Summer Preaching Series "Love Wins"

Summer Series: Love Wins!
“God loves us.  God offers us everlasting life by grace, freely, through no merit on our part.  Unless you do not respond the right way.  Then God will torture you forever.  In hell. Huh?”  from Love Wins.
Starting July 1, we will begin exploring what the message of Jesus was and more importantly, how consistent is this message to current day understandings of “Heaven” and “Hell”, with the help of Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins.”.  Is “heaven” a real place?  Does a creating and loving God actually send people to “Hell?”  These are some of the question that we will explore in depth.  I hope that you will join me on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. for this journey in finding out “who makes it to Heaven.”  Invite your friends for a challenging look at Jesus’ message to humanity!

Life as a Passenger


By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 6/24/2012

Based on Mark 4:35-41 & I Samuel 17



Mark 4: 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” These were the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples after he had calmed the raging storm waters that had threatened to capsize the boat they were sailing in. These words seem almost harsh to me. If we were to place ourselves on this boat, as experienced fishermen, who would have been knowledgeable in handling a boat, especially in a storm, it would have been a natural human response to become fearful for our lives, when we realize that this storm has the capability to capsize our craft. Yet Jesus was down in the interior sound asleep, unshaken by the tossing of the boat and the amount of water that the boat must have been taking on.

When some of the men had gone down to where Jesus was sleeping and wakened him, I suspect Jesus had that unhappy look that comes when rudely interrupted from a deep sleep. In a cry of fear the disciples say to Jesus: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” This is a perfectly natural reaction on the part of the disciples, after all, the boat is caught up in this massive storm, taking on water as enormous wave’s crash over the boat, and here is their teacher, seemingly totally unaware of the danger they were in.

To understand Jesus’ response, it would help to go back one chapter and recall the events of the day. In chapter 3, Jesus had gone into the synagogue, and while there healed a man with a shriveled hand, that’s right, Jesus actually broke the law of ‘working on the Sabbath’. Next we read that he goes into a private home and is doing healing and teaching, creating a huge disturbance, so much so that his mother and family comes trying to take him home, because Jesus is emotionally disturbed. Jesus ignoring his mother’s request, then goes out of town near the Sea of Galilee, telling his friends to have a boat ready just in case the crowds become too large. It is at this point when Jesus, pulls a group of twelve men aside and chooses them to become his disciples. By evening Jesus is totally exhausted from all of the healing and teaching that he had done and tells his disciples to put out to sea, for he was going to cross over to the other side.

To Jesus’ amazement, after all of the day’s events of healing and teaching, the disciples seemed to not understand who Jesus was, and I think more importantly, their lack of understanding of his concern for them. For if what had been happening that day showed anything, it showed the love and the outreach that Jesus has for even those that were strangers to him. So as disciples, with all that they had seen, why wouldn’t they have understood that Jesus would also have concern about their safety; where was their faith?

Compare the Gospel story to that of the Hebrew story of young David as he is appalled by what he sees on the battle field, of the disrespect by Goliath and the Philistines toward the God of Israel, and of the fear the Israelite army seemed to have of this mighty giant.

This is the beauty of youth, of how in their innocence, youth can see the injustice and from outrage impulsively act to correct that injustice. This is something that maturity often seems to lose. The older we become, the less likely we are to speak out about injustices that we see. Is it because we are afraid to rock the boat, or maybe we feel we have too much to lose, or we just don’t have the energy to deal with it, or possibly it is just apathy; or maybe, just maybe we don’t believe, no faith, that by doing something it would truly make a difference.

King Saul was so overwhelmed by the threats of Goliath that he wouldn’t take up the challenge of sending out one man to fight Goliath, because he believed that no one could defeat this seasoned giant. In comes David, just a boy, asking permission to stand up to Goliath. Saul, sizes David up as inexperienced and too small to beat Goliath. We read in this story, a young man who in his years of tending sheep sees how God has been by his side in times of grave danger. We see a young man who has faith that God not only has the capacity to help him when in need, but wants to help when needed.

We see in these two stories, the difference in how people respond to dangerous situations depending on the level of faith they have. This faith may be in God’s power, or this faith may be in something else. People react to correct an issue whether they call themselves Christians or not. For those who label themselves as having faith in God, their faith comes out of past experiences of seeing God’s hand at work. If a person doesn’t believe in God, this faith might be in pure justice, knowing that justice ultimately wins out. Either way, it is ‘faith’ that prompts a person to act or react.

