9th Sunday at Rock Springs, WY First Congregatioal UCC

For the Love of Christ!
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY
Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25; Mark 13:1-8
Based on UCC Litany, “The New and Living Way of Christ” confessional Litany 11/15/2009


I wish I had some humorous antidote to start this morning’s thoughts off, but I don’t. I’m not even sure where I want to start in the things that I wish to share with you this morning. Usually when this happens, I can start off by quoting some piece of the mornings Gospel reading, but the lectionary selection of Mark ends in such a downer that it only seems to feed into the very emotional week that I have just finished dealing with. To be honest with you all, this is the first week of my being in Rock Springs that has been extremely emotionally draining on me and today’s Gospel reading just doesn’t really cheer me up.
Today is the day that we finish with the annual Stewardship drive by bringing up to the altar a piece of paper that states what each of us is willing to commit in financial support for the next year for the ministry that will take place here at First Congregational. I often wonder what motivates us when we sit down at the kitchen table and think about that magic figure that we put down on our pledge cards (this is assuming that we give much thought to this process.) Do we sit with our spouse or partner and discuss with one another what we are willing to give based on what our household budget is; or do we sit with each other and direct our discussions through our heart and ask questions like: How has God blessed us in the past? How much have we been blessed by attending this church? Or, if I give this much money to the church, what can I expect in return or more subtly, what will the return on my investment in this ministry be?
If you have been listening, the way that I have directed the questions you will note they all stem toward, “self” or “what’s in it for me”. I don’t think we intentionally think this way, but it is a result of living in a consumer based society. Just think of yesterday’s bazaar; I walked out of this building with 3 sacks of “stuff”. Yes, most of what I purchased are gifts that will be going to people that are very dear and near to me, like my grandchildren, but still it speaks to our culture of consumerism. If the purpose of the bazaar is to bring in money to help finance this churches ministry, then why wouldn’t we just write a check and give directly to the church and not fund the ministry by purchasing “product”? Because we are a product of our culture that states over and over, we need to receive something for what we give, even when we are giving to charity. I’m not sure that Christ would really sanction this type of rationalization.
And yet there are benefits of the Bazaar that goes beyond finances. There is the building of community; community among the ladies who work putting together and operating the Bazaar; there is community building with those who attend the Bazaar. Is this then one form of ministry that occurs here at First Congregational? Yes I believe it is.
As I grew up in the American Baptist denomination, there was a large emphasis on tithing to the church. It was just “give what you feel you can give” type of teaching, but a strict 10% of your income needs to go first to God and then you live off the other 90%, where you pay for your housing, food, clothing, entertainment and savings and investments; and you are suppose to give joyfully! So you would think that as a man of God, as a minister no less, I have always giving my tithe not only at the 10% mark but was happy to just hand over my money to the church treasurer. WRONG! ! !
Let me share a confession with all of you. For years when I would write out my check to the church, I did it not as a “happy camper”! In fact, I believe the word “begrudgingly” would actually be a more accurate description of my mental state when I would either fill out my pledge card or my check. In the early years of my marriage, on top of all the financial obligations that I had with a young family, I was also focused on building my own financial empire. When I was writing out those checks I only saw potential investment funds going out the window. Then to top it off, my wife would tell me that God would not bless us unless we gave 10% to the church. Again this particular concept of “Tithing” or “giving” is based on “what will I receive back from giving”, I will receive “blessings” from God.
It wasn’t until just about seven years ago that my attitude changed in my contributions to the church. It wasn’t until I started going to St Paul’s UCC in Seattle, that I really felt good about writing out my check to support the ministry of that church. One day I realized that not only was I happy when I was writing out my check to St. Paul’s, but I looked forward to the opportunity to give my monies, even when I had lost my job and was only living on 1/3rd of the income I had been use to making. What changed in me? What had changed was my heart. For the first time, I began to understand and view the impact that a local church could have within a community. I had finally realized that, this money wasn’t mine, really, but more importantly, I was no longer looking at “what can I get out of my giving or how much will come back to me?” I was finally able to look beyond physical pay offs for me and started to invest (if you will) into the non-tangible aspects that ministry can offer and not caring if I personally receive any benefit through the use of my money. See the change here. No longer was I looking at the benefits that “I” can receive but rather how can others benefit through my gift?
This past Thursday we had a Celebration of Life for Becky Moeller at this church and I was once again reminded about the outreach that any church can have throughout the larger community. I started thinking about the ministry that this church provided to the Moeller family and all of Becky’s friends and what has been the impact in their lives because of First Congregational being open to them?
Through the monies that are given to First Congregational, you hire a minister to hold Sunday morning Worship, to help oversee various operations of the building, to go on hospital and in home visitation, as well as officiating at weddings and funerals, mostly of the membership of this church and on occasion to some who are not members. I happened to officiate at Becky’s memorial and do what we would call ministry to those involved with the Moeller family, but you know what, I wasn’t the only one involved in the interaction this week. Every person who contributes to the life and activity of this church was involved in ministering to this family as well to the 300 or more friends and family members who attended her memorial service. This is the type of non-tangibles’ I am speaking about. The ministry that happened this week to a family that has been devastated by a tragedy can never be measure and it is the type of ministry that happens not with the idea of “what can we receive back” but a ministry that is given solely for the benefit and comfort of people who are experience great loss.
I started thinking about the ministry that we have here at First Congregational and what does that ministry look like; how do we want our ministry to be; do we try to measure our impact in the community of Rock Springs by the number of people who attend worship or that we count as members? What type of vision do we have for ourselves as a faith community? Are we here just to serve ourselves or is there some greater good that we expect out of ourselves through this church?
We read a rather long confessional this morning and I believe there are a number of questions that we ought to be asking ourselves. We confessed: “While we have not willfully disobeyed your commandments, our own short-sightedness and impatience have led us to make choices based upon our immediate needs over your desires.” Questions that come to my mind with this statement are: What are our long term goals? What is our church to Rock Springs? Why do people come to First Congregational? Why would they come? What do we offer them? What can we offer them?
Another piece of today’s confession is:”Many of the challenges we have faced have evoked fear in us. We have let these fears at times overwhelm our faith and trust in you.” Some more questions that come to my mind are: How has the ministry changed at First Congregational with a shrinking budget? What are the reasons for a shrinking budget? Is it a result of “fear”? Fear of what? Fear of change; fear of losing leadership position within the organization; fear of letting go of the past glories of the ministry? Fear of current financial uncertainty? President Franklyn D. Roosevelt in his first Inaugural Address stated: We have nothing to fear but fear itself! The Apostle Paul wrote, “In Christ, we are no longer slaves to fear.”
Another part of our confession is: “We don’t always recognize or acknowledge that our reticence to embrace the stranger comes from our own biases.” What biases do we have that keeps potential visitors from coming to our church? And the last part of our confession was: “We know you created this world with enough for everyone. Yet, in this land of plenty people know deprivation.” How do we use our money, not the money that we give to the church, but that portion that we don’t give to the church, how do we use it?
Ministry is what we call the thing that we do here at First Congregational. My challenge to you this morning, after we give our pledge cards, is to take home this order of worship and deeply examine each piece of the confession that we read today and honestly examine your heart and see how this affects how you envision the minister of this church, and to what extent you are willing to support that vision, and I don’t mean financially. Ultimately – I hope the answers that you start to come up with will be based through your relationship with Christ. For no ministry truly exists without the Love of Christ at its heart. Amen

8th Sunday at First Congregational UCC in Rock Springs, WY

If you note there is no 7th week sermon. This is because Paul and I went to a retreat last week dealing with GLBT issues in Salt Lake City. So here is this weeks sermon as it deals with All Saint's Day!
We had the first All Hallows Party last evening at the church designed to take place for children after they were done Trick or Treating. We had 11 adults working the party and 20 children aranging from 1yr old thru Juniors in High School! It was fun.
One of the aspects for today's service was having people bring a photo of someone that has passed away and who they wanted to specifically remember during todays service. It was a very meaningful service for those who attended.

