How Will Your Tombstone Read?

“How Will Your Tombstone Read?” 

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 

October 19, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

The seminar leader on estate planning opened the session with this question, “Do you remember the names of your great-grand parents?   Do you want your great-grand kids to remember yours?”  My friend who attended the workshop explained that the seminar wasn’t about money but the legacy we leave behind.   I can’t name my eight great-grand parents but I sure would like to think that, God willing, my great-grand kids would know something about me including my name.

            Throughout history, in all cultures and traditions, the epitaphs we place on the memorial stones of our burial sites say a lot about what we want the future to know.  Simply walking through a cemetery and reading headstones will describe how “mothers”, “fathers”, “patriots” and “soldiers” want to be remembered.

Thomas Jefferson’s epitaph at Monticello, Virginia reads:

 “AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA”. 

There is no mention that he was the third president of the United States, oversaw the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent exploration by Lewis and Clark of what became 2/3rds of the American geography, or that he was a brilliant architect, inventor and farmer.  Jefferson wanted to be remembered for the ideas that transformed his world.

William Shakespeare is buried in a grave in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  Its headstone reads in old English a humorous warning describing nothing of his accomplishments as if it was his wit that was his greatest contribution to literature and the only thing that would really last:

 

FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE TO
DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE.
BLEST BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES AND
CURST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES

The words inscribed on a tombstone provide a self-definition by the deceased and/or their loved ones of how they lived their lives. 

Bette Davis the Academy Award winning actress is buried in Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills with this epitaph;

“SHE DID IT THE HARD WAY!”.

Virginia Woolf was one of the most prolific authors in the 20^th century.  She had an enormous influence on the literary world.  She struggled with mental illness all of her life.  Her cremated ashes are buried in the gardens of Monk’s House, Rodmell, Sussex, England.  A memorial plague on the garden wall reads:

AGAINST YOU I WILL FLING MYSELF,
UNVANQUISHED AND UNYIELDING, O DEATH!

            Karl Marx, author of Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto is buried in London with words on his tombstone that call for revolution from the grave:

WORKERS OF ALL LANDS UNITE.
 THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ONLY INTERPRETED THE WORLD IN VARIOUS WAYS; THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT

But not all people want to leave the world an eternal message of hope or doom, some just want the leave the potential visitor to the grave with a laugh; An unknown dentist in an American cemetery is buried with this inscription:

STRANGER! APPRAOCH THIS SPOT WITH GRAVITY!  JOHN BROWN IS FILLING HIS LAST CAVITY.

            So how would you want your tombstone to read?   That’s a rhetorical question, of course.  Many choose not to be buried with a marker at all today.  And for young folks unable to project themselves into the distant future, maybe the question would better be, “What tattoo are you putting on a place that everyone can see?”   How do you want to be known, what are your most important ideas, how do you define yourself, what matters most to you in life, how do you want to be remembered?

            Moses, the leader of the exodus of Israel from slavery into God’s Promised Land 4,000 years ago has yet to be forgotten.  We study his life.  We ritualize his accomplishments.  We still remember his name.  Yet he has no headstone and no one has ever found his grave.

            Moses was born in Egypt in a time of persecution of the Hebrew people.  His family floated the baby down a river where Moses was found and raised in the Pharaoh’s household.  He would become a young ruler, would murder a violent overseer and had to escape for his own life into the wilderness of Midian.  There he raised a family and in his 70’s encountered YHWH.  God called and equipped him to confront the Pharaoh, lead the Hebrew slaves to freedom and forty years of wandering in the Sinai.  There he brought the Torah, God’s law, down from the mountain and into the hearts and minds of a difficult people.  He formed them into a community and led them to nationhood.  Their destiny to become a blessing to all people and history itself.

            In today’s text from Deuteronomy, Moses has come to the end of his days.  God leads him up the mountain Nebo to look across the river Jordan as his people prepare to enter the Promised Land.  He will die there on the plains of Moab at the age of 120 and be buried in an unmarked grave.  Yet his legacy of courage, humility and dedication will and has never been forgotten.  He will be counted among the greatest of prophets.  When Jesus is transfigured on the mountain of glory just before entering Jerusalem to fulfill his own destiny, he speaks in a cloud of light with Elijah and Moses (Matthew 17:1-f)

We are remembered for what we do….the headstones of our gravesites are inscribed with the years we have lived and the titles we have acquired; “parent”, “spouse”, “patriot”, “scientist”, “engineer” or “friend”.   We are remembered for who we are….our tombstones include adjectives such as”loving”, “kind”, “always there” or “devoted”.   But we are not just what we do or how we do it.  

Rarely do we find a description of what God has done in our lives, which in many cases may have been the most important thing. 

