Here are a few photos from this morning's baptism of Tyler Daniel Borchert. (He slept through it!)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
ThisWeeksSermon June 29th, 7th Sunday after Pentecost
“God said, I am doing a new thing.”The 7th Sunday After Pentecost, June 29, 2008
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“It’s through the things that happen in our lives and in our culture and in our world that we learn what “new thing” God is wanting. It’s always been that way.”
“Christians who want to deny others the blessings they claim for themselves should not assume they speak for the Almighty.”
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“Christians who want to deny others the blessings they claim for themselves should not assume they speak for the Almighty.”
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May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. men.
Week after week, by the time we get to this part of the service, the sermon, we’ve made our way first through a reading from the Hebrew bible, then chanted a song from ancient Israel.
After that, usually, we follow up with one of St. Paul’s letters to one of the congregations that he got started.
Finally, we read from one of the four different stories describing the life and death and teachings of Jesus.
Often the stories are strange, the images obscure, the logic convoluted.
And then I stand up here and try to say something halfway intelligent about what we’ve just listened to!
Sometimes it’s quite a challenge for me.
And today is no exception.
The gospel today
In the gospel today, we just heard it, Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who sent me.
I totally get that.
The one who sent Jesus is the One Jesus called his “Father.”
But for me it goes downhill after that, ending with Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, (What little ones, I wonder.)
Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, in the name of a disciple—won’t lose their reward.”
What could that be about?
I don’t know what to say, actually.
The commentaries I consulted were not at all helpful.
I apologize for its lack of clarity.
The letter to Rome
Then there was the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome.
Two hundred and eighty-seven words in this morning’s passage.
Half of those words appear in only three very long sentences, words about sin, and wickedness, and passions, and slaves and death and impurity.
Egads.
By the time I get to the sentence predicate, I can’t remember what the subject was.
Even the contemporary interpretation which we used this morning didn’t help much.
Again, I apologize for its lack of clarity.
The Hebrew bible
The first reading, from the book of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, is a bit easier to get a handle on.
No apologies needed here.
It’s a simple story of an argument between two fortune-tellers, two prophets, Hananiah, the optimist, predicting a bright future for Israel, and Jeremiah, the pessimist, predictor of inevitable doom.
What the prophets of Israel were doing, actually, was claiming God as being alive in history.
They were paying attention to what was going on in the world around them, and then they were interpreting what it might be that God was wanting the people of God to know just then.
The prophet Isaiah had put it this way:
God said, I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it? I am making a path in the desert, and streams in the dry land.
Words from another time and place, but words that compel us today, I think, compel us to embrace the possibility of God calling for change in our time, words that compel us to be open to a new path in the desert, open to streams of opportunity in the dry land.
It’s through the things that happen in our lives and in our culture and in our world that we learn what “new thing” God might just be wanting at any point in time.
It’s always been that way.
The Bishop of Washington: an op-ed on marriage
The Rt. Rev. John Chane, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, had an op-ed piece published this week in the Guardian, an English newspaper.
The article coincides with the upcoming meeting of worldwide Anglican bishops in England, three weeks from now.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has tried to take the issue of gay marriage off the Lambeth Conference table.
But the recent celebration of a same-sex relationship at one of London’s oldest churches, and the highly publicized gathering of antigay Anglicans in Jerusalem this week, these events suggest that the controversy may have to be faced squarely at the Lambeth Conference.
Conservatives claim that opening “marriage” to same-sex couples will undermine marriage, “an immutable institution founded on divine revelation once and for all.”
But that’s not true.
The institution of marriage was not founded on divine revelation once and for all.
It has evolved.
Society, and the culture, and science have brought about new insights and perceptions regarding lots of things, including marriage.
The church’s understanding of marriage has changed dramatically over 2000 years.
In Jesus’ world, you know, divorce was simple.
A man simply had to say “I divorce you,” and his wife was on her own, out on the street.
Jesus criticized that Mosaic law on divorce.
Jesus, instead, said, What God has joined together let no man separate.
But even that pronouncement shows up differently in different gospels.
And it was modified in the letters of Peter and Paul.
Christians had to deal with contradictions:
the sensual, erotic Song of Songs in the Old Testament opposite Paul’s teachings that marriage was a “backup plan”, marriage was primarily for those who could not be celibate.
The church did not even bless marriages until the third century.
The church didn’t even define marriage as a “sacrament” until the thirteenth century.
And when it did, the church embraced many of the assumptions of a patriarchal culture.
Women and marriageable children were assets to be controlled by, and exploited by, the man who headed their household.
The theology of marriage emphasized procreation.
It wasn’t until the 19th and 20th centuries that things began to change.
The relationship of spouses assumed new importance.
The church came to understand that marriage was a profoundly spiritual relationship, not just for procreation.
In his op-ed piece, Bishop Chane suggests that our evolving understanding of what marriage is leads to the necessity that we re-examine who it is for.
Opponents of same-sex marriage will raise objections, he says, objections that it is unsuitable, for instance, to raise children with two mothers or two fathers.
But these arguments are about effective social policy, they’re not about sound theology.
Bishop Chane finishes with this sentence:
Christians who want to deny others the blessings they claim for themselves should not assume they speak for the Almighty.
Marriage is not an immutable institution founded on divine revelation once and for all.
What the prophets of Israel did was pay attention to what was going on in the world around them, and then interpret just what it might be that God was wanting God’s people to know.
They claimed that God is alive in history.
The prophet Isaiah had put it this way:
God said, I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it? I am making a path in the desert and streams in the dry land.
It’s through the things that happen in our lives and in our culture and in our world that we can learn what “new thing” God might be wanting.
It’s always been that way.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
ThisWeeksSermon June 22nd, 6th Sunday after Pentecost
“Heave the trash, embrace your identity from within.”
The 6th Sunday After Pentecost, June 22, 2008
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“SHED is an acronym for
“S—separate your treasures,
H—heave the trash,
E—embrace your identity from within, and
D—drive yourself forward.”
It’s like “dumpstering” your way into a state of Zen, or maybe “dumpstering” along the path that Jesus walked.
Dumpstering in this case could be a modern-day example of selling all and giving to the poor.
Could even be a first step to taking up your cross and following Jesus, a first step a total life-changing commitment that might even run the risk of offending friends and family.”
