I had a thought this morning about this text. The arc of this passage has Jesus moving from one place to another. Along his journey, he is interrupted by two desperate people and their immediate needs, which give shape to Jesus’ ministry for that particular day. This story subtly conveys a cautionary message about “strategic plans” that do not allow for interruptions on the way to our best intentions. We might have an overarching sense of where we are going and about what we should be doing, but it is vitally important to keep enough flexibility in the plan that if the Holy Spirit brings us something new, we can stop and respond to the unexpected needs when and if they arise.

Let’s break this story down.

A large crowd relentlessly followed Jesus around the countryside. Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee to get back into Jewish territory, only to find a great crowd waiting on that side too.

The crowd was so large that it was crushing in like the waves of the sea itself - reminiscent of the tumultuous storm on the sea in chapter 4. This mass was teeming with people - we can hear a cacophony of voices. We feel the energy, the warmth of the bodies, and the anticipation of the followers. There were folks in need looking for ailments, and those hanger-on-ers who were just curious to see the novel itinerant healer in action.

In the midst of all this movement, Jairus, a “leader of the synagogue” entered the scene. His title is repeated four times by Mark - leader, leader, leader, leader. Clearly his leadership is prominent and Mark wants us to know that this man had money, clout, a reputation, status, and was surely recognized by others.

But Jairus that day did not come to Jesus as a leader. That day, he was there as a receiver of grace, vulnerable and in need. He broke through the crowd and fell at Jesus’ feet risking his own reputation. The Jairus on the ground was a desperate father begging the Healer to go with him, to lay hands on his precious 12-year-old girl, to make her well. Jairus trusted that Jesus could heal her.

So Jesus went with him.
But on Jesus’ way, a second desperate person entered the scene. A woman very different from Jairus. She herself had been ill 12 years - as long as Jairus’ little daughter had been alive. The woman with the hemorrhages has no name in this story. She was identified only by her affliction. In Mark’s gospel, so many of the women are only recognized by their afflictions, or actions or relationship to a man.

However, this particularly courageous and independent woman took action on her own behalf. She had run through all her resources going from doctor to doctor and enduring their treatments, but her health continued to decline. (Doesn’t sound much different today, does it?) “If I can just touch this healer’s clothes, I can be made well.” Determined to do just that, she pressed in and reached through the crowd to get to the one who was her last chance for healing.

That kind of persistent faith is a gift from God, and the woman was given a large measure that day because when she touched his garment, IMMEDIATELY she felt the power of God heal her, and IMMEDIATELY Jesus felt the power go out of him.

He felt the same power of the Holy Spirit, which had descended upon him at the river Jordan at his baptism, go forth to heal. Jesus stopped, turned around, and looked for the one who touched him - which seemed ludicrous to his disciples given that they were being swept along and pressed in on all sides.

Jesus refused to allow the woman to remain invisible. Seeing him, she came forward, fell to her knees, and “came clean” - newly clean - and told the whole truth to him. Jesus was moved with compassion and gave her a new identity - he called her Daughter. He took her hand, raised her up and gave her a relationship, a restored daughter to the community. He proclaimed her healed - no longer unclean by her own blood - and blessed her with peace.

Meanwhile, in Jairus’ home there was anything but peace. The professional mourners had already arrived because Jesus was too late; the girl had died. But Jesus countered their grim news by announcing that the girl was only sleeping and indeed he pressed on, and in the face of the crowd’s mockery, Jesus kicked them out of the house, but took with him into her room her father and mother, and Peter, James and John.

Jesus reached out and took hold of the small hand of that dead girl - touching a body that by Law was untouchable - and he raised up to new life a second daughter that day.

They were all amazed. This Greek word, ekstasis, ecstatic, is the same word Mark uses when the women after Jesus’ resurrection saw the empty tomb. They too were amazed, ecstatic.
I titled this sermon “Reaching Faith” because these stories tell us faith is found in the act of reaching - faith is action; faith is a verb. Faith moves us toward God in times of need, out of our deep longing to have God act on our behalf. It’s audacious really. Faith that is born out of suffering, like Jairus’ and the woman’s, is a reaching faith, fearful and yet emboldened to ask for what one needs.

I don’t believe however that one reaches faith, that is, faith as static, faith as a noun; Faith as a point or place at which we arrive. Faith is not motionless. It’s not something we own. That’s not the way faith works. It keeps us moving in the midst of our doubts, disbeliefs, set backs, highs and lows.

A “reaching faith” is dynamic. A reaching faith is a gift given by the Holy Spirit to us as we respond to life’s pain and difficulties with honesty asking for God’s help. Faith is measured out in coffee spoons in our times of need, not dumped on us in one load.

I find that faith comes in my life in moments and glimpses of God.

I know folks who feel disheartened when their faith waxes and wanes. We all go days and months and sometimes years without really feeling God’s presence or the pleasure of the emotional ties that bind us to God. We might fear that we’ve constructed the whole thing in our minds, or worse we’ve drunk the “kool-aid” of religion.

But I tell you that most often our faith comes when we need it most; it is a gift at times of desperation when we are calling out of foxholes. As writer Anne Lamott says, There are two types of prayers: “Help me, help me, help me” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Madeline L’Engle, the children’s author of a Wrinkle in Time, said in an interview before her death that she believed that suffering was a necessary part of a full life. She had experienced much loss in her own life. “In times when we are not particularly suffering we do not have enough time for God. We are too busy with other things. And then the intense suffering comes, and we can’t be busy with other things. And then God comes into the equation: ‘Help.’ And we should never be afraid of crying out, ‘Help.’” (Interview on PBS, 2000)

A reaching faith, a crying-out faith, is an honest faith because it springs forth from our deepest needs. Sometimes it is even through our disarmed, honest prayers that we discover what are our deepest longings.

