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Sermons

Peace Be With You

  • April 27, 2025March 17, 2026
  • by Sara Baron

“Peace Be With You” based on Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-31

“Peace be with you.” It is repeated 3 times in this passage, and that’s pretty notable. There are many possible explanations for it. It is quite common in the Bible when there are experiences of the Divine that the human being experiencing something extraordinary is greeted with “Peace be with you,” I’ve often wondered if that’s because they’re usually so startled by what’s happening that they need a soothing to even settle in and listen.

But, even then, the words are very specific. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you” might also be consoling, but that’s not the norm. The norm is “peace be with you.”

And, of course, whenever we’re dealing with the Gospel of John we have to assume that the language being used reflects the early church as the Johannine community knew it, and I think by the time John was written it was common for Christians to greet each other with “Peace by with you” or “The peace of Christ be with you.” It is assumed to be one of the most ancient parts of Christian worship, we do not have any sources of early worship that predate the tradition of passing the peace. Which raises a question of if they said that cause they remembered Jesus saying it or they remembered Jesus saying it because they said it. Both are good.

Based on both of these ideas – that this is what gets said during a Divine appearance and that this is something Christians have said to each other since maybe the beginning – this phrase is really notable. And then we have it THREE times in this passage alone.

I’m thinking that these particular words are really important, maybe even core to the Jesus-movement.

Now, the word “peace” in English is an accurate and valid translation of the word “peace” in the Bible, but it is much SMALLER than the word in Hebrew and Arameic. In English peace is primarily the absence of war and violence, and then might refer to a lovely state known as “inner-peace.” But in Hebrew the word is deeper and wider. Shalom refers to the kind of peace we know, and then it keeps going. Because it includes things like root causes. So Shalom has aspects of absence of violence and war, and tranquility, but also the things you need to get there like adequate access to resources, healthy relationships, family and friends and neighbors who also have adequate access to resources and healthy relationships.

These days when I think of Shalom I often connect it with the African word “ubuntu.” In 2018 the Love Your Neighbor Campaign – a great organization we’ve been a part of that was working for the collective well-being of people in the United Methodist Church1 – put out a statement on ubuntu as a means of clarifying our priorities as a movement. While not short, I can’t in good faith cut any of it, so here it is in wholeness:

Ubuntu is an African concept that embodies a way of life. In simple terms, it is translated to mean ‘humanity’, where humanity is based on the understanding of interdependence and community life. Ubuntu is more than an expression, value, or philosophical concept. Rather it refers to a way of life that is visible in all spheres of human existence. A lifestyle that values the humanity of others as an imperative for one’s existence. It is lived recognizing that we are all created in the image of God and should do unto others as we wish it be done unto us. It says ‘I am because you are, we are not born into a single family but a community’.

Ubuntu encompasses virtues that invite us to a new way of life and our journey as Christians.  In this way of life, human dignity is an inherent and inalienable virtue of all humans, from birth, regardless of any distinctive feature and circumstances, and should be protected by all at all times. When we recognize each other as created in the image of God, protection of one’s dignity and worth is a collective obligation tied our existence as we share the pains and joys of humanity.

Ubuntu invites us to extend grace to everyone, regardless of our views or situations. God’s grace is available to all, everywhere and all the times. We recognize that our lives are defined by free and undeserved favor from God and are called to extend that grace to everyone. Our humanity isn’t defined by our efforts or status but instead defined by remembering that because we have freely received, freely we give. The consideration of others isn’t based on formulated expressions of exclusion, but rather in embracing all people, God does not exclude anyone from God’s expression of grace.

Relationship is a key element of an interdependent and community life. Relationship is more than knowing my face and name. It includes sharing struggles and successes, living and working together on our path to a good earthly life and perfection to God. We are brothers, sisters, siblings, not because we think and act the same way, but because we are all created in the image of God and were created to help one another. The image of God in you isn’t temporary nor based on my perceptions or limitations, but is a permanent reminder that we all originate from God whose infinite grace and love compel me to uphold your dignity and value in our society.

God reminds us of what God expects from us, to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Thus, we share the collective responsibility to stand for one another when justice is denied to any one of us. We stand for one another because your safety and wellbeing is directly tied to mine, injustice is rotational, solidarity and love are the greatest weapons we have. Justice isn’t the decision of the majority, but rather the moral option that safeguards the welfare and integrity of all members of the family.

In a global but polarized world where individualism has led to racial profiling, injustice to the poor and vulnerable, religious intolerance, tribalism and nepotism, xenophobia, rejection of refugees and discrimination to people based on sexual orientation, we have failed to live to higher call of Jesus to love another just as God loves us. Ubuntu is a reminder that we share a common origin and destiny, our welfare is tied to another and we have the collective responsibility to protect the sacred dignity of our fellows, extend grace and seek justice for all, for our welfare is dependent on their welfare.

Our siblings who recently returned from Africa University reminded us in their presentation about their trip of this important concept that is now understood to be cross-African.

The words written by our African siblings in faith about ubuntu resonate with the profound meanings of shalom in the Bible. It brings the fullness needed back to the phrase “peace be with you.”

And, now, I think, we can hear more fully what it means to share a story about the risen Christ meeting with the disciples and starting the interaction with “peace be with you.” He spoke a blessing. He spoke a truth. He spoke a hope. He spoke a shared vision for the world as it should be. He spoke interconnectedness. And it was repeated THREE times in this one story because it is that central to their experience of God, of the risen Christ, of following Jesus.

To be people of faith in the tradition of Jesus is to be people of peace, of shalom, of ubuntu. It is to be blessed with knowing we are all interconnected and our well-being depends on others’ well-being. It is to be reminded that physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental health are interrelated, and our health impacts each others’ health. It is to seek the well-being of ALL, and not just some. The blessings of peace, of shalom, of ubuntu and the dreaming of the kin-dom of God are one and the same.

This sermon is, I freely admit, review. I haven’t told you much you don’t already know, nor much I don’t repeat on a regular basis. There are good reasons we have “passing the peace” in worship, and I’ve previously done my best to explain it.

The thing is, I’m about to be away for 11 weeks and while I entirely trust Karyn to preach and lead worship while I’m gone, I still feel some responsibility for offering you something to hold on to for a while. There are treacherous things underfoot, all trying to harm God’s beloveds and upset our… well, our peace.

So, for now, I leave you with the simple reminder that “peace be with you” is a fundamental Christian goal, that it has layers and layers of profound meaning, and it is worth spending our lifetimes seeking to live that blessing. Thanks be to God for aiming us well at peace, at shalom, at ubuntu. Amen

1https://www.lyncoalition.org/

April 27, 2025

Rev. Sara E. Baron 

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

 http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

When We Are Afraid

  • April 21, 2025March 17, 2026
  • by Sara Baron

“When We Are Afraid” based on Isaiah 65:17-25 and Mark 16:1-8

(2024 Easter Altar)

I love Easter! I love Easter here with the Floral Cross and brass accompaniment and space for good theology. I love “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” with a passion that is a little weird. I have this memory of closing down in person worship in 2020 early in Lent and thinking to myself, “at least we’ll be back by Easter” and then gathering in person for the first time for Easter sunrise in 2021 and all of that has helped me attend to the true and utter delight that is worshipping God TOGETHER on Easter morning. I don’t take it for granted, and I try to savor it more than ever.