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It’s like “dumpstering” your way into a state of Zen, or maybe “dumpstering” along the path that Jesus walked.
Dumpstering in this case could be a modern-day example of selling all and giving to the poor.
Could even be a first step to taking up your cross and following Jesus, a first step a total life-changing commitment that might even run the risk of offending friends and family.”
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May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
Tough reading from the Gospel this morning!
Last Sunday I stood up here telling jokes.
This morning it’s altogether different.
This morning we hear the voice of an angry Jesus.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Let me reassure you, Let me reassure you about this message, on the Sunday immediately following Fathers’ Day.
This is not an attack by Jesus on “family values.”
It’s actually not even likely that Jesus said these things.
More likely that they’re Matthew’s own words, the author’s words, placed on the lips of Jesus.
I have something to tell you
I can say, with conviction, that I’m a follower of Jesus.
I pretty much follow the Ten Commandments.
There’s nobody I feel like killing.
Not ever.
I don’t shoplift.
I don’t lie in court.
Never even been in court.
But, I must admit, it gets a bit tougher when I listen to words that we think Jesus actually did say, words like “love your neighbor.”
That’s a little tougher.
You should see what my neighbor’s front yard looks like!, how they plant stuff, and how they decorate, outdoors, at Christmas.
Oh, my God.
It’s gross!
And then there’s the part about praying for my enemies, and being willing to be cursed and condemned.
Jesus said,
Do not fear those who kill the body.
But I rather like my body.
I’m not quite done with it yet.
And then there’s the Sermon on the Mount, and the example of the Good Samaritan, and taking up my cross and following, selling everything I have and giving it to the poor, a total life-changing commitment that runs the risk of offending friends and family.
The 100 Thing Challenge
The other day I read about a guy named “Dave”, a guy who’s getting rid of most of his personal possessions, keeping only 100 “things.”
He has a blog on the internet.
guynameddave.com
In Time Magazine this month, Lisa McLaughlin wrote an article about this guy Dave.
Excess consumption is practically an American religion, she wrote.
But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows that the things we accumulate can become totally oppressive.
We’re no longer huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
We’re huddled masses yearning to free up space on our closets, and on our kitchen countertops.
People are intrigued by Dave’s 100 Thing Challenge.
Otherwise seemingly normal people are pledging to whittle down their personal possessions to a mere 100 items.
Dave says that “stuff will overwhelm you.”
And that’s why he started the 100 Thing Challenge.
Dave keeps a tally on his blog of what he’s keeping, and what he’s selling or giving away.
He struggled over how many pairs of jeans he should keep.
Do I keep three, or are two pairs enough?
(In my closet, I’ll admit, I have way more pairs of jeans than that.
Rob has jeans and t-shirts that date back to the 1970s!)
A woman in Chicago is cheating, I think.
She’s counting all of her 20 pairs of shoes as just one item.
A guy in New York City got rid of all his hats and sold his crepe pans on eBay.
All stuff left over from another life.
Dave is still purging.
Sounds like bulimia, doesn’t it.
Dave is still purging.
He doesn’t count anything that he shares with his family, things like the house:
or the car, or what’s in the pantry.
But he’s still not sure he can let go of all but 100 of his own personal possessions.
So far it’s claimed his guitar, an iPod, and a baseball jersey signed by Pete Rose.
Right now his current tally includes one nice pen, one mechanical pencil, and one “spork.”
That’s a combination spoon-fork.
It’s part of a camping cooking set.
It’s kinda like following Jesus
There’s also a professional organizer who’s visited Dave’s blog.
She’s written a book.
Here’s the title:
When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life.
SHED is an acronym for “S—separate your treasures, H—heave the trash, E—embrace your identity from within, and D—drive yourself forward.”
It’s like “dumpstering” your way into a state of Zen, or maybe “dumpstering” along the path that Jesus walked.
Dumpstering in this case could be a modern-day example of selling all and giving to the poor.
Could even be a first step to taking up your cross and following Jesus, a first step a total life-changing commitment that might even run the risk of offending friends and family.
Jesus’ message was “scandalous”
The idea of “dumpsering” all your stuff is shocking.
It’s like the message of much of Jesus’ preaching.
It, too, was shocking.
Jesus offended the establishment.
Again and again, he overturned the status quo.
His good news was not good news to those who wished not to be disturbed.
Jesus mission was not to teach from the Torah.
Jesus, like teachers from other religious traditions, Jesus told of a world that was beyond rules and regulations, beyond social and religious codes of behavior.
Jesus told of a realm beyond scripture.
And what was really shocking was that Jesus took up with so-called “unacceptable” people.
What’s really scandalous
And it’s shocking that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to do the same.
We also “take up” with so-called unacceptable people.
We refuse to be shocked by associating with them, with the homeless, with migrant workers, with convicted criminals, with transexuals, with shyster politicians, even with our enemies.
Following Jesus means taking a big step, not only refusing to be shocked by victims, but refusing to be shocked by the victimizers as well.
When John the Baptist sent his followers to find out whether Jesus truly was the Messiah, Jesus replied with this response:
The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
Blessed is anyone who is not scandalized by me, blessed is anyone who is not shocked by me.
That’s what Jesus said.
Separate your treasures, heave the trash, embrace your identity from within, and drive yourself forward.”
Embrace your identity from within, welcome it with open arms, and follow in Jesus’ footsteps.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Tough reading from the Gospel this morning!
Last Sunday I stood up here telling jokes.
This morning it’s altogether different.
This morning we hear the voice of an angry Jesus.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Let me reassure you, Let me reassure you about this message, on the Sunday immediately following Fathers’ Day.
This is not an attack by Jesus on “family values.”
It’s actually not even likely that Jesus said these things.
More likely that they’re Matthew’s own words, the author’s words, placed on the lips of Jesus.
I have something to tell you
I can say, with conviction, that I’m a follower of Jesus.
I pretty much follow the Ten Commandments.
There’s nobody I feel like killing.
Not ever.
I don’t shoplift.
I don’t lie in court.
Never even been in court.
But, I must admit, it gets a bit tougher when I listen to words that we think Jesus actually did say, words like “love your neighbor.”
That’s a little tougher.
