Pastor Tony's Sermon August 20, 2017

Matthew 26: 36-46     8-20-17     Rev. Tony Clark     ACCUCC

Matthew 26:36-46The Message (MSG)

Listen to this week's sermon by clicking here.

Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, “This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”

Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?”

When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, “My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I’m ready. Do it your way.”

When he came back, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open. This time he let them sleep on, and went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground one last time.

When he came back the next time, he said, “Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s get going! My betrayer is here.”

This is the third in a series on the Lord’s Prayer, the Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray together, and this week I’m paying attention to the line “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Temptation makes me think of the apple, the apple that Adam and Eve ate after being tempted by the serpent. That apple of temptation that made its way into the fairy tale of Snow White. The apple in those stories is a symbol of temptation, and it is a symbol of doubt, distrust, disbelief.

Apples aren’t that tempting to me because I have chocolate and sugar both of which taste way better than an apple; however, in places where chocolate was unheard of and sugar was rare, what was the sweetest thing a sweet tooth would have been tempted by? Honey, berries, and fruit like apples.

In the stories of Adam and Eve and the legend of Snow White the apple is a symbol of temptation, and that all of the characters in the stories are mythic archetypes on one side or the other of temptation. There is the sweet purity of innocence in Adam, Eve and Snow White; they have not been tainted by the doubt, distrust, and disbelief one gains in facing the world’s temptations. Then there is the archetype of the one out to sow doubt, disbelief, and distrust. The serpent in the Garden of Eden and the Wicked Queen who offered Snow White the poisoned apple have been jaded by the world’s temptations, and they seek to sow doubt, distrust, and disbelief.

Temptation living into the doubt, distrust, and disbelief that questions the presence of God and God’s will, which means losing the innocence of trust in God.

When Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer, he used the word we know as temptation, and he used the same word when he spoke to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before he was captured by the Roman army and put on trial for treason. We heard that story today. After their Passover holiday meal, Jesus asked the three leaders of the disciples, Peter and James and John, to accompany him into the garden to pray, but the three leaders fell asleep. When Jesus found them asleep, he woke them up, and told them to stay alert so they didn’t wander into temptation without knowing it. Jesus, who seemed clear about the outcome, needed to pray, and be assured by God that his was the right path, and in that vulnerable moment as he immersed himself in the heart of God, he needed his compatriots to hold him in prayer and be alert to their surroundings. And he needed them to pay attention to what was going on and follow their promises to follow God over the next few days. Their temptation was more similar to ours today than to eating an apple in a Garden; the disciples’ sin of apathy and a not staying aware is the sin of today.

The sin we face is to be lulled into false sense of security that the doubt, distrust, disbelief are the reality, when they are simply the thoughts in your brain and your fight or flight response taking hold. The sin was neither eating the apple nor falling sleep; the sin was hiding from and denying relationship with God and God’s human voice. And for this we cry, Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us!!

When Jesus told us to pray to God, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, he is telling us that the human temptation is to doubt God’s providence of peace, and to fight or to run away, to protect ourselves. Perhaps we might pray, “We are anxious, God; give us strength to stay with the anxiety, to neither fight, nor flee, but to step into the anxiety and live as we promised we would doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with you. Lead us not into the evil of violence or apathy, but into nonviolent presence.

We live in anxious times. Destruction of our democracy and Nuclear threat from North Korea have been overrun in our news this week by the white supremacists who are rallying with the sole purpose of inciting violence toward the people they know are against them. For some of the groups, violence is part of a hazing ritual that leads to full membership in what they are calling a fraternity. They have organized themselves through the internet. Many of them are armed with assault guns, shields, and other weapons of war. We are learning new words to go with them, “Paleo-conservative,” and “Identitarians.” They call themselves the Proud Boys, and the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights, and people are no longer calling them Neo-Nazis, but just Nazis. We are also hearing about opposing groups called, SURJ or Standing up for Racial Justice, and Anti-Fa, or Anti-fascists, who intend to stand up against the violent Nazis, with violence if necessary. All of this is expected to hit the streets of Berkeley next week, and it is expected to be violent.

At an interfaith meeting on how to respond as people of faith, we heard from someone just back from Charlottesville, Virginia, and we heard from another person who gave us the history of those white supremacist groups. I think many of us in the room were feeling an assault on not just on our government or democracy, but on the morality of our country, and we are coming face-to-face with the principals, values, and actions we deem appropriate in both the physical world we live, work and pray in, and the virtual world on the internet. Many of us are feeling compelled to respond in some way.

 As an interfaith body at the meeting on response, we decided to do two things, to offer a space of respite and sanctuary, and to peacefully march and stand as witness to the rally at City Hall.

My anxiety is high. I have been anxious for some time as I have watched the #BlackLivesMatter movement take hold against police brutality, and as I watched white supremacists gain voice and confidence. I have started taking anti-depressants to help my feeling of helplessness. I have until now had no idea to how to respond, and I have felt frozen in my anxiety, and it is fed by the temptation to protect myself. Now, even though my anxiety is rising, I can no longer stand on the sidelines, frozen, stuck, helpless, tempted to ignore and deny what is happening. Neither can I run and hide from this, and I am not good at fighting. And yet my temptation this week has been to avoid the conflict, and go about my comfortable life as if nothing is happening 3 miles away in downtown Berkeley.

This is our modern temptation, to ignore homelessness because the problem is too big, to ignore racism because we have nothing more to offer than our love, to avoid the oncoming revolution because there will be violence.   

In spite of my desire to crawl back into bed and pull the sheets over my head until all of this blows over, I am stepping into the anxiety. I have volunteered to be at the respite and sanctuary site, offering medical and spiritual first aid to anyone who needs it. I pray that I am not led into the temptation of doubt, distrust and disbelief that this is the right thing to do, and that I can step into the center of God’s heart and know what it means to trust God.

Although we expect this to take place in the afternoon next Sunday, I may not be in worship next week. I encourage you to meet, to pray, and to name the anxiety in our region, our nation and our world. This week I will be praying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us with evil,” over and over again, and I hope you pray, too. Pray to not be tempted by doubt, distrust and disbelief, nor tempted by the evil to fight back or the evil to ignore the problem. Pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is heaven, in response to this evil.

In these weeks to come, may Peace be with you. may Peace be with us all. God bless us everyone., and may we realize God’s kingdom of justice here on our earth.

Amen.

