Ordinary Time Winter 2007

January 21^st

Title: The skin of living thoughts

Worship Leader: Charlie

Song leader: Ernie

Speaker: Linda

Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21

Nehemiah 8:1 all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. 8:2 Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. 8:3 He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law….8:5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 8:6 Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. …8:8 So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 8:9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. 8:10 Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Psalm 19

The heavens are telling the glory of God;

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech,

and night to night declares knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

yet their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,

and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them;

and nothing is hid from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;

the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;

the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;

the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever;

the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward.

But who can detect their errors?

Clear me from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from the insolent;

do not let them have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, CEV

The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. Some of us are Jews, and others are Gentiles. Some of us are slaves, and others are free. But God’s Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ. Now we each drink from that same Spirit.

Our bodies don’t have just one part. They have many parts. Suppose a foot says, “I’m not a hand, and so I’m not part of the body.” Wouldn’t the foot still belong to the body? Or suppose an ear says, “I’m not an eye, and so I’m not a part of the body.” Wouldn’t the ear still belong to the body? If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn’t hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn’t smell a thing. But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best.

A body isn’t really a body, unless there is more than one part. It takes many parts to make a single body. That’s why the eyes cannot say they don’t need the hands. That’s also why the head cannot say it doesn’t need the feet. In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest. We take special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, but we don’t have to be modest about other parts.

God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy.

Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body. First, God chose some people to be apostles and prophets and teachers for the church. But he also chose some to work miracles or heal the sick or help others or be leaders or speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone is an apostle. Not everyone is a prophet. Not everyone is a teacher. Not everyone can work miracles. Not everyone can heal the sick. Not everyone can speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone can tell what these languages mean. I want you to desire the best gifts.

Luke 4:14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 4:15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 4:16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 4:20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 4:21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Contemporary quote: A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Preliminary thoughts on the lections:

Psalm 19:12—a bit on projection

1 Cor 12: 31—the “best gift” is the one you carry if Paul’s serious about the “least honored/most honored but all essential to the body stuff” earlier! And all of the gifts find fulfillment in the next step, the “more excellent way” of love, the whole next chapter.

Introduction:

Several weeks ago, during sharing time,

Craig Oesch shared about his brother Mike’s sudden illness

which turned out to be a serious case of appendicitis.

Mike was hospitalized,

the appendix was removed and the infection treated;

he was at the MCC relief sale meeting at our church yesterday

and looked very good—thinner, but healthy, thanks be to God.

He’s doing a whole lot better without his appendix than he did with it…..

So when the 1 Corinthians text showed up in our lections this week I had to think long and hard. Paul tells us that every single part of the body is necessary, vital to the body as a whole. The Contemporary English Version of this passage is in your bulletin: “God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable….Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body.”

But isn’t he just plain wrong? What about an appendix?

Or what about that extra kidney we each have?

Gary’s dad donated his extra kidney to his brother and now, over 80, is still doing just fine without it.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it….

who’s the appendix in the Body of Christ??

Or the redundant kidney?

I bet it would be easy to think of some of the

loud, unpleasantly strident voices

in the religious conversations in America right now

as obviously redundant…superfluous….

the body would be better off if they were—well,

surgically removed, wouldn’t it???

Peacefully, nonviolently, metaphorically,

of course….

Or, maybe we could push this out further….

What denomination in the family of churches might be an appendix?

(Couldn’t be Mennonites, certainly!

God loves us!

God needs us!)

But this is kinda fun to think about….push it out further still….

There are other relatively unimportant body parts, too….

like the new Montana senator, Jon Tester,

who is missing several fingers.

Does he really struggle all that hard to get along without them?

He is even able to play a trumpet without them!

Or let’s push it out further yet…

what about the nearly 46 thousand military person—

approximately the combined population of Nampa and Caldwell—

who have been “seriously injured” in Afghanistan and Iraq,

many of whom are coming home having lost body parts?

This is suddenly starting to not be as much fun to contemplate....

State of the Congregation address:

So let’s switch gears and think closer to home,

let’s think about the Body of Christ right here

in Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship.

Worship Committee asked me to do a State-of-the-Congregation sermon but this was one of those sermons that didn’t turn out quite like I expected…

There were loud and strident voices—body parts?

that kept insisting on being heard…

In my own head, that is, not from the congregation.

Facing life head on:

First of all, we are a congregation of brave and courageous people.

When I think about the issues

that some of you are facing in your private lives,

in your extended families,

in your work situations,

I am in awe of the kind of maturity and grace that I see you operating with.

It doesn’t mean that you are just sailing along in spite of it all,

unruffled, unfazed, unaffected…

No.

Some of you have really suffered this year.

In fact, I would suspect that in each of our lives there have been difficult things.

Life is difficult, as Scott Peck says.

Growing up is difficult—

every age has its significant challenges.

It’s not easy learning to walk….Or talk….Or navigate Junior High….

But healthy spiritual growing up demands

the willingness to keep trying,

to face even the most painful stuff head on

with open heartedness,

with generosity and humility of spirit,

with genuine desire for truth, for justice,

for integrity.

These are the qualities that are shaped by our sacred writings,

the qualities that we understand that the Bible stresses

as really important…

As your pastor, I watch for these things

because they are tremendous indicators of health and growth,

spiritually as well as emotionally and socially.

And it looks to me that as a body, as a congregation,

we are growing

in these very important ways.

Bernice Johnson Reagon, recently retired founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, an a cappella all female African-American music group, says, "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." --

Coming out of congregational depression:

A year to a year and a half ago, I was far more concerned about the health of this congregation.

It seemed to me that we were feeling

a pervasive discouragement,

even depression,

a sense of feeling isolated and unheard

in the wider communities in which we live.

