Bea a Prayer

Our sculpture today brought to mind something I have been doing here for a number of years.  Our Bea a reader program.  We have been giving away books for several years and I always like to have a collection for all types and all ages.  I finally started giving my own books away instead of collecting for the first time in my life and I always watched where those went.

Some of the best books I had came from a book drive my sister did in her yoga class for a local women's prison.  Now why did I have them?  The books were mostly about philosophy as these women seemed all to reach the same conclusion about what women in prison needed.  The administrator of the prison rejected them without much comment.  So I had those great books.

There is a children's book bank in our area that gave me some very good books and people would donate books to me all the time.  First we set up in the food pantry here then we took it out on the road at farmer's Markets.  We did Coit Rd the most, but were also were in South Euclid a few times and down at the westside market.  Mostly me and Marko.  This last year we had bags thanks to our anniversary and that was a very nice addition.

We told people mainly we were looking for good homes for books.  My favorite was when someone would take a book for a neighbor.  Originally we said there was a 1 book limit which we later changed to a 1 book minimum.  Marko figured that one out.  Sara did the original sign it is hard to remember how many years we have been doing it.  It has been some time.

People approached the table of books in many different ways.  I think everyone thought people all approached it the same.  Some people you would have to convince to take a book others were happy too.  A significant percentage offered to pay.  I did take one donation because it was a friend of a friend at Nottingham.  Throughout the community there are connections out from here.  At the westside market spoke a long time with two men who used to do the floors in the educational wing.  They didn't really want anything they just wanted to talk to somebody who knew about Nottingham.

One guy I remember stopped in his tracks and just looked at a Artimas Fowl book.  Clearly it was something he had read less than ten years ago cause he wasn't very old maybe late twenties.  There was a rush of things that came back to him that he had lost or repressed.  It was something and he took a rest for quite a bit at the table.  I told him several times he needed to take the book if just to pass it on.  He didn't.  It was one of the most visceral responses I saw, but every single person had their own relationship with books.

I liked to tell people we were working to make the world a more tangible place.  I don't know if books will always have a place in our world, but they do now.  It was really as if every single person responded differently and had this expectation that most people were like them.  I have often preached how similar we are this is a story of how different we are; that is the way it was with prayer.

Island of the Blue Dolphin was one I always accumulated to my delight.  I liked the classics and diversity of voices the most.  All the places these books would go.  Each a world.  The last one I gave out to a kid at the summer lunch on Friday.  His Grandma was yelling at him because he didn't open the juice the right way.  I showed him the arrow and where it said open I pointed to.  I ask him you can read to which he shook his head.  I asked which grade he was going to and he said Kindergarten.

I got a book for him and showed him asking him to read the title.  His grandma added he was repeating the grade.  I said that's alright it has been a tough couple years.  I read it to him, "Splash into Kindergarten."  It was kind of hard to read as it was done in coral and sea horses and sea stars.  He took that book in two hands and had a mission.

His grandma said mom would read it to him and he smiled.  Had all the things you need to know for kindergarten and he had already been around once.  Things were looking up for the little man.  He was little too.  They had left before I realized he had left his extra chips and salsa behind.  I just though thanks little man and knew why he left them behind.  Well he has some more in front of him, but it was a hopeful moment and a look of determination I will not soon forget with two hand on the book.

We all don't get moments to leave things behind.  We approach everything differently.  The followers of Jesus would approach one thing the same prayer.  To be a prayer meant many things.

Our scripture today is Instruction about Prayer from Luke 11:1-13 Which I read from the Amplified Bible:

11 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them,

“When you pray, say:

‘Father, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

3  ‘Give us each day our daily bread.

4  ‘And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended or wronged us].

And lead us not into temptation [but rescue us from evil].’”

Prayer is religion in action.

Prayer is as old as civilization itself.  Man has always found much which perplexed him, natural phenomena he could not explain.  To help release himself from the fear of the unknown, primitive man often placed his faith in ONE who could help.  In the beginning he prayed to fire, wind, the moon and the sun; thunder lightning streams, lakes, mountains, and trees.  He attained communion with "another" who could bring about something that man alone could not achieve.

Man today is still beset by problems, anxieties and fears fears as binding as those man has faced through the ages.  Although science has given him many answers, he is still surrounded by much that bewilders him.

This was the condition of the disciples in out scripture reading.

The disciples seeing and realizing that Christ spent much time in prayer, and witnessing the fact that Christ received great spiritual strength from his communion with the heavenly Father, desired also to pray after this manner.  On various occasions they desired that Christ should teach them to pray.  It is natural that they should have this desire, for all men should pray.  God made man to be in communion with Himself, He did this first of all because He cherishes that communion.  But the importance of prayer lies in the further fact that man is dependent upon God. 

