Changing the World, One Life at a Time

Sometimes you wonder if all your work really matters. I received this message from one of our church members last week that made me feel that it's worth doing the work of ministry. This church member is a professional who was laid off from her job several months ago and had nothing to cook for Christmas. We encouraged her to visit the food pantry, and this is her story.

So, this afternoon, I went to the Food Pantry at Church. It was the first time I actually stayed and went through the entire process.

Never in my life could I have imagined the love that I was shown by each woman helping me shop for items. Never in my life did I expect to receive so much food when I truly had none, as the blessing you provided me went to pay a utility bill rather than buy food. Each person I encountered at the Food Pantry who was volunteer and who, upon me informing them that I was new to the Pantry and didn't know how it worked, welcomed me and made me feel special. The volunteers not only made me feel special, but they made me feel less alone, as I sat in the back in a single chair with no one sitting beside me.

A few of the volunteers touched my shoulder; the young teenage volunteers greeted me with smiles; one young lady must have known I like to bake and gave me the last, most beautiful bag of everything a baker needs to make cookies or a great cake; the two young gentlemen who helped me to my car almost brought me to tears, as they carefully put each bag away for me - I couldn't thank them enough. As I went to each table, not knowing what to expect, each volunteer and each person made me feel less afraid, less ashamed, and just filled with gratefulness to be there.

Then, I was leaving, two of the women spoke a blessing over me by telling me that my new year would be far better. I told them I was a member of the church and had been laid off, and hadn't expected to use the Pantry but was so incredibly grateful that they were all there. I cried all the way home, thanking God at each stop light.

As I write this believing that 2011 will be a better year for me, I am already thinking of ways to give back; to give to each one of the volunteers I met today and especially the two young men who helped me to my car and the ways in which I might be able to help the Pantry, as I know a few meat business owners who might be willing to donate food as well.

Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for the Food Pantry. Thank you for being a blessing in my life. Thank you to the volunteers whose care of me and dignified treatment made my first Food Pantry experience a less frightening, troubling one. Thank you to those volunteers who smiled at me or touched my shoulder or just wished me a Merry Christmas. Thank you for First United's ministry of God's love in action.

That says it all. I'm ready for the New Year.

A Christmas Eve Message

How many people in the last month have wished us Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas? How many gifts have we shopped for, wrapped and delivered? How many cards and emails have we sent and received? How much Christmas music have we played and heard? How many cookies have we eaten?
We have tended to the outer world. Let us now be present in this moment . . . to pause for wonder.

This is the moment to feel peace. To experience joy. To know God’s love. To reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation: God takes flesh. God becomes human in the birth of Jesus.

There is a temptation as we grow older to lose our sense of wonder. We have heard this nativity story before. It may not affect us as it once did.

Let us not lose the ability to wonder.

Three times in Luke’s gospels, angels say: “You will find a child.”
This is a night for us to find the child, the child who is within us.
When God was born into the world in Jesus Christ, God came as a child – helpless, dependent and powerless.
So within each one of us is the spirit of a child – connecting us to a deeper mystery of Spirit.
There is a beloved child within each of us who remains the same throughout our lives – whether we are 5 or 15 or 45 or 75.
Christmas is God’s radical invasion into the real world, where we live.
When we say Emmanuel – God is with us – it is not an abstract idea or a vague theological truth. It actually happened!
God became flesh in a particular person who happened to be a Jewish male born in Palestine to a poor family, with parents who were forced to give birth in a barn because of decisions by the political rulers of their day.
Jesus was born into a world of political unrest, injustice, poverty, hatred, jealousy, and fear. His life was not easy.
But he performed miracles. He gave people hope. He healed people who were sick. He raised the dead. He cared about widows and orphans. He practiced forgiveness.
When people see Jesus, they learn what God is like.
Isn’t this cause enough for wonder?
You will find a child.
As we tell the story of Christmas tonight in scripture, song and story, I challenge you to find the child within yourself.
Find the beloved child of God who is wrapped in swaddling clothes and cared for by a mother and a father, by donkeys and sheep, by angels and shepherds.
Find the child within you who is wrapped in starlight, protected by the Holy Spirit.
This holy child is laid in the manger, which is a feeding trough.
And that is why we share communion together this night.
At this manger, and in the Lord’s Supper that follows, love and wonder are reborn in the human heart. God, in this baby, is depending on us.
All of us are bread for the world. Alleluia!
Let us share our bread to bring hope, peace, joy and love to all God’s children. Amen.