Suffering can be our teacher. Jan Thrope, a local woman who started the organization “Inner Visions” spoke in Adult Ed a few weeks ago. Jan was asked, “Where do we begin when we want to respond to the suffering of others?” She answered, “Start with your own pain. Pain can lead to passion. Passion to a purpose for your life.”

I want to close with a poem about the woman reaching out for healing and landing at the feet of Jesus by one of my favorite writers, Macrina Wiederkehr. (Seasons of Your Heart)

“Once there was a wound
It was no ordinary wound
It was my wound
We had lived together long.

I yearned to be free of this wound
I wanted the bleeding to stop
Yet if the truth be known
I felt a strange kind of gratitude
for this wound
It made me
tremendously open to grace
vulnerable to God’s mercy.

A beautiful believing in me
that I have named Faith
kept growing, daring me
to reach for what I could not see.
This wound had made me open.
I was ready for grace
And so one day, I reached.

There I was thick in the crowd
bleeding and believing
and I reached.

At first I reached
for what I could see
the fringe of a garment,
But my reaching didn’t stop there
for Someone reached back into
me.
A grace I couldn’t see
flowed through me.
A power I didn’t understand
began to fill the depths of me.

Trembling I was called forth
to claim my wholeness.
The bleeding had left me.
The believing remained
And strange as this may sound
I have never lost my gratitude
for the wound
that made me so open to grace.”

Jairus and the woman are you and me. I do not know all of the specifics of what your illness looks like…what it feels like…how you endure it…what others tell you about it…or what caused it.

Nevertheless, I believe there is something in each of us I trust is yearning for healing…begging for relief…seeking after a blessing. I pray that you and I might be ready to trust enough to ask for healing.

Jesus is ready to be interrupted by our cries for help - to heal the wound that makes you profoundly open to grace.

The act of reaching out to God is enough.

The desire to connect with and touch God is enough.

Your vulnerability to come to God - needy and ready - is more than enough.

That’s faith. God responds to that kind of honest faith.

Reach out and you will be made whole.

Thanks be to God.

I remember the feedback when we started adding Deacons to the possible servers. That seemed a little bit provocative for some. It had always been just Elders.

I remember the comments when a server didn’t wear a tie -  a far cry from the days of the required dress code. Anne tells me that when she was first hired the choir practiced processing in perfect two-step formation, or whatever. That is the way it was done.

I’m not making light of this. I’m just trying to be descriptive.

I still get wistful remarks such as: “I love it when our young people lead worship. I just wish they would not wear their ratty jeans and T-shirts. If they are going to lead in worship then they should dress appropriately.” (And there’s a part of me, as a parent, that agrees with that.)

Some visitor shared with me these words after spending a couple of weeks worshiping with us: “Wow, this sure isn’t like my grandmother’s Presbyterian church.”

Likewise, I can’t remember the last couple that I did premarital counseling with that was not living together at the time. That was not the way things were done 25 years ago. In a way, I have to be honest, and say that it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal, the couples turn out in pretty good shape. But, in another way, Deanne and I did NOT live together before we got married, and we turned out all right too.

I am not intending to be judgmental. Really and truly, whether you believe me or not, I feel the agitation of change, and cutting ties to the way we used to do things, the ambiguity. I struggle a lot with “the way things should be,” and the unintended consequences of so-called progress.

Social and religious norms, policies, rules, expectations of how things are done (because they have always been done that way) create boundaries, provide guidance, create expectations, frame behavior and give identity — which are all very good things.

However, sometimes these norms, policies, expectations, and obligations cause problems. They stifle creativity and, sometimes, can even be downright evil. Social norms and state law created Jim Crow. Rosa Parks was doing what it was unlawful to do to remain in her bus seat when a white person wanted it.

What jumped out at me in the movies “The Help” and “Red Tails” was the reality that white people, for the most part, couldn’t conceive of black leadership, or had a clue that the maids could hear what was being said about them, that they had feelings, let alone families and lives.

For a long period of our history girls didn’t go to college. Girls didn’t have any control over their bodies and choices. It was unseemly, unladylike, unlawful - it just wasn’t done.

So you see the ambiguity we’re in. In some ways these social norms are really important. The biblical expectations are really fundamentally good, and at the same time….oh, sometimes, sometimes.

That is precisely what is going on in this story in Mark. The Pharisees are not bad people. They were religious, they were good people, and they knew their bible. They were simply trying to maintain order, and they were scared to death that if people started going around making up new rules that all hell would break loose! And I understand that! It’s not a bad thing! You know, we’re almost wired to want to stay away from ambiguity. We want clarity!

And I’m sure those Pharisees were thinking: “Why does Jesus HAVE to pluck grain on the Sabbath?” “Couldn’t they have planned ahead?” “What’s he trying to prove?” “Jesus is being so “situational” in his ethics… oh, if you are hungry it is all right to break the Sabbath? If you are hungry is it all right to steal?” Once, you let it go…you’re on a slippery slope!

I am not going to be anti-Jewish - it is all too common to hear “Well, you know those Jews, they are rules based, law based and Christianity is about grace, and freedom.” Well some of the most narrow minded, rule-followers and status-quo keepers are my sisters and brothers in Christ, so let’s not go throwing stones. And the great persuasive tools of obligations, rules, judgment and threats of hell have, in my opinion, done more to drive people away from Jesus then anything. As Gandhi once said: “I love Jesus. I am just not sure I like Christians.”

Making change versus keeping the status quo. Breaking the rules versus following them. This is the issue.

I don’t think there is an easy way out of the tension this passage raises. It is not a problem to be solved but a weighing of competing positive and negative claims to be balanced - tradition and policy versus freedom and innovation. Gate-keeping v. permission giving. The dilemma of the Pharisees is the dilemma of the Session, is the dilemma of parents, is the dilemma of students, and just about everybody else.