Faith is a Verb…Musings By Pastor Tony, Aug 18, 2017

Dear Friends:

Last weekend we watched as one of our nation’s historic university towns, Charlottesville, VA, was brought into conflict.  A weekend rally sponsored by the Alt-Right was protested by progressives of all kinds; the Alt-Right/white supremacist groups, primarily made up of disaffected young white men, came with the intent to do violence, and some on the left vowed to respond in kind with violence. I lift in prayer the name of Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed when a car was deliberately driven into the crowd by a member of one of the white supremacist groups. These kinds of violent rallies are predicted to become more frequent; this weekend one is planned for Boston, and next weekend, San Francisco and Berkeley                  

The Alt-Right claims that they are victims because young straight white men are being replaced by people of color, Jews, LGBT folk and women. They have a misguided ownership of the history of slavery and the Civil War, and they would seemingly want us as a nation to revert back to a time of brutish injustice and oppression that our country has deemed appropriate to keep in the past and inappropriate for a modern society. They reject the notions of plurality and diversity, and they rely on science that has been long disproven to claim their own racial and gender superiority.  And they are willing to defend these opinions with violence, even murder, as they declare they have the rights to bear arms, to assemble, to free speech, and to their own brand of religion.

These are the same tactics and arguments that were used by white supremacists of the past, yet we are no longer in that past. Although some of us may struggle with all of the aspects of a plural society, in general our culture has more-or-less embraced the idea that diversity leads to a richer society.  We are re-writing our histories to recognize people of color who made significant improvements to our culture, and Southern cities are moving the statues of Civil War anti-heroes into museums where they belong. This is an amazing thing, a sign that our relatively young nation is moving into a new, beautifully just phase. Of course, not everyone agrees, and the Alt-Right, emboldened by the internet and an impotent government, is pushing their scapegoating, denigrating, and abhorrent views into our public space.

In the 1950s and 60s, during the Civil Rights Era, when these same issues were being fought in our public spaces, few of the mainline Protestant Christian churches responded. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, wrote a scathing assessment of the mainline churches from the Birmingham Jail, on the eve of Easter, 1963. “…Over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klan, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice….”[1] King went on to decry the lack of passion and presence in the Civil Rights fights.

Similarly, in the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos excoriated several churches for their apathy and lack of focus on the Christian faith, and he wrote, “So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3: 16, NIV). Today, many clergy, including myself, feel the sting of those words; churches of the past stood idly by observing injustice and walking away, and, while we have moved a great deal from then, many of us feel that one of the Church’s major failings of the last 50 years is that we have not risked stepping out of our comfort zone to face down injustice when called to do so.

So, what to do when white supremacists want to pull us back to an untenable era of culturally sanctioned oppression, and our Commander in Chief, whom we expect to be somewhat of our moral leader, does not exactly denounce them? This is the question the faith community in the greater Bay Area faces next weekend when these forces make their way to our region. As a colleague pointed out, the power that the white supremacists have is over our physical bodies and the media exposure they get; they are not in control of our government at the local, state or federal levels, and this is different than in the Civil Rights Era when the laws were explicitly oppressive and unjust and the government officials mostly agreed with the laws. The white supremacists are thugs (not government agents), and as someone in our congregation with asked, “How are they different than gangs?” There are certainly many similarities between the Alt-Right, gangs, and even ISIS and Al Qaeda, all of which radicalize disaffected young men (and increasingly women), who are looking to express their anger in society. They are terrorists who, through violence, create chaos and fear and provoke people to respond with violence.  

Whether we like it or not, they have pulled us into the fight, if by nothing else, by their theological statements that God is on their side; I cannot stand idly by and allow white supremacists to claim God is on their side. While we can expect violence--they’ve already told us that, non-violence is the response most of us faithful wish to portray. In an interfaith meeting on Tuesday, a group including Unitarian-Universalist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and UCC clergy and laity decided to offer two public responses next weekend out of our faith: to provide a respite or sanctuary where medical and spiritual first aid can be provided, and to form a peaceful processional from First Congregational of Berkeley to the Berkeley City Hall where the alt-right is expected to gather. I have offered to be part of the medical and spiritual first aid. I do not expect any of you to take part; in fact, I pray you will stay out of harms’ way and sit in vigil for us, for we know there is power in prayer.

Friends, like you, I am anxious over all these wars and rumors of wars, and yet, we are people of faith, beloved children of God. No matter what we face, God is with us. Through communion we join with all Christians to celebrate oneness in our diversity. Through baptism we have been united to one God, and one Lord, Christ Jesus. In prayer and singing, we call on rich tradition and deep faith to hold us in the light of God. In all these things, God.

Be safe, do what you must for yourself, and pray ceaselessly.

Peace,

Pastor Tony

[1] “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” from  Why we Can’t Wait,  Martin Luther King , Jr, (NY: Signet Classic a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2000), p. 73).

Pastor Tony's Sermon August 13, 2017

Luke 11: 1-13     8-13-17     ACCUCC     Rev. Tony Clark

Listen to this week's complete sermon by clicking here.

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come. 
   Give us each day our daily bread. 
   And forgive us our sins,
     for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ 

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 

‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

This month we are looking at the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we looked at the version in Matthew, and this week we look at the version from Luke, which is shorter, and is followed by a few stories about asking. This was going to be a week when I preached about asking, not for what you want, but for what God is ready to give you. This was going to be a sermon that ended this way:

“If you ask for what God is ready to give, then you will get it and more. If you knock on the right door it will be opened to you. Our Father who art in Heaven—that prayer is an opportunity to place yourself in the neighborhood where God lives, on the block, facing God’s door.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done aligns you with Divine presence and the will of God. Give us this day our daily bread moves from a prayerful space of being aligned with God, to asking for what God is ready to provide.  Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us is a knock on the door to God’s house, to which God cannot refuse to let us in, to a blessed feast of abundance, with more pancakes than we could ever eat and not get fat or have our blood sugar go out of whack. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

That was the ending to the sermon before Charlottesville, and before nuclear brinksmanship played by two of the world’s most swaggeringly blow-hard leaders. I still believe that sermon, yet now the Holy Spirit has charged me to say something different, about the Kingdom of God, and why we pray for it to come each and every week.

And for that I may need your prayers.

The Lord’s Prayer starts with these words, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The first word is “OUR,” and it is similar to the first word in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, “WE,” as in “We the people…”.  I wonder if some have forgotten that God is Our God, and that We are one people.

I wonder also if people have been hearing and praying the Lord’s prayer wrong all these years. I wonder if people haven’t been saying, “Thy,” but rather, “My,” and that their prayer is “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be MY name. MY kingdom come, MY will be done.” I wonder if they’ve even gone farther and begun thinking not in terms of Our Father, Our God, but of MY Father, MY God, MY Daily bread. “My Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by MY name. MY kingdom come, MY will be done on earth as it is heaven. Give ME my daily bread, and forgive ME my trespasses.”

