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First Christian Church

Loving at Full Speed”

Mark 11:1-11

On Palm Sunday I like to go beyond the Working Preacher commentaries and look again at Marcus Borg & Dominic Crossan's book “The Last Week.” This time I came across their ideas about aristocratic rule by a few over the masses beginning about 5000 years ago. This type of rule by elite persons and families continued through medieval and early modern societies right up until the last few hundred years with the advent of democratic revolutions. The paragraph ends with this comment: “And one could make a good case that in somewhat different form it (it: referring to the few ruling the many) remains with us today.” (p.8)

In our text Jesus introduces a spiritual/religious revolution of his own that still remains with us but as yet has only partially impacted humanity. It is a revolution in the works, and its expressed in a couple distinct ways by the gospel writer in this chapter. The first way is in the presentation of Jesus as a king riding not a warhorse, but a donkey. The donkey is a counter-cultural image suggesting Jesus is a very different type of king.

The other distinct image of this spiritual/religious revolution happens a few verses after our text where Jesus enters the Temple referring to it as “my house,” whereas its suppose to be a house of prayer but the money changers and those buying the animals for sacrifice are making it a “den of robbers.” The religious leaders take offense at Jesus' actions in the Temple, and its not made clear whether its the declaration that the Temple is “my house,” or the disruption of Temple business that upsets them. It's probably all the above and after this they're plotting to kill him.

Lenten devotional John Pavlovitz speaks to the nature of Jesus' revolution when he describes it as “an economy of generosity.” He contrasts this with the present day consumerist economy we live in where “dog eats dog” and most are in it for personal gain. He continues his description as being invited to run a race where the winner is the last to cross the finish line. Beyond this, the goal is to be in service to others and doing the service is its own reward.

Jesus' revolution turns our everyday, ordinary world upside down, which explains in part why it is taking so long for it to have a comprehensive impact on humanity. To be able to consistently behave in a counter-cultural manner requires a different way of seeing the world, as well as the willingness to keep trying to do things differently.

For example: On Good Friday the church will begin a prayer vigil at 6am that will continue until 6pm that day. It will be accomplished by church members taking turns praying for a half hour at a time, but Good Friday prayers have a specific focus to them.

They are about going deep into our inner selves to touch upon places we typically avoid.

The Good Friday Prayer Resource sheet I make available is designed to provide guidance to help you come up against the darkness of the day. Human beings typically avoid such confrontations, but avoidance in this case means to deny yourself the joy of Easter. The resurrection will be toned down considerably if you haven't adequately prepared yourself through prayer.

Through prayer we find the courage we need and may be given guidance as to how we can best contribute to the revolution. There are Christians who have taken the revolution very seriously and some that come to mind is Joe DeScala and the 4PA organization here in Port Angeles. Joe and 4PA have accomplished great things for Christ including helping us with the homeless residents on our property and cleaning up the debris in the ravine left by them. It was a huge project!

At the last board meeting I was instructed to contact Joe to see how we might fit in with 4PA and do our part to care for the homeless. In response Joe suggested he might attend one of our board meetings and talk with us about our possible participation. I accepted his offer and he'll be joining us on Sunday, April 21. The following thoughts from Richard Rohr can help us to be prepared for Joe's visit and most importantly help us respond in faith:

Without a constant infusion of the Holy Spirit, without a constant desire and trust – Lord, give me your Holy Spirit! – we all close down. We do! It's the nature of life to circle around the smaller and smaller self, to take fewer and fewer risks, and to never go outside our own comfort zone of people who are just like us.

Friends and siblings in Christ, don't do that! We're all going to be gone in a few years. We only get one chance to live this life of love. Every day is a lesson in love, learning how not to bind ourselves and our neighbors, but in fact to free ourselves and others...We are Jesus' emissaries. As Saint Teresa says, “We are the only hands and feet, the only eyes and ears that Jesus has.” Jesus has handed over the mission and the mystery and the wonder of the realm of God to each of us.

Until we can live every day of our lives motivated by love, rather than fear or by people in authority, this Gospel will not work. It will not change you or me, and it will not change the people around us. Let's begin anew.

There is a great deal packed into that short meditation and the phrase encouraging us to not be motivated by fear or authority seems especially appropriate for our time. It's pretty clear to me that not only our nation, but many nations in the world are moving toward more authoritative governments which should be troubling for us people of faith.

You might say this is a counter revolution to the Jesus revolution, and its this counter revolution that gets all the press. The reason for that is it plays on peoples fears bringing them to the fore where its hard to not become preoccupied with them. In fact, without the presence of the Holy Spirit its nearly impossible to function outside of the fear with any degree of rationality let alone compassion.

As Richard Rohr just shared with us, “Without a constant infusion of the Holy Spirit, without a constant desire and trust – Lord, give me your Holy Spirit – we all close down. We do!” As we look out into the world, we're seeing this “closing down” happen on a massive scale due to a protracted absence of the Holy Spirit.

This all ties into Palm Sunday with the introduction of a new kind of king, and at first just a look around the Temple later followed by a shocking display of disapproval. To understand what Jesus is doing in the Temple we need to look at what happened to the Temple prior to Palm Sunday.

Before the Roman Empire took control of Israel the Temple was primarily religiously important. When Rome began to use it for its own purposes it eventually became the central socioeconomic institution for the country. The defining features were now rule by a few, economic exploitation, and religious legitimation. The few who rule at the top our gospel writer, Mark, calls, “the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes.”

The wealth of these few at the top came primarily from land ownership. Because of laws in the Bible more land could only be acquired through confiscation. There were two ways confiscation occurred: The first way was the king could create “royal estates,” by taking land from the peasants. Herod did this and sometimes gave the land to other ruling elites.

The second form of confiscation was foreclosure because of debt. Sometimes a peasant would use land as collateral for a loan. If the loan could not be repaid the land was confiscated. These are the two primary ways the ruling elite accumulated land and thus wealth. This represents only one aspect of the type of corruption and misdeeds the elites imposed upon the peasant class.

Jesus came from a little backwater village named Nazareth, and the people who followed him were mostly from the peasant class. We don't often think of Jesus as being a peasant but that was his background and the people he is mostly concerned about. You might be thinking, “What's the point pastor of examining the socioeconomic dimension of the gospel?”

To that I'd say though I've identified Jesus' revolution as a religious/spiritual

phenomenon it was, in fact, more than that. It also had socioeconomic implications for the first century in Palestine and it still does for us in our time. Though nowadays kings and queens do not populate the earth, yet not much has changed in terms of the few holding most of the power and wealth. There is a middle class these days, but there is also a marginalized class who are being discounted and suffering considerably.

It is these folks that Joe is going to come and talk to us about to see what we can do to help balance out the scales. We need to consider the socioeconomic aspect of society because Jesus did far more than we typically credit him. He taught parables that involved the rich and landowners, and in the only prayer he left us he included the forgiveness of debts.

Something else that happens when we don't consider the socioeconomic dimension of the gospel is it appears irrelevant in a culture such as ours. We live in a consumerist society where peoples worth is often measured by the amount of things they own and the size of their bank accounts. In a culture that holds the economy of central importance a solely religious/spiritual revolution can be easily disregarded.

We're going to talk to Joe DeScala about what we can do to show compassion for those left on the outer margins of society; but by Jesus' actions in the Temple and his frequent confrontations with the ruling elites he is also demonstrating the importance of going to the heart of the matter. People don't just end up living on the streets for no reason. It is the consequence of an unjust system that cares not for the suffering of those on the margins.

Without question the prophet Isaiah had a significant impact upon Jesus and he could have been thinking of this passage as he entered the Temple that day to strike at one of the key sources of injustice in his time:

This is the kind of fast day that I'm after; to break the chains of injustice, get rid of the exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad...Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage...If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

(Isaiah 58:6-8,10; The Message Bible)

Rev. Mitch Becker

March 24, 2024

Port Angeles

 

 

First Christian Church

One”

John 12:20-33

The Gospel of John labors hard to convey the message that Jesus and the Father are one. By that I don't mean they're one in the same mind or they have the same message or anything like that – I mean when you see Jesus you see the Father. That's why Jesus says to Phillip, “You've been with me all this time, Phillip, and you still don't understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, 'Where is the Father?'” (John 14:9; The Message Bible)

That conversation with Phillip happens a little later in this gospel, and our text actually opens with Phillip who is approached by some Greeks. By implication these Greeks are already believers, and they want to see the source of their belief. We don't know if they actually get to see him, and their cameo appearance is probably to show Jesus' growing popularity in the world.

