Texts: Genesis 11:1-9, Nehemiah 2:17-18

Speaker: Joel Miller

When a pope wants to make a big statement, they write an encyclical.  For a non-Catholic, such as myself, I have learned an encyclical is a teaching document / pastoral letter on a certain theme.  It’s often quite long, more like a book.  It’s meant to circulate, en-cycle-cal, among a general audience.  This includes not just the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, but us.  Everyone.   

The previous pope, Francis, issued four encyclicals over his twelve years.  This included “Laudato Si,” (“Praise be to you”), a phrase borrowed from his namesake, Francis of Assisi.  Happy Feast Day Francis.  It talked about the earth as our common home, warning against the perils of climate change, with a major takedown of unbridled capitalism.  That same year, 2015, when Francis was touring the US, I remember The Onion putting out an article with a definitely-photoshopped picture of the pope in a grocery store with the headline “Pope Francis reverses position on capitalism after seeing wide variety of American Oreos.”  Ah for the innocent days when fake news was funny.

The current pope, Leo, the first American pope, to my knowledge has made no public statements on Oreos.  But he did issue his first encyclical earlier this year.  If you were pope, if you were one of, if not the most influential spiritual leaders in the world, and you were going to issue your first big statement on a topic of concern, what would it be?  What do you think – right now – is most deserving of a pastoral letter to the human race offering counsel and wisdom and caution and fatherly/motherly love? 

Well, back in May, Pope Leo gave his answer.  It’s called Magnifica Humanitas.  “Magnificent Humanity.”  Subtitle: “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Age…

Text: Mark 5:21-43

Speaker: Carolyn May

When Joel asked me if I’d be willing to offer the reflection for today, he told me that CMC has beenworking through a series focused on “Courageous Peace Witness” and that there was a thought thatperhaps the retreat would be a good weekend to reflect on embodiment and peacemaking. In a lotof ways I still feel surprised that bodies have become such an integral part of my life and work. Ithink I spent much of my early years feeling very disembodied. And feeling, somehow, like that wasa virtue. Like being a good Christian meant learning to rise above all of this messy physical stuff.There are still remnants of that deep within me, I think. And so it felt a bit surprising for Joel tosuggest that I might be a good person to reflect on embodiment.

But, it makes sense. After an intense year of schooling and training, I recently became a licensedmassage therapist. Truly not a path I could have or would have ever anticipated for my life. Itcertainly wasn’t the path I imagined when I went to seminary. Though, to be fair, I don’t think Iactually had any clear path imagined when I made that move.

But as I’ve been reflecting, I think I’ve been recognizing that embodiment has been a reallyimportant part of my theological life for a long time. Because of course. It has always been part ofeverything, regardless of how much I have tried to remain separate from my body, or how much Ihave absorbed that old Christian tendency to think of flesh and body as somehow lesser, whilespirit and mind are where the real spiritual work happens. I am still a body. I think maybe, for awhile, I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that part of the spiritual work might be…

Matthew 5:1-10 and Qur’an 4:135

Imam Horsed Noah (Outreach Director of Abubakar Mosque)

…

Texts: Leviticus 16:20-22; Mark 4:30-34; Colossians 2:13-15

Speaker: Joel Miller

Maybe you’ve seen one of those posters or bumper stickers with the symbols of the major world religions side by side. 

There is the cresent moon and star – Islam.  There’s the six-pointed Star of David, or the seven-candled Menorah – Judaism.  There’s the dharma wheel with the eight spokes, each representing one aspect of the noble path – Buddhism.  There is the balance and interconnectedness of the Yin and Yang symbol of Taoism.  There is the AUM symbol of Hinduism that looks kind of like a letter or letters but represents the primal vibration of the universe. 

Stars and lights and circles and interconnectedness and unity.  Oh, and also, among the others, there is an instrument of public humiliation, torture, and capital punishment.  The Latin Cross.  Christianity.   

What’s that sesame street game?  One of these things is not like the others…

For better or for worse, of all the images that could have come to represent the community that formed around Jesus of Nazareth, it’s the cross that prevailed. 

I’m wearing one right now.

We aren’t big cross people in our worship space, but there is one front and center each Sunday, even if it is a bit understated.  

I’ve come to think of the cross as the ultimate parable of Jesus. 

In Mark chapter 4 Jesus tells a series of parables, including the one about the kingdom of God being like the smallest of all seeds – the mustard seed (v. 31).  You can barely see it, but then it grows into a great shrub where all the birds can nest. 

That would have been a cool symbol for Christianity.  You just put a little dot on the page and that’s all you need, right there. 

After this, Mark says, “With many such parables he spoke the word…

Text: Mark 2:2-12

Speaker: Sarah Werner

This morning I want to talk to you about the spiritual practice of friendship. Our hyper-individualized world often fails to embrace the benefits of various types of community, including friendship.

Thankfully literature is full of powerful friendships. A few good friends can make up for quite a lot of fear and danger. I think this is why The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite book series of all time. It is essentially a story about the incredible power of friendship in the most perilous of circumstances, how these four friends save each other over and over, and how they save the world in the process. We should all wish to have friends like Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam.

And so it is with our text for this morning, four people who literally tore apart a roof for their friend. Before we begin, though, I have to share that I have a fraught relationship with most of the healing miracle stories in the Gospels as a disabled person. I do not believe that God is going to cure me of being disabled. Some days I am fine with this, because my physical embodiment, including disability, has shaped my life in distinctive and amazing ways. I wouldn’t be the same person without it. Other days I would dearly love to leave behind the pain and the unpredictability and the frustration of inhabiting a disabled body. Pride and grief can comingle.

Another reason miracle stories are fraught is how Christians have weaponized them against people with disabilities. We receive unsolicited offers of prayers for healing from people who know nothing about us and our lives. When said healing does not occur, we are blamed for our disability because of our lack of faith. Or, despite Jesus’ teachings to the…