“Our Father,” and “We the People,” do not mean US against THEM. It means us together, all of us, not working for ourselves, but for the well being of all of us. And when any one of us is failing or struggling or oppressed, then it is all of us who need to face God and ask for forgiveness.

What I see happening across our globe this week—the threat of nuclear war between our President and the leader of North Korea, and the white supremacists marching and protesting in Chancellorsville, Virginia—are symptoms of translating the Lord’s Prayer into a personal conversation with God. It is not a prayer for any one of us. It is a prayer for all of us.

For a very long time, much of the last century at least, we have been more focused on individual rights and desires than our corporate good. We talk about Jesus as a Personal Lord and Savior. We talk about my rights, and my needs. We talk about God answering my prayers, as if one person’s prayers are more important than all of our prayers together. 

It’s not much surprise that we find ourselves in a hyped-up, testosterone-laden match over which bully on the national and international stage has the biggest weapon. It sounds like boys in a size match, wondering who can spell their name in the snow. Well, friends, in nuclear winter, we can all have that opportunity.

It is not surprising that we have an ultra-right wing group of bullies pushing back against the long-time oppressed who are naming their place in the Kingdom of God. Right-wing--or should I say White-wing—white nationalists and white supremacists are reacting to a bizarre personalized sense of the Civil War when they say their history is being erased asstatues of Confederate heroes are being from public spaces. White nationalists and white supremacists, who feel that saying #BlackLivesMatter diminishes white lives, only focus on ME, not WE. Their needs become more important than a group of people who have been systematically oppressed for 400 years because of the quantity of melanin in their skin.

Those white supremacists may pray with the rest of us, “Thy Kingdom come,” but the Kingdom they desire on earth is not the Kingdom of God; it is a kingdom of their own making. It is an exclusive, members-only type of club, and they get to define who is in and who is out. Straight white “Christians” are in, all others are out.  Last time I checked, this is not God’s Kingdom, and I do not want to have their kingdom come. God’s Kingdom is based on love, where the oppressed find justice, where we approach Our Father together, and where wars are not fought over the size of one’s manhood—oops, did I say manhood? I mean the size of one’s nuclear arsenal.

I want God’s Kingdom to come, not theirs.

Do they even know what they are asking for when they say, “Thy Kingdom come”?   

Folks, the riots are not over, the protests are just beginning. There will be more protests, more riots, and more violence. The protests we saw in Charlottesville are expected to make a show in Berkeley at the end of the month. This shouldn’t surprise any of since all protests lead to Berkeley. This doesn’t surprise me, because California, for all of its progressive politics and causes, is also the state, in my opinion, with the most pronounced individualism in our country.

This is not a time to stay silent because of our individualism, allowing other opinions their say because everyone is entitled to his or her personal opinion. No, this is a time to join our voices together, to remind each other that God is OUR God, and WE are God’s people. It is Our Father, not My Father, who art in heaven. It is God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, not any one person’s. We pray give US this day OUR daily bread, and forgive us OUR trespasses as WE forgive those who trespass against us. We stand before God together, being judged whether we as an entire species cared enough for even the oppressed among us to bring them along to the Kingdom.  

Our trespasses, our debts, our sins are shared among us all. Environmental destruction with rising sea level, species extinction, and diseases as diverse as asthma, cancer, obesity, are sins of us as a species. Racism, slavery, and the lasting effects of inequality and poverty may be particular in the United States, but they are sins of all of us, especially when we define sins as being a separation from the will of God. While some of us are trespassers and some us are trespassed upon, all of us suffer and are separated one from another and ultimately from God. Until we can figure out that all of us must stand in judgement together, the trespassers side by side with those who are trespassed against, we will never welcome the Kingdom of God into our world.

So, today, even more than ever we need to pray Our Father, Thy Kingdom Come, Give all of us our daily bread and Forgive all of Us, so that all of us may be brought into your heavenly feast. 

I have had a quote that is attributed to President Abraham Lincoln on my mind this week. When asked if the Civil War would be won because God was on our side, Lincoln was reported as saying, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”[1] Whether or not he actually said those--I can’t find any proof that he actually said that, though he did have other theological sayings that are similar—that is a question to wrestle with. Is God on your side, or are you on God’s side?

Well, my answer is that God is on all of our sides, rooting for each of us to live holy lives of love, fully in communion with God, and all of humanity.  It is a harder thing to be on God’s side, to know God’s will, and to welcome “Thy Kingdom come,” without fear, knowing that God’s kingdom will rock our socks, because God’s Kingdom is totally not what we expect. It is richer, and fuller of justice and love than any one of us could imagine, in part because it is not for any one of us, but for all of us together. What does it mean that we are on God’s side?

It means we can pray this: Our God, Thy kingdom come. Give all of us our daily bread, not just the few of us privileged to be able to buy what we want. Forgive all of us our trespasses, including where we are oppressing or excluding any one of us. Deliver all of us from evil, from the evil of racism, from the evil of poverty, from the evil of environmental destruction, and the evil of aggressive warmongering narcissistic leaders with nuclear weapons. For your kingdom cannot come without all of us, your power is for all of us-- not just a privileged few, and your glory is only fully seen when each of us shares together with all of us what we know of you.

In these days, when fear is high, when we fear losing what is most costly to each of us personally, and we are divided us against them, may we remember that God is Our God, and We are God’s people. Amen.   

[1]  https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin388944.html, retrieved 8-12-17

Eco Justice- What’s In Your Junk Drawer? by Ruth Robinson

By Ruth Robinson

I have a junk drawer.  OK, maybe there are two.  But it is mostly good junk, or at least it was at one time.  The one in the kitchen near the phone (yes, we still have a land line), well, that has important stuff, too.  Like the black address book, rubber bands, paper clips, pens, pens, pens, a pencil or three, pens.

And sometimes, OK, maybe a lot of the times, a pen just doesn’t want to do its duty.  So, I put it back, intending to clean out the drawer “later”.

Enter Mr. Costas Schuler of Forestville, CA.  He is known as The Pen Guy.  He wants the dead pens.  He has a couple of noble missions:  keep old pens out of the landfill and make art.

His most well known “art” piece is his Mercedes that is literally covered in old pens, artistically arranged.  He uses pens in wall art, too.  And it is very pricey. 

He would like my old pens, as well as yours.  My plan is to put a can out each Sunday in which you can deposit your old pens.  When we fill it up, I’ll mail it to him.  Address on his website.

Liberate those pens!  Clear out your junk drawer(s), and save the landfills. Bring useless pens to church…and we’ll keep the can out for you.

