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Sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey, "Delicious Word"

2/28/2016

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Readings for February 28, 2016
Lent 3

  • Isaiah 55:1-9 
  • Psalm 63:1-8 
  • 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 
  • Luke 13:1-9

Delicious Word, by Pastor Fred
​Many people remarked on how delicious the figs tasted at the Gallery Opening last week!  How many got to taste one (show of hands)?  We got them in honor of Younan Shiba, our featured artist, and a refugee from Iraq.  A number of folks had never had them before, and weren’t sure which of the dried fruits were figs and which were dates?  They're exotic imports from the Middle East after all!  I tasted one of each, and they were as delicious, I’m sure, as the figs and dates the Israelites have eaten, since the time of Abraham.  Later, I saw the left-overs reappear briefly on Wednesday night, at our Soup Supper, but didn’t have time to grab one, unfortunately, so I’m hoping they may be resurrected at Coffee Hour today, one more time!
 
God’s word for us today is nutritious and wholesome, though initially, hard to digest.  But the fig tree in the gospel story has not yet produced any figs, while the most uplifting news appears to be from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament! 
 
But I’m getting ahead of myself!  For Jesus really does have some good news for us, though difficult to digest, until we get what he’s talking about.  So first, let me tell you a story.
 
Ben Larson was a seminarian, the son of pastor, a bishop in fact, and had a passion for global ministry, and song, and found himself volunteering a second time in Haiti, in 2010.  As you may recall, that was the year when the massive earthquake hit, and at that moment, Ben was on the second floor of an orphanage, leading a worship service.  His wife and cousin were volunteering with Ben too, and were in the same room when everything started shaking so violently, and they instinctively ran for the doorway nearby as the concrete came raining down.  But Ben grabbed hold of the pillar in the middle of the room, no doubt hoping it would be a safe place. Unfortunately, the structure completely collapsed on top of him. 
 
I still remember the fundamentalist talk show host who denounced everyone who died in the earthquake in Haiti, as deserving it, as God’s punishment – and being so very angry and upset. 
 
Jesus talks about the tragedies of his day, like when the tower of Siloam, probably a part of the structure of the wall around Jerusalem, fell unexpectedly on an innocent crowd of people, killing 18 of them.  He also tells of the ghastly news of how Pontius Pilate took sport in the death of some Jews at the Temple, who were offering their prayers and sacrifices in normal everyday religious ritual, and mingled the blood of the sacrifices, with the blood of the worshipers, terrorizing the population!  Other historical accounts of Pilate bear-up this image of his brutality, and so, it could very well be true. 
 
Terrorism continues today, domestically from San Bernardino, to Kalamazoo, to LaQuan McDonald, and of course, across the Middle East, inflamed waves of retribution and revenge.  And even the candidates who are running for the highest office of our land, blame whole religions, for individual acts of terrorism, stoking our worst fears and exhibiting great comfort and satisfaction in thoughtless violence. 
 
When the disciples bring up the terrorism and natural disasters of their day, Jesus in turn asks them a question,: Do you think that the victims were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, or those living in Jerusalem?  We’re not sure if the disciples attempted to answer or not, because Jesus answers his own question for them, saying, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” 
 
That may seem a bit hard to digest, at first, but Jesus is pretty clear.  Unlike fundamentalists, presidential candidates, and those who reflexively seek revenge, and are quick to point the finger, not noticing the log in their own eye, Jesus says, sin does not make atrocities come. They just come.  And, I might add, God does not have to send us punishments – we’re capable of hurting one another all by ourselves!
 
But tragedies like this do tell us something, says Jesus.  Life is fragile!  And just because we have survived thus far, doesn’t make us better, more blessed, or exceptional.  It tells us, there is no time like the present to confess; to repent; to ask for forgiveness; and get right with our Maker.  I don’t mean to be doctrinaire.  But, if we take it to heart that life is fragile, that can help us to, not take our lives for granted;  To learn to live in the moment;  To understand the utter gift of grace life is, that God has given us;  and be thankful. 
 
