Pastor's Notes

I wish Jesus had had a dog for a pet. Can you imagine the parables Jesus would have been able to tell if his constant companion was Fluffy or Rex and not Peter, James, John, and the others?

Oh, the images of unconditional love that would have been displayed in such parables! Being happily greeted at the door, tail wagging, and tongue eagerly waiting for a welcome greeting. Such a greeting would occur had Jesus stepped out for only a moment to get the Jerusalem Times from his doorstep or been out on the road teaching for a week or so.

Curling up for the night to read the Torah after a hard day of being accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners, along comes Rover to share the moment. Going outside to work on the garden (don’t be surprised, Jesus after all talked about lilies in the field and seeds), his dog Haboob (picture a dust-colored Toy Poodle) tags along with Jesus just as she does as Jesus travels about the house.

So many possible images for God’s love of God’s people could be displayed in parables by Jesus talking describing the relationship of Jesus’ dog with Jesus! If only! Dog lovers I am sure would concur. Now for cat lovers, I’m sure there would have been parables about independence, aloofness, etc. but that is for another writing.

Yet Jesus chose instead to hang with those who misunderstood, who blundered and disappointed, who faltered, denied and even betrayed him. This, of course, is good news to us who too often do much of the same. This is why there are also parables about the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Ten Virgins, and The Rich Man, and Lazarus. These are parables who do not show all their characters as acting in ways God would approve. These are parables that display the truth of living as humans, with humans in a world more complicated than any dog can understand.

When I was installed at a previous church, in his sermon the Bishop said, “Gary, you are not here to be loved. If you want to be loved, get a Black Lab, they will love you to death.” Well, we went and got a Maltese instead. It worked out just fine. I almost never had a reference in a sermon or writing to one of our dogs. Such pastoral parables would have been more of the fantasy and fairy tale world variety than that of the real world in which we actually live.

Ours is not a world of a fantasy world. Ours is a world where people do hurtful things and we are among those who contribute to hurtful things through our very actions, our inaction, and our participation in systems that cause strife for some others. Jesus tells parables about such a world and tells them into such a world for those living in it to hear.

Jesus tells such parables to bring comfort and to bring awareness in the hope of correction. Jesus walked about in the world with his eyes wide open and his determination to be in such a world unwavering. We may dare say it is because he walked about with such open eyes he was determined to be there and do something for it.

Do we only look for a world that responds like an eager and loving dog? Or do we allow ourselves as followers of Jesus to have our eyes open to both the sins of the world and our own participation in them to be determined to bring the Good News of Jesus into those places and those people in need of what we have to share?

Go ahead, get a Black Lab, a Toy Poodle, or even a mutt. (Get it from a shelter). Use Lassie or Queenie as a respite from the hurts of the world. Just do not see the way your dog treats you as the way everyone is apt to respond to you and each other. Look to your dog for love, but to Jesus for help and guidance to navigate this all too often very real world in which we live. Jesus, after all, tells these stories for us…for you!

Music adds to our faith what words on their own are often unable or inadequate to do. Words put to music can lift us off our feet, draw us away from our troubles and motivate us to trust and hope yet another day.

What would Christmas Eve worship be without music? Easter? And for that matter, even the melancholy tunes of Good Friday have a way to reach right into our bones and our very being. Words convince us and affirm us. Music moves us and touches us.

I am writing of this, because, after 17+ years our director of music and my partner in worship leadership Aiko Yamada Mancini is leaving us for a new adventure in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have been so blessed to have Aiko and her manifold gifts for such a very long time.

I am certain this congregation never had someone to lead the worship music for this length of time. The pattern my first 6 years here is the kind this community had for some time. A graduate student comes for a few years, gets their PhD or MA and off they go. Sometimes we have been their first experience in congregational worship and music leadership and we then send them off as our gift to the larger church with a graduate degree and some experience gained here to continue to serve.
Musicians that have passed through here from what little history I am aware, are serving now in congregations in Berlin, Germany, Scottsdale and Sun City Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and Seoul South Korea, to name a few. Our little community is quite the gift-giver to the Church!

Now Aiko moves on from music director of ULC to ULC icon. My heart is heavy for our loss (and my personal loss) but lifted in joy for the excitement Aiko and Brian have for their latest adventure. Aiko leaves behind more than a legacy. Aiko leaves behind students and members who have been a part of the music ministry by their vocal efforts and/or their instrumental contributions. I have no doubt this will continue.

