Blog Archives

Imagine a World with More.....RESURRECTION

8/28/2022

1 Peter 1:3-4
What a God we have and how fortunate we are! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future forever with God—and that future starts now!

This is week Six in our “Imagine a World with More ...” series and today we are imagining a world with more Resurrection. It is also the last of the series as it was presented to us through the Disciples national office (but we’ll talk more about that later.)

The Good News that God’s love is more powerful than death is the core—the whole point of the Christian story. Without the resurrection Jesus would have been seen as merely another teacher or miracle worker who was removed by his enemies and then, most likely, gradually disappeared from memory.

But Jesus did not disappear, he remained with his people—and he remains with us still—living in us and through us...and we are given new life through his resurrection.

If you want to ask me if I believe in a physical resurrection of the body.....my answer is “I don’t know.” BUT, what I do believe is that when I die–when any of us die—I [we] will be with God. With God and in God—and that can only be good, whatever it means, and I’m content with that answer. That’s as honest as I can be here.

Resurrection, however, applies to so much more than a physical body. There are many deaths we suffer in this life. We can be broken and lifeless in so many ways and for so many reasons.

Do you remember all those sayings I had on ‘post-it’ notes on my computer desk a few months ago? Well, I used them all up when I gave that sermon series back then, and lately I’ve been rebuilding my collection with some new stock. Two of my favorites at this time are from the same person and happen to be on this same topic.

The person is Fr. Richard Rohr—a priest, a Franciscan, and a prolific writer on the spiritual life. I have followed him for most of my adult life because he can say more in a handful of words than others can in an entire book. The first of these two quotes reads like this:

God’s one and only job description is to turn death into life. That’s what God does with every new springtime, every new life, every new season, every new anything.

The second goes this way:

The true meaning of the raising of Jesus is that God will turn all our human crucifixions into resurrection. (Let me read that again...)

The first of these two sayings is wonderful on its own: God’s one and only job description is to turn death into life. It’s the second one, however, that speaks to me most profoundly: God will turn all our human crucifixions into resurrection.

What might our human crucifixions be? The possibilities unfortunately are endless: death of loved ones; failure; betrayal; broken plans; gratuitous cruelty; broken hearts and more; and any one of these could happen in so many different ways. Betrayal, for instance. We can be betrayed by a loved one, our country, our church, even by our own bodies.

Remember, our theme for this current series is “Imagine a World with More...” We hardly need to imagine a world with more brokenness, but can we start to imagine a world with more life, more resurrection? More being lifted up into life again and rising beyond broken hearts, beyond loss or failure??

What would resurrection look like in these cases? Are there things we have been clutching to us—pain, anger, blame, fear to try again—that we need to let go of? What would our immediate world look like if we could release those things and allow resurrection to happen in us? Could we release others then to their resurrection if we release them from our resentments and hatreds?

It seems that the further we’ve traveled in this series, the more I’ve come to simply asking questions. And the less I have been able to present even a short thesis in the length of one sermon. If we’re serious about this it’s going to take more than one short discussion to get somewhere. This imagining a better world—not just for ourselves, but for everyone—is hard work—lots of thought, lots of prayer, lots of honesty. And, as with most things, it has to start with ourselves.

So I have two more questions, and these pertain to all six of our topics--Compassion, Community, Hope, Justice, Beauty, and now, Resurrection. Our world needs all of them. So here are the questions: 1) Do we see this hard work as worth it? and 2) Are we willing to do it?

Addendum:

Have you enjoyed this series?
Have you gained anything from it?
We clearly haven’t come up with too many answers, have we left anything hanging that you’d like to do a little deeper digging?
Do you have any other topics you can think of that you’d like to discuss in this same vein? What else might you like to imagine a world with more of?

Think about it and let me know. God certainly loves this creation and wants it to be healed and whole. How can we help?

0 Comments

“Imagine a World with More ... BEAUTY”

8/21/2022

0 Comments

Psalm 19:1
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting in praise.

This is week Five in our “Imagine a World with More ...” series and today we are imagining a world with more Beauty.

I’ve mentioned in the past couple of weeks that it seems as if every week the topic becomes just a little harder to define clearly. Community, our #1 subject, was pretty easy to imagine “more” within our context. The same with Compassion, our # 2. It’s not too hard to imagine ways to grow the amount of either Community or Compassion in our world, and Hope (#3) while a little more complex, wasn’t too hard to imagine either.

