by Chris Reynolds
July 29, 2007
When I was younger I used to really enjoy silly, pointless jokes... okay, I guess I still do. One of my favorite jokes goes like this:
A man hears a knock at his door, but doesn't see anything out his peephole. He opens the door to find a duck sitting outside on his porch. The duck waddles up to the man and says, "Have you got any duck food?" The man, bewildered to find a talking duck, but not knowing what duck food is, said "No, sorry." So the duck waddled off into the night.
The very next evening at the very same time, there's another knock at the door. The man opens it up to find the duck standing there again. "Have you got any duck food?" says the duck. "No, the man says, I just told you yesterday I don't have any duck food. You'd better ask someone else." So the duck waddles off.
Next day, same time, the duck is back again, knocking on the door. "Have you got any duck food?" the duck asks expectantly. "No!" the man says, getting irritated. "I've already told you I don't have any duck food. I don't even know what duck food is! But I'll tell you what I do know! I know that if you come back here one more time asking for duck food, I'll nail your little webbed feet above my doorframe!" At this, the duck, very calmly waddles off into the night.
Now the next day, at the same time, there's a familiar knock on the man's door. The man looks down to see the duck there, once again. The duck, looks up at the man, and asks, "Have you got any nails?" Bewildered, the man says, "No, I haven't got any nails." To which the duck replies, without hesitation, "Then have you got any duck food?"
In today's scripture lesson, Luke 11: 1 - 13, we heard a parable about a guy knocking on his neighbor's door. We learned about his persistence and earnestness, and how, in the end, it would certainly pay off.
I'd like to take some time to really look at this story in several different ways:
When I first read this story, several thoughts jumped into my head about who these characters might be in our world. As an economist, I can't help but think in slightly economic terms, so bear with me.
There is a sleeper. This is the person who has everything he needs, and more to spare. He sleeps well at night knowing that his children are well-provided for. In the normal course of things, the sleeper would be the person with all of the power in a society.
There is also a knocker. This is the person who desires the resources held and controlled by the sleeper. The knocker is up late at night, desperately looking for something to feed his guest. This person, in the normal course of things, would be a more marginal element of society.
The real surprise of this parable then, is the power shift that it illustrates. No matter how much power the sleeper may hold over the knocker during the day, the knocker, through his persistence becomes the one in power. The knocker is the squeaky wheel who gets the grease, he is the thorn in the lion's paw; he is, in effect, really, really, annoying.
In a way, this is the perfect example of a Christ-like revolution. The weak are put on equal footing with the strong by force of will, rather than force of arms.
It's easy to come up with examples of figures like that of the knocker. The first one that comes to mind is another guy who pounded on a door a long time ago, Martin Luther. A few centuries later, you've got another guy with a similar name, Martin Luther King, who led a civil revolution by his persistence. A more literal revolution was led by Gandhi, whose peaceful resistance continues to be a model for change. Many members of this very congregation have participated in acts of peaceful resistance or even led groups and causes and movements by exerting a persistent peaceful pressure.
To borrow these revolutionary terms, the knocker is like any person who seeks change, and the sleeper is any person who has love for the status quo. The sleeper isn't actively repressing the knocker, he just likes things the way they are, in his comfy bed, cuddling with his kids. The sleeper doesn't want to see anyone rocking the boat. "Why would anyone want to change what has worked so well for so long?" "What about my kids?" "If I relent to this request, will he just be back knocking tomorrow for something else?"
I picture the sleeper as a person who's not necessarily greedy or ill-tempered. I see him as someone who really wouldn't mind giving the knocker a piece of bread. It's not really that big a deal. But then the sleeper gets caught up in all of these abstractions. "If I give you a piece of bread, what will the ripple-effects of that be? Does that mean that I'll have to get up earlier and start making all new bread from scratch? If I give you bread now, will you just want more bread later? Sure, maybe I can afford to give you the bread, but what if next time you ask for bread from someone who can't afford to give away any? Is that poor person going to feel obliged to follow my lead? I can't make this decision for others! Wouldn't it just be easier for both of us if I gave you money to go down to the store and buy some bread?"
Meanwhile the knocker is standing around outside thinking to himself, "Come on, buddy! The only thing at issue here is a tiny, little piece of bread! This is ridiculous! I'm not even asking it for myself, I'm only here asking you for this on account of my guest!"
In the telling of this parable, Jesus optimistically teaches that the knocker should prevail over the sleeper. For me that's almost too optimistic. One need only look at the reelection rate of members of Congress, or the extreme difficulty in altering the farm bill, or the refusal to talk about withdrawing troops from Iraq until September as examples of the power of the status quo, no matter how broken it may be!
Hmmm... well, look at me, I've gone and picked three examples all having to do with Congress. That doesn't make them any less true, but Congress is awfully far away from here--several miles. I'll have to let each of you come up with examples a little bit closer to this church.
And what of this church?
There is an additional lesson to be learned in the Luke passage by examining the juxtaposition of the parable we've been discussing with the passage we pretty much all know, the Lord's Prayer.
The Lord 's Prayer is one of the cases in which I really wish Jesus had recorded an audio book of the Bible. There are no hints in the prayer itself of what our attitude should be as we pray it.
