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Malleable

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A Sermon for 8 September 2019 – 13th Sunday after Pentecost

A reading from the prophet Jeremiah 18:1-11. And perhaps before reading this text, it’d be helpful to remember that the prophet Jeremiah was called to speak for God to the people of Judah. The thought is that as things in Israel already had fallen apart when the Assyrians overtook and exiled the northern part of what once had been the unified kingdom, things in Judah were just beginning to fall apart and finally did entirely when Babylon conquered and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BCE. In the days leading up to the devastation of Jerusalem, folks were wondering: How did we get here? How could something like this happen to the people of God? Did we neglect the covenant? Is God with us still? (Connections, Yr. C, Vol. 3, WJKP, 2019. Joseph J. Clifford, p. 287). Throughout Scripture, we hear varying responses to such questions – even as we Christians continue to make sense of national and personal devastation in so many different ways. Like: have we brought it on ourselves? Do destructive things just happen – even to righteous people? The likes of faithful Job or the descendants of Abraham who found themselves enslaved in Egypt only, at last, to be rescued by a grace-filled God. As we ponder the welcomed and unwelcomed changes of our own lives and of our life together as the body of Christ, let us listen for God’s word to us in this reading of Jeremiah 18:1-11.

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there the potter was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

 

Early in the 12th Century, Hildegard of Bingen was busy having visions from God. Hildegard began having such visions as young as three years of age. Tithed to the church at birth by her noble parents because she was the tenth of their children, Hildegard was brought when she was 8 to live with her spiritual mother Jutta, an anchoress turned abbess who was enclosed in the Benedictine Monastery at Disibodenberg. There, Jutta was to “introduce (Hildegard) to the habit of humility and innocence” in a double monastery – a Celtic-founded monastery that has both men and women (Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life, Second Edition, Sabina Flanagan, 1998 p. 2-3).

Many today seek deep, direct connection with the Divine. Hildegard’s experience warns regarding such communion. For throughout her life, whenever she failed to heed the Voice of her visions; Hildegard had terrible bouts of illness. Finally, at the age of 43, Hildegard acquiesced to the Voice to publicly reveal her visions and the Voice’s insistence that she (a mere woman, a simple nun) write what she saw. So it was that this remarkable 12th Century woman claimed her own spiritual experience and began a forty-year ministry that would include counseling kings, advising popes chastising to them in writing the injustices she saw in archbishops and bishops and priests, cultivating gifts in twelve areas of human endeavor including music and art and healing and science and theology and pharmacology and preaching and writing and iconography, and being a complete innovator who it has been said was both “daring and audacious so much so that 800 years later (she’s) made a huge impact in our time (and hasn’t) become irrelevant or boring” (quote by Mary Ford Grabowsky in “A Very Real Mystic,” Hildegard von Bingen In Portrait).

You may know the vivacious, larger-than-life force that was Hildegard for her signature concept viriditas or greening power. In Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen by Matthew Fox, viriditas is described as “God’s freshness that humans receive in their spiritual and physical life forces. It is the power of springtime, a germinating force, a fruitfulness that comes from God and permeates all creation” (Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, Matthew Fox, 2002, p. 44). As a mystic of the Rhineland; Hildegard was influenced by the lush, flourishing valley that surrounded her throughout her lifetime. One scholar explains that Hildegard saw the fecundity of the Rhineland and believed it all was the very essence of life. As so many do, Hildegard didn’t just look upon the world as beautiful. In fact, in the mandala of her vision entitled “The Six Days of Creation Renewed,” Hildegard chastises Adam because, as she wrote: “’he took in the smell with his nose, but he did not perceive the taste with his mouth. Nor did he touch it with his hands’” (Ibid., p. 97 – Hildegard’s own words). According to Hildegard, this was Adam’s great fall. Because God – who Hildegard calls “the purest spring” – (she also calls Jesus “Greenness Incarnate” and the Holy Spirit the “greening power in motion, making all things grow, expand, celebrate” [Ibid., pp. 43-44]). According to Hildegard, God has put the greening power within us and all things, and we are not merely to look upon it with our eyes – appreciating how pretty it is. Our viriditas is in us in order for us to participate with the Creator in creating. Thereby assisting “the cosmos in its unfolding” (quote by Matthew Fox in “A Very Real Mystic,” Hildegard von Bingen In Portrait). Hildegard presses the point further in her vision entitled “Sin – Drying Up.” In this mandala, Hildegard records what she saw from God – the merciful dew sent to the human heart by the Holy Spirit (Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, p. 92). The sap of life – the greening power that keeps our souls from turning to dryness. That keeps us from becoming cold, hardened, dust – the greatest sin. For, as Hildegard wrote: “A dried-up person and dried-up culture lose their ability to create” (Ibid., p. 46). Thus, Hildegard explained that our baptisms are “baptisms through water but into moistness” (Ibid.). Our baptism, Hildegard proclaimed, is “a commitment on our part to stay wet (to remain) green. Like God” (Ibid.).