When Ben Larson’s wife, Renee, ran back toward the building, after the ground quit shaking, back to where she’d last seen her husband, and stuck her head into the hole where the orphanage had been, she heard Ben.  He was singing with his dying breaths. The tune was a hymn, “Where Love and Charity Prevail, there God’s love is found.”  The words he was singing were a prayer: God’s peace to us we pray. And Renee told him she loved him, and to keep singing. 
 
Unfortunately, since the Twin Towers fell, we have been reacting – not out of God’s graciousness and peace – but out of fear, falling into a bad theology whenever we blame tragedy and terrorism on whole groups of people we decide are “bad”, or less-than, and deserving of divine retribution, forgetting that Jesus says, No, to this Way, that those who died in NY and DC, and all the way to San Bernardino, California, are no better, or worse, than we are.  And, reacting out of fear and asking for retribution, is not an answer, or a creed, we subscribe to.  It is, in fact, the shortest road to more tragedy.  Unless we repent, says Jesus, death will continue to rule.
 
But if this is still hard to digest, says Jesus, let me tell you a parable, the story of the master’s fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit.  The really curious thing about placing this story here is, there was a Levitical law at the time, against doing exactly what the master asked for, cutting it down after three years.  The law stated that no fig trees should be cut down in their first 3 years to give them time to root and grow, and even the fourth year was designated as the year of first fruit offerings, that is, the master had to make an offering of the fourth year crop, and not eat them himself until the fifth year. 
 
But there is a gardener in Jesus’ parable, who intervenes on behalf of the fig tree.  He could have reminded the master that he would be in violation of the law, to cut it down, but instead, the gardener craftily asks for a reprieve for the fig tree, to allow one more year of growth, so that it can be taken even better care of, to personally pamper it and fertilize it, instead of killing it.  In effect offering a pardon for this fig tree, a repentance, before the master decides whether or not to cut it down.  A very nutritious and wholesome approach, I’d say, though perhaps somewhat hard for the owner to digest!
 
Life is fragile, and it doesn’t often respond well to bullying and retribution.  We all respond better to forgiveness and love, and a gardener who is not afraid to get down in the dirt with us and get their hands dirty in the dung of life, to live where we live, understand our burdens, responsibilities and griefs, and give us a second chance. 
 
Life is fragile.  And there is absolutely no reason for us to wait to repent.  For, Siloam or Haiti, could happen at any time.  And if we do not repent and find the wonderfully gracious gift of life God has given us, we are all the more likely to join the self-satisfied, or angry-wounded, in a discipleship of retribution, instead of a discipleship of Jesus.  
 
Our God is a God of mercy and love.  A God who never gives up pursuing us and forgiving us.  God is the giver of all good gifts, as the prophet Isaiah says of our Great Gardener: “Attention, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” 
 
God’s word for us today is like a fig, nutritious, delicious, and wholesome, and actually, easy to digest, when we internalize – that though Life is fragile, its an awesome gift, and present to us right now! 
 
“Listen carefully to me, …eat what is good… and come to me…” 

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Sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey, "The Fox and The Hen"

2/21/2016

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Readings for Feb 21, 2016, Lent 2
  • Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 
  • Psalm 27  
  • Philippians 3:17-4:1  
  • Luke 13:31-35


The Fox and The Hen
Where is the rooster, when the mother hen is protecting her baby chicks?  I don’t know much, if anything, about raising free-range chickens.  But apparently, the men folk live separately, and are mostly good for breeding and crowing!  And the foxes, and other predators of the chicks, like to raid the chicken coop, just after sunset, or just before dawn, when rooster, and hen for that matter, are basically blind. 
 
There was an urban pastor who raised chickens for a time, as some kind of small urban, civil disobedience, because she disagreed with the restriction against having them within her city limits.  Or maybe we should just say, she ran a-foul of the law! 
 