That was certainly the case for Moses, a fragile and all-too-human being. Because of a previous failure of faith* Moses is not allowed to enter the Promised Land with the children of Israel.   During the exodus Moses is prone to fits of violence, depression and rage.  This humble man struggled with and at times against the very people God had chosen him to save.  If it hadn’t been for God in his life we would not be speaking Moses’ name today.

My hunch is that there are not too few people here this morning, who like me, credit God’s grace with being here and now at all!

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (1862) Jean Valjean, an escaped convict atones for his life by extraordinary acts of service and compassion.   Unjustly imprisoned while stealing bread for his starving family, Jean Valjean will harden his heart to life until the compassion of a priest buys him a second chance.  He makes the most of it; becoming wealthy as a businessman who employs hundreds, shepherding the life of the orphan girl Cosette into a successful adulthood and marriage.   He does as much good as he can along the way.   If you’ve only seen the movie or attended the musical, you may have missed one of the most powerful parts of this novel.   At his death bed he tells Cosette the story of his life and how his soul was purchased for salvation by the grace of God.  Although an extra ordinary hero, Jean Valjean insists that it was God’s love alone that made his life worth living.  He found that God again and again in the face of those he loved.  He is buried in Paris with a blank tombstone, signifying that it was the God beyond all definition and human limitations that redeemed his life. [On the body of many a civil war hero were found copies of Les Misreables one of the most popular fiction accounts during that war for its description of valor, humility and honor.]

            I wonder if Victor Hugo ever read this last chapter of Deuteronomy.  The greatest hero of Hebrew history, Moses, is buried without epitaph as well.  Yet it was God in his life that made all the difference and as a result he will never be forgotten.

It is ironic that today we call a funeral or memorial service a “celebration of life”.  It is more than trying to put a positive spin on a difficult moment.  In the Christian tradition it is our hope and expectation that death is not the end of life but merely a transition to the next.  We take a worshipful moment to mourn our loss, of course, but to also hold up and hold on to those eternal values in the life of the deceased that will never die.

I’ve officiated at hundreds of memorial and funeral services.  I can’t recall one where we celebrated the decease’s stock portfolio, the diplomas on the wall or the balance of their checking account.   Rather we remember those occasions of lasting love; taking the kids camping, a wedding, teaching a child how to fly a kite, a friendship made in a fox hole shared.  We believe the love we have made and shared in this life will never die.   So we celebrate a life well lived. 

Along with the history of the individual, their accomplishments and contributions we also remember what God had done in their lives.   It can apparently be a lot or a little. But we do that remembering with the confidence that on the other side of this life a gracious and loving God meets us in the mystery of God’s love seeking to redeem the most difficult of lives.  And that’s worth celebrating too.  That’s worth putting on your tombstone!

Consider Benjamin Franklin’s at his grave site at Christ Church, Philadelphia:

The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, its
contents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for
worms. Yet the work itself shall not lost, for it will, as he
believed, appear once more In a new and more beautiful
edition, corrected and amended by its Author

Amen.

*RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Chukat-Balak/Numbers 19:1-25:9

As the Bible records the tragic happening, the Israelites once again find themselves in the desert without water and complain bitterly to Moses and Aaron.
God instructs Moses and Aaron to "take the rod ... and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. ... And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.' "(Numbers 20:8,11,12)

 

Our Legacy

Our Legacy

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

October 26, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

[This sermon is delivered while the preacher makes pottery on a potter’s wheel]...

 

The apostle Paul is in a bit of a quandary when he writes his second letter to the young church at Corinth.  Other Jesus preachers have come into town while he was away and taught a very different gospel.  This has divided members of the church into camps of followers, some liking one preacher’s teachings, some liking Paul’s their founder. 

 

            Corinth was a challenging place for a church to begin.  A cosmopolitan city with a busy harbor, it attracted all sorts of people from all over the known world.   It was also the home of a famous Greek religious worship center with its Temple to Apollo and an active Dionysus wine cult.  The early church included folk who would have never gotten along in the secular world; Jews, Greeks, slaves, free, men and women all worshipping together but with very different backgrounds and expectations. 

 

            Paul spends much of his second letter to the Corinth church justifying his claim to be considered an apostle of Jesus.  Paul warns the young Christians of false teachings that could lead them astray.  To justify his apostolic status Paul reminds them of the price he has paid to spread the word of God’s love in Christ; “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed”.* 

           

            While he argues for his authority as an apostle, he honestly admits to the limits of his humanity; “….but we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”

 

            “Clay jars”.   The metaphor reminds us immediately of the second creation story in Genesis (2:4b-25) during which God takes a hand full of “dust of the ground” (“dirt”, “clay”) and breathes divine spirit into it to form the first human being.  “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” we say at the burial site to remind us not only of our fragile nature but to celebrate that even in death our spirits are liberated returning to its divine source. 

 

            We humans are “clay jars” to be sure; fragile, cheap, all-too-vulnerable to failure.  Yet God chooses us to be containers of “treasure”, the spirit of the divine itself.  

