Sermons

Shaped by Prayer

Luke 11-1-13

July 25, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

I have never been all that excited by exercise. I know some people find it exhilarating and well worth the effort. Not me! But, over the last five months I have discovered something about exercise. In February I started seeing a Chiropractor who believes that in addition to adjusting what might be out of place, it is important to build muscle strength and tone so that the adjustments hold. So at each visit a physical therapist takes each client through an exercise regime. My discovery? With regular consistent exercise I have begun to develop core strength. I have muscles that work and when I engage those muscles I experience less pain and more physical endurance. In short, regular exercise has begun to shape my muscles and my body in ways that are more life-giving and life-enhancing.

Jesus and his disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. Along the way the disciples have been learning many lessons about life and what it means to be a disciple of this Rabbi, Jesus. They have begun to recognize that Jesus is a person of prayer. They have begun to suspect that it is through prayer that he draws the wisdom, the strength and the power of divine love into his being and becomes a channel for that love as it heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind and sets free those who are oppressed. More than likely prayer is not a new concept for these disciples. They had no doubt learned the prayers of the torah, and they might have even practiced some of them. But they see something in Jesus that they have yet to experience for themselves. So one day, when Jesus finishes his time of prayer one of his disciples asks him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray." [Luke 11:1]

Now it's not that these disciples want to be like John the Baptist, it's that they want to be like Jesus and they know that it is the practice of most rabbis to give their disciples a distinctive prayer, one that will help them to grow more and more like the rabbi. In fact it was true that you would be known by the prayer that was distinctive to your group, gathered around the teacher you followed.  So Jesus says to them:

"Pray in this way:  

`Father, help us to honor your name.

Come and set up your kingdom.

³Give us each day the food we need.

⁴Forgive our sins, as we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us.

And keep us from being tempted.'" [Luke 11:2-4]

You might recognize this prayer as a shortened version of what has come to be called The Lord's Prayer. The longer more familiar version being found in Matthew 6:9-13. In one version or another it has most certainly become a prayer that is distinctive to Christian communities wherever they gather and whatever language they speak. And if this prayer is more than just words we have memorized it does indeed have the power to shape us and transform us into the fullness of all it means to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Christ, a Christian. Like exercises build our physical muscles, this prayer can help us build our spiritual ones. Let's take a closer look in the hopes that both Luke's shorter version and some fresh translations might awaken us in new ways to the power of the prayer Jesus gave his disciples.

First, as Kate Huey reminds us: "It is not a prayer of private piety, although we can say it alone, in our room.  It is a "we" and "us" prayer, and it gives voice to our human longings for bread, forgiveness, and escape from the time of trials we cannot bear."[1]

But it begins where all prayer must begin with taking time and making room. To pray the words most often translated as "hallowed be Thy name" and here rendered "help us to honor your name," in the original Aramaic was to acknowledge our need to create space and clean out the clutter within our lives so that the light of the Holy One shines through us.

Then once there is space, emptiness, openness, to say "come and set up you kingdom" is to pray a prayer of surrender; it is allowing God's will to become our will, asking that God's way becomes our way and not the other way around.

 To pray "Give us our daily bread" reminds us to pray not for everything we want but for what we truly need. In Jesus' time having enough food to sustain life was no small matter. Today, hunger is still no small matter."[2] What does it mean to pray not just for my daily bread, but for our daily bread -in other words to ask that all our sisters and brothers will have enough food to sustain life? But the word translated "bread" goes far beyond just food. It also means wisdom, insight or understanding. So in truth this line calls us to trust that whatever we need will be provided in each sacred moment.

Open to the Spirit and trusting God's goodness we encounter the need for forgiveness -both receiving it and offering it. For most of us these words about forgiveness are perhaps the most difficult ones in the prayer. It calls for honesty with ourselves and with God -facing our mistakes and failures and trusting that God's mercy and forgiveness will erase all of them. But it is so hard for us to forgive others, isn't it? That little word as frightens us. We hope God is more forgiving than we are. We hope God's forgiveness is not conditional on our forgiveness of others. So how do we understand this line of the prayer? Again in Aramaic this petition has to do with letting go of what keeps us tied up in knots and accepting, really accepting, God's forgiveness. Knowing that when we truly let go of all the stuff we have done or failed to do, when we stop beating ourselves us and accept God's unconditional love, we are empowered, little by little to let go of blaming others for what they have done and allowing the spirit to heal the hurt and the pain of living.

Finally we come to the words about being tempted which in Aramaic really point to forgetfulness. Don't let us forget the Source of Life. Don't let us get so busy with life that we forget to live. Keep us awake and aware, open and in tune with the rhythms of grace and the heartbeat of Love.

It's not that there is magic in these particular words. Yet when we learn them by heart and take them to heart, when we don't just say them, but honestly pray them, they become a doorway into a relationship with God that leads to LIFE, TRUE LIFE!

I think that's why Jesus goes on to add a curious little parable about an annoyingly persistent neighbor and the reluctant householder who relents, not out of kindness or friendship, but simply for the sake of a good night's sleep. Jesus then concludes this teaching about prayer with a brief comment about parents who know how to give good gifts to their children and the promise that God "is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks."[Luke 11:13] 

Between the two we find those incredible promises, "...ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks." [Luke 11:9-10]

Jesus seems to be saying that when we pray persistently and without ceasing we do we can count on the fact that we will indeed be shaped by our prayers into the very people God has created us to be. I believe Jesus is inviting us to trust that it is God's deepest desire to lead us into the fullness of life. So let us ask and keep on asking, search and keep on searching, knock and know that doors will open to a life more amazing than all we could ever hope for or imagine. May it be so. Amen.

Worship and Work

Luke 10:38-42 (MSG)

July 18, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

Martha and Mary! Can you get the picture? Martha invites Jesus and his disciples (and there were considerably more than twelve of them) to her home. Luke says she "welcomed him and made him feel quite at home." In other words Martha had the gift of hospitality. She probably loved having people in her home, feeding them and tending to their needs. But on this particular occasion she is feeling just a bit overwhelmed. There is so much to do and she seems to be the only one doing it! She might even be able to hear what's going on, listen to bits and pieces of what Jesus is saying. She probably wishes she could take the time to just sit and listen, but, Luke says, she is "pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen."

Boy, can I relate! Whether it's hosting parties at my home or getting ready for some function at church there have been times when I've felt swamped, overwhelmed, distracted and pulled away by all that had to be accomplished. It's even worse on those occasions where I feel like I'm doing it all alone. There's something about having companions to share the load that makes it all seem easier somehow. But Martha was stuck doing it all herself!

Meanwhile Mary is sitting in rapt attention, hanging on every word that Jesus is saying, filled with wonder and perhaps even joy, because she seems to be just as welcome to receive the teachings of this rabbi as any of the men. Mary might even be aware that she should be in the kitchen helping her sister, after all that's where women belonged, but she just can't tear herself away.

