Aug 3 2008 sermon A miracle of Faith
I can appreciate the feeding of the 5000 after fair week
I wonder how many people we fed at the fair booth
and I gotta tell you I think it is a miracle to see that happen every year
.. And of course the whole point of a miracle
is to help you believe in God..
.and I think that happened with fair week
and Im thinking too, of all the ways that we spiritually feed people all year long
now having said that..Look at the gospel lesson
Jesus does the miracle but The disciples cooperate with it
the disciples are also part of the miracle ;
they set the stage by their act of trust and obedience as well
they give up something..to see something greater..
did you see it in there?

The disciples see this huge crowd of hungry people
Jesus says: you give them something to eat
they said
we don’t have anything here
but 5 loves and a couple o f fish
and then Jesus basically says
ok Give me all you ve got
give me your food...
share what you have
And that’s where the excitement and amazement begins
..but really
the miracle starts with the disciple giving their food to Jesus
We would have no story
if the disciple had said ‘no way...
this is our food
we need this bread
and we need this fish..
If we give you this,,
then we wont have anything..
But instead they trusted..
.they over came their natural reluctance and self centeredness
and the offered what they had
not knowing what would come next

not knowing what this would mean
that’s the lesson that I would underline this morning
as a picture e of faith and ministry
some time Christian miracle making is very much about giving up what we have
offering..
or even sacrificing up
what we have worked for
giving up
what we think we need...
Doing things
that might seem even foolish or counterintuitive
As an act of faith
giving that up
and then to see the greater vision..that really is what I see in this gospel lesson
now here a story to illustrate the lesson
maybe help it sink in..another old Jewish story
Once upon a time there was school teacher who had not seen his wife and children.
For twelve years
you see... he had to leave his home because of the debts he had back in his little village
he had been running a small inn there ;just a few rooms
but he could Not make enough money to keep ahead so he went to another town
far away where he worked as a Hebrew teacher
,,teaching young boys their alef-beit
but the teacher lived very simply
saved as much as he could
and finally
Coin by coin, through the years,
he saved up a grand total of nine hundred rubles.
Now..With his savings..
he was determined to go back home at last...
He could pay off his debt to his landlord ,the Duke,
marry off his daughters, and spend his older years in the company of his patient wife.

Now, this teacher was also a faithful Jew, Hasidic jew
and before he started out on his journey back home
he went to Berditchev,
and prayed in the synagogue of the great Rebbe Levi Yitzchak.
To his joy, the Rebbe greeted him warmly after the prayers,
and invited him to eat at his table
But all Through the meal,
the teacher kept thinking about his travels.
he decided, that as soon as he got a chance
he would ask the Rebbe's blessings
for a safe trip and speedy return home.
But then Suddenly
the Rebbe turned to the teacher,
and spoke to him

"If you wish, the rabbe said
I will tell you three words of advice."
Well this was so wonderful for th teacher to hear
..he was so proud just to have this chance
"But .the rabbi said
for each word of advice
you must pay me in full.
For the first piece of advice
you must give me three hundred rubles."
The teacher looked at the rabbi and he could hardly believe his ears

Three hundred rubles?!
But he obeyed
instantly.
After all.. Was it not written,
"Words of Torah are more precious than gold?"
So the rabbi gave him the first words

the Rebbe said
"When a man does not know which way to turn....
"he should always turn to the right, as it is written,
'All your turnings should be to the right.'
Now If you want to hear the second piece of advice
you will need to pay another three hundred."
The teacher froze in his seat, his heart was beating wildly.
For these few words he had just paid three hundred rubles?
And three hundred rubles for the next?
What about his wife his wife?
His many daughters? His debt to the landlord?
His years of labor?
But his Rebbe had spoken,
and the teacher could not refuse.

He counted the second 300 rubles on the table, and waited.
"An old man and a young wife is half death,"
spoke the Rebbe.
"If you wish to hear the last word of advice,
you must once again pay the same amount."
Torn between two impossibilities
the teacher sat paralyzed for a long moment.

Then, with trembling fingers,
he opened up his sack for the third time
and emptied out everything that was left
He was filled with a strange recklessness and elation.
It was his Rebbe speaking. Come what may,
he would obey him.
The final set of wisdom was this."Know
, my son, that you should believe only what you see with your own eyes.
This is the last advice I give you.

Now go in peace, and may the L-rd bless your journey home."

Dazed and bewildered,
the teacher wandered through the streets of the town.
His faith in the Rebbe, in the holiness of his purpose,
never wavered, not for a moment.
But how could he go back home empty-handed,

He was poorer now than the day he had left?
No, no, it was best to go back to the school,
and save up some money again.
How long? Another twelve years?The teacher walked blindly,
oblivious to his surroundings;
in fact did not notice the townsmen until they were upon him.
"Where are they?
The thieves, which way did they go?
A reward is on their heads!
To the right or to the left?"
The teacher hesitated only for a moment.
"To the right!"
he said firmly,
remembering his Rebbe's words.
A few hours later,
the teacher was on his way home,
he was walking with such joy
because In his hands
was a bundle of 600 rubles,
his share of the reward for the capture of the thieves.
In his eagerness and anticipation he could have walked all night.
But it was growing dark,
so he needed to stop
the road was deserted,
and a hard rain rain was staring to come down
. The teacher stopped at the first inn that he came to
and asked this frail old innkeeper if he could spend the night.
The old man was about to let him in
, when a beautiful young woman appeared along side of him
and, to the obvious astonishment
of her husband,
this younger woman firmly refused.
"There is no room for you here tonight!"
she said sharply.
Go Find some place else"

the teacher remember the second set of words from the rabbi
"An old man with a young wife,"
. He decided to stay there anyway so he got up under the eaves..tight against the walls
A few hours later
, the teacher was startled by the sound of wagon wheels.
He looked through the rain,
he saw two men get off the wagon and stand for a moment in front of the inn,
they were pointing to one of the darkened windows.
They knocked on the door,
and were let in right away
but In the beam of light from the doorway,
the teacher saw that one man was carrying a deadly weapon.

Now you gotta know teacher was not a reckless man,
but the wonderful events of the last few hours gave him courage.
Leaping to his feet, he started to hammer on the window of the inn
. "Help!" he shouted. "Murder! Murder!
Don't let them get away!"

The household woke up with a great noise.
Lights flashed in the windows.
There was a clatter of wheels,
and the would-be-murderers escaped.

In the morning, the teacher was once again on his way,
richer by 300 rubles.
The grateful old man, who seemed to have suspected the plot,
would have given him even more.
But the teacher had refused. After all he had his nine hundred rubles.
... After that He had no more adventures along the way
and in just a few weeks
he was in sight of his village.
H could see the old stream,,his old school..the streets
and just down the road
there was his own house
But
The teacher remembered the last warning of the Rebbe,
and he did not go right back to his home and family,
even though
every nerve in his body wanted to rush home
Instead,
he stood around on street corners,
at the front of shops,
he was like a curious stranger,
chatting with the Jews of the town.
But no one recognized him
The 12 years of exile must have aged him
But he knew all the people that the meat
Casually,
he questioned them: Does anybody know about the innkeeper
who had left the town about twelve years ago.
But what he got back was puzzling looks ..and a kind of sadness
Ah, yes,
the poor man disappeared,
not a trace of him for twelve years.