You should see what my neighbor’s front yard looks like!, how they plant stuff, and how they decorate, outdoors, at Christmas.
Oh, my God.
It’s gross!
And then there’s the part about praying for my enemies, and being willing to be cursed and condemned.
Jesus said,
Do not fear those who kill the body.
But I rather like my body.
I’m not quite done with it yet.
And then there’s the Sermon on the Mount, and the example of the Good Samaritan, and taking up my cross and following, selling everything I have and giving it to the poor, a total life-changing commitment that runs the risk of offending friends and family.
The 100 Thing Challenge
The other day I read about a guy named “Dave”, a guy who’s getting rid of most of his personal possessions, keeping only 100 “things.”
He has a blog on the internet.
guynameddave.com
In Time Magazine this month, Lisa McLaughlin wrote an article about this guy Dave.
Excess consumption is practically an American religion, she wrote.
But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows that the things we accumulate can become totally oppressive.
We’re no longer huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
We’re huddled masses yearning to free up space on our closets, and on our kitchen countertops.
People are intrigued by Dave’s 100 Thing Challenge.
Otherwise seemingly normal people are pledging to whittle down their personal possessions to a mere 100 items.
Dave says that “stuff will overwhelm you.”
And that’s why he started the 100 Thing Challenge.
Dave keeps a tally on his blog of what he’s keeping, and what he’s selling or giving away.
He struggled over how many pairs of jeans he should keep.
Do I keep three, or are two pairs enough?
(In my closet, I’ll admit, I have way more pairs of jeans than that.
Rob has jeans and t-shirts that date back to the 1970s!)
A woman in Chicago is cheating, I think.
She’s counting all of her 20 pairs of shoes as just one item.
A guy in New York City got rid of all his hats and sold his crepe pans on eBay.
All stuff left over from another life.
Dave is still purging.
Sounds like bulimia, doesn’t it.
Dave is still purging.
He doesn’t count anything that he shares with his family, things like the house:
or the car, or what’s in the pantry.
But he’s still not sure he can let go of all but 100 of his own personal possessions.
So far it’s claimed his guitar, an iPod, and a baseball jersey signed by Pete Rose.
Right now his current tally includes one nice pen, one mechanical pencil, and one “spork.”
That’s a combination spoon-fork.
It’s part of a camping cooking set.
It’s kinda like following Jesus
There’s also a professional organizer who’s visited Dave’s blog.
She’s written a book.
Here’s the title:
When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life.
SHED is an acronym for “S—separate your treasures, H—heave the trash, E—embrace your identity from within, and D—drive yourself forward.”
It’s like “dumpstering” your way into a state of Zen, or maybe “dumpstering” along the path that Jesus walked.
Dumpstering in this case could be a modern-day example of selling all and giving to the poor.
Could even be a first step to taking up your cross and following Jesus, a first step a total life-changing commitment that might even run the risk of offending friends and family.
Jesus’ message was “scandalous”
The idea of “dumpsering” all your stuff is shocking.
It’s like the message of much of Jesus’ preaching.
It, too, was shocking.
Jesus offended the establishment.
Again and again, he overturned the status quo.
His good news was not good news to those who wished not to be disturbed.
Jesus mission was not to teach from the Torah.
Jesus, like teachers from other religious traditions, Jesus told of a world that was beyond rules and regulations, beyond social and religious codes of behavior.
Jesus told of a realm beyond scripture.
And what was really shocking was that Jesus took up with so-called “unacceptable” people.
What’s really scandalous
And it’s shocking that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to do the same.
We also “take up” with so-called unacceptable people.
We refuse to be shocked by associating with them, with the homeless, with migrant workers, with convicted criminals, with transexuals, with shyster politicians, even with our enemies.
Following Jesus means taking a big step, not only refusing to be shocked by victims, but refusing to be shocked by the victimizers as well.
When John the Baptist sent his followers to find out whether Jesus truly was the Messiah, Jesus replied with this response:
The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
Blessed is anyone who is not scandalized by me, blessed is anyone who is not shocked by me.
That’s what Jesus said.
Separate your treasures, heave the trash, embrace your identity from within, and drive yourself forward.”
Embrace your identity from within, welcome it with open arms, and follow in Jesus’ footsteps.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
Sunday, June 22, 2008
2 Grandpas and 1 baby…
Returned Saturday from a visit with Amelia Jane Quiñonez-Brooks. Great time! Nearly 100 degrees there, however, in a place where they don't "need" air conditioning! Quality time with baby and her mom and dad.
(Mute your volume if you don't want your office mates to hear!)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
A father-daughter baptism at The Episcopal Church
Almost 100 people in church this morning to witness a double-baptism: two-year-old Evelyn Gilman and her dad, Steven. Believe me, it was lots of fun!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fathers' Day at The Episcopal Church in Marlboro
A few photos from Fathers' Day at The Episcopal Church. Lea Buttner had year-end "graduation" gifts for our kids, and for adults who supported her work. Of course we recognized Lea's contributions, too. Afterward, in the parish hall, the boys and girls hosted coffee hour. Continuing our "Very Berry June" theme, we were served strawberry shortcakes (the "cake" part provided by Anne Borchert, and the strawberries fresh-picked by Bill Borchert).
Life is good at TEC-Marlboro!
Monday, June 16, 2008
ThisWeeksSermon June 15th, 5th Sunday after Pentecost
“Have you heard the one about…?”
The 5th Sunday After Pentecost, June 15, 2008
“Two giants in a tiny boat, bumping into each other, and laughing.
That’s how they describe a person’s relationship with God.
Bumping into each other.
Rocking the boat.
Laughing.”
That’s how they describe a person’s relationship with God.
Bumping into each other.
Rocking the boat.
Laughing.”
I’m going to start with a joke this morning.
I’m a bit uncomfortable doing this, afraid, actually afraid that it’ll flop, afraid you might find it corny at best, inappropriate at worst.
This is a stretch for me.
Joke no. 1
Have you heard the one about the priest, the preacher, and the rabbi?
They walk into their favorite bar, a place they would meet together two or three times a week, for drinks and to talk shop, and to talk about the struggles of preparing homilies or sermons every week.
On one particular afternoon, someone in the bar commented that preaching to people shouldn’t be all that difficult.