I've been there too, and I know some of you have as well. Needing so much to be fed, filled, nurtured, cared for that we don't have anything to give. I've heard some of you say that you hear the call to help teach kid's quest, assist in the nursery, serve as liturgist or some other job that needs doing, but you really want or need to be in worship.

Yes, if we're honest I think we can relate to both Mary and Martha, although we may feel more kinship with one or the other. But the tension between these two sisters is familiar ground for most of us.   

Finally, when Martha is at the end of her rope, she barges into the room where Jesus and the others are gathered and says, "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand." Now I have to give Martha a lot of credit here. Me, I'd probably just fuss and fume and bang cupboard doors, hoping that Mary would catch my irritation by all the noise and get herself out to the kitchen where she belonged. I know for sure that if I had risked saying anything it would have been directly to Mary, not to Jesus. But Martha took her concern, her irritation, her need to Jesus. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? And I can well imagine that she was more than just a little put off by his response; at least I know that I would be. It seems uncharacteristically harsh and uncaring.

"Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it--it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

Mary and Martha; what are we to make of this story? What is Jesus saying here? What had Martha missed that Mary got? And most importantly, what wisdom might we glean for our own lives?

This story, it seems to me, points to an age old tension in the church. Are disciples called to piety or service, prayer or action, worship or work? And, on the surface of this story, it would seem that Jesus would have his followers choose piety, prayer and worship over service, work and action. However, if we read the gospel of Luke from beginning to end, we would see that just before this story of Mary and Martha is the story of the encounter of Jesus and a lawyer and what we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan -a parable that is all about serving. In fact, it was the priest and the Levi who put worship ahead of responding to one in need that seem to fall short. And Jesus last words to the lawyer were "go and do likewise." Then, immediately following today's story, we find the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. Whereupon he shares with them the prayer we have come to call the Lord's Prayer -which, as we will see next week, is a prayer that deals with both worship and work.

By his positioning of these stories, Luke seems to point to his understanding that those who seek to follow Jesus must balance piety and service, prayer and action, worship and work! But balance is a tenuous thing isn't it? We can be balanced at one moment and then all too easily out of balance in the next. Yet Jesus says what Mary has chosen will not be taken from her. So perhaps there is something more than just balance that we need to understand.

As I was thinking about this I thought of Jesus' instructions to his disciples to "seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness..." Then I thought of the definition of "righteousness" as "doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason."

This past week I spent two days at an Interplay retreat called Praying the Body: Interplay as Soulwork and Deepening Our Body Wisdom. Cynthia Winton-Henry, one of the co-founders of Interplay, was our retreat leader. We danced and played and talked and sang. We listened and moved to the rhythms of beautiful music and the rhythms of our hearts.  We talked a lot about noticing -one of the core elements of Interplay: noticing our body data; noticing the things that give life and energy, joy and ease; noticing, paying attention, being aware of the deep movements of the spirit in the movements of our life. At one point Cynthia gave each of us a card that said something about one of the core elements of Interplay. Then she invited us to reflect on what it might have to say to us. My card had the element known as leading and following. As I listened to the wisdom pulsing up from my deepest self, I began to think about my need to move back and forth between the two -sometimes being a courageous, insightful leader and sometimes being an ecstatic and joyful follower. Then I began thinking about Mary and Martha, and the Spirit seemed to be saying to me that the one thing that Mary had chosen was to listen to her own deepest, truest wisdom -that part of herself that danced in partnership with the Divine Dancer; to pay attention to what she needed in that moment; to trust that her deepest wisdom was life-giving and then to act on that wisdom. So despite her duty to help her sister in the kitchen, Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet and learn. In another moment her choice might have led her into some act of caring, compassionate serving. Martha, on the other hand was distracted, pulled away from her deepest knowing, so caught up in "shoulds" and "oughts" that she missed the joy that could have been hers.

Worship and work, it seems to me, are part and parcel of the divine dance of life. Like Mary we are invited to listen deeply to the music of our soul and move with the rhythms of grace, ready to respond to the nudges of the Spirit with the right action at the right time and for the right reason. Amen.

Special Presentation            Baobab Blast!

 Pastor Nancy & Volunteers and Youth from Vacation Bible School

Song:                                Baobab Blast

(Pastor Nancy) During our week of Vacation Bible School we gathered each day around the Baobab Tree. We learned some amazing things about this tree. But one of the most important things we learned was that this tree is the gathering place for people. They come together to share their stories and oftentimes to listen to the village story teller who has a way of putting things so that God's truth shines through. Today some of the 61 youth and their leaders who were part of VBS will join me to tell you some stories. And hopefully you will see God's truth and love shinning through all we do and say.

Day 1: (Paul) On the first day our theme was Trust. We heard the story of how God called Abraham and Sarah to go to a new place and become a great nation.

        (Paul) Our Bible verse was from Psalm 37:5. It was

All:   ⁵Let the LORD lead you and trust him to help.

(Paul) But we sometimes shortened it to

All:   "Trust in God"

(Pastor Nancy) I was in my office getting the bulletin ready for the upcoming Sunday when the phone rang. It was a woman calling for help. Her name was Michelle and she said she had just been released from prison and needed help, not for her self so much as for her daughter. She needed diapers and food and someone to talk to. I guess she was just going down the list of churches, trying to find someone to respond and she got to me. She didn't have a car. She had no way of getting from where she lived to the church, but she needed help. She was living on the far east side of Milwaukee -in an area that some people called the ghetto. I was in one of the far western suburbs. I had a lot of work to get done and I really wanted to just say to her that there was nothing I could do to help her; but something deep inside, something that I've come to know as God's spirit pushed me to respond. So I told her that I would gather some things together and bring them to her the next morning.

Song:                                From East to West

Day 2 (John) On the second day our theme was Love. We heard the story of how God's love helped Joseph love and forgive his brothers. We also leaned that even though the brothers meant to hurt Joseph, God used what they did for something good.

(John) Our Bible verse was from 1 Corinthians 13:8a It was

 ⁸Love never fails!

(Pastor Nancy) So the next morning I set out driving east toward Michelle's apartment. As I drove along this street that runs between the city of Milwaukee and the suburbs, I couldn't help but notice the changes that were taking place as I drove. It wasn't long until I was out of my comfortable suburban neighborhood and heading into places where the buildings were more shabby. And I began to wonder what in the world I was doing, going all by myself into the heart of the ghetto to meet a woman who had been in prison and I didn't even know what her crime had been.

As I drove, I felt my heart begin to constrict as fear began to fill my mind. The people on the street suddenly looked menacing -gang bangers and druggies I thought. I dreaded having to stop at red lights for fear they would jump off the curb and attack me. Just then, of course I came to a red light and as I sat there God spoke into my anxious heart and said, "Nancy these are people just like you. They are my children too. Pray for them."

Now when I'm in stressful or difficult situations I have a couple of breath prayers that I use. One of them is called the Metta. It consists of four lines: May I be filled with loving-kindness; May I be well; May I be peaceful and at ease; May I be happy and filled with joy. Each phrase is spoken silently as you breath, one phrase for each breath. You begin praying it for yourself and then changing the "I" to "you" you send the prayer out for others.