This year, when I sat down to write our worship service, and read the liturgy for Lighting the Candle of Peace, Hope, and Justice I found I simply didn’t want to include it. I didn’t want to start EASTER worship talking about Salvadoran Prisons that function as Concentration Camps. I even, I’ll admit, wondered if I could just… not. If we could do that liturgy next week and this week just have a “really nice Easter.”

I’m not proud of that instinct, but I’m telling you about it because I want to be honest. I didn’t want the world’s ugliness to interfere with the holiday where we celebrate that God is more powerful than the world’s ugliness.

Anyway, I didn’t follow that instinct, and we did read the liturgy for Lighting the Candle of Peace, Hope, and Justice and so here we are with a beautiful floral cross surrounded by stunning music and we started worship talking about people who have been trafficked to inhumane Salvadoran Concentration Camps. It is possible that you, too, didn’t want to, didn’t like it, wish we hadn’t. It isn’t really that strange of a human experience to want some unbridled joy on a holiday in the midst of struggles.

That said, the Easter stories we read start in the world’s ugliness. Easter doesn’t come out of joy and remain in joy, it starts in grief, fear, and dismay. In Mark, the women waited until the Sabbath was over to anoint Jesus’ body. To engage in the rituals of letting go. They had lost their friend, their teacher, their companion, their linchpin. (And in the case of Mary Magdalene, tradition wonders if that also included her husband and/or lover.)

Mark says that they were wondering about the gravestone as they walked. I’m curious about that. I wonder if it is simply a literary device put in place so we can notice the power of the metaphor of the stone being rolled away. Because, if we are pragmatic about it we would be able to notice that:

1. The stone was rolled into place and meant to be able to be rolled away, so it WAS mobile.

2. There were three of them, and three people can coordinate efforts.

3. If they really were going there alone as the three of them, presumably they assumed they could move the stone. If they didn’t think they could, they’d have brought someone else with them.

4. It just fits that a male writer would think about women’s weakness, whereas women are quite capable human beings.

Anyway, that’s a bit of an aside, I do think it is just a literary device. Truthfully, I think the stone itself is a literary device. The first Easter involved many of Jesus’ followers having some sort of profound experience of the continuation of Jesus in the world that shook them out of their grief AND their fear and empowered them to continue his ministry in the world. They became as committed to truth, to empowering the disempowered, to praying and connecting with God, and to following God faithfully no matter the consequences as Jesus had been.

No one knows what happened that first Easter. Maybe there was a shared vision, maybe a shared dream or a series of dreams, maybe someone just had an ah-ha moment and then it caught, maybe some quiet conversations ended up being transformational. Of course, while we’re putting maybes out there, maybe people encountered an empty tomb and instead of assuming grave robbers they assumed resurrection. I wasn’t there. But the specifics of how God transformed the lives of the disciples on Easter isn’t the interesting part to me, it is the transformation itself I am invested in.

I do know that SOMETHING happened and that SOMETHING was transformational and long lasting. Those who had scattered to the wind ended up becoming the steady rocks on which the church was built. AND, that something has been passed down to us, so that when we talk about the Church as the Body of Christ, we too are claiming that Jesus’ life did not end at his crucifixion because we too are able to continue his life and ministry in the world.

But, with that SOMETHING that happened, which was probably really hard to actually explain in normal human language (because that’s how God stuff works… and often why people are a little hesitant to talk about God stuff with others because it is so hard to convey), the way it came to be talked about was with an empty tomb. That was the metaphor that worked best, and must have felt closest to what they’d experienced. I see it, they were having all the “normal” experiences of grief and dismay, the ones that come both with losing someone you love, and with seeing the ugly power of the Empire’s violence up close and it CHANGED for them. They stopped feeling like he was gone and started feeling like he was with them. This is also, at least in the gospel of John, the way the Holy Spirit is described – as the one that showed up when Jesus left and filled that void.

They were sad, and then they weren’t. The world seemed like it ended, and then it came back! The power of violence stopped Jesus, but not for very long at all! It FITS this idea of he was dead and then he… wasn’t.

And so we have stories of empty tombs and rocks rolled away because it is the best way to state the inexplicable experience of transformation they had. So I’ll let go of Mark’s presumptions about women’s capacity to move heavy things and move on. Mark, or at least this first, original ending of Mark, has the best ending of all the gospels. We’re told those women who’d arrived sad and experienced the inexplicable left FLEEING and told NO ONE. Clearly, we know that not to be true BECAUSE WE ARE HEARING THE STORY, but it sets each of us up as a disciple to fill the space the women left. If they were afraid and told no one, will we be like them, or will we participate in telling the story so it gets heard? And, I particular, will we be stopped by fear or will we find the courage to respond with faith and love?

Easter exists in the midst of real life, of Empires killing innocent men, of the use of power to intimidate, and the work to separate people from each other. Jesus did this amazing work in reminding people that God was with them, and they were with each other. He took what the powers separated and reminded the people they could be for each other and do much better together. It was the power of his ability to connect to people, to connect people to God, and to connect people to each other that created such a disturbance that he ended up being killed as a revolutionary. Because the Empire does better when the people are separate and afraid. But God does better when the people are connected and courageous.

God meets us in the midst of the reality of life. God knows about domination systems, Empires, the powerful trying to break people apart, intimidate tactics, and lies, and God knows about injustice, racial profiling, and concentration camps. God knows. God has been through it before. God knows exactly how people can harm and kill each other.

But God, also, knows the rest of the human story. God knows about systems of equality and equity, about self-governance, about compassion and empathy, about solidarity. God knows about peace, justice, and hope. God knows about HEALING, and human connection across differences, and the work to create a world of justice and mercy. God knows about apologies and reconciliation, about truth telling and its power, and about means of grace and their power to transform.

When violence has its way, we can trust that God is at work to find the ways of kindness, compassion, healing, and restoration. When brokenness comes into being, we can trust that God is at work to smooth rough edges, to mold together broken pieces, and to create something anew. When death has its way, we can trust that God is STILL at work, finding ways to plant life and love despite it all.

There is nothing at all that is OK about people being trafficked to concentration camps. Nothing. It is completely and utterly immoral and atrocious. And, God is also not a peace with what has happened, and is working to change it. All the people motivated to speak up, to show up, to write, to call for change are a part of God’s work in the world. We don’t yet know WHEN the love of God and acts of compassion will change this reality. We know it has ALREADY been far too long, but we know that the love of God and acts of compassion WILL change this reality because God is not at peace with this, and the people of God are not at peace with this.

We say and shout and sing Alleluias today, praising God for God’s transforming power that we see in Easter and all around us. There is more work to be done, but Easter reminds us that God is at work and we are able to make a difference with God. LOVE WILL WIN IN THE END. That’s the miraculous reality the early Christians were trying to tell us about with an empty tomb and rolled away stone. That even death wasn’t able to stop God’s work in Jesus, God’s work of compassion, justice, and hope. Given all that, dear ones, I believe stones are about to ROLL. Thanks be to God. Amen

April 20, 2025 – Easter

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Uncategorized

Untitled

  • April 22, 2024
  • by Sara Baron

“God is Good!” by Sylvester Doyer based on Psalm 150.

Introduction: This month of April in 2024 marks the 40 year anniversary of Sylvester’s diagnosis with HIV. In 1984 the diagnosis was seen as a death sentence, and indeed almost everyone diagnosed then died. Somehow, and we don’t know, Sylvester didn’t. In 2007/8 he came very close, and was lying in a hospital bed with 1 T-cell left expecting the end had come. But, somehow, and we don’t know how, it didn’t. He celebrates the love of his long time partner and now husband Denis who was the embodiment of God’s grace pulling him through.

