Sermons
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In God's Face
07/25/10
In God’s Face
Luke 11: 1-13
Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of Christ
Olympic Valley, CA
July 25, 2010
Art Domingue, Minister
Jesus answered this request by offering a template for prayer and by sharing a story about being bold. His response was immediate and succinct and made it look as if teaching about prayer was as easy as rolling off a log. Some of us know that just isn’t so; that the subject is deeply personal and extremely complex. Despite seminary training, despite lots of on-the-job experience, many ministers feel unqualified to teach about prayer because their own prayer life has – at times – failed them. We too have a lot to learn.
Almost without exception ministers bold enough to write their memoirs have recorded a time when their prayer life dried up like the Sahara; when God went AWOL; when the direct line they wished they had to the heavens proved to be no more than a dial tone. Harry Emerson Fosdick, J.B. Phillips, Leslie Weatherhead, Martin Marty and many others have attested to an inexplicable, sudden inability to make contact with God. For Martin Marty the problem came immediately after the death of his first wife. He published a book about it, A Cry of Absence: Reflections for the Winter of the Heart. In this book he wrote of the “loneliness of the godless horizon.”
Ministers tend to understand the complexities of prayer and the occasional necessity of finding new ways to communicate with God.
So this morning instead of suggesting that I know anything about prayer I will stick to experience and share with you how – over the years -my prayer life has changed.
For example, I used to think that the choice to pray or not to pray was up to me. I don’t believe that anymore.
This past Wednesday I was hanging around one of the gas stations in Tahoe City waiting for my car to be serviced. Two police cars roared by, sirens blaring, heading north on Rte. 89; then a fire engine and ambulance. Over a span of five minutes three more ambulances rushed by. Someone was in deep trouble. Suddenly God and I were in conversation. “Hold them! Help them! Those whose lives have been so suddenly changed!”
Once I thought I was the one who pushed the prayer button, bowed my head and folded my hands, not anymore. Prayer happens and can be initiated by God.
About a month ago I realized I’d been humming Beethoven’s Ode to Joy nonstop, or, more precisely, the hymn set to that repeating theme, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee.” I hadn’t been choosing hymns for the next Sunday’s service. I hadn’t been listening to the car radio. Sometimes tunes from these sources get stuck in my head and I hum them all day until Joanne says, “Stifle!” But this wasn’t the case. Where had it come from? The answer bubbled up from within me like a big involuntary burp: “Thank you God for this amazing day….for everything that has turned green; that winter is over; that I have health and am loved and have good things to do this day!”
Once I thought I got to make the decision as to when it was prayer time. Not anymore.
A second way in which my prayer life has changed is that over the years I have come to talk less and listen more.
Huge in this process was that night some 20 years ago when the members of the First Congregational Church in San Jose UCC assembled to take a vote on becoming an Open and Affirming Church. Would they become overt in welcoming gay and lesbian people, transgendered, bi-sexual people, all of God’s people…?. It was not a happy meeting. Members came to this meeting who hadn’t been to worship in 10 years. They came that night to vote “No!” To save the church they stayed away from…. After an hour of acrimonious debate, a motion was made and carried that the vote be tabled; that we spend another year in study before a decision was made.
Had you been able to hear my prayers after that meeting you might haves described them as disorganized rantings: “God did you hear? Should I resign? I have no heart to serve an insular, judgmental church. God where were YOU? An ice storm keeping those fair weather friends at home would have been most appropriate.” It wasn’t for a few days before I had the sense to listen.
And what I heard went somewhat like this. “Yes, I was there. I heard it all. The church is not ready. But take heart. Solutions found without struggle are like pancake make-up, they crack and fall away. The whole church has to talk, study, share and then talk, study, share some more until there is a consensus that both befits my love and includes everyone.”
A year later when the vote passed with no one dissenting and but three abstentions I decided that prayer as listening was the way to go.
But, when I AM talking, I’m less Mr. Prayer Nice Guy than before.
A few years ago a minister from the Chinese Methodist Church in San Francisco was leading a Bible study as a part of the Earl Lectures held at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. He read the story we heard this morning about the man who had visitors arrive in the middle of the night, unexpectedly. He had no food to feed them but hospitality required that he come up with something, so he went next door to borrow from his neighbor. From an upstairs window the neighbor reminded him that it was very late. He said he was already in bed and so too all his family. “Go away; I’ll get something for you in the morning.” Now if the man had been asking for himself he probably would have gone away. But hospitality demands responsibility and so he persisted. He kept pounding on the door until the neighbor came down and gave him some food - just to shut him up. The minister leading the Bible study said it seemed to him that this story, as told by Jesus, was an invitation to be in God’s face.
