Today is Keeping CMC Safe Sunday. We won’t be discussing specific experiences of abuse, but abuse prevention itself can be activating. Many, perhaps even most of us, have been impacted by abuse in some way. Many, perhaps even most of us, have been impacted by church-related abuse in some way. And so, one of the ways we can offer care to our community today is by offering care to ourselves throughout this service and sermon; each of us is part of the community, and each of us matters.

If our bodies become dysregulated during the sermon, we can aid ourselves in self-comfort and self-regulation. I invite you to practice any of these things, should they be fitting:

-wiggle toes, roll shoulders, twist in seat, awareness of the ground beneath feet, pew beneath seat

-five things (see, hear, smell, taste, touch)

-“this is my hand”

-breathe in through our noses for a count of five, hold our breath for a moment, and release through my mouth for a count of five or longer.

May we extend ourselves the kindness we would a beloved child or a dear friend. May we be gentle and compassionate with ourselves and with one another.

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I have loved to write since I was a child. In elementary school, I often carried a notebook with me, adding to my “chapter book” in-progress throughout the day. I fell asleep constructing first sentences of new stories in my head. Writing came easily. Words flowed, and I delighted in bringing my imagination to the page.

Yet, as much as I loved writing, I never cared for outlines.

…I wanted to pause in case this roused the same response that my feelings about The Princess Bride did, but apparently outlines don’t evoke the same degree of emotional outpouring. …

I have never much cared for outlines. In elementary and middle school, when instructed to write an outline before writing a story or report, I often skipped that step. I vaguely recall creating retroactive outlines after completing writing projects. I resented the outlining task, and assumed—in the unabashed pride typical of my adolescent self—that outlines were for others, thosefor whom writing was difficult and ideas hard to come by.

It wasn’t until I was nearly 40 and in graduate school that I came to understand and appreciate the purpose and power of outlines. My writing practices had undergone a long period of hibernation, and I no longer felt the confidence of my youth. Perhaps that tender state made me more receptive to all that outlines have to offer a writing practice.

In my first seminary semester, our writing professor—himself an enthusiastic, creative writer—reminded us that as we prepare to write a paper, we outline not to restrict, but to free ourselves. As he noted, once we have created an outline for our papers, once we have established a directional map, a framework for where intend to go, the outline promotes ease and creativity as we write.

When I understand where I hope to “go” and how I hope to “get there,” I am released from the pressure of continually determining the overarching story and can focus instead on the creative details of the particular moment. An outline provides a hopeful framework of intention, for a project’s direction and purpose.

Keeping CMC Safe, too, operates as such a guiding, purposeful outline. Keeping CMC Safe upholds our Membership Commitment, reflects our overarching community story and supports our day-to-day engagements with one another. Ours is a Story…

And as with writing outlines, Keeping CMC Safe, too, serves not to restrict, but to free us.

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…

Keeping CMC Safe sets our collective intention: “The Policy is not intended to create alarm or suspicion among people, but rather to ensure the safety of children and youth and to protect workers from possible false accusations” (KCMCS Policy, p. 2, available on CMC website).The details of Keeping CMC Safe—for example, requiring that two adults are present with children and youth at all times, or requiring windowed Sunday School rooms—mean that children, youth and adults know what is expected. When we understand the community agreements, we are able to relax into the specific moments of our Sunday School classes, our Nursery and Preschoolers’ Time, VBS and other events.

Rather than limiting activity, these guidelines provide a shared foundation from which to grow, an agreed-upon response in the event of harm and a shared boundary within which we can more freely play, imagine, create, connect. Keeping CMC Safe provides a protective framework that benefits all in the community, and contributes to our individual and shared well-being.

Today’s passage from 1 Corinthians, too, provides an outline for being in community. Paul may be a surprising choice, given that many of the texts attributed to him reflect problematic perspectives on women, enslavement and social hierarchies (Introduction to 1 Corinthians, SBL Study Bible). And yet, this passage warrants a closer look. Paul addresses the fledgling church in Corinth, a church navigating relational turmoil familiar across the ages. We see our very human selves in the very human Corinthians. We are not strangers to “jealousy, quarreling, dissension.” Divisions like the Apollos-Paul division take up unique embodiments then and now, in our religious and sociopolitical realities. Paul addresses the Corinthians with responsive correction and the guidance necessary for continuing and growing the church. He wants the community to survive and to thrive.

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…

As Paul writes to the Corinthians, he reminds them that they—the people, the community—are the sacred location of the work of God: “You are God’s field, God’s building…you yourselves are God’s temple and…God’s spirit dwells in your midst” (1 Cor 3:9b, 16). Paul locates the holy, the divine, in the very bodies of the Corinthians. Godself realized in both spirit and the physical, the bodied.

