God who wanted to know God, crying out into the Void, "IAM," needing company, how can you need and we, your creation, not need? Our daily bread is just that, daily bread. A dollar can only be stretched so far before being ripped apart. The need of the brutes makes so many even more needy. Dare we ask for more, God? God, can you give more? For need, our need, is part of the fabric of your way. Amen.
Author Archives: threadfollower
The New Normal…?
What is normal? What is or was the "old" normal? And if there is or was an "old" normal, what is the "new" normal? And, how valid is the cry, "Can we just get back to normal?" Which implies there is no "old" normal or "new" normal, just normal. Like in the following meme I saw earlier this week: "The old normal? Change happens. The new normal? Change happens." Therefore, the only normal is just normal and that is: Change happens. I can buy that. (Although, I'm not willing to spend too much money on it.) I often declare, "God is a God of been-there-done-that." God is a God of change. The universe started with the IAM exploding and beginning the billions and billions (my best Carl Sagan imitation) years process of changing and growing into ever more complex ways of being and expression. God is a God that changes. From the covenant with Noah where God promises to never again lay waste to creation, to the covenant with Abraham, descendants as numerous as the stars, the covenant with Moses, the law, then a covenant with David, your descendant will sit on the throne of righteousness, and finally, with a new covenant that Christians find to be authoritative. And ever since Peter's first sermon in Jerusalem, we preachers have been trying to find meaningful ways to share that new covenant - made around a table - share it with others and if accepted to encourage those people to fully live in to that covenant. AND, believe it or not, not much as changed. Peter addressed the crowds. I am addressing the crowds. Sure, the technology has changed a little bit. The message remains the same. So, then, maybe God doesn't change? Maybe in the midst of change, even chaotic change, there IS something "normal" and change-less. What IS that normal, change-less something? Perhaps it is asking the question that Peter's first audience asked of him. It is an interesting phrase that opens up today's scripture reading. "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart." Cut to the heart. The listeners have just been implicated in the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter finishes his sermon with the words, "God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ/Messiah and you crucified him." Cut to the heart; a sense of being in great distress, wounded deeply, the core of one's own very being, pierced. Cut to the heart. And the first thing the listeners do is ask the question, "What should we do?" Cut to the heart. Soul-pierced. Their very way of being turned upside down. Their eyes opened. A new knowledge of Good and Evil. A recognition of their complicity in crucifying the innocent one of God. It is a cry that rejects their old normal that crucifies. The old normal of saying that's just the way things are. The old normal of saying, I can't do anything about it. The old normal of shrugging one's shoulders, meh. The old normal of averting one's gaze and looking the other way. The old normal of crying out, Crucify him, because if he brings down the empire, well, my way of life and my very safety is threatened. Better for him to die then for all of us to die. The old normal that...turns my closing words from last week inside out...the old normal that does NOT speak the language of love for the other. The old normal that causes Peter to exhort his listeners, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." And I hope that you, MY listeners, are reading yourselves into this ancient story that is taking place now and unfolding today in our midst. If you are not cut to the heart by life around us today and how you have participated in what Paul calls the "powers and principalities of this world" that have created this mess...well...using the words of the story that Jesus tells about that most human Samaritan, I will cross over to other side of the road if you need help. Or, using a metaphor from life today, if you choose to protest the way things are by not wearing a mask in public and you happen to get infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, nurses and doctors will still take care of you. And THAT is as close to fire and brimstone as I will ever get...feel free to hold me accountable. I far prefer sharing the Good News. After asking the question, What should we do? After repenting of your sins in the participation with the powers and principalities of this world. After receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift from God, come and see what the world looks like! "Day by day, as they spent much time together, they broke bread from house to house and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people." Does that not sound like heaven on earth? Does that not sound like a way of being worth pursuing and living into? A dream as old as human beings have been dreaming. A new normal.
