Pastor Essays

In Jesus’ lifetime, He was usually  addressed as “Rabbi.”   Just as the title “Doctor” means  “teacher, “ so also “Rabbi” means “teacher.”

At some point in their relationship with Jesus, many called Him “Lord.” At that time and place, a “lord,”—as in England today—meant  the owner/ruler of an estate.   It can also be construed as the relationship of a lower ranked soldier to a commanding officer.  And, it is clear, that attached to the basic meaning are elements of respect, awe, and love.

In the very earliest days of Christianity, pagans learned of the Communion service (aka “Mass”) and declared of the Christians, “They are  cannibals!”

Instead, Christians are (or should be) a group of people “in community”  who share in mystical but meaningful symbols.  Our Pilgrim Chapel community is—or, at least aspires to be) a group of persons who care so much about one another that we are “brothers” or “sisters.”

In the Gospel we read that and His disciples are gathered  to celebrate the Passover (Pesach) with his closest followers.

PASSOVER  is a Jewish holy day which celebrates the liberation of  the Jews from slavery in Egypt.  Our communion liturgy does not resemble a Passover Haggadah (service) that I can see.   However, one of the central points of COMMUNION shares the central point of the Passover: LIBERATION.      Holy Communion  celebrates  the deliverance of Jesus’ disciples from ALL the limitations and burdens of being human:  deliverance from slavery, from  hunger, fear, worry, deliverance from our acceptance of limitations,  and more.  Jesus is the “door” to a radically new way of thinking and living.

Most of us are simple beginners in learning and living the “Jesus  way.”   BUT, we have begun.  We do try to help one another, be available to one another, celebrate one another, and share with one another.    We do try to be a community gathered about the life, the teachings, and the being that was Jesus.  Hence, our strength, our confidence, our trust, and our joy grows.

Eating the Communion bread celebrates “the body (community) of Christ:” that is, we joyfully prize that worldwide community of men and women who are committed to justice, peace, liberty, respect and kindness….AND to mystical and prayerful spiritual growth.

Drinking the wine, celebrates taking the Christ spirit into our lives.   We welcome into our own lives that quality of the eternal that has no bounds, and which does not fear death, but sees death as a natural and normal part of life, as we simply pass into a new state of being.

Communion celebrates life, joy, personhood, mystery and the eternal.

This past week I heard a young man who had been  a Pastor in Louisiana give his testimony.  He had studied the Bible very carefully, and had come to the discovery that there are untenable contradictions in the Bible.  Because he is an honest man, he forthrightly proclaimed that he had lost his faith and is now an Atheist.   In his small town in LA, this brings rejection, insults and abuse. He is now a pariah.  How sad.  His new Atheist friends have been kind to him, and have reassured him.

He had learned some things that all mainline Protestant ministers know: different historians writing on the same subject and at different times are often contradictory, just as some books in the library contradict others.

He had not learned that religion is about meanings, values, relationships, conduct, and faith (meaning “trust” more than “belief.”)   He had not learned that at the heart of it all is Mystery,  Holy Mystery.  Science presents far better tools for understanding physics, astronomy, biology, paleontlogy, etc.   But nothing in science contradicts liberal religion.

As seeking, learning, and growing Christians we must always remain humble about what we know.  Often today’s “truth” is disproven and replaced tomorrow by a more accurate understanding.   At one point in my life, I taught science.   Science heightened my appreciation of our universe, and the mystery and wonder at the heart of it.

In the Christian Scriptures, we read “God is love; “God is Spirit;”

God can be seen and felt in others.   We learn that keys to happiness in life are in our internal lives and in our relationships with others.   Be in an attitude of thankfulness and apprecation as much as is possible.   Treat others as you would like to be treated.   Respect others.  Respect your own body and mind.   Hold on to the resoluteness of Jesus.  Live so that your death will be a door to a new dimension.  (Scriptures call it “the resurrection.”)

Rabbi Jesus promised abundant living to all those who enter into the kind of relationship He had with God  (the eternal source of life and light).   Abundant living is not all about “getting all you can and canning all you get.”  Abundant living is about appreciation of every thing and everyone in your life.   It is about escaping worry by working at solving whatever problem causes the worry.   It is about generosity and giving.  It is about faith in your self and faith in others.   It is about laughing a lot.   It is about playing hard, praying in reverence, singing and dancing, and “listening for the still, small voice within!”

Many of us are or have been “on vacation” or in the immediate past.    Some will beon vacation in the near future.   The word “vacation” is a form of the word “vacate;”  that is, “to empty.”  What is it that we should empty?  It seems to me that our goals should be to empty our lives of frustrations, anger, negative thoughts and negative judgments of others, worries, envy of others (that is, desiring what they have),  or jealousy toward others (meaning guarding what we have—much like  dog guarding from other dogs the last scrap of food in his dish—even though he has eaten his fill).

