Anticipating Sunday

Pastors Craig Schaub and Joe Blotz send out a weekly e-newsletter to their congregation at Plymouth UCC, Syracuse. In it they provide news about upcoming events, particularly what will be happening on Sunday.

This is important enough. I love receiving it. What I really love about this e-newsletter is the headline for the section on worship: "Anticipating Sunday." What an inspiration! What a change in the way in which we usually think about Sunday morning in church!

More than a bland listing of the scriptural texts or the schedule of the different events, this newsletter invites us to anticipate. No mere markings on our calendars! No personal notations to remember the duties we've signed up for on that day! No twiddling of the thumbs as the seconds click away on the clock! No staring blankly out the window because we're bored from watching midday television! No workday minds wondering about a better life beyond the paycheck! No!

Anticipate Sunday! Prepare to hear the Word of God, to experience it, to let it change us! Pray for the eyes to see God's salvation in the face of the person sitting next to us in the pew; and for the heart to warm to the needs of the person huddled in the shadow of the church building; and for the hands to grasp hold of the gospel of peace for the ones that need jobs and homes, food and water, and a respite from violence and poverty. Anticipate Sunday! Become Excited! Be hopeful! Be strong in faith!

David Ashby, Interim Pastor at Corning UCC, wrote of a conversation with some colleagues in the aftermath of the Presidential Inauguration for the church newsletter. In response to another minister's statement that he was thinking of preaching on the theme, "Change We Can Believe In," David quipped that maybe he would preach on the theme, "Belief We Can Change Into".

It's all about change, isn't it! We know that we need to do things differently in government, in international relations, in our economy, in the cars that we buy, in our revamped household budgets, and in our churches.

I saw an interview on television some weeks ago about the economic recession and the effects that it has been having on every aspect of our lives. The one being interviewed was talking about all of the hardships, the loss of jobs and homes and investments, and all the sacrifices that will be necessary. On the upside he noted that in the Great Depression people pulled together. They looked out for one another. Families and neighborhoods and churches became important. They recognized the value of participating in more home grown entertainments.

Yes, the recession is on our minds. There is much anxiety and fear. We have to adapt, do things differently in order to make ends meet, and plan ahead for a different way of living in a new world.

These realities are being addressed in our pulpits and in church newsletters. The newsletters I receive discuss the ways in which our faith speaks to the present crisis. They describe the ways in which the community of faith and the wider community can pull together for fellowship and mutual support. They promote ways in which the church is seeking to meet the basic needs of people in the community that are hurting.

The Preble Congregational Church has started a new food ministry for the community. Many churches have such ministries. But Preble at this time, in the first few months of the pastorate of Barbara Blom, is starting something new to reach out to the community. God bless them!

Friedens UCC, Syracuse emphasizes the value of fellowship and service. They have a Shawl Ministry that provides items to warm the shoulders and companionship to warm the spirits of senior citizens. They have an active Senior Ladies Group, and conduct Bible Studies for teens as well as adults. The church also provides a space for an African American and a Burmese congregation. The three congregations have planned mutual social events. Coming together for a common meal is a great translator for people of different ethnicities and languages.

The First Congregational Church, Greene has an active presence in the community and beyond. They have a Food Pantry, a Clothing Bank, and run an Open Kitchen meal program. They also host the monthly meeting of the local WIC chapter and put together Families in Need Kits for people in the community.

Emmanuel Congregational Church, Watertown has an active Global Mission Team. The Team is planning a Disaster Relief Mission trip to Florida over the mid-winter school vacation in February. Co-Pastor Ron Farr is presently leading another Workplace Christianity Breakfast group. Ron is the founder and leader of the Laity Empowerment Project (http://laityempowerment.com/) has developed a number of courses including "Unwrapping our Gifts", "Hearing God's Call", "Unleashing our Weekday Ministries", and "Newcomers Class" to name a few.