And his wife,
may the L-rd have mercy,
such a fine family!

How sad--she had left the straight path,
she had fallen in evil ways.
The teacher
listened to their words
and he was upset by What he heard

but remembered the Rebbe's dearly bought advice:
"Believe nothing you do not see with your own eyes."

That night
the teacher stood outside of his home,
in the shadow of a large oak.
In the pale light of the moon,
he saw the figure of a young man go up to his house,
and knock on the window.
The face of his wife appeared at the window
and was gone
. The door silently opened.
Hours later, the youth left, as silently as he had come.
The teacher would have turned his back, and left his home forever,
but he remembered What the rabbi had told him
so , he calmed himself and waited.
The next morning, the teacher knocked on the door of his home,
he was all dressed up in fine clothing,
his arms were full of gifts,
he was a father returning to his family.
Everything was just as he had dreamed a thousand times.
His wife ran up towards him,
her face was radiant,
"My husband, my husband!"
His children, were numerous and beautiful, they had grown beyond recognition,
they surrounded him, drowning him in kisses and tears.
But In the middle of all this teacher stood silent,
he was sick at heart.
Alone at last with his wife,
he had to say something .
"What is the use of all this?
Haven't I heard the whole town talking?
And, yes,
I have seen it with my own eyes..."

"Stop, please stop!"
His wife said
her face was so full of sorrow
"Don't say another word.
You left us for so many years,
have you forgotten everything?
Have you forgotten our youngest son?"
Then the teacher realized that in all the turmoil of his homecoming
he had not noticed that his youngest son was not there
he had been such a small boy back then 12 years ago

the wife said
"The Duke has taken him,..... when I could not pay our rent.
As security on our debt, she said, they took our son
. For months, for years, I cried, and pleaded.
But it was no use.
He has been in the Duke's house ever since.
But God has been good to us.
He is a fine boy. And Every night,
he has slipped away from the manor and come home,
and I have studied with him, a little bit of our ways
. It wasn't much,"
"But thank God, at least he knows he is a Jew.
Now do you understand?"

, the teacher nodded. ..he didn’t say a word
He understood.
And
In the days that followed,
the teacher paid the debts..got his son , and married off his daughters.

He spent the rest of his days in peaceful study,
at the side of his good wife.

But before he turned to the urgent matter of setting his house in order,

the teacher tried to share his understanding with his wife.

he said
It was not only that God had given the Rebbe this extra wisdom ;;;
that was marvelous enough.
But What seemed even more wonderful to the teacher
was the wisdom of having to pay all those rubles to hear those words from the rabbi because if he had not paid so dearly for the wisdom..he might have ignored it at the end

But the greatest of all,
and here the teacher shook his head
in humble amazement,
the greatest was how G-d
had given him--such an ordinary Jew-
-the strength to give up his last ruble
when it had seemed easier to sacrifice his life.
----------------------
Now what that’s got to do with the gospel lesson this morning
all along in that story the teacher had to trust things that he did not understand
and in the process he had to give something in faith
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
as the story ...says that..That too is a miracle

In a sense we live out the feeding of the 5 thousand again and again
whenever we ordinary people
trust god enough with out work
our time ..our money ...our own needs
And our dreams
but dare to somehow give it to God
and let Jesus use it...
Ministry happen When we trust the word of God
Good things happen... that would not have happened other wise
people get fed
Physically and literally and spiritually
the ministry that we do in the church
always uses your cooperation..your commitment
it is your time
your work
your money
that is the loaves and fishes that Jesus Multiples and people get fed...

As you share communion this morning
you and I,,,,, on one hand .... we are the crowd of 5000 people
that Jesus fed .. We are being fed..in this communion food of Gods love ..forgiveness..and Gospel
but those multiplied loaves and fishes came from generations of disciples before us....
We are not the first to do this.!
And on the other hand we are also those disciple giving the loaves and fishes that will feed the multitudes to come
through the miracle of Jesus
What will you offer to Jesus this week,, and in the year to come
how are you living the miracle of faith

Weeds

Park UMC R Swenson Mt 13 July 20, 2008
We are in what I call the Ag department of the Gospels
..this is farming country
in Matthew 13 we have these agricultural parables
.... farming stories
the parable of the seeds and the sower with the different kinds of soil
now this morning we have the wheat and the weeds
and next week
we get something about a mustard seed

but did you also noticed that mixed in with these seed parables
there is actually talk about parables themselves
in this same chapter... in verse 10
the disciples are asking Jesus; "why do you speak in parables?"
and then Jesus talks about the use of parabels
again in verse 34
and you can also here
the disciples wanting Jesus to interpret the parable
so let me actually start with a little story
about parables and truth
it’s a traditional Jewish story
Once upon a time,
Truth went into the streets ...just as naked as the day he was born.
It was the naked truth
But no-one would let him into their homes.
No one wanted him around
When People saw this naked Truth
, they turned away and ran
One day
when Truth was wandering around feelign all sad
he met up with Parable.
Now, Parable was dressed p in some fine fancy clothes with beautiful colors.
And Parable, looked at Truth, said,
"Tell me, neighbor, what do you look so sad?"
Truth said, very bitterly ..
truth said
My friend, things ,are bad.
Very bad.
Nobodys want to hear the truth
maybe I'm so old,
that no-one wants to have me.
No-one wants anything to do with me."

Parable head this and said,
"People don't run away from you because you're old.
I am also very old . And I have always been here too.
But the older I get,
the more People seem to like me
so
I'll tell you a secret:
Everyone likes things disguised and prettied up a bit.
Let me give you some splendid clothes like mine,
and then you'll see that the same people who pushed you away
will invite you into their homes
and they will enjoy your company."

so Truth took Parable's advice
and put on the borrowed clothes.
And from that time on,
Truth and Parable have gone hand in hand together and everyone loves them.
They make a wonderful pair.'

some other version of the lesson go on to say that Truth put on the clothes..
Of metaphor and symbol
poetry plots and story

Edward R. Murrow must have known the story of parable and truth
when he said
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them
and cover them up, at least a little bit –
so what is the naked truth that Jesus is dressing up in the parable of the wheat and the weeds?

remember the parable for just a little bit... a farmer gets good seed planted in the field
but somewhere along the way
something else shows up
and when the wheat heads out
the other plants get discovered

now it doesn’t spell this out in the parable.... but in the middle east back then
there was a common problem with kind of wild grainey weed
the older translations called this parable of the wheat and the tares
the tares were the weeds
this kind of weed looked like the good wheat
it was sometimes called false wheat
.. you couldn’t tell the two apart until closer to harvest time
when things headed out
you see the good wheat
would get heavy
and it would droop down a bit
but this false wheat ..was lighter
.it didn’t fill out as much
so it still stood up straight.
That was your first clue ,,it didnt really amount to anything!
.it stood out for its lack of weight
and you didnt want to jsut harvest it
becuase those little weed grains were poisonous...
You get bad flour out of th deal
anyway
You could NOT see any of this until later in the growing season...close to harvest time.

