The Kingdom of God Is Within You

November 28, 2018

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.’ -- Luke 17:20,21 (NRSV)

All that you need, God has already provided. 

You are a visible expression of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

The Light is within you.

These are phrases I often use when talking to people who need a bit of encouragement. Encouragement is a big part of what I do. It's a part of the fabric of who I am as a pastor and who I am as a human being. I try to see the best in people and I try to help them see the best in themselves.

This is not accident. It is gift -- from the Holy Spirit, and it is intention. 

I believe people should believe in themselves because I believe that God believes in us. So, I set about every day to help people remember this. God created us in love. God created us in the image of God. God desires, and we also desire for God's Reign to come on earth as it is in heaven. We pray it. We believe it. We work toward it.

I do not consider that this is anything special or unique or lovely in any way. I consider it simply responding to my call to ministry among God's people. There are so many ways I fail and fall short of that calling. Encouragement and seeing God in people are deeds that I can repeat and they are a calling to which I try to be faithful. 

May God be gracious and near to all who need to hear a word of encouragement today.

Peace and Love,
Jerry

Heraclitus of Ephesus and Change Theory

November 20, 2018

Heraclitus of Ephesus was a Greek philosopher. He lived from 535 BCE to 475 BCE. Likely you, dear reader, have never heard of him. He isn't a household name like Aristotle or Socrates, but Plato knew of him and his thoughts about the universe and quoted him often. Heraclitus was best known for his novel idea that the nature of the known universe is change. That is; everything in the universe is always changing. If something is a part of the known universe then it is in a constant state of change. 

Everything in the universe is changing constantly? Yes.

That has some fairly broad implications for our understanding of all that is. 

Are rocks changing? Yes. 

Is the universe changing? Yes.

Is time changing? Yes.

Constantly. Without ceasing. Everything in the known universe is in a state of change.

Heraclitus of Ephesus

Plato, borrowing from Heraclitus quotes him several times in his work, Cratylus. He quotes Heraclitus saying, 

"All entities are moving and nothing remains still."

"Everything flows and nothing stays.

Everything flows and nothing abides.

Everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.

Everything flows; nothing remains.

All is flux, nothing is stationary.

All is flux, nothing stays still.

All flows, nothing stays.”

“You could not step twice into the same river.”

Kentucky River dam at Valley View

It was that last phrase that came to my mind this morning as I was meditating in the office at the church. So much has changed. So much is still going to change. You cannot step into the same water twice.

Yesterday was yet another memorial service for yet another beloved saint of the church. It was a difficult service for me because the person who passed away has figured in so much of what the church has been doing during the years I have been here. She made a point to consult me, include me, value me. She passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. It has been a shock to the system of the church, and to my system – and even more so to her family. Today I have finally found some time to explore my own shock, grief, loss and to ponder the bigger thoughts about time and life and change and death and, par for the course with me, what it all means to the universe in general.

I don’t consider that I have never been averse to change. As a child I loved new buildings, newer houses, new cars, etc. I didn’t have a whole lot of appreciation for older things. Now that I am an older thing even that has mindset has changed some. What I am learning to process over the span of my life is how change sometimes takes away things that we hold precious – never to be held or loved or touched in the same way again. The resulting losses leave holes that cannot be filled with new things. Sometimes change can bring negative consequences. Not all change is positive or progressive. Sometimes change is destructive and harmful, but one cannot stop the changes. RUSH sings this so eloquently in their defining song, “Tom Sawyer,” “He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is.”

You simply cannot step into the same river twice.

One can be sad about that at times, while rejoicing in it at other times. One can receive negative consequences from that reality and one can reap benefits from that change too. Life isn’t comprised only of positive changes. Sometimes the changes hurt. But the changes are still going to come. No stopping that.

I think about the Qoheleth who wrote the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 

a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

Thanks to ole Heraclitus of Ephesus we know that nothing is stationary, nothing stays still. Everything will change in its season. 

And I believe that God, who is outside the known universe and not subject to its physical laws, is in charge of the times and the seasons.

Peace and Love,

Jerry

Henri Nouwen: And a Difficult Quote

November 6, 2018 -- Election Day

I Voted

It's Election Day. The crescendo of ridiculous campaign advertising will recede tonight. I think it's silly when people say all the money spent on campaigns could be used to feed all the hungry in the world. While I suppose that's technically true, it seems to me that the people who give so generously to campaigns aren't the ones volunteering in underdeveloped places with marginalized populations and generously donating of their wealth to feed victims of famine -- and they aren't going to. If they didn't give to political campaigns I don't think their money would find its way to feeding the poor. That's my thoughts anyway and it's my blog so, ......

But the crescendo of political advertising will recede tonight to a murmur of what it has been in the last few days. The President can go back to spending his days and nights in Washington and his weekends in the Hamptons or at a club in Virginia or Florida. And we can get on to what really matters tonight, UK versus Duke. That's where our passions really lie because UK fans rejoice in loathing Dukies.

Loathing seems to be gaining in popularity these days. Maybe it's been there all along but it seems a bit more open and obvious. People seem to feel a little less shame about open enmity for others. I suspect just about all of us were taught not to hate, but well, that lesson doesn't seem to have taken too well. Before Christian Laettner hit that shot in the 1992 Regional Final, he stepped directly on the chest of Aminu Timberlake who was lying helpless on the court. Laettner should have been ejected and if he had that infamous shot would never have happened. But it did, and the hate rolls on. So much so that in 2015, ESPN did a 30 for 30 episode entitled, "I Hate Christian Laettner,"

Laettner's foot on Timberlake's chest

But you know, loathing seems more evident in other places. There are neo-Nazis in our country right now and the Southern Poverty Law Center tells us membership is on the rise. There are also white nationalist groups that are growing and becoming more bold in their visibility. The men of the KKK wore masks to cover their faces -- but not these white nationalist groups. Anti-Semitism? Rising. Mass shootings based on ethnicity, religion, national origin -- on the rise. Happens often now. Loathing of Central Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans (who are US citizens), exploding on social media. Political loathing is definitely on the rise. Democrats are sick, perverted and are inviting gang members into our towns. Republicans are hateful, racist and bigots who want all brown people disenfranchised.

We seem to be getting way better and way more demonstrative in our loathing. Yay us!

In my sermon this past Sunday, when speaking about the Lectionary Gospel text for Pentecost 24, Mark 12:28-34 I offered a quote from Henri Nouwen. It's a difficult quote. 

Let me say a word about Nouwen. He's one of my spiritual heroes. Nouwen was a Catholic priest whose gentleness and compassion inspire me. After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, Nouwen went on to work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the L'Arche Daybreak community in Ontario.

Henri Nouwen

Here's the quote I shared. "For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved."

No loathing there. No prejudice against women, GLBTQ folks, people of color, the poor, the rich. No loathing at all -- only love. Loathing is easy. Loving is difficult. Jesus clearly prefers not to call his followers to what is easy, but instead to what is divine. Love is divine. Loving one's neighbor as one's self is divine. It's our imperative. It's the greatest and the first commandment says Jesus. So, that's what we are called to do.

And yet, loathing is everywhere we turn. So here's where I come down on this whole blog post, where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. We are not called to change the world, we are called to change ourselves. If we change our hearts then the heart of the world will be changed. One by one, individual by individual, town by town, state by state, country by country, one great body of humanity living in a large neighborhood we call Earth. 

There are no boundaries to love. No borders. No colors. No teams. No parties. No boundaries to love. That's difficult. It's really difficult to love like that. Jesus has put us in a bind with this imperative to boundless love because, Go Cats. Beat Duke.

Peace and Love,

Jerry