How do we do this?

1. Vigorous physical activity: play…have fun
2. Prayer:  entering into a mental state of total          relaxation and listening for the Divine Spirit of love and liberation; expressing to God our deepest concerns, confessing our sins, receiving forgiveness, listening for Divine guidance.
3. Reading,or some other way, to fill our minds with that which is positive.   Read the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) or Philippians 4 or the Proverbs or history, or some novels, etc.

In a famous book of a couple of generations ago LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE, a famous television star. Art Linkletter, proved that frequent, long and hearty laughter drives out the demons of worry and negativity.

The eminent Cardiologist, Wojciech Mazur, (who spoke from our pulpit a few months ago,) sends some of his patients to “laughter school” where one’s capacity for real laughter is cultivated.   Dr. Mazur is right!  Laughter IS excellent medicine for cleaning cobwebs from our minds and re-orienting us.!

In his great “hymn to love” in the 13^th chapter of 1^st  Corinthians, St. Paul wrote…”when the perfect is come….”    The “perfect” is not yet come!  Not in you…not in me…not in the man behind the tree.

That understanding may well have been part of the thinking of Jesus’ saying  (in the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 7) “Judge not lest you be judged; for  with what judgment you judge, so shall you BE judged.”

It is not easy to withhold condemnation of others.  Yet, we never have ALL the facts, nor do we ever have a complete understanding.  On a more personal level, many of us can well appreciate the truth of Sir Walter Scott’s poetic declaration:  “at the devil’s booth are all things sold; each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold.”

I have become ever more strongly convicted that it is the job of the church to try to teach and show a better way. Confessing our sins to God is a starting place.   God KNOWS our sins.   WE know our sins. But, we also need forgiveness and to know we have been forgiven.

People tend to become what we think about.   Hence, it seems to me better for the church to primarily  focus on the highest ideals and the POSSIBILITIES that lie before us all.   In the Bible, in Proverbs 23:7 is this line:  “As one thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Cincinnati’s own famous son, the Reverend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale got it right with his emphasis on “Positive Thinking.”   Since such thinking is not native to most of us, we need to cultivate it.   A way to do that is to “behave your way into it.”   That is, pretend you are what you want to be.   Assume the role of an actor, and fill that role.   If you feel hostile towards someone: then “kill them with kindness.”   Overcome them with courtesy.   Practice generosity and liberality whether you feel it or not.          If as a child you learned to manipulate people, or lie, or deceive, or cheat, recognize that there is a better way.   Recognize that those qualities ultimately lead to destruction:  your own destruction.    Then having so recognized this fact,  work on being both truthful AND diplomatic.

We cannot justify hostility and unkindness on the base of “telling the truth.”      The old aphorism is, indeed, true:  “what goes around comes around.”  In Rabbi Jesus’ words:  “with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you.”

I must have been in the 8^th grade—a time of wildness and rebellion for me and for many youths.   Bodies are changing, hormones are raging.  Confusion is rampant.

It was an hour or so after my bed time.   It was hot in Oklahoma, and sticky.  1946 was a few years before air conditioning came into people’s homes.   It was hard to sleep.   I lay awake.  I could hear my mother and father talking in another room.

Dad said, “Virginia, I don’t know what is going to become of that boy.   He is so rebellious.   He may end in the pen.”   That statement must have packed great power to be remembered these many decades later.

It is not easy to be 13.   It is not easy to be the parent of a 13 year old.  Being a father of a rebellious teenager is demanding.   Nor, is it easy to be a teenager.   Perhaps even harder for a growing boy is to be fatherless.   I cannot imagine what life would have been without my father.    Mother was wonderful.   But, in Dad there was authority.    There was toughness. There were the demands that must be met.  No whining  was acceptable.  No excuses were valid.   Maybe it is a “testosterone thing.”

Dad taught me discipline.  He taught me to work.    He made demands that I deeply resented,  But they had to be met.  No excuses were acceptable.  The mission MUST be accomplished

He’s gone now.  But the memory lingers.   I can still see his unique walk…hear his melodious voice,  remember his unflinching demand for hard labor in the hot sun….and, I remember  his pride in me.

As with so many things, Dad had another and gentler side.   He was always there.   He was there for me.  As a small boy, I felt assured holding his hand in time of danger.   When he was in middle life, I KNEW which of us was the MAN.  In his last  years, when his body had started to fail and his brilliant mind had evaporated,  I knew how blest I had been.  I knew it would be tough, but I desperately wanted to live the honor his name.   His strong discipline, his absolute honesty, his truthfulness and dependability would live in me as goals to which I could always aspire.

Do you—or did you—have a father?   What did—or does—he mean to you?  Are you a father?  What does that status demand of you?   Are you the best you can be?   In the very end, God is our Father….and we are His sons and daughters.   We bear GOD’S family name and honor.