Mistakes Happen
We heard last week how Peter's first sermon to the in-crowd - the believers - did not get any response. No cheers. No thousands clamoring to be part of the next "new" thing. Not surprising. These guys hung out with a convicted person executed for treason. (And, yes, they are guys. Women are starting to be written out of the early Christian narrative.) Who wants to hang with THAT crowd? And Peter's choice of topic in that first sermon? "We need to replace the betrayer who, as a reward for his wickedness, tripped and fell in the field he purchased with the blood money of betrayal and he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out." Where do I sign up? Fast forward to this Sunday's scripture reading which immediately follows Peter's first sermon to the out-crowd; which at this point consists only of fellow devout Jews who are in Jerusalem for the Festival of Shavuot, i.e. Pentecost. Peter begins, "Men of Judea..." (See previous note on gender.) After some "skillful" exegesis of scripture - I would call it proof-texting - and some questionable rhetoric - I would call it weak hermeneutics - there is a clamorous response of 3,000 persons. (Where does one baptize 3,000 men in one day in Jerusalem?) "Men, what should we do?" the men ask. And like every good (and bad) preacher, teacher and leader has done before him and after him, Peter makes his first mistake with his answer. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that our sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Actually, Peter makes a BUNCH of mistakes. Those of us in yesterday's Bible study were part of the discussion around one of the mistakes; a pretty significant one. Compare Peter's first words in this passage with Jesus' first words in Mark 1:15. More "fun" to come in Sunday's message. The point being: Mistakes happened in "The Old Normal" which brought us to this mess that we are in. And mistakes will happen in "The New Normal." My hope for things unseen is a hope that - at the very least - the mistakes are different than those already made.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart… Acts 2:37
O, Divine butcher, splitting our breastbones wide open to get to the guts of our heart, give us ears to hear the clean cut of the sharp edge of truth for fat of ugly lies lies heavy on us. Amen.
Sugar Molasses Spice Cookies
After breakfast I found myself out in the section of my yard where dandelions and violets are in abundance. I spent a fair amount of time dead-heading the dandelions - a new COVID-19 ritual - to keep the fuzzy, albeit lovely, poofballs of seeds to a minimum. I have found the morning to be the ideal time to do that because the poofballs have not opened up to the day's air...and to the breeze that bloweth where it will. I like to see the happy bees moving from flower to flower. I like to relish the fact that I don't care if my neighbors prefer all-green lawns. My spot of yard is colored with yellow and violet and that rarer white-violet. And it is lovely... Another reason why this morning reflection is a bit later than usual is I got caught up in a powerful and engaging TED Talk given by BJ Miller, a hospice and palliative medicine physician. Given in 2015, the Talk resonates with my/our conditions today. What makes for a meaningful moment in life? The conditions in which Miller works are fundamentally not much different than the conditions in which we find ourselves. The wisdom he shares from experience is poignant and moving. It re-affirmed my sense that "normal" let alone "The New Normal" is whatever we make a moment out to be. He affirmed my notion that an aesthetic that engages the senses is the most robust and dynamic way to affirm a person's humanity, an other's humanity and my own. AND, Miller gave me a dietary revelation, one which I tend to adjust this afternoon. Miller says, "Seriously, with all the heavy-duty stuff happening under our roof, one of the most tried and true interventions we know of, is to bake cookies." Have a bake-full day...
World Without End
Day 43. Seven weeks ago on Monday, March 16, the stay-at-home order became effective (in Indiana) and all non-essential public spots were closed. The previous day FCC (First Christian Church, Kokomo, Indiana) had just completed our first Facebook LIVE service which I watched that afternoon with my computer on its side. Lunch on Sunday was at an immediate new favorite, Cortona in Fortville, and was our (Elizabeth and I) last meal out before distancing. There is a pressing urge from many interests - individuals, groups and institutions - to "open up" and return the economy and our way of life towards "normal." I celebrate that desire for normalcy! Though I do so with one question and one statement. Question: What was/is/will be normal? Statement: If pre-pandemic was "normal" then it was that "normal" that got us into this horror in so many and varied ways. I agree wholeheartedly with the patriarch of the Addams Family, Charles Addams, who said, "Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly." And so, to avoid a bit of despair, to find some hope for a "new normal" - and to simply learn from the early saints - I turn to scripture and find some peace in a line from this coming Sunday's scripture reading: Acts 2:46 - Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people." ..as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
What Does This Mean?