Anyway, one of the things she learned in her experiment was that her hens not only sheltered her own chicks, but they also willingly took in those from other breeds, whose mothers had died.  She saw Hestia, her last hen, do this more than once.  She was very unselfish, like a foster mother, always on call, welcoming every-one of every stripe, to gather under her protective wings.  Fox or eagle, whoever the predator, Hestia was available, and proud to help. 
 
One night as the pastor returned home late, she heard a struggle going on near the chicken run, and shined a flashlight on the situation only to discover a possum, with Hestia, in the grips of its jaws!  At first, it looked like a lost cause, but when the possum was scared away, Hestia gave out a loud cackle, and the pastor discovered Hestia was alive, though one wing was broken badly.  Unfortunately, before a vet could be found to repair the damage, Hestia’s infected wing did her in.  Hestia was the last of her hens, and the Pastor gave up her urban protest, and resumed her hunt for eggs in the local grocery store.
 
When some of the Pharisees came to warn Jesus that Herod desired to kill him, and if he had any sense, he’d get out town – Jesus said, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’” 
 
Jesus will not be moved.  He has his agenda and his road map.  Though he is in Herod’s territory, in Galilee and Perea in the north of Israel, he has his sights set on Jerusalem in Judea.  Luke’s gospel more than the others, makes this clear.  Jesus comes from the rural north, gathering followers from fishers and local tax collectors, men and women, cast-offs and commoners, but his message is also for the rich and powerful, and urban dwellers of Zion.  Jesus is a uniter, a gatherer.  His tent is big, but the door is narrow.  He doesn’t build walls, but welcomes the stranger. 
 
So Jesus is not afraid of the fox.  He’ll leave Herod’s territory when the time is right, for him.  His ministry of prayer and healing and inaugurating the new age, is the priority.  And Jesus knows his real threat is Jerusalem, for “today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way,” as Jesus says, “because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”  Jesus knows his fate, if things don’t change.  Yes, Herod is a fox, but prophets – and here Jesus is not afraid to call himself that – are always dealt with in Jerusalem.  Which indeed, happened to the prophet Zechariah, amongst others, and which as Luke knew, happened to Stephen, who was stoned within a few years after Jesus died, and Luke writes about it in the book of Acts.
 
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it,” says Jesus!  And you can feel his anger building.  He knows the traditions and expectations.  He has followers and adoring fans that will follow him.  If only he will fulfill their hopes and dreams and fight back – and make their country great again!  They want a strong lion to chase away the Wiley fox.  They want King David, the mighty warrior who stared down Goliath, and conquered all comers! 
 
Still, knowing all that, here is what Jesus told them: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”  Yes, Jesus wants to come as our savior – in the form of a chicken!  Not a lion, or an eagle, or King David, but a mothering hen.  How long do you think Jesus would have lasted, out on the 2016 campaign trail, with that kind of compassion? 
 
Has Jesus gone soft?  Perhaps he refers to spiritual matters, a Savior in the realm of faith; the master of our hearts and good intentions?  We can trust Jesus, of course, to keep us calm in the midst of an overwhelming day, and tame the monsters in the darkness, and give us “rest beside the still waters” of our every anxiety. 
 
But he is also offering us the opportunity to fully know the One, Jesus called, his Father, in this motherly message, and to count ourselves among those in Jerusalem who are willing to be gathered-in by Jesus. 
 
When Jesus characterizes the city as killing the ones Sent to it, the prophets and apostles, the surprise is, he doesn’t desire to respond in kind, but he models the compassion of a defenseless mother hen.  Jesus longs to gather Jerusalem under his wings, and to comfort even those who would reject him.  He envisions Jerusalem as a brood of vulnerable chicks in need of their mother’s protection, and longs to offer the same protection, and salvation, to the very city where he is on his way to die. 
 
A mothering hen says, Barbara Brown Taylor, “stands between [her] chicks and those who mean to do them harm.  She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles.  All she has is her willingness to shield her children with her own body.  If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first.”  That is the way of the cross Jesus chooses, for the sake of the world. 
 