So I began, 2-3 times for myself and then once for each person I saw as I drove -the people walking down the street, the people hanging out in front of stores, the people in line at the welfare office. As I drove and as I prayed for each of these strangers a miraculous thing happened; the people who moments before had seemed scary now looked like my sisters and brothers. As my heart opened I saw each of them surrounded and filled with God's light and love.

Song:                                Love Never Fails

Day 3 (Emily) On the third day our theme was: Follow. We heard the story of how Jesus called ordinary men and women to follow him and learn from him. They were called disciples and so are we.

(Emily) Our Bible verse was from Psalm 119:15 It was

All:   ¹⁵I will study your teachings and follow your footsteps."

(Emily) But we sometimes shortened it to

All:   "I'll follow Jesus"

(Pastor Nancy) When I arrived at Michelle's place the neighborhood was worse than anything I had ever seen and fear tried to grip my heart again. So I began my other favorite breath prayer: I am the light, the light is within me; the light flows through me; the light surrounds me; the light protects me; I am the light. After a couple of times through, I knew that God's light and love were surrounding and protecting me, so I got out of the car and headed to her door.

When she answered my knock I was greeted by a beautiful smile, a warm gracious heart and a precious little one. "Come in," Michelle said, "and please sit down if you can. I'd love to talk with you if you have the time.

As we talked she told me some of her life story. I actually can't remember most of the details, but I do remember the little jump in my stomach when she told me that she had been in prison because she had been convicted of second degree murder. Then she asked me to pray for her and her child that they would find their way. After I finished praying she said that I had brought her such peace that she wondered if she could stay in touch with me. I said yes, of course she could call me.

Every couple of weeks she would call, sometimes because she just wanted to talk and have me pray for her, sometimes because she needed something for her daughter. As time passed she talked about her fear of her boyfriend and wishing she could get away from him. Most of the time I just listened. If I said anything at all it was to remind her how much God loved her and what a beautiful person she was.

Song:                                We Have Heard the Call

Day 4: (Dustyn) On the fourth day our theme was Care: We heard the story of the Samaritan that helped the man who was hurt.

(Dustyn) Our Bible verse was from Jeremiah 17:16a It was

All:   "O LORD, you chose me to care for your people"

But we sometimes shortened it to

All: "Care for others"

(Pastor Nancy) The next time I visited Michelle, she was living in a place even worse than the first place. She had left her boyfriend and this was all she could afford. She needed furniture and lots of help, so I got several people from the congregation. We collected a number of things and took them to her.

After that each time she would call, she seemed stronger and more confident. Finally one day she asked if she could come to church because she wanted to thank the people of our little congregation and share with them some of her story. We were eventually able to make that happen and what a blessing it was. Not only did we see the way that God had loved Michelle though our willing hands and hearts, but we recognized the way God had loved us by sending Michelle into our lives.

Day 5 (John) On the last day our theme was: Share: We heard the story of a guy named Philip who shared his faith with a man riding in a chariot.

(Paul) Our Bible verse was from Philemon 1:6a It was

All:   "Share your faith with others"

(Emily) Although that's pretty short we also shortened it to

All:   Share your faith

(Pastor Nancy) Some time after that Michelle connected with some of her aunts who invited her and her daughter to move in with them. The last time I saw her she was living in a safer neighborhood in a clean well-furnished apartment -not luxurious by suburban standards but a palace compared to where she had been. As I arrived the apartment was full of women who were talking and laughing. Michelle introduced me and then asked me to come into her room so we could talk. She had found a job and had these wonderful women to help her. She was so grateful for everything we had done to help her. Now she hoped she could help others. She also hoped she wouldn't have to call to ask me for help again.

We hugged and prayed together and then went back into the living room where the women had put on some music and were dancing. "Do you dance?" Michelle asked me.

"I sure do" I replied as I joined in.

"Hey a preacher who dances," one of her friends said.

When the song was over and I was preparing to leave Michelle said, "Pastor Nancy, you got some jive; you don't dance like no white chick." We all laughed and hugged again. As I left I thought "God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good."

Song:                                Share Your Faith 

Freedom to Love

Galatians 5:1, 13-18

July 4, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

Freedom! On this day that marks the 234^th birthday of our country, which our national anthem rightly calls "the land of the free and the home of the brave," we have freedom on our minds. But like most words in our language freedom means different things to different people at different times and in different contexts. The Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary defines freedom as:

· the quality or state of being free

· the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

· liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another

While Answers.com points to some of the many nuances of freedom, listing several different ways to use the word freedom:

1. freedom of assembly or freedom of speech
2. freedom from want.
3. We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
4. loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
5. she was given the freedom of their research facilities.
6. he was given the freedom of the city.

Freedom!

o  According to Abraham Lincoln "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

o  While Robert J. McCracken believes "We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls."

o  Moshe Dayan asserts that "Freedom is the oxygen of the soul."

o  Benjamin Franklin warns us that, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

o  Nelson Mandela cautions that, "to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Freedom! But as we gather in the midst of our reflections on freedom if we listen carefully we will catch the echo of an even deeper freedom from the Apostle Paul: ^"It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. ... Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom."

To understand Paul's wisdom for our lives, we need to look at the situation that evoked his words. For Paul Christ came to proclaim God's unconditional love and set us free from trying to assure our own salvation by slavishly following the whole of the Jewish law. Bondage to the law, according to Paul, created a climate of anxious self-protectiveness where good deeds -if they were done at all- where self-centered and self-serving; done to assure one's own place in God's coming realm. This was how Paul lived until his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, where he found the freedom and joy he had never experienced living under the law. Embraced and empowered by God's love, Paul was moved from the inside out to do what, living under the law, he had not been able to do -that is to truly love and serve others.

But some had a very different idea about the law. They believed that all the practices of the Jewish law were binding on everyone who sought to follow Jesus. By their impassioned speeches these troublemakers, called the Judaizers, stirred up fear in the hearts of the believers. Were they really saved? Or would their failure to follow the whole Jewish law keep them from experiencing God's grace? Where there had been peace and love, now there was doubt and fear. Where there had been trust and growth, now there was uncertainty and stagnation. Where there had been community and cooperation, now there was alienation and competition. It was to these troubled and anxious believers that Paul wrote.

Paul had grasped the truth that in Christ we are given freedom from fear. It is freedom from trying to secure our own way and make our own future. But even more than that, he understood that in Christ we were given freedom to live in love. And in fact, living in love is part and parcel of what keeps us free. When we live in fear our world is limited, for fear contracts, it causes us to pull in, to build barriers, erect fortresses, sharpen our defenses, seeking only to provide for our own safety, our own security, our own life. But when we live in love our world knows no limits, no borders, no boundaries; love expands our view, opens our hearts, awakens our creativity and moves us to reach out in ever-widening circles.