Then last week we got to Justice, and that one seemed more complex yet. How do we go about growing the amount of justice in the world when there are so many different forms of in-justice wherever we look? While we did come up with some good ideas in our discussion time, they seemed so very small compared to the size of the world’s needs.

Today’s topic, Beauty, seems at the same time both more complex and yet easier to envision. Our scripture starts us out with an easy and obvious way to see beauty in our world. The heavens are telling the glory of God... The beauty of a sunrise or sunset, the awe inspiring lights of the Milky Way strewn across the nighttime sky, rainbows after the rain--the heavens cover us with beauty day after day, night after night.

And we live in the midst of God’s beauty everywhere...the ever-changing ocean, majestic mountains, green and growing things, the limitless variety of creatures—walking, flying, crawling. This beauty is everywhere and we are—or certainly should be—grateful for all of it.

But this physical, visual beauty is not the only kind in our world. If instead of the one verse of Psalm 19 we read at the beginning, we read verses one through four this is what we get:

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting in praise.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
Yet their voice goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.

“Day to day pours forth speech.” Words. Words spoken and words only implied. Imagine if you can, how many times in any given 24-hour period the words “I love you” are spoken – around the world with its almost 8 billion people. We know how beautiful those words are when spoken to us. Imagine how beautiful they are to the ears of God when coming from 8 billion hearts and lips.

I care -- How can I help? -- I’m sorry -- Let’s work together on this – such beautiful words. Have you ever thought how beautiful words can be? Consider the world we’ve built because we have words. We can communicate with each other. Sometimes we do a pretty terrible job of communicating properly but more times, I believe, we at least get close to sharing what we actually want to share. Words are so common (until we truly begin to recognize just how extraordinary they are) and yet, we toss them around so casually, often causing grievous harm--rarely considering their immense value.

What other ways to we add to the Beauty in the world? Consider music. Did you know that the psalms we read as prayers were actually written to be sung? Not just words to share a concept but music to lift the heart.

Just among my own circle of friends I number quite a few musicians—singers and instrumentalists--and their music brings me joy. Think then of world renown musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and his cello, for instance. His music can reduce me to tears of awe. I could listen to him all day. Is that not beauty? Is that not holy? Can we not recognize and honor this beauty?

I have a friend who dances hula—not casual touristy stuff but the real thing. She truly tells stories through her movements—and she is beautiful when she does it. All eyes stay glued to her graceful gestures and the expression of joyful creation on her face. Or again, think of some of the well-known greats—the young Baryshnikov and his flyer leaps or Misty Copeland and her strength and grace--each showing us so clearly that the human body is capable of beauty.

The human heart contains so much beauty; how often do we recognize and acknowledge it out loud? Do we allow people—especially our children—to sing and dance exuberantly in their joy and in their grief? In their pain and in their praise?

Are the hymns we sing in church dirges of suffering and sin or songs of joy and gratitude and love? Do we support the various arts in school programs? Do we look down on those who sing or dance differently than we do?

Do we give, with our presence and our votes, civic support for arts venues such as galleries and concert spaces? Do we equally support national and regional parks and conservation issues where the natural beauty of God’s creation is protected and made available to all?

Is the “forward march” of commercial progress our highest value in life—even if some of God’s beautiful creation is destroyed for being in the way?

And finally, do we recognize and honor and treasure every size, shape, and color of human beauty? Every one being as valuable and delightful as any other? Every one beloved and treasured by God—even if our culture or our politics tries to say it’s not worth much. Remember, Jesus saw beauty in a beggar beside the city gates and an outcast leper and a tax collector—and even a despised Samaritan.

Beauty is everywhere if we have the heart and wisdom to look for it. To imagine a world with more beauty...and help bring that world into reality...we must be ready to see things and people and all life with new eyes, and we must be ready to fight for them when others try to destroy. This is God’s world--but it is ours to nurture and protect—and enjoy.

Amen.

