The Church and Consumer Culture

     Dear Friends,

     This past week was the beginning of a sermon series entitled, "What's Going on Out There and What's Going on in Here?"  This is part of the Missional Transformation journey we began in May of 2011.  For a refresher of where we have been and where we are going on this process, please see http://www.fpcmicity.org/MissionalTransformationTimeline.

The following is the scripture and sermon from this last week.  This evening, I will post discussion questions and topics.  Respond as you will.

“The Church and the Consumer Culture”

July 14, 2013

Genesis 2 and 3, 11, selected verses

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,^* and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. ⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’  Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,^*
   for out of Man^* this one was taken.’ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ ²The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; ³but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; ⁵for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,^* knowing good and evil.’ ⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. ⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as they migrated from the east,^* they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ ⁵The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. ⁶And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’

            For this morning’s sermon, we are looking at the second creation story (which was actually written second) and the tale of the tower at Babel.  And looking at them together, we get a glimpse of human nature, and perhaps learn more about ourselves and the world around us.

            Genesis 2 and 3 tells of a giving and generous God who found it fit to share in the beauty and life which was within nature and character of God…found it fit to share this with the world and even to create human beings and to offer them the gifts of the world, the nurture of the land, the ripe vegetation that grew on the trees, the cool of the evening, and each other, with whom to create equal and meaningful community.

            And this God was not only a giving and generous God, but a God of boundaries, knowing that excess and overindulgence would ruin and take away the splendor of the gifts of the earth for the humans.  But, you know the rest of the story.  It wasn’t enough.  What they were given to eat and to enjoy…it wasn’t enough and they needed more.  Tempted by the serpent, being told that they will reach the status of the divine, the woman and the man stepped over the boundaries that were given, and thus lost the glory of the life in paradise.

            Skipping forward to chapter 11, we find a similar story.  The people are restless.  They build a city, but it’s not high enough, they too are tempted by reaching the status of the divine, wanting to build a city that actually reaches to heaven, they too end their tale in ruin, finding not the divine, but even more confusion in their language and certainly, I imagine, their souls.

            The world around us, and certainly the advertisers around us, would have us to believe that what we have is not enough.  And I don’t mean to say that for those of us who are living in poverty or who have lived in poverty, that there isn’t or wasn’t a time when there was not enough. I know all too well the pain of struggling to find the funds for the electricity bill or to make it through the week with these groceries because I can’t afford another trip to the store until next week.

            I’m not talking about that.  I’m talking about the fact that advertisements for cars, for clothes, for shoes, for that “must-have-item,” well these sell…they will always sell, even when all of us have a car or two, even when all of us have a closet full of clothes, several pairs of shoes, and many of those must-have-items, because what advertisers want us to believe is that we don’t have enough. And really, what we begin to hear in this message, is that WE are not enough.  Why, it’s really uncanny, even in children’s story books, the back cover is often marketed to kids in order for them to tell their parents that they need more.  On the back of Hannah’s favorite book, Olivia, are the pictures of three more Olivia books, and at 2 years old, she began to make the connection, and each time we would finish the book, she would remind me which books we didn’t have and which books we NEEDED to buy.  As I said, I’m not talking in this sermon about the moments in our lives when we simply don’t have enough, to feed our children, or to pay the bills.  What I mean is to say is that the human nature, even when it has enough, wants more, and we live in a culture that feeds that tendency.  When in all actuality, statistically, as research has found, while happiness does increase to certain point with income, once one has reached a certain moderate income level, happiness does not increase from that point.  So, what we are being sold is just not true.  Happiness will not come with having or buying or acquiring more and more and more. 

            This week begins the first of a sermon series entitled “What’s Going on Out There and In Here.”  You can find the subjects of the next four sermons in the tri-fold included in your bulletin.  This is part of our Missional Transformation program, as we together, as a congregation, discern our call, and begin to define our vision for the ministry God has given us.

            What’s going on out there is that we are consistently being given the message that we don’t have enough, that our desires are insatiable…we don’t have enough, and essentially, WE are not enough.  And it can be draining.  Draining to get to the end of the story book only to find out that you don’t have three of the books that must be needed to be a good 2 year old or a good mother of a two year old.  Draining to see the advertisements in the magazine or the television with all of those people with perfect smiles have something that we need because we’re not smiling that perfectly or with as much gusto.  Smiling with such gusto, they must have a taste of the divine. And we seek after that divine in the same way Adam and Eve did…and the same way as the builders of the tower of babel did, as well. And like in the story of Eve and Adam and of Babel, in the search for more and more, we only become more and more ashamed and confused…and we search then for more and more.