Emmanuel is trying to cut maintenance costs by utilizing the tried and true method of relying upon the congregation for some practical help. In January they asked each member to bring a bag of calcium chloride pellets to help keep the side walks safe and free of ice.

Many churches look for ways to save money while keeping up to date with today's technology. Along with Plymouth Church, I receive a weekly e-newsletter from The Park Church, Elmira; Journey UCC, Slingerlands; Blooming Grove and from First Congregational, Albany. Trinity UCC, Rome; Corning, Madrid, Massena and Deansboro send their monthly newsletters by email.

Plainville Christian Church and UCC Bayberry host weekly luncheons for Senior Citizens. Plainville and Rome Trinity also host regular movie nights for the community.

Anticipation! Chris Xenakis, in his first newsletter article as pastor of the Groton Community Church, wrote about the church's calling to minister to the community beyond the church. In so doing he referred to the story of Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream of the seven skinny cows devouring the seven fat cows. Joseph saw that this dream foretold the coming of seven prosperous years followed by seven lean years. When Pharaoh asked Joseph how he would act upon this dream, Joseph said that Pharaoh should store up all the grain he could for the seven prosperous years in order to have enough to feed his people during the seven lean years. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the effort and the rest, as they say, is Biblical history.

The point of this is that life is like this. There are both lean and prosperous times. We need to anticipate this and make the most of every day that is given to us. And, if we have not prepared for the lean times, we can at least provide for each other by sharing what we have. In the end through our faith in God we trust that this is enough!

Ginny Anderson, pastor of Friedens UCC, Syracuse, declared her faith in God the great artist. She said that she never appreciated the colder months until she saw a book of paintings of trees in winter. She became impressed with how beautiful were the artist's depictions of these majestic parts of God's creation, God's masterwork. She declared that she would never again think of winter as ugly, and that she would give praise to the God who is and who has made everything to be good and beautiful and true.

I pray for the grace to anticipate Sunday and hope for the change to come for justice and peace!

Blessings,

Rick Cowles

"The Heart will never rest"

Songwriter James Taylor extends a very appropriate invitation today.

"Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King"

I frequently think of Martin Luther King, especially on his birthday. The Civil Rights movement, the War in Vietnam, the landing on the moon, President Kennedy's call to ask what one can do for one's country that led among other things to the establishment of the Peace Corps., and even my own call to a ministry of reconciliation, the sixties as a whole continue to be seminal influences on my life.

And so, when my wife and I took some time away from General Synod in Atlanta and went to the MLK Center and sat in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, I cried while listening to the tapes of his sermons and speeches that continually play for the visitors. In fact I am an absolute wreck on MLK Day when, invariably, the "I Have a Dream" speech is played back. The eloquence of thought, the brilliance of the delivery, the quality of the man, the respect for the martyrdom that awaited him, the ideals for which he stood and the hope that he inspired all come flooding through me, and the tears pour forth.

Would he be happy today, if he were alive to witness the Inauguration of an African American as President of the United States? I cannot imagine otherwise.

Is there justice in the promises that Barack Obama will make on Tuesday when he promises to uphold and defend the Constitution? Undoubtedly!

Can I rejoice with all African Americans, indeed all people of color and all those that are marginalized, that one of "their own" will occupy the most powerful office in the free world? Certainly.

Has the national sin of slavery that has tainted our nation been ameliorated? Is racism a thing of the past? Do we have more work to do with regard to racism, bigotry, white privilege, hate related violence? No! No! and Yes!

Last April 6, author Taylor Branch published an article entitled, "The Last Wish of Martin Luther King," in the New York Times. Based upon a speech he had just given at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., Mr. Branch wrote eloquently and provocatively of Dr. King's last sermon at the Washington Cathedral on March 31, 1968, the Sunday before he was murdered in Memphis. (Here is a link to the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06branch.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Martin%20Luther%20King&st=cse&scp=2 )

At the close of the article Mr. Branch wrote of how Dr. King included a discussion of the Parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16).

