Wonderful article on the Tenderloin District in SF, the tech companies that have moved in, and Glide Church

So far in this blog I think I've only featured my own writing, but this time I am point you toward an article from Wired Magazine, which in the past few years has re-found its journalistic voice that made it so wonderful in the 90s.

This article is about the Tenderloin district in SF, and Rev. Williams of Glide Church that has been serving the homeless and poor and addicts for 50+ years, and the tech industry (Google, Zendesk, Twitter, etc.) that has moved into the neighborhood. It's a complex issue there, and the writer of this article embraces the complexity without seeking simple solutions or soundbite interpretations of what's happening.

It has moved me because a) it's just plain well-written. Exciting to see a piece of journalism that shows curiosity and openness and a willingness to take the time to make something special. And b) it's an issue that touches my heart: I'm a fan of tech and what the tech industry has brought to humanity, while also understanding that it has had some costs; and I'm concerned about gentrification and pushing poor people out of neighborhoods even while acknowledging that we can't let areas turn into blight and unsafe spaces, either - there's a tension around that which we are seeing here in Eau Claire, as well, as our downtown revitalizes and becomes a destination for business, tourism, and locals; and of course, the theological component that comes up in this article of the ministry of Glide Church and its pastor and volunteers and their commitment to meet the needs of people without judgment and a radical inclusive generosity.

This is good writing and good reporting - looking at a situation from many angles, just as the people involved in it are looking from many angles. This is longer than most articles, but oh so worth the read.

"For Williams, though, embracing tech isn’t just about money. “I’ve discovered a brokenness in the tech community. It has to do with self-definition. They’re not always good at creating humanity,” he tells me. The companies aren’t just benefactors, in other words; in a sense they’re also clients. 

If you belong to the tech world and feel an objection welling up, know that brokenness is not a crime in Williams’ book. On the contrary, it’s the channel on which we all relate. ... [Williams' wife Mirikatani said...] “I believe we’re more connected by our wounds than our comfort zones,” she says. “If a CEO is wounded by something, a connection to that would be stronger than money.” Put another way, the tech world’s C-suites could need salvation more than stock options.

Read the article

The American Action Network wants something better than the ACA (Obamacare)

First, let me just remind people, in case you don't know, that the ACA (Affordable Care Act) is the same thing as Obamacare. The term Obamacare was first offered as a pejorative against the ACA from those on the right who opposed the ACA, and the term stuck.

And now, to the reason for this post.

I just saw an ad on WEAU during the evening news that begins "Rising premiums and deductibles! Washington, D.C. intruding between doctors and patients! Expensive mandates that destroy jobs! Ron Kind voted FOR Obamacare and Wisconsin families are paying the price!"

My first thought was, "Oh, God, please don't let this be already an ad from someone running against Ron Kind in 2018! My brain/heart/body/soul can't take it if the campaign season is beginning now!"

And then, the ad continues: "We deserve better! We need patient-centered care with more choices and lower costs; peace of mind for people with pre-existing conditions; tax credits to help families buy insurance; and a stronger medicare."

At this point I was thinking, "What the heck? This can't be a campaign ad. What's their point? Is this anti-Kind or pro-Kind? I can't tell!

Then the ad finishes: "Tell Congressman Kind to replace Obamacare with the better healthcare we deserve."

End of the commercial (except for the very last line that comes in the commercial - wait for it, I post it further into this blog post). First thought at this point is - "You seem to be against ACA/Obamacare, except unlike the usual right-wing/tea-party official line, you're against it because it isn't socialist enough? You begin your ad by accusing Kind of voting for Obamacare, which any sensible person would take to mean that you are opposed, therefore, to any kind of national health care... but then you end the commercial with a plea to call Ron Kind and ask him not to repeal it, or kill it, or get rid of it because it's evil - you want us to call him because you don't think it covers enough people, at a low enough cost, with enough protection for the consumers?!"

Well, okay, maybe this a kind of stealth ad being put up by Bernie supporters or similar.

But no, the final line of the ad appears on the screen: "Paid for by American Action Network".

The American Action Network is a center-right organization.

Here is their own self-description from their website: "The American Action Network is a 501(c)(4) ‘action tank’ that will create, encourage and promote center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security.  The American Action Network’s primary goal is to put our center-right ideas into action by engaging the hearts and minds of the American people and spurring them into active participation in our democracy."

There's a head-scratcher. Seems like they ought to be opposed to any kind of national healthcare; and ought to be against coverage for pre-existing conditions; ought to be against expansion of medicare; ought to be against tax credits.

All of this post here to say: just because someone (or some organization) places themselves in a certain political/social bucket, doesn't mean that they can't go outside that bucket on some issues. All of us have inconsistencies and areas of hypocrisy. Whatever ideological or theological or epistemological or political ground into which someone may have so self-righteously jammed their tribal flag, there are likely places in which that person does not abide by the doctrine and can in which can find some common ground for dialogue.