 

These are words that make complete sense to a potter.

 

            Clay is mainly made up of alumni and silica, two of the most common elements on earth, traces of which are found in every human body.   Clay deposits are found on every continent and have been used by potters for millennium.  Pottery is an ancient art and craft practiced throughout the world.  Archeologists have discovered intact clay vessels and ceramic objects dating back to 9,000 BCE.  The development of ceramic utensils for cooking, food storage and decoration is universal. 

            Pottery can be made using hands only, by pressing clay into molds, rolling coils of clay and shaping them with tools, or as is very common spun on the base of a potter’s wheel.  Once dried it is fired at high temperatures to vitrify the silica in the clay, thus making it waterproof and bonding the strength of the vessel.

            I have been a potter for over 44 years, longer than I have known Bonnie Bollwinkel!   Seeking an easy 4 units in my first semester at the University of the Pacific, I took Pottery 101 with the football players and fell in love.   I’ve taught, exhibited and sold my pottery ever since then.  For me ceramic art is a spiritual and therapeutic practice in my life.   Over and over again it is a reminder that from something as common and inconsequential as clay can come beauty and function and creativity.  From something as common and inconsequential as a human life can come a lasting legacy of good.

 

Consider the Dead Sea Scrolls as an example.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 – 1956 in 11 caves on the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, about 13 miles from Jerusalem.  The Scrolls are the libraries of a Jewish sect that hide them around the time of the Jewish-Roman war of the first century (66-70CE). 

This sect, located near the caves in what is now called the Qumran community, has been most identified with the Essenes.  They were a radical group, who yearning for purity took to the desert to await an apocalyptic war between good and evil, the end of the world and coming of the new messiah.  Although an important and influential movement contemporary to Jesus’ times, the New Testament doesn’t mention them by name.  A number of scholars suggest that John the Baptist could have been a member of the group because of his desert mystic ways such as wearing animal skins and eating wild honey and locust (Mark 1:1-8).  He certainly preached about the end of the world, as did the Essenes.  So did Jesus in some very significant ways.   Jesus having prepared himself for ministry in the desert may have known the group as well.

            The Dead Sea Scrolls contain over 900 documents, at least fragments of all of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, except Ester.  There is a complete manuscript of the prophet Isaiah.  Their discovery was enormously important for biblical scholarship because these texts were 1,000 years older than any other previous copies of the Bible.  The library also contained volumes of other works describing Biblical commentary, apocalyptic expectation and a “Manuel of Discipleship” detailing the life of the Qumran community.  Scholars are still learning from them and debating amongst themselves their meaning.

            The Scrolls survived the 1,900 years in the caves wrapped in fine linen and stored in clay storage jars.   They ranged in size, some as tall as 22”.   The owner would often seal the lid with wax or animal fats.  Recent analysis suggests that the Dead Sea Scroll jars were formed out of a special clay formula, created specifically for this purpose. 

When the Essenes of the Qumran community made these special pots they were preparing for disaster.  It came in the form of Roman legions that would destroy Israel and burn the Temple of Jerusalem to the ground in 70 CE.  To prepare for disaster they stored their most precious possessions, their library of sacred writings and placed them in caves hoping to leave the future a legacy of their faithfulness and hope. The contribution to us from those ancient, pious, desert mystics and the potters they used to store the scrolls is priceless.

 

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says:        

           

‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

           

            The Qumran community put their treasure where their hearts were.   How about us?

            In a consumer society such as ours we save little and spend much on instant gratification.   We go out to eat in a moment’s notice.   We purchase stuff to be delivered to our doors with a click of a computer mouse.  Our closets are full of clothes we haven’t worn for months.  Our garages are full of boxed material we no longer need.  We are certainly putting our treasure in the clutter of our lives.   Is that where our hearts are to be found?

            In his book Enough: Discovering Joy through Simplicity and Generosity (Abingdon 2009) Rev. Adam Hamilton reminds us that our passion for acquisition and accomplishment can come at a dear spiritual price.   It’s possible for us to gain the whole world and still lose our souls in the process (Mark 8:36).   When the archeologists dig out our world thousands of years from now what will they discover in the “estimated 1.9 billion sq. feet of rental self-storage space” in America (Hamilton, p. 16).  Will the clutter of our lives be the legacy we leave?

            Each one of us is given a measure of time, talent, health and wealth.   Whether we live 19 or 99 years, each day we are given the opportunity to spend that treasure with purpose.  As we do so we build the legacy of our lives. 

           

            Audrey Butcher was a dear friend, a farmer, teacher, passionate Methodist and a potter.  When she died at 92 her family invited me to “take whatever I wanted” from her dusty studio.  We found treasures that only a fellow potter can appreciate including two handmade clay puffins, her favorite bird, which she had never fired and the family allowed to fire and glaze.