"Dr. King loved this parable as the text for a fabled 1949 sermon by Vernon Johns, his predecessor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery.

Lazarus was a lame beggar who once pleaded unnoticed outside the sumptuous gates of a rich man called Dives. They both died, and Dives looked from torment to see Lazarus the beggar secure in the bosom of Abraham. The remainder of the parable is an argument between Abraham and Dives, calling back and forth from heaven to hell.

Dives first asked Abraham to “send Lazarus” with water to cool his burning lips. But Abraham said there was a “great chasm” fixed between them, which could never be crossed. In his sermon, Dr. Johns drew a connection between the chasm and segregation.

But according to Dr. Johns, Dives wasn’t in hell because he was rich. He wasn’t anywhere near as rich as Abraham, one of the wealthiest men in antiquity, who was there in heaven. Nor was Dives in hell because he had failed to send alms to Lazarus. He was there because he never recognized Lazarus as a fellow human being. Even faced with everlasting verdict, he spoke only with Abraham and looked past the beggar, treating him still as a servant in the third person — “send Lazarus.”

Dr. King’s sermons drew more layers of meaning from this parable. He said we must accept the suffering rich man as no ordinary, nasty sinner. When refused water for himself, he worried immediately about his five brothers. Dives asked Abraham again to send Lazarus,this time as a messenger to warn the brothers about their sin. Tell them to be nice to beggars outside the wall. Do something, please, so they don’t wind up here like me.

Dr. King said Dives was a liberal. Despite his own fate, he wanted to help others. Abraham rebuffed this request, too, telling Dives that his brothers already had ample warning in Torah law and the books of the Hebrew prophets. Still Dives persisted, saying no, Abraham, you don’t understand — if the brothers saw someone actually rise from the dead and warn them, then they would understand. Jesus quotes Abraham saying no. If the brothers do not accept the core teaching of the Torah and the prophets, they won’t believe even a messenger risen from the dead.

Dr. King said this parable from Jesus burns up differences between Judaism and Christianity. The lesson beneath any theology is that we must act toward all creation in the spirit of equal souls and equal votes. The alternative is hell, which Dr. King sometimes defined as the pain we inflict on ourselves by refusing God’s grace.

Dr. King then went back to Memphis to stand with the downtrodden workers, with the families of Echol Cole and Robert Walker. You may have seen the placards from the sanitation strike, which read “I Am a Man,” meaning not a piece of garbage to be crushed and ignored. For Dr. King, to answer was a patriotic and prophetic calling.

He challenges everyone to find a Lazarus somewhere, from our teeming prisons to the bleeding earth. That quest in common becomes the spark of social movements, and is therefore the engine of hope."

Even so, there is much to be done. In light of this reality the New York Conference staff is planning a "Sacred Conversation on Race" retreat on January 25-26. With the facilitation of Berniece Powell Jackson, former Executive of the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries, the staff along with some other leaders from across the state will begin this conversation in hopes of developing some strategies for broadening the circle to engage the entire Conference. Please keep us in your prayers.

"There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Oh, Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the Earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood" (James Taylor)

Blessings,

Rick Cowles

Overcoming the Darkness

Well, the holiday season has come and gone. And, how wonderful it is! I love Christmas and generally do not look forward to how empty the house looks when the decorations have been packed away. This year I feel somewhat differently. I'm actually rather glad it's over.

Still, I had some small surprises that have brought occasion for delight. My son's girlfriend, Mary, gave me a book for Christmas, "The Greatest War Stories Never Told," by Rick Beyer. While cleaning up afterward I confided to my wife that I'm always interested in what people think I want to read. That is, at first glance I was not particularly interested in this book. Yes, as my wife pointed out, I like history. (And what is history about other than war!)