Jesus first of all set the pattern for prayer.  We are not to stand and pray to be seen of men.  Rather we are to pray to our father in secret.  He tells us our prayers should be communion with God not just a recital.  And he tells us our Father knows our needs and will honor the fervent prayer of a righteous man.  Prayer is not to inform God or persuade him.  He knows and loves us, but he has set prayer as a mysterious law of approach to him.  It has something that prepares the way for the answer.  The important distinction in this connection is that, although we should pray, we must put our trust in God rather than trusting in prayer.  The question may follow, why should we have to ask him or tell him if he knows?

The simple answer is that God has made it a law, in a sense as truly a law as the law of gravity.  It is a prescribed method of approach to our Maker, and we may assume that there is something in the very effect of prayer that prepares us to receive the blessing we seek.  Two of the universal requirements for victorious prayer are clean hands and a humble heart.  In I John 3:22 we read that we have a standing access to answered prayer, if we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

The prayer begins by declaring God as our heavenly Father.  This was Christ' usual address to God when he prayed.  he establishes God as the divine Ruler and Maker and enthrones his name with the words "hallowed be Thy name".  Our Father is the highest and dearest name we know, embracing both father and mother and embodying both justice and mercy.  Our first petition then is-- Hallowed be Thy name.  The second and third petitions-- Thy kingdom com, Thy will be done.

God's kingdom cannot come to man until man does God's will.  Thus we petition that God's will be accomplished in our lives that His kingdom may come.  This should be a joyous petition, for the kingdom of God is righteousness, joy, and peace.

The fourth petition-- Give us this day our daily bread.--  This prayer is concerned with our day by day needs both temporal and spiritual.  The bread that we seek is bread for the body and bread for the soul.  This is supplied to us in direct proportion to our submission to God's will.

The fifth petition-- And forgive us our debts, as we forgive or debtors.--  We seek in this prayer forgiveness of sin, both sin against God and sin against our fellow-man.  Forgive us our debts-- but along with this is the prayer, as we forgive or debtors.  The two forgivenesses go together, we cannot hope to obtain forgiveness if we refuse to forgive.  An unforgiving spirit closes God out of our lives.  He is ready to forgive but often we are not ready to be forgiven.  Eph. 4:32 tells us: "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted forgiving one another, even as God for Christ' sake hath forgiven you."

The sixth petition-- And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  This prayer is probably best explained as the plea of conscious weakness.  We do need testing.  It is no sin to be tempted, it is sin only when we fall prey to temptation.  This prayer admits our weakness and asks God's help for deliverance.

5 Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread]; 6 for a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come to visit me, and I have nothing to serve him’; 7 and from inside he answers, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence and boldness he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 “So I say to you, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who keeps on asking [persistently], receives; and he who keeps on seeking [persistently], finds; and to him who keeps on knocking [persistently], the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you, then, being evil [that is, sinful by nature], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him!”

The beauty of the passage reminds us that Luke borrows.  An oasis.  Keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish?  There are many hard things in life.  These here are things we can all do.   Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, these are things I can do well.  Jesus doesn't say find, he says, "you will find." 

So I thought we might expand that program to something we can all approach in one way together.  Bea a prayer. 

Let us join in prayer-- 

Dear Lord, who makest all the commandments of the law to consist in love toward God and toward man, grant to us so to love Thee with all our heart, with all our mind, and all our soul, and our neighbor as ourselves, that the grace of charity and brotherly love may dwell in us, and all envy, harshness, and ill will may die in us.  And we beseech Thee, so to fill our hearts with true affections that by constantly rejoicing in the happiness and good success of others, by sympathizing with them in their sorrows, and by putting away all harsh judgments and envious thoughts we may follow Thee, who art the Way the Truth and the Life.  In Jesus name--

Amen.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit and go with you.

Amen.

Nottingham UMC 7/24/2022

with some help:

 http://wfmsermons.blogspot.com/2010/10/teach-us-to-pray.html

Nottingham Methodist Church 7/14/1963

Land Acknowledgement

One of the first Indigenous peoples to live in what is now known as Cleveland were the Erie people. The Erie inhabited most of the southern shore of Lake Erie, and they were wiped out by a war with the Iroquois Confederacy in 1656.

There is a practice I recently was exposed to during the meetings I attended to fund our green space initiative.  They did what they called a  Land Acknowledgement.  This may be something you are familiar with in your life.  The practice of Land Acknowledgement stems from Indigenous tradition and today’s protocol for public gatherings.

