Good morning, beloved. I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and I’m grateful to be together on this second Sunday of Advent. Today, we reflect on the theme of peace — paz, the wholeness that Jesus brings to our lives. And we do so while traveling on the path of Advent, "On the Way to Bethlehem."
Our Scripture this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, a passage that introduces us to Zechariah and Elizabeth, a couple who have been waiting — waiting for a child, waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises. Just as their very names remind us, Zechariah is from the Hebrew “Zakar” or “to remember,” and Elizabeth’s name means “My God promises” making us, the readers, think: God remembers God’s promises. As we enter the story, we find them in Jerusalem, the holy city, a place of waiting for many people. Jerusalem was a place of anticipation and longing, a city that had long awaited the arrival of the Messiah.
And what a place of longing it was, and even at that time a place already imbued with so much meaning and history. Jerusalem at the time of Jesus had already been in existence for nearly two thousand years, the name meaning “the place where peace is established,” from the ancient Akkadian Shalamu. We read of it in Egyptian and Amarna texts, predating even the time frame of the Exodus and even the Jewish people. Many people groups inhabited the holy city, like the Jebusites before the Israelites. But what King David did was seemingly unique in that he declared Jerusalem his capitol, and in so doing brought numerous tribes together to form a diverse city, filled with his supporters, which were the downtrodden, whether they were Israelites, Moabites, or even Philistines. While David was known as too violent to build the temple of God, he laid an inclusive groundwork of allowing covenant loyalties to move beyond tribe. Jesus, from the root of Jesse, from the branch of David, would truly be the Prince of Peace for all peoples. During Herod’s reign Jerusalem probably had around 40,000 inhabitants, living under occupation, waiting for true peace, just as those centuries before, and centuries after.
Sometime in the early 1830s, an enslaved young woman named Araminta Ross suffered a horrific brain injury. She was about 12 or 13 at the time, and her enslaver had hired her out to another farm as a field hand. She had gone into the village with the enslaved cook of the estate to help her purchase some dry goods at the village store. As she stood outside waiting for the cook, a young boy being chased by an overseer ran toward her and dashed into the dry goods store. The overseer picked up a two-pound iron weight that was used for measuring dry goods and threw it at the boy, but instead, the full force of this iron weight hit Araminta in the head so hard that it shattered her skull and drove the fabric of the shawl she was wearing on her head into the wound where it stuck. Apparently, Araminta had stepped in front of the young boy to protect him.
She was carried back to the farm, but she had no bed to be laid in, and so they laid her on the bench of the loom in the weaving room. No one tended to her. And the next morning, she was expected to get up and work in the fields. Which she did. But she was unable to sustain any work. As one of her biographers said of her, “the injury [caused] her often to fall into a state of somnolency, from which it is almost impossible to rouse her. Disabled and sick, her flesh all wasted away, she was returned to her owner. He tried to sell her, but no one would buy her.” Instead, her mother was able to nurse her back to health.
Sometimes, when I’m studying the lectionary texts assigned for the Sunday that I am preaching, I’ll read one of the texts and think, “Oh, no way. No way am I preaching on that text.” I’ll move on to the other texts, I will find them uninspiring, I will move back to the one that repulsed me, look at it again and say, "No, really; no way, no way am I preaching on that!” And then I will sigh and realize that the Holy Spirit is telling me that that’s exactly the text I’m going to be preaching.
That’s how I felt about today’s text from the gospel according to Mark. This text is difficult for a variety of reasons. It makes me uncomfortable in the way it prophesies destruction and war and famine. It sounds too mysterious and inscrutable and too much like the Book of Revelation. In fact, it so resembles some of the imagery and language in the Book of Revelation that it is known by biblical scholars as the “Little Apocalypse.” As a progressive Christian, I’m just not sure how I feel about predictions of the Second Coming, except as a study of academic interest. So, I figured that is where we’ll start today, with a little refresher course on apocalyptic literature. Because the Bible is full of it, and so is the rest of the world.
Well, well. Sounds like we’re overhearing a plot for some subversive action. Before we get to plotting, let’s get to praying shall we?
Señor, que las palabras de mi boca y la meditación de todos nuestros corazones sean agradables a tu vista, oh Señor, nuestra Roca y Redentor. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.