            And what’s going on in here…in the body of Christ formed in this congregation, is an opportunity not to fill and fill ourselves with more and more things and stuff, until we are overwhelmed…what’s going on in here is a place where you are actually given an opportunity to empty yourself…give of yourself, serve in the soup kitchen, serve in the Men’s Shelter, give of your resources to further the nurturing of bodies and souls within and without of these walls.

            What’s going on in here is that, through the power and love of God, the good news of the gospel is shared here…and it is that, in Christ, you ARE enough.  Just as you are.  Whether wearing designer labels or not.  Status and rank in here is are not dependent upon social standing, but leadership is servant leadership, as we follow the model of Jesus Christ, as it is written in the book of Philipians, who, though he was in the form of God,   did not regard equality with God   as something to be exploited, ⁷ but emptied himself,   taking the form of a slave,   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, ⁸   he humbled himself”

            And what’s going on in here…is that through Bible study, small groups, 3B, vacation Bible School, worship experiences and service experiences, is that you can be filled up with that which is satisfying, that which is lasting, that which WILL sustain you, that which, as we all desire it, a connection and knowledge of…a relationship with the Divine, with our God, with our creator.

            So, if you have been searching for the right words to say when you invite your neighbor to church next Sunday…tell them, that  you’d like to bring them to a place where they ARE enough, where they might have an opportunity to lay down the weight of the things of the world, and even empty themselves…that you’d like to bring them to a place where they might be filled with the sustaining love and power of God.  Because that is what I found going on here 2 years ago when I arrived, and that is what I still experience, by that grace of God, going on here now.

"Too Big To Know"

When I read the following quote from David Weinberger's book, "Too Big to Know," I wondered if the position and expectations of the local minister was changing rapidly, even from the time I entered seminary in 2003.

Weinberger describes the former way of education for a professional career:

"People study hard and become experts in particular areas. They earn credentials—degrees, publications, the occasional Nobel Prize—that make it easier for us trust them. They write books, teach classes, and go on TV, so that we all can benefit from their hard work. The results of that work go through vetting processes appropriate to the type and importance of its claims, providing us with even more assurance of its accuracy. As new discoveries are made and sanctioned, the body of knowledge grows. We build on it, engaging in a multi-generational project that, albeit with occasional missteps, leads us further along in our understanding of the world. Knowledge is a treasure, knowing is the distinctively human activity, and our system of knowledge is the basis for the hope that we might all one day come to agreement and live in peace.

We’ve grown up thinking that this is how knowledge works.

But as the digital age is revealing, that’s how knowledge worked when its medium was paper. Transform the medium by which we develop, preserve, and communicate knowledge, and we transform knowledge."

 Weinberger, David (2012-01-03). Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest P . Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

In my short nine-year ministry, I have often experienced a certain amount of anxiety regarding the amount of knowledge I've managed to retain from my seminary degree (three years, full-time graduate school).  While teaching classes, leading groups, preaching sermons, and offering pastoral care, I have been self-conscious about the amount of knowledge I share with, repeat, or impart to my parishioners. 

My experience in the DMin program at McCormick Theological Seminary, and specifically in this most recent course, "The Gospel and Global Media," has transformed the model of ministry into which I am growing.  The role of the Pastor is not necessarily to "know" the most information, but to lead in such a way that knowledge is sought after, discussed, prayed about, and used to live into faithful discipleship.  The truth is that there are plenty of sermons, worship services, and online Bible studies, but the role of the pastor is to exhibit wisdom in preaching, teaching, leading, and caring, in order to discern God's word in the midst of a mass array of words.

Weinberger writes:

 

"In a networked world, knowledge lives not in books or in heads but in the network itself. It’s not that the network is a super-brain or is going to become conscious. It’s not. Rather, the Internet enables groups to develop ideas further than any individual could. This moves knowledge from individual heads to the networking of the group. We still need to get maximum shared benefit from smart, knowledgeable individuals, but we do so by networking them."