I consider myself most lucky to know a woman who is a refugee from the 1930-40’s Nazi Germany, whose family was able to escape arrest and make it safely to this country. The family lived in Germany and faced with the rise in fascism, the father sent his two daughters out of the country to Holland, to a town where the father’s college friend lived. While Liesel’s family eventually was able to immigrate to the USA, the family who was her father’s college friend were unable to gain visa’s and were eventually discovered and sent off to concentration camps, with only a diary remaining to let the world know of their existence, the diary of Anne Frank. I want to share with you a short clip that was sent to me on Thurs by another friend that puts meat to this morning’s scripture lessons. www.mjhnyc.org/faspe/

There are many giants in our world. They may be labeled with corporate names such as Enron, Exxon, or general labels such as Wall Street. These giants might be labeled as various dictators, terrorist leaders, governments that support such groups, or even our own government when it acts in the name of special interest groups, which harm our environment, our poor or citizens of other countries. Another one of these giants comes with losing independence through aging or failing health, or when we are faced with loneliness because of the death of a significant person in our lives or through separation or divorce, or of our children growing up and leaving home. There are many giants that make us fearful.

When I hear Christians tell me that they don’t think it is right to hear about political issues from the pulpit, such as: immigration reform, universal health care for all, when our government calls for war, or standing up to Wall Street, I have to respond by asking them what they think Jesus was involved in. Jesus was very political. That is the reason why he upset so many people. He was involved in civil disobedience when he broke the Sabbath law of healing those who asked for help. He broke the temple laws that allowed for merchants in the temple. He challenged the religious system that took advantage of the poor and sick.

As people who call themselves disciples of Christ, we are obligated by Jesus’ teachings and by his actions to speak up for social justice and to speak out against injustices, giving voice to those with no voice. We need to work at changing our laws that penalize the poor; we need to speak out when financial institutions and our elected representatives put their greed ahead of their fiduciary responsibilities.

I find the last sentence in today’s Gospel most intriguing. 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? You would think that after Jesus had calmed the wind that they would be at peace, but no, now they went from fear of dying in the storm, to being “terrified” by Jesus’ power to command even nature. Who is it that we have been following? Is this the reason why the church that labels itself “progressive” seems to be afraid to involve itself in activities that we call “activism” because, like the disciples we are terrified of what Jesus might ask of us? What if we allow the “truth” of Jesus to enter into the depths of our hearts? Will we too find ourselves having to act as did the young shepherd boy David and actually have to put ourselves out in harm’s way to stand up for injustices that we see in our community? Today’s stories speak to us about fear and faith. Both are non-tangible and unquantifiable words, both are emotional and feeling terms that deal with the heart, not the brain.

As we come together at our August retreat to discuss in depth who we are and discern what we as Mountain View want to focus on in our long range ministries, today’s story’s of David and Goliath, and the disciples terror of who they are following, will be very much at the heart of our discussions and how we envision our future ministries and outreach, will depend on our relationship with Jesus and the depth of our faith in God. Amen

