Thursday, June 28, 2012


 So this was the sermon I wrote to preach last Sunday. I preached some version that was close to this





I just love Mark. I actually knew that I could pull off a last minute sermon knowing that we are in a Mark year in the lectionary. Mark gets right to it. There is no fluff. Mark put Jesus and his disciples right at the center of the story.  The other thing that I love about Mark is that he is tough on the disciples. They just don’t get it, they don’t get Jesus. A mentor, of mine often said that the disciples in Mark should be name the DUH-ciples.  This  story is one of those quintessential moments when the disciples don’t get it. Now I am not a Bible literalist, the stories are just to vast and varied for me personally to take them all literally. So when I look at this passage I am not sure that Mark is necessarily talking about a physical storm. If fact for me in this particular story he can’t be. He can’t be talking about an actual thunder storm because in verse 40 “Jesus reprimands his disciples: ‘Why are you such cowards?’ Don’t you have any faith at all?”  Faith wouldn’t play a role in this story if it were an actual thunderstorm. Remember a number of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen. They had been out to sea, they had survived storms. They are not likely to go running to Jesus for some type of reassurance. For them this was a typical day on the job. They knew you either lived through a storm or you didn’t.  How many of you have ever seen the show Deadliest Catch? In case you haven’t the show follows several fishing boats as they Fish for Alaskan Crab. If you have ever wondered why Crab is so expensive watch this show and you will figure out why.  Anyway, they see storm after storm and they never seek out the captain. The disciples are not going to Jesus because they are afraid of a lot of wind and some pretty bad rain. No the Disciples are going to Jesus because they are afraid that in this is an actual storm or just a “storm of their life” they are afraid they are going to lose Jesus.

How many of us have been there? In the storm. We are in freak out mode. Everything is falling apart.  The alarm doesn’t go off in the morning, you rush to get ready      there is no coffee,    you drive to work there is an accident,    that presentation that was due on Friday it’s now due this Wed., a phone call comes   your kid is on a field trip with summer camp she/he fell and broke their arm, you get home to hear a phone call- aunt Sally died.  It’s one of those times when you say huh things can’t get any worse, but you don’t say it out loud because you certainly don’t want the universe to think you are challenging it. Or maybe that storm is some something different, maybe it is your best friend moving away, or you’re going through a tough time in your marriage, or you are at the point of a divorce , or have a serious diagnoses or love one with a serious diagnoses, or maybe it is grief. Or some combination of the above or nothing from my list, but you’ve had a storm. We do. We have them.  We are the disciples. 

So I think what we often hear, what we want to hear in this story is just go to Jesus. Just take your problems to Jesus and Jesus will fix them. He quieted the storm for the disciples he will quiet our storms too. Well, if you thought that was where I was going so you figured you could tune me out for the next 15 minutes or so you were wrong.  You need to tune back in, sorry. What I focused on when I read this scripture, what called to me the loudest was that reprimand or in other translations Jesus rebuke of the disciples, “Don’t you have any faith at all?” He isn’t please with them. He doesn’t pat them on the head and say wow you have figured it out. Give me your problems and I fix them. He gives them the fix but, He is frustrated, and annoyed.
I read this story and I was so drawn to it because I feel like our Domination,  is in this storm and we are like the disciples,   we are looking for a quick fix. Now I know Pastor Dee was at General Conference, and Pastor Alan is very tuned in to what happens at the General Church level, and you have members of this congregation who are very active at the general church and annual conference level. So, I am sorry if some this information is information that you know. However, I went to General Conference, GC 2012 as it has became affectionately known as.  I attended as part of a coalition working on social justice issues. So I had months of preparation going into GC2012 and I knew a storm was brewing. There were a lot of storms brewing but the big storm was how do we restructure the United Methodist Church to make it viable again. I  am sure you might have heard this before but Methodism along with other Mainline denominations are dying. We are losing membership is droves.  So for about  a year prior to GC2012 a group of church leaders both laity and clergy got together to figure out how to fix the church or in their words make it more viable. The report on how they thought we should do this came out about  2 months in advance of GC2012. I read it and I just knew a fire storm would brew and it did. Basically the idea was to cut the general board and agencies( which in the simplest terms is to carry out the missional work across the connection. They include COSROW, GCORR, UMNEWS, UMCOR etc) many of the things that define us as Methodists. They want to combine many of those agencies into one small consolidated group. When that didn’t work they sought to combine in particular COSROW and GCORR in to one small group. Basically  ending the groups that carries out social justice and ensures equality for a number of marginalized groups.  Now  my thoughts on the reasoning behind  this is a sermon all unto itself.  The heart  of the matter is  how it this scripture applies is; This small  group like the disciples,  Wanted a simple answer. 

What this small group did not seem to have was a whole lot of faith. You see in order to try to get the church to accept this plan they showed this sad presentation. The presentation had all kinds of depressing numbers in it. Membership decline, the lack of young clergy, there was even a segment where we watched as a woman locked the doors to her church for the very last time as the church closed. They used all sorts of wind and rain to make us want to run for a simple solution.