I do, however, believe that Jesus offers some hint of direction to us. His action is not cut off from the bedrock of tradition. He knows his scripture too. Jesus was a Bible nerd. That story of Abiathar who ate the Bread of the Presence is hardly a well-known Bible story - today and probably back then. There are four verses in Leviticus 24 and one mention of the Bread of the Presence in Exodus 39. I had to look it up, never heard of it before. But you can see what kind of Bible reader Jesus was. To Jesus the Bible didn’t limit and proscribe - he engaged with the living word so he could come up with something creative and new and freeing He didn’t just line up bible verses..he was much more creative than that. For Jesus, the bible opened up, and was the foundation for, imaginative enterprise!

It is important for us who call ourselves “Christian,” who are compelled by the story of Jesus, who seek to follow Jesus, (who sets us free for freedom! As Paul reminds us, not obligation) to know our Bible - it is the root of our tradition. That is why we put so much emphasis here at learning how to read and engage with the living word here at Forest Hill Church.

And the Bible is LIVING word. People, pay attention! It is not a rule book! It is not a science book! It is not a history book! It’s a proclamation of good news book.  it is an agitating word, a compelling word - not to be taken lightly - but not because we need to be frightened of punishment for not getting it right. Jesus himself said that the whole teaching of the Bible came down to this: love God, and love  your neighbor as yourself. And you and I have to figure out how to try to do that in real time. It’s not always easy, but it can be kind of fun, and it’s sometimes situational.

I want to remind you that we worship Jesus Christ and seek to follow him. And the Bible to us is like the manger that holds the precious baby so that we can bend over and peak in and love that little baby. But we worship Jesus not the Bible. And we honor the Lord not by following rules but by following him into the complexity of choices, into the wheat fields, so-to-speak, of life.

“Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.”

Think about that! That is a remarkable and powerful saying and places us in precarious freedom. Sabbath -  God’s great day of rest - was given to us as a gift! All of life, every day, days of work and days of rest - moments of introspective and compassion, of doubt and certainty are all gifts from God…GIFTS not obligations.

Life is gift - everything is gift… you are gift, I am gift - so we have to lighten up and loosen up and forgive and realize that we might actually make mistakes. Faith, like creativity, is not neat but all within the boundaries of God.

And so I guess I want to say that you and I have to get more comfortable with ambiguity and imprecision, even as we seek to clarify and be precise. It’s not one or the other. It’s a both/and.  Clear as mud, right? But it is healthy - because life is hardly neat and tidy and controllable, no matter how much we seek to do the right thing we may not!

I am glad we get to eat from the Bread of the Presence that is before us now; Christ is in our midst. So come and eat and be fed - because at the end of the day, no matter the ambiguity, no matter the complexities . . you gotta eat!

AMEN.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; Repent, and believe in the good news.”

The issue of leadership is front and center for us all these days. We are in the midst of the political primaries where the candidates proclaim that they are the right leader for this age. And we have just ordained and installed new leaders, Elders and Deacons, for this congregation.

These women and men have been have been nominated by the Nominating Committee who discerned in them qualities of spiritual leadership: they worship and practice spiritual disciplines of prayer and study, they have a heart open to the compassion of the Lord, they have particular gifts and talents that seemed obvious to the committee (even if not so obvious to themselves). These leaders have been affirmed, confirmed and elected by you. Hands have been laid upon them.

But leadership is not easy. Leadership is hard and leaders stumble. It is often lonely, for a leader is set apart. There are many temptations. It can be hard to make a leadership decision when you are not 100% sure of your own mind. It is hard to stay centered in the midst when all the “stuff” begins to pile up and the tension mounts. Some leaders get too full of themselves and think it really IS all about them. Some leaders lose touch with those they lead, lose touch with reality, don’t know when to step down. Just look at Joe Paterno. He was a leader who did marvelous things for Penn State. He made a tragic and horrific mistake; if only he would have acted differently when it was reported that his coach had raped a boy. And his recent death has caused many to consider and re-consider his legacy. Leadership is hard

Leaders have a charisma. Charisma is from the Greek for “gift.” And “grace” for that matter. Leaders have a sense of timing, a quality of perceiving mood. Leaders take risks.

The first chapter of Mark is a passage that reveals several important things about leadership and also lays out how you and I, who are just living our lives, might grow in our ability to lead, or perhaps simply lead more balanced lives even if we are not candidates or being ordained and installed.

A stay-at-home parent leads a whole household. A teacher leads a class. A coach leads players. A teen may lead a younger sister or brother. A student may need to take leadership in her or his classroom. In your personal life you may need to change behavior, lead yourself, so to speak.

Let’s look at the text: Here we see Jesus coming out of nowhere. John the Baptist is looking for a leader, looking for the Messiah: “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (v. 7-8) BUT, in fact, as Mark reveals - John was surprised by Jesus. John was looking for the Messiah, but who knew if he knew that the Messiah was standing right there next to him? So lesson #1: don’t be too quick to judge others or yourself. You may have gifts you don’t realize!

But we know both from the stories about Jesus and our own personal experiences of the Lord just how amazing he is a leader: he stills the waters, casts out the demons, talks truth to power, challenges how we live, and gives up his life for us. As the Messiah, Jesus is the leader of all leaders. But he calls you “friend,” “sister,” “brother,” and he sees himself as your servant. He doesn’t put down or bully, or insist on his own way but rather builds up and equips. Now that is a man worth following, a model of leadership worth imitating.

So Jesus is baptized and then what happens? He experiences a confirmation of his call and identity. It is pretty dramatic too. I would love one of those “heaven-splitting” and “spirit-descending-like-a dove” moments; usually it is pretty fuzzy. The new Elders and Deacons had to settle for us laying our hands upon them and a prayer - and I tried to make it a dramatic prayer - but essentially, we are claiming the same descent of the Spirit: “You are beloved children of God, sons and daughters.” God is pleased with you. God is pleased with you! And so is Christ’s body, this church! The Spirit has descended on you.