I’ve taken to that like a duck to water! It has changed my prayer life. When tragedy strikes a parishioner I no longer search for polite, flowery words to present the need to God. I say immediately and with volume: “God this stinks! You have great responsibility here!
I have read books about the Hassidic Rabbi, Levi Yitzhak, who made a regular habit of letting God have it: “Master of the Universe, if you continue to treat your people as poorly as we have been treated, we are going to quit being your people. If you persist in ignoring our prayers, we will stop praying. Have you considered how lonely then you will be?”
I try to listen more but at the same time I feel I have Jesus’ permission to be in God’s face.
And the last thing I want to mention with regard to changes in my prayer life is that I have been learning that I’m not always the one who gets to set the agenda of what we will talk about. I’ve often shared with you the Reformation leader, Ulrich Zwingli’s belief that prayer is the work of the people. While it is appropriate for the minister to suggest a topic for prayer, having done so he/she should clam up. Lately I’ve been learning that even that modest participation is sometimes taken away. I say let us pray for the leaders of Zimbabwe or Kenya, that they will clean up their act; begin to serve the needs of their people… and God seizes the talking stone and the subject becomes greed and abuse in America. I suggest prayers for the health of the universe: politically correct - gloriously green! And God takes off about the water I waste every day. “God, you’re switching the subject. This is my nickel!”
The feeling is of inviting someone into your living room for a polite conversation only to have that someone get up and start rummaging through your closets. There are things I keep in the closets on purpose and I don’t choose to talk about them in the living room.
But what I’ve learned is that when God pokes into the closets, God doesn’t die of shock, God doesn’t turn away disappointed. Rather what happens is a deepening friendship. What is a friend but one who knows everything about us and yet doesn’t drop us like a hot potato? Finding such a friend gives us the strength and courage to clean out the closets. With the light of Christ in one hand and a wastebasket in the other we discover we can do it.
Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.
I do not have the confidence to teach anyone how to pray, but I will share a few observations based upon experience:
Don’t worry about when you should pray or how often. Cherish God and prayer will set its own seasons. God talk just bubbles up.
Don’t fret about the words…. Feisty is fine and besides some of the best stuff comes from listening.
Don’t bother to work up an agenda. Just get started. Prayer will go where God wills, and the chances are that our conundrums will be untangled, the hard places will become pliable and what has been an embarrassment will become new strength for our future.
Above all try it! Prayer, however it is managed, is one of the great strengths for life. Amen.
The Better Part
07/18/10
The Better Part: Martha or Mary
Luke 10: 38-42; 12: 22-31
Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of Christ
Olympic Valley, CA
July 18, 2010
Art Domingue, Minister
How old do you imagine Martha was when Jesus came to visit? Or her sister Mary….? They sound to me like some 11 and 12 year olds I’ve known. “Mom, make Mary clean her half of the bedroom!” “Dad, I’m doing all of the dishes! She’s just sitting there!” Perhaps Mary and Martha were still very young.
Another question.... Did you know that Jesus had 72 disciples travelling with him and that when he came to Mary and Martha’ house they came too?
At this point in his ministry Jesus was an itinerant preacher/teacher, going from village to village, talking with whomever will listen. He had with him a retinue of disciples-in-training to whom he had given these instructions: “Come with me into every town and place I intend to go. Take nothing with you. Remain in the same house where I stay, eating and drinking whatever the host provides….” These are early verses in the 10th chapter of Luke. Verse 38 reads, “Jesus entered a certain village where Martha welcomed him into her home.” So my question: “When Martha welcomed Jesus did she see the 72 friends behind him?
Having 73 people drop in for dinner, and spend the night, and stay with you as long as Jesus stays, adds a new urgency to Martha’s words “Jesus don’t you care that Mary is leaving all the work for me? Tell her to help me.”
But no matter how justified Martha’s cry may have been I never hear this story without being reminded of how much I dislike complaints. I’ve written down, saved the answer a Vermont farmer gave when someone asked him why he didn’t grease the wheel on his cart. The squeak was awful. The farmer said, “The squeak is cheaper than the grease.” That’s long been my suspicion about complaints. Many are cheap shots. It’s important to me where a complaint comes from. If you have a problem with something I’m doing, please tell me. I can deal with that sort of compliant. It’s good for you to let it out and good for me to learn the effect I’m having. But if you want to repeat something someone else has said to criticize me, don’t’ bother. If they won’t take responsibility for their opinions why should I? And I wonder why a third party would repeat it.