"In recognizing the land upon which we reside, we express our gratitude and appreciation to those who lived and worked here before us; those whose stewardship and resilient spirit makes our residence possible on this traditional homeland of the Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and other Great Lakes tribes (Chippewa, Kickapoo, Wea, Pinakahsw, and Kaskaskia). We also acknowledge the thousands of Native Americans who now call Northeast Ohio home.  The greater Cleveland area occupies land officially ceded by 1100 chiefs and warriors signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795."  *Prepared by Susan Dominguez for Social Justice Institute at socialjustice@case.edu.

This Treaty was a short lived agreement that was designed to solve problems that expansion would soon make moot.  The first thing I thought about was how native people seemed to look at the land differently than the European arrivals.  In many ways it was this difference in thinking about the land that let a mostly Christian people steal land they would often say people were not using correctly.  Well we certainly civilized this nation is all I will say at this point as I want to move towards more productive discussions.

Thirteen thousand years ago is the first evidence we have of people in Ohio.  They hunted the last of the giant ground sloths.  Upon receiving bones to analyze, first found in West Virginia, Jefferson did not attempt a definitive taxonomic classification and kept an open mind, writing “Let us only say then, what we may safely say, that he was more than three times as large as the lion”  There is a funny story to me here.  Jefferson felt there were not enough big animals in America.  Europeans inferred that there was something lesser about the new world.  These bones were compared to the king of the jungle for a specific reason.

They were just bones of a long extinct creature and don't really prove anything about America.  Do you think they knew it was over.  The avocado sure misses them.  That big seed was not big for those ground sloths.  Would go right through them and accumulate fertilizer along the way.  Wonderous was our world created.  Beyond counting the number of ways it has been broken.  They are not hard to see.

Three thousand years ago the mound builders arrived.  An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth built in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, religious figure, human, or other figure. The largest in the country is in Ohio: Serpent Mound.  

I am not simply trying to romanticize the other.  Which I have a natural tendency to do.  The native people are not perfect.  Simple is not always right, but it is more than it is not.  Europeans did not bring the first problems to America.

When the Iroquois Confederacy depleted the beaver and other game in its territory in the New York region, they launched a war known as the Beaver Wars, destroying or scattering the contemporary inhabitants of the region. During the Beaver Wars in the 1650s, the Iroquois nearly destroyed the Erie along the shore of Lake Erie. Overall, they managed to expand their territory through the North shore of Lakes Ontario and Erie, throughout Ohio, Indiana and southern Michigan and south from their original Homeland in New York, all the way to the James River in Virginia when the war seems to have officially ended in 1701, but the French began aiding other native people's who had fled west and took nearly all of that land for themselves, naming it the Illinois Colony.

There was a conflict for me that we miss the point that we could take it because they never understood the European idea to own.  Maybe a better term to use is western culture.  This mix of Christianity and Rome.  There is another native story here in many ways lost of my people: the Celts.   Many know that Rome defeated us in Gaul, but the real story is that we were everywhere on that continent.

We  talk of Galatia which you may not know was a Celtic Kingdom Paul arrived to.  They already believed they would be going to a better world.  Like the native Americans these Celts expected each man to lead his own way.  Most battles in Europe had Celts on both sides.  They were who Roman mother's scared their children with to go to bed on time.  They were great warriors because they knew they were going to a better world already.  They also had no leaders, but those who earned respect.

The greatest Celt and Native American leaders had only their words to draw others to them.  People voted with their feet.  Rome won with a new model: one god one emperor one way.  It is hard to say which gained more.  If Rome does not adopt Christianity does it make it to us here today?  For me this question is essential.  Democracy would come through, but freedom?

I don't need to judge anyone, but personally I need somehow to understand.  As a part of generation X, I was looking for a generation why.  W-h-y not just the letter y, but we have moved quickly on to gen Z.  We dismiss each generation.  They will soon dismiss us.  We go round and round the generations distracted each in their turn.  

Who owns this place is the question I find confronting me as we turn to our scripture.  There are many things that I do not control, but how I make decisions is something I can control.  Things can go in different ways, but I hear this message that if I can live with how I make decisions I can live with the consequences.  Our story from Luke 9:51-62 here I read from the Amplified Bible.

51 Now when the time was approaching for Him to be taken up [to heaven], He was determined to go to Jerusalem [to fulfill His purpose]. 52 He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went into a Samaritan village to make arrangements for Him; 53 but the people would not welcome Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them [and He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they journeyed on to another village.

Samaritans a people they disliked so much they had a story about the one good Samaritan. 

“Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them?”  I laugh at the humanness on display here.  Our political debates today can seem as clear as they were to these people two thousand years ago.  I felt this week to rain down fire I can tell you.  Beyond that there is just the idea that this seemed like a question to ask Jesus.  Had they recently rained fire down?  Was this one story Luke did not collect.

Well there seems to be a type of story here.  Even to the stories about Jesus as a youth that still remain around.  These followers got their answer.  Many people would rain down fire in the name of Jesus.  And just as these followers they did not see any reason not to.

The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.  If only his followers taking over Europe and North America would have this first in mind.  It is complicated and I can even accept that people believed they were making people's lives better.  People today still usually believe they are trying to make their lives better.  They need believed in when they should just believe.  Following Jesus is an  exacting Discipleship:

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

Here we have something beautiful.  Partisan.  

59 He said to another, “Follow Me [accepting Me as Master and Teacher].” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the [spiritually] dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and spread the news about the kingdom of God.” 61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord [as Your disciple]; but first let me say goodbye to those at my home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Here we are confronted with a simple truth.  People are living different lives.  There is only one way to go.  There are many things you can do.  You can delay.  You can distract.  You can justify.  You can neglect.  You can imagine.  But in the end there are things that go together and things that do not.  Freedom from loss.  Freedom from pain.  Freedom from making good decisions will lead no where.

In Galatians 5:1 again from the Amplified Bible, we see something of this Celtic Kingdom in Anatolia that Paul was sent.  They knew to walk by the spirit, they got him:

5 It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].

I think we yoked ourselves too much these last two thousand years, but here we are.  It is not too late.  

Continuing  in Galatians 5:13-25

13 For you, my brothers, were called to freedom; only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the sinful nature (worldliness, selfishness), but through love serve and seek the best for one another. 14 For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is fulfilled in one precept, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, you shall have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit].” 15 But if you bite and devour one another [in bickering and strife], watch out that you [along with your entire fellowship] are not consumed by one another.

In my darkest moments I recognize that we may have already lost.  Maybe already too much pollution.  I don't remember the last bug I cleaned from the windshield of my car.  I remember it was different.  The opportunity of new worlds became opportunities for the sinful nature so far.  This is what the kingdom of God brings to end with your help.  This is why it takes so long.

16 But I say, walk habitually in the [Holy] Spirit [seek Him and be responsive to His guidance], and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the sinful nature [which responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts]. 17 For the sinful nature has its desire which is opposed to the Spirit, and the [desire of the] Spirit opposes the sinful nature; for these [two, the sinful nature and the Spirit] are in direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict], so that you [as believers] do not [always] do whatever [good things] you want to do. 

In direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict] - in so few words an explanation.

18 But if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law. 19 Now the practices of the sinful nature are clearly evident: they are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (total irresponsibility, lack of self-control), 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions [that promote heresies], 21 envy, drunkenness, riotous behavior, and other things like these. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

Here we are at peril.  Often we think the clearest sounding parts of the scripture we understand the best.  We can each make our own definitions.  How can we know which is the right ones.  Defining sorcery is not that far off from a description of what we do today.  These phones we each carry now tell me this is not sorcery.  Strife, well there are entire universes here.  You can define these things how you wish.  I would only say that if it seems easy you might look closer.  If there is one thing the last two thousand years tells us: it is not easy.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature together with its passions and appetites.

25 If we [claim to] live by the [Holy] Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit [with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage—our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit].

But the fruit of the Spirit.  But God it does not seem like we are going anywhere.  We Acknowledge that the land has a date with history as we do.  Looking forward there is no future for this planet.  We look back and we find difficulties and we look forward and we find even more.  

Do things happen for a reason or do they not?  This is the real question.  Did Jesus use Rome to spread the word.  Did Rome use Christianity to consolidate power?  They weren't doing many bible studies.  These words we read were used more as weapons than the meditations they are.

It is not clear who has used who, but we are here.

Here are many things that I do not control, but how I make decisions is something I can control.  Things can go in different ways.

“Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

 Patience: not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting.

-  (Summer Solstice by Roger Echo-Hawk)

In our retellings I suppose we don’t much bother

Keeping straight the bent details, crooked roads

In one tale after another, how we handed down

Sidelong versions of whatever happened next

Under ebbing oceans an ancient underground

Somewhere in the receding past they kept saying

Their slippery sense of community mattered, it

Shaped them, their history, the story they filled

Themselves with every day, waking their minds

Connecting to the history of memory as if it all

Felt real, seemed specific enough, logical enough

Those changing details that give rise to the world

In our retellings of the tale along a crooked road

Let Us Pray:

Great Creator

We have trouble even to define our words

We have trouble even to deal with the past

We have trouble even to deal with the future

Thank you for this Now

Be with those within any radius of our building

Be with us here in our circle that struggles to close

You have brought us so far

We just ask that you bring us all home

As long as it takes please don't miss one

Amen

Benediction

We are waiting

We are going

We are called to act

We make decisions that make the world

Here we have something beautiful.