During this season of Lent, as we make our journey to Jerusalem, we might ask ourselves what it is that we long for and desire?  Do we long for the ministry of Jesus, to protect, and be protected, as a mothering hen, even in a world filled with ruthless foxes?  Do we have a desire to be like Jesus, to find compassion for our enemies, even those who want to put us to death?  In this city and world of violence, what does it mean, that we desire even our enemies to experience Jesus’ compassion, as we ourselves have?
 
A big part of Jesus’ mission in the gospel of Luke is, a gathering together, as opposed to, the scattering, by foxes like Herod.  Jesus desires to gather us protectively, but in a way that guarantees liberation, and freedom for all.  A freedom that is a sometimes fragile, and one that has to “want” to make sacrifices.
 
If you have ever loved someone you could not ultimately protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament, for the people of Jerusalem.  All you can do is open your arms, though you can’t make anyone walk into them.  It’s the most vulnerable posture in the world – wings spread, breast exposed — but if we mean what we say, then this is how we stand.(BBT)
 
This is what the Pastor of poor Hestia learned.  Hestia was not a chick, but a mature hen.  And the Pastor realized that even adult chickens are susceptible to predators.  Even Jesus, the mothering hen, despite his self-assuredness in the face of danger, had no wing under which to find shelter. 
 
But he knew that all along – “today, tomorrow, and the next day” – and that is how the world is transformed for us.  For in Jesus, arms spread wide open, we see our own sin and cruelty, writ large.  We see how quickly, we default to scattering the ones we scapegoat, in our own day and age, and understand how essential it is – and how rewarding too – that we protect openly and freely, and risk whatever it takes.  For in Christ Jesus there is life, and no fox can scatter us, under those wings.  

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Sermon by The Reverend Fred Kinsey, "Vision from the Valley"

2/8/2016

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Readings for 02/07/2016
Transfiguration of the Lord
  • Exodus 34:29-35 
  • Psalm 99  
  • 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2  
  • Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

Vision from the Valley, Pastor Kinsey
If you’ve read your bible, you know it’s full of many, many different styles of writing, and has many authors.  The word, Bible, comes from the Latin, biblia, meaning, collection of little books, or library of books.  It’s not pretending to be homogenous, though some have tried to portray it as such!  So, there’s good news and bad news.  The good news is, it has a little something for everyone.  The bad news is, if you’re looking for one concise, consistent, cogent argument, from cover to cover, you won’t find it.  This is no PhD thesis! 
 
What it is, is a library of, histories, poems, biographies, tell-all confessions, legends, family trees, songs, lamentations, love stories, creeds, apocalyptic visions, and mysteries.  And I suppose, the one thing they all do have in common is, they all have to do, with faith.  And so, as a people of faith, as people who have lost faith, as people who are searching for faith, and something to believe in – they all have to do with us, in an ultimate, spiritual way.  In this, St Jerome was right when he called it, Bibliotheca Divina, or the Divine Library. 
 
This heterogeneous collection should not be surprising really, seeing how we can, and do, read all these kinds of writings today.  Of course, not every style will resonate with every reader.  Some like biographies best, some poems.  I’m not a big fan of mysteries, myself.  But I do like the Transfiguration story from our gospel lesson today, which some have called a mystery, others call it, “magical realism,” ala, Gabriel Garcia Marques.  I’m sure if I were there on that mountain with Jesus, I would have been as confounded as Peter, John and James were.  But after dozens and dozens of readings, I feel like it begins to speak a truth to me, that I can’t ignore.  God is real, imminent even, and close at hand; yet, at the same time, God is big and mysterious, not totally graspable; God is too big and overshadowing to live with, for more than a moment, much less fully, every day.
 
How about you?  Is this the story you turn to, when you open the Bible?  You’re looking a bit skeptical out there! 
 
I don’t think it’s anyone’s most favorite.  It seems out of place, in a way – a vision of, the end of Jesus’ story in his final glory, here, smack-dab in the middle of it!