This sharing is in three pieces. First words written decades ago by now Bishop Karen Oliveto for World AIDS day; second a prayer combing the sermon with the baptism we’d shared in just before the sermon; and third the sermon itself. For those in need of a reminder that there can be hope when it seems like hope has fled, may these words of gratitude penetrate your very being. – Pastor Sara Baron

*Call to Worship1“World AIDS Day Liturgies” Karen Oliveto

One:   How have you come to this time and place?

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   How has your heart weathered the many losses of ffriends and l overs?

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   How has your mind grappled with the constant specter of death?

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   How has your soul maintained wholeness?

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s not because of government support;

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s not because of the research and medical communities;

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s not because of the health insurance companies;

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s because of the grace of God.

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s because of the presence of Christ.

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   It’s because of the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   We’ve come this far because the love of God is made visible through the care of lovers, friends, family, and caregivers.

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   We’ve come this far because nothing, nothing at all can separate us from this love.

Many: We’ve come this far by faith!

One:   We’ve come this far by faith, and we will go even farther, knowing that in every step we take,

Many: God hasn’t failed us yet!

One:   In every burden we carry,

Many: God hasn’t failed us yet!

One:   In every setback we face,

Many: God hasn’t failed us yet!

One:   Our God is a constant presence on which we can lean.

Many: God hasn’t failed us yet!

One:   We can trust in God’s presence.

Many: God hasn’t failed us yet!

One:   Alleluia! Amen!

Many: Amen and amen!

Prayer Before Sermon

We come before you Creator of all, thanking you for allowing us to see another day. Thank you for allowing us to plant our feet on solid ground and start on our way. We thank you and acknowledge that you didn’t have to allow us to wake this morning, but you did, and we thank you. In the mist of all that is happening in the world today we cry out Father I stretch my hand to thee and you hear us. As a reminder that you are ever near and ever listening to us Lord you are constantly giving us signs of your loving presence. This morning, we thank you for putting in our midst such a sign in the little one Koa, who we welcome into your family this morning through his baptism. We pray for his parents that they maybe a source of strength and guidance for Koa so that as he grows, he may know nothing but caring and love from them and everyone around him. Amen

Sermon

We all have a tendency when times get rough to seek comfort from
anywhere and anyone around us. If you are spiritual, we usually turn to the man upstairs.

And I was no different when in those early days I didn’t know if I would be around to see the next day. That’s when I remember growing up with a Catholic and Southern Baptist background, I found myself seeking and drawing comfort more from my Southern Baptist
background.

I recall going to church with my dad who was Southern Baptist and
there was a group of women called the Mother Board who usually would stand and sing one of those old gospel songs that they called Dr. Watts song. There was this one elderly mother who would lead the
song but before she would start, she witness, testify to and about the
goodness and greatness of God.

I am here this morning to join mine witnessing and testimony to hers and to shout as she shouts God is good. Back then the words she was saying didn’t make much sense till later. When in those darkest hours your soul cries out seeking comfort, I remember just lying there sometimes and listening to my soul cry out in the words of that
old gospel song, “Father, I stretch my hand to thee. No other help I know. If Thou withdraw Thyself from me Ah, where shall I go.” Looking back as my soul cried out, “Father, I stretch my
hand to Thee ….”, even in those darkest moments he was listening
because sitting next to my hospital bed was Denis, he put him there saying don’t give up, never, never, never give up.

My soul would cry all the louder, “Father I stretch my hand to Thee….”
There in the room working through the medical team and everything else would be that voice, “don’t give up.” The louder I’d cry, “Father I stretch my hand to Thee…..”, the louder that voice would become.

I’m here to tell you, he showed himself to me in those around me but
especially Denis who would get up in the morning walk the dogs; go to work all day; come home walk the dogs and then come up to the hospital and be that voice that whispered “don’t give up; never, never,
never give up.” They would let him sit sometimes way pass visiting
hour.

My soul would cry out even more but it changed the song and cried out “I Love The Lord He Heard my cries, And pitied every groan; Long as I live, when troubles rise, I’ll hasten to His throne” the song goes
on to say “My God has saved my soul from death and dried my
falling tears; Now to his praise I’ll spend my breath and my remaining years.” My heart this morning is full of joy, full of gratitude and thanksgiving. Last month my doctor reminded me that I’ve been
living with HIV/AIDS now for 40 years this month.

There were those days when I wasn’t sure I was going to be here, but my soul cried out “Father I Stretch my hand to Thee”, and he heard my cry. I’m here this morning to tell you He didn’t have to wake me up this morning, but He did. He didn’t have to plant my feet on solid
ground, but He did. He heard my cry and let me see another day and I am here to thank Him. My soul this morning cries out even louder “I love the Lord; He heard my cry and pitied every groan.” So,
I’m here this morning to join my story, my testimony to that elderly mother and to let you know even in those darkest of times the soul cries out and it’s heard.

There is a song that sums up how I feel today and every day.

Now my soul cries out How I got Over.
How I got over
Well, how I got over
Well, my soul look back and wonder
Don’t know how I got over (How I got over)
How I got over
I’m gon’ thank him for how he brought me
Well, I’m gon’ thank him for how he taught me

Oh, thank him for how he kept me
I’m gon’ thank him ‘cause he never left me
I’m gonna thank him for heart felt religion
I’m gonna thank him for a vision
I’m gonna sing hallelujah
Oh, shout all my trouble over
I’m gon’ thank him (Thank him for)
All he’s done for me
Thank him for all he’s done (He’s done)
For me

Amen

1Karen Oliveto “World AIDS Day Liturgies” in Shaping Sanctuary edited by Kelly Turney, 2000, page 140-1.

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sylvester (left) and Denis (right) on their wedding day in 2013.

Uncategorized

Untitled

  • March 31, 2024
  • by Sara Baron

“Resurrecting Joy” based on Isaiah 41:4b-10 and Luke 24:1-11

I have a question I’d like you to contemplate: Which do you like more – daffodils or tulips?

OK, assuming you are now ready – daffodil fans can you raise hands and cheer? Tulips fans?

Believe it or not, I’m going to take this a step further. (I know, I know, not the Easter sermon you were expecting.) Tulip fans – can you shout out things you love about them? Daffodil fans?

Thank you.

Amen

😉

Just kidding. This Lent we’ve done a Bible Study on the Resurrection Narratives. We read the stories of Easter from each of the Gospels, and asked a few questions about each one:

  • What does resurrection seem to mean here?
  • Why describe it this way?
  • How does it feel?
  • How does this connect today?

As we read and discussed, we started to notice something about the empty tomb stories: they feel incomplete. The empty tomb isn’t the POINT, instead it feels like the introduction to the point. The tomb is empty… ok. That could mean a lot of things, including grave robbers. But each of the gospels ends the story of the empty tomb with something to nudge us towards its meaning. Luke ends with the rest of the disciples believing the empty tomb to be an “idle tale” but Peter going to see for himself and being amazed. In Luke in particular, the empty tomb is the start of sharing stories of the post-resurrection Jesus experiences. Those experiences are the ways the followers of Jesus end up claiming that he is alive, and the work of God in him isn’t completed yet. It isn’t, actually, the women sharing the story (though maybe it should be) or the dazzling clothes of the angels (black? white?). It isn’t the early dawn on the first day of the week or the prepared spices. It isn’t even the angels saying “he is not here.”

