Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:29:11 -0700WeeblySun, 20 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/love-wins-again-and-alwaysLuke 24:1-12
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices and clothes and went to the tomb to properly tend Jesus’ body for burial.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord.  

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.   In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:  The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”  Then they remembered his words.

 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.   But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.  

Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
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It’s Easter Morning – Christ is Risen!  Alleluia, Amen!  I wish I could feel the joy I have felt on Easters past, but every time I turn on the News lately I’m greeted with another atrocity – some horrible new thing committed by our government supposedly in our name, or a couple of new school shootings, or some raving antisemite attempting to burn a Jewish U.S. state governor and his family to death in their home.  I could keep listing them – we all know what’s going on in our world these days.

But – it’s Easter morning and this is a time for rejoicing even – especially? – when joy can seem out of reach.  Because that is exactly the message of Easter – that JOY is!  LOVE is!

The people of Israel were an enslaved people in Jesus’ time, and yet – in the middle of their enslavement there was Jesus, who lived with them and talked with them and reminded them that they were loved -- they were God’s own beloved ones.  They were worthy of kindness and plenty – not because the land was their home, but because God was their God.

Hatred is alive and well today, just as it was alive in Jesus’ day, and in all the days in-between.  And yet ..... we are gathered here this morning not to mourn the presence of hatred, but to proclaim that – in spite of hatred’s best efforts -- love wins!  

Jesus walked among us and taught and healed among us to show us that, in spite of what sometimes seems to be, it is love which always has and always will win.  Author, teacher, and spiritual leader Flora Wuellner once wrote something that has stuck with me ever since I first read it.  She described Jesus’s earthly mission as being “to bring heaven, the fullness of God’s realm, into our daily lives, relationships, choices.”   I love that – Jesus’s mission was less to get us into heaven, as the church has taught for 2000+ years, than to get heaven into us – to place the living love of God into us – God's living, breathing, active love in us.  That’s what Easter is about.

Jesus faced plenty that was ugly when he was here among us, but he never gave up his focus on the love of the one he called Father.  He saw hatred and greed and hopelessness and selfishness and envy and fear aplenty, but still, the God he knew so deeply and personally was not, in his vision, about retribution or revenge or punishment — but always about love.  Love is what he came to give us ... to give, and to give, and to give – in spite of our clinging to our old fears and hatreds,  and in spite of all that hatred had to throw at him, love is what Jesus gave us in return. 

Love spoke in all his teaching and healing.  Love hung on that hideous cross.  And love it is that lives again in each and every one of us – loving and being, through and in us.

Love is why we exist.  Love – I believe – is what God is.  And everything that comes from God is the result of that love.  Love creates.  All that is flows from the creativity of God’s love.  Love supports, love nourishes, love builds – and love invites – invites us to live here and now in that heaven which is the ultimate expression of God’s love.  Love is why Jesus exists.  Love is why Easter is so important – more important, really, than Christmas or any other holy day.  Love is why we are here .....

And so hatred – for all its nagging, petty ugliness – for all its persistence in the world – for all its seeming inevitable-ness – hatred loses.  Because the life-giving Creator who brought everything into being is determined to love us all into wholeness.  And – as Easter proves again today, love will always win.

I took the title for this message from Rob Bell’s book, “Love Wins” which came out several years ago. That book was a huge shift in how I see our lives as Jesus people.  It’s a reminder to me that God’s love is stronger than death, stronger than hate.  It’s easy to lose that in the midst of the world’s news, but it’s true.  Love wins.  It’s not some heavy, convoluted theological dogma – it’s two short words.  Easy to carry around with you every day:  Love wins.  I want to end today with the blessing with which Bell ended that book years ago.  It lives in my house and my mind as part of that tattered array of random quotes scribbled on post-it notes and stuck up around my work desk:

• “May you experience this vast, expansive, infinite, indestructible love that has been yours all along. May you discover that this love is as wide as the sky and as small as the cracks in your heart no one else knows about. And may you know, deep in your bones, that love wins.”
  

