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Untitled

  • July 25, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

“A God Who Cares (about people)” based on Psalm 14 and 2 Samuel 11:1-15

Trigger Warning: The scripture names sexual assault, and thus this sermon discusses it.

When the Jesus Seminar is assessing the likelihood that Jesus said or did certain things, one of the things they check is “is it complementary?” If it is NOT complementary, they think it is more likely to be true. If it is ESPECIALLY complementary, it is a little bit suspect. Their idea is that the followers of Jesus telling stories about him would be more likely to adapt stories in ways that make him look BETTER, not worse. So when he doesn’t look his best, it is probably because there is some truth underneath it.

1 and 2 Chronicles are pretty rough on King David. 1 and 2 Samuel are not, they are decidedly pro-David. Today’s story comes from 2 Samuel. That means that it is as cleaned up as it can be, and it is still horrible. One of many things I like about the Bible, though, is that the characters who do God’s work aren’t all presented as perfect. That said, I find David particularly problematic. Probably because he had so much power, and is still thought of so highly despite having one of the worst track records in the Bible.

I think this story would have been ignored, or passed over, if it wasn’t for the fact that Bethseba was the mother of Solomon, who would become the king after David. This story, then, is likely true.

Kings in those days were supposed to lead their troops into battle, and King David was a very successful warrior, he had spent many years leading troops in battle. The story starts by saying, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.” (1 Samuel 11:1, NRSV) It is almost suggesting that if David had been where he was supposed to be, there wouldn’t have been this problem. And to an extent that is right. If David were taking seriously the needs of his people, instead of relaxing in the grandeur of the palace, things might have been very different. But David was at home, and because the palace was so much taller than the homes of the rest of the people, he was able to invade the privacy of a woman who was quite simply engaging in the prescribed RELIGIOUS RITUAL of purification.

She was not displaying herself for him. She wasn’t even taking a relaxing bath. She was fulling religious requirements so that she could rejoin society.

When David asked about her, he was told who she was – including her father’s name and her husband’s. He knew she was married. She knew she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t say no. Perhaps she tried and it didn’t matter. Perhaps she was afraid he’d kill her husband. Perhaps she didn’t fight because she knew it didn’t matter – it didn’t. The king wanted her, and he got what he wanted. Her wants didn’t matter, her NEEDS didn’t matter.

It is disgusting, despicable, horrible, horrifying, immoral, and all too common.

So is the cover up – the murder that King David ordered when Uriah had too much integrity to enjoy comfort while his fellow soldiers were in the field. (The story definitely contrasts the moral behavior of the two.)

The next scene in this story, the one we didn’t read, is when the prophet Nathan comes to King David and accuses him. Nathan does so via a story, so the King can see his actions from an outsider perspective.

That’s the role of the prophet. Speaking truth to power, even when people in power don’t want to hear it, and try not to hear it.

In much of the Ancient Near East it was assumed that Gods were like Kings – they liked getting gifts (offerings), they liked being praised (worship), they did a lot of quid pro quo (so people praised gods and then asked god for things), they cared about their own power and influence, they could be punitive or generous as they wished. One of the unique parts of the Ancient Jewish faith was the understanding that YHWH God cared about the moral actions of people, and the care of the vulnerable. This was a really big religious transformation.

And we see it in our story today as well as in the Psalm. With YHWH God, even the Kings are called on their behavior. And not just on their behavior with other kings – on their behavior with those who served them – EVEN foreigners (Hittites were native Canaanites, the people who lived in the land before the Jews). Many commentators assume Uriah had converted, or perhaps his ancestors had but he was still considered ethnically a Hittite. YHWH God also cared about the treatment of women – and it doesn’t seem to me that most powerful men of the era did.

The Psalm makes similar points. It conflates believing in God with treating people justly. It names evil as “eating up my people” and it seems pretty clear that the ones being eaten up are the vulnerable members of society. It names that God is found with the ones who do right by others. I think it comes to its thesis in verse 6: “You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.” (Psalm 14:6) Finally, it begs for God’s presence, so things will be better for those who are struggling.