Maybe this is just me, but I've always read it as a very humble and passive prayer. The words that I say are always the same but you could probably rewrite it to better match my tone in this way, "Oh God, you are truly the most awesome and supreme power in the universe. I have trust that you will eventually bring about your kingdom, please help me not to get in the way of that. I ask only the bare necessities for life from you; I need only bread and water, but if you'd rather me not have them that's okay too. I'm doing my best to forgive those around me, and I only hope and pray that you will forgive the mean and nasty things that I've done. But honestly, if you could just take away the temptation to do those mean and nasty things that would really be ideal. Amen."
As it turns out, that's a really, really wrong way to pray. Jesus is telling us that when we pray, we should be like the guy pounding on the door. To paraphrase Walter Wink: "Hey God, I know you're in there! Get off your lazy bum and be God for a while! We need you down here! It's about time we saw some of that domination-free order you've been talking about for the last few thousand years! There are hungry people down here, too! How about helping them get their daily bread?!? We insist that we be forgiven and we demand that you shield us from temptation! Have you got that, or do I have to pray it again?"
We are called to play this way repeatedly (though maybe not in these words), so that even if God doesn't answer the prayer the first time, or the second or the third. He may eventually. Jesus notes that we ought not be upset in the way that God answers us either. In all likelihood, he's not doing it because he's our friend. He's doing it because he's sick of being bothered about it.
In my mind that's not the way that I would like to think of God or how he operates, but it is an interesting way. You might say it's something to think on or maybe it's something to pray on.
God may be slow in answering our knocks, but what if that's only because we're even slower responding to those who knock on our doors? Keep some duck food handy.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Global Citizens and People of Faith
by Maria Otero
August 26, 2007
When Mary asked me to stand at the pulpit today as part of Dumbarton’s Summer Adventure, I hesitated. You see, I am married to a preacher. I was also brought up a Catholic, in a very very Catholic family in Latin America in which I never met a Protestant, much less a Methodist. I am sure my parents wished one of their sons would be a priest, and not that their daughter marry somebody who my relatives in Bolivia thought was a priest…The point is, I never had any exposure to a preacher and his role…so I was often puzzled when I first met Joe, and I would share with him a meaningful story for one of my trips, or an insight and he would respond, with no other additional elaboration “that will preach!” So now Mary had me all summer at the most unexpected moments asking myself “Will this preach? Will that preach?”
Luke’s gospel speaks to us about the infirm, about Jesus’s decision to free a bent woman from her ailment, her bondage, and the fact that he did it on the Sabbath. Jeremiah’s words remind us that even when we stand as vulnerable and a young boy, unsure we can take on what is asked of us, an unshakable truth prevails: that God is within us, that she has known each of us even before we were in the womb because God is with us are not to be afraid.
I want to share with you how these words speak to my own personal journey, particularly working with the poor. I know that in this church all of us seek ways to connect -- in our own backyard and beyond – with the disadvantaged, with those buckled down by the burdens of poverty. This church is full of people for whom this connection is grounded in their belief that we are all children of God, and that our faith journey is engaged, fortified, strengthened if as part of it we seek to better the lives of the less fortunate – so I am, quite literally, preaching to the choir -- but that is okay, because what we do when we gather here together as a faith community is make that connection between our daily lives and our spiritual journeys and to understand better how they are fed, made clearer by the word.
My journey is framed by the fact that I come from one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere - Bolivia. I grew up in La Paz in a family of many children and of modest economic means - we lived in a two bedroom house, six kids in one bedroom, we had no hot water, we owned no car. But I grew up with all the comforts of being part of an elite upper middle class family - all opportunities were open to me, my family’s name carried weight, I was part of the small minority - whites - who ran the show.
But the majority of Bolivians are poor indigenous people who are excluded for the access I took for granted. I came into contact everyday with them…and I didn’t understand what I understand now.
Which is that the greatest burden humankind faces is poverty. It is intractable, relentless. I want to talk about how we as Christians live in world where more than half of our fellow human being are poor. Poverty means:
No cash – not having enough money to put a roof over head, to feed your children. Over 3 billion live on less than $2 day
Humanness is assaulted: Dignity stripped away. Powerlessness. Hopelessness. Can’t plan. On the brink of disaster. The woman whose children don’t go to school because they roamed the city collecting plastic bottles to sell, otherwise the family can’t eat. The vulnerability - not going what will happen tomorrow. No control over your future. At all. Think about that.
The description in Luke’s gospel of a woman bent over by her burden speaks to me of the hundreds of millions of women weighted down by the burden of being poor, or lacking opportunity, of not being able to feed or educate their children.
In the countries in the south, poor people from rural areas have moved into the sprawling cities looking for jobs - they have no education, no skills, no connections, no support system, no anything. They squatter on vacant land, build shacks made out of tin and cardboard. They cannot find work so they survive by being small traders, or by starting a little business – everything from banging old metal into pots and pans, fashioning furniture from wood or metal, making shoes, cooking and selling food on the streets.
What they seek is to work. All they want is to work. In Luke’s gospel Jesus reminds us of the right of everyone to work, even as he chooses to do it on the Sabbath.
My organization, ACCION International, makes loans available – micro-loans - to poor people so they can run their own businesses - microenterprises - and earn income. We work in 24 countries where we start microfinance banks, we train the staff to go into the slums, markets, poor neighborhoods to find the small carpenter, the vegetable vendor, the seamstress…all those who cannot go into a bank to borrow money.
