Chronicles of Rev Steve

Sacred Spaces in Life, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO, 2/19/2012 by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-02-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

Sacred Spaces in Life
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/19/2012
Based on 2 Kings 2:1-12 & Mark 9:2-9

Fourteen years ago this coming May, I took a five week holiday driving from Seattle to Dallas, Texas to visit my first grandchild. Since I was in my car, I had decided to spend a week or so visiting my family in Kansas, then spent a week with my daughter, son-in-law and new grandson, then finish up my travels by stopping off at a few tourist sites that I had not yet been to that are located in the Southwest, specifically the Grand Canyon.
For more than forty years I had seen pictures of this great slice in the earth’s crust, watched documentaries on how water has carved through the dirt and rock, I even had read stories about a little donkey that lived in this wilderness. It was time to go see it. When I arrived there at the first stop in the area of the major observation point, none of this had prepared me for what I was about to experience.
When I had walked a short distance along the path to the edge of the canyon, I was by myself, not another person around. In the silence of the early morning, with the wind gently blowing up out of the canyon, gazing out toward the great expanse of the North, I was overcome with an indescribable feeling which the only word of “Awe” can come close to expressing that experience. The color, the magnitude, the immensity of this geological wonder was in those very first moments, truly a “Sacred Space” in my life. I was breathless, drawn to tears, almost speechless, I hear myself quietly repeating, “My God, how great thou art”, over and over, almost in a mantra. It was the only response that I could give in those first few minutes.
Then, the silence was broken when a bus filled with Japanese tourists stopped, unloaded with what seemed to be an endless line of noisy camera snapping, which felt to me like an act of irreverence. Why weren’t these folks stopping to take in this awe inspiring piece of work that God had created? Why were their lips not silenced by the color, the rock formations, and the sheer size of the canyon? After the crowd had left, again I was standing all alone, still looking at this natural wonder, but I was no longer in the same space that I experienced upon my arrival.
This morning’s lectionary texts speak to this experience that I just shared with you when I first saw the Grand Canyon. We don’t know what John and James were thinking nor is there any record of what they had to say about their experience, all we have is Peter’s response. “It is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Said another way, “Hey Dude, let’s build something really cool, so everyone who comes after us, can know that this is a very special place!” Peter was so moved by what was happening, that he wanted to do something that he thought would ensure an ongoing experience, not just for him but for everyone “forever after!”
Peter knew that he had just experienced a sacred moment. This story and the experience that I had through those very first minutes of viewing the Grand Canyon, started me thinking about “sacred spaces in life”. How do we live with those sacred spaces that occur in our lives? Do we want to be like Peter and try to hang on to those moments, or do we react like the noisy tourist, just stumbling along, not really experiencing the “moment” because we don’t take the time to be still and recognize those spaces?
There are several things going on in this story. One of those comes with what is happening with Jesus. Here we have Jesus, taking a very select group up the mountain. While up on the mountain top, Jesus not only is having this encounter with Moses and Elijah, but he is described as physically changing in his appearance. This is reminiscent of the change that Moses had had when he has spent time up on Mount Sinai in conversation with God and receiving the Ten Commandments.
I believe one of the realities that come in our encountering God or a representative of God, is that there are changes that occur, sometimes physically, other times emotionally. When we have experienced something that to us is so personal, so sacred, our lives are forever changed. In this past Tuesday evening’s Bible study, I shared what I believe to be the most powerful “sacred moment in my life.” In 1988, I had attended convocation on the East Coast that focused on ministering to people living with AIDS. It had been a very powerful four days, where I not only was learning about the disease and how as the church we were called to provide compassionate response, but the very first lecture dealt with the churches historical misreading of scripture regarding sexual orientation.
This subject was one that I had personally been struggling with at that time, having gone through a divorce over this issue, losing my family, as well as having participated in “reparative” therapy. In short, personally, I was feeling pretty lousy about myself. On the plane ride home, I was processing all the information that I had received, especially the information about how for centuries the church had abused scripture in its understanding of human sexuality. Then at thirty thousand feet above the earth, God spoke to me; not in my mind, but audibly just as you and I would have a conversation, saying to me, “Steven you are the way I have made you! I love you.”
Years of self-hatred immediately left me. For the first time in my life, I felt a true sense of peace. No longer was I afraid of being discovered; of being found out. For the first time in my life, I was able to be the “real” Steven Mitchell. Now nobody else heard this conversation. There was no wind, no booming voice. It was a “sacred moment” between me and God. I have never heard that voice again, but in that instant I had found my “voice”.
Often times, when we have those “sacred moments in life”, we want to hold on to them, not letting them end, wanting to revel in them. That’s what Peter was saying to Jesus when he wanted to build those three monuments. Yet, there came a point with this sacred moment, when only Jesus and the three disciples were the only ones left on that mountain top. When we have those sacred moments in our lives, there is a beginning and an ending of the actual event. What we are left with, is the question of “how are we going to incorporate that event into our lives?” What voice will we find through that sacred space?
Do we all have these “sacred spaces in our lives?” I believe we do. Oh, it may not come with an actual audible voice from God, or with a vision of Moses and Isaiah, of even seeing the face of Jesus of a grilled cheese sandwich (which was the theme in the T.V. show, Glee). Only you will be able to recognize what these sacred spaces are in your life. But they will be a mountain top experience for you! It can be in something as ordinary as through a wedding, or as miraculous as being present at the birth of a child, or sharing those fleeting moments with someone who is transitioning into the next plain of existence.
Sacred spaces in life, I think, come more often than we think. For myself, I find sacred space most often when I have the privilege to hang out with my grandchildren. I find sacred space as I spend time becoming more acquainted with you here at Mountain View. I find sacred space, when I read scripture, sit and think about what I have read, then write how I have been moved, challenged, and enlightened by God’s words.
If you feel that you have been short changed in this area, then I would challenge you to step back just a little, take more time to smell the sweetness in life, be more receptive to the possibilities that each day brings. Sacred spaces in life! They come and then they go. What will you do with them? Amen

There's Danger in the Gospel, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 2-12-2012

2012-02-12T08:07:00.001-08:00

There’s Danger in the Gospel
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/12/2012
Based on Mark 1:40-45 and 2 Kings 5: 1-14

In this morning’s scripture, we read about two men who are plagued with Leprosy. One we are told is a non-Hebrew, the other is a Hebrew. Naaman, the non-Hebrew, was a commander of an army; the other man is unnamed and ostracized by his Hebrew community, based on Hebrew purity laws. Both of these men seek out someone who is able to help them deal with their disease. Naaman is seeking to be healed and learns of a prophet in Israel who can help do this for him. The unnamed Hebrew has heard about Jesus and what he has been doing in Capernaum and seeks Him out in the wilderness. Both the Prophet and Jesus were Hebrew’s, both men of God, both seem willing to help.
But again, there are differences between these two stories. In 2 Kings, the prophet Elisha, hears about Naaman and his request to be healed and sends word to the King of Israel to send Naaman to him, not out of compassion for Naaman, but because the King of Israel is upset about the request being made upon him and thinking that this is a set up to start a war between King Aram and Israel. So Naaman goes to see Elisha, who doesn’t even go out and speak to Naaman, but sends out a messenger to tell him to go wash in the river Jordan seven times and then his leprosy will heal him.
Of course Naaman, being the big shot commander that he is, becomes very offended that first off, the King of Israel isn’t the one who is doing the healing, but someone lower on the food chain. Once Naaman gets to where Elisha is, Elisha doesn’t come rushing out, making a big fuss over him, but rather sends out a messenger to great him and tell him what he needs to do in order to get rid of his leprosy. There is no special oil brought out, no special incantations, no laying on of hands, just simple, go down to those dirty waters of the Jordan, bath in it seven times and you will be healed.
On the other hand, Mark is telling us a story about a man who because of his leprosy has been ostracized by his entire community, his family, his friends, his church, because he was seen as someone who could “infect” the entire community if allowed to stay within the city limits. When this man comes up to Jesus, he says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus moved by pity, stretches out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean.” The man then is instructed to keep quiet and go to the priests and present himself for the ritual purification ceremony so that he might be able to re-enter into the community. The story also says, that the man didn’t do this, but rather started telling everyone how Jesus had touched him and in that touch had made him clean, creating a situation where Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but having to stay out in the countryside.
True story, my two daughters just had a real life lesson on what happens when you have or perceived to have a communicable disease. Shortly after my youngest daughter and son-in-law returned from Ethiopia with their two newly adopted sons, all the males in her family came down with the measles. They of course were quarantined because they had a highly contagious disease. As it so happens, before they found out that they had the measles, my youngest daughter and their oldest son pay a visit to my older daughter’s chiropractic clinic for a short visit. When the health department learns about this, they have the clinic send out letters to all their clients that had been to their office that particular afternoon, stating that they (the clients) may have been exposed to the measles.
Also, the news media, catches wind of this, as one other family from the church that my youngest daughter attends also comes down with the measles. It is now an epidemic! Because of the way the news was handling their reporting of these two cases, mass hysteria hits the whole state of Kansas about the potential epidemic that will most certainly strike the entire state. Not only does my oldest daughter get to keep all of her children home from school because of the possible exposure (which by the way, when my grandson from the family with measles was at the clinic, was not yet contagious, nor did any of my older daughters children come down with the measles or anyone who was at the clinic that day), but she was constantly having to deal with damage control with her clients. This didn’t stop with just my daughter being harassed, but also a niece of mine who lived several hundred miles away in Wichita, KS, having an old school friend who still lives in the community where my daughters live, harassing her about how her cousins were a menace to the safety of society. My two daughters and the man with Leprosy shared a good deal in common.
When Mark was writing about Jesus being moved by pity, Mark wasn’t speaking about a feeling that comes from the heart, but rather about a feeling that comes from the gut! Some of the earlier manuscripts use a more harsh translation that Jesus was moved by anger! Rev Jon Walton of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City says about this story: Jesus is frustrated and upset when he heals the man; and in the process of healing him, Jesus breaks down walls that have been carefully built and scrupulously preserved by well meaning religious types, when he touches the leper. He dares to do the unconventional, in fact, the unlawful, so that he may accomplish the unlikely. Feasting on the Word, Yr B, Vol 1, pg 358 In other words Jesus healed this man because he was angry at a system that was repressive and excluding, not out of love and compassion because of the man’s illness.
In the movie “The Help”, we learn about a young white woman who decides to expose the racism in Jackson, Mississippi through the voices of the African American women who worked as maids. The writing of this story took place as the Civil Rights movement was just becoming big news, and happened only because of the courage of one black woman who after hearing a sermon in church was moved to come forward and speak up. This led to another and then eventually there were a number of women who spoke and told their stories. Both the young white woman collecting these stories and the African American women who told their stories were breaking the law.
We still have these types of struggles today within the Christian community. Those churches that have stood up and said there is room in the church for the Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered, and Bi-sexual community and that God loves them are ostracized by the larger more conservative Christian community. In the 1980’s, there were a number of congregations throughout this country that participated in what we call the “Sanctuary” movement, which broke the law by helping refugees from South America move through our country into Canada. Much like Christian folks did with the Underground Railroad in helping escaped slaves of the South find freedom in the North, breaking the laws of their time.
When we read scripture and study it at a level that starts to reveal to us those laws and social mores’ that are meant to be repressive and exclusive of certain populations within our larger communities, then like Jesus, we should be moved with anger to make “clean” those systems of inequity, and restore justice to those who have been pushed out.
When we hear about large portions of our working population who cannot afford health care, we should be speaking up for them. When we see families being separated because of unjust and outdated immigration laws, then we should be working to reform those laws. We need to be advocates for those who deal with mental illness. There is danger in the Gospel. It is dangerous because it calls for us to open our eyes and look beyond our own circumstances in life and see the injustices that are in our backyards; injustices that are deliberately created to maintain the boundaries between the haves and the have not’s.
The story of the man with leprosy is a story about those who are pushed outside of the systems of support. Jesus was moved with pity to touch him and without hesitation make him clean so that he could once again be included. When the church reaches out in the same way to those who are excluded for one reason or another, we too can expect to be excluded just like Jesus, no longer being allowed into the city, standing outside of the larger community that thinks it benefits by excluding some and not others. Thank God, there is danger in the gospel! Amen

The Power of Hand Holding, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO,2/5/2012 by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-02-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is my first Sunday as Settled Pastor for Mountain View United Church in Aurora, CO. It has been a fun first week with much activity in my office, with a hug snow on Fri! 20" at my aunts house in Littleton, CO where I am staying until we get the furniture here at the first of March. Please pray for Paul and I that we find a house to purchase before the furniture arrives! Peace, Steven

The Power of Hand Holding
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Based on Mark 1:29-39 and 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/5/2012

I wish to apologize in advance for the message that I am about to deliver. Since I don’t know you very well yet, I don’t know how much of what I’m going to say as background is going to be “old hat” and potentially boring to you. This of course will change as we become better acquainted.
In this morning’s Gospel we read that Jesus, upon entering Simon’s home, finds Simon’s mother-in-law very ill and when he took her hand, and lifted her up, she immediately became well. This story on the surface seems to be pretty straight forward telling us about another healing that happens when Jesus touches someone and how the word gets out and people from all around come wanting Jesus to heal them, which after all this takes place, Jesus decides to move on to other towns to do more of the same.
A large part of our task as modern readers of the scriptures is to try and step away of our twenty-first mindset and read these passages with the eyes of the first century reader, to hear with the ears of the first generation of listeners; only when we can strip away what we see as “normal”, as “everyday” occurrences, such as reading about Jesus’ activities within the Synagogue and the activities outside of the Synagogue, or about the women that Jesus encounters, will we realize that something new and shocking is taking place. Only then will we start to understand the subtleties of the stories.
Some of this morning’s reading in Mark is setting the stage for the conflict that Jesus finds throughout his ministry. In this passage, we are introduced to Simon’s mother-in-law, the first of many women that Jesus will be encountering. You might say, “Okay, so he heals many women throughout the Gospel. What would make this healing unusual?” Beyond the fact that this is the first woman mentioned in Marks writings, the real news comes in her response as she encounters this prophet, Jesus.
Mark tells us that upon her fever breaking, she immediately “began to serve them.” Now if we read this through the eyes of patriarchal theology, we will conclude that she fixed them all dinner! Yet the Gospels are stories about change, stories about how people change after they encounter Jesus. Theologian Ched Myers in his book, “Say to This Mountain”, makes this important observation: The Greek verb “to serve” (from which we get our word “deacon”) appears only two other times in Mark. One is found in chapter 10:45 –“Jesus came not to be served but to serve”, and the other comes at the end of the story, where Mark describes women “who, when Jesus was in Galilee, followed him, and served him, and…came up to Jerusalem with him” (15:41). This is a summary statement of discipleship: from beginning (in Galilee) to end (at Jerusalem) these women were true followers who, unlike the men practiced servant hood. In other words, both at the outset and at the conclusion of Mark’s gospel, women, in a society which devalued them, are identified as the true disciples. In this “minor” healing, Mark is serving notice that patriarchal theology and the devaluation of women will be overturned!” pg 15,” Say to This Mountain” by Ched Meyers
A second important subtlety that I see comes in the different reactions of those people in the Synagogue, who observed Jesus healing the possessed man in the story just prior to the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law by Jesus in the home of Simon. Worshipping in the Synagogue, implies that the Sabbath laws are to be observed, which basically means for Jesus, no healing of anyone, as that was “work”. Scripture says that people were “incredulous” about Jesus casting out the demon from the man who was interrupting worship.
There seems to be an opposite reaction toward Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, still during the Sabbath time, for people seem to clamor at the door of Simon’s house. So what might be the difference? Are there certain things that one is allowed to do at the temple verses what one can do outside of the Temple? I think the key is found in how Mark continuously speaks about the “crowd” which he mentions some thirty-eight times throughout his Gospel. The inference to the description of “crowd” refers to those who were “disenfranchised”. The crowds are almost always described as being outside of the temple.
So with all this exciting information that I’ve just shared with you, how does this relate to us? Most of us can not heal anyone with our touch, or can we? What I receive from this story is “where ministry” takes place, how we are to “do ministry”, and with “who” is most receptive to receiving the gospel news.
The image that comes to my mind with Jesus holding Simon’s mother-in-law is what happens when lots of people hold hands with one another (take the opportunity right now and feel the energy when we all hold hands). We see the power that comes by holding hands, the solidarity that not only gives those who are hand holding the strength to do what needs doing, but it also gives a message of strength to those who observe the hand holding. I see that ministry is most effective outside of the “Worship” setting. Most of the work that Jesus was doing was done outside of the Synagogue.
I think that the message being shared at the time of Mark was, God isn’t found just in the Temple, but also out amount the population. That is where the majority of people who feel they are not able to be in “church” are found. Many people do not come to worship, because they feel that they are “not good enough” in one form or another to be with those who call themselves followers of Christ. I would suspect, most of us are probably not good enough to be with those who “follow church”, but would much rather feel at home with those who follow Jesus.
Another lesson that I see in this morning’s story is Ministry, doesn’t just come through the spoken word. Ministry comes by doing, by touching, so to speak. Missionaries finally got the message that they were most effective in being able to share the “good news” about Jesus, once they stopped preaching and trying to change people to become “European” and started living with those they were ministering to. To be of service, to serve those in need, by building hospitals, schools, helping dig water wells, helping in agricultural needs, by working alongside instead of insisting that God is found inside church walls. Urban residence are more receptive when they learn job skills that will help them become employable, when they are seen not as those disenfranchised and not worthy, but as equal participants in God’s creation.
How do we do this? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that he became all things to all peoples, so that he might be able to share Jesus’ message of the gospel. To the Jew, Paul was a Jew, to the weak, he became weak, to the Gentiles, he became like a Gentile. We as disciples of Christ, then should always be open to doing things, no matter how unorthodox it may be to our background, so that we might win the honor of being servants to those who either have been hurt by those who call themselves followers of Jesus or who have never experienced Gods love and acceptance in their lives. For no matter who you are or where you are in life’s journey, you are welcomed into God’s grace, love, and mercy. Amen

Celebrating God!, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/29/2012 by Rev Steven R MItchell

2012-01-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Celebrating God!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/29/2012
Based on Psalm 111
(Last sermon as Transitional Pastor)

Worship consists of a wide and varied spectrum, ranging from music, to readings, time for reflection, opportunities for confession and re-assurance of God’s love, space for prayer, for welcoming into the community new life through baptism, a time for social affirmation of old and new friends. Worship is celebrating God in our lives!
The psalmist gives us reasons as to “why” we should come and celebrate God. We celebrate God because of the works that God has done. We celebrate God because God is righteous, gracious, and merciful! God provides for our basic needs and never forgets the covenant made with all of creation. All we have to do is look around us and we see the power of God’s work. In our deepest times of despair, God is with us, walking along side, sometimes in Spirit, other times physically through friends and family.
This is my last Sunday to celebrate God with you as your Transitional Pastor. Some are celebrating my departure I am sure, but for many, this seems like a time in which “celebrating God” is difficult. Difficult because “good-byes” are not generally easy, especially when a deep bond has developed. For twenty-nine months, we have prayed together, sang together, come to Christ’s table together. You have sat week after week listening to my reflections of scripture, and what a great privilege it has been to stand at this pulpit, sharing with you my understanding of God’s word.
When I first met the search committee charged to find the transitional minister, we had some very frank discussions as to the situation that First Congregational had found itself. Upon arriving, the mood of the congregation was one of heaviness, deep concerns, of pain, whispers of wondering if there was a future or would the doors be closing. There was concern that a gay pastor was being hired. “What would the church look like with him? Will people be turned off and not come?” And in truth, there were some people who stopped coming because I offend their perceptions about human sexuality. The mood during worship was one of low morale, possibly the lowest this church has seen in many years.
That was twenty-nine months ago. Today, we are a community of faith who has experienced the transformation that comes when we really do let God work through us! The energy that is in this room on any given Sunday is one of excitement. As an example, one Sunday Mark Kurtz came up to me after worship and confided that he was surprised at how few we had in attendance that morning, because it felt like there were at least another twenty or so. I responded by saying, “it is the energy, the excitement that he was feeling, which makes us seem larger than what the numbers actually were.” You see, our spirits have expanded faster than our physical growth.
If one of the pieces of worship is to “celebrate God”, then what do we have to celebrate this morning? One reason for celebration is for the positive energy that we receive when we are in worship. Not only do we feel good for being here, but this feeling makes it easier to roll out of bed on Sunday mornings and look forward in coming to church. During worship, we are able to forget about the differences that we might have with a fellow member and truly find the opportunity to focus on the act of worshipping. Visitors who come, feel this energy as well and are more prone to return.
I have seen a number of you grow in your spiritual hunger and growth. We have had the opportunities to discuss some very deep personal questions about life, even discuss and learn how others see God, heaven, community, and spirituality and how all of that ties together with a person’s own experience. As a congregation, we have been working on bringing God and the outside world together, realizing that when we enter the doors to this sanctuary, we do not check our problems, our lives at the door, but intergrate the two together. As Thomas Parker, Theology Emeritus of McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill., “To live as if there were no God is to live in a space too small for our souls to grow and flourish. It really is all about cultivating a sense of the presence of God.” God is not just in this sanctuary, but is in our living rooms, at our work, even at a Wyoming Cowboys game.
We have seen a solid steady increase in attendance in Worship, from the lower 30’s in the Spring and Summer of 2009, to numbers in the 80’s through most of this last November and December topping out at 99 on December 18. There is a strong commitment to the educational program which didn’t exist two years ago. I hear less and less comments like, “let someone else do it, I’ve done my bit.” There is a solid group who likes to meet on Sunday evenings for Spiritual studies.
Is there room for growth and more things to happen? Of course there is. There should never be a sense that “we have arrived”, for if we have, then there is no future. The greatest joy that I celebrate this morning is the sense that ministry is happening here. We should “thank God” for what has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. Take just a moment and reflect on all the changes that have happened over these past twenty-nine months, with just a Transitional pastor. Now imagine all of the wonderful possibilities that can happen with your next settled pastor. You have the people, you have the momentum, you have the Spirit, and you have God standing ready to guide you into the next level of ministry. A ministry that has yet to be defined, but I am confident that God will reveal it to you as you faithfully work at presenting God’s love to Rock Springs. Remember, your ministry isn’t for this congregation; this congregation is for the ministry to Rock Springs.
Let me close with what I “celebration to God” this morning. I celebrate God for the existence of First Congregational, as a specific faith community. Many of you constantly comment on what you feel I have brought to you, but the truth is, you have given me more than I have given to you. You have not just allowed me to serve you as pastor, but you have allowed me into your lives, a space that is so very sacred. You have let me stand beside you at the hospital. I have buried you, married you, baptized you, confirmed you, and eaten at God’s table with you. You have shared your hopes, your pains, your losses, your fears, and your joys with me. We have prayed together, laughed together, and cried together. Your pain has been my pain, your rejoicing has been my rejoicing.
I celebrate God, because I have watched a group of faithful believers grow in strength, in confidence, in hope, and in spiritual wisdom. You invited me in and allowed me to show you my understanding of God’s love, of God’s forgiveness, and of God’s inclusiveness. You have given me freedom to develop worship experiences that pushed the envelope of traditional styles. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but the important thing was, the willingness to explore. “The essential structure of God’s gathered people is to be an unfolding narrative, rather than a rigid institutional system.” Anne H.K. Apple, Feasting on the Word. Pg 300 yr B, vol1
I celebrate God, because I see a congregation that is living out the end of Psalm 111, “The reverence and awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Let us all continue to develop in reverence and awe of the Lord. Let us all “celebrate God” each day of our lives! Amen

Second Chances, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/22/2012, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-01-21T20:04:00.001-08:00

Second Chances
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/22/2012
Based on Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 & Mark 1:14-20

“Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time…” Have you ever done something that was really wrong and wished that you hadn’t? Said something to someone and wished you could take it back, because what you said destroyed instead of build up? Or made a decision years ago and wondered what your life might be like if you had made a different choice?
In the classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the main character George Bailey had his life all planned out for himself. He was going to go off and see the world after graduating from High School, then attend college and graduate with an architectural degree, then design building. There wasn’t going to be anything or anyone who was going to get in his way of achieving the goals he had for himself.
No body or anything, except life. At each important cross road in his life, George had to make a decision that challenged his dreams. As a young boy he lost the hearing in his right ear because he saved his younger brother from drowning in an icy pond. In Junior High, George was physically beaten by his boss, the druggist, for not delivering medicine to a family; medicine that the druggist, who in a distraught state of mind over the death of his own son had mistakenly added poison to the prescription. George had no plans of falling in love with the beautiful Donna Reid, but ended up marrying her and together they had four children. On his wedding day, George spent all his savings to stop a run on the family savings and loan at the beginning of the depression. George gave up his dream of adventure and becoming an architect when he took over the leadership of the family business, a business he hated in order to give an option to the citizens of Bedford Falls in doing business, so they would not be held captive to the evil Mr. Potter.
All of George’s life, the decisions that he was asked to make, seemed to always benefit others but never fulfilled his own dreams. George’s greatest challenge comes when his Uncle Billy misplaces the company’s deposits. For George, this meant scandal, financial ruin for the company, and prison for himself. He finds himself, standing on the edge of life, ready to jump off a bridge to end his life, for he felt that he was a failure; all of his decisions came to no good end. At this point in George’s life, God intervenes by sending down an angel who needs to earn his wings named Clarence.
George, true to his nature puts off killing himself to save the drowning Clarence. As the two are drying off next to a fire, George wishes he had never been born. With the help of Clarence, George is given a second chance; a chance to see what life would be if he had never been born. Since George wasn’t around to save his younger brothers life, his brother wasn’t able to save the lives of a thousand soldiers on a transport vessel during WWII. The druggist went to jail, because George wasn’t there to prevent the mistaken prescription. The beautiful Donna Reid never married and had an unfulfilled life. There was no Bedford Falls, as the town was owned by the evil Mr. Potter and was named Pottersville. George then realizes just how precisions his life has been and begs for a second chance to continue to live the life that he had had.
The story of Jonah is a great story about the adventures of a prophet. It shows us more of the human side of a prophet’s life, one that helps us realize that even though one is called to be a prophet for God, one doesn’t always willing follow orders. With Jonah, he is told by God to go to Nineveh and tell them they have only forty days before they are destroyed. Jonah being the devoted prophet that he was turned and ran the other direction. Of course, this decision brought on particular calamities for a lot of other people. Like George Bailey, the actions of Jonah weigh heavily upon what happens to others.
Also like George Bailey, Jonah at several junctures of his life journey is asking God to take his life that it is just too unbearable to continue on. Then God answers by coming back to Jonah a second time, and once again telling Jonah to go to Nineveh. So with much fear in his heart, he travels into Nineveh and delivers the message that God told him to deliver. To his surprise, the Ninevehites hear the word and repent are spared by God.
There is a similar reaction to the word of God, found in the first chapter of Mark, as we see Jesus, walking up to Simon and Andrew, then coming upon James and John and saying, “come follow me, I will make you fishers of humanity.” Upon hearing this invitation, these four men changed course, changed careers.
The main focus in today’s lectionary readings asks us to ponder upon the suddenness to which we can change when God speaks to us. There is no indication by Marks writings that these four fishermen had any prior knowledge of Jesus and his mission, only that when Jesus asked them to drop what they were doing and in following him, they did just that. For the people of Nineveh, they were not even told that their destruction was going to be coming from God, or that by repenting there would be hope of survival. They just inherently knew that they needed to repent from their actions.
Sudden change! Second chances, this is what we are reading about today. Barbara Brown Taylor, professor of religion at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia writes: Much has been written about the response of the disciples who dropped everything to follow Jesus. Why did they do something so drastic, and how could they up-end their lives so dramatically, and would that really be a good thing for us to do, that is, if we could "manage" it?
Could we measure up to the standard of those disciples, and drop everything, too? We might wonder why and how those first four disciples could do such a thing, without even a stirring sermon from Jesus, or maybe a dramatic miracle, or better yet, the sky opening up and a voice announcing that this was God's own beloved, and that they should listen to him Such an incident would have provided some clear explanation for their sudden abandonment of everything to follow Jesus. What did they know, on that seashore that we don't know?

We're missing the point if we linger on such questions. This is a story about God, not the disciples or us. To focus on what the disciples gave up (and whether we could do the same), is "to put the accent on the wrong syllable." This "miracle story," is really about "the power of God - to walk right up to a quartet of fishermen and work a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before." Now this way of approaching the story may, oddly, make us uncomfortable, especially in a culture that emphasizes our choices and independence, our ability to shape our lives and determine our destinies. We can do whatever needs to be done; it's within our power; we can fix and improve everything; we can take hold of the future and make it what we want it to be. In fact, we have to do it, in order to please God and get to heaven. The better we are, the more saintly and sacrificing we are, and the more likely we are to earn our salvation.
With this type of thinking, Taylor says: "What we may have lost along the way is a full sense of the power of God – to recruit people who have made terrible choices; to invade the most hapless lives and fill them with light; to sneak up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and smack them upside the head with glory". Whether we're ready or not, God acts. Sermon Seeds, 1/22/2012
There are major changes going on within our community of faith. We are looking for a settled pastor to lead us. We are facing a budget that calls for more money than what is currently committed. Do we truly believe that God has the power to lead us, like the fishermen did when Jesus said, drop your nets and follow me? Or do we act like Jonah, size up the request as being too expensive, too risky, falling back on the false sense of "prudent paths of action" and try to run away from doing what God is asking us to do? As Barbara Taylor says, "are we putting the accent on the wrong syllable", have we lost along the way the sense of the power of God?
We stand at the threshold of new choices, of second chances. Will we run from the challenges or will we take up the call of God? Amen

Ears Tingling, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/15/2012, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Ears Tingling
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/15/2012
Based on 1 Samuel 3:1-11 & John 1:43-51

“11 And the LORD said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.” When I read this particular verse, I recall the movie, “The Music Man”, particularly the scenes where the women of the town are talking amongst themselves about the recent events concerning the newly arrived salesman, Professor Hill. As onlookers we are only privy to what they are saying through the song’s lyrics, “Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more.” Everyone’s ears in River City, Iowa were a tinglin’ with news about the extraordinary events that were happening since Professor Hill came upon the scene.
This morning’s scriptures are some of the most ear tingling selections of the lectionary readings for this year, as it explores the topic of hearing, listening, and responding to the calling of the Lord. We have three main characters, a small boy (Samuel) who represents those who do not yet know the Lord, an aging priest (Eli) who has served the Lord for many years, and (Nathanael) a man most likely in his mid to late twenties and is described as a man with no deceit.
In the story with Samuel and Eli, we have a young boy who has been given up by his mother, Hannah, to live a life of serving God in the temple located in the town of Shiloh. Samuel was an answer to prayers put forth by Hannah, who had for a number of years asked God to send her a child. As soon as Samuel was house broke, his mother presented him to the Priest Eli, so that Eli could mentor him in serving the Lord. In many respects that is what we celebrate this morning through the baptism of young Jason Martin. As a part of a much larger family of faith, we are an “Eli”, committing ourselves to help Jason grow up in the teachings of the church, helping him develop his relationship with God.
Eli, is described as growing in years, so much so, his eye sight was becoming dim. This could be just a description of the physical aspects of Eli, but I wonder if it is not also a metaphor for what was happening in Israel, as the beginning of this chapter starts off with the observation, “In those days the word of the LORD was rare.” We also read that Eli was not hearing the voice that Samuel was hearing that evening.
So here we have a seasoned man of faith and a newbie. Both are in the service of God; one who doesn’t seem to be able to hear God’s calling, the other, too new to recognize the calling of God. What an inspiration to us within the church, for are we not a group that also hosts a wide range of spiritual experiences! Here we have a young boy who is being called by God, “Samuel, Samuel”, but doesn’t recognize that it is God calling to him. Eli doesn’t hear this voice that Samuel is hearing but eventually recognizes that God must want to speak through Samuel. Neither are in a position to listen to God without the help of the other.
In contrast to this shared community, we live in a country that prides itself on “individualism”. We are taught to live on our own, make our own decisions, become the master of our fate; we are heavily influenced by the document we call, “The Declaration of Independence.” Yet, when we have big decisions to make within our lives, is it not prudent to seek out the opinions and advise of others? As Congregationalists, do we not believe in corporate decision making? As a part of our discernment process we not only look to scripture for guidance, but we as a denomination, as a congregation, also consider historical teachings of the church.
As a minister, I cannot tell you how often I hear people say in one form or another, “I don’t need the church to be spiritual”, or “I can be close to God out in the wilderness”. There is truth in what is said, you don’t need church to have a relationship with God. Yet, when and where do we generally take the time out within our busy lives in order to feed our spirituality? Where is it that we most frequently open our bibles and read from it, or be in conversation specifically dealing with the word of God? The majority of the time is in community, at church.
This leads me to the story with Nathanael. Here is a man described by Jesus as an Israelite who has no deceit. Yet, upon meeting Jesus, being introduced to Jesus by his own brother, Nathanael does not immediately recognized Jesus as being, “the one he has been waiting all his life to meet.” In fact, his first response upon being told that Jesus was from Nazareth was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” What a slap in the face that must have been to Jesus. It would be similar to going up to a Muslim and saying, “How can you know the word of God, you are Muslim.”
Nathanael had a pre-conceived understanding that the “Messiah” was to come out of Bethlehem, out of the family of David, in other words, the long awaited King would come from a more prestigious setting than from a poverty stricken, no nothing town of Nazareth. A town that not only had a just few hundred inhabitants but was up north in the “other kingdom”, not coming from Judea where the prophets of old had said the Messiah would come from.
How often do we deny ourselves the joy of hearing God, of seeing miracles, because of pre-conceived ideas? Of the way it is suppose to happen? Of not being able to hear God, when God calls to us? That is a strong argument for a community of faith needing to meet regularly, to study together, to discuss what we read, and of sharing the experiences that we have, so that we can through collaboration hear what God is trying to say to us.
God is constantly trying to speak to us. God is calling “Samuel, Samuel” all the time. God comes to us every day, just as Jesus came up to Nathanael, but like Nathanael, our pre-conceived idea’s, our already made up minds on how things are suppose to look, we the opportunity of God speaking to us.
An unfortunate fact for a large portion of the church in our country is that we have forgotten that God speaks through many voices: through the voices of children, through the voices of the dis-enfranchised, voices that come through the arts and sciences, even through the voice of our environment. We need to be open enough to collaborate with all these differing voices in order for us to hear what God is trying to tell us.
I suppose the true question is, “Are we truly willing to open ourselves to listen to the calling of God?” Will we be able to say as did Samuel, “Here I am Lord. Speak for your servant is listening”? Let us be ready to have our ears tingle! Amen.

Remember Your Baptism, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/8/2012 by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-01-08T07:13:00.001-08:00

Remember Your Baptism
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/8/2012
Based on Mark 1: 4-11

Last week we read about Jesus being presented at the temple for the ritual of purification, which was required in the Law of Moses. It was at the temple that Simeon and Anna, two individuals who were faithful in their commitment to God, finally received the fulfillment of God’s promise to them of being able to see the “hope” of Israel before they died. The theme of last week’s scripture focused on “vision” and living through that vision in hope, waiting for God’s timing.
This week, we are thrust forward many years, and we now see Jesus as a fully grown man, who is at the start of his ministry, a timely spot to start as we begin another new year within our own lives. In this morning’s story, we are told about this guy named John, coming from the dessert into the wilderness outside of the city of Jerusalem. This man was very unorthodox in his manor, he wore camel’s hair robes, was a vegan, and said, “Repent from your sins and be baptized in water.”
Take just a minute and think about how we, who live out our faith within the walls of the “established church” {of who we will call “Main-line denominations” such as the Episcopal, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the American Baptists, the United Church of Christ}, would react to a guy who just hit town and started holding prayer meetings down in the Bitter Creek River bed. The guy is wearing sandals, wearing blue jeans, a polo shirt, has a shaved head, and is speaking at the top of his lungs like a used car salesman, telling people that they need to repent from their sins, follow a new path and leave the old behind. Funny thing is, thousands of people in Rock Springs are hearing about this, wondering out to where he is at and for some reason are buying into what this guys is saying, being baptized in the dirty waters of Bitter Creek and having changed lives. This guys church is growing in leaps and bounds, reaching out to all sorts of people, that we in the “main-line” denominational churches, those established institutions, have never been able to reach. What would be our first reactions to all this, when we out of curiosity, go out to see for ourselves, what is going on, to see what is being said to bring such a change to the general population? Would we rejoice in what we observe? Or would we grumble and try to discount the validity of what these people are experiencing? My guess is that as part of the established religious groups in town, we would have the latter reaction to what this up start preacher was doing.
What we are reading in this first chapter of Mark is a revolutionary event going on. The whole description about John the Baptizer puts him as the outsider of the establishment. (The Joe Blow, down at Bitter Creek baptizing people.) His location alone – is announcing that God can live outside of the temple, that Jerusalem is not the only place that faith is acted out. John was telling a population that was spiritually hungry that there was something more that was needed beyond being a Hebrew, a biological part of father Abraham, that just because you are a descendant of Abraham, you are not necessarily living in the spiritual path that God is hoping for.
The need to repent, which tends to be more associated with the season of Lent, is brought up at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. When we hear this word, we tend to think about the turning away from sin, or sinful acts. The word for us, tends to mean, “Being sorry, or remorseful, or even penitent”, but there is a deeper meaning within Jesus’ Judaism. Repent, is more closely associated with the idea of returning from exile; ‘to repent is to return, to follow ‘the way of the Lord’ that leads from exile to the Promised Land.” The Greek roots of the word suggest an additional meaning; to repent is to 'go beyond the mind that you have' - to go beyond conventional understandings of what life with God is about" (Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary).
When we read that Jesus also came out to the river Jordan and was baptized as well, this begs some questions that scholars have argued about for the past several thousand years. Questions such as: “Why did Jesus need to be baptized”? “If John’s baptism was for repentance, then why would Jesus need to be baptized, if he were in truth sinless?” But if you think in respect to what Mark is describing with the whole story of John the Baptizer, the message that God is found not only in the temple but outside where daily life takes place, that repentance wasn’t so much about “remorse for actions, or a turning away from specific actions” but rather a refocusing on returning from exile, that idea of being imprisoned or enslaved and breaking away from what has kept you away from God’s promise, then for Jesus, it would be a natural statement for him to be making. A statement that says, “I want to move beyond the understanding that I currently have about my relationship with God, to move into a new aspect of living in that promise that God has made.”