But what a surprise! It's a nice little book of 100 snippets of stories from different places and times gathered together for the History Channel's "History Minutes" series. And, the stories are fascinating. Take for instance the one about General Santa Anna (the Mexican dictator that defeated the north Americans at the Alamo) who helped to inspire inventor Thomas Adams to create modern chewing gum.

Or, the one about the military unit of ancient Thebes called The Sacred Band. This unit not only was instrumental in defeating the vaunted Spartans, but remained undefeated over a span of thirty years. The uniqueness of this group was that it was intentionally made up of 150 gay couples. The reasoning behind this was the each soldier would have the incentive to fight hard in order to both protect his partner and to avoid being shamed in front of the partner. An amazing (and successful) case of "do ask, do tell."

Or there is the story that particularly strikes me at the beginning of Epiphany: that of Joan of Arc. Joan was the 17 year old peasant girl that became the leader of the armies of France in recovering French soil from the British in the fifteenth century.

As Rick Beyer points out (p.24), "What she did to make that happen -- in a time when women were regarded as property -- beggars the imagination.

1. She talked her uncle into taking her to the local military commander.
2. She convinced the commander to provide a military escort to take her to the Dauphin (the crowned prince).
3. She convinced a group of priests that God was really speaking to her, and that she should be allowed to meet with the Dauphin.
4. In less than five minutes she convinced Charles (the Dauphin) to give her an army.
5. She persuaded grizzled veterans of the war against England tht they should take orders from a seventeen year old girl. Further, she got them to give up cursing and sex while serving under her.
6. In an age when war meant hand-to-hand combat, even for commanders, Joan survived numerous battles while never wielding a weapon.
7. Not only did she lead her army to victory at Orleans, she also liberated dozens of French towns and defeated another British army at Patay."

More than providing a few moments of interesting anecdotal reading this one story, at least, also provides some food for thought.

Last evening I presented the NY Conference OCWM powerpoint to a Council meeting in a local church. In the discussion we mentioned that the times are hard! (Don't we know it!) Anxiety is rampant! Money is tight! As we discussed how this local church might be able to give more to Our Churches Wider Mission, one man rather poignantly confessed, "In times like these sometimes we just want to give up."

Indeed! Sometimes we do just want to give up. In recognition of this fact I responded, "But we don't give up. We certainly don't want to give up on the church!"

Whether or not this answer was helpful to those gathered, I stand by the conviction (and Joan's story certainly underscores it's truth!) We don't give up, but keep pressing on. Why? Because God calls us to ministry and God promises to be with us in good times and bad. And, as God calls and promises, God is also faithful and just and abounds in steadfast love.

Another truth from Joan's story is that we need leaders that are willing to own and champion God's call to leadership. We have leaders that seem embarassed to take on the mantel of leadership. I'm talking about church leaders both ordained and lay, here!

The leadership of worship seems to be little more than begging the pardon of the worshipers for taking their time, for actually asking them to open up their hearts and minds in prayer, or to consider their need for forgiveness and to forgive others, or to commit themselves to a life of discipleship through the giving of their time, talents and treasure.

Indeed! I believe that we need to take Paul's rejoinder to heart: that we were not given a spirit of timidity but rather a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). We need to become much more bold in our witness to the power of God's love in our lives.

Boldly receiving and proclaiming the good news of God's love for all humanity in Jesus Christ does not mean that we are "puffing ourselves up", or denying the validity of other faith traditions, or putting ourselves in place of God. Rather, it is joyfully proclaiming that we have seen the light of salvation as we have experienced the grace and peace of the Christchild. It is walking with God and one another with humility, knowing that we are not God ourselves and that it is only by the grace of God that we embrace the journey at all.

It's a gloomy January day in Central New York -- the worst kind in my view (a wintry mix of rain, snow and sleet).

But it's Epiphany! With some good reading and reflecting on our own experience of the light of God in Christ maybe that light can brighten the day.

Furthermore, with Simeon we may find ourselves rejoicing, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel." (Luke 2:29-32)

Blessings,

Rick Cowles