A word of hope from prison

At last week's Prime Time Christmas gathering, I shared several readings from poets and theologians and we sang many of the great carols of our faith. One of the readings was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant pastor in Germany during the years Hitler was in power. Bonhoeffer led a movement to oppose Hitler's regime and was imprisoned and ultimately put to death. He wrote these words about incarnation:

In Christ we are offered the possibility of partaking in the reality of God and in the reality of the world, but not in the one without the other. The reality of God discloses itself only by setting me entirely in the reality of the world, and when I encounter the reality of the world it is always already sustained, accepted and reconciled in the reality of God. This is the inner meaning of the revelation of God in the man Jesus Christ.

The incarnation of God in human form -- through the life of Christ -- created an unbreakable connection between the spiritual world and the physical world. We cannot know one without the other.

One of our church members was recently put on trial, and the jury found him guilty. He now waits for sentencing and prepares himself for a future that will probably include prison time. He is a prayerful person of strong faith, and that faith has given him a peace that passes understanding.

The spiritual life does not guarantee ease and serenity. Far from it. John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded for speaking the truth to power. Jesus Christ was arrested and crucified for claiming his divine authority.

And yet through Christ we know that God is real and that God is disclosed in the reality of this still imperfect world. It gives us hope to realize that this world is ultimately held and sustained in the reality of God.

Emmanuel. God is with us. God is with us no matter where life takes us. Because unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulders.

Advent Joy

Joy happens.

Saturday was pretty much overflowing with joy around here.

I spent a couple of hours volunteering at the food pantry with my daughter Emma. What a fantastic place it is. Now our clients shop with small grocery carts, choosing each item they will take home. An army of volunteers stand behind the tables and smile, describing what is available. Over and over, I heard people say, “Thank you. Merry Christmas!” It felt good to give food to more than 300 people in one morning.

Afterward, we delivered a small Christmas tree to our member Henry Hulseberg, who lives at Alden Care Center in Cicero. The tree had been donated by a church family, and Henry’s room was bereft of decorations. Henry himself wasn’t feeling the best that day, either, so it was good to bring some light into his new home. The hallways were filled with children caroling, bringing gifts to the residents, and saying, “Feliz Navidad.”

When I got home in the afternoon, I got a call from my nephew Stephen. He’s 28 years old and has been deployed in the US Army to Afghanistan since January. “I’m in country,” he said. “Getting a ride from Camp Atterbury in southern Indiana. Can you meet me in Valparaiso and pick me up?” I hopped in the car and headed south. Brought him home at 10 pm last night, safe and warm.

Wrapped up my sermon in the same day, on the theme of joy. It seemed just right.

Expectancy vs. Expectations

My spiritual director gave me a new framework for living in Advent.

I often think about expectations during the weeks before Christmas. Instead, she invited me to focus on expectancy. The words are similar. But the experiences are miles apart.

My usual expectations during Advent are: that I will complete a checklist of benevolent holiday activities, thus earning the gratitude of my loved ones, and further being rewarded with parties, concerts, gifts and loads of candy and cookies. Pretty terrible script, isn’t it? I could use a change of heart.

What would it look like if I tried to live with expectancy instead?

Expectancy begins with nothing. Expectancy starts with an uncluttered heart and a lack of expectations. Expectancy is about waiting for hopes, dreams and desires to be fulfilled . . . not all at once, but in God’s time . . . not through our own efforts, but through the movement of God in co-creation with humanity.

Expectancy is about being open to something new. Expectancy is not about looking for something outside of us to make us complete, but about waiting for One we cannot make arrive but whom we trust will appear.

“Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” - Matthew 24:42

Expectancy is about being awake for the coming of the Lord, who will arrive at an unexpected time in an unexpected way. Advent lasts about four weeks on the calendar, but in fact Advent lasts a lifetime. It is our nature to wait in hope, at every stage in life.

Christmas is not a deadline, by which we have to complete our holiday checklist. Christmas is not the day when life suddenly becomes perfect and all our expectations are fulfilled. Christmas is the day the world will see that God is with us.

But if you live each day with expectancy, you realize that Christ could be born in every moment, in any moment. Make room.

Coming Untrue

In Tolkien's book "Lord of the Rings," Sam discovers that his friend Gandalf is not dead, as he believed. With joy, he cries, "Is everything sad going to come untrue?"