In my context of ministry, the network includes a mass array of "pop-Christianity," which is broadcast on television, on the radio, blogs, online Bible studies, etc., and fellow community faith leaders, the small groups in the congregation, and the authors of secular and religious books which the congregation is reading.  It also, and most importantly, includes the triune God.  The pastor's role is to use the "knowledge" acquired through theological and biblical study, as well as the wisdom and centered leadership that is required to discern the word of our Triune God in the midst of the many words which inundate our world.

X-Ray Vision?

September 2, 2012

Mark 7:1-23

Rev. Ericka Parkinson Kilbourne

7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
⁷in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” ²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

            Many of you may know that Mike, Hannah, and I had the opportunity to travel up North in Michigan and Wisconsin this past week, and we are all grateful for your willingness to offer time off for us to find renewal for our bodies and spirits!

We returned from our week long vacation on Friday night, and so naturally, I had it in my mind that we needed to go to the grocery store yesterday, in order to get ready for life as usual, and fully stock the apartment that had been left bare for a week.

            No, I didn’t think about the fact that it was the prime shopping day for everyone else in the city…it being a Saturday, the first day of the month and Labor Day weekend.  I just knew we needed groceries, I didn’t intend to go shopping with 1000 other people!

            No one was happy while shopping.  Couples were bickering at each other, children were arguing with their parents, parents were yelling at their children. Faces looked grim, worried, troubled, and stressed. I’m going to be honest with you, Mike and I argued on the way to the grocery store.  Of course, I can’t remember now what we argued about…but it sure was important yesterday.

            Everyone was walking around  looking for things to fill their bodies, to feed their families, or themselves for the week, some were looking at healthy options in the produce aisle, others were considering options with the potato chips and candy.  Regardless of their place in the store, most of my neighbors whom I met yesterday seemed troubled in some way.

            In this particular scripture, the Pharisees and scribes are deeply troubled about Jesus and his disciples-particularly about the way that they choose to eat.  You see, there were very specific washing rituals that were common for Jews at the time and these were supposed to signify ones devotion to God.  Yet, Jesus and his disciples did not participate in the rituals. And before the young ones get the idea that Jesus didn’t wash his hands before dinner, and therefore you don’t have to wash your hands before dinner…it’s commonly understood that they did wash their hands…just not in the specific religious way that was expected of them.

            And this made the Pharisees and the Scribes mad!  “How could he talk about God and about our religion, if he doesn’t follow the way that we have been taught?  How dare they eat in such a way that does not show honor to God and to God’s creation?”

            Jesus’ answer is one that, according to Mark, receives no answer from the Pharisees.  Jesus is known for these responses that leaves his listeners silent, contemplating, a bit rebuked, and perhaps ready for change.

            He quotes from Isaiah, asserting that the generation of religious leaders and followers with whom he’s speaking are ones who honor God with their lips..their actions, but not their hearts.  He asserts that their worship is in vain because they are teaching human precepts as doctrines.

            And then he gets to the heart of his statement.  He tells them that there is nothing that goes into the body that defiles…but it is what comes out…what defiles our humanity is the substance of our actions which come from within…from our heart…from our spirit…from our soul.  Not necessarily anything those scribes and Pharisees could really argue with. 

            The Pharisees and Scribes knew how to change their own and each other’s eating habits, in order for everyone to look as if they were connected with God…that their souls were nourished by God’s wisdom.  But it was another thing to deal with their own souls, and the souls of others.  The very thought of this left them speechless…left to walk away in anger, maybe, OR….to think, to pray, and perhaps to discern God’s leading in response to Jesus’ answer.

If you’re anything like me, there are times in your life when you want to make real changes.  You notice things on the outside that need changing…a cleaner house, a more trim shape, a more balanced family budget, a newer car…or perhaps just one that runs well, we look at our habits, what we eat, what we drink, how often we exercise, and we think that if we change these things we might feel better.  And we begin with these actions, these material objects, these outer manifestations of ourselves, and too often we end up disappointed…because nothing seems to be transformed.

            Jesus tells us that our very selves…our soul…exists within.  As I walked through Meijer yesterday, I wondered what I could see with X-ray vision as I passed by the mirror.  What was informing my grumpiness?  Sure, I like everyone around me was performing my human duty, my family duty, by shopping for and purchasing food for the week…to fill my body, to fill the bodies of my family.