There were many of us who watched the video and who heard the plan who were scared. Not sacred about what they had told , and showed us. We were scared of how they were going to fix it. You see in this scripture Jesus is telling the Disciples that fear cannot rule their actions. Not even fear of death. What must rule their lives is Faith. They must hang onto faith even in the face of death. They must understand that in Faith there is even something bigger than his physical presence.
Jesus wants his disciples to get that   what is most important is their faith, their relationship with God. What is not important is the boat, or the presentation that is now due 3 days earlier, or the diagnoses that seems unbearable, and sure as heck not what our membership numbers look like. What Jesus wants them and us, to understand is our faith.  Jesus wants us to get is that in their own faith there is “possibility” and “power”. They had the “power” to quiet the storm.

Now that is scary to think about.  We, in our faith have “possibility” and “power”.  I cannot tell you the number of times that I just wanted to throw my problems at the feet of someone else or even lay them down for God to pick up  and be returned with a step by step list of how to make it right. What Jesus is asking of us is to stop acting out of fear and start stepping  boldly with faith. The plans that were put forth at GC2012 were to save what we have now. Basically to save what isn’t working.  In the storms of the Church and in our lives we want the comfortable.  Ever hear the saying that the Church’s job is “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Well if ever there is a time where that is true-- it is right now. Accept that the problem is- that we are the comfortable. We are comfortable in what we have or actually in more cases than not what we had and we want to go back to it.

We have lost sight of Jesus. We have lost sight of Jesus bold acts to stand up to the Pharisees and point out their hypocrisy, we have lost sight of Jesus sitting with prostitutes and tax collectors, we have lost sight of the healing on the Sabbath because it is the right thing to do instead of doing the right thing in the eyes of the outside world.

Jesus isn’t present for his disciples and for us simply to fix the problem. Nor can we quell our storms on our own. We need Jesus we need Jesus and his example to get us through our storms. In James we hear faith without works is dead.  Faith in Jesus cannot act on its own to heal our wounds. A faith lived out in Jesus’ example where we are living into the possibility, and being creative and innovative of the solution is when we start creating the realm of God on Earth.

Can we be a community that lives and acts on faith? Who do we want to be those who talked about the power of faith or do we want to be the ones who have experienced the power of faith and have helped others to experience it as well.

The end of the story there is  Hope they click  they see what Jesus can do.  Do they fully understand what Jesus can do. I think they start to understand that with Jesus in their life anything is possible. Not just by him but with him, and alongside of him And that is good news

Friday, June 8, 2012

Friday Five

When  I had my old blog I used to do this all the time. There is a great group of women who are clergy, church professionals, discerning a call, or just actively involved in church who share their blogs on this site. Every week hey do these so I thought I would too!!

Happy Friday, Gals and Pals...
Our FF today is in honor of spontaneous thinking!
So...
1.  What religion/faith besides yours captures your curiosity and why?  Judaism because I always have such great religious/ faith discussions with my Jewish friends.

2.  What is the first or most memorable pop song you ever learned as a kid?  Hard to pick just one! I would have to say "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder

3.  If God were a color.....(finish this sentence creatively) it would be funky

4.  If you were going to make a sandwich right now for lunch, and you magically had all the items you need for it, what would that sandwich be?  BLT on homemade dark honeywheat toast and Oscar's apple wood smoked bacon

5.  How are you doing?  Really, how are you? A full bundle of emotions: happy, sad, anxious but mostly happy

Bonus:  What are you enjoying/loving right now? Having the most amazing, supportive, caring friends!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Resurection

Yes, I know it is not Easter. It is not even Eastertide.  In fact we are in Ordinary Time. However, I am in a resurrection spirit.  Religiously and Politically  I feel as though our country is in some deep need of resurrection.

It is one week post Upper New Annual Conference. An annual conference that looked far to much like General Conference just with less fighting and politicking. The only reason there was less fighting and politicking was due to the fact that it was shorter and we handled no petitions or resolutions. Yes you read that correctly in a day and a half of work ( yes we were there three but it was really a day and a half of holy conferencing) we passed a budget which did bring on  some spirited debate and we took one vote for the endorsement of an Episcopal candidate in which we endorsed no one. The highlight being we did play a lightening round of the Episcopal candidate dating game. We asked each candidate three questions:  "Which biblical figure other than Jesus  do you closely identify with"  " What are your experiences with diversity" "What experience do you have that would make you a good Episcopal leader?" It really sounded like the dating game trust me. However, no tough discussions were had and no work was done. Yes, we are in need of a resurrection. 

Our political climate is scary.  Large amounts of money is being spent by a small amount of people. Money wins elections. We are using misinformation and half-truths to hurt one another. Women are being pushed further into the margins. Even women on the conservative side are beginning  to chip away at their own rights. It seems to me that they are in an abusive relationship and they are beginning to believe the abuse is  a sign of love. The LGBTQ is consistently being discriminated against and victims of deep prejudice and being denied their rights. Immigrants are being demonized., minorities are being imprisoned and put to death. Yes we are in need of resurrection.

The church and government. Yes, I know in this country we like to keep them separate ( although that is more about having no state sanctioned religion than not having religion influence politics) . However, the are both in a rough state. We need to be more compassionate. We need to listen to one another. Instead of tearing one another down, instead of trying to keep things as they are, we need to raise each other up and look for ways to grow.

We are in need of resurrection.