            Audrey and her husband Bob farmed a stone fruit orchard in the Santa Clara Valley during World War II and were horrified as they watched their Japanese-American neighbors rounded up for internment in April of 1942.  Our nation has finally recognized the injustice caused by the fears and prejudice that can overwhelm us in times of stress; a lesson still to be re-learned today!

            At DeAnza Junior College in the Santa Cara Valley on February 19^th this year, the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the California History Center announced and celebrated the “Audrey Edna Butcher Civil Liberties Education Initiative”.   Through a very generous gift to the College from the Butcher family in memory of their mother and her passion for civil rights, the History Center will be able to expand its programming and faculty to educate our community’s students about the foundations of freedom inherent in the US Constitution.

            Audrey Butcher generously shared her treasures of time, talent and wealth with her family, church and community and in so doing left a legacy of friendship, Christian discipleship and devoted citizenship. She would be the first to tell you of her limitations and failures along the way of life, that this treasure is kept in clay jars.  But that truth never stopped her from doing her best with passion and faith.

 

The passion of the Qumran community for the promises of God’s future inspired them to leave us a legacy of their sacred writings thousands of years ago; thanks be to God for the potter’s that made it happen!

From something as common and inconsequential as clay can come beauty and function and creativity.  Kind of like our lives, isn’t?  We who are “treasures in clay jars.”

 

Amen.

 

* In the eleventh chapter he lists his hardships; “Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.” (2 Cor 11:24-28)

 

 

The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf

 

Exodus 32:1-14

October 12, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

 A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is robbed and beaten, left for dead beside the road.  A priest saw the victim and passed by walking on the other side of the road, not wanting to be bothered.   Then a pious lay man came by and he too, just kept on walking.   Then along came a Samaritan.  Now in those days, Samaritans to the Jews were like oil and water; they didn’t have anything to do with each other.  The pious considered Samaritans so profane that if they even brushed up against them in the marketplace they would have to rush to the temple to be ritually cleansed.  Yet this, in the words of Bishop William Willimon, “good-for-nothing, anything-but-poor-and-pious, lousy Samaritan” (Who Will Be Saved?, Abingdon, 2008, p. 10) is the one who will save the victim of crime.  The Samaritan will drag him out of the ditch, bind his wounds, take him to a bed and breakfast and pay for the whole thing until he is healed.

You know the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).

If you were to put yourself in the story which character would you be?  Honestly.  Few of us think so little of ourselves that we compare to the hypocritical priest and lay man.   Most would hope we would be like the Samaritan, doing a good deed with extravagant mercy.  How many have ever pictured ourselves as the crime victim?  Especially one who, being true to the times, might look up at his rescuer and think to himself, although stripped, beaten and bleeding, “I’m OK….It’s just a flesh wound.  Don’t bother yourself….I’d rather die in this ditch than to be saved by the likes of you [a Samaritan]!” (Willimon)

Bishop Willimon has used this interpretation of this parable a number of times and his congregations don’t like it.

 

“They like stories about themselves more than they like to hear stories about God.  They are resourceful, educated, gifted people who don’t like to be cast in the role of the beaten poor man in the ditch. They would rather be the ‘anything-but-poor Samaritan’ who does something nice for the less fortunate among us.  In other words, they don’t like to admit that just possibly they may [be the ones who] need to be saved.” (Willimon, p. 11)

 

            The Christian doctrine of salvation is multi-layered and broadly mis-understood.   Progressive churches don’t speak too much about it because the word is so often associated with judgments about whom and who isn’t getting into heaven.   Many of us have been confronted by family members or friends with the phrase “are you saved?” hurled at us as if a gauntlet; as if the wrong answer will condemn one to hell. 

            But if we learn anything from our tradition it is that salvation is God’s primary work among and in our lives.   And it’s not so much about what happens after we die as how we are going to live in this life.  

 

“We preachers speak before people who … convinced ….[we are ] able to solve most of our real problems by ourselves, fairly well off and well fixed, working out regularly and watching our diet, we come to church only for helpful suggestions for saving ourselves.”  (Willimon, p. 27)

 

            Consider our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures this morning.

Aren’t we also a lot like these folk?

            All it takes is for Moses to stay on the top of Mt. Sinai a little bit longer than expected and the children of Israel get busy making a new god.   They have escaped slavery in Egypt by confronting Pharaoh.  They’ve seen the waters part and defeat his great army.  When thirsty YHWH God gives them water out of a rock.  When hungry YHWH God brings manna bread and fresh quail meat out of the sky.  All it takes is for their leader Moses to go off on sabbatical for a few days and they’ve got to have another god.

            What a stiff necked people!

            In the height of irony, it’s Aaron, Moses’ brother and spokes person, who organizes the fashioning of a calf out of the gold jewelry that they’ve brought along with them for the journey.  And it’s Aaron that organizes the ritual potluck and orgy that goes along with worshiping a fertility god the next day.