Christ is Risen!  Jesus lives!  Happy Easter!
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]]>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/coming-out-with-jesusLuke 19:29-40
As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’  So those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.  Its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  And they replied, “The Lord needs it.”

They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.  As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen crying “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!  They will call down trouble on all of us.”
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“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the very stones will cry out.”

Today is the beginning of Holy Week.  It is also the last of our Sunday Messages to be drawn from the daily readings in our Lenten prayer books this year.  These daily pieces have been written and compiled by the members of the God Is Still Speaking writers group. Today’s meditation was written by Liz Miller, from Granby Congregational UCC.

We are grateful to these writers for sharing their individual thoughts with us, and grateful as well to The Pilgrim Press for permission to reproduce and share these meditations with you.

Our title for today is “Coming Out with Jesus.”  Miller begins her devotional by sharing a story from her personal life:
When I came out as non-binary to a teen-age cousin, he grinned and proclaimed, “Trans rights are human rights!”  Then he told me it was a big deal to come out, and he was proud of me.  His reaction gave me the courage to keep showing up as my authentic self long after our conversation was over.

Trans rights are a big topic of conversation in our increasingly splintered country right now so we are probably most used to hearing the phrase, “coming out” in this one context, but people “come out” in all manner of ways.

Have you ever felt the need to stand up in front of a society that has categorized you as one thing and say out loud, “No, that is not who I am” – or perhaps – “That is not the whole story of who I am, I am so much more?”

Jesus, so far as we know, was just a curious kid from Nazareth—son of the local carpenter—until his curiosity took him out into the desert to see this guy named John, preaching and baptizing in the wilderness.  There he encountered the Spirit, and a voice that spoke from the heavens and claimed him as God’s own beloved son, and he believed it.

After a few weeks spent thinking about what had just happened to him, he ventured back into town and proclaimed himself as one sent to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  That is quite a coming out statement.

From there for the next three years, he proceeded to add layer upon layer to his newly “out” persona.  He was recognized as a prophet.  He healed many, he rebuked demons, he told them stories that changed how they saw themselves—and he was a preacher who spoke God’s word of truth to any who would listen – and listen they did.  For those who witnessed and those who listened he was no longer that guy from Nazareth.  He had become a whole new being.

Perhaps he just became who he always was, always had been, but when he came to really believe it, the people did too.  Maybe he needed to come out to himself.  We can’t know exactly what the process was, but when he came out as his true, authentic self, the people came out from everywhere to walk with him and they followed him, letting him know that day that he did not walk alone on that trip into Jerusalem.  They walked with him to let him know they loved him and they were with him.

“Coming out” can be frightening or it can be freeing.  Sometimes I’m sure, it is both at once.  To stand and name your own truth and refuse to consent any longer to a label that isn’t you. I’ve had a few of those moments in my life, and I suspect that you have, too.  Mine happened mostly when I was younger, and they helped to shape the direction of my life.  They’ve only gotten easier in the years since.

Those milestone moments in Jesus’ life were obviously more consequential than mine.  They shaped the trajectory of his life and, in time, millions of other lives, as well.  But all such happenings—big or small—matter.

It didn’t last that long, that joyous parade on that first Palm Sunday, and it ended in grief and sorrow with a wooden cross and a silent tomb – but Jesus refused to stop even then.  They had no way of knowing it that day, but Jesus had one more “coming out” for them . . . but that’s a story for next week.

]]>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/love-given-while-we-canJohn 12:1-8
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.  Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor.  Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.  Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?  It was worth a year’s wages.”   He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
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As we’ve been doing all along, today’s Sunday message is linked with the one found in our daily reading booklet and, once again, the meditation for today was written by Quinn Caldwell and taken from that booklet, Into the Deep, from the God is Still Speaking Writers Group.