Hildegard’s viriditas comes to mind as we hear the reading from the prophet Jeremiah. To the potter, the prophet is charged to go. There, Jeremiah will hear God’s word when he sees what the potter is up to. If you’ve ever tried to work clay on a wheel, you know how important the friction of both hands. The centering of the clay. The need for water to keep the material on the wheel malleable. Clay that dries out. Clay without that bit of water stiffens. It no longer can be shaped. It becomes hardened into a form useless to the potter. But, as Jeremiah saw in his visit to the potter’s house: even if clay goes awry on the wheel; as long as it is moist, the potter can scoop it up. Press out the kinks in preparation to re-center it on the wheel and begin again.

It’s like that with the people of God. We’re meant to drip with the waters of our baptisms. To stay malleable for use by the Creator. Because, as one commentator writes: “When our shape becomes fixed, we leave little room for God’s grace to” re-form us (Connections, Yr. C, Vol. 3, WJKP, 2019. Joseph J. Clifford, p. 288).

You remember a two summers ago when we were busy doing that CAT. That Church Assessment Tool that resulted in a Vital Signs report regarding this congregation. One of the things we learned through that process is that churches that are vital today have key factors in common. Among such things as vital worship, meaningful relationships, and an orientation to lifelong learning; communities of faith that are vital today are flexible. They are malleable. They stay green – growing like clay able to be re-shaped by the potter in order to be effectively used in the context in which that clay finds itself today.

In the past few weeks while I’ve been away, I’ve been asked more than once to tell about the congregation among which I serve as pastor. After about the third time of telling about the ministry we’ve been at together these past several months, I realized I had lots of very exciting things to tell. Of course, we’ve done the usual: worship each week on Sunday mornings. Holding meetings now and again for decision-making. But we’ve also stopped for some time of silence – in the middle of Presbyterian worship – not only to reflect individually upon our priorities, our own big rocks – but also to write notes of encouragement to teachers heading back to H.G. Hill Middle School for another year of investing in the children of Nashville. We’ve tried things like creating out of recycled and natural items as we learned a bit about Hildegard and God’s power at work in creation. We’ve learned more about caring for those who are aging and continued our intergenerational visits to homebound members of the church. This very month we are in the beginning stages of welcoming two new community partners to this congregation. One by providing space for those who participate in an effort called Nashville’s Non-Violent Communication. And another where we are working with peers in the community to launch a training and on-going support ministry for those who have lost a loved one through death by suicide. We’re continuing with our current community partners Playcare and H.G. Hill Middle School and Mending Hearts and Small World Yoga and the 12-step Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families that meets here every Saturday. A few of us even have met with innovative ministry leaders of Nashville to learn what more can be done for the assets of this congregation to creatively serve the needs of the community around us. Not to mention, our property leaders and Trustees have been working HARD to upgrade things like the electrical system of this building and our internet and phone systems that will allow us to find new ways to deepen our relationships with each other as we navigate typical 21st Century means of connecting.

It’d be easy to hunker down and think: we’re just a little group of people – aging and set in the ways we’ve always known. And then we hear things like people getting fed this summer by those from this congregation who went to provide meals during a Solidarity Retreat held monthly at Penuel Ridge Retreat Center for people who are homeless. Women recovering from addiction and trying to get their lives back together after serving time in prison coming here to sit down for a scrumptious, welcoming feast! We learn of young and middle-aged adults coming here weekly to work through the painful experiences of their childhood. We’re about to welcome to the facility those seeking to learn Heart Centered Mediation Practice in a four-week course being led by one of our new community partners. And even if Heart Centered Meditation Practice doesn’t sound like our preferred way to pray, hopefully some of us will commit to attend – if for no other reason than to learn a different way to connect with God that is meaningful for those who’d never come Sundays to worship like us. Hopefully a few more of us will volunteer our time this school year for the 30 new fifth graders now enrolled at H.G. Hill Middle School who just are learning to speak and read English and desperately need adult mentors to come help them grow.