Theologian Marcus Borg reflects further on this story in his book, Jesus: A New Vision - Spirit, Culture, and The Life of Discipleship: "Renowned for his eloquent and passionate call for repentance, John proclaimed that it was not sufficient to be 'children of Abraham,' but called the Jewish people to a more intense relationship with God sealed by a ritual of initiation. Crowds flocked to this charismatic, some to be baptized. Jesus was among them." Not only does this story place Jesus "in the Spirit-filled heart of Judaism," but it also puts him right in the midst of a renewal movement. Elton Brown quotes The New Oxford Annotated Bible: "Jesus himself is baptized into the renewal movement that began before him." Therefore, Brown observes, "In part this reminds us that in Jesus Christ [God] does a new thing, but not a brand-new thing. Israel, Torah, the prophets, John the baptizer all prepare the way" (Feasting on the Word). Found in the Sermon Seed UCC 1/8/2012
In a few minutes we are going to remember our baptism. This is something that we do yearly. But before we celebrate our life in Christ, as members of this faith community, I ask that you think about “what does your baptism mean to you?” Some of us were baptized as infants, so we can’t remember the actual event, for you I would ask you to think about, “what feelings are evoked when you witness a baby being baptized?” For those who have been baptized as young adults or later in life, I ask that you take a few moments and reflect on that event and recall feelings or possibly impressions of that special time in your life. (pause)
Baptism is a bond that uniquely shapes us as a community. God has formed us in love and found us good, yet much too often we see ourselves and one another as flawed and deficient. What would happen if we saw ourselves as created for God's glory (Isaiah 43:7)? What if we saw ourselves and others as God saw Jesus the day that he was baptized, with the heavens being torn open and a voice saying:”You are my child, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” How much stronger, do you think we as a body of faith would be able to love not only those around us, here in this sanctuary, but to those who have not yet started on that road that will return them to the promised land of God? Remember your Baptism. Amen

The Wonders of Waiting, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/1/2012, Rev Steven R Mitchell

2012-01-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

You may notice that there hasn't been any posting for the last two Sundays of December. That is because the children held the worship on Dec 18th and there was no Sunday worship on Dec 25th. So we start off this year's Worship reflections on the very first day, first Sunday of the New Year of 2012. There are many changes in the wind as I work toward separating myself from the transitional ministry of the past 2 1/2 yrs with First Congregational UCC, which ends on Jan 31, 2012 and begin to serve the Mountain View United Church of Aurora, CO starting on Feb 1,2012 as their settled pastor. Much excitement is being generated with this up coming move and I will address those items in the up coming weeks. Peace to you all and have a Prosperous New Year and in harmony with the reflection of this week, may you know and embrace "The Wonders of Waiting!"

The Wonders of Waiting
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/1/2012
Based on Luke 2:22-40

This morning’s scripture reads pretty straight forward, yet as is generally the case, it has many directions in which one can contemplate. We can read how devout Joseph and Mary are in respect to their religious believes. Even as a very poor couple they follow the Law of Moses to the letter; having Jesus circumcised on the eight day, at which time they give the name Jesus to their son. Now they have journeyed into Jerusalem to consecrate their first born son. They lived within a covenant community and were determined to raise their children in the way of that covenant.
So, the most obvious way to take this morning’s reflections is to focus on the holy family. But the story also has two other characters, Simeon and Anna, who were also very devout Jews and very much a part of this same community. The theologian Fred Craddock says of Simeon and Anna that these two are, “miniature representation of Israel at its best: devout, obedient, constant in prayer, led by the Holy Spirit, at home in the temple, longing and hoping for the fulfillment of God’s promises. They embody what have been called ‘the wonders of waiting’, an art seemingly lost to us today.”
This is what I’d like to focus on this morning, the wonders of waiting. Simeon declares at the sight of Jesus, “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I've seen your salvation;” Mary and Joseph were taking Jesus into the temple to be blessed, but before this could happen, Simeon, lead by the holy spirit to go to the temple that day, see’s them, steps up and takes the child into his arms and then Blesses God, not the boy! God had made a promise to Simeon back in his youth that he would not die until he had seen the “hope” of Israel.
Then comes along a ninety-one year old widow who also is devout, never leaving the temple and waiting upon God’s promises, sees the baby Jesus and then goes out into the city and declares to friends that God’s promise of “freedom” had finally come. We don’t know how old Simeon was, but he was up there in years, as was Anna, both who had been waiting to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to them! This begs the question, “How long are you willing to wait for a fulfillment of a promise? Especially one made by God? “
Because of these two peoples devotion to God, they had received particular visions of what they were to expect. For Simeon, he was promised that before he would die that he would see the promise of Israel. With Anna, she too had lived in hope of a promise, a vision that God would send one who would save Israel.
Having a vision, or rather gaining a vision in a world where there is so much at our finger tips is truly a difficult thing to do. I compare it to the story of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory. A story where a group of children a chosen to go through this candy factory and the one deserving child will become the new curator of this factory. Almost all the children were children of privilege in one form or another and one by one are dispelled from the factory. As a society, we are pretty much like most of the over privileged children, where we expect and at times demand what we believe we deserve, whether merited or not.
As a society, Christmas is a season where this becomes so painfully obvious. There are children who have an abundance of toys, yet expect to receive even more gifts and are disappointed if those expectations are not met. Then, there are children who live in very meager surroundings, very much like the economic level that Jesus was born into. When a present comes to them, they are filled with joy because it was something that they were not expecting, even though the season of Christmas promises the gift of presents. With some of these children they dare not even dream about receiving a gift. They have no expectations, no vision of what this season of giving promises. While others as the poem goes, “dream thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads.”
“A vision” is the life line of any person of faith. “Vision” is at the heart of any ministry for a church. For without a vision, you have nothing to look toward, no expectations, no promises to be fulfilled. I want to share with you a thought in this week’s “Sermon Seeds” as written by Kathy Huey. She shares a story of a friend of hers who is blind, “I once had a conversation about the vision thing with a colleague who had lost his eyesight many years before. We talked about this reading, about the ability of Simeon to see more than a baby in his arms, to see within and beyond this baby to God's hand at work in the world.
My colleague said that his own inability to see with his eyes is sometimes a gift because it enables him not to be distracted by things that might keep him from seeing "to the heart of things." Whenever he would say that something was "gorgeous," I wondered how he knew that, but he explained that his heart sees what his eyes cannot. He says that he sees the beauty of creation – instead of ugliness – because he can only see with his heart, his soul, and his mind. Most of all, he tries to see to the heart of each person he encounters, so the things that matter to the world matter very little to him. He looks, instead, within the person, to the Christ within. He believes that we're each called to see – to behold – the promise of God's grace and the Christ in one another – which helps us to understand better Jesus' teachings about things like loving our enemies and having the reign of God within us.” UCC lectionary study, 1/1/2012 Kathy Huey
If we can hold onto the same vision that Simeon and Anna had, in a world that too often distracts us with the false promises of wealth, easy living, enlarged ego’s, then we will be able to see the world as Kathy Huey’s friend see it, “the promise of God’s grace and the Christ in one another.” But it doesn’t just happen because we want it to happen, we must work at preparing ourselves for this type of vision, by practicing what our faith teaches us: things such as devotion, obedience, constantly in prayer, willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit, being at home in the temple, and longing and hoping for the fulfillment of God’s promises.
These are not easy attributes, they come with commitment through a covenanted group of people. It doesn’t come by just attending worship now and then, it comes from an intentional commitment of time, time that we commit to study, worship, prayer, fellowship, and a commitment of our money to make sure that these things will be available for us to pursue. Following our faith is not cheap, even as poor as Joseph and Mary were, they paid the cost of sacrificing two doves in order to follow and be true to their commitment to the Law of Moses.
Vision is a necessary thing to have, to hold onto, to work toward. It is the cornerstone of “faith”, and yet as we read these and other stories found in the scriptures, we quickly learn that our faith, our visions, will not be cheap. Amen!

Who Are You, Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 12/11/2011

2011-12-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

Who Are You?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United Church, Aurora, Co
Based on Isaiah 61:1-4 & John 1:19-28

We are starting the third week in Advent, which means we are half way to the time when we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, or more importantly for some of us, we have only a couple of more weeks till we get to open presents! In just eleven days we will once again experience the Winter Solstices, the longest night of the year. For those of us who prefer longer days and shorter nights, this time of the year can become very depressing for us.
For twenty-five years I lived in the Pacific Northwest, and was amazed at the length of the days in the summer, where bright twilight was common up to 10:30 p.m. The flip side to that is a realization that by mid August the days are shortening, and when “daylight savings” ends, there is a reality that darkness is rapidly increasing. In fact, come mid-October, you rarely see the sun until mid February.
Darkness often times is accompanied by a kind of sadness. For many it is a time of uneasiness, a time of possible danger, at the very least, a time of uncertainty. We equate darkness as a playground for misfortune, evil deeds, and vulnerability. In the movies, it is a time filled with vampires, zombies, and creatures that live beneath the ground.
Scripture also uses the contrast between darkness and light to describe moral situations. In the November 29th publication of The Christian Century, under the section of Faith Matters, Barbara Brown Taylor writes: “Biblically speaking, darkness is the pits. In the first testament, light stands for life and darkness for death. When God is angry with people, they are plunged into darkness. People grope in the dark without light….
In the second testament, light stands for knowledge and darkness for ignorance. When the true light comes into the world, the world does not know him. Jesus has come so that everyone who believes in him should not remain in the darkness…. First John sums it up: ‘God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” Or more succinctly stated on a Chattahoochee Baptist Church sign, “If you cut God’s light off, you’ll be sitting in the dark with the devil.”Redeeming Darkness, by Barbara Taylor pg 37
Advent is that sort of darkness that we live in until the birth of Jesus. We often use Isaiah as the primary book of reflection because of its understanding of being held captive, then the joy of freedom. As a book, Isaiah is split up into three major sections. The first speaks to the despair, the hopelessness of being held in captivity. The second part of the book, speaks about the hope, the joy of returning home, back to that place that God had given to them. In the last part of the book, there comes a realization that in the home coming, there has to be a rebuilding, for what had once been, no longer exists. Often times despair accompanies that realization; yet, Isaiah gives a message of “hope” as Israel looks to a time when all will be restored. This restoration has come to be understood through a little baby born in Bethlehem, whose name is Jesus.
Continuing on the thought of Barbara Taylor, she challenges the idea of darkness as “sitting with the devil.” As Christians, we measure time differently from the dominant culture in which we live. We begin our year when the days are getting darker, not lighter. We trust that the seeds of light are planted in darkness, where they sprout and grow we know not how. This darkness is necessary to new life, even when it is uncomfortable and goes on too long. The Christian Century, Nov 29, 2011, pg 37
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, we read where the dominant culture has come out beyond the river Jordan, to inquire of John the Baptizer, asking “who are you?” This man was nothing like the dominant culture. When I read about John’s demeanor, I envision a thin man with hair pulled back in a pony-tail, dressed in holie jeans, a t-shirt that says something like: “It’s not about me”. A kind of David Popham type! John didn’t even have a church to preach in, and he used the local river to conduct his revival meetings.
On this third Sunday of Advent, the question, “Who are you” is a very valid question. It is valid because of my presence this morning. Outside of the short bio sent out to you a couple of weeks ago, I am a person unknown to most of you, standing here as a candidate seeking to become your next settled pastor. Although I am not wearing worn-out jeans or a t-shirt that says, “It’s not about me”, in a real sense, it is about me. Like John I do not represent the dominate portion of society in some ways, and like John the baptizer I understand what the dominant society is searching for, but seems to be stumbling around in a kind of darkness, not being able to discern what it is they most desire; a reconnection with the one who is the author of all that is.
Today’s reading of Isaiah 61: 1-4 is most appropriate for me, because it was what I used at my ordination service. It is the basis of my understanding of what being a minister is about. It is the foundation that I see as the church’s purpose, as it works to share the Good News of God to a creation that is walking around in a dark haze; in a kind of Matrix that has hidden the love and light that God has for all of creation.
We live in a society where people are less connected to a church than two generations ago. Today, Christians and churches are looked upon in wonderment by most of the un-churched world and wonder what is wrong with us, asking, “why we seen to hide in a world that isn’t real?” They look at us and ask, “Who are you?” I find many churches cannot answer that question with clarity. John was asked by his contemporizes, “are you a prophet?” No. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the Messiah? No. Then who are you? John’s reply was, “I am a voice in the wilderness, making straight the path for the Lord.”
Is the church supposed to be the savior of the world? No, that is God’s job. We are “the voice in the wilderness crying out”, and we are supposed to be making a path straight for the one greater than us to come. So how do we do this? What do we cry and how do we make the path level? What we cry and how we make this path, is by taking on the ministry that Jesus proclaimed at the beginning of his ministry. “… The LORD has anointed us to proclaim good news to the poor. God has sent us to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. We will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of God’s splendor. 4 We will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; we will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”
Well pastor, “How will this happen?” “What bright idea’s, pastor will you be bringing if you come here?” “What kinds of programs will we undertaking to achieve these things?” I can’t tell you right now, for this is a journey that has to be taken in partnership; in partnership with one another and with God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But before we can successfully take that journey, we need to be able to answer that question of “Who are you.”
A part of that answer is: you are a family of faith, united through three denominations that have a proud history in sharing the love of God. You are a voice in the wilderness, that cry’s out the restoration that comes through Christ and His teachings. Do you have all the answers? I hope not. Do you struggle with the questions and the how’s? I hope so. For it is in that struggle that God’s love is birthed; this struggle, this journey is the Advent that we celebrate. Amen

What Shall We Cry?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/04/2011

2011-12-04T07:04:00.001-08:00

What Shall We Cry?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/04/2011
Based on Isaiah 40:6-11 and Mark 1:1-8

This week is the second week of Advent. Last week we discussed the news of the return of Christ not as the end of time, but rather as a beginning of a new understanding of living in God’s presence. The scriptures that we are looking at this week are now talking about “preparing the way” for the coming of God’s representative, of who we have come to understand as Jesus of Nazareth, through the person of John the Baptizer. We have experienced this morning a prophet coming down our aisle proclaiming that message from Isaiah as one in the wilderness crying out “make straight the path. Prepare the way of the Lord.”
Mark begins his Gospel with these words: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah…” Mark is telling us that the arrival of Jesus was not a last minute event, a hasty decision by God to send his son, because the world wasn’t listening to previous prophets that spoke the word of God, rather Mark is telling us right from the beginning that God has been planning this event for a long time.
As we begin this second week of Advent, we also come before the Communion Table, where we will experience once again the act of remembering the Christ, of the selfless act in love of giving up his life so that we might enjoy a fuller communion with God. We come before this table after confessing our sins and being assured of our continuing relationship with God. Isaiah begins with the statement: “Comfort, O comfort my people, Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid…” This is the good news that God has shared from the beginning of time and was shared with the birth of Jesus, and is still being shared with us today. As far as God is concerned there is no more penalty held against us and we are able to come together at this table as debt-free people.
One of the temptations that can happen in reading about the one “preparing the way” is to assign that “voice in the wilderness” to someone other than ourselves. John the baptizer is the most famous voice, coming out of the wilderness, calling for repentance of sin. He declares himself as a person who is preparing the way for one who is greater than he; he is preparing the path for what Jesus’ ministry was going to be.
As your transitional pastor, I too am in many respects a voice like John the baptizer, preparing the way for your next called minister. But this scripture isn’t just for ministers; it is also for each congregation that calls itself a community of faith, based on Jesus’ teachings. The church is called to be the “voice in the wilderness.” Yet what is this voice suppose to be saying?
At times I find it helpful in substituting names and places that I am familiar with, into scripture as a way of making it more powerful. Hear how Isaiah speaks to us more directly with a few substitutions as he responds to God’s request to comfort God’s people. A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. Get you up to White Mountain, First Congregational, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, Rock Springs, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Wyoming, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might…
So we as Disciples of Christ are called to speak out the Good News of God. Yet what does that news look like? Isaiah says, “God will feed his flock like a shepherd.” This speaks about God providing for the physical needs of the world. We as the voice in the wilderness, need to speak up for affordable housing for those who earn minimum wage, we are to be concerned about issues such as adequate health care for all people. We are to help the poor, care for the widows and orphans, to be peace makers, to be people who build and renovate, and to feed those who are hungry.
Isaiah points out a second aspect of what God does, “God will gather the lambs in her arms and carry them in her bosom.” This speaks about the spiritual nurture that we receive from God. We are to speak out about the concern that God has for all of creation, in ways that people who have been disenfranchised can once again believe in and take heart and know also that God truly loves them. We are to be the voice of respect in a wilderness that works hard at striping people’s dignity away, a voice of care and love in a world that tells people - they are not worthy of the gifts of God, we are to be the voice of encouragement in a world that likes to kick people when they are down. This is how we let people know that God carries them in her bosom.
The third and last point Isaiah shares in “what shall we cry”, comes in his statement, “and gently leads the mother sheep.” God provides guidance, and we find that guidance with the help of the Holy Spirit. These are the messages that as a body of faith, as the voices in the wilderness should be crying out. We are not called to be timid and quiet, but rather be like John the baptizer, calling into account the actions of those who do wrong, demanding that they repent for their hard-heartedness, of their injustice toward those who are not as strong as they. We are not called to live in a cocoon of comfort, but seek comfort for those who are being marginalized by society’s obsession for self fulfillment and self-edification.
As we meditate upon these readings during this second week of Advent, let us remember, we are the voice in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. Amen

Waiting for the First Day!, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/27/2011

2011-11-27T07:07:00.001-08:00

Waiting for the First Day!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/27/2011
Based on Isaiah 64:1-9 & Mark 13:23-37
First Sunday of Advent

Today is the first day of the new church year. It happens every year on the Sunday following Thanksgiving; we call this season, Advent. Though, you might not recognize it, for you cannot look around without seeing decorations telling you that it’s Christmas. You drive down any main street and can see Christmas lights lining the avenues, the stores are decorated for the season, there is the white noise of musak playing Christmas music in the background. Many churches start singing Christmas songs with the beginning of Advent. Yet Christmas doesn’t start until the birth of Christ, which we typically celebrate on Christmas Eve and the twelve days after.
We are in the season of Advent not the season of Christmas. Advent is a four week period where we contemplate the “coming” of Christ. It is a time of preparation, not a time of celebration. We take this time to work toward the stable that is found in the little hamlet of Bethlehem, so that when we greet the Christ child, we will be able within our hearts to play that drum, or sing songs that Herald Christ’s birth, and bring our gifts to this person who is restoring the world into God’s image.
Each week we light our advent candles. The first is called the "Candle of Hope." It symbolizes faith in God keeping his promises to humanity. The second is called the "Candle of Preparation," reminding Christians to "get ready" to receive God. The third candle, the "Candle of Love," reminds Christians that God loves them enough to send his only Son to Earth. The fourth candle is the "Candle of Joy." It recalls the angels joyfully singing about the birth of Christ. The "Christ Candle," the white candle in the center, stands for Jesus Christ himself.
In general, I enjoy this period of “advent” as well as the season of “lent” for these make me take time to think about the “why’s” in my life, more so than the rest of the church year. Yet, I always seem to have issues with the scriptures that are presented for the first Sunday of Advent, each year. The first Sunday of advent generally focuses on scripture which deals with the second coming of Christ. This gives most ministers the opportunity to talk about the end times, the retribution that God will give to those who do not believe, of Christ riding up on a white horse with hoards of angels at his side, cutting down all the bad people. Historically, I dislike these particular texts because it is in conflict with how I view Christ’s role in healing a broken world, as well as poor theology about who gets into God’s Kindom and who is left out. These texts have somehow become messages of the end. Yet, if the first candle of Advent is the candle of “Hope”, how does that represent the idea of the “end?”
Our text for today does present the reality that all of us experience at various times in our lives, the question of “why me?” There are people sitting here this morning hurting because of broken relationships, of abuse, of the feelings of isolation, or feeling inadequate because of a job loss. There are times in our lives where we just want the world to stop so we can get off, or that God will come and punish all those bad people who make life so unbearable. Like our ancestors in faith, we and all of humankind stand before God in “helplessness and need.” “Not only are we vulnerable to those forces that may destroy our happiness – indeed, our very existence – but there is little or, nothing we, when left to ourselves, are capable of doing about our precarious state.” Quote from James Newsome, Sermon Seeds, UCC 11/27/2011
Earlier this past week, I was reading the continuing saga of my youngest daughter’s blog which I think exemplifies the Advent message of today. She writes: I am trying to stay upbeat, despite the fact that Thanksgiving is around the corner and I know my new boys won't be home to celebrate with us. I honestly never thought this would happen. Last September when we started this process, I had no doubts the boys would be home by now.
My sister had her new baby (#5) on Wednesday morning. Bless her heart, labor started Saturday, but she now has a beautiful boy to show for it! I am excited, sad, and jealous all at the same time. My brother and his wife also had a little girl placed in their home (hopefully to adopt) as well as giving birth to another baby, and I am still waiting. I was officially 'expecting' before either of them. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited for two new nieces, and a new nephew! I am SO excited! I love my family and all my nieces and nephews (there are a bunch!), but I want my boys.

I broke down Sunday at church. I just couldn't take it. Friends of ours have friends who started their adoption (from another country) after us, and are bringing their 4 kids home today. Another friend is pregnant, there are like 6 new babies in our church - 5 of which are families in our Sunday school class. I am so excited for each and every family and each baby. I am happy for them, truly joyful, but that doesn't mean at the same time, I don't struggle. I am human, I am jealous, sad, angry, frustrated, happy, excited, all at the same time. We were talking to friends on Sunday and equated this adoption to a roller coaster. I LOVE roller coasters, but we have now been on this one so long, that I am nauseas. I am about to lose my lunch! All I want is to get off!!! It can't come soon enough. And, just when I think we are about to be done and get off, there is another drop or loop
I am confident in my God. I am confident He has a plan and His will is being lived out through this adoption. That is the comfort I hold on to. We are being given the opportunity to witness to others. To be a Christian example. We have already seen this. We have been asked about adoption by a few people in our church who are sincere, which is exciting. Because of the delays, more people in the church are becoming aware of our situation, and are now praying for us. Our prayer support has doubled, at least. It is exciting and a challenge to see others watching us. What an opportunity we have been given to live out the gospel! I hold on to the Father, and He is holding us! Therefore, we have joy!
The title of today’s reflection is “Waiting for the First Day.” Where my daughter Tara is concerned, she is waiting for the end of the adoption process. An end that means she will be able to physically have her two new sons at home with her. Yet, what is truly going to happen when this “roller coaster” ride ends, all of her waiting will have been for the first day of a new life. This is what we are doing at present with our faith. We are on a roller coaster that we call life, waiting for God to enter once again and repair what’s wrong with the world, shaping a new creation where grace, justice, and joy will be the norm.
Within this week’s reading in the Gospel of Mark, we are reminded of the paradoxes within the Gospels. The paradox that God has already entered into the world through the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but also the “not yet” reality of God’s kindom here on earth is not completed. We are in a waiting period. We are living in the present kindom of God, yet working toward the completion of that kindom, that “first day” that God has planned. This waiting period is a time of preparation for us, where we can actively work to help usher in the completeness that God wishes for all of creation. Amen

"A Great Thanksgiving", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-11-22T08:10:00.001-08:00

A Great Thanksgiving!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/20/2011
Based on Ephesians 1:15-23

Each Monday Father Bob Spencer of the Episcopal Church, Rev Martha Atkins of the Mount of Olives Lutheran Church and me gather to do a Lectionary Bible Study. We spend several hours reading and discussing what the text is saying to each of us. Because of our seminary experience we use a variety of ways of looking at the text such as: the literary style, a cultural meaning, a historical context, and the use of language to name just a few. We also bring in personal understanding through our life experiences and explore the implications for our particular congregations as to how can the text relate.
Father Bob and I became mentors to Rev Martha while she was in seminary; to say the very least, we have been a challenge to some of Martha’s seminary training in how one explores scripture and approaches ministry. This week's reading in Ephesians seemed to capture all three of our hearts and imagination, however, Fr. Bob and I seemed to have difficulty with parts of our translations and the way they were reading. We felt that the translations we had before us, just didn’t communicate the meaning as effectively as it could, so we started altering words within the text, in an attempt to express our understanding of what the Apostle Paul was trying to say.
You should have seen Martha’s look of horror as we reworked words such as “Lord” to “Brother” and changing phrases like, “the Father of glory ” to “ the Creator of All.” I think Martha is wondering if she is studying with a couple of heretics. Yet, later in the day, I found in Eugene Peterson’s translation “The Message” a version that best expresses what Fr. Bob and I think Paul would say to the twenty-first century ear. So, maybe Fr. Bob and I are not so far off base after all.
This coming week we will be celebrating “Thanksgiving Day”, a day where as a nation, we have set aside to contemplate the many gifts that we have enjoyed throughout this past year. On the Wednesday evening before, we will have the opportunity to gather with others at The Holy Communion Episcopal Church to remember the gifts that we receive, celebrating through a number of faiths represented by: the Baha’i faith, The Mormons, the Jewish faith, The Muslim Faith, and various Christian Churches, all who are a part of the larger family of Rock Springs, WY. We are able to do this because it is a Holiday that is not attached with anyone religious connection. It is truly a servie,where all faiths that look to God can gather together and celebrate. It allows us to be larger than what we are and gain a glimpse of the immenseness of God.
Paul writes of his joy to the Ephesians by saying: 15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. When you pray, I hope that this church family comes to your mind and that like Paul you are able to pray for this family of faith, thanking God for everyone, I mean everyone, in this congregation and for what is accomplished by our coming together. Giving prayers of support to each other when we are in need. Of thanking God for the physical help that we provide when people are in need and helped through the concern of our faith community, and of the social support we provide to anyone who wishes.
Paul continues saying: But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Christ personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, and grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
This is my daily prayer for this community of faith, that God continue to provide ways of helping us grow intellectually and with discernment of knowing the love that God has for all of creation and to grasp the immensity of this glorious way of living, of the utter extravagance of God’s work in each of us! I cannot think of a greater prayer of “thanksgiving” than when we pray for one another and uphold each other’s journey of faith, where we continue to grow and become “awed” in the extravagance of God’s work that is in each one of us.
This Fall, there has been a group coming together weekly in the evenings studying the writings of Rev Rob Bell as presented in the book Love Wins, which speaks to what Paul is saying to the Ephesians and to us this morning. I would like to share some of these thoughts as a way of strengthening our resolve to continually recognize the extravagance of God’s work. Rev Bell writes: There is a mystery, something hidden in God, something that has existed and is true and is present with, and in, God since before time, and that mystery is a someone…Christ Jesus. As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion.
He didn’t come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted whatever conventions or systems or establishments that existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels that are created to contain and name him, especially the one called “Christianity.”
Within this proper, larger understanding of just what the Jesus story even is, we see that Jesus himself, again and again, demonstrates how seriously he takes his role in saving and rescuing and redeeming not just everything, but everybody. He says in John 12, “and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He is sure, confident, and set on this. All people, to himself. Jesus takes this very personally. He is willing to die for this, “for the life of the world.” Jesus is supracultural. He is present within all cultures, and yet outside of all cultures. He is for all people, and yet he refuses to be co-opted or owned by any one culture.
That includes any Christian culture. Any denomination. Any church. Any theological system. We can point to him, name him, follow him, discuss him, honor him, and believe in him – but we cannot claim him to be ours any more than he’s anyone else’s. Rob Bell, Love Wins, pg 150-152
I cannot think of anything greater to give thanks for this coming Thanksgiving, than the gift that God has given to us through the love and death that came through Jesus Christ, of God’s love for all of creation and for all of humanity.
As we gather on Thursday, November 24th, let each of us take some time out and thank God for not only the blessings that we have received throughout this year, but also thank God for the love that is shown through Jesus Christ, and that we commit ourselves to continue to teach, to act out, and to grow in this mystery that God has given to us, and for the utter extravagance of his work in us! Amen

Life's Greatest Risk, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-11-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Life’s Greatest Risk…
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/13/2011
Based on Matthew 25:14-30

We are in the second of three parables being told by Jesus in private to his Disciples. Jesus has already made his grand entry into Jerusalem, creating a major disturbance in the temple by turning over the tables of the money changers, and created a number of enemies with the religious community and knows he is nearing the end of his life. It is only two days before the celebration of Passover and Jesus’ mind is thinking about the possibility of being killed.
The first parable in this trilogy was about ten bridesmaids, five of who are called wise, for they brought extra oil to burn, and five are called foolish because they did not prepare beyond the immediate need. The bridesmaids who had extra oil did not share and once the doors to the house were closed, those who had left to go get more oil upon returning were not allowed entrance. To add insult to injury, the Bridegroom turns them away saying, “He doesn’t know who they are.”
Matthew is writing to a church that is dealing in the reality that Jesus has not returned in the way in which they were expecting him to return. Much time has passed, since Jesus’ death and resurrection, yet much like the expectations of how the coming of the Messiah was to look, compared to what the religious community sees in the person of Jesus, the churches understanding of how Jesus’ return would look like, has also been misunderstood; and the church is still anxiously awaiting Christ’s return, as can be seen in movies and books such as the “Left Behind” series, or of this year’s prediction of the “end times” this past June and then recalculated for this past October. Some are uneasy with the idea of the Mayan Calendar ending in December of 2012 as possibly predicting the end of the age.
For those of you who are interested in what I had to say about last week’s parable of the ten bridesmaids, you can find copies of the sermon on the table out in the Narthex. The focus on that parable by my understanding deals with preparing for the “delay of Christ’s return?” In other words,”what is the churches job during the interim period before Christ returns?”
As we continue with this week’s parable, we read about a master who decides to leave on a long trip, but before leaving entrusts varying amounts of his wealth to his three servants, each according to their abilities. I think it important to note that the master, in giving this money to these servants, did so without giving any instruction as to what he is expecting in results from them.
The lesson in this story isn’t really found in the two servants who multiplied what they had been entrusted with, rather, the meat of our lesson is found in the actions or lack thereof, of the servant that was given only one talent. What would you do if your employer came to you and said, “I going away for awhile, and while I’m gone I want you to hold this money for me. The amount is going to be equal to fifteen years of your salary.” That is what one talent in Jesus’ time would be equal to. What would you do with fifteen years of your salary just handed over to you, above what you would normally be earning for your normal work? Would you take it and use it for yourself? Would you invest it in a bank and earn interest on it? Or would you take it and play the stock market. Or would you be more conservative and buy mutual’s which spread the risk over a wider portion of stocks and bonds?
Statistics have shown that when people win millions of dollars through the state lotteries, it isn’t long before the majority have run through their winnings and find themselves in the same financial situation they were in prior to winning. It might have been beneficial if these folks would have gone to an Actuary for advice on what to do with their new found fortunes.
This parable is often used to speak about stewardship, since the example that Jesus is using is that of money. Yet why would Jesus be so concerned about the stewardship of money with his believing that his ministry was coming to an end in just a few days? Also, this conversation is between Jesus and his disciples and was not being discussed in large group gatherings. This leads me to believe that there is another concern that is on Jesus’ mind that goes far deeper than that of finances. The use of the example of money is ideal, for scripture tells us, “where lays our money, there lays our heart.”
So the question arises, why did the third servant not invest what was entrusted to him as did the other two servants? I think the key to that question is found in verse 25, “… I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.” The servant didn’t embezzle or squander his master’s money, he simply buried it. This person was immobilized by his fear of what he perceives his master would do to him should he fail and lose the talent entrusted to him.
For Jesus, I think His concern for the disciples was, “once he is gone, how would they live their lives?” This would be consistent with the previous parable of the ten Bridesmaids as well with next week’s parable of the “sheep and goats”. Think about the potential that comes in a new born child. As this child grows and develops, how will this child use its potential? Will this child take what has been given to them and work toward developing their abilities, by taking risks, which will most certainly include failing at some things, or will they play it safe and not take those risks, which ultimately does not tap that potentiality, thus is wasting what is available?
Churches today have to face this same situation. Do we, as a church invest our potential, or do we want to play it safe? One example is Mount of Olives Lutheran. They were in a financial situation that would only allow them to hire a part-time minister at best. They could have played it safe and done just that, but instead they invested their hopes into a member of their congregation who they saw potential as a minister, putting her through seminary, training her for a lifelong work in ministry, knowing that they will someday say “good-bye” as she moves on in her ministry. Through this step in faith they are seeing growth with young families and the probability of the churches ability for “sustainable ministry”. In the Harry Potter series, the muggles are constantly being referred to as people who are living below their potential, much like the third servant was accused of.
What Jesus is trying to say in this parable, is to not let our fears rule how we live. He risked everything to speak about God’s hopes for the creation that God has made. The churches one reason for existence is to take that risk as well. We are living in a world that judge’s success in terms of money. God judges success by what we do with our potential. What is our potential? What have we been given to use to grow as a person? What is the potential of First Congregational? Are we willing to act on our potential and “risk” or are we going to be like the servant that buried his potential, afraid of failing, and this fear ultimately become self-fulfilling? Life’s greatest risk isn’t in doing something, it is in doing nothing. Amen

He'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, for St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Aurora, CO, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-11-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

He’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Guest Speaker at St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Aurora, CO
Based on Matthew 25:1-13 & Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16

