Hen in the foxhouse | Lent 2 |21 February 2016
Texts: Psalm 27, Luke 13:31-35
The image on the bulletin cover is a mosaic inside the Dominus Flevit church. The church is located on the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, and commemorates two occasions in Luke’s gospel: The one we just read, when Jesus speaks of the people of Jerusalem and compares himself to a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings. And when Jesus later approaches Jerusalem and weeps over the city, lamenting that it does not know the things that make for peace. Dominus Flevit means, “The Lord wept.”
Personally, any Bible story that features a chicken as one of the main characters is one that gets my attention. Especially when the chicken = Jesus. I love that in the mosaic the chicken has a halo. Awesome. Our three backyard feathered girls are doing just fine through the winter, although their egg production has trailed off a bit. They’re still saints and miracle workers for turning our food scraps into tasty eggs.
Jesus the hen cries out, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” It’s a loving maternal image, of protection, and shelter, and sanctuary.
Back in December we hosted an evening gathering for the BREAD organization – the annual research kick-off. A little ways into the meeting I noticed that one of the other pastors was motioning to get my attention. After realizing that he wanted to talk, right now, I slid out of my seat and we huddled quietly in the back of the sanctuary. He had what seemed to me at the time like a very random concern. He wanted to know if our lights in the foyer were on…
A parable on privilege | Lent 1 |14 February 2016
Texts: Psalm 91:1-2,9-16; Luke 4:1-13
On our Learning Tour in Palestine we attended a Sunday worship service near Bethlehem. Our group of 15 Americans made up half the congregation. The young Palestinian pastor led the service in Arabic, but at the end of his sermon he addressed us in English. He urged us to remember them when we returned home, to speak about what we had seen and heard. To tell their stories. One of the reasons he gave for why this was so important was this: He said – “Because America is god.”
As startling as this was to hear in a worship setting, it was important to see. In their world, our country has the power to save or destroy, to give life or take it away. It was quite a benediction, for us fifteen Americans to leave that small Palestinian church, having just been told that we are sons and daughters – of god.
We told some of those stories during Advent. Now it’s Lent, and we are inviting God to trouble the waters again, this time closer to home: Race and racism in America. And not just racism as a matter of improving interpersonal relationships, as important as that is. But racism as an environment, a habitat in which we live and move and have our being, a psychological and spiritual field of experience, that we are all caught up in. Something along the lines of what the writer of Ephesians meant when he said, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood” – we’re not out here looking for evil people. Instead the real enemy, as Ephesians puts it, is “the cosmic powers of this present darkness.” The principalities and powers.
This all sounds a bit serious and heavy, so we are approaching it the way that seemed to be Jesus’ favorite method of overturning the present order…
Reflections on Transfiguration by Youth and Children | 7 February, 2016
[Text: Luke 9:28-36]
Eve’s reflection:
Have you ever had a time in your life when you had to make a life changing decision? In today’s scripture, Jesus is about to make a difficult decision. He has been healing wounded people, feeding those who didn’t have any food, teaching people the way that God wants us to live our lives, and gathering disciples to help him do his ministry. All this happened in the region of Galilee. Now he needs to decide if he is going to the city of Jerusalem. He is also taking into consideration that this is a dangerous place, he might even be risking his life.
Before heading to Jerusalem, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain to pray.
My mom’s family owns a cabin in the Colorado rockies. When you go up the mountains, it feels like you can see everything from just that little part of the world. The air is so thin. It’s kind of like you are in another atmosphere. I remember one time when my cousins and I were climbing a mountain in the summer. We were at the top and noticed a pile of snow. Snow in the Summer? Strange things happen on top of mountains.
A strange thing happened to Jesus when he was on the mountain. He was talking to God and suddenly two famous prophets, Moses and Elijah, came to give him encouragements for what to do in the dangerous land of Jerusalem. Of course they had experience with these kind of problems themselves. Moses had made Pharaoh extremely mad, and a cruel king wanted to kill Elijah. What was crazy about this was that these prophets were dead. They were literally walking dead, but now they were magically alive, talking with Jesus.
If I had to make a hard decision it…
Made in China | 31 January 2016
Text: Psalm 19
Speaker: Ruth Leonard
On the ride to the airport I soak up the sky -the amazing clouds, the vast deep, brilliant blue. Before entering the terminal, I take my last deep breath of Columbus air. I won’t breathe it again until I return. Hours later the plane descends into a brown haze, I land in Beijing, and the sky is no more. Lest you think me overly dramatic, I’ve been doing this since 2003. I have only seen the pollution grow worse,—much worse.
The first time our family landed, we were aware of a smell—an acrid sensation we had never experienced. It permeated everything, but became much more pronounced when we arrived in Xinxiang. You got used to it. You accepted it. If the air cleared for some reason, everyone was happy. A day with blue skies was nearly a holiday. It was a faintish blue, but it offered a hopefulness. But that happened so infrequently I would note it down on my calendar. And we would take a photo.
Xinxiang is southwest of Beijing, about the same distance as Columbus is to Washington D.C. Before leaving the country after a semester of teaching I developed a routine. I would finish the last of the grading of final exams, then catch a train to Beijing. I’d stay a night at the apartment of our Mennonite Central Committee country representatives for fun, before happily leaving for the airport to return to Columbus. In our talks over dinner the conversation would always turn to the pollution. We had an odd little competition. They would always insist it was the worst in Beijing. I knew it was not.
A few years ago I used my iPad to take a video of the trip. When I boarded the train in Xinxiang, I could see perhaps 100…
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled:” Entering our anti-racism work | 24 January 2016
https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/20160124sermon.mp3
Text: Luke 4:14-30
When did you first realize you were white?
What do you like about being white?
These are two of the questions posed during Damascus Road anti-racism trainings, initiated by Mennonite Central Committee.
The questions aren’t just for white folks. “When did you first realize you were black?” “What do you like about being brown?”
When I participated in a Damascus Road training in 2012 and heard that question, “What do you like about being white?” I remember thinking: Hmmm…that roughly resembles a trick question!
Is one allowed to like being white?
I do feel a special appreciation for my mom’s Swiss Mennonite heritage. That’s OK, right? I guess most of the music I listen to is from white artists. Even though I don’t drink much coffee, I do like coffee shops, which, I’ve discovered, did land as the #1 item on a lengthy list in a book called “Stuff White People Like,” just nudging out #2 which was “Religions their parents don’t belong to.”
Is it taboo to bring in biological factors? I like milk and dairy products and know that people of certain European descent have a higher level of lactose tolerance than other ethnic groups because of our closer co-evolution with dairy cattle.
Is it OK to like things that are overtly examples of white privilege? Is it OK to like not being followed around by staff in grocery stores afraid I might steal something? Is it OK to like getting the benefit of the doubt rather than being assumed suspicious? To able to put on a hoodie without thinking twice about it? Is it OK to like that none of my close relatives are incarcerated? Is it OK to like that I grew up never having any reason to doubt that White Lives Matter?
And when did you first realize that you were…