We weren’t quite paralyzed,

but I think our energy and hope were running on the thin side.

There are lots of potential reasons that we may have felt subdued, overwhelmed, discouraged….the war, the environment, the way the language of religion has been co-opted by fundamentalisms around the world.

Temptation to blame and criticize:

Often, when people are depressed and discouraged,

the human knee-jerk response

is to find someone else to blame, to criticize.

This is not always a bad move—

especially in situations where there has been abuse

or serious injustice.

Sometimes, it is a huge step into growth and healing

for people who have been traumatized, victimized

to finally be able to put the blame where it belongs,

to say bluntly,

“This wasn’t my fault!

This was wrong,

This was damaging.”

But for most of us

most of the time,

our criticism or blame of others is a handy little mechanism

which prevents us from needing to make

needed changes…

it disempowers us.

(My spell checker didn’t recognize that as a word;

it suggested that what I really meant to say was it “disembowels” us.

Maybe that too!)

Carl Jung put it succinctly: Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Wow. What a statement.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

I think that a year and a half ago there was some of this in our congregation.

We were tired;

sometimes over-extended,

and sometimes irritated that things weren’t getting done,

that no one signed up to do this or that…

It wasn’t a huge thing, but I noticed it as a slight shift from the consistent graciousness that has been such a part of this congregation’s culture.

So even though I don’t see this as a current problem,

because it can become damaging to the life of the whole body,

let’s look at this potential weak spot a little more closely.

Our weaknesses can become the resource for growth:

The psalm for today has an interesting line in it (it’s in your bulletin, the first regular font up from the bottom):

But who can detect their errors?

Clear me from hidden faults.

It seems to me that

what most irritates us

can be a marvelous tool

for detecting our own errors, our own hidden faults….

pointing out the very direction we need to move in

to grow, to heal, to live more fully.

So I’ll turn this dynamic on myself:

almost nothing annoys me so much as intolerance….

Oh, no!

The unhappy, ugly truth about Linda!

I’m intolerant of

other intolerant people!

Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount jump out to remind me

“Don’t judge, so that you may not be judged”…

for the standard of measurement I use on others

is the same one will be used on me.

And then, as Jesus was a creative and powerful speaker,

he goes on to say wryly

that the itty bitty speck of sawdust

that so disturbs me in my neighbor’s eye

is absolutely paltry

compared to the whole log sticking out of my own!….

(Matthew 7:1,2)

So my annoyance, my weakness

is a nudge towards exposing my own error,

my own hidden faults

and if I want to grow, this log is pointing out my direction.…

Did you notice how this ties into the Corinthian passage?

Here is another twist on how our “weaker members”,

the weak spots

in us, among us

can become gifts that strengthen us, heal us, help us grow up…

our “weakest parts”—even our faults, our criticisms!

can become valuable gifts

both to us as individuals,

and as a congregational body.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2^nd Cor 12

that even in our weakness, God’s grace is sufficient for us;

and more than that,

“God’s power is made perfect in weakness.”

This kind of awareness is a challenge because it demands change, painful change….

but as we heard from Bernice Johnson Reagon,

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."

Who we know ourselves to be:

And I think that this has happened here at Hyde Park Menno during this past year….we have grown in who we know ourselves to be.

What has helped us move beyond discouragement, fatigue, criticism?

After all, those big issues I mentioned are still,

well,

big issues…

But somewhere along the way, we put a brake on it…

got some rest,

gave ourselves and others some grace.

And instead of wishing

that someone else would do this or that,

we began to notice what we could do.

Think of some of the highlights just recently, in this past Advent and Christmas season where people took marvelous steps of initiative

for the gift and blessing of us all:

think of the gifts of music that Lauresta asked our children to share with us Sunday after Sunday.

Think of the little gift bags we made for the kids in the foundation run by our sister church in Colombia;

Mary Nelle and Mary had a vision and ran with it,

and their enthusiasm brought the rest of us along….

Think of the special music that Annette organized,

surround sound in this space that lifted our worship

to a lovely high place…

Think of the Christmas pageant,

again, where Kathy and Joyce had a vision

and made it a reality with the support of many others….

I could go on and on here with example after example of where I see renewed energy and effort…

and not just in the worship life of the congregation

but in our engagement in the community around us,

in the world.

Sure, the problems and issues we grapple with are huge.

But as a body, we are demonstrating

the willingness to keep trying,

to face even the most painful stuff head on

with loving open heartedness,

with generosity and humility of spirit,

with genuine desire for truth, for justice,

for integrity.

That is such a sign of growth, of health, of hope…

of having been profoundly shaped by scripture in life-giving ways.

Conclusion:

Let’s go back to the people, the institutions

that we are tempted to want to reduce in our minds

to unnecessary body parts—

that we are tempted to regard dismissively, contemptuously,

as an appendix, a spare kidney, or worse.

Think honestly about those people whom we see as unimportant

or even as a potential source of infection,

that we in our secret hearts would like see eliminated,

be surgically removed….

this is exactly where we need to look for enemies,

those for whom Jesus specifically asks us to pray,

and even harder,

specifically asks us to love.

I think it is clear that Jesus, along with Paul, would say that there

are no superfluous body parts, no appendix, no extra kidney…

Seems like the best way to summarize all this

on both the individual level as well as the meta-level

is to remember what Jesus lists as the most important thing,

the peg upon which all the Law and all the prophets hang….

First, Love God;

Then, Love yourself—even your weak spots!

And, finally, love your neighbors—and enemies—as yourself.

As we face the challenges of the future,

we can’t go wrong with this,

individually,

or as a congregation.