Today it is assumed that religion and good behavior go together, and it startled me to learn that connecting the two was once a religious revolution, one that came with Moses. Sometimes I fear that religion and good behavior are TOO strongly connected, because truth be told studies say that religious people do not necessarily behave better than others. For example, religious people abuse partners and children at the same rates as non-religious people, and as we know there is a lot in religions that is used to justify homophobia, sexism, and racism.

I worry we aren’t worthy of the narrative that combines morality with religion.

At the same time, I’m really grateful that we HAVE a narrative that says that God cares about EVERYONE, and God lifts up the lowly. I’m grateful for it, because without it it feels like all would be lost. Then we would just have a system where the powerful are powerful, and that’s just how it is, and everyone should deal and work the system to the best of their ability. But when we follow a God who cares about how we treat each other, and how we treat people who are least able to benefit us later, then we at least have a narrative that counteracts the world’s and can help us all make a difference.

I need that story, even when we fail to live up to it.

I need to have a place to aim for, and a vision to live into. I need to have reasons to reject the current system and work for a better one. I need to believe that God cares about how we treat each other and works with us to care for all and to build a better world, so that I can know I’m a part of a group of people who are working WITH God on that, and that between God and each other we can do things that matter! This is part of the value of faith community for me too – to be present with each other, to encourage each other, to learn from each other, to model good living with each other, and to dream God’s dreams together.

It isn’t fun to read the story of David and Bathsheba, but it is good to read the story and know that it wasn’t just allowed, or ignored, or brushed aside. The story still gets told, and David is still the villain, and God still expects better of all of us – especially of those of us in power.

Thanks be to God for a vision of goodness, wholeness, justice, righteousness, and the kindom where all people are cared for. Amen

July 25, 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

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Untitled

  • May 30, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

“Come, Holy Spirit”

In Easter evening the disciples were locked up together in a house, afraid of what would happen to them. It was into that enclave that stories of resurrection started to be told. And, it was in that enclave that some experiences of resurrection happened. According to Acts, the disciples were mostly together in that room for a rather extended period of time, praying, and …. just a little bit… starting to organize. As time went on, there were more people gathering together, functioning together as an extended family, but still they were gathered together in a tight circle, in Jerusalem.

And then came Pentecost.

Pentecost was and is a Jewish festival celebrating the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Faithful Jews had gathered in Jerusalem for the festival, just as faithful Jews had gathered for Passover, 50 days earlier. It was another of the 3 festivals that was a traditional pilgrimage feast.

A colleague of mine suggested that the first Christian Pentecost story, the one we read in Acts, required those days apart from the world.

Of course, at this point, we may scoff at 50 days. 😉 To the scoffers, I’ll offer a reminder of the 40 years of wandering in the desert, which the Bible also said was necessary to “get the people ready.”

As you may know, I do not believe in a God who punishes. I do, however, believe in a God who is willing to use any situation as a jumping off point for good. ANY situation. Those ideas can get confusing sometimes for people, because talking about what God does with a situation can SOUND like “God created this situation for good” but I don’t mean that! I just really believe that God is willing and able to enter any situation and seek the best possible outcome from that point, and often God is far more creative than we’d be able to imagine!

In Acts, 50 days after Easter, The Holy Spirit showed up, with gusto. God’s Spirit is a part of the understanding of the Divine in the Hebrew Bible as well, but the way the Spirit shows up is new. To be fair, the symbol of fire as representing God’s presence isn’t new, the burning bush helps us out there. And “tongues of fire” is a phrase that comes from Isaiah 5. The wind a symbol of the Spirit isn’t new either. But added up, it IS new.