As Christians, we view life through the lens of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see life in reverse, from eternity to the present moment. When Christ rose from death, he gave us hope that everything sad will come untrue. Christ's mission was to grasp the darkness of our world and bring it into the light.

Yet this message has not reached many people in our world. The problem of evil and suffering is the most common reason people give for not believing in God. Recent surveys show that 16 percent of Americans claim no religion (eight time higher than 50 years ago). There are more people with NO faith in our country than all Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists and Lutherans combined. That's a disturbing statistic. Two-thirds of people who have no religious affiliation still believe God exists, they simply question organized religion.

So we need to answer this question: Why is there pain and suffering in this world? Here is my short answer.

1. The world is good AND the world is fallen. God has given us free will, which means that we can choose what leads to life OR what leads to death. The shadow side of the gift of moral freedom is that we will sometime choose evil rather than good. Evil is a corruption of good, which violates God's moral will. Much of the Christian gospel is designed to help people choose good and stand against evil.

2. God could eliminate pain once and for all, but instead God sent Jesus to join this world of pain. Christ's life set in motion a slow, less dramatic solution to the problem of suffering . . . that crucially involves us. (See Philip Yancey's book, What Good is God?) The Apostle Paul said, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12)

3. While every form of pain cannot be removed, it can be redeemed. God has the power to bring good out of suffering. This happens over and over again, when those who have been victimized by hardship join together to pass laws or change structures so that others will not suffer.

4. When we ask the question, "Where is God when it hurts?" we should also ask, "Where is the Church when it hurts?" We are here to care for those who suffer, to relieve the pain of those who hunger and thirst, those who are sick and imprisoned and persecuted.

5. Apart from God, what can humanity achieve on its own? If you abandon belief in God, it does not make the problem of evil easier to handle. If we reject religious values and virtues, what is our moral compass? Where do our concepts of justice, goodness, kindness, mercy, compassion and humility come from? They derive from faith.

On this Christ the King Sunday, I celebrate the good news of the resurrection. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Through the power of God, everything sad will come untrue.

When Religion Becomes Evil

Death threats are now packaged in printer cartridges and sent by mail to synagogues only a few miles from this church. Even religion can become evil, when leaders corrupt the redemptive intent of their historic faith traditions. Professor Charles Kimball identified five warning signs of extremist faith in his book When Religion Becomes Evil:
1. use of absolute truth claims;
2. insistence on blind obedience;
3. establishing the “ideal” time for violent cataclysm;
4. leaders who argue that the ends justify the means;
5. the declaration of a “holy war.”
You will notice in the gospels that Jesus endorses none of these strategies. But today extremist leaders of our faith and others are endorsing indiscriminate violence against innocent people: burning holy books, bulldozing homes, and bombing houses of worship. It must stop.
This 21st century form of religious extremism is different from the Inquisition, which was planned and executed by a central authority. Today’s blasphemous religious killing campaigns are highly de-centralized, and thus even more dangerous and harder to control.
There is no battlefield in this war, and it lurks in places where we are not prepared to find it: office buildings, sanctuaries, schoolrooms, restaurants, subways and in improvised explosive devices planted along roadsides.
Warfare in previous centuries was limited to a proscribed battlefield and declared by leaders of nations or tribes. Today everyplace we go could be a potential minefield, because religious extremism runs rampant.
In response to the evil of religious extremism, terror threats and violence (by Christians, Jews and Muslims) this congregation has committed to participate in a year of interfaith dialogue. There is no roadmap for how we will learn to live together in this multicultural world with diverse faiths and shared respect. But we do have a spiritual compass: Jesus calls us in times of hardship to testify to what we believe (see Luke 21).
Our testimony is not about whether we are right and others are wrong. Our testimony is not about whether Christianity is superior to Islam or Judaism. Our testimony is simply that our relationship with Jesus Christ gives us peace . . . and that peace is not rooted in a building, or a piece of land, or one single word of the law, or even in the circumstances of our lives.
Our testimony is that Christ gives us words to speak and wisdom to sing, even in the face of suffering and death. Jesus Christ is not a battering ram, but the one sent by God so that we might have life and have it in abundance.
Rev. Leah Fowler and members of the adult education committee are building relationships with members of the Villa Park Mosque, and the next visit will take place on Dec. 5. Only through relationships like these can we transform conflict into trust, and build a world of unity that also celebrates diversity.