What this organization is asking for is very much similar to what Obama and others on the left wanted in the first place! But they decided to tone it down and only offer what Republicans had already come up with, out of fear that the Republicans would vote against anything more "radical".

Humans. We're rarely rational or consistent. :D

Prayer at Interfaith Prayer Service Jan 11, 2017

I was part of the Interfaith Prayer Service tonight at Trinity Lutheran in Eau Claire, with participants representing Methodists, Lutherans, Buddhism, B'Hai, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and The Center. Please note, in the hymn that I quoted, I changed the refrain at the very end of my prayer.

Here is the prayer that I offered:

In 1974, one of our ministers, Al Carmines, wrote a hymn with affirmations of diversity, understood - at long last - as a beautiful gift from God. There are those, in our political leadership and even in some worshiping communities, that sees fear in the ideas of peace, unity in diversity, and difference, and not as holy gifts as this hymn does.

The hymn, by the way, is ecumenical: it was commissioned by the United Methodist Women for their general assembly. So I offer to you the hymn that Carmines wrote more than four decades ago, and will extend that into a somewhat longer prayer of proclamation, lament, and confession - because there can be no peace without confession.

The hymn is called “Many Gifts, One Spirit”

"God of change and glory, God of time and space,
When we fear the future, give to us your grace.
In the midst of changing ways give us still the grace to praise.
Many gifts, one Spirit, one love known in many ways.
In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise:
One Giver, one Word, one Spirit, one God,
Known in many ways, hallowing our days.
For the Giver, for the gifts -- Praise, Praise, Praise!"

God of many colors, God of many signs,
You have made us different, blessing many kinds.
As the old ways disappear, let your love cast out our fear.

God of many colors, God of many names and signs and holy appearances and scriptures - I pray for a spirit of humility and reverence among our political and spiritual leaders; I pray for a spirit of wisdom and measurement among all people who claim belief in a higher power or a connection to the rest of the world; I pray for a spirit of tolerance and inclusion for all; I pray for a spirit of confession for your Church, which has and is too often afraid of the rich diversity you have designed, too often timid in its proclamation of your love for all people before the rulers and powers of this world, too often hurtful and divisive and far too happy to condemn others to hell without lifting them out of the hells they are in or looking to confront our own evils, too intolerant of other faiths and too afraid of the holiness of other expressions, too often so eager to join the powers that be that we invent gospel-denying theological excuses to support our eagerness for war, for walls, for wealth, for winning… make us whole, holy One, in unity, in spirit, in body, in purpose.

Freshness of the morning, newness of each night,
You are still creating endless love and light.
This we see, as shadows part, many gifts from one great heart.

Many gifts, one Spirit, one love known in many ways.
In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise:
One Giver, one Word, one Spirit, one God,
Known in many ways, hallowing our days.
For the Giver, for the gifts -- Peace, Peace, Peace!" we pray,

Amen.

"Waiting and Anticipating", article from Leader Telegram Dec. 17, 2016

It's been a while since I posted something to this blog. The past few months have been busy - my church's building burned down in late September, so we've been in the process of recovery and dealing with that which has kept me busy, and there has also been the grief, sadness, and mourning of the process as well. The weeks have been too busy to find the time to transcribe my sermons and post them here, but at some point, I will post them. I was asked by the local newspaper, the Leader Telegram, to write an article for their "Faith Walk" supplement, so I did that - and here it is. They had too much material for the supplement, so my article was in today's newspaper. It is not available on-line, so I post it here:


Christians the world over are in a time of waiting and anticipation that we call Advent. Advent is four-weeks of staying awake for the possibilities that lie ahead, and staying alert to the present things that God is doing. Advent symbolizes the numerous period of waiting that God’s people went through. The hundreds of years of slavery, waiting for emancipation. The 40 years of wilderness wandering after their freedom. The long period between the promises made of a coming savior and the coming of that savior after Israel was conquered and sent into exile and the temple, God’s home, was destroyed. Each time, God sent prophets to bring a healing balm of hope to a people who were deep in existential angst and despair for their future. “Do we have a future?” the people lamented in psalms and songs. Against their despair, the prophets spoke words of hope that Israel’s pain and suffering would come to an end.

The congregation that I am blessed to serve, Plymouth United Church of Christ, is in a time of waiting for an additional reason: fire destroyed our building in September. Like the Israelites of old, we are in exile. Our place of exile at Grace ELCA church, however, is very welcoming, comfortable, homey, and has allowed us a space in which to heal and consider our future as God’s ministers in the Chippewa Valley.