God’s Spirit shows up, sounding like a rushing wind, looking like divided tongues of fire, and imparting the gift of being understandable to people of many nations, languages, and cultures. Robert Wall in the New Interpreter’s Bible says, “God’s spirit is poured out upon a community of believers. The Holy Spirit is not a ‘personal’ gift from God that each believer privatizes – ‘you can have your Spirit if I can have mine.’ This same Spirit of one God ‘appeared among them – on each of them’ as the distinguishing mark of a people belonging to God. The restoration of Israel is the work of this Spirit sent by God as promised (see 1:6) which is why the first auditors of the miracle of tongues were ‘devout Jews from every nation’ (2:5).”1

I must admit that this year I was particularly astonished by the list of the places the devout Jews were from. It served as a profound reminder of the history of the diaspora, of the people of Jewish faith being displaced, which is especially notable when Judaism has an especially strong theology as being people of the (promised) land.

This fits the history of the Jewish people, of course. They settled on land that was a crossroads between civilizations, and as Empires expanded they expanded to include the crossroads. As Empires contracted, other Empires expanded, and a long, difficult history of independence, tributes, colonization, and external control ALREADY characterized their history by the time of Jesus. Wars had come and gone. Empires had come and gone. And each time, people had come and gone, dispersing the “people of the land” to many lands.

It fits, as well, that dispersed people of the land would have a tradition of pilgrimage to come back home to the land.

These themes of place feel so strong in this story this year. The followers of Jesus being so afraid that their world contracted to a single room, or perhaps a home. The devout Jews being so broadly scattered and making such profound efforts to come “home” to worship. The ways that distance separated them even when they were in Jerusalem, by dress, and culture, and LANGUAGE.

The idea of a miracle of understanding. Of course, it makes sense to think about Christian Pentecost as being the antithesis of the Story of the Tower of Babel. In the Tower of Babel story, God was afraid the people had too much power together and seprated them with language. In the Pentecost Story, God’s Spirit blesses the people with connection and the capacity to speak and be understood. It could be said that God has gained trust in the people (and then it becomes a question of if we’ve earned it or God just gave it because God’s like that.)

Sometimes I yearn for the miracles of Pentecost, most often when I am speaking with someone whose language I share, but with whom I’m clearly not managing to communicate. The barriers of assumptions, connotations, life experience, expectations, values, and fears can make “shared language” distinctly insufficient for shared communication.

Yet, we are the inheritors of the Pentecost story. As one person put it, in Christmas we get the story of “God with us.” At Easter we learn that “God is for us.” At Pentecost we tell the story that God is IN us. The Spirit residing in and among us makes it possible for us to do God’s work in the world, to share love, to build the kindom – and sometimes even to understand and be understood.

While the pandemic continues around the world, and right here at home, in the United States many people are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are making it possible to for life to change again. It may make sense to think of us as emerging from an overly small room. (Acknowledging, of course, the many who cared for us so well that they never were able to protect themselves. I hope for front line workers there is an emerging from fear.)

I believe that God is up to good among us, now, as God was up to good among the disciples then. I’m not arrogant enough to claim I know what God is up to, but I can sense…. something. This sermon is the last one I’ll preach exclusively online, at least for a while and perhaps for always. While we will keep online worship, we will also offer an informal outdoor worship service starting next week. Like the disciples, we’ll be in the city, able to be heard by those walking by. Maybe, God’s Spirit will make us audible in a new way as we emerge. But whatever God is up to, I know it is good. Amen

1Robert W. Wall “Refections on Acts 2:1-13” in New Interpreter’s Bible Vol X, ed. Leader E. Keck et al (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002), p. 57.

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Untitled

  • May 16, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

“Like Trees Planted by Streams of Water” based on Psalm 1 and John 17:6-19

According to the Psalm, we are supposed to be like trees planted by streams of water.

We are supposed to drink in the goodness of God, be fed by God’s living water, rest in God’s goodness, and maintain the life of faith at all times.