Today, I’m going to talk a bit about home. What is home to you? Oftentimes home is defined narrowly as the place where one lives permanently, with a nuclear family perhaps. However, humans like most species have a tendency to migrate, so a wider definition is also often employed relating to the space and place where one lives, relates, and interacts with others most often. Home can be reliable, predictable, and it can also be just the opposite. One can have a long-held perception and experience of their home, and wake up one morning to that perception shattered. War, famine, familial violence, ruling political parties, genocides, like the ongoing one in Gaza, can all cause this.
Hoy voy a hablar del hogar. El hogar puede ser confiable, predecible y también puede ser todo lo contrario. Uno puede tener una percepción y una experiencia de su hogar durante mucho tiempo y despertarse una mañana con esa percepción destrozada. La guerra, la hambruna, la violencia familiar, los partidos políticos, los genocidios, como el que está ocurriendo en Gaza, pueden ser causas de esto. Eso es lo que pasó en el libro de Rut, una hambruna que causó muchas familias a migrar desde Judá a Moab.
Today we are celebrating All Saints Day, a solemn rite of the Christian Church, whose history goes all the way back to the fourth century, when the early church began to designate a day to commemorate the Christian martyrs of the faith. By the middle ages, the day became one of celebrating all the saints, not just the martyrs or those officially canonized by the church, but all saints known and unknown. Also in the middle ages, the church settled on the date of November 1 for the observance, probably because, like a lot of other Christian holidays, the church decided to align All Saints Day with the pagan celebrations that were happening at the same time. In the cultures of northern Europe, especially the Celtic cultures of Britain, Scotland and Ireland, the celebration of Samhain was a day when the Celts honored the dead. In fact, most of our secular Halloween traditions are descended from the Celtic rituals of Samhain: dressing in costumes, going door-to-door and asking for treats, playing tricks on people, and carving pumpkins – although the Celts used to carve turnips.
Many other cultures in the Northern Hemisphere and beyond have set aside a day for honoring the dead, so the idea of All Saints Day or Halloween or Dia de los Muertos seems to be following a basic human need: to remember our ancestors, to invite them back into our lives for a time, and then to let them go again.
Some years ago I enrolled in and completed a certificate program in organizational development at DePaul University’s business school in Chicago.
The program was helpful for my work at the UCC national offices where my primary job was to recruit and develop executives to lead our denomination’s 475 health and human service agencies. Many of the lessons that I learned then have been helpful to me in serving here in Eden.
One lesson I learned and brought into this setting was the importance of understanding the role of an organization's rewards system in the development and retention of successful leaders.
Not surprisingly, most leaders are encouraged and sustained by robust employee benefits packages, which include competitive salaries and benefits packages, and opportunities for growth and increasing responsibility in order to advance professionally.
Most HR professionals would describe these types of employee compensation packages as “quantitative incentives,” because a dollar value can easily be assigned to them and businesses can create budget scenarios and financial forecasts for inclusion in their strategic plans and evaluation processes.
The primary question organizational leaders consider with quantitative employee incentive programs is--“How do we come up with the cash to finance our employee rewards program, while simultaneously producing a strong bottom line to promote long-term sustainability of our organization?”
This weekend is our first three day weekend of Fall. Some of the kiddos had Friday off to boot, and I know some of our families, like ours, have already gotten into the receiving spirit of Fall sickness, so some of us have had kids home so long, we’re getting flashbacks of summer. So a very special blessing for all those parents out there that are having to resort to remote workdays–and it’s our prayer that you also get some quality time in.
If we were just a bit north, we would be celebrating Thanksgiving on Monday, as Canadians do, but here in the U.S., we recognize this coming Monday as Indigenous People’s Day; well, in some states it is now recognized as such. In other states it is celebrated, as it is recognized at the federal level, as Columbus Day. Does anybody know why Columbus Day was established? It was established in 1892 by President Benjamin Harrison, four hundred years after Columbus’ fateful expedition from Europe. He did so to honor the lives of 11 Italian Americans who were lynched in New Orleans the previous year. Franklin D. Roosevelt made the holiday a national one, a way to celebrate the contributions of Italian Americans to the United States. So, while the origins of the holiday finds its roots in celebrating immigrants, many today associate it with the earlier and darker Doctrine of Discovery.