One of the first songs that I can recall learning in grade school was a song about some woman coming around a mountain, driving a bunch of horses, then when she arrives someone is going to cook up a pot of chicken and noodles. Growing up on the Plaines of Kansas, at the age of six, I had no concept of what a mountain was, I saw horses as huge animals that snort at you and potentially dangerous should they step on me, and why did that rooster have to be killed? In short, I had no clue as to what the song meant other than “she” would be coming and in pink pajamas no less, yet it had a catchy tune and I enjoyed singing it. Only years later did I learn that the woman was an actual person, Mary Harris Jones, a union organizer going to promote formation of labor unions in the Appalachian coal mining camps.
The tune of this song was taken from a Negro Spiritual titled: When the Chariot Comes. This song refers to the second coming of Christ and subsequent rapture. The “she” refers to the chariot that Christ would be arriving in. The words to this song are:
O, who will drive the chariot, when she comes?
King Jesus, he'll be driver when she comes, when she comes…
She'll be loaded with bright Angels, when she comes…
She will take us to the portals, when she comes!
In this morning’s Gospel, Matthew is sharing with us a part of a discussion that Jesus is having with his Disciples. Jesus has already made his grand entry into Jerusalem, creating a major disturbance in the temple by turning over the tables of the money changers, and created a number of enemies with the religious community and knows he is nearing the end of his life. It is only two days before the celebration of Passover and Jesus’ mind is thinking about the possibility of being killed.
Jesus began his ministry speaking to a large crowd with what we now call, The Sermon on the Mount, speaking of how blessed are those who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on. Now at the end of his ministry he is having a private dialogue with his disciples about the end times, starting in chapter 24 talking about such things as:“signs of the close of the age”, of the “destruction of Jerusalem” and of the “coming of the son of man.” Then at the beginning of chapter 25 we read, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this, ‘the bridegroom was delayed’.”
This parable is one of those that seem to go against what we who would like to be a part of the “blessed for we hunger and thirst to do social justice and help those in need”. How can justice, and mercy for that matter, coincide with Jesus using an example of some of the bridesmaids who have extra oil not sharing it with those bridesmaids who are running low? Even more perplexing at the end, the doors are shut, not allowing the five bridesmaids entrance upon their return and the bridegroom (which represents Christ) turning them away, saying he doesn’t know them? The main battle cry within the United Church of Christ states without hesitation: “Jesus never turned anyone away and neither do we.”
I really didn’t want to deal with this parable, because on the surface this story goes against my sensibility as to how I understand what the ministry of Jesus was about. How do I reconcile the unwillingness to share what I have with those in need? How can I turn away people who are standing outside of my door? What was Jesus thinking when he told this story? Why did Matthew include a story that seems so opposite to Christ like behavior?
I have to remember that the purpose of a parable is not to give a factual account of a story, but rather is a story designed to make me think, and has multiple layers. The story is very bold in stating the concept of “being prepared”, but being prepared for what? This Gospel was written many years after Jesus had been crucified and the early church had been anticipating Christ’s return. Matthew then was writing to a church that had to come to grips with the reality that Jesus had not yet returned as they had envisioned and that their mission was to wait expectantly and in the meantime live faithfully, courageously, and in hopefulness. It has been two thousand years and the church is still awaiting Christ’s return. We have lived this year alone through two predictions of the end of the world and are awaiting another date of doom in December 2012 as the Mayan calendar ends. Yet Jesus states that no one will know the time or place.
The parable appears to speak about being prepared for Christ's coming, but what the parable speaks to being prepared for Christ’s delay? Would this not possibly change our behavior, change how we prepare? During Jesus’ ministry, he constantly told us that the “kingdom of God is among us, here and now”. But how can God’s kingdom be among us with so much suffering, neediness, loneliness, hatred, and dispare?
Rev Rob Bell, in his newest book, “Love Wins”, proposes that part of the confusion with our concept of ‘heaven’ as used in scripture comes with our not understanding that the writers substituted the word ‘God’ with the word ‘heaven’ because to use the word ‘God’ was forbidden. Rev Bell further states: sometimes when Jesus spoke of heaven, he was referring to the future coming together of heaven and earth in what he and his contemporaries called life in the age to come. Jesus also talked about heaven, as our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life. For Jesus, eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection to God. Love Wins, pg 58-59
A second issue that I have with this story is why didn’t the five bridesmaids with extra oil not share with the other’s who didn’t? If we think of the oil as the metaphor for virtues such as faith, good works, practices and spiritual reserves, these are personal attributes that cannot be given away to someone else. I as a person can present to you advice on a topic but I cannot physically transfer my experience to you. You have to create that actual experience for yourself. How I experience God is something that I cannot give to anyone, I can however, share how I have experienced God with you, but you will not experience God, except through your own actions.
Finally, comes the “closing of the door” part of the text. How do I, who doesn’t want to see anyone excluded understand this? The reality is, there is a time when opportunity closes its door. When we chose to put off today for tomorrow, we can run the risk of not having the opportunity to do what we put off.
As I grew into my teenage years, the relationship between my father and me deteriorated to a point that as a young man with a family I had stopped communicating with my dad. His behavior toward me had been extremely abusive, which came from his disease of alcoholism. I therefore shut the door to that abuse by not communicating with him, always praying that some day he would sober up and come and make amends with me. Over time, he did go through treatment and achieved sobriety, but he never came to make amends. I realized that he did not have the tools that he needed in order to start the rebuilding of our broken relationship. Through my educational journey, I had developed those needed skills and decided to be the one to approach the repairing of our relationship. We had only two years of working on this, as my father suddenly died, due to years of abuse to his body by alcohol.
I use this story to tie together, my understanding of this parable with the message to the church. We should expect Christ to be delayed. He hasn’t come in the past two thousand years, and the odds are, he won’t come back anytime soon. This parable asks us to live in hope for what has been promised and what will be but hasn't yet happened. It reminds us that knowledge, faith, and love are tools for living in this time, before eternity comes. The temptation for ‘waiting’ for Christ’s eminent return is to not be actively living Jesus’ teachings, ministering to a world that has forgotten the love and promise of hope that God gives us all. “He’ll be coming around the mountain”, there’s no question about that. The question will be, “how will we be waiting? Are we preparing for Christ’s return or for his delay? Amen

Remember Who You Are!, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 10-30-2011

2011-10-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Remember Who You Are!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 10/30/2011
Based on I Thessalonians 2:9-13 & Joshua 3:7-17

As I was working earlier this week on narrowing what the focus of this Sunday’s reflection would be, I realized that there seemed to be a major theme being woven with respect to my scheduled commitments. Also it became crystal clear that my scheduled activities also seemed to coincide with this week’s lectionary readings. This seems to happen a good deal with me and I began to wonder, if my higher power does coordinate the lectionary and my life, or if through studying the scripture suggestions for the week tends to make me more sensitive to the events in my life? Much of my schedule is made from one to twelve months in advance and I generally don’t read that far ahead in the lectionary, so I would conclude that what might be thought of as a cohesiveness of activities and lectionary lessons, is more on the line of how I understanding “blessings” or “miracles” within my life. I believe that “blessings” and “miracles” are continuously happening, but I only recognize them when I am sensitive to their existence. Meaning, when I am looking for a blessing or a miracle in my life, I usually recognize it. It is called, “being present” in the moment.
This past week, I’ve been burning up I-80 between here and Salt Lake City. On Wednesday I participated in a dialog billed as, “The Mountain West Summit”, which was a dialog on Immigration issues. I was asked to sit on a panel discussion focusing on the religious and moral implications of immigration. Then yesterday, Sharon Pribyl and I attended the dedication of the new church building of the New Jerusalem Samoan Church in Midvale, UT. This is a new congregation of only 8 yrs old and the first real home for this congregation.
The theme of the week that became apparent to me was that of “who are we?” “Where do we come from?” These are very important questions, for unless we know “who we are” and “where we come from” we can find it difficult to live our “present.” One of the prominent memories that I have from my childhood was the reciting of family history at any gathering. I didn’t realize that is was not the norm of most families. As an adult, I am amazed of how many of my friends know very little about their families beyond their grandparents and some of my friends don’t even know much about their grandparents.
What can happen with such limited understanding of where one comes from, is we can feel isolated, or have a sense of not being connected to anything beyond our self. This can open us up to searching for a sense of belonging and of acting and reacting to choices in an effort to feel grounded that might become unhealthy for us.
This is true with the family of God. As followers of Christ, we need information about what Jesus thought, taught, his practices for finding his centeredness, and how he viewed and understood his relationship with God, so that as followers of Jesus, we have some idea of why we do things. If we don’t have any idea about who and what Christ was about, we can end up with developing some very interesting theological understandings, that might not follow what Christ was truly intending for his church.
This is Reformation Sunday, which is the day that the church remembers where it comes from, of its history, so that, as we live in the present we are able to lay courses for the future that are consistent not only with our past but more importantly are consistent with the teachings of Christ. In the Epistle reading this morning, Paul say’s, “Surely you remember…” and concludes with, “…when you received the word of God, which you heard from us…” This is talking about a history, a reminder to the church in Thessalonica that it is a part of a larger church, a greater faith than what is just spoken about and practiced within its own circle. In the Hebrew Scripture reading of the book of Joshua it starts today’s reading with, “And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.” This is coming after the death of Moses and Israel was looking for a new leader, one who would have as close a relationship as Moses had with their God. It was giving a sense of connectedness and more importantly the ability to continue to move forward.
I want to share with you a short film clip from Tyler Perry’s movie: Madea’s Family Reunion. (Show clip)

As this clip shows, “At times we need to be reminded of who we are. Perhaps that's one of the reasons we belong in community: the reminding of who we are, and of who we are called to be, and of how we are to live. Perhaps that's the deepest call beneath much of what we "do" in church and as the church: in the teaching of both adults and children, in the preaching of the gospel, in the singing of hymns, in the breaking of bread and the sharing of cup. We need to be reminded that God's hand has not only shaped us but guides us still and is in fact still at work in the world, through us. It goes much deeper than our friendships and community within our churches. It goes much deeper than the esteem in which we hold our greatest teachers and the respect we give our pastors. It is indeed, who we are.” Sermon seeds by Kathy Huey, UCC Oct 30,2011
We recognize that God works through the world and that God can be found in many places, in many organizations that we would not specifically call “church.” Yet what makes “the church” distinct? And how can we respond when people say, “I don’t need church, because I can find God in other places?” What they are really doing is asking you the question, “what makes church distinct?” “What would I receive that I can’t get anywhere else?” Unless we know who we are, where we come from, we will never be able to adequately answer their question.
In one of the prayers that was lifted up yesterday at the dedication of the new building of the New Jerusalem Samoan Church, I think we can begin to know “what is distinct about a church”.
“Today we dedicate to your lasting service this house of prayer, which reflects the mystery of your church: A temple built of living stones, founded on the apostles and prophets, your Son Jesus Christ its Chief Corner Stone; a city set upon a hill, bright with the glory of your presence and echoing the prayers of your saints. Lord, send your Spirit from heaven to sanctify this place that it may be a sign of your presence among us. Here may the Gospel be proclaimed with boldness. Here may the waters of baptism cleanse and renew us. Here may your people celebrate the memorial of Christ’s risen presence. Here may prayer resound through heaven and earth, as a plea for the world’s reconciliation. Here may the poor find justice, the victims of oppression, true freedom. Here may the sick find healing, and those in darkness and despair find light. From here may your whole creation, clothed in the liberty of the children of God, enter with gladness your city of peace.” Dedication prayer of Jerusalem Samoan UCC, Midvale, UT 10-30-2011
Let us remember throughout this coming week, who we are, so that we may bravely carry forward the proud heritage of our past! So that we will be able to boldly say, “God loves you and so do I!” Let us stand and turn to the person next to you, give them a huge and say, “God loves you and I am here to support you in that love.” Amen

Commandment or Commitment, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 11-23-2011, Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-10-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Commandment or Commitment?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 10/23/2011
Based on Matthew 22: 34-46

This past week I took a Holiday in what people universally call “the windy city”, Chicago! In my opinion, those who call Chicago the “windy city” have never spent any time in SW Wyoming. While I was there, I went to the city of Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, and toured the early home of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Mr. Wright, at the age of twenty-two built his first home, where he and his family lived for about twenty years. This house which later included his working studio is nestled in a beautiful neighborhood of Victorian homes. Mr. Wright built this home around 1890. It was a dramatic break from the stately looking Victorians.
For those of you who are not familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright, he is one of the pioneers of what we would call “the green movement”. He helped reshape the concept that a building should blend in with its environment, not shape its surroundings. He is the father of the style of architecture called “prairie style” homes. After lengthy interviews with you, learning about you as an individual, he would design a home that reflected who you were. Yet his homes of the 1890’s through the 1920’s became what we now call the “norm” in building.
As I was taking a walking tour around the neighborhood, it was very obvious which homes had been either designed or redesigned by Mr. Wright. Next to very handsome Victorian homes, which might have been only five years old, you could see these modernistic, linear style homes designed by Mr. Wright. During my walk, I began to wonder what the established neighbors were saying about this young upstart, building these radically different looking houses in their well groomed traditional looking neighborhood.
Down the street I found two very fine looking traditional looking churches; one was the Methodist Church and the other was a Congregational Church. Then next door to the Congregational Church was the Unity Church, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It didn’t have the majestically upward spiraling look that the other two churches had, rather, the Unity church was low, almost hidden in the landscape with horizontal lines.
On my walking tour, I had a little cassette player that was giving me information about the specific homes that Mr. Wright designed or did additions to. The tour guide also called attention to some of the Victorian and Queen Anne houses that had significant architectural styles of their period which influenced Mr. Wright in his designs, bridging the older concepts with his newer visions.
In many respects, the way that Frank Lloyd Wright looked at architecture and how it was to blend with one’s life and that of nature, is very much how Jesus was with his understanding of how the “laws”, those ten commandments were to be lived out. When confronted by an expert in the law, of which was the most important, Jesus gives them an answer that not only stops his questioning but also reshapes how to look at it. “Instead of reducing the importance of the laws, he paints a picture of them as a coherent whole that “hangs together.” Jesus sees the law very differently than the experts did and his response “undermines the whole notion of the law as rules and regulations. What Jesus claims is that the whole law is about love, not rules, about really loving God and one’s neighbor, not about figuring out how to avoid stepping on cracks in the legal sidewalk.” UCC sermon seeds, Thomas Long.
As we read the story’s of Jesus and how he seems to come up with these outstanding teachings and responses, we tend to think that what he is saying is all original to him, yet much of what Jesus says comes from what is written in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus’ response to “which of the commandments is most important” comes from Deuteronomy 6:“4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
We are coming up to that uncomfortable season of “stewardship”. That time when we talk about money and what to give to the church. Scripture tells us that we are to give 10% of back to God. When we think about what we are pledging to the church, we too often look at it as a “bill”, and the concept of “tithing” (which means 10%) like one of the commandments. “God says, you are to give a tenth of what you earn back to God!” “Now how do I tweak this law, so that I give 10% but don’t have to give actual dollars in that amount? Oh I know, I’ll give my time and do things around the church and for charity and things like that, then I will count that as part of my 10% as “in kind.” This is how the Pharisees would take this commandment and massage it to meet their legal obligations along their desire to spend their money on themselves.
Jesus shared stories to get his listeners to think about what was written in scripture. In this same way, the Rev Kathy Huey, staff person with the national offices of the UCC, shares her story about this question of “greatest commandment”: several years ago, inspired by the witness of two older women, longtime and faithful members of the church who told me their stories of tithing, I decided to take the step of increasing my own giving to the church I loved. Increasing to a tithe (10%) was a challenge but it surprised me that my feelings followed after the action, or after the commitment, if you will. I found that I loved my church more when I gave more to it, much as we love our children more after giving of ourselves to them over many years. So it seems that when we decide to set our hearts in a direction, toward something or someone, and when we do the things that fulfill that commitment, our feelings often follow afterward. The laws of giving and Sabbath and loving, I believe, are God's way of getting us to do what we need to do, what's good for us; these laws give us the direction for setting our hearts. Again, it's a thing of mystery. Ucc sermon seeds, Kate Huey Oct 23,2011 What Kathryn found out is that when she stopped looking at the idea of “tithing” as a commandment, and realized the wholeness of scripture as one of “love”, she then was able to live out her financial giving as a commitment rather than a commandment.
The definition of a commandment is: To direct with authority; give orders to. 2. To have control or authority over. When we read in Deuteronomy 6, “love God with all our heart and soul and strength, and have it on our heart”, the question arises, “How can we be commanded to “love” something or somebody?” A part of our problem with the understanding of the word “love” comes from how abused this word is in our culture. From a biblical sense, the understanding of love, “is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deut. 6:5 demands of us but rather stubborn, unwavering commitment". And commitment can be seen as a setting of the heart, something we choose to do, a way we freely choose to live our lives. Commitment is that mysterious mingling of feeling and action, a beautiful dance between the two. UCC Sermon Seeds, Douglas Hare, Oct 23, 2011 You see, Jesus turns the question of “which is more important” into a commitment instead of a commandment; of a lifestyle not something to wiggle around.
What does it mean to you to “love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul? And then your neighbor as yourself?” Is it a commandment or is it a commitment? Each will determine how we look at what we do with not only our money, but with how we look at social justice, of stewardship of our world, and of how we treat the Sabbath! Amen

Only Ten?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, 10/2/2011

2011-10-02T07:31:00.001-07:00

Only Ten?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 10/2/2011
Based on Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

It is not often that we review the collection of laws that we call the Ten Commandments, but this is the focus of this morning’s reflection. Rev Kathryn Huey writes in this week’s Sermon Seeds, “Every once in a while, the Ten Commandments provoke a measure of controversy in our public life: not about whether we actually obey them and keep them at the heart of our life together, or how they might change the way we live if we observed them. That would be an excellent controversy. No, our national argument tends to be about their display, engraved (ironically) in stone and practically worshipped not for their content but for the message they are assumed to convey, that we are a nation under God, specifically, in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The prominent display of these commandments serves to remind people in other faiths, and atheists as well, about who "we" are, whenever "they" walk into public buildings, regardless of the separation of church and state that protects all of us, however futilely, from religious wars of one kind or another. And yet, we are apparently the ones who need to be reminded of who we are and what it means to live faithfully, for "in recent polls of the American public," Gene Tucker observes, "although the majority affirmed that the Bible is in some way the word of God, only a small percentage could name as many as four of the Ten Commandments" (Preaching through the Christian Year A). If we don't even know what they are, how can we obey them?” So, prior to reading this morning’s scripture, I am going to give you a quiz and have us as a group try to name all Ten Commandments.
In the progression of the story of the Hebrew people, we can recall how they are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was Joseph, the son of Jacob, the one sold off into slavery by his brothers who actually was able to provide a place of refuge and safety for his family as a great famine occurred. So, the descendants of Abraham, found themselves in the land of Egypt, living in security. Then a few generations down the road, they became enslaved by the Egyptians.
Through a man named Moses, God rescued these slaves and guided them through unknown territory, providing protection and food. Eventually they found themselves at the foot of Mt Sinai. It was there that Moses went up to meet with God and received these Ten Commandments. It must have been something to behold for scripture says, “When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance....”
We as a society really dislike the idea of having rules and regulations. We often look to rules, contracts, and covenants as being restrictive, rather than being a freeing agent. When we talk about the concept of “discipline”, we generally think in terms of punitive actions for stepping outside of a set boundary. Yet discipline is needed in order to active a given objective. If we wish to be able to read for example, we have to become disciplined in the alphabet and learning of words in order to be able to read. The same goes with writing or with mathematics or any other activity.
God in many ways is like a parent. We are made in God’s image; therefore, God knows that we operate best with boundaries. In order for us to live life to its best, we need to understand what is best for us. I believe that is what the Ten Commandments are intended to active. We are lucky, Moses only brought down ten from Mount Sinai, by the time Jesus was ministering, there were 613 laws to live by; after the destruction of the Temple there are only 271 laws that can be followed and acted upon as a Jew.
I suspect that most of us feel that we follow the Ten Commandments or rather that we probably don’t really directly violate them. This might be true or it might be that we don’t examine our heart or our actions very closely, thereby think we don’t violate these specific laws that God gave to us.
For example: the first commandment tells us who God is. It is God who brought us up out of Egypt. “What do you mean brought me up out of Egypt? I’ve never stepped foot out of this country, let alone visited Egypt.” Egypt is a metaphor meaning “enslaved”. For folks who have gone through any kind of 12 step program, they will tell you what being a slave to alcohol, sexual abuse, or drug is all about and how their “higher power” has helped bring them out of that slavery, up out of Egypt.
The next commandment is to have no idols. In our affluence as a nation, we are confronted daily with idols. Walter Brueggemann writes powerfully of these temptations: “We have always lived in a world of options, alterative choices, and gods who make powerful, competing appeals. It does us no good to pretend that there are no other offers of well-being, joy, and security. In pursuit of joy, we may choose philosophy, in pursuit of security, we may choose military might; in pursuit of genuine love, we may choose sex. It is clear that these choices are not Yahweh that these are not gods who have ever brought an Exodus or offered a covenant.” UCC Sermon Seeds, Oct 2, 2011
We are told to remember the Sabbath day. This is a word that has become lost in our culture. How many of you tell friends, “I go to church on Sundays?” How many of you say to friends, “On Sundays, I go to worship” instead of using the word “church”? When was the last time you kept the Sabbath? Or maybe more accurately, “what does keeping the Sabbath mean?”
Traditionally it goes back to God working hard for six days and then resting on the seventh day, reflection on all that was created. The Hebrew’s were delivered out of slavery which was a seven day work week and God was asking them to take one day out of the week and keep it holy, so that they could reflect on their relationship to the one who was not only their God, but the one who freed them from their oppression! The word Sabbath means something different than “doing church.”
Now we come to an easy one – don’t commit murder! Yet what happens if you are in the military and we go to war does the killing of the enemy mean murder? Mae West during a confrontation with the HAE’S commission on the topic of “immorality” specifically about her innuendo’s spoke a great truth when she told them, “Sending our boys off to kill one another is immorality!” Yet there are many ways to kill a person without physically killing them. We can kill a child’s spirit by demeaning them on a daily basis; we can kill someone’s character with slander or malicious intent, or even with idol gossip.
Jesus when questioned on which commandment was the greatest, his response was twofold: “Love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul; the other is to love your neighbor as you would love yourself.” That sounds pretty straight forward. Jesus has taken these Ten Commandments and brought them into two basic groups. But what happens if we don’t know how to treat ourselves with respect, or kindness, or with honor, but rather treat ourselves in negative ways that brings harm to ourselves. Are we supposed to treat other people the same way? The truth is we will treat people exactly the way in which we treat ourselves.
What the goal of these commandments is about is to help us focus on life outside of ourselves. It provides disciplines for “best living.” We are to remember, recognize, and then give over ourselves to a power that is greater than ourselves. Once we have done that, we are then able to relate to others in a healthier manor and look at the world through the lens of how God sees each of us. If we can get these Ten Commandments under our belt, I don’t think we would have need of those 613 laws that the Hebrews came up with after the fact! My challenge to you this week is to reread these Ten Commandments and take time to think about how we too often offend them simply because we haven’t taken the time to examine them. Amen.

Is God Hear With Us or Not?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-09-30T19:19:00.001-07:00

Is God Here with Us, or Not?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/25/2011
Based on Exodus 17:1-7 & Matthew 21:23-32

There are two basic concepts that I see being brought out in this morning’s Lection reading: the first deals with the topic of “trust” as used under the umbrella of faith; the second is “authority”, also under the umbrella of faith.
As I process the readings that are selected each week by the Common Lectionary, I quickly come up with a title for what I am going to speak about, and I use this title as the theme for what I reflect to you each Sunday. I usually come up with the title of the message by Tuesday so that Danielle will have it as she prepares the bulletin each week. The title of this reflection is “Is God Here with Us, or Not?” Little did I realize just how many times I would actually be asking myself this question throughout the week. I am not sure how much teaching will come in this week’s reflection as the focus will tend to share more reflections on how the week has progressed.
There are weeks when our lives are just floating along with very little trial and tribulation. Louise Wesswick was sharing with me yesterday about how she has spent a good share of this week in “heaven”, so to speak, through the opportunities of attending three differing events that lifted her spirit beyond her normal weekly activities. When these come, we need to make sure that we savor those times and give thanks for them. These are what are referred to as “Mountain top” experiences. There are however times in our lives when we are not having “heaven” in our experiences, but rather like the Israelites in today’s story have feelings of isolation, possibly a sense if abandonment, or in the midst of great suffering and loss find ourselves asking the question, “Is God Here with Us, or Not?”
When I received word that our church secretary, Danielle Valdez was not going to be able to carry her baby to full term and that her little girl will die upon delivery, I began the process of asking God “why” was this happening to her and Rolando? I was feeling pain for her, as it took me back to a time of the first pregnancy of my wife and I, and the miscarriage that occurred a few weeks after I had become use to the idea of becoming a father. I remember how angry I was with God, and wondering how God could let this happen to the person that I love. Are you here God with us or not?
This past Thursday and Friday, I was in Cody attending the Annual Meeting of the Wyoming Association of Churches. On Thursday afternoon we as a group visited the Museum of the Heart Mountain Interment camp. Personally, I have always had issues with how we as a nation handled our Japanese citizens at the beginning of WWII, but I had no idea of how much anger was inside of me about unjust acts, in general, until I began this tour. If you ever pride yourselves on being an American and that your rights as stated in the Bill of Rights will protect you, go up to this museum and let it challenge that trust in our government and nation as a whole. There were over 110,000 people rounded up from their homes, put behind barbed wire fences for three year plus, most of them second and third generation native born citizens, denied due process of law, because of panic and fear created by the attack of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese government. Where was God during this time of their life’s?
In the story of the Israelites, you have a group of people who have become free after generations of being enslaved by the Egyptians. Moses was called by God to become the person who was to speak to Pharaoh for the Israelites. Moses was the one called by God to give them courage and direction to leave the land of Egypt and move back into a land that God had waiting for them. A staff was given to Moses as a symbol of the authority give to Moses by God. It was through the staff that Moses confronted Pharaoh, it was through the staff that Moses was able to part the waters of the Great Sea. There was a cloud by day that protected them and a pillar of fire by night; when they were hungry and had nothing to eat, God gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening to feed them.
With all these great events that showed the Israelites that God was in their presence, walking along side them, we read once again of how they cry out in despair for water, not remembering how God had set them free. They had forgotten the manna and the quail, that God gave them to eat. They had forgotten how they crossed the sea in safety as the waters parted. When they found themselves without water, they panicked and began to look for a scape goat through Moses, the man whom God had chosen to lead them, and asked, “Is God here with us, or not?”
We haven’t progressed that much from this story. When something goes wrong in our lives, we instinctively look for something or someone to blame our troubles on, forgetting all the blessing that we have received from God in the past, forgetting to remember that even during times of trial, of hurt, lose, and pain, that God is here along side of us, walking each step of the way, even holding us at times when it seems too much to bare.
So, all this discussion has come from Thursday afternoons visit to the Heart Mountain Museum in Cody. Yesterday, Saturday, I again was asking, “Is God here with us, or not?” at the ordination of Martha Atkins, the pastor of Mount of Olives Lutheran Church. In that celebration, it was easy to see God’s presence, as Martha received her ordination, her “authority” to become a called clergy. She had to go through a long process of schooling, of writing papers, of being questioned and interviewed by those who have previously been given authority to make sure that she truly is being called of God into the vocation of ministry.
In some respects, for those of us who have gone through this process, it is easy for us to point to where our authority comes from when asked by someone, “Who gave you the right to stand up there and tell everybody how to live their lives?” “Well, beside the fact that I received a call from God, I have a diploma from a seminary that says I have earned the right, and not only that, but I have had to sit in front of a large group of people, who questioned me about what I have learned, of what I would do in this instance or that instance, I have had people lay their hands on my head and bless me to do the work of the church, that is where my authority comes from.”
Jesus didn’t have it quite so easy. He didn’t go through the accredit schools, he certainly didn’t have the support of the Pharisees or other temple priests. He didn’t have a staff like Moses, in which he could wave in front of everyone and show that God gave him the authority. Jesus had been baptized by the prophet John to do ministry. He had a healing ministry to show his authority, he was able to help people leave a life filled with sin or of being possessed by demons and become a whole person again. When questioned about situations, he spoke answers that brought truth about God and the things God desires most for us.
In the parable that Jesus presented to the Pharisees in support of his actions, he asked which son was the “good son?” Of course, the one who did what his father had asked. What Jesus was telling the Pharisees, as well as us, is lip service isn’t what being a good child of God is about. Rather it is in the actions of what we do, that are pleasing to God. When we sit silently and watch injustices being done, or even being spoken, we are no better than the son who said yes and never did anything.
We can grumble and kick our heals all we want when we are challenged with what God is asking. We can even say “No”, but eventually if we want to be the people that God is asking of us to be, then we will have to open our hearts to listening and then incorporate what the Holy Spirit teaches us. Fear and panic is not the life of Gods people. Oh we may cry out “Is God here with us or not” but the fact that we are crying out to God, means that we trust God to hear us, not only in our pain, but also in our joys. Amen.

Assumptions are Planned Resentments, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/18/2011

2011-09-18T08:22:00.001-07:00

Assumptions are Planned Resentments
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/18/2011
Based on Matthew 20:1-16

This past week, I read an article in the Christian Century titled, “Why sermons bore us.” It seems that for centuries, sermons have not held to the expectations of those who come to listen to them. The question then becomes, “why do we still insist on having the sermon as the focal point of the Worship experience?” The author of this article presents this observation: We joke about boring sermons, but often it is we who are boring – and bored. We say that sermons have bored us when actually they have disappointed us, failing to be the alternative word we need, failing to be the speech that arises not from our own meager entertainments but from the life of the Spirit. “We are bored, when we don’t know what we are waiting for.” One thing we are waiting for is for preachers who feel the strong wind, who sense the heights above them and the abyss below and take a deep breath and preach a life-changing gospel. Christian Century, Sept 6, 2011 pg31
This quote implies that for those of us who site on the far side of the pulpit assume that the responsibility of making scripture alive and exciting falls directly upon the person who is on this side of the pulpit. I would have to agree that in reality, this statement is true, but I have deep concers as to the health of a congregation where this is true. For a number of decades, the church in this country has structured itself as hiring the leadership and allowing the work of the church to lie upon those hired. If the church is growing, then it seems like a good thing, but if the church isn’t growing, then the poor performance report fall on the shoulders of those hired and does not include any responsibility on the part of the congregation. Another way to look at this, would be observing a congregation that has grown because of the pulpit skills of the pastor, a pastor who has exciting sermons, yet when that pastor leaves, the church suffers a great loss in attendance. This happens because the concept of “lay-ministry” did not take root during the time of the strong pulpit.
While hearing about the scripture might be boring, when it comes to reading scripture, I cannot believe that anyone would find what they read boring! Each week as I read and contemplate the suggested Lectionary readings, I am not only challenged with by what I read and of its meanings, for me, or for this church, or for the larger community of Rock Springs, but I find an excitement that comes through these stories. There is always something challenging to me, as well as ever changing, in finding something new in a well read parable. The point being, it is in the action of personally reading, the action of personally studying the scripture that makes it exciting. When we are not actively engaged, then we can become bored in what we hear.
As assumptions of what a sermon is supposed to do in order not to be disappointing or boring, assumptions can also lead to resentments, very much like what we have read about this morning. This morning’s parable about the “workers in the field” is another parable that assaults our 21st century sensibilities.
Here we see a landlord, hiring workers to work in his field; an agreed wage is set with those first workers and they go out and start working their little hearts out. Periodically during the day, the landlord see’s others who need work and also invites them into the labor force; here we do not see a discussion upon wages being agreed upon, it seems that just the opportunity to work is enough. Then at the last hour of work, those who are still unemployed are also invited into the field to work. Everybody seems to be happy until it comes time to receive their wages for their work. Those who worked only for the last hour were paid first, in front of those who had worked all day long. Seeing those who worked only an hour receiving a wage equal to what they had agreed upon by those who hired on in the morning, lead them to believe that they would receive a greater amount than what had previously been discussed. When they receive the agreed upon amount of wages, which was the same as those who had worked only an hour of the day, they became very resentful and were quite angry with the landlord for treating those last workers as equal to them.
Of course we cannot look at this parable as a literal understanding of employer/employee relationships. First off, this is a parable, which by definition means “a story” not meant to be factual, but rather to reveal a truism. Secondly, if we were to take this story as factual, we would simply have to not deal with it, because it goes against all of our understanding about how economics works both as an employer and as the employed.
The meaning them of course points to the understanding of how God treats each person; it is a story of who gets “in” and an implication that no one is left out. This is where we start to have problems with what Jesus is sharing with us. My former mother-in-law use to say to me, “you know, most of us Christians are going to be very surprised at who we will see in heaven!” That is the cruxes of this story. This parable relates closely with the story about the Prodigal Son, where the older brother who stays home and works, resents the generosity of his father. He resents his father, as well as his younger brother. Is this not a primary issue that we all must face?
As I visit with folks who no longer attend worship, anywhere, the overall theme that I hear come from “being disappointed” by either the pastor, or by the behavior of someone in the congregation, or of the members as a whole. Assumptions are planned resentments! When we assume something and when that assumption isn’t fulfilled in the manner that is expected, then resentment occurs. There seems to be an assumption that every pastor is “Omnipresent”, that is, when a person becomes ordained into ministry that they somehow become all knowing about what is going on in every person’s life. “Well, the pastor never came up to the hospital to visit me when I was sick.” “The pastor never came and visited with me when I really needed her, while going through my divorce.” Most of the time, the poor pastor wasn’t even aware of the hospitalization; same way about the private things going on in the life of each person in the congregation.
In this parable, the workers first hired to work, forget by the end of the day, that they too started out unemployed and become envious of those who were employed later in the day when they receive the same amount of wages. Instead of being thankful for the opportunity to work, envy becomes the focus. Do we find ourselves at times like those workers who were first hired, of being envious of another’s generosity, or gifts, of another’s talents, or abilities, possessions, social status and so on?
Over the past few weeks I have been presenting the Gospel, I hope in a true form that speaks to the forgiveness of God to all peoples, of the hope and gift of life eternal, because of the cross which Jesus died upon, a forgiveness of all people’s sins. Tonight 6 p.m., we start a study of the book Rev Rob Bell published, “Love Wins”, which continues the discussion about assumptions of who gets into heaven and who doesn’t. This book address the basic issue that we within the church can fall prey to, that of feeling we deserve something more than everyone else, because we see ourselves as being entitled over others that we perceive less deserving.
One of the problems with resentments that come because of envy is that it diminishes our own gifts and talents and secretly robs others of theirs. It is God who is the giver of every good gift, whether it is ours or someone else’s. The reality is that all of us benefit from gifts, whether it is a gift that we personally possess or whether it is a gift that someone else has. For when we allow these gifts to be presented, then everybody wins! Are we unable to celebrate another’s gift because we are not able to celebrate the gift that we have received? How often are we ungrateful for God’s graciousness and mercy? How often do we deny God’s love and forgiveness not in the life’s of others, but in our own life?
This is a hard parable to accept, because it goes against our humanness in the way that we have been conditioned in our society of economics and of competition that “capitalism” is based upon. We easily can fall into the trap of thinking that some of us are saved while others are not, solely because we feel entitled and view others as not being up to “our” standards. The other side of this coin is that we may feel that we are not worthy enough to deserve the gift and grace of God, which would keep us outside of the field and not enjoying the freedom to use the gifts that God has already given to us. This story is about the Love of God toward all of us! It is about how we are seen as equals in the eyes of God. Our challenge is to then look at each other and see what God see’s in each of us! Amen

The Word is Love, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, by Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-09-05T12:46:00.001-07:00

The Word is Love
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/4/2011
Based on Matthew 18:15-20 and Romans 14:8-14