            As a result YHWH God decides to wipe them out but Moses talks God out of such wrath.  

            This story describes a capricious people who will forget their heritage and run to just about any manner of spirituality as long as they get their immediate needs met.   This story describes the failure of leaders to stand up for the truth, who insure their privilege by going along with the crowd. This story describes a God who listens to the cry of the oppressed and seeks to save.  Who seems willing to change plans and dispense undeserved mercy again and again and again.  This story describes a prophet who talks God out of disaster and into grace in hopes that someday this same community of people will live up to their promise of blessing the whole world. 

            They ought to make a movie out of such drama!

            Now don’t think for a moment that this is all ancient history.    

We want God on our terms, fitting neatly into our concepts, made out of the stuff of our dreams and in our control.  Most of us really think we have the answers.  Or that if we don’t right now with just enough effort, just enough resources, if only we find the right conditions, we can save ourselves.

We are still busy carving idols.  We are still busy pooling our gold together to fashion the images of what we want to worship:

 

-Acquisition; Don’t we believe that if we earn and own enough we’ll be safe?   I am a firm believer in John Wesley’s exhortation to “Earn All You Can, Save All You Can, and Give All You Can!”   There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth.  Rather it is what one does with it that really matters.   We are all called to be stewards of all of God’s blessings.  Asking for an explanation for the meaning of “bundled mortgages” I heard all sorts of definitions, and number of which described how in the process they become “securities”.   I know nothing about home financing but I am certain there is nothing “secure” about trading predatory loans.

 

-Stability;  Five years ago at the reception for our Bishop Warner Brown, a group of 20 small, very cute and well intentioned children from a United Methodist program in San Francisco, dressed in Indian headdresses, police uniforms and hard hats danced to the song “YMCA” by the Village People. Now I thought I was as open minded as the next person but I can honestly say that I never thought I’d live to see the day that anyone would sing the “YMCA” song in a Methodist worship service, let along in front of a Bishop.  But then things change.  We will live frustrated lives indeed if we insist on keeping everything the same all of the time.  In fact one of the few things that we can count on in life is that it will change. 

 

-Accomplishment; we live in a busy, multi-tasking culture at work, play and in our families.  All too many push themselves to exhaustion afraid that they might miss something if they don’t take advantage of each and every opportunity.   We pay a real price for multi-tasking. According to a brain physiology study at the University of Michigan multi-tasking actually decreases productivity and performance (NPR, 10/09/08).  Studying volunteers with multiple windows opened on their computer screens doing 3-4 activities at once, researcher’s recorded “brown outs” in the bio-chemical connections in the brain resulting in stress.     Multi-tasking may be our most common form of the illusion that we can save ourselves, redeem our lives, as if, in the end, we are alone and if something good is going to happen it is all up to us.

 

“To move slowly and deliberately through the world, listening and attending to one thing at a time, strikes us a radically subversive, even un-American.  We cringe from the idea of relinquishing in any moment, all but one of the infinite possibilities offered us by our culture.   Plagued by a highly diffused attention, we give ourselves to everything lightly.  This is our poverty.  In saying ‘yes’ to everything, we attend to nothing.  One can only love what one stops to observe.” (Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes)

 

“Salvation is not a project to be done by us but a gift to be received by us.”  (Willimon, p. 28)   Salvation is the radical acceptance that we are loved by the Creator of the universe, that in the end we are not alone.  Getting the most out of this precious gift of life is not all up to us but can be discovered in community with God and each other.   Salvation is the way of love so much more than the litmus test of who does or doesn’t get into heaven.

 

Not too long ago, I came across a group of preachers in Palo Alto.  They were in a public square on University Avenue right in the middle of downtown.  They were using a loud portable sound system to get their point across to anyone who would listen.  Their remarks were especially directed at a small group of Hari Krishna who were beating drums and dancing across the other side of the park.   These six males took turns condemning the Hari Krishna over their PA system. Biblical verses were flying.  Religious threats were hurled. Any body who didn’t agree with their religious point of view was going to hell.    Our Christian brothers appeared as angry bullies.  Clearly Jesus’ commandment ‘to love one another’ (John 15) didn’t apply to their definition of unbelievers.

The street corner preachers carried large signs listing those they believe are condemned to God’s wrath in the Bible.  By their interpretation the list was long.   It didn’t appear that anyone listening was willing to become a Christian as a result of their message or their method.  The crowds listening were laughing amongst themselves, shaking their heads and walking away.  The Hari Krishna did their thing.   It appeared that the preachers were quite proud of themselves, high-fiving each other after each turn.

I could not stop thinking about Anne Lamont’s great quote, “You know you have created God in your own image, when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do!” (Traveling Mercies, Kindle, 2000) 

           

We can certainly carve idols out of our religion when it is based on fear and anger.  We certainly worship the idols of acquisition, stability and accomplishment as if in them we will find our rescue and strength.  If we pay attention we will notice the cracks and limitations in those false gods. 