When talking about our freedom as a nation we often point with gratitude to the sacrifices made by those who have fought to defend our freedom. We know that freedom isn't free. We know that freedom depends on our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others. But all too often we believe that such sacrifice is what the men and women who serve in the various branches of the military do. Or if we are really thoughtful, we know that the families of these brave citizens also make sacrifices. But we fail, I think, to understand that to truly be free, we must all be willing to "use our freedom to serve one another in love," even when it means sacrificing some of our comfort, our wealth, our ease.

As I was thinking about this I thought of the Great Law of the Iroquois Nation- which says "In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation; that is whether the decisions we make today would benefit our children seven generations into the future."  It is, of course impossible to know that for sure. But to live with such "other-directed" thinking causes us to at least consider whether our actions benefit others. For example, I can't simply think of what is best for me and my family -in any sphere of life- without taking into account what is best for all my sisters and brothers.

But this is not just one more law to follow. It comes about naturally, Paul says, when we are "animated and motivated by God's Spirit." [Galatians 5:16]  It happens when we allow God's love to set the agenda. In the section following our reading for today Paul describes what life looks like when we live in the freedom of love and what it looks like when we give in to our anxious self-serving fear. Listen to what Paul writes:

 ^19-21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.

 ^22-23But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

²⁵Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

So my friends breathe deeply, ... feel God's love flow into every fiber of your being ... let all you do and say be "animated and motivated by God's Spirit" and claim God's freedom!  Amen.

Called! Sent!

Luke 10:1-11 & 17

June 27, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

It happened during my second year of seminary on the second day of my unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio. Having been oriented to the hospital on the first day, we were scheduled to be in class the entire day learning the basics of what a chaplain did. Sometime during the middle of the morning our teacher -the Chaplain of the hospital- received word from the emergency room that a 10 year old boy had been brought in. The boy was dead, but the family had not been told and they needed a Chaplain right away. As he was telling us this, I thought, "I guess we're going to get a break while he goes to deal with this."

Then I heard him say, "OK, whoever is on call for today will handle this one while we continue class. Who is on call for today?"

With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I checked the schedule and my worst fear was realized, it was me. So I tentatively raised my hand and said, "It's me."

"Do you know how to get to the Emergency Room?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, thinking, but what in the world am I supposed to do when I get there?

"Good," he answered. "Head on down there as quickly as you can. They're waiting on you."

Now even though I had been an emergency room nurse, I had no idea what a chaplain was supposed to do in this situation. I had been called to be a follower of Christ; called to allow the Spirit to mend the broken places in my life; called to grow in faith; called to work in the church; called to seminary to learn how to be a pastor; called to life. And in that terrifying moment I was being sent; sent to embody God's love and grace; sent to offer comfort and support; sent to proclaim God's ever-present care; sent! I felt completely inadequate and totally unprepared to do what I was being asked to do. I was terrified! "God, please help me," I prayed as I walked.

I wonder if the seventy-two disciples Jesus sent out felt as unprepared and uncertain as I felt. No matter how long they had been traveling with Jesus, no matter how much they had learned from him, I suspect that they too didn't feel quite ready or totally prepared for the task. I mean really, Jesus had just said to them, "I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves."[Luke 10:3] And "Oh by the way, don't take any provisions with you, not even the basic necessities for survival. Just trust that when you offer God's peace, you will find peace in return."

At least I was just going to the emergency room!

Augustine was tutoring young clerics to go into the world to start churches and preach the gospel. At their ordination and commissioning ceremony, he reminded them of the importance of their mission. Then he said, "Preach the gospel with all your heart. If necessary, use words."

So too, those first missionaries sent by Jesus were called to practice what they preached, to live God's gracious love, to be a healing presence in the midst of each community. For sure they had words to say that would help people recognize that there was a power beyond them that gave them the wisdom and the strength to do what they did. But the most important thing they had to offer was their presence. As they dared to step out in faith, as they risked trusting that with God who they were and what they had to offer was enough, they became channels of grace, beacons of hope, instruments of healing and agents of transformation.

One day a group of teenagers went out to the abandoned railroad tracks near the edge of town near to challenge each other to walk the length of the rail. Despite their best efforts none of them could do it. Now as it happened the younger brother and sister of a couple of the teens had followed them to the tracks. After watching the older kids try for some time, the little girl, named Lucy, said, "I bet Steve and I can walk the tracks." Well, of course the older kids laughed and heckled these little ones. But finally, feeling pretty safe in their judgment of the kids ability, they said, "OK, if you can do it, we'll take you for ice cream"

Looking at each other and smiling a secret smile, Steve and Lucy got up on the tracks at the same time and reaching out and taking each other's hand for balance and support they proceeded to walk the entire length of the tracks!

I think it is a vitally important detail of this story that Jesus sent these first missionaries two by two; for balance, for support, for encouragement. They needed each other. That's the power of a spiritual friend; that's the power of a caring community; that's the power of small groups formed to study or pray or minister together.

Linda Graham, along with her friends Kellee, Lisa and Julie, went to Haiti on what they thought was a routine mission trip to deliver blankets, clothing, and medical supplies to an orphanage. The women had no idea that they were walking into one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

As their taxi was leaving the airport the earthquake hit. Unable to drive to the orphanage they were dropped off at a church where about 2,000 people were singing and praying. "I've never felt the presence of God in such a tangible way as I did that night," Linda said.

The next morning wounded people lined up in front of the four women assuming they were nurses. Linda admits feeling inadequate knowing that she had no idea how to help the injured. Then she remembered that they had medical supplies in their luggage. The women sprung into action doing whatever they could do.

The biggest test of their faith came later that morning when two Haitian women went into labor. Linda was asked to deliver the babies in an abandoned hospital without electricity or running water. Linda prayed seeking the Lord's guidance. A healthy baby girl was born followed by a baby boy. The overjoyed father of the baby boy asked Linda to name his son. "I told him to name the boy Judah which means 'praise,' " Linda replied.

Each and every one of us is here because we too have been called; called by Christ to receive God's extravagant love, God's unfathomable grace, God's immeasurable healing, God's restorative justice, and God's life-renewing hope. Each of us is also sent to share with others what we have received, because it is in that sharing that we grow into the fullness of who we were created to be. Now it seems to me, that if we were only sent to do the things we already know we can do, that there would be no growth in faith in ourselves or in God. It is only when we find ourselves just a little beyond what is easy, comfortable or secure that we discover who God is and who in God's love we can become.

As I walked into the emergency room to meet that young boy's family, the nurse introduced me and then promptly disappeared. For the next several hours I sat with them, mostly just listening and trying to be present in whatever way seemed best at the moment, all the while wondering what in the world I was supposed to be doing and silently praying for wisdom and guidance. Then as they were leaving the grandmother said to me, "Thank you so much, I don't know how we could have gotten through this without you. You were a true blessing in this horrible nightmare."  As I walked back to class I wondered what I had done. In answer to my quandary the Chaplain said simply, "you were there!"

Whether we find ourselves in the middle of a natural disaster, in an emergency room with a grieving family with a friend, a co-worker, or even a stranger in times of pain, grief, challenge or fear, whether we are sent to bring comfort or hope, justice or peace, we are simply sent to be there; to embody God's love and live Christ's compassion, with open hands and open hearts, trusting that with God we are enough. Amen.