I miss him. He was my friend.  He is dead.    I was a bit surprised to receive the call.   I was not his Pastor.   He was a member of a church which doesn’t much care for clergy from other traditions.    The caller asked me to officiate at his funeral.  I agreed.

Elmo (not his real name) had committed suicide.  In his note he described his anguish and requested that I officiate.    Elmo had “lost everything.”   His wife had left him,   He felt his children did not think about him.   His fine home in a prestigious suburb was no more.  His business was lost.    He had no money and had to depend upon public welfare. He was ill with not one, but two diseases from which people do not recover—only keep in remission.  Death, he thought was the only way out.

I cannot and do not condemn Elmo.  He was miserable.  But, I was deeply sorry that the walls had closed in on him so grimly that he saw no exit.    I was sorry that he hurt so much and was so depressed.  He had missed a possibility.

The central point of the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is that evil, pain, negative events need not be the ultimate winner; but, that there is a kind of victory over those things. That victory brings light and joy in a new dimension.

Sanjay Gupta is known to most people as a TV personality.   To others he is known as a Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University Medical School.    In CHEATING DEATH, a book Gupta published a couple of years ago, he criticizes orthodox medical treatment for many situations in which it appears a patient cannot live.  He credits Dr, Raymond Moody, who, a generation ago, presented many cases of persons with near death experiences, for opening new lines of study on the meanings of life and death.

We live in a highly materialistic age in which money and prestige are thought to be THE keys to happiness.  Money and prestige (or respect) are valuables.,….but not the ONLY valuables.   As we develop our capacities to meditate, to open ourselves to the Godly Spirit, and allow that divine love to flow through us, our perspectives greatly increase and ever fewer things can get us down.

Each  of us has the right and the ability to allow the Joy of Christ to fill us, and make us happy no matter what our circumstances.

“Doctrine” means teaching. “Dogma” means RIGHT teaching. All churches have doctrine. Only strong authoritarian churches have dogma. New scientific discoveries can often prove that some dogma is simply wrong. When that happens, the standing and reputation of the church which proclaims the dogma is damaged.

That is why we hold our beliefs in faith and trust, that we encourage science and scholarship to seek and find new truths. That is also why it is so important for us to study the life of Jesus, to work and pray that we live and walk in His Spirit, “oozing” thanksgiving all the day long. To do so, enables us to view God’s creation with reverence, to treat others with kindness and compassion, practicing generosity and lavish hospitality to those with whom we interact.

In Christian usage, “the body of Christ” is a phrase generally meaning the group of people who follow and are loyal to Christ. Jesus Himself used the richest and most colorful language imaginable. This is My body…eat” is a powerful and dramatic saying which means “take the essence of My spirit and character into your heart…let the love of God flow through Me and into you and through you, into others.”

It is our challenge in the communions service to renew the best that God has given us and to walk in the spirit of Christ, and to share what we have experienced with others.

Our Lord Jesus introduced one line of his thinking in the Sermon on the Mount in these words: “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul….” This suggests a laser like focus on fundamental values. At the beginning of each year, we set out to shake loose from unimportant concerns and ways of thinking to focus on that which is most important.

When one has gone into the hospital operating room, breathed that which relieves our conscientiousness so that he can experience major life-threatening surgery, he is aware of life’s most important values. It seems to me that these values center in giving one’s self to God. It means resigning all claims to the very small requests of selfishness and giving all one has to helping others see, experience and share the love of God. It means learning to bathe in the beauty of flowers, the joy of music, the sweetness of loving fellowship.

What a blessing has been given each of us to help in the ministry to the children, not only of Pilgrim Chapel, but also those of Washington UCC Church, where resources are so limited.

I believe that God calls on each of us to his or her own special ministry; that we are to open much of ourselves, our energies, our monies, and all that we have to make God’s love evident to others in the world.

In recent weeks, I have seen laid out so clearly how valuable it is for a person—any person—to “find a need and fill it.” Start small. Don’t seek preferment. Don’t seek honor. Just pitch in. Do it! Watch things change. Somehow, then, even honors may find their way to you.

Pilgrim Chapel is a decade older than it was when it first became my privilege to be your pastor. Many things have changed and splendid projects have presented themselves.

We are better known for fine music on “the hill.” The future should bring us continued great music and better opportunities to enrich the lives of this community.

One of my goals is to encourage the congregation to stimulate one another to find new opportunities to become richer blessings to the community.

In pre-Christian Jewish times, the Bible teaches that Hebrew people were blessed so that they could be a blessing to the world. What a concept!  As we bless others, so in turn we become blessed. And as we become the bringers of justice, peace, and freedom to others, we “catch” these blessings and the blessings grow in the world around us.

I believe that God calls each congregation to develop an identity of being a blessing, and that each of us individually is motivated to become a “blesser” of others.  As the world around us is ever better, so is the joy that flows through us and the others around us.