Do you remember what Jesus did with Martha’s compliant? He didn’t pass it on or even turn to Mary. Rather he spoke to Martha. “Let me tell you what your complaints tell me. That you worry about and get upset over many things …. What can we do to lessen this anxiety?” Perhaps it was Martha whom Jesus had in mind when he said “Be ye not anxious about how things look, about what you shall eat or drink – about what your guests shall eat or drink – none of these disciples of mine are going to starve or die of thirst. Post a sign that points to the well. Leave some loaves on the table. We’re here today to consider things of faith.
I am reminded of those times our son would bring home some other runners on the High School cross country team… for dinner… unannounced. This was not a table linen and sterling silver crowd. They had some strange ideas as to what would be good to eat. Quickly we learned what worked best was simply to point the lads toward the refrigerator and the cupboards. And it seemed to suffice as hospitality for occasionally we’d return home to discover that while our son wasn’t there one of his team mates was, with his head in the refrigerator. “Just waiting John,” he’d say… “And taking a look.”
The story of Martha and Mary is – for me - a story about complaints and a story about hospitality, hospitality without the anxiety.
And I’ve recently read that today’s story is about radical hospitality; that by stopping at Martha and Mary’s house Jesus was breaking a number of social and religious taboos. Men did not eat at a woman’s table. Women did not sit down on the disciples’ bench. Jesus broke the rules with both the women and I think that it was a demonstration for those 72 men and women behind him. “What’s always been done doesn’t have to be done; nor what the religious law and customary usage demands. Look! People can eat together, study together, pray together and what God made to be together must not be pulled asunder.
The story of Martha and Mary is a story about criticism and radical hospitality.
I find the story to be a remarkable affirmation of the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator. In 1943, two social scientists, Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabelle Briggs Meyers developed a series of questions, the answers to which – they believed - indicated a great deal about the responder’s “type.” Whether she was an extrovert or an introvert…. Whether he gained most of his information through thought or the senses… What is particularly remarkable about the Meyers and Briggs Indicator is that – unlike the earlier proponent s of Phrenology - there is no suggestion that one personality type is superior to another. Blessed is the business that employs a variety of types, for then they will have the visionaries and the work horses, the self-propelled and those whose gift is keeping a group together. Blessed is the household that contains both the laid back and the keeper of time.
The Myers Briggs Type indicator is Biblical. It echoes what Paul wrote:”The ear may not be an arm but it cannot say to the arm, “I have no need of you!”
Because I believe that all such variety is by God created I have come to assume that the sentence “Mary has chosen the better part” is a later addition; just another example of the church inserting its agenda into the text. It’s like a minister who assumes that there is something innate to his profession that makes it more worthy that that of the car mechanic or that piety is more precious than pastry or poetry or putting the shot. What Mary did was to choose the learning-more-about- her-faith part and that’s no better, no worse than cooking dinner.
God’s people come in differing types. As Ogden Nash once wrote:
Some people are just naturally Pollyanna
While others call for sugar and cream and strawberries on their manna.
The more I think about Mary and Martha the more I believe it to be is one of those archetypal stories that speak to the root of Jesus’ message. No matter who you are, Martha or Mary… Fred or Tom…. No matter where you are…. in the kitchen or on the disciples bench…. You are one of God’s precious children, to whom Jesus is calling, “Welcome home.”
Good Sam
07/11/10
Good Sam
Luke 10: 25-37
Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of Christ
July 11, 2010
Art Domingue, Minister
Although it has been around for 167 years the name, Ebinezer Scrooge, still evokes a lonely, mean, miserly man. Sixty-five years after his death the name of Vidkin Quisling brings to mind the traitor still. The names Scrooge and Quisling have become eponyms, proper names that have become commonplace names for attitudes or things; things such as the MacAdam surface, the Morris chair, Adam’s apple.
But none is more evocative than the granddaddy of them all, the Samaritan.
There is a group calling itself the Samaritans that runs a Suicide Prevention Hotline, staffed by volunteers, in Boston, New York and other cities.
There are people patrolling the Arizona desert watching out for migrants in distress. Since 2002 they have called themselves the Samaritans. Did you know that the leading cause of death in Arizona is sunstroke?
There is a national health cost co-operative called Samaritan Ministries. Its members promise to share the cost of each other’s health care.
The Samaritan Inn in Washington D.C. provides services to men and women who are homeless and addicted. The Flying Samaritans bring free medical care to those who need it in Baja, Lower California.
Samaritan’s Purse and Samaritan’s Feet are the names of Christian, evangelical, non-profit agencies that offer food and shoes to the needy all over the world, - specifically to those willing to hear a good deal about Jesus.
And important to me is one of many hospitals named Good Samaritan, “Good Sam” we called it in San Jose, where two of my grandchildren were born.