Eco Justice- Too Busy? Start Here... by Ruth Robinson

The other day I discovered a blog by Joshua Becker called "Becoming Minimalist".  He suggested, "Simplicity brings balance, freedom and joy".  How does that relate to efforts to heal our Earth?

I think part of our dependency upon the fast, the efficient and the expedient gets wrapped up in products that actually have the exact opposite effect upon the environment.  Think about foods that contain suspicious ingredients, like high fructose corn syrup.  Think about all that packaging in the kids' Lunchables from the market.  In efforts to simplify our busy lives, we add layers of unintended problems.

Becker has a list of the top 10 ways to simplify lives (which are probably too many!).  Number 4 is - Eliminate Artificial Ingredients in our food.  Shop local, eat food locally grown.

In October, we are going to ask folks to participate in an Eco Challenge.  For two weeks, try and either start a good habit (for example, simplify eating) or stop a not so good habit (don't throw away plastic bags, reuse).  The part you'll be asked to do is totally personal...but start thinking about what you might want to focus on.  No scores will be kept, no true confessions about some habit to be broken will be required.

Becker also has written a blog called "A Guide to Becoming Unbusy", just in case....

For more:  www.becomingminimalist.com has food for thought.

Keep up with becoming a Person of the planet by visiting the link below!

www.arlingtoncommunitychurchucc.org/person-of-the-planet

Pastor Tony's Sermon August 6, 2017

Matthew 6: 5-15, NRSV     8-6-17     ACCUCC     Rev. Tony Clark

Listen to this week's sermon by clicking here.

‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

‘When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name. 
   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven. 
   Give us this day our daily bread. 
   And forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
   And do not bring us to the time of trial,
     but rescue us from the evil one. 
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Living Loving, Laughing, Parent to us all, teach us to pray. Bring your reign of justice to this place. Give us what we need for today, and Forgive us as deeply as we have hurt you. Grant that we may follow your path; may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and redeemer. Amen.

This month we are going to look at what is probably our most common prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. We say this every week, mostly from memory, and sometimes when you do things by rote, they can lose their meaning. So we are trying this month to unpack some of the meaning of this common prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is found in the Bible in two places, in Matthew, that we just heard, and in Luke, which we will read next week. They have some differences, and they are found in different contexts. The one from Matthew is most like what we pray every week; the one in Luke is shorter and simpler. In Matthew, this prayer comes in a discourse on praying. In Luke, the Disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, and he gives them this prayer.

The Disciples were religious folk, steeped in Judaism, and knowledgeable about God. They knew how to pray; Judaism had and still has a deep prayer life. But still, these devout prayers ask Jesus how to pray; perhaps like many of us, they had no idea what exactly to say in a prayer. In a time and place of sever upheaval and overwhelming injustice, when prayers seem hollow and God’s silence is deafening, they might have been asking, “How do you get God’s attention? How do you ask God for things you need? What is the best way to address God?”

Jesus answers with a simple prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed is your name….” This was a conversation with someone he was close to, someone he revered, someone whose address he could name. Then Jesus named God’s presence, here and everywhere: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Then Jesus asked for specific things, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” Give us enough food for this day that we are not hungry, enough forgiveness to turn our hearts toward forgiving others, and enough love that we are not tempted to do evil.

This prayer was moved into our worship pretty early on, with an added line, “For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”

Jesus used a typical formula for this prayer, an address to God, an acknowledgement or invoking God’s presence here, offering of thanks, and then a request from God with the expected results of God’s action stated before closing. Jesus addressed God as Papa, and then he then simply named God’s place: in Heaven, and said that even though God is as intimate as a family member, God’s name is to be said with reverence. Then he invoked God’s presence by asking that his rule of justice be not just in heaven but also here on earth. Then Jesus asked for what we need—food, forgiveness, and love, and before closing, Jesus said what the expected results would be—that we would not be tempted nor turned toward evil. Simple.

Jesus taught us to pray with humbleness, in private, without a lot of extra words. Jesus said that God knows what is on our heart even before we pray. In the act of saying it, we (not God) begin to understand what we really desire. The political realm based on true Justice. Food for this day, no more, no less. Forgiveness as wide as all bad things we do, and as deep as all the bad things everyone does to us. Focus to keep us away from temptation and on the path toward God.

Jesus addressed God as if God is a close family member, “Abba” or “Papa,” which must have sounded a bit too informal to some. In Judaism there is a long tradition of not saying or fully spelling God’s name because it is too powerful. Yet Jesus insisted that God wants a personal relationship, and, therefore, we can call God something personal: Friend, Father, Mother, maybe even Lover.  We don’t need the high fancy words to get God’s attention.

 The way we pray says a lot more about us than it does about God.  How we say each of those things shows who we believe God is to us. Is God close and personal like a friend or family member whom we can tell our deepest secrets, or a distant ruling entity we approach with reverence and fear? Do we experience or imagine God’s presence like being in splendid overwhelmingly bright beauty or like common everyday life with all its shadows and hiding spaces? Do we humbly approach God for our needs or do we expect or demand that God to do our bidding?

My own public prayers often start with “Holy One,” or “Most Divine Presence.” These are fine ways to address God, yet I have begun to realize that calling God “Holy One” or “Most Divine Presence” places God in a distant, relatively unapproachable throne room far away, a judge before whom I must proclaim my guilt or innocence. Struggling to find that personal God with whom I have had a close connection, I began to open my prayers with, “Living, Laughing, Loving Friend,” a much less serious God, who is friendly and joyful; in renaming the way I address God, I have felt more connected with God. My pleas for God to be with me or to reveal God’s presence to me have turned into statements of, “I know you are here, enliven me.” This says more about my need then about God’s accessibility or approachability.

Likewise, what we ask for is important; and next week we’ll talk about that. However, I want to recognize that there are times when we cannot pray ourselves, because asking seems too arrogant, or maybe it seems feel like God is not listening, or maybe what we deeply desire feels too out of reach. A chronically ill person might have difficulty asking for health, or a lonely and isolated person may have difficulty asking for friends to step in, and the unjustly imprisoned may have trouble seeking justice.

Later in Matthew, in the passage about “When did we see you naked and give you clothing,” Jesus taught us to feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned, clothe the naked, as if we were doing it in his name. He called us to pray with and for others, by listening to their cries and restating them to God. Many times, as I pray for and with someone else, when I can verbalize what they cannot--their deepest desires-- I feel the spirit rising in them and the tears of release begin to flow, as they recognize that someone has heard them and made a plea to God on their behalf.