Partisan. 

Nottingham UMC 6/26/2022

Phoenix

Only a whisper of a legend I have heard but never known
It was a sign I took almost immediately to mean something

I was the first to recognize that I knew perhaps a great crowd

We do not respond to things because they are easy

Always finding a reason to return is a reason to come

It can take a long time to find certain things

Most people stop looking is what opens my eyes to see

She aflame from ashes

There was a before I could not imagine

Most of what I have done I have done most of my life

Reborn resurrected recreated wheeled

She would not recognize herself

Body

As we move from Easter to Pentecost I find myself thinking about this our body of Christ.  Different times of year we are called to regroup.  Lent and advent come to mind.  Certain times of the year we push forward.  In reality we are always doing these two activities.  Regrouping and pushing forward.  Lives are very similar in many ways.  

A recent TED talk by physicist and entrepreneur Riccardo Sabatini demonstrated that a printed version of your entire genetic code would occupy some 262,000 pages, or 175 large books. Of those pages, just about 500 would be unique to us.  Every variation we have ever seen are contained in those 500 pages. 

Now you know there is an eternity in those 500 pages.  If you will miss just two letters in this position, two letters over 3 billion, you will be condemned to a terrible disease - cystic fibrosis. We have no cure for it. We don't know how to solve it, and it's just two letter of difference.  Darryl Nichols a child of this church I grew up with is gone, but for two letters.

Remembering Darryl Nichols today.  Play D&D, watch Star Wars and LOTR, drink overpriced coffee, talk about religion, paint with acrylics, consider vaccination, and be sure to become an organ donor.  

"Luminous beings are we.... not this crude matter." - Master Yoda.  Been more than nine years.

 

"Prophets, poets and philosophers realized thousand of years ago that being satisfied with what you have is far more important than getting more of what you want. Still, it's nice when modern research - bolstered by lots of numbers and charts - reaches the same conclusions the ancients did. " That is a quote from a favorite book of mine: Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

We have really come full circle in our ability to quantify difference.  Much of what people want in this world is to feel safer.  This also leads directly to security dilemmas that are the basis of many of the difficulties we face.  To be safer we often put ourselves in greater danger.  We are terrible at estimating what 99.9% means.  We walk past it on our sanitizer bottles and think this just some legal warning.

.001% like pizza you cut into 1000 pieces.  We are not very good at cutting things into 1000 pieces.  We lose resolution.  What we see as enormous is miniscule.  We magnify and think we are seeing something different. 

What does that mean to be the body.  It is something overwhelming.  Just to think of the size of the universe required.  More than any idea, required before anything else is possible.  The body is what was created first and the mind doesn't want to hear about it mostly.

There is a great anthem of my generation written by Peter Gabriel.  The words sung by Kate Bush are what come to me something like this message I get from the body.  My body our body.  I don't really know the labels.  Yet I know the message I receive resonates.

 Don't give up

'cause you have friends

Don't give up

You're not beaten yet

Don't give up

I know you can make it good

My experience is that my body always responds.  Put work in and the body will respond.  It is never too late until it is too late.

Don't give up

You still have us

Don't give up

We don't need much of anything

Don't give up

'cause somewhere there's a place

Where we belong

We don't need much of anything

It is a positive message because it is alive.  Negativity is a luxury of the mind. .  I once heard someone talking on the radio, the essence was that even in our worst times, we are mostly healthy.  It is easy to forget the miracle that anything works.

I offer a lot of technical advise in my life.  People naturally come to me with problems.  Most who do have come before.  I always mention something that I don't think anyone really hears.  People always ask me why their electronics are not working.  I always respond that the real miracle is that electronics work at all.  Computer are very sensitive.

We don't have proof, but it is mostly likely that a cosmic ray has killed someone by bit flipping the computer in their car.  One 0 turned to1 and a chain of events.  Computers don't like magnetic fields which we create all around them.  What can go wrong does, but mostly doesn't.  That is the real miracle to me.  We can make quantum computers we just can't stop them from breaking yet.

When I became a vegan I tapped into a deep muscle memory of the body.  It was how I managed the cravings.  Forty years I had eaten everything I wanted when I wanted.  In my family we have this experience. Sometimes you are hungry for something and you make and eat it and realize that was not it.  I have found myself at times at my fourth attempt disappointed.  Most of the time I enjoy what I have.  