Jesus then talks about his death because the time has arrived for him to disclose the way he's leaving this world. From here until his arrest there is an urgency that permeates the story, and Jesus tells his disciples on the way about as much as they can bear to hear.

In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) one of Jesus' requirements for his disciples is for them to be willing to take up their own crosses, and in this respect John hops right on board. But with John something is added and that is the notion of “abundant” or “eternal life” that is an ultimate consequence of bearing your own cross.

We also need to consider the usage of the word “hate.” Typically, that word for us means to despise or detest something or someone, but here a closer definition would be “reject.” This is important because when Jesus tells them: “Those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” he's telling them to reject the world's values and follow the values of the kingdom of God.

To return briefly to that all important message of the Father and Jesus being one, in this gospel the two are always on the same page even as Jesus' death approaches. What binds the two together is the love they share, which is the same love Jesus shows his disciples when he washes their feet or lays down his life for his friends.

 The central problem in the text is that few have the ears to hear or the eyes to see the truth of Jesus' disclosure about his death – let alone the requirements of discipleship. But still the story offers hope that soon people will begin to recognize him. As Jesus is lifted up and resurrected to ascend to the Father people will then begin to understand that the Father and Jesus were always one.

This hope is realized because the disciples do remember with increasing clarity after his death about who he was and his mission. The end of the story helped them to see the whole truth, and the same will hold for us. John writes, “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

In terms of the big picture another problem arises in regard to the other enduring religions of the world. For example: Islams “Jesus figure” is Muhammad and he's a prophet or messenger of God, and in Buddhism there is no God. Buddhist follow The Way or the practice of the Buddha. The Buddha is the enlightened One, but not God. In Christianity Jesus and the Father are one, therefore, Jesus is God!

Some Christians view this as an indication that we have the true religion, and the other enduring religions of the world are somehow lacking. This results in Christian hubris or an arrogance that looks down upon other religions making them less credible then Christianity. Obviously, a Muslim or Buddhist would not share such feelings about their own religion.

It can lead to feelings of anger or resentment and ultimately division in a world that desperately needs to find inroads to peace. When the Christian faith leads to enlightenment and the tearing down of inner boundaries then ways to solve the problem begin to appear. It all begins when we find the courage to look within as Richard Rohr explains:

Only people who have done their inner work can see beyond their own biases to something transcendent, something that crosses the boundaries of culture and individual experience. People with a distorted image of self, world, or God will be largely incapable of experiencing what is really real in the world. They will see things through a narrow keyhole. They see instead what they need reality to be, and they're afraid it is, or what they're angry about. They'll see everything through their aggression, their fear, or their agenda. In other words, they won't see at all....

When we touch our deepest image of self, a deeper image of reality, or a new truth about God, we're touching something that opens us to the scared. We'll want to weep or be silent or run away from it and change the subject because it's too deep, it's too heavy. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”

Since ICI Construction has vacated our premises, we have been left with a large open parking lot. It's very inviting with the fresh gravel and smooth entry way off Race Street. It seems like almost everyday I come to work there is a different car parked out in our lot. Its almost as if we have a big, bright reader-board that says: “If you're looking for a place to park your car this is it!” Our parking lot is now an inviting open space that almost begs to be filled, and so it is nearly every day.

Likewise, as our spirituality deepens, we come to know God as a open space or a void within us that paradoxically desires to be filled with God. In fact, God is the only thing that will satisfy the desire. As the saying is attributed to Saint Augustine: “Our Heart is restless until it rests in you.” Even the void itself can be considered as God since entering the void results in a spaciousness and contentment radically different than ordinary, everyday consciousness.

When I was in seminary at the Pacific School of Religion I frequently found myself at the prayer place in my room. This was because in seminary I was bombarded with a wide range of differing ideas about God. Of course, I had been exposed to varying ideas about God in college as I minored in religion, but this was far more intense and finally quite confusing.

I'm not sure how my fellow students managed the deluge of ideas, but I did it by returning time and again to the quiet void. In the void there is no competitive ideas because ideas no longer hold any particular importance. In the void all things become possible and all ideas are relative. No one idea is any better than any other because all judgments have ceased. In the void the ground is leveled, and all is equal.

The challenge then is to bring this peace or “the peace of God” (Philippians 4:7a) as the Apostle Paul calls it, up from the depths of your being out into the world at large. Peace in the world will be accomplished when enough people have reached this level of spirituality and are committed to raising consciousness (as Eckhart Tolle calls it) in the world.

However, not everyone who has attained a higher degree of spirituality is necessarily committed to raising consciousness. In Buddhism such a person is called a Bodhicitta (Bow-dee-cheat-tuh). In our own tradition Jesus and his disciples including Paul have laid the foundation for this holy activity.

Thankfully, there are many in our present-day culture devoted to raising consciousness in the world some of the most notable being Richard Rohr, Marcus Borg, Eckhart Tolle, and countless others whose names we'll never know. Of course, these people don't share their “secret” because they're seeking fame or fortune. They do it because they cannot contain the goodness and grace of God they know in their hearts.

When its cold out as it often is here in the Port of Angels I go to the “Beam Me Up” coffee stand and buy a hot latte usually once a week, and typically on sermon writing day. I now have Oreo with me three days out of the week because she needs to walk with me at noon. She's getting old and arthritis is setting in so we want to keep her moving, but there's another more important reason she's with me, and the gals at the coffee stand keep pointing it out to me.

The week before last the gal said, “And. of course, you want a dog treat for your hunny.” Well, I can't say as I often think of Oreo as my hunny, but the phrase did get my attention. Then, last week the other gal said as she brought the dog treat, “And here's the important part.” The implication being that what was important about coming to the coffee stand was the treat for Oreo, not the coffee itself.

Being the dense male that I am I had absolutely no response to either comments made by the two women. I just robotically retrieved my coffee devoid of any awareness, until later, of these relational oriented comments. What both women are saying to me, whether consciously or not, is that its not the coffee that matters but the love I'm showing for my dog.

The reason I'm sharing this little story with you is to demonstrate that there are many ways to raise consciousness. You don't necessarily have to be a Bodhicitta. These gals at the coffee stand are raising my consciousness, whether they're doing it intentionally or not is beside the point.

It's a bit different for us Christians. We are all called to share the love of God with a desperate, struggling world largely devoid of love. We are to be very intentional about it and to do so even at great sacrifice. That's why Jesus is making bearing your own cross a requirement of discipleship, and spending quality time in the void serves to increase our ability to fulfill this calling.

Rev. Mitch Becker

March 17, 2024

Port Angeles

 

 

First Christian Church

Pole Preservation”

Numbers 21:4-9

The people of God narrowly escape the Egyptians grasp at the Red Sea, and after that they undoubtedly looked forward to the promise of a milk and honey land, but what they got was wilderness.

Moses initially goes out into the wilderness and ends up at Mount Sinai where he's gifted with an astonishing religious experience complete with an incombustible burning bush! God directs him back out into the wilderness and as one of the commentaries put it: “Into the jaws of the wilderness, where demons howl and messiahs are tempted, where familiar resources are taken away, and lifelessness is the only order upon which one can depend!”

They heard the promise, but it takes more than words to inspire a people. The words have to match up with a reality they can identify with, but the promise keeps disappearing with each sandstorm they encounter. In time, faith in God begins to erode and the result is anger that eventually becomes resentment.

Resentment then leads to God's judgment which comes in the form of snakes, and we're catapulted back into the Garden where Eve is taken in by the clever serpent. But in our text the serpent image is turned on its head transformed into an image of divine healing for a poisoned community, and all at God's command!

Now we're challenged by a God who uses snakes to deal with sinners. Indiana Jones hated snakes and we do too! Maybe we'd even prefer hell over snakes because then we'd only need to rely on God's good grace to deliver us, but snakes bring up all sorts of gory details.

The story evolves into one of healing offered, and the healing image used is that of a snake placed upon a pole. God hears the protests of the people who are tired of bland manna and a serious lack of water. God lends credibility to their lamenting and offers a movement from death to life where the people must look in the right direction to be healed.

Much later in Jerusalem the pole reappears and is placed high upon a hill. On this pole God has placed himself for all those who come to realize they too are wandering in a desolate wilderness. And another divine promise is made – if only the people will embrace the truth of their self-inflicted sinful isolation and accept salvation offered. We must look up to him to live...in the wilderness.

The people of God can't get out of the wilderness, but they have been given a vision of a Promised Land. We too are stuck not in a literal wilderness, but like them we've been given a vision of a promised land of sorts where God meets human needs and provides rest for weary souls. The people of God are angry and for good reason because at this point they've been wandering around thirsty and eating bland manna for forty years!