            But, what was lacking?  What wasn’t being fed?

            If I had X-ray vision to look within my soul and the souls of those around me…I wonder what I might have found?  What might you find if you look within?

            A spirit which has not had the opportunity to truly sit and be in the presence of God?

            A soul which has been filled with so much  guilt or shame over the years that the words I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry continue to be said, but grace is hard to come by?

            An inner spirit struggling with both regret and resentment for things and experiences in the past…but not finding a place to safely put them…to move on…to live life with joy?

            An inner sanctum of the self that has not had the opportunity to seek God’s wisdom because the noises and the needs of the world have been so great and so loud that this particular inner sanctuary of the soul has not been entered in years.

            Next week is rally Sunday, the day when our Christian Education season begins. At 9am, the education hour, there will be Sunday school for pre-schoolers, elementary aged kids, and youth.  For adults, our regular Present Word Bible Study will continue in the library, an interactive faith study will be offered in the Edith Boyd Lounge, a New Members class will meet upstairs, and one of our Missional Transformation Discernment groups will also meet during the 9am Education hour.  For six-weeks, small discernment groups will be offered during the week on Monday mornings, Monday evenings, Tuesday afternoons, and two are offered on Thursday mornings.  The Presbyterian Women will meet on Saturday to learn about the new Bible study for the year, and they will continue to meet in Circles to discern the wisdom which comes from the scripture and from God’s leading in their conversations.  These are all opportunities for our souls to be fed.  For, while we will be studying scripture, using our brains and our intellect, all the while, God is present in that study, tending to our spirits.

            Especially in our discernment groups, the questions within the study will not focus just upon regurgitating the “correct answer,” just to recap the day’s scripture. The act of discernment is to identify, to hear, to listen for God’s calling to you, to us, through the reading of scripture, through the praying of prayers, through conversing about God’s word.

            How will God’s action in your life transform you from within? According to this scripture, when we are transformed from within, our relationships are healthier, we make wiser choices, and we live more peaceful and harmonious lives.  After reflecting on this scripture, and reflecting upon my own restless and sometimes grumpy spirit, I’m convinced that allowing God to transform my inner being is about as important, if not more important, than a weekly visit to the grocery store.  How about you?

Discovering God’s Dream

2 Corinthians 5: 11-21

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.¹³For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.¹⁴For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.¹⁵And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;^* even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,^* we know him no longer in that way.¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^* not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

            When I was four years old, I created a “Book About Me,” at my Preschool, Junior Village. In it, I drew a picture of myself, my family, my school, and included some of the songs we had learned that year, and also declared my favorite color to be red-which was to change several times throughout the years.  In this book, I also declared what I was going to be when I grew up: A Tennis Player, just like Chris Everett Lloyd.  Now, I have really dated myself as growing up in the 1970s and 80s!

            Often, we do ask the children around us, “what are you going to be when you grow up?”  Since those days in Junior Village, I was known to aspire to be an actress, a professional singer, writer, teacher, and therapist…and some days when I come to work, I wonder whether all of these have truly been attained in the profession of ministry!

            The question we don’t ask of children…and perhaps the questions we don’t ask ourselves, either, is this: what does God dream for your future?  Our daughter Hannah’s professional aspirations vacillate from day-to-day: sometimes she says she will be a very good clown, and other days she declares she will be a ballerina.  On the days she says she wants to preach like mommy, those are usually days when I’m struggling with writers’ block for a sermon, trying to go to two committee meetings at once, rushing back to the office from the hospital, and being aware that my office looks like a tornado hit it…and I answer the same way each time, “Be very sure that God is calling you to the ministry before you pursue it.”

            As I have reflected upon this response, I have challenged myself to rephrase the way that I speak about her call.  God could be calling her to be a clown, a ballerina, or a minister.  As I wrote in the newsletter this past month, those who are called are not just the ones in ministry or prophesy or in religious education, but all are called in the waters of baptism to respond to God’s grace through faithful discipleship.  Herbert Alonso has written, “Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life teling me who I am.  I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live…but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.” 