I’ve expanded the brief quote that Caldwell took from John’s Gospel so that we might have the full story for our discussion.  It’s a story we’re all familiar with but, like many stories taken from scripture, we sometimes finding ourselves just accepting it as “a bible story” without thinking about what it really means.

Living in a dry, semi-desert land, where the primary means of transportation for ordinary people was your own two feet, anyone arriving at the home of a friend who lived in a neighboring village was likely to arrive hot and dusty, with dirty feet and, by today’s standards, somewhat smelly.  The rules of hospitality demanded that they be greeted with water to drink and water to wash—and refresh--their dirty feet.  Further than this—if one could afford it—one also offered oil for the dry and cracked skin of their feet.

But this time, Mary’s offering of oil went much, much further than usual – into a another meaning entirely.  A day or so later Jesus would wash the feet of his disciples, as an offering of humility, of servanthood, of love – but as Caldwell points out, Mary did it first.  Perhaps Jesus learned the value of this particular kind of giving of self after first receiving it from Mary.

And the time is growing very short.  Jesus is here at Mary and Martha’s home because he is on his way to Jerusalem—for the last time.  This visit is only a momentary respite.  When he leaves their home in the next few days and enters Jerusalem it will be to be greeted by crowds, hailing him as “King of the Jews.”

We are growing very close to the crisis point.  Mary sees this and recognizes that there will not be many – if any—more chances to show her love for Jesus – the Lord she has followed so faithfully and with such loving devotion.  So, as Caldwell puts it, she overdoes it, she falls to her knees and gives him everything she has to give.

She takes a full jar of nard – an expensive perfume gathered from a plant found clear off in the Himalayas, and she anoints him with it because again, as Caldwell puts it, there’s no time for subtleties as hatred and violence are headed their way; no reason to be stingy with love in a world so generous with pain – she uses her own hair to wipe his feet.  When it might be your last touch you don’t want anything between you.

In those days, anointing--deliberately pouring out oil upon someone--signified God's blessing, and was used to set that someone apart for a specific holy purpose or to consecrate them for a particular role, like a king, priest, or prophet.  Or in this case, a sacrifice.

Mary knows this journey isn’t going to end well.  As Caldwell puts it:
“This is her last chance to do this while Jesus is still alive.  It has to count, this anointing.  It has to last. He needs to still be able to feel this when they’re lashing him a few days from now.  When he looks down from the cross at jeering faces, he needs to be able to remember hers looking up at him with love.  He needs to still be able to smell this act when he’s on the cross.”

When we take the time to fully recognize the agony of Mary’s goodbye, we can understand, so much better, the absolute joy of that meeting in the garden a few days later when Mary was shown that nothing, and no one, can separate us from Jesus – ever.
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But that is another story for another week.  Today we have only one woman’s need to reach out while she still can to make sure that the one she loves knows that they are loved – and needed -- and supported.  Love—in one form or another--is all we have to give – so give it while it still can be given – wherever it is needed.

]]>Sun, 30 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/when-leaders-serve-themselves1st Samuel 1:1, 10-16
Elkanah son of Jeroham, had two wives;  Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none because the Lord had closed her womb. Once when they had gone to the house of the Lord to offer sacrifice, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.  And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
As she kept on praying to the Lord, the High Priest Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard.  Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk?  Put away your wine.”
“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
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As we’re doing with all the Sundays in this Lenten Season, this reading is the scripture that links with today’s reflection for the 4th Sunday in Lent, found in our daily reading booklet, Into the Deep, from the God is Still Speaking devotional.  This reflection was written by Kaji Dousa, Senior Minister at The Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City. 

Here, she takes one small but important fragment of the larger story of Hannah and Eli – part of the background for the life story of Samuel, who would himself become High Priest after Eli and the most important of the Judges to rule the land called Canaan, which would later become Israel.