Who Told You That?, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO

Who Told You That? By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora 6/10/2012 Based on Genesis 3:8-13 This morning’s texts is a discussion on “relationships”, relationship between man and his helpmate, relationship between the man and his environment, and relationship between humanity and God. The first two chapters of Genesis has been dealing with the creation of all things, of the universe, of the sky, the moon, the stars, and the sun, of the land and the water, of life as it starts in the sea, then in the air and finally upon the land. Eventually we see God ending this creative activity with the creation of the human. It is here in chapter three that we start to understand the relational side of God with this creation and more specifically between humanity and its creator. To be truthful, this is the only perspective that as humans we can look at, because we can only look at our relationship with God through the lens of being human. We cannot look at how other mammals or reptiles or plant life relates to creation because we do not have the capacity to relate on any of those levels. I am positive that all things created by God, do in fact relate to God, but I will never know how that looks, because I am only capable of doing my processing through the lens of being human. In this morning’s story we have four characters: the man and woman, the serpent, and God. The overview of this story is this: After God has finished creating all the earth and all that lives upon the earth, a man and woman are given the assignment to care for God’s creation. They have full freedom to do anything that they want, except for one thing. “See those two trees in the middle of this garden?” “Stay away from those two trees, you are not allowed to eat any of its fruit. You have all that you need or could ever possibly be able to use with all these other plants and trees, but just don’t eat from those two trees in the center of the garden.” So the man and woman listen to God and go about their business of tending to the garden. Enters the “serpent”, he and the woman strike up a conversation in which the serpent suggests to the woman a possibility as to why God doesn’t want her to eat from this tree. It was suggested that if she were to eat from the tree, she then would be just as wise as the Creator, knowing good from evil. She eventually eats the fruit and also shares it with the man, and indeed, they begin to view life differently, at which point our texts picks up. This story has been used throughout time in a total spectrum of ways to explain every human condition possible, but too often it has been used as a weapon of shame and blame and as a way to control, instead of being used as another example of God’s love. I have a movie that is currently loaned out which deals with another way of looking at human sexuality that I would have loved to share a clip from titled Adam and Steve, just the way God made them. In this story, it shows the traditional story of Adam and Eve, and how Eve dukes the slow witted Adam into eating the fruit. Of course they get expelled from the garden. God is pretty bummed out about how his experiment with humans ended in failure, when a chorus line of male angels do a song and dance routine that encourages God to try again, which God does, but this time God decided to create Adam and Steve. As the story goes, Adam and Steve are happily being innovative and artistic, such as learning how to make fruit into alcoholic beverages and creating decorative glasses in which to drink from. Now there is a fence that separates the garden from the wilderness and while Adam and Steve are blissfully living in the garden, you see a contentious relationship between Adam and Eve. Eve looks enviously on the lavish gifts that God seems to continuously bestowing on Adam and Steve, as she looks around the barren environment that they were presently living in, always feeling that she is lacking and not receiving all that she deserves or needs from God. This is the story that the theological concept of “original” sin is grounded in, this is the story that gives the reason for God sending his son as a sacrifice, this is the story that sets the boundaries of human sexuality, to name just a few. Some or maybe all of these concepts that I’ve just mentioned may ring some truth to you or possibly not. But how we approach many of today’s turmoil’s come from some of the early arguments of such men as Augustine, who articulated the concept of original sin - this idea that we were created with an inerrant sinful behavior. It has been so engrained into society ever since that it seems to have a ring of truth to it. Yet, if we compare that theology to the creation story itself, it goes against what God said about what God created. After each and every day, God pronounced what had been created as good. In fact after God had finished creating man and woman, God pronounced us very good. So for this theologian, I have had to re-examine much of Christian theology and ask the question, is this consistent with God’s pronouncement. As I mentioned at the opening of this reflection, this story is about relationships: relationships specifically between humanity and God. It is the quintessential love story between God and creation. The basic idea that this story deals with is the basic story that each of us face every day in our own life’s, that of buying into a lie. The lie is, we are created less than who we are. Quoting some basic ideas from the book Genesis: The Book of Beginnings, by David Leach who was the person who helped guide me through my ordination process, a thousand years ago presents this view: If Adam and Eve eat of the fruit, they will become “like God.” If they succumb to the temptation, the difference between God and humanity could be eliminated. Pg 18 We have man/woman (who have been pronounced as being very good, which implies “complete”) being presented by a third party, the serpent, that just possibly God didn’t give them all that they needed, that by eating the fruit from this one particular tree, they will somehow become truly complete and be just like God. The lie is that somehow we are not “whole” in the eyes of God, that if we only had this, or were only this way, we would then be who God intends us to be. The lie is that for some reason, God did not provide us with everything that we need to be complete. Every day, we are confronted with the idea that we are lacking in something. Not one of us hasn’t had to deal with self-esteem issues, “Gee if I could only look like Susan, then I could have any man that I wanted”, or “If I were taller I could be a better basketball player”, “if only this” or “if only that”, if only…you fill in the words. Then we have the lies that society as a whole tell us: you have to be straight to be loved and acceptable to God, you have to be white or at least act “white” in order to have the privilege to gain access in American culture, you have to be Christian to have a relationship with God! All of these speak to what happens when culturally we buy into the lie that - somehow we are less than what God intended for us. In our text it says, “God was walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and God said, ‘Where are you?’” This section doesn’t say God knew they had eaten from the tree that was forbidden, it doesn’t say God came walking in the garden looking to scold the man and woman. It say’s, God came looking for the man and woman, the implication being, God was looking to spend time with them. They are the ones who ran away out of “embarrassment”, hiding themselves, not only from God, but also from one another in the act of covering themselves. When God asked them “why did you run and hid from me”, they responded saying, “we hid because we were naked.” God asked, “Who told you this”. The question really was, “what makes you believe you didn’t have everything that you needed?” For all of us there is this struggle with self-worth and personal significance, the “Who am I” that is represented as the serpent in today’s story. It is in this question that positions us to be vulnerable to multiple lies that if accepted, separate us from relationship and community. But when we approach the question as “Who am I in God?” then we are positioning ourselves to hearing the truths that God has for us, which deepen our relationship with God and community. For God so loved the world that through his Son, none should parish but have “life anew”. Jesus’ whole message was telling us that God is love, love exists only in relationship and community to him. It’s not the question of “who am I” but rather, “who am I in God?” Amen

Removing the Cataracts, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 6-3-2012