The empty tomb points to the continued life of Jesus, but it is in fact JUST an empty tomb. The early followers of Jesus were transformed in those early days by whatever experiences they had that led them to call it resurrection, and eventually they came to understand THEMSELVES to be the shared Body of Christ, and understanding that has been passed down the ages, right to this moment, when we are together the Body of Christ alive and doing ministry in the world. The empty tomb points to LIFE.

I’m going to take this even a step further. When we say “Christ is alive” I believe that it implies “and calls us to life abundant.” Life itself, just life, isn’t the point. Especially today when medical science allows life to continue far after abundant life has ended, it is easy to see that this isn’t just about being alive, but about being ALIVE – about life abundant.

Christ is alive and calls us to abundant life.

Christ is alive and calls us to full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE.

But, it is possible that for some of us, that sounds… I don’t know, really hard?

Am I off? I don’t think I’m off. Our lives are fulled with innumerable stressors, real ones. We’ve learned that about half of our society doesn’t have enough money to “make it,” and another big chunk of society lives in fear of falling under that line. So monetary stress is real, regular, and abundant. Job stress. Health concerns. Traumatic experiences of the past. Worries about our loved ones. And then, heavens, all the things in the news. ALLLLLLLL THE THINGS. There is this constant stream of information about things we should worry about, or fix, or grief, or understand, or… care about.

And the stressors and the worries and the news add up, day after day, after day, after day and maybe full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE feels kinda unlikely? I read an article1 recently that discussed the ways life has improved over the past four years, and that somehow people don’t seem to have NOTICED. The authors, psychiatrists, suggested that the malaise of the American public today is due to unprocessed pandemic grief, “But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured. As clinical psychiatrists, we see the effects of such emotional turmoil every day, and we know that when it’s not properly processed, it can result in a general sense of unhappiness and anger—exactly the negative emotional state that might lead a nation to misperceive its fortunes.” I know we all want to be over it, but between continued illnesses and deaths and long COVID, we aren’t. And, further, we haven’t processed it. So, there are good reasons aplenty that we aren’t all feeling like we’re all in on that full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE that we’re called to.

And yet, beloveds of God, we are called to full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE. Even now. So, how do we do it? I came across an idea that I believe MATTERS in reading I thought I was doing for the sake of becoming a better premarital counselor. I was sitting there reading Emily Nagoski’s book “Come Together: The Science (and Art) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections” (highly recommend) and in the final chapter her teaching about sexuality and sensuality became even more spiritual. At one point she says, “Our only certainty is that one day, we won’t get any more days.”2 Which is pretty much the whole point of Ash Wednesday and part of what we’re meant to hold as we travel through Lent AND Holy Week.

She explains in her book the phenomenon of “savoring” which she defines as people’s “capacity to attend to, appreciate, and enhance positive feelings in their lives.”3 She says that there is a Savoring Checklist, and it includes: sharing joy with others – talking about what is happening and why it is good; reminding ourselves that time is passing as a way to cherish a moment before it passes away, which could sound like saying to yourself, ‘”Time is short and I choose to do this with my time.”; expressing the joy in our bodies – laughing, and jumping, clapping and whooping; and finally slowing down to pay attention to the experience of joy or pleasure itself – in many of the ways we’ve been taught through mindfulness.4 She goes on to say that every time we chose pleasure and joy we enable ourselves to pick it again in the future and remember the pleasure and joy of the past. Then she says, “when we savor pleasure and thus highlight it in our memory, we can remember our lives as more worth living. We look back on our day, our year, even our entire lifetime, and we see less of the struggle and more of the countless moments of pleasure.”5 The memories “glitter across our memory, brighter and more numerous, when we take time to savor them.”6

OK, so the gist: to live life abundantly there is a trick: take the wonderful moments and savor them – share the joy by talking with others, notice the wonder while it happens, and let your body be full of joy. When you do that – when you savor this wonderful life that God gave you, it will bring your attention to the good, the wonderful, the pleasurable, the joy-filled parts of life, both now and over all.

It will, it turns out, move us to full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE. Just, enjoy the good stuff!! Savor it, let yourself be delighted when you are. And of course, this can be some of the big stuff of life. Every year I savor singing Easter hymns with brass accompaniment, and when I think back to my wedding I remember a moment in the midst of the worship service when I wished it could last forever because it was such a delight. But pleasure and joy are easily abundant everywhere too. Food tastes good (if you are lucky.) Stretching your body feels good. Laying down to rest is a wonder. Your favorite song is worthy of savoring.

And, to bring it full circle, there are pretty flowers in the world. Ones that you have now brought attention to, embodied the joy of, talked about the joy of, and … savored. Daffodils and tulips, they’re pretty amazing, huh? And they are just one of the many wonders around us, gifts given by God and others to calls us to full, beautiful, connected, joyful LIFE.

Thanks be to God!

Amen

1https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/03/covid-grief-trauma-memory-biden-trump/677828/

2Emily Nagoski, Come Together: The Science (and Art) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections (New York: Ballantine Books, 2024), 292.

3Nagoski, 270.

4Nagoski, 272.

5Nagoski 273.

6Nagoski, 273.

Rev. Sara E. Baron First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 Pronouns: she/her/hers http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

March 31, 2024

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  • April 16, 2023
  • by Sara Baron

“Doubt, Peace, and Blessing” based on Acts 1:3-5, 12-14 and John 20:19-30

I care about a lot of things, and I care a lot about people and that can be challenging. I know at least some of you know what I mean. Loving people is a great and wonderful thing, but there is a lot of pain out there and it can be overwhelming.

Julian of Norwich said, “And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all matter of thing shall be well.” And I want to argue back.

I can make good arguments!

But I’m not going to share them with you.

Today I want to talk about how she is right. First, I have to note that she speaks in the future tense. She did not claim that all was well. She didn’t dismiss the suffering of her day. Instead, she speaks of hope in the power of Divine Love, she speaks resurrection, she speaks of the kindom that will come.

“And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all matter of things shall be well.”

Now, I think Thomas is the disciple for the rest of us. I adore the guy. I love how brave he is to be the one who went out when the rest of the disciples locked themselves in. I figure he was the one gathering up supplies for everyone. I love how honest he is about his disbelief. I love how is is the stand in for the rest of us who would also NOT see Jesus appear in the upper room. And I love how when he comes across new information, he changes his mind. He said he wouldn’t believe until he saw. He saw, and he believed. I love his devotion to Jesus and to Jesus’ followers. I love his resilience in being dismissed over and over again in the history of Christianity and still having such power to help us. And, of course, I love that he – like the others – was blessed with peace. Because I always love that blessing. I love that Jesus appeared showering his grieving followers with “blessed wholeness for each and all of you” and I love that we greet each other with those words in worship to this day.

So, right, I love Thomas.

And, as it turns out, I love doubts because they’re real. I love when Thomas just says, “I will not believe.” I love it when people say that to me too. I particularly love it when people name for me something they think they’re supposed to believe and don’t, and I’m able to say to them that I don’t think they have to believe that afterall.

Most of the time I’m also able to say I don’t believe it either. I learned the power of hearing that from a pastor when I was a teenager. I had come to have serious doubts about hell. It just didn’t make any sense to me that a God who loves people would send anyone to hell. I didn’t think God’s love was that small or powerless. I made an attempt to talk to my own pastor about it and he informed me that believing in hell was a requirement of Chrsitianty. Or something. I don’t really remember anything other than being told I couldn’t believe what I believed. I kept my mouth shut for quite some time afterwards, but maybe a year and a half later (I think I was 13), I was at camp and we were doing Bible Study in the woods and the topic seemed to come up and I brought it up softly. Something like, “I’m not sure that I believe in hell.” The pastor with us heard me, and told me that I should trust myself and believe what I believed.