Elkanah, a good and righteous man, had a dearly loved wife, Hannah, who unfortunately was barren.  He had then taken a second wife, Penninah, who bore him the “necessary” children, but he still loved Hannah and cherished her.  Unfortunately, the lot of barren women in the Old Testament was not a kind one.  A man must have children – to work for him and to carry his name forward and most importantly, to speak his name into future generations that he might not be forgotten, so the women, of course, were blamed and mocked and humiliated, and the more fortunate, child-bearing wives made life unkind for the childless women.

The present might not have been all rainbows and butterflies for barren women but (unknown to them at the time) their future was much brighter.  A miracle child born to a barren woman in the Old Testament was always destined to be someone very important:  Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (Jacob’s son), Samson, and Samuel were each examples of sons born to a previously barren woman who was redeemed by their birth.  Samuel is the one today’s particular storyline leads to even though he never enters this bit of the story and, in fact, wasn’t even born yet.

Rev. Dousa takes a different direction with her story of Hannah and the High Priest Eli.  And it all hinges on Eli’s judgmental responses to Hannah’s prayer.

• Eli was highly respected at this time and was used to people hanging on his every pronouncement.  He apparently felt he was entitled to judge Hannah simply because she was a woman doing something differently than the way he did it.
• “Hannah’s dreams were shattered.  She’d had expectations for how her life would go . . .  and it wasn’t.  She was going through it, so she took up her courage and headed into that sanctuary to lay it all at the altar—speaking to God from her heart but without speaking aloud--but the guy in charge, Eli, made fun of her.  Called her out for being drunk.  Made sure she heard how her prayers were wrong.  He publicly humiliated her.
• “Understand, any failure here wasn’t Hannah’s, but Eli’s.  He just couldn’t, or wouldn’t grasp her language of prayer or her situation.
• “There are a lot of reasons people step away from houses of worship.  Authoritative leaders who think everyone needs to follow them are one of the biggest problems.
• “What I want you to know is that when God had to choose between the religious authority’s response and the person praying, God didn’t choose the structure.  God chose the person.  God chose Hannah.  God’s not ever going to choose the religious institution, ever, over you.
• “But that doesn’t mean giving up on church.  Church is a collection of humans, a gathering of imperfect people.  The church’s job is to approach our call to serve with humility, never making the Eli mistake of expecting the church’s way to always be your way.”

And yes, Eli got the message.  After Hannah defended her murmuring as grief and despair, Eli backed down—apologized, and gave Hannah his blessing.  God’s blessing she already had.  She always had it.

]]>Sun, 23 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/gods-kind-of-soilLuke 13:6-9
Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.   So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any.  Cut it down!  Why should it use up the soil?’”

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘Leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

This is the scripture that links with today’s reflection for this third Sunday in Lent, taken from our daily reading booklet, Into the Deep, from the God is Still Speaking devotional.  Today’s reflection was written by Quinn Caldwell, a UCC pastor who is   Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University.  The scripture citation he chose for us is the one we opened with just now.

We’re going to read some of his thoughts on the meaning of these verses, then we’ll talk a bit about what these thoughts and verses might mean to us.  “’Everything I have, I earned.  Everything I’ve achieved is down to my hard work and nobody else’s.  If you’ve failed, it’s because you’re a failure.  You didn’t grind hard enough; spent too much on lattes.’”

“That’s some people’s line anyway.  It’s nice for them because it absolves them of a lot of responsibility—the responsibility to thank or acknowledge the world for the aid, the privilege, and the boost they have received.  Not to mention the responsibility to aid, privilege, and boost others.”

Jesus refers to this kind of reasoning as “nonsense”—this whole “I did it all myself” stuff, and to make his position relatable he introduces us to two characters who illustrate his point.  The first is the vineyard owner–a real ‘up by his own bootstraps’ kind of guy. 

Somewhere in his wisdom this man has decided that a fig tree requires a maximum of three years to root and grow and settle into the business of producing figs.  This tree has not done this so he orders the vineyard worker—the second new character—to get rid of it.  Dig it up, chop it down.  It’s just using space in his orchard and not giving anything back for it.  Toss it out and replace it with a tree that will do what he wants.