When I think of Aiko I often think of standing at the door after Sunday worship waiting to shake someone’s hand. Few come as most remain to hear the final notes of the postlude being led by Aiko and those accompanying her. That is how good Aiko’s leadership has been: people don’t want to leave! Are there any of us who will ever forget Aiko’s joyful singing of “Lay lo lay lo lie lo…”? One could feel in that very tune that in Epiphany we were indeed celebrating Christ for all the world.
I remember shortly after Aiko began directing the choir, Allan Bieber joined the choir. He told me he hadn’t sung in the choir for many years, but when he saw Aiko’s smile and enthusiasm he had to be a part once more.

An opus is defined as any artistic work on a large scale. Here in this small community Aiko’s work was large. We have become her opus as joyfully we join in her musical leadership and are lifted into a better place. We promise to work hard to remain such.
We will miss you, dear friend Aiko! But we are better for your having been here. To Pittsburgh we now bequeath you and Brian with grateful, albeit pained, hearts. Via con Dios! We wish you both many more years of joyful singing. Lay lo lay lo lie lo!

Where do you go to hear the voice of Jesus? Where do you turn or, perhaps, to whom do you turn?

Scripture, of course, is the Christianity 101 answer. We can hear Jesus speak in the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, parables, and so many places. Some of Jesus’ words in scripture are comforting, others may be challenging, while some can be motivating.

Worship is a good place to hear the address of Jesus to our community and to us. There scripture is read, always with a gospel text involving Jesus one way or another. Often the second lesson is from a letter written by St. Paul where Paul may be commenting on the meaning of some part of Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

Sacraments convey in a more visible form communication from Jesus. Do this. Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

There are other ways we may hear Jesus speak in the prayers, liturgy, hymns, and various actions in worship.

Essentially, we tend to hear Jesus speak where we expect Jesus to be. Scripture and worship are very naturally connected to Jesus so we anticipate something of Jesus to come through where we expect to find Jesus: in church.

Maybe you have even heard Jesus speak in the words of another outside of worship. Someone offering comfort in a scary or troubling time; someone expressing some concern about us or some aspect of our behavior and offers a word of correction to us.

What about places we never expect to hear Jesus address us? Sure, possibly in the workplace, school, the neighborhood and even our favorite watering hole. Some conversations can knock us off our feet when they come as more than the word of a friend or neighbor, but as a word from God.

Then there are those places where I am not sure we ever look for Jesus to come to us. Yet in the gospels it is clear Jesus speaks even especially through these. I am talking about the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, and the thirsty. The very people whom we often avoid are those Jesus specifically names as a place he will be. You and I may offer assistance to these folks, but how often do we listen to them anticipating that
Jesus may have something to say to us through them?

It seems Jesus had a habit of hanging out with all the wrong people. For you and I to hear Jesus speak to us more fully, it would also seem you and I have to listen for Jesus in all the wrong people.

Over the centuries the Christian faith, holding to a set of beliefs, has had an ongoing battle between the heart and the head. That is, many have understood the Christian faith as being about how one feels inside, how one feels in their heart.

On the other hand, many have seen the Christian faith as all about doctrine and the proper understanding of God. The Nicene Creed, for example had church leaders of the day spend much time debating over one word to use in the creed. In case you were wondering, the English translation of the word eventually settled upon is the word substance used in the older translation of the creed.

To say the Christian faith is one over the other is to deny the Incarnation. God comes to us through the human person; all the human person not just one aspect of the human person. Head is not against heart nor is heart to be ruler of the head. They are a team. Sometimes they are to work in tandem, other times they complement each other.

This in itself may seem like a theological head trip, but the implications are real. Is the Christian faith about what we think? Is it about what we feel? Do we have to think something may be correct or is just feeling something is right enough?

In psychology we are taught one can think their way into a new way of feeling and one can feel their way into a new way of thinking. What part of your thinking regarding your faith has changed because of how you felt about something? What part of your faith may have changed because of what you thought about something? Many of us as we mature in life and faith have changed our understandings of some part of our faith due to reasons of the heart or mind.

Of course, sin can and does infiltrate our thinking. That narcissistic world view we all have can color much thinking. Neither are our hearts completely pure, untainted by sin. There is much self-interest at work in our feelings as well. Sometimes heart and mind work in tandem in an effort to deceive us. Sometimes they work together to understand some part of God’s will for us and enable us to respond and serve as God desires.

Yet all is not lost. Sometimes it is our mind that works to correct our feelings and sometimes it is our feelings that orient our mind into a new way of understanding. It may be a good thing for our faith heart and mind have a tension between them. We need to recognize in ourselves which way we lean. Heart over mind? Mind over heart?
It can assist us in spotting our self interest in our understandings of faith. It can also help us realize even heart and mind are not the sole proprietors of our faith. Heart and mind are to have as their purpose a working together for love of the neighbor; for service. What we do, of course, is also a big part of our Christian faith. Thinking and feeling can lead us to doing, to serving as God would have us do.