Removing the Cataracts By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, Co 6/3/2012 Based on John 3:1-17 and Isaiah 6:1-8 One of the phrases that would describe this multi-faceted person called, Steven Mitchell, would be “a propensity to compartmentalize.” For instance, I like to have certain spaces to do specific tasks. I like my office to do administrative jobs, I like to read in my living room, I like to watch T.V. in the family room, and I use Star Bucks to write my sermons. I use specific types of music to accompany tasks, such as when I iron, I like to listen to Big Band music. When I am cleaning house I like to use 70’s Disco. When I write my sermons, I prefer the coffee shop type of music normally found at Star Bucks, because the eclectic style stimulates my thought process. Even with the wide variety of music one can hear at Star Bucks, the last thing that I would have expected to hear playing this past Friday was Hank Williams and Johnny Cash! For me, country western music is beer drinking music, and not generally conducive for the consumption of caffeine. You can imagine how disturbed my MoJo was that morning. Instead of using the music as white noise, I found myself singing along and day dreaming about how much fun it would be right then to be out on a dance floor cutting a rug! As we look this morning at the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, we can see two differing types of individuals. Although we could say both men would consider themselves ‘men of God’, one was the type of man who experienced God in a more personal and in none traditional ways – always pushing the envelope, while the other man would experience God very traditionally, and following the perceived boundaries found within the book of Torah. I think it would be safe to say that Nicodemus’ tended to “compartmentalize”. Compartmentalization isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact for many of us it allows us to deal with the daily tasks of life smoothly and efficiently. As we grow and experience life, we learn what reactions or results to expect through certain behaviors. We are taught how to define objects, sounds, and odors. We are taught value systems of not only our family and community, but of other cultures (whether actual or perceived). So no matter what age we find ourselves, we approach life with a certain set of believes, and parameters, living with some degree of compartmentalization. Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, had a very developed understanding of the concept of God as defined by the Hebrew religious community, as well as how the coming Messiah would act. Most of us have a specific image of what God looks like when asked. (Please share some of those images with me.) This is one of the very first questions that confirmands are asked as they enter their confirmation studies. The reason for doing this is to them to start thinking about God in differing ways as an ongoing practice in their Spiritual journeys. When Jesus told Nicodemus that, “unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom”, Jesus was trying to get Nicodemus out of his comfort zone, of his learned understanding about God and life in general, so he could become open enough to “who” Jesus truly was. Think of a person who starts life out with two good eyes. They see everything with such clarity, cataloging every image. Then as they grow older their eyes start to cloud over, making it harder to see objects that are in front of them. The brain then takes over and uses those images previously made to compensate for the increasing inability to see clearly. Eventually these clouds develop into cataracts, which in essence make it virtually impossible to see without a glare. But once those cataracts are removed, clear vision is once again restored and the world virtually looks new, allowing for the awe and wonder of what’s in front of you, there is freshness to life once again. Too often, many of us who have grown up in a faith community have developed cataracts and are experiencing our spiritual life through memory instead of a fresh experience. We have grown up learning doctrine which tells us what is the right way and wrong way to believe, the right way and the wrong way to live. As we grow older, we start trusting in our old experiences and close the doors to new opportunities that make us feel alive again, because we are afraid of those new feelings. This morning’s lection reading has one of the most memorized verses of scripture and has been one of the most grossly misused, John 3:16-17, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” One reason for the misuse comes from a misunderstanding of the concepts of “eternal life” and what it means to be “saved.” Last week I shared that Salvation in most Christian circles has come to mean, Eternal life. Yet the root word of salvation is, salvus: meaning “whole,” “sound”, “healed,” “safe,” “well,” or “unharmed”. Modern Christianity has thus intermingled the understanding of Salvation with eternal life as meaning life after this present physical existence, sometimes identified as “heaven.” Rev Rob Bell, in his book Love Wins says, “When Jesus used the word “heaven,” he was simply referring to God, using the word as a substitute for the name of God. Sometimes when Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. 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. Pg 58 Love Wins, by Rob Bell In order to begin to understand who Jesus is, Nicodemus first has to see and experience Jesus from other than his comfortable place and preconceived notions. Feasting on the Word Yr B, Vol. 3 When the gospel is understood primarily in terms of entrance rather than joyous participation, it can actually serve to cut people off from the explosive, liberating experience of the God who is an endless giving circle of joy and creativity. Life has never been about just “getting in.” It’s about thriving in God’s good world. It’s stillness, peace, and that feeling of your soul being at rest. Pg 179, Love Wins, by Rob Bell. If we have grown to understand and to experience Jesus through what we were taught as children and are not having any new experiences, then we like Nicodemus need to have our cataracts removed and be “born anew,” so we to can live in the promise of what Christ gives to us, the promise of eternal life within Gods Kindom. “For God so loved the world, that through Jesus, none should exist as the living dead, like zombies, but have eternal life!” Life filled with liberating experiences of the God who is an endless giving circle of joy, peace, and love. Amen

