January 24, 2016, 1 Corinthians 12:12–31a

For just as the body is one and has many members, 

and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as God chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? 

As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. 

But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 

But strive for the greater gifts. 

And I will show you a still more excellent way (which is love). 

***

The best way I have ever heard Attention Deficit Disorder or (ADD) described is that it isn't that you can’t concentrate. It's that you can’t concentrate on one thing at a time. Growing up in school when the classroom was supposed to be quiet, I would hear fellow student’s pencils scratching the paper like bulldozer beside my ear.  In college, teachers would send me into an office having no idea that their clock clicked every single second like an incessant tap on the shoulder. Moreover, their clutter of books, like a splatter paint rainbow my eyes never coming to rest. School it seemed was for one part of the body. That which could focus on one singular thing. 

Meanwhile, I go on runs with friends, and as they focus on how far and how fast, I make them slow down, or stop, or smell. Did you see the snowflaked fractualed form of frost on the path, listen to the caughcaphany of all those birds in the bushes, oh my gosh the cherries are ripe over the bridge lets climb and taste one. My friends would have run on by, like a test of here to there as fast as you can, and if you are running in a race this is what you want, but perhaps if you want to notice the gifts in an hour’s slice of day along the path, you take me along. You set the pace, and I will slow us down, because I don’t measure in speed or distance, I measure a run firstly in that we got out, in the wonder that there was a friend to meet, an owl in the tree, and the way the light played against the melting snow. On a run, with a friend, I get to feel like I am part of the body, in a way I didn’t always get to in school. I get to feel that my gift, of good eyes, and attention to everything, has value. That there is a place for who God created me to be. 

Yesterday on the ski hill, seven year old, Alex in his high pitched voice, yelled my name, “Katy,” and it made me feel so special. Alex’s has the gift of excitement and welcome, he is unafraid to wave a big hello to his friends, and even to us adults, he wants to tell you a story or show you something cool, or just yell the greeting of your name as loud as he can. As a congregation we are blessed that Alex has a voice and lots of energy especially during Children’s time, and I think as a congregation we have created space for Alex’s gift and I hope, in this place, he feels a part of the body. Last week, Tawny came up to me after church and said her gift was drawing little bugs and I wondered where God might be calling us to have pictures of little bugs in this church, or in the community, does anyone have a need for little bugs, for a budding artist, and a girl willing to share. It seemed a harder gift to place than something like Zach Allen’s trumpet, or LaVonne’s meticulous treasurer skills, or Arlita’s prayers, and Nancy Johnson’s hugs. And Tawny said, “I will draw you one,” and I thought just how nice that would be. What if Tawny’s part of the body was the gift of sharing pictures of little bugs. What if upon getting a little picture of tiny bugs it felt like Alex yelling your name on the ski hill? I bet our hearts will fill with an equal feeling of love. 

I think of us like puzzle pieces, some of us are one color with gifts expertly honed like Louise and her quilts, and others are harder to tell, perhaps more than one color and uneasily separated into a pile, and then you see Deb, help to walk Mike Baker or interact with little kids, and you see her gifts as a school occupational therapist. We are all an odd bunch of colors and shapes but then you see one piece that will go with another, Marion Price walks in with books for preschool Sunday school and the little ones leave her class with both her peace and joy quietly saying hello and they cling the banister stairs. 

I imagine God has the giant puzzle in God’s mind. 

God knows the colors, and  

not just our congregation,

a community of colors

a world of colors

we are building God’s puzzle

look at yourself

look at your neighbor

how does each one give

are we missing pieces

how do we create a place for each one?

and together it is the body of Christ.

January 17, 2016, 1 Corinthians 12:1 & 3 -11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed… Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

***

It can be eye opening to go to another country and find our American currency doesn’t work. That no matter how strong our economy, locally, there is a different system, one based on both the present of state of trade in that country, and also its history. Perhaps we find their coin currency heavy but weigh that it is long lasting. Perhaps we look not at white presidents and inventors depicted in green but at paintings of birds colored in oranges and reds. They may be a historic reason you can’t trade our note with Andrew Jackson for Curacao’s note with leaders of black slave rebellions. Its a different type of system, its a different type of currency, you can’t trade one for the other. 