            I’ve preached about this subject before here in our congregation.   Each minister has some “pet subjects,” and one of mine is call.  When I preached about this before, many of you shared with me on the way out of the sanctuary that you weren’t quite sure yet what God had called you to do, and some of you tried to convince me that indeed there was no called from God for you.

            The scripture from 2 Corinthians was written by Paul in a time of pain. The context of this letter is weighty: not only had there had been conflict between him and many members of the Christian community in Corinth, but the members of the community were in conflict, as well. Not only is Paul in emotional pain from the weight of the human relationships crumbling around him, but he is in physical pain from the toll that the traveling has taken on his body. 

The messages from the world might have told him several things.  He might have gotten a message to simply GIVE UP!  Retire from this evangelism gig, get as far away from those bickering church folk of Corinth, Rome, and Ephesus, and everywhere else he was serving and writing to and traveling to and find a lonely island and relax for once!  Or he might have heard a message from the world that had to do with power and manipulation… “they won’t listen to you…well, make them listen to you, use fear, intimidation, that’ll set ‘em straight.”

Who knows what messages or temptations from the world Paul might have struggled with at this point of his journey.  What we do know is that this portion of his second letter to the infant church in Corinth describes the ways in which he hears God’s voice, God’s message, God’s dream.  And in those moments of being exposed to God’s will and call, he experiences and shares hope in the midst of the turmoil; his eyes are set upon God, through Jesus Christ.  “Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the old life is gone, a new life has begun.”  With God, writes Paul, a new hopeful future always awaits us, hope always reigns over despair, reconciliation always wins over enmity, and love has more power than might.

            Like Paul, we receive many messages and hear many voices that want to influence us.  The messages of the world that we receive daily are loud and are sometimes overwhelming for us all. As is written in our Bible study we’ll be using for the next six weeks, “every day in a wide variety of ways the world tells us who we are and how we are to live.  Depending upon the message we listen to, we are: physical beings who are to make ourselves sexually attractive, intellectual beings who are to accumulate knowledge, consumers who are to acquire possessions, workers who are to produce products, or pleasure seekers who are to gratify desires.  The list could go on and on.”  Every day, we are encountered with those who would want to influence us…who would want to define for us who are.

            As we declare in our statement of faith, though, first and foremost, the answer to question of who we are is: we are children of God.

            And as children of God, our task, our call, our vocation, and our joy is to own that identity and to discover the dream that God has for us.  Not to discover the dream that the advertisers have for us, not the dream that our boss has for us, not the dream that academic institutions have for us, not even, and this is a hard one…not even the dream that our children or parents have for us…and certainly not the dream our pastor has for us, but the dream that God has for us.  God may use parents, teachers, pastors, maybe even bosses, or even advertisers to get our attention, to steer us the right way, to open our eyes, or our ears, our hearts and souls, but our first and foremost focus of attention must be upon God and God’s dream for us, but our eyes and focus must be upon God in order to see all that God has to reveal to us.

            When I began ministry here, almost a year and a half ago, many people asked me, “what is your dream or vision for the congregation,” some even asked me, “what is your agenda for our congregation?”  I worried that my answer would seem weak, or that it might be heard as an easy cop out, some would wonder what I was even doing up here in the pulpit and behind the minister’s desk, and in the office of teacher and moderator if my answer was, “well, my vision is that together as Pastor and congregation, we will intentionally, and with prayer and Bible study, discern the dream and vision that God has for us together.”

            As is also written in our Bible study, “rather than a flight of fancy or wishful thinking, God’s dream is a vision of what is ‘really real.’  It is a vision of th wholeness of life, the healing of a broken world…the Christian community is not limited by the facts and trends of the current situation, but instead can imagine a new state of affairs not yet fully existing…learning how to truly see-to discover God’s dream for this time and place-is at the very heart of what it means to be the church. God has granted the Christian community a special sight, a spirit of wisdom and revelation that enlightens the eyes of our hearts to see the world as it really is.”

            We don’t have to be history majors to know that all too often, in the past, the larger church has given in to the temptations of the world and followed the calls of greed over frugality, power over equality, and manipulation over spiritual renewal.

            I guess we could live in that bleak understanding of the church and decide to live in despair that things will always be that way.

