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June 15, 2014 + "Pizza Wheel Turning" sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey

6/15/2014

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Readings for 6/15/14 + The Holy Trinity
  • Genesis 1:1-2:4a 
  • Psalm 8 
  • 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 
  • Matthew 28:16-20

Pizza Wheel Turning, by Pastor Fred
I had lunch with Gabriella this week, the big sister of Michael Julian getting baptized today.  We had pizza, and I thought we got along pretty well.  At least, until I starting talking about, time. 

I could relate to Gabriella’s role as big sister, ‘cause I had one too.  She confided to me, which name, of all the nicknames her parents call her, that she liked best – Bean- which was fine with me.  She taught me how to say Agua, water, in Spanish, and that was really cool.  I told her, how happy I was that her younger brother Michael was getting baptized, and that it was a really special gift for the whole congregation, that he would get a baptismal candle, and a cross marked on his forehead with olive oil, and get water poured on him in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And all that seemed to be going really well.  But when I tried to explain that, the Baptism, wouldn’t be for two more days yet, on Sunday, she gave me a blank stare, like, who are you?!  Adults say the weirdest things! 

Time, in days, has no meaning for a 2 year old, apparently.  So, we didn’t really bond over that!  Gabriella was in the moment, enjoying the pizza, Agua, and was curious about me, the visitor, right now.  There was no yesterday – and no tomorrow.  Today was everything, for Bean, I discovered.  And, as I ate my delicious pizza, I began to think about the cyclical nature of time – time was like a wheel, or, like that pizza pie – at least, before we devoured and finished it up! 

There’s a Chicago Food Truck called Pi, P-I, for pizza pies, of course, but also for the never ending formula, 3.141, something, something, something, defining the circumference of a circle which most pizzas are shaped like, not to mention the wheels of the Pi Pizza truck!

Today we reach a mid-point on the circular Church Calendar, between the festival half of the church year, which ended with the Day of Pentecost, the 50th Day of Easter, last Sunday, and now, beginning the long green and growing Season of Pentecost.  The Church Year is often portrayed as a wheel, too, reminding us that each year we travel, one time, all the way around, from Advent-Christmas-Epiphany and Lent, through Easter and Pentecost, centered always by the cross and resurrection of Jesus, in the Great Three Days.  And then repeat, with many and various beginnings and endings, all the time. 

There are definite beginnings and endings in the theme of our readings today too: Genesis 1:1, is the quintessential beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.  And the obvious ending, is our Gospel reading.  Not only is it the final five verses in Matthew, but here, Jesus is saying goodbye to his Disciples, and giving them his final instructions.  Jesus closes the circle, reminding them of his mission, that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.”  Just as God was incarnate in him from his birth, now, the departing Jesus, gives some of that authority away to them, that their lights can shine, encouraging them to share the transformative good news, Go and make disciples amongst all the Gentiles… gifting them with a new beginning in baptism, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

All this happened on a mountain, a holy place, where there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, but only a kind of eternal now, with God, a place where we find Jesus in Matthew’s gospel at a number of important occasions, when he is closest to God, the lofty heights, where there was only a thin veil in that upper atmosphere between heaven and earth, between God and God’s creation.  And the last thing Jesus tells the Disciples there, is, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

So this ending, makes for a new beginning.  And Jesus leaves us in-between two worlds!  The world of heaven, to which the Father belongs, which has been revealed by Jesus, and is symbolized in the Mt Top, and, the world of empire here, the realm of debt, slavery and death, which is being exposed by the cross, and confronted for its injustice through God’s people, and so is passing away.  And Jesus promises to be with us, always, in this in-between place!  We do not live as people of the world with no hope.  We do not live as people without a future or a past.  In the faith, we are gaining, a yesterday, and a tomorrow.

But sometimes it’s difficult to live in the in-between world.  There are still fractures and brokenness here.  We see it even in the gospel story’s picture of only 11 Disciples – “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them,” our reading begins.  Knowing that there were 12 Disciples before, we feel the tension, because it reminds us that Judas has died in terrible regret and fear, a mistake of betrayal, that all the disciples, to some degree, participated in.  Their wounded-ness is a reality, of the in-between time we live in, that longs for healing and wholeness. 