This deep muscle memory allows me to say my favorite food is still the oyster.  I loved them raw and two never tasted the same.  This was a food that could kill you.  It had my respect.  I don't miss them at all simply because I find my experience of them not gone.  This is not an idea I have.

The body I will tell you has more memories than any of your ideas of them.  To pray without ceasing does not require words at every moment.  There is this connection.  This geometry.  

From the Amplified Bible 1 Corinthians 12: For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts, though many, form [only] one body, so it is with Christ. 

So there I was contemplating as I approached out liturgical calendar.  We find several themes this week.  There is one story I will share briefly from Acts 16:9-15 from the Amplified Bible

9 Then a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man from [the Roman province of] Macedonia was standing and pleading with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 And when he had seen the vision, we (including Luke) tried to go on into Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

11 So setting sail from Troas, we ran a direct course to Samothrace, and the next day [went on] to Neapolis; 12 and from there [we came] to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. We stayed on in this city for several days; 13 and on the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the bank of the [Gangites] river, where we thought there would be a [c]place of prayer, and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had come there.

14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple fabrics who was [already] a worshiper of God, listened to us; and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention and to respond to the things said by Paul. 15 And when she was baptized, along with her household, she pleaded with us, saying, “If you have judged me and decided that I am faithful to the Lord [a true believer], come to my house and stay.” And she persuaded us.

Is it too far I wonder that it was a man Paul saw in his vision, but when he came in body to be there it was a woman.  If Paul had seen Lydia would he believed it a message from God.  Did God need to get him there to then know the way.  I wonder do these messages of the body really lead us more.  Most of our ideas distractions.

Purple you should know is a royal color and not for everyone to have.  Had Paul seen this woman in purple in his vision I dare say he would have rebuked Satan.  God I believe knows what is being done.

Our scriptura today John 5:1-9 again from the amplified bible we approach with these messages from the body in mind.

5:1 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 5:2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 5:3 In these lay many invalids--blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5:5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 

Ill for thirty-eight years, mostly healthy, able to push forward, able to regroup.  99.9% the same as you and me and the stranger who just took their first step into our community.

5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 5:7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me."

We don't need much of anything, someone to help us into the pool, even a women in purple would do.  "Do you want to be made well?"

 5:8 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 5:9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. 

We don't need much of anything, thirty-eight years waiting on Jesus and their he was, we don't have to wait for Jesus for he sent us the holy spirit.  As we find in 1 Corinthians 12 27 Now you [collectively] are Christ’s body, and individually [you are] members of it [each with his own special purpose and function].

I want you to think the next time you are ill, I am mostly healthy.  To hear the messages of your body.  I promise you tomorrow if you change your eating habits your body will hear your message.  We are a conversation more than we are any definition.  Words are limited.  Even the words of God are more.

We know the scripture and we believe we are part of the body of Christ, but this reality is greater than our mind can comprehend alone.  We don't need much of anything because we have so many resources available.  I started a meditation I can not finish.  I can not tell you how it feels, but when we are together I can try to show you

And in 1 Corinthians 13 we find: And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.

There is a line a plane a cube

There is time

Angles lead to different perceptions

Mathematically

I don't always have anything to say

If you ask me I will tell you

Perhaps I should not I will never know

I open up and then I see

People see things different

You say there is no evidence of more than three dimensions

I almost wonder if we each live in our own

Don't give up

'cause you have friends

Don't give up

You're not the only one

Don't give up

No reason to be ashamed

Don't give up

You still have us

Don't give up now

We're proud of who you are

Don't give up

You know it's never been easy

Don't give up

'cause I believe there's the a place

There's a place where we belong

Then we find Psalm 34:18 Amplified Bible

18 The Lord is near to the heartbroken

And He saves those who are crushed in spirit (contrite in heart, truly sorry for their sin).

contrite

adjective

feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.

"a broken and a contrite heart"

If you were a god where would your strength come from? your heart?  We are made in an image.