This both-and body and spirit-ness has tremendous theological implications for the recipients of Paul’s letter. Though they navigate relational difficulties, the Corinthians are called to recognize the divine presence within, among and surrounding themselves. The quarrel with their neighbor takes on new meaning when they recognize themselves and their neighbor as the very location of God and God’s work: “You are God’s field, God’s building…Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in your midst?”

The theological implications for us, too, are tremendous. If, collectively, God’s spirit resides in the very earthy, bodied field, building, human, that calls for a profound degree of care for bodies and spirits. At CMC, that calls for a profound degree of care for the bodies and spirits of children and youth. “You are God’s field, God’s building…Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in your midst?” To deny this care is to deny the very God-ness; to enact this care—through Keeping CMC Safe and otherwise—is to acknowledge the very God-ness located within all, the very God-ness located within our children and youth.

As we extend this care to children and youth, we extend it to all of us. Perhaps even—symbolically and actually—offering care to our child selves retroactively, as we offer the children and youth in our midst the attuned, agreed-upon care we wish we had received when younger.

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…

When children and youth are able to thrive, so too does the whole community. Likewise, when the whole community is empowered to thrive, so too are the children and the youth. Our well-being is interwoven, deeply interconnected with the well-being of one another. And we are all called to nurture our collective well-being, in and through our commitments to the well-being of the children and youth among us.

Paul reminds the Corinthians, “For we are co-workers in God’s service” (1 Cor 3:9a). We too, are co-workers in God’s service, collaborating in care for the children and youth of CMC, recognizing that they, too, are the location of God’s divine Self, sacred in existence. We are all called to prevent the harm of their whole, sacred selves—bodies and spirits—and to collectively respond to harm when it occurs or is suspected. In this sacred co-work, a vibrant community—and vibrant individuals—can thrive and flourish.

God within us, within all, offers hope in the midst of suffering. This is not a false positivity that claims, “everything happens for a reason.” I find no comfort—nor truth—in that statement. Rather, God’s ever-presence means that even when suffering occurs, all is not lost. Healing is possible. The resurrection story reminds us that even a cold and empty tomb hints at life that has refused death.

Paul says to the Corinthians, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but it is God that has been making it grow” (1 Cor 3:6). We plant and nurture with the best of intentions, and with God, life springs forth, perhaps in conjunction with, and perhaps in resistance to, our own participation. God dwells within and among us, aches with, celebrates with, works with.

We are called to holy care in our sacred, divine co-work. “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 10-11).

“Each one should build with care…”

“Each one should build with care…”

“Each one should build with care…”

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…

The shirt I am wearing says, “Listen to Women Preach.” This is not a personal plea for today, but rather a statement of resistance that asks: to whose words and experiences do we truly, deeply listen? When we speak of abuse, we often speak of women and femmes, children and youth as vulnerable. The word vulnerable is, in many ways, apt, and provides a way for us to succinctly refer to individuals, groups and shared experiences. However, in using the word “vulnerable” or “vulnerability,” we may unintentionally imply that women, children and youth possess an inherent quality that makes us susceptible to abuse.

I chose this shirt as a reminder to us all, myself included: it is our systems and structures and patterns of individual and group behaviors that impose undue risk. The problem is not their or our vulnerability; the problem lies in that and those heaping the burden of risk upon some and certain humans. And yet, the risk falls not only to particular humans, but to all, as boys and men and non-binary and transgender people, too, experience abuse. Experiences of abuse are not limited by gender identity or expression.

And neither are abusive actions.

Though, as a woman, I love this shirt because it calls attention to centuries of ongoing oppression and silencing of women in religious and faith spaces, this phrase is just that: a phrase. Too simple to reflect the complex humanity within each and every one of us.

There are women who preach today from seats of political power, declaring and upholding immense violence and harm.

It is not simply that we must listen. We must listen deeply, in ways that demand our  full attention, our discernment, in ways that remind us that the potential to be harmed and to harm exists within each and every one of us.

To be human is complex. To be human in community is complex, complicated, many things at once.

When we deeply listen and respond to one another, we practice deep caring for one another, for our community and for the children and youth among us…for us all. Keeping CMC Safe provides us with an outline, a framework for attuning ourselves to the words, experiences and well-being of one another; we are co-workers in Keeping CMC Safe.

As we water the seeds of life that have been planted, and carefully build upon the foundations of life laid before, we are co-workers in Keeping CMC Safe.

Listen to Women Preach…Listen to Children and Youth Preach…Listen to one another preach…listen with full attention, listen deeply, listen with discernment, listen in ways that recognize our full, complex, complicated humanity.

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17).

Together, we are the temple, residence of God’s Self, God’s work, God’s spirit. May we together nourish the soil of our collective garden. May we together build upon ancestral foundations of faith, adjusting and responding as needed. May we together recognize and live into our shared responsibility for the well-being of our children, the well-being of our youth, the well-being of all of us, and of all…together the temple.

Let’s take a deep breath in together, through the nose…hold at the top, and out through the mouth…