This Doctrine of Discovery, both a legal and religious principle that gave European nations the right to claim and colonize lands outside of Europe, has made a blot on Christendom bigger than that of the Crusades, and was the basis for our own policy of Manifest Destiny codified in the Monroe Doctrine, which in turn, would serve a blueprint for Hitler’s own Lebensraum, or “living space,” the idea that the frontier is one’s for the taking.(1) One need only read the 2019 book, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Navajo Christian minister, Mark Charles, to begin to understand its lasting impact, so long upheld by the Church.(2) This, coupled with the many contrary-to-Gospel ways that Church has shown up in the past century and shows up today in public life, makes it difficult for many Christians to want to express their faith. Am I getting any head nods from the pews?
Today is World Communion Sunday. World Communion Sunday is not part of the traditional liturgical calendar and is not a practice of the ancient church. It is instead a modern commemoration, an idea that was cooked up by the Presbyterian minister Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1933. He was hoping that by emphasizing the common sacrament of communion he could engender unity and demonstrate the interconnectedness of Christian churches, regardless of denomination.
His colleagues in the Presbyterian denomination thought it was a great idea and adopted it as a denominational practice by 1936, but it didn’t really take off as a national or worldwide phenomenon until the second world war, when it really felt like the world was falling apart. Kerr’s son recalls that, “It was during the [...] War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together. World Wide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together, in a spiritual sense. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” (1)
In 1940 the organization that was a predecessor of the National Council of Churches, promoted the idea of celebrating world communion Sunday; The practice became widespread, and Today, World Communion Sunday is celebrated around the world. (2)
The primary text for today’s sermon is based on a page torn from the hymnal of ancient Israel, frequently referred to as the book of Psalms. Psalm 124 is a song that was composed to commemorate one of the most important periods in our ancestor’s life--the Exodus from Egypt--specifically, the crossing of the Red Sea.
You may recall that our Hebrew ancestors were migrants. They raised sheep and goats and migrated around the ancient near east in search of green pastures to feed their flocks and sufficient water to keep them and their livestock alive.
At a particularly difficult time in their lives, the entire region where our ancestors traveled suffered such a severe drought that there was a famine in the land, and the only way they could survive was to leave that familiar region, and sell themselves into indentured servitude to a king--a Pharaoh--who ruled the land of Egypt.
Eden Church is blessed to be experiencing a growth spurt these days. You may have noticed. Not every faith community can make such a claim. This is because the pandemic has functioned as the catastrophic equivalent of a “blow across the bow” of their proverbial ship. And the United Church of Christ, Eden’s parent denomination has not escaped this phenomenon.
Our own Northern California Nevada Conference United Church of Christ has and continues to struggle mightily and we are not alone. Like most other Protestant judicatories in Northern California and across the nation we have suffered significant numerical losses. For example, our “Bishop” who we refer to as “Conference Minister,” the Rev. Dr. Davena Jones reported at the last Annual Gathering that we lost 24 congregations during the pandemic.
My recollection is that the number of congregations prior to the pandemic was roughly 125. So, then, we would have lost roughly 1/5th of our congregations since the Shelter in Place (March 2020). But that is not the whole story. To be fair and to accurately capture the whole mathematical story problem, one must also account for the fact that today our conference has about 125 congregations on the rolls. How is that possible?
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Good morning Eden family! Buenos días familia Edén. ¿Mucho tiempo sin vernos, verdad? It’s been awhile hasn’t it? You know, it’s been so long that I came back to campus after Labor Day and my keys didn’t work. I think Bob, Javier, and others thought that they had gotten rid of me and re-keyed the place. You’ll have to try harder than that next time.
También quiero decirles a todos feliz fin de semana de la Independencia para nuestras hermanas y hermanos quienes están celebrando.
It’s good to be settling back into routine and reconnecting with each and everyone of you here at Eden. For those who may not know, I was on clergy renewal leave thanks to a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment’s National Clergy Renewal Program, and thanks to the support of this wonderful congregation that encourages rest, renewal, and spiritual growth.
Es bueno volver a la rutina y reconectarme con todos y cada uno de ustedes aquí en Edén. Para aquellos que no lo sepan, estuve en un sabático de renovación del clero gracias a una generosa beca nacional, y gracias al apoyo de esta maravillosa congregación que fomenta el descanso, la renovación y el crecimiento espiritual.