Great Love, Great Joy!

Luke 7:36 - 8:3

June 13, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

Her name was Candace. I met her during my tenure as Student Associate Pastor. As part of my ministry mandate to "create something for the young adults in our congregation" I had started a Relational Bible Study Group. I think we started with two or three participants. Candace was a friend of one of them, who told her about the group and invited her to check it out. I remember how quiet and reserved she was the first night she came. But something in the group drew her back the next week and the next until she was a regular and full participant.

We began each session talking about the stresses and joys of our week and offering each other support and encouragement. We also talked a lot about how we related personally to whatever Biblical text we happened to be exploring. The group grew together in love, in their sense of God's presence in their lives and in the joy that seemed to flow from that awareness. All of us felt our lives being touched, transformed and empowered. But none more so than Candace; she was like a flower opening up, a rose starting to unfold, a light beginning to shine.

I'll never forget the night she asked if she could share a song. She said it was a song that captured her story and she wanted to share it with us.

(Song)You Gave Me Love

You gave me time when no one gave me time of day.

You looked deep inside while the rest of the world looked away.

You smiled at me when there were just frowns everywhere.

You gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer.

That's why I call you savior.

That's why I call you friend

You touched my heart; you touched my soul;

And helped me start all over again.

That's why I love you Jesus,

That's why I'll always care.

You gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer.

You gave me laughter after I cried all my tears.

You heard my dreams while the rest of the world closed its ears.

I looked in your eyes and I found the tenderness there.

You gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer.

That's why I call you savior.

That's why I call you friend

You touched my heart; you touched my soul;

And helped me start all over again.

That's why I love you Jesus,

That's why I'll always care.

You gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer.

Picture in your mind the woman who stood behind Jesus, weeping, bathing his feet with her tears; can you imagine her singing those words as she gently massaged his feet? Can you hear her whisper or shout "you gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer"? She was after all a woman on the outside of polite society, a nothing, a nobody. Worse than that, she was a sinner; one who had sold her body to keep her life; one who had done whatever she could do just to survive. Now here she was crashing the party of Simon, the Pharisee, touching the feet of this itinerant preacher, interrupting the meal and rendering Jesus and anyone who came near enough to touch him or her unclean. It was the law. Simon knew it and so did Jesus and so did this woman! Women -even good, upstanding, reputable women- were not to speak to or touch men in public. She knew it, but her love was so great and her joy so profound that she dared to risk further retribution to just to say "thank you."

Now we don't know for sure just how it was that she had come to experience the love Jesus came and comes to bring. Perhaps she had been in the crowd and heard him speak. Perhaps she had caught his eye and when he looked at her she felt the love of God he talked about touching her deep within. Perhaps it was a smile. Perhaps it was the stories she had heard of other sinners he had welcomed, other outcasts he had included. We don't know. All we know is that something profound had happened to her and in its happening the love that had been hidden for so long was released in joyful service.

That's what happens when we receive a gift beyond anything we could ever hope for or imagine, isn't it? Our hearts are filled with gratitude that simply must find some expression. And when that gift is love when we have been told we are unlovable; when it is acceptance when all we have known is rejection; when it is extravagant welcome when the doors of life have slammed shut in our faces then that gratitude releases the love and the joy that makes us whole. I have seen it time and time again as individuals discover the love of God lived out in the extravagant welcome of a community of faith. I have seen it as the hurts and wounds of a lifetime begin to heal through the gift of Divine grace. When we have been loved like that, the great love and great joy that we experience simply must be shared, offered, given.

Meanwhile Simon, watching the scene unfold, simply cannot believe that Jesus is just sitting there, doing nothing to stop this woman or condemn her and her lifestyle. So Jesus tells him that story about the two debtors and asks him which debtor would love the creditor more. Cautiously Simon answers, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." Whereupon Jesus points to the woman and, after enumerating the number of times Simon failed to show Jesus common courtesy and respect while this woman poured out abundant love, Jesus says, "Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love."

Unfortunately several of the English translations of this passage have it backwards. They imply that this woman was forgiven because of her love. Not so, says Jesus. As a matter of fact the belief that forgiveness, love and acceptance come as a result of something we say or do was part of Simon's problem. He thought that only good, upstanding, proper, law-abiding people -like himself- deserved God's love and grace. He believed that only those who could follow every iota of the law were acceptable. He believed that one had to earn one's way into God's favor. He believed that because he faithfully kept the commandments he was somehow superior to those who did not. What he didn't understand was that in judging others inferior and in believing that he was capable of earning his own way, Simon was just as separated, just as distant, just as alienated as the woman was. He believed he had earned everything he had and there was no loving gratitude in his heart, no joy in his service, no room at his table for those he identified as sinners.

So much of the time we seem get it turned around. We think that we must do something to make ourselves acceptable to God. Oh, we utter the phrases about salvation by faith, but we turn faith into a work. We must have faith, repent, confess our sins; then and only then will God love us, accept us and forgive us. "No! Not so," says Jesus!!!  We have it backwards. God loves, forgives and accepts us - period - end of sentence. The question is will we accept God's acceptance of us and in that acceptance and love grow into all God dreams we might become?

How different our lives might be if we finally accepted that we are loved in spite of the number of times we have failed and will fail to live into the fullness of who we are created to become! How different our lives might be if we finally understood that we are -each and every one of us- people of infinite value, limitless dignity and immeasurable worth?

On the day of my ordination, several years after Candace first tentatively shared her song with us, she stood in the middle of the sanctuary and with great love in her heart and great joy radiating from her life reminded us all of God's incredible love as she sang her story, my story, our story:

You gave me laughter after I cried all my tears.

You heard my dreams while the rest of the world closed its ears.

I looked in your eyes and I found the tenderness there.

You gave me love when nobody gave me a prayer.

Amen.

Walking Side by Side

John 16:5-7 & 12-15 (CEV)

May 30, 2010 - Memorial Day Weekend

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

One Sunday a pastor was standing outside the sanctuary looking at pictures that had been hung on the wall, when a little girl stopped and asked, "Pastor, what are you doing and who are these people."

"Well," the pastor replied, "tomorrow is Memorial Day and these are the pictures of all of the people in our congregation who have died in the service."

Before the pastor could say another word the little girl cried out in alarm, "Which service the 8:00 or the 10:30?"

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and despite the little girl's confusion, we know that it is a day that was begun to honor those who had lost their lives in military service. Originally called Decoration Day, this custom of putting flags and flowers on the graves of the war dead began in this country during or just after our Civil War in many different places. As one historian puts it: "Each ... and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead and each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen. Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868."[1]

Perhaps that need to honor our dead, whether their death occurred in war or by some other means is one of the reasons that Memorial Day came to be a time when people went to the cemetery and placed flowers or wreaths on the graves of all their loved ones. At least that's what I grew up doing. Around our house the Peonies were generally in bloom by Memorial Day and we cut buckets full of them and made the trek to several different cemeteries. I can remember pulling weeds and cutting the grass around my grandparents graves. Next my parents and my brother set up mayonnaise jars filled with water and secured them with cut wire coat hangers. Then I got to put the Peonies in the jars. I had known some of my grandparents but others died before my birth. So this was also a time for sharing stories about what we remembered and loved about those who had died; and it helped me know the grandparents I had never met.