 

Again and again Jesus teaches us to remember and celebrate the One God who rather than giving up on the likes of us, changes God’s mind and seeks to save us, to love us and equip us to be a blessing again and again and again.   More than the litmus test of who does or doesn’t get into heaven, isn’t salvation a way of life, a way of love?

 

The Good Samaritan certainly thought so.

 

Amen.

Will Our Children Have Faith?

“Will our Children Have Faith?” 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-17

October 5, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            Will our children have faith?  

There may be no more important question for a church.   Our worship can be inspiring.  Our outreach can make a significant difference in the world.   The way we care for each other makes a huge difference in our lives.  We believe that by “Reaching up, reaching in and reaching out” we grow closer to God and to our neighbors fulfilling Jesus’ greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40). 

            But where are our children?  Very few of us enjoy their presence with us in church or are involved in a church where they live.  Will they have faith?

            Now I don’t mean “will our children have religion?”  Religion is a good and important tool in our relationship with God but it is not an end in itself.   Jesus teaches us again and again that there is a huge difference between our relationship with God and our practice of religion (Mark 7:1-23, Matt. 15:1-28, Luke 18:9-14).  When he heals on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17, John 5, 9) or feeds the hungry on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6, Matt. 12:1-8, Luke 6:1-5, 6-11, 12:9-14), or has a meal (Luke 19:1-f) or conversation with a person considered profane by his religious tradition (John 4), Jesus draws the distinction between the limits of religion and the unlimited nature of God. 

            We want to introduce our children to the best our religion has to offer to be sure but will they have faith? 

By “children” I mean parents of five year olds or 55 year olds, biological, adopted or assimilated family or neighbors.   Parent-child relationships are always complicated and multi-layered but most parents want the best for their children; health, happiness, prosperity in the things that really matter in life.  One of those things is spirituality.

            In spite of being “preacher’s kids” Bonnie and I never pushed our sons to do anything in church they didn’t want to do but always gave them the opportunity to get as involved as they felt comfortable.   Our sons Matthew and Daniel are now 36 and 33 years old, respectively, both college educated, the oldest has a Masters Degree.  They are great young men; honest, compassionate, hardworking, ethical.  Matthew is married to Sara and Daniel is engaged to Lindsay, both wonderful young women.

            Neither go to church.  But both, when faced with a crisis or when they have a friend in trouble, will call Bonnie or me and ask us to pray for them.   In fact they ask that our church prays for them, and we do. Both find spiritual expression their art; one is a writer and poet, the other a musician and flower arranger.   Deep inside and in their own ways our sons have the seeds of faith planted and growing in their lives.  How it will blossom religiously is up to them and in God’s own time.  They may not go to church right now but when the chips are down they know that prayer connects them to the Source of healing and hope.  And they know that Source has a name.

            As important as it is to learn the stories of the Bible, the teachings of Jesus and the traditions of our church faith may not necessarily result.  Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City terrorist whose bomb in 1995 killed 168 people, grew up a devout Roman Catholic.  Teaching a child to memorize a Bible verse or recite the Apostle’s Creed will introduce them to important ideas but doesn’t guarantee that they will have faith.                Our scripture lesson from the Hebrew Bible this morning includes the “Ten Commandments”.   As this is World Communion Sunday, it is a text that reminds us of a foundation that the global church has very much in common and that binds us together.   These are God’s laws handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  They are shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Their equivalents are found in almost every other religious tradition.    These are the essential boundaries of human community, the parameters of decent living.   These are the lines that when crossed result in consequences for individuals and communities.  They are not called “The Ten Suggestions”.

            As mentioned previously, more Americans can name the ingredients in a MacDonald’s Big Mac hamburger than can name the Ten Commandments. (Katherine Phan, Christian Post, 10/3/07) 

            We should, we must, teach the Ten Commandments to our young.  Yet even when etched in stone and memorized by countless students over the millennia, it has not meant that we can or will live by them.

            The rich young man who comes to Jesus seeking eternal life has known the commandments all of this life yet when invited to follow Jesus it becomes obvious because of his wealth that he has missed the point of the commandments all along, to which Jesus replies, “It easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:16-26)   Religion and faith are two different things.

            Will our children have faith?  That is not simply a matter of reciting Bible verses, it is a matter of being introduced to and nurtured in the love of God.  That happens when parents, family, friends and teachers model such love not just by word but by deed.  That happens when forgiveness, patience and kindness surround a child’s life…whether 5 or 55 years old…..as they face the consequences of their failures rather than being protected from them.   Our children learn faith when they are included and honored and respected as full members of our fellowship rather than as projects to be molded into our likeness.