and by then
there was another problem..
the roots had usually grown together


mixed in tight with the good wheat
and the bad stuff had strong roots.
That’s why Jesus said , as every farmer would know
that when you pull out the bad stuff
you'r going to be damaging the good
it makes sense doesn’t it.
if you’ve done much garden weeding
you know that it can happen.. The roots get tangle up..pull one..you get the other
I remember that the Englstads up in Thief rivers Falls
who did the grain farming right where I grew up
sometimes
they would hire some of us kids to go into the wheat fields
and pull out the oats
the wild oats
so they wouldn’t get docked at the elevator
or sometime
we would go out
and pull out the pig weeds
(do you know about pig weeds.?
They probably got a more official name.
..thy get great big dirt clomps around the roots ,,
you get a chunk of ground when you pull those big weeds up..
Anyway we were just kids
and sometimes we weren’t all that careful
we pulled out a few good things along the way
well
now again what’s the point..
Jesus said it.. right out..
Should we pull out the weeds ...should we pull out the bad things?
No.. ... For in gathering the weeds..
you would uproot the wheat along with them.
Let the wheat and the weeds grew together


Do you hear the naked truth that Jesus is dressing up in that parable?

This is probably
one of the most ignored lessons from Jesus in all of the gospel
this is a truth that we have not listened to..
Do not pull up the weeds!!!!!
why
because you will damage the good.
You will do more harm than good...
Let them grow together
hear that???


You see ...we want to be like the servants in the story
we want to pull the weeds
we think we should pull the weeds
we think that we can pull the weeds
but Jesus says ..keep out..
Even in the interpretation that Matthew gives us later on
those same field hands
are not going to be the ones sorting out the crop.
.. Human judgement ...never gets a chance to do this..

The problem here
seems to be human judgement and human clumsiness when we try..
But oh we try..

Back in Jesus day
the field cleaners were ready to go to work
the patriotic zealots were there..
to rise up in violence..
Drive out the romans
drive out the unbelievers
the pagans
the Roman influence
the Greek influence
in their way of thinking it was as a moral cause.
.they were soldiers of light..
we have old scrolls that talk about that.
.
ready to be martyred..
Maybe they were just desperate to do something.
Judea was an occupied land
and that was such an oppressive burden
Romans were taxing them to death..corruption was everywhere
the weeds were thick!
and soem of the Jewish people did rise up in rebellion
eventually that urge to purge.... leads to the burning of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 Ad
it lead to a slaughter of Jerusalem by the Romans
Jesus taught this lesson
in that kind of a setting
that’s why some people wanted Jesus to give them that permission
they wanted him to be that kind of messiah...
to clean up the field
Get rid of the weeds
shall we pull up the weeds?

By the way.. How did Jesus live with weeds
. he ate with tax collectors and sinners
he ate with people who didn’t seem to be very pure
he ate with people who collected taxes for Rome
and cooperated with that enemy
Jesus healed the servant of Roman officer healed the centurions servant
you get the idea that Jesus ..in his life demonstrated this parable of the wheat and the weeds

but no
we don’t want to live with the weeds! we want to pull
.. gotta pull at the weeds
...
How many times has the church said.. we gotta clean up the field..
Heretics ..outa here..
we have burned people at the stake..trying to pull the weeds
well
we haven’t done that here I n park church or Brainerd
but you know its in the church history
we have gone on crusades...
Done inquisitions...
Split churches
Thinking we could pull the weeds
we have this puritan impulse... to purify and purge
pull up the weed

its an old story
I know.. we want to be right....we want to be faithful to God..
We are like those field hands; eager to please and serve
\
and that’s good
"
Master do you want us to go out and clean this up.?"
Didn’t you plant good seed
of course you did!
this isn’t what you had in mind..right
...an enemy did this..
We know there’s a problem,
you see
this is not a denial of the problem
Don’t try to turn this into a kind of anything goes.
.parable with moral blindness
its not that..
Nobody is saying that the weeds arent out there

we know
we live in a mixed up world
this is not a weed free life

but the issue here...seems to be , what we do about it
how do we live with it..
how do we live
in this inte-rooted,
interconnected..,entangled... world..
Maybe there is a clue in the Bible study itself

listen to the words
in verse -30
where it says
let the them grow together until the harvest
translations say things like "permit it"
;;allow it...
but you could translate it some other ways
the word that is used can also be translated as forgive...


the word that is used here
is used 156 times in the New Testament a
about a third of the time ...its translated as forgive
and could be translated that way even more
What if Jesus is telling us
that t our job is the forgiveness..or at least the tolerance
not the judgement
I don’t know
"
forgive the weed?"
sound strange doesn it .. but then again Jesus said...
love your enemies
pray for those who persecute you
forgive 7 times 7o times s
makes about as much sense as forgiving the weeds ... Allowing the weeds to live.
Can you imagine that..

Could we ever like that ? I’ve got some questions here
:
Are we supposed to be passively resigned in the face of evil?
are we supposed to let things go to weed
this is not a divine command to ignore injustice in the world
I think that the larger weight of scripture says
that we must work for justice
no.. we don’t just ignore the failures of the church either


this is not some hopeless resignation
This is not a call to despair
or abdication of responsibility...
(nothing you can do about the weeds!)

Actually there is something we are supposed to do in here
and I believe its harder thing to do..than actually pulling the weeds..

we are called to protect the whole field.
.let them grow together.. The parable says
There is a type of faith work
that we are being called into
but this is not conventional wisdom and its not the way of the world
So we avoid the truth of this parable
How do we live with the weed?
first of all we trust and obey the master of the field
that means we have to admit our moral clumsiness in weed cleaning
we are not able to do this job
pulling the weeds
the second thing we do..in living with the weeds
is avoid doing more evil ....
to do no harm
if you pull up the weeds you will do more harm than good
we are suppose to let the good keep growing
We are suppose to stay with the good course and the wisdom of the master
we are supposed to trust the owner of the field
and trust the power of the good seed
get this
In this parable the ability of the good seed to produce a harvest
is never questioned.
In fact ....what is the only thing that might hurt the good seed?

The only thing that threatened the good seed
is the eager but clumsy work of the servants
The wheat will survive in spite of the weeds

that the good news that the servants need to hear
..the good will be there..
BUT Can we believe that!

apparently God is more comfortable with this weedy mixed up world
than we are
God allows a mixed up world
whether we like it or not
whether we understand it or not
this is how it is,
..

Now what’s that got to do with us today
how about
if we read this parable
whenever we talked about soemof the most tangled up and complicated thigns that we face today
like sexuality issues
in church and society
we could come up with a mixed up list
of social issues and moral issues
abortion. Evolution ..poverty, global warming, illegal immgaration,
,gay rights
,,separation of church and state..politics,,,interpretation of the Bible...the war in Iraq...
All of that is very tangled up stuff

like it or not..
its there
Have we done a very good job talking about those things?
I wonder ..if in the process of trying to sort this out
maybe we have also hurt the good
sometimes we have done more harm..than good

we have hurt the witness of the church and neglected our ministries.
we have Not been at our best
We have ripped into these delicate and sometimes personal..complicated matters
churches get torn part.. By the roots
lives get hurt.
I know we may not be comfortable;
with the mixed up ..and compromised conditions
but sometimes..it’s the best we can do.
As the parable seems to say
we are all in this field together

we are bound..inseparably for now.. at the roots
we live along side of each other
what I do effect you
what you do effects me..
and if the roots are entr-twined as they are
then we need to protect each other
sound strange doesn’t it..co existence
I protect myself..by protecting you..
I care for everything in the field.
First do no harm
no matter what we think of each other
Maybe this is parable that we desperately
need to hear today
God allows
God..forgives
the mixed up field ..at least for now.