Then what happens? The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus is tempted. Every good leader, in fact everybody, every one of you - has wandered in the wilderness of doubt, of feeling overwhelmed, of losing her way, of wondering: “Why did I say yes?” “How am I going to balance this with all the other things that I have to do?” “I really don’t have what it takes to do what they want me to do.” What is the temptation of Jesus about but recoiling from this magnificent experience of being chosen - it is natural to feel letdown, it is natural to have question s-identity formation ain’t easy. But real leaders acknowledge their own turmoils and name their own demons. This is what Jesus comes to in the wilderness. Real leaders are honest with their own stuff.

John the Baptist is arrested and then and only then Jesus is ready to preach. Timing is everything! None of the exiting 3rd year elders have been arrested but they are gone. It is YOUR time now - it is time for YOU to come into your own and find your way and listen to what Jesus says: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Isn’t it amazing that this moment might be YOUR time? Is your time?

The Greek word used here is “kairos” - and in the Bible, “kairos” is best understood as “pregnant time” - a moment that is full of meaning, potential, hope, change. It is holy time - not bound by a clock, not constricted by minutes or seconds. It is the kind of time when you lose track of time. It is the time of inspiration. You can’t mark it on your calendar. I can’t put on my calendar today “9:30-10:00 Be inspired.” Kairos time is God’s time and it will come when it will come - we can’t control it. And Jesus proclaims: “Folks, God’s time is here. Time and space is filled full of God. It is breakout time.” God is in the midst and so it is time to open up and be filled with it and be shaped by it.
So that’s my charge to the new spiritual leaders, to the church, and to all of you today. Be open to God’s spirit - and pray, a lot! It may mean that you lead us in a shake-up, or your life is shaken up. Remember: There are NO SACRED COWS when God’s spirit breaks in. After all, if the “heavens” can get torn apart, what makes you think that things on earth are neat and tidy? This can be the hardest part of leadership - and of life - because we like the status quo, we don’t like to rock the boat, or get into confrontations. But sometimes when the spirit says “move,” we have to MOVE. What time is it, in your life, right now?

Jesus proclaims: “The kingdom of God is right here and now, present - repent and believe the good news.” I say it again. “Repent and believe the good news.”

You know, “repent” means so much more then “I am sorry” (although it means that too at times.) The Greek word for “repent” is “metanoeo,” meaning change your mind, in fact GET a new mind. And here Jesus is saying to you and to me: “Get a new mind for a new age.”
It is God-in-the-midst time now - and you have to get a new mind to perceive it, get a new heart to feel it, get a new gut to feel the kingdom’s agitation, to believe and trust that what is happening is good - GOOD - because God has “boots on the ground” - God is present now. And therefore nothing is wasted.

“Jesus leadership” is about being open to God, getting a right mind to perceive the movement of the Spirit, and trusting “that all things work for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to God’s purposes.”

And then there is one more thing that is essential for leaders to consider. We didn’t read the next verses of Mark 1, but what happens next is this: Jesus calls a community together (kind of like a “mini-Session”) - he calls James and John and Simon and Andrew (and maybe women too, but no one wrote down their names). He called together a community, because he knew that leaders need the accountability found in community. There are NO LONE RANGERS.

These verses in Mark 1 confirm that:
1. Leaders have charisma, a gift.
2. Leaders are confirmed by the spirit and by community.
3. Leaders get tempted - you have to come to knowledge of yourself - because there will be wilderness.
4. And finally, leaders perceive what is happening, get on God’s time, opening their minds and hearts and they trust, trust, trust, and then trust some more - that all that is happening will unfold towards goodness.

So, leaders, in fact everyone in here, lighten up and laugh, enjoy and have some fun. Church work does not need to be onerous! You can be joyful in serious work. And above all don’t take yourself or anything too seriously.

And what I say to the new leaders, I say to everyone of you - no matter what age, no matter what station, no matter what - IT IS GOD’S TIME right now - you and I have just entered into it. So get a new mind for it and trust that you too are a beloved son or daughter with whom God is well pleased. And this is very, very, very good news indeed!

So leaders, welcome aboard. I can’t wait to share the leadership of Jesus Christ with you.

AMEN.

All right, that wasn’t very good but I wanted to do my part in this enhanced worship as we celebrate the gospel power of the poetic spirit!

But all silliness aside, what we are doing today has tremendous power to transform who you are, how we look at the world, and frankly how we engage the world and each other.

Poetry has the power to liberate, agitate, communicate deep things.

I dwell in Possibility–
A fairer House than Prose–
More numerous of Windows–
Superior–for Doors–
Of Chambers as the Cedars–
Impregnable of Eye–
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky–
Of Visitors–the fairest–
For Occupation–This–
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise

Emily Dickenson wrote that. Our faith has to open things up, create possibilities - help us to open our minds, and hearts and hands to be and do. I think that for too many, Christianity just limits, oppresses, narrows, judges, defines… what a horrible tragedy.

Poetic faith saves us from the hell of literalism. I was with a very bright man, a very conservative, Christian bright man. He had advanced degrees and he makes a whole lot of money - very successful. He and I went on a tour of the petroleum museum in Texas. It really was quite interesting.

We walked through one diorama of the age before the age when the Permian Basin was being formed and all this carbon was being compressed into oil - science tells us that it took billions of years for this to form - Billions!

And as we were walking through my guide said — knowing I was a pastor so he said - either assuming I would agree or provoking me since I think he knew that I was one of the “liberal” pastors - “But of course the length of time is not right because the Bible teaches otherwise.”

I was stunned. He was reading Genesis 1 as a science text. How can you read Genesis 1:1 as anything but a poem of praise to a Creator God who is in the midst of all the stuff (your stuff), hovering, waiting, moving, breathing - all these poetic images that speak to a much deeper truth then some literalist materialistic rendering.

Most of us, simply can’t abide a literalist, limiting, narrowing, proscriptive kind of reading… but most don’t have any other way of engaging with the text … if it didn’t happen that way… then I don’t believe any of it… the baby is thrown out with the bathwater and the Bible isn’t even picked up. This is the reason we put so much emphasis on turning you all into “bible nerds” as Clover likes to say.