Today’s text is the most important conversion story in the Christian New Testament. And, here’s an interesting point--it’s not a conversion story about a disciple of Christ; it’s a conversion story about Jesus himself.
In Mark 7:24-37 (and Matthew 15:21-28) the gospels describe how Jesus’ heart, mind, and soul were changed, so that he no longer believed that his mission was solely to the Jews--his own people--but, moreover, he understood that his mission was to the whole people of God--to Jews and Gentiles alike--to everyone on this earth.
If Jesus had not been converted in this way, we wouldn’t be here today celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism, repainting the main campus, or getting ready to hold our 160th anniversary as a congregation. Why?
Because Christianity would have died in the early first century AD, and the only people alive today who might recognize Jesus’ name would be ancient near eastern scholars who go to far flung places on sabbatical to taste their coffee and bring some back for us.
I’d like to introduce you to the gentoo penguin. I’ve never thought of myself as a big penguin lover, but I recently came across some interesting information about this particular species of penguin, and I’d like to share with you some facts. The gentoo penguin is the third largest of all of the penguin species after the emperor and king penguins, standing about 2 ½ feet tall. They are also the fastest underwater swimming birds. They can go about 22 mph which doesn’t seem very fast when you’re late for work, but it’s awfully fast for a swimmer. They are also able to dive really deep, and they even slow down their heart rate from 80 to 100 bpm all the way down to 20 bpm to allow them to stay underwater longer and dive deeper. They are mostly monogamous and they often bond for life.
There is actually a famous gentoo penguin couple, whom you may have heard about in the news lately. Their names are Sphen and Magic, and they live at the Sea Life Sydney aquarium in Sydney, Australia. They are a bonded pair that are both male. They have been together for six years, and they have actually raised chicks together. The keepers at the aquarium provided them with first a dummy egg to give them practice at parenting, and when that went well, gave them a foster egg to raise and hatch. They have been excellent parents. Sadly, Sphen died in the last couple of weeks, which is why you might have heard about them in the news. I love how this story teaches us about the wonderful diversity of creation, and that same-gender pairing is not unique to the human species.
All of this is interesting about the penguins but there’s this last little detail that fascinated me the most and which I think it’s most relevant for our topic today. The gentoo penguins have an interesting ritual that they use during mating season; the scientists call it “pebbling.”
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Good morning! May the peace of Christ be with you...
Last week I talked about the Exodus story, the liberation of the Hebrew people, the miracles that God performed through Moses, the grumbling of the Hebrews as they trudged through the desert despite God’s providence. We considered how they were not psychologically prepared for their new paradigm, but were likely repeating the behavioral patterns they had employed to get their needs met under the oppressive rule of the Egyptians. We also heard how God was angered not by their complaints but by their lack of faith.
I did not spend time exploring God’s amazing gift of manna - “the bread of angels.” Exodus 16 tells us it was a fine flaky substance that coated the ground each morning and was as fine as frost on the ground. Moses said, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” But there were stipulations too: Each person was only to gather a single portion (1) for themselves and one portion for each member of their family. No more, no less. They were also instructed to consume their portions entirely and not to try to keep any of it for later. But some ignored this instruction and gathered less or tried to gather up a larger amount. But no matter how much they gathered, when they measured it afterward, there was only one portion per person. No more, no less. People had only been able to gather the amount that was allotted to them.
And those who tried to hold onto it until morning found that it a) either melted or b) became “wormy and rotten.” So each person was provided only as much as they needed.
Perhaps you’ve heard that parable about the baby elephant who was staked to the ground and tied to it with a rope. As any young elephant would, he pulled against the rope trying to free himself to no avail. His poor little body was simply not strong enough. He tried for many days until he finally gave up on the idea, convinced that it was futile. Of course by the time he grew up, he could have easily pulled the sake out of the ground but he never did. He’d been convinced that he couldn’t.
I remember listening to the Exodus story when I was young. In my innocence I found myself wondering, “how could the Hebrews forget that God was with them?” I mean, we read that “The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night,” (1) pillars that never left their sight. In light of such miracles, how could they forget that God was with them? Where was their faith?