Connections Between One Another
By Rev. Steven R Mitchell
Ruth 1:1-18; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34
All Saints Day Homily


This past week, my mind has been focused on the joys and pains that come from one’s family. Most of you have heard the news that I am once again blessed with the addition to my family with the births of my latest grandson’s, Boaz and Mamush. Boaz was born to my son and daughter-in-law, and Mamush has come to my youngest daughter and son-in-law by way of adoption. For those grandparents who like to keep up with the Jones, most of you are going to be challenged as this now makes 13 grandchildren for me. It’s kind of fun you know, I get all the congratulations while the new parents get all the hard work and expense of raising their families.
Now the 13 count only applies to just my three children. Once you add in the 7 grandchildren that Paul has through his 3 children, which makes 20 grandchildren that I have the joy of watching grow up coming from a total of 6 children. But wait there’s more! What if you count the children that are apart of my family of choice? There are 4 more children with this honor, and they bring into the mix an additional 5 grandchildren. So this puts me up to a total of 11 children and 25 grandchildren. You know, I don’t look too bad for having such a large family, do I!
Since the election of Ronald Regan to the office of President, in each election campaign, the Republican Party has voiced a battle cry of “Family Values” as a way of presenting an image of what the American Family is suppose to look like along with a narrowly defined value system. I don’t know what brings to mind for most of you when I use the term “Family Values”, but the first reaction that I have when I hear that term is a chill that runs up the back of my spine. I have a knee jerk reaction that makes me want to run away from whoever is making that statement.
Now why would I have such a violently negative reaction to the concept of “Family Values” after all, I believe in “family values”; I believe in the sanctity of the family; I believe in such values as: love, honor, respect, forgiveness, honesty and integrity that are develop through family and how those values can strengthen our value structure as a nation. One of my favorite movies is titled, The Addam’s Family, Family Values. This movie presents a family that is extremely off beat and about as far from “family values” as one can get, at least in the definition of what the GOP would like you to believe are “true values”. The reason why I have such a negative reaction when I hear that phrase, is because of the narrow definition that the conservative Christian political movement has given to what should be a beautiful rallying point for families.
My understanding of the definition of “Family Values” as presented by our fundelmentalist bretheran is what T.V. portrayed as the “prefect” American family in the 1950 sitcoms. The model families of that era were Ozzie and Harriet Nelson with sons Ricky and David; Father Knows Best and let’s not forget Leave it to Beaver. All these shows portray the father as white collar professionals; the wife’s staying at home and the children although a bit mischievous always learned a valuable moral and always ended up doing the correct thing.
Waving the American flag, mom’s home baked apple pie and going to church on Sunday’s is also a corner stone of “family values”, at least this is the image that politicians would have us want to believe. If you listen to Christian radio programs, you will hear groups like ‘Focus In the Family” that would have you believe that we only need to go back to the way of life that was portrayed in those 1950 programs and all of America’s ills would disappear and harmony within our society would once again be restored. There is a cry to go back and embrace the True Jesus of the Bible, which if you listen to most of those radio evangelists, Jesus spoke King James English with a Southern Drawl. But would Jesus really be accepted by these evangelists if they held Him to their definition and standards of “Family Values”?
Jesus was born to an unmarried woman; when you examine his ancestry, he was related to a woman who seduces a wealthy relative as a way to secure her and her mother-in-law a life beyond poverty. Not only was this woman having sex outside of marriage, she was also a Moabite, which was about as low on the social chain as you can get; a tribe that was forsaken by the average Hebrew because the Moabites were created by incestuous relationships of a father named Lot and his two daughters after they had escaped from Sodom. Then another female relative was not only a prostitute but also gave protection to some invaders and basically sold out her ancestrial city we know as Jericho. Then of course there is David King of the Jews, who while married to King Sauls daughter was having an affair with Sauls son Jonathan; then later as king had an affair with a married woman and even had her husband killed. These are some of Jesus’ relatives. Would He really be accepted by someone who proclaims “Family Values”?
Yet there are very few stories that hold such beauty and power than what we read in the book of Ruth. Here is a young woman who out of love chooses to leave her biological family and follow her mother-in-law into a land that is foreign to her and with little promise of being able to make a living. Ruth declares her family of choice when she say to Naomie, “where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live; Your people are my people, your God is my god.”
Today is All Saint’s Day. Today we have placed pictures and names of those we love on the boards. In just a few minutes we will be partaking in the Lord’s Supper, which is sometimes referred to as communion among the saints. We are taking time to remember and to reflect about our relationships, not just of those who we have loved and who have passed on ahead of us but also of our connections between one another.
Last night we had an All Hallows Party, where 20 youth ranging from 1yr through high school and 12 adults participated in games, art work, refreshments and conversation! Some of those attending were members, others were visitors, some who just dropped in because they saw the lights on at the church while they were out trick or treating. We were connection with one another. In a society that so encourages isolation, the church is on beacon of light that still says, “In the love of Christ, you are welcome” “In the love of Christ, no matter who you are, or where you are at in life’s journey, you are welcome!” “Here at Christ’s table, you are welcome.” On this All Saints Day, let us search our heart and look deep inside and find the strength that it takes to be able to “Connect with one another” and live out the Family Values that Jesus desires his church to express to all of God’s creation. Amen

6th Sunday at First Congregational, Rock Springs, WY

Commitment to Justice
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
October 11, 2009