Similarity, I watched my parents struggle with the content of, “island time.” It began at the airport with a two hour customs wait, followed by a missing car rental employee who reminded my father, to no avail, “Your on vacation, relax.” It was true we had no where to be, but my father was insistent, that waiting at the airport was not where we wanted to relax. We would go out to eat, and each minute that a water, or drink didn’t come was taken as a slight, “Are we being treated this way because we didn’t make a reservation?” and then a measure of bad service. After an hour of time spent around a table with their family, I would see my parens glance at the watch on their wrist. It’s a different kind of time you can’t measure one against the other.

Likewise, the Holy Spirit deals in a different type of currency and in a different sense of time. We as a church have been measuring our lack. We have been measuring how much we will miss Luke when he is gone. We have been measuring what youth ministry would be like without a paid, full-time youth director. We have been measuring the decrease in our stewardship. We have been measuring the lack of volunteers. We have been measuring the empty Session positions. This is not how the Spirit measures, it doesn’t measure in lack, it measures in abundance, and you can’t trade one for the other. 

The Holy Spirit’s currency is entirely different. What if we measured instead that we have Luke for five more months, how can we make best of that time together? Does it look like the Youth and parents this weekend on their retreat? What if we measured the dozens of possibilities for youth ministry. Luke and I sat together and wondered how he would help the youth and their families to not be so reliant on him. We dreamed what if each youth suggested one person in the congregation who they felt they could go to if they were having a hard time or a joy. That that congregant, like a confirmation sponsor would pray for them, watch their games or recitals, and be in contact with their parents for support. How beautiful would it be rather than one person holding up the youth if we as a congregation offered ourselves to live into those promises of baptism. Recently, in a conversation about Christmas Eve, I told Kourtney that when I began I would sneak Bill Fessel’s name into the Christmas Eve slot as liturgist. He was so poised, well prepared, and well spoken, and I thought it was a good picture of our church to have an older gentlemen and a younger woman pastor both reading the scriptures. I said, in recent years it has been too hard for Pat to come, so they have stayed home together. This year they had a visitor, having known the Fessel’s from their buying her at Youth Auctions, Kourtney brought over cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve. Bill was so excited as he had not yet made anything for Christmas morning and Kourtney watched Bill care for Pat, which is what I wish on any young girl or boy, to witness that kind of love. Later, Kourtney told Luke, who in tears told me, tears because Luke and Jed had been the Fessel’s rent-a-grandkids, it had been the Rembold’s job to care for the Fessels and likewise for the Fessels to care for them, and watch the boys as they grew. Now as Luke was leaving again, he was able to know both the youth, and the grandparent, were in good hands. This is how the Spirit measures. This is the Spirit’s timeline, in generations, in words said in passing, and picked up and followed through without direction. What if we as a church measured this, this abundance. 

Similarly, what if we asked who has increased their stewardship this year and learned from them? What if we counted Stewardship not just as pledges, but gifts of time, and resources, and talents? What if we saw our currency not just as our American dollar in the stocks of our endowment and the pledges of our people, but instead in things like Jim Lissman’s carpentry, Katya and Sabine’s voice, Evan’s computer skills, and Dale Dodson’s humor. You can’t put a price on that abundance, it doesn't trade, you can;t trade the values of the outside world for the gifts of the Spirit. What if before we started anything new, or redid anything old, we looked the list of gifts of our congregants. Do you know how many people offered to lead a hike in last week’s visioning? Enough to make me wonder, why are we not hiking more, getting outdoors, going camping together? There is this whole pile of gifts for outdoor ministry. You see it in the energy of youth Sunday or Worship in the park. Its listed on our wall in blue sticky notes waiting to be used. Do you know how many people said they could cook? It made sense those are ministries which thrive. There is never a problem finding someone to cook in this church and likewise I could name a handful of, “best ofs” Bob Moon’s Lasagna, Shirley’s deviled eggs, that dessert that Betty Duncan makes, Mark Fern’s elk chill, Ginger’s sundries tomato bread…etc. I dream of a meal comprised of all these things, think of the abundance. Did you notice any gifts that had no place to share and were just waiting to be asked, to find a place for their special gift of the Spirit? Did you ever wonder, perhaps we have more than we could ever need. 

The Spirit doesn’t look at the holes, it looks at the gifts, it doesn’t follow our calendar for budget processes and stewardship seasons, and looks our abundance and it dreams. It dreams what could be and it in works in things like cinnamon roll deliveries, based on youth auctions, and generations of kids, and the Fessels loving nature. Perhaps we have been too busy glancing a our watches to realize we are surrounded by family and have no where to be and that is more than what we could ever ask. Its what we wanted in the first place. 