Last year, in Arusha, Tanzania, I met Sophia. Her husband died 12 years ago, and she was left with almost nothing - with no education she had no way to survive or sustain her two young daughters. Her determination led her to borrow $50 to purchase two 100-kilo bags of rice, repackage them and sell them to small retailers in the market. She paid back her loan with interest, and received a second loan, for the next six months – and then another, and another, as she needed them to grow her business. This is how she started and ran her own microenterprise, and today, after many years of hard work and many loans, she has had stable income and now employs several people and sells hundreds of pounds of rice, ground nuts and beans. It is as if Jeremiah’s words about God had guided her down this difficult path “Do not be afraid, I am with you.”
Sophia lives on a dusty, unpaved street and runs her business out of her house – two rooms with dirt floors. There is an inner courtyard where an elderly woman sitting on the ground cleans the rice by passing it through a homemade tin strainer, and where Sophia’s 85-year old mother sits in the sun. The 100- kilo bags of cleaned rice are stacked floor to ceiling in her living room, are carefully weighed on an old scale and divided up into smaller bags. Two young men Sophia employs load up the bags on to rickety hand-pulled wooden wagon and they deliver them throughout Arusha. Sophia is proud of what she has accomplished, but her eyes really shine when she talks about her two daughters – who are at the university.
At first sight and taken by itself, this is a humble story of little interest to a passerby. However, played out over and over again in markets, slums, barrios, villages around the world, this is a compelling and inspiring story of resolute perseverance; of the power of the human spirit; of the dignity needed to overcome the enduring grasp of poverty. It is God’s grace enveloping this woman, and as I share in her story, enveloping me.
ACCION developed a way of lending to the poor that uses character as collateral, charges interest rate to cover the costs of the lending operations, and disburses the loans quickly. People paid their loans with amazing diligence. Soon ACCION was able to grow this experiment to create banks.
So in 1992 ACCION created BancoSol, the first commercial bank for the poor. It was a revolutionary idea -- it turned banking on its head. We were violating the law that every self respecting banker believed: that poor people can’t use money responsibly, that the poor can’t pay back their loans, that banks are for the rich. These myths and other myths we fabricate exclude people from access. When ACCION created this first bank for the poor in Bolivia the whole banking system, in a country of 8 million people had a total of 140,000 clients -- less than 2% of the population.
Giving people access transforms them. I will never forget when I took a delegation of business professors to Guatemala to visit the work of ACCION. We met with Esperanza, a tiny woman of Mayan descent who made shoes in a corner of her one room house, with the dirt floor. She welcomed us in and proudly showed us her business, which probably produced 20 pairs of shoes a week. After a few minutes, one of the professors asked me to translate “Can you ask her what her unit cost of production is?” I turned to him and said, “No I can’t do that. She will be embarrassed in front of their two daughters because she doesn’t know.” He insisted persistently, until apologetically I asked: “Dona Esperanza, this professor from the north wants to know if you know, if you can tell him what your unit cost of production is.” She looked up at him, and answered with a strong, assured voice, “Of course I know, it is 18 quetzales (Guatemalan currency) a pair, and come and I will show how much it is at each step of production.”
Esperanza’s words remind me that God’s enormous power resides in each of us – power to create change, to extend beyond what we ourselves or others may think possible. This woman, with a little capital, was able to do things she never before imagined. Her sense of self-worth, of dignity, of empowerment spilled over into the roles her daughters saw her play, as she juggled running a business and taking care of them, her business and her household. And answering a question from a formidable stranger which even I thought she couldn’t answer! Her sense of humility – God’s love expressed through her -- and her fierce resolve overwhelmed me. They filled me with grace.
To this day, I imagine her mentoring other young women in her community, taking the lead in demanding water and sanitation facilities from the Municipality, and telling her daughters that of course they should go to college, even though she didn’t finish the third grade.
Meeting these women is life-changing. I too am a minority woman, I arrived as an immigrant to this country. I have had access to a world class education. I have had endless opportunities to pursue my dreams, to excel. I live in the most affluent country in the world. You can go to a website called www.globalrich.com, plug in your income, press “show me the money” and it will show you where your income fits among that of all people on earth. For example, if you make $120,000 you are on the top .53 % of people. If you make $60,000 you are at .91% - both are in the top 1% of the world. If you make $40,000 you are on the top 3.17%, and if you make $23,000 you are on the top 10.5% of the world. Now, this isn’t a reason for us to beat our breasts and feel guilty and pull our hair. It is something we should celebrate. We are healthy, we are wealthy, we are God’s children and we can change the world.
The times I have come closest to understanding God’s infinite goodness, of experiencing grace has been the simple, unadorned times I have sat down with these women and talked. It hasn’t been the times I get all dressed up and speak in front of luminaries or important people or appear in magazines, or get interviewed or given award. When my spirit is filled, when God’s love and my ability to convey and receive love are made more manifest and spill into the rest of my life are these times.
This seems like a simple truth but I am always astounded at its powers. My eyes are opened wide. And the strength of these women -- and men -- who face adversity we can’t even imagine -- makes it crystal clear to me that humility and fierce resolve, coupled with working solutions to global poverty are the ingredients that give us hope and inspire us. And we don’t have to go to Tanzania or Bolivia or India to them – they are at our doorstep. The Luke story reminds us that the response to human need through love trumps law, tradition, orthodoxy. William Sloan Coffin put it this ay “the integrity of love is greater than the purity of doctrine.” Dumbarton’s witness personifies that love.