Last week I closed the message with these following statements and questions:”As people who say we are followers of Christ, we need to look at our actions … and compare them to what Christ teaches and how Christ acted toward those who tried to do harm to him. “How do we not repay evil with evil? How do we reconcile, not taking revenge when wronged? How do we truly ‘bless’ those who persecute us?
The quest for the Christian is to define their life by the standards that Christ laid out within his ministry. The road to peace is far more difficult than the road to revenge. We are called to live in genuine love, to hate what is evil but to not address evil with evil. Finally, we are a people called to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer.” From sermon titled: Defining Your Life, by Rev Steven R Mitchell
This week’s lectionary text continues this discussion of “How do we act when wronged?” Matthew brings this point down to conflict within the church when it occurs between two individuals. It states, “15-16"If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend.” Matthew then says if that person doesn’t respond, then you are suppose to again approach this person but this time with several other members of the church, so they can verify everything that is being said. This way, you have witnesses and you don’t get into a public fight with the “He says, I say” arguments. Again, if the perpetrator isn’t mending their way, then you are to bring this church member before the whole body and if the offender still refuses to listen, then we are told: ” if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
I don’t know how this particular section of Matthew strikes you when you read it, but this last Monday when I was starting my preparation for today, terror struck my heart. Every church has struggled with members who seem to be willful in their actions, meaning that they feel that they are above the rest of the assembly. If it isn’t hard enough to try to deal with situations such as this, then it is compounded with that little caveat, “if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” In truth, this is the part of Matthew that I found very difficult to deal with. Many churches, if they practice church discipline take this section and use it as a club to try and beat into submission the person that is accused.
What I see in this reading is the potential abuse on the part of the larger church body. Many churches have read the segment that says, “To treat them like pagans or tax collectors” to mean, excommunicate this person who isn’t changing their behavior. When this direction from Matthew is taken, the church has created an adversarial environment which often can escalate into an explosive situation and more than the original two people find themselves entangled, creating many more victims from the original “wrong.” The truth of the matter is: any disciplinary action by the church should be redemptive, not punitive, in intent. Feasting on the Word, Mitchell G. Reddish
Excommunication and/or exclusion type of behavior is punitive action, not redemptive or an act of reconciliation.
If we take this same line of scripture and listen to how Eugene Peterson understands it in his translation of The Message, we read a differing approach: If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love. In other words, we are to continually be in fellowship with this type of person, showing a love and forgiveness that Jesus himself showed those who mistreated him. In Romans, Paul says it this way: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Among the many things that Paul tells us which can rule our physical bodies, hate and need for revenge, are two of the most powerful feelings that we deal with as humans. We are just a week away from the 10th Anniversary when 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets and brought down both towers of the World Trade Center, penetrated a section of the Pentagon and the fourth planed crashed in a field not reaching its objective because of the actions of the passengers. There has been a tremendous amount of programming on Television this past week on the topic. Some programs being aired focus in such a way as to promote a continuation of being a victim of these actions, and in essence allowing ourselves to be held hostage by the Al Qaeda. Other programs are presenting topics that focus on constructive actions that provide healing from this violence and the ability to move beyond being a victim toward providing space that allows for healing and hopes for a future that will promote peace. One of these ways is with the building of two fountains, one at the base of the North Tower, the other at the base of the South Tower, in a park setting, with the names of every person who lost their life that day.
This past Monday I attended a seminary/retreat in Colorado, which focused on how to diminish the destructive nature of “Them vs. Us”, specifically between the Muslim and Christian world, but this can be applied to any situation where we find ourselves in an adversarial situation, just like what Matthew is speaking to this morning. The key speaker was Dr Mirslov Volf, Professor of Theology at Yale’s School of Theology. Dr. Volf is one of our leading Theologians of the twenty-first century. Mirslov comes from a most interesting background. He is a Croatian, raised by a father who was a Pentecostal minister, in Serbia, had a Serbian nanny, all under the old Communist USSR. He spent most of his years during military service being interrogated because of his father’s profession, being seen as a potential enemy of the state.
Mirslov is a strong voice directed to the church, calling us to conduct ourselves as Christ has taught us in how to live. He spent much time discussing his involvement over the past decade in finding common ground within Christianity and Islam. He spoke about how the same miss-information about Christians is being feed to the Muslim world as we hear miss-information about Muslims in our country. I would also like to point out that, on Sept 11, 2001, Mirslov had just finished his concluding statements to a group of people in one of the conference rooms in the North Tower, when the first plane flew into the Trade Center. So when this man is talking about how anti-Muslim propaganda goes against our call by Christ to seek out peace, he is not just a professor who lives behind the doors in an Ivy tower, but was at ground zero that morning of the attacks, and what he shares with the wider Christian community should be listened to with much respect and reflection.
Coming back then to how I struggled with our lesson in Matthew, that of applying Matthews formula as solutions for discord within the community of faith, I already have shared that we are not suppose to approach these situations with censure and punitive intent. We are in fact told by Matthew to keep plugging away in love in relating to those who seem to create ill feelings. This of course can only truly be practiced when we, as Paul has put it, have put on the Lord Jesus Christ!
So the first step, as suggested by Mirslov, is to make ourselves open in order to provide the atmosphere that is needed for reconciliation. In Mirslov’s book, Exclusion and Embrace, he explains this concept with a simple illustration. 1) We must be able to embrace the other person. So the first act is that of “self-opening” our self, so that we are creating an invitation, an invitation that has created space for union. 2) There is waiting. We have created the invitation, but we must wait for the other person to respond to this invitation, by opening up our arms, there by becoming vulnerable and having the ability to embrace. Our hope is that they too will create space for this union, which means that they too also must open their arms in order to embrace each other. By forcing an embrace you have actually excluded that person, because you have not allowed that person to be their self. You might be hugging them but you are not embracing them. You have “assimilated” this person into your being, but by not allowing them to be their self, you have not “embraced” that person. 3) Once this person has chosen to enter into this “embrace” then we have the closing of the arms. It is affirming their presence as the other person also affirms being there. 4) Once we have had this embrace, we must open back up the arms to let the other person go back to being who they are. This allows for individuality to continue for both persons.
“Exclusion” is by nature the creative act that allows for individualism. It is the boundaries that I set up for myself, that allows me to be who I am and to exist within my space. This is the proper aspect of exclusion, of boundaries. However, we can create excluding acts when we violate a person’s boundaries. We can exclude a person when we assimilate them into our reality.
This is how I think we have to look at what Matthew is trying to teach us, in approaching conflict within the church body. We want to be able to create the space for union. We do not try to assimilate, because that is violating that person and there is no true union.. As Jesus told his disciples in last week’s text, “for what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but loses his life?” What happens to our soul is far more important than what happens to our bodies. As Paul tells us, “All the commandments, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”
“How do we not repay evil with evil? How do we reconcile, not taking revenge when wronged? How do we truly ‘bless’ those who persecute us?” By loving our neighbor as Christ has loved us. As we stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, we have to come to realize and then embrace the truth that Christ died for every sin that has been committed, he died for every sin that will be committed in the future. The sin of those 19 men, of 10 years ago has already been forgiven by God. Those sins that each of us do to one another, has been forgiven by God. Sin separates us from one another, so if that sin has been forgiven by God, then we as followers of Christ must create the invitation for reconciliation between one another. It means making no provisions for the flesh to gratify its desires (that of revenge or hate). The word is Love. Amen

Defining Your Life, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/28/2011 by Rev Steven Mitchell

2011-09-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Defining Your Life
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/28/2011
Based on Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28

Earl Nightingale, an early twentieth century motivational speaker often said, “People don’t plan to fail, they just simple fail to plan.” This is not true about the person of Jesus, as we read in this week’s lection reading of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus had very intentional plans, in which he shared with his disciples about what his future was to be, as well as stating what the results would be of those plans. He said he must go to Jerusalem, where he will undergo great suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, and be killed. The result of these events would however allow him to rise from death. At this Peter, who just last week we learned had been given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, didn’t want to hear what Jesus was telling him and tried to sway Jesus into not taking this course of action. Jesus then calls Peter, “Satan”, telling Peter that he is a stumbling block to Jesus; for Peter was setting his mind not on divine things but on human things.
Many of us are much like Peter, wanting to have direction, but when given the plan, don’t like what we hear and resist following what has been presented. Congregations are very much like this. They hire a minister, expecting the minister to create plans that will help the congregation move out of the rut they have found themselves in. But when the pastor lays out the plan that he has been hired to do, and after explaining the costs both financially and physically this plan is going to require, the congregation begins to voice concerns much like Peter, say things like, “We can’t do that, that is too difficult, it is too much work and it is too expensive.” In essence they have hired a leader, but don’t wish to be lead, because they don’t like hearing what it takes to move from point A to point B.
Jesus then explained to his disciples, “If you want to become my followers, you have to deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow me. If you don’t, then you will lose what you want to accomplish. This “picking up my cross” might sound simple, but just what does it actually mean?
When I was a child, I exasperated my parents a great deal because I was always asking questions. When they would give me a task to do, I often followed up with the basic, “who, what, why, when, where, and how” questions. They perceived that I was being defiant when asking these question, which I really wasn’t. In general, I tried to please my parents, but in order for me to know that I was accomplishing what they wanted me to, I generally needed more information than what they would initially give me.
In Romans, Paul, gives us some very practical instruction as to the “what, where, why, who, when, and how” to Jesus’ remark about “picking up our cross and follow him”, with a whole laundry list of behaviors that we are to not just strive toward but do, do specifically toward those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. “9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. “ Okay, these things sound pretty normal as to the way we are to act toward other Christians. It is pretty much the same type of behavior that parents would teach their children in how to act toward their brothers and sisters. Well, that is something that I can buy into, after all, if you are in a church setting, we should all be able to play nicely with one another, should we not.
But then comes the part of the lesson that isn’t so easy for most of us to buy into. Paul switches from how we are to act toward other Christians, to how we are supposed to respond to outsiders, to strangers who are not like us, even to the bad guys. 14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." Generally, this is where most of us will throw down the cross. This is the part that we don’t like to hear and can become very anger and even nasty.
We are coming up on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, an event that has changed how we live in this country. That act by a group of terrorists has created an atmosphere where we now treat people who look differently than us with great suspicion.
Scott Bader-Saye, a teacher at the Episcopal Seminary of the southwest, writes in this week’s issue of the Christian Century, “Ten years later, I think the most significant change that occurred on 9/11 was that America became a victim, and since that day we have faced the moral hazards of negotiating that status. The moral challenge for the victim comes in the temptation to use one’s suffering as a shield to deflect moral questions, to say, ‘never again’ and to whisper under one’s breath, ‘whatever it takes.’ Victimhood becomes a kind of moral currency that justifies one’s actions in advance.
Vice President Dick Cheney gave voice to this logic a few days after the attacks, declaring that the U.S. had to ‘work the dark side,’ using any means at our disposal and without any discussion.” Ten years later, we continue to bear the bitter fruit of that decision: Muslims in the U.S. continue to face persecution, mosques are viewed with suspicion, Guantanamo Bay continues to operate, torture remains a political tool, and we are no closer to peace in the Middle East.
Jesus does not allow Christians to take refuge in the blank check of “what-ever it takes.” We are called to test our own actions and maintain our own faithfulness, to notice the log in our own eye even when we have been wronged. This is not to blame the victim but rather to understand that the victim remains a moral agent and that the logic of “there is no alternative” only provides cover for those unwilling or unable to imagine alternatives. Ten years later, the church must offer and embody the alternatives that our political leaders have refused.
The church’s capacity to respond to an event like 9/11 is formed long before the event in all the small ways we learn to practice patience, love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness. It is these practices that we need ten years later to empower our witness for peace and reconciliation.”
Now I do not know where you might stand on the actions that we took after 9/11, but we must realize that those actions have put us at war for eight years, with much loss of life, property, and resources on all sides, and has lead to our borrowing unimaginable amounts of money from other countries that puts us at peril for national security as well. These actions turned us away from looking at ourselves in an introspective and constructive manner that might have helped in the future to overt future wars; the need of looking at the log in our eye, so to speak.
As people who say we are followers of Christ, we need to look at our actions as a nation as well as on a personal level and compare them to what Christ teaches and how Christ acted toward those who tried to do harm to him. There are some very deep questions that need some serious discussions: How do we not repay evil with evil? How do we reconcile not taking revenge when wronged? How do we truly ‘bless’ those who persecute us?
Our challenge through this lesson is to understand the tension between living of the world (abiding and going along with the standard of the day) verses living in the world as a people called to live by a radical standard called for by Christ.
The quest for the Christian is to define their life by the standards that Christ laid out within his ministry. The road to peace is far more difficult than the road to revenge. We are called to live in genuine love, to hate what is evil but to not address evil with evil. Finally, we are a people called to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer. Amen

Who Has the Keys?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/21/2011, Rev Steven R Mitchell

2011-08-21T07:39:00.001-07:00

Who Has the Keys?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, 8/21/2011
Based on Matthew 16:13-20

How many keys do you have on your key ring? Do you have more than one ring to which you keep keys on? Do you know which key works on what lock? I actually still carry around a few keys to locks that no longer exist. It was once said that you could tell the importance of a person by the number of keys that he or she possessed.
Keys are very important. They give you access to what’s on the “other side” of the door. Many people will give a spare key to their house to a friend or family member. When you are dating an individual and you are given a key to their house or apartment, you are being told that you now have access to their personal space. A key represents “trust” in the individual who holds it.
Every parent of a Teenager goes through one of the worst days of their lives when asked to give their child the “keys” to the car. Before handing over the keys, we start taking mental inventory, “does this child have the maturity to handle this tin can that has the capability to go 100 mph or more?” “Will my child really focus on the serious task of driving on a public street?” “How many stop lights and stop signs are there between here and there?” And the list continues to go on as you surrender your keys to the trusting hands of your child.
I wonder if Jesus really understood what he was doing when he was turning over the keys of heaven to Peter! Peter, who tended to react to situations. Peter, who often spoke without thinking about what he was saying. The same Peter who loses focus when given a task; remember what happened when he started to walk on water, he sank when he started to look around. Just a few verses back in Matthew, Jesus calls Peter “Satan” for setting his mind on human things instead of the divine. Peter was constantly missing the point and even ended up denying knowledge of Jesus when Jesus most needed the support of his friends. How does someone give the keys to the kingdom of heaven and build the church upon them with a track record like Peter’s? Clearly Peter’s authority is not based on his rightness or righteousness. Then what is its basis?
Back at the beginning of this passage, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”(v 13) Their response seems to depend on what particular faction they are a part of – whether they are partial to John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet. In the Protestant church today, people might respond by interpreting Jesus through the lens of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Karl Barth, Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Graham, or even Marcus Borg. The tendency, in other words, is for people to project onto Jesus their particular cultural, theological, and denominational allegiances.
In the next verse, however, Jesus responds by making the question to his disciples more pointed: “But who do you say that I am?” (v.15) Simon Peter, as he often does, speaks first and replies, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (v.16) Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (v.17-18)Feasting on the Word, YR A, Vol. 3, pg 382
Peter did not receive this promotion, if you will, because he had the answer that Jesus was looking for, but rather, Jesus was responding to Peter by what his “testimony” was about Jesus! Peter wasn’t describing Jesus by his theological understanding, but rather by the experiences he had had with Jesus. It was because of what was in his heart, not in his head, that Jesus singled Peter out to give the “keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” too.
Over the last couple of millennia, Christians have been arguing the point as to the meaning of Peter being the foundation that the church is built upon. In the Roman Catholic tradition, it is believed that Peter, through the response that we just read by Jesus, literally gives Peter the authority of Christ, here on earth, and in turn, each succeeding Pope receives this direct authority over the church.
I personally look at what Jesus said to Peter, from the understanding that it was not Peter himself that the church is built upon, but rather it is the “faith” to which Peter was “testifying” about Christ, that is the foundation in which the church was built upon and continues to be built upon today. This then makes the church a living organism that survives because of its “profession” of Christ, which can only come through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the United Church of Christ, we would say the church is alive today because of the Ever Speaking God!
We call ourselves the “Church of Christ”; we as part of this church carry the “keys to the kingdom of heaven”, pretty impressive isn’t it! When you look at your key ring, do you see the key to heaven there? What does it look like? What do the doors look like that this key open? Do you believe that you and you alone are the rock, the foundation in which Jesus is building up his church?
Jesus told Peter that even the gates of Hades, would not be able to stop this church. Do you believe this? I mean, do you really believe that the First Congregational Church of Christ is a part of this reality and that it will never die? Just last year, we experienced the death of one of our sister churches in this community. Why did that church not survive? The “gates of Hades” that Jesus is referring to here is not the image of “hell” but rather it refers to a physical death. So why do some churches burst at the seams while others are withering on the vine? Do not all churches hold the keys to the kingdom?
Jesus was asking a very important question to the disciples when he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” We need to be asking that question of First Congregational, “Who do people of Rock Springs say that we are?” Are we seen as a social group? Are we seen only through the eyes of the annual bazaar? Are we seen as a non-biblical people? Are we seen as a church that is open to all peoples? Are we seen as a spiritual people?
The rock that Christ was speaking about is not founded in a person of Peter, but rather it is founded in the Testimony that we have about who Christ is. “Who do you say that I am?” This is the question that Jesus asks each of us. Whether we have the key to the kingdom of heaven will be revealed in our answer to Jesus’ question. Who do you say Jesus is? The answer isn’t found in theology. The answer is found deep within your heart. Amen

Even the Crumbs, First Congregational UCC, WY 8-14-2011

2011-08-15T07:15:00.001-07:00

Even the Crumbs
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/14/2011
Based on Matthew 15:21-28

What is your “image” of Jesus of Nazareth? Is this reading from Matthew consistent with your image of what the Son of God’s actions are supposed to be? If not, then what is making this reading inconsistent with what we are reading in the Gospel? How would you react if you went up to Jesus and asked for help and was treated in the manor as this Canaanite woman was treated by Jesus? Would you continue to badger him for help or would you turn around and as Jesus himself said to his disciples that “if you are not received in a community dust the dirt off your sandals and leave that town?” Today’s lesson is dealing with “outsiders” and the topic of “who is really welcomed
Every so often, we here in the United States get a dose of this story as we struggle with whom is considered equal. From 1950 – 1980’s we labeled this story, “the civil rights movement.” Since 1976 thru now, a major segment of the church has labeled this story, “the gay agenda.”
I think another upcoming label to this story is going to be labeled “Migratory habits of aliens” and I don’t mean those beings from outer space. As followers of Christ, we Christians have to translate what we read in scripture in order to help make what we read relevant to us. Specifically, when we read words such as “Israel” we generally translate that to mean, the Christian church. We do this because the word “Israel” as used in scripture is generally the vehicle in which God interacts with Creation.
When Jesus was telling the Canaanite woman that, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus was indicating that Israel meant “those who are called by God.” It would translate to us as saying, “I was sent only to those lost sheep of Christianity.” It is also true that as we read scripture, we within the church, take on the teachings of Jesus, his actions, and his temperament to be a path in which we are to follow. Jesus says, “Love one another”, we try to incorporate that within our lives; Jesus says, “feed my sheep”, again we work at providing food for the hungry. With this understanding in mind, does today’s reading provide a loop hole in which we can use to deny someone or some peoples group and not be held to the basic teachings that in general Jesus has taught during his ministry? Are we really allowed to see some people as being on the level of an unwanted “dog?” Are we able to turn our backs on some who cry for help?
It would seem Jesus was doing this; at least at the beginning of the text. There are however some interesting aspects of this story that need to be brought into light. First off, Jesus was not in an area where the general population were Jewish. Rather, he was truly in a foreign region, a region of Tyre and Sidon, which was home to Gentiles. It would be as if Jesus was in Mexico, still in North America, but out of the United States. Jesus was the foreigner not the woman who came up to him seeking help. This interchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman reminds me of the “ugly American” image that has developed with those Americans who feel privileged and empowered, who while visiting in a foreign country, are offended by the customs of that country and vocalize to the locals the idea that the way we do things in the United States is the correct and proper behavior and that they, the locals, need to change to accommodate the tourist.
Matthew just doesn’t say to us that a woman came up to him and started shouting. This woman was a “Canaanite woman”. This is a powerful word to any Israelite. The use of this word brings up images of “ungodliness”, of “idol sacrifices” and “idol worship”. It would bring up images of Elijah the prophet and his quest to help bring back the Hebrew leadership to worshiping the true God of Israel and not the god of Queen Jezebel, which was Baal, which was one of the stories that the children studied this last month in VBS. The prophets of Baal and Elijah had a show down on which god was more powerful. After an all day frenzy by the priests of Baal to bring down fire to accept their sacrifice, nothing happened. Then Elijah, after preparing his sacrifice to God, upped the ante by pouring water, not once, not twice, but three times on the wood, making it so wet, that it could not be light by fire. Then prayed to God and God sent down a blaze of fire, consuming the offering as well as the alter itself. Meaning God accepted Elijah’s offering.
Today, a large portion of the church would use words that are just as highly charged as did Matthew, when they say, “the Homosexual agenda”. The word Homosexual brings up tremendously negative feelings to many people when they hear it. It is a proven fact that when the topic of who should serve in the military was discussed, when the word “gay” men and women was used, the majority polled were favorable, but when the word “homosexual” was used the polls showed a far less support about “those” people serving as defenders of our country. The word Canaanite was just as explosive to the first generation of readers of the Gospel of Matthew.
The disciples were highly bothered by this Canaanite woman, crying out to Jesus to help her daughter. They were obviously not able to get rid of her and so they ask Jesus to send her away. At first, Jesus even ignores her cries for help. But out of persistence, he finally sits down and tries to reason with her, saying that his mission was only for those who God counts worthy.
That’s a shocker! Does this statement mean that there are truly those who are counted as favored by God and the rest are going to hell? Undeterred this mother continues to beg Jesus to help heal her daughters illness. Then Jesus actually likens her, solely because of her being a Canaanite, to that of a dog! “It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs.” And she once more responds with, “You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table.”
I would like to point out that this story comes after a serious of stories where Jesus is confronting the Pharisees over questions of ritual purity and obedience to the law of God, and Jesus quoting from Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy not sacrifices.” Jesus is now being confronted with exactly what he had been chastising the Pharisees of doing. It is a story of a woman putting a mirror up to Jesus’ face and calling him on his own prejudices and limited scope of what and to who his mission was about. Finally, as I understand this story, Jesus has an epiphany as to who is equal in the sight of God. It isn’t just about who gets help, who we in the church give assistance to, but rather a point of “who is equal in the eyes of God”, which translates for us, “who do we see as equal”, as “brothers and sisters – as family?” This is a profoundly important message to the church! It is a profoundly important message to us – are we truly seeing even the most undesirerable of our society as being not just acceptable to receive the word, the love of God, but truly “acceptable” to God?
I mentioned earlier that the civil rights movement was one of those labels for the Canaanite woman. Much of America feels that we have moved into an era of being less racist, yet I hear language being used every day that says we are still struggling with racism; if you don’t believe me, then who comes to your mind when I use the word “terrorist?” If your first thoughts are “Arabs”, “Muslims”, “Iraqis”, or “Afghanistan’s” then you are thinking as a racist. There is a population of people who are crying out to the church to be let in and accepted as children of God, and yet the church fears them and sees them as undeserving of God love or being equal. Yet they are still marching, still raising their voices, asking the church to have “mercy” on them, to welcome them as brothers and sisters.
Our text today is truly speaking about God desiring “mercy over sacrifice”. Sacrifice is form and doctrine; mercy is love, acceptance, and equality. God is telling us, that every person, regardless to race, social standing, educational level, sexual orientation, even mental illness is equal in God’s kingdom. It is a challenge to us to recognize that “even the crumbs” are there for everyone. In reality, if we can come to such an understanding and reconciliation within our own hearts, then there will be no need to discuss who gets the crumbs for everyone will be eating at the table. Amen

Why Do You Doubt?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8-7-2011

2011-08-07T07:22:00.001-07:00

Why Do You Doubt?
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/7/2011
Based on Matthew 14:22-33

Last week we struggled with the concept of preparing enough food for five thousand plus with only five loaves of bread and two fish. For some of us the idea of a truly physical multiplication of these meager items might seem too impossible, as it goes against natural reasoning. On the other hand, if we look at that particular story as understanding the concept of taking what we do have and trusting it will be the start of something bigger, then the feeding of the five thousand plus is more understandable.
This week, the story that we are studying, seems to be even more unbelievable. You have the disciples once again out on their own, in the middle of the sea and finding themselves in the midst of a storm. Scared half out of their wits, they then see a man who appears to be walking on the water. Of course, it would be very natural for any one of us, seeing this same scene to image that what we were seeing was either a mirage or possibly a ghost walking on the water.
In the midst of this fear, Jesus hears the disciples crying out and so Jesus spoke to them saying, “Hey guys don’t be afraid, it’s just me, walking out here on the water, during this really bad storm, with the strong winds and the waves crashing all around me.” Evidently, Jesus wasn’t convincing enough, because nobody really seems to believe that it was Jesus. After all, it isn’t everyday that you see someone walking on the water. Usually, you would find them swimming at best. What was he wearing, sandals that had little life preservers that inflated, allowing him to be walking on the water. And what keep him from being knocked down by the waves as they came crashing up against his body. No, I think I would rather stick with assuming what I was seeing and hearing was a ghost.
Yet Peter decided to give Jesus a challenge saying, “If you really are Jesus, then command me to come to you, for if you command me, then I too will be able to walk on the water.” Although scripture doesn’t say this, I can imagine that Jesus extended his arm and held out his hand and simply said to Peter, “Come.” So Peter, trusting in Jesus, gets out of the boat, leaving the rest of the disciples on board, watching Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. Peter gets a good distance from the boat, and then he probably starts to think to himself, “What in the Egyptian Dessert am I doing? No man can walk on top of water. I don’t care if Jesus did tell me to come to him, it’s humanly impossible for me to be outside of the boat, walking on water, what am I thinking about?” At which point Peter takes a dunk into the sea, and he probably isn’t a very good swimmer either. As he is bobbing up and down like an apple in a barrel, he cries out to Jesus, “Save me, Lord.”
Jesus reaches out and grabs Peter, pulling him up out of the water. I have a sneaking idea, that Peter was probably saying a few choice words to Jesus, inquiring as to what made Jesus think he, Peter, could possibly walk on water. Then Jesus responds with, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus pretty much drags Peter over to the boat and throws him back in, and once Jesus himself got into the boat, the storm stopped and the sea became calm.
Then scripture tells us that those in the boat worshipped Jesus saying, “Truly you are the Son of God!” So, this makes a really good story line for children in Sunday school or an Indiana Jones style movie, but what could it possibly be saying to us, especially those of us who don’t live by water, who don’t like to get into boats, and have no intension of trying our luck at walking on water.
Have you ever started in a direction and at some point wondered if you had made the best choice? This story talks about our human nature and how easily we can become disoriented, confused, and have the sense that we are lost. It is a story about how at times we don’t recognize God being with us, because God’s presence doesn’t fit into our “perception of reality”. It is a story of how we often decide upon an activity or path and as we get into it, encounter problems or rough times, and we begin to doubt ourselves and then many times stop what we have set out to do, because we don’t have the faith in what we are trying to achieve.
A common scenario for a church would be to embark on an intentional growth program. Everyone decides that being intentional in going out to recruit new members is what the church is being asked to do by God. So, the excitement is there, everyone has studied really hard on how to go out and invite new people into the church. There has to be some new programs started so that the new members will have things of interest to study and learn once they come. Then after about a year or two, the recruiting has paid off, and about a third or more of the church consists of new members.
But then the long term members start to realize that with all these new people, things are starting to change. There are new ideas and new ways of looking at things. Eventually, it becomes obvious that many of these new folks are wanting to work on church boards, which means that those who use to have the main voice in what was happening, no longer had that strong of say in business meetings. The long term members start to panic and begin to act out in behaviors that actually drives away the new members and then one day, the church which started out with a direction from God, finds itself once again sinking, because when the storm of change came, they got scared and lost faith in what they were wanting to accomplish.
I struggled this week with the conversation between Peter and Jesus, particularly over the word “command” which was the word Peter used in order to make sure that the person he was seeing out on the water truly was Jesus. After all, if Jesus is the son of God and he commands, then I will be able to do what he says. I struggled because Jesus simply said, “come”. There was no command by Jesus, but rather an invitation. There seemed to be an inconsistency between the two words. Finally, I figure out what was bothering me. It was a matter of “responsibility” more precisely, self-responsibility.
If Jesus had done what Peter had asked and had “commanded” Peter to come to him, then Jesus was the responsible person for what would happen to Peter. If Peter was able to walk on the water and made it safely to Jesus, then Jesus was the man! If however, Peter went out to Jesus and started to become side tracked and sank as he did, had Jesus commanded him to come out, then his failure to walk on the water would have been Jesus’ responsibility. But Jesus doesn’t command Peter to come out; he invites Peter to join him. In this way, Peter is the person responsible for his own conduct. If Peter falls into the water, it is Peters fault, not Jesus’.
Too often I hear people in their conversations, refer to something that has happened to them as a result of God. It’s not that we shouldn’t be giving praise to God for the good things that come our way in life, but when we use language like that, it is taking away personal responsibility. We so often use this type of language when trying to console someone who has lost a loved one, especially if it’s been in a premature death, like a car accident. We say things like, “It’s Gods will” or “God just needed that person to help them out in heaven”.
God does welcome us, yes, but I cannot believe that God is responsible for that person dying. We say God sent His son in order to save the world – meaning God sent Jesus to die. Yet scripture tells us Jesus, while in the garden of Gethsemane chooses to go down a path that will surely result in confrontation with the religious community and probably death. It was Jesus’ responsibility for this action, not God’s.
Today’s lesson is teaching us about personal responsibility, and what happens when we lose sight of God in our life. God invites us to do many things; it is we who decide to take that invitation. Then when the storm of change comes along, we often get so caught up in the uncomfortableness that our faith wavers and we find ourselves sinking. Then you hear things like, “we really want this church to grow, but God just doesn’t seem to think it’s the right time yet.” It isn’t God who’s not ready.
The story ends by stating that once Jesus get’s into the boat, the waters calmed and the storm stopped. It begins with the disciples not recognizing Jesus, but once they see who he is, and have him come aboard, once Jesus is among them, then the storm stops. Always remember that Jesus is beside you, all you need to do is recognize him, then and only then will the storm stop. Jesus asks each and every one of us at one time or another, “Why do you doubt?” It is a question for all of us to ponder on as we come to the table Jesus has prepared for us all. Amen

You are the Miracle, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/31/2011

2011-08-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

I would suggest watching the two videos that I showed for todays worship, prior to reading the sermon as it will help round out what I spoke about. I used one video during children's time and the other at the start of the sermon. Titles in order are: What is your " 5 Loaves & 2 Fishes"?, the other was, Fish Eyhes - Feeding of the 5000 (US Film version) staring Jason Hildebrand and Ted Swartz. These can be found on Youtube. Remember, You are the start, and you are the miracle!
You are the Miracle!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/31/2011
Based on Matthew 14:13-21

We have had several versions this morning in looking at the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, through the two videos that we watched as well as with the reading from Matthew. I hope that you haven’t come this morning thinking that I will be able to explain to you how Jesus was able to turn those few loaves of bread and two fishes into a banquet that could feed over five thousand men as well as all the women and children that were also there listening to him, because I can’t do that. But I can address how Jesus was able to use those few loaves and fishes, so that everyone was not only satisfied but there were left-over’s.
Are you aware that “reality” is fluid? No two people sitting in this room, has exactly the same experience as to what is going on in this service. Take the glass with water that is filled to the middle. To some people the glass may be half filled; to others it may be half empty. Ink blots on a card are always interpreted differently by everyone who looks at them. If you were to take two people, one who is colored blind to say, green, the other who is not color blind, have them look at a garden filled with flowers, the person who is color blind to green’s will see the garden very differently from the person who isn’t color blind. Reality of the garden is different to both of the onlookers.
Today’s lessen isn’t really about how the bread and fish were able to multiply enough to feed everyone who was hunger, but rather it is a story dealing with perceptions. As you saw in the video presentation, when Andrew and Peter were asking Jesus to send the people away, to go back into town, so that they may eat, Jesus gives them the opportunity to feed them. In the eyes of the disciples, they did not have enough resources in which to feed such a massive crowd. Jesus asks them, “What do you have?” After they looked around, they discovered they only had a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, hardly enough to feed 5,000 hungry men much less all the women and children who must have been there.
To the disciples, the glass was half empty. To Jesus, it was a start. Think about the number of people who have placed their faith in the actions and teachings of Jesus over the past two thousand years. Jesus started out with only a few followers, and they told their friends about Jesus and his teachings, and eventually there were twelve disciples. A small core of men for such a great undertaking of spreading the “Good News” that Jesus was teaching. When he looked at the twelve disciples do you think he saw this core group as not being enough to accomplish such an important mission? Or do you think he saw them as, “it’s a beginning”?
The heart of Jesus’ ministry and his teaching is what we call today, “social justice”. Jesus saw the injustice of those who had more than “enough” to live on, and how they gave very little concern to those who were poor, des-enfranchised, needing health care, needing adequate housing, needing food to eat, those suffering with mental-illness, those who are victims of racism and sexism. It is the same topics we struggle with in today’s world.
Today’s sermon is ideal for a stewardship lesson, an opportunity for us to look at the abundance that we have and examine our perception of what we have been given by God and about our attitudes toward Social Justice issues. As a nation we have been teetering on the verge of a financial collapse not experienced since the Great Depression. We have had some recovery but according to some economic experts the worst is not over and we will see even a larger economic dip in about a year and a half from now. This is very disturbing news, and should this actually occur, it is going to be through our perceptions as to how well we will survive through that period of time.
I bring this up to point out an observation about how we as a society and as individuals react and handle prosperity and depression. During the Great Depression, when practically nobody had any money, to speak of, there was a willingness to help out our neighbor, or the stranger who was in more need than you. Winnie VanValkenberg shared a few weeks ago of how her parents house was marked by the hobo’s as a house to come to for food. Their home was not unusual. Yet today we live in untold wealth, compared to the 1930’s, yet we keep our house locked, we are hesitant to speak to strangers, and we give less to charities and to our churches, per capita. The point that I am bringing out is, it seem that the more wealth that we accumulate the less giving we become. When we are in a position to share from our abundance to those who need, we actually give less. Why do you think that is? It comes from a perception of scarcity, “If I give, I may not have enough for myself.”
We speak of God’s economy in the church, about the abundance of God’s love. We speak about extravagant hospitality, yet we give to social need with the attitude of scarcity. We need more money to do a program, we need more members to survive, and we need more help, God. We don’t have enough; it is up to you God to do something about this.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! When the disciples asked Jesus to act, he said, “No, you do something about it.” “You figure it out and do something about it.” The late President John F. Kennedy said it this way, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather, ask what you can do for your country.” The church needs to ask less about how God is going to help us, but start asking more of God, “What do you want us to do?”
Once the disciples started to look around, asking, working with what they had, they realized that they had more than what they needed. When Jesus gave a blessing over the food, it wasn’t blessing the food so much as it was, blessing God for God’s faithfulness. Two years ago, this church was asking, “How are we going to keep the doors open?” Now we are asking, “How are we going to make the budget?” Is the glass half empty or is the glass half full? Are we like the disciples, wanting to send people home hungry because we don’t have enough faith to recognize the abundance that God has given us?
Two years ago, there was no Sunday school for the children. Two years ago, I heard people asking where are the children? Through the concern and dedication of some of our people, we provided a program for our children. Bingo! We average 15 children during the year in Sunday school. Out of this has come the opportunity to hire someone to work at developing even a better program for our children. We started out with two fish and some bread, we are now experiencing more than what we started with!
Are we going to be true to the call of Jesus, to not look at what we can’t do, but rather, trust in the extravagance of God to provide what we see needing to be done? Are we just two fish and some loaves of bread or are we the start? I think if Jesus was here this morning, He would see you as the start, He would see you as the miracle! Amen

Weeds In the Garden, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/17/2011

2011-07-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Weeds in the Garden
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/17/2011
Based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 & Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19