We all live in the in-between time.  And as we grow old enough to tell time, days, years, and ages, we come to know responsibility and duty, as well as, gift and Sabbath.  Parents, are born into a new life filled with new concerns, suddenly living in-between their earlier care-free days, and the empty nest to come, living with chaos, amidst the need to create order, like the Creator in Genesis, overwhelmed with diapers to college degrees, trusting mightily in the promise of Jesus, to be with their children, always. 

But living in-between two worlds is also a gift of revelation – an insight into the mind of the creator, and God’s will for us, and all the earth.  In this in-between time, we always have Jesus, the only person who has lived in both worlds, and still does, for us!  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” said Jesus, before commissioning the Disciples, and taking his leave.  In the ending of Jesus’ story, we see a new beginning, the vision of the world to come, when earth and heaven will be restored and healed and made whole again.  The creation story and the Garden of Eden are iconic stories, that have inspired us with their glimpse of what God can begin to do through our hands.  And yet, we are not going back to Eden, we are going forward into a new heaven and earth, reunited! 

So the Church Year Wheel is not just a continuous circle, but perhaps more like a spiral, so that, as it turns, it also moves forward, and is steering toward God’s purpose, the end of the age, as Jesus called it.  Or maybe it’s like ordering a new pizza pie/(pi) every so often: we get all we can out of each one – uhmm! – but there is always a new one we anticipate with equal or greater expectations, learning something new we didn’t know before – pineapple and Canadian bacon, or grilled chicken, can make for a really delicious pizza, too.  And in what Jesus has revealed, we learn something new that changes us, death does not have the final say, for us, on this side of the resurrection.  We are bathed in the font of new life, that gives us hope and courage, every day! 

Why else could those 800 college kids from Ohio, 50 years ago this month, be trained in non-violent resistance for the Freedom Summer of 1964, knowing, as they did, they would be mocked, and beaten, and even would risk their lives, to bring about racial justice at the polls for African Americans in Mississippi? 

The example of Jesus, has changed us, and the world, for the better.  We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us, because of Jesus the Son, sent to us by God the creator, because our sad endings – by our own mistakes and bad choices, or by the ripples of evil, from empire, and its misuse of power – can, and have been, turned into new beginnings. 

Today we see a new beginning, and new life, as Michael Julian is brought to the waters of this font of blessing!  There is new life for his big sister and parents, and the rest of Fernandez-Possen-Meer family.  There is new life for Michael.  And there is new life for us, Unity Lutheran Church.  The wheel of God’s Church Year rolls forward one more time, teaching us new tricks – better, even, than a pizza pie delivery man’s!  Living in this in-between time, can be hard, but it is also full of hope and promise, because Jesus is always with us – and so we pledge to be supporters of one another, and of all that bends toward the healing of the universe, the coming together of all creation, as God intends, when both heaven and earth are made one.  
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June 8, 2014 + Sermon by Pastor Kinsey

6/8/2014

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Readings for Day of Pentecost
June 8, 2014
  • Acts 2:1-21 
  • Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 
  • 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 
  • John 20:19-23


Point of Order, by Pastor Fred
In those days, it says in the book of Acts.  That’s how simply the story starts!  In those days – that is, the 10 days in between the ‘Ascension of Jesus’ and the ‘Day of Pentecost’ – In those days, Peter said, ‘I call this congregational meeting to order!’ and immediately, he went to the mike, asking for “a Point of Order!”   

This was technically, pre-Church, prior to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and strictly an in-house meeting.  They had one constitutional requirement to fulfill, electing a replacement for Judas, who had died suspiciously, after having betrayed Jesus to the authorities, which, of course, had started the ball rolling on his arrest.  And now, In those days, they understood how important it was that there should again be 12 Disciples – representing the 12 Tribes of Israel, all of God’s chosen people, if they were to be ready for the next step of their organization.  Acts notes that there are about 120 people in attendance for Peter’s Congregational Meeting.  So, you have to wonder, was this the Quorum count?  A record of the voting members, inserted like a kind of first Minutes of the Early Church?  It also makes for a good round number for any small church, then or now!  And, of course, it’s also exactly 10 times the 12 Tribes of Israel and 12 Disciples of Jesus. 