In many ways I am a product of my generation. We have come to be known as the Baby Boomers, yet I recall another name that we carried for many years, “The Silver Spooned” generation. And it was descriptive of those between 1946 and 1964 in general; especially when compared to the economic climate that our parents had come through.
My parents generation is referred to by sociologists as “Depression Babies”; meaning that they were born during the time of this nation’s Great Depression. They grew up in a time when a new pair of shoes from the store, often hinged on the sale of a farm animal at the beginning of the school year and those shoes were to last you a whole year! It was a time when you rarely had “ready to wear” cloths, but rather hand sown at home. There was no such thing as eating out at the restaurant two or three times a week, just because you didn’t feel like cooking.
My parent’s generation also grew up during the Second World War and experienced daily life with ration booklets. There was no longer the lack of money to buy things that you needed, let alone wanted, rather there was nothing available to purchase, because all the natural resources were going toward the war effort, leaving only limited items that were necessary to survive on.
With the close of the war, America emerged a world power. With the dawn of the 1950”, America was entering into her zenith. A nation who had lived for several decades with very little was now poised to give its children all the things that they were denied. Unprecedented housing development erupted with the return of our young men and women from the war; freeways were built to expedite commerce and travel; the government worked at providing electricity to rural areas, where once chargers were hooked to windmills providing power so families could listen to their favorite radio programs by lantern; With plenty of electricity to every home, two or more T.V. replaced the single radio; families grew into a two car household; Children were told to chose the job that made them happy, instead of having to work at one that paid the bills but didn’t provide self-gratification. Consumerism became the new religion and the phrase “conspicuous consumption” was coined to describe the mindset and lifestyle of where we, as a society have arrived.
The story of the Rich Young Ruler is often associated with Stewardship drives. We generally think about stewardship in terms of Dollars and cents, but stewardship is so much broader than just the “church budget”. There are areas that we all need to be looking at, such as our talents and gifts that can be utilized not just here at church but in our community; there is stewardship of our natural resources, not just here in the United States, but world wild; There is stewardship of our environment; There is stewardship of human rights and dignity which we call Social Justice.
You are probably thinking right now, that this is the first sermon of many to come on stewardship, and just how much money does the church want from me this year, but you would be wrong, at least from the perspective of money and the church. The story we read about where the young man comes to Jesus and is asking what more must he do to be insured “eternal life” is about stewardship, but not about the “externals” but rather about the “internal” wealth of this person.
From time to time, I get asked the question of, “How did I receive my call to ministry?” It’s an honest question and usually asked by search committee’s. My story goes something like this: “Even though I grew up as apart of the ‘Silver Spooned’ generation, my family was pretty poor. However, because of the general affluence within our society, I was able to utilize many of the advantages that were available with respect to educational opportunities. I had vowed to work hard and accumulate the wealth that I didn’t get to experience as a child. It just so happened that I married into a family that was very secure financially and not wanting to be referred to by my peers as a person who received his wealth the “old fashioned way” meaning I inherited it, I worked hard at creating my own financial security.
While in my twenties, I worked hard, went to college, saved, invested in real estate successfully, and by age 27 had accumulated a very handsome looking portfolio. I was well on my way in achieving my goal of financial independence. Yet, I found myself suffering from insomnia. I had been pledge by this condition from the start of college. I assumed this was a condition that comes with being a student, but after graduation with my accounting degree, it seemed to worsen. Being the “goal” oriented individual that I am, I had realized that I had accomplished my entire short, medium and long-term goals by age 27 and for the next three years floundered in trying to gain some new meaningful goals.
By this time, I had discovered that I really didn’t like working in the accounting field and found my way into management with a convenience store chain. I also had become the chairperson of “the No-longer Strangers Task Force” at church. This task force was responsible in working with World Church Services and helping resettle Southeast Asians who were trying to immigrate into the United States. I was finding satisfaction in helping these people resettle in this country.
At the same time, I became aware that many of my customers through the convenience store seemed to be discussing unidentified yearnings for something greater in their lives; something that would give them a deeper satisfaction and a sense of greater self-worth. Over time I grew to understand these to be “Spiritual” issues and I recognized that my own lack of goal setting came from “Spiritual” longings that were inconsistent with my previous mindset of finding “wholeness and security” through the amassing of wealth. Once I connected all the dots and realized that going into parish ministry was where I needed to go, my insomnia stopped immediately. Then came the wrestling over personal wealth and the desire to accumulate more, because we all know that being a minister is not the road one takes to get on the list of the Fortune 500.”
Today’s questioning by the rich young man is really very similar to many of us. Here is a man who has it all. He was secure financially and was by all rights a very moral man; he followed and never strayed from the commandments – he hadn’t committed murder, he hadn’t committed adultery, nor did he steal, lie or cheat and he honored his father and mother; yet there was something missing in his life. If he had been satisfied, he would have never been asking Jesus the question, “what must I do to get eternal life?”
The answer of: sell everything and give it to the poor, was not just devastating to the young man, but also to the disciples of Jesus. “What do you mean give up your wealth and that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God? What type of nonsense is that Jesus?” “After all Jesus, we all know that it is those with the most wealth that are most blessed by God; for our riches come from God through right living. So if this man who has held up all the laws and is obviously greatly blessed, if he can’t get into heaven then what hope is there for the rest of us?”
One of my favorite authors from the 80’s and 90’s is Tony Campolo, who was a Baptist preacher and professor of social sciences at Eastern University as well as an adjunct professor at Eastern Baptist Seminary. In his book, “Seven Deadly Sins”, Dr Campolo addresses the chapter on Greed this way: “Our society has built its economy on the production of things that people are conditioned to want, but do not really7 need. Many of the consumer goods we spend so much to buy did not even exist a generation ago. We buy these things because we have been manipulated into wanting them through advertising and peer pressure.
We are willing to work two jobs in order to satisfy these artificially created wants. We are willing to take time from our families so that we can buy those things which we are assured will express our love to our loved ones more than our mere presence ever could. We are willing to reject biblical principles of living in order to buy the consumer goods which the media prescribes as essential for the “good life.” And when there are threats to the affluent lifestyle that has become synonymous with America, we stand ready to fight and if need be, to die to protect it.
If our greedy consumption of oil is challenged by the OPEC nations, we do whatever is necessary in order to keep the oil flowing into our tanks. If totalitarian dictatorships or oppressive racist regimes promote policies which help us sustain our overly consumptive way of life, we support those dictatorships and tolerate those oppressive racist regimes. Our greedy materialistic way of life drives us to compromise principles of justice, yield on the canons of morality, and even to lose our souls.”
The rich young man went off saddened because he could not release the reliance of security and follow Jesus. This person, who knew that there was something missing in his life, was unwilling to let go, so he might live life more fully.
When St. Francis of Assisi, challenged the church of his day with the same issues as the rich young man who came to Jesus had; and as do we as Christians face today; that of reliance on possessions; of money; even on traditions, and sensing that there was more to life than just these, he was seen as insane. St Francis was a man of great wealth in a time when the church valued great wealth. When he gave all his wealth to the poor and lived as a beggar, rebuilding a church and providing a meaningful existence with very little, those in religious leadership couldn’t understand Francis actions. I want to share a scene when with you from “Father Sun, Sister Moon”, where Francis comes to the talk with the Pope about what he might have done wrong to have had the local Bishop close the church that Francis had rebuilt and where peasants were going to worship.
It isn’t the matter of giving our wealth away and living like beggars that is the lesson here. The lesson is stripping away the baggage that keeps us from reaching out to God, in the innocence of children to live by God’s call for justice. The lesson for us is not to rely on external possession to make us happy, but rather to rely on the inner piece that comes through our relationship with God, with Christ’s teachings as a model. For it is in our true poverty that we gain our true wealth; that of the love of God and our ability to share that love with others. It is in our poverty that we are able to free ourselves from the sin of consumerism and greed. Come, let’s follow God! Amen.