As I write this, the burnt shell of our building remains, with no roof, its windows blown out, completely missing desks and books and paraments and artwork because it all burned up. While we wait for demolition day it sits there, a taunting Christmas angel announcing not a miraculous birth but a wordless physical manifestation of the abstraction of time reminding us we, too, are impermanent and that the universe runs at its own pace.

There has been a lot of waiting in this process. Insurance is slow, permits are slow, the fire inspections were slow. But that slowness is a teacher. We first-worlders have made unholy idols out of productivity and speed, and we must learn to slow down. We who demand grieving family members be back at work a few days after a funeral need to stop fearing the healing power of grief and mourning. “Take a sabbath,” God says. Our busy-ness, our rush for resolution, is so often an attempt to claim God’s power, but in its constricting claws we have no space to breathe God in and connect with the holy.

Our slow in-between time gives us space for mourning, grief, sharing stories, for holding one another in love, and allowing ourselves to be held in love. Many congregations here and around the world have sent messages and prayed for us. We received lovely support from Temple Shalom and the Islamic Society Of Northern Wisconsin Altoona Masjid, our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters reaching out in love to their neighbors to offer us space for worship and gathering. Those invitations are very special blessings, especially in this time of anti-Muslim rhetoric by the fear-mongers who say we should not live together or cooperate.

Our quilters have received copious donations. Sister churches have sent us replacement hymnals. Local organizations, churches, and individuals have donated money. Local media, like WEAU, WQOW, and the Leader-Telegram have been incredibly supportive. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church stepped up right away to offer space for “Stand in the Light”, the choir for people with dementia. The outpouring of support has been truly uplifting and healing.

The tremendous ecumenical and interfaith reaching out to neighbors in need shows the best of the Chippewa Valley,and is a prophetic witness against those who preach a gospel of fear and enemy-making. What the Christmas story is all about is to end our fear and start loving one another. “Fear not!” the angels constantly say. That’s what Christmas is all about. It’s not about how Starbucks designs its holiday cups, or if clerks say “happy holidays,” or if cities display nativities downtown. Who cares? These poutrages are irrelevant to Jesus’ message and a distraction from the vocation of love to which we are called. We have seen such love in the support we have received from a number of churches, the temple, and the mosque, and from secular organizations.

So we are in the in-between time, and that’s okay. We know that it will end, that we will have a new building (it will be our fifth in our 132 year history!), and our ministry continues in the present and will do so in the future, so long as there are people who need to experience the Good News of healing, being fed, being clothed, who need to lifted up, who demand justice, and who need to know that they are loved.

“Yes: Heal on the Sabbath, and Other Necessary Heretical Acts” Sermon from August 21, 2016 on Jesus' healing the woman on the sabbath

When religious rules interfere with acts of love and compassion, then defy them and put your trust in God's loving-kindness instead. What do you think? Please post below.

“Yes: Heal on the Sabbath”
Sermon, Year C, Proper 16, August 21, 2016
© Rev. David J. Huber 2016
Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI
Focus Scripture: Luke 13:10-17






For the past two Sundays we have talked about faith. My sermons have been on the topic of “faith”, using a couple passages from the letter to the Hebrews out of the 11th chapter which talked about faith. The author of the letter was talking about keeping the faith to a community that was being persecuted and harassed for being followers of Jesus. To inspire his or her audience, the letter writer listed a number of people who had faith in God. With “faith” being, as I said the past couple weeks, I like to think of “faith” as meaning “trust.” What does it mean to have faith in God? It means to trust. To trust God’s promises, to trust in God’s love, to trust in God’s goodness. So the author listed some of the people who had gone before who followed and trusted God: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Miriam, Rahab, David, and more. People who trusted God, and trusted that God is honest and loving, that God will keep promises, that God will be also faithful to what God has said.

They trusted in God, even through times when they had their doubts that God was being faithful to them. When they had doubt about God and God’s promises, still, they were faithful. It’s okay, in faith, to have doubt, even as we trust. It’s okay to have some doubt. Doubt can be even helpful in matters of faith. It means that we’re being honest. It means that we’re being real. It means that we’re thinking about it. It means that we’re not just being blind in our faith or our beliefs, without thinking or pondering or meditating on it. I like to think it means that we have a more mature faith, if I may use that word. A more mature faith. A more adult-like faith to have that trust. But sometimes, maybe, with some doubt and wondering in there. Maybe I don’t have it quite right. Maybe I need to rethink this. Maybe it needs to change.

To have faith is to trust and to be faithful to trust. To be faithful to God is trust in God’s words. To be faithful is also to live up to the trust that others have put in us. To be faithful to others is to do what we have said that we will do. To be as trustworthy as they think that we are. To be true to one’s words and what one says and what one believes is also to be faithful. If a person says that they believe in God, the ten commandments, in Jesus, maybe they have all the right words about belief about love, grace, salvation, but at the same time they’re rude to people, they lie, the skim money off the corporate accounts, or doing some other unethical behavior, or they are greedy, or put in whatever vice you might think of… if their actions aren’t matching what they say they believe - but let us also be honest about ourselves that at some level we all fail at that and are prone to mistakes and our own levels of hypocrisy - that’s not being faithful. If the actions don’t match the words then it’s not really faith, it’s just a bunch of words that would appear to actually not have any meaning to the one saying them.