So today, I want to invite us into that story telling mode as we engage in an interactive time of reflection. To begin please get the blank half sheet of paper in your bulletin and grab a pencil or pen. If you need something to write with hold up the sheet of paper and we'll bring you something. ...

OK everybody set? Call to mind one or two people in your life -they can be living or dead- who have been a positive influence in your life; people who have helped you grow into the person you are today....

Now write one or two sentences telling something specific that person did for you. Let me give you some examples of what I mean:

©   The pastor of my church in Ohio, Kerry, saw gifts in me that I couldn't see in myself, he called me to use those gifts and nurtured and supported me as I risked stepping out in new directions.

©   My dad, Herb, delighted in my being. Each night he would give me his undivided attention as he listened to stories of my day and shared his wisdom with me.

©   Tom knows all about me, the good stuff and the not so good stuff and loves me anyway. His love brought me back to life after a painful and difficult time in my life.

OK, got the idea? You can either have two or three sentences about one person or one sentence about two or three people. Of course what you write is only part of who this person was to you, but it is an important part. [pause for reflection & writing]

Now I hope some of you will share with us the sentences you wrote. All you have to do is stand or wave at me and then you can read right from where you are. [pause for sharing]

Thank you for sharing.

In our passage of scripture today we hear Jesus promise to send what the CEV translates as "the Holy Spirit" or simply "the Spirit". But according to one of my seminary professors the Greek word used here is Paraklētos. "It is a word that has always challenged translators. In English, it has been read as Comforter (KJV), Helper (NKJV), Counselor (RSV, NIV, New Living Bible), Advocate (NRSV), or simply transliterated as Paraclete (NJB). The Greek word is made up of the participial form of the verb "to call" and the preposition "beside" and thus means one who has been summoned or called to the side of another."[2]

So try something with me: how would it be to substitute Jesus, God or Holy Spirit for the name of the person in the sentences you wrote?

Let's try mine and see:

©   Jesus saw gifts in me that I couldn't see in myself, he called me to use those gifts and nurtured and supported me as I risked stepping out in new directions.

©   God delighted in my being and loved me unconditionally. Each night God would give me his undivided attention as he listened to stories of my day and shared his wisdom with me.

©   Jesus knows all about me, the good stuff and the not so good stuff and loves me anyway. His love brought me back to life after a painful and difficult time in my life.

Let's hear some of yours [pause for sharing]

It has been my experience that God has always sent the right person at the right time to walk beside me, to comfort me, challenge me, love me, teach me, empower me, or simply be with me in whatever way I needed. And there have been times when, whether or not I knew it, God sent me to walk beside another who needed to feel God's presence and know God's love.

Just a little while before Jesus spoke the words in today's scripture, he said to his disciples "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever." [John 14:16 NRSV] So today as we remember and celebrate those Advocates, Helpers, Counselors, Comforters and Friends that have walked beside us, let us thank God for promises fulfilled and love given and received!

We are going to sing a familiar song We Are Marching in the Light of God, but this time we are going to add verses which substitute singing, dancing or praying for marching. As we sing, you are invited to walk, march or dance your way to the front, pick up a candle and light it in celebration of the people you remembered in writing today and also for all of the people God has sent to walk beside you and for the opportunities God has given to you, to walk beside another.

[pause for people to come forward]

Prayer of Thanksgiving

God, whose love and compassion are beyond anything we can imagine, we thank you for all the people who have sent to walk beside us as advocates, counselors, comforters, helpers, teachers, companions and friends. We thank you that the fire of your love has burned brightly through them. Thank you also for the times when your fire has burned in us to light the way and smooth the path of those you send us to walk beside. In times when we feel frightened or alone and think that you are far away, help us remember again the ones you have sent to us and trust that in many and various ways you will always walk beside us. Alive in Christ and open to your love, we pray. Amen.

The Pentecost Story - Ordinary People, Extraordinary Love

Acts 2:1-16 & 41-42

May 23, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

What a day it was! What a day!!! There we were all of us, the men, the women, all of us who had traveled with him, learned from him, loved him. There we were back in Jerusalem. It seemed crazy for us to be there. It was just 50 days ago that we came with him to celebrate Passover! So much has happened since then; the pain and fear, the grief and despair we experienced when he was arrested and murdered; then the surprise and shock, the joy and the hope we felt when we discovered that God had raised him, brought him back to life! What a miracle! He was alive and with us again. How we hung on his every word; cherished every moment!  We were certain then that God was truly with him and Jesus could accomplish anything!

But then he started talking nonsense again; something about us and what God wanted us to do; something about him leaving us for our own good! How could that be good? He kept saying that when he was gone, we would receive a gift from God. I'll never forget the last day he was with us; we had gone with him up to the mountain to talk and pray and he told us that after he was gone we were to head back to Jerusalem. He said we were to be his witnesses; that we were to carry his message to the ends of the earth. Us, was he crazy? We were just ordinary people, who would listen to us; who would believe us? After all, they killed him; what would they do to us. Smiling he simply said "trust me" and then he was gone. How alone we felt! We were confused, unsure, bewildered and more than a little afraid. But, after all we had experienced, how could we not trust him and do what he told us to do?

So we made our way back to the holy city, hoping that no one would recognize us as we looked for a place to gather. It was no easy task since there were about 120 of us. We talked, we prayed, we waited and waited and waited. Each minute seemed like an hour, each hour like a day, each day an eternity. Someone suggested that maybe we should select someone to replace Judas so we would have the necessary 12 man leadership team. To me it seemed like a useless exercise. How would that help? But we did it, casting lots to see who it would be. Some of us, myself included, were getting pretty discouraged. He had given us this task, promised to send us the help we needed, but here we sat doing nothing! I felt completely powerless. We sang the psalms and prayed and talked, but still nothing happened.

Meanwhile the city was filling up with pilgrims from all over the world; our faithful Jewish brothers and sisters who had come to celebrate Shavuot, the festival you call Pentecost, the time when we remembered the how God gave the tablets of stone to our great teacher, Moses. It would have been such a great opportunity for Jesus to get his message to so many people; if only he were here!

Then it happened! Without warning, the wind began to blow. None of us had ever experienced a wind like that -violent, terrifying, yet gentle all at the same time. We could feel it, hear it. It swirled around the room. It seemed forceful enough to overturn the tables and extinguish the lamps, but nothing moved. If anything the lamps grew brighter. The room was ablaze with the most intense light, like fire, but nothing burned. We looked at one another and we suddenly knew. This was what he was talking about. This was the divine fire. This was the breath, the wind of God, what you call the Holy Spirit.