            Or we could open our eyes to ways in which the historical church has also had eyes to recognize and to follow God’s dream.  The church, made of both white and black Christians was the back bone, the voice, and the strength of the civil rights movement, so that our church ushers were no longer asked to keep people out, but to bring people in.  The church in South Africa was the inspiration for the architects of Apartheid and those writings and confessions still speak to the wider Christian community, calling into a dream of equality and reconciliation.

            Searching for and discerning God’s dream for us individually and as a community of believers is not easy.  God’s message is not splashed on a screen every ten minutes in 15 second sound bites while we are watching our favorite show at night, and besides the posters declaring John 3:16, it’s probably not found while watching our favorite team play ball.  It certainly does not live in our anxious or worried hearts, and is not found in our feelings of shame, resentment, or regret.

            Listening for and discerning God’s dream for us as individuals and as a community of believers requires us to intentionally begin our day in prayer, asking that our eyes might be opened to the vision God has for us, and ending our day in meditation, as we reflect upon the ways in which God spoke to us in our reading of scripture, in the quieting of our souls, and in the listening to the wise, of all ages, around us.

            Discovering God’s dream begins with really and truly believing that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, the old life has gone, and a new life has begun.”  The message of the gospel is in the power of the resurrection, that even in the despair of death, there is a new beginning and a hope for a future.  Discovering God’s dream means beginning the day in hope that God will tell you something new, will call you into something new, introduce you to a new insight or person of faith today.  Whether we are nine or ninety, God has a word for us today.

            Let us embark upon this journey with hope, discovering together God’s Dream.

                          

More than PR

I recently read the book, "Tweet if You Heart Jesus," by Elizabeth Drescher, as an assignment for a class entitled "The Gospel and Global Media."  This class was by far my favorite, most useful, and informative class in the DMin program at McCormick Theological Seminary (and I only took it "by accident!"  I had to sign up for it because I dropped an earlier class due to many pastoral needs in my congregation).

In Tweet if You Heart Jesus," I was challenged by the way that the author suggests that we pastors can offer pastoral care and biblical/theological/spiritual teaching and faith formation through digital media.  Up until this point, I had seen the digital media (namely e-mail and facebook) as public relations tools. I have (and still do) update the church facebook to alert the congregation to special programs and activities coming in the future, and I have created a list in my e-mail account through which I can e-mail every member with an e-mail address.  But the messages on the page and the e-mail had been 90% program-based, coming from my role as a "program director."  But, the challenge in "Click to Save," is that the messages can (and should be) spiritually based.  The author compared a tweet to the "word" that was sought when a person of faith came to visit the desert mothers and fathers in the Fourth Century CE.  When a faithful seeker would come to receive wisdom from an Abba or Amma of the desert, the wise would convey a short sentence, not a long diatribe. Within that sentence would contain the fodder for hours upon hours of prayer and discernment. The challenge of the author is for the pastor to offer a "word" through a tweet or a facebook status, or even an e-mail written to parishioners.  This section has challenged me to begin the day with a scriptural or theological message on the church facebook, offer a line or two of an upcoming sermon (asking for responses), or to share a faith-challenge through e-mail, facebook, and twitter.  Faith formation does not only happen in the pulpit or in the classroom; the world of digital media has become the place where we are growing in so many ways, why not in our faith?

And beyond the "word" offered, Drescher suggests that pastoral care happens in the "world" of    digital media.  The pastor becomes privy to the teenager who has recently broken up with his girlfriend, a member who has lost her mother, and a friend of the congregation who is frustrated and in despair through a failed job search.  While the pastor may encounter the information in a blog, a facebook status, or a tweet, she has the opportunity to follow-up with this information when next they meet in church or in another setting. The Pastor may also choose to make a phone call, text, or e-mail to offer words of encouragement.  This broadens and makes for more creative and connective ways to do pastoral care.

In response to my reading this section of "Tweet if You Heart Jesus," I have become more aware of my parishioners' statuses in facebook, and I have been more prone to respond in a comment or personal message in response.  I have heard myself begin a conversation, saying, "I noticed on facebook that you were struggling with...," or "I was so excited to see on facebook that...," or "I was wondering if you were OK when I saw on facebook that..."

I am convinced that digital media is not merely a public relations tool, and in my ministry, I will begin to use it in a more wholistic way.

Twenty Years

     Last night, I commented on the photo below with the following comment, "this was a proud moment!"  And yes indeed, it was a proud moment!  Hannah was showing a Karate master her "yoi stance," and he was impressed.