I’m….I’m not sure how you hear that right now. Here in May of 2021, I fear that some eyes have rolled so far into the back of their heads that they may not make it back, and others are laughing so hard at this premise that they can’t hear me yet. Those responses seem fair. Truthfully though, I worry that the majority of those listening/reading simply tuned out because it felt so absolutely irrelevant.

For me, at least, it isn’t though. It is absolutely relevant. I actually needed the reminder, because I’ve let the busy demands of life take precedence over making sure I’m soaking in God’s goodness. I’ve let the fears, anxieties, and pressures all around me IN, and forgot that the best way I have to deal with them is make sure that I’m “planted by streams of water” that let me have the strength to respond with love, compassion, and clarity.

I need these reminders rather a lot, because the pressures of the world to “preform” and “produce” and “matter” weigh rather heavily on me. I far too easily forget my own needs to be grounded and supported so I can offer grounding and support when it is needed most.

In the Gospel, Jesus is praying with awareness that he is about to leave his disciples, and he worries over them when he isn’t there to guide them. The prayer seems meant to be overheard, meant to serve as a reminder to them that they are still cared for by God.

The best way I know to remember I am cared for by God, like the best way I know to “be like trees planted by streams of water” is to engage in “Spiritual Disciplines.” Most people of profound faith have Spiritual Discipline – whether they call it that or not. Many people struggle to find their own form of Spiritual Discipline. Those people who have a Spiritual Discipline that they practice regularly believe it to be life changing and transformational. The only issue is, if you are a person who doesn’t have a practice of your own listening to those people who do – you start to feel like all your time should be spent in all their forms of Discipline.

The truth is that Spiritual Disciplines are as personal as our gifts and graces. We can’t just take on someone else’s way of connecting to God. Our tradition may give us forms to use, but even the forms need to be adapted to OUR relationships with God.

Sometimes in clergy circles, Spiritual Disciplines come up in an unhelpful way. This happens when every person is fully convinced that their life was better because of the way they reached to God (good), and that everyone else should try their way (not so good.)

The closest practice I know to one that “should” be universal is: bliss. That is, finding those things that bring us pure joy and spending as much time with them as we can.

Another helpful perspective on Spiritual Disciplines comes from the book “Dark Nights of the Soul” by Thomas Moore. Moore was a Roman Catholic Monk for the beginning of his life, but left the monastery when he was near 40 and now lives in NH with his wife and children. He has a whole bunch of degrees and functions as a psychologist. In this book he proposes that the darkness of life is an important part of life -even when it looks like depression. He has a model for respecting meaninglessness and accepting that God may be transforming people as if in a cocoon when they are drawn away from normal life. I’m finding it to be most helpful in preparing me for conversations with people (including myself) in struggle.

At one point in the book, Moore talks about catharsis, as a letting go of the crowdedness within so that the soul can sort through to what is important. I was startled as I read, because I finally understood that the Goal is NOT to take on all spiritual disciplines and become the perfectly disciplined spiritual person. Rather, the point is to use the tradition and our own creative energy to connect with God in exactly those ways that are life-giving.

This is a terribly obvious point. Hopefully you already knew it. But I probably would have claimed that I did too, at least until I felt freed by reading this. Here is an extended quote from his conversation on catharsis:

“My favorite kinds of contemplation include playing the piano, walking in a forest, sitting quietly in a church or house of worship, and even window shopping. I understand that the highest forms of mediation are pure and still and aim at an awareness free of distraction. But I also value the spirituality to be found in the concrete, every day world. Walking through a store, my attention is caught by beautiful things, and I can easily fall into deep reverie just looking at them. I find this a good way to be spiritual without criticizing ordinary life or the physical world. …

The general aim of catharsis is creative tranquility, an condition in which you are free from the pressing practical concerns to consider the bigger questions. The actual practice of contemplation may vary from one person to another, but some physical quieting helps start the process. Nature can help by providing an environment that stills a hyperactive mind. ….