Responding When the Spirit Comes, Mountain View United, 5/27/2012 by Rev Steven Mitchell

Responding When the Spirit Comes By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/27/2012 Based on Acts 2:1-21 It is often said, “The only constant in life is change.” In the book “Future Shock” the author, Alvin Toffler explored the topic of “how much change can the human psyche handle before it has a meltdown? The Twentieth Century experienced radical shifts in social structure, dramatic shifts in global power. As we moved from industrialization into the “space age” we have seen radical change in the way we communicate with others. Times are not just changing, they are radically changing! Our lesson from Acts this morning is a story of radical change. Sometimes referred to as the beginning of the Christian Church, it is both the conclusion to and beginning of the next phase of God’s restoration of humanity. The conclusion is of the story about one man’s life, who was known as Jesus the Nazarene. Those who had become inspired by Jesus’ words and actions, now find themselves left alone, as Jesus dies and ascends into heaven. Yet Jesus had promised the disciples that they would not be left alone and in this story we see the coming of the Holy Spirit, the one that Jesus said was the comforter and guide. It is in the descent of the Holy Spirit that radical change is seen and through this change the disciples find the strength to start sharing the message that the “Kingdom of God” truly is alive in this world. It is no longer a concept of something to strive toward, but is a reality to live in. Modern Christianity has come to refer to Pentecost Sunday as an original title, meaning, on the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples it became known as Pentecost. In reality, the descending of the Holy Spirit came during the Jewish festival of Pentecost also known as Shavuot or Harvest festival or festival of weeks. This festival was the celebration of the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, which came fifty days after the exile. In Luke’s narration, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples came fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. You can look at these two events and say that the author was manipulating events, but I think it was a way of emphasizing the reality that God was once again doing something very dramatic in the world. Leading church historian, Diana Butler Bass in her latest book, “Christianity After Religion” proposes some startling similarities to where Christianity is at today and the story of Pentecost. We can say the word “Pentecost” in and of itself refers to, “a beginning period of great awakening at a spiritual level.” We have experienced this within the Christian Church periodically, the “Reformation” being one example. Historians of American religion generally recognize three significant awakenings in the United States and Canada: the First Great Awakening, 1730-60; the Second Great Awakening, 1800-1830; and the Third Great Awakening, 1890-1920. During each period, old patterns of religious life gave way to new ones and, eventually, spawned new forms of organizations and institutions that interwove with social, economic, and political change and revitalized national life. Christianity After Religion, Diana Butler Bass, pg 29 The First Great Awakening marked the end of European styles of church organization and created an experiential, democratic, pan-Protestant community of faith called evangelicalism. The Second great Awakening ended Calvinist theological dominance and initiated new understandings of free will that resulted in a voluntary system for church membership and benevolent work. And the Third Great Awakening had two distinctive manifestations; the social gospel movement, with its progressive politics, and the Pentecostal movement, with an emphasis on miraculous transformation. Pg 29, Christianity After Religion I shared with those who met this past Tuesday at the Sacred Grounds study, my belief that we are in the midst of a new Awakening. One that isn’t just happening within North America but is happening worldwide, starting in the 1960’s, and in this country referred to as, “the Jesus movement.” Interestingly, it was stifled in the 1970-80’s with the reactionary rise of fundamentalism. So how do we recognize this new Awakening? It can be seen in the collapse of many of our traditional institutions ranging from fraternal organizations, to the lack of trust in our financial and governing bodies, and in the demise of “organized religion.” In a 2004 survey, the Barna organization found that young adults who are outside of church hold intensely negative views of Christianity: 91% think the Christianity is “antihomosexual, 87% say Christianity is