I believe that part of our faith journey includes working to better the lives of those who are less fortunate. And in our desire to reflect the goodness of God’s love among our fellow beings and touch the divine – that in itself becomes a means of grace, for the one who receives and the one who gives. We have the opportunity to express our faith by making this world more just, fairer and more peaceful. As global citizens of the 21st century, and as people of faith who happen to be highly privileged, this is our work going into the future. AMEN
August 26, 2007
When Mary asked me to stand at the pulpit today as part of Dumbarton’s Summer Adventure, I hesitated. You see, I am married to a preacher. I was also brought up a Catholic, in a very very Catholic family in Latin America in which I never met a Protestant, much less a Methodist. I am sure my parents wished one of their sons would be a priest, and not that their daughter marry somebody who my relatives in Bolivia thought was a priest…The point is, I never had any exposure to a preacher and his role…so I was often puzzled when I first met Joe, and I would share with him a meaningful story for one of my trips, or an insight and he would respond, with no other additional elaboration “that will preach!” So now Mary had me all summer at the most unexpected moments asking myself “Will this preach? Will that preach?”
Luke’s gospel speaks to us about the infirm, about Jesus’s decision to free a bent woman from her ailment, her bondage, and the fact that he did it on the Sabbath. Jeremiah’s words remind us that even when we stand as vulnerable and a young boy, unsure we can take on what is asked of us, an unshakable truth prevails: that God is within us, that she has known each of us even before we were in the womb because God is with us are not to be afraid.
I want to share with you how these words speak to my own personal journey, particularly working with the poor. I know that in this church all of us seek ways to connect -- in our own backyard and beyond – with the disadvantaged, with those buckled down by the burdens of poverty. This church is full of people for whom this connection is grounded in their belief that we are all children of God, and that our faith journey is engaged, fortified, strengthened if as part of it we seek to better the lives of the less fortunate – so I am, quite literally, preaching to the choir -- but that is okay, because what we do when we gather here together as a faith community is make that connection between our daily lives and our spiritual journeys and to understand better how they are fed, made clearer by the word.
My journey is framed by the fact that I come from one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere - Bolivia. I grew up in La Paz in a family of many children and of modest economic means - we lived in a two bedroom house, six kids in one bedroom, we had no hot water, we owned no car. But I grew up with all the comforts of being part of an elite upper middle class family - all opportunities were open to me, my family’s name carried weight, I was part of the small minority - whites - who ran the show.
But the majority of Bolivians are poor indigenous people who are excluded for the access I took for granted. I came into contact everyday with them…and I didn’t understand what I understand now.
Which is that the greatest burden humankind faces is poverty. It is intractable, relentless. I want to talk about how we as Christians live in world where more than half of our fellow human being are poor. Poverty means:
No cash – not having enough money to put a roof over head, to feed your children. Over 3 billion live on less than $2 day
Humanness is assaulted: Dignity stripped away. Powerlessness. Hopelessness. Can’t plan. On the brink of disaster. The woman whose children don’t go to school because they roamed the city collecting plastic bottles to sell, otherwise the family can’t eat. The vulnerability - not going what will happen tomorrow. No control over your future. At all. Think about that.
The description in Luke’s gospel of a woman bent over by her burden speaks to me of the hundreds of millions of women weighted down by the burden of being poor, or lacking opportunity, of not being able to feed or educate their children.
In the countries in the south, poor people from rural areas have moved into the sprawling cities looking for jobs - they have no education, no skills, no connections, no support system, no anything. They squatter on vacant land, build shacks made out of tin and cardboard. They cannot find work so they survive by being small traders, or by starting a little business – everything from banging old metal into pots and pans, fashioning furniture from wood or metal, making shoes, cooking and selling food on the streets.
What they seek is to work. All they want is to work. In Luke’s gospel Jesus reminds us of the right of everyone to work, even as he chooses to do it on the Sabbath.
My organization, ACCION International, makes loans available – micro-loans - to poor people so they can run their own businesses - microenterprises - and earn income. We work in 24 countries where we start microfinance banks, we train the staff to go into the slums, markets, poor neighborhoods to find the small carpenter, the vegetable vendor, the seamstress…all those who cannot go into a bank to borrow money.
Last year, in Arusha, Tanzania, I met Sophia. Her husband died 12 years ago, and she was left with almost nothing - with no education she had no way to survive or sustain her two young daughters. Her determination led her to borrow $50 to purchase two 100-kilo bags of rice, repackage them and sell them to small retailers in the market. She paid back her loan with interest, and received a second loan, for the next six months – and then another, and another, as she needed them to grow her business. This is how she started and ran her own microenterprise, and today, after many years of hard work and many loans, she has had stable income and now employs several people and sells hundreds of pounds of rice, ground nuts and beans. It is as if Jeremiah’s words about God had guided her down this difficult path “Do not be afraid, I am with you.”
Sophia lives on a dusty, unpaved street and runs her business out of her house – two rooms with dirt floors. There is an inner courtyard where an elderly woman sitting on the ground cleans the rice by passing it through a homemade tin strainer, and where Sophia’s 85-year old mother sits in the sun. The 100- kilo bags of cleaned rice are stacked floor to ceiling in her living room, are carefully weighed on an old scale and divided up into smaller bags. Two young men Sophia employs load up the bags on to rickety hand-pulled wooden wagon and they deliver them throughout Arusha. Sophia is proud of what she has accomplished, but her eyes really shine when she talks about her two daughters – who are at the university.