A real challenge would be to preach to a bear.
One thing led to another, and they decided to conduct an experiment.
They would each go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it.
Seven days later, they met up again to talk about their experiences.
Father Flannery has his arm in a sling.
He’s on crutches.
He’s all bandaged up.
“Well,” he says, “I went into the woods to find me a bear.
And when I found him, I began to read to him from the Catechism.
Well that bear wanted nothing to do with me, and he began to slap me around.
So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him with it, and Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb.
The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation.
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next.
He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and with an IV drip.
“Well, brothers,” he said, I went out and found me a bear.
You know that we don’t sprinkle.
So I began to read to the bear from God’s Holy Word!
But the bear wanted nothing to do with me.
So I took hold of him, and we began to wrestle.
We wrestled down one hill, up another, and down another, until we came to a creek.
So I quick dunked him and baptized him.
And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb.
We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus.”
Then the priest and the preacher both looked down at the rabbi.
He was lying in a hospital bed.
He was in a body cast, and in traction, with IVs and monitors hooked everywhere.
He was in bad shape.
He could barely speak:
“Looking back on it, he said, maybe circumcision was not the best way to start.
Okay to laugh in church?
Trying to get a laugh in church.
I think it should be okay.
Why not laugh in church!
Some nights I turn on the TV.
I leave it on just long enough to feel drowsy, and then turn it off.
Usually it’s Comedy Central that I tune into.
I love South Park, with all those little children who speak using adult vocabulary, and have adult preoccupations.
If it’s late enough, though, it’s standup comedians on that channel.
Sometimes I wish I had it in me to do standup comedy, to stand up here and keep everyone entertained for 20 minutes or so, saying lots of clever, funny, maybe even inappropriate, earthy stuff, but stuff with an underlying, important message.
Making you laugh.
That’s what I’d do.
Earthy stuff with an important message.
Segway: What struck me this morning
Speaking of “earthy,” and funny, I thought this morning’s reading from the book of Genesis was pretty earthy, and fairly funny.
God appears in the disguise of a traveler.
And God informs Abraham that the promise made in last Sunday’s reading would come true.
God would make Abraham a great nation, and bless him, and God would accomplish this through the birth of a son to Abraham and Sarah, despite their extraordinarily advanced age.
Abraham and Sarah were old.
Sarah was long past child-bearing age.
When she heard that she would be having a baby, she laughed loud enough to be heard, saying, “After I have grown old and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?”
(You know the “pleasure” she was talking about.)
She was not talking about the “pleasure” of childbirth, you can be sure of that.
It was ridiculous.
She laughed.
“Why did you laugh at me,” God asked.
Sarah denied it, saying “I did not laugh”
“Oh yes, you did laugh,” God says.
And that’s the end of it.
You can be sure there was a smile on the face of God, a smile on the face of this god-in-disguise.
“Oh yes you did laugh, Sarah!”
And that’s the end of it.
Jesus and the Buddha: they both laugh
Back in the 1960s, when Playboy magazine was in its first decade, people actually did buy it in order to read the articles.
Playboy was pushing all sorts of boundaries.
Some of the great thinkers of the time wrote for the magazine.
Harvey Cox is an example, a recognized theologian, professor of divinity at Harvard.
Harvey Cox wrote a groundbreaking article on Christianity.
“Revolt in the Church,” was its title.
It appeared alongside a charcoal drawing of a laughing Jesus.
This drawing turned out to be one of the most controversial images that ever appeared in Playboy magazine.
Tons of mail condemned the laughing Jesus.
It was inappropriate, improper, unseemly, even more than the idea of laughter in church is unseemly.
The idea of a laughing Jesus seems wrong.
We think a religious guru ought to be austere, in order to earn our respect.
It all started in the fourth century
This idea of a somber Jesus started in the fourth century.
We inherited a form of Christianity created by the church at that time.
It focused exclusively on Jesus the “man of sorrows.”
The image that has dominated our culture is of a man being tortured to death on a cross.
But before that time, many early Christians saw Jesus differently, a laughing Jesus, the hero of a story that represents the spiritual journey leading to the experience of awakening, leading the experience of enlightenment, the experience of salvation.
Jesus and the Buddha
It’s interesting that we see Jesus, the man of sorrows, while one of the predominant images of Buddhism has been a laughing Buddha.
Just the opposite.
But the two teachings have this in common: they both bring together laughter and sorrow, to the point at which the boundaries between laughter and sorrow are blurred.
From our book of Proverbs, you’ll read the following:
Even in laughter the heart is sad and the end of joy is grief.
Our religion has understood the bringing together of laughter and suffering.
You cannot have Good Friday without Easter.
And you cannot have Easter Sunday without having had Good Friday.
Buddhism has done the same.
It’s the laughing Buddha who knows that life is actually an experience of suffering.
Okay to laugh in church?
There’s a wonderful image that comes from the mystical Sufi tradition within Islam.
Two giants in a tiny boat, bumping into each other, and laughing.
That’s how they describe a person’s relationship with God.
Bumping into each other.
Rocking the boat.
Laughing.
It’s a wonderful, rich metaphor for our journey through life with God the Holy Presence.
Bumping into each other, and laughing.
Laughing even in church.
I think it’s okay.
Joke no. 2
Have you heard the one about the Roman Catholic priest and the rabbi, riding in a plane?
They’re sitting together.
After awhile, the priest turns to the rabbi and asks, “Is it still a requirement of your faith that you not eat pork?”
The rabbi answers, “Yes.
That’s still one of our beliefs.”
Then the priest asks, “But have you ever eaten pork?”
The rabbi admits that he has.
“Yes.
On one occasion I did succumb to temptation and tasted pork.”
The priest nodded.
Went back to his reading.
Awhile later, the rabbi asked the priest a question:
“Father, is it still a requirement of your church that you remain celibate?”
The priest replied, “Yes, it’s still very much a part of our faith.”
The rabbi then asks, predictably, “Father, have you ever fallen to the temptations of the flesh?”
The priest replied, “Yes, rabbi.
On one occasion I was weak and broke with my faith.”
The rabbi nodded understandingly, waited for a moment.
Then he said, “It’s a lot better than pork, isn’t it!”