November 22, 2015 Mark 12:38-44

            As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

            He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

***

            I wonder what the poor widow will eat, for if she has given all she has, there is none left for food. I wonder where the poor widow will sleep, for if she has given all she has, she has accumulated nothing for rent. I wonder how far she must travel to feel safe enough to rest, for I don’t see see the scribes, with their long robes, providing her a space to call home. So, I wonder who will help her on the road. She has given everything she had, and in so doing, become a beggar, and beggars can’t be choosers. In giving everything she has she has given up having choices. These are the places my head takes me when I hear her story. I go to practicalities, and necessities. I question what is next. I dislike her frivolousness, her naivety, her delirious hope. But then, I imagine the freedom of such an encompassing hope, and I look around, and this hope is my inspiration.

            This week,

“When seven year old Jack Swanson heard that the Islamic Center of Pflugerville, in Texas, had been vandalized, he decided to donate all of his savings – $20 dollars – to the mosque. Vandals had torn pages of the Qur’an, covered it in feces and left it outside the entrance of the mosque. Jack’s mother told ABC News that her son had counted all of his pennies that he had been saving up and exchanged them to a $20 note to give to the mosque. Faisal Na’eem a member of the Mosque’s management told ABC News that members of the Mosque were delighted by Jack’s generosity and that it had brought them hope, “Jack’s 20 dollars are worth twenty million dollars to us because it’s the thought that counts…This gives me hope… it’s not one versus the other. Our kids are going to grow up together… If we have more kind-hearted kids like (Jack) in the world, I have hope for our future.^[1]”

            In the end the mosque gifts Jack with an iPad, the very thing for which he had been saving, but I don’t think the physicality of each gift is the point, it is the hope that accompanies them, the hope in a future worth giving everything you have. This story was this week, but certainly not the first time people have been called to a frivolousness of hope.

            Dan McKnight writes,

“In 1934 a young pastor watched in sadness as his democratic, educated, and Christian community discarded more and more of its core values. Fear-mongering politicians lured patriotic citizens to throw out their Bibles and worship at the altar of National Security instead, and to behave terribly toward foreigners, minorities, the disabled and the mentally ill. Three weeks after Adolf Hitler was proclaimed Der Führer, nine months after the 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring' took effect, that young pastor preached a sermon to his flag-waving, nationalist colleagues about how Christians in a crisis should behave.”

            This pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,

“There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture, and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security... To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying down the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1934 [Renate Bethge's Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Brief Life]

            The way that led to the cross was not one of fighting, it was not one of hoarding, it was not one that kept a single penny. It was that which was delirious with hope, frivolous with expectation, and held a naivety that overcame the world. We as Christians are a people of hope, not of fear, and I like to imagine, what it would be like, even if just for a moment, we entertained a picture of life rooted in hope. Life based not in practicalities, but in the necessity of hope.

            To imagine it is to imagine the kingdom of God. It might look like four women in 1884 beginning a Presbyterian Church in the middle of mining camp, frontier town, Baker City, Oregon. It might look like two church fires later the same congregation still continuing. It might look like that congregation today, taking youth under its wing, nurturing its Luke Rembolds that they might someday nurture it’s Jake McClaughrys of this congregation or others. It might look like a church who puts as much, or more effort, into otherwise unaccepted kids, as it does those who are bound for high achievement. Because they value hope as much and more than success. It might look like a congregation who watched Nathan Defrees grow and now celebrates with a bustle of excitement he and his wife’s first child. It might look like writing on the Stewardship letters to college kids, “We wanted you to feel included, but hope you think about giving where you are.” That the stamps and paper, are worth the cost of the possibility, of helping young adults learn to pay it forward, and to pay those blessing back to God, with whatever single penny they have. That they are worth our hope. It may look like the volunteers at Open Door, serving breakfast to middle schoolers because they believe people should be fed body and soul no matter if those volunteers, much less the church, receives anything in return. It may look like a lot of planning for the Backpack Program which sends food home with kids for the weekend because to give to them is to give out of our abundance, when we could have easily had lack as they. I imagine too that a life based in hope isn’t based on an endowment, or perpetuity, much less tomorrow, it is based our giving today. That we give out of our hope, that we give toward the church, and the community, and the world we can imagine to be God’s kingdom.