At first sight and taken by itself, this is a humble story of little interest to a passerby. However, played out over and over again in markets, slums, barrios, villages around the world, this is a compelling and inspiring story of resolute perseverance; of the power of the human spirit; of the dignity needed to overcome the enduring grasp of poverty. It is God’s grace enveloping this woman, and as I share in her story, enveloping me.
ACCION developed a way of lending to the poor that uses character as collateral, charges interest rate to cover the costs of the lending operations, and disburses the loans quickly. People paid their loans with amazing diligence. Soon ACCION was able to grow this experiment to create banks.
So in 1992 ACCION created BancoSol, the first commercial bank for the poor. It was a revolutionary idea -- it turned banking on its head. We were violating the law that every self respecting banker believed: that poor people can’t use money responsibly, that the poor can’t pay back their loans, that banks are for the rich. These myths and other myths we fabricate exclude people from access. When ACCION created this first bank for the poor in Bolivia the whole banking system, in a country of 8 million people had a total of 140,000 clients -- less than 2% of the population.
Giving people access transforms them. I will never forget when I took a delegation of business professors to Guatemala to visit the work of ACCION. We met with Esperanza, a tiny woman of Mayan descent who made shoes in a corner of her one room house, with the dirt floor. She welcomed us in and proudly showed us her business, which probably produced 20 pairs of shoes a week. After a few minutes, one of the professors asked me to translate “Can you ask her what her unit cost of production is?” I turned to him and said, “No I can’t do that. She will be embarrassed in front of their two daughters because she doesn’t know.” He insisted persistently, until apologetically I asked: “Dona Esperanza, this professor from the north wants to know if you know, if you can tell him what your unit cost of production is.” She looked up at him, and answered with a strong, assured voice, “Of course I know, it is 18 quetzales (Guatemalan currency) a pair, and come and I will show how much it is at each step of production.”
Esperanza’s words remind me that God’s enormous power resides in each of us – power to create change, to extend beyond what we ourselves or others may think possible. This woman, with a little capital, was able to do things she never before imagined. Her sense of self-worth, of dignity, of empowerment spilled over into the roles her daughters saw her play, as she juggled running a business and taking care of them, her business and her household. And answering a question from a formidable stranger which even I thought she couldn’t answer! Her sense of humility – God’s love expressed through her -- and her fierce resolve overwhelmed me. They filled me with grace.
To this day, I imagine her mentoring other young women in her community, taking the lead in demanding water and sanitation facilities from the Municipality, and telling her daughters that of course they should go to college, even though she didn’t finish the third grade.
Meeting these women is life-changing. I too am a minority woman, I arrived as an immigrant to this country. I have had access to a world class education. I have had endless opportunities to pursue my dreams, to excel. I live in the most affluent country in the world. You can go to a website called www.globalrich.com, plug in your income, press “show me the money” and it will show you where your income fits among that of all people on earth. For example, if you make $120,000 you are on the top .53 % of people. If you make $60,000 you are at .91% - both are in the top 1% of the world. If you make $40,000 you are on the top 3.17%, and if you make $23,000 you are on the top 10.5% of the world. Now, this isn’t a reason for us to beat our breasts and feel guilty and pull our hair. It is something we should celebrate. We are healthy, we are wealthy, we are God’s children and we can change the world.
The times I have come closest to understanding God’s infinite goodness, of experiencing grace has been the simple, unadorned times I have sat down with these women and talked. It hasn’t been the times I get all dressed up and speak in front of luminaries or important people or appear in magazines, or get interviewed or given award. When my spirit is filled, when God’s love and my ability to convey and receive love are made more manifest and spill into the rest of my life are these times.
This seems like a simple truth but I am always astounded at its powers. My eyes are opened wide. And the strength of these women -- and men -- who face adversity we can’t even imagine -- makes it crystal clear to me that humility and fierce resolve, coupled with working solutions to global poverty are the ingredients that give us hope and inspire us. And we don’t have to go to Tanzania or Bolivia or India to them – they are at our doorstep. The Luke story reminds us that the response to human need through love trumps law, tradition, orthodoxy. William Sloan Coffin put it this ay “the integrity of love is greater than the purity of doctrine.” Dumbarton’s witness personifies that love.
I believe that part of our faith journey includes working to better the lives of those who are less fortunate. And in our desire to reflect the goodness of God’s love among our fellow beings and touch the divine – that in itself becomes a means of grace, for the one who receives and the one who gives. We have the opportunity to express our faith by making this world more just, fairer and more peaceful. As global citizens of the 21st century, and as people of faith who happen to be highly privileged, this is our work going into the future. AMEN
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Making Choices
by Amy Houser
July 22, 2007
This I believe: when children witness and participate in the actions of the larger church community, not only are our efforts enriched in the moment but they are multiplied again and again into our future – in ways we can only now dream of. This I believe.
There is something that every person here does every single day. Would you like to guess what I’m thinking of?
Choices! Every day we all get to make choices. Some choices are pretty easy. This morning I chose to have yogurt and granola for breakfast. Some choices are harder, like what should I say when someone is mean to me at school. Can you think of some choices you made already today – easy or hard?