But the vineyard worker—the one who actually works at tending the trees—answered him, “Sir, give it one more year.  Let me give it my personal attention for that year.  It could be that the soil in this one spot is just not rich enough for this tree’s roots.  I’ll dig around it to loosen the soil and fertilize it well.  Let’s see what happens with new soil.”  Or, as Caldwell puts it in the closing line to his reflection here:  God, the arborist says, ‘Not till we see how it does in my kind of soil.’

The vineyard worker knows that not all trees have the same needs and not all soil is equal--just as we know that all people are not born with equal abilities or blessings of support and opportunity. 

Each Sunday as I drive, first north, then south again between home and church, I drive past acres of vineyards, all laid out in their neat lines.  It’s a strip of land rich in multiple varietals of grapes and sometimes it seems to a non-grower like me that they are constantly ripping out whole plots to plant something new.  Each time—around the 2nd or 3rd year—I can see blank spots in the areas where the planting covers hillsides as well as the flatlands.  Those blank spots are where the new planting just didn’t thrive due to a low spot where the water collects or a slope that doesn’t get quite as much sun as the rest of the plot. It's the same grape from the same lot, given the same care, but its life is not the same.

In the same way, people can be born in similar locations but experience very different lives with very different results.  Have you ever heard the old saying “Judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree and it will live its life believing it is stupid”?  How about we refrain from judging … period.  We don’t truly know anyone else’s story—their circumstances.  Let’s help out and lift up and boost other’s chances—all without judging, just lifting up--  all while respecting each person's humanity.  It shouldn't be all that hard to do.

]]>Sun, 09 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/catch-me-if-you-willLuke 4:9-12
The devil brought Jesus into Jerusalem and stood him at the highest point of the temple.  He said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down from here; for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you’ and ‘they will take you up in their hands…’”
Jesus answered, “It has also been said, ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’”
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This is the scripture that links with today’s reflection for this first Sunday in Lent, taken from our daily reading booklet, Into the Deep, from the God is Still Speaking devotional.  Today’s reflection was written by Chris Mereschuk, a UCC pastor and consultant in church vitality.  We’re going to read some of his thoughts on the meaning of these verses, then we’ll read a bit of reflection from someone else, and then, at our in-person church, we’ll talk a bit about what these thoughts and verses might mean to us.  This will be our basic pattern for the Sundays through Lent. 

Here is the beginning of Mereschuk’s meditation:

• About 40 days from now in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus will beg God to spare him from death.  God will be silent.  Suffering on the cross the next day, Jesus will cry out in anguished abandonment.  No angels will be commanded.
• What if Jesus knew from the start that’s how it would go, and that’s why he didn’t leap?  Didn’t test God, not from obedient faith, but because of deep doubt that God would send angels to catch him?  It’s painful—almost blasphemous, heretical—to think about.  But maybe slightly relatable?  (end quote)

Our faith wants to tell us that Jesus was simultaneously fully human and fully divine.  But those are two truths that are hard to balance in one faith.  Those of us who are believers, I suspect, do believe that God will indeed catch us when we are falling—perhaps not in this life—at this moment—in every instance—but in the end God will catch us and hold us in loving care.

But the question is not always, “Will God catch me?”  There is also the more present question, “Will we catch others at those times when they are falling down?

There was a piece posted on Facebook last week.  A friend had reposted it but it was unclear who had been the original poster.

Anyway…there were two people involved here—one, to whom the initiating event had happened, and a second, who spoke about how the first person’s involvement affected them.  I’m trying not to be too specific because I don’t want to get tangled up in the politics of the story, even though politics is what initiated the story.  You’ll probably figure it out anyway – it’s fairly obvious.