Other spiritual practices may also clear out a crowded life. Religions teach fasting, retreat, vegetarianism, a spirit of poverty, neatness, cleanliness, moderation, and solitude – these familiar practices can be part of the busiest person’s life and give that life a spiritual dimension. In this sense, making your bed every morning can be a spiritual practice. This natural spirituality I am describing deepens the place from which you live and allows you to open your heart both to receive more from life and to give to others.” (Thomas Moore, “Dark Nights of the Soul” pages 52-54)

I want all of you to have ways of connecting to the Divine – which is also to say ways of making good decisions for your well-being and the well-being of those around you. I want you to know how to sort through to what is truly important and what is just superficial. I want your lives to be meaningful and your prayers to bring you inner strength.

I don’t care how you do that. But I care that you do.

Hopefully some of the ideas that Moore talked about may work for you, or some of the prayer practiced we’ve talked about in the past, or just things you’ve found along the way – by yourself or from someone who knew the Divine well. If not, I’m happy to talk it over more one on one.

This is a difficult time, in the world, in the church, and even in our own church. Stressors, anxieties, and fears abound. It can be difficult to hold on to our core self as the struggles press in on us. With God, though, we can increase our capacities. We can be like trees planted by streams of water – strong yet flexible, healthy, responsive, and able to withstand what comes at us.

We can’t control the world, other people, or even our own bodies. We can, however, connect with the Divine and regain the capacity to respond well to whatever comes at us. May we make the time for God, to receive hope, rest, and renewal.

Amen

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“Three Days?  Can You Count?” based on Hosea 5:15-6:6…

  • April 18, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

According
to the Gospels, Jesus was killed on Friday night.  Easter was on
Sunday, and the first experiences of resurrection happened before
sunrise.  That is a difference of about 36 hours.  Which, if I’m
honest, is a VERY WEAK definition of “three days.” It is a
stretch to say, well, there was part of Friday, and all of Saturday,
part of Sunday, which is three different days.  

Normally,
three days is 24 hours times 3= 72 hours.  So Friday night to Monday
night.  Or, you might say, Friday – then the next day is Saturday,
the second day is Sunday, the third day is Monday.

Am
I the only one who has been quietly annoyed by this for years?  Yeah,
I am?  I can live with that.

This
has made me curious though, as to why Friday night to Sunday morning
was defined as 3 days, because doing so was DEFINITELY an intentional
choice meant to fit Jesus’s story into an existent framework.  
Otherwise it wouldn’t feel so forced.

(If
you are already bored, I invite you to stick with me anyway, it isn’t
going to take that long and it is more worth it than you might
expect.)   It seems Luke was basing the 3 days off of the Hosea
passage

‘Come, let us return to the
Lord;
   for it is he who has torn, and he will
heal us;
   he has struck down, and he will bind us
up.
After two days he will revive us;
   on
the third day he will raise us up,
   that we
may live before him.  (6:1-2)

This
clearly lists 3 days, but the meaning of the passage seems a little
bit ambiguous.  However, if you either read all of Hosea to figure
out what this means, or trust the work of scholars who have done so
(I’ve done both), then it starts to make sense that what they’re
talking about is the renewal of God’s covenant with ancient
Israel.  This is the theme of the whole book of Hosea.  The
questions of Hosea center around what God is going to do since the
people have been unfaithful to the covenant.  The passage we read
today is about God choosing to renew the covenant, despite the
people’s unfaithfulness.

And,
a reasonable person might ask, what does THAT have to do with 2 days
and 3 days?  And really, what does it have to do with Jesus, or say,
us?  

I’m
so glad you asked.1

The
reference to 2 days and 3 days is based on the story of Moses sharing
the covenant in Exodus 19.  Three months after the people had left
Eygpt, they got to Sinai, and Moses went up the mountain to be with
God.  God told Moses to say, “You have seen what I did to the
Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to
myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you
shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the
whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a
holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the
Israelites.’” (Exodus 19:4-6)  Aka – you are going to be a
sign of my love to the world.   That WAS the covenant, and as it
got expanded and explained more it becomes clear that living out the
covenant is about how they treated each other, and the vulnerable in
their midst, and eventually even their neighboring nations.