Lastly John 14:23-29 again from the amplified bible:

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Let Us Pray

Creator of the Universe,

we keep your words so you will live with us

Please help us move beyond ideas

Please help us move beyond our feelings

Help us see them as two sides of a coin

Help us render un to you

Help us move past into your true reality

We ask in the name of our savior Jesus

Amen

Benediction

Go and talk with friends

Go and talk with strangers

Go and talk with your body

Listen to friends

Listen to strangers

Listen to your body

Hear God

Imagine the reality

Nottingham UMC 5.22.22

Billions

One million seconds twelve days
One billion seconds three decades

Without inflation there would be no billions

We hate what we cannot control

The world for the billions is very small

To us something like Jr High

A safe one where there are few cares only dangers

What they are afraid of is never the cause of rot

They want to do better with all their billions

They cannot is the clear evidence

The Bridge

To go over and to contrast 

Small things can seem big 

Old things can become new 

Old things can come to an end 

There are places we can see 

Where we came from 

Old things can become less painful 

There are places we can not see 

How we got there 

We can see the contrast in our views 

He said they put two bridges together 

So raja won't throw garbage in the river

She sad it would be sad

Vineyards

Again you shall plant vineyards... Jer 31;5  Cultivation is the theme for todays message.  Spending the last ten years in our garden I learned an important lesson.  It is not plants that we grow really it is the soil.  Much like our lives are important beyond our awareness.  The plants come and go.  It is the quality of your community that makes life possible.  We are entwined with the soil more than we know.

To do things the proper way requires great amounts of information.  I after ten years have found the right path.  Now you might say hey we don't need soil to grow plants, which is true, but something needs to provide what the soil provides.  

In the context of our garden we have many challenges.  There is a thick patch of trees that passes right by our garden.  Over the years we have had groundhog issues but we had come to an understanding.  I grew certain things they would eat and certain things they did not like.  Now their tastes change over the years which is surprising for a groundhog.  Lot of fat groundhogs in Cleveland.

The deer are clearly confused.  No real threats to them in the city are causing them to change.  The first time I saw deer this year they looked at me confused why I am there.  The young deer was on top of the wood chip pile while two other deer leisurely wondered the garden.  Most of my life it has been a real pleasure to see deer.

I remember the day me and my Dad walked up on fifty deer in Pennsylvania.  We stood frozen, well my Dad did.  I moved and they were gone faster than I had ever seen anything move.  I watched where they traveled through in disbelief.  My father got a few shots off, the loud noise reminded me that we were hunting.  It seemed we were doing something else.

These deer is Cleveland don't mind movement as I shout at them and let them know they are not welcome.  That not something I should have to do to Deer.  I don't want to, but someone has to tell them.  If they have a predator now it is the ticks.  I wonder as I see young deer running around the vacant lot like a dog how many actually are quite sick.  Like your dog at home you can usually see it in the coat.  Watch when you see them.  You will see sick ones.

Why are they sick.  Well it is a symptom of the brokenness we have created in the world.  They are supposed to live in fear.  Doesn't sound like something to talk about in church, but there is no natural balance for them here in Cleveland yet here they are.  Much like the forgotten orchard trees all through the city forgotten and not thought about.  We have real problems and few solutions.

Our scripture for today is not the only one of focus today.  The liturgical calendar also brings us back to Acts and some of the first consequences of our church.  But first we find ourselves as we often do with Thomas, doubting that there is solution.

John 20, 19-31 from the Amplified Bible:

19 So when it was evening on that same day, the first day of the week, though the disciples were [meeting] behind barred doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “[a]Peace to you.” 20 After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with great joy. 21 Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you [as My representatives].” 22 And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven [because of their faith]; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained [and remain unforgiven because of their unbelief].”

Where are we? well in verse 18 Mary Magdalene came, reporting to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had said these things to her.  This last Gospel so unique in many ways.  Possible responses and highlights to be made of the earlier.  We often talk of Mathew Mark and Luke having a supposed lost source.  The so called Q gospel or simply the Q source.  Much of what is new is old.

John is different in many ways but most importantly in his purpose.  We will get to that shortly in verse 30, but where we start in John today is right after Mary Magdalene's report.  We don't find a rebuke of these women here.  Next we just have Jesus appear.  Just as the Q source was available for other writers those rebukes were available for John.  This is personally why I am so drawn to his gospel.    

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve [disciples], who was called Didymus (the twin), was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the nail prints, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe.”

The doubter he is know the world over.  So much of what Jesus teaches is to help us live.  Here we are being taught flatly that it will be more difficult for us.  We will not see in his hands the marks.  Jesus is straight forward with the realities of creation.  We will see later in the first acts of the church they celebrated this fact.  Such strange and wonderous people surely full of the holy spirit.

26 Eight days later His disciples were again inside the house, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, though the doors had been barred, and stood among them and said, “Peace to you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and put out your hand and place it in My side. Do not be unbelieving, but [stop doubting and] believe.” 28 Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, do you now believe? Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, and favored by God] are they who did not see [Me] and yet believed [in Me].”

We have not seen and if we believe we can gain strength.  We are witness.  Mary was witness.  Thomas is witness now.  If you were there and doubting Jesus would surely let you touch his wounds, but there were more blessings greater for you to bring you here.