We knew, each and every one of us knew. Here we were ordinary men and women filled, consumed, overpowered by the Divine presence. We had heard stories of how it happened to kings, to prophets and priests, not to people like us! But we felt it. It was real. The love we felt was nothing like we had ever known. The joy we experienced was beyond words but we had to share it. Without a second thought we rushed out the door. Without wondering how in the world we would be able to make ourselves understood we walked up to the people we saw gathered outside the temple and began talking. I was drawn to some brothers and sisters who seemed to be from Egypt and when I opened my mouth to tell them about Jesus, my words came out in Egyptian. Me, speaking Egyptian! Not far from me I heard John talking to some people form Mesopotamia in what I could only assume was Sumerian because they seemed to understand what he was saying. All 120 of us were talking at once and we each seemed to be speaking a different language. It was a sound even louder than the wind had been.

People were astounded -but no more so than we were. "They're just uneducated Galileans," I heard someone shout. "How can they be speaking so many languages?" Good question, I thought. Then someone else shouted, "They must be drunk!" But that was crazy, how could being drunk cause us to speak so many different languages? That's when Peter, bold impulsive Peter climbed up on the wall and somehow got their attention and a hush fell over the crowd.

"We aren't drunk" he said. Then he began to preach in a way that everyone seemed to hear and understand. He reminded us of the words of God spoken through the prophet Joel:

"I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams. When the time comes, I'll pour out my Spirit on those who serve me, men and women both, and they'll prophesy.

Peter went on for a long time, telling the people about Jesus and the extraordinary love of God that all of us had experienced because of him. His words stirred their hearts and 3,000 people asked to be baptized and joined our little band of believers.

What a day! But it didn't stop with that day; each of us in our own way felt God's extraordinary love empowering us to use our gifts as we dreamed God's dream, caught God's vision and worked together to spread God's love. It was as if in opening to that love and allowing the holy breath to fill us and guide us, the divine fire to stir and empower us we each lived into the fullness of who we were created to become.

I still have a hard time believing it, even though I experienced it. I know that some of you have doubts and sometimes when you read our stories you think we were something special but we weren't. We were ordinary people just like you; ordinary people transformed, empowered, set on fire by God's extraordinary love to live into God's dream for the world. That love, that power, that fire, it's here today. I can feel it. God needs you -each and every one of you- to dream dreams, see visions and allow God's extraordinary love to fill you, the holy breath to breathe you and the divine flame to empower you. There are people yearning for God's compassion. There are people aching for God's justice. There are people longing for God's healing. There are people waiting for God's grace. God needs you -your gifts, your passion, your hands, your feet, your heart, your voice. God needs you to shine the light of hope, bear the torch of grace and ignite the fire of love! God's extraordinary love will give you all you need to live into the fullness of God's dream for you. Open your heart and feel it, open your mind and sense it, step out in hope and trust it!

Agree and Disagree in Love!

Part 3

Philippians 4:1-9(MSG)

May 16, 2010

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

On May 6^th I opened the Upper Room[1] to begin my daily meditation and I read this reflection written by Ted De Hass:

The pastor was gone today, and our local high-school music teacher preached. He spoke about "the fifth voice," an idea I had never heard of. He drew the concept from the singing of barbershop quartets. "The fifth voice" refers to the one harmony created by the four voices as they join together in song. The unified sound becomes like a fifth voice.

Just as a group of singers can be more than each of them is alone, Christians living in love create something more than they could on their own. The day before Jesus was crucified, he told his disciples that the world would know that they were his followers by the way they related to one another, that they were to cherish and care for one another.

First Corinthians 13 describes the characteristics of this Christian love. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to be patient and kind, to turn aside from jealousy, boastfulness, pride, rudeness, selfishness, and irritability. Love forgives and lets go of hurts and offenses of the past. When Christians live together in love, the world hears a voice it needs to hear: the fifth voice that reveals the presence of the Savior.

As I thought about Ted's words and that famous "love chapter" from 1 Corinthians, I thought about the fact that Paul wrote these words to a group of Christians who were in the midst of a heated conflict on the subject of spiritual gifts. I also thought that it is perhaps in the midst of conflicts and disagreements that we have the greatest opportunity to witness to the kind of love that allows the light of God to be revealed in us and through us. Then I thought -"that is easier said than done!"

To agree and disagree in love takes prayer; it takes humility; it takes commitment; it takes learning and making an effort to use the best practices in communication; it takes a belief that God walks with us in the midst of our conflicts and disagreements; it takes the belief that such conflicts and disagreements are opportunities that God can use to grow all of us more fully into the people God knows we can become; and it takes a deep desire not only for one's own wholeness, but for the wholeness of all people. It is because we sensed God's call to grow in each of these areas that one of our 2008 Vision Goals was to "maintain and promote healthy communications and implement a formal conflict resolution process." To help us live into that goal the members of our Governing Board have been exploring a document called Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love.[2] It is also why this is the third of three sermons that explore various aspects of what it might mean to agree and disagree in love.

Part of our exploration over the past two weeks has pointed us to an acknowledgement that a large portion of what we call the New Testament either recalls a time of conflict for Jesus and/or the disciples or it was written in direct response to a conflict among believers in an effort to help the followers of Jesus learn how to live in love even as they dealt with differing ideas, points of view and understandings of the gospel message. Even though I have known this since my earliest days in seminary, I was nevertheless surprised when I discovered that Paul's injunction to the Philippians to fill their minds with "things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse," were written because two leaders in the church, two women who had labored for the gospel were in conflict with one another! I have known and loved these verses for years, but I had never seen their connection to conflict transformation. Yet as I read them a few weeks ago that is what began to surface.

Then this week as I was meditating about how to deal with some current day conflicts it hit me like a bolt of lightening. What I often do -and I don't think I am alone- is when someone has verbally hurt me by engaging in name calling or bullying or any of the other unhealthy and unhelpful communication patterns or by giving me the cold shoulder or ignoring me and my ideas then I stew about it; that is I go over and over the offense and the more I do, the more hurt I am and the more anything else they say or do just gets added to the pile of dirt their words or actions have laid at my feet. What might happen, I wondered, if I took Paul's counsel to heart and began looking for the best in the other person, focusing on appreciating what is good about them and our relationship, assuming the best intentions for their words rather than assuming they were out to hurt me? What might happen if I focused on what I want the relationship to be and, taking a page from Paul's wisdom, instead of fretting and worrying began to pray; not for the other person to change, but for God to give me wisdom and insight, humility and understanding, a heart open and ready to forgive and a mind free and willing to be changed? Perhaps Paul is saying that the attitude we carry into any attempt to resolve a conflict is a key factor in whether or not healing and reconciliation will happen.