There is no specific injunction that this is only done by trained professionals; it is the call of each of us to be able to pray for others. As we visit our shut-ins, or those who are sick, or even our friends from church, it is appropriate for each of us to pray with them. We’ve had some training in visitation for the Worship and Pastoral Board—the Deacons, and I hope to expand this to the broader congregation.  I believe we all can take on this task of praying as we visit each other.

I have created a booklet to take with you as you visit others, and I encourage you take one. In it there is a basic formula for prayer: An Address to God, with an honorific title, an invoking of God’s presence, offering of thanks, request and outcome of the request, and a closing. I encourage you to practice writing simple prayers that address God, name God’s presence, give thanks for blessings, and name a request and an expected outcome of God’s action. What is meaningful for the people you visit? Practice on each other—spend a few minutes listening about a specific need, and formulate a prayer for that one, maybe at home after the conversation. Perhaps then send that prayer in an email or a postcard. Another way to practice is to write a prayer for an upcoming event; you do not need to speak it at the event, but you may find that going in with an intention named ahead of time gives the event a different feeling for you.

Compare your prayer to the Lord’s Prayer. Who is God to you, and how do you approach God? What are you asking for, and why? What will happen if God grants it?

And then don’t forget to close with, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name….”

Amen. 

Faith is a Verb.. Musings by Pastor Tony August 4, 2017

Faith is a Verb…     Musings by Pastor Tony     Aug 4, 2017

Several weeks ago, I spent a day in North Richmond. I toured the Shields-Reid Community Rec Center, the new community garden being designed by Urban Tilth (check it out here), and ended at the Neighborhood House of North Richmond. I witnessed that the unincorporated village has much need, is surrounded by industry, and, because of its proximity to the west county trash facility, is prone to illegal dumping of all kind of materials.   I found out about the this past Tuesday I attended the North Richmond Municipal Advisory Council meeting andconnected with several leaders in North Richmond.

There are many places where we Arlingtonians could get involved in North Richmond and in the Iron Triangle in Richmond.  A Greenway is being created to connect the Ohlone Greenway in El Cerrito with the Bay Trail that runs along the Bay. Every 2nd Saturday of the month there is a Greenway Volunteer day at 6th St, between Ohio and Chanslor, from 10 am – 1 pm, and it is open to all ages (younger ones need adult supervision); the next Greenway Volunteer Days are Aug 12, Sept 9, and Oct 14.  Click here for more info on the Greenway Project and here to learn about the Watershed Project that is working to clean up the streams that flow through North Richmond to the Bay and create a North Richmond waterfront park. Also, Richmond is participating in the California Coastal Cleanup Day, Sat Sept 16, 9 am- 12 noon, at Shimada Park off the Marina Bay Parkway (bring your own bags, hat, water, sturdy shoes); click here for info on the International Coastal Cleanup Day .

Ceasefire is a group sponsored by the Richmond Police that is walking the streets on Friday evenings to stop gun violence, and Ceasefire is also responding to shootings by providing support and food for grieving families. A new program supported by Ceasefire is Change4FiveHundred, which was initiated by a formerly incarcerated young man who is motivated to change the community he ravaged. On August 19, Change4Fivehundred will host a Bar-B-Que and Backpack and school supplies give away to school aged children at the Shield-Reed Community Center.

One last thing to watch for: there is once again a proposal to annex North Richmond into Richmond. In the past, resistance was put up by the industries and the owners of property in North Richmond. The County Supervisor’s office believes that annexing North Richmond would create a contiguous area of service, which will help stabilize the area by having Richmond city services like Police and Fire respond rather than the Sheriff that is located in Martinez. This will be discussed in upcoming Municipal Advisory Council Meetings (held every 1st Tues). 

I will be getting connected with our neighbors in North Richmond; I hope that ACC can help support and transform North Richmond and the Iron Triangle. I will keep you updated with ongoing needs; may we respond from the deepest places of our faith.

Peace, Pastor Tony

Pastor Tony's Sermon July 30, 2017

Luke 15: 11-32     7-30-17     ACCUCC     Rev. Tony Clark

Reconciliation, based on The Shack & Luke 15:11-32 The Message (MSG)

Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

“So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

“The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

“His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

This week we are thinking about reconciliation. In The Shack, the main character, Mack, is in several relationships that are strained or broken and need some form of mending. Mack is angry at God, harbors resentment against his abusive father, holds violent thoughts against the man who kidnapped and murdered his daughter, and has become a bit estranged from his family. The book and movie present a powerful story about reconciliation; Mack and God reconcile, Mack and his father who had died when Mack was very young, also reconcile in the spirit realm. And near the end of the story, he makes amends with his family. The story leaves open whether Mack might find restorative justice and peace with his daughter’s murderer. In the passage we just heard, the Spirit suggests that if there is true confession and repentance---the acknowledgment of the crime and the desire to make restitution, then Mack might find his heart softening and moving toward some kind of miracle relationship. This is reconciliation.

In the Bible there are two familiar stories about reconciliation —the story of Jacob and Esau meeting after many years separated and the Prodigal Son returning home. Jacob and Esau, though, is not really about reconciliation; it is about conciliation, or buying the peace. Jacob had stolen Esau’s blessing and birthright, and then Jacob, fearing for violent reaction from Esau, fled for about 20 years. When Jacob wanted to return with his family, Esau greeted Jacob with a huge army behind him ready to make war with his brother, so Jacob sent on ahead a peace offering of many of the best animals in his herd. Esau politely refused, claiming he had everything he needed, and only accepted the gift only after Jacob’s urging. If he had not accepted the gift, Esau would be saying to all who witnessed it that the debt was still open. By accepting the gift, Esau publicly declared that the debt had been paid, and there was no more between them. Out of politeness, Esau invited Jacob to join his group, and Jacob politely declined with a rather lame excuse that his herds were too weak to go very fast. (Genesis 33).

If you read the story with a sense of grandiosity and verbosity, Jacob does not come off as contrite, but as taunting and teasing, saying to his brother, “Truly to see you face to face is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me with such favor.” After the exchange, Jacob indicated he would meet his brother in Seir, yet he never intended to go there, and instead went to Succoth. Although, the two estranged brothers did not fight a battle, they also did not eat together, and they did not meet again until their father’s death when they met to bury Isaac. The two separated, unburdened by the strife between them, but also not richer for a renewed relationship.

This was no true reconciliation. This was a polite business deal where a debt was paid; Trust was not restored, only a peace that had been bought when Jacob returned the gift originally due to Esau. Both Esau and Jacob need to have some softening of their hearts, some contrition, some acknowledgement that they both have hurt the relationship, before that could occur.