Online Sermon delivered April 26, 2020 for First Christian Church, Kokomo, Indiana
Where do you put yourself in this story? Are you amazed and perplexed and asking the question, What does this mean? Or are you a sneer-er saying, They are filled with new wine. Though I had a playful bit of fun using stick figures to tell this story of the early church, today's scripture asks important questions for which the text demands serious answers. Here is the beginning of the church 2,000 years ago. And the first question asked of the church is "What does this mean?" The first commentary on the first church, "Oh, they are filled with new wine." 2,000 years later...guess what? The Pentecost event happens each and every day in the life of the church. It is particularly poignant and powerful for us today. Life is radically different. We are gathered together...though each in our own dwelling place. That's okay. The Holy Spirit can divide and find us no matter where we may be. The question is, where are you in the story today? Are you amazed and perplexed and asking the question, What does this mean? Or are you a sneer-er saying, They are filled with new wine. And probably, bad new wine at that. Or, there is the third character in the story: are you filled with the Holy Spirit? People all around us are scratching their heads with what they hear. I certainly am a head-scratcher when it comes to all of the information about COVID-19 and how best to go about living life. I am dismayed at individuals and institutions that push the envelope of safety in the midst of the unknown. I sneer at them and say, They are most definitely filled with new wine. I go on to say to those drinkers of selfishness and greed and carelessness, "By drinking that new wine you are endangering the lives of people that I hold dear, the least of these, those most at risk." But don't get me preaching... Our being closed for gathering at the corner of Malfalfa and Sycamore does not make First Christian Church any less church. We are no less church for me now then our church was before the pandemic. Our worship services have never been better attended than now. (If that's how you judge church effectiveness.) More importantly, we are not worshiping apart today out of any sense of fear. Fear at the possibility of becoming infected by exercising our religious freedom. I am still free and worshiping how I am called to worship in this time. And that is the question. "What does this mean?" becomes "How am I called to worship in this new and different time?" Here is my response to What does this mean? Love for my neighbor and taking care of the least of these by not increasing the possibility of exposure by being out and about unnecessarily...that love is far greater than any need to be in a building with others for worship at this time. Am I filled with new wine in the eyes of others? Probably. But I know this: I am on the side of love for my neighbor over anything else. And I have faith that God is as well. And those who speak my language in this moment are telling me that that love is best shared from a distance. The earliest church, the first church of those twelve apostles, was NOT a church because they were together, scared, alone, in one house. The earliest church did not immediately set about worshiping God. Nor to worship Jesus. Jesus never said to worship him. The earliest church, the first church, was A church because they made themselves heard by speaking the language of the other. Let me invite you into a secret: speaking the language of the other does not require a building. The house where the first church spoke, wasn't even the apostles' house. But, Eric, I don't know how to speak Cappadocian or Parthian. I don't know how to speak the language of the Medes, the Elamites or the Mesopotamians. I don't know the language of the Judeans or that of the people of Pontus or Asia, Phrygia or Pamphylia. Egyptian and Libyan, indeed the language of Rome and the Creetans and the Arabs are completely unknown to me. Perhaps. There is...though...one language that IS universal to all others that we as the first church of today can continue to speak. You will be able to understand it. You have heard it before. You have spoken it before and can continue to speak it again. This language crosses to the other side of the Jericho Road to help a stranger in need. This language steps in front of stones being thrown at a woman condemned. This language heals the blind. This language feeds thousands. This language unbinds the manacles and chains that keep a man naked and insane in the local cemetery. This language resurrects a daughter. And a son. And a brother. And a friend. This language crosses to the other side of the river where "they" live. This language overturns the tables in places of worship that do not look out for the least of these. This language holds the widow and celebrates her contribution to the realm of God. This language collapses coliseums and erodes the power of empires. When all appears lost, this language appears outside a tomb in a garden, saying, "Hi." This language is the language of Love. - Rev. Eric J. Brotheridge
“…a sound filled the entire house…” Acts 2:2
Creator of the Universe filling an entire house with the whoosh of yourself. Is there a rush of wind in your absence? A withdrawal that sucks the life out of us? Leaving us empty and staring at the empty rooms where we thought there had been something just a moment before. Whoosh me for I need wooshing. Amen.
“…will do greater works than these…” John 14:12
Doing God, living, dying and living again God, do you "do" us? Like, if we don't "do" it then your will "does" not get "done"? If so, "do" us because so many don't "do" anything. Amen.
Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” Matthew 28:9
God of the Garden Tomb, Mover of earth and stone and air, Speaker of "Hello", in the morning and in our mourning you step out and greet us as if we were neighbors stepping out to get our mail after a long day of work. Make "Hello" natural again because we don't know each other. Amen.
A Thread You Follow 