So – one person—the storyteller’s next-door neighbor-- was a hard-core fan of a powerful political person – signs all over their yard, and flags, and very vocal about their support.  But recently this same person was dropped-kicked out of their long-time job – with no warning--by the orders of the one they had supported for so long. They were in shock and mourning that this could have happened to them. 

The storyteller had several friends (not the political person’s fans) who had also had their jobs cancelled and their lives turned upside down, so they were finding it difficult to scratch up any sympathy for the erstwhile fan who they felt had “brought it on themself.”  (This would all be so much easier if I didn’t have to  tip-toe around the politics!)

What does the Christian believer do in this situation?  Jesus makes our expected response painfully clear several times in the bible:

• You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.   (Matt. 5:43-45)

 

• But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  (Luke 6:27-28)

 
We ask God to catch us when we are falling, but God doesn’t always do all the catching by God’s self.  Sometimes other people are assigned the task of doing the catching.  Sometimes we are given the job of catching someone else when they are falling.  Even when we might just enjoy watch them fall because “they deserve it!”

We don’t have to act as if what they did was OK.  We just need to do something to catch them when they are falling.  Some bit of humanity that says “Yeah, we’ve all been known to screw up once in a while.”  We don’t have to like them for it – that’s God’s part of the deal. The right or wrong of their actions is not up to you or me – only God-- and God wants all of us to be caught.  And God wants them to be caught so they can be healed, just as any one of us was at some time in our lives caught and allowed time to learn to be better.

As our opening reading puts it, sometimes we, like Jesus, can find ourselves on that high place, teetering on the edge.  We can choose the soul-death of hanging on to our fear or hatred or we can choose the life giving Kin-dom that is God’s gift for us when we allow ourselves to choose love, and our role in sharing it with others.

As I hope always to be caught when I’m falling, so I choose to play any part that God assigns me in helping to catch others.  There is more than enough love to go around.  There's no need to be stingy with it.
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]]>Wed, 05 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/a-brief-note-on-ash-wednesday-from-pastor-cherieASH WEDNESDAY

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and the first step on the path to Easter.  The forty days from today to Easter (Sundays aren’t counted) mirror the forty days that scripture tells us Jesus spent in the wilderness, hungry and alone and harassed with temptations.

In earlier centuries we were expected to suffer in some way to join ourselves to the Jesus who suffered for us.  It is still seen as a reminder of our mortality, “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” but in recent decades it is presented more often as a chance to attempt to better ourselves – to replace our pettiness, selfishness, anger and lack of compassion with goodness, with hope, with caring for each other. 

Rather than giving up chocolate bars or steaks or alcohol for the forty days, how about if we look for ways to reach out and help others:  donate to a local food bank; or an animal shelter; support your locals schools; smile at that grumpy person you always seem to run into at the bank (even when you’d prefer to growl back at them); say “thank you, have a good day” and mean it to the server who hands you your drive-up take-out order; give your older neighbor a ride to the grocery store – and home again; donate your time to any of the dozens of organizations trying to make your area a better place to be…..Kindness matters!

I could go on all day, but you get the picture, I hope.  Instead of giving up things that don’t really matter, give yourself away.  The world will be blessed by your caring…..and so will you.

HAPPY GIVING!

]]>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/the-glory-shining-round-usExodus 9:29-35

Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, but Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them.

Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.  When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face, but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, then the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him.
 
Luke 9:28-36

Jesus took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.  As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.  They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.  Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. … While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.   

A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”  When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday -- that Sunday that falls between Epiphany and Lent.  Epiphany ended last Sunday and this coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent and our journey to Easter. 

Today’s story requires two readings to fully understand what is going on here – two readings that fall about as far apart from each other as we can get in scripture.  The first reading came from the Old Testament book of Exodus while the second comes from Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament.  They may be separated by a large chunk of time, but we, today, need that first reading to fully understand the second which is the story we really want to look into today.

The important point from Exodus is that when Moses came down from Sinai, “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.”