Last Sunday we looked at the Parable of the Sower and I shared with you my childhood experiences of gardening. This week we are again looking at a garden and what to do about those unwanted plants that seem to thrive more abundantly than what we'd like.
I grew up in a very large extended family, where my maternal grandmother was the strong Matriarch of the family. It was through my grandmother that the family’s religious education was passed down (not from formal reading of scripture, but rather through verbal teachings); the primary basis for morality was implanted by her understanding and experience from her childhood education in the scripture, of behavior within the church, and from life experiences. One of the axioms that I grew up with was: Why do I need to go to church? I can be just as close to God and am probably more Christian in my actions and believes than those ‘Hypocrites’ who go to church every Sunday. Has anyone ever heard that justification for not going to worship? How about this one: I can’t stand so and so, and until they die or leave the church, I’m not coming back. Or possibly, I’ve been so hurt by Joe Blow, I can’t step foot back into that sanctuary. (The reality generally being, they don’t step foot in any sanctuary.)
Matthew is writing this parable, supposedly taught by Jesus, to a church that was young and gaining new members and as a community of faith, was struggling with the reality that not everyone who had joined them had the same goals, or looked at or understood the teachings of Jesus in the same way. In other words there was internal struggle.
We struggle today with the same issue of not being unified, both as local congregations and as Christian Churches worldwide, usually around theological understanding. So much so, we within the larger church family have divided ourselves into categories or labels such as “liberal”, or “conservative”, or more sever “fundamentalist”, we have set up a situation that creates division and disunity by creating an “us” and “them”. I hear this same language to some extent used by some who volunteer at Broadway Bargains and by non-volunteers who attend First Congregational, openly use “us” and “them” language, setting up an adversarial atmosphere, instead of us all recognizing both bodies as being one and working toward the same goals. It is because of the adversarial atmosphere within and between churches and church related organizations, the non-churched folk’s question, “Why would I want to belong to something where so much fighting going on?” Weeds in the garden!
Last week’s parable focused on the planting of the seed and how it produced, this week the parable presumably uses good ground, but also gets mixed results because of the actions of an enemy (someone came in during the night and sowed seeds that were weeds among the field of good seed.) Let me remind you that ‘parables’ are not stories that give direct answers, but rather are designed to speak more to the “heart” and less to the mind. For when we think we have “understood” a parable, chances are we are more likely to be mistaken in its meaning. But if we’re made uncomfortable by the challenge of a parable, we’re probably getting a little closer to the heart of its meaning. Sermon Seeds, UCC, 7/17/2011 Kathy Huey
When we look at this parable within the context of the church, we can understand that it is God who has planted the good seed. Yet what church has not experienced weeds within it's congregation! Remember a little thing in the life of the church called, “The Crusades”? The church justified on “spiritual” reasoning that it needed to go to Jerusalem and purify the Holy City. We have sense been able to understand a more basic reason of “greed” to have been the underlying motivation. Weeds in the garden!
This past Thurs, I was reading in the New York Times, an article that was discussing the battles over abortion. “Taking Fight Back to Wichita, Doctor Seeks Abortion Clinic”. Listen to some of the article: Not long ago, Dr. Mila Means, the physician trying to open an abortion clinic in this city, received a letter advising her to check under her car each morning – because maybe today is the day someone places an explosive under it.” The note said. There was reason for concern: the last doctor to provide abortions here was shot to death (at the church where he worshipped, by a Christian from Kansas City), because of his work. I recall reading on face book the comments made by my fundamentalist Christ believing niece, praising the actions of the murderer – as doing God’s will in order to prevent the killing of unborn children. Weeds in the garden!
I am bringing this topic as an example, because it holds two sides of theological reflection within the church, those who we call “prolife” and those we call “prochoice”. Depending on which side of the issue you find yourself, the odds are that you have set up a “them” vs. “us” stance, and know full well that God is on your side. When we live with attitudes of “us” vs. “them”, we are unable to approach an issue in order to discuss it and find solutions that everyone can live with.
Here in Matthew, we can see where the evil doers will be judged, but by who? Not by the church, and not by humanity, but rather, will be collected at the end of time by the angles and judged by God. Then we have a much softer version in our reading from the Wisdom of Solomon, where it is written, “Although you [God] are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us. Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous must be kind, and you have filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins.”
Boy this is a true blow to those of us who feel we need to take “righteous” actions towards those that we perceive to be doing evil. Barbara Brown Taylor describes the frustration of “good” church members who recognize “weeds” in the midst of the church that ought to be a refuge from the tainted world saying: ‘If God really is in charge, then why isn’t the world a beautiful sea of waving grain? Or at least the church – couldn’t the church, at least, be a neat field of superior wheat?’
Then as now, “however the weeds get there, most of us have got them – not only in our yards but also in our lives: thorny people who were not part of the plan, who are not welcome, sucking up sunlight and water that were meant for good plants, not weeds”. Doesn’t this kind of attitude set up an either/or, Us and Them situation, where some of us are “wheat” and others are “weeds”? Who can tell the difference, and who can presume to pull the weeds without harming the tender wheat?
Religious communities, that’s who…at least we often presume to do just that, according to Richard Swanson: “even communities that affirm the radical otherness of God, that claim that God is above and beyond all human distinctions, even such communities assume that, if we must divide Us from Them, God is properly on our side of the dividing line [as was the thinking of the man who shot the Dr of the abortion clinic in Wichita, KS]. Carefully developed theologies, balanced and properly in awe of the majesty of God, hide in the other room when Us/Them divisions are being made.”
Kermit the Frog may claim that “It’s not easy being green,” but Barbara Taylor again observes that it’s not easy being wheat, either, having to compete with the weeds for fertile soil. How many people have thought they were doing the right thing, even if they use “hostile means” to rid the church of troublesome weeds, when they’re really doing the same thing as those they are fighting against? But, Taylor points out, “God said no!” Is it possible that the mystery of the parable has something to do with God’s timing, and our inability to judge or, for that matter, our unwillingness to trust in God’s own judgment? God’s judgment, of course, is always better for someone else than it is for us. Still, there is evil and wrongdoing, and surely we’re supposed to do something.
Taylor says that “what God seems to know is that the best and only real solution to evil is to bear good fruit. In the movie "The Greenlantern", the head lantern asked the Immortals to fashion a ring made from the lake of firery fear, in order to combat the force of "fear" that was killing the universe. The newest green lantern begged the Immortals not to go down that path - for there would b no return and there would be only destruction! Our job, in a mixed field, is not to give ourselves to the enemy by devoting all our energy to the destruction of the weeds, but to mind our own business, so to speak – our business being the reconciliation of the world through the practice of unshielded love. If we will give ourselves to that, God will take care of the rest…”
“Thank God, God judges us” this takes the burden off of us. Thomas Long writes, “It is easy for Christians to look through the church windows at the world and to think of ourselves as God’s special insiders, the ones who will ‘shine like the sun’ in the end. We can relish with smug self-satisfaction the thought of worldly types being rounded up at the great final, collected like weeds and burned up in the everlasting fire. However, we are, ourselves, a mixture of good and evil. Sometimes we are faithful, and sometimes we are not…”
Let us be reminded that God sends both sun and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. If God shows such generosity of spirit, can [we] do any less? It’s hard to be a faithful follower of Christ, yet we must remember that Jesus told us to love our enemies. Sermon Seeds UCC, 7/17/2011 If we can work at doing this, we will be helping to stop the division that comes with the Us verse Them, and will allow us to place our energy on cultivating the “good” seed that God has placed within each human being. Amen

Is Extravagance at odds with Wisdom?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/10/2011

2011-07-10T07:53:00.001-07:00

Is Extravagance at odds with Wisdom?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/10/2011
Based on Isaiah 55:10-13 and Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

A large portion of my childhood memories relate to the business of growing plants. Since we were a poor family, it was most important that we gave focus to the vegetable garden and less to the things that I really enjoyed growing, which were ornamental plants. It was my thought that it was important to provide plants that helped bring beauty into the world; it was my mother’s opinion that growing plants that produced food for the body was of more importance.
When it comes to vegetable gardening, I have only memories of huge gardens. After moving out to a farm, not many miles from the town that I had started my life in, dad decided that with forty acres and free slave labor of three children, he would utilize as much of the land as possible and become a truck farmer. A good share of this land was very sandy and of low quality. We had no real farm equipment, so most all the working of the soil was done with hand tools. There was only one water well, near the house with minimal water spickets in which to water the plants that we were cultivating.
It’s a marvelous thing to farm and to plant. You plow up the soil, get the clods chopped up, and get the ground smooth and ready to plan; then plant the seeds or the starter plants, water them, and watch them grow. What is interesting is everything else that is in that soil will also grow. The technical term for the “everything else” is called “weeds”. I remember long days of handling a hoe, chopping at the weeds, which seemed to thrive better than the plants that I was supposed to be tending. Then after hoeing out the weeds, the next step was bending over and pulling out those weeds which grew right up next to the plants.
As I said, dad, wanted to utilize as much ground of the forty acres as possible, and become what I am now positive, to be the sole vegetable supplier for the whole community of Kingman, KS, a town of 3,000 residences. Our green bean patch had 16 rows, each a city block long. The potato patch was located more than a quarter mile away from the house; a full five acres of seedlings. To utilize the remain acreage of that site, we planted 500 tomato plants. You must understand that the closest water was back at the house and dad believed that instead of running pipe out to this remote spot or buying enough hose to reach those tomato plants, his children would carry water out to them. Well, you can image how well those poor plants survived; they didn’t. As the summer temperatures of over a hundred degrees advanced, and by the way you could not work in those temperatures, those tomatoes eventually dried up and died because of the lack of water.
The lectionary readings today speak to my experiences on the farm and our efforts to truck farm. Where we had the opportunity to work the plants and to nurture them with water, de-weeding, and providing manure, those plants produced in abundance; where we planted seeds and plants and were not able to provide any one of these needed tasks, those plants provided much less fruit, or withered in the heat of the sun, or were choked out by the persistence of the weeds.
I find this particular story interesting with respect to where it is placed in Matthew. At the end of chapter 12, we read where Jesus has been healing and preaching to a group of people and of course getting the Pharisees very upset, so much so, they are beginning to plot as to how they might be able to kill Jesus. Then his mother and brothers come wanting to take Jesus back home with them, at which point Jesus asks, “who is my mother and who are my brothers?” With this response, he indicates that those who have been following him and learning his teachings were truly his brothers and sisters.
It is at this point that Jesus decides to tell the story of what we now call “The Parable of the Sower”. The usual way of reading this parable is to study the types of soil that the seeds are being planted in.
When we think about what it takes to plant a new church, it is prudent to examine the type of community in which to plant a new church. A lengthy study of demographics, city potential of continued growth, what type of nitch can the new church provide that presently isn’t being met.
In church revitalization, such as the present need of this congregation, conversations that focus on growth should be asked: what type of pastor would best help us grow, what type of programs would work best in revitalizing this ministry, what type of people do we want to minister to? These are examples of tiling the soil, of determining the best soil, of plowing it, and of nurturing the effort that will be put into it.
This is what any good farmer would be doing, yet is this really what the deeper meaning of this story is about, especially when you read it within the context of being a response to what he says about his mother and family?
The other day, Rev Nick Natelli, stopped by to take a look at the church and visit just a little, catching up on what is currently going on in the life of this congregation. For those of you who have joined this family of faith after 1971, you might be interested in knowing that Rev Natelli is the minister that was serving this congregation as it moved from “B st” to this location. When he left, this sanctuary was filled at every worship with a membership of over 300. He was sad to hear that we are now averaging in the upper 70’s during the school year and with only 136 members.
His response to me was, “I had whispered in ears before we built here, but maybe I should have whispered harder.” He was referring to the location of this building, being at the end of a street, meaning that there was little exposure, since cars wouldn’t be driving by and realize that there was a church in which to visit, should the driver be so inclined to do so. I remember a comment that Sharon Pribyl made to me when I first arrived. She said, “How do you like the sign at the end of the street that says, ‘dead end’?” Finally that sign was removed. Although the sign was descriptive of the fact that this street was a cul-de-sac, a more subtle message about the church was being given by its presence.
Even in the clergy text study group, that meets weekly to discuss the upcoming lectionary readings, there was discussion as to the “wisdom” that we should have in where and who we share the “good news” of God. A reference being made that we were not being good stewards of God’s word by spending our time with people who would never respond to it.
As a business person, I might, and I say might, agree with that insight. However as a person of faith, I have to look at this parable in a slightly different manor. As I read this story, I see the meaning speaking about the person of faith and what can happen to them. This directly relates then to speaking about a congregation, a faith community, since it is an identity unique unto itself as well.
As a community of faith, we have received the word of God, the seed planted. The question that needs to be asked is, “What type of soil is this congregation made up of?” Are we hard and rocky, who gives only the birds nourishment, as they directly eat the seed that doesn’t take root? Are we soil that is full of weeds, there by choking the work of the Holy Spirit? Are we soil where the distractions of the world take away focus from the needs of being nourished? Are we the soil that receives God’s word and allow it to be nurtured within our hearts, to grow and be able to feed the needs of those we come in contact with?
The focus is on the sower. The story is asking what type of soil is the sower. It is God who originally planted his word within us? How have we received it? God did not contemplate his love to be bestowed on some and not others. That is a teaching that came about as a way to gain followers and to control people. God loves beyond abundantly. God loves extravagantly, giving the gift of reconciliation and healing to every broken heart.
The question is this: How have your received this seed from God? Is your spirit one of hard packed soil? Is it one who received the love of God but because of life’s circumstances has found this love withering? Or is your heart the type of soil that has received the love of God and has allowed it to flourish, thereby giving it freely to all that you met?
I wish to close with a couple of thoughts given to us this week through the Psalm 119 and Isaiah 55. “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeeded in the thing for which I sent it.”
The first part is the recognition of the person who has received the seed from God. The second part is the promise that God makes to those that receive this word. As long as we, as a congregation, have open hearts to receive the extravagant love of God, we will continue to do the work that God has asked us to do, and we will reap abundance through Gods promise to us! Amen

The Devil made Me Do It!, Rev Steven Mitchell, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/3/2011

2011-07-03T08:22:00.001-07:00

The Devil made Me Do It!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 7/3/2011
Based on Romans 7:15-25a & Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Not long ago, during a pastors meeting, the Rev Leroy Jones, pastor of the “Church of What’s Happening Now”, was sharing a situation much like what the Apostle Paul is sharing in Romans 7. It seems that one day the Reverend came home from the office to find that his wife, Lillian, had purchased another dress. Now they had agreed several months earlier that she had been spending way too much money on dresses, in fact, her closets were over flowing with dresses that she had purchased just that past year.
So Rev. Leroy’s wife begins to explain just exactly what had happened and why she had that dress. She starts out: I was doing my morning power walk in the White Mountain Mall, minding my own business, when I stopped in front of the Herberger’s display window to see what the new Summer fashions were, when up from behind me comes the Devil. He stopped and said to me, “Hey momma, what cha doing there looking so fine?” I told him, “I was just looking through the window to see what was on display.” “I also told him to get lost because I didn’t need to be talking with him.”
The Rev Leroy said, “That sounds fine, but I don’t understand what that has to do with you buying this dress.” Rev Leroy’s wife then said, “The devil wouldn’t go away and asked me if I was going to go in and try on the dress.” “I told the devil that I wasn’t going to buy that dress, so I didn’t need to try it on!” Then the Devil said, “Oh go ahead, try on the dress. You at least owe yourself a try on!” Then I told the devil, “Devil get behind me!”
“Okay,” said the Rev., “Then what happened?” The Rev’s wife continued her story by saying, “He got behind me, and then he started to push me into the story. He just pushed and pushed until I was at the rack where the dress was hanging.” “So I thought I would out smart him by trying on the dress so that he would be satisfied and would leave me alone.” “After I tried on the dress, he told me how ‘fine I looked in it on me’.” she continued, “I told him I had promised you not to buy any more dresses for awhile and that I wasn’t going to buy this dress, and to just leave me alone!”
The Rev. then asked, “What happened? Didn’t he leave you alone?” “Well,” said his wife, “after I pleaded with him to leave me alone, I found myself standing at the counter, where the devil was forcing me to get out my check book from my purse. All the time I was screaming, ‘Devil, get behind me. Devil leave me alone!” “Well, then what happened?” asked Rev. Leroy. “After all that pleading and me telling him I wasn’t going to buy that dress, he pulled a gun on me and forced me to sign your name to the check!”
The Rev Leroy then asked her, “why is it that the devil always seems to benefit you and get you things that you want and he never seems to do anything for me.” The Mrs. Rev. replied saying, “I asked him about that! And he says he already has helped you. He said, ’If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t even have a job!’”
How many times have we not taken responsibility for our own actions and have placed the blame on someone or something other than admitting our short comings and admitting that we truly are responsible for our actions? This is the struggle that Paul is sharing with us this morning. He says that, as a follower of Jesus’ teachings, he still was finding that his actions were not always what he was wanting to do or at times not proud of.
So, instead of saying “the devil made me do it”, Paul insists that it is the sin that is a part of being human that keeps him doing those things that he wishes he wasn’t doing. This is the basis for the late 4th century theologian Augustine of Hippo and later, the early 16th Century Theologian John Calvin, in their development of what we now call, “original sin.” The simplest explanation being: we are all born with a sinful nature and only through Christ are we given the freedom of life.
This point of view actually comes from the Hellenistic point of view, that the Spirit is good but that the physical body is evil. Paul, even though he was a Hebrew, was heavily influenced in this philosophy, which accounts for his conflict between his behavior and his intellectual desires. “I know what the right thing to do is, but somehow, I seem to do the opposite. I don’t wish to do the wrong thing, but it just seems to happen.”
So, does the devil truly make us “do it?” Or are we born with sin that was started with the disobedience of Adam and Eve? These are questions that humanity has asked itself for generations. Paul speaks that by one man, Adam, came death, but by Jesus comes life. This thought process developed the whole idea that sin is passed on through the “sin gene”, and because Christ was born without sin, he was able to provide the avenue for life. This then developed the theology that Mary, his mother, also had to be conceived not by a human father but by the Heavenly Spirit, as was Jesus.
I am not sure that I personally buy into the “original sin” theory as it has been passed down through the ages. I do however understand the theory “free will” and tend to attribute my behavior more with this outlook than that of original sin. The reason is that if I am born this way, with original sin, then this can lead me to not taking responsibility for my actions (the devil made me do it!), whereby if I believe more in the concept of “free will”, it places the burden of my actions directly upon my shoulders and not that of someone else’s.
Over the past couple of years, I have received so very nice cards from many of you, talking about all the good qualities that those who sent them, see in me. Quite frankly, I wonder if they are talking about the Steve Mitchell that I have to live with. I know, as Paul speaks about, the conflict that I have in “not doing the right things verse doing the wrong things.” We all do I suspect.
When we think about how we don’t act upon the right things that we could be doing with our lives, we can run the risk of becoming very negative about ourselves. Paul, asks the question, “who can save me from myself?”
His answer is, “God! Thank God, God has saved me from myself.” In other words, we do not accumulate on our balance sheet of life, all the negatives and have them weigh against all the good that we also do. We are a forgiven people. It is Jesus who calls us to himself. He says, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll 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. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
It is just as the song says, “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me; See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me. Come home, come home, You who are weary, come home; Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!
As we come before Christ’s table this morning, listen to your heart. Are you burden with those things that you do, but wish you haven’t done? If so, release them into the arms of the God who lovingly calls us to come to His table of love and forgiveness. For whether we are by nature prone to do the things we shouldn’t and not do the things we should, or whether we just choice to take the lesser paths in life, it is through the love of God that we are abundantly welcomed and extravagantly forgiven. For walking with Jesus is a lighter path than walking on our own. Amen

And God Said it was Good. First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/19/2011

2011-06-19T07:15:00.001-07:00

And God Said it was Good!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/19/2011
Based on Genesis 1:1-2:3

When my son, Steven was in the Third grade, he was having a crisis in faith. I was pastor in a small community church in Washington State and the Sunday school teacher that he had was a well meaning individual who just happened to read scripture literally. Steven was deeply interested in dinosaurs and his learning in the public school system told him that dinosaurs lived millions of years before human kind. This conflicted with what his Sunday school teacher was trying to teach him. She believed in a literal version of creation, while Steven was being taught in the public school system about life evolving.
Moving back just a few years before living in Washington State, while in seminary my wife and I were foster care parents for several sixteen year olds. One of these boys named Hia, as very much into evolution as a process for the development of life and informed me one day that based on his studies in evolution, “There was no God.” I then proceeded to ask him a number of questions to determine why he came to such a conclusion, and we eventually got to the “Big Bang” theory. He was in utter shock when I told him that I could buy into that theory. Then I asked him the question of, “where did the mass come from that exploded?” After a few seconds of him stuttering and stammering around, he replied with, “quite messing with my head”, and our conversation ended.
I bring up these two examples because these issues came about because of a particular way the reading of scripture was employed. When my son came to me seeking a reasonable answer do to a conflict in teaching between the public school system and his Sunday school teacher, I asked him, “if it seemed logical for the Bible, to start out with a couple of chapters that deals with ‘hard science’ and then devote the rest of its books to theology, meaning the relationship between God and humanity?” After he answered, “no it didn’t make sense”, I then explained how when we read scripture through the lens of humanity trying to understand its relationship with God, we could open up a multitude of ways to understand all the stories that we read within the bible.
Relating a story is an ever changing reality in our culture. Currently, we hear stories in what we call “sound bites”, a few years ago, it was by “headlines and maybe the first paragraph” of a story. Even the way that we structure sentences has changed a good deal. I find that I most enjoy reading stories that were written between the mid-nineteenth and very early twentieth century, mostly because there is an elegant flow to those stories that no longer exists in modern writing.
We have the same issue of how the early Hebrews spoke and wrote their stories compared to later writings of Hebrew story telling. And if we in the modern world do not recognize these differences, we then stumble on what was meant in that telling and will most likely come up with a poor interpretation at the very least.
With a great number of writers over the past hundred or so years, the book of Genesis, especially these first couple of chapters has lead to much misunderstanding and creating what we now label as “creationism” doctrine. There are even some Christians who are scientists, who try to reconcile the age of our world and the development of life, as occurring only within a few thousand years, based on a literal reading of these first two chapters in Genesis. This is achieved by the use of counting backward the various generations listed in Genesis, again using only those names listed. What the originating professor of this genealogy, didn’t understand is that those names listed in the “who begat who”, listed only key persons and left out many generations of names.
How we read and interpret scripture in today’s society can mean the difference in being able to engage into heart filled conversations about God or being dismissed as people who live in a dream world, refusing to recognize what “hard science” is telling us. People are spiritually hungry, but if we as the church universal, present a message that is based from a literal understanding of scripture, then we will be perceived as non-thinking people who live in a world filled with superstition.
I would like to present another option to how we can read the creation story that allows for the opportunity to enter into meaningful dialog with people who are not familiar with the Christian story or experience. (Discuss the re-reading of the 7 days of creation into three segments, i.e.: day one and day four, day two and day five, and day three and day six. This will show three stages of creation, which then allows for evolution type of movement.) This is how I approached discussing my son’s questions about creation and the scriptures.
A part of the confirmation process that our eight confirmand’s dealt with, was about expanding their concepts of God, as we asked questions like: What does God look like? If God is the creator of this world and the universe, what does this mean to us? What does it mean when we are told in Genesis to subdue the world?
The language is very subtle in scripture especially, among varying translations. Most of the translations read: In the beginning God created. But in some translations it reads: In the beginning when God was creating. The difference here talks about when “time” began. Did time begin at the same time as God? Or did time begin when God created the heavens and the earth?
This is something that can be argued through eternity and has been for eons, but when we spend our energies on questions like this, we are missing the most obvious point that the story teller wants us to understand. When we read about this very first day, we learn what the story teller deems most important. It may seem obvious to most of us, but the implications are most profound. Scripture begins not with the choosing of Abraham or the election of Israel, but rather it begins with creation.
This means that we have to get rid of any idea’s that lead to any ethnic superiority, that one culture is more favored than another, meaning Israel of any of its surrounding cultures. Scripture says, “In the beginning God created the world”, it doesn’t read, “In the beginning God created Israel.” In creating the heavens and the worlds, God is inclusive. Who are we, to then tell God, that we are better than someone else? Who are we to believe that we alone have the truth over another religion? The subtle difference comes in the difference between “entitlement” verses “grace.”
As we read this creation story we can come to new understanding as to the reason for God creating. Quoting from Rev Dave Bland, Professor of Homiletics at Harding University Graduate School of Religion, in Memphis, Tennessee: God’s specialty is loving and caring for creation. God demonstrates this love in the collaborative way in which the world operates. In recounting the six days of creation, nothing is made for itself alone. Everything contributes to the whole of creation. God provides for the needs of all God’s creatures because God’s specialty is love. Humans are given dominion, not domination; we are caregivers, not exploiters. We are called to do unto creation as God has done unto us; we express love and care toward the world. Feasting on the Word commentary.
This afternoon, at 1 p.m., there is going to be a gathering at three point picnic areas, south of town as a conclusion to the Red Desert Preservation awareness. I hope some of you will attend, as this weekend’s rendezvous, which has been focusing on the environmental concerns of this piece of God’s creation. As people of God, we are called to look after the well being of what God has put us in charge of. We are not independent of the world that we live in and we must relearn how each part of God’s creation works with one another in order to continue to bless what God has said is “Good.” Amen

"Many Voices of the Holy Spirit", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/12/2011

2011-06-16T09:11:00.001-07:00

Many Voices of the Holy Spirit
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/12/2011
Based on 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, John 7:34-39, and Acts 2:1-21

Before moving to Rock Springs, I spent the last twenty years of my life, living in Seattle, WA. It is called the “Evergreen” state for good reason, not just for the vast forests of evergreens that grow there, but more importantly because the grass stays green throughout the winter months!
For most of us, spring is generally signaled by the first blooms of the crocus, but in Seattle, in the first part of January the Camilla bushes open up with their bright red flowers; these blooms stay on the bushes for almost two months. Then in March, as the blossoms of the Camilla begin to fade, up out of the ground appear the welcomed bloom of the crocus. Followed by the appearance of tulips in April and soon after that, the Oriental poppies, Iris, and by mid May, peonies.
I love tulips, and I love seeing them in vast quantities, so every couple of years, in April, I would make a short trip north of Seattle to the tulip farms in the Skagit valley, where acre after acre of tulips are seen from almost any road that you travel on. The bonus of this drive comes in parking your car and walking out into these fields, where you can immerse yourself with colors of the rainbow, able to kneel down and cup these glories blossoms with your hands, and those are just the fields. Many of the farms have elaborate displays of spring flowers in their front yards or around their temporary store fronts, where you can place your order for bulbs to arrive at your house that coming Fall.
This past Fall, Paul and I spent a good amount of energy planting tulip bulbs, not knowing if we would be here this Spring to see the fruit of our labors. I think it was toward the end of April, that we started seeing the shoots of those tulips start to sprout up out of the ground. Now, I don’t know if it was because it seemed like Winter hung on later this year or if it’s just because there is no hint of Spring color until the tulips bloom, but I don’t think that I have ever appreciated the beauty of this flower more than I have this season. In each of our flower beds, there are tulips that are red, pink, and yellow in color; single petal, parroted, and multi-petaled. There is such a variety of color, style, shape, height, and time of blooming, but all are a tulip, providing a single message, that Spring is here and that the Winter is pretty much behind us now.
All of this morning’s readings deal with variety and diversity, yet there is a uniform message. This message comes to us through differing sources: we read about Moses who has gathered the leaders of Israel and is anointing them with a portion of the Holy Spirit that he himself has, and yet two who were not there, also received it; In the story of Acts, the Apostles received the Holy Spirit directly from God, with each speaking a differing language; The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians and speaks about their gifts which were given through the Holy Spirit; And Jesus himself cried out, asking for people who want to have ‘living water’ to believe and through believing would have, “a heart that flows rivers of living water”, which meant the receiving of the Holy Spirit. The message was and is about the “love God has for us all” and of work toward “reconciling creation back to love’s original state.”
Today is the day that we celebrate Pentecost, the churches birthday! I can tell who read their e-mail from me earlier this week, because you are the one’s wearing red this morning. This color symbolizes the fire that scripture describes settling upon each of the Apostles and other believers head the day the Holy Spirit descended down from Heaven. A spirit that gave each who received it the ability to speak the message of God in a variety of established languages; languages from all over the world, to those Jews who were there celebrating the Feast of Tabernacle.
The Feast of Tabernacle was the “celebration of harvest”, similar to our Thanksgiving celebration. One of the rituals that occurred during this feast was the pouring of water gathered daily from the pool of Sloam and mixed with wine, poured from the altar into a conduit which carried this mixture to the Brook of Kidron located across from the eastern wall. This ritual symbolized the prayer for the Fall rains upon which Israel depended. Secondly, it pictured the coming of the Messiah and His kingdom in which the Holy Spirit would be poured on Israel and believers of all nations. So when Jesus stood at the last day of this festival and cried, “if any one thirsts, let them come unto me, and drink. You who believe in me as the scripture has said, “out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water”, was in fact, offering the coming of the Holy Spirit to anyone who wished to have it. Jesus had promised this companion to us prior to his death and ascension back to God.
Should we this morning expect the same type of outcome as did the first apostles and believers, with the coming of the Holy Spirit? If we are not able to speak in a language other than what we grew up learning, does this mean that we have not received the blessing, this fire of the Holy Spirit into our lives? The Apostle Paul has given us a very sound response to this question.
He equates the gift of the Spirit to that of our anatomy. Paul starts off saying that, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” So if you are able to say that Jesus is Lord, chances are, you already possess the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to say, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”
You might not have noticed a subtle addition to the top of the Worship bulletin. It was made last week. Does anyone know what it is?? It is up at the top, where we give information about who is participating in the worship. Let me give you a hint by asking how many ministers does this church have? The change is in stating how many ministers we have here in this congregation. It says, “Ministers”, The Congregation! The reason for this is that as followers of Christ, we are all Priests for God, and are given the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to convey God’s message to a world that has forgotten. As Paul tells us, we all have been given very special gifts: some who can teach, some who can preach, some who can sing, some to administration. These gifts are given to us, but not for us! This is an important thing to remember, and because we can sometimes think that we are more special than someone else, because of a particular gift that we have been given, is the reason why Paul was writing to the church in Corinth and to us as well.
The purpose of any gift from God, is not for our own benefit, but is given solely to benefit and glorify God. If we keep that in mind, not only will we have less jealousy and self pride creating problems within our faith community, but we will find ourselves more inclined to use our gifts and feel less tired and experience less burn-out, as we will be fueled by a higher power, one that gives us not only the energy to perform, but the desire and direction in which to best use our gifts.
There are many voices that are spoken by the Holy Spirit. It might be in language, it might be through our gifts, it might come through support and encouragement of our friends and family, it might come through dreams or visions, or through children; it might even come through our pets or through nature. Like the tulips in my garden, the voices, the sounds of the Holy Spirit are many, but the message is always the same: God loves you! God desires to have a one on one relationship with you! God is active in our world, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Let us today, work at creating the space within us that will allow the Holy Spirit of God to become even more effective for tomorrow! Amen

Live As a Living Stone, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/22/2011

2011-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Live As a Living Stone
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/22/2011
Based on 1 Peter 2:1-10

When driving into the parking lot of the church, one of the very first features of this build that catches your eye, is the use of stone. One each corner of the exterior walls of the sanctuary there are massive stone buttresses, which gives the sense that this building being solidly anchored to the ground. Inside, at the center of this sanctuary, stands the alter or communion table; it is built on stone that is cemented into the floor. Again, this table is permanent because of the stone foundation that it rests upon. Stone is an amazing material. It is no accident that the architect of this facility used stone in strategic areas. He didn’t use stone as an accent material, but rather, he made subtle statements based on scriptural understandings. Stone is not only beautiful, but it has great strength and can support a mighty structure. Stone gives both a feeling of security and permanency, as well, as shelter.
Remember the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf! The first pig built his house out of straw, the second pig built his house out of sticks, and the third little pig built his home out of stone. Enters in this tranquil scene is the Big Bad Wolf, who is hungry for a pork sandwich. He comes up to the first pig and his house of straw; the wolf huffs and puffs and blows the house of straw down. Then he comes across the second pig’s house and still being hungry, he again huffs and he puffs and he blows down the house built of sticks. The wolf still hungry and looking for dessert, pig flambeau, goes to the third pig’s house. He again huffs and he puffs, but the house stays standing. Perplexed by this, the wolf huffs and puffs himself into despair and eventually leaves, and the third pig is safe and sound in his home that was built of stone.
Scripture uses a number of stories that deal with stones in them to help relate the idea’s of the steadfastness of God to those who recognize Him within their lives. Stones were used by the early patriarchs to signify their devotion and remembrance to the God who carried them through difficulties. King David, as a shepherd boy, used a stone to bring down the giant Goliath, thus ending the battle and bringing victory to the army of the Israelites. When Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem, the week before Passover, and the Pharisees were telling Jesus to quiet the crowd, Jesus responded with: “even if the crowd was silent, these stones would sing out in Praise of Gods work.” While at the temple, Jesus compared himself to the stones of the temple, saying once destroyed, in three days, they would be rebuilt, meaning his death and resurrection.
Here in 1 Peter, we read this beautiful metaphor about a relationship between God and his people. There is this play on words of “living stone”, where Jesus is not only the corner stone, that piece which anchor of any structure, but is also as a resurrected savior is “the living stone.”
This past Monday was the memorial service of Donna Morad, in which some of you attended. I chose for the text of her memorial this reading from 1 Peter specifically because of the powerful imagery that is found within these ten verses. I am struck by two ideas in particular, which are the phrases, "though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight" and "Like living stones."
Jesus and his teachings, his message, were rejected by the religious authorities of his day; those who were the establishment and held the power. These idea’ were rejected because those in power thought they would lose not only their control and position, but that Israel itself would fall if Jesus’ teachings were accepted. We talk a lot today about the “liberal” and “fundamentalist” Christian points of view. This is so wrong. There is no such thing as a “liberal Christian” and there is no such thing as a “fundamentalist Christian”. If we are true in our following of Christ, then as Disciples of Christ we all should be seen as “Radical Christians”. The founder of the Christian movement was a “radical”. We are called into a “radical lifestyle”.
A part of this radical lifestyle is stated in the very first verse of this morning’s text. Eugene Peterson says it this way: So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. This is radical because it goes against human tendencies to back bite, hold grudges, put on false airs, and to get even when we’ve been wronged. But Peter is telling us that, when we have had a taste of God, like infants at the breast, we are to drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then we'll grow up mature and whole in God.
The other part of this morning’s text that captures my imagination is that of “Living Stones”. The idea of "living stones" brings images such as solidness; stones are used in building structures that weather through time. The things that we do throughout our life are the stones that we lay for future generations. None of us lives in a vacuum. Each generation that is born comes with the good and the bad of the previous generation; some might say we come into this life with our parent’s baggage. When I think about all that I enjoy today, it comes from the sacrifices, the teachings, even from the mistakes of those who have come before me.
In the same respect, my theology, my understanding of God originates with what I was taught by my parents and grandparents. It came through watching their actions and how they related to others. I learned respect for people of all races because my parents and grandparents taught me that the color of some ones skin did not make them either better or worse than any other person. My concepts of a loving God, or of a judgmental God, or of an accepting or rejecting God, came from Sunday School teachers and from what was said from the pulpit. These are the living stones that I grew up with.
But once I started to personally read the bible, once I started to personally study and contemplate what I was reading, once I started to formulate my prayer life beyond the prayers that I learned as a child, once I started to read writings of great theologians, I then became more hungry for a deeper relationship with God. All these idea’s that I was reading were from God’s living stones that had been laid before my birth, and through these living stones, I have had the opportunity to learn, be shaped into what I am today. And the reality is, that I too am a living stone that is being placed into this marvelous building that God is creating for those who come after me. You too are living stones, and are also being placed into this marvelous building that God is building, so future generations may continue to build and shape their own lives.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Can you image, the immigrant who leaves their home country and comes to live here. There is a time period where they are not a part of this country, but after a lot of hard work, of learning a new culture, they take and pass a test, then they are sworn in as new citizens of this country. We as children of God are very much like the immigrant. We leave our old ways behind, and we work hard and study hard the teachings of Christ, to learn what this new world of God’s is all about, not just the rules, but more importantly we learn about its potential, then we become active citizens of Gods kingdom, the one here on earth. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God.
We are no ordinary people, but rather, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. We are not only the product of earlier generations, but we are the living stones that are laying the foundations for future generations, whether we like it or not. So let us live up to being the people that we truly are, God’s chosen people, who are not ordinary, but are of royal descent, and work toward creating a holy nation, God’s kingdom here on earth, for we are Gods’ Living Stones! Amen

Living In Awe, Frist Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/15/2011

2011-05-16T06:32:00.001-07:00

Living In Awe!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/15/2011
Based on Acts 2:42-47