That is what Jesus is up against here in the synagogue: a set of beliefs without action with this leader of the synagogue. But, before we tear down this leader - we’ll get to this later - I want to lift him up and give him big props and kudos for being so protective of the sabbath. He is very protective of the sabbath here. That is one of his concerns. I want to lift him up for that because I think one of our big issues in modern day American culture and living is that we’ve gone the opposite direction, in that we don’t protect the sabbath, and have basically abandoned it and forgotten about it. We’ve moved to the other extreme of not ensuring we get or take a sabbath day every week. It is not a big part of our culture, and in fact in many ways the idea of a sabbath day is anathema to our culture.

I don’t mean just coming to church on Sundays, either. Nor am I lamenting that stores are open on Sundays or schools having activities on Sundays. Not just that, but the more direct disrespect of sabbath, which was a command from God. Out of every seven days of the week, one day - just one! - should be devoted to sabbath. To rest. We get one day of rest each week. One day each week that we do not have to be productive. One day that we do not have to make bricks for Pharaoh. One day to let go of the anxiety, and to not be busy but to just rest and relax and spend that day with God however that might look for you. Being outside, spending a day reading, being with your family, whatever a day of rest might be for you. But to have one day a week that we don’t have to be productive. Think of the gift that sabbath is! And think of the gift that sabbath was to the Hebrew people when God gives them the command. They have come out of hundreds of years of slavery, and God gives them a command right away to respect the sabbath day. “You have been slaves for so long, you get one day off every week that you don’t have to work. You don’t have to be productive.” This is not a burden, either. It’s not God saying, “I forbid you from working this day, and I will punish you for it” but it’s a gift saying, “You’ve worked so hard, you need some time for rest and time with me.” Sabbath is an important policy, and even a political statement, to say that we are not valued by what we produce but we are valued simply because we are God’s people. That’s where our value is. Not in what we make or produce.

So I want to give mudos to the leader of the synagogue here for being protective of the sabbath and remembering it and championing it.

But I’ll say also that I think his heart is in the wrong place. He’s more concerned with the letter of the law than in the meaning of the law. He is trying to protect the sabbath, yes, but he’s taken it from being one of God’s most important gifts and blessing to be enjoyed, and he’s turned it into a burden of the law. It is something to do out of obedience to the law. Perhaps done out of fear of punishment for not honoring the sabbath in the right way or the fullest extent. There is some irony in that position. God says, “Here is a day of rest to relax with me and be at peace… but don’t do it wrong!!” “Here is a day to let go of all your anxieties, but if you don’t do it in the right way, I’ll come down on you!”

That’s where the leader of the synagogue seems to be. It’s not about obeying the sabbath to avoid punishment. That’s not being faithful or trusting of God. That’s being a rules follower and that comes from an image of God as a punisher. An image of God as the one who must be appeased: “You have to do these things to make me happy. My default state is to be angry and wrathful so you have to do these things to make me like you or love you.”

But it’s the other way around! Trust in God’s love first. Trust in God’s compassion. Trust in God’s grace. Jesus says here, “Don’t look at sabbath this way! Have faith, my friends, trust in God’s love and compassion and forgiveness. Trust not in the letter of the law but in the meaning of the law. Trust that the needs of one of God’s people outweighs the requirement or the rules that we’ve set for ourselves. Trust that doing an act of love for a neighbor a far better thing to do than to ignore the neighbor simply because it might put you in violation of God’s law somehow or might somehow affect your standing with God.”

We see that in the story of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite who pass the man battered on the side of the road. They are following the law. They shouldn’t be around the blood or the person who’s been attacked. But the Samaritan follows the greater law of love by going to help the man and showing compassion.

So healing this woman on the sabbath day is more faithful than keeping the sabbath restriction of doing no work. And maybe healing should not be considered work, anyway. Healing is more faithful. Just like one can untie a cow on the sabbath in order to water it, or one can rescue an animal that has fallen into a hole on the sabbath, compassion and love take precedence. We can do them trusting that whatever rules God has set up - and a lot of our rules are ones that we’ve made up anyway, that have been built up over time - that they can be broken for the sake of compassion or just doing what is right. That they are guidelines that they can and should be broken if they interfere with doing acts of love, or human dignity, or compassion.

We can have faith, we can have trust in God that no act of love will be held against just because, maybe, it breaks some rule or goes against some tradition. Rules that keep love from becoming incarnate in our lives ought to be broken and left behind. Let love be the number one rule. The number one command is “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself”.