            At a worship service long ago, we led an informal Holy Communion circle.  Each worshipper was asked to name out loud one word for “brokenness” in the world as they took the bread of communion, broke it and handed it to their neighbor.   When the cup came around the circle each person was asked to speak a word of “hope” as they dipped their piece of bread into the cup.   It was a powerful and moving sacrament.

            Casey was seven years old at the time.  He was and continues to be a bright, bright young man who clearly has a deep sensitively and loving heart.  As the bread came around to him, he was a little worried that he didn’t fully understand the instructions.  His mom whispered to him “to name a problem he saw in the world”.  He decided his word was “pollution”.  His family had watched the movie “Arctic Tale” together which gave very real and powerful images of the effects of climate change on the Artic and the animals who live there.  They are the kind of family that turns off lights when not in use, walks to school and drives a hybrid, in Casey’s words, to “help ice freeze in the arctic for the polar bears”.  

            When the cup of grape juice came around for Casey to dip in his bread, he said out loud “electric motors” for his word of hope.

            Whatever you think of the climate change issue, please note that Casey has been learning much more than religion at his church and in his family.   He is included in the life and ministry of their fellowship.  His words, actions and ideas matter.  He has been surrounded by love and nurture in a safe and caring environment.   Along with his religious education Casey is learning faith.   

            We who receive Holy Communion this morning around the world don’t do so because we understand what it means, or because we’ve earned it by our piety.  We are offered the sacrament not because of anything we do but because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  It is in that gift (Romans 5:15-17) in which we and our children can discover faith.   It is in that gift that we all can become those who “Reach up, reach in and reach out.”

            Our children will or will not have faith for many reasons but one of them will be if they see Jesus in the life and love of their parents.

 

Amen.

More Good Reasons Not to Join a Church

“More Good Reasons Not to Join a Church”

 

Matthew 25:14-21

 

September 28, 2014

 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            Considering the reports of the decline in religious affiliation in the United States, especially in the Main-line Protestant churches and especially among those under 50 years old, we have to admit that there are a lot of reasons not to join a church. 

Last week we touched on one of them.   Most churches are full of a lot more sinners than saints.

            The public face of Christianity these days can be embarrassing.  Self-proclaimed Christians picket the funerals of our soldiers carrying signs suggesting their deaths are a punishment from God; irate “Christian” citizens angry over our nation’s immigration policy failures block buses full of undocumented children from temporary shelter at our borders.  Did you see the award winning movie “Twelve Years a Slave”?  I flinched when the slave masters preached their brand of Christianity to the captives.

Do you ever find yourself hesitant to tell your friends or co-workers out loud that “yes, I am a Christian…I go to church” because you fear they will assume all sorts of negative things about you?   From our non-church going friends and family members it’s common to hear the long list of historic atrocities done in Jesus’ name from the Inquisition to European Colonialism of the tropical world to the church’s blessing of slavery and racial segregation for so many years, or its marginalization of women.  Those were dark days in our Christian past when people lost their hold on the gospel of peace and embraced fear and power instead.

            Some still practice such hypocrisy today, it can’t be denied.

            The fair-minded will concede that along with our failures it was Christian missionaries who taught the colonial liberation leaders not just to read and write but that as children of God they deserved freedom.    As we have seen with the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Christian doctors and nurses are on the front lines of fighting this disease.    Most can hear the Christian voice behind the end of legalized slavery and the struggle for women’s rights and the end of racial segregation in America.  In “Twelve Years a Slave” it’s a Quaker named “Bass” that starts the process for “Solomon Northup” to regain his freedom.

            We don’t have signs up over the door reading, “Only Saints Allowed!”  We let anybody in, even frail, fragile and failing human beings….like me.  There is no excuse when Christians refuse to live up to our ideals and yet the religious cynicism so popular today, in the words of Jim Wallis (founder of the Sojourner Community), can be merely a “buffer against commitment”.

            There are plenty of reasons not to join a church.

 

            Another one is that churches are always asking us to do something and our lives are too busy and hectic as it is.   How often do we hear from friends or family, “Oh, I can worship God best at the beach…or a hike in the mountains….or watching a sunset.”  Absolutely you can and should find God in the beauty of creation.    And let’s be honest, one of the attractions of the “God of beach, mountain and sunset” is that no one is there asking you to do anything as a result!

            When we think of those whose faith we most admire, they are the men and women who have practiced their religion, they do something with their faith and some have been doing so for a life time.  We have a number of such folk here with us this morning. 

Over the years I’ve identified at least six behaviors they have in common.  Last week I listed three….:

 

-Prayer; people of mature faith pray daily for the church, its leadership, the concerns of the people and the world as well as practice spiritual disciplines for themselves.   (Matthew 7:7-11)

 

-Attendance; people of mature faith attend Sunday worship if they are healthy and in town.  (Psalm 65:1-4)

 

-Study; people of mature faith participate in at least one class or workshop a year in order to grow in their faith, learn about the Bible and expand their spiritual understanding.  (Psalm 119:105-108)

 

            These actions aren’t religious rules or regulations.   They are not required in order to earn God’s favor.  In fact just the opposite.   Doing something with what you believe actually becomes a natural reaction for folk who find themselves loved by God. 