But then I noticed something else about this passage. It is part of a letter written to the whole community of faith in Philippe. In a sermon on this passage Richard C. Brand makes these observations:

There was a deep tear in the Body of Christ and Paul mentions it. ... We know it is a significant issue because Paul chose to mention it in the letter to be read publicly before the whole church. ... Paul mentions the conflict publicly because it is the public work of the people of God to work to make peace. ... It is not that the people of God will never have conflicts or quarrels (why should we think anything so absurd?), but it is that the people of God, the Church, ought to be the place where it acknowledges those quarrels and resolves them. Paul believes that is how the church makes visible the reality of the love and grace of God.[3]

It is true isn't it, that we sometimes need others who will stand in loving communion with all parties in a disagreement to help them work through the issues and find their way to reconciliation. One of the most destructive things in any community is when other people begin to take sides, adding fuel to the fires of dissension. Rather, we need each other to pray, when prayer is too difficult for us to do alone. We need we each other to remind us of the good, when hurt seems to obscure every other reality. We need we each other to help us listen with head and heart as each person seeks to speak their particular truth. We need each other to call us on our blind spots and to remind us that we see and know only in part. We need each other to remind us to speak in love and call us to account when we do not. We need each other to remind us of the best that we are and the best we can be.

Paul often uses the image of the body of Christ for the community of faith. Now we know it is true that when one part of our body suffers, not only does our whole body suffer, but all of the resources of our body get to work to bring healing and the relief of pain. So it is that as we learn more and more about healthy communication, as we allow kindness, compassion, humility, patience and peace to guide our way, we will be equipped to get to work to bring reconciliation and healing to the whole body. As we do we will become a healthier, stronger, more vibrant community of faith, through whom the world will hear that fifth voice -the voice that reveals the power of God's love. May it be so. Amen.

Agree and Disagree in Love - Part 2

Matthew 18:15-22

May 9, 2010 - Mother's Day

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

Lynn was the chairperson of the personnel department of a large company. It was her responsibility to see that the employees were able to communicate openly and honestly with one another so that they could work together efficiently and co-operatively.

Lynn worked proactively. Whenever she saw a conflict in the making she stepped in to help the protagonists come to an understanding before their differences interfered with their job. In her experience, differences of opinion that weren't talked about candidly often festered under the surface until they erupted in a full-fledged argument. When that happened, words that should have been left unsaid were frequently spoken in anger. This often resulted in hurt feelings or misunderstandings that were hard to forgive and even harder to forget. That's why it was so much better to talk openly about a situation. Even if protagonists had to agree to disagree, it was still better than talking about it behind someone's back. All too often that resulted in groups of people taking sides against each other. Then no one won and everyone lost.

Lynn was also the chairperson of her congregation's church council. In many ways her position on the church council was like her job because part of her job description involved helping the congregational members to communicate openly and honestly with one another. Lynn had thought that that part of her role would be easy. But it wasn't. The church's members were more reluctant to talk with one another about their differences than the people at work were. Somewhere along the line they had learned that Christians shouldn't disagree with one another.

Where did that idea come from? Why is it that conflict in the church seems so wrong? As we began to explore this issue last week I said that, part of the problem was the fact that "we often label as conflict only those situations which include such negative elements as bitterness, hurt and division."[1] If we successfully negotiate our differences without such negative components we tend to call them either arguments or disagreements. But Lynn's story seems to indicate that at least some of us even shy away from disagreements, thinking they are somehow unchristian. But nothing could be further from the truth. So why is it that we are so afraid of disagreements, arguments and conflicts?

On more than one occasion when his children and their friends were playing and the inevitable squabbles broke out, Lawrence Ressler,[2] a professional mediator and family therapist, would sit the children down and engage them in what he understood to be a good conflict resolution process. He would invite each person to tell their version of what happened, with no interruptions allowed. He then asked each of them to say what they heard the others saying in an effort to make sure that they had really listened and heard one another. Then after all had expressed their views, he worked to help them clarify the issues and then taking each issue in turn to come up with a number of ways to resolve it. They would then explore which solution seemed best for all involved and come to an agreement about what they would do. When he was satisfied that all were feeling good about the decision he would send them off to play.

On one such occasion, after their friends had left his kids said to him, "Dad, we hate it when you make us sit down and talk like that. It embarrasses us. Nobody else does it that way. We just want to be normal."

Healthy resolution of our disagreements is, in fact, not "normal" because the vast majority of us have never learned the steps, the attitudes and the actions which allow such results. When we look at the world around us what seems to be normal are the unhealthy processes folks engage in when they disagree; blaming, labeling, name calling, scapegoating, bullying, backstabbing and threats -both overt and subtle- and finally out and out violence, if nothing else works to silence the enemy. Now to be sure that is not the kind of "normal" to which Jesus calls his disciples. But neither is avoiding disagreements and pretending they don't exist, sweeping them under the carpet and hoping they will just go away.

If we seek to be disciples of Jesus, that is if we seek to take to heart what Jesus taught and model our life after his; if we seek to follow his command to pick up our own cross and follow him; if we seek to live Christ's compassion and promote justice, healing and wholeness of life then we need to listen to his instructions about what to do when we disagree. In today's scripture from Matthew 18 we find such instruction:

Ø   Go directly to the one who has hurt you or with whom you disagree.

Ø   Go in a spirit of gentleness, patience and humility.

Ø   Be quick to listen, slow to judge, and willing to negotiate.

Ø   If that does not work, bring a trusted third party to help you resolve your differences.

Ø   If that does not work be willing to submit to the wisdom of the community, gathered in prayer and seeking to embody God's forgiving, reconciling love.

What I find interesting about this teaching of Jesus is where Matthew puts it in the preaching of his gospel. Matthew 18 begins with a conflict about who is greatest in the realm of God, moves to a discourse about how disciples are to treat the littlest and the least among them and then moves to the story of leaving ninety-nine sheep to go in search of one who is lost. It ends with Peter asking, "Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?" [Matt 18:21] And Jesus responds: "Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven." [Matt 18:22]  With Jesus' instructions embedded within a context of the extravagant graciousness of God, Matthew seems to say that honest love and genuine forgiveness, born out of facing our differences with care, are to be the marks of those who seek to follow Jesus.

Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis, puts it this way: "Jesus did not avoid conflict. He confronted people all over the place, but he didn't violate them or seek to annihilate them; he simply invited them into a new way of being." As we seek to listen, really listen to each other with respect for ourselves and each other; as we learn to speak our partial and limited truth with compassion and care; as we commit to make our experiences unconditionally constructive we are all invited into a new way of seeing, a new way of being.

 In our 2008 Visioning Process we discerned goals to guide our life together through 2011. One of our goals was to "maintain and promote healthy communications and implement a formal conflict resolution process." As part of that goal the Governing Board has been exploring a document called Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love.[3] Either last week or today, I hope you picked up a copy of the first two pages of that document. As I said last week, I hope you will read it, pray about it and discuss it.

But more than that, I hope that, using it as a starting place, we can all learn and grow our capacity for healthy communication and our conflict transformation skills. Just imagine what our congregation, your family, our community, our nation or the world would be like if we learned, practiced and taught our children how to agree and disagree in love. Just imagine the way life could be if we honored the piece of the truth planted in each heart and mind and allowed the pieces and parts to come together to make a more beautiful whole. After all, a painting needs more than one color, a song needs more than one note and our world needs more than one voice.

With God's help and the Spirit's guidance may we be part of creating a new "normal" for the world. Amen.