That’s why, here at Plymouth, our communion table is open to everyone. It’s an act of love. We don’t turn anyone away from Jesus’ table. Now, might we be wrong about that? Possibly. Some churches would say that we are, and that the table is only for certain people. I don’t think we are wrong, but we could be. But I would rather err on the side of too much love and too much hospitality. Err on the side of inviting too many of God’s people to the table.

That is also why we are Open and Affirming here, open and welcoming to all of God’s people. Not just to the table, but to our fellowship, our worship, or church life. Might we be wrong about that? Possibly. Some would say that we are, and I occasionally get letters saying so, that letting lesbian and gay brothers and sisters into the community is wrong. But again, I would rather err on the side of hospitality and love. I would rather be too generous than not generous enough. I don’t want to meet my maker and hear the words, “You have kept all the rules and followed them really well, but I wish that you had trusted me more than the rules. I wish you had had more faith in me than in the law, because you let opportunities go by where you could have done a loving act but didn’t because you were worried or anxious that I might not like it.” I don’t want to hear that from my maker. I want to hear, if these are mistakes (which I don’t think they are, but in case), I want to hear God say, “Wow, you were too generous. You showed too much hospitality.” Because if that’s a mistake, I don’t care, and it’s one I’m willing to make. But I think that is not a mistake and is actually what God wants.

Be more generous than we think we ought to be, show more hospitality, be more inviting, be more welcoming than we may ever thought we should be. And do so because that is what God has asked us to do, and do so trusting in God’s love and forgiveness above all else. Trust in God’s goodness. Trust in God’s promise of new life, redemption, and grace shown in Jesus’ life, in his teachings, in his death on the cross, and in his resurrection. Have faith in that God. Have trust in that God, and like Jesus, break the rules when they interfere with doing acts of love. You can never go wrong by doing what is right.

Be like Jesus: heal on the sabbath. Or do whatever you need to do to be faithful to God’s word of love and Jesus’ example of loving-kindness and compassion.

Amen.

“Running the Race in Faith(=Trust)” - Sermon for August 14, 2016

As always, please comment below on your thoughts on the sermon, your thoughts about faith=trust and your thoughts about faith not equaling trust, or perhaps equaling something else! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

“Running the Race in Faith(=Trust)”
Sermon, Year C, Proper 15, August 14, 2016
© Rev. David J. Huber 2016
Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI
Focus Scripture: Hebrews 11:29-12:2  and Luke 12:49-56






Last week we talked about faith, which is what this 11th chapter of Hebrews is about. I said last week that I think a good way to think of this word, to envision what the word “Faith” means, is to think of it as trust. To have faith in God is to trust God. To have faith in another person, as well, is to trust that person. To have faith is to have trust.

Trusting in God’s presence. Trusting God’s promise of love and redemption. Trusting that the Holy Spirit will never lead us into something that God does not want to happen, or that is in contradiction to God, but that the Spirit will only blow us into a fulfilment of God’s vision. Even if that means the Spirit is blowing us into difficult or anxious times.

So to have faith is not simply to believe in Jesus, whatever that word “believe” might mean. When people say, “I believe in the Bible” or “I believe in Jesus”, I like to ask them, “What does that mean to you?”

To have faith is to trust. To trust Jesus enough to follow in his footsteps. To follow on his path of loving our neighbor, doing justice, healing the world, to fulfil God’s vision, to run the race set before us in whatever way we are capable of running the race.

I’m thinking of running this week because of the Olympics. As we watch the Olympics, we do see some athletes better than others, but usually the winners and the ones who come in at the end are still within seconds of one another in a race, or a point or so in events that are scored, etc. These are exceptional athletes at the top of their form. I bring that up because a friend posted on Facebook this week saying that they should do in the Olympics is have one average person in every contest just as a comparison to see how truly extraordinary these athletes are.

And also with faith/trust/following Jesus. We’re running the race, and some of us are far ahead of the pack, and some of us are far behind, not running anywhere near as fast. But we want to at least keep running. Or speed walking. Or, I suppose, a saunter. Even a crawl. So long as we are moving forward. We all have our own speed, and all Jesus asks is that we keep going forward, to keep trusting God. Like a coach, “Keep moving! Keep moving!”

I mentioned last week that we don’t know who wrote this letter, and we don’t know to whom it was written. Many of the letters in the New Testament were written to a specific congregation or person that is mentioned right in the letter, but not this one. This one only says that it is to the Hebrews, and that is a title given to it probably a hundred years or more after it was written; not a title given by the author.

It lists a number of faith moments in Israel’s history, in the history of the Jewish people. Being as the letter is to “The Hebrews”, it is a good bet that this was written to a congregation of Jewish followers of Jesus, though probably it had some Gentiles. But being mostly Jewish, they would know their history and would know who the people are who are mentioned in this passage. It’s a kind of shorthand, as he, or possibly she - this could have been written by a woman - reminds them of the cloud of witnesses that have gone before them. That other people have endured difficult times. Other people, their ancestors, have trusted in God.