The Prodigal Son is a story of reconciliation. A younger son takes his inheritance, runs away and lives a hedonistic lifestyle, and then when he is destitute, he comes crawling back seeking to live even as a servant in his father’s household. His father welcomes him in and immediately holds a welcome home party, a huge barbecue, with streamers and crepe paper and a mariachi band for all the workers and neighbors to attend. The relationship was restored, and the restoration was celebrated.

Except it is not a complete restoration of relationship. The older brother doesn’t attend, doesn’t reconcile with his wandering, partying brother. The older brother holds onto his anger, unable to forgive, unwilling to let the past stay in the past, and unwilling to make new memories with his newly returned brother. There is no actual closure to the story. We don’t know if the older brother held his grudge until the father’s death like Esau or if he was finally able to move to forgiveness and reconciliation. It is left open-ended. I can imagine that after some time of working together on the farm there was a peace that began to seep into his heart. I can imagine a conversation that included a naming of broken expectations, an acknowledgment of broken trust and broken relationship, a declaration of the awareness that he had maintained the fractured relationship through his own stubbornness. I can imagine reconciliation.

We saw Reconciliation in the late 20th century in two ways: in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, and in the Restorative Justice movement in our prison system. The Truth and Reconciliation movement, started by Bishop Desmond Tutu, was a chance for aggrieved parties under Apartheid to tell their stories. Through deep listening it allowed the people to hear each other, and acknowledge the pain in a court-like setting. The Commission granted amnesty for both victims and offenders. This Commission was different than the Nuremburg Trials; the Nuremburg Trials sought retribution for the crimes against humanity during the Holocaust, because the relationship was so broken there was no possibility of reconciliation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa assumed that there was still relationship to restore, that community was stronger when you could really hear the other’s pain, and that God delighted in this restoration of relationship.

The Restorative Justice movement, encourages perpetrators of violent crimes and their victims to listen to each other’s stories. Victims name how they were affected, offenders acknowledge their wrong-doing, and together they decide what steps the offender must take to restore a balance of justice. This is a radical departure from our standard punitive legal system where punishment is determined by a government-sanctioned court, rather than the community harboring the hurt.

In story-telling cultures such as many indigenous peoples there are various forms of restorative justice. For instance, the Hawaiian practice of Ho'o Pono Pono is an effort to set things right through a meeting of the aggrieved and aggrieving parties and community elders. The success of these efforts depends on restoration of relationship. 

Restorative Justice assumes anytime there is a crime, the victim and offender have a relationship, even if the only thing they have in common is the moment of the crime. They are in a strained relationship because of the crime, and to make a relationship whole again, there must be restitution paid directly to the victim, in the form of money and service. Both the offender and the victim determine together the extent of the crime and the amount of restitution. Crimes are understood as committed not merely against victims, but that the whole community is affected and must be part of the solution. In restoring trust, we can rebuild communities that are more whole, and therefore more Holy. Restorative Justice comes with the implied belief that God delights in restored relationships that lead to whole communities.  

You may remember the case of Cary Stayner, who was convicted of killing a tourist and her daughter and niece at a hotel just outside Yosemite National Park, and of the murder of Joie Armstrong within the boundaries of the Park. The family of the first victims sought the death penalty and, after a long and arduous penalty hearing in state court, death was imposed. 

Joie Armstrong's mother pursued a different path, possible because her daughter's murderer was tried in federal court since the crime was committed on federal property. Through the work of the Defense Initiated Victim Outreach, she came to believe that a death sentence was inappropriate, and she persuaded other family members to consider a plea bargain. In exchange for Stayner's apology and agreement to forego any profits from telling his story, the family would accept a life-without-possibility-of-parole sentence.

The family of the first victims later conceded that they would have preferred the process Joie's mother pursued. 

In The Shack, Mack reconciles with God, his biological father, and himself, restoring relationships that were strained. He begins to forgive his daughter’s murderer, but does not move into relationship or trust of him, and they are not at the point of reconciliation. For that to happen, there does need to be some contrition on the part of the offender, some recognition that they have hurt the victim and that the victim is due something for the harm caused. There needs to be an agreement about what that looks like—money, labor, something.

These kinds of restored relationships are difficult. They are counter-cultural because our legal system resists admitting fault, and quite frankly, it is hard to forgive someone else who wrongs you. It takes practice, and it takes courage, and it takes releasing the anger that has held you in a prison, so that you might move into the new freedom of reconciliation and relationship.  

This is the wholeness and holiness that God delights in.

Holy one: Teach us to forgive, and give us the courage to meet those who harm us, to really listen, and to form whole communities built on peace and justice. Amen.

Pastor Tony's Sermon July 23, 2017

Matthew 18: 21-35     7-23-17      Rev. Tony Clark     ACCUCC

Listen to this week's sermon by clicking here.

At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”

Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven. 

“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

“The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

“The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’

“The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

“The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.’

Every week we pray the Lord’s Prayer, saying, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Other churches say every week, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” or “forgive us our trespasses, we forgive those who trespass against us.” Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed that I have been saying trespasses rather than debts, and I have done this purposely because it reminds me that it’s not so much the financial debts that I need to have forgiven, but the actions that I have done or have left undone that harmed someone else.

I must confess, though, that every time I say “Forgive us our trespasses,” I think immediately of Winnie-the-Pooh’s best friend Piglet, whose house had a sign in front that said, “Trespassers W--” with the rest of the sign broken off. Of course, the sign was short for “Trespassers will be shot,” or “Trespassers will be prosecuted,” or maybe “Trespassers will be asked in for tea and crumpets.” But Piglet declared that it was for his grandfather, who was called, “Trespassers William.”

Forgive me God, for trespassing on such a serious topic as forgiveness with my impertinent humor. Teach us, O Great Forgiver, how to forgive—one another, ourselves, and even you. May the words…

Here we are at the Sunday of Forgiveness.

Last week we heard from Dorothy what forgiveness is not—it is not forgetting, it is not reconciliation or renewal of relationship, it is not a free pass out of punishment nor a release from the effects of acting badly. Forgiveness is not immediate, nor is it a miracle. Forgiveness is not for the offender.

“Forgiveness is,” as Papa says to Mack, “first for you, the forgiver, to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly…. When you choose to forgive another, you love him well.”[1]

So, if forgiveness is for the forgiver, why do we ask God to forgive us every week? If we believe God is first and foremost all-loving, then God has already forgiven us before we even ask. And yet, the asking is important. The asking itself acknowledges our wrong doing, our sin and separation from God, our trespassing on another’s property or crossing another’s emotional boundaries. Saying “I’m sorry” is an important thing in relationships.

We say, “forgive my sins, God; forgive me for those times when I became angry at you for not giving me what I wanted, and then turned my back on you. I know you did not leave me. I wanted, wished, hoped for something so badly, that it became a need, an expectation that I demanded that you fulfill, and when you didn’t, I pouted, I stomped my feet, I slammed my bedroom door and said, ‘I hate you!’ Forgive me, God.”

