Texts: Galatians 6:11-18; “My Work Is Loving the World,” by Mary Oliver

Speaker: Joel Miller

Mary Oliver wrote that her work is loving the world.  I think she meant it.  What this looked like for her was listening and watching and putting her observations, and wonderings, and longings into poetry – , writing and rewriting, teaching others to do the same.  Her summary of what she saw herself doing when she did all this appears to be this: “My work is loving the world.” 

In another poem she wrote “There is only one question: How to love this world.”  She slips that right in the middle of considering a black bear, fresh from sleep, coming down a mountain – breathing, and tasting, and sharpening its claws on a silent tree. She imagines this being as some kind of embodiment of perfect love.  Which prompts this proposal: “There is only one question: How to love this world.”

I came across these poems about half way into the Sabbatical that wrapped up Monday. 

Now I assure you, I did not spend all 13 weeks sitting around reading Mary Oliver poetry.  There were, in fact, several weeks where I read hardly anything, including headlines.  Those were pretty good weeks.  But I’m glad the poetry was there when I reached for it.   And I’m glad Mary Oliver included these lines among the hundreds and thousands she wrote.      

Because as long as I’ve had to figure it out, and as clear as I’d like to think I am on those big questions of life purpose and all that, I can still get disoriented about what it is we’re doing.  What are we doing?  I have a lot of questions.  Maybe you do too.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one question big enough to contain all…

Bethany Davey

We’re going to begin with something that may feel a bit uncomfortable: I’m going to begin singing a song, and I invite you to sing along with me—loudly, please—once you recognize the song. After a bit of singing together, I’ll give you a conductor’s “wrap it up” signal, and then I will begin another song for you to sing along with once you recognize it. The point is not to sing perfectly, or even well, but to sing with heart. I apologize preemptively to anyone with perfect or relative pitch, as I will be randomly selecting our starting notes.

Ready? Here goes.

“L is for the way you look at me

O is for the only one I see

V is very, very extraordinary

E is even more than anyone that you adore can

[Chorus]

Love is all that I can give to you

Love is more than just a game for two

Two in love can make it, take my heart and please don’t break it

Love was made for me and you”

-Nat King Cole

“I love you a bushel and a peck,

A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck

Hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap

Barrel and a heap and I’m talkin’ in my sleep”

-Adelaide, Guys and Dolls, Frank Loesser

“Stop! In the name of love

Before you break my heart

Stop! In the name of love

Before you break my heart

Think it over

Think it over”

-The Supremes

“What is love?

Oh, baby, don’t hurt me

Don’t hurt me, no more

Oh, baby, don’t hurt me

Don’t hurt me, no more”

-Haddaway, popularized by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in SNL and A Night at the Roxbury

It’s a great question: what is love? Do we find it in Nat King Cole’s spelled-out romantic expression? In Guys & Dolls’ large, but measurable amount? In The Supremes’ reminder to think before we act? In Haddaway’s plea…

Speaker: Alma Thompson

Text: Exodus 3:1-6, John 15:1-12, Galatians 5:22-23

Good morning.  My name is Alma Thompson and I seem to have been born a “go big or stay home” human.  And, I’ve come to appreciate that here at CMC, I’m in good “go big” company, with a “peace on earth, good will to all people” perspective. 

I am privileged to lead an organization that advocates for under-resourced children, all around the world.  We’re active in more than 40 countries. We dream of a world where every child is loved, safe and developing their god-given potential.  

As you would rightly suspect, this impossible dream brings impossible issues across my desk every single day.  The risk of compassion fatigue is very high. So, as a global team of leaders, one of our shared-culture questions is, “Is it my job, today?” “Is it your job, today?”  We ask this of each other, with the shared belief that God has a job, and God does not expect us to do her job!  And we have a job that God does not expect to have to do.   The simplest way to answer the question is based on the assumption that if I can control it, it’s mine to do.  If I can’t, If I can’t control it, it’s not mine to do. 

This brings us to our fruit of the spirit for today, “Self-control”.  SELF-control. Clearly, it’s articulated as if it’s MY job.  It’s my job to control myself.  But, what if I can’t?  What if I can’t control myself?  Then maybe it’s not my job?

Shall I admit that I am powerless?

Shall I submit to a higher power?

Shall I talk to others about the fact that I can’t?

The oxymoron of Self-control: Fruit of the Spirit

It is in the list of spirit fruit; Fruit that Holy Spirit brings about,…

Speaker: Bethany DaveyText: Proverbs 25:11-15; Galatians 5:22-23

What is it to be gentle? What is it to pursue, to practice, gentleness? These questions followed me around for the weeks leading up to this sermon. As with the other fruits of the Spirit, there are ways for us to understand these words and traits, but often their practice is more nuanced and complex than a simple, singular definition allows. 

I would not describe myself as a gentle person. I grew up as the Ursula to my sister’s Ariel, a thundering boom of energy, big hair and even bigger feelings. I am often the (literal) guffaw in the midst of giggles, the hollered cheer among polite golf claps. For those of us who have been told we are “too much”—too big, too loud, too bold, too brazen—is gentleness even within our realm of possibilities? 

And, for those who are the quiet gigglers among guffawers, the golf clappers surrounded by rowdy cheers, those who may have been told you are too quiet, too small, too reserved: are you perceived as solely gentle? Constrained by a very specific understanding of gentleness itself?

A simple definition of gentleness is hard to come by. The first definition provided by Miriam-Webster is a negative one, defining gentleness by what it is not, rather than by what it is: “free from harshness, sternness or violence.” While this definition points us away from certain tendencies, it does not make clear what gentleness might point us toward. 

More disheartening to me are the first definitions of gentle in its verb form: “to make (an animal) tame and docile…to mollify, placate.” I am disheartened by such a definition, not because it doesn’t fit, but because non-human animals, women and other oppressed peoples and even the Earth have been expected to demonstrate such a gentleness: one of…

Text: Galatians 5:22-23; Luke 4:14-21Speaker: Mark Rupp

As was already mentioned, the fruit of the Spirit that we are focusing on this morning is “faithfulness.” Faithfulness can be a slippery word. In our culture, it’s often reduced to religious belief or loyalty to a group. But in scripture, especially as Paul often uses it, faithfulness is closer to trust. A deep, ongoing trust in God’s work and God’s ways. Trust that doesn’t just live as a belief in the mind but is embodied. Faithfulness as trust shows up in how we walk, how we live, how we respond when the road gets rough.

So when we think about faithfulness, we ought to consider where we place our trust and with whom we walk this journey. Faithfulness cannot be reduced just to loyalty, as if our faith is merely in this or that congregation or the Mennonite Church as a whole. But when our churches and our denominations are at their best, they are about bringing people together to discern what it means to be faithful here and now, what it means to trust the Spirit of God who continues to grow fruit in us and anoint us for the work of the kin-dom. 

I’m thankful to be reflecting on faithfulness as I continue to reflect on the recent Mennonite Church USA national convention that I attended along with a handful of others from our congregation. Our faith is centered on Jesus not in the Mennonite Church, but these connections with folks who have similar values help us to consider how to best be faithful to Jesus. 

At the convention, we were invited to center ourselves around a deceptively simple call: “Follow Jesus.” This simple theme focused the worship services throughout the week and, in a general sense, guided the seminars, hymn sings, celebrations, and…