     Yet, I have to admit that I had another brooding feeling that made me less than proud.  I was not comfortable with the way that Hannah's mother looked as she gazed upon her daughter with pride.  I had to look at the picture a few times to realize that indeed, that large woman, barely fitting in her karate gi was, in fact, me.
      As I went to sleep last night, I recalled the year between March 2008 and March 2009 when I successfully lost 60 pounds.  By the time I received my 25 pound prize from Weight Watchers, and certainly when I received the prize for 50 pounds, I had a reached a healthy place where weight loss wasn't difficult, it was just something I had learned to do.  When I learned I was pregnant in March of 2009, my midwife warned me that "fat cells have memories."  She suggested that I not gain much weight with my pregnancy, and she also warned that it would be difficult not to gain because fat cells want to return (the body craves stasis, even if that stasis is unhealthy).  2 1/2 years later, I have proven that her theory is correct; while I am still 22 pounds less than I was in March 2008, I have gained back 40 of the original 60 pounds.  I now long for those days in 08/09 when losing weight didn't seem like a chore at all.
     I have been a member of Weight Watchers since we arrived in Michigan City.  And while I am pleased that I have not gained a pound (and actually lost a few along the way), I am greatly bothered by the fact that I have not learned to embrace health again.  It is part of my psyche and concern often times during the day, but the passion and the drive from 2008/09 has not returned.
     As I reflect upon this last year of ministry, I am aware that I am focusing upon my ministry "as if my life depended upon it."  Why, last night, I lost sleep because I wasn't sure how I was going to keep the positive and welcoming energy alive with our church softball team, while remaining true to the church softball rules (which require that every member of the team be an official member of the church).  Because I spent 8 anxious months on severance pay prior to receiving my current call, ministry seems like a life or death situation; when I wasn't in ministry, I worried about how I would support my family's lives in the future.
     But ministry is not supposed to be anxious.  My congregation has not called me to serve from a place of fear, but from a place of wholeness. We are called to serve a God "who has not given us a spirit of fear," whose gift of love casts out all fear and is filled with grace and compassion.
     In the midst of participating in ministry from a place of fear and anxiety, I have forgotten to care for my body "as if my life depended upon it."

    Today marks 20 years since our family lost my father.  I was brought to tears this morning when I did the math in my head and realized that I have been grieving for him for that many years.  When I think about my high school graduation, my brother's college graduation, my sister's wedding, and the birth of each of his five beautiful grandchildren, I grieve for the experiences that he has missed.  He struggled with, and lost a battle with, the disease of obesity then, as I struggle with the disease today.
     20 years from now, Hannah will be nearly 23 and becoming an adult.  I will be there with her to companion her on her journey if I begin to care for my body "as if my life depended upon it." And then I can continue to care for my family and my congregation from a place of freedom and grace.

I Know My Own and My Own Know Me

I Know My Own and My Own Know Me

April 29, 2012

John 10: 11-18

Rev. Ericka Parkinson Kilbourne

11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.¹⁸No one takes^* it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

            Who really knows you?  Your spouse, your children, your parents, your best friend, your co-workers, your church friends?  And what does it mean that they know you? That they know your name…perhaps first, middle and last?  That they know your favorite ice cream flavor or exactly how you like your coffee?  Or is it that they know just the right way to aggravate you or just the right way to make you laugh when a tense situation has arisen? Or is that the one person who really knows you is the one, as it is often quoted, knows all about you, and loves you anyway?

            Since graduating from high school, I have moved to a new state six times, and each time to a new state and new situation.   Nothing is lonelier than feeling “unknown.”  While it is exciting and sometimes refreshing to move to a new place, it is also somewhat exhausting having to introduce yourself, look for common ground between yourself and possible new friends, and then to tell stories about your past, your passions, your loves and your very self in order to come to a place where you are “known.”  We have almost been here in Michigan City for a year, and I have to say that I am delighted to embrace the fact that I feel comfortable and fairly known here in the city, in our neighborhood at the courts, and here in our congregation.