At the time the letter was written, which was likely in the range of 60-100 CE, there was anxiety and difficulty as well. The Jewish leaders and the Roman Empire were persecuting these “Christians”, these followers of Jesus, this upstart new religion. Jesus followers were being arrested, murdered, harassed, stoned, thrown to the lions, imprisoned, martyred… terrible things were happening for those who called themselves followers of The Way, or followers of Jesus. It was a time of trial. A time very much like Jesus said in the words in our Gospel. It was literally “A time of division, five in one household divided two against three and three against two, daughter against mother, father against son, in-laws against in-laws.”

That was the reality for many people at the time. There was division within families. This new radical movement of Jesus was considered to be dangerous. I’d like to see it become dangerous again! It was considered too radical, and against the Roman Empire, because of the movement’s vocal witness that said that poor lives matter, and women’s lives matter, and lepers’ lives matter, the lives of those who are on the bottom matter. It caused division. It was opposed to the way of the Empire, and that made it dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. So there are instances, and we have recorded stories, about the divisions that happened within families. A daughter becomes a Christian, for example, either out of a Jewish or a Roman family, and the rest of the family says, “No, you can’t do that, it’s too dangerous! The followers of Jesus are being killed, arrested, harassed…” or maybe the family says, “No, you can’t do that, because that is not our religion. You are abandoning our religion, and you can’t do that.”

There was literal division within families. Some out of concern for safety, some because they didn’t like this new upstart religion. People were ratting out one another, tattling on their neighbors to the Roman authorities or others trying to hunt down these horrible Christians who are sharing food with one another, talking about loving their neighbors, resisting the ways of the empire.

There also was division within the larger family of Judaism around Jesus. There were numbers of Jews that started to follow Jesus - and of course, he himself was Jewish - and became what we now call Christians. But not all Jews did. So within Judaism there was tension around that. At the time of this letter being written is when that tension was coming to a head. The Christians were still worshiping in the synagogue, as well as doing their Christian worship. It was during this time, the span of 60-100 CE when this letter was likely written, that Christianity began to separate itself from Judaism and leave the synagogues entirely. So this is being written at a tense time. There is division within the religion out of which Christianity comes, and within the greater culture. A tense and anxious time when it would be easy, even forgivable and justifiable, for someone to let go of their Christianity and just pretend that Jesus never happened. To play it safe. To say that they are not a follower of Jesus. To pretend like that never happened. To go back to life as it was as a Roman or a Jew or whatever they might have been.

The letter writing here is encouraging the people, saying, “Don’t give up! Trust in God!” Trust that this movement that Jesus started is, indeed, God’s will. This is a movement of the Holy Spirit. The writer encourages the people about not giving up by lifting up stories of the faithful - the trusting - who listened to and followed and trusted God. He lifts up those that we in the church might call the saints who went before us, or the great cloud of witnesses as the writer uses here. A witness is simply one who shows their trust in God so that others may see it and be inspired by it and emulate it.

So the writer lists some examples of the faithful to inspire. “By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea.” That’s the exodus out of Egypt. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell. That was the entry into the promised land. By faith, Rahab the Prostitute was saved. Rahab lived in Jericho, she was not Jewish, but she helped the Jewish spies who came into Jericho to take it over, and because of that she survived. Others are lifted up by name: Gideon, Barak, Jephtha, David, Samuel, the prophets. All who through faith, who through trust in God, endured hardships, did great things and endured hardships, including martyrdom and sometimes fates worse than death. They stayed faithful. They remained trusting of God. “Look to them,” the author of Hebrews says, “and be inspired to get through this time of trial. Don’t give up on who you are. Don’t give up your trust that God is working good. Don’t give that up.” It would be easy to do so at this time, but because this time is difficult that is why we must be most trusting in God. And since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, look to those who have gone before. Trust in their faith, as you trust in God. Not only the witnesses of the far past, but look also, and trust the faith of the recent witnesses. People that the audience of this letter would or could have known, their contemporaries, who were staying faithful even when they were sent to the lions, prison, or had other things happen to them. Look to the saints who have gone before, and the saints who are around us.

Now in 2016 we have another 2000 years of witnesses and saints, from the time this letter was written, whose stories we can rely on to inspire trust and faith. We have our contemporaries, too. Think of the witnesses of this congregation, in the present time and going back 130 years to our founding. All these saints who went before us who have built this congregation and kept it going, kept the Word of God being spoken and preached and lived here in Eau Claire, who left us a legacy of faith and trust as Plymouth United Church of Christ. Who did so during times of external and internal struggle, and anxiety about the present and the future, within the congregation, within the greater church, within society.