Actually, being angry is a good sign because it means there is still some life and sensibility in them. The surprising thing is they haven't all gone completely insane! We can reach a breaking point at times as well, and maybe we get angry about it. Anger is actually a sign that you care. The really scary stuff comes when you stop caring because then your devoid of love and without love you're really lost.

Sometimes we get angry because we're unwilling to face our pain and the real reasons we're hurting. That's what therapy is designed to do to help us out of denial and face our pain. Let's listen to Anglican theologian Maggie Ross to consider her point of view:

Most of the time our anger is due to an unwillingness to face the hurt we feel and the real reasons behind it. To learn to weep in order to be free of anger and know “rest” does not obviate (ob-vee-ate) self-respect and is not related to putting oneself down. On the contrary, if we are struggling to seek God single-heartedly, to learn to weep the anger out of ourselves is a matter of self-respect.

The idea of tears washing anger from us is alien to the mores of power-oriented Western society. We are conditioned to justify our anger, to find the right place to put the blame, and to always feel good about ourselves. Most of us associate anger and tears with tears that spring from anger, not tears that cleanse us from anger. But...tears of anger are themselves...a sign of choice, of potential change.

The Israelite's get mad at God and God responds by sending snakes. The text doesn't say that God sent the snakes because he was angry – it simply says he sent snakes and they bit the people and many died. Then the people suddenly become aware of their wrongdoing. The anguish and fear the snakes provoke force them to acknowledge their sin against God. Prior to this their bad-mouthing of God was oblivious to them. God wants them to wake-up, and he knows how to do it, and it comes at great cost, but it works.

And God being God doesn't acquiesce to their wishes but does provide a merciful way to deal with the situation. God provides healing for these snake-bitten sinners.

Something of a similar experience happened to me. After rolling my Volkswagen van completely over once in a field I drove it to a “girlfriends” house and parked in front. My car looked like a smashed up accordion with grass still sticking out of it. Rightfully so, she called the police and they took me to jail. I spent a night in a large cell with some pretty shady looking folks and found a quiet corner to read a Gideon's Bible.

I didn't wake-up to the sin of my addiction solely because of this anguish ridden experience in the county jail, but it moved me ahead considerably. After that, denial of my sin and where it was taking me was nearly impossible. My “girlfriend” and the police were the instruments God used to get my attention and it worked!

God provided healing for me in the form of First Christian Church in Albany and a call to ordained ministry. Now I had something more important to pursue than an alcohol addiction. God showed he cared about me and wanted to enlist me in his good cause. As the people gazed upon the serpent on top of the pole, so I gazed upon Christ raised up on another pole and found The Way to the healing of my soul, and it didn't happen overnight. It was a long-drawn-out process that continues to this day.

The reason the cross is the best way of describing The Way of healing is because at its core the cross represents death that leads to resurrection. Of course, we resist all forms of dying because its painful and scary. But that's the thing about faith since faith helps us to trust the process and with the knowledge and experience, we gain it becomes ever easier to trust.

That's why it's better to be old. We don't remember much of our youth and tend to recall the things and events that conform best to our imaginary False self's. Faith is something you gain in increments, and often after making mistakes and suffering because of them. Like trying to drive your car after you're plastered. We old folks know the drill and even when things are falling apart, we know in our heart of hearts that the light is on the way.

Here's a bit more on the subject:

The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But transformation more often happens not when something new begins but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart – disruption and chaos – invites the soul to listen at a deeper level. It invites and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place because the old place is not working anymore.

The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, darkness, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is, it does not feel good and it does not feel like God. We will do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart. -Richard Rohr

We see this in our text for this morning, and in my story about jail and eventual redemption where God “forces the soul to go to a new place.” The Israelite's had allowed their souls to sink into perpetual lamenting and finally outright complaints against God. God hears their cries and responds not as the Good Shepherd but as an authoritative shepherd might with a rod and staff.

In ancient times the rod was a symbol of authority, and a shepherd would use his rod to keep the sheep on the right path. The psalm says it all:

I've become wiser than the wise old sages simply by doing what you tell me. I watch my step, avoiding the ditches and ruts of evil so I can spend all my time keeping your Word. I never make detours from the route you laid out; you gave me such good directions. Your words are so choice, so tasty; I prefer them to the best home cooking.

With your instruction, I understand life; that's why I hate false propaganda. By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I've committed myself and I'll never turn back from living by your righteous order.

Everything's falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your word. (Psalm 119:100-107; The Message Bible)

I like that last verse in this section of Psalm 119 because it shows that being on the righteous path doesn't mean you're not going to encounter hardship. Quite to the contrary, when we're following the path God sets before us hardship is a given. Because God's path is the path of love and love takes us to places we might otherwise avoid.

Love gives us the courage to try new things and to explore new places and to meet different people. As the Apostle tells us: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) So, in the end it's all about love.

We might feel that God's being unnecessarily harsh with his people this morning, but they did make it to the Promised Land. I certainly thought God was being tough on me sitting in that jail cell reading the Gideon's Bible, but here I am!

Rev. Mitch Becker

March 10, 2024

Port Angeles

 

First Christian Church

When Fools Know Best”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

A professor that wrote one of the commentaries said that many of his students associated Corinth to places like New York and Los Angeles. They saw these cities as places where the world was happening, and Corinth was a happening city! It was located between two seaports making it a crossroads for ideas, traditions and commerce. But it was also a place filled with vice and immorality and prostitution was rampant. There was a great division between the rich and the poor, and it was a place where people made their fortunes.

The Apostle Paul had recently been in Athens speaking in the midst of the Areopagus (Air-ee-op-puh-gus). The Areopagus is a rock outcropping off to the side of the Acropolis. Karen and I had the privilege of standing in the midst of the Areopagus when we visited Greece. It was fun to imagine Paul standing there addressing the “Men of Athens” as the Book of Acts puts it. (Acts 17:22a)

Corinth is about 50 miles from Athens and if The Apostle walked it would have taken him a couple of days. By the time he arrives he's probably tired from the long trip, and he also had little success in Athens. There were a few converts, but people also laughed at him. This was partly because Paul doesn't have the eloquence and skill that was expected of Greek orators, and Christ crucified would have sounded like nonsense to the Greeks.

In spite of the difficulties mounted against him by the time he leaves for Ephesus (F-heh-sus) he manages to bring together a small band of converts. This fledgling church is a fair representative sampling of the city complete with rich and poor people, Jews and Gentiles, male and female. Now the challenge is to maintain the unity of the church in the midst of a morally degenerate culture.

Paul's worst fears come to the fore after he leaves and the letter to the Corinthians is an attempt to bring them back into line with the Gospel. It's a sort of grocery list of infractions including suing each other and refusing to eat together at the Lord's Table. Some were being haughty about their spiritual gifts, while others were giving there allegiance to Apollos a Jewish Christian teacher.

What Paul must do is bring their allegiance back to the kingdom of God in order to establish unity. He begins the task in our text, and it culminates with the famous love chapter (1 Corinthians 13).

Paul realizes that to outsiders Christ crucified sounds like nonsense, but he also knows that the wisdom revealed by God through death and resurrection stands apart on its own. He knows in his own experience the strength that comes from God in our weakness. The Lenten season offers us opportunities to explore and learn more about this Godly wisdom and heightens our awareness to the worldly seductions that surround us.

The season of Lent can reveal to us the mystery of the cross when we faithfully read the Lenten devotional and think deeply about what its describing. John Pavlovitz (Pav-low-vitz) has struggled for years with depression and he has articulated the fruits of this struggle on each page. We can benefit by paying close attention to the way he develops his ideas, and the many insights he shares. Following is a description of the mystery of the cross:

Neither the liberal pattern nor the conservative pattern can deal with disorder and misery. Paul believes that Jesus has revealed the only response that works. The revelation of the cross, he says, makes us indestructible, because it says there's a way through all absurdity and tragedy. That way is precisely through accepting and even using absurdity and tragedy as part of God's unfathomable agenda.

If we can internalize the mystery of the cross, we won't fall into cynicism, failure, bitterness, or skepticism. The cross gives us a precise and profound way through the shadow side of life and through all disappointments. -Richard Rohr

Jim Read returned home to Park Villa and more importantly his wife Celia on Wednesday of last week. He has endured quite an ordeal beginning at Olympic Medical Center and a lengthy stay at Crestwood Health and Rehab. When you visit someone in facilities such as this you really can't know the whole story. Jim told me about some very difficult situations he found himself in at both places, but through it all his faith clearly upheld him.

