Church of the Open Door:  First Christian Church, Ukiah
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"COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY"

11/19/2024

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Proverbs 3:1-4
​

My child, do not forget my teaching,
    but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life
    and abundant welfare they will give you.

Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you;
    bind them around your neck;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will find favor and high regard
    in the sight of God and of people.

As I mentioned last week, the past three weeks have simply been a crazy time of one thing after another – coming at me hard and fast with hardly a moment to draw breath between them.  There’s been a week long visit with family from back east involving a very active two-year old running five adults into near exhaustion; a much more involved Halloween celebration than I’m used to; an ordination; and a couple of Sundays where I didn’t have time enough to actually prepare a sermon, and so, ended up winging it with the help of a very responsive congregation.  It makes me tired just to type that all out.

While searching for a theme for this Sunday’s message I stumbled on a story I don’t remember reading before.  It’s from a booklet of Advent meditations and is about faithful friends who will always have your back.  It’s a very moving story.  I’ll share it with you shortly but first I need to say that after reading the story I realized that I, and several loyal friends, have only recently lived very similar stories, and it led me to see those recent stories in a different light.

This is the story I’ve stumbled on.  It’s in the 2014 Advent Daily Devotional booklet from the Stillspeaking Writers Group.  This particular story was written by Quinn Caldwell who is the pastor of a Congregational Church in New York State, where one member of his church is from India, having been relocated here by his company. 

Caldwell had invited the gentleman to read the scripture at their Christmas Eve service and he had agreed, and when he arrived almost 30 others came with him.  They sat quietly while he shared the reading and as he returned to his pew, each one shook his hand to congratulate him for doing his job well.

Later in the service the pastor gave his standard “everyone is welcome here” invitation to share communion and, much to his surprise, every one of the reader’s friends came forward and as they received, each responded with “Merry Christmas!”

It was later learned that none of these visitors were Christian – they were there to support their friend and colleague -- but they had taken the time to study in advance and find out the proper responses so they could participate in a respectful manner – honoring both the church setting and their friend.

These are the companions we all should be grateful for on our journey through this life.

Thinking about
this story it felt kind of familiar, and then I realized that was because I had participated in two similar events very recently – twice actually in the past week.

First example
– a group of friends meets most every week for a musical jam night.  It’s not an open mic, just a group of friends meeting to share our music and enjoy each other’s company.  A week or so ago a couple from our group were scheduled for a gig at a location they had never played – they also had another member of our group opening for them.  It was a bigger than usual deal because it might lead to bigger gigs for them down the road.  So the night of the performance most of our jam group showed up to be support for them.  In my husbands’ and my case I know, it was probably the busiest week we’ve had in months, but we were there for our friends -- musicians need audience – and it was a delightful evening!

The second example
occurred three days later – same basic group but a very different setting.  One member of our jam group was being formally ordained into the ministry by her denomination.  This is a big deal thing.  Only two people from our group were connected to the religious aspect of this event but – once again – multiple members of the jam showed up just to celebrate with our friend and honor the importance of her ordination to her.

Again, this
was not a specifically Christian group of folks from the jam – some have connections to other denominations, some claim no such connection at all – but they showed up because this is so important to our friend and they wanted her to know they cared.

But the most
important piece of it all, to my admittedly Christian view, was that, when we were called to share bread and cup at the table, every one of this mixed group, went forward to share the meal – just like the transplants from India from Quinn Caldwell’s story – they were there to love and support their friend on her big day. 

These are the true
and faithful companions for our journey – some of the many that God places in our lives to share – for a shorter or longer while – our journey through this life.  We are blessed to have them, and we are often blessed to be them for others, as we are called and sent by God to build and strengthen the Reign of God, here and now.

In this time
of confusion and fear and personal carelessness that we are living in right now, there are many who need the support and friendship of others, whether they are long-time friends or strangers we have just met along the way.  The examples I’ve shared here are happy examples but there are so many occasions that may not be quite so happy, for us to walk with others and support them, and show them “Hey, I’m here, and I will walk this road with you for as long as it takes.”

May we always
be up for the task – and the joy of companioning and traveling with our brothers and sisters.

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"WHAT ABOUT THE GOOD STUFF?"

11/3/2024

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November 3, 2024  *  Proper 26
 
I don’t have a specific scripture to speak on today, just a group of maybe disconnected ideas – at least they feel disconnected – but important.

Our messages for the past several weeks have dealt with how to tell what has been the voice of God, and what has been just humanity voicing its opinions – how to hear God actually speaking through the scriptures we read. 

When we finished last week, I said that was the end of all that for awhile and I was glad because I was tired of  reading instructions to go out and kill our enemies because God said it was OK, or to slaughter the obviously innocent because they were descended from enemies of hundreds of years before.  The same old battles for power and ascendancy seem to fill so much of the Old Testament especially.

So today I’m turning to prophets who called out for peace and justice among the people.  Not to discern if this was God speaking or not, but simply to show that it IS here.  But even here there is plenty of violence since these stories seem to always start with an angry God who demands retribution and punishment before we can get around to peace and charity.

The Old Testament, in particular, was not always blood and political mayhem.  Even here there were those who heard God’s voice as a voice of love – strange though some of it might sound to us today as a loving voice.  And we should not lose these teachings because we most decidedly need to hear them even today – especially today. 

Prophets such as Amos, Ezekial, Micah, and Isaiah spoke out strongly against those in power who bullied, used, and abused the powerless and poor all to their own advantage.  Religious rules existed which forbade such behavior – but they were, then as now – easily ignored by those with money and status.

This sample from Isaiah is a beautiful example of the genuine love and caring that we can also find in the midst of all the bloodshed:

From Isaiah 11 (1-9)
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him …
    

With righteousness he shall judge for the poor --
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist
    and faithfulness the belt around his loins …


And a little further along in this extended reading, comes this beautiful song of shared peace:
The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

 
And here is one that we are all familiar with from Micah 6:8:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
   And what does the Lord require of you?
  To act justly and to love mercy
 and to walk humbly with your God.

But Micah had much more to say to listeners then and still today.
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem…
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
    neither shall they learn war anymore;  but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid,
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken…
And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
    forever and ever.

These are promises from God – promises not only for the people of Micah’s time, or Isaiah’s.  These are promises for us today as they have been for all peoples down through 3000 or so years – years when the rich and the powerful have done what they want and the oppressed have been forced to bear it.

These are, however, not promises yet to come.  In God’s time these promises are now – always in God’s now.  There will be a time someday, and there is a time right now
When all shall sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken…

These promises are real someday to come and they are real today, this moment.  There is / will be peace and generosity and kindness in this world.  It is the Word of God – that we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

Let us not be so lost in the greed and hatred and fear that we overlook and forget the promises of Peace -- promises given for Then, and for Now, and for All time to come.


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    Picture

    Rev. Cherie Marckx

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