It seems to me we’re moving along in our malleability as a congregation even by doing things like gathering after worship now for a true chance at fellowship instead of sprinting through coffee and treats a few minutes before worship begins. Supporting and encouraging each other through life’s joys and challenges. All the while giving of ourselves in new ways as we serve God by serving others in need. Slowly but surely we are being re-shaped. Re-fashioned. Re-formed by the Potter. Clay still dripping with the waters of our baptisms. Ready yet for use by our Great Creator today.

As the days roll on, may we stay malleable come what may!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2019 (All rights reserved.)

Parts of One Body

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A Sermon for 27 January 2019

A reading from the writings of the Apostle Paul as recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a.  Listen for God’s word to us.  Note this morning that I’m reading from the version of the bible called The Message.  And I’m going to read a few of the verses at the opening of chapter 12 to place us in Paul’s line of thought.  It’s a long reading, but listen.

“1What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives.  This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable.  . . .  4-7God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit.  God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit.  God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all.  Each person is given something to do that shows who God is:  everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.  . . .”  And now starting at verse 12 and following.

12-13“You easily enough can see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body.  Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body.  It’s exactly the same with Christ.  By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives.  We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which Christ has the final say in everything.  (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.)  Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink.  The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful.  We need something larger, more comprehensive.  14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less.  A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge.  It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.  If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so?  If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body?  If the body was all eye, how could it hear?  If all ear, how could it smell?  As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where God wanted it.  19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance.  For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of.  An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster.  What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place.  No part is important on its own.  Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”?  Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”?  As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary.  You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach.  When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower.  You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons.  If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher.  If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?   25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church:  every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t.  If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing.  If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.  27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are!  You must never forget this.  Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.  You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in God’s church, which is God’s “body”:  apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, those who pray in tongues.  But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, uni-dimensional Part?  It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues.  And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.  But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.’”

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God!

 

What is the purpose of the IT band?  You’d know if say, any one of the cold overcast days last week you were caught unexpectedly out in the rain.  Dashing for cover, you ran – or tried to run – as fast as you could to avoid getting drenched.  The next morning, it’s highly likely that at least one if not both of your IT bands would be talking to you.  As soon as you tried to swing your foot out of bed, the whole side of your leg from your hip to your knee seized up in achy pain.  Harvard researches have been busy creating a mechanical model of a human IT band.  They know it’s not a muscle, or a tendon as many often mistake.  “The IT band runs along the outside of the thigh, from just above the hip to just below the knee, and is made up of fascia, an elastic connective tissue found throughout the human body” (https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015-08/understanding-the-it-band/).  The researches also know – as would anyone trying to take cover from a cold, icy rain – that the IT band is responsible for our gait – that spring in our step.  It’s what allows us to swing our leg forward when we walk and run and cycle.  Referred to in full as the iliotibial band, it’s the “largest piece of fascia in the human body” (Ibid.).  It “stores and releases elastic energy to make walking and running more efficient” (Ibid.).  The IT band is what makes human locomotion possible – and when overused, the painful IT band syndrome that plagues many runners sets in.

How about capillaries?  Anyone wanna try to live without them?  Long ago my doctor tried to explain the importance of capillaries when I was down with a horrible respiratory infection that left me with asthma.  According to an online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, capillaries are the “minute blood vessels that form networks throughout bodily tissues; it is through the capillaries that oxygen, nutrients, and wastes are exchanged between the blood and the tissues.  . . .  (They) are about 8 to 10 microns in diameter, just large enough for red blood cells to pass through them in single file” (https://britannica.com/science/capillary).  That’s really, really small.  But try taking a deep breath without capillaries in your body.  Try doing just about anything, as our hearts wouldn’t function without capillaries.  . . .  Aren’t we, as the Psalmist proclaimed:  awesomely and wonderfully made? (Psalm 139:14)  From the retina of our right eye to the joint of our big left toe, every bit of our miraculous bodies has a particular function.  If we want to live healthy, every part is indispensable!

The Apostle Paul didn’t come up with the comparison of the human body for human community.  According to biblical commentator Lee C. Barrett, the metaphor “already enjoyed a long history in classical literature.  However,” according to Barrett, “Paul gave it a revolutionary new twist.  Previously, the comparison had reinforced hierarchy, suggesting that the lowly workers, the drones, should obey and support their military, mercantile, and political leaders.  Those at the bottom should stay put and be grateful for the guidance and protection of their natural superiors” (Feasting on the Word, Yr. C, Vol. 1, Lee C. Barrett, p. 278).  According to Barrett, the reasoning was “in the body, the brain that makes crucial decisions is more critical than the lowly organs that sustain routine daily functioning.  Even today, the analogy retains a seductive plausibility” Barrett explains.  “Our culture assumes that a talented CEO is worth more than a janitor and should be remunerated accordingly” (Ibid.).  Which, in my opinion, is all good and fine.  Until you’re sitting at a big fancy, CLEAN table at a board meeting somewhere and you really, really, really have to go to the bathroom!  Each part plays a valued role – from the one ensuring the toilet is clean and properly functioning to the one who drives forward the mission of the organization to the one who ensures everyone gets paid!

