Pastor's Notes

So many cancer defeating treatments!
Humans on the moon!
Smart phones, smart TV’s & computers!
Theory of Relativity!
Solar technology!
Virtual meetings, phone calls, & even virtual hugs!
Rapid COVID tests and vaccines!
Heart by-pass surgeries!
Organ transplants!
Kindness!
Love!
Memory!
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!
Just a handful of wonderful human inventions, discoveries, and qualities that can make one proud to be a human.

                                                    War!
                                                    Holocaust!
                                                    Racism!
                                                    Poverty!
                                                    Injustice!
                                                    Slavery!
                                                    Violent crime & abuse!
                                                    Hatred!
                                                    Prejudice!
                                                    Narcissism!
                                                    Rudeness!
                                                    Apathy!
                                                    NY Yankees & their fans!

Just a handful of very bad human qualities that make one question humanity.

Which are we? Of course, the answer is both. Lent and the upcoming events of Holy Week are a sobering reminder of the dark side of humanity….even and especially the humanity that struggles with its dark side and strives to overcome it. We need Lent and Holy Week to remind us all the hope of Advent nor the joy of Easter are not the only part of life with which faith needs to deal. The point is not to distress us but to be aware of who we are in our entire human existence.

That which is denied cannot be overcome or defeated. In that sense, even Lent is a time for hope. Get it all out there! Something wonderful might lay ahead of Lent. The hateful might become loving, the rude kind, and swords may be turned into plowshares.

Is humanity basically good or bad? The answer is “yes!” That is why Lent does not stand alone. Help is on the way! We humans may be a mixed bag, but God is not. God is good! Lent has its appropriated and necessary time. However, it is not the final word. The list of good things does not erase the pain and suffering caused by the bad. It can make it bearable and help us go through and even overcome that which is bad, that which is evil. The current war in Ukraine is, simply put, evil on display every day. It is not, however God nor goodness that is being defeated. God is there at work suffering along with the victims. ….suffering, but not defeated. Hold on to this hope.

What is your dream world for yourself? For your loved ones? Where do you fit into this dream? I’m just guessing that you are not in the background of the dream or appear in an indifferent manner. On the other hand, perhaps your dream is for your loved ones’ future and you appear more as spectator.

Dreams appear from time to time in scripture. To name a few: Jacob’s ladder was a dream. Jacob’s son, Joseph had a couple dreams and, while in prison, interpreted the dreams of others. Jesus’ father Joseph had a dream that had the family pack up and move to Egypt as refugees. Pontius Pilate’s wife had a dream and warned her husband concerning the Jesus upon whom he was to pass sentence.

There is this thing called “The American Dream”. I feel rather certain were I to ask 15 Americans to define this dream, I would receive 15 differing, if not different, definitions. To me that sounds just fine. Perhaps part of the American Dream is just that: to be able to dream differently and have different goals in mind for life and living.

If you have read much of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you are aware he had little issue with the American Dream. Instead he took issue that much of this dream was not available, at least not to the same degree, to African-Americans. Too often their dream was simply to survive

I wonder if God dreams. Might we say Creation was God’s dream? God created light, water, animals, plants and humans. God even personally planted the Garden of Eden. One does not do such homesteading without a dream of where it all might go. This means you and I, your crotchety neighbor, your delightful Aunt, and your unceasingly frustrating co-worker are all part of God’s dream. Sometimes our dream-world can seem more nightmare than dream.

While living in a dream-world might not be healthy, living with some dreams and trying to fulfil them can be a good thing. The danger of dreams is that they can be all about us. Where are others in our dreams? Where are others beyond loved ones included in our dreams? Do we ever hold our dreams up to God’s dream for us? What dream might God have for us?

The problem with dreams is often trying to figure them out. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending a ladder. Seventeen year old son Joseph saw sheaves paying homage to an upright sheaf. You and I have had strange characters and events in our dreams. What to make of it all? Freud and many psychologists have taken on the task of speculating about dreams. Yet we are still left with speculation, not definite and clear understanding.