There were two nominations from the floor: “Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.”  Both were qualified.  And so, according to their polity, a tradition, it seems to me, more rich than voting, in a way, they cast lots, which basically means, rolling dice, or drawing a name out of a hat!  But first, they had a prayer about it – Peter asking God to show them who should be chosen – and, after all, if both were qualified, the only decider I guess, IS God!  And that’s how Matthias got picked.  And then they adjourned the meeting.  And Matthias took Judas’ vacated spot, as the new 12th Disciple, and they all went back to waiting for the Spirit to come. 

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” Jesus had promised them before leaving.  But still, they had little idea what was about to happen.  Gathered in the Upper Room, in Jerusalem, waiting, pilgrims from every country were flooding into The City of David for the Wheat Festival called Pentecost, to offer a tithe, or two loaves of leavened bread, in the Temple. 

Pentecost was always the second festival of the year, 50 days after Passover, held sometime in the third month.  It was probably just a one day celebration, instead of the usual week, but still, was well attended.  And so, when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all fiercely on task, waiting together in one place, focused on their mission, though, truth be told, a bit afraid of speaking out publically, and being arrested as followers of Jesus, and mostly unsure of what to do next.  While thousands of pilgrims flooded the city of Jerusalem, the ‘organization in waiting’ was huddled away from all the festival goers and their festivities. 

Today, we remember this day of Pentecost, not because we are Pilgrims going to Jerusalem, or farmers bringing a thank offering of our crops, but as 21 century folks, maybe a little fearful of what it means to be a person of faith in today’s world, and unsure where God is, or what God is up to, and how to explain it!  And yet, at the same time, I detect there is a trustfulness, and a hope, and a mounting courage for the task, our Unity Lutheran congregation has been given to do in the world, and especially a thankfulness, today, that we are receiving four new members as a part of our Gathering. 

Gathered together on Pentecost Day in Jerusalem, the Twelve waited – for what, they weren’t sure – when suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind.  Like a twister coming down Tornado Alley, perhaps?  And yet, there was no destruction of property or life, even though the wind, or spirit, filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Deafening!  Disorienting!  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 

The Holy Spirit had come in the very way, so as to remind everyone of the other tradition celebrated at Pentecost, the giving of the 10 Commandments on Mt Sinai, which was a windy, smoky, fire and lightening storm, overcoming the mountain, also showing forth the presence of God, before Moses and all the people gathered there! 

Like the Covenant that God wrote on the stone tablets for Israel, God at Pentecost, gave miraculous words to speak, to the 12 Disciples.  The Holy Spirit filled them, and they began to speak in other languages, so that all the pilgrims who had arrived on the holy mountain in Jerusalem from around the world, could understand in their own native language.  No more would they have to listen to the Mass in Latin, but they could understand in their own tongue – in Urdu or Ghanaian or Arabic, in German or Norwegian, in Spanish or Swedish – and know the Word of God plainly and intimately! 

Pentecost was a sign of the New Covenant God was making with all the followers of Jesus, not written on stone tablets, but written in their hearts: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”

As usual, the reaction to these phenomena, was mixed.  Some believed and some didn’t.  They were either amazed or perplexed.  Some asked, “what does this mean?” While others sneered and said, “they are filled with new wine!” 

Have you ever been given a perplexed look, or even sneered at, when a friend found out you go to church?  Do they ask, why would you do that?  Or worse, look puzzled like you’re high on something – filled with new wine! 

Today, we rejoice in the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus, poured out on Joe, and Pat, and Robert and Sandy, who courageously stand in the circle of faith with all the rest of us, to state publically, yes, I do intend to continue in the New Covenant God made with me in holy baptism… and I ask God to help and guide me.  We have all made such a promise at some time, whether at baptism or confirmation or new membership, but it’s always a moment that – internally – seems like the rush of a violent wind blowing through us, and as if tongues of fire are burning on our heads, because we know, this is real, this is vitally important – this is our lives, this is life and death! 