Maybe this is even bigger than just the church
maybe this parable is about the world

maybe we need to hear this lesson that as Christians ...Jews... Moslems... Buddhists... Hindus... atheists.. Humanists... New ages or whatever

Jesus is telling us that we need to learn to live together for our own sakes
for the good of the harvest.

Let the good grow
It is a call to keep the good growing
to learn forgiveness
patience... humbleness... prayer..
to trust that God will do what we simply cannot do.
Let the weeds and wheat both grow toghter until the harvest
That’s the Naked truth that Jesus is dressing up
and ends the lessons by saying Those who have ears to hear..let them hear
,,listen up ..if you can
amen

July 6 2008

ARTS in the park July 6 2008 Matthew 11
Well as you can see..it is Arts in the park day again
and I have told you before
that this is one of my favorite Brained events..
Of course I like the fireworks and the parade also
but arts in the Parks isn’t quite so intense
it’s a little more relaxed..
I know it complicates the parking situation around here a little bit
but we have a great location right next to the park ..hundreds of people get to see that we are here..in this beautiful well kept building
so being part of this neighborhood .is a privilege that we have
so get on over to the park sometime today
you might see a juggler
probably a nice variety..of music
pan flutes
violins ..dulcimers
bagpipes
all kind of arts and crafts
Bill grange
I’m guess has his pottery stand right over by the water fountain...
you can get some stain glass work
or wood work
or fabric art..
.the list goes on
don’t forget to check out the classic cars
and well there’s the food
I always get some kettle corn ...maybe a brat..
its all there for arts in the park
well I went through my notes
and some of you will remember that I’ve talked about this before
we even did a kind of Arts in park church theme
for one of our church photo directories
and I also did a sermon on this back in 2005
I'm sure you remember every word of it
right...Bob..etc...(Darwin!)
so I better not do a rerun here right...
Anybody remember that sermon /
Back then
I talked about the spiritual arts
and the arts of ministry
I quoted Ephesians 2;10
and there is this GK word poema which sounds like the word for poem
the GK word can can actually be translated to say
that we are Gods art work ...
we are gods creation and handiwork

back then
I highlighted some spiritual or metaphorical arts
that I could see in he Bible
the art of pottery
God is potter.
we are the clay...
Then the art of architecture..
we are Gods building ..
you can get that in I Peter
. and then the art of storytelling
we are a story that God is telling ..
The gospel is a story of good news
and some of you know an old hymn
that says I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love
.
but what kind of spiritual arts should we look at this morning.....
How about dancing Maybe free style interpretative dancing.
I need you to work with me a little
but the word dancing is here in the gospel lesson
did you catch it in there?
and were going to spend our time in the gospel lesson this morning
so Im going stretch this a bit
but I think
I got the spirit of the lesson right



First of all..did you notice
Jesus is comparing the people to a bunch of children playing in the market place..
You get this sense of teasing and whining and complaining
and its about who gets to make the rules
and Who didn’t do it right.....
(you know any churches like that.? )
(Not here.. But I’ve seen a few..
We played a dance song and you didn’t dance
you didn’t do it our way
then we did a sad song
and you didn’t cry..
you didn’t whine and complain with us
You didn’t play along with us.
And Jesus goes onto say
that he did more of that dance spirit in his life
he lived with a spirit of celebration..
This is an important point here..
It says
The son of man came eating and drinking..

And he got criticized for that lifestyle
some people said he didn’t get it right.
He broke the rules and didn’t play the game
.
In some ways
Jesus is contrasting his spirit of Life .
.his style of religion
his path of discipleship
with John the Baptist
or maybe some of the strict religious leaders

John the Baptist for example
had a very severe and austere way of being faithful
and that should have satisfied those really strict folks...
but not even John the Baptist wasn’t good enough for them .
And Jesus
well
he didn’t live with all those harsh tight rules
but that wasn’t good enough either
for these very religious people
and then
Jesus closes that part of the lesson with these words
he says
Gods wisdom
or the truth
will be shown by its results
in other words
look at the results..look at what it does.
the proof is in the pudding.
Look at what the life of Jesus is going to produce..
That an important line in this lesson
so don’t forget it..

Now let me demonstrate this lesson with a story
its about Robinson Crusoe
actually it comes from the movie
one day
Robinson Crusoe got tired of just sitting around
and eating fruit
and laying around on the beach with all the sunshine
so he went over
and captured a man that he called Friday
he took him from a local tribe
so he could "educate" him
he taught him the English language
of course Caruso never thought about learning Fridays language
Anyway
Caruso was going to "educate" Friday
even though it was Friday
who had actually taught Caruso everything that he needed to know
like
how to get food
and clothes and shelter..
Well bot being civilized
like the Englishman, Carouso
Apparently Friday didn’t know that his life wasn’t quite complete.
Because civilized people
know that life is not here just to be enjoyed
Life has to be conquered and measured.
So Caruso decided that they would have their kind of mini Olympics..
A sport..
with some competition
and first of all
he set up a race
Caruso said we are going to run to that tree
the better runner wins

Wins what?
Friday wants to know
"wins the race of course "
he gets told
Friday still doesn’t get it.. "Why do we race?"
Because we want to know who the better runner is..
Why
he says..again
Why
And Caruso says
:we have to know who is best at things."

Friday says
"isn’t it enough to know that we are both good.
No Caruso says
now
stop asking stupid questions and lets start the race

we are going to see who the better runner is..

Ready ....set..... go..
The two of them start running
Crusoe is pumping his arms and legs with good disciplined form
he is gulping for air
as his feet are driving into the stand..
Pounding the ground
and his face is turning red with the hard work of running


but Friday is doing a different kind of run.
Its almost like he was dancing
he legs are flying
and his arms are swinging in the wind.
H’s got this big smile on his face.
Caruso got to the tree way ahead of him
and he is bent over trying to catch his breath
as he waits for Friday to get to the tree.
He is doubled over..just breathing so hard
When Friday finally got there
Friday says "I win"

carouse is all upset..
Are you mad.. ?
I was here way before you
How can you think you won?!
and Friday says
you told me th t the better runner would win the race.
I saw how you ran..
you ran like you were being chased by a wild boar.
You strained every muscle
and you didn’t enjoy that running one bit.
Now you stand here
and you can hardly breathe
and you look like you are in pain.
How can you call that winning!
But I ran with my legs running beautifully
like they were meant to do
I didn’t jam them into the ground like you did.
And I breathed in he air so that my face could smile
but you
you look like you could faint any minute
so clearly
I am the better runner
because I enjoyed it.
Cruoso of course is not hearing this;
he says
But I got tot the tree first
so I am the faster runner. I win.
Ah but listen
Friday says
You did not say that the faster runner would be the winner ...