Sometimes we make one choice and then we change it. Like the story of Mary and Martha today that Anissa read. Jesus came to visit his friends Mary and Martha – Mary chose to sit beside Jesus and listen to his stories about God’s love. Martha chose to make a fancy dinner for Jesus. But while she was making dinner she felt cranky – she liked Mary’s choice better than her choice. She would rather be with Jesus than fussing over a big dinner in the kitchen. And Jesus told her it was ok to change her mind and make another choice – a better choice to spend time with him, listening to the stories of God. They could all make dinner together later. And that was a big relief to Martha! Sometimes we change our choices!
And sometimes there are choices we make together as a whole church. This is a very special kind of choice. Often when we are thinking really hard about wanting to follow Jesus’ teachings and really wanting to show God’s love, we make choices with our church family instead of all by ourselves.
I have an example of this. Dumbarton is a peace-loving church – Jesus taught us to make peace and we think it’s very important. And so we often make choices together that show our love of peace. Sometimes we give our money to people working for peace. Sometimes we talk with or write letters to our country’s leaders about peace, asking them to make peaceful choices.
And sometimes we choose to put our voices together and say “No More War” because voices together are much louder than voices alone. Let’s try it and see if I’m right. First I’ll say it: “Choose Peace!” Now, what does it sound like when we all say it? All together: “Choose Peace!” WOW – what a difference!
Last winter Dumbarton carried its peace banner in a big march for peace. I have some pictures to show you from that day. Emma and I went along – here are some of our signs. I saw Savi and her daddy there. I saw Chip Aldridge, Barby & Howard Morland, Harry & Arlene Kiely – raise your hand if you were also at the peace march.
Each person made the choice to use their voices for peace, and by doing it TOGETHER we could carry a bigger sign and have a louder voice and let our leaders know that all these people of God do not want war. We have learned that when many people use their voices together, we see bad things come to an end and good things begin to grow.
Choosing to act together is something very special that a church can do to show God’s love to our neighbors in Washington and our neighbors around the world.
Some friends of mine from college wrote a story called “Praying with our Feet” about their church and this story reminded me a bit of Dumbarton.
Do you see all these shoes on the cover and all these shoes around the front of the church? That symbolizes all the different people in their church and our church who make choices together – why don’t you pick a shoe that is interesting to you and borrow it for a few minutes, and during the story we are going to occasionally make our shoes walk. If you don’t get one of these shoes you can use the shoes on your own feet.
Let’s practice – when I make my shoe walk, you join me with your shoes. And when I stop, you stop too. The sound will remind us that choices made together have a lot of power. We will close with part of this story:
PRAYING WITH OUR FEET
…..and the people of God said Amen.
July 22, 2007
This I believe: when children witness and participate in the actions of the larger church community, not only are our efforts enriched in the moment but they are multiplied again and again into our future – in ways we can only now dream of. This I believe.
There is something that every person here does every single day. Would you like to guess what I’m thinking of?
Choices! Every day we all get to make choices. Some choices are pretty easy. This morning I chose to have yogurt and granola for breakfast. Some choices are harder, like what should I say when someone is mean to me at school. Can you think of some choices you made already today – easy or hard?
Sometimes we make one choice and then we change it. Like the story of Mary and Martha today that Anissa read. Jesus came to visit his friends Mary and Martha – Mary chose to sit beside Jesus and listen to his stories about God’s love. Martha chose to make a fancy dinner for Jesus. But while she was making dinner she felt cranky – she liked Mary’s choice better than her choice. She would rather be with Jesus than fussing over a big dinner in the kitchen. And Jesus told her it was ok to change her mind and make another choice – a better choice to spend time with him, listening to the stories of God. They could all make dinner together later. And that was a big relief to Martha! Sometimes we change our choices!
And sometimes there are choices we make together as a whole church. This is a very special kind of choice. Often when we are thinking really hard about wanting to follow Jesus’ teachings and really wanting to show God’s love, we make choices with our church family instead of all by ourselves.
I have an example of this. Dumbarton is a peace-loving church – Jesus taught us to make peace and we think it’s very important. And so we often make choices together that show our love of peace. Sometimes we give our money to people working for peace. Sometimes we talk with or write letters to our country’s leaders about peace, asking them to make peaceful choices.
And sometimes we choose to put our voices together and say “No More War” because voices together are much louder than voices alone. Let’s try it and see if I’m right. First I’ll say it: “Choose Peace!” Now, what does it sound like when we all say it? All together: “Choose Peace!” WOW – what a difference!
Last winter Dumbarton carried its peace banner in a big march for peace. I have some pictures to show you from that day. Emma and I went along – here are some of our signs. I saw Savi and her daddy there. I saw Chip Aldridge, Barby & Howard Morland, Harry & Arlene Kiely – raise your hand if you were also at the peace march.
Each person made the choice to use their voices for peace, and by doing it TOGETHER we could carry a bigger sign and have a louder voice and let our leaders know that all these people of God do not want war. We have learned that when many people use their voices together, we see bad things come to an end and good things begin to grow.
Choosing to act together is something very special that a church can do to show God’s love to our neighbors in Washington and our neighbors around the world.
Some friends of mine from college wrote a story called “Praying with our Feet” about their church and this story reminded me a bit of Dumbarton.
Do you see all these shoes on the cover and all these shoes around the front of the church? That symbolizes all the different people in their church and our church who make choices together – why don’t you pick a shoe that is interesting to you and borrow it for a few minutes, and during the story we are going to occasionally make our shoes walk. If you don’t get one of these shoes you can use the shoes on your own feet.