Now, Peter, James and John would have known this story from their scriptures and would therefore have entirely understood the reference being made when Jesus later stood before the three with his face and clothes shining. They would have recognized that what had just happened was not some random event but the sign that Jesus had stood in the very presence of God, just as Moses had done long ago.

We, for convenience’ sake, divide scripture into the Old Testament and the New, but it is truly all one story – an old, old story begun in the Hebrew Scriptures – and told down through the centuries into the New Testament where it’s promises come to pass in Jesus.

Peter, John, and James, that day, saw what had always been there to be seen by those with eyes to see.  But we humans tend to see what we expect to see and nothing more.  It takes something truly out of the ordinary to jolt us past our expectations so that we actually see the deep reality around us. 

Because they had been so recently stunned by what they had seen, the chances are good that the disciples would even have heard the voice of God when it spoke to them, before “common sense” had its chance to rear its head and convince them they couldn’t possibly have seen what they thought they saw or heard what they thought they heard.

The truth is that the three disciples that day saw the “real” Jesus – the shining, son of God, Chosen One – but they also saw the Jesus they knew – the one they had traveled the territory with, shared meals with, and so often witnessed healing the sick and the broken.  They saw both and they understood that they truly are one and the same Jesus. 

The glory of God is all around us all the time but it is hard to see because our minds are so trained to refuse what “isn’t normal,” what isn’t “natural” or “reasonable.”  Maybe it’s not what we expect to see -- so we don’t.  That’s why eye-witness accounts can sometimes be so very unreliable.

But in God’s world, once in a while something will be so real that it breaks through our mind’s defenses and we know that we have seen what we have seen.  We know that we have somehow seen the Holy – a shiny reality more real than anything else we’ve ever seen.

I’ve had such moments.  I expect we all have had them.  I may doubt many things (and I do), but about this central fact -- that God’s holiness is always present all around me -- there is no doubt in my mind.  None. 

And at rare moments I am even blessed to see it.
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]]>Sun, 23 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/diversity-equity-inclusion
Galatians 3: 26-28   (NIV)

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.   

D.E.I. – ‘Diversity,’ ‘Equity’ and ‘Inclusion’ have become flash-words in our U.S. conversation these days.  I don’t really want to get into the politics of all this, nor the psychology of why so many people today appear to be threatened by three words that until recently have been touted as “pluses” -- part of who we are as Americans.  Any civics class has surely taught them as three of the many virtues of being an American citizen.

What I do want to discuss is what Jesus taught us about being one people of God, and most of that will come through the writings of Paul and Matthew today.

When Jesus lived among us it was largely assumed by most of his followers that he came for the benefit of the Jewish people only, although there are several instances in the gospels of him speaking with and healing non-Jews, much to the consternation of his Jewish followers.  We know from stories such as his healing of the son of the Canaanite woman, or the long-distance healing of the Roman Centurian’s servant, both stories as told in Matthew, how little attention Jesus paid to a sufferer’s nationality.

It is Paul who, when his teachings were under attack from Jewish-Christians insisting that new converts must all follow the laws of Moses, including circumcision, gives us Jesus’ clearest, “don’t argue with me” statement on the unity of humanity – regardless of race or gender or ethnicity.  It may be in Paul's words but it's clearly Jesus' teaching:

• Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
• Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.   And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?  If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.    (1 Corinthians 12:12-20)

It is clear that Jesus sees us all as one beloved family of God, one creation with no parts ranked higher or lower than any other.  There is only one story of separation, really, and that one, again, is told in Matthews’s gospel.  No one here is judged by the color of their skin, or their country of origin, or their gender or their riches.

• “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.


• “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’


• “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’


• “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’         (Matt. 25:31-45)

Did you notice that nowhere in that long reading was there any question about where you were born?  What language do you speak?  Do you have all your papers?  How did you come to this place?  As we were reminded a couple of weeks ago when we discussed the Justice Prophets:  We’ve been told what to do, and what God requires of us -- to seek justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God …  Now it’s our thing to do and there's more… to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty, to care for the sick and the imprisoned, to welcome strangers and clothe the naked.