At that moment of yelling and door slamming, don’t we humans expect God to react the way an angry parent might, marching up to the door, pounding on it and saying, “Listen here, you ungrateful brat…,” and grounding us for the rest of our natural born lives? At that moment, it takes everything for even a good human parent to remain calm and loving.

Yet God is not human, and God doesn’t react that way. God responds with love, with immediate forgiveness. So perhaps asking for forgiveness from God is really a way to say, “I’m sorry,” acknowledging or admitting something we did wrong to ourselves and God, and expecting wrath, we ask God to forgive, which we intuit will release the anger, the wrath, the rage we know comes from humans who are broken and hurting.

And so we ask for forgiveness. Still, asking someone else for forgiveness does not guarantee they will forgive us; that action is theirs to take, not ours to demand. We cannot demand that God forgive us; we can only say, “I’m sorry, and I hope you find it in yourself to forgive me. Not because I need your forgiveness, but because you need to forgive, to let it go, to release the anger, the pain, the suffering I caused, so that you can become more whole.”

However, God is already whole, God is loving, God has already forgiven even before we ask. So why do we ask God week in and week out to forgive our debts, or our sins, or our trespasses?

I think it is really a plea to our inner self to forgive our own actions. Can I forgive my own debts, my own sins, my own trespasses?

Forgive me God, I am sorry for slamming the door between us. And then, O God, empower me to forgive my own debts, my own sins, my own trespasses--those times when I crossed a boundary I didn’t know was there, or a line I knew was there but crossed it anyway in defiance. Give me the fortitude to face and acknowledge the times when have I stepped on someone else’s toes either literally or metaphorically.

I said a few weeks ago that I get anxious when I am late, in part because my mother was always late, and I hated the feeling of coming in late, being looked at by everyone, and having to catch up to whatever was being said. My answer is to try to be early.

The reason my mother was often late was that she was a single mother, and sometimes worked two or three jobs to make ends meet. She was a busy professional, with two active teenagers, and sometimes she had to be Superwoman just to bend time and space for us. That I could forgive pretty easily, even though I was still left waiting or was late to an event.

My mother also drank lots of whiskey, and sometimes she would stop by a bar on her way to pick us up, and then she might lose track of time. Some weekends were focused on her need to drink, which meant my sister and I spent time as the only underage people at adult parties or clubs. She often forgot our needs in her need to self-medicate her pain.

For years, I was held in the grip of anger; it was many years after her death that I began the process of letting it go, of releasing my grip on those events, and I began the process of forgiving my mother. I had to acknowledge that my emotions were valid, that I could both love my mother very much and also have unkindled anger because although she was often a very good mother, there were times when she was not. My expectations and hopes that she would think about my needs went unfulfilled. I had hoped my mother might say she was sorry before she died, I had hoped that God might cure her and take away her alcoholism, I had hoped that I would be a better person. For forgiveness to even begin, I had to acknowledge all that had gone between us, and I had to accept that sometimes, in spite of the best intentions, we humans hurt each other. I recognized that my mother was human, and I know she had the best intentions for me and my sister; nothing she did was meant to be personal.

 Not forgiving held me in a loop of anger for several years. When I began to see and accept the humanness of it all, I began to forgive my mother, myself, and even God, and I could release the anger, release the grip it had held on me. To forgive my mother, I don’t need to forget what happened, and I can address my own needs by trying to be early to appointments and being aware of how alcohol affects me and then how I that affects those around me. 

Forgiveness does not happen once, though. As new things come up, as new slights, or sins, or debts, or trespasses occur, I must move through all the steps again and again, remembering that the emotions are valid, that I hoped for my needs to be met and they weren’t, accepting the humanness of the situation, and allowing the initial good intention to still give me hope for the next time. Uggh. Hard work.  However, I know that forgiving is for the forgiver, not the forgiven, which means that where my soul is broken, I must step into that perpetual cycle of forgiveness to move my soul toward wholeness.

Forgiveness frees me from difficult encapsulating feelings. Forgiving my mother, even after her death, allowed me to be more loving in my memories of her. And forgiving can also work when I feel I have trespassed on my own boundary or when I feel like God has not lived up the holy bargain I thought we had made. Forgiving myself moves me into better relationship with me, allowing me to become more fully human in that moment, as I acknowledged my failings and recognized my desire to do better. Forgiving God moves me into closer relationship with God, repenting and turning back--or “re-turning”--to a relationship that I acknowledge I was the one to sever.  And then I begin the process of returning to wholeness. 

In the tale about Piglet and the sign in front of his house that read “Tresspassers W—,” maybe Piglet’s grandfather had learned the art of forgiveness. Maybe Piglet’s grandfather had more than a warning to give us, but a spiritual practice to teach. Maybe that sign was really short for, “Trespassers will be forgiven.”

Holy, gracious, All Forgiving One, forgive us, and teach us the spiritual practice of forgiveness so that we may be made whole again. May we forgive those who trespass against us.  Amen.

[1] The Shack, William P. Young, (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007), p. 225.

Rev. Dorothy Streutker's Sermon July 16, 2017

What Forgiveness is Not

July 16, 2017 ACC

Today, we will consider two scenarios in which forgiveness is a pivotal issue.

The first is Mack’s rage at both his father for abuse inflicted on Mack and his mother by his father, and at the man who kidnapped and murdered Mack’s young daughter, Missy. His anger is easy to understand: Who wouldn’t be angry at an abusive father and a child murderer?

In the second scenario, Jonah’s anger is directed at God! He’d been through the whole belly of the whale experience, and finally got himself to Ninevah, where he prophesied that God would destroy the city. The Ninevites listened and responded, showing contrition and humility and openness to learning more about this God of whom Jonah spoke. Even their king dressed in burlap!

God regarded their change of heart and rewarded them by rescinding his order to destroy the city.

And how does Jonah respond? Does he rejoice along w/ God that Ninevah has been saved? NooOOOOoooo. He throws a genuine hissy fit! “I knew this would happen! You’re so good and forgiving!” That’s hubris! Complaining to God that God is too good and too forgiving.

Jonah is upset that God has decided to spare Ninevah with its over 120 thousand inhabitants and lots of innocent animals, too. Apparently, Jonah had become so wedded to his idea of justice raining down on Ninevah that not only could he not rejoice, but he even asked God to let him die!

We don’t learn whether Jonah ever got the lesson God sought to teach him with the quick-growing tree and the rapacious worm. For all we know, God finally granted Jonah’s wish, and allowed him to die.