God comes to us, interrupting our lives, and our well planned organizations and meetings, with a divine Point of Order.  God’s new covenant overpowers our agenda’s and breaks down all our human made barrier’s, and includes people of all nations, both men and women, young and old, even servants and imprisoned.  Like a tornado and fire, God’s Holy Spirit is all consuming, without destroying a single pane of glass or wall of plaster, yet entering our lives deeply and irrevocably, building up the Body! 

Today – in these days – the Spirit of Pentecost has arrived and is alive and well. We see it in our New Members, and we see it in all of us, gathered here, a hungry band of disciples, with lots of questions, with a passion for love and grace, peace and justice, right now, here in our world and community, for our families and neighborhoods.  We desire to be on fire with the ‘truth and the life’ – and so we say, we do, and we ask God to help and guide us! 
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June 1, 2014 + "Galilean Gaze" by Pastor Kinsey

6/1/2014

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Readings for Easter 7(A) 6/1/14
  • Acts 1:6-14 
  • Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 
  • 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
  • John 17:1-11

Galilean Gaze, by Pastor Fred
My brother and I stood looking up at the old elm tree, in wonderment and awe, at its towering majesty, its branches reaching up to the sky – and mostly its proclivity to produce so many leaves – that had once again fallen to the ground, that crisp fall Saturday morning.  We dared not to curse aloud our friend, Old Mrs. Elm, but we certainly thought it – in the middle of our task to rake up all her leaves, now covering the lawn! 

Our breaks from raking, as young teenagers, were increasingly more frequent the longer we stood out there in the back yard.  And it must have galled my mother no end, as she usually had to come out and break our Trans, as we gazed heavenward, and remind us of the task at hand.  Or, when lunch would be served soon, she had to come out and cajole or threaten us, that if we just finished the job, then we could come to the table and eat!

But there always seemed to be so much to ponder out there in our back yard, looking up toward the sky, at Old Elm.  There was so much to figure out at that young age.  Not just the tree, how she got that big, or the leaves, why they fell each year around the time of the first frost.  But, you know, girls! – what they said to you and why, or playing a pick-up game of round-ball with the guys and making the play of the game, or cars, or The Beatles.  But none of that got the leaves raked, or got us any closer to lunch time! 

"Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”  On Ascension Day, last Thursday, as we celebrated when Jesus was bodily taken up – completing his incarnational journey, which began with coming down, of course, and being born in our likeness, taking on our lot in life.  On Ascension, Jesus leaves for good.  Or does he?! 

The whole High Priestly Prayer we’ve been reading from in the Gospel of John these last few weeks, is a preparation for the disciples – and us – that just the opposite of, being left behind, or abandoned, is what Jesus is making us ready for.  Barbara Rossing says: “The great prayer of John 17 evokes longing in us to be fully “one” with Jesus, in the mystical communion of prayer, so that his prayer of love for us, becomes not a farewell but rather a homecoming.”  (Blogging Toward Sunday, Jesus prays for us, John 17:20–26, May 09, 2013 by Barbara Rossing)

Jesus ascends, not as a farewell, but rather as a homecoming.  We have now arrived at home, at the time and place that Jesus has been preparing for us, all along. 

It is tempting to be led into a sense of mourning, as when we lose a loved one in death, whether in old age, or more suddenly before their time.  Isn’t Jesus taken from us, unsuspecting?  Aren’t we like the disciples?  The followers of Jesus who after 40 days of Jesus’ resurrection appearances, were still confused about the restoration of the kingdom?  Or, are we in a better place, able to see that Jesus has been preparing us for a homecoming all along? 