He opened the door for me.

(Clearly I went ahead and walked all the way through.)

I think my favorite part of this story is that the pastor, who is still a mentor, doesn’t remember it. It was just a normal part of his ministry to empower people, and to affirm God’s love, and it wasn’t notable for him at the time. But I’m not sure I would have stayed in Christianity without him.

Right. So I love doubts. And I love your doubts.

In preparing for this second Sunday of Easter I found myself wondering, “What do we REALLY doubt?” I mean we as a community, which may be different from any of us individually. And I may not know. But my best guess is that we doubt, “And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all matter of things shall be well.”

For good reasons, and those are OK.

But for some bad reasons too. I think we may doubt it because the 24 hour news cycle fills up our hearts and minds with stories chosen by the principal “if it bleeds, it leads.” I think we may doubt it because social media has no conscience. I think we may doubt it because human nature tends to spend more attention on the bad then the good, requiring 5 times as much good as bad for it to get the same amount of attention. I think we may doubt it because we’ve been trained in or bought into the scarcity mentality. I think we may doubt because someones, somewheres, think it is good for sales if we are hopeless and uncomfortable and they’re good at marketing.

That’s a lot of pressure on us NOT to have hope.

It is coming at us from all directions all the time.

Dear ones, I would like us to build some resilience around ourselves, so we can let hope be nurtured and grow in us. So I want to remind you of some things that are just truly good news. Every day people leave domestic violence. And some of they stay away and never experience it again. Every day people get sober after a long experience with addiction, and some of them stay sober for the rest of their lives. Every day people who have lived through trauma find ways to keep going, to share love, to heal, to make it through. And that means that trauma doesn’t have the last word. Every day science and medicine advance and make a fuller life possible for people who didn’t have hope yesterday.

Friends, the coal industry just had a TERRIBLE first quarter.

And, you know, those African American legislators in Tennessee got their seats back. And the white woman who protested with them named racism as the reason she wasn’t kicked out, re-centering them in the conversation.

Loving relationships exist.

And, dear ones, spring comes every year and the sun rises every morning and sets every night. There is plenty of hope to ground ourselves in.

I don’t think God needs any of us to feel more guilty, to be more overwhelmed, or to have superficial knowledge of more problems.

I think God needs more people grounded in hope. So I want to ask you to pay attention to your lives. What drains your energy? What builds your energy up? Thank goodness, we’re all different and that means the answers will be different. Otherwise everyone would want to be an bus driver and no one an accountant.

Friends, please, for the love of God, take your need to rebuild your energy seriously. Do things you love. It is a form of resilience. It is a form of nurturing hope. It is a

form of faith.

So, let’s get practical. What do I mean? I mean, talk with people you laugh with. Try new things that make you a little nervous. Notice flowers when you are out and about. If you are like me, take as much time as you can to savor the silence and let it heal you from the inside out. If you are nothing like me, go to a really loud concert and let it heal you from the inside out. Look for beauty. Pay attention to goodness. Give yourself a break.

I think our doubts are likely related to doubting that we deserve good things, like the stuff that restores us. But Jesus blessed with all with comfort, hope, and peace – the peace that is blessed wholeness for us and for all. We have doubts, all of us, right? And that’s OK. But may we nurture hope by letting God help us nurture our God-given energies. For good. For peace. For hope.

“And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all matter of things shall be well.” Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

April 16, 2023

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  • April 9, 2023
  • by Sara Baron

“Yes to Hope” Isaiah 49:1-13, John 20:1-18 Easter, April 9, 2023

I have heard it said that no one under 40 expects anything good to happen ever again. The traumas of the pandemic, the realities of climate change, the exploitative nature of how we practice capitalism, and the big money interests preventing our government from functioning have led people to conclude we’re just doomed.

You might have gotten lost in my depressing list, so I’m going to remind you of the start of that idea. “No one under 40 expects anything good to happen ever again.” Here is the thing. I’m 41. So, I’m not under 40!! But I’m also not in a particularly distinct group from those under 40.

It is a little bit too easy for me to get pulled into “everything is broken and also impossible to fix.” Here is the really yucky part – being a preacher who focuses on the life and teaching of Jesus often makes this worse. I know it isn’t supposed to work that way, and I really appreciate the chance to spend my life wrestling meaning out of parables and getting challenged out of complacency with the teachings by and of Jesus.

And yet, as you may have noticed if you’ve heard me preach before, I think it is important to understand Jesus and his teaching in the context of first century Galilee and Judah, in the realities of empire and exploitation, in the disenfranchisement of the masses, and the ways that power was used and abused. The problem is that there are differences in specifics between then and now, but not so many in overall structure. John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg refer to the economic and political system of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus as a pre-industrial, agricultural domination system. They contrast that with the post-industrial, non-agricultural domination system of today and I find that they’re horrifying similar.

Now, I love the Bible, I love the visions of God for a good society, and I am in love with the ways that Jesus cast God’s vision in terms of non-violence, distributive justice, collaboration, and shared care for each other. I love it enough to devote my life to it.

But there is a little problem with the fact that there have been nearly 2000 years since Jesus, and there have been “followers of Jesus” in an extraordinary number of positions in of power and influence, and for a long time it was even fair to say a few continents were “Christian” and yet the only thing that changed was the DESCRIPTIONS of the domination systems.

This being Easter, I could feed you sweet stories of moments I see the kindom of God at hand, metaphors about flower bulbs that bring life, or even experiences of utter awe that might communicate how very good God is. But if it is true that no one under 40 expects anything good to ever happen again, and if it is true that people have been following Jesus for 2000 years and the overriding economic and political systems are largely the same, it seems to me that this moment calls for a larger response to what is actually a very large scale problem.

By the grace of God, I have one.

You see, I sat with God in prayer this week and raised up the concerns already mentioned, and laid out my angst about preaching Easter into those realities. As I sat in my own discomfort, I also slowed down enough to become attentive to the Divine Presence. And then I started to think about the book “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Because of my massive respect for David Graeber, I’d read “The Dawn of Everything” as soon as it came out, but it is now nearly 18 months later and I’m still processing it.

The book starts with sharing critiques of the European way of life from the perspective of Native Americans who’d were first exposed to it. There is universal horror at the idea of a society that allows anyone to be hungry, cold, or unhoused. A member of the Wendat Confederacy, Kandiaronick, offers a critique that could almost fit into the mouth of Jesus:

I have spent six years reflecting on the state of European society and I still can’t think of a single way they act that’s not inhuman, and I genuinely think this can only be the case, as long as you stick to your distinctions of ‘mine’ and ‘thine.” I affirm that what you call money is the devil of devils; the tyrant of the French, the source of all evils; the bane of souls and slaughterhouse of the living. To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one could preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity, – of all the world’s worst behavior. Fathers sell their children, husbands their wives, wives betray their husbands, brothers kill each other, friends are false, and all because of money. In the light of all this, tell me that we Wendat are not right in refusing to touch, or so much as look at silver?1

The authors preserve those critiques as a way of clarifying that the way of life that seems “normal” isn’t the only option. Indeed, that is the point of the book! That there have been many, many ways that people have organized themselves into societies. The authors aimed to disrupt the common historical myth about the origins of agriculture and social inequality. Many of their examples feel downright weird, the decisions on what people valued as society and how they made decisions. Humans are quite quirky. They establish, that having an abundance of grain doesn’t necessarily lead to being at peace with some people having warehouses of it and others having none.