The way out of narrow literalism is to engage the Bible poetically, metaphorically, truthfully - we are invited to be interpreters and meaning makers not just robotic followers. The biblical stories free us from the shackles of judgmentalist inerrancy for a creative engagement with the living word of grace and hope and joy!

The truths of life and love and faith are so deep that precise language fails.

Jesus knew this: he opened most of his parables (which are poetic in intent) with the words: “what shall I compare this generation to? The Kingdom of God is like an old woman, a mustard seed, a soppy old, wasteful, over sentimental father who throws a party for a wasteful son, like folks who won’t dress for a wedding party…” Consider the “lilies of the field.” This is poetry people…

POETRY calls us to dig deep for truth by another way - away from literalism. You have to engage passionately with life and then interpret it humbly - knowing that your interpretation may not be someone else’ interpretation - but it calls us into relationship, you see, with the word and with each other. And this is the grace of God, this is the incarnation of God, this is how we live the life of Jesus.

The religious scene, and especially the political scene is so damned boring - so black and white, so constrictive, so judgmental - I don’t want anything to do with it. There is a better way!

I looked at the Bible this past week and noticed how many verses of poetry there are between Genesis and Revelation. From Job to Song of Solomon is almost all verse - poetic verse.

Most of the prophets are organized according to verse - poetic verse.
Just scan the New Testament and whole portions of Jesus’ teaching is in poetic language.
The Bible ends with a superb poetic image of the kingdom descending and God dwelling in the midst.

We are talking about GOD - and none of us have adequate language - but God has given us imagination, and words, and passion to seek after the Divine.

I love the German poet Rilke: this short poem describes my faith location:

I live my life in widening circles
That reach out across the world.
I many not complete this last one
But I give my heart to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
And I still don’t know if I am a falcon, A storm or a great song?

This image of being grounded in God, circling the mystery of God, giving my heart to God - finding my changing identity in God - soaring like a falcon, raging like a storm, singing the great song.

This may not move you - so choose your own poem! But this isn’t just academic, intellectual work. NO!

We have to take the poetic muse into our relationships. We have to take our poetic heart into the world, into our mission to preach good news to the poor and liberate the captive… And the first thing we may need to liberate is our own narrowness, our own cynicism, our own lack of imagination. Liberals can be just as unimaginative as Conservatives.

Langston Hughes, the great African-American poet - knows well the agitating power of a poem expressing the frustration of waiting for justice, waiting for dreams. The poetry of social justice.

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

When we engage with another - we should be asking ourselves the questions: what poem is that person trying to express…

Have compassion on everyone you meet
Even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
Bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
Of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
Down there where the spirit meets the bone.

This is a great poem by Miller Williams - your spouse, your child, your lover, your friend, your enemy (where the spirit meets the bone) - what poem are they writing - a lament (”How long, O Lord, How long, will you forget me forever?” Psalm 13), a joyful couplet, a sonnet of broken hopes and dreams, and epic of heroic proportions, a love poem? (”Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant…draw me after you, let us make haste!” Song of Sol. 1:1-3) That is smokin’ HOT and it is in the Bible!

Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, “Kingfishers catch fire” teach us to have the eyes of Christ as we engage with others:

For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces….

We enter into the world in all its complexities and we have to learn to see the world not as a series of problems to be solved - but as series of possibilities to be engaged with and that is a poetic endeavor. Social Justice - is about catching the poetic vision of the prophets.

We have to been engaged in helping write poetry - engaged in meaning making, shaped by the awesomeness of the love of God and the saving message of Jesus Christ and the creative urges of the Holy Spirit.

What poem is this congregation expressing this day of our annual meeting? How is our budget for 2012 a poem - opening up possibilities? How is it a hymn of praise, calling us to think bigger and be bigger?

What if we saw the election of our Elders and Deacons and Trustees as the appointment of so many poet laureates who together will fashion a song of epic proportion reaching out into the world in hope, and joy? See how transformative this can be?

What poem are we writing together - how are we interpreting the signs? What language are we using?

What is the poem of your life, the song you are trying to sing, the verse you are trying to write, even if you are not a poet?

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

That is by Leonard Cohen - a poet and songwriter.

We are all trying to express things - get it out, in verse and song and “dwelling in possibility”- trust your voice, your interpretation, your belovedness in Christ, your gift (cracks and all) offer it humbly - and out of many voices we will give thanks and praise to God.

The power of the poetry of the GOSPEL - is changing the world!

AMEN.

[In celebration of the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today's audio includes music by the men of our Chancel Choir, and a solo by member Willie Dycks, celebrating the strength, worth and dignity of all people.]

I bumped into a person, an African-American woman who I know pretty well, in the parking lot of Home Depot at Severance several years ago. I haven’t shared this story with you because it is rather embarrassing to me. In fact, it was so embarrassing to me (and still is) that I didn’t evenshare it in my “Courageous Conversations on Race” group this past summer. So I guess I wasn’t very courageous. However, because of the Courageous Conversations on Race, I feel compelled to share it with you now, on this Sunday when we remember the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This woman, this friend - after typical greetings and small talk - handed me an invitation and said: “I want you and Deanne to come to my “white” party to celebrate my 50th birthday.”

I had never heard of a “white party.” Always wanting to respond in a light-hearted manner, I actually said: “Like, only white people come?”

She looked at me funny. Trust me this is not the embarrassing part!

She then explained that guests come dressed in white to celebrate a big day. I thought to myself, “Cool, a costume party!” (Still not the embarrassing part.)

So I took the invitation and told her that I was honored to be invited and I am sure that Deanne and I would put it on our calendar; which we did.

The Friday night of the White Party came. The event was held at a restaurant about 15 miles away - it took us about 30 minutes to get there with the traffic. Deanne looked great in her white pants and white linen top and I, who didn’t own a pair of white pants, thought it would appropriate and maybe a bit funny, sort of a costume kind of thing, to come looking like a minister. So I wore this white alb I’m wearing today.