Have you ever listened to someone talk about what they have been doing since the last time that you had spoken with them and found yourself thinking, “Gee I wish I had their life?” Not too many years ago you could watch shows like, “The Rich and Famous”, where we were given insight into the world that only those with excess money could live. One of the news items this week was about Prince William and Kate’s Million Dollar Honeymoon. It is easy for us to be in “Awe” of how some people live what a capitalistic society would define as a successful and fulfilling lifestyle. Back in the 1960’s, the term “Jet-setter” was coined, to define people who had large amounts of discretionary funds in which to lavish themselves with the finest material things life has to offer.
One day, a number of years ago while talking to my mother on the phone; I wasn’t hearing much about what was happening in her life. When I asked her why she wasn’t telling me what was going on, she replied with, “Steven, your life sounds so much more exciting, I don’t feel like I’ve been doing anything.” The lesson that I learned that day with my mother’s comment was, even though the activities that I was involved in, which to me were rather ordinary, run of the mill type of things (the things that I did on a regular basis), were to her, “Awe” inspiring. They were things that she saw as living a lifestyle of the “rich and famous”, thus making her life seem less fulfilling than what it was. You see, the things that we do normally, which may seem mundane to us, might very well be seen as exciting, breathtaking expressions of living the “good life” to someone else.
As members of any faith body, we can look at what other churches are doing and start to feel just like my mother was feeling, “Gee, they are doing exciting things in their churches and we are not doing anything out of the ordinary in ours.” Image how the traditional Jewish practitioners must have been thinking, when they were looking at what was going on within this new sect called “The Way.? Verse 43 states, “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.”
I found myself feeling a little envious the other day while chatting with Martha Atchins, pastor of the Mt of Olives church, as we were discussing the growth that I have seen in her congregation. Martha started serving that congregation a little over three years ago. In the past year, she has experienced almost 50% growth. This is great! We too have had a substantial increase in attendance this past year as well. Last year it was an overall increase of 10% (this might not sound like much, but many congregations would kill for that type of growth.) Out of Curiosity, I ran the numbers for the past eighteen weeks and discovered that we are at a 1% increase in attendance over the same period last year. I was deflated a bit to say the very least, because it feels like we have had a stronger increase than what the numbers say.
Now I have to keep things in perspective. Over the last twenty months, we have experienced a huge increase in attendance and more exciting is that there are many new faces prior to my coming to serve you! The attitude within this family of believers is 180* from where you were when I first arrived. We now have this anticipation that there is a future through this ministry. We are doing well, but is there room for “more?” Yes, I think so. This then leads into the question as to how can we continue to move in the direction like the church we read in this morning’s scripture of Acts?
Starting this last Fall, there has been a group studying the lessons learned through the research of Diane Butler Bass, as to what growing main-line denominational churches have in common, as reported in the book, From Nomads to Pilgrims. One of the questions asked of me early on was, “Pastor, what can we do to help our church grow?” I hope that through this study, we have learned that there are no set programs that work in “growing” a church, but rather there are some common characteristics of growing churches.
We find in Acts, chapter 2 some of the very basic characteristics of a growing church. They are as follows: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. How would we restate them in today’s understanding: being intentional about reading and studying scripture and listening to one another’s understanding of what they are studying; of coming together, such as in Worship, to gather with one another outside of the church setting, like in our homes for fellowship. This could be like going camping together, or bowling or playing sports in what we call church leagues, or going out to lunch together or the movies, as examples. Then we break bread together, which is what we call communion or more importantly remembering Christ as we come together in community. The fourth is to devote time to prayer. This is both in private times as well as corporate times. There is such power as we open ourselves up to one another and to God with what is on our hearts as concerns and joys, as well as praying for the welfare of those beyond our immediate concerns.
These are what I would call, the four basics for any person in their faith development. Depending on how much time and effort you put into all four of these areas will determine not only how much you grow, but how the larger faith family grows. It is so very simple. We read in Acts 2, that as these people invested themselves into these four activities that they grew not only in numbers, but more importantly they were living in awe at what they were seeing happening around them. Are we “living in awe” within this congregation? Or, do we feel that if devoting ourselves to these four basic activities is placing more “burden” upon our lives and creating more stress?
The Jesuit paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, states: we are primarily spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. If this is true, then tending to our spiritual health is of primary importance.
Church growth is of primary concern for all churches. Many church profiles, speak to looking for pastors who will “save” them, by growing their churches. They tend to think in terms of numerical growth and not about spiritual growth. I address this situation within my profile with these words: … many churches are looking at their ‘ministries” through the eyes of survivalism. It is my opinion that one should look to church growth not in terms of “How do we grow” but rather looking to answer in earnest “How can I deepen my relationship with God.” In other words, not how can we grow our church but rather, ‘how can I grow myself?’ It is with the personal growth in our spiritual lives that is the basis for any significant growth of a congregation and thus deepening of the congregation’s ministry.
Are you like millions of Americans who sit back and watch in “awe” programs that show others achieving more within their lives than you? Are you like my mother, who feels that she has nothing going on in her life after listening to what other people do in their normal daily activities? Are you living your life in the style of the Christians we read in Acts, chapter 2 or do you view your life as receiving less than they, spiritually?
The secret is to commit yourself to be actively working the basic program that is set before us by the early church. In AA, it is called “walking the talk”. If you really want to be “Living in Awe”, then you have to work at nurturing your spiritual life. If you want to have this church “living in awe” then it is up to you, as an individual to commit yourself to constant study of the scriptures, fellowship frequently, break bread with one another and pray constantly. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to commit to doing all these things for just two months in order to test what I am telling you, I can guarantee you that will be finding “many wonders and signs” in your daily life that you have been previously been missing, and you will be living in awe, daily! I would be so bold to say, if just one third of this congregation did this on an individual basis, in less than a year, we wouldn’t be able to fit into this space for worship at one time. Are you willing to take this challenge of “living in awe”? Amen

Just Let Go, Rock Springs, WY May 1,2011

2011-05-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Just Let Go!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY May 1, 2011
Based on John 20:19-31

One of the members of this congregation shared a little piece of information with me a few weeks concerning the nature of this body of believers. I was informed that the church membership doesn’t deal well with change, for the sake of change, but given solid reasons and enough time to digest, eventually do make changes. First off, this isn’t unique to First Congregational, almost all bodies of faith resist change for the sake of change, and when needing to change, move slowly in doing so. We both ended in laughing about the irony of the only thing that is constant is change itself!
Our last two worship services, which were Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, were conducted very differently than what we do a lot of Sundays. We were worshipping in forms that were not “the way we usually” worship. On Palm Sunday, there were lots of video on the screen, coffee cups were in the chancel area, and the pulpit had been removed. We left in silence two weeks ago, leaving our Palms and on Easter Sunday entered a dark Sanctuary. The lilies were not up front, we were not greeted by bright lights and up-beat music as usual on Easter Sunday. The pastor had really messed with Palm Sunday and Easter this year!
Yet these changes were not for the sake of doing something different, but were made to emphasize the messages of what we were celebrating. Both Sundays were celebration Sundays and less of what I think of as Sundays for Worship. Very much like the Passover Meal is about a celebration, rather than about worship. The first message that I wanted to present for Palm Sunday was that what Jesus was doing, “the triumphal entry” wasn’t just 2,000 year old history that we recite each year. I wanted us to experience it in a twenty-first setting. I also wanted us to be able to understand (at least have a sense) the thrill of Easter morning by going through the death of Christ, and how dark the disciples must have been feeling up to the point of discovering the empty tomb.
I should have asked the deacons to guard the doors this morning and checking everyone’s I.D. before letting you into the sanctuary this morning as a continuation of our Easter story, still having the lights down low, to help create that sense of “fear” that our story is describing. Almost like having bouncers at the doors of a speak-easy, helping protect those of us inside from the cops who were looking for gatherings of folks who enjoyed having a good time outside the boundaries of the law.
The reality of our situation is that as Christians we have only experienced Easter on this side of this marvelous event, not being able to understand all the fear, confusion, and pain of the these followers of Jesus who lived through the experience of the other side. Not only do we have the disadvantage of living 2,000 years after the fact, but we also live in a country where we do not truly understand fear from violent and intolerant governments or religious leaders as did those folks, or do people today in certain countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa, and parts of South America.
So for us to truly understand the impact of the assurance that Jesus was giving these people hiding behind locked doors, living in fear of what might happen next, with a greeting like “Peace be with you”, is near to impossible. I think the closest point in my life that I can relate to being fearful because of national events, was with the bombing of the twin towers in NYC. I recall after realizing that we had been attacked by terrorists, the need to be in contact with my three children, two of them lived 1,400 miles away from me and the third was not too far out of Washington D.C...
None of my children had by my standards any lessons on how to be cautious when in public spaces. Things like, while walking down a street of keeping a conscious view of the way people are acting; when entering into a building, of taking a quick look for where the exits are located; when in large crowds, looking for suspicious behavior. These are all things that a gay person quickly learns when going out in public. I was fearful that the shopping malls in particular were going to be the next target for terrorists and that they might find themselves at a possible location of danger.
As a country, we had the opportunity to do some self-examination as to why these types of actions were being directed at us, time to examine our life styles of excessive desires of self-indulging society that could possibly have triggered this type of hurtful retribution, a time to honestly look at our last 50 yrs of foreign policies and see what harm we might have created in other cultures in order to make our lifestyles more affluent. Instead we were encouraged to go shopping. We had an administration that took full advantage of our fear in order to justify more violence, plunging us into two wars and setting the stage for economic mayhem and anyone who questioned their motives, were verbally assassinated as being “unpatriotic!”
Fear is an ugly thing, and most destructive. Fear paralyzes, cripples, and brings general inability to reason clearly. It was imperative for Jesus to appear to his disciples not only to let them know that he had risen, but to give them assurance that they would be able to move ahead. “Peace I give to you” not just once but a second time, “Peace I give to you”.
Then, Jesus immediately gives them a directive of going out to do the same work that He had been sent to do, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”, and gives them the Holy Spirit in order to help them in their mission. Then a very curious thing is said by Jesus, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Eugene Peterson says it in this way, “If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?"
One of the hardest things for us to do is to “forgive”. We so love to hold on to every little and big hurt that has ever been done to us! My grandmother had a memory like a steal trap and she never hesitated to remind you of some wrong doing that you did thirty, forty, even fifty years ago.
Now does “forgiving” mean that we also forget? Usually not, and in some cases, we never want to forget, if only to never repeat the mistake, such as the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazi party, or of a whole population turning it’s head the other way, because of “fearing” their own Government.
Why are people or political systems that feed on fear so destructive? It’s because, it stops “goodness”, “kindness”, “civility”, “gentleness”, “sharing” and the ability to “love.” William Sloane Coffin, a great prophet of the United Church of Christ who died several years ago, fittingly, during Holy Week, once said: "As I see it, the primary religious task these days is to try to think straight...You can't think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth. If your heart's a stone, you can't have decent thoughts – either about personal relations or about international ones. A heart full of love, on the other hand, has a limbering effect on the mind."UCC Sermon Seeds
The goal for any church should be to work toward “Truth”, and the only way that can happen is to rid itself of the “fear”, which holds it back. A basic component to “Fear” is the inability to “forgive.” By forgiving, we “let go” of the wrong. Once we let go of the wrong, we no longer have the need to hold onto “fear”. Jesus tells us to, “Fear not, for I am with you.” If we chose to live in fear, then we are disrespecting Jesus and not allowing him to be fully alive within us.
Every congregation could do with a dose of “forgiving”. When you hear comments like, “I don’t like this pastor or I didn’t like that pastor, or Pastor so and so made me mad, so I don’t come to church”, or “So and so did this to me, I will never forgive them for that”, these are obvious signs of an unforgiving heart. Jesus asked, “If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?” This is a good question, “Why do we want to hold on to things that immobilize us, keep us from clear thinking, things that prevent us from moving ahead?” We don’t do “alter calls” in the UCC, but I wonder if we might not become healthier people if we were to do “alter calls” or even confessional booths, once in awhile.
A part of the resurrection Sunday is receiving the “Peace of Christ” and out of this “peace” comes the ability to “forgive”. It’s up to us, we can either hold on to fear and an unforgiving heart and whither on the vine, or we can prune ourselves by letting go of fear and the hurts that stunt us and become a bush that will abundantly produce. The chose is ours. Jesus tells us to, “Just let go!” Amen

For Whom Are You Looking?, Rock Springs, WY Easter Sunday, April 24,2011

2011-05-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

“For whom are you looking?”
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/24/2011
Based on John 20:1-18 and Acts 10:34-43

In the movie “Torch Song Trilogy”, Arnold the son of a grieving mother who had just lost her husband, was asking his mother what she thought she would do now that “dad” was dead? Her response was, “I guess I’ll move to Florida.” “Florida? What for ma, you don’t have anyone down there, Phil (the other son) and I live here in New York. Why would you want to move down there?” “When your great-grandfather died, your great-grandmother mother moved to Florida, when my father died, my mother moved down to Florida, now that your father is dead, I’ll move to Florida. That’s what we do, we move to Florida!” Arnold responded with, “But mom, what do you want to do?” She quickly responded by saying, “I want to die, but until then, I’ll move to Florida.”
That scene was dealing with rituals. And rituals are great things, they help us get through periods of our lives, that otherwise would be so difficult that we would not be able to navigate through. The most dramatic being, when we suffer a sever loss in our life. When we lose someone very dear to us to death, we go into a period of shock, as a defense so as to not load our feelings with more grief than we can bare. It’s as if we have an internal breaker box, that when too much pain comes, the breaker trips, shutting down our emotions. But it isn’t only our emotions that shut down. Our ability to reason, to make decisions, even to recall simple events that are only an hour old, we can also become paralyzed; our whole system seems to shut down, to where only the bare minimal in activity seems to be allowed to function.
I am sure as we think about this morning’s reading, many of us here can put ourselves in-part, into the shoes of Mary and the disciples. For they were having to cope with this terrible lose, with the execution of the man they had looked to as their “rabbouni”, their “teacher”, the one that Peter had declared as “Messiah”! They surely were operating under a great deal of shock, as they start to deal with the death of their beloved, Jesus. They not only were dealing with his death, but also must have been concerned about their own safety, wondering if they too would be picked up by the authorities.
We have this amazingly beautiful story of Mary going to the place where they had laid Jesus, temporarily during the Sabbath, and finding that the tomb had been opened and Jesus’ body wasn’t where they had left him. But amid all of the fear, doubt, and confusion, we see where Jesus appears to her and speaks with her. The story doesn’t go into the technical details of “how” Jesus” was raised, but rather the story focuses on how Mary experienced “Jesus’ resurrection!”
The resurrection story is an amazing story on many different levels. First off and most importantly, the story talks about an event that goes beyond all logical and physical reasoning. When a person dies, the body doesn’t come back to life, at least not normally. This event, is telling us that something supernatural has occurred, and that this event has ongoing implications for the world.
Another very important part of this story, deals with who Jesus is appearing to, who He is having conversation with, and who has been entrusted in sharing with the world, this most important news! In a world where men where the shakers and movers, here we see God once more picking the lowly, in this case a woman named Mary, to become the new bearer of the “Good News” that God has not died but yet still lives!
This particular account of the resurrection story has an intriguing question being posed to Mary, thus being posed to us by Jesus when he asked Mary, “For whom are you looking?” Or it could be said in another way, “What are you looking for, Mary?” “What are you doing here? What do you expect to find?”
When we come to church; when we come to worship, be it on Easter Sunday morning, or Christmas Eve, or any Sunday of the month for that matter, what is it that we are looking for? Whom do we seek? What are we hoping to find? Do we come to worship out of tradition? Do we move to Florida, because that’s what others before us have done? Or, this is what we do on Easter Sunday, we come to church. Or our families have always come to church on Sunday and that’s what we do, because, it is programmed into our DNA, to come to church on Sunday? But when you get here, what do you expect to happen? Do you expect to find God here? Are you suppose to feel better for coming to church? Are you shocked when you come and do not find Jesus here? Or do you see only an empty tomb?
Do you ask yourself, “Am I the empty tomb?” Do I ever think that God has died within my own life, and I’m hoping beyond all hope that God is truly alive, living in a church, and that possibly by coming before The Cross, I will find God? Will I experience a “resurrection” within this empty tomb? You see, it isn’t a matter of whether Jesus raised from the grave as the scriptures describe, but rather, how we personally encounter Jesus.
Is Jesus alive within us, this morning? Have we this personal encounter with Jesus, as Mary had a personal encounter with Jesus there at the tomb? Jesus didn’t appear to Peter or John when they came running and found that the body of Jesus wasn’t where they had left him. Jesus didn’t speak to them at the empty tomb; they left, not having this experience that Mary ended up having, at least not at that point, for as we continue to read on, we know that Jesus did come to the other disciples later on.
Why did Jesus appear to Mary and not to the two disciples who had come to investigate the report from Mary about the empty tomb? Possibly it was because when John saw the wrappings of the burial cloths neatly placed in the tomb; he remembered what Jesus had been telling them about his death and would arise from death into eternal life. Maybe it was because Mary was needing personal comforting to ease her anxieties and soften her grief that Jesus appeared to her. For when Jesus first appeared to her, she didn’t recognize that it was He. For me, the lesson that I see in this part of the narrative, is that we encounter Jesus in many different ways, and often, we do not immediately recognize Jesus being with us, but that it can come over time.
This morning as we come to Christ’s table, we celebrate the “empty tomb”! We celebrate the story of “resurrection”. We do experience resurrection daily in our lives, but like Mary, we might not recognize it immediately, but in time, as we are able to comprehend the story, begin to understand it. God’s love for us is so great, that life renews itself, even during times when we cannot see it! I ask the question that Jesus asked, “For whom are you looking?” I think we are here today, looking to understand that death has no victory over us, but rather, life is eternal. This is the message of the “empty tomb”, God loves his creation so much that death has no lasting sting, but through “resurrection”, life has victory! Amen

Palm Sunday Worship "Jerusalem Today, 'Religious Rebellion'"

2011-05-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

This particular Palm Sunday was conducted as if you were sitting at home watching a morning news broadcast, much like Reggis and Kathy type program. Where I and Sharon Pribyl (member of church) co-hosted a morning religious program that dealt with current news and intermingaled with scriptures and singing. I am only presenting the actual "news cast" portion of this service where Sharon and I were suppose to be reporting on the current challenges to Jewish religous practises and teachings by the rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, but have interruptions with events on the street, such as Jesus' triumphal entry and a report between Jesus and Herod. The service was concluded with recognizing that Jesus had been tried and killed, with the veiling of the cross and the congregation laying their palms at the foot of the cross and exiting quietly to the song, "Where You There."
Palm Sunday Celebration Worship, "Jerusalem Today, 'Religious Rebellion'"
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY April 17, 2011

Dramatic Reading: Jerusalem Today!
With Anchors: Sharon Isaac and Steven Jacobs
Giving you the straight talk about, “what is going on in Jerusalem today!”
Sharon: Hello, I’m Sharon Isaac
Steven: And I’m Steven Jacobs
Unison: Reporting to you today from our downtown studio Mount of Olives Towers, located in the heart of Jerusalem.
Sharon: Today we continue our topic on Religious Rebellion! Steven, you are well aware of so much unrest among the citizens in Jerusalem and outlying areas with so many reported “self proclaimed prophets”, of late. Some are even being referred to as “Messiah’s”.
Steven: That is so right, Sharon and one of these “Isaiah come lately” is a man from up North in the province of Nazareth!
Sharon: Truly a Nazarene? Honestly, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Steven: That is a good question Sharon. Only time will be able to answer that one! This brings us to this morning’s focus on Religious Rebellion. Today’s discussion will be about the latest self-proclaimed Messiah, the man called Jesus of Nazareth! As I understand from one of our underground sources, this self-proclaimed prophet, will be making an appearance at the City Center Temple later today.
Sharon: That should create some excitement, for sure, Steven. Do we know yet how he plans to get into Jerusalem? I understand that all of the gates are under heavy guard, checking papers of everyone who is coming and going from the city. At last report, there is an “immediate” arrest warrant, issued by the High Priest, Caiaphas himself, stating that Jesus of Nazareth is to be picked up on site.
Steven: Speculations on how Jesus plans to get into the city range anywhere from having Jesus parachute in from a plane to being dressed as a peasant riding on the back of a donkey. However I have never heard of a “King” making his entrance in such a non-descript fashion.
You remember when Roman sent our latest Governor, Pontius Pilot. He road into town on a beautiful white horse that stood about 20 hands high with a procession of guards, that was 5 abreast and a mile long. Now that is how a “king” generally makes his entrance into his city!
Sharon: Well Steven, it’s been over a year or so, since Jesus was last in town, and I understand that he was holding open meetings in the Temple in that visit, teaching things that seemed to anger the majority of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Steven: Sharon, hold that thought! We need to break away to our man on the street Joseph Aria cloth, with breaking news about Jesus coming into the city. (Report of the Triumphal Entry – A Dramatization,youtube)[time 4.31]
Steven: Well Sharon, if anyone has ever had any doubts up to now about how Jesus of Nazareth, or his followers for that matter, see himself, it is now clear that Jesus is claiming to be the awaited Messiah, as based on the vision of the late Prophet Zechariah, found in his writings chapter 9:9. Yes, here it is, I now have the reference in front of me and it says: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
So, here you have it, Jesus has come into Jerusalem, riding a donkey!
Sharon: What a difference between how the Governor came into Jerusalem and this Jesus! Did you hear the sounds of the crowd, Steven? It sounds like they are having a regular parade. I don’t recall people yelling for joy like that when Pilot came riding into town! I wonder how that is going to affect Jesus’ standing with the authorities in the Temple. Do you suspect that this will mean that Caiaphas will be forced to drop the arrest warrant on Jesus?
Steven: That is truly a good question Sharon. If you remember a year or so ago, Herod had a very famous Prophet beheaded, even though this man had thousands of fans.
Sharon: You are referring to the prophet who lived out by the river Jordan, and wore camel clothing and lived off of locus and honey, John the baptizer. He was the man who was instituting the new practice of salvation by pushing people under those dirty waters of the Jordan. (Yuk) He was saying something about repenting of your sins so that you might enter into the kingdom of God. Now tell me Steven, how do you get your soul cleaned when you’re using such filthy water? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Steven: John the Baptizer wasn’t arrested and killed because of his instituting some new religious action, Sharon, but rather for his public accusations of the illicit marriage of Herod Antipas and his wife Herodias; who actually had been the wife of Antipas’ brother Herod Philip! Antipas was fearful of the truth turning the population against him.
Sharon: Well Steven, we don’t want to go there. You know how touchy the Herod’s can be. Isn’t it true that Jesus was baptized by John?
Steven: Yes he was Sharon. Did you know that they were cousins!
Sharon: Well, looks to me like religion must be a family business and maybe less of being a “Messiah”.
Steven: You might be correct there Sharon. Our sources have reported a number of interesting activities that this man Jesus has been involved in. There was this business of turning water into wine, at a wedding he and his mother and some of his disciples attended in Canaan. There have been multiple reports about him healing people who have been blind their entire life? As well as feeding huge crowds who went out into the wilderness to hear him speak, with only a couple of fish and some bread.
Sharon: Our sources have also reported some very unusual activities, such as Jesus is supposedly able to walk on water, even calming wild seas. But, the most amazing is a report that we received just this past week. While he was in Bethany, a sleepy little town just a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem, he is reported to have brought back to life a man known as Lazarus! Can you believe that! The reports just seem to get wilder by the day. I heard while I was getting my hair done, the beauticians talking, and saying that this Jesus guy says he is able to rebuild the temple in only three days!
Steven: I wonder how he thinks he will be able to do that, Sharon. Oh, Oh, hold on, we are just receiving a report that Jesus has been arrested by the Pharisees and is now having a hearing as we speak. In fact, we have just received some film footage of a portion of the trial with Herod. (play film clip of Herod and Jesus from 2000 Jesus Christ Superstar, youtube)
Steven: Sharon, we will come back to our program after this brief break for our Sponsors.
[Coming back to program]
Steven: This has to be one of the most amazing events that I have ever witnessed, Sharon. To have a trial directly after being captured is almost unheard of, especially with the backlog in the court system. Jesus of Nazareth is most certainly being treated as a serious threat to our National security!
Sharon: I just received a report during our break saying, that a well known Zealot, Barabbas, has been released by Governor Pilot, at the request of a crowd that has been standing outside the palace steps. Evidently there has been a large negative reaction to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and a number of citizens are demanding that Jesus be executed for not only his religious teachings, but for his consistently breaking the Sabbath law.
Steven: Yes Sharon, it is a well known fact that many of Jesus’ miracles seemed to happen on Sabbath. The last straw seemed to come when Jesus raised that Lazarus guy from the dead. Apparently the Pharisees had had enough with Jesus breaking the Sabbath Law and at that point put out a reward for his capture. Do we have any idea how Jesus was found?
Sharon: Again Steven, reports are sketchy and according to one of my sources in the Council of Pharisees, it was one of Jesus’ own disciples who turned him in. A man by the name of Judas Iscariot seems to have signed a claim voucher for 30 pieces of silver and lead authorities to a small garden just outside of Jerusalem. Seems he identified Jesus by giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Steven: Some friend he turned out to be. It would appear to me that Jesus isn’t a very good judge of character, when it comes to picking out friends and supporters.
This is unbelievable!
Sharon: I know what you mean Steven. I was just telling one of my friends during the commercial break....
Steven: No Sharon. I mean, I have just received another report indicating that Jesus has been sentenced to be executed at the hill outside of the city, known as Golgotha! I just can’t believe that a man who has been preaching about love and forgiveness is being murdered at the request of our Religious leaders. There has to be more to this man than what meets the eye.
Our camera crew is on their way out to Golgotha right now, but in the mean time, we have a written transcript from a man named Matthew with what is transpiring. Let me share it with you: (Matt 27: 45-54) 45-46From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around mid-afternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
47-49Some bystanders who heard him said, "He's calling for Elijah." One of them ran and got a sponge soaked in sour wine and lifted it on a stick so he could drink. The others joked, "Don't be in such a hurry. Let's see if Elijah comes and saves him."
50But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.
51-53At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. What's more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus' resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)
54The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, "This has to be the Son of God!"

Even though time has run out for today, please stay tuned to this station for continuing reports of today’s most miraculous event! The capture and crucifixion of what will surely turn out to be one of Judah’s greatest Prophets, Jesus of Nazareth.
Sharon: Even the Romans are calling this man the “Son of God!” Steven what have we done in killing this man if he truly is the “Son of God?”
Steven: I don’t know Sharon. We will just have to keep watch as this story continues to unfold.
Thank you folks for watching us today, this is Steven Jacobs
Sharon: And this is Sharon Isaac, saying “Shalom for now”. Please join us next week on [both] JERUSALEM TODAY!

I AM, "says so", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/10/2011

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

“I Am” Says So!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/10/2011
Based on Ezekiel 37:1-14 & John 11:1-45

We are just two weeks away from celebrating Easter Sunday! The day that we set aside for “praising” God and presenting Christ with the academy award for best “Savior” in his role of “Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God”! The scene that critics point to in giving this award is that of Jesus’ resurrection, specifically the scene where he comes to Mary at the empty tomb!
Yet in today’s lection readings we find two more “resurrection” stories. You might possibly have remembered the story of Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb, knowing of at least two resurrection stories, but were you aware of the story in Ezekiel, where God helped in the resurrection of those who had been dead for years in the valley of the bones?
In Western European culture, we tend to relegate skeletons to the celebration of Halloween. Yet today, two weeks before Easter Sunday, we are reading a story that deals with Halloween images. Resurrection is a difficult topic for the modern rational scientific mind, thus making the resurrection of Jesus a pretty hard thing to wrap our brain around. The raising of Lazarus from the tomb is also a hard sell, but at least a person could raise the question of whether Lazarus was actually dead, or did he just appear dead and they buried him by mistake and somehow Jesus was aware of this. But how do you reconcile this story of Ezekiel, where you have bones that are bleached by the sun, coming together, muscle and skin forming and then them breathing?
If I were talking to my mother about these two stories, she would probably tell me, “Steven, don’t fret over whether science can support these stories or not, after all, God is the creator of all life and as creator, God has the power to do things outside of the laws of this world. After all, we don’t understand all of the physical laws of this world and who’s to say that God isn’t using some science that we don’t know about yet? Just accept what you are reading as hard fact!”
My problem is, I can’t share in that type of trust and faith that my mother is able to read scripture with. I am more of a doubting Thomas, I am a product of my generation that says, the laws of the universe are constant and that all things have a predictable behavior, such as, when you’re dead, your physical body is forever dead.
Now, I do however believe that we have very little science that can quantify and explain what we call a spirit world, so I can at least ponder upon “spiritual” things more freely and with a simpler level of faith. Meaning, I can look at these two stories and look for meanings that do not conflict with hard physical science. People who tend to look at scripture more like I do would then call the account in Ezekiel at the very least a “Myth”. A myth is a story that doesn’t rely on the details as having to be factual, but use the story as a vehicle to present a “truth.”
So what is the common theme running through these two stories? In one story, we have a prophet who is lead by God out into a valley of bones, and is told by God to speak to these bones and tell them basically to come to life, which they do! In the other story we have Jesus, son of God, speaking to a dead man who has been buried for four days to come out of the tomb.
Well, for starters we are dealing with two groups of people who are in deep despair. Martha and Mary have lost their brother and are in the midst of deep grief, feeling that their world has come crashing down around them. We feel this when we lose someone who is very dear to us. For Martha and Mary, this may be more acute than just losing their brother. There is never any mention in scripture about either of them having a husband, so when Lazarus dies, they could possibly be looking at poverty, since they no longer have a male figure to defend and provide for their necessities.
For Ezekiel, the story reveals itself as speaking about the loss of the Israelites, as they had been captured and taken off to a foreign land, living in exile, and the temple, which in their culture say’s, “God lives in” has been destroyed. For those who Ezekiel was a prophet to, there was a feeling of defeat, of no hope, of no joy, a feeling of being dead!
So God directs Ezekiel out to this valley and tells him, speak to these bones and say to them come together, and then tell the breath, “enter into them” so that they might live. Ezekiel does all that God has directed him to do and these bones gather, become flesh and blood again and then come to life with the breath that God gave them. Then a pivotal verse at the end says, “I will put my spirit within you and you shall live.” Essential to the recovery of these dry bones is the spirit of God. It is the very breath of God that makes a difference in the life and death of the community. Karen Georgia Thompson, from Sermon Seeds, UCC
One more point is brought out by theologian, Dennis T. Olson as he emphasizes this aspect of the story: “The how of this amazing skeletal resurrection will be through the ‘breath’ (ruah) – spirit, wind, breath of the Lord which will enter these bones and give them life. And that breath of God will come through a human priest/prophet speaking the word of the Lord in ordinary human language.”
This past Monday, in the group of ministers that I have bible study with, the primary question raised was, “how do we as pastors inspire our congregants to deepen their relationship with God?” You see, most pastors hold high expectations for their congregations. We are naive enough to assume that if a person comes to Worship on Sunday morning that they want to deepen their relationship with God. This is true for some, but not for all.
As we look at this story and the story of Jesus raising Lazarus, both are men speaking the word of God which brings life. It is through speaking the “truth” of God, through the spoken word of God, that the breathe of life enters into a person whose soul has been filled with hopelessness, despair, possibly even death.
This is powerful stuff that we are hearing about this morning. We are hearing about the truth that “God gives us life”, not just in the hereafter, but here and now! It is a truth for those of us who harbor pain, and hurt, who feel violated by life itself, it is through speaking “God truth” to these bones that have become dead and dried up, that we can once again be filled with life, with hope, with joy. We live when God’s breathe has entered into our soul! This is what the meaning of resurrection is all about. We don’t have to be waiting until we die as Martha was professing to Jesus, but as Jesus showed with the raising of Lazarus, resurrection is now.
One last thing for us to think about, in both stories, this coming back to life, this gift of new life is for the enhancement of God, not for the benefit of those who were dead. Jesus prayed to God, saying that he was doing this in order that those who see will believe. It wasn’t for Lazarus’ sake that he was given back his life; it was so that God might be glorified.
We speak a lot about the mission of the church, or another way to say it is the life of the church. The life of the church isn’t for the purpose of its members. The life of the church isn’t for us to revel in, to enjoy for ourselves; rather the life of the church is to glorify God! The mission of the church is to help bring people into an active relationship with their creator. If we are expecting anything other than that then we are misguided in our purpose. Last week at communion I made the point that the communion table wasn’t our table, but God’s table. This church isn’t our church. This church is God’s church. Its success in its outreach will be determined by how much we allow God to breathe the Spirit into our body! Our life line is through the “saying so” of the, “I Am”! Amen.

Whose Disciple Are You?, Rev Steven R Mitchell, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-04-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

Whose Disciple are You?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/3/2011
Based on John 9:1-41

Back in the days when I was in Seminary, one of the activities that my class had to experience dealt with “sensory deprivation.” Two of those exercises we participated in consisted with variations in sight and sound. At one point we were blindfolded, then lead around by the hand, then we were pushed into a direction that the leader wanted us to go, and finally we were allowed to wonder around, unassisted.
A second exercise was being placed into a sound proof room, for a good ten to twenty minutes, being totally deprived of any sounds. At first you hear nothing, but eventually you begin to hear the pinning of molecules bumping into one another, so there is never a total void of sound. The purpose of these exercises is to give you, a potential care-giver some sense of what it is like to be a person living without the benefit of sight or sound. Once you have experienced one or more of your senses not being available to you, when you do come in contact with an individual who is living without sight, hearing, a leg or an arm, or any other physical limitation of their body, you become more sensitive to the challenges of a person in that situation.
In today’s Gospel reading, we learn about a man who from birth has not been able to see. Along comes Jesus, who recognizes this encounter with the blind man as a “teachable” moment for his disciples, by explaining to them that “sin” is not the reason for this man to be blind. What starts out to be a happy occasion for the man who is healed by Jesus, very quickly deteriorates into a tumultuous situation when he is presented to the Pharisees at the temple. He is badgered about his healing, with his testimony not being believed, even his character was being questioned.
It is almost like a scene out of the T.V. show, Perry Mason, where the Pharisee plays the part of District Attorney, Hamilton Burger, cross-examining Perry’s client, in this case the man who was blind, in order find some flaw in his story. Frustrated in not finding any change in the defendant’s testimony, the Pharisee changes tactics and tries to discrete this man standing before him, by attacking the witness’s character. He calls in the man’s parents and tries to get them to admit that their son has been lying about being blind his entire life. When this doesn’t work, the defendant is brought back in for further cross-examination and then the unthinkable happens, the defendant begins to accuse the Pharisee of being uninformed. Out of frustration, the defendant is dismissed from the court, and is also barred from every stepping foot back into the Synagogue. Not because he was guilty of a real crime, but rather, because he was seen to stand outside of what the Pharisees understand as truth. Their final accusation being, the defendant is a disciple of Jesus and they are disciples of Moses.
Today’s true focus isn’t in the actual healing of the man who was born blind, but rather a broader truth that centers on both “seeing” and “hearing”. If you go back and re-read the progression of this story, you will see where the man who is born blind moves from his first encounter with Jesus as being not able to see, of being in the dark. For the writer of John, being in the dark is very symbolic of not knowing “truth”. The man born blind, when being questioned the first time by the Pharisees, recognizes that the man who gave him sight must be a prophet. When being questioned a second time by the Pharisees and listening to their theological arguments about not knowing who Jesus was, the man born blind then moves into understanding that Jesus must be a man from God, as God does not honor the requests of “sinners”. Finally, when Jesus comes back to visit him, he knows that Jesus was the one who healed him, even though he was not able to see, he could hear and he recognizes Jesus’ voice and calls him “Lord” and falls down to worship him.
In the same progression of the story, the Pharisees are assumed to be able to see, to possess the truth, for they are disciples of Moses. This means that they follow the law, for it was through Moses that God gave the Israelites the pattern for living. Yet these men of the truth, are not able to recognize Jesus as being from God, they were unable to see who Jesus was because they did not recognize his voice! They never understood anything that Jesus said to them as coming from God, because they had stopped being open to new possibilities, the possibility that the true Messiah had indeed arrived.
We in the church have the potential to be like the Pharisees, of not able to hear the voice of Jesus, because at some point we came to stop being open to the ever speaking voice of God. What I learned as a child in Sunday school, which made sense to me then has become the stable truth for me. I learned as a child that God created the earth and all that lives on it, in just six days. It says so right in black and white. As an adult, I still read the same black and white, God created all of life in six days, but have I closed my mind and reject all sorts of scientific data that says, those days are not measured in 24hr increments or am I open enough to realize that God speaks in many ways and that the collective knowledge of science suggests that creation is more evolutionary than creature specific, and that the truths about God creating me might not be based on what I learned as a child?
Do we accuse an individual of not being a Christian because they do not conduct their life in the manor that we have decided to be consistent with our understanding of Jesus’ teachings? Do we shun people who are not at our level of education or economic standards? There are many ways in which the church is blind and does not recognize Jesus, because we have become closed and unable to hear the voice of Christ.
Are we disciples of Moses, living and judging life by a standard that was giving thousands of years ago, or are we like the man who was born blind and received sight in a non-conventional way, open to hearing the ever still speaking God?
As we come to this communion table this morning, are we coming as Disciples of Moses, worshiping a stagnate God, or do we come this morning, recognizing Jesus’ voice and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, which was sent to guide and to comfort us, as Disciples of Christ? For us to recognize the Still Speaking God, we must have an open and active relationship with Christ! Amen

"Thirsty Voices", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 3/27/2011

2011-03-28T07:59:00.001-07:00

Thirsty Voices
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 3/27/2011
Based on Exodus 17:1-7 & John 4:5-42