`You said "the better runner
besides what good is it to get to the tree first
if you cant enjoy yourself
when you get the there..

I think you can here the metaphor...
you can figure the meaning..
How do you live your life
in the art of living
are you dancing well or running hard
are you more like
caruso
driving somehow
to prove that you measure up...to prove that you’re the winner
that somehow how
you are better or good enough..and expecting everyone else to follow your interpretation of the rules

Or more like Friday
moving through life
in a way
that still leaves a smile
Lets you breath
and can still be enjoyable
I like to think that Christian ministry
and the spirit of park church
our style
the spiritual artistry here
is more like Fridays..
Yes
we also have a sense of destination and purpose ..and a calling
we re not loitering
...we are still moving to the tree
to the finish ,,
,getting to the goal
but the way
that way we get there
is what matters
the way
is not just a set of rules
t is also
I believe
the way that Jesus talks about and show us and give us
when he says
I am the way
it is a way that leaves room for the human element
it knows us.
And so
it
.is going to be about love...
Its going be about giving and forgiving
its going to be about hospitality and grace
Where the tax collectors and the sinners don’t get left out or left behind
(you heard that in the lesson didn’t you)
because that who Jesus dances with
like or not...
( And some wont like it.)
and it is a way that lets us be the church
with a kind of beauty and gracefulness
so that
it is not
just about pounding it out through life
and living by the egos rules
maybe
as the Gospel lesson also says
in verse 25
as the world sees it
the Jesus way
.. will not the the fastest.
.or the most rational,
intelligent
or sophisticated..
but
we believe
it is the best..
and in the last analyses
in what really matter
its the kind of life
that lets you enjoy getting there.
In case you need a little more scriptural support
if you want this in bible talk
Listen to the words of Jesus again in the gospel lesson
I think you will hear the same point being made
Jesus says
"come to me all who are weary and heavy laden.
.and I will give you rest...
Take my yoke upon you.."
that is
take my way upon you
my rules
my teachings
my way of running the race.
.may way of living life
upon you.
Take my yoke upon you
..learn from me..
Because I am gentle and humble in spirit

and you will find rest for your souls
for my yoke is easy.
That is
my yoke is kind or good
it is fitted just right for you
in other words
this is not the yoke of slavery and oppression.
And my burden is light.

Eugene Peterson
translated it this way
in The Message
Jesus says

Are you tired
worn out
Burned out on religion
come to me
Get away with me
and you will recover your life
I’ll show you how to take a real rest
walk with me and work with me./
..watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace

you feel that
learn the unforced rhythms of grace
that’s what
I was seeing in Fridays way of running the race
the unforced rhythms of grace

Jesus says
I wont lay anything or ill fitting on you
Keep company with me
and you will learn to live to live freely
(there you have the fourth of July part of the sermon
"you will learn to live freely)
(a deeper freedom)
and you will learn to live lightly.

what would it mean for you to live more freely and lightly?

..Again think of Friday and the race
Crusoe
Thinking he has won.
.but he is gasping at the end

..or Friday
who has enjoyed getting there

who s rules s do you follow
what would it mean for you to lighten up..
in your attitudes.
.your judgments.
your behavior...your heart..your soul..

what would it take
for you to change the drive and the pace of your life
what does it mean for the church
to loosen up and let go
and maybe let people in
all people
what would it mean mean for us
to be a church
where we move together
in the common yoke ..the communion yoke of Christ
in a faith
that gives people room to breath.
.to smile
because
this Jesus way truly
is gentle and kind
........
maybe this kind of spiritual living
Would look and feel .
.something
more like a dance..
Maybe that is the spiritual art that Jesus is trying to teach us
right here in this Park
maybe that’s the proof...the results .that he was talking about

* my source for the Robinson Crusoe story is Fellow Travelers by Terry Morehouse p, .79 Kirk House Publishers..he cites other sources going back to Stevie Ray

June 8 Dancing Shoes
On Tuesday morning I was driving into church for Vacation Bible school
and when I was still over block away.. Just coming past the Sawmill; I could see a couple of little kids getting dropped off.
The parent waited to make sure they got all the way into the building;
and I couldn’t tell who they were ..I was too far way ;
but it just made my day
because these two children literally danced ...
sort of bouncing and swinging their arms...maybe the were singing...
all the way from the car to the church building
and I thought wow
now that the way to come to church..did any of you want into like that this morning?
those kids were already getting into the swing of it all
the joy of it ...
Then I realized that we Methodists ..well we know how to be happy
but we just don’t have much a dancing tradition.Iin fact
Protestants in the united states ...
don’t really have any form of religious danceW we are short in the dancing departmentand that’s unusual
because most religions know how to dance...
They have some kind of dancing ;ceremonial dances..
Or ritual dances,

I know we have some liturgical dance
but we don’t’ get the whole congregation in on it..
...
BUT maybe that s what those two kids were feeling ..the need to dance and move a little..
And of course when Sunday school kids and vacation Bible school kids
are singing
they get to move a little
they get some actions and hand motions
with some of the songs..
But still
most of the time
worship for us
means sit down and don’t move too much..
Now when some f us were at the synagogue a few weeks ago
we got to see a lot more ceremonial movement
when they bring the torah scroll
that precious copy of the books of Moses...
A coupe of times during the service
the scroll get carried out into the congregation
down the aisle on one side of the synagogue
so people can step out and touch the scroll
or even kiss the scrolls as a sign of respect and thankfulness and blessing
And then later it gets carried down the other side
but once a year
there is even a bigger kind of dance with t he scroll
. When the yearly cycle of scripture reading is down.
.. There is a special service of dancing with the scrolls
of course it has a special Hebrew name
but I don’t know how to pronounce it
its is something like simot Torah
and its a day of rejoicing
they carry the torah scrolls 7 times around the sanctuary
And they sing and dance between every round .
You see the people are so glad
that they got to live through another year of having the scrolls read to them/
well in the Hasidic Jewish tradition
this dancing got to be very important..
And there is a tale
a story that goes back to the days of two famous rabbis who
lived in the 1700s ..in eastern Europe
in fac they lived about the same time as John Wesley did
the story was about the famous rabbi
the Baal shem tov
and rabbi Dov Baer
And the story also has a popular tradition
that even after the gates of paradise
were closed after Adam and Eve
you could still make mystical visits to paradise
and a common .theme in those stories of paradise
would be about the leaves from the garden of Eden
they had wonderful and blessed fragrance in those leaves

well here’s the story:
one year
when the people were celebrating with singing and dancing..
Everybody noticed

the Ba'al Shem Tov did not join in the dancing,
he stood off by himself.
He seemed to be strangely somber
on that joyful day.
Then
all of a sudden Rabbi Dov Baer’s shoe went flying off his foot
as he whirled in the dance,
and then
that same instant
the Ba'al Shem Tov smiled.
A little later the Hasidim saw the Ba'al Shem Tov pull a handful of leaves out of his pocket,
he crushed the leaves
and scattered their powder in the air,
it filled the room with a wonderful scent,
like that of Paradise.
Then
the Ba'al Shem Tov joined in the dancing