This might be the way to think about God’s dream for you. God has given you gifts. God wants you to use those gifts in service of others. This much is clear. The how to and the what to do part are not so clear. They are left to us. What vocation does God want us to pursue? Butcher? Baker? Candlestick maker? What vocation does God want us to pursue within our family? To what vocation might God call us in retirement? Upon even our death, what might God be calling us to do with gifts left behind?

In our dreaming you and I need to place our dream within the context of God’s dream. What might God be dreaming for us? What might God be dreaming for God’s creation and how can our hopes and dreams fit into that dream?

Dreams or not, we can sleep well as followers of Jesus. We know God’s dream for us comes not only as call but also as love and care. God still gives, creates and plants. The best you and I can do is work with God as caretaker of God’s gifts and as a co-creator.
Let the sheaves dance, the angels ascend and descend. Let us continue to scratch our heads over what a recent dream might mean or not mean. God’s dream for us did not end with Creation. Keep up your discipleship struggle of making your dream adapt to that of God’s dream. Continue to remember God’s dream for you is not all about you. Maybe then we can figure out some of those dreams we have.

Most likely you know the name of comedian, former Saturday Night Live Star, and lead in the various “Vacation” movies, Chevy Chase. Chase first became well-known to a national audience through his Saturday Night Live appearances. In particular, he became somewhat of a household name when he made fun of then President Gerald Ford.

You may be aware of Ford’s infamous slips, trips, errant golf shots, and head bumps while president. As an All-American football player at Michigan, Ford was perhaps the best athlete to inhabit the White House. Yet his various missteps were too often caught on camera.

For Chevy Chase to mimic such stumbling, involved quite a bit of physical comedy on his own. Several times Chase himself became injured and had to take pain-killers to deal with the injuries. After a time, like many others, Chevy Chase became addicted to these pain-killers and needed treatment. Where did he go for such treatment? To the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, of course! Sometimes life seems to have its own twisted sense of humor, doesn’t it?

You may have heard, as have I, many people say they are not part of church or organized religion because of all the hypocrites there. My response generally is along the lines of: “Yes, there are. Come join us.”

It seems to me that perhaps the greatest of hypocrisy is to think one is not a hypocrite. Don’t we all have some thoughts and/or behaviors that go against much of what we profess? Even those with the healthiest of life styles seem to have at least one flaw in eating or some activity. Where are you hypocritical? Space doesn’t allow me to list all my hypocrisies. You most likely are aware of more than a few.

Yes, I work hard to keep from smiling when someone proclaims “church people” or “those religious people” as hypocrites. It seems, as Jesus says, they are missing the log in their own eye. So busy criticizing or making fun of others they miss that very thing in themselves.

I have been writing and preaching about Lent. Lent is a time that says, “Hypocrites Welcome! Come join us!” We are those who are, at least in part, here because we are aware of our hypocrisy and would like to do something about it. Sometimes that something is simply unloading our guilt for doing or saying things that go against us. Sometimes doing something actually helps us rid ourselves of one part of our hypocrisy or, at least, begins us on a journey to do so.

For all hypocrites it is good news to know we are welcome in church. It is good news to think of Lent as an invitation to hypocrites to bring along their hypocrisy and come join the hypocritical throng. When you do, look around. You are in pretty good company. When you do, look around. You are in pretty good company. When you do, come forward at communion the Host is glad you accepted the invitation and even has a gift for you. Given and shed for all hypocrites!

Carl Rogers was a 20th Century American psychologist who pioneered “Client-Centered Therapy”, sometimes cynically called, “Uh Huh” therapy. Having watched a video of one of his counseling sessions while in a grad school class, I understood the label if not the cynicism. He said very little during the session. Mostly he said, “Uh huh” and nodded when the client said something. The client and her issues dominated the session, not Dr. Rogers and his expertise. Yet you could see and hear the relief in the client’s voice and body language after having talked for an hour or so naming so many troubles and getting them out there.

Dr. Rogers also had 2 years of seminary under his belt when he left to pursue a Master’s and PhD in psychology. His seminary training never completely left him, and, in part, helped shape his methods and counseling, particularly in terms of putting the focus on the client.

I came across a Dr. Rogers quote this past week that seems to be spot on for Lent. Rogers said, “The curious paradox is only when I accept myself as I them, then can I change”. I found this quote in a book about the Holocaust, urging all to come to grips with their role in this so that substantive change in Anti-Semitism could truly occur.