judgmental, 85% accuse churchgoers of being hypocritical, and 72% say Christianity is out of touch with reality. Only 41% think that Christianity seems genuine or real or makes sense, while only 30% think that it is relevant to your life. Pg 86 Christianity After Religion How often do you hear someone say, “I’m spiritual, not religious?” Millions throughout the world are on a “spiritual” quest. If we compare a 1999 Gallup poll asking Americans whether they understood themselves to be spiritual or religious to a 2009 poll asking the same question, we see a dramatic shift in several categories: 30% Spiritual only was consistent over the decade, Religious fell from 54% down to 9%, Both Spiritual and Religious increased from 6% to 48%, and a stable 9% as Neither spiritual nor religious. Pg 92 Christianity After Religion What do we mean when we use the words Religious and Spiritual? Religious is a European definition which has come to mean a system of ideas or beliefs about God. In modern times, religion became indistinguishable from systematizing ideas about God, religious institutions, and human beings; it categorized, organized, objectified and divided people into exclusive worlds of right versus wrong, true versus false, us versus them. The root word of Religion is Religio which means faith – living, subjective experience including love, veneration, devotion, awe, worship, transcendence, trust, a way of life, an attitude toward the divine or nature. Pg 97 Christianity After Religion The word Religio is actually more in tune with our modern understanding to Spiritual. This then explains the major shift in just a decade to the majority considering themselves both Spiritual and religious. These people are using the institution (their denominational affiliation) as a part of their Spirituality. Our story in Acts ends with Peter saying, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The word salvation has come to mean “eternal life” in most religious circles, but the root word for salvation is salvus, meaning “whole,” “sound”, “healed,” “safe,” “well,” or “unharmed”. The spirituality that is found in the word salvation then brings us into well-being or an authentic sense of personhood, an asking of “who am I” in relationship to the “I am” who addressed Moses in the form of the burning bush. Pg 183 of Christianity After Religion The significance in this Pentecostal story isn’t in the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, or that they were able to speak in a language that those who were in hearing distance could understand, although all this was definitely important. To me the significance comes in the act that Peter ceased the moment to tell onlookers what was going on. He didn’t just stand by, bathing in the moment, but rather shared with those who were observing, about God’s love for all people. What is happening within this story is the shift from God being found in the temple, to God acting outside the confines of four walls. The temple has now become established inside human bodies, being connected together through the Holy Spirit. It started with the story of God dwelling within the man called Jesus, and now has moved into all humanity through the person we identify as the Holy Spirit. Mountain View is in essence a story of Pentecost. We were formed as a radically new idea! Dare I say during the Jesus movement of the 1960’s! We are the recipients of a radical belief that as Christians of differing religious backgrounds, we can use the gifts, talents, and the wisdom that three differing denominations can provide to reach out as Peter did and begin a new conversation asking the starting question of “Who am I in God?” Truly we are a group of people who were planted with the understanding of “religio.” We are a people of longing to bind ourselves to God and others that enfold rituals and theologies with experience and wonder! A spirituality that enlivens the heart, opens the soul to others, and to creation. The world is in the early stages of a New Awakening. Mountain View is a child that was birthed in this New Awakening. The awakening going on around us is not an evangelical revival, it is not returning to the faith of our fathers or re-creating our grandparents, church. Instead, it is a Great Returning to ancient understandings of the human quest for the divine, reclaiming a faith where belief is not quite the same thing as an answer, where behavior is not following a list of do’s and don’ts, and where belonging to Christian community is less like joining an exclusive club and more of a relationship with God and others. A religio and experience of the salvus. I challenge you on this Pentecost Sunday to once again ask the question, “Who are you in God?” It is the beginning question on the journey of spirituality. Amen