Let’s practice – when I make my shoe walk, you join me with your shoes. And when I stop, you stop too. The sound will remind us that choices made together have a lot of power. We will close with part of this story:
PRAYING WITH OUR FEET
…..and the people of God said Amen.
The False Dichotomy of Freedom and Responsibility
by Mike Beard
July 1, 2007
As many of you know, one of my interests is Dumbarton Church history. So I am happy to note that on July 3, 1850 this building was formally dedicated; on this day in 1855 an unnamed Indian Chief spoke from our pulpit; 1989 Native Chinese speaker, Man King Tso, preached his first sermon here. A few people claimed to understand some of what he said. I note that in a 4th of July sermon 1790, Brother John Chalmers, Sr. protested whites celebrating the holiday as long as blacks were not granted their freedom. On this day in 1810 the Quarterly Conference voted unanimously to “not invite Brother John Chalmers, Sr. to preach in our church or to assist in the administration of sacraments.” . I, as a professed agnostic, am proud to be a part of this great pulpit tradition.
Movies are another of my passions. Movies come in genres that vary by the season. We are now in the summer block-buster movie season with lots of crashes, smashes and loud noise aided by Computer Generated Images (CGI). So too, it seems, with the lectionary. In 2 Kings, Elijah and Elisha part the Jordan River with a swat of their cloaks, Chariots of fire and horses of fire appear and Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind. A true touch of Cecil B. Demille. In the Psalm, the very deep trembles, the skies are filled with thunder and lightening and whirlwind, the earth trembles and shakes. In Galatians, Paul warns of Christians biting and devouring one another; gratifying the desires of the flesh—fornication, licentiousness, carousing. Pretty dramatic stuff, well worthy of any Bruce Willis movie.
The lessons today paint a pretty scary picture of the reality that faced those that preceded us in the faith. Looking at the world we face today--a world of sectarian strife, poverty and environmental degradation—it is hard to believe that some ever-present but unseen God will take it’s people by the hand and lead us to freedom…that come hell or highwater, a God will make a way out of no way. But that is exactly what the writers of these summer biblical-blockbusters want us to believe. I wish that I could believe this, but I can’t; not in the movies or in real life.
Saul, now known as Paul, the presumed writer of the letter to the Galatians raises an appropriate theme for this 4th of July weekend. “For freedom we have been set free,” he writes. “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Hello. This I believe.
For most of my working life, I have had to wrestle with the false dichotomy between freedom and responsibility. My political nemesis, the National Rifle Association, claims to be the nation’s pre-eminent freedom organization. Their version of freedom is one that is a total anathema to me. Freedom as a license for one to do what one pleases regardless of the consequences to society. In the US our concept of freedom seems to have evolved to mean freedom from obligation to anything beyond ourselves. Too often it seems to mean compromising our ethics and values for the sake of doing what feels good.
We all know that Freedom is much more than just another word for nothing left to loose.
The pre-eminent symbol of our freedom as a nation is the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In my public debates and speeches, I have often suggested that the US should erect a Statue of Responsibility in the San Francisco harbor because we as a nation must live with that constant tension between Freedom and Responsibility.
The basis of my belief comes from the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer observes that Freedom and responsibility are corresponding concepts. Responsibility is the freedom that is given only in the obligation to God and to our neighbors. Responsibility presupposes freedom and freedom can consist only in responsibility. However, the responsible person must act in the freedom of his or her own self without the support of persons, circumstances or principles. Nothing can answer for me, nothing can exonerate me except my own deed and my own self. Neither the purity of motive, nor opportune circumstances, nor the value, nor the significant purpose of an intended act can become the governing law of my action—for in that case I would indeed no longer be free. What I do must be done with the knowledge that as a free person there is no claim I can make to a valid self-justification. I must weigh-up, judge, decide and act on my own and then leave that action up to God—or as I would say up to time or history.
In modern life, Bonhoeffer observes, “we seldom are called upon to decide between what is right and what is wrong or between good and evil. As Aeschylus said ‘right strives with right.’ It is in this light that we understand that responsible action is a free venture. It is not justified by any law, it is performed without any claim to a valid self-justification, without any claim to an ultimate knowledge of good and evil, and for that very reason is a totally free act.”
In Bonhoeffer’s words: “With this is disclosed to us a deep secret of history in general. The one who acts in the freedom of his own most personal responsibility is precisely the one who sees that action finally committed to the guidance of God.”—or to a higher power whatever you want to call it. This I truly believe.
In today’s lesson, Paul reminds us that for Christians, freedom does not free us from the responsibility to the community. Christian freedom is not about personal liberty. Christian freedom comes with an undeniable sense of obligation and servitude. We are required to live in relationship one to another. Paul is advocating not a sense of self-indulgence, not just a freedom from; the freedom he advocates is the freedom to---the freedom to commit ourselves fully to each other.
I believe Paul Tillich’s definition of sin as a state of separation, separation from individuals—when we can not accept others as part of our world; separation from ourselves—when we are not capable of loving ourselves; and separation from the ground of our being, the roots and meaning of our life. What some would call God.
If sin is separation, than grace is the acceptance and embrace of community. As Paul has written, the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, You shall love your neighbor as your self. This understanding of freedom alone bears the life-giving fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This freedom is a lot more than ‘just another word for nothing left to lose.’