It never even occurred to me - until we got to the parking lot of the restaurant and saw all sorts of folks we did not know, mostly black folk, beautifully dressed - that here I was in a white robe, just one pillow-case short of looking like a member of the Ku Klux Klan!

And I actually walked into the restaurant and ordered a glass of wine and tried to make conversation with a couple that I did know.

Why I went inside, I don’t know - you reach a point where you are so out of your comfort zone that you do the next stupid thing. No one said anything about my robe, the greeter was gracious, thankfully not too may people were there yet and not too many people noticed (I hope) but I know that I looked out of place. I felt out of place. And Deanne whispered to me, “You’d better go home and change.”

And so I did. I walked outside, took off the robe, hopped in the car - drove home, heart racing in shame and humiliation, ran upstairs, put on a dress white shirt and the lightest pair of khaki pants I owned and drove back to the party where, indeed, I then had a very good time. And Deanne is still married to me.

I share this story with you on the Sunday when we remember The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because we don’t move closer towards becoming the beloved community by holding back stories of shame, of joy, of learning, of embarrassment, of truth.

We don’t move towards the beloved community unless we “go home and change.”

We don’t move towards the goals of the kingdom unless we pay attention to the little things, the clues, the unintentional but real consequences and perceptions of acts.

We don’t move closer to the vision of the prophet Isaiah - where the wolf and the lion, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the fatling together lie down - if you and I are unable to move beyond politeness and potential embarrassment, talk about race, and tell our stories.

We don’t move closer to those inspirational words of the prophet Amos:
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream
until I, as a white man, can laugh at myself and undress my white privilege where the world revolves around me and let it go - in truth, in tears, in laughter, in shared humanity and humility, finally free of the shame.

I don’t have to let guilt shape my responses - but truth.

We don’t move closer to the Pentecostal vision first seen by Joel:
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh…”
until we move from only speaking prophetically to acting prophetically, living personally, sharing the resources, taking the personal actions and institutional actions of getting over the barriers, naming the barriers, taking personal and institutional stock, finally freed by honesty into the transformational power of truth.

We don’t move closer to the vision of Paul:
that in Christ Jesus all are beloved
until we reflect the community that we proclaim, until we look like that beloved community which we seek to become.

It takes work: hard work, personal work, institutional work, political work, prayerful work, risky work, to move towards becoming the beloved community.

If we’re to continue to become the hospitable, inclusive, diverse, kingdom of righteousness that we can be - we all have to go home and change!

We all have to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. And create a community of safety so we can risk deep things. This is true of anything that really matters.

This is true of any system, whether it’s deeply personal - such as someone needs to take stock of addictions, a couple that has to talk deeper truths about hurts and hopes, a family that has to look at its dynamics - or institutional - such as an institution that has to take an inventory, or a nation that needs to take a good honest look at its history, both its glories and its gruesomeness.

Or even our church - asking what does it mean that we have an all-white program staff and black custodians.

What does it mean that in Cleveland Heights where the demographics are more or less 50% black and 50% white, that the schools are more like 85-15%, if not 90-10%.

There is a young woman, an African-American young woman, who has been an A-student throughout elementary school and middle high and would have succeeded at Heights High - but a private school “investing in excellence” gave her a scholarship and so, she is not at Heights being excellent. Why don’t they send 10 of their outstanding students to Heights High? What does this mean?

There are so many issues involved in that for me that it hurts deep down in my gut.

And yet, when our son Jack enters our back door with his six closest friends, his brothers - who are all black - I feel deep down good, and I am going to claim it!

We cannot dwell in shame - or bask too long in the low-wattage glow of limited advances - but sometimes we can celebrate the victories and continue to plot the course, take the stand, and follow where the gospel leads.

And the hurt keeps pushing me towards hope. The questions keep pushing me towards godly answers. This community keeps pushing me towards powerful responses.

I keep thinking and dreaming about Forest Hill Church on its little corner of Monticello and Lee being a witness to something big and grand and good. And it has already started.

The Courageous Conversations on Race held this summer was a tremendous re-start of our long-held commitment. In the weeks ahead you will learn how you can get more involved by joining a dinner conversation, joining a book study group, going on a pilgrimage to Memphis and Selma and Washington D.C., becoming involved with North Church… showing an intentionality in all we do to building rich and deep relationships that move us onward; welcoming the stranger, inviting folks to social groups, even into Fellowship Hall (which may be the biggest task of all!)

I believe that the Courageous Conversations on Race are going to change our lives, save our lives. If not for those conversations, I wouldn’t have been able to tell my story of shame.

The Session Task Force - which produced this marvelous document I’ve been urging you all to read - has reclaimed hospitality as a core value and celebration of diversity as an expression of our faith. This is core work - building our capacity to talk deeply, act faithfully, and move intentionally. As our friend Doris Allen says, “Counting heads and making heads count!”

It is what we do, and what you pledge to.

Investing in small groups, encouraging social action, leading transformative education and giving permission - all that we are doing to align ourselves by what we say we believe to be true about the Kingdom of God - that we are one in Christ and called to equip the Saints - transforming lives, institutions and culture.

It is not about guilt, not about blame, not about judgment. It is about freedom. Actually, it is about seeing that we have a common destiny. Seeing that we - black and white together, gay and straight together, man, woman and child together, immigrant and citizen together, Muslim, Jew, protestant and catholic together, Republican and Democrat together, people of varying abilities and gifts and needs together - we have a common road. And we either move together - working, walking, dancing, playing, agitating - into the light, or we will be broken apart - into our individual silos of independent fears - in the shadows.

We can’t let that happen.

You won’t let that happen on the corner of Monticello and Lee. You are making it happen, here - and there is no turning back.

There is no turning back on becoming the beloved community of Jesus Christ.