5th Sunday at First Congregational, Rock Springs

Enfolding Love
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Psalm 8; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16


When Paul and I first moved to Rock Springs, there were a number of people who were very active in giving us little vignettes about the history of Rock Springs. This was very helpful in helping us better understand our new environment. These stories came by way of mouth, books and pamphlets. We also have learned bits and pieces of the history of this church. The most talked about piece is where the church first worshiped; upstairs over a bar. Quite frankly that was one of the selling points to me by the search committee when we were discussing First Congregational.
This week I have been working on a short press release about my arrival and so the history of the church has been on my mind a good deal of the time. As I tried to learn a bit more about the churches history I finally found a couple of sources that had a brief history of our faith community. Let me share some of our history with you.
First Congregational Church began with a Sunday school meeting in a one-room school house in 1876, and in 1881 was organized as the first church in the city, under the name of “Union Congregational Church”. Financial difficulties in the early 1890’s resulted in the loss of the first building on “B” Street, but the church re-organized with a new name “First Congregational” in 1891, and began a new building on “B” Street, after meeting for a few months in a vacant saloon on North Front! With additions and remodeling, that building served the congregation until 1970, when the property was sold to Mountain Bell, and a new structure was completed at our present location and dedicated on October 4th, 1970. Today Ladies and Gentlemen, we are celebrating our 39th year in this location. I think that deserves a big applause of Rejoicing! The mortgage was burned in the Centennial Celebration in October of 1981.
Just a little more history about who we are: The Congregational church had its beginnings with the Puritans and Separatists in England in the 16th Century, and the Pilgrims of the Mayflower and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were the first Congregationalists in the “New World”. Congregationalists were called that because of their belief the individual congregation was the ultimate authority in terms of Christian faith and action as well as church governance.
The United Church of Christ was founded in 1957 as a merger of the Congregational Church with a “native” America “Christian Church” body and with two German language and history bodies, the Evangelical Synod of North America and the Reformed Church. The resultant denomination has become a Prophet voice among Protestant churches with a strong interest in education, missionary activity, health and welfare, and social justice as well as a determination to take the Bible “seriously rather than literally”. Let me say that again, we are a part of a denomination that takes the “Bible seriously rather than literally.”
I want to bring that to your attention because today’s lectionary readings can either be taken literally and cause a great many people much pain and heartache, or we can take the Bible readings, “seriously rather than literally”, which still might bring a good deal of discomfort and anguish for those whose view of what marriage is suppose to look like or who is and who isn’t allowed to be married.
Take my relationship with Paul as an example; there are people who think that I am single, which is not true, Paul and I are as much a couple as anyone that has a certificate of marriage from the courthouse. We are taking aquatic aerobics at the Family Rec. Center and one of the ladies who teaches when Sharon Pribyl isn’t there asked me the other day “if my friend” was coming to class that evening. At the front desk we had a discussion with the person who issues passes whether or not we were going to be able to purchase a “family” pass, since we were in fact a family. These are questions that we are having to ask and discuss because we are living in a state that does not recognize equal rights to all of its citizens. This is quite a challenge for Paul and I who moved away from a state that is very conscious about civil liberties and equality.
The Pharisees came to Jesus asking about not the morality of, but rather the legality of divorce. There was already a legal system set up that allowed for it, in fact, it was Moses who allowed men to divorce their wives. Jesus chose not to give voice to the matter of divorce. He did say however, “divorce is the by-product of a hardened heart.” Then in private Jesus goes on to say that “Anyone who remarries commits Adultery against their former spouse”.
I would like to share some of the thoughts that were shared this week on the UCC website about today’s text: Jesus is asked a legal question, a technical, down-to-earth, question about every day, lived reality, and he answers with an ideal that is, to be honest, almost impossible to achieve, at least for most of us. One can ask the question, “Has Jesus turned law-giver, seeking to impose an especially stringent law on his followers” Would he insist that a man who remarries after divorce be put to death, as the law prescribes for adultery (Lev 20:10)?” In our hearts, we sense that Jesus was not about ordering people to be put to death because they had disobeyed the Law, even if the Law seems to call for it. What is the lesson here? What do we hear in this passage?
At first, it might sound too easy just to say that Jesus was holding up the ideal of marriage in response to the Pharisees’ preoccupation with divorce. But isn’t that exactly what needs to happen in our own time: don’t we need strong voices that lift up the ideal, the intention of God from the very beginning, of two people joined together for life, faithfully loving each other? In the “defense to Marriage Act”, those who propose to keep marriage to be defined as one man and one woman, argue the fact that any legal recognition other than that, would in fact destroy the integrity of the “family”. My question to this is what is happening to the integrity of the family when the divorce rate is 50% and that it isn’t uncommon in today’s world to find people married up to three times before there seems to be any stability within that institution of marriage. These figures are of coursed based on the only system we have, one man, one woman marriages.
Are there ways for us in the church to focus more energy on the ideals of lasting, faithful, loving unions that are a sign of God’s love in the world? We could strengthen our support systems for married couples and our marriage preparation programs, and perhaps even consider a measure of holy hesitation before marrying every couple that asks. Are we spending too much time in the church thinking about other ways to “defend” marriage? Is it possible for pastors, in the pulpit and in other settings of the life of the congregation, to speak about marriage in encouraging and hopeful ways that also affirm those who have had to leave a marriage in order to seek wholeness and healing? And if salvation is about healing and wholeness, then the possibility of remarriage seems not only a matter of compassion but a question of justice.
James J. Thompson in the book , “feasting on the Word” wonders if we might “ask whether the human was created for marriage, or marriage for the human?” In the book “Provoking the Gospel of Mark” Richard Swanson writes: “This basic ritual of intimacy and support is figured as a field on which we encounter God. This is an important understanding, especially because it takes place at the heart of human life. Encounters with God are often imagined as taking place on the edges of existence, in retreat from ordinary life.” However, in marriage, “encounter with God takes place in the mist of the ordinary rituals of daily life”.
Its true then, that marriage is sacramental, a means of God’s grace in our lives. Of all people, then, faithful followers of Jesus should take marriage seriously, and should hesitate before denying anyone this means of encountering God.” It is this type of taking the Bible “seriously but not literally” that the UCC at the twenty-fifth Synod issued a statement in support of marriage for all people, whether it be between one man and one woman or between same-sex couples.
Today’s lectionary is speaking on primary human relationships and they do so by affirming God’s purpose in creation. God’s acts and God’s intent can never be negated or superseded by legal permission. As Hebrews stated, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways, by the prophets, but in these days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.”
Yes, “ God is still speaking” to us today, through scripture and through the sciences and through thoughtful deliberation about social justice and equality. It is God who out of love created humanity and it is through basic relationships like the sacrament of marriage that we can live and celebrate that love. It is my hope that as we celebrate 39 yrs of worshipping in this building and as a faith community with history of over 133 years in Rock Springs, that we continue to wrestle with what the Bible has to say, taking its words “seriously but not literally”; and as Jesus told his disciples not to turn away or discourage the little children from receiving his blessing, we recognize that every human being is in truth a child and that we truly open our doors so those who wish to receive God’s blessing, can in truth and in safety find it here! Amen