I know this because after I pray with him, he is always deeply and sincerely thankful for both my visit (or our visit if Karen is with me) and my prayer. There was not one visit where I sensed any cynicism, failure, bitterness or skepticism. This and other indications suggest that Jim knows something of the mystery of the cross and the way we find Godly strength in our weakness. Once again: “The cross gives us a precise and profound way through the shadow side of life and through all disappointments.”

For all of our Christian lives we have depended upon the mystery of the cross to carry us through the absurdities and tragedies, and this “training” is all the more important in the winter of our lives!

In the commentary I relied on for this sermon the author explained why the mystery of the cross was nonsense to the Greeks:

For the Hellenes (Hull-lanes) this was clearly nonsense. Since the time of Plato Greek philosophers had been wary of any certainty associated too closely with the world of change. Ultimate truth, they argued, must necessarily rise above the flux of nature. It must be immutable in its perfection. Gods did not take on human form to be crucified and resurrected, this was precisely the kind of “rubbish” that sent Paul packing in Athens.

- Donald G. Deffenbaugh

I don't know how many of you have been to Washington D.C. (show of hands?) but if you have you know that everywhere you look the buildings display Greek and Roman architecture including the White House. And without Greek philosophy the science dominated culture we live in would not be possible. Further, Gus Portokalos (Port-tow-cal-luss) in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” showed us time and again how you can trace most everything back to Greece!

The ancient Greek philosophers believed that truth took on a permanence that was not characteristic in nature. Transformation which is Change with a capitol “C” does not describe, nor can it lead to, ultimate truth as far as the Greeks were concerned. Christ crucified reveals that transformation happens when the old gives way to the new. Death and resurrection lead to the truth that God resides within us, and this is the wisdom that is foolishness to the Greeks and largely to our own culture.

In another one of Pavlovitz' devotions he wrote about the forty-first day. As illustrations he used the forty years the Israelite's wandered in the desert and Jesus' forty days in the wilderness as examples of periods of great struggle and temptation. He said one of the great lies of such experiences is when they happen to us, we think that they will never end. That there will never be a forty-first day of resolution.

But a forty-first day is exactly what the mystery of the cross assures us. When we come to know both through faith and experience that there will be an end to suffering and new life follows death. This is the wisdom of God that Paul knows so well and is trying to share with the Greeks and the rest of the Gentile world.

For further edification we might turn to the psalms to read:

God is fair and just; He corrects the misdirected, sends them in the right direction.

He gives the rejects his hand, and leads them step-by-step.

From now on every road you travel will take you to God. Follow the covenant signs; read the charted directions. (Psalm 25:8-10; The Message Bible)

What we need now is a story to bring all this home to us:

Amelia had recently left home to establish her own home in a house of considerable disrepair. She didn't mind since it was good to be out on her own free of the strife and instability of her childhood home. She grew-up having to cope with her parents dysfunctions though there was no addictions or marital neglect involved. Her parents just didn't handle their problems well, and for Amelia there were emotional consequences.

She coped with her internalized anger and anxiety with excessive eating, and was – well, let's say – wasn't height and weight proportional. For short periods of time, she was able to control her eating habits, but then she would binge and lose all the progress she'd made disciplining herself.

Now on her own without her mom's support and with few friends she began to slowly sink into a chronic depression. At first the symptoms were mild with feelings of irritability, guilt and shame. In time these feelings intensified and anxiety became more the norm than the exception. Restless nights replete with bad dreams and nightmares became increasingly difficult to deal with.

She reached the end of her rope when she started looking at people not in terms of their outward features or personality, but in imaging what they looked like without their skin. As if people were walking skeletons and this was very troubling. She went home one day and in tears told her mother about it, and her mom suggested she see a local psychologist of some notoriety in the community.

She made an appointment with Dr. Ackerman, and he kept encouraging her to work on a form of psychotherapy called Rational Emotive Therapy. Though she did read parts of the book he gave her it didn't really interest her, but something else that Dr. Ackerman was telling her about did. Dr. Ackerman was a running enthusiast who ran several miles every day.

He also told her about the importance of responsible self-care such as eating well, drinking water, and getting plenty of rest. He told her such self-care along with a daily exercise routine could help immensely to bring her out of her depression. Because Dr. Ackerman walked the talk she was duly impressed and began to wonder if she couldn't do the same.

 One day as she drove past the local YMCA Amelia decided to go in and check out the swimming pool. They had a Olympic size pool with public lap swims in the morning, evening and at noon seven days a week. She decided on the evening swim and began a routine of swimming for thirty minutes three times a week. She stopped eating hamburgers and french fries with Coca-Cola and began to eat healthier foods.

But it wasn't the exercise routine and better eating habits nor the support from her mom and therapist alone that helped her emerge from depression. She also began to develop a practice of delayed gratification by doing the opposite of what she wanted to do. For example, instead of going to McDonald's for fries and a coke she might take a walk through the park or swim a few laps at the pool.

And she brought the law of opposites into other aspects of her life as well. When she'd wake-up in the middle of the night instead of laying in bed ruminating she'd get up and do yoga or sometimes even walk around the neighborhood. She also took night classes at the community college in subjects like assertiveness training and holistic nutrition.

She found that though the law of opposites was difficult to do in the beginning that in the long run it made her feel better about herself, and about life in general. She learned that depression is not a given but can be overcome by having the audacity to try new things and by following the law of opposites.

Another way to describe the law of opposites in religious terms is death and resurrection. When we die to the egos desires we are redirected toward God's desires for us: “From now on every road you travel will take you to God. Follow the covenant signs; read the charted directions.”

Rev. Mitch Becker

March 3, 2024

Port Angeles

 

 

First Christian Church

Dismayed Devotees”

Mark 8:31-38

In a word what our text is about this morning is discipleship or what it means to follow Jesus. Just prior to our text Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Messiah, but he isn't commended for this, rather he and the others are told to keep mum about it. Then Jesus informs them about his pending suffering and death. Peter totally gets this in that he comprehends the despairing difference between Jesus being killed and the Messiah coming to free them from Roman oppression.

Jesus responds to Peter with a blaring contrast between the way people do things as opposed to the way God does things, whereas Peter appears to be invested in the former.

Quickly jumping to a wider perspective we see this is the first of three predictions about Jesus' own death. The last prediction, and the most graphic, comes a couple chapters later (Mark 10:32-34), and after each prediction the disciples have trouble grasping the troubling news.

We in modern times may fall far short of appreciating the terror and sheer absurdity of his crucifixion since the cross has been largely “tamed” in our time. We see it on churches, jewelry and tattoo's which removes it far from the reality the early church experinced, and really any Christians prior to the fourth century. In the fourth century after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire the faith became a means for world domination. The Church led by Constantine could even amass armies to make sure it got its way in the world.

To bring the message of God's unconditional love home not only will Jesus be subjected to torture and death, but his followers will also be expected to pick up their own crosses! This is where that most puzzling of paradoxes enters where if one is to save their life they must first lose it for the sake of the gospel. From a literal point of view that doesn't make much sense, so what exactly does it mean?

Usually, it is understood to mean that the faithful follow Jesus by doing countless acts of compassion and other acts of service. These acts of service typically look similar to the way Jesus serves others through healing, teaching, and making food available. At a deeper level it is the giving up of the identity we've worked so hard to accomplish for our real identity in God. This is often described as entering the second half of life and is our ultimate spiritual goal.

You may have been reading in the paper about the young woman who stole the Clallam transit bus from the Sequim transit center. She actually paid the ferry fee in Bremerton, but didn't board the ferry and turned-around to resume her journey making it almost to Shelton before she was stopped by the police. Tuesdays paper said she pleaded not guilty in court, and the judge told her she can ride the bus and get on and off at bus stops, but no loitering on county property! The bus is her only means of transportation, so the judge is trying to help her be an active, responsible member of society.

The judge isn't being simply punitive but is walking that fine line between punishment and rehabilitation. Jesus does something of the same thing with his premier disciple, Peter. Jesus' response to Peter's protest is not to punish, embarrass or control his beloved disciple, rather he looks past the man to the evil intentions that are influencing him. Jesus says, “Peter, get out of my way! Satan get lost! You have no idea how God works.” (Mark 8:33b; The Message Bible)

One way to understand what Jesus is doing with Peter is he's looking right past him and addressing the Devil. At the same time Peter and the others can't help but get the message, because we too often have no idea how God works. I've been enjoying this year's Lenten devotional written by John Pavlovitz (Pav-low-vits).