0 Comments

Imagine a World with More ... JUSTICE

8/7/2022

0 Comments

Isaiah 58:6

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”

This is week Four in our “Imagine a World with More ...” series and today we are looking for a world with more Justice. It seems to me that each week the topic is becoming harder and harder to define. Much like the infamous non-definition of pornography, “I know it when I see it,” (which actually came from a 1964 Supreme Court ruling) we probably all think we know what justice is—or at least, one or two segments of it but do we truly understand how far-reaching the concept is?

I feel we need a better definition—a clearer understanding of what Justice is before we can tackle how to create more of it, so I went searching through what the Disciples offer on this topic and found a wealth of information. Much of this message is going to be direct quotes from the Justice Primer issued by the Disciples Home Missions division of the Christian Church around 2016.

“Grounded in the Biblical vision of shalom (true and full physical, emotional and spiritual wholeness), justice is how we treat each other in community. It becomes a reality when we truly affirm and respect the inherent dignity, worth and equality of each person as a sister or brother created in the image of God and included fully in the family of God.”

The writings of the Old Testament prophets are filled with calls from God to treat each other with shalom, which does not simply mean “peace” but carries through in Christian thought as “the realm of God.” It is the vision of a life on this Earth that is filled with justice and right relationship. Justice is always a part of shalom. We simply cannot have one without the other.

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann wrote, “The central vision of world history in the Bible is that all of creation is one, every creature in community with every other, living in harmony and security and joy toward the joy and well-being of every other creature … Shalom is the substance of the biblical vision of one community embracing all creation.”

Proverbs 31:8-9 tells us: “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” I could quote you dozens of these calls and if we had time I'd share a few. For now, just accept they are all over the Old Testament.

This same passion for justice fills the life and teachings of Jesus. All we have to do is read Jesus’ own “inaugural address” found in Luke 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Or read Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes (or most any part of Matthew, for that matter). There can’t be any doubt that Jesus firmly believed his task here was to teach us to live with justice. Because of his passion for justice, Jesus not only lifted up the plight of the oppressed, but also uncompromisingly challenged the unjust use of power by both religious and political leaders.

We know that Justice is truly scriptural and perhaps the central call of our faith. But how do we do it? How do we not only imagine, but bring into being a world with more justice? Here the Justice Primer once again helps us see just how far reaching this core belief is:

Whenever we struggle against the powers of personal and institutional racism; whenever we call upon our nations to legally receive the stranger as a welcome and valued member of our increasingly diverse national families; whenever we work to protect God’s creation from those activities that threaten it; whenever we stand up for the equality of women and men; whenever we work to overcome the exclusion and domination of any person or group.....whenever we advocate for public policy that helps bring health, wholeness and well-being to all God’s children; whenever we, as the diverse but united body of Christ, come together as true equals around the Lord’s Table --whenever we do these things, we do them as Bible-believing, Spirit-led and Table-fed Disciples of Christ who share in Jesus’ undying passion for justice.

We live in a world swimming in injustice, in our social systems that declare one group less than another, less worthy of equal treatment; in accepting that some people live unhoused or under-fed or without health care because of their own choices; in acquiescing in the belief that money means you get to make the rules; in believing that God’s beautiful earth was created just for humans to pillage. There is so much that is wrong in this world it is hard to imagine it can ever be fixed. But that is our task here...to imagine just exactly that.

Our Imagining a World with More ... curriculum reminds us, finally, that local church communities are often deeply invested in meeting the immediate needs around us by working with ministries like food pantries and homeless shelters. This is a good thing! Don’t get me wrong. This is a good and necessary thing that we churches do.

But scripture call us to go deeper, and to examine the systems and structures that have created issues of hunger and homelessness and all manner of power imbalances in the first place. How did we get to the point where so many people are unhoused? What role has systemic racism and other systemic injustice played in keeping our neighbors from having enough?

Our church helps fight homelessness and hunger through our support for Plowshares and our local Food Bank. Again, these are good things. But imagining a world without injustice eventually demands that we go deeper and seek out the reasons for injustice. We can’t undo these evils until we discover the reason they exist so that we can remove that reason.

How do we imagine our way to something better than putting a band-aid over a gaping wound? All the gaping wounds? Where do we start?

Let us imagine together and build a better world...together.

0 Comments

Imagine a World with More.....RESURRECTION

“Imagine a World with More ... BEAUTY”

Imagine a World with More ... JUSTICE

Rev. Cherie Marckx

Archives