I have shared with you what I Believe at this point of my life, but I know that Mary likes to end her sermons with a thoughtful question. So,…as I look back over my life, there is one thing I want to know…where did the 20th Century go? I could have sworn it was here a moment ago.
July 1, 2007
As many of you know, one of my interests is Dumbarton Church history. So I am happy to note that on July 3, 1850 this building was formally dedicated; on this day in 1855 an unnamed Indian Chief spoke from our pulpit; 1989 Native Chinese speaker, Man King Tso, preached his first sermon here. A few people claimed to understand some of what he said. I note that in a 4th of July sermon 1790, Brother John Chalmers, Sr. protested whites celebrating the holiday as long as blacks were not granted their freedom. On this day in 1810 the Quarterly Conference voted unanimously to “not invite Brother John Chalmers, Sr. to preach in our church or to assist in the administration of sacraments.” . I, as a professed agnostic, am proud to be a part of this great pulpit tradition.
Movies are another of my passions. Movies come in genres that vary by the season. We are now in the summer block-buster movie season with lots of crashes, smashes and loud noise aided by Computer Generated Images (CGI). So too, it seems, with the lectionary. In 2 Kings, Elijah and Elisha part the Jordan River with a swat of their cloaks, Chariots of fire and horses of fire appear and Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind. A true touch of Cecil B. Demille. In the Psalm, the very deep trembles, the skies are filled with thunder and lightening and whirlwind, the earth trembles and shakes. In Galatians, Paul warns of Christians biting and devouring one another; gratifying the desires of the flesh—fornication, licentiousness, carousing. Pretty dramatic stuff, well worthy of any Bruce Willis movie.
The lessons today paint a pretty scary picture of the reality that faced those that preceded us in the faith. Looking at the world we face today--a world of sectarian strife, poverty and environmental degradation—it is hard to believe that some ever-present but unseen God will take it’s people by the hand and lead us to freedom…that come hell or highwater, a God will make a way out of no way. But that is exactly what the writers of these summer biblical-blockbusters want us to believe. I wish that I could believe this, but I can’t; not in the movies or in real life.
Saul, now known as Paul, the presumed writer of the letter to the Galatians raises an appropriate theme for this 4th of July weekend. “For freedom we have been set free,” he writes. “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Hello. This I believe.
For most of my working life, I have had to wrestle with the false dichotomy between freedom and responsibility. My political nemesis, the National Rifle Association, claims to be the nation’s pre-eminent freedom organization. Their version of freedom is one that is a total anathema to me. Freedom as a license for one to do what one pleases regardless of the consequences to society. In the US our concept of freedom seems to have evolved to mean freedom from obligation to anything beyond ourselves. Too often it seems to mean compromising our ethics and values for the sake of doing what feels good.
We all know that Freedom is much more than just another word for nothing left to loose.
The pre-eminent symbol of our freedom as a nation is the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In my public debates and speeches, I have often suggested that the US should erect a Statue of Responsibility in the San Francisco harbor because we as a nation must live with that constant tension between Freedom and Responsibility.
The basis of my belief comes from the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer observes that Freedom and responsibility are corresponding concepts. Responsibility is the freedom that is given only in the obligation to God and to our neighbors. Responsibility presupposes freedom and freedom can consist only in responsibility. However, the responsible person must act in the freedom of his or her own self without the support of persons, circumstances or principles. Nothing can answer for me, nothing can exonerate me except my own deed and my own self. Neither the purity of motive, nor opportune circumstances, nor the value, nor the significant purpose of an intended act can become the governing law of my action—for in that case I would indeed no longer be free. What I do must be done with the knowledge that as a free person there is no claim I can make to a valid self-justification. I must weigh-up, judge, decide and act on my own and then leave that action up to God—or as I would say up to time or history.
In modern life, Bonhoeffer observes, “we seldom are called upon to decide between what is right and what is wrong or between good and evil. As Aeschylus said ‘right strives with right.’ It is in this light that we understand that responsible action is a free venture. It is not justified by any law, it is performed without any claim to a valid self-justification, without any claim to an ultimate knowledge of good and evil, and for that very reason is a totally free act.”
In Bonhoeffer’s words: “With this is disclosed to us a deep secret of history in general. The one who acts in the freedom of his own most personal responsibility is precisely the one who sees that action finally committed to the guidance of God.”—or to a higher power whatever you want to call it. This I truly believe.
In today’s lesson, Paul reminds us that for Christians, freedom does not free us from the responsibility to the community. Christian freedom is not about personal liberty. Christian freedom comes with an undeniable sense of obligation and servitude. We are required to live in relationship one to another. Paul is advocating not a sense of self-indulgence, not just a freedom from; the freedom he advocates is the freedom to---the freedom to commit ourselves fully to each other.
I believe Paul Tillich’s definition of sin as a state of separation, separation from individuals—when we can not accept others as part of our world; separation from ourselves—when we are not capable of loving ourselves; and separation from the ground of our being, the roots and meaning of our life. What some would call God.
If sin is separation, than grace is the acceptance and embrace of community. As Paul has written, the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, You shall love your neighbor as your self. This understanding of freedom alone bears the life-giving fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This freedom is a lot more than ‘just another word for nothing left to lose.’
I have shared with you what I Believe at this point of my life, but I know that Mary likes to end her sermons with a thoughtful question. So,…as I look back over my life, there is one thing I want to know…where did the 20th Century go? I could have sworn it was here a moment ago.
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