The Samaritan gets around and for almost 2000 years it has been a recognized symbol for mercy.
A man, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is beaten and robbed. A priest and a Levite see his predicament but do not stop to help. A Samaritan does and transports him to an Inn and arranges for his care. When Jesus finished telling his story he turned to the lawyer and asked “Who, then, proved to be a neighbor?” The lawyer would not speak the name, “Samaritan.” It was a theologically and politically incorrect name, an un-kosher name, just to say the name might leave him polluted. Instead the lawyer answered in generic form, “The one who showed mercy.”
The word for mercy, in Hebrew, is Eleos. It is a multipurpose word that suggests not only “blessing and unwarranted compassion, but also leniency, service, generosity. It’s a word that can hold a lot.” – Jennifer Lord, Christian Century, June 29, 2010, pg. 19.
So all those non-profits have it right.... A Samaritan can be someone who listens to the depressed, who helps the homeless, the addict, the migrant. The name fits wherever mercy is needed, especially when mercy is delivered through the helping hands and forgiving feet of a volunteer.
Jesus’ story began from a question and ended in a question: “Who is my neighbor?” “Which one was the neighbor?” “The one who showed mercy.” “Go and do likewise.”
So this morning I’ve decided to ask a few questions of my own.
For example: “Why didn’t the priest or the Levite stop? They were the representatives of organized religion.”
The answer, provided by a child in Richard Morgan’s church school is revealing:”Because they saw that the man had already been robbed.” – Richard Morgan, Settling In, pg. 133.
Question: Why did Jesus tell the story with a Samaritan as the hero? Why not an Israelite? It was his story and he could have described the characters any way he wished.
By way of an answer I will tell another story. A friend and colleague in the United Church of Christ, Martin Copenhaver, has written of thatsummer, just before he went to seminary, that he taught a class in Vacation Bible School. Each day his class acted out one of Jesus’ parables. On the day it was the Good Samaritan’s turn they all bundled into Marin’s car, drove about ½ mile from the church, parked on the verge, opened the hood and, for good measure jacked up the right front of the vehicle. They were, of course, trying to see if anyone would stop to help. Most of the children hid in the bushes. They had with them flowers they had picked and thank you cards they had made to give to those who stopped. Martin cautioned the children not to give all the flowers and cards to the first Samaritan, rather to save some for others who offered their help.
Martin chose two of the children to stay with him at the car. These two were chosen fpr their mastery of the pathetic look, their ability to sustain eye contact and exude the non-verbal plea.
His plan was to stay with this for one half hour but when thirty minutes had passed no one had stopped, Plenty of cars had gone by, some had slowed and Martin and the children had established eye contact. But none had stopped.
It was time to head back and Martin was wondering how he was going to deal with the discouragement of the morning when a station wagon slowed and actually stopped, about fifty yards beyond. A woman got out and called: “Timmy?” One of the children with Matrin answered, “Mom!” It seems Timmy’s mother was on the way to church to pick him up when she saw him standing by the road. As she walked toward him the other children burst out of the bushes and presented her with all the flowers and all the cards, delighted that, finally, their experiment had borne fruit. They class distributed itself in both cars and they went back to church.
Martin said he debated whether he would tell the children that what had happened was precisely NOT what Jesus meant. – The Minister’s Message, First Parish, Burlington, VT Newsletter, 1991.
Frequently in his ministry Jesus asked his listeners, “What’s the big deal about providing services to members of your own family….? To the residents of your home town….? Even the Pharisees do that!” Can you….? Will you show mercy beyond your natural affiliations?
So Jesus’s hero had to be a Samaritan. A heathen helping a true believer, for Jesus believed that mercy accepted no boundaries. Mercy was due the alien, the foreigner, even the enemy.
Question: Is the story getting old?
Answer: Never!
Last week the New York Times reported that ministers all over America used the Fourth of July to speak with their parishioners about the Christian’s duty to the migrant. They could have waited one week and the lectionary would have brought the subject to them. There would have been the same uproar, the same backlash, the same cries of "Save America’s jobs for Americans!" and “Health care for our own!” Understandable sentiments given our present economy. Even the priest and Levite can be understood in the light of their religious persuasions, but then…. along comes the Samaritan.
Those who have the ears to hear Jesus’ story will also have the power to shatter all such comfortable nepotisms. It will even upset that bit of common knowldege– “Doesn’t everybody know iy?” – that if kindness is spread too thin it will run out. Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan confronts our cautions, destroys our boundaries, opens our horizons as much today as ever before.
Question: What must I do?
Answer: Kneel, tend to the wounded, whoever they are, wherever they be.