Exodus
19 goes on:

Then Moses had told the words of
the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses: ‘Go to the people
and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their
clothes and prepare for the third day, because on the third
day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all
the people. You shall set limits for the people all around, saying,
“Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it.
Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch
them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or
human being, they shall not live.” When the trumpet sounds a long
blast, they may go up on the mountain.’ So Moses went down from the
mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed
their clothes. And he said to the people, ‘Prepare for the third
day; do not go near a woman.’ (9-15)

And,
at the end of those 3 days the people “met” God.  The story says
the experience was like the mountain being wrapped in smoke, and
fire, and earthquake, and thunder.  It appears it was quite awe
inspiring.  Then Moses gets called back up the mountain and that is
when Moses was given the 10 commandments and the rest of the
expectations of God for how the people were to behave to each other
and in worship.

So
why did the early Christians chose to tell the story of the
resurrection of Jesus as happening on the third day?  Probably
because it was awe inspiring like that experience of the people of
“meeting” God.  Likely also because it fit into this framework of
restoration from Hosea, and Jesus’s teaching had been about restoring
the relationships between God and the people and the people and each
other.  Likely, also, this relates to the early Christian
understanding that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was a
NEW covenant between God and the people, one the people couldn’t mess
up.  As such, it made sense to tell it in the form of the most
important covenant story of the Scriptures as they knew them.  

Thus
the choice to force Friday night to Sunday morning into a 3 day
framework.

In
Luke we’re told that A LOT OF THINGS happened on that “third day”
Sunday.  The women found the empty tomb, they told the disciples,
Peter also saw the tomb, two other disciples walked to Emmaus –
experienced the risen Christ –  and walked back, and our passage
today starts with “while they were still talking about this,”
meaning the story of those who’d walked to Emmaus.  Today’s passage
is still set on that “third day.”

The
story wants to emphasize that Jesus wasn’t a ghost or an angel, but
rather than he’d been physically resurrected.  The idea is that
ghosts and angels don’t EAT, but living beings do.  Having eaten, the
story says, he explained, “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 from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24-46b-47)  As this
is a story of the early Christian community, we can use it to help
ourselves understand how they saw this new covenant.  They did a nice
job putting the “three day” thing there to help make sense of the
covenant, right?

This
new covenant, at least in this passage, seems to be centered on
“repentance” and forgiveness of sins, right?   Repentance makes
easy sense to me, it fits with the teaching that Jesus was sharing in
his lifetime of ministry, “Repent and believe, the kin(g)dom of God
is at hand.”  That is, turn from the fear-filled ways of the world,
get centered in God, and participate in the kindom of relationship,
sharing, compassion, and abundance, and as you do so, the kindom will
gain strength until it comes in completion.

However,
in the Jewish Annotated Bible it is mentioned that in Jewish thought,
God is always ready to forgive the sins of the repentant.2
So, what is this about? Why did the early Christian community think
that forgiveness of sins was so central?  This feels REALLY
important, because I still hear many Christians who think the entire
Christian story is one of forgiveness, and I’ve always struggled to
understand why, especially when God’s forgiveness was already
available before Jesus.3

In
the commentary on the Hosea passage, Dr. Gail Yee wrote, “The
period of chastisement when God rends the people is intended to
motivate their repentance/return.  This doctrine of correction is
particularly characteristic of deuteronomistic and wisdom literature,
in which the period of the Babylonian exile was regarded as a
traumatic time when the people recognized their guilt and returned to
God.”4
When I read that, a light went off.  The Jewish people in the time of
Jesus lived a life of oppression under the realm of the Roman Empire.
This likely felt like a new form of Exile, an exile at home.  So, as
their ancestors in faith had done before them, they told themselves
the story that their oppression was God’s chastisement, and that if
they returned to God’s ways they’d be freed again.  Return and
restoration in this story are dependent on both the people’s
repentance and God’s forgiveness.