The Hasidim had never seen him so happy,
and they, too, felt possessed by a greater joy than ever before.
Afterward,
when they had all caught their breath,
from dancing so hard.
one of the Hasidim asked the Ba'al Shem Tov
what he had smiled about,
after having been so solemn.
He replied:
"While you were dancing,
I went into a trance, and my soul leaped from here
into the Garden of Eden.
I went there to bring back some leaves from the Garden,
so that I could scatter them among us,
making this the happiest Simhat Torah of all time.
I gathered fallen leaves with the greatest pleasure and put them in my pocket.
As I did,
I noticed that there were scattered fringes of prayer shawls
in the Garden,
as well as pieces of worn tefillin,
from the straps Jews wrap around their arm when they pray.
Not only that,
but I saw parts of shoes
heels and soles and shoelaces,

and sometimes even whole shoes.
And all of these objects were glowing
like so many sparks, even the shoes
— for as soon as they entered the Garden of Eden,
they began to glow.
Now this was very strange
that shoes would be glowing!
"Now I was not surprised to see the fringes and straps,
for they come from sacred objects,
of course these objects
used in prayer..would be special
but I wondered
what the shoes were doing there. Whats so holy about a shoe
"Just then
a shoe flew into the Garden of Eden,
and I recognized it at once
it belonged to Rabbi Dov Baer."
The Ba'al Shem Tov turned to face him.
"Dov,
I realized that your love of God was so great
that your shoe had flown all the way there.
That is when I understood why there were shoes in the Garden of Eden.
And that is why I smiled.
"I would have come back to join you at that very moment,
but just then I saw two angels in the Garden.
They had come to sweep and clean the Garden

and to gather those precious, glowing objects.
"I asked the angels what they were going to do with the shoes,
and one of them said: 'These shoes have flown here from the feet of Jews dancing with the Torah.
They are very precious to God,
and soon the angel Gabriel will make a crown out of them
for God to wear on His Throne of Glory.'"
The Ba'al Shem Tov stopped speaking,
and everyone who heard this story that day was filled with awe.
And Rabbi Dov Baer's shoe was never ever seen again,
for it had truly flown to the Garden of Eden.
Ok
it’s a strange little story... isnt it.,
,quant. and cute
but it has its truth

dancing shoes are a delight to God
they too become sacred objects..
Because they are expressions of love
So here’s what I hope;
that maybe your foot will feel a little rhythm
maybe a little bounce
a little toe tapping ..in church...and
the music
will find a way to become your way of celebrating Gods word
and aw ay of showing your love for God
As the music Points us to God
to faith
to hope and to love
as we praise God
as we make a joyful noise..
As we make music with the handbells..
and the vacation Bible school singers
and the Girls choir
and the hymns and the piano and the organ...
I do believe Something of the words and the rhythm
the singing and the leaping in our heart
really does find its way
to paradise
where it is gathered up
as a holy treasure of God..
As signs of love
amen

April 27 2008

April 27 Everyday to us is Easter
Ad lib intro......Did you get the feeling that Easter was just too early this year?
came up around too fast
did you feel like that?
well you're right
it was early ...there won’t be another Easter that early for 152 years
this early Easter ....was something very rare
but at least you can say.... that you were there in 2008
you did it
one of those "once in a life time" kind of Easters
I’m still thinking
it just came up too fast ..
But then
I noticed (as I said )
we get another chance at Easter on the orthodox church calendar .
..it's Easter today..
So I decided to do Easter all over gain..
And I tested this idea out on the Wed Bible study group and they seem to like it.
,,,Easter all over gain..
I know...
We don’t have the Easter crowd
and the extra chairs
and the sunrise service with youth and the Easter breakfast..
No we don’t have all the Easter flowers..
I tried to tell Lorraine Ehrich that I needed about 40 flowers for today
And of course
I didn’t give the choir time to get ready again
so we are not going have the hallelujah chorus at the end
.and d Angel rolled the stone away..
But we’ve got some special music..
And "no" I don’t Easter candy. for all of you
.I was too late to get the Easter candy on sale

But its still Easter.
We have the whole season of Easter
so its never one day on the calendar
Easter is who we are
Easter is the new life that we live in..
.as we sang "everyday to us is Easter and
And you do know
that the reason we have worship on Sunday
is because every Sunday is a little Easter
our whole life in Christ is pointed to the resurrection..
We are the Easter celebration
this is simply who we are

now with that
let me go back to one of the Easter gospel lessons
back in March
we looked at the lesson from Matthew
but John's Gospel can be used for Easter every year..
And what always get my attention in Johns Gospel
is the timing...
you’ve heard me say this before
but in John
when did the resurrection happen?

In John 20 it says
early on the first day of the week
while it was still dark..
May Magdalene came to the tomb
and saw that the stone had already been rolled away
That intrigues me..
that means
that Easter happened in the dark ,
resurrection happened
in the dark,,
by the time that Mary got there
the tomb was already opened..
Easter happened in the dark,
Now the orthodox church has this figured out
Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox and so on.

so they usually start the Easter service
just before midnight.
.they start in the dark
and its a kind of candle light service
as they spread the light of the Easter candle though the congregation there in the dark
It's a powerful
liturgical way of saying
." the light shines in the darkness
and the darkness does not overcome it"
But you hear that?

.they seem to know
that Easter starts in the dark
and it does
look at the days before Easter Sunday..
the darkness of the suffering for Jesus
the darkness of that night in the garden of Gethsemane
the darkness of Judas betraying him and Peter denying him
the darkness of the cross
and Good Friday
the darkness of our sins and the injustice of it all
the pain and the agony
MY God my God why hast thou forsaken me..

The darkness of the tomb and that long day of Saturday
the disciples are hiding in the in fear and confusion
Easter gets set up.. The stage get set in the dark,,
now this is not just the way the Bible story plays out
this is not just some interesting theology
this is the spiritual truth in our life..

This is the reality of faith
That’s how it is

you cant have resurrection without the cross
you cant have Easter without Good Friday
you cant have the life... without having the death
Jesus himself said it.. Again and again
to find your life you must loose