Fourth Sermon at Rock Springs, WY

Just a short note about how things are coming along at First Congregational UCC in Rock Springs. My first Sunday as their Transitional Minister, there were 51 adults and 8 children in attendance. The second Sunday we had 57 adults and 11 children present. On the third Sunday, we were down in count on adults with 41 in attendance and 7 children. This week, my 4th week, we had a special event of both a Baptism (my first as a UCC Minister as well as it being an infant!) and a "goodbye" to a long standing and well loved member who arrived at this church with her husband who was the pastor, three pastors ago. We counted 61 adults and 14 children in attendance.
I have found each week very interesting as I work on sermons that are designed to help this congregation, examine who they are and the behaviors that lead them to where they are presently at. This Sunday's sermon was most stressful for me as I was dealing with the topic of Boundaries, and what can happen when one or more people violate boundaries. As I become better acquainted with this body of believers I grow more fondly of everyone that I meet. It has been a long number of years since I have been in a Parish setting and working as a minister and I find myself continually being renewed daily and am finding such excitement and fulfillment as I exercise my calling. God is truly good and most gracious and I thank Him for allowing me the privilege of working with this faith community.

Courage for Community
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Esther 7: 1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50
First Cong UCC, Rock Springs, WY Sept 27, 2009


How many of you enjoy going to a good party? What would be one of your favorite celebrations that happen on a yearly basis? One of my very favorite holiday celebrations is Halloween! Now there are a lot of Christians who would be highly offended by the fact that I as a minister enjoy celebrating the tradition of Halloween. In fact this October 31st, we are going to be hosting an after “trick or treat” party here at the church for children 6th grade and under. Now I have heard almost all the explanations as to why it isn’t a good idea for those of us who call ourselves Christian to celebrate this festive holiday; with the most severe reason being it is a way of celebrating Satan. What I have come to believe when I hear these explanations about why I shouldn’t dress up in costume and enjoy this celebration, is that those people who are telling me the reason “why not” really don’t understand what the origins of Halloween are.
Another name of Halloween is All Hallows Eve, or the day before All Saints day; which is a day that the church does celebrate. The idea of dressing up in scary costumes or wearing scary masks, such as Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton or Freddie from Friday the 13th movies or that of various demon, or witches, or anything else that we might perceive as representative of evil, was done by early Christians to help protect them from evil spirits that were believed to roam the earth that night looking for mischief. So, when I say that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I am really telling you that I enjoy celebrating the day prior to All Saints Day. Well actually, I just like dressing up into costumes and bobbing for apples and I just don’t understand why as a grown up, it is no longer acceptable to go trick or treating.
For those of us who label ourselves as Christians, we say our religious background is rooted in both the Hebrew and Christian tradition. Yet I would be safe in guessing that most Christians are not aware of many of the Hebrew Celebrations. So here is a test question to test my assumption. How many of you know of the Feast of Purim? What day was it celebrated on this year? Where did its origins come from? Well, we can find all this out in the Book of Esther. Let me try to give a Perry Mason summation of what today’s lectionary reading leaves out.
The joyous holiday of Purim celebrates the salvation of the Hebrews from the wicked Haman, through the leadership of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai. Purim takes place on the 14th day of Adar, the 12th month of the Jewish calendar (which corresponds with our season of Lent.) The carnival-like atmosphere of Purim, wearing of costumes, and bringing gifts of food door-to-door sometimes leads to it being referred to as the "Jewish Mardi Gras" or "Jewish Halloween".

The story of Purim is found in the book of Esther. This is publically read in synagogues twice on Purim: when the holiday begins at nightfall, and the following morning. When the name of Haman is read, people stomp their feet, hiss, boo, or shake noisemakers to obliterate his name.

The story takes place in the Persian Empire, which extended to 127 provinces. In the third year of his reign, King Xerxes threw a lavish party, to which he summoned his wife, Queen Vashti, to display her beauty. When Vashti refused to obey his command, he had her killed for insubordination. Regretting this decision after sobering up, Xerxes began a kingdom-wide search for a new queen, adding a member to his harem every night, but not finding a suitable replacement until Esther—a beautiful Hebrew girl—was brought before him. He fell in love with her and made her the new queen. She had not wanted to be part of the search, and would not tell him anything about her background.
Soon after this, Haman became the chief advisor to Xerxes. He felt slighted by Mordecai, a Hebrew who refused to bow to him (and who, unknown to him or the king, was Esther's cousin). He obtained permission from the king to send out a decree to the entire kingdom calling for all the Hebrews to be wiped out on the 13th of Adar. He chose this date, by using lots (or rolling dice.) (The Persian word for lots was pur; the holiday of Purim gets its name from this event.)

Mordecai sent word to Esther about this decree, and called upon her to intercede with the king. This was a risky move for Esther; it was forbidden to see the king without first being summoned, and he had after all killed his previous wife for not obeying his orders. Nevertheless, she accepted that she needed to take action. She called for a three-day fast among the Hebrews in the city, after which she went to see the king. She found favor in the king's eyes, and he offered to give her anything she wanted.

After a couple of subplots involving Mordecai and Haman fell into place, Esther informed the king that Haman was, in fact, plotting to kill her and all of her people. Incensed, the king ordered Haman to be hanged, and installed Mordecai in his place. While the original decree could not be rescinded, Mordecai was able to send out a second decree calling upon the Jews to defend themselves and kill their enemies. This they did, routing all opposition on the 13th of Adar, and celebrating on the 14th. This celebration on the 14th is now observed annually, on Purim.

The traditional observances of Purim include public readings of the Book of Esther, feasting, gifts of charity to the poor, and gifts of food among friends. Other popular activities include staging comedic plays, expounding on the Torah in humorous ways, dressing up in costumes, holding beauty contests, and marching in parades. (Web based information on Feast of Purim)