In a recent devotion he talked about the way we identify with the heroic or most faithful people in the Bible rather than the liars and scoundrels. He suggested that by putting ourselves in the place of the less desirable that our notion of God would expand accordingly. Karen asked me what less desirable person in the Bible I might align with and Judas came to mind. Probably because that's who I acted like during my recovery from alcoholism constantly telling myself I'd stop drinking only to betray myself time and again.

Peter might be a more desirable person to align with though he had his dark moments especially when he denied Christ three times. His protest following Jesus' disclosure of his pending death is another negative portrayal of the chief disciple, but in the big picture he does redeem himself though heroic acts like walking on water, and in the Book of Acts he clearly matures to become a key leader in the early church.

Hopefully, we too, mature in faith as we become ever more honest and self-deprecating (deh-pruh-kay-ting) revealing our less desirable traits and ultimately letting them go – allowing them to be replaced by better attributes. As the Apostle puts it: … “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18a)

Part of this journey of self-discovery, which often involves discovering things about us we'd prefer not to know, is to see what degree we project our inner consciousness on the outside world. By that I mean our conscious selves are what we first see, and after projection this largely determines how we feel about things. One very important aspect of growing-up in spirit is to realize that we see what we're predisposed to see, and that's why it's so important to get our inside world, our hearts and minds, aligned with God. Richard Rohr can help us with this:

Here is the mistake we all make in our encounters with reality – both good and bad. We do not realize that it wasn't the person or event right in front of us that made us angry or fearful – or excited and energized. At best, that is only partly true. If we had allowed a beautiful hot air balloon in the sky to make us happy, it was because we were already predisposed to happiness. The hot air balloon just occasioned it – and almost anything else would have done the same.

How we see will largely determine what we see and whether it can give us joy or make us pull back with an emotional stingy and resistant response. Without denying an objective outer reality, what we are able to see and predisposed to see in the outer world is a mirror reflection of our own inner world and the state of consciousness at the time. Most of the time, we just do not see at all, but rather operate on cruise control.

It seems that we humans are two-way mirrors, reflecting both inner and outer worlds. We project ourselves onto outer things and these very things also reflect back to us our own unfolding identity.

Who of us hasn't noticed that when we begin the day in a bad mood the world looks ugly. We take note of the dirty dishes in the sink from yesterday and it irritates us. The cashier at the grocery store fails to smile when we make a silly joke and we take it personal. Not for a moment considering that they may be having a bad day too. This is what Rohr means by having a “predisposed consciousness.”

You're already primed for problems and are creating them from person to person. This is the source of most of our problems, bad moods and infantile attitudes. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us,” or something to that effect. By saying this I don't mean to imply that evil doesn't exist and that there aren't forces in the world dedicated to our destruction. There are such forces. What I'm saying is for the most part we're already doing a pretty good job of it, and if we're to grow-up in spirit we need to wake-up to our self-destructive tendencies.

It's time for a story:

Atochenay (A-taj-ah-nay) grew-up in a family where conflict and meanness were more the rule than the exception. Often it was her mother that would begin the arguments, but it was her father that was prone to coming home late and in a disagreeable mood. His excessive drinking with his buddies after work contributed to the problem, and her mother was as emotionally dysfunctional as her father.

Because of her troubled family environment Atochenay learned to emotionally withdraw, keeping the resulting anger she felt hidden deep inside. That proved to be the safest route, but little did she know it would all catch-up with her one day. The anger itself was fear-based because children's worst fear is that their parents will die and leave them orphaned without anyone to care for them. For the child the parents dying, or even symbolically dying through divorce, is a death sentence.

Atochenay was a survivor and as she grew into adulthood she learned ways to cope with her emotional unrest. She had a lot of help especially from one very competent therapist, but because of the latent anger she struggled with an inherent meanness. She often looked for this meanness in the world, and just as often found it. Some days it seemed to be everywhere and in everyone.

Then, one day, it all caught-up with her and she sat in her living room thinking about ways she could kill herself. Wisely, she called the therapist and told him of her intention, and he told her that he wanted to meet with her at a local Starbucks. She did so, and after the meeting he drove her home and she felt as if she were in a dream. It was hard to except that someone would care about her in one of her ugliest moments.

It proved to be a turning point in her life and she began to understand how she had taken in the fear and anger of her family home. She began to see first in the kind therapist, and later in herself, a desire to love and be loved. This desire proved to be more powerful than meanness and thoughts of self-destruction. She saw that love was greater than fear and by seeking it within herself she could be healed.

After that brief encounter with thoughts of suicide she never looked back, and kept seeking ways to enhance the love she discovered within. Now, after many years of healing when she looks out onto the world she mostly sees kindness and beauty, and realizes this has much to do with the state of her own healed consciousness.

We do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. (Anais Nin)

Rev. Mitch Becker

February 25, 2024

Port Angeles

 

 

First Christian Church

Starting Over”

Genesis 9:8-17

We may wonder what this particular text has to do with the Lenten season, and to understand that we must consider the bigger picture. Our text focuses on God's covenant not only with humanity but with all living creatures on the earth. This particular covenant is unusual in that God does all the “heavy lifting” in it. By that I mean there is no reciprocal conditions involved and because of this it can be understood as a divine promise.

In regard to Lent, we must consider the entire flood narrative and that means going back to chapter 3. In this chapter we first see the disruptive effect of sin, and in chapter four disruption increases with the first murder (and between siblings at that!), and in chapter 6 there is some sort of violation between heavenly and earthly beings resulting in a shattering of the two realms. Evil is running rampant and the entire cosmos is in disorder. The situation is so bad that God regrets having ever created humanity!

This regret begins with God's observation that, “every inclination of the thoughts of human hearts was only continually evil.” Yet God doesn't respond with anger or revenge but is sorrowful over the whole matter. God sends the flood as an act of grief, and because the destruction isn't total there is a re-creative nature to it. God washes the earth clean in order to start over.

God doesn't begin again from scratch but with a remnant of the earthly beings, which brings us back to the covenant. Again, God is taking full responsibility in this new relationship between God and his creatures, and is fully aware of the all-encompassing sinfulness of humanity. The flood doesn't cleanse the human heart, and God is well aware of this and enters into covenant with us anyway.

It seems that God, rather than finishing us off, is going to try some different approaches to connecting with us to find a more satisfactory relationship. The rainbow in the clouds represents a warrior hanging up his/her bow to retire from battle. What the bow means is God will no longer use destruction as a way of dealing with human evil and is not going to give-up on us.

We see the Lenten season in this text by first noticing the pervasiveness of human evil, and the desired endpoint for us is to see this evil within ourselves. The next six weeks of Lent show us how determined God is to get through to us; but also stressed is our need to be fully honest about our own sinful predicament.

Though the situation is rather grim God's grace will be made available through the suffering of his son. The Way to Salvation is hard, but through steadfast faith and persevering in our spiritual disciplines we can be brought back to our true home in God.

It is sin, and owning up to it, that we must make our primary concern in the season of Lent, but that prospect alone is a bit too gloomy. We need a positive goal or a preview of where we're headed to keep us on the path to wholeness.

In that regard, I offer you the thoughts of Sister Ilia (Ee-lee-ah) Delio (Duh-lee-oh) who describes spiritual maturity as growth in consciousness and a lifetime process of surrendering into divine love. She begins by talking about the first half of our lives where we build an identity (the False self). She characterizes this first-half as operating on lower levels of consciousness where many religious people get stuck in a law-and-order mentality.

This also involves looking for one's center on the outside rather than on the inside. When you're looking on the outside the way you understand being in relationship with God is to follow the rules and regulations of your religion. In addition to this you also recognize authority in people who are perceived as “better” or more qualified than yourself. To sum up: you're following the law established by outside authority rather than the inner law of the heart. Delio continues by saying:

What creates a breakthrough in consciousness, whereby authentic growth shifts from attention to authority outside ourselves to the inner law of the heart, is not simply growing old but, rather, it is growing inward in freedom: “If you make my Word your home,” Jesus said, “you will learn the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32) Freedom requires a breakthrough into unitive consciousness, a radical surrender and a complete letting go, trusting the spiritual impulses of life....

Life still breaks down as matter weakens and expectations fail, but the one who lives on the level of integrated consciousness lives in moments of failure or disruption with a lightness of spirit, a sense of openness to divine love, which appears like light shinning through the cracks of darkness. Suffering is where divine love radiates in hidden darkness, where God is fully human; the power of life itself in the midst of disruption. We live into our divine nature when we cling to the power of life, finding that this power within liberates us beyond the threat of death because “fear is driven out by perfect love” (1 John 4:18). Living into our divine nature is the source of our freedom and happiness.

To achieve this breakthrough into a higher level of consciousness, what she describes as a unitive consciousness, requires “a radical surrender and a complete letting go.” This is where Lent becomes crucial in spiritual development.