There is no turning back from enabling me to tell an embarrassing story and be set free.

So let’s all go home and change.

But then come back!

For the party is just starting.

Amen.

He was ruthless. “A cruel man, but fair.” (As Monty Python once described a character) I believe it was Josephus, the famous Jewish historian of the first century, who indicated that it was “safer to be Herod’s pig then his son.” Herod was kosher after all! He adored his wife, Mariamme, whom he killed (peculiar way to adore somebody), and he murdered three sons because of his fear of a coup.

Herod is famous for “slaughtering the innocents” of Bethlehem. An event that is nowhere else reported then in Matthew’s gospel - but it certainly fits the description of his paranoia and ruthlessness.

That he was suspicious of the wise men and wanted to know where Jesus “king of the Jews” was born so he could “pay him homage” (right!) fits what we know about him.

So it is a good thing that these wise men from the East (Iraq or Iran) were discerning folk and “left for their own country by another road.” The next few verses report that Joseph, Mary and the baby got out of town too - heading south into Egypt.

So what are we to take away from all of this? Commentators have been fascinated by the magi’s escape “by another way” -a route that both by-passed Herod AND, metaphorically, was a change of perspective, “another way.” T.S. Eliot in his poem “Journey of the Magi” picks up this meaning.

We returned to our places, our kingdoms
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Eliot’s point, I suppose, is once you look into the face of Jesus - once you have the epiphany, the experience of the divine, a new truth, a new idea, the confrontation and transformation of the holy - you just aren’t the same. The old world, the old way of being, simply cannot be returned to. The old dispensation, the old ways of doing things, don’t work. And to try to return along the way - back into the old ruts, the old habits, the old routines - “returning to Herod” - well, it just isn’t healthy.

I know it to be true for folks who have the epiphany, the God-breakthrough - alcoholics who can’t go back on the old route. Those who get a new idea. I believe it was about Galileo or Da Vinci that someone said that they were caught between two worlds - one dying and one waiting to be re-born.

When you are in that space - how do you go back? You head on by another way, no?

I like that the magi were looking for Jesus. I think everybody is looking for the king, everyone is looking for Jesus, whether they would admit it or not - seeking a face-to-face with what is REALLY true. You and I all have this deep desire to bump up against the holy, and to change, to bend towards the divine and become more ourselves, to feel at home in our own skin- to follow new patterns that are not self-destructive. Going home by another way - away from a dysfunctional relationship, destructive patterns of behavior, or towards a new idea, a new way - taking those risks that take you down the “road less traveled” - this takes real courage.

Isn’t it interesting that the Gospel has a lot to say about roads, and ways of getting back home? The Magi have to find another way. This new way may save them from Herod but chances are the new way has its own dangers and may be circuitous, longer. This isn’t about choosing Rt. 2 or 90! There is a distinct possibility (Herod’s threat not withstanding) that the new way home will not be safe; there are dangers on the roadside. We know about the dangers of travel in the first century - just read the Good Samaritan - there are robbers. But sometimes you can’t go back home the way you came.

What road are you on?

Remember how we started Advent - Isaiah tells the children in exile that it is time to go home but…you’ll have to build a new road in the desert - it will necessitate construction and it won’t necessarily be easy - but in so doing, you see, “all people” will see God’s glory revealed.

I think the lesson personally is that in this new year, you have to look for new paths. Staying rutted in the old is not good, the status quo while not as dangerous as Herod’s threat still has its dangers. As Kathleen Norris wrote in her book Dakota, which was all about her inward transformative journey: “disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.” And if the wise men had not changed the way they returned home, they would have lost their future, probably by losing their heads!

What do you need to change?

See, we have do new things, and think new thoughts, and shake things up and be prepared for journeys into new lands. The point of all this travel is find our home in God.

I will never forget the feeling of coming home for the first time from college, or the feeling of coming home after being away in Scotland for two years - there is no better feeling then coming home. But you see I had to LEAVE home to come home. I had to experience some things and feel the pangs of homesickness. ALL our spiritual yearning comes down to being homesick - homesick for God. “My heart is restless until it finds its rest in you,” St. Augustine wrote 1,500 years ago.

So we have to learn to travel and to develop that strong faithfulness that is expressed in these words: “Every experience holds a new promise, every encounter carries a new insight, and every event brings a new message.”

What home are you looking for?

What happens personally, happens institutionally. Last year, just about this time, the Session found out that we were going to be $75,000 short of our stewardship goal. A retirement, a death, and a move of three VERY large givers brought us to a new reality - we can’t go back that way. And you know the narrative - the Session accessed the funds that our Endowment Committee annually disperses to a variety of things including benevolences. The Session cut the funds that we give away to the denomination’s mission program, we froze salaries, cut some hours - we did what we had to do.

But it shook us up. Our magi (your elders) discerned that we needed to re-evaluate, to head in a new direction. As Dr. Johnson once wrote: “The prospect of being hanged in the morning wonderfully concentrates the mind!” Nothing clarifies the mind like a budget shortfall - or a return to Herod!

So the Session called a small group of particularly wise folk to build a new highway, to find a new way home - towards our goal of equipping you in every way possible for powerful, faithful living; towards our goal of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ - giving sight to the blind, good news to the poor and release of the captive; towards our goal of being the beloved community where all God’s beloved children find a home - black and white, gay and straight, single and coupled, young and old - Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female - all one in Christ Jesus!

These wise folk listened to you and articulated a way towards home - by another way. And I want you to read this living document which is now the Session’s template for the next five years. Unlike other reports by other committees, this isn’t one for the bookshelf to be forgotten, collecting dust - no this is a road map and an interactive expression of hope - pointing the way. It is on the website - and I encourage all of you to read it, to engage with it - not in the usual cynical critical way - not in that old way which leads to Herod - but to read it with hope for the future.

We have to give up some “old dispensations” even if they worked for many years. But at the end of the day, do you want to go backwards or move ahead? Return to Herod or find a new way home? We really can’t stay put.