For me, the overarching narrative of the book was: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. I suppose that’s supposed to be obvious. There are examples of it! There were hundreds of years before King Saul when the Ancient Proto-Israelites lived an equalitarian communal existence. The very people quoted critiquing Europeans for letting people struggle lived in societies that took care of everyone!

However, being born and raised in the United States starting in the 1980s, I’ve only ever seen exploitative capitalism as the way society functions. Additionally, I’ve been taught to look at socialism and see the pragmatic ways it is also exploitative. And then I look at the life of Jesus and his critiques of the exploitative domination systems of his day, and at the prophets pointing the exploitative domination systems of their day, and the last 3000 years or so just seems pretty bad and maybe we’re stuck.

But we aren’t.

The exploitative domination system of Jesus’ day wanted to silence him and his movement so they wouldn’t be threatened. And so they killed him. And whatever happened on that first Easter, the impact was that the movement of Jesus simply continued without him. Jesus could be killed. God’s work in Jesus could not.

And, fine, here we are 2000 years later and it hasn’t all worked out yet. That IS depressing, no kidding. But, it DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, and God is at work in the world to bring change, and I tend to think God has laid a whole lot of invisible groundwork to bring change that will one day break free.

It is POSSIBLE to be people who take care of each other. It is possible to have great healthcare available to all people without burning out the care-givers or sacrificing the care receivers. It is possible to have healthy, delicious food available to all the people of the earth, without poisoning the food with chemicals, copyrighting the seeds, impoverishing the local farmers, or pricing the poor out of food. It is possible to house all people, in safe housing without mold or other dangers, without making people choose between housing and medicine. It is possible.

It is POSSIBLE to take care of each other. It is possible to allow parents to care for and savor their babies, and to have well-educated and loving caregivers take over when it is time, and to care for the ill and aging with humanity without undercutting the needs of caregivers OR care receivers.

Isn’t it funny? What simple things I’m saying are POSSIBLE? And how far away they seem? And how it takes faith in a God who can bring life out of death to even consider these possibilities?

Now, dear ones, you may want me to lay out the road map from here to there. I can’t. I don’t see it. But I am reminded that I am a PART of the Body of Christ, and I am called to do my work and no one else’s. My job, today, is to remind you that things don’t have to be like this. Because until we remember that God dreams of justice, and joy, and abundant live for EVERYONE, we can’t even start to move towards it. Because the story of Easter is the story that life can emerge even when it seems it can’t. And today is Easter. Things look pretty rough out there. But God isn’t done with us yet.

I believe in the LIVING Body of Christ. If I can name it, and you can dream it, and God is with us, we’re gonna get from oppressive domination systems into life abundant for everyone. I fear it may yet take some time. The powers that are, are pretty significant. But, it is worth working towards anyway. Especially with God.

We work with a God who brings life out of death. God isn’t done with us yet, and God isn’t about to make peace with domination, or exploitation. God is a God of life abundant!

There is plenty of death around us, Holy One. We are willing to work with you on life. Guide the way! Amen

1David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Picador | Farrar, Straus, and Girouz, 2021), p. 55.

April 9, 2023

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

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“The Richness of the Unknown” based on Isaiah 65:17-25…

  • April 17, 2022
  • by Sara Baron

I am so thankful it is
Easter Sunday.  I’m ready to celebrate the goodness of God, the power
of life, the unstoppable force of love in the world.  I’m thankful
for music that resonates in my SOUL, and functions as a ritual to let
my body know this is a time to let go, to be, to savor.

It has been a long, hard
trudge to get to Easter.  If I’m really honest, we’re still in a
long, hard trudge, but Easter feels like a great excuse to step away
from the trudge and just be joyous for a bit.

It does seem worth
discussion what sort of joy we’re talking about though.  By my count,
there are 10 Easter stories in the Gospels (Mark has 4, Luke 3, John
2, and Matthew for some reason only 1), 10 different stories trying
to make sense of …. something.  The simple fact that there are so
many stories suggests to me that what happened on Easter (and
throughout the 50 days after it), is hard to put into words and thus
a variety of metaphors was the best way people could explain it.  

The stories all point to
the idea that the death Jesus suffered on the cross didn’t have the
final word.  But they struggle to make sense of it.  They did not
understand.  In the two Easter stories we heard from John this
morning the phrase (did) “not know” came up three times.  There
was unknowing in Easter itself and it its early stories!  That
makes it OK for us when we come to Easter with some “unknowing”
of our own.

Somehow, Jesus’ disciples
and followers continued to experience his wisdom, his teaching,
and the power of his vitality even after he died.

And whatever it was that
constituted their experience, it was POWERFUL in their lives.  It
changed them.  The students became the teachers.  Those frightened
and hidden away came out of hiding and took risks for the sake of
sharing Jesus’s good news.  The women kept on keeping on.

The ways we explain
Easter today continue in the grand tradition of trying to make sense
of it all.  Our metaphors abound.  Some stick with the early metaphor
of “Easter is the day Jesus was raised from the dead.”  Others
will say, “Easter is about the unstoppable power of life,
especially life with God.”  Charles Wesley says, “Death in vain
forbids him rise,” and asks, “Where’s thy victory, boasting
grave?”  Marcus Borg gives us the language that Easter is God’s YES
to the world’s NO.

There are a lot of
wonderful and powerful meanings to be made from Easter, and I
encourage you to savor the ones that bring YOU to life.

In the midst of all I’ve
already offered, for me the greatest power of Easter is in its
“always present” quality.  One way or another, when Jesus died,
the goal of the Empire was to kill him, to stop his life and his
ministry.  It worked, as the story says, Mary was weeping
when she showed up that Easter morning.  The power of death worked
UNTIL his disciples experienced SOMETHING on Easter, and after that
they took up his ministry and in doing so claimed his life energy,
and kept it going.  Before Easter, Jesus was the Body of Christ, but
on Easter the disciples became the Body of Christ – and this is
what really matters to me – and the power of his life-energy, and
the importance of his ministry, and the sharing of his God-vision is
STILL the work of the Body of Christ.  In important and meaningful
ways, when I say, “Christ is alive,” I know that is true because
I’m looking at you, the church, doing Christ’s work.

In the Gospel of John,
the words are in Mary Magdalene’s mouth, “I have seen
the Lord.”  In the Body of Christ, I too have seen
God at work.

And I think that’s PLENTY
miraculous.

So, then, if this is our
work, we want to be as clear as possible about what it means to
continued the life, ministry, and God-vision of Jesus.  Because,
well, not everyone agrees about this.  #Shock.

This is where I think the
Isaiah passage is an incredible EASTER gift to us, even if it was
written for a people of a different time who used different metaphors
for God’s power over life and death.

The most striking thing
about the Isaiah passage for me, initially, was its humility.  Isaiah
65 seeks to answer the question, “What SHOULD life look like?”
and it starts like I think we’d expect.  It says life should be LONG
and ABUNDANT.  There SHOULD NOT BE young tragic deaths.  

Amen.

But then it takes what
initially seemed to me to be a sort of weak turn.  In this utopic
dream of a “new heaven and a new  earth” that God is creating
full of justice and wholeness and goodness, what are the defining
factors other than longevity?  “They shall build houses and inhabit
them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (65:21) and
also they will be aware of the presence of God.