Because in order to “completely let go” we must first identify with the False self the source of our sinful nature. We resist this with every fiber of our being since no one wants to face their inner demons. That's what therapy is designed to do, but most people don't enter into therapy unless they're forced to do so due to life becoming in some way unbearable.

During Lent we're given repeated opportunities to engage in this process of self-discovery through the practice of the spiritual disciplines, and we all need encouragement. Sometimes a story can be helpful:

Carrie had been unemployed for two years, and though she'd been looking for work, and doing occasional interviews nothing had panned out. Then one day her husband was working when he suffered a severe heart attack and was taken to the hospital. The doctors told them it would be 3 to 4 months before her husband could return to a normal work routine. This only after cardiac rehabilitation and a considerable amount of rest.

Now finding a job was crucial since her husbands income would cease because he was a free-lance plumber. Carrie's expertise was in accounting, but there had been few opportunities in the area they lived, so she turned to the internet and began to consider employment in other parts of the country. Among several possibilities one promising position was as a staff accountant, and by God's grace she got an interview.

Unfortunately, it was located in Charlotte, NC which was around 3000 miles from their home, and Carrie had a fear of flying. She could drive to Charlotte, but she wasn't too keen on doing that alone. Her mother had recently passed and she'd been attending a grief group where she often unloaded her burdens. She told them about her fear of flying and the desperate need of a job, and in the midst of sharing she began to cry. As the tears flowed she told everyone she felt like a dirty worm, and she felt like she didn't fit in anywhere.

When she was finished the leader of the group who was also a trained psychologist got up and walked over to her. He embraced her and said, “I want to be the first to welcome both of you to the group.” She didn't know what he meant, but as the days past she began to understand that he meant both her False self and True self.

What followed in the days after were experiences of remarkable emotional and mental freedom. It was hard to explain but religious phrases she was familiar with like “I was blind but now can see” and “I feel as if I've awakened from a deep sleep” took on new meaning for her. It was as though all her life she'd carried a hundred-pound sack of potatoes on her back and now it was gone!

She began to have private sessions with the psychologist, and he acted as a spiritual guide and helped her to fully grasp what had happened to her. She came to understand she had surrendered her ego or False self and was now in relationship with her True self. She now enjoyed a consistent mental and emotional expansiveness that seemed to have no limit. She had begun the journey of what some call the second half of life.

In finding placement as an accountant her newfound freedom allowed her to fly to North Carolina, but she didn't get the job. She ended up as an accounting clerk in a paper mill in a much closer state and her husband and her now live in Port Angeles, Washington.

The biblical text tells us God wanted to start over again, hence the rainbow signifying God hanging up his bow. What God is going to do is try some new and innovative ways of connecting with us of which one way is what Carrie's story illustrates.

There is a part of God in all of us, but its buried deep and is difficult to reach. It typically takes years of preparation, study and self-discovery before one is ready to make the great leap into the mystery of Christ within. The leap itself usually happens not by decision or will, but by the grace of God.

The preparation and self-discovery requires a commitment that few are able to make because it is difficult to own our own crimes and misdemeanors. Most just point fingers and blame others and think of countless excuses for their bad behavior. The Apostle Paul tried to help out the church in Rome by sending them this instruction:

Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point fingers at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in our own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn't so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you've done.

You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change. (Romans 2:1-5; The Message Bible)

Rev. Mitch Becker

February 18, 2024

Port Angeles

 

 

First Christian Church

Like a Lighthouse in the Desert”

Mark 9:2-9

Not too long ago the lectionary offered Jesus' baptism and the baptismal event was a rather private affair, where the epiphany or voice from heaven is heard by Jesus alone. An epiphany is a manifestation of the holy and are typically subtle and brief, but the Transfiguration is a manifestation of the holy on a grand scale!

At the outset it tells us something important about Jesus, and that is he is not coming bearing secrets nor is he a secret to be kept. Jesus is going to be quite conspicuous in the world and this radiant, dazzling body says as much. Because of it we can think of Jesus as like a lighthouse in the desert!

This event is such a magnificent display of the holy we might want to respond to it with awe and reverence, but that's not necessarily what the text is suggesting. Obviously, the voice from the cloud is God the Father, and some translations say: “This is my beloved son in whom I take delight.” This is God's moment of adoration for his son and imagine a smile on God's face while the words are spoken. This is what a person looks like when they express adoration for someone they love.

The intimacy of the moment cannot be missed as the three disciples are suddenly cast into the presence of the holy in the company of Jesus, Moses and Elijah. These two other prophets enjoyed remarkable moments of intimacy with God including Moses at the burning bush (note the tapestry at the end of the sanctuary) and he was the only one to view God's backside (showing God has a sense of humor)! While Elijah encountered God in the “sound of sheer silence.”

This intimacy with God energized the prophets to help people remain faithful to God amid terrible abuses they suffered due to the oppressive political systems that ruled over them. At the Transfiguration Jesus stands side by side with two others who knew what it was like to be in intimate relationship with God.

The Transfiguration is a light that shines forth into the Lenten season to keep hope alive as we pass through dark and difficult times. Beyond this, we can rest assured that God seeks to be in intimate relationship with each one of us.

Jerrie informed me by email that COVID has come to visit Laurel Place once again, and we know it's at Park Villa because Jo has it. We all remember COVID though we'd like to forget about it entirely, but its a resilient virus that persists.

Thankfully, and largely because of the vaccine it is not the lethal threat it once was, but it does create frustration and disappointment for people, and in this case for Jerrie, Sharon, and Jo.

It's safe to say we've all been there, and by that, I mean the desert experience COVID creates for everyone, whether you contract the virus or not. It's effect is pervasive, and I know for Jerrie at such times the church is like a lighthouse in the desert for her. We pray for her and others suffering from the disease, and in this way prayer connects us to God who then becomes a spiritual lighthouse for all of us.

So, what does a lighthouse do exactly, and how does Jesus fit into this picture? On the wall of my office, I have a poster given to me by our good friends Sharon and Mark. It is entitled Oregon Lighthouses and there are ten images altogether of different lighthouses along the Oregon coast. The one most familiar to Karen and I is the depiction of Cape Meares which is not too far from Tillamook.

Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks and safe entries into harbors, and they've been in use since antiquity. They're typically some sort of vertical structure with a light source at the top, but in ancient times they were a large fire built upon a high point and were mostly used to designate a harbor entrance.

Jesus is like a lighthouse in the deserts of our lives, and deserts come in many shapes and sizes. The COVID desert can isolate you from friends and family, and in the worst cases put you in the ICU. When we're cut-off from loving, caring community often some level of depression results. We are social creatures and few of us do well on our own for extended periods of time.

COVID can also leave us asking, “When will this all end?” COVID comes with a terrible unknowing that haunts you, and its especially pronounced if your living in a community like Jerrie is that repeatedly experiences the virus. Just when you think it's gone for good it rears its ugly head once again. The emotions that follow are despair, disappointment and anxiety. It just all seems so unfair.

It seems unfair until it occurs to you that an opportunity has presented itself because of the hardship you're encountering. At this point Jesus can become the lighthouse amid the dangerous shoals and reefs that such hardship present. It is at these times that our study of God's word, and the hymns and sermons come into play in our inner lives.

What can come forward by the grace of God is we may hear the truth that Jesus has already shared with us in some manner. Or it may come through as a meditation by Richard Rohr:

Authentic spirituality is always on some level or in some way about letting go. Jesus said, “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Once we see truly what traps us and keeps us from freedom, we should see the need to let it go. But in a consumer society most of us have had no training in that direction. Rather, more is usually considered better.

True liberation is letting go of our small self, letting go of our cultural biases, and letting go of our fear of loss and death. Freedom is letting go of wanting more and better things, and it is letting go of our need to control and manipulate God and others. It is even our need of letting go of our need to know and our need to be right – which we only discover with maturity. We become free as we let go of our three primary energy centers: our need for power and control, our need for safety and security, and our need for affection and esteem.

Letting go of those three primary energy centers sounds like a tall order! And not unlike an addiction when you let go of what is most central to you it must be replaced by something better. This is exactly what Jesus offers us is that something better, because within him all these energy centers can be satisfied.

When you realize in your heart of hearts that God is in charge, not you, you naturally let go of power and control. That is a definition of faith. If you are capable of resting within the spacious, peacefulness within then all your safety and security concerns are immediately met. When you realize that you are loved at the very deepest level of your being you no longer need affection and self-affirmation from others, because you now know you're intrinsically loved and adored. In this way Jesus solves our most important existential (ex-zuh-sten-chul) problems.