you see what’s going on ...don’t you ?
we are being invited to look into the dark
and see it in a different way
we look at the dark and we don’t see just the darkness
we can look at the darkness of world
the pain of this world
the suffering in the world and we can see it..in a different way
some people look at the war in Iraq and the thousands of people who have died
or they look at the fuel prices ..food prices,
and the economy and the mortgage crisis
or global warming
...and yes those are serious
and complicated ,,troubling things..
But some people just get sour and cynical..
.and they want to just drop out somehow..
they get down
. They don’t have the energy of hope
But if we believe that Easter happens
that resurrection happens
in the dark
or even
especially in the dark,,
then we cant afford to be cynical
and passively resigned..
We get to be Easter people
searching and looking for the hope .
.for the signs of resurrection
in the dark.
and maybe
you and I can also dare to look in our personal darkness
of our confusion and our brokenness
we can look at the darkness of our shadows and pain
and we can trust that we are not alone in the dark
God is already there rolling away stones in the dark
God is already there working for life even in the dark.
In your life
Do you believe this
that resurrection is happening in you ..
God is raising you from the deadness
maybe your emotional deadness/
God is in the moving business ..on the night shift..
in your heart..
Moving away the stones of sin and death
this is where faith meets you life..
can you hear that!
The darkness is not Godless
and the darkness
is not hopeless
because resurrection happens
when?
in the dark.
in Jesus Christ we are being that picture.
Easter is the picture ..it is the revelation of Gods ultimate power and truth
Let me add a little story from
Rachel Naomi Remen
she talks about this in her book called
Kitchen Table Wisdom
its about something in her home growing up
when she was just a very little girl
her parents liked to do jig saw puzzles
they had those great big thousand piece puzzles kept up on a table
but just to make it more of a challenge.
Rachel’s father would always hide the top of the puzzle box
so you couldn’t see th e picture ..
you didn’t get to see what you were making.
You couldn’t see the picture ahead of time
now this was an ongoing project
and the custom was
that if you came to visit at their house
you could go ahead and work on the puzzle ..
if you saw a piece that would fit you could just put in
so people would do that for few minutes
or sometimes Rachel mom or dad
would be there for hours..
working on the puzzle
......usually in a few weeks
with these hundreds and hundreds of pieces
it would all come into place..and they would see the finished puzzle
Rachel said that over the years her family did dozens of puzzles like that
and she got pretty good at it.
She really loved being the first one to guess what the picture was
when they got some sense of what the pattern was.
She could see what had been hiding there all along
but then she tells about the first puzzle that she could remember
They had just gotten the puzzle table
it was a birthday present to her mother from her father
she was about 3 or 4 years old
and she can remember how happy they were
when they set up the table
and dumped out the puzzle pieces on the table

back then for this first time as just a little girl
she didn’t understand what this was about
and they figured that she was too young to play this game
or whatever it was they were doing
so they didn’t explain it to her
but of course she wanted to know what this was
so one morning when she was alone in the living room she climbed up on a chair
and dug around in all the loose puzzle pieces and all these pieces spread out loose on the table
.of course these pieces are pretty small
; some of them had bright colors
and they looked like they might be birds or flowers
and they seemed to be the fun shapes..
But
some of them were dark and shadowy.
And The dark ones seemed kind of scary
shaped maybe like they were spiders or bugs,
ugly and strange.
She didn’t like dark things. So she took some of those dark scary puzzle pieces and hid them underneath one of the sofa cushions.
For several weeks, whenever I was alone in the living room,
she would get up on the chair,
take a few more of those dark pieces,
and she would stash them in that hiding place
down in the couch
Well of course it was taking the adults forever to finish that puzzle
something was just wrong
and people got frustrated when they tried to work on the puzzle

,the mother finally counted the pieces
and she realized
that more than a hundred pieces were missing!
By this time
Rachel had been seen hanging around the table now and then
so the mother said to her
Rachel have you seen any of the pieces
do you know anything about this

so Rachel took her over the couch
over to where where all the missing pieces were hiding
The mother got the missing pieces and in just a little while
she got the whole puzzle put together
Rachel remembered watching her do this.
And she could see the picture coming to life
As she watched it come together
little Rachael back them
didn’t even know that it would be a picture
so she was surprised
to see this the beautiful picture of a deserted beach
with just a start.. of the sunrise
the sun was coming up to start this new day.
that was the picture
but Rachel had taken out the dark pieces..
And the picture could not happen
without those dark pieces
the sunlight
the sunrise
the beauty
the wholeness
could not be seen with out those dark pieces
.
There is a lesson in there
maybe it is the gospel story
th Easter story..


Maybe it tells me something about living in faith..

There are e pieces that we don’t like in this puzzle of life
we don’t understand them
probably don’t want them..
..but pieces like that...are in every persons puzzle

And when they are just a single piece ..its true
they can be senseless and frightening and ugly..
And that’s a fact.
But can we leave them out
can you leave out pieces of your life.
Can you leave out
and hide or deny the pieces
that t you don’t want..
Well we do that in some ways
we take out those pieces
and stash them deep in some hiding place in our hearts..
But that doesn’t really work...
The puzzle work of life .gets stuck..
eventually we have to go and find them
and dig them out
Because we cant live with those holes in the puzzle
those blanks... in our life ..
to get the picture We have to eventually claim all the pieces.
The failures
the losses
the choices we made
the mysteries
and the bad ..along with the good
every life has those pieces that we think... cant fit
When you look at the story of the cross
and the Easter Sunday
I'm sure those dark pieces
standing alone ...
By themselves..
have nothing much to offer..
But like Mary on that Easter morning
we can go ahead and go to the tomb in the dark

not knowing at all what could be there..
Probably expecting only to grieve..and
then to find
that God has already been there..and rolled away the stone
something indeed had happened
and more of it..will come to light
like Rachel and her puzzle
we can....see that t life is not just one piece at a time.
.and life is more than the piece of the puzzle
that you might be holding right now in you life.
Trust that there is a promise of light
a son rise
the rising of God’s son
it’s a bigger picture of life
its like getting to see the picture of the puzzle
on the box
"While it was still dark
Mary went to the tomb..and saw the stone had already been rolled away"
Christ is risen
Christ is risen indeed







.

Caring for Creation

Faithfully caring for Creation April 20th 2008 PUMC R Swenson

I thought about some ways to talk about this Celebration of God’s creation
Of course it is designed to stand along side of earth day
which ,,by the way..
is now printed on my little church calendar from Cokesbury
I hope you know.... all across the church

Catholics.... Protestants
right and left ,,conservative and liberal.
evangelicals or.. mainline
the church might actually agree on this issue !

we just might try to be eco friendly
Caring for creation is getting talked about

as a basic and essential part of Christian living and discipelship.

Its not just a little special interest for some people on the fringe
its really a core concern
... centered around the belief
that God is the creator
that somehow
this life..
whether intelligent design
or creationism..or evolution
.the methodoolgy ....is not even the point
because ..in faith...
this creation... is a gift from God

and it needs to be treated that way

as human beings we have a special responsibility for taking care of creation.

That is what the Genesis story is really saying


Christianity also teaches us that all of creation

is included in Gods healing and saving work in Jesus Christ
Paul in (2 Corinth) says
God was reconciling the world
restoring the world back to God..

God so loved the world..... ,,not just people on the world

so as ....the church
we’re trying to pay attention to how we live on the planet
and with each other


..well anyway

I thought about going on with all kind s of theological support
and Bible verses
and their really is quite abit of Biblical material for us..

But I also choose the lesson from Matthew

because so much of the injustice in world
and the waste and the environmental abuse
happens

because we are over consuming and we aren’t sharing things very well.

we are all wrapped up with our worries
and our comforts..and insecurities
about getting enough

“What shall we eat... what.. shall we wear...and so on..”

.instead of keeping our eye on God..

anxiousness \and greed
..Lack of faith feeds the environmental problems....

Worry and insecurity
feed the ecological problems.

and those are spiritual problems

Worry and insecurity

are ,not just political or social problems ..
but spiritual issues.

And as the church..
we need to say that.

faithful living
involves a more trusting and simple and balanced kind of living....