Things worth laughing about
The only things worth joking about are serious subjects, like being married, or like religion.
Religion is a rich source of jokes, but only if you take religion seriously.
So many people regard the church as the place of mindless conformity, or the home of long-winded, money-hungry evangelical shysters.
If that’s the assumption, there’s nothing to joke about.
But humor arises in the tension between the sublime and the ridiculous, between the sacred and the profane.
Our gospel traditions bring the two together.
The boundaries between laughter and sorrow merge in a matter of just three days each Holy Week.
The horror of Jesus’ gruesome execution, the sorrow that followed, and then the astonishment and euphoria of discovering that it wasn’t the end after all.
It was a new beginning.
To me, the laughing Jesus is very serious.
Jerry Brooks
Monday, June 9, 2008
ThisWeeksSermon June 8th, 4th Sunday after Pentecost
“Oprah suggests letting God out of the box”
The 4th Sunday After Pentecost, June 8, 2008
“Many “religious” people are stuck there, equating Truth with what they think, claiming to be in sole possession of Truth. If you don’t think the way they do, then you’re wrong.”
“I agree with Oprah. I agree with St. Paul. I agree with Eckhart Tolle. Let God out of the box. Less may turn out to be more. Silence is better than thinking.”
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
Oprah’s Book Club
Jane is my “shrink.”
That’s what I like to call her, although actually she’s a “spiritual director.”
Last time I saw Jane, she recommended a book from Oprah’s Book Club.
I’m actually not sure how Oprah’s Book Club works, but I think that once a month she recommends a book she considers worth reading.
The book Jane recommended, this month’s book, is called A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, a book by a man named Eckhart Tolle.
Here’s how Oprah advertises the book:
Are you seeking a more loving self and a more loving planet?
Do you wish you could let go of painful events of the past?
Still trying to find your true purpose in life?
Start finding the answers to the big questions with Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle.
The two of them are even offering a 10-part online class, over the internet.
The book
I got the book.
Started reading it this week.
Eckhart Tolle writes about what he says is a basic human need for transformation, need for “awakening.
And the time is right for a global transformation right now, he says.
The world at this moment in time is ready for a transformation of consciousness.
He asks this question:
Is it possible for human beings to defy what he calls the “gravitational pull of materialism”, and the “gravitational pull of thinking of ourselves as simply material” and not spiritual?
Can human beings rise above their own personalities?
He suggests that the answer is “yes”, and that the possibility of such a transformation was the central message of Jesus, and the message of the Buddha, and the message of other esteemed teachers of spirituality.
The world wasn’t ready then.
Jesus’ message was largely misunderstood, and often greatly distorted.
Jesus’ message, and the Buddha’s message, certainly did not transform human behavior, except in a small minority of people.
The purpose of this book, he says, is to bring about a shift of consciousness.
The purpose of this book is to awaken.
Buddhists and Hindus call it transformation, or they call it enlightenment.
Jesus called it salvation.
Spirituality and religion
Seventeen pages into his book, Eckhart Tolle addresses the topic of spirituality versus religion.
As he contemplates the potential role that established religions can play in personal transformations, personal “awakenings”, he points out what many people already know:
There’s a difference between spirituality and religion.
They’re not the same thing.
Having a belief system, a set of thoughts that you regard to be the absolute truth, having a belief system does not make you spiritual, no matter what those beliefs are.
In fact, he says, the more you make your beliefs part of your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself.
Many “religious” people are stuck there, equating Truth with what they think, claiming to be in sole possession of Truth.
If you don’t think the way they do, then you’re wrong.
It’s been justification for killing people.
It clearly still is.
What Eckhart Tolle says is that a new spirituality, a transformation of consciousness, is to a large extent taking place outside the structures of existing religions.
There have always been pockets of spirituality within organized religions, although hierarchies have often suppressed them.
But the surfacing of spirituality outside of religious structures is an entirely new development.
In the past, the Christian church had a virtual “monopoly” on spirituality in the western world.
But now, he says, within certain churches and religions, there are signs of change.
A growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to let go of identification with a specific form, let go of identification with the dogma, and let go of identification with rigid belief systems.
A growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to discover the original spiritual depth that has been hidden within their own religious traditions.
They have been able to discover that depth at the same time as they discover the depth within themselves.
They realize that being “spiritual” has nothing to do with what you believe.
It has everything to do with your state of consciousness.
Some people, and some religious institutions, will be open to this new consciousness.
Others will harden their doctrinal positions, defending, fighting back.
The most rigid structures, those which are most impervious to change, are destined eventually to collapse.
Now I understand
Now I understand why Jane wanted me to read this book.
Eckhart Tolle is describing the spiritual journey that I’ve been on for much of my adult life, a journey that led me away from the church, and then drew me back, the journey that Jane is now facilitating within me.
Jane has been a sort of combination Teacher, Shrink, Personal Trainer, and Coach in this process.
And the books I’ve been drawn to while in Jane’s “care” carry titles such as Beyond Belief, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (it’s a book directed at “Christians in Exile.”)
Jesus for the NonReligious, The Sins of Scripture
A New Christianity for a New World.
The questions that Eckhart Tolle asks are questions that I ask.
What does Life, what does the Greater Purpose want from me, what does God want from me?
It’s not about what I want from God, what I want from Life.
What’s the big picture, what’s the totality, and where is my place in that totality?
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
Friday, May 30, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
Oprah’s Book Club
Jane is my “shrink.”
That’s what I like to call her, although actually she’s a “spiritual director.”
Last time I saw Jane, she recommended a book from Oprah’s Book Club.
I’m actually not sure how Oprah’s Book Club works, but I think that once a month she recommends a book she considers worth reading.
The book Jane recommended, this month’s book, is called A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, a book by a man named Eckhart Tolle.
Here’s how Oprah advertises the book:
Are you seeking a more loving self and a more loving planet?
Do you wish you could let go of painful events of the past?
Still trying to find your true purpose in life?
Start finding the answers to the big questions with Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle.
The two of them are even offering a 10-part online class, over the internet.
The book
I got the book.
Started reading it this week.
Eckhart Tolle writes about what he says is a basic human need for transformation, need for “awakening.
And the time is right for a global transformation right now, he says.