What's In a Prayer? Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/20/2012

What’s In a Prayer? By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/20/2012 Based on John 17:6-19 and 1 John 5:9-13 As my first child was learning to speak, her mother and I started teaching her some very simple prayers that we would say at meal time as well as at bedtime. Prayers such as, “God is good, God is great, let us thank him for this food we eat”, or “As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” Surprisingly, my mother-in-law was disturbed that we would be teaching her grandchild prayers by rote. As I inquired as to why this was not appropriate, I was informed that “prayer” was supposed to be spontaneous and from the heart. I had to agree, that prayer should be of the heart. I also felt that my child would benefit with specific prayers that were prayed for specific purposes: to create ritual and consistency, to understand that there was someone greater beyond her family or herself, and would have a foundation for augmenting prayers to fit her needs as she grew older, making them more personalized. There are many reasons why we feel the need to pray. In the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd…” gives us that security that God is walking along side of us, although we tend to use this prayer most often when we are experiencing periods of great strife and mega shifts in our lives, it is also a prayer that gives us comfort, strength, and insight during times of meditation. The Disciples of Jesus came to him one day and asked to be taught a prayer, just as John the Baptizer had taught a prayer to his disciples. The beginning instruction of this prayer is, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hollowed is your name…” On Easter Day 2007, it was estimated that two billion Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox Christians read, recited, or sang this short prayer in hundreds of languages.[7] Although theological differences and various modes of worship divide Christians, according to Fuller Seminary professor Clayton Schmit, "there is a sense of solidarity in knowing that Christians around the globe are praying together..., and these words always unite us." Wikipedia Is anyone able to say that this prayer taught and said by rote, does not inspire the heart? If not, then why do so many people of faith say this prayer? In today’s Gospel reading, we have another prayer being shared, this time by Jesus petitioning for those who believe in him. We hear Jesus asking God to protect those who believe in him from the evil that dwells in the world. “15 I’m not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one.” “17 Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.” The writer of 1 John picks up this point by saying, “10 The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within;” “11 And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5: 10-11 And what is this truth? The truth is this: love is from God, because God is love. 10 This is love: it is not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son…. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. 1 John 4:9, 10, & 18 This prayer takes place shortly after Jesus has shared with his disciples that once they arrive in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, he would be arrested and killed. Jesus was sharing these things because he didn’t wish his disciples to be blindsided by what was going to happen. This foretelling by Jesus comes on the heels of the disciples and the seventy being sent out to the surrounding countryside to preach in Jesus’ place and returning in triumph of how they had done such wondrous acts in God’s name. The “good times” were about to end. Life for those who had been following Jesus was about to be turned upside down. The Gospel of John was written to those believers who had lost their place of worship, with the destruction of the synagogue and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and were being threatened by the Roman Empire, having to navigate in a world that was built by violence and evil. So from a prayer by Jesus for his disciples as they face the future death of their leader, Jesus was again speaking to those who follow his teachings as they face the cruelty and uncertainty that comes through Roman domination. As Rev Kathy Huey writes, “Don’t worry, Jesus tells them, turning to God in prayer, asking that they will be protected, entrusting them, and all who would follow, into God’s care. Jesus asks that they will be one that they will be made holy. More than that: that they will experience joy. In some mysterious way, perhaps all of that is what it means to abide: to trust, to love, to be one, to be holy, to know joy. And this is also what it sounds like when Jesus prays for us.” UCC Lectionary Study, May 20, 2012 by Kathy Huey At some point in our lives, all of us experience the crashing down of our world around us. Whether it comes through broken relationships, financial crisis, lose of health, the death of a significant individual in our lives, or through a faith crisis, we all walk through that valley of shadows, where we experience fear, uncertainty, and aloneness. It is through this prayer that Jesus has prayed for his disciples, this prayer that has been prayed for those who believe and trust in his “truth”, this prayer that was prayed for us, that gives us strength while we walk through our dark times and know that God is protecting us. It is through these experiences, that our knowledge of God is fortified and becomes our “testimony” about God’s unending love at work for us. The Rev Bonnie Miller-McLemore, professor of Pastoral Theology at Vanderbilt University of Divinity in Nashville, TN shares this observation about differing practices of “testimony” within faith communities. “After visiting a church with more orthodox beliefs, a youth in my own congregation observed, ‘they didn’t just say, ‘We believe.’ They said, ‘We know!’” Other youths felt uncomfortable with the certainty of those in a more evangelical and proselytizing tradition than their own. Many Congregations do not practice testimony, at least not self-consciously, in part for fear of inappropriately imposing beliefs on others. [I understand this.] Other communities keep it at the heart of their practice. [I understand this as well.] Lest we immediately assume that testimony involves the community only in Spirit-filled truth telling through word and song, some testimony moves beyond words and appears in concrete acts of compassion. Rev Miller-McLemore goes on to say, “I received a letter from a good friend asking for a contribution but she also testified: ‘I reached a point where I just couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand what was happening to so many children, women, and men…in large part because they were unlucky to be born poor.’ She is working to build a health clinic in a poverty-stricken town. This also testifies to faith in the promise of life – life given eternally through God in Christ’s love alive in the world.” Jesus’ prayer for protection of those who love God lives on generation from generation, in the stories, in the “testimonies” of his followers, in the testimonies and actions of you and me, as we walk in the path of God’s love. It is important that we share our stories with one another, whether through words or through our actions because that is what gives hope to a world that is constantly being brutalized by power, greed, and self-interest; a world willing to do harm to anyone that stands in it’s way. It is ‘truth’ that we are called to proclaim! And that truth is: God is love and love gives life. “What’s in a prayer?” We will find in prayer: hope, comfort, joy, solidarity. We find strength through ‘prayer’. It is through prayer we are able to “abide”, to trust, to love, to be one, to be holy, to know joy, and to testify the truth of God! Amen

Rooted In Love, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, for Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/6/2012