            I like to imagine that we are Jesus watching the poor widow, unafraid of what she will eat, unafraid of where she will sleep, unafraid of her safety, or the kindness of strangers, but instead already living into the kingdom of God. I pray we watch and one another, and see her frivolousness of hope, and its inspiration thereunto. I pray as Christians we can been seen as deliriously hopeful. I imagine a place with the generosity of children and the way they are able to break down the walls that divide us with their hopeful simplicity. I imagine a place with naivety of peace valued as the strength of nations. I imagine a church who gives not as those with abundance and fear for their own tomorrow, but instead gives out of their abundance of hope - for a community whose children are fed and accepted, for a country with youth who know how to paying it forward, for adults who value giving their time and talents to others as central to their identity, an identity of hope. It is to be Christian. To hope is to see the kingdom of God.

“God wills our liberation

Freedom from fear

Freedom from greed

Freedom to accept and love

and give,” Rev. Dr. Steve Kliewer

           

---

^[1] http://ilmfeed.com/boy-donates-savings-to-mosque-muslim-community-responds-with-a-surprise/

January 3, 2015 Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. 

***

Jed, what is it exactly that you do?

Observational astromnomer, professor at Willamette University. 

When you read this passage as a scientist how do you understand it?

• hunky dory, there isn’t anything which goes against science
• People have looked back historically for records but have been unable to find any of a star besides the biblical record (With regards to the second bullet point about how I understand the story (or feel about the story) as a scientist, I'll clarify that people have tried to go back and look for heavenly occurrences that could have occurred around the time of the Christmas story, and in some cases they've found potential candidates. But with the exact timing and dates being fuzzy, it's hard/impossible to say if any particular occurrence is "the one”)

What would the magi have noticed?

• bright like the North Star
• irregular pattern

What kind of star?

• a comet
• a supernova
• conjunction of planets

What is the difference between a comet and a supernova?

• Comet 
• frozen snowball
• periodic rotation
• move in even paths
• in a particular time
• a number of years to a millennium
• you would spot it in a different spot each night
• can be predicted
• comets stay in the sky a very long time
• Supernova 
• a star burning out and exploding at the end of its lifetime
• “going supernova”
• has no warning
• as bright as the moon
• would decidedly stand out
• conjunction of planets. 
• Basically, realize that Jupiter and Venus generally appear as the brightest objects in the sky (besides the moon) normally. 
• At certain times, Jupiter and Venus can appear so close together that they appear to be one SUPER bright star/object. 
• Planetary conjunctions also sometimes are tied to "signs" or "portents" as well in astrology, and planetary motions were at least tracked at the time.

• Why would they follow it?
• Telescopes were not invited yet, if you wanted to understand it you had to follow it and watch with your eyes
• Scientists would have tracked it
• Today a supernova would still be ver exciting, it would be in our news, scientists would be investigating it
• Same with a comet, if you remember Hailey’s comet? It was a big deal in the news as well.
• The would be out of the normal, people would have followed it

• Why do you feel it was a star that is connected to this passage?
• Stars live in the heavens
• they have inherent mystery and spirituality
• as a sign it makes sense.

• Do you feel like you as an astronomer study the heavens or the stars?
• the heavens are not just stars
• you look at the images from the humble telescope
• incomprehensible
• stunningly beautiful
• its why I am an observational astronomer rather than a theoretical
• its fun to look at and ponder
• New Years Eve went out at midnight
• observing the sky
• it was quiet
• and cold and clear
• and I pondered 
• you get to do that because it is so quiet and you feel so close all by yourself
• It’s interesting that it was quiet. The Christmas story I always imagined was loud, with angels and all the animals, the manger and the sheep, but this is quiet. What do you feel that might tell us about the character of God?
• God sends a sign for everyone. God sends a sign to the shepherds with the angels, its crazy and its loud and there is celebrating, but God also sent a sign in the silence of the night to the wisemen.  The wisemen might not have responded to angels. They respond to stars. Likewise, with their sheep out in the field a star might have been noticed by the shepherds but they, with their sheep would not be able to follow it such a journey. 
• I hear you taking this historical scientific event and reading God into that in general.
• I think that’s how God works. 
• God uses science and history to show us signs and wonders, in ways we can see. 
• In ways that are unique to who we are.

Katy closing

What I hear is that the star was a fitting sign in and from the heavens, a place of mystery, it that brought the wonder of God to all people, in this case the scientists following an amazingly bright star. And from your personal experience, this still happens in the quiet of a new year’s eve late on a clear night. That God gives us mystery to ponder and discover.