I get it.  This would
sound miraculous to a people who have build houses but not lived in
them, planted vineyards and not gotten to eat the fruit, that it is
fitting for them that this ends with, “The wolf and the lamb shall
feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the
serpent–its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on
all my holy mountain, says the LORD.”

But all of that together
suggests that … universal vegetarianism and an end to all violence
seems CONSISTENT with … not having your labor stolen or your home
displaced.

Which suggests that not
having your home stolen or the fruit of your labor appropriated is a
REALLY BIG DEAL.  But, is it?  I mean, why stop with just having
people not displaced and able to glean the value of their work.  Why
not have everyone live at Disneyland, or apparition, or … I don’t
know, world peace.

But the longer I thought
about it, the more I realize this dream is EVERYTHING.  It actually
IS world peace – because world peace looks EXACTLY like people
being safe to build homes and live in them without being displaced,
and having the consistency to be able to labor and glean the fruits
of one’s labor without anyone else coming in with violence to take
it.

AND this is a dream of an
end to world hunger too – because people have access to enough land
and resources and the capacity to GLEAN THE FRUIT OF THEIR LABOR.

And the more I think
about people being able to glean the fruit of their labor, the more I
realize that covers A WHOLE LOT of injustices.  If people can glean
the fruit of their labor – then the rich aren’t getting wealthier
off of the labor of the poor.  So, it is like universal basic income
and a living minimum wage rolled into one.  It is also an end to
predatory lending.  This is a dream of equity and equality and
fairness and justice all at once – with the “simple” means of
stable safe housing and people being able to keep the fruits of their
labors.

When we hear of
atrocities in the world, most of them equate to violations of this
dream.  People are killed too young, or displaced from their homes
and communities, or the fruits of their labor is stolen from them.
Please note that the Bible and I agree that part of being a
community with fair labor practices is sharing so that those unable
to labor are still cared for.  There have always been those unable to
work, and a functional society finds ways to care for them as BELOVED
and VALUED members of that society.

It is a good life,
indeed, with stable safe housing and the capacity to glean the fruits
of our labor, and to have enough at the end of it to share with
others.  It
may sound simple, but it is AMAZING when it happens.  Far too few
people have lived this dream, and the dream is for EVERYONE.

The more I think about
this vision, the more I see its power, and the more I see how much it
isn’t one that is yet here.

How many people are dying
too young?  And how many of those deaths would be preventable?

How many members of our
city lack stable and safe housing?  How many New Yorkers?  How many
US citizens?  And then how many people are migrants and refugees in
the world right now?  

Then, how many people see
the just fruits of their labor??  In the interest of some brevity,
I’ll leave that as a thought question for you to ponder.

Isaiah 65 was a vision
for newly returned Exiles and the people who had been left behind
during the Exile.  It was a reminder of God’s wishes for a stable,
compassionate, equalitarian society.  It was a dream to aim for, a
reminder of how God wants the world ordered, a clarity on what
communal holy living looks like.

When we talk about the
beloved community, the kindom of God, the Jesus teaching of a
God-vision, I don’t believe Jesus was breaking with his own Jewish
tradition.  This vision of what God wanted for people is another
version of what Jesus taught.  This vision of what God wanted for
people is a way of talking about what it means to be the Body of
Christ building the kindom of God, or what it means to be an Easter
people.

Long, good, lives.
Stable safe housing.  People able to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
People having enough to share.  

Such a simple vision.  

Such a world away from
our reality right now.

May God help us to build
that future.  Because as Easter people, we believe that love wins in
the end and God isn’t finished with us yet.  This vision is a vision
for us, and for everyone, and God is willing to work with us on it.  
Thanks be to God!  Amen

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“Quiet Resurrections” based on Jeremiah 31:1-6 and Matthew 28:1-10

  • April 4, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

It is really easy to
miss the point of Easter by focusing too much on what happened ~2000
years ago.  There is extensive debate among people who debate such
things about what FORM Jesus’s body took after resurrection, which is
a clear indication that a lot of people miss the point.  However it
was that Jesus’s disciples transformed from the frightened men who
ran away from the cross to the leaders of the developing church who
faced their own persecution with courage, and continued Jesus’s
ministry in their own lives – that thing that happened was
resurrection. They talked about it as Jesus returning to them,
meeting with them, guiding them, explaining things to them.  I have
no idea where the line between metaphor and reality, memory and
presence was in that, nor do I think it matters.  

I think it matters
that they became convinced that not even the Empire’s power of death
– they greatest power the Empire had – held any sway over them.
I think it matters they moved from self-protection to courage.  I
think it matters they moved from scattering to consolidating their
relationships.  I think it matters they moved from the amygdala
response of “danger! Protect self!” to the pre-frontal cortex
questions of “how do we tell the stories of Jesus so others can
hear them?” and “how do we distribute food fairly despite
cultural differences?” and “how much do we take on and how much
do we train other people to do?”  They, themselves, moved from the
fear of death to the fullness of life.  That’s resurrection.  

And the key to all
of it, is that the power of resurrection that moves us from the fear
of death to the fullness of life is a CONTINUAL gift from God that
enriches ALL of our lives, and empowers us in our darkest moments.

Truth be told
though, given the rather hugeness of the original story, everything
else can pale in comparison.  And because of that, I think we
sometimes miss the power of resurrection in our lives, because we’re
looking for things that are bigger and flashier than how God mostly
ends up working.  So, I offer this example from my own life, of what
I’d like to call a “quiet resurrection.”

When I was a kid, in
gym class, we were expected to test for the “Presidential Fitness
Test” every year, and every year I failed the running portions.
Alas, I told myself, “I’m no good at running.”  As I got older, I
continued to fail every running test my physical education teachers
put in front of me.  Eventually my narrative switched to, “I’m just
not in good shape.”  Sure, I did lots of physical activity all the
time, but CLEARLY I was failing, and CLEARLY that was an indication
that I was “not in good shape.”

That story stuck
with me.  By seminary I jogged regularly, but since it was slowly,
and since I still got winded, I told myself “I’m just not in good
shape.”  Later, as I’d climb mountains with friends, I’d be
noticeably the most winded and make jokes about “being in bad
shape.”  It had become part of my identity.

Five years ago,
after Easter, I got a cold.  Truthfully, this is common enough for
pastors and church workers.  The intense work of trying to make Holy
Week and Easter meaningful experiences for our churches means a drop
in adrenaline at the end of it, and then people get sick.  That time,
the cold became a cough.  Normal enough.  A month later I went to the
doctor because the cough just wouldn’t subside.  Sure enough, I had
bronchitis.  But that wasn’t the whole story.  When the PA was
listening to my lungs, “something sounded wrong, more wrong than
just bronchitis.”  After a serious of tests, my doctor named what I
experienced as “exercised induced asthma” and gave me an inhaler
to use before cardio exercise.

At first, this just
felt like a new way of saying I was broken, because I was so deeply
in that frame.  But, what followed was, for me, miraculous.  Suddenly
my workouts were… productive.  I got BETTER.  Also, I could
breathe!  And ever so slowly it occurred to me that the issue hadn’t
been my own failure, a lack of exercise, or not trying hard enough –
even though I’d been telling myself that for decades.  It was simply
physiological.  In fact, it hadn’t even been that I’d been “out of
shape” for all those years.  Rather, I had an undiagnosed condition
that impaired me.

It has taken a
shockingly long time for all of this to penetrate my self talk.  I’d
gotten so used to thinking of myself as an utter athletic failure,
that I’d failed to notice that the goal of adult fitness is to have
ways to move your body that are FUN and also promote health.  When it
comes to that standard, I’m pretty good at being athletic. (Huh,
never said THAT before.)