It means that we live prayerfully and gracefully on Gods earth

That’s the theology behind it.

then too
for this morning

I thought about some of the practical things that we can do


and that could be the whole sermon ....

.there are policies and practices for us to implement

again
we need to pay attention to the problems in the world

when the word is sick... the people get sick...

doesn’t that mean that we need to learn about alternative energy..

And the carbon footprint ?

and trying to be more socially and politically educated about global conditions...


Do you know about the connections between rainforest and agriculture and global markets

and pollution..

Do you know
about the deforestation and the hunger riots in Haiti


Can you make some sacrificial consumer..choices in your life..

.because for you
its an act of faithfulness


I know that many of us are trying to be more green

in our lifestyles and in our shopping...

most of us..
I think try to reduce and reuse and recycle

and I admit that I don’t do enough

Personally..this is something that I want to do more of...

.and by the way

one of the things that we haven’t gotten done here at Park church

we’re trying to use less paper.. But
we still need to get our paper recycled

.. We got the cans and bottles covered and so on.

.but we need somebody to collect the paper.. And recycle it.

Personally
I would invite you to pick one thing you can do,,,
This week even

think of one thing
you could do that would be better for the environment
and know that you are doing it as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Now
I want to tell you a story that about caring for the gifts of creation
with deeper spiritual respect.


once upon a time
long ago when the earth was still very young
there lived a women who decided to live near the water

there was also village nearby

and the people lived by planting their fields and setting out their fishing nets..

Now the woman had been born in that village

but as the years went on
she moved farther and farther a ways form the village

you see
while she was growing up

and the other children were learning their skills and trades form the teacher s and the elders

she discovered that she had a very special gift..

Instead of putting out nets to catch the fish as they went up stream

she would spend long hours looking into the water
until she could see the fish

then,,exactly at the right moment
.the fish that was going to be caught

.would come right up into her waiting hands.

She would catch the fish with her bare hands

and strangely enough.
.whatever she caught
was Always enough to feed her and her family with even a little bit left over
for someone who might be visiting.

All the villagers
soon heard about this
she tried to explain her new way of catching fish

she told her friends
then she told the elders f the tribe..

but they just laughed and made fun of her.
After all.they had been putting out the nets the same way for years and they had always gotten plenty of fish.

In fact they caught so many fish that they had enough fish to toss the leftovers to the dogs
and they could use the fish as fertilizer in the gardens and the fields
well sometimes thy just didn’t need it all. The fish would always be there!

Besides
this new way
was stupid and time consuming

what good could there be

from something that took more time
..waiting
and wasting endless hours ............
watching the water ?

so they decided that the young woman didn’t have any special gift

she was just lazy
or slow witted..or strange

And the people just mocked her
more and more
so ,,
sadly
she moved farther and farther away from the village

and she spent more and more time..watching the water.

Then one day

after thinking about this for quite awhile

she decided to break with her tradition
she would even move down stream
and go to another village
maybe these other people would understand
and they would take her in.
And so she moved on.
Settled into the next village
worked in the fields
taught the children
lived like everyone else

but always she would go back to the edge of the water
dangling her feet in the water
watching the water

sometimes she would be there very early when the sun was barely up..
sometimes she would come out and watch the mist and the fog over the water
before the sunlight melted it away


sometimes
she would just go out and watch how the wind

would make its ripples and waves,,,


or sometimes at night

she would come and see how the stars reflected on a clam night on the water
sometimes it was so dark
with no moon at all..
no stars
but she could hear and smell the water in the darkness.

Through all of this
she knew the water
almost everything about it.
.and when the fish came rushing up stream

or when they came just to swirl around in the sunlight or the shade

they would look at the women there along the shore


and sometimes they would jump out of the water and into the air.
And the women knew exactly which ones she was supposed to catch
..and which ones belonged to another village and which ones needed to be safe so they could spawn and keep the species strong
And whenever her village set out the nets,,

she cringed inside...
such unnecessary..

indiscriminate death.
Finally she had to speak out.
She told them about this other way to fish..
.standing still..watching..

Taking only what you need,
,carefully thoughtfully.


But again...
just as they did back home in her other village..they just laughed,

they told her to leave them alone..


And so she did.

.and she went like that from village to village

always the same old story

finally she came back to the village of her childhood,

she had changed..and so had they

They didn’t remember her days when she was a young woman with them

but there was another change in the people as well.

They were tired
and slow moving..
They were hungry and there was no laughter.
Strangers were not welcome anymore because
They were just another mouth to feed
and their was barely enough food to go around.
She went back down the path to the old house down by the water. Where she used to live
No one had been there.. All those years..

But she could still here the water calling to her..
.. and so
obedient to the call
she went down to the water
and looked deep into the water,,
for a long time a very long time.

But she now she could se that the water had also changed..

It was murky ,slow, stale and lifeless.
She felt this ache in her heart,she had lost her gift..of water watching...
and she could not see though the water.
Worse than that,,, she had also lost the fish

their were no fish in the water.

And she began to weep
well now

she understood why her village was lifeless

and she knew that this was going to be the fate of all the villages that she had visited, o


now she was weeping for her people

who had lost so much because of their carelessness
..and their ignorance.

Even she, herself

had not seen how important her own gift had been,

and how she had to insist on teaching this wisdom to others.

Now she needed to learn to feel as much tenderness and appreciation

for the people
as she had felt for the fish and the water
and the gift for catching them.

And so she cried,,

for the villagers as well as all that happened,

and as she bent over and cried,,
she could not stop her tears,
they fell into the water at there feet
and then something so mysterious happened,
as the tears entered the water

they darted away

flashing for a moment before swimming away as fish.
The tears streamed from her eyes
dripping into the water.. Turning into fish
and the fish multiplied.

Until the villagers,,, hungry and desperate
saw the gleaming of the fish
leaping once again in the water.

But this time they remembered the strange words of that young woman
who lived in the village long ago

so They watched the fish and went to the water
with patience and gracefulness and newness
they sat still with waiting hands and the fish came to their hands now
just as they had come long ago
to the hands of that waiting young woman,
They say that this woman is still there.
By the edge of the water..
Alone and weeping still keeping her people alive..
Learning the truth of her gifts.
And so it is said. In the old sayings
The old wisdom..
What you catch and take for your own..
Can be returned by compassion alone.

So it is today that we sit..at the edge of the water..
With the res to the village.
Watching.. And leaning to se and to be in true compassion and wisdom.. not to abuse or to hoard or to waste..
So My friends remember the woman who caught fish with her hands..
As you think about the story of the woman whose compassionate tears
continue to give life

its not that far fetched of a story....it’s a sacrificial picture
isn’t it.?.. based on love..

Don’t we also talk about being saved...... and fed
by the sacrifice of Jesus ..
the suffering servant
..his sacrifice is the bread of life..
(A Fish was also the ancient symbol for Jesus and the church ...)..

don’t we talk about a compassionate savior
who gives his life for us
and
that his sacrificial love is still

giving life to this wounded world.....

not just for the people but for the world
..
Life depends on compassion

For God so loved the world
Perhaps we need to love it as well
that the gift we have been give..and it must be taught


Adapted From Keepers of the Story by McKenna and Conan p. 103 Orbis Books 1997