So, now for those of you who have never really read the book of Esther all the way through, you now have a general idea of what the story is about. Let’s turn our attention for a moment to the Gospel reading for today. Here we continue on with Jesus’ teaching. Last week we left off where Jesus was holding the child in his lap and telling us basically we need to respect and include everyone, even the most vulnerable among us, in our fellowship.
This week, the texts starts off with John, speaking up about a person who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and how proud they were that they had chastised him and told him to stop it, simply because that person wasn’t a part of their merry band of disciples. Jesus was not pleased! “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally.”
Jesus then goes on to make this strange statement, “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.” This is some pretty strong teaching to those who like to bully and lord over others.
But here is the hard part of the story that doesn’t seem to be consistent with Jesus’ general nature. At least to the way we tend to Romanticize Jesus’ loving behavior. “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in the furnace of eternal fire….”
In the time of Jesus, it was believed that the only way to God was to be a person without blemish. It was taken to the extreme, so if you were blind, or lame, or had leprosy, you were not welcomed into the temple to worship and give tithe to God. This is one reason why we read about so many healings in the four Gospels, as it was about restoring people back into the family of faith. It was about “reconciliation” of those excluded and marginalized back to God.
So here is Jesus telling his disciples that you can still be in community with God, you can still worship and be acceptable in God’s eyes, even if you are missing a leg or a hand or your tongue. For it is better to cut off that which is truly keeping you separated from the life that God is asking us to be apart of – that of love and acceptance, of being just and seeking justice for those who have no voice and are being brutalized by social systems.
So how does the story about a courageous woman, such as Esther and the reprimanding that the disciples got from Jesus come together? There are numerous themes running through both of these stories, but the one that jumps out at me the most is that of Boundaries! These are two differing stories as to what can happen to people when Boundaries are not observed and are over stepped and if not challenged the pain and grief that can be placed on a lot of innocent life’s.
We have had some very painful examples of “boundaries” being violated over the last decade. There is a current film series being presented at the White Mountain Library on “The Faces of Addiction”. The one I saw this past Thursday was dealing with “Enron” and the pain and suffering and devastation of livelihood, that it’s CEO’s and corporate culture has caused. With the efforts of its CEO, Kenneth Lay in getting Congress to deregulate the utility industry, the checks and balances of business practices were not in place, thereby giving rise to abuse and over-stepping of ethical boundaries, legally! They had the power without repercussions to literally cut off electrical power to millions of consumers, solely to raise the price of electricity. The boundary crossed was the need to feed the addiction of greed and ego!
Haman, the right hand man to Xerxes, out of resentment toward Modecai, maneuvered to pass a law that would eventually allow him, with the law on his side, to carry out genocide of the Hebrew people. He had overstepped the boundary of “morality” and, had Esther not placed herself in probable danger, standing up and exposing this evil, would have seen an entire race of people murdered.
The problem of maintaining boundaries exists within any given church. There are people who, for a number of reasons, but generally stemming to the basic fear of loss of power, over- step boundaries. This was the case of the disciples when they were telling the “non-disciple” that he needed to stop his healing in the name of Jesus. The disciples had crossed a boundary that ensured “exclusivity” where Jesus was working towards “inclusivity”.
In the church where I hold my membership, there was a violation of boundaries a few years ago, between a person who had at one time been the Church Moderator. This person perceived themself as a main power broker in the congregation. When the church had hired a new organist, this person was not on the committee that did the interviewing and had a personal ax to grind with the chairperson of the music committee. This individual transferred that grudge to the new organist/choir director and proceeded to make life very uncomfortable for him as well as the choir members and eventually the whole church.
Ultimately, there was a show-down between the choir director and this individual, with the choir director resigning. Now mind you, there was plenty of boundary breaking going on by both parties. When confronted by the church council, this church member who had violated these boundaries was unable to “own up” to their behavior and left the church with angry feelings.
In time this individual sought out mediation with the Conference chair person of the Committee on Ministry, trying to receive vindication toward their action and wanting the pastor to make a public apology. This person was informed that a public apology couldn’t be made by the pastor because they had indeed over-stepped boundaries and that by giving in to their demands would only reinforce continued behavior in the future and create future problems in the church.
Moving forward a couple of years later, This person came to St. Paul’s to visit during a special occasion and after introducing themselves to our present choir director/organist, promptly stated with great pride that they were responsible for getting rid of the previous organist. I use this example because it is very, very sad to realize that this person still doesn’t recognize their part within the issue nor does this person understand the concept of boundaries.
What Esther was doing when she stood up and told the King that Haman wanted to kill her and her people, Esther was being the voice of accountability. Haman had crossed boundaries and if not kept in check would have destroyed a whole race of people. Jesus was saying, it is better to cut off that part of the body that is going to ruin you or those around you. Anyone who has ever dealt with “addictions” knows that the only way the addict is going to grow beyond that addiction into a healthier life is to not enable the addict to continue that behavior.
In faith communities, there has to be accountability of one’s actions and behavior. If the faith community never stands up and intervenes on behalf of the person who is not honoring boundaries – that person will never realize their behavior as unacceptable and will continue to violate boundaries.
As a society, we must demand accountability of our government and of corporate behavior. We have seen what happens when rules are broken or legally dismantled; left to themselves, addiction to greed and ego move to stepping over boundaries and people get hurt and sometimes even destroyed.
James gives us some encouragement on such a tough topic:”Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” There is salvation to ego, it is found through the love of Christ and the power of the resurrection. All we have to do is to have the courage to stand up, approach the King and state the truth; to love one another as Christ has shown us and to hold each other up in prayer and deed. Amen

Third Sermon At Rock Springs, WY 9/20/09

Equality: Fact or Goal?
By Rev. Steven R. Mitchell
Psalm 1; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/20/2009