The world at this moment in time is ready for a transformation of consciousness.
He asks this question:
Is it possible for human beings to defy what he calls the “gravitational pull of materialism”, and the “gravitational pull of thinking of ourselves as simply material” and not spiritual?
Can human beings rise above their own personalities?
He suggests that the answer is “yes”, and that the possibility of such a transformation was the central message of Jesus, and the message of the Buddha, and the message of other esteemed teachers of spirituality.
The world wasn’t ready then.
Jesus’ message was largely misunderstood, and often greatly distorted.
Jesus’ message, and the Buddha’s message, certainly did not transform human behavior, except in a small minority of people.
The purpose of this book, he says, is to bring about a shift of consciousness.
The purpose of this book is to awaken.
Buddhists and Hindus call it transformation, or they call it enlightenment.
Jesus called it salvation.
Spirituality and religion
Seventeen pages into his book, Eckhart Tolle addresses the topic of spirituality versus religion.
As he contemplates the potential role that established religions can play in personal transformations, personal “awakenings”, he points out what many people already know:
There’s a difference between spirituality and religion.
They’re not the same thing.
Having a belief system, a set of thoughts that you regard to be the absolute truth, having a belief system does not make you spiritual, no matter what those beliefs are.
In fact, he says, the more you make your beliefs part of your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself.
Many “religious” people are stuck there, equating Truth with what they think, claiming to be in sole possession of Truth.
If you don’t think the way they do, then you’re wrong.
It’s been justification for killing people.
It clearly still is.
What Eckhart Tolle says is that a new spirituality, a transformation of consciousness, is to a large extent taking place outside the structures of existing religions.
There have always been pockets of spirituality within organized religions, although hierarchies have often suppressed them.
But the surfacing of spirituality outside of religious structures is an entirely new development.
In the past, the Christian church had a virtual “monopoly” on spirituality in the western world.
But now, he says, within certain churches and religions, there are signs of change.
A growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to let go of identification with a specific form, let go of identification with the dogma, and let go of identification with rigid belief systems.
A growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to discover the original spiritual depth that has been hidden within their own religious traditions.
They have been able to discover that depth at the same time as they discover the depth within themselves.
They realize that being “spiritual” has nothing to do with what you believe.
It has everything to do with your state of consciousness.
Some people, and some religious institutions, will be open to this new consciousness.
Others will harden their doctrinal positions, defending, fighting back.
The most rigid structures, those which are most impervious to change, are destined eventually to collapse.
Now I understand
Now I understand why Jane wanted me to read this book.
Eckhart Tolle is describing the spiritual journey that I’ve been on for much of my adult life, a journey that led me away from the church, and then drew me back, the journey that Jane is now facilitating within me.
Jane has been a sort of combination Teacher, Shrink, Personal Trainer, and Coach in this process.
And the books I’ve been drawn to while in Jane’s “care” carry titles such as Beyond Belief, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (it’s a book directed at “Christians in Exile.”)
Jesus for the NonReligious, The Sins of Scripture
A New Christianity for a New World.
The questions that Eckhart Tolle asks are questions that I ask.
What does Life, what does the Greater Purpose want from me, what does God want from me?
It’s not about what I want from God, what I want from Life.
What’s the big picture, what’s the totality, and where is my place in that totality?
Less is more
In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (we read a piece of it this morning), he’s arguing that it’s only by faith that we are “set right” with God, transformed by God.
It’s not by any rules or regulations or dogma or doctrines, not by any law that we follow.
Those things bring displeasure.
The word Paul uses is “wrath”, in this morning’s translation from the Greek.
Those things bring wrath.
A different translation would be:
The law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it.
But, Paul says, Where there is no law, neither can there be violation.
In other words, the only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!
Am I suggesting that we abandon our creeds and liturgies and sacred writings?
No.
Absolutely not.
I’m an Episcopalian today because I love those things.
Those things are links to our religious foremothers and forefathers, links to their experiences, and to their interpretations, and links to their stories.
But what I am suggesting is that in this case, less may turn out to be more.
I’m suggesting that we might consider our elegant creeds and our beautiful liturgies and our sacred writings as a background to what is happening here and now in the stillness of our own lives.
And I’m suggesting that we set aside moments of stillness in our own lives, so that we’re not continuously thinking.
Eckhart Tolle defines thinking as “absorbing the incessant mental noise around us, most of which is unnecessary and repetitive.”
I’m suggesting that we set aside moments of stillness in our lives, so that we’re not continuously thinking.
What I’m suggesting is that knowing what the Universe wants, what Life wants, what Creation wants, knowing what God wants from us is our life’s work.
And finding spaces of stillness is vital if we want to get to the place where the answers are.
Oprah suggests letting God out of the box.
I agree with Oprah.
I agree with St. Paul.
I agree with Eckhart Tolle.
Let God out of the box.
Less may turn out to be more.
Silence is better than thinking.
In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (we read a piece of it this morning), he’s arguing that it’s only by faith that we are “set right” with God, transformed by God.
It’s not by any rules or regulations or dogma or doctrines, not by any law that we follow.
Those things bring displeasure.
The word Paul uses is “wrath”, in this morning’s translation from the Greek.
Those things bring wrath.
A different translation would be:
The law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it.
But, Paul says, Where there is no law, neither can there be violation.
In other words, the only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!
Am I suggesting that we abandon our creeds and liturgies and sacred writings?
No.
Absolutely not.
I’m an Episcopalian today because I love those things.
Those things are links to our religious foremothers and forefathers, links to their experiences, and to their interpretations, and links to their stories.
But what I am suggesting is that in this case, less may turn out to be more.
I’m suggesting that we might consider our elegant creeds and our beautiful liturgies and our sacred writings as a background to what is happening here and now in the stillness of our own lives.
And I’m suggesting that we set aside moments of stillness in our own lives, so that we’re not continuously thinking.
Eckhart Tolle defines thinking as “absorbing the incessant mental noise around us, most of which is unnecessary and repetitive.”
I’m suggesting that we set aside moments of stillness in our lives, so that we’re not continuously thinking.
What I’m suggesting is that knowing what the Universe wants, what Life wants, what Creation wants, knowing what God wants from us is our life’s work.
And finding spaces of stillness is vital if we want to get to the place where the answers are.