Paul’s wisdom is obvious in our life together.  Who wants to choose between having the funds to sustain a place for the church to come together for worship to having a clean, functioning sink say like for babies’ bottles to be prepared after diaper changing in Playcare, to being organized as servants of God for ministries in the community like tutoring at H.G. Hill Middle School or preparing food for 15 homeless people on retreat at Penuel Ridge on the 4th Thursday of June as we’re planning to do together this summer?  Every one of us – members of Christ’s body – has a role to play as a part of this expression of Christ’s church.  Understandably, we’re not all good at the same thing.  Depending on our age and physical abilities, we can’t all do the same thing.  None of us have quite the same passions and gifts.  Which is exactly how God created it to be.  Wasn’t it brilliant of God to ensure we’re not all like mathematical brainiacs?  Or boisterous extraverts sucking up all the room so that no one can stay quietly grounded in prayer?  But we need at least a few who excitedly can extend a hand to a guest coming for worship for the first time.  We need someone who can make the coffee for fellowship.  And another who can dream big dreams for ways to serve in the community.  We need someone who can set up an online presence in the 21st Century and someone who can cheer the lonely days of a widow no longer able to get out of the house.  We need ushers who can pass the offering plates just assuredly as we need grateful hearts who can give a portion from the work of our lives just so we can have a chance to come together for worship and service and spiritual growth.  You get it – even if you feel sometimes that you don’t matter as much as someone else.  That what you have to contribute isn’t as important as the next person’s.  It’s NOT ok to be a part of the church and neglect your part of being the church.

In her book Present Over Perfect, Shauna Niequist includes a chapter called “And the Soul Felt Its Worth.”  She beautifully writes:  “I think it’s taken me almost forty years to actually feel the worth of my soul.  . . .  The sense of my own worth.  That’s what we’re craving.  The sense that we matter.  That someone sees us.  That we’re loved and valued,” she writes (Present Over Perfect:  Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living; Shauna Niequist, Zondervan, 2016).  She continues, stating that “The soul’s worth . . . doesn’t come from earning or proving.  Image doesn’t matter.  Out-running the emptiness doesn’t work for long.  Each soul, every soul is worthy, because God made every soul and . . . because God’s love for us is so deep and wide and elaborate God wants to be with us.  To walk with us.  To teach us how to live in that love and worthiness” (Ibid.).  Take that in for a moment.  God’s love for us is what makes all of us worthy.  Is what gives us a place in the body.  Niequist concludes:  “It’s only when you understand God’s truly unconditional love that you begin to understand the worth of your own soul.  Not because of anything you’ve done, but because every soul is worthy.  Every one of us is worthy of love having been created by and in the image of the God of love” (Ibid.).

We know this stuff.  These very basic beliefs of Christian faith.  What is it that sometimes leaves us thinking what we have to offer isn’t enough?  Isn’t as good as so-and-so’s gift.  Couldn’t possibly be worked into living out the vision for ministry God has given to this church:  to serve God by serving others as we partner for mission in this community?  We’re here to make an impact for God first in the lives of one another, next in the lives of our community partners:  the 86 children of Playcare and their families.  The Small World Yoga participants who get the chance to be present and centered in peace through yoga here and in recovery centers and schools around Nashville because of the free-will donations received at class here each week.  We’re here to impact the lives of those in their own healing process through ACA, Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families.  And improve the lives of middle schoolers and their teachers down the road at H.G. Hill Middle.  We’re here to impact for good the women in recovery at Mending Hearts.  This is why this church exists.  What God intends to do through us.  . . .  Every part of this body – whether you’re more like the IT band responsible for our locomotion, for moving us forward.  Or more like the capillaries – involved in the very force of Life flowing through us.  Each part is indispensable.  Valued for the part that we are – no matter our official membership status!  Look around this room:  we each are needed if we want to be a healthy, living expression of Christ’s body.  Don’t forget that!  May God never let any one of us neglect our part in being Christ’s living body!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2019  (All rights reserved.)