This past Wednesday, one of Hollywood’s greatest and larger than life actors passed away, Elizabeth Taylor, at age 79. Quoting from DAVID GERMAIN and HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press: Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work. Taylor was the most loyal of friends and a defender of gays in Hollywood when AIDS was new to the industry and beyond. Mss. Taylor was personally afflicted by ill health, failed romances (eight marriages, seven husbands) and personal tragedy. Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993. As she accepted it, to a long ovation, she declared, "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame."
In an interview around the time Liz was turning 50, she said, "I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me," Whether we approve, or disapprove of the life that Mss Taylor lived, there is much to be learn by her on how to face life’s adversities and be a survivor, of how one picks themselves up and moves forward after making mistakes, of being a courageous voice in social justice issues when it isn’t popular, and of living life to its fullest.
As I read through this morning’s Gospel lesson, I can almost substitute Elizabeth Taylor for the woman that Jesus has encountered at the well. Both women seem to mirror so much of the other’s life style. Both had had multiple husbands, neither seemed uncomfortable in stepping out of the usual roles and norms of their day, especially when it comes to encountering men. Both could be said to have, “Thirsty Voices”, not only easily speaking their minds, but also in seeking answers about life’s deepest questions.
The woman whom Jesus encountered understands the inequality of those who seem to hold the power and those who do not as she says to Jesus, “Our ancestors (also children of Abraham) worshipped on this mountain, but you (the Jewish religion) say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Liz Taylor pleaded with Christians at the onset of AID’s, “— to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.”
As I was trying to map out today’s text with what I most wish to share with you, the most obvious theme deals with “sustainability”, both physical and spiritual sustainability. Looking at the Exodus story, we read where the Israelites are fearful of dying due to the lack of water, one of life’s necessities. With the woman at the well, water is again the focus of discussion. Next, the Disciples come along and they are worried about food, again a basic need in order to sustain physical life.
In Exodus, with the Moses story, you have a group of refugee’s wondering about in a dessert, finding themselves in a place where there is no water. This could be a metaphor about finding oneself at the end of their rope and not knowing what to do next. Moses goes to God and asks for help, telling God that his people are very unhappy with the way things are playing out – after all, they left their lives in Egypt where they might have been slaves, working dead end jobs, and had no hope, but at least they had water to drink and some food to eat; now they are out in the wilderness with no food, no water, and seemingly no hope! They are asking, “Is the LORD among us or not?” They are at the end of their rope.
In the encounter with the woman at the well, she too is at a point in her life, where things probably haven’t panned out the way she had hoped. She was not looked upon by the other women with any positive feelings, exhibited by her being at the well by herself at noon, when the rest of the women would have been at the well early in the morning, before the heat of the day. She was probably not respected by the men of the town, as she seemed to run through men like sand in an hour glass. In fact, she was not married to the man she was currently living with.
Through the discussion of water with Jesus, we see that this woman was able to comprehend that what was needed in her life was something deeper than just the basic physical necessities of life. The disciples on the other hand were not so quick on the upbeat, requiring Jesus to explain to them that the discussion about food was that of a spiritual matter.
Although the theme about spiritual sustainability is the obvious theme, there is a more subtle lesson being provided. It is the theme of being aware and able to recognize the blessings that we receive in our daily living, of being open enough to receive those gifts from God, of receiving God’s life giving water.
I would like to present this point in a most poignant video about the problems with receptiveness due to first impressions. Show Britain’s Got Talent, Susan Boyle’s performance.
I started out this morning’s sermon with giving tribute to one of Hollywood’s most physically voluptuous women, next I talked about a woman who lived on the edge of society, and then ended with a woman who was frumpy looking in appearance. All three of these women have given the world tremendous gifts, one through activism and film, another with her music. The message of “living water” came to a Samaritan town through a woman who was the most unlikely person to deliver a message about the “love” and “saving” grace of God. The town’s people heard her testimony about this man Jesus and went out to see for themselves. In the story in Exodus, through Moses’ pleas with God, the “life giving water” came to the Israelites from taking a rod and striking a rock.
The purpose of these stories is to remind us that God is always here! We need to be open, we need to be receptive of what gifts God wants to bestow upon us. These gifts are many times presented in the most unassuming manor. If Susan Boyle’s had accepted the initial audiences rejection and left the stage without singing, we would have never been able to be blessed by such a beautiful voice, a voice that speaks to the very core of one’s soul. If the Samaritan’s had not been receptive to this woman who normally was censured, they would have not heard Jesus’ message. If the woman at the well had not been willing to enter into a conversation with a stranger, who was breaking all the social rules of the day, she would never have been able to accept the Good News that was in front of her. We need to be aware that we are a people thirsting for the living water that only comes through Spirit, to Spirit. We like the Israelites, experiencing God’s miracles one after another, truly are Thirsty voices in the wilderness of our journey! Amen

When Did Temptation become so Bad?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 3/13/2011

2011-03-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

When Did Temptation become So Bad?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 3/13/2011
Based on Matthew 4:1-11

Have any of you ever found yourself in a situation where a choice that would be life altering had to be made? The great poet Robert Frost wrote about such a situation in his poem, The Road Not Taken.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;         5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,         10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.         15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
A widely held interpretation, by critics, is that the poem is about making personal choices and rationalizing our decisions, whether with pride or with regret. With the last two lines telling us, that the speaker was a courageous nonconformist in taking a road few other people had taken.
This morning’s Gospel reading could most certainly point to the actions of Jesus as a person who chose to take the road less traveled. Yet according to Mr. Frost, the poem is intended as a gentle jab at his great friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas, with whom he used to take walks through the forest (Thomas always complained at the end that they should have taken a different path), those always thinking that the “other” path might have been the better choice. Wikipedia
On Friday, June 19, 1953, at 9:15 a.m., I embarked on a most incredible journey; it was the day that I breathed my first breath of air on this planet. It has been a journey filled with much learning; a journey filled with much emotional and physical development; a journey that has had no real road map to follow, other than by advice freely given and by advice personally sought out, as well as by examples of those who have preceded me in their own journey of life! It has been a journey filled with choices, and with all of this wonderful advice that I have received, examined, weighted and either rejected or implemented, do you know what I have discovered? I have discovered that I have managed to make a few mistakes along the way! Imagine that, with all this marvelous help, I would actually have had the audacity to have made one or two, or three, or maybe thousands of wrong choices in my journey.
Rod Roddenberry, the creator of the famed Star Trek series, managed to sum up my whole life, past, present and I’m sure future. He says of my life: Going where no man has gone before! Have any of you ever felt as if, your life has gone where no other person’s life has gone before? That the choices you have made have sometimes been the wrong decisions? I hope so, otherwise, you are probably not human, but maybe a Klingon or some other life form.
This morning’s lectionary readings are dealing with standing at a cross road and making decisions. The process that we go through in making a decision is by examining as many differing outcomes that we can think of and basing our decision on the results of this process. We call this process, discernment. Another word that could be substituted for discernment is the word, “temptation.”
Today’s scripture readings focus on Temptations and the result of choices made, due to specific temptations. The first temptation that we read in scripture occurs in the Garden of Eden. The story line tells us that if Adam and Eve ever eat the fruit from the tree in the center of the garden, they would end up dying. As the story goes, Eve has a lengthy conversation with a serpent discussing (which is one of the tools we use in the discernment process) whether what God had told them was really truth or was God just saying things in order to keep them under control. When did the word “temptation” become a negative meaning? Is not this word just another part of the process that we use as we try to go through a discernment process?
Have you ever wondered when Jesus truly realizes that He is the Son of God? Was it at his baptism or later in his journey? After Jesus was baptized, was he ready to take on the mission of His ministry or did he need time to think about how that ministry was going to look like; of how he was going to shape his ministry? We read that Jesus needs time to figure things out and goes off into the wilderness for 40 days in order to go through a discernment process. Scripture uses the word “temptation” to describe events that Jesus had during that time.
I would like to share with you a dramatization of this event that helps put some meat onto today’s reading. (You tube: The Temptation of Jesus by the Devil in the Wilderness 8:51 min
I asked at the beginning of this sermon if, anyone of you has ever had to make a decision that was “life altering.” A decision where you had to spend time by yourself, in quiet contemplation, thinking of all the implications of your next step in your journey in life? Did it look a little like what Jesus was being faced with while in the dessert for those forty days?
As we go through the next 41 days of lent, take some quiet time out for yourselves and face some temptations that might be life changing for you and in doing so, remember how Jesus dealt with His dessert voices. Amen

Victorious Living through Christ pt6 "When God Is Revealed", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-03-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ pt 6
“When God is revealed”
First Congregational UCC & (Mt of Olives Lutheran), Rock Springs, WY 3/6/2011
Based on Exodus 24:12-18 & Matthew 17:1-9

This is the last Sunday of Epiphany, and this coming Wednesday we start the long journey to the Hill of Golgotha, as we celebrate Ash Wednesday; the official start of the Lenten season. The whole season of Epiphany has been one of “revealing” to the world who Jesus was and what his mission on earth was about. This mission of course was to reveal the Glory of God to a world that so frequently loses sight and to let the world know the depth of love God has for us.
One of the definitions of Epiphany is: a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple commonplace occurrence or experience. Scripture is filled with many “epiphanies”. One such epiphany occurred with Moses as he encountered God on the top of Mount Sinai, and waited for the Tablets that contained the Law, as read from the book of Exodus this morning.
Another epiphany came by way of three outsiders of the Hebrew race; we call the ‘wise men’ or ‘kings of the East’. As the three men approached Jerusalem looking for the new born king of Israel, Herod had a new understanding of his limited reign and lack of knowledge of God’s plans, as laid out in scripture.
This morning’s reading in Matthew speaks of the most dramatic epiphany to date in the lives of Peter, James, and John, as they travel up the mountain with Jesus, leaving the rest of the disciples at their camp. While they were up on the mountain, a great light suddenly appeared around them, and they saw Jesus enveloped completely within this light. Then they saw both Moses and Elijah alongside Jesus; Jesus seemed to be having a conversation with them both. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Then as Jesus and the three disciples start their way down from the mountain, Jesus tells them, “not to say anything about what they had witnessed until after he has been raised from the dead.”
Over the life of the Christian Church, we have come to know this story as the “Transfiguration of Christ!” As I read and re-read this story of what happened on this mountain top, I come away with a lot of questions. Questions such as: Why did Jesus only take Peter, James and John on this particular journey? Why was it Moses and Elijah who appeared and spoke with Jesus, and not God personally? Why did God think it necessary to speak to the three disciples during this occurrence, and once again say how “pleased” Jesus has made God and that the disciples needed to “listen to what Jesus tells them?” And why did Jesus want these guys to keep silent about what they had witnessed until after his death and resurrection?
Last weekend, Jonathan Firme and I, spent our time with 40 Confirmands at our conference retreat center, La Foret, located near Colorado Springs. The major focus of this time together, was to help the youth explore various images of God, and to give them permission to start expanding their concepts of what God looks like, and to ignite their interest of asking questions of how God works in their life’s.
At one of the secessions the story of Jesus’ first miracle was discussed; another epiphany story. In the story, Jesus, his disciples and his mother were guests at a wedding banquet, where the wine starts to run short. Jesus’ mother urges Jesus to take care of this problem. Jesus is not willing to help, so being a good Jewish mother, Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Being forced into dealing with this problem, Jesus then directs the servants to fill ceremonial barrels with water, then to take a pitcher of water from one of the barrels to the host where at that point the water had become wine. Jesus did all this while staying seated. After the wedding, Jesus then tells his disciples that they will perform greater miracles than that. That story has stayed with me during this week as well as the question that I posed to the group at large and then again to the three confirmands that went from this church, “What type of miracles can we recognize that we have either already preformed or are able to perform that are greater than what Jesus has done?” After all, as a minister, I have yet to turn water into wine. I have never been able to walk on water, and I have yet to heal anyone or bring someone back from the dead. So what miracle am I as a disciple of Christ able to do that by Jesus’ standard would be greater than what he did during his ministry?
That is a question that I am going to let you struggle to find the answer, as I think it is a personal question and only you will be able to find the answer for yourself.
Many times the epiphanies in our lives’ come through what we would call a mountain top experience. For the three disciples it came with Moses and Elijah visiting with Jesus. I think the reason why Moses and Elijah are the two visiting with Jesus, is Moses was the one who brought Israel up out of Egypt, out of slavery and has always been referred to as their redeemer; Elijah is representative of the prophet who never died, but rather was taken up to God in the firer chariot. So in this mountain top experience you have the giver of the law from God and the prophet who was delivered from death and was expected to return before the messiah came, thus a fulfillment of the prophet writings.
I have been preaching a sermon series called, Victorious living through Jesus, which is based on the AA 12 step program. This week I am combining step 6, “Being entirely ready to have God remove all the defects of character” and step 7, “Humbly asking Him to remove our shortcomings.” You might ask where does this figure into the story of Jesus’ transfiguration.
I would like to share with you a conversation that I had early in my week with my secretary. We entered into a discussion on the topic of “faith” versus “knowing”. For some people, faith is good enough in order to move forward in their walk with God. For others, those I like to call, concrete thinkers, those who need actual proof in order to believe in God, like doubting Thomas, faith just leaves too much of a gap to believe in. When Thomas was finally able to put his hands into Jesus’ wounds, he then was able to believe, this was Thomas’ epiphany, and this was the point where Thomas was able to ask Jesus to remove his shortcoming of “doubt.”
Peter, James and John all three had a physical encounter with an event that most likely took away any doubt about who Jesus was. My personal epiphany came at 32,000 feet when I had an audible encounter with God, which I have shared with some of you; and from this encounter, there is no doubt in my mind about the degree of love that God has for me. There will be people who will say, my experience can be explained by the lack of oxygen being so high in the atmosphere. It doesn’t matter whether anyone believes what my experience was, because for me it has moved me from operating beyond faith into the understanding of a fact, and it took away my defect which was in doubting the love of God for who I am. I think the reason why Jesus told Peter, James and John not to say anything about what they experienced until after Jesus died and was resurrected was because, no one would have believed them before hand. Possibly, they were still in disbelief.
The point of an epiphany is that through a new revelation, or perspective of life, we are able to move forward in a way that we would not be able to do prior to that epiphany. Before we are able to ask God to remove those things within our lives that keep us from moving forward in our lives, allowing us to become successful in our spiritual walk with God, we need to have our own personal epiphany; our own transfigurational event.
I would like to share a prayer that I have used many times that I think can help us put into perspective the concept of living our life in a transfigurational understanding. It goes like this: Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger women and men. Do not pray for tasks equal to our powers, but for power equal to our tasks. Then the doing of our work will be no miracle – we will be the miracle. Every day we will wonder at ourselves and the richness of life which has come to us by the grace of God. The epiphany found in Christ is that we go beyond whom we are and with the help of God, we are able to overcome many adversities in our life when we let God take away those things that hold us back, and we then become the miracle, which becomes the blessing to this world. Amen

Victorious Living through Christ pt5 "Looking for the Sacred in the Secular", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-02-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ pt 5
“Looking for the Sacred in the Secular”
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 2/20/2011
Based on Matthew 5: 43-48 & 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

What do the “Simpson’s”, “South Park”, the singing group “U2” and famed rape artist “Kanye West “all have in common? One of their commonalities is they are all considered to be a part of the arena we call secular entertainment. Another commonality with these and other secular groups is how much they deal with the concepts of “spirituality” and “sacredness”.
This past week, Paul and I attended what is called the annual “Pastor/Spouse retreat”, but it was what I refer to as a working retreat. We were at 9,000 to be closer to hear God speak; at a place where God’s creative nature provided natural hot springs to help keep us warm as well. As a person who was on the planning committee, I was very pleased with the speaker that we were able to bring in for this retreat, Jim Luck. Jim is a reformed Southern Baptist minister, who is now in the UCC family in South Carolina, as well as holding a degree in Psycho-therapy.
The focus of this working retreat was to explore the sacredness that is being discussed in the secular world, a discussion that is being handled by and for people who are not connected to a traditional faith community; that which we call, church and through the act of “worship.” One of the groups that were presented during these discussions was a group known as “U2”. This group has spent its entire existence staying away from the religious world, yet has a growing number of churches using their materials within the context of worship, with specific focus at the communion table, being labeled “U 2cherist”. (Just a warning, I now have been supplied with resources to where we will be observing a worship that will be a U 2cherist in the not so distant future, that not only featuring U2, but also a speech by Bishop Desmond Tutu, as well as a homily delivered by Bono, lead singer of U 2, at the 2007 Presidential prayer breakfast.)
Just a little back ground on U 2, it is a group that comes out of the turmoil of the Irish Protestant/Catholic war that lasted for generations. The groups background is 3/5th Catholic, 2/5th Protestant. A part of the Christian world looks to U2 as presenting the Christian message, while another part of the Christian world rejects them as “not having the answer” and the group U2 does not identify with any faith community that uses the word “Christian” in its name. Yet, their words and music speak to millions of people at a very deep spiritual level. Let me share some of the words of the song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” as one example.

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
Vs 3….I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

The discussions at this retreat that Jim Luck asked us to focus on were questions such as: Why do singing groups, movies, and T.V. programs have such impact on millions of listeners concerning spirituality; How is it that discussions of “the sacred” are occurring with such frequency outside of the church; Without the wisdom and guidance of religious teachings, what will the answers look like, with only secular input?
I think there is a huge assumption with many churches, who are struggling to keep their doors open, a conclusion that those on the outside are not interested in “spiritual” matters. I recall in one of my very early sermons asking how many of you have heard the phrase: I’m Spiritual, not religious. The answer in itself speaks volumes to how the church has failed society. We have failed to speak to people at an honest level. An honest level about the hardships that come in life, giving platitudes that like: this is God’s will; you’re not praying hard enough; there must be something wrong in your life to be experiencing all these troubles. We have failed to address the evil that happens in the world. We feel that we must have all the answers to spiritual questions and use formulated words at sacred moments in order to show the power and the “omnipresence” of God.
The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile…” The church continues to think that it has all the answers to life’s questions. That unless you come to us, you on the outside, will never know the love of God. Jesus, warns us about this type of conceited thinking by telling us,” This is what God does. He gives the Parental best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.”
We, meaning the human race, are standing at the threshold of a new paradigm of understanding our connectedness to God. This new paradigm started with teachings such as those that Christ taught. It comes through many other prophets such as Mohammad, Buddha, and others, teaching us about our interconnectedness with one another, with our environment, and with God. It has been moving forward for several thousand years. But if all we can do is look through the lens of our arrogance, we will be misplacing our energies; to resist this new shift and will not be a part of the next level of reality in truth, but will become extent as an ancient teaching that has no value to it. We will not be around to help minister to folks as they continue to ask those most intimate questions of God, we will not be around to help people celebrate those most sacred moments in their lives.
As a church, as a people who profess to know God, we are not the only source of comfort and help or knowledge of God. Organizations like AA have filled the vacuum that the church left when it chose not to address the issue of alcoholism. Current estimates say, AA has around one and a quarter million members. They do not talk about God directly, but they do address spirituality and sacredness of life at a level that the church has not.
One of the purposes for my doing this series of Victorious Living through Christ, which is based on AA’s twelve step program is to help us as Christians renew our connection to God for spiritual growth that is based on a program that has been super successful in the secular setting. Another one of the steps that we need to take and work, not only on an individual basis but as the church at large is to: Admit to God, to ourselves, and to humanity the exact nature of our wrongs. As people of God, we must admit our arrogance and our tendency to “exclude, diminish, and marginalize” those we believe do not fit within our image of what God wishes for. The greatest sin of the Christian Church has been and continues to be in our arrogance and self-conceit that we have all the answers.
You see, it doesn’t matter if you believe in a God or not, as human beings we all are asking the questions of life. Questions about why does evil exist, why do others seem to be luckier in life, while I try to do good, but get dumped on all the time? Why did I get cancer when I did all the healthy things that you are suppose to do, yet Joe Blow over there, drinks a case of scotch a week, smokes a carton of cigarettes a day and has no health issues. Why does John Doe who has thousands of dollars in his investment portfolio win the mega millions lotto, while I am in bankruptcy, losing my house and will have my children living on the streets, because I can’t find work? Where is the justice I hear that God is so interested in?
There is sacred and spirituality outside of the church. We as the church have been failing humanity by thinking we have all the answers. We continue to fail humanity by expecting them to conform to our church language, to conduct their experiences of the sacred in the way that we understand the sacred. We are guilty of “institutionalizing” God instead of making God accessible.
In reality, God is always accessible to all; we in the church have forgotten this. I think we are the ones, who sin against God the most, and we need to recognize this and go and confess this, not among ourselves, but with those we have excluded and to those that are marginalized by society. Let us not exclude the secular but rather embrace what it has to offer and see how we within the church can enter into the conversation that is going on outside of these walls. Amen

Victorious Living through Christ pt4 "Searching the Interior", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-02-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ pt 4
“Searching the Interior”
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 2/6/2011
Based on Isaiah 58:1-9a and 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

If you are looking for a truly good movie to go and see, may I suggest going to “The King’s Speech”, which is currently showing at the local cinema. It is a story about King George VI, and how he strove to overcome a speech impediment. As the second son of King George V, Albert was not anticipating his eventual ascent to the throne of the United Kingdom standing in the shadow of his older and more charismatic brother, Prince Edward VIII.
Prince Albert, was plagued with a sever stammer when speaking. He went to the best therapists of the day, trying a range of techniques going back to ancient Greek medicine to more modern treatments. Nothing seemed to help, and after his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, one which was an ordeal for both him and the listeners, Prince Albert resolved to never see another therapist. Out of desperation and through a friend’s reference, Albert’s wife Elizabeth (mother to Queen Elizabeth II, current Queen of England) encourages Albert to go and see Lionel Logue, an Australian-born speech therapist. Wikipedia on line.
Mr. Logue, used very unusually methods in treating Prince Albert, with the most being, having Albert go back into his memories and recall portions of his life that might have set the stage for his stammering. This was met with resistance by the Prince, but over time, along with other methods such as breathing exercises, the Prince took on the challenge to recall incidences in his childhood, thus doing internal examinations, looking for experiences that kept him from speaking without stammering. Eventually with lots of work and understanding some of his childhood experiences, Prince Albert, was able to overcome much of his stammering.
One of the twists in the movie comes when the Arch Bishop of Canterbury is challenged by the future King of England (which also meant, holding the title as ‘Head of the Church of England’) to have Mr. Logue, at his side during the coronation, it is revealed that Mr. Logue had no formal education or credentials to back up his methods, thus having his success with Prince Albert being diminished and not worthy of standing next to the future King of England.
Have you ever had anyone throw out the “superiority” card at you, thus trying to diminish or dismiss your abilities, your opinions, and your validity as a person? I suspect we all have at one time or another. This was an issue with the Church in Corinth. Paul is addressing a church in conflict, because there were people in this church that felt they were superior to the common member of that faith family.
Paul started his address to the church in Corinth by saying, he came not to bring to them “a greater knowledge”, but rather he came and kept the message simple; first telling them about Jesus and who he was, and then what Jesus had done for every person. Paul then goes on to say, “6-9We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out God's best in us…”
Paul then says, to be able to overcome what is holding us back, we need to not rely on the wisdom of the day, but rather go to God’s way of providing healing and growth. “God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of God’s purposes.” Paul shares this can only come once our feet are on firm spiritual ground. What does that mean to you, this being firm on Spiritual ground? How do we get our feet on firm Spiritual ground? Again Paul helps us out by saying, “Spirit can be known only by spirit – God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing…”
Last week, I suggested that the next step in living a Victorious life through Christ was to turn our will over to God and let God become the guiding person in our life. Yet how do we do this? What do I functionally, turn my life over to God? How do I let my Spirit talk to God’s Spirit?
We need to take time alone, without distractions and search our soul. We need to trust in God’s love and take a deep look at who we are. We need to take a moral inventory of ourselves. This was Mr. Logue's method for Prince Albert. "Albert, look at what went on in your childhood that caused you to become afraid of your potentiality!"
God told Isaiah to shout out and don’t hold back and tell those who called themselves God’s chosen people, to look at their own sin. God asked, “How do you expect me to commune with you and bless you when you forsake My ordinances; Why do you fast in My name when you serve your own interest and oppress others; You come to worship only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.”
We are experiencing this type of behavior in this session of our legislation. We have a large group of elected officials who are presenting their agenda’s on fear and ignorance, of trying to pass laws that are discriminatory and taking away dignity and freedoms at almost every level of life in this state; being directed at our educators, at the GLBT community, and even toward Federal laws.
To deepen our Spiritual growth, both individually and as a faith community, we need to take a moral inventory of ourselves, by asking hard questions like: do I really care about what happens to my neighbor? Do I really believe in equality of all people, or am I afraid of losing my privilege by actually working toward justice for all? Am I really willing to put myself out on the line and speak out about protecting the rights of all people, when I might not agree with the way those people act and behave?
God told the people of Israel, “Is not this the worship I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
This isn’t something that I am telling you, this is God’s message to us. Without opening up our Spirit to God’s Spirit, we will not be able to hear God’s true message. God’s love is not for some, it is for everyone. It is through our actions that this love, this will of God is experienced here in our physical world.
If anyone thinks that the church shouldn't be political, I would suggest taking a closer read of what the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are saying. God's call and Jesus' message is for Social Justice, to reconcile humanity to humanity, to balance out the differences between those who have, and those who have been disenfranchised. It attacks political power that creates injustice.
We think that when we come to church and give prayer, give our tithes, sing pretty hymns that talk about loving God, that God is pleased with us. The honest truth is, God doesn’t care one eye-ode about those things. God is more impressed when we are busy taking care of business. God asks us to take a moral inventory of our most inner self, so that we, like King George VI can overcome our fears, our stammering and speak out against injustice.
The economy of those who are self-seeking is that of fear, deceit, and of self-interest. The economy of those who’s spirit is in communion with God’s spirit is one of joy, of freedom, of hope, and of selflessness. As we come to Christ’s table, let us remember what Christ spent for our lives and understand that through that same sacrifice we too are called. Amen

Victorious Living through Christ pt3 "A Greater GPS in Life", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-01-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ:
“A Greater GPS in Life” part 3
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/30/2011

This last week I was in New York City attending a workshop on “Finding the Preachers Inner Voice”. For those of you who are not familiar with NYC, the city in general is very easy to navigate around. Once you understand how the city is laid out, you can pretty much get around and not use a lot of brain power trying to figure out directions. Needless to say, there is a world of difference between NYC and Rock Springs; especially when it comes to navigating around town.
The majority of NYC is platted in a grid, running North to South and East to West, with most of the streets being named in numbers. For instance, my hotel address was 59 W. 35th St. It was between 5th and 6th Avenue. Have I already confused you? Once you learn that 5th Avenue is the dividing line between East and West, you are on your way to easily getting around town. You also have to know that Avenues run north to south and Streets run east to west. With this amount of information, you will be able to navigate.
Growing up in Kansas, where almost all the cities were laid out in a grid, it is pretty easy for me to understand the system that NYC has. Growing up in Kansas, I was also privileged to have full view of the sun, so I could always look up to the sky, knowing what time of day it was and know which direction was east, west, north, and south. I also grew up learning that each block has its own “100” series of numbers; meaning the dividing line would start out with 0-99, the next block would then be 100-199, and so on.
In NYC there are very, very tall buildings, which block out the direct view of the sun, so understanding the numbering system is very important, since you can’t just look up and use the sun to figure out if you need to go to the left or right, or up the street or down the street. Another thing I learned as a child in Kansas, is that blocks are generally even in length. In NYC, they have long blocks and short blocks! When walking north and south on the Avenues, you are walking the short blocks. When walking the streets, which are east to west, you are walking the long blocks. This being another thing different than what I grew up learning. Finally, the other interesting thing in NYC is that each block doesn’t necessarily hold to the numbering system that I understood. I discovered that both on the Avenues as well as on the Streets that you might have two or three blocks with the same “100s”.
For example, using the corner of 5th Avenue and W. 35th Street and I want to walk south on 5th Ave to an address of in the 1300 block, and I was in the 1500 block, you would assume that I would be walking only two blocks south. Not true, I actually would have walked 6 blocks south, for the “100” block ran for three of their blocks before changing. Now luckily these were the short blocks. But if I were needing to get to an address that was on an Avenue, I could not use my understanding of distance based on the length of a Street, because Streets are longer in distance.
Okay, once I have all this new information stored in my and I have tested it by walking a number of miles on the sidewalks, able to judge my estimated time of arrival, not only by foot, but had gain sufficient knowledge to be able to judge timing by using taxis as well, I then decide to rely on my newly adjusted internal GPS and get onto the subway system. From my hotel, I decided I wanted to go to the north end of the theater district, and walk back to the center of the Times Square area. I get off at 53rd Street, walk in the correct direction to Broadway (an exception to the numbering system of Avenue/Street) and then on Broadway down toward 42nd Street, allowing me to view many of the theaters that not only lined Broadway but also those off Broadway. After lunch I took the subway back to the 34th Street station, which was just three building from my hotel.
Well, when I got up to the street level, I discovered that I wasn’t on 6th Avenue but rather on 7th Avenue. I walked to the opposite end of the block realizing that I was now at 8th Avenue. Not sure by this point which way was east so I could get to 35th Street, I did the cardinal seen for men, I asked a woman for directions. I followed her direction for one block and realized she sent me in the wrong direction. But, I had gained enough wrong information to correct my internal GPS and headed back to my hotel without incident or needless walking.
This morning’s Gospel on the Beatitudes is a bit like my experience in New York City. I was raised with a set of foundations designed to help me navigate in my environment, and based on those foundations, should I find myself lost in a wilderness area, I could use to help me become un-lost. We call those foundations, “Conventional Wisdom”. Be when I found myself in New York City, I easily became confused and going in the wrong direction because my conventional wisdom wasn’t large enough to help me find my way. I was needing a greater GPS than what I was operating with.
So, what does conventional wisdom give us to help deal with life experiences? Conventional wisdom tells us that the wise person, will be happiest when they have amassed great wealth, for you can buy anything with want with enough money. A wise person should possess power, for then they will be in control of their environment and they will not get pushed around. A wise person will have independence and should be clever enough to get what they want out of life, even at the cost of others.
This is the conventional wisdom we are being bombarded with on every level, every day of our life. T.V. ads tell us, that we will be happier if only we own this type of cell phone, to be able to receive information at 4 g. We will be more comfortable if we only live in a Mac Mansion, where we have more bathrooms than we do bedrooms. Reality shows like Donald Trump, tell us that stepping on people to climb the corporate latter is not only acceptable but desirable.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul states, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise… For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.’” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught this same lesson. The word “blessed” translate into “bringing happiness”. Hear how Eugene Peterson helps in translating this challenge to conventional wisdom. Matthew 5:
3"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
4"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
6"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
7"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.
8"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
9"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
The next step toward a Victorious Life in Christ, is to turn our will and our lives over to the Care and understanding of God! When we turn our lives over to God, we are allowing for a greater GPS to become internalized. With the wisdom found in turning over our will to God, even though it goes against the conventional wisdom of the world, we will become blessed, we will be “happy”. For we only find closeness to God when we are in need, we only recognize that we are in need, when we have become empty; empty of what the world teaches will make us happy. The truth is, we are always looking for something, to fill the void in our internal life. We can either continue the chase by listening to the GPS that is standardized by the foolishness of the world, or we can look to a greater being, to the one who has greater wisdom than ourselves, the one who can provide a greater happiness if we chose, but it means giving up what we’ve been taught and listening to God’s teachings and letting go of the old and letting God become our guide, our map quest, our ultimate GPS. Amen.

Victorious Living through Christ pt 2 "What Are You Looking For?", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-01-31T08:18:00.000-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ, part 2
“What Are You Looking For?”
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/16/2011

This morning’s Gospel reading tells us how Jesus begins gathering his disciples. It all seems very innocent with John the Baptist declaring every time he sees Jesus, to be the “Lamb of God”, suddenly two of his own disciples leave him to go and follow Jesus. I wonder what John was feeling when Andrew and the other unnamed disciple left him to follow this Jesus.
How would you feel if this happened to you? Lets say for example, two families, we will call them the Smith’s and the Jones, had found their way through the front doors here at First Congregational. As a congregation, we receive them in, we extend our emotional support to them, we spend time teaching them the lessons of scripture, since neither of these families have ever been to a church before, we baptize them, invite them to become members of our faith community; in essence they have become a part of us.
Then one Sunday morning I announce from the pulpit that a new church has been started down town and that the minister there seemed to be doing a good job in preaching the “Good News”. A few weeks pass by and there is a community gathering of praise being held in this church. The guest speaker just happens to be the new minister of this new church, named The Church of What’s Happening Now. I introduce the new minister as a person who is one who “understands” the word of God and that this new church specializes in healing ministry. After the service is over, the Smith’s and the Jones become acquainted with the new minister. The next week we don’t see the Smith’s or Jones in church. It isn’t long before we find out that these two families, who had been so warmly nurtured by us, have left First Congregational and are now attending the services of the newly formed Church of What’s Happening Now.
Our first response might be one of anger, not toward the new minister, but rather of the Smith’s and Jones for leaving us for that new church and following that new minister. And these thoughts would be logical from the stand point of the amount of time and emotional energy that we as a congregation invested into them. Our negative thoughts would stem from a sense of betrayal and of rejection; rejection because we had opened ourselves up to them, making ourselves vulnerable. It brings up questions like, “what’s wrong with us”, or possibly “why aren’t we good enough for them” and maybe even deeper questions might be asked such as: “aren’t we preaching the gospel here?”
I think this particular segment of the Gospel that is being shared with us today, is probably one of the most important that we will ever find in scripture. It is important because it asks a question that not only sets the stage for Jesus’ ministry, but is the basic question that all of humanity continues to ask itself, day in and day out. After John the baptizer has pointed out the man who was walking by as being “the Lamb of God”, Andrew and another disciple of John’s start following Jesus. Jesus stops, turns around and asks the question of all questions, “What are you looking for?”
When we personalize this question to be “What am I looking for”, we begin to ask one of life’s most challenging question, which seems to have plagued human kind since its origins. Andrew and the other disciple didn’t leave John for Jesus because John was not preaching “truth”, but rather because they saw that in Jesus, they would find more than what they already were experiencing. Andrew is like most of us, we are looking for something that will bring more meaning into our lives!
Last Sunday, I presented the first of a number of steps that we need to recognize and then work through in order to experience the most out of ourselves and life, which God would wish for us. That first step was to: recognize that we are powerless of the sin within our lives, and that through that sin, our lives are unmanageable. The second step that I would suggest in our journey to seeking a Victorious life through Christ is, to come to believe in the love of God, who forgave us and accepted us in spite of all that we are and have done.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans by saying, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it, “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”
After we admit that we are by nature filled with sin, the next step then, is to seek out that which is pure love. A love that is more radical than that which we have most likely experienced. The Greeks have three differing words for love: Eros, Phileo, and Agape. Eros is the lowest form of love, as it deals with the physical. It is the physical passion that comes when two people are attracted to each other. Phileo love is what we normally think of the words "brotherly love". Phileo love is about feelings, and is what friendships are built upon. Agape love is about how we act toward others, it is also the type of love that we attribute to the actions of Jesus and of God.
Agape love is the type of love that is “unconditional” as opposed to conditional love. Conditional meaning that there is some condition that must be met in order for something to happen. If we are talking about love, then it means that there is some sort of action that must be taken in order to receive that love which is given conditionally. A large number of the people have been raised with some degree of “conditional love”, which affects how they will react to both receiving love and acceptance, or in how they give love and acceptance.
The love that Paul is sharing in today’s text is about God’s “unconditional love” for us. “…when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” In the 1990 American thriller film, Flat liners, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt as medical students using physical science in an attempt to find out if there's anything out there beyond death by conducting clandestine experiments with near-death experiences, a common experience occurred with all five medical students. They all encountered a person whom they had done something bad to as a child, and all of the victims were still living, except for the beautiful Julia Roberts experience. She was experiencing an encounter with her father who had committed suicide when she was a child. Ultimately the story line presented its self as the reason for these events were due to the fact that each of these medical students was holding onto the “action” or the “guilt” of their action toward the person they encountered.
This is the thought that I want to leave you with this morning. It is the burdens that we carry around with us, that keep us from fully accepting the loving forgiveness that comes through Christ. These things have already been forgiven, but even once we ask for forgiveness we often do not turn loose of that action. We walk around carrying it and eventually, it bogs us down. This is where the second step comes into play, we must come to believe in the love of God, who forgave us and accepted us in spite of all that we are and have done. Until we turn loose of all those hurts, of all those lost dreams, of all the wrong things that we have done toward others, then we really are not trusting, not believing in the forgiveness that God has already given us. If God has forgiven us of our offenses, then who are we to tell God that we want to carrying them around with us?
This believing in the love of God in a personal way leads us to the word we speak so freely, the word being “grace.” What is Grace? Without over simplifying it too much, it is “forgiveness of our sinful nature, by God.” Coming to believe in the love that God has toward us starts as we accept God’s forgiveness of our less than perfect lives, and the believing is demonstrated by our willingness to let go of that which we have been forgiven. “What are you looking for?” Jesus has responded with, “Come and you will see!” Amen

Victorious Living through Christ, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2011-01-31T08:16:00.001-08:00

Victorious Living through Christ:
Preface to this series
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/09/2011

I would like to say at the onset of today’s message that we are going to start a series of messages dealing with our personal growth that comes through Jesus Christ. There are many avenues that one can take in an attempt to grow as a person – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. But, I think that when we choose to take the path that deals with Christ at the starting point and leads to God as the ending point, we have taken the most complete path possible for total personal growth. For what goes on within us “spiritual” affects every other aspect of our lives. It affects our energy, which affects our willingness or ability to be physically active; it affects our mental abilities, which will guide how we process information, as well as our outlook and attitude toward various things, to name just a few examples.
I hold a strong conviction that we all need to grow within our lives. As we grow from infancy to maturity, we need to work intentionally on our psyche and spiritual maturity. Over the next number of weeks we are going to examine specific steps that can lead us to living a more holistic life; emotionally and spiritually, based on the “twelve step program.” You might be thinking, “I’m not an alcoholic, why would I need to use the twelve steps program?” First off, the “twelve step” program is a “spiritually” based program, this is the reason that so many people over the decades have found recovery from their addictions, and as a “spiritually based” program, we within the church can benefit by studying and working it.
Mainline Denominational churches over the past several decades have been losing not only numbers in membership, but more alarmingly, have found it harder and harder to create a vision of what it’s purpose should be. There is a correlation with the decrease in church attendance with that of the individual Christian not nurturing their personal Spiritual and emotional growth.