Let me give you a kind of analogy to this visionary mystery – this magical realism passage, of the Transfiguration of Jesus.  It reminds me of that Book Discussion on “Heaven is for Real,” the story of the boy who had a Near Death Experience after a terrible appendicitis and surgery that almost killed him, and came back to tell about the visions of heaven he saw, Jesus and Mary, his little sister, and so on.  I had an 80 year old man in my former parish who nearly died of a heart attack, and told me of the white light he saw and was drawn to, and how beautiful and welcoming and wonderful it all felt.  And he wasn’t the kind that believed in stories like that before it happened to him. 
 
I’m not sure how I feel about NDE’s either – I guess a mixture of comfort but also skepticism.  And I think that’s akin to what the disciples experienced too, in the Transfiguration of Jesus.  After a vigorous hike up the mountainside, while in prayer, Jesus’ clothes appear dazzling white, and his face changes; the disciples see Moses and Elijah alive with him, they fight off a sleepy feeling, like a trance or a dream, but it was such a wonderful and positive one, they stayed awake, and didn’t want the apparition to end; and a cloud, way up at the top of the mountain, suddenly overshadowed everything, and they heard a heavenly voice saying, “this is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” 
 
And just like that, it was over.  Like waking up from the most vivid dream you‘ve ever had, and you’ll never forget – and it transforms you, changes something in you.  Even as you wake up, you know Jesus is real.  God is real.  So you feel a little let down perhaps, that God wants us to live down in the valley, even though you feel as if half of you is still on the mountain-top! 
 
But despite how jarring the waking up is, the two realities are connected.  Just like the very next story in our gospel reading. On the very next day, it says, the disciples and Jesus are met by a concerned father, one of many, in a great crowd.  And he is frantic and insistent that Jesus look at his son, his only child – not his disciples.  They couldn’t help.  They had not yet been transfigured enough to take action.  And when Jesus calls the boy to him, the demon dashes him to the ground in convulsions, like his father has seen so many times before – but Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit, healing the boy, and transforming him back to himself, so he could return to his father, whole again.  And all were astounded at the greatness of God, in Jesus. 
 
Even in the one gospel story of Luke, we find two different literary styles right next to each other, “magical realism,” and ‘healing’ story.  And what they both have in common is faith, or more precisely, I’d say, divine transformation.  The transfiguration of Jesus wants to show us that, the son of Mary and Joseph is also, the son of God.  And the healing of the father’s son, wants to show us how Jesus the Christ, came to liberate us from all that oppresses us – to transform us into the blessedness we were created for. 
 
We are transformed by the overshadowing divine clouds that appear to us in visions and dreams.  And being transformed, we can liberate others to change. 
 
Jesus doesn’t necessarily blame the Disciples for failing to heal the boy, after all the teaching and healing he has done with them.  But he does name society, a faithless generation all around him, for not yet getting it. 
 
And as disciples of Jesus today, we see it all around us, the poor being cast carelessly to the curb, our society’s structures of business and government, straining under the weight of the corruption of oligarchs, as if possessed by demons, endangering our future. 
 
We need a vision, a mountain top experience, to transform and transfigure us, and our society, to turn around from this direction of death, and be overshadowed by the voice speaking to us from the cloud.
 
The word Transfiguration means, metamorphosis – to morph or change into another form, another creature, a new being.  On the 8th day, it says, that’s when Jesus took his disciples up to the mountain-top – the day of the new creation, the day of resurrection.
 
For the rational mind, the modern and post-modern mind, the Transfiguration story of Jesus can appear unbelievable, even bizarre.  For a people continuing their search for faith, it is a “magical realism,” a hopeful heavenly vision.  And it is no coincidence that something completely different follows it, down in the valley, and which is not un-related.  It too is a story of transfiguration – the miracle of liberation and freedom, the gift of grace, from God, a tender family drama of coming home, waking up from a nightmare, a metamorphosis and starting over, as a new person – transfigured in the presence of God. 
 
And this is how we can celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord!  
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