Oprah suggests letting God out of the box.
I agree with Oprah.
I agree with St. Paul.
I agree with Eckhart Tolle.
Let God out of the box.
Less may turn out to be more.
Silence is better than thinking.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Episcopal Church at New Paltz pride June 1st
Several Episcopal churches from the Mid-Hudson region were represented by clergy and laity—both gay and "straight." The contingent was greeted enthusiastically by onlookers on the parade route.
Monday, June 2, 2008
ThisWeeksSermon June 1st, 3d Sunday after Pentecost
“Teaching God a lesson?”
The 3d Sunday After Pentecost, June 1, 2008
[No audio this week. Technical difficulties.]
"By the end of this morning’s reading, the water had receded.
Noah and his family and the animals had disembarked, but nothing had really changed.
Noah had not learned anything.
Creation had not learned anything.
It’s just a story of God “behaving badly,” like an angry child who lashes out on impulse."
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
Woke up in the Adirondacks
People ask me how my Memorial Day weekend was.
“Hope you had a great weekend,” they say.
Well, for me, my week ends on Sunday.
Sunday is my “Friday.”
Monday is my “Saturday.”
Tuesday was my “Memorial Day.”
I woke up early Wednesday morning in the Adirondacks.
Cold and frosty that morning.
But an absolutely beautiful day for the drive down the Northway, and then the Thruway.
Up there where I have my RV, the grass is now green.
The leaves have popped.
The lilacs are just beginning to flower, and those nasty black flies are gone!
Driving home that morning, I was spellbound by the mountains on all sides.
The transformation from winter to spring is dramatically apparent!
Tops of the mountains are still brown from winter.
New light-green leaves just below the brown, gradually blend in with , the thick dark green canopy at the base.
Everything new and lush, persistently coming back to life, relentless, unstoppable, an eternal superabundance, it seems.
Listening to the radio
The car I was driving was the Jeep Patriot.
(It’s an SUV, I guess.
But I prefer to call it the “station wagon.”)
Anyway, the “station wagon” came with Sirius satellite radio.
The top row of buttons are preset to my favorite news and talk channels:
BBC World, CNN, NPR Now, and NPR Talk.
Little buttons on the backside of the steering wheel let me change channels without even taking my eyes off the road.
Driving south through the southern Adirondacks, then between Vermont’s Green Mountains in the East, and the Catskills to the West, channel-surfing, from station to station, conversations on the radio were almost exclusively about the very opposite of the profuse superabundance I was witness to that morning.
The price of gasoline skyrocketing, ethanol, the solution, the gasoline substitute made from corn, then ethanol, the problem, undermining the food supply, raising the price of basic food commodities, creating serious food shortages in the third world, prediction no longer of gas wars, but of “food wars” predictions of empty supermarket shelves.
I learned that in the four decades following 1960, animal populations have declined by 30 percent.
Biodiversity has taken an alarming nosedive, decreased by almost a third between 1970 and 2005.
Birds and land animal species have declined by a fourth.
Marine life has decreased by 28 percent.
Freshwater species have decreased by almost a third.
There has never been such a sharp fall, in all of human history.
Meanwhile, during that same time period, the human population of the world has doubled.
Scientists say that the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than normal, and they’ve pointed the finger at the perpetrators of the devastation.
Humans, climate change, pollution, destruction of natural habitat, spread of invasive species, overexploitation of species.
It seems we could be facing a threat of extinction, drastic reduction of life on earth, a modern-day “great flood”, an unwanted “fresh start” for humanity.
And where is Noah’s Ark when we need it!
The flood: recent research
We were treated this morning to that story of Noah, and of a great flood, actually, a rather awful story about a cold-blooded, vengeful God who’s so ticked off with Creation that all but just a few creatures had to be drowned in rising waters.
Downstairs in the parish hall, there’s a toy Ark with cute little toy people and cute little toy animals that fit inside.
We use those toys, I guess, to tell our children this particular story about God, without scaring them to death!
And of course, that’s what it is, a “story” about a great flood brought on by a vengeful god.
There are actually several stories of a great flood that took place in the Middle East in ancient times.
And actually, archaeologists have found vestiges of such a flood.
The stories have been told and retold in many Middle Eastern cultures, not just by our Jewish ancestors.
It is speculated that there really was a great flood a flood caused by the breaking through of the narrow channel linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and that’s what may have destroyed an early civilization on the shores of what we now know as northern Turkey.
We hear the story from the perspective of our Jewish ancestors.
They explained the horrific flood in terms of God’s anger at human sin.
Taken as a whole, it’s a story about the tension within God as God looked upon creation and was appalled, actually regretted having created humans.
God resolved to destroy everything and start all over.
God’s main complaint, other than a sort of vague complaint about “wickedness and corruption”, God’s main complaint was with the problem of violence in the world.
But oddly, God decided to use violence to solve the problem.
“I will destroy.”
“I will blot out,” God says.
And that’s what happens.
The water rises.
Villages, farms, livestock, wild animals, all but the few, wiped out.
By the end of this morning’s reading, the water had receded.
Noah and his family and the animals had disembarked, but nothing had really changed.
Noah had not learned anything.
Creation had not learned anything.
It’s just a story of God “behaving badly,” like an angry child who lashes out on impulse.
But in the next three verses, which we did not hear this morning (the lectionary, unfortunately, stops up short, just before them), in the next three verses there’s more.
Noah builds an altar and presents an offering to God.
Then it’s God who is the one who changes.
God says, “I will never again curse the ground because of people.
I know they have this tendency toward evil from an early age, but I will never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.
For as long as the Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.”
In our story of that great flood, God made a covenant, an agreement, that reflected God’s change of heart.
That was how our religious ancestors interpreted the devastation of villages from rising waters, the loss of human life, the loss of animal life.
That’s how they interpreted destruction of natural habitat, and loss of farmland and crops.
They thought it was to teach God a lesson.
In our time, I think it’s the other way around.
I think that the God who speaks to us in the events of our daily lives, speaks to us in the things that happen to us, day by day and year by year, I think that God is trying to teach us a lesson.