I’ve heard from many
other people over the years about the impact of diagnosis that feel
similar to this, including in mental health.  Varieties on the theme
of “oh, it isn’t just because I wasn’t trying hard enough” or
“there is a NAME for what I’m struggling with” or “other people
find this hard too, I’m not alone.”  (Of course, not all diagnoses
feel this way, of course.  But some do, and that’s what I’m talking
about.)

So, maybe for some
of you, it will make sense when I say that for me, having a little
inhaler open my lungs so I can exercise, and having that experience
free me from a hurtful narrative about myself, was a significant
experience of resurrection.  It freed me to be try more things, be
more playful, enjoy life more!  Those things matter.

The stories we
tell ourselves about ourselves can be impediments to the rich full
lives that God wants us to live, and they can be impediments to our
responses to God’s calls on us to build the kindom.  Easter is
the story of resurrection, the story of God’s power of LIFE over
death.  We’re so busy telling ourselves and God that “I can’t”
based on stories that aren’t true, that we miss God responding, “Oh
honey, you CAN.”  (God may use different endearments with you.)

Many times in life a
skill or story is important to getting us through a moment – but
the SAME skill or story becomes an impediment to growth later on.
Switching around the way we see something can change our whole
experience of it.  Reframing an experience, or a story can make space
for God’s transforming work in our lives.  

The challenge quite
often is that we don’t see our own framing, which makes it hard to
notice it and consider adapting it.  This is one of the reasons that
therapists are so useful, they’re particularly trained to noticing
and pointing out dated framing.  This is also a reason why we talk to
friends and family – because outside perspective can make a huge
difference in helping us see!  And, I think this is a reason why
contemplative prayer is such a gift in people’s lives.  As we develop
the skills to be quietly present to God and ourselves, as we
disengage from the frantic pace of life, as we allow our thoughts to
slow down – we are MAKING SPACE for grace to move and show us new
ways.

These little, quiet
resurrections may not seem like enough, but that’s only from a human
perspective.  When God is part of one small thing, and another small
thing, those two small things together add up to more than their
parts.  (Aka, God is willing to override the rules of math in God’s
commitment to grace and the kindom.)  When many little resurrections
are added together, lives become more whole, and as lives become more
whole there is more and more space for that abundant life to expand
to more and more people, and more and more of the kindom is built.
What God is up to is definitely enough.

After all, it was
only one resurrection 2000 or so years ago, and we’re still seeing
the rippling effects.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

April 4, 2021

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Easter Worship Service

  • March 29, 2019
  • by Administrator

You may wish to arrive a bit early for this special Easter Worship Service. Not only will the Floral Cross start blooming to life during the Prelude but you’ll certainly want to be there to hear the wonderful prelude by our guest musicians, the Schenectady Brass Quintet! Bring a fresh cut flower or one will be provided, for all to place on the Floral Cross.

Our parking lot is located on Chapel Street.

Sermons

“Finding Peace” based on Psalm 4 and Luke 24:36b-48

  • April 15, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

It seems possible to me that most of us missed a lot of what was going on the Psalm in the first reading, and all the scholars I’ve read have offered a lot of insight into it that I didn’t get on my own. So I’m going to try ruining the beautiful poetry for the sake of clarity. (This is my gift to the world, I make things clear but less pretty.):

God, answer me! I trust you will. After all, you are excellent.
Also, you have before.
When I was feeling crowded in with no space to move,
you made abundant space for me.
Because of that experience, I trust to ask you again:
have mercy on me and hear me.
I need you, because PEOPLE are not excellent right now.
People are after me, trying to take away my reputation, my name, my family honor.
They want to shame me!

O people, how long will you lie about me?
You should remember that I follow God’s ways,
and God listens when I pray.

Instead of lying and shaming others when you are hurting,
spend some time in quiet, in contemplation, in prayer.
God will listen to you, too. You aren’t alone.
Trust in God.

Of course, some say that there is no goodness in the world, no God-ness.
But I remember the blessing,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make God’s face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up God’s countenance upon you, and give you peace.

You, O God have given me so much more joy
than those who have food and drink in abundance.
Because of my connection to you,
I will sleep peacefully tonight, despite what the people say about me.
You, O God lead me to sanctuaries for rest and recovery.
That’s the experience I get, even from this brief prayer.

The psalmist finds ways through fear through remembering God’s spaciousness, through finding empathy for her accusers, and through remembering God’s trustworthiness. I love that in the Psalm we are taken along for the ride with her – entering into her hope for what God can offer, entering into her dismay at the struggles she is finding in life, entering into the wisdom she finds within, and then entering with her into the rest she finds in remembering that God is with her and she’s OK.

(Btw, I have no way to know the Psalmist’s gender. One of the scholars I read this week simply used the feminine for the author, and I thought it was a good exercise to derive the fullness of humanity from the female pronoun, so I followed that person’s lead.)

It has been said that the Psalms are God’s favorite book of the Bible, because the rest of the Bible is primarily concerned with what God is saying to the people, but the Psalms are about what people are saying to God. The full range of human emotion is found in them, often to rather uncomfortable degrees. In this Psalm we hear the anxiety of being hemmed in, particularly by people who want to harm us. We also hear the witness of a person who has known God’s loving grace. She informs those who seem ready to harm her of the goodness she’s found in her relationship with God, and it almost seems that in reminding them, she is reminded that God is the one whose steadfast love endures forever.

The Psalms always remind me that emotions are OK, and that STRONG emotions are OK, that God is big enough to deal with us as we are, be that anxious, sad, angry, or even numb. In this case, I think the Psalmist was most of all afraid, and that is very similar to how the disciples are presented as feeling in the Luke reading today. Luke says they were, “startled and terrified” when Jesus appeared and spoke words of comfort and assurance to them. This seems reasonable to me! Once Jesus had assured the disciples, and their fear had lessened, he took the time to teach them. It seems like there is a good life lesson in that. Frightened people aren’t able to absorb new information, so taking the time to connect with someone and calm their fears seems imperative to any form of teaching!

Then he gives them a new undertaking. Those who had been his students and companions were now to be “witnesses.” They had seen his ministry, and his life, death, and resurrection, and they were supposed to start talking about it. The final command to the disciples in the Luke version we read today that says, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” I think the awesome part here is that it is “to be proclaimed in his name to ALL NATIONS.”

Jesus spend his ministry teaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. That was the core of his message, as a means to open people to the kindom of God. It is always important to consider what sins he was talking about though! Life wasn’t what God had planned for the people, the vision of the Torah wasn’t the way of life anymore. The communities weren’t caring for each other, and the vulnerable were slipping through the cracks. Life wasn’t focused on God, or on God’s ways of justice. To say that the witnesses were to take the message to all the world is to say that the whole world could be transformed from violence to nonviolence; from fear to hope; from selfish ambition to communal joy! The WHOLE WORLD could be healed and become the kindom.

But first, he had to deal with their fears. They needed to be seeped in hope to offer this message! Whether it be like Jesus working patiently with the disciples, or like the Psalmist working through her own fear by remembering God and instructing others in God’s grace, there are ways through fear to hope. May we find them when we need them. Amen

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron 

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

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  • First United Methodist Church
  • 603 State Street
  • Schenectady, NY 12305
  • phone: 518-374-4403
  • alt: 518-374-4404
  • email: fumcschenectady@yahoo.com
  • facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady
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