Rooted In Love By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 5/06/2012 Based on John 15:1-8 and 1 John 4:7-21 “10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us…(V) 11 Dear friends,(X) since God so loved us,(Y) we also ought to love one another.” 1 john 4. This past week, I received an article on Facebook that I found quite disturbing. The first paragraph of the article reads: A virulently homophobic and anti-gay preacher on Sunday derided parents who don’t “squash like a cockroach” the gay out of their children. Pastor Sean Harris told parents they are “authorized,” and that he was “giving them a special dispensation” to attack their children. “Give them a good punch,” and “crack that wrist,” Harris told parents, if their four-year old boy, for example, “starts acting a little ‘girlish’.” Pastor Harris added that parents should tell their four-year olds to “man up, son, get that dress off you get outside and dig a ditch because that’s what boys do.” By David Badash, May 1, 2012, The New Civil Rights Movement In light of what 1 John is writing about “love”, I have to call “bull pucky” on Pastor Harris and anyone else who promotes this type of behavior. It matters not whether you are in agreement or disagreement with a person’s sexual orientation, or their politics, or religious affiliation as for examples, liberal or conservative, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or nationality or the type of fashion one chooses to wear, no one has the right or privilege to promote violence and hate. When those who feel like they have the responsibility to do so and also call themselves Christian, then they have violated not only the commandment that Jesus gave, “love one another as you love yourself…” but they most seriously misrepresent God! Yet many pulpits would condone such rhetoric. After the initial shock of the 9/11 attacks by terrorists on our shores, many pulpits started hate campaigns against peoples whose religion is Muslim. Anyone who wore a cap or a scarf on their head, if their skin color wasn’t white, became the objects of this same type of hate that Pastor Harris preached this past Sunday. From many pulpits, we were being told this type of violence against us was punishment from God for practicing acceptance of our children who were gay. I have titled today’s reflection, “Rooted In Love”. The two lection readings for today, speak about what “Love” produces and what happens in the absence of “love”. Continuing on in 1 John 4, verse we read: 12 No one has ever seen God;(AA) but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.(AB) So, what are some of the attributes of “love”, so that we might have some sense of whether our actions and our thoughts are in line with how scripture teaches about “abiding” in Jesus and thereby “abiding” in God? The word “discipline” often is misunderstood. Some of us were raised with the teaching by our parents that “if you spare the rod, you spoil the child.” So, spanking your child was condoned as an appropriate way of administering discipline. Maybe that’s what Pastor Harris is referring too. In the 1950’s, a new approach was introduced by the physician Dr Spock, challenging the former idea of discipline, and whether or not accurately interpreted, millions of families began to think of discipline as a negative tool in their children’s up bringing. Many parents stopped not only spanking their children but hesitated in setting boundaries in fear of “damaging” their children for life. In the Gospel of John we read starting of chapter 15: “I am(A) the true vine,(B) and God is the gardener. 2 The gardener cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,(C) while every branch that does bear fruit(D) the gardener prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.” I do apologize for “text proofing” but when I see the concept of being a vine and of producing fruit, and this vine because it is producing fruit gets pruned, I cannot help but relate it to the concept of Discipline. The idea of discipline is to develop a foundation of habits, skills and/or principles that will enable one to navigate through life experiences with desired out comes. This is a broad set of skills, such as language, mathematics, science, psychology, philosophy, manors. Most anything that we learn can loosely be labeled under the idea of discipline. The unfortunate thing is that somewhere we have understood discipline only in the negative and forget the positive aspects. Pruning is another way of presenting the understanding of discipline. Discipline is an act of love. There are people who think that it is okay to break a child’s arm as a form of discipline, as a way of trying to make a child be someone other than who they are, whereas we can read in both sets of today’s scripture that the act of pruning is done in order that more fruit may be produced. It is not done to change, but done to enhance. Parents are not alone in having preconceived ideas as to what is right and wrong for their children, the church also has preconceived standards of right and wrong, not only for it’s members but for the rest of the world as well, and because of these preconceived ideas, feels that it has the right and obligation to try and alter everybody’s behavior. As Christians, it is not our job to decide how a person is or is not to be. Our job is to do the activities that nurture others into becoming who they are meant to be. A dad wants his boy to be a quarterback in pro football, the son however dreams of becoming a concert pianist. The father who loves his son will put aside his dream , and will do whatever is necessary to help his son develop into that concert pianist, so that through the son, many others will receive the gift that the young man can provide through music. Somewhere in Christian philosophy, we have altered the message of God’s love toward humanity. In the story of the prodigal son, we see God’s love acted out in a father running out to greet and welcome the son who had left home. Most of us however, too often act more like the son who never left home, refusing to rejoice and understanding the concepts of God’s grace. In Rob Bells book, “Love Wins”, Bell states: Grace and generosity aren’t fair; that’s their very essence. The father sees the younger son’s return as one more occasion to practice unfairness. The younger son doesn’t deserve a party – that’s the point of the party. That’s how things work in the father’s world. Profound unfairness. Pg 168, Love Wins So just possibly, the fruit that we as the vine are supposed to produce is “unfairness.” The most profound understanding that anyone of us can have about love comes in the realization that “God first loved us” – Period! God’s love for us isn’t because we love God, but rather our love for God comes because of God’s love for us! And how do we know if we truly practice the love which God shares? By practicing “unfairness” toward others. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” Let us live not in fear but in love! Amen