As the sermon begins to wind-down let's look at the difference between Transfiguration and transformation. Transfiguration implies that there has been some type of change that has occurred outwardly. In Jesus' case, presumably his face shines perhaps as Moses' did after a conversation with God, and his clothes shimmer. These are changes occurring on the outside where those around him can't help but notice the changes.

On the other hand, transformation has to do with radical change happening inwardly, and from a spiritual point of view this is more desirable. What is happening to Jesus is actually a preview of coming events. Jesus is telling his disciples that his ministry is going to be a public affair.

But the core of his teaching, and one purpose of the many healing events, and the crucifixion itself can all be understood as ways to promote inner change. This can be demonstrated easily by reviewing the Sermon on the Mount, and especially in the Beatitudes:

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more room for God and his rule.

You're blessed when your content with just who you are – no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourself proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

You're blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. (Matthew 5:3,5,8; The Message Bible)

These all have to do with an inner transformation, and I'm using a contemporary interpretation of the Beatitudes because it brings out the spiritual dimension of them in a way the more familiar Revised Standard Version of the Bible doesn't. In the Revised Standard Version that first Beatitude is: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

That has a positive ring to it and implies some type of spiritual transformation, but what does it mean exactly? It sort of begs for further definition. The Message Bible spells it out for you and gives you something to work with. COVID, for example, can bring you to the end of your rope. That's never pleasant but it can be immensely helpful during the struggle to know that the “light is always on the way” as Marianne Williamson once said.

It can be comforting to know that in the midst of your lamentations that though you are sick and miserable there is a holy method to the madness. God has a surprise waiting for you and it's in the making; whereas the whole point is to open up new space within your inner being to make room for the living Christ.

God's grace makes it happen and our part is to allow for it. Part of allowing for it is to trust the process. As we mature and grow in faith we learn how to let go and let God. Transfiguration is meant to lead us into transformation.

Rev. Mitch Becker

February 11, 2024

Port Angeles 

 

 

First Christian Church

Waters of Chaos”

Isaiah 40:21-31

If you'll remember a while ago, I spoke about the two primary events in history that shaped the consciousness of the Hebrew people. The first was the Exodus from Egypt and this morning we must consider the other event – the Babylonian exile. Earlier in this chapter God has attempted to comfort his people with these words delivered by the prophet: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” This is followed with a description of a highway being built in the desert which they can take back to Jerusalem.

One way to sum up our text is to describe it as God proclaiming he has the power to make this vision possible! The description of God that follows is he sits high above the earth and stretches out the heavens above the inhabitants. What is stretched out is the solid dome the ancients believed was above them that held back the waters of chaos that surrounded the earth. If you'll recall from the Book of Genesis: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” (Genesis 1:6)

The firmament is this solid dome that holds the waters of chaos at bay, and at times God would allow the waters to seep through the dome and bring nourishing rain to the earth's soil. The idea being conveyed here is that God not only protects his people but brings nourishment as well. The overall effect it would have been is to create a feeling of living within a womb of God where the earth is surrounded by the most frightening thing of all – unrestrained water, but beneath the firmament the people are safe and nourished.

What a remarkable contrast this is to our present day understanding of the environment we live in. In these modern times we're surrounded by vast, unimaginable, empty space that seemingly goes on forever. This leaves us vulnerable to asteroids and comets, and if we deplete and poison the thin layer of air we need to breathe there will be no alternative source of air available. It all leaves us with a mostly unconscious feeling of anxiety and even dread. Whereas the ancients could feel nurtured and protected.

We see this understanding of their universe also conveyed in Jesus's teachings when he says things like wanting to gather the people of Jerusalem together the way a hen gathers her chicks (Matthew 23:37), or in the way he describes his disciples as his “little ones,” (Matthew 10:42), or most profoundly where he tells of the birds being “carefree in the care of God” (Matthew 6:26b); The Message Bible) in the Lilies of the Field parable, and implies that God cares far more about us. It's all very wombish and nurturing. Jesus absolutely gets it!

Finally, in our text there is a concern raised that God isn't paying attention to little Israel any longer, and God challenges this view through the prophet's words reminding them that God “is the everlasting” who is always present to those willing to wait upon the Lord. To those God will give new strength and: “...they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” With that encouragement given to the exiles they can be assured God will provide the energy and vitality required to make the trek back to Jerusalem.

The Israelite's needed reassurance that God cared about them and having been in exile some 70 years the need for this reassurance was great. One can imagine the depth of despair and disillusionment they must have endured over all that time. That sort of inner struggle opens your heart and mind to seek refuge in whatever way possible. What became available to them through the prophet was their salvation by the God that still cared about them.

It's paradoxical in nature, but sometimes being raised in a caring environment at home can result in a lack of need for God. When you feel taken care of and are taught to trust others, and frequently are told in both words and actions that you're valuable and loved, one result may be a lack of need for God in your life. Under these nurturing circumstances God may not be a requirement for a sense of self-worth, and this is becoming more common in our culture.

At the outset it seems like a good thing, but it leaves you lacking in what Jesus points out to Mary as being absolutely essential. Listen once again to this wonderful story:

As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen.

Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.” The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it – it's the main course and won't be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38-42; The Message Bible)

The “main course” is the thing Jesus talks about most, seemingly every opportunity he has, which he identifies as the kingdom of God. To describe this “kingdom” with words is impossible, because it's “out of this world” so to speak. but you can point to it with words. Not too long ago I shared something with you that I offered to the Narcotics Anonymous groups which was a saying about addiction. It goes like this:

Addiction is giving up everything thing for one thing.

Recovery is giving up one thing for everything.

In my early years as a young adult, I indulged in a progressive addiction with alcohol. In the beginning I skipped school and partied, but in the final years I drank by myself and often engaged in binge drinking which is staying awake in a drunken stupor for maybe three days and two nights. In a word, I was dying.

My salvation came in the form of a group of Pentecostal Christians and a commitment to study of the Bible and prayer. In those early years of faith essentially what happened is I traded my alcohol addiction for a Jesus addiction. It was a step-up and a considerable improvement, but it was still an addiction that came with various detrimental behaviors such as tormenting family members to name just one.

Because of mostly uncomfortable and thoroughly unsatisfying relational problems I was suspect of my faith and knew in my heart of hearts something was amiss. So, I kept searching for the truth which involved a long process of giving up beliefs about God that were basically fear-based. Beliefs about Hell, and everyone needing to be a Christian, and Jesus being the only way to God (there is actually a billboard in Port Angeles off Hwy. 101 that says as much).

Letting go of such beliefs does not happen overnight, because you come to believe that they're essential and without them you're no longer connected to God, and underlying all of it is the threat of eternal punishment in Hell. So, you see, moving out of fear-based religion is a precarious process that's done one day at a time.

Marcus Borg who was my primary religion teacher in college who was a godsend and helped me move ahead with considerable success. The process had begun long before, but he gave me a real life vision of what a faith life of substance looked like. In him I could see the kingdom of God and how it manifested into a healthy, satisfying life-style. By the time I graduated I could safely identify myself as a progressive Christian as opposed to a fear-based one.

This journey from a closed soul to an open one involves facing one fear after another, and that's a pretty good description of what it takes to grow in Spirit. To succumb to our fears means to be frozen or stuck in place circling around our egos and reinforcing the same ideas with ourselves and in community. Unfortunately, this is the type of Christianity that is most prevalent in our culture, and of which the billboard pronouncing that “Jesus is the only way to God” represents; and to some extent explains why there are so few of us in worship this morning.

Circling around your ego is not the way to enter and keep reentering the kingdom of God with the objective of eventually “waking up” spiritually as the Buddha would say. At that point you're a long way along toward being in the “likeness” of Christ as the Apostle Paul puts it. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

As people of faith this is our primary goal and it's reached by facing each one of our fears as they become present to us. With God's help we pass through each fear to discover the kingdom of God on the other side. This is not easy, and in terms of addiction & recovery it explains why not everyone who attends the Narcotics Anonymous meetings at our church will be able to “kick the habit” to use one particular phrase.

The User has a steep mountain to climb including prevailing over the cravings, being honest with yourself and others, being repentant about past misdeeds, and developing new personal and social practices that lead and sustain a responsible, healthy lifestyle. Each personal boundary you cross requires vision and vitality and a lot of support from others and God.

This does not necessarily lead to the kingdom of God, but it can if you stay on the holy path God will provide. “Kicking the habit” is a good starting point, but in spiritual terms you've only begun the journey from exile to the Promised Land. It is God that creates the “desert highway” through the wilderness you must travel, and it is God that will ultimately supply the energy and the means to make the journey.

