strangers, or particularly those whom we see as
                        unworthy, unlike us,
                                    as a whole world
                                                one of great love and great suffering
                                                         of good actions and bad ones
                                                                        just like us.
           
What if we can hold the complexity of that
            in our hearts?
                        If we accept others as “whole worlds”
                                    What change might that bring in us?  
 
Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal church
            Tells of going into the zone near the World Trade Center
                        Just after the terrorist attack.             
            Still standing was the old Trinity Episcopal Church  
                 2 to 3 feet of ash covering the pews
                        but the church was intact
                                    and there was Jesus, crucified,
with his arms outstretched
 
            Jesus, who, Bishop Griswold realized,
    could hold this all together,
                        all the stories, all the lives, all the worlds
                                    of perpetrators and victims
                                                into one great whole
                                                            to be offered to God. 
                         
Jesus wanted his follower to hold as much as they can in their hearts
                        In this life and to allow that to change us. 
 
So, perhaps, we can practice;
            practice loving across chasms,
                        practice ignoring the boundaries we’ve made,
                                    practice introspection of Rosh Hashana:
                                                practice beginning again. 
 
On Tuesday of this week,
             I met a man at our blessing box.
His name was Charles, he said,
            and it was his 46th birthday.
                         Is there anything I can get you,
                                    no, thank you for this, as he put some granola bars
                                                in his backpack.
He shared that his mother had died recently
            from Alzheimers
                        he’d lost his father to violence when he was young
                                    and his brother from an overdose
                                                and now his mum. 
So its just you,
            Yes, but I have Spencer and Stewart
                                    do you know them?
                                                we have a place we stay,
                                                            a small encampment, it seemed
                                                                        so I’m good.
                        Someone stole my tent, but it will be okay.
 
He was trying to  write something on a piece of paper
            I could see his implement wasn’t working.
                        I’ll get one,  I found a marker
                                    and handed it to him
            Then realize he was making a sign to hold
                                    by the side of the road.
            I’m Charles.  Today is my 46th birthday.
 
I found myself hoping people would see him,
            would read it
would acknowledge, in some small way
the humanity before them. 
 
Cross the chasms between
 you while you can, says Jesus in this story, 
            May we do so. Amen.
 
 
Rev. Patricia Wagner, Maple Grove UMC
​

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 is such a strong tendency  - to separate ourselves
From those we think unrighteous….
 
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