In the eastern orthodox church there is a tradition that one mourns for a loved one for a period of 40 days after death, the same amount of time between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  During those 40 days, the tradition is that you prepare a table setting at each meal, for your deceased loved one, knowing that their spirit is still with you.  And then, by the 40th day, when you’ve had time to adjust, to shake at least some of the cobwebs out or your head from this life changing event, a time when we often see apparitions of our loved ones, you begin to make peace with their “passing on.”  Your grieving may still take months and years and maybe forever in some ways, but hopefully you’ve had time to get one or two full nights of sleep again – and so, the tradition is, on the 40th day you have a party with all the family and friends of the deceased.  You invite them over, they bring the food, and after eating, there is a dramatic breaking of a window in the house, to let the spirit of the deceased “be taken up.”  And then for the first time you begin to give away their possessions, as an act of charity, and as a token of their lives, for all to remember.

On the 40th day, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  This story has actually been something of a post-modern embarrassment for many of us believers.  But I think that’s only because we look at too much like fundamentalists.  And even the first believers probably didn’t take it literally.  Their conception of up, and heaven, did not mean they believed Jesus was somehow defying gravity, or flying on some theatrical trick stage cables.  They didn’t believe that Jesus was going up to some designated place above the clouds or the moon somewhere, as if they, or we, were going to go after him, and find him there. 

Their belief in a 3-storied universe – though it seems scientifically silly to us in a post-Copernicus world – was richer theologically, illuminating the story of a universe created by God in which the world here below was the realm of human creatures and all created things, and the clouds and skies above was the realm of God.  But they were always “two interlocking spheres of God’s reality.” (N.T. Wright)  And through the prophets, the ancient Hebrews came to know that the arc of justice, to bring heaven and earth into one reality, was bending closer to each other.  Jesus continued this bending of the arc, opening up the long held Jewish belief, that God desired to include the Gentiles in God’s saving covenant, at some point.

The prophet Daniel is a good example.  He is also a ‘Son of Man’ figure, who will come again in the clouds.  And this Son of Man will be given kingly powers over the nations, and over the beasts, i.e., the evil powers among us, the powers sucking life out of our social, political, and economic institutions, turning us against one another, promoting greed and violence.  Jesus is a figure, like a Son of Man, who brings a kingdom, God’s kingdom, more fully on earth, and calls out the evil spirits and defeats them. 

So it’s no wonder that after 40 days, as Jesus is gathering his disciples, men and women, and people from the ends of the earth, they are wondering if this is the time when he will restore the kingdom of God to the chosen people Israel?  Now that it has been 40 days after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when they are starting get a hold of themselves, their eyes are starting to clear, and they have been waiting patiently for him in the upper room – they know what Jesus has come to do, that it has something to do with his overcoming the cross, and restoring the realm and kingdom of God.  The arc of justice and peace have bent noticeably closer to the chosen people, in Jesus.  Heaven and earth are united in this Son of Man-Son of God, this Messiah of Israel, the prophet preaching to outsiders and those on the margins. 

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”  Quit staring, and standing frozen in your tracks!  Stop glaring up, as if you have lost your Savior.  Jesus is not up there, as if the answer can be found in the cosmic ether world above!  He calls you home, where you have a job to do – that is where he is now!  Jesus goes up bodily, only after he has prepared us for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the formation of the church, and a sign of trust and compassion that he will infuse us, in bodily fashion, with the full power of his Spirit.  We are not abandoned, but have received the gifts of heaven, here.  Lunch is ready – the table is set!  Quit staring into space and come to the banquet, the meal of salvation is prepared, that you may be filled with the power to live the Gospel good news in the world, in your neighborhood and community.

Where is God calling us as Unity Lutheran Church?  As the Edgewater Lutheran Churches Together, as the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, and ELCA?  Where are we being called to – to pick up our rakes, and finish the job that has been laid at our feet?

As the two men in white robes, the angels, said to the Disciples: Jesus will return, just as he is leaving now.  For the Judeo-Christian tradition does not believe in ghosts and disembodied spirits.  The Second Coming of Christ will be the very day that heaven and earth bend fully into one reality, when the kingdom and realm of God that Jesus showed us, is fully restored, and the new beginning of creation for the whole world, our world, is accomplished.  
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