And my hope, my prayer, is that in our time , we will be smart enough to not be having to teach God a lesson again, smart enough to reduce our own carbon footprint, protect natural habitat of wildlife, reduce pollution, avert climate change, and, in general, be kinder and gentler to God’s creation.
My hope is that we will be smart enough to ensure that the month of May will always be a mark of new birth, everything new and lush, everything persistently coming back to life, relentless, unstoppable, superabundance, affirming the mythical promise of God, that planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never stop.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Noah and his family and the animals had disembarked, but nothing had really changed.
Noah had not learned anything.
Creation had not learned anything.
It’s just a story of God “behaving badly,” like an angry child who lashes out on impulse."
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
Woke up in the Adirondacks
People ask me how my Memorial Day weekend was.
“Hope you had a great weekend,” they say.
Well, for me, my week ends on Sunday.
Sunday is my “Friday.”
Monday is my “Saturday.”
Tuesday was my “Memorial Day.”
I woke up early Wednesday morning in the Adirondacks.
Cold and frosty that morning.
But an absolutely beautiful day for the drive down the Northway, and then the Thruway.
Up there where I have my RV, the grass is now green.
The leaves have popped.
The lilacs are just beginning to flower, and those nasty black flies are gone!
Driving home that morning, I was spellbound by the mountains on all sides.
The transformation from winter to spring is dramatically apparent!
Tops of the mountains are still brown from winter.
New light-green leaves just below the brown, gradually blend in with , the thick dark green canopy at the base.
Everything new and lush, persistently coming back to life, relentless, unstoppable, an eternal superabundance, it seems.
Listening to the radio
The car I was driving was the Jeep Patriot.
(It’s an SUV, I guess.
But I prefer to call it the “station wagon.”)
Anyway, the “station wagon” came with Sirius satellite radio.
The top row of buttons are preset to my favorite news and talk channels:
BBC World, CNN, NPR Now, and NPR Talk.
Little buttons on the backside of the steering wheel let me change channels without even taking my eyes off the road.
Driving south through the southern Adirondacks, then between Vermont’s Green Mountains in the East, and the Catskills to the West, channel-surfing, from station to station, conversations on the radio were almost exclusively about the very opposite of the profuse superabundance I was witness to that morning.
The price of gasoline skyrocketing, ethanol, the solution, the gasoline substitute made from corn, then ethanol, the problem, undermining the food supply, raising the price of basic food commodities, creating serious food shortages in the third world, prediction no longer of gas wars, but of “food wars” predictions of empty supermarket shelves.
I learned that in the four decades following 1960, animal populations have declined by 30 percent.
Biodiversity has taken an alarming nosedive, decreased by almost a third between 1970 and 2005.
Birds and land animal species have declined by a fourth.
Marine life has decreased by 28 percent.
Freshwater species have decreased by almost a third.
There has never been such a sharp fall, in all of human history.
Meanwhile, during that same time period, the human population of the world has doubled.
Scientists say that the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than normal, and they’ve pointed the finger at the perpetrators of the devastation.
Humans, climate change, pollution, destruction of natural habitat, spread of invasive species, overexploitation of species.
It seems we could be facing a threat of extinction, drastic reduction of life on earth, a modern-day “great flood”, an unwanted “fresh start” for humanity.
And where is Noah’s Ark when we need it!
The flood: recent research
We were treated this morning to that story of Noah, and of a great flood, actually, a rather awful story about a cold-blooded, vengeful God who’s so ticked off with Creation that all but just a few creatures had to be drowned in rising waters.
Downstairs in the parish hall, there’s a toy Ark with cute little toy people and cute little toy animals that fit inside.
We use those toys, I guess, to tell our children this particular story about God, without scaring them to death!
And of course, that’s what it is, a “story” about a great flood brought on by a vengeful god.
There are actually several stories of a great flood that took place in the Middle East in ancient times.
And actually, archaeologists have found vestiges of such a flood.
The stories have been told and retold in many Middle Eastern cultures, not just by our Jewish ancestors.
It is speculated that there really was a great flood a flood caused by the breaking through of the narrow channel linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and that’s what may have destroyed an early civilization on the shores of what we now know as northern Turkey.
We hear the story from the perspective of our Jewish ancestors.
They explained the horrific flood in terms of God’s anger at human sin.
Taken as a whole, it’s a story about the tension within God as God looked upon creation and was appalled, actually regretted having created humans.
God resolved to destroy everything and start all over.
God’s main complaint, other than a sort of vague complaint about “wickedness and corruption”, God’s main complaint was with the problem of violence in the world.
But oddly, God decided to use violence to solve the problem.
“I will destroy.”
“I will blot out,” God says.
And that’s what happens.
The water rises.
Villages, farms, livestock, wild animals, all but the few, wiped out.
By the end of this morning’s reading, the water had receded.
Noah and his family and the animals had disembarked, but nothing had really changed.
Noah had not learned anything.
Creation had not learned anything.
It’s just a story of God “behaving badly,” like an angry child who lashes out on impulse.
But in the next three verses, which we did not hear this morning (the lectionary, unfortunately, stops up short, just before them), in the next three verses there’s more.
Noah builds an altar and presents an offering to God.
Then it’s God who is the one who changes.
God says, “I will never again curse the ground because of people.
I know they have this tendency toward evil from an early age, but I will never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.
For as long as the Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.”
In our story of that great flood, God made a covenant, an agreement, that reflected God’s change of heart.
That was how our religious ancestors interpreted the devastation of villages from rising waters, the loss of human life, the loss of animal life.
That’s how they interpreted destruction of natural habitat, and loss of farmland and crops.
They thought it was to teach God a lesson.
In our time, I think it’s the other way around.
I think that the God who speaks to us in the events of our daily lives, speaks to us in the things that happen to us, day by day and year by year, I think that God is trying to teach us a lesson.
And my hope, my prayer, is that in our time , we will be smart enough to not be having to teach God a lesson again, smart enough to reduce our own carbon footprint, protect natural habitat of wildlife, reduce pollution, avert climate change, and, in general, be kinder and gentler to God’s creation.
My hope is that we will be smart enough to ensure that the month of May will always be a mark of new birth, everything new and lush, everything persistently coming back to life, relentless, unstoppable, superabundance, affirming the mythical promise of God, that planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never stop.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
Friday, May 30, 2008
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