Now that purpose of Writing this Gospel I had mentioned we find quite specifically spelled out in verse 30 and 31:

30 There are also many other signs (attesting miracles) that Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe [with a deep, abiding trust] that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God; and that by believing [and trusting in and relying on Him] you may have life in His name.

John was never trying to tell everything that happened.  Just what needs to be known.  Just like things need to be known in our ministry.  

Spring is here and we are moving ahead with our green space.  If we do things right we will have programing throughout the year.  Currently we offer free internet on the corner.  This summer we will be working with Nottingham Daycare again having lunch Monday Wednesday and Friday.  This will be be an open program and no more grab n go like the last two years.  We might thrive or might be the last year.  I know I have my doubts.

Dave who preaches the second week of the month is working on getting some funding from his work and wants to join our project.  Details are developing.  We have a couple thousand for tables and benches.  He is talking about bringing more resources.  Long term visions include community power generation which is something moving forward in Cleveland.

Imagine in our green space generating energy with solar and wind for use by the church and the surrounding neighborhood.  We can have a real impact on the pocket book of our neighbors.  We can create a joint existence.  I have talked to everyone who will listen about calling the city health department to complain about the thick patch of forest.  Many things make it not safe, not the least the tics the deer bring.  Playing our part they should not be comfortable.  The world may be broken but we don't have to be.

So you can call too and complain.  Hopefully someone will go to the meeting with catholic charities this week and we will move forward with our lunch program.  Perhaps our last.  Perhaps the first of what is to come.  You could be there or you could talk to people who you know could be there.

We would like to also create incubator space to invite people from the community to come and use resources.  There is interest in a renewed civic club in the neighborhood.  Are doors are open and we invite people to worship with us we need to invite people to create with us.  We have done it before and we can do it again.

Last in the long term I would like to see a memorial grove and a vineyard.  A community newspaper Nottingham Vines.

We need to both hold on tight to our ministry and let go.  I know when Dave expressed his interest in working in the garden how I felt.  The way I should and hope to.  I know how it felt after eight years to finally have kids digging in the ground and caring for plants.

As we come through Easter we are naturally drawn to reflect on the early moments of the church.  What happened first.  How did they do something that we are still doing today.  The Sanhedrin knew it was something different from day one and would ultimately take Gamaliel’s Counsel .  Here we find in  Act 5 27-32,  again from the amplified bible, suffering lighting the way.

27 So they brought them and presented them before the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court). The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this [c]Man’s blood on us [by accusing us as His murderers].” 29 Then Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men [we have no other choice]. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a [d]cross [and you are responsible]. 31 God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior and Deliverer, in order to grant repentance to Israel, and [to grant] forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has bestowed on those who obey Him.”

The Sanhedrin had seen many rebel leaders come and go.  Their followers gone as fast as their leaders.  Movements with charismatic leaders often don't even really need to explain themselves.  They never last beyond the induvial leader.  

40b they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and released them. 41 So they left the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy [dignified by indignity] to suffer shame for [the sake of] His name. 42 And every single day, in the temple [area] and in homes, they did not stop teaching and telling the good news of Jesus as the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).

41 So they left the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy [dignified by indignity] to suffer shame for [the sake of] His name.

Day one, Day today, Day tomorrow, Day till Jesus come again 

Turning point.   Jesus was the turning point.  Thing about turning points you never know they are happening when they do.  They seem less important.  I taught this several times this week and have been fascinated by this phrase.  Looking back they are easy to see.  You might just be in a turning point right now.

With so much broken these times come so often.  I want to close this message to say that two Christian armies are fighting on this orthodox Easter.  Sometimes we agree on the date of Easter.  Much we agree.  The worse part of things is the not knowing how things are going to work out.  With faith we find Jesus the turning point and we pray there has already been one in Ukraine.

Let Us Pray,

Creator of the universe,

We see things broken and not functioning

Let us see with your eyes when we doubt

Let us feel our own wounds and know you also suffered

Let us rejoice that we are dignified by indignity

Let us suffer shame for the sake of your name

Be with each who doubts

Help them feel their own wounds and your comforting presence

We claim a re birth of Nottingham green space

We claim again we shall plant vineyards

We ask in the mighty Name of Jesus our savior to keep us near your will

Amen

Benediction:

Almighty God, giver of every good and perfect gift: teach us to render unto thee all that we have and all that we are, that we may praise thee, not with our lips only, but with our whole loves, turning the duties, the sorrows, and the joys of all our days into a living sacrifice unto thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nottingham 4-24-2022