It is, however, a great quote to hold in front of us during Lent, a time of self-examination and repentance. It is one thing to acknowledge we are sinners and quite another to many times name those sins, especially those that work to eat away at the world God created.

Lent is much more than sorrow for sin. Lent is repentance, in the original Greek of the New Testament, metanoia, which means “turning around.” Do you and I discover ourselves turning around in Lent or simply saying, “I’m sorry for being a sinner and for my sinning”? Are we merely trying to return to the good favor of God or working, instead, on becoming a different, new, and perhaps better person?

In Jesus Christ we are already reconciled with God. Repentance is not so we get our piece of the action so we might share in such reconciliation. It is demonstrable sorrow wanting to change and turn around. It is wanting to change and turn around because we have this gift granted in Jesus Christ. Most of us cannot do a “180” on who we are. Yet, I am convinced most all of us can do a “180” on something specific in our sin. What might that specific thing be for you this Lent? For me? What is the biggest challenge before us needing change in how we live and act? What steps are needed for such turning around?

I sometimes picture God as responding to our prayers like Dr. Rogers responds to client statements. Uh huh. Our prayers are most often more necessary for us than for God. God already knows. Uh huh. In prayer we get our anxieties, our frustrations, our fears, and concerns off our chest and hand them off to God. Uh huh. We also express them, name them, and get them out there in front of ourselves realizing what work we ourselves might have to do in these prayer concerns. Uh huh.

I wonder if next Sunday I just read the gospel text, then say “Uh huh”. Would that be sermon enough? Nuh ah. Sermons are about proclaiming, not confessing. Perhaps our best work this Lent would be to accept oneself as one truly is, then letting the work of change begin. Uh huh!

Have you ever had the good fortune to go to a place where few people could understand you? Notice, I called such an experience good fortune. Such an experience can be a time of learning and growth.

I have been fortunate enough to have done this a few times. As a 17-year-old recent high school grad, I went into the interior of Mexico with a Mexican exchange student who had lived with us. Another time on a church trip with other ULC folk, I found myself in Hungary where I did not recognize a single word on menus, signs, and billboards.

The experience, however, that comes most to mind is one in a small hilltop town in Portugal. Tourism had only recently come to this town and area. Most English-speaking Portuguese in this region were the young. We were taken into a bakery, known for an unusual four-cornered bread. The chief and only baker was an older Portuguese woman who knew no English. We spent some time there watching bread begin as flour and ingredients, moving to become dough, then shaped, and put into a brick oven.

During this time some of our group, including wife Mary Beth, volunteered to be taught how to make this bread. Working with her, not a word that was understood was exchanged between baker and “apprentices”. Yet the communication was perfect! Cooperation, smiles, gestures, the moving of eyes from one target to another, and the rhythm of rolling dough and forming it into bread shapes together did all the speaking and communicating. Without an understood word, she had Mary Beth put the newly formed dough on a large wooden paddleboard to be inserted into a brick oven.

Watching all this it became obvious to me that while our baker friend did not seem to know any English, she was very fluent in humanity. She led the posse of four corner bread mentees not by her tongue, but by her heart. No barker of orders was she, instead leading by her warmth, smiles, pointing, and passion for her craft, and sense of human community.

Mohammed once said, “Don’t tell me your education, tell me your travels.” One does not have to have the ability to go far to do this. The internet and television offer great opportunities. PBS, Discovery Channel, even the Food Network can help us get a sense of common humanity shared with those living and doing differently than us. Like Israel wandering in the wilderness or the disciples leaving all to follow Jesus into the unknown, most of us have some traveling experience as we journey through life.

Having so traveled, do we push those experiences away failing to see the common thread of humanity in others or do we learn from them and grow from them? Were we tourists in our travels more interested in taking photos and acquiring signs of conquest called souvenirs or were we instead explorers, adventurers, and learners?

God does not call us to go through life so much as God calls us into life to experience it through our humanity. Often, we best discover our own humanity as we discover the humanity in those most different from us. May we all work to become more fluent in humanity. We may all better recognize God as creator of all when we do so.