So, just like the magi, let us offer our best gifts for the future. The magi didn’t bring proper baby gifts that Mary could use immediately - they brought gifts for a later time: gold, frankincense and myrrh. So let us, too, think towards the future, to the hope of God’s kingdom among us.

The map has been given. Let’s start the journey back home.

Amen

It reminds me of a story. As it was coming up to Christmas a young boy was praying upstairs with his mother, while his dad and grandma were downstairs. The little boy prayed: “Lord I pray for a train set, a remote control car, and A NEW BICYCLE!!! “

“You don’t have to shout dear,” said his mother. “God’s not deaf.”

“I know,” said the little boy, “but Grandma is.”

We come from many places tonight to occupy this place. We come with many wants, many needs, many stories. Families are reunited here. Some are present to escape the loneliness. Memories abound. However you find yourself - I am glad you are here!

I love the Christmas story - I never tire of it. This surprising and risky birth of God stealthily being born in a manger, while Emperor Augustus, in his fortress palace, counts heads, and Quirinius and Herod pace sleeplessly in their towers of power. All are worried that someone or something might take down the empire, steal the wealth, and question their authority.

The powerful always worry. But God makes herself powerless - as a newborn. Augustus is occupied with all these concerns from afar, back in Rome, while God is up close and personal, needing breast milk. You don’t have to believe it, but it is a hell of a story - one that really compels me to lean towards it and let it occupy my heart.

I love the words of the story - in the King James, of course, just sounds better - “decree,” “lineage,” “espoused,” “great with child,” “swaddling clothes,” “manger,” “heavenly hosts,” “Christ.” Think how these words have impacted our history.

Geoff Nunberg, contributor to NPR Fresh Air and author of the book The Year of Talking Dangerously, loves words too. In his opinion there is one word that was the most impactful word of 2011… Do you know what he came up with? If you know - shout it out! OCCUPY - as in occupy Wall St.

He writes: “If the word of the year is supposed to be an item that has actually shaped the perception of important events, I can’t see going with anything but “occupy.” It was a late entry, but since mid-September it has gone viral and global. Just scan the thousands of hashtags and Facebook pages that begin with the word:”Occupy.” Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Slovakia. Occupy Saskatoon, Occupy Sesame Street, Occupy the hood. They could have just been called protests, but it wouldn’t have felt as much like a movement.

“The movement came with its own culture too,” he writes. “Just a few subway stops from the national media. It gave color to the story, as reporters turned ethnographers returned from the field with reports of the people’s microphone, the jazz-hand finger-flutters, and the drum circles. It was street theater, or a dinner party with paper plates, or an exercise in constructive group dynamics… The occupiers were romantics, holy fools, anarchists. Or they were an incoherent mob of dirty hippies -with iPads. Whatever the movement is, it isn’t a wing of electoral politics.”

Nunberg ends his article with this: “‘Occupy’ is that rare linguistic phenomenon, a word that bubbles up out of nowhere and actually helps to create the very thing it names.”

Helps create…the very thing it names.

Those words of Nunberg got me thinking about what we are celebrating tonight and tomorrow and the word “Incarnation” - you know, God becoming flesh (meat), God one-of-us, Jesus.

Into the unrest, into the dis-ease, into the longing, into all the hopes and all the fears - God comes, occupying space and time in a village square of Bethlehem - in the midst, Jesus is born. It started with an unwed couple, a few shepherds, wise folk, and some barn animals.

That’s what’s wrong with those bill board signs that you used to see that read “DON’T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE” - God. The Occupy Bethlehem movement declares that God is already down and among, occupying our space! Not in the ivory tower. Not in the towers of power of financial institutions. But occupying stable and manger.

And if you read the Scriptures with any kind of sensitivity, you see that this Occupy Bethlehem movement-this Incarnation movement means God with the poor, God with the fringe, God with the powerless, God with the distracted, God with those who feel left out - God with you and me and whatever you and I are going through - God occupying life.

Not a political agenda. Not imposed from above - but swelling up from below. And the call is out - God is going global, God is going viral, God creating a culture, a presence in place and time of caring, a culture of sacrifice, of joy - of inclusion, of hope, of home; Lifting up every valley, making low every mountain, leveling every playing field, smoothing the rough places.

God did not occupy Bethlehem to start an institution of obligation, judgment, guilt and punishment. I don’t think the Church has been listening. God did not occupy Bethlehem to protect the status quo.

That’s why it moves me to think of the Incarnation, of Christmas, as an Occupy Bethlehem movement. A movement calling you and me, us to live it, claim it, be involved - become the incarnation of the Incarnation, you and I have to give birth to Jesus. You see, it’s not something done to you, but through you.

Bono of U2 - I think he gets Christmas. He gets incarnation and the spirit of divine occupation in his song “Yaweh” (the Hebrew word for “God”)

Take these shoes…Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes…And make them fit
Take this shirt…Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt…And make it clean, clean
Take this soul…Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul…And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh….Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh…Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Take these hands…Teach them what to carry
Take these hands…Don’t make a fist, no
Take this mouth…So quick to criticize
Take this mouth…Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh…Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now…Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city…A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city…If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take…Take this heart
Take this heart…Take this heart…And make it brave.

To live the life of Christmas, to occupy Bethlehem, means you and I have to be brave.

Because it’s going to be your hands, and your mouths, and your souls, shirts and shoes - it’s going to be this city, this city of Cleveland which is born this night a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And you’re going to find him! wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Call me a romantic, a holy fool, an anarchist, an incoherent dirty hippie - I don’t care.

I just want to be part of the occupy Bethlehem movement.

I just want my life to be occupied with something big. I want my life to be occupied with hope.

Don’t you?

So, tonight, like the shepherds, let’s go occupy BETHLEHEM.

Go see… and then see what occupies you and me.

Amen.

John 1: 1-5, 9-14
read by Rev. Dr. John C. Lentz

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.