For those caught up in today’s multi-tasking culture such behavior might sound like “more to do” but for those who practice such they aren’t burdens rather they are “means of grace” (Wesley).          

            The most important sermon doesn’t come from a pulpit but the way a person lives their life.   If the world religions agree on anything it is that in acts of compassionate service we find out who we really are and what God is calling us to be.

 

-Service; at least once a year people of mature faith participate in a direct mission service to the local community, region or the world.  (James 2:8)

 

            Whether it’s volunteering in the church office, organizing the distribution of warm winter clothes to the homeless, or traveling to Mexico to build simple houses for those families living in cardboard shanties, how we treat each other is how we treat God.  

“I find it reasonable to believe, even though those beliefs are beyond reason” wrote the author Flannery O’Connor to a young man named Albert Corn (Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings, 2003).  She encouraged Corn to satisfy his demand for reason but to “remember that charity is beyond reason, and that God can be known through charity.”  

Not sure if there is a God?  Do something good for somebody else.  Give something of yourself to somebody else.  Give your time and talent in service to someone in need and you will find the face of God. 

 

-Fellowship; people with mature faith participate in at least one small group a year, short or long term, in order to grow closer to others and God’s spirit available in fellowship.  (Acts 2:43-47)

 

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, insisted that the heart of Christianity is social.   We are not in this life alone but we find its power and potential in relationship.  In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Al Gore quoted this African saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Our secular neighbors may have good reasons not to affiliate with religious institutions but if they are waiting to find ideal human community they will have a long and lonely wait.   The church offers something that can’t be found anywhere else; a community of kindred spirits gathered around a common hope and commitment to the future promises of God in Jesus Christ.   In spite of our failings we love each other along the way.

Have you seen these actual bloopers found in church newsletters floating around the internet:

 

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of
those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is
Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

 The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a
nursery downstairs.

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more
transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.
 
A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall.
Music will follow.

 

            The church is at its best when we laugh and cry and learn and worship and pray and serve together. 

 

-Generosity; as stewards of God’s gifts, people of mature faith donate their time and talent as they are able to the operation of the church and give financially to support its ministry by setting aside a portion of their wealth for God’s work.  (Matthew 25:21)

 

            Our scripture lesson this morning from the gospel of Matthew comes from the parable of the talents (25:14-30).  You’ll remember that Jesus uses the metaphor of three servants who are each entrusted with wealth to invest while their master is away.   The two who invest their “talents”(which was a unit of currency and wealth in the first century) and make a profit are given affirmation upon the Master’s return, “Well done good and trustworthy servant, you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

How many times have we heard churched and secular alike exclaim, “All the church does is ask for money!”?   The constant requests for financial support and special projects can be a good reason people don’t want to join a church; those who don’t have much feel guilty that they can’t do more, those with more than enough feel that’s all the church really wants from them. 

            In my 38 years of pastoral ministry I’ve always marveled at the committed church member who experiencing a difficult financial situation comes to their pastor to explain that they will not be able to continue their financial commitment to the church or will have to drastically cut it.  Some share this news with emotions of shame, embarrassment and disappointment.   Some have actually said they don’t feel like they can come to church if they don’t financially contribute.  

That is exactly when you should come to church and are most welcomed. 

It hurts committed givers not to be able to give as much as they can.  I often wonder how extraordinary such feelings must seem to those who resent being asked to give or those who withhold their giving because they are mad about something or at someone or for those who give unconsciously, without thought or commitment…like just dropping a $ 20 in the plate each week as if one were buying a movie ticket.

Those who really get it about church and money want to be “good and faithful servants”.    They come to know it’s not about the numbers at all.  Whether they can afford $ 1 a week, or 20 hours of volunteering a month, or serving on a committee, these are folk who want to be generous with all that they have, because in large part they’ve come to know in their hearts that all they have comes from God. They give with purpose and intention. 

 

            Joining a church is not for everybody.  In a United Methodist church all are welcome regardless of their level of commitment. We don’t think we are any better people than those who don’t join.   But when it seems right for the individual or family to join, we have a wonderful process that explains that church membership is so much more than joining a club or signing up for a spiritual gymnasium.  

            Join Bonnie and me for an informal and fun “membership class” on Sunday October 12^th at 12:30pm here in the church Library.  It will be a ‘brown bag’ lunch.  If you like to learn more about the United Methodist church or Wayfarer, come.  If you’ve ever thought of joining this church come.  Or if you just like to have a sack lunch with the new pastor and his wife come.

            The more we invest ourselves in prayer, worship, study, service, fellowship and generosity the closer we grow to God and to each other.   That may not be for everyone.  But it has made all the difference in my life.        Amen.