And
suddenly the Christian story itself makes sense.  They’re thinking
about communal sin, and global politics, and trying to please God
into making their lives better.  Which MAKES SENSE for faithful human
meaning makers to do.  But knowing
that frees me to tell my own faith story, which is that God was with
them in oppression, and working towards freedom (including through
Jesus) but hadn’t been punishing them to begin with.  God’s
desires for repentance were about wanting to gift the people with
full and abundant lives and building the kindom, … not about proof
of worthiness.

And
that, dear ones, brings us to today.  We have been in our own “exile
at home” for more than a year now, and consciously or unconsciously
there have been a lot of questions of “why did this happen to us?”
Those are normal, healthy, human questions.  I suspect there has
been some creeping fear that the answer is “because we messed up”
and challengingly, that seems true.  But that doesn’t mean anything
about God punishing us.  We messed up by not trusting scientists, and
not taking the long view, and not caring for the vulnerable, and not
putting lives before profits.  This pandemic isn’t God’s punishment,
but it is reflective of our collective “sins” so to speak.

I
hope and pray that we, our communities, our country, and our world,
will repent (especially the “first world).  I hope we will learn.
I hope we will remember how interconnected we all are and that if
anyone is vulnerable to illness, we are ALL vulnerable to illness.  I
hope we will decide to transform the ways societies work, to care for
all and bring life abundant to all.  I hope we will remember all of
God’s covenants, and work with God in building the kindom, the
beloved community, peace on earth.  

The
good news, is that the resurrection story tells us that what seems
impossible (like global change into care and compassion) is possible!
May God help us, and may we help God!  Amen

1 Can
anyone tell the Pastor misses preaching in person?

2 Amy
Jill Levine “Footnote on Luke 24:47” in The Jewish
Annotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible
Translation, edited by Amy-Jill
Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2011), 151.

3 Truthfully
I have a lot of critique of the idea, but not enough time to share
it.  I’m happy to talk it over if you’d like.

4 Gail
Yee, “Commentary on Hosea 5:15-6:3” in The New Interpreter’s
Bible Volume VII ed. by Leander
E. Keck et al, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 249.

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 18, 2021

Uncategorized

“Journey with Jesus” based on Psalm 133 and John…

  • April 11, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

Have
you ever thought about what it would be like to journey with Jesus?
I’m not actually talking about spiritual metaphor here, I suspect if
I was many people could openly say, “Yes, that’s my life!”  I
mean, what it was like for the first followers of Jesus to journey
around Galilee and later Judah with the historical Jesus.

Being
a part of the 21st century, my capacity for 1st
century historical accuracy is lacking, so I’m sometimes hesitant to
to project myself into those experiences.  Nevertheless, it feels
like I can’t enter into this story of “Doubting Thomas” without
letting my questions about journeying with Jesus come front and
center.

I
wonder how often those first followers were uncomfortable, especially
in the face of Jesus’ teaching.  This is likely projection on my
part, a reflection of how challenged I am by what he taught.  “Love
your enemy,” “give to anyone who asks of you,” “everyone is
your neighbor,” and  “love your neighbor as you love yourself”
are all important, profound teachings.  They’re also ones I fail to
live up to every day.  Did the disciples squirm like I do?  Or is it
that I come from a position of relative power and wealth that leads
me to squirm, and those who followed him more often had nothing and
could more easily accept his teaching?

What
about the parables?  Even the Jesus Seminar believes that Jesus
probably taught in parables.  The thing about parables is that
they’re lessons that keep on giving.  Every time you think about
them, you can see something new.  They grow with you.  This is,
obviously, amazing as a teaching tool.  But was it hard, as a first
follower, to be stretched and grown every day?  Did it feel like
drinking from a fire hose?  Did they ever feel like they got it, they
knew what he was up to, they were following along?