Psalm 1 starts out with this lesson: “ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of God, and on God’s law they meditate day and night.” In the book of James we read, “show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” In our Gospel reading in the book of Mark we read, “If anyone wants to be first, he/she must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
All three of these pieces of information seem to be very sound and wise advice. Good rules to live by. And I suspect that if all persons who call themselves “Christian” world wide actually embraced just these three rules, the whole world might want to know the God that has laid these rules (if you will) down to be able to live a peaceful and enriched life. How many times have you been in discussions with people about your church and even go so far as to “invite” them to join you in worship that coming week, only to hear them respond with: “Oh I’m a spiritual person, I just don’t believe in organized religion.” as an excuse for not coming with you? Well, the next time this happens to you, I have a response that you can share with them as a come back. Tell them, “That’s cool, and I understand totally. And since you don’t believe in organized religion, you will really like it at our church, because we have dis-organized religion!”
What we are really being informed of is that, historically the church has not lived up to what it teaches. We say we meditate on God’s Laws, but how much time per week do we sit and read the bible or sit in prayer longer than 5 minutes? We say we believe in justice but are we out in the market place voicing our convictions? We say we believe in peace, but how many times have we as a country that labels itself as Christian, gone to war; just since 1950 or have been involved in “skirmishes” or “conflicts”? As a whole, we pretty much talk out of both sides of our mouth, or as the Native American would say, “we speak with forked tongue.”
Today’s title of reflection is “Equality: Fact or Goal?” In the Epistle from James, he writes: “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” This is the type of behavior that keeps healthy, well adjusted people, who are Spiritual, away from “organized” religion. It is easy for us to look back at the very first century church and easily point the finger at them and say “shame on you, church people, didn’t you get what Jesus was talking about?” Of course, the twelve disciples seemed to never truly understand what Jesus was teaching. Mark says, “But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
But what about now, 2,000 years later – do we understand it? Have we progress any? Do we live in an atmosphere in this church that reflects the true meaning of this banner, “God is Still Speaking?” or the other UCC battle cry, “Never put a period where God has placed a comma?” Do we really understand what this is saying? Do we understand what the “comma” is or who the “comma” represents? Is equality in this community of faith, a fact; or is it still a goal? You do know that anytime you go pointing your one finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back toward yourself. Ched Myers, in his book “Say to This Mountain, Mark’s Story of Discipleship” writes, “According to Mark – our greatest individual and social addiction is the will to dominate.”
Today’s reading of Mark comes after the mountain top experience by Peter, James and John, where they experienced Jesus in conversations with Elijah and Moses. We call it the story of Transfiguration. After this tremendous experience that only these three disciples out of the twelve are recorded to have had the privilege of witnessing, we read that as they were walking along to Capernaum with Jesus, they were in conversations as to who out of the group of disciples were the most privileged and there by possessed the greater influence or power among them. We are not really told whether Jesus was able to over hear this conversation or not, but once at home in Capernaum, Jesus asked them what they had been discussing. Now in some translations and in other Gospels it is stated more harshly as to, “What were you guys arguing about on the road?” Scripture says, “The silence was deafening “
The silence was deafening. This small phrase can easily be glossed over by the reader thinking the focus of this story is on Jesus holding the little child and saying, “the greatest must become the least and servant of all.” I think this small phrase is the more important lesson out of today’s reading. Its importance is the basis for all non resolved arguments. The first time we read in the Bible about this problem is in Genesis, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Up to that point, God had daily walks with Adam and Eve. But once they had eaten that fruit, they ran and hid from God when they heard Him coming. What is being shown here is a breakdown of communication! It is the separation of us from God. The inability to communicate with God is the underlying theme through out the whole Bible and the death and resurrection of Jesus is the bridge to reconcile that broken relationship.
As a people of God, we are not asked or demanded by God to give up our person, our identity, but rather we are asked to develop who we are in the nurturing surroundings that we call our faith community. We all have differing opinions on how things should operate. Just like in a marriage, the idea when we say, “the two shall become one”, doesn’t mean that one person lords’ power over the other person, but rather through communications and working with each others perceptions come to a common agreement or goal, where both have their integrity in tact and not having to have had it compromised or marginalized.
But when one or more people within a faith community perceive themselves as having greater power or privilege then we see what James is warning about, “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” This is nothing new to any church. Every church struggles to find balance within its uniqueness of every member as to how to allow every voice to be heard. Not just voiced, but to be “heard”.
When one hears statements like, “I don’t like this pastor and I’m not coming back till he leaves,” or “I don’t like so and so, and I’ll just stay away until they leave,” or “I won’t come to church on the Sunday’s the music isn’t up to my standard, “I as a person of faith have to wonder where Christ is at in that person’s heart? I would have to ask what is the real reason one comes to Worship with these types of feelings. Is not the reason for coming to Worship, but togather with other members of the faith community and open ones heart to receive the Love and mercy of God and experience for that hour an environment where all are equal in the sight of our creator? When I hear statements that are negative about the “why’s” of not coming together, what I am truly hearing is the “importance of Ego” and not what James finishes in say, “ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” Is it any wonder why those who don’t come to church say they don’t like “organized” religion?
So Jesus’ response to the arguing over “who was more powerful” by taking hold of a child and placing this child in the middle of the group and giving us this lesson, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me – God who sent me.” Now for the 21st Century reader, this is a Kodak moment, or a Norman Rockwell painting; For at some levels, we value children in our society a good deal, but for the culture that Jesus was living in, children were the very least of the least. As a child you held no value in society, you weren’t even valuable enough to have been sold as a slave.
Once again Jesus was challenging social norms and values not only of his day, but also the behaviors of our society, not just in third world countries where baby girls are murder because sons hold value or young girls are sold into prostitution to pay for family debt, but also here in the United States; here in Wyoming; and here in Rock Springs. Quoting again from Ched Meyers, “Throughout this section Mark has articulated the Way of the cross as the practice of solidarity with “little ones” in daily life. In every social relationship, power is unequally concentrated, and the Jubilary task is to redistribute it – even in the context of traditional structures such as marriage and the family. Mark has also undermined any “proprietary” rights that the discipleship community may wish to claim for itself. There is plenty of exemplary behavior outside our own communities of faith and plenty of problematic behavior inside them. The vocation of the church is not to render moral condemnations, but to seek justice within and without.”
By using the example of “welcoming” a child Jesus is challenging the disciples as well as us to a new understanding of just how valuable every person is to God. And not just a new understanding but a challenge to truly be welcoming and inviting. In a culture where your “holiness” was based on your worth this is not an easy concept to understand.
The conversation the disciples might have had with Jesus could have sounded a bit like this: You mean Jesus, we are to welcome the person who doesn’t have the power or ability or place to welcome us in return? To invite people into our faith community with no expectation of reciprocity? Basically Jesus, you are telling us to welcome and even value small, insignificant, powerless people? So let me get this right, Jesus, you are telling me that the only way that I can truly integrate you into my heart is to accept and give value to the guy who is beating on his wife and kid and not expect him to stop and live by my standards; or even worse, I have to really accept and value the bum who comes in off the street and smells like the garbage dump and actually sit next to him in Worship and you expect me to invite him to coffee time and then chat with him? Can’t you just accept my money and my good intensions and call that good? Not really huh. That means that I have to give up my good opinion of myself before I can do that Jesus. Oh, that’s what you’ve been trying to tell all this time. I don’t know; can I get back to you on that one, please.
“Marks gospel holds a vision of society, church, and family that is based on access and acceptance. To become like a child is to acknowledge the place and condition of the most vulnerable ones in our midst.” Pg 122 Before we can really break the response of “I’m Spiritual, I just don’t buy into organized religion”, we need to do what James asks us to do, to empty ourselves of the selfish desire to be in control and allow the gentle love and wisdom of God to enter into our hearts. There is nothing scarier in life than to feel like you are not in control of yourself or of your environment. But Jesus is saying that equality is the only way life will be lived out peacefully and where the sense of safety and security is a fact not a goal. In the UCC battle cry, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma”, the comma is “every individual”. Never put judgements or boundaries or self imposed values on any of God’s creatures; that my dear friend’s is the “comma”. For it is in the “comma” that each one of us has the ability to be nurtured and to grow.
Amen

Second Sermon at Rock Springs, WY

When Trust Is Shaken
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
Job 1:6-22; I Cor 13:1-7 & 13; Matt 26:17-25
Based on “A Hard-Fought Hope” by William Long & Glandion Carney