These people who remained faithful and trusting in God as the world was turned upside down numerous times, plunged into depressions, world wars, smaller scale wars around the world, globalism, changing fads and fashions, changes to ways of being the church, changes in culture…and surely conflict within families - biological and the church family, two against three, mother against daughter, son against father and so on…

There really is no period in human that there is not anxiety and trouble and conflict. Probably few times in our lives that we don’t have our own anxieties, conflicts, and struggles within and without. But, the writer here is saying, trust in God. Trust in God’s love, faithfulness, compassion. Trust that God will not let the Church down, but that God is using the Church to bring word of God’s love to the world.

Look out to all those saints who have gone before us, to that cloud of witnesses. They all moved forward in faith. They all moved forward in trust. Trust in God to do as the letter writer here says, “To run with perseverance the race that was set before them, looking to Jesus.” Staying focused on Jesus. That Jesus’ path is the path to follow. The saints point us to Jesus so that we may have faith and trust to run our own race, looking also only to Jesus.

Amen.

“Forward in Faith” Sermon, August 7, 2016

“Forward in Faith”
Sermon, Year C, Proper 14, August 7, 2016
© Rev. David J. Huber 2016
Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI
Focus Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16; Luke 12:32-40



This letter to the Hebrews that we read was written during perhaps the second or third generation of the church, somewhere between the year 60 and 100. So somewhere from 30 years after Jesus’ resurrection to 70 years after. Somewhere in that range.

Most of the letters we have in the New Testament, we know at least who they were written to, many of them we know who wrote them, but this one we don’t know either. We don’t know who wrote it, nor to whom they wrote it. Though it would appear that it was sent to a congregation that was made up of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. And probably it was a congregation that had either undergone persecution by the Roman Empire or the Jewish leaders, or was going through persecution at the time of the writing. This was a time when Rome was persecuting Christians, throwing them to the lions, stoning them, arresting them, harassing them, and other things.

The letter is divided into four sections. The first part explores God’s word as spoken by Jesus. The second is a lifting up of Jesus as the eternal high priest in comparison to the Jewish high priests. The third section talks about faith as an insight into our world and into God’s realm. Today’s passage comes from that section. Then the fourth part is the last chapter, chapter 13, which has advice and greetings.

We read in the section about faith.

Faith is one of those words that we bounce around a lot in the church, and talk about it a lot but don’t always talk about what it means. What is faith? And faith in what?

It is a tricky word, faith.

I like to think of faith as meaning trust. To have faith in God is to trust God. So not about blind obedience or blind acceptance of doctrinal statements. Faith does not mean turning off our reasoning capacity and believing things without questioning.

Faith is simply trust. Trust in God. Trust in God’s promises. Trust that God is present. Trust that God will keep the covenant even when we fail to do so. Trusting in God’s love above all else. Trust that no matter what, nothing can separate us from God’s love. That God will never stop loving us.

As I think about the meaning of faith, I think that trust is really a good word to use in thinking about faith. Hope can be another definition. Faith is the hope in God, that God is working something in this realm for us, for the good.

There are abusive ways to think of faith as well. Like faith healing. I am suspicious about that. The people who call themselves faith healers. Or those who say, “If you just have enough faith you can be healed of anything.” Which has, of course, its negative corollary that if you have prayed for healing and did not get it, then you must lack faith. Somehow you didn’t have enough faith. So it’s your fault for not believing strong enough. I think that’s an abusive way to look at faith and our relationship to God. The so-called faith healers who say they have the power to heal people, you may have seen them on TV - and I do try to always leave some room for miracles, and things can happen that we don’t understand; there may be a few true faith healers in the world, who have some kind of Spirit-power about them, but I doubt they’d go on TV - the ones I see I often wonder, “If you were really a faith healer, then you wouldn’t be charging people to come to you in some auditorium or arena; you would be going through our hospitals and emptying them out for free.”

Not to say that there is no power in prayer to heal or help, either. Prayer is a powerful act. We pray here, of course, during worship and before meals and in the nursing homes and hospitals… but I don’t believe that God’s love for us depends on the strength of our faith or the piety of our prayers. There is no test or metric that God puts in front of us, that “Once you have enough faith, then I will do this for you.” The promise is simply God saying, “I love you, and want you to trust in that.” But no reward for doing it in the proper way, or punishment for not doing it in the right way.

We are called simply to have faith. To have trust. To trust in God. To trust in God’s love. And to trust, then, that if something bad happens to us it is not because God is punishing us, or that we did something to deserve punishment (though the bad thing happening could be our own fault at some level, but it’s not God punishing us). Or that if something good happens to us it isn’t because we did something extra special that has merited God’s favor, that God is doling out a reward on us, or that we have some kind of favored status with God.