This morning we saw how God shows the exiles in Babylon that he had the power to make the prophets vision of the return home possible. Beyond that, God had to reassure them that he still cared about them. Here's how the prophet described their lamenting: “Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn't care what happens to me.” (Isaiah 40:27; The Message Bible)

After seventy years in exile their despair is not surprising. What is a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, is that they were able to travel the desert highway back to their home. We can only hope and pray that everyone who is considering making the hard, arduous journey from exile to the Promised Land is listening to God with their whole heart and soul and learning each day how to depend on the Spirit for direction, as well as the power to make the journey.

Rev. Mitch Becker

February 4, 2024

Port Angeles

  

First Christian Church

To Eat or Not to Eat”

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

When Karen and I visited Greece, we went first to Athens and then to islands in the Aegean (Auh-gee-in) Sea, but we did not go to the ancient ruins of Corinth (Core-nith). Corinth is the setting for our text today, and we can think of Corinth as the Las Vegas of ancient Greece. Not because there was a lot of gambling, but because of it's pagan nature. Pagan simply means religions other than Judaism or other mainline religions like Christianity. In other words, there were lots of gods and lords in town.

The text is complicated as Paul's writings often are. The reason for this is Paul is a hard-working, responsible pastor who is ironing out the details that come with establishing the early church. In comparison, Christ defines The Way (a phrase the early church used to describe itself found in Acts 19:23) which is a spiritual path that leads to enlightenment. The term “enlightenment” sounds otherworldly but actually represents being made whole or fully human.

Christ uses parables, aphorisms and beatitudes to flesh out a spiritual path that was discovered and developed during the Axial Age a good 500 years prior to his earthly entrance. The Way was defined and refined by the likes of Plato, Socrates, Lao (Loud) Tzu (Suh), Buddha and Jeremiah to name a few. He was also heavily influenced by the servant songs in Isaiah and various wisdom literature from his Bible which we call the Old Testament.

Paul also does much fleshing out of The Way, but a primary focus for him is correct ethical behavior. In this portion of the first letter to the church in Corinth he uses a two-pronged approach. He begins by saying it's okay to eat meat that has been sacrificed in pagan rituals because the pagan gods don't measure-up to the one true God.

Therefore, buying the meat at the marketplace and eating it is sort of a moot point. He further states there are Christians who have this knowledge and because of it have no guilt feelings about eating the meat. However, there are other Christ followers who have not yet decided its okay to eat sacrificed meat.

This is where we see Paul's concern which comes out of a holistic vision of the Christian community. He knows there are those who are struggling with the idea of consuming pagan sacrificed meat, and he doesn't want the ones that have made peace with it upsetting those who haven't. Here's what the problem looks like put into contemporary terms:

For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone is still struggling over the issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into the banquet? The danger is that he or she will become terribly confused maybe even to the point of getting mixed up in what their conscience tells them is wrong.

Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to a dinner for them – because, you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking their eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these “weak ones.” So, never go to one of these idols tainted meals if there is any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters. (1 Corinthians 8:1-13; The Message Bible)

For Paul its all about community where love translates into behaviors and actions. Love here is not about feelings – its about what you do and how it affects others. In a few more chapters (of course, 1 Corinthians was originally just one long letter) Paul will write the famous Love Chapter, so you can see him warming-up to pen one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. The Love Chapter is still in wide use today and often heard at weddings.

When we're first introduced to Paul, he's a persecutor of Christians and is known as Saul. But after he encounters the risen Christ on the road to Damascus he's transformed into the chief promoter of the new Christian community. Another way of looking at what happened to him is he emerged from a severe narcissistic lifestyle to one of mature community promoter and organizer. Paul is always speaking to and for and about the new Christian community, whereas he becomes as captivated by the idea of creating church as he was about destroying it.

This new emphasis upon community is something that also happened to me early on in my recovery from alcohol addiction. If my recovery was to be successful I knew I needed Christ in my life, but beyond that I knew I needed Christian community. I found that first at Faith Chapel, and later found emotional stability in the community at First Christian Church in Albany.

Quiet centering prayer and frequent study of the Bible came easily for me, but Christian community was a whole other can of worms. I knew I needed community with people lending guidance and support in the lessons of love, but my emotional life often resisted it with varying forms of anxiety and duress.

I recall one occasion in the fellowship hall where we gathered after worship for coffee and conversation. There was a woman I often talked with who was very kind, as most everyone was, and I remember giving her a hug after she gave me some words of encouragement. After the hug when I stepped back to my horror I had left a large perspiration stain on the shoulder of her beautiful purple outfit. I was too embarrassed to say anything about it and simply turned and walked away.

In those early years in church at times I could actually feel the perspiration running down my side, and I often wore very dark or light clothes to hide the sweat spots. Ironically, it was incidents like this that told me I was in the right place, and I'm happy to report I've come a long ways since those days. Though I'm still quite nervous when I preach as some of you have felt the coldness of my hands after worship since apparently the blood rushes to my vital organs!

This happens when I preach because preaching can involve revealing things about myself and therefore risking judgment and rejection. It also is a pathway that leads to the truth which can be emotionally challenging. This all serves to illustrate the depth of the wounds one incurs when being raised in the home of an alcoholic. With the countless communities I've been a part of, and all the sermons written and preached, and the therapy, and journal work and prayer over the years the persistence of the psychological wounding is quite remarkable.

To expand on the idea of community, I recently finished a book that I first read many years ago. The title of the book is “Lost Horizon” and its about a Utopian community in the Himalayas. The main characters in the story are kidnapped and taken to Shangri-La by airplane. The airplane crashes just before reaching Shangri-La, but a rescue party from the community comes out and retrieves them. Following is one description of Shangri-La I found on the internet:

Shangri-La is a mythical Utopian village located deep in the unexplored regions of the Himalayan Mountains. The term originated in the 1930's, but the concept is very similar to ancient paradises such as Shambhala (Shuhm-baa-luh) and the Garden of Eden. The inhabitants are said to practice traditional Buddhist ways, free of materialism and other Western influences, live for hundreds of years, and exist in harmony with nature.

You know where I'm going with this, right? We've seen something of the way the Apostle Paul's mind works, and how he's coping with this particular problem about eating sacrificed meat, and how it might influence what he describes at one point as the “weak ones.” When we consider the width and breadth of Paul's writings its not too much of a stretch to imagine his overall vision for the church being something akin to Shangri-La.

Consider what he says to the Philippians: “Don't fret or worry, instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Philippians 4:6-7; The Message Bible) or “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another....” (2 Corinthians 3:18a)

And finally, from the very letter we're studying this morning: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-10)

Considering these excerpts from his writings, and I could show more of the same, it's not too much to say that Paul sees and hopes for a church that provides a type of Utopian refuge from the misguided and often harmful practices and values of his culture. Our culture has made some headway in certain critical areas like equal cultural status for women, and the continued inclusion of the LGBTQ community, and in a wide dissemination of spiritual wisdom, we can give ourselves a pat on the back.

But in other critical areas like environmental degradation, climate change, poverty, the extinction of species, wars, drug addiction, a nuclear capability that can bring an apocalyptic end to humanity, and a world moving from democratic governments toward various forms of authoritarianism; undoubtedly Paul would have hoped for more moral and spiritual progress for us at this point in history.

Beneath all of this is the driving force of what Marcus Borg once described as … “the most individualistic culture in human history.” From this comes the notion of the “self-made person” who due to will power and hard work achieves success. This notion is faulty in that it doesn't take into account the web of relationships and various circumstances that contribute to any success. There is really no such thing as a “self-made person.”

Yet the notion is widespread in our culture and in part explains the popularity of Donald Trump who in-spite of being charged with 91 felony counts continues to gain in the polls! Trump can boast success in the political, financial and even familial aspects of his life making him the quintessential story of success in America. No wonder so many people are looking to him for leadership.

From a Christian point of view the Trump phenomenon and the present direction our culture is taking is in opposition to the Apostle Paul and his vision of a Utopian refuge especially designed for the oppressed and excluded. We people of faith need to be clear about what is happening so we can recommit ourselves to a modern day revival of the church. This won't be easy, but it is at least part of the answer to a culture lost in a wilderness of individualism and the self-made person.

The problem to eat or not to eat sacrificed meat no longer has relevance for us, but individualism and a focus upon the misguided value of success can be addressed by emphasizing the need for community, and a love for others that expresses itself in sensitivity and renewed ethical commitment.

Rev. Mitch Becker

January 28, 2024

Port Angeles

 

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