Right now we seem to be failing at much of this – we’re cutting off emergency food for the hungry around the world, chopping away at medical insurance that allows us to help the sick, and gathering up anyone who looks remotely like a “stranger” and shoving them onto a plane to who knows where.

Maybe we need to simplify the language even more – one sentence that still says it all –

• "Love one another as I have loved you….."​

]]>Sun, 16 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMThttp://firstchristianchurchukiah.org/pastors-blog/radical-amazement
Psalm 139:14-16   (The Message) 

I thank you, High God—you are breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life spread out before you,
 
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel  (1907 – 1972)
​
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.....to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.  Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; we should never treat life casually.  To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
​

When was the last time you can remember experiencing a feeling of awe?  Do you remember what it felt like?  In skimming around for ideas to jump-start this message I came upon this definition: “Awe is a profound reverence, a personal and unexpected reaction to seeing God at work.  It is seeing or witnessing something inspiring and feeling the Spirit touch our hearts to confirm truth, expand knowledge, or reaffirm heavenly love.”

Now, that’s a very good definition.  I especially like the one line that reads, "awe is…an unexpected reaction to seeing God at work,” and yet, this is still a very academic definition.  Everything it says is true but there is no feeling of awe about it.  It’s really rather cold:  “Just the facts, mam.”

I myself much prefer Rabbi Heschel‘s statement that we opened with today: Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement … He then goes on to say that to be spiritual is to be amazed.

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born Jewish theologian, philosopher and mystic.  Descended from prominent rabbis on both sides of his family, he became a well-known and much respected rabbi himself.  He was serving as a university professor when he was driven out of Poland by the Nazis and, after shuffling around Europe, ended up in the U.S. where he lived out his life (many members of his own family having been killed by the Germans).  He taught in universities here and was a prolific writer – and most notably, became a prominent voice of the Civil Rights movement – often traveling and speaking with Martin Luther King, Jr., sharing Dr. King’s belief that no people are free until all people are free.

My intention in this message is not just to talk about Rabbi Heschel the whole time, though lord knows I could, but to point out that this man who suffered all that he did in his life, is the same man who wrote that one line that has grabbed my heart so, about how we should live our lives in radical amazement. 

What does that phrase even mean?  Amazement, Awe, Wonder – do we really allow space in our busy and conflicted lives to even consider these things?

How often do we take the time to notice what is happening around us?  We have our jobs, we have to do our grocery shopping, keep our minds on our driving.  We love our pets, our various animals, and we laugh at their antics, but do we ever actually properly see them for the incredible creations that they are?

Have you ever been on a hilltop at night, far away from the distractions of ambient light, when every star in the universe is visibly shining – millions of them – just out of reach of your fingertips, and realize that you can’t begin to understand what you’re seeing?

Do you ever attempt to clear your mind of all the ‘stuff’ that clutters it so that you can sit in the silence and invite the wonders of our amazing world in? 

What moments do you remember from months or years back that touched something in you so deeply that you still remember it as if it were yesterday?

Radical amazement is a state of being in awe of the world and all of reality, including the act of seeing.

• Radical amazement is a way of looking at the world without any presuppositions. 
• It's a way of being grateful for the wonder of life. 
• It's a way of listening, touching, feeling God with you.

 
How would you describe those moments of connection, of understanding that once in a while pass between you and God?  For me those moments would include holding my new-born daughter for the first time; certain sunsets that still move me to awe years later in my memories; the sound of Yo-Yo Ma playing his cello; singing in a large old church and hearing my own voice ringing in that space;  that one moment in our old church when, in the middle of service, I realized the sanctuary was filled with those who came before us – the ones who built that place for us to gather and worship.

What are your moments?
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