Or perhaps Jonah did get it, and figured out that if God could forgive Ninevah, maybe he too could forgive Ninevah. Maybe he realized that the deal he had thrown at God – do what you sent me to prophecy, or I want to die – was at best ironic. Punish Ninevah or let me die. Not a great formula for Jonah. In the capital punishment world, there is a saying that the need for revenge is like buying rat poison to kill rats, but you eat the poison yourself! Again, not a great formula!

A much better formula involves forgiveness, which Mack learns eventually. But first, he must get rid of some preconceived notions about what forgiveness is, and what it is not.

The following passage from The Shack reveals many of Mack’s misperceptions:

[Papa is speaking to Mack:]

“Mack, for you to forgive this man (his daughter’s killer) is for you to release him to me and allow me to redeem him. “

[Mack}: I’m stuck, Papa. I just can’t forget what he did, can I?”

[Papa]: “Forgiveness is not about forgetting, Mack. It is about letting go of another person’s throat.”

…“So what then? I just forgive him and everything is okay, and we become buddies?”

“You don’t have a relationship with this man, at least not yet. Forgiveness does not establish relationship…. Mackenzie, don’t you see that forgiveness is an incredible power -- a power you share with us, a power Jesus gives to all whom he indwells so that reconciliation can grow?”

…

“I don’t think I can do this,” Mack answered softly.

“I want you to. Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver,” answered Papa, “to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly…. I want to help you take on that nature that finds more power in love and forgiveness than hate.”

In this passage, Papa identifies several of the myths about forgiveness.

First, and perhaps foremost, is that forgiveness does not require the forgiver to forget the wrong he or she suffered. As Papa explains to Mack, about forgiving his father for the abuse he inflicted on Mack and Mack’s mother, it is impossible to forget the abuse. In fact, Papa emphasizes that she, being God, forgets nothing. But she chooses not to revisit those transgressions, to not confront or humiliate the transgressor by bringing up past wrongs.

But forgiveness does not require forgetting. This is perhaps the biggest shibboleth that impedes wronged people from considering forgiveness. They believe that forgiving a wrongdoer is to “forgive and forget,” “sweep it under the rug,” “put it behind you.”

While I was practicing capital appellate law, I became involved in what was originally named “Victim Offender Reconciliation Project” (VORP). The name has since been changed to remove the “reconciliation” aspect as too off-putting to victim’s family members. And I learned that the concept of forgiveness is also verboten.

In various training, I brought up forgiveness as a tool for healing. I was chastised for even suggesting it. I’ve since learned that I will not be invited to participate in any victim=offender outreach because I am “too religious.” (Mind you, this project started at Eastern Mennonite University.) “Too religious” is code for “you talk too much about forgiveness.” I tried to reassure the organizers that I recognize that bringing up forgiveness too early in the process – or in some cases, raising it at all – is not my intention, but they have concluded I cannot be trusted to keep to myself my belief in forgiveness as a path to healing to myself

Much of the discomfort with the concept of forgiveness I believe is attributable to the “forgive and forget” myth. Victim’s family members do not want to forget; if anything, they want to remember.

What they’re missing, though, is that forgiveness is not to benefit the offender, but to ease the pain of loss for the forgiver. Let me repeat, forgiveness is not for the forgiven, but for the benefit of the forgiver. In a poignant scene in The Shack, Papa (here appearing as a Native American elder) distinguishes “forgiveness” from “relationship.” Mack asks for clarification: “So forgiveness does not require me to pretend what he did never happened?” Papa replies, “How can you?” Even recognizing the evil in what the murderer did, Mack can let go of the need for revenge.

Papa asks Mack to say, I forgive you. Reluctantly, Mack complies. Papa tells Mack to say it again and again, and explains that it may take many repetitions over many, many days before Mack can honestly, fully forgive the murderer.

Another myth about forgiveness is that it is a gift that must come from a higher power, and is automatic. Boom! You receive the power to forgive. But The Shack, and Fred Luskin, director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, present forgiveness as a process that takes time, and is a choice, a decision to pursue healing rather than revenge. And it can be done without the wrongdoer being involved. Some forgiveness experts suggest writing a letter to the offender even if he or she is dead or is completely out of touch, as the murderer was for Mack. It does not require a relationship with the offender. That is a different process, reconciliation, that does require involvement with the offender, and requires another process of building or rebuilding trust. More on reconciliation will be coming in a few weeks.

I once met a woman whose relative was murdered, whose method of forgiving was to simply not care about the murderer. She didn’t care whether he was executed, or lived out his days in prison. She just put him out of her mind. She let go of the desire for revenge, which helped her heal, without involving the murderer. Her anger did not dissipate, but she no longer allowed the need for revenge to shape her life. 

Of course, there are the exceptions that prove the rule: Another woman I’ve met, Abba Gayle, perpetuates some of the miracle myth. Her niece was murdered by a deacon in the church. After the deacon was convicted and sentenced, Gayle felt called to reach out to him. She wrote him a letter and since that first contact, she began visiting and last I’ve heard, she has a vital relationship with the man. But Abba Gayle’s experience is definitely not the norm.

Another myth about forgiveness is that it is a weak response to injustice. But as Papa explains to Mack, forgiveness is a powerful choice. Before forgiveness, a wronged person is in thrall to the offender. We see this in victim’s families who are continually on alert for the next hearing in the murderer’s case, for news articles that mention the murderer, for contact from the DA’s office pending a clemency effort by the defense. They have ceded power to the offender, letting their search for justice interfere with their lives. Jonah is an extreme example – so extreme he’s ready to die if fire and brimstone do not rain down on Ninevah! His need for his brand of justice is that great. Think of the good he could have done if he had accepted God’s gift of mercy to the Ninevites and instead ministered to the people, preaching about the God of the Israelites to these people eager to receive the news. God says, leave the question of justice to me. As Paul wrote in Romans, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Or, as Papa tells Mack, sin is its own punishment.

So, there you have it, my list of what forgiveness is not, derived from a variety of sources: It is not for the benefit of the forgiven; it does not require forgetting the wrong that has been done; it does not establish relationship; it is a process, a choice, not a miracle; it does not tolerate injustice; and it is NOT a sign of weakness, but a reclamation of power.

At the end of Tony’s sermon last week, on the tough subject of theodicy – why bad things happen to good people – he invited you all to stay tuned. Now it is my turn to lob the ball back into his court. I recommend staying tuned to Tony’s reflections on what forgiveness is, and later on how reconciliation really can happen.

Oh, and by the way, in my conversations with Papa over the past week, she asked me to tell you that she is especially fond of each one of you!

Amen.