“I can do it Myself” part 1
Based on Matthew 3: 13-17 and Romans 7:7-25

Children are a great source of information that as adults, we can learn from, if we take the time to observe and then think upon the lessons that they so unselfishly offer to us. This is one reason why Jack Linkletter’s “Kid’s say the darn-dest things” was such a popular segment of his T.V. program. Children are so full of energy and physical activity; you can almost see them wiggling inside their own skin! More times than not, when a child decides that they want to do something, they just do it, not thinking through how that might affect the world around them. As a parent, this becomes the challenge of how do you let your child grow, experience the things that they wish to do, and yet keep them safe in the process and more importantly, not crush that natural will of “self?”
We don’t have a lot of information about Jesus when he was a child, so it is very difficult for us to know what he was like as a child. Was Jesus a typical boy, getting into fights, throwing stones at birds, playing soldier, those things that we tend to associate in general behavior of little boys; or was he more of the sensitive type, interested in reading, music, overly obedient and polite?
We do have one story that does give us just a little insight about Jesus as a child. It was when his family had gone to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage and as they were journeying home, couldn’t find Jesus. In a panic they retraced their 3 days of journey back to Jerusalem and finally found Jesus sitting with the elders at the temple discussing theology. On the surface of the story, we tend to think highly toward the actions of Jesus, and less favorably about the reaction of his parents as they scolded him for not being with them. Yet, the story implies that Jesus is still under parental care of Joseph and Mary, and that Jesus didn’t tell his parents of his intensions, or possibly, he asked if he could stay and being told no, directly disobeyed. We don’t know what actually happened behind the scenes, but the fact is, Jesus’ actions, created a huge distress to his parents.
Paul gives us a clue as well into human nature when he writes as a confession, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do: No, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep doing.” We too often think of the disciples as well as the Apostle Paul and others that are mentioned within scripture as being “saints”, which generally translates into an image of a person who never did anything wrong. We know that isn’t true, but from a subliminal thought process, this often is the case. Of course we all know what the true definition of a saint is, “A person who we no longer have to put up with.”
The church has done this with Jesus. We read story after story with the lens of two thousand years of theology and we don’t always detect the “humanist” of Christ and that there were things he said and did that really are not consistent with Christian-Judeo Theology, making Jesus not human. Yet, Jesus himself understood the need to go through the ritual of being baptized, even to the protest of his cousin John. If Jesus was God, and never knew sin, then why would the king of kings need to go through baptism? The reason is, by going through baptism, you are surrendering yourself to a higher power, and this is why we look to baptism as a sacrament.
As Christians, we tend to think that once we have been baptized, especially if we do this as a teenager or an adult, that we will magically become Christ like and that we will not have struggles with those things that we perceive as “negative behavior” or feelings that we previously recognized as the reason to be baptized. Then comes the reality that we still have the old behavior, that old nature within us and we can become dis-allusioned about the saving grace that comes from God.
Again, if we look at the stories about Christ, we can gain insight that after Jesus was baptized, he was confronted with his demons, while he was out in the wilderness for forty days. He had to deal with those things within his grasp that could have turned his mission into self gain and not a greater good. We see time and time again, where Jesus went off into solitude, so he could reconnect with the power that was greater than his; to re-align himself with God.
Paul, who was the early churches most aggressive evangelist, points out in his letter to the Romans, that as Christians, we still fall short of what God desires for us, which is the reason why we need to be in constant prayer with God. The truth that comes from what Paul is sharing, is this, “We all struggle with sin issues – whether we are Christian or not. We all are plagued with not living in harmony with God’s desires for us. Paul asks, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks are to God … Through Jesus Christ our lord.”
Paul is telling us there is hope and there is a rescue from sin, it is Christ. What we, especially as Christians need to do, is to go back to our first love. Christ! To be able to do this, we first need to admit that we are truly powerless over sin in our life and that our spiritual lives are unmanageable. This is the starting point for us to become healed children of God and live what we call a victorious life.
The first step is confession. One of the acts that the Roman Catholic church encourages is going to the confessional each week. We as protestants tend to resist this action, out of a theology of what we call “Priesthood of believers”, which means that we as individuals can go to God directly and plead our case and not needing to go to a Priest to intercede for us before God. Yet, there is truly a healing value by using a third person in the act of confession.
In AA meetings, the very first step to recovery is to stand up before everyone and admit to all that you are an alcoholic. The success of this first step only comes by admitting this condition before another person. The sin issue that plagues our life is no different than that of a drug addition, healing and growth only starts with admitting that issue, not just between you and God, but by including another person. Many Christians use their pastor as this third person, but it doesn’t have to be; this person could be your best friend, a parent, even your hair dresser. The difference for the Christian is when doing this in prayer, admitting we are powerless over that thing which controls us, that is when Christ is able to enter in and start working in the healing that is promised to come to us, through the holy spirit. “Hi, everybody, my name is Steven and I’m a sinner.” Amen.

The Word With Us, Frist Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY Jan 2,2011

2011-01-03T08:10:00.001-08:00

The Word with Us!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/02/2011
Based on John 1:1-18 & Ephesians 3:1-12

This morning’s Gospel reading happens to be one of the traditional nine lessons that are read at any “Lessons and Carols” candle light service. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Out of the four Gospels only two, Matthew and Luke give a birth narrative; of Joseph and Mary being told that they were to become a part of the greatest event this world has ever known, the birth of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark forgoes the birth story and start’s with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The Gospel of John actually starts not with the story of Jesus once he was born or start of his ministry, but actually goes to the beginning of time and talks about the existence of Christ prior to his appearance here in this world.
There is a childhood saying that we all grow up learning, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me!” Of course, we parrot this as a kind of shield, hoping to stop “those words” before they are spoken. Words are in fact very powerful. They have the ability to build up or to destroy, whether they were intended to do so or not. Every child that is born, is born with unlimited potential. This potential is either encouraged and re-enforced or crushed and restricted by the words that are spoken each day to that child.
John shares with us in the opening lines of his Gospel, that the word is truly powerful. The word is an instrument of God, the word in and of itself has no power to do anything until it is spoken. It is in the “speaking” of the word, that God does any creating. John does this interplay with Christ, God, and the Word. All three seem to be a part of each other, yet nothing happens until the Word is spoken. “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…”
So, John establishes that Christ is a part of God and was present in the beginning just as God was present. It is then through the word of God, that of God speaking that brings “life”, and that life ultimately becomes the “light” of all people. Now John throws a new twist into the story by saying, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh (meaning sexual intercourse) or of the will of humanity, but of God.” It is within this statement that we then find our own reality within the working of God.
What I understand this passage to say to me is this: when we allow God to be born in our heart, we to begin a journey in our life as a part of God incarnate. This is consistent with the teaching of Jesus when he consistently refers to God not only as his Father but also as our Father, or through the parable where he speaks about how the head of the house doesn’t confide with the servant, but rather with other members of the household, and there are the reference where Jesus calls us as his brothers and sisters. It is within the “Word” that we too become the “light” to all people. The “Word” was active through Christ and the “Word” is now active through us! “The Word, then, isn’t an intellectualized, conceptual God but an enfleshed, living, breathing God who shares our sorrows and joys, our sufferings and struggles and hope.”UCC sermon seed 1/02/2011
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he states that he is a prisoner of Christ. This is a significant statement to those who first heard these words, as Paul was stating, even though he was in jail, he wasn’t held captive by Rome, but rather his heart was being held captive by the words, the teachings, by the resurrection of Christ. Paul also states that his ministry is because of this “light”; this mystery of God goes beyond the original understanding that God was god of only the Hebrews, but rather, this “light” is for the gentile world as well.
The reason for Paul constantly landing into prison was because of his devotion, his commitment to God. Do we carry within our hearts this same sense of “imprisonment” as Paul did? What does this ultimately mean to us, this being imprisoned by the Word of God? It means that, “Submission to God’s gift of light carries the obligation to accept and proclaim the inclusion of all people” William Self, Feasting on the word, pg 211
I am always talking about the importance of “the mission of the church”, about the need to have a vision of what this mission is, for without it, then the church will eventually wither and die. “When the church catches the vision and commitment about being a “prisoner” of Christ, its mission is defined, and all that is done is measured by this. This revealed truth is held in stewardship William Self, Feasting on the word, pg 211 What we have: money, charity, grace and mercy, is then in abundance and not seen as something to monopolize and withhold and dispense sparingly.
This means that we will not be able to turn our backs upon “social justice” and “peace” issues. Over the years my focus and involvement on social justice issues has changed widely. Back in Kittitas, I served more on local boards that dealt with issues that directly affected the local population. While living in Seattle, my attention and energies seemed to focus more in public relation type organizations that would address issues that were focused on the GLBT community. Since I have been here in Rock Springs, I see my efforts working at state levels as well as local. This coming Saturday, Jan 8th, a workshop on “The Churches response to Immigration”, will take place in Cheyenne.
Immigration is a core value to us all. As individual’s, we will approach the topic with either a fear based perspective coming from scarcity and monopoly, or we will approach it from an understanding of abundance and sharing, which comes out of an understanding of God’s abundance of grace and giving to us.
I find for myself much in the same state of mind as the Apostle Paul, of being a prisoner to God and of Christ’s teachings. I cannot come to the communion table this morning and not recognize the abundance of which God gives daily in my life. My ability to be sustained in my ministry, whether it was as a lay person or through my vocation, comes because of the vision that I have, my personal mission of what God’s Word is; it is through my submission (this being imprisoned) to God’s gift of light that obligates me to share on many differing levels with all of God’s children.
As we come before God this morning at his table of abundant love and grace, I challenge you to examine your hearts and see where you stand with God. Is God, just an intellectual concept, something that is “outside” of where you live, or is God a spoken word within you, one that is enfleshed, living, and breathing, who shares your sorrows and joys, your sufferings and struggles and hope.
I have shared with many of you about the change in spirit, in this room, that I have felt within the first few months of my coming. It wasn’t long after that, we reached what I call critical mass, which gave us a sense that things were turning around as a congregation. What I am speaking about today, that of allowing “the Word of God” to be spoken within your hearts, will be another turning point for this church. As more people start to experience this depth of imprisonment that Paul speaks about, then this church will begin to capture its own vision of mission, and there will be a new song being sung in the life of this churches life! Amen

The Trouble with Christ, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/26/2010

2010-12-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Trouble with Christ
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/26/2010
Based on Matthew 2:1-12

When you stop to think about the four differing seasons that we live our lives by, Christmas has to be one of the most amazing times of our year! It comes in the dead of winter. In many parts of the world, the temperatures are below freezing and snow often accompanies these low temperatures. Just a few days ago, the shortest day of the year occurred. When you look out the window, it can easily become depressing, knowing that you might be getting up in the dark, going to work in the dark and at the end of the day, coming home in the dark.
This particular year, the snow that fell this last week, was a wet snow, and if that isn’t enough, the following day, we had freezing rain, making driving on certain streets rather dangerous. There have been multiple times this past week that I was very thankful that the signal lights at many of the intersections that I found myself starting to slide through, when trying to brake, changed to green giving me the right of way, helping reduce the chances of my meeting another car in a rather unpleasant manor.
Yet, with all this bleak winter weather, there is in general an excitement that comes as well. We many times tend to bemoan this time of the year along with our heightened sense of expectation. The majority of us tend to feel that this particular time of the year focuses too much on consumerism. For those of us who are at least a thousand years old, remember when stores didn’t display their Christmas merchandise, and decorations until the day after Thanksgiving. These days, it isn’t uncommon to see Christmas displays being put up before the arrival of Halloween.
Now we celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by paying homage to a thing called, “Black Friday” and for those of us who are not into the huge crowds at Herberger’s and Wal-Mart, there is a growing tend to go on-line and do our Christmas shopping on the following Monday, allowing us to have those same savings but not the stress of fighting over merchandise in a crowded store. It is true, for many Americans, Christmas has become a very stressful holiday, with expectations that seem to go beyond the limits of sanity. There is a culture that has developed, especially for people who have no exposure to a church that understands Christmas solely as a time of the year where consumerism runs out of control.
The flip side to the out-of-control commercialism that plagues us during this time of the year, is that of time intentionally set aside to be with family and friends. About 10 days ago, Paul and I made a fast trip to Western Kansas in order to spend a couple of days with two daughters, five of my grandchildren and my mother. As a bonus, my sister and her partner drove across the state to join us for our last night in Garden City,KS. Even though the trip was long and the time spent visiting was too short, I had a sense of satisfaction of being able to physically connect with part of my family.
Once we arrived home, to Rock Springs, the marathon of Christmas week started with the Christmas Pageant that the children presented last Sunday. Then two nights ago, we gathered for a candle light service on Christmas Eve, where as extended families, we listened to familiar scriptures speaking about Jesus’ birth, and sang carols that herald that event some two thousand years ago; afterward, going home or to someone else’s home to continue celebrating familiar family traditions. Yesterday, being Christmas, was again filled with continued celebration.
And here we are today, the day after Christmas, with all the presents unwrapped, looking forward to eating leftovers, and having homes that are once again quiet as friends and family have left to return to their own homes. What a letdown. After all the anticipation of the last four weeks of Advent, buying and wrapping gifts, baking and cooking; all the planning for what has happened over the last couple of days, we are left with nothing to look forward to. That can be truly depressing.
Do you know what would have been more depressing? If I had followed the lectionary which talks about the disaster that happened to many people in Bethlehem, after Herod discovered that the “new king” of the Jews had been born. So I thought I would just touch a little bit on the alternative lection text, which we will revisit more fully in two weeks.
Today we listened to the story of three amigos who traveled from their home land after seeing a star in the heavens, which to them symbolized a sign of someone great coming into this world. When they neared Jerusalem, the star had stopped shining, so they began inquiring around the city hoping to find where this new king was at. I suspect they assumed that Herod had become a new father or possibly a grandfather of this new king. Yet, they discovered that their quest for this new king wasn’t over yet. They then are asked by Herod to go on and find this new king of the Jews so he too could go pay homage to. Scripture says that after they left Herod, the star once again appeared to them and leads them into Bethlehem, where they finally found Mary and baby Jesus.
What I would like to point out are three aspects of this text. The first aspect is the star and what does it signify. Without getting caught up in what might have caused this light that guided these men to Jesus, I think the importance of this star is to look at what its function was about. The star is a vehicle in which Christ is revealed. It was a signal to these men that we now call the “Wise men”, that something important had taken place. It was through their observing eyes that they were directed to where Jesus was living. Once they had discovered the location of Jesus, the star disappeared, never to be seen by them again.
I think (metaphorically speaking) each one of us has the opportunity to see this same star that the wise men saw. All we have to do is be open to seeing it. In the same respect, we can be like Herod and totally miss the star that can lead us to Christ. This star comes differently to each one of us. It will come to us in the form that will speak most intimately to us. For me this star came while I was thirty thousand feet above the earth, flying back from a conference I had attended in New Jersey. It came at a critical point in my faith development. I think the only reason why I was open to seeing that star, was because I was searching for some truth in my life.
The next piece of this story that I would like to touch upon, comes with the differing behaviors between the wise men and that of Herod. The wise men, were guys who were looking at life beyond themselves, which allowed them to recognize the star. Once they found Jesus, the very first thing they did upon entering the house, was to bow down before Jesus and paid homage to him.
Herod on the other hand, was not searching the heavens thereby missing the signaling of the birth of Christ. This is a very poetic way of saying that Herod was so full of himself that he didn’t have the desire to know what was going on beyond his own life. When he discovered that a new king of the Jews had been born, he became fearful of losing what he possessed. This can be each of us. If we think of our “egos” as Herod, we often do not wish to give something or someone else first position within our life, but would rather keep control of what we think we possess. Instead of us humbling ourselves, this letting go of our own personal interests, and allowing God’s spirit to enter into our hearts, we truly act out the same way as Herod did. We try to destroy that which we perceive to be more powerful than we.
So the day after Christmas can be either a letdown for us in a spiritual sense or it can be the beginning of a journey. We can recognize the star that comes to us in the night as either promise of hope, joy, and peace, or we can see this star as a threat. If we celebrate Christmas with the spirit of consumerism, then today is truly anticlimactic. If however we celebrate Christmas as not being a “season”, but rather as part of a life style, then we are at the threshold of a great adventure. Amen.

Do You See What I See?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY. 12/12/2010

2010-12-15T07:41:00.001-08:00

Do You See What I See?
By Rev. Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/12/2010
Based on Matthew 11:2-11

I would like to start this morning’s reflective thought by having you join in with me in singing just a couple of verses of the very simple Christmas song, “Do You Hear What I Hear.” I will start the song and I would like you to sing the echoes or responses to the question that the song asks. For example when I sing “Do you see what I see”, you in turn sing back the echo, “Do you hear what I hear.” Of course you are invited to sing the rest of the verse with me, if you wish to.
Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see (Do you see what I see?)
Way up in the sky little lamb
Do you see what I see (Do you see what I see?)
A star, a star
Dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite

Said the little lamb to the Sheppard boy
Do you hear what I hear (Do you hear what I hear?)
Ringing through the sky Sheppard boy
Do you hear what I hear (Do you hear what I hear?)
A song, a song
High above the tree
With a voice as big as the sea
With a voice as big as the sea
Do You Hear What I Hear?" was written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker, as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.[ Regney was inspired to write the lyrics "Said the night wind to the little lamb, 'Do you see what I see?' “and "Pray for peace, people everywhere," after watching babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalks of New York City.[1] Baker stated in an interview years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis.[1] "Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time." [1] Wikipedia
The season of Advent is not only a time of expectancy, where we are in waiting for the time of the coming of the Messiah, but it is also involves a sense of “awareness”. An awareness of what “is”, or another way to say it is, “being in the present!” John the Baptizer was a man who was looking for the coming of the Messiah. He was aware that he was a person called to “prepare the way” for the coming king. John had the awareness that God was sending this king soon; in fact, the king was already alive on earth, waiting for the appointed time to make his appearance and begin his reign. John was aware of this from the time he was in his mother’s womb, as Luke tells us in the first chapter of his Gospel, that when Mary (then three months pregnant) entered into the house of her cousin Elizabeth (who was six months pregnant), the fetus, John, leaped with joy sensing the presence of Christ in the room.
John was such a man of God, seeing his role in life to preach the news that God would soon be on the scene. Living in the dessert, he delivered a message of repentance (what we might call today: hell, fire, and damned nation style of preaching) and baptized those who believed in John’s warnings of the pending vengeance of the Lord. For John, understood God’s coming to set up his kingdom, as involving the killing of the unjust and wicked and allowing only the repentant in God to live within this earthly kingdom. It was a ridding of illegitimate political powers such as Roman, who was oppressive and curial to Israel. John recognized Jesus as this person sent of God, to be the chosen instrument at the time of Jesus’ baptism.
John, even though he was a very popular prophet among the people, was not so popular with the ruling class. In fact, he had been thrown into jail for accusing Herod the Tetrarch of an adulterous marriage with his brother’s wife, Herodias. While in jail, John hears about the work that Jesus is doing, but is confused by the reports about Jesus. It seems that Jesus wasn’t quite living up to John’s expectations as to what the Son of God was supposed to be doing.
This is where we pick up in this morning’s lection reading. John is so confused, being so sure that Jesus was the Messiah that he’d been preparing the way for, yet Jesus wasn’t doing the things that John had thought God should be doing, so he send’s two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Is he the one, or does John still need to be looking for the ‘chosen’ one of God?”
In the early church, there was an anticipation of the return of Christ, to come and set up his earthly kingdom. A part of this vision of God’s return is similar to that of John the Baptizer. When Christ returns to this earth, it is God who will have the last say in all of the evil that humanity has been doing. In the book of Revelation, it is stated that Christ will come back in battle armor, with a sword that will kill all who deny the “goodness” of God. There is this sense of “vindication” that will come with the second coming of Christ. There are many today, who hold this same view of the return of Christ, that God will get His day, so to speak.
When I was growing up, and my brother, sister, and I seemed to be doing things that either were in direct disobedience to our mothers will, or whether we were just so unruly that she had had enough, in desperation would cry out to us, “You kids just wait until your father gets home! He’ll take care of you.” The message being, once dad got home, we three would receive our deserved punishment, the retribution that would be well deserved. Now I don’t know if what we received once dad did get home was “true” justice for what we had been doing to provoke such a pronouncement of doom by our mother, but what I do know is, in her mind, she was being wronged and that she would be “justified” and more importantly, she would be “vindicated” when dad got home.
I think this is what many Christians are truly holding in their hearts, when they are looking to a second coming of Christ, as a warrior! They are looking for some sort of vindication for all of the “injustices” that they feel have been perpetrated toward them. “You just wait, Mr. Hitler, you’ll get yours when Christ comes back!” “You just wait, those communist countries, they will get a new understanding of what’s what, once Jesus, comes back and teaches them a lesson about what real human rights are about!” What we are saying in those types of words and thoughts, is that we want to have our idea’s of justice “vindicated”, our sense of honor to be restored. It is truly, “an eye for an eye” mentality.
When John’s disciples went to Jesus and asked him if he was the Messiah, so that they could go back and tell John, “yes, Jesus is the one he had been waiting for”, or “no, he isn’t the one.” John was in need of having his perception of what God on earth was supposed to be like justified. He was in need of knowing that his actions as a prophet were going to be vindicated and that being thrown into jail for pointing out wrong was really worth it all. Don’t we all get that feeling at times, this need to be vindicated for the wrongs that we have endured? And of course the greatest vindication of our lives comes by God’s hand.
Yet Jesus gave John’s disciples this answer: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ‘Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!’" I am sure that this is not what John wanted to hear. John was being challenged to re-evaluate his expectations of what God was going to do here on earth.
As I think about all of the various ideas of the seconded coming of Christ, I have to look at what we are being told by Matthew, in this particular explanation of what Jesus is about. If Jesus was saying that God’s Kingdom has already come, and then shows by action that the kingdom is being formed through his ministry of healing, restoration, and of reconciliation, then why would I expect Jesus to so radically change in his second coming?
Why would I believe that Christ is going to come back to earth with a sword in hand and legions of angels to do battle against evil, when Christ did none of this during his first time on earth? I think Christians who see a Christ as a warrior, ready to do battle, are people looking to be vindicated, just like what my mother was looking for, when “dad” got home.
What if Christ’s second coming is through the actions of the church? What if God’s kin-dom is being build, each time we take on the system of greed and self-interest that we humans too often place upon one another? I would suggest that Christ’s kin-dom comes through our stopping exclusionary behavior, whether it be in sexual orientation, mental illness or other physical handicaps, or through physical territorial boundaries, those we call aliens to our culture? I suggest that when we learn to honor and respect other’s for whom they are, this is the way in which Christ is re-entering into our world.
Christ is most definitely coming again, but is it in the way in which we think? Are we like John the baptizer, looking for one type of God, who will vindicate our actions and our perceptions, not realizing that God’s way of vindication isn’t through violence, but through reconciliation?
“Said the Sheppard boy to the mighty king
Do you know what I know
In your palace wall mighty king
Do you know what I know
A child, a child
Shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold

Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
Listen to what I say
The child, the child
Sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light

The child, the child
Sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light”
Do you see what I see? Amen

The Fruit of Jesse, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/05/2010

2010-12-15T07:38:00.001-08:00

The Fruit of Jesse’s Root
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12-5-2010
Based on Isaiah 11:1-10 & Matthew 3:1-12

As I first read this morning’s lection reading, the first images that came to my mind were that of the Star Trek series. Between 1966 and 2005, there has been a total of five differing Television series of Star Trek. The first known as: The Original and concluding with Star Trek: Enterprise. Four out of the five series in general depicted the “Federation”, a collection of life forms who have banned together, as the good guys who were about the business of: Exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations in an expanding vast universe. The mandate was, never interfere in the culture of a newly discovered civilization when possible.
This sounds all good and well, yet in any good story line you have to have an adversary in order to have a good plot. Generally in most of the series, the Federation were the good guys and other civilizations were the adversaries. With one exception, in the second Television series of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the adversary generally was nature, or the struggle to survive and live in harmony with the elements of the universe in general, which was a major shift from the first series as well as those that followed after the Next Generation, where there was always a bad guy or a bad civilization. It was the general idea of good versus evil, with the “evil” being cultures that existed differently from that of the “Federation”.
In the series, The Next Generation, I see the story line, tended to mimic the concept that Isaiah used as the ending of this week’s reading, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” It is a concept that states implicitly that there is no longer “us” against “them”, but rather a statement of a world that is “All inclusive”, of a world living in harmony.
Yet this vision doesn’t come out of life that continues doing what it has been doing. Isaiah starts off with the image of a stump. This means that a tree has had to be cut down, for there to be a stump. In fact, in the previous chapter, Isaiah speaks where God has cut down the whole forest. The message that we are reading today is, that in order for there to be this time of peace and harmony, there has to first be a complete change from what the normal order of things has been, in other words, there must be a “new” normal.
Matthew, in his story of John the Baptist, says it in this way, as the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming down to be baptized: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” The basic message is: it doesn’t matter who you say you are, it is in the actions that tell what is in your heart. You might say you are a Christian, a follower of the teachings of Jesus, but if there is darkness in your heart, your actions will betray you. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been raised in this church and that your parents were members, but if all you do is just sit in the pew on Sunday, occupying space, maybe give a tithe to the offering, this does not make you a follower of the Messiah; what makes you a follower of Christ is the fruit in your life. You know what happens to fruit that just sits around, it eventually draws nats and spoils.
Yesterday, a group of folks gathered to discuss what it means to be a member of this church. At the very onset one of the basic statements about what membership looked like was in ones behavior. It was determined that there should be expected from each member to be “gentle in word” and “respectful” of one another. In other words, we as members should be expected to be nice to one another and not be viscous in our language or actions, especially during periods when we do not see eye to eye with one another. At the close of our four hour workshop, I found it interesting that several folks were wondering “why” if we call ourselves Christians, “we would have to put in writing such a statement;” shouldn’t we just assume that as Christians we would treat each other with respect and be gentle with each other’s hearts, and let me say, this is an issue with many churches, not just First Congregational UCC. The answer comes with John’s accusations to the religious leaders that the fruit of their actions were not consistent with a repentant heart. They were fruit from a system that had spoiled on the tree.
Isaiah gives us an idea of what the fruit of Jesse’s root is going to look like. The first fruit that comes is the “spirit of wisdom and understanding. In the Message, it translates as, the spirit of direction and builds strength.
The second type of fruit is the spirit of counsel and might, and the third fruit that is identified is the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. These of course are attributes that over 2,000 years we have assigned to Jesus of Nazareth, but as his disciples, these are also attributes that we through the gift of the Holy Spirits guidance should be striving for ourselves.
John was telling the religious that they were in need of repentance. The fact is, “Even now, each one of us stands in need of repentance, of conversion, not just once in our lives, but every day of our lives. When I can sit in a family’s home and have the patriarch of that family, choking back the tears as he shares his discovery that change for the church first comes with the change in his own heart that is a confession of “repentance”. Of course, we don't experience conversion or repentance in order to make God love us. No, we turn toward God and away from everything that keeps us from God, so that we can come closer to experiencing the breadth and height and depth of God's love for us, of God's amazing grace at work in our lives.
I wish I could say I came up with this, but image the credit card commercial as a way of saying it, in this way: our possessions, our toys, our stuff – worth a lot; our careers, our schedules, our agendas – really important; our power and place and security – very valuable; pushing all those things aside and making a way through the wilderness, a straight, clear path for God to come into our lives – priceless. Rev Kate Huey, UCC Resource
As we focus this Advent season on the birth of Jesus, we come today to the Table of Christ, which tells us the story of the salvation that comes through a repentant heart. It is the fruit of Jesse’s root that has yet to be completed. We are still waiting for the Lion to lay down with the lamb. We are waiting for the birth of the New Jerusalem, the kin-dom of God here in this creation. Only when we let our ego’s, our greed, and self-interests, be chopped down with the ax of the Holy Spirit, we are then able to let the new branch that God has promised start to grow out of our stump. It starts here, today, at this table, if you let it. Let this be the day that you open the gate of your heart to God’s spirit and through you, the fruit of Jesse’s root will grow and be nurtured! Amen

The Art of Preparation, Sermon by Rev Steven R Mitchell, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

2010-11-29T08:20:00.001-08:00

The Art of Preparation
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 11/28/2010
Based on Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44

As I finished reading today’s lection readings, the very first thought that came to my mind was the idea of “preparation.” I’m not sure how much of your life is taken up with preparation, but I would guess that over eighty percent of all my activities would be able to be classified as “preparing.” If a therapist, were to examine what I am saying, I suppose she would tell me that I have a need to live in a very controlled environment, to feel secure as I function. That may or may not be true, but what I do know is, I find, not only do I get more things accomplished, but when it comes time to have a finished product, there is far less anxiety in wondering how it is going to turn out, and I am pretty assured that it will be successful, not by others standards, but more importantly by my own personal standards.
Many years ago, when I was a pastor in Kittitas, Washington, I had a buddy from seminary visit for a week. One evening he was in the kitchen watching me cook, and when it was time to put the food on the table, he looked at me in amazement and said, “How did you do that, Steven?” “How did I do what?” I asked. “How did you get everything cooked, so it is all ready to eat at the same time?” he responded. So I proceeded to explain to Larry that you: first, decided on what you wanted to serve at the meal; secondly, you needed to know how long each dish takes to prepare for cooking; thirdly, you needed to know how long that dish takes to cook; then with that knowledge you can then figure out in what order you have to work in order to get everything to come off of the stove and out of the oven and onto the table at the same time. Every good cook understands there is an “Art to Preparation!”
As we enter into this season of Advent, this taking time to prepare for the birth of Jesus, it might seem odd to be reading scripture that deals with Eschatology, as opposed to reading scriptures over the next four weeks that would deal more directly with Mary and Joseph, the angels, of Elizabeth and Zechariah, and the events that occur around the birth of Jesus. Yet, one of the characteristics of the Christian faith is, its focus is not on the past, but rather, focus is on the future. As Christians, we celebrate past events of our history, such as the birth of Jesus, and of his crucifixion, but more importantly, we look to what the story of the resurrection is telling us and of the implications that come with a living Savior. We as a faith look, then to the future and not to the past.
In the earliest parts of the book of Isaiah, we read how this prophet see’s Gods Kingdom in the future. “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.” “Many people’s will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”
And Isaiah sees these teachings resulting into a land of peace, where our swords shall be beaten into ploughshares and our spears into pruning-hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against other nations, and neither shall we learn war anymore! In other words, God’s kingdom truly turns into a land of “Kin-dom”, where we are no longer living in war or fear of war, but truly living in peace and being productive of things that will bring harmony and security for all people.
Now let’s jump ahead about eight hundred years, to Matthew’s time, where the city of Jerusalem and the Temple itself have been destroyed by the Roman Empire. Here we read about the second coming of the Messiah, not one where he enters into history quietly one night, but of an entrance that will shake the foundations of our world. It will be a time when people are not expecting his arrival, where we will be busy doing life and then without warning, in that twinkling of an eye, Christ will once again directly encounter humanity. In that day there will be disorder, confusion and disaster awaiting those here on earth.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this reflection, the first thing that came to my mind as I was reading this portion from Matthew, was the idea of “preparation.” The second image that came to my mind was the 1972 movie, titled, “Left Behind”, a movie that is heaped in Eschatology, the second coming of Christ. In Western civilization, we are fascinated with the concept of the end of the world, with the entrance of Christ coming as the avenging agent of God, where there is a final show down between good and evil. Last night, I was watching the movie, Legion. A story line of how God, like in the days of Noah, had become disillusioned with His creation and was sending down the angels of Heaven to destroy modern man. Yet one angel, Michael still had hope for the human race, found in a single woman who was pregnant and her close male friend, who cared both for her and her child, even though they were not married and the child not his. Ultimately, Michael had to go to battle for us against the angle Gabriel, so that the child might be born and provide a new hope for God’s creation. This movie speaks about a second coming of Christ in a new light, differing from what many view within the church.
The early Christians were also pre-occupied with the second coming of Christ. So much so that we read within the letters to certain churches, where Paul, who also early on in his evangelistic journeys saw the return of Christ as imminent, started to change his understanding about Christ’s return, and that Christ might not be coming as quickly as the early church had anticipated, and with that understanding, needed to focus more on how we live and develop our moral conduct by the standards of what Jesus was teaching during his ministry on earth.
Quoting from Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, What’s So Good About The Good News? from the chapter, The Gospel and the Future:
“New York City’s Trinity Institute devoted its 2007 National Theological Conference to the subject of “God’s Unfinished Future,” which addressed head-on what it described as an American battle over Christianity’s vision of God’s Future. Popular apocalyptic works such as the ‘Left Behind’ series pit the forces of good and evil in an imminent showdown where God will defeat the forces of evil, the earth will be annihilated, and the ‘saved’ lifted up.” This is a view held by millions of American Christians, and the language of apocalypse and end-of-time conflict is very popular. Televangelists hold forth on the subject, websites proliferate with end-of-time prophecies, and books purporting to explain the signs of the times in this worldview fill the shelves of religious bookstores across the country. The “rapture,” a term not found in the Bible and a concept introduced into popular theology only in the nineteenth century, has engaged the imaginations of an enormous number of people for whom current events seem only to confirm the prophecies in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Eschatology, once the sleepy domain of theologians and fringe preachers, now commands center stage among evangelicals and a host of other Christians.” Pg 138
I have to admit, even though I do not hold to modern day Evangelical views of the second coming of Christ, I get a chill down my spine, when I hear of events like the current attack of North Korea on South Korea. Where there is a person of power that posses nuclear capability, who seems to not have the restraint in using such destructive weapons that could ultimately bring life as we now know it, to an end. Or when thinking about the President of Iran, who has such a hate toward Israel, that given nuclear capabilities, might easily plunge the world into what one might call, the beginning of the end.
So how do we who are living in the twenty-first century make sense to these first Advent readings? The message of preparation to the church is very clear. The Rev Kate Huey quotes Mary Hinkle Shores saying, “… observing how Matthew moves in this chapter from the cosmic and grand to the most mundane images, from the sun and moon going dark and the stars falling from heaven to workers in the field and women grinding meal. How do we connect apocalyptic images to our own mundane, ordinary lives? Shore reminds us that apocalyptic literature has been understood as addressed to people who are suffering from terrible oppression, to give them hope that things are going to change, and change suddenly and dramatically, because help is coming from outside. But this text is different, she says, because here "Jesus seems to address apocalyptic imagery not to the oppressed but to sleepy people," for "whether they are persecuted or privileged, they no longer believe that anything will change. They imagine today and tomorrow looking exactly like yesterday, and after days, months, and years of such scaled-back expectations, they are getting…very….sleepy." Shore reflects on the way God "wakes" people up, suddenly, most unexpectedly, sometimes with good things, and sometimes not, but in any case, the "intervention of God into human affairs cannot be managed or scheduled the way many of the events of our days can be. Whether God's advent is as manageable as a heart attack, or as manageable as falling in love, either way, you know you are not in control" (New Proclamation 2007).
This is the message to us this morning. No matter how hard we try to be in control of our lives; no matter how much planning we do, of how much preparation we put into our future, God has a hand in our lives and it is not for us to know when we shall encounter God. As we wait, and trust, in that extravagant mercy of God, Matthew gives us a very strong hint of how we are to live in preparation for Jesus' return. David Bartlett writes: "One day Jesus may appear in the clouds, suddenly, like a thief in the night. But before that – as Matthew reminds us – Jesus will appear just around the corner, suddenly, like a hungry person, or a neighbor ill-clothed, or someone sick or imprisoned" (Feasting on the Word). How we respond to Jesus in these terms will shape, Matthew says in chapter 25, how Jesus encounters us on that great day of fulfillment. And that fulfillment isn't the end but just the beginning, Richard Swanson's excellent commentary claims: "Jewish and Christian hopes are better characterized as expecting the Beginning of the World, not the end, the freeing and fruition of creation, not its destruction. It is a good exercise to raise your eyes to the horizon of this event" (Provoking the Gospel of Matthew). We are a people not just of the past, but more accurately, a people of the future, where life as God has planned it, will begin, in God’s fullness! So, let us look this Advent season to the birth of Jesus as our future to a world that God has envisioned! Amen