            No matter how much we want to be known, and no matter what level of comfort and safety and reliability come with being known, there is always a piece or two, sometimes larger than others, that we want to keep to ourselves, though. Do you find that to be true?  We want to go where everyone knows our name, but not necessarily where everyone knows our whole being.  I’ve been reading a little bit about shame for the doctoral thesis I am writing, and one of the best definitions I have found is this: shame is when you have failed to manage to keep up the façade of the “You” you wish to share with the world.” In other words, there is the “you” that you want to make known, when making new friends, when beginning a relationship, when building a relationship…and then there’s the “you” you’d rather keep hidden.  Like all the bad habits that all of us have.  Chewing your nails, having a quick temper, forgetting things easily, being impatient, secretly loving soap operas but all the while saying, “well, I don’t really watch much television,”…and then there are things that only a roommate or spouse can find out about us…snoring, leaving the toilet seat up, finishing the carton of milk and leaving it in the refrigerator. And then there are those deeper things we keep hidden, and we pray that not even the person sleeping next to us will find out…the feelings of doubt…when we doubt ourselves, when we doubt our God…the feelings of resentment we might still hold for a family member or former friend.  Regret for something that happened five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.

            Yes, no matter how much we would like to be “known,” there are those certain things that we would rather remain “unknown,” to most or all of the rest of the world.  When we feel shame, it’s not that we feel guilty about one thing, ask for forgiveness, and then move on.  No, when we feel shame, our entire being is wrapped up in that one feeling, and we wish to hide our entire selves. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, their fall, their choosing to eat of the apple, lead them to be entirely ashamed of themselves, and so they hid.

            And so we hide, too. Hide those things which seem to horrible, too awful to share. We declare, “If you knew this about me, well you just wouldn’t love me anymore.”  And we spend a great amount of time and effort to put forth the “self” which we want to be seen and known, and we hide the “self” of which we are ashamed.  And while some of this is just good manners and being socially aware, all too often, we are doing damage to ourselves with all of our hiding, with all of our masking.

            That is why this scripture is so comforting to me.  Jesus says that he is the good shepherd, and that he knows his own his own know him.  It’s comforting when I’m living in a new place, or perhaps entering a new situation, meeting new people, and feeling lonely and “unknown:” I can always rely on God, through Christ, to be familiar.  And most importantly, I can rely upon the fact that God, through Christ, knows me.  When I moved to Mississippi, right after college, I couldn’t have been more of a fish out of water.  In that small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, I was quite old to be unmarried, it was quite uncommon to be a woman pursuing a call and vocation in the ministry, and my thoughts on race, when I expressed them, were strange and threatening.  At one point, the United Methodist minister suggested that I not quote Martin Luther King Jr. again, the next time I addressed a crowd at his church.  I can honestly say that I have never been lonelier than I was in those first six months of my ministry there. And at the same time, I can honestly say that my relationship with God was strengthened in a way that it never had before.  In the midst of loneliness, in being misunderstood, in being rejected, I never relied so much on the fact that God knew me…and that I was loved by God.

            Being known by God through Christ is not only comforting when we are alone or lonely, but it is also comforting when we are hiding our true selves from others.  At first, it may feel a bit threatening or scary that God knows us….knows everything there is to know about us…God knows the self that we put forward in the community, at work, at church, in our neighborhood, and God knows the self beyond our “public self.”  God knows and loves our quirkiness, our messiness, our compulsive idiosyncrasies.  Anyone who has ever spent any time with sheep know that it is not the shepherd’s job to love only the perfect and well-mannered sheep…if that were true, there would be no sheep to tend.  Sheep are messy, they are unruly, they are impatient and don’t excel at cooperation.  So are all of us, at times.  And if it were the great shepherd’s job to tend to only the perfect and well-behaved sheep among us, then there would be none to tend for that shepherd, either.

            John Calvin writes in the beginning of his Institutes on the Christian religion that the more we learn about ourselves, the more we learn about God, and that vice-versa, the more we learn about God, the more we learn about ourselves.

            Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd, that he knows his own and his own know him.  May we live into this message.  May we begin to know more and more about ourselves, as we grow into an understanding that by grace and through Jesus Christ, our God knows all there is to know about us and loves us anyway.

            And may we grow to know more and more about God, who calls us into authentic relationships, that while studying scripture, worshiping, and serving, we might know more about ourselves and each other.

            May we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd this morning: “I know my own and my own know me.”  Amen.