Today we are going to look at the meaning of “Trust” and what that means and the implications of what happens when our trust is shaken. Webster defines Trust as: a firm belief in the honesty, reliability of some person or thing; faith. Confident expectation, as have trust in the future, hope. As an adjective, Webster gives definition as: acting as trustee – in trust, in the condition of being entrusted to another’s care.
[Trust then covers all facets of our lives! Trust touches subjects as diverse as contract law, political realities, social theory, personal relationships, and religious faith. When we say, “I trust her” or “I trust God,” we express a firm confidence. (p 28) In our walk through the book of Job, we will explore how Job’s terrible suffering endangered his ability to trust God and his friends.]
A good basic starting point is how trust flourishes in one’s life. According to the author of the book, A Hard-Fought Hope, Journeying with Job through Mystery, William Long states, “The instinct to trust is built into our genes, passed on from generation to generation just as physical traits pass from parent to child. Trusting another person often means a commitment to the growth and basic integrity of the other. Trust nurtures faith in and expects the best from another person.” So when I say, “I trust you Mary Ruth Powell” or “I trust you Jonathan Firme” or “Paul Allen I trust you” this is nurturing faith and hope in you to be your best.
On the backside of our money we read, “In God We Trust”. This would imply that we trust God to keep the value of that bill. I’m not sure that is a realistic expectation to put on God, but none the less it is there. What it does imply is our faith and hope in the ability of our monetary system to perform to our expectations. Even in our Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag, we use the idea that God is there to protect us as a nation. A very traditional childhood prayer that parents teach their children is, “Now I lay me down to sleep, the Lord I pray my soul to keep.” So this hope, this faith, this trust in God and in people we have relationship with is very basic to our feeling of security.
But what happens to us when our trust is shaken? How do we react; how do we cope; and how do we survive? This past Friday marked the 8th anniversary of the attack by terrorists on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as well as the downed passenger airliner known as Flight 93. It was the first time within my life time that we have been attacked by a foreign entity on American soil. I shall never forget the sick feeling deep within my stomach as it became apparent that we were under attack. My first thoughts were remembering how my grandparents would talk about the significance of December 7th in their lives and I remember thinking, “this must be the same type of feelings that they were feeling when their learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor.”
There was a shattering of true innocence of many in our nation that we as the leading world power and a nation that is protected by God would be spared such violence on a massive scale. Our trust in who we were and of our self-importance internationally has been forever shattered. In response our whole life style has changed. Out of fear we have given up many of our civil rights to our government, without questioning the legality of what was being asked of us. Out of a broken trust we allowed illegal detention of several thousand innocent people. Out of broken trust our government engaged in torture of prisoners. Out of fear we have engaged in profiling people because of their religious beliefs or the color of their skin without giving equal profiling to their Caucasian counter parts.
When trust is broken, the opposite of having trust happens. Instead of “the best” being brought out in us, broken trust generally brings out the worst in us. Words like treachery, betrayal, disloyalty and fraud are a few of the types of behavior that can occur when trust is broken.
So what I’ve been talking about thus far is what happens when we as humans break trust with other humans. But what happens when we have trust broken by God? How do we react? Is it “okay” to get mad at God for breaking trust with us? Can God actually break trust with us and if so, then just “how firm is our foundation” as Christians. This is the situation with Job. Here is a man who is totally faithful to God and utterly hates evil. He gives sacrifices to God and just in case his children aren’t being faithful enough, Job is giving sacrifices in their names as well.
God is so impressed with Job and his faithfulness that God is bragging to Satan about how wonderful Job is. Of course Satan’s response to God is, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does – he can’t lose!” Satan then goads God with this challenge, “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.” So God tells Satan, that he can do whatever he wished to Job in trying to prove his point, but is restricted from physically harming Job.
Now it is important to understand that in Job’s day, your prosperity was directly related to your righteousness or rightness with God. Job by all accounts is the most holy person alive as he was truly the richest man of his day. The person, who would most likely rank with Job in our time as of February 2009, is Bill Gates as the wealthiest individual in the world who is estimated to have $40 billion, which he has lost value with the current downturn in the market. Mr. Gates just happens to have been raised in the United Church of Christ.
Now if trust is suppose to bring out the better in a person, then with all this trust that Job has in God, should bring out the best in God and in his actions. Yet it would appear that God is feeling insecure with His relationship with Job, by taking on the challenge that Satan has presented. It seems like the traditional 1950’s teenage boys sitting in their car’s, side by side, revving up their motors while waiting for the red light to change to green, so they could prove which car had the more horse power. Instead of being content in knowing that the car that was being driven had all the power it needed to do the job, there is an insecurity pushing them to prove who had the more power under the hood.
So Satan promptly goes to work on Job. In less than 6 verses, Job learns he has lost his fortune, all of his possession and worst of all, all of his children. Job found himself totally alone! In his day, he would have been judged by his friends and neighbors as having some deep and horrible sin in his life to have had all this happen to him. He was no longer the holiest man on earth but the most sinful man!
I am sure that many of you have had negative events happen in your life that seemed to have the hand of God in it. I recall when my wife and I had our first pregnancy. Marsha really wanted to have children shortly after we were married. I was more cautious and thought we need at least 5 yrs of marriage before we should start a family. Well, nature seemed to win out and we became pregnant about a year after we were married. After I got over the shock of the news, I started to really warm up to the idea of fatherhood and was looking forward to it. Then a few weeks later, we learned that Marsha had a miscarriage. We were devastated, but what was hurting in me the most was seeing the extreme disappointment in my wife and the lack of self-esteem that seemed to appear over the lost of this child. I became extremely angry with God. My trust in God had been severely shaken.
[Broken trust leaves us with a huge dilemma. To whom do we confide our sense of loss and betrayal?] Especially if the betrayer is God. [Do we try to act as if nothing has happened but in the meantime plot revenge? Beat ourselves up for being so naïve as to fall for the scheme by which we were defrauded? Chalk up the loss to experience and try to get back on track emotionally and spiritually? Or, just lock everything up in a closet and try to forget about it and let it fester within us? Maybe we decide never to trust again and live on the basis of that vow;] and if that feeling is toward God – just stop coming to worship or stop praying, possibly denying the very existence of God!
These are all normal thoughts and feelings that we can go through when we feel that trust has been broken, be it from God, friends, colleagues, neighbors or our governmental representatives. Under grey rainy skies at this past Friday’s memorial gathering at ground zero in New York, with names of those who lost their lives being spoken out loud – Vladimir Boyarsky, whose son, Gennady Boyarsky was one of the victims – spoke these words, “we miss you. Life will never be the same without you. This is not the rain. This is the tears.”
[The dilemma of trust exposes the fragility of our mechanisms for dealing with life’s adversities. When our trust is broken, we do not die. We keep living. We often have to face the next day with the same people who broke trust with us. So we need to find positive ways to deal with the breaches of trust that enter our lives.] Ways that will heal and rebuild those bridges and allow us to work in an atmosphere of confidence and comfort; in developing an environment that provides hope and faith that is nurtured and lived to its fullness.
As we come today to the table of communion, we have to think about the betrayal of trust that lies at its base. We read in Matt: “After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, Jesus said, ‘I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.’ They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, ‘It isn’t me, is it, Master?’ …Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, ‘It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?’ Jesus said, ‘Don’t play games with me, Judas.’”
Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends and colleagues. How did he handle this betrayal? First off, he recognized what it was and called Judas on it, in the presence of the other disciples. Later in the garden he prayed for guidance and strength to go through what was about to happen because of the breach in trust. We do not read that Jesus got angry and quite. We do not read where Jesus cursed God for what was happening. We do not read where Jesus gave up on his disciples. What we do read is Jesus giving his Disciples instructions on how to think anew the idea of fellowship and of communion with the faithful. He did this with the common bread and wine. Jesus tells us to do this as often as we meet. I think one of the reasons for this is to help us remember that we are not alone in this world, but rather we are a part of a larger body and even when we feel that our trust has been shaken, even to its foundation, that through Christ’s example, we can survive and rebuild that trust, that hope, that faith!
Let us dwell upon this lesson as we come to Gods table of love today. Amen