Have faith, have trust, in neither the punishing retributive God, nor the Santa Claus God that gives gifts to all the good boys and girls of the world. Trust in the God of Jesus Christ: who promised us to love us always, who promises us eternal life with God, and who went to the cross to show us the depth of divine love.

The writer of Hebrews here talks about Abraham. Abraham being the one who shows up very early in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, and becomes of the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Hebrews writer lifts Abraham up as a man of faith, someone who trusted God. Abraham listened to God and followed, even through long periods of trial when it seems that God would never fulfill the promises that were made to Abraham.

Abraham was promised that he would become a father. That took years and years to come to fruition, and not until he and Sarah were well beyond child-bearing age. He had the promise of a new land, and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. That took a long time to be fulfilled. Even Isaac and Jacob, who were his son and grandson, did not see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Jacob’s sons, the twelve sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel, did not see it. They end up in Egypt, and their descendants spend a few hundred years as slaves there. Then Moses arrives and takes the people out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land, but they have forty years of wandering in the desert. And then, FINALLY!, after about 700 years since Abraham’s time, they see the fulfilment. They see the Promised Land and enter into it with Joshua at the head of the people.

They trusted, had faith, that in all that time God was faithful to the covenant. Even the generations of people who did not see it themselves remained faithful.

Jesus said in the Gospel lesson, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like those waiting for their master to return.” Trust that the master will return, that the master will hold true to his words. And while you are waiting, be ready and be active while you wait, as well. Be about the business that you should be about while you wait.

That’s a call to us as a church as well.

To be ready, to be attentive, but to also be active. This is Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and many generations trusted and had faith that God’s promise would be fulfilled, we also are in a time of waiting and expectation as the Church, not just ours, but the worldwide Church, is going through another kind of reformation. Like the wandering Hebrews in the desert, we who are the Church are in a bit of a wilderness time, a waiting time, a promise-fulfilling time. The Holy Spirit is up to something. It’s a time to have faith and trust. We are a generation that is being called to have faith that God is working something new. To have faith that God is growing us in a new direction as Jesus’ Church. The world is changing - that’s pretty obvious - and a we also note the church is also changing. It is changing to adapt to this new kind of world we are becoming, to be a new kind of church that is relevant and means something in this new world.

One way that we are changing is by being more present and relevant in our communities. I’ve talked about this before many times in sermons. Getting outside our walls and being present in our community, both here in Eau Claire and all over the world. We cannot stay in our walls any more, we need to be pushing out into the world that God loves. To be out there offering hope, compassion, listening ears, love for our neighbors. We are like those servants who are waiting for their master to return. We are in an in-between time of growth and reformation. We don’t know what the final product will be, or what it will look like it, or will result in.

This is a tense and anxious time, because of the change, but it is also a hopeful and exciting time! God is doing something new! Jesus is up to something, the Holy Spirit is up to something! The Church is changing as the world changes, and because it is happening in our time, that means that we get to help write the new story of what the Church of the future will look like and what it will be. We have started to live that vision now, and to then be the kind of church that says that people who are homeless matter. That people deserve a wage they can live on. That our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters matter and must have a place in the Church and in society. To say that peace is better than war. That children matter and need to be included in the life of the church and society. That we who have enough should share our excess with those who do not have enough. That the elderly matter, the sick and the inform matter. That generosity is better than accumulation. That sharing is better than hoarding. That our environment should be protected, and that we should be stewards of the world that God created. To be a church that says that where faith and trust in God’s love, that every single one of God’s people is welcome and invited to share at this table that Jesus sets before us. That we should be good and hospitable hosts opening the table to all whom God sends to it.

And so it is a somewhat anxious time in Jesus’ Church. And individual congregations, denominations, and the Church all over the world is changing. The world is changing rapidly, and we are trying to change to adapt to it, to help lead the change to direct it toward the good. To make it into a Church that means something for the new age. The Holy Spirit is doing something amazing and new. But like that promise made to Abraham, we don’t know what it will look like or when it will be fully realized. We don’t know quite what we are being birthed into, or when, other than that it will be what God wants and what the Holy Spirit blows us into being.

This is our Abraham moment, to have faith and trust through this reformation. The Church seems to go through reformations every 500 years, and this our time. It happened around the year 500, and again around the year 1000, then the 1500s with Luther and Calvin and other reformers, and now. These reformations take a few generations to get through, too, so we might not see the end of it.

As the writer of this letter to the Hebrews said at the end of the passage, “If they had been thinking of the land that they left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.” They could have gone back, and lived in the past if they wanted to. But they didn’t. They let go of the past in order to move forward. They would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desired a better country, a heavenly one, and so they moved forward in faith.

Let us keep moving forward, waiting actively, trusting in God’s promise of love for us, and love for the Church, and that it is through the Church that God’s love can be made known to the world.

Amen.