I
wonder too about the pace of life for those first followers.  The
gospel writer of Mark likes the word “immediately” and seems to
tell a rapid fire story.  But that just means he skips the quiet,
slow parts.  Did they linger of meals, talking and laughing?  Or was
everything GO-GO-GO like in the midst of an advocacy campaign with a
legislative deadline?  I suspect it was the former.  I don’t think
you actually build a movement that lasts unless you work at the pace
of human trust, and that pace requires a lot of talking, laughing,
story telling, meaning making, and even sitting around the fire in
quiet wonder.  

Some
of my questions really add up to, what kind of spiritual development
happened to those who were following Jesus?  The first followers were
members of a powerful faith tradition already, one that Jesus was
using and drawing from.  They were also, mostly, disenfranchised
people without any reason to have faith or trust in the systems of
the day.  They were marginalized people.  (And that’s where I have to
be so careful to pay attention to the fact that I am not one, and not
to project myself more than I should.)  In some ways, marginalized
people have an advantage in seeing what God is up to in the world,
because God is always up to upsetting the status quo to allow more
people to thrive AND survive and that is GOOD NEWS for the
marginalized people but threatening for those who are not.

And
they were spending all their time with Jesus, and with each other,
and that feels like the very best set up for rapid faith development.
Jesus was deeply connected with the Divine, likely a mystic, and
ready and able to put the needs of others before his own.  In my
life, people like that have taught me SO much, and I’d imagine being
with Jesus for a year would change EVERYTHING.

I’m
wondering this because of the easy way with which Thomas is able to
express his doubt to his fellow disciples.  This is an expression of
a rather well developed faith.  I want to consider a few “stages of
faith development” according to James Fowler, and wonder about
where the disciples were with those.  Yet, I want to be a little bit
careful. It can be really easy to hear about stages like these and
try to characterize one’s self as HIGH as one can, as well as to
deride others for being in LOWER stages.  That is NOT the point.  In
fact, I suspect that most of us move around between stages based on
the level of stress we’re under, the strength of the teaching we’d
received on any given topic, the level of stress around us, and the
number of other things we’re trying to do at the same time. God is
with people wherever we are, and while we do want to “develop” as
people of faith, part of that development is making peace with the
honesty of where we are and being peaceable about where others are –
without judgement.  This is also to say that if you feel like you’ve
moved backward over the past, say 15 months, then have grace with
yourself – that means you’ve been under unsustainable stress.

The
least developed “adult faith”1
is one that easily yields to authority and quietly pushes away any
conflicts in faith in order to minimize the threat to faith.  To help
grasp the stages, I think it may be instructive to see how the Psalm
might be heard from within this stage.  The Psalm’s opening verse,
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in
unity!” can be heard as an encouragement to keep the peace, quiet
one’s own questions, and silence the concerns of those who raise
issues – in the name of “unity.”  Unfortunately, this
understanding of unity has the impact of silencing people who are
marginalized and preventing growth.  Yet, it is easy to see how it
can be heard that way, right? “How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!”  So— be quiet about issues
and experience the good and pleasant!!  Thomas is well past this
stage when he easily, immediately, questions the statement of TEN of
his friends and faith companions.  

The
next level of “adult faith”2
is characterized by angst and struggle as the person takes
responsibility for their own faith, instead of just following
blindly.  In this stage is greater nuance, greater open-mindedness,
and more potential conflict.  How might people in this stage hear,
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in
unity!”?  I wonder if the word “unity” becomes more complicated
here, or if “kindred” are subdivided.  Is this a place where the
unity of the kindred reflects similar thinking groups, but there are
several different areas of unity?  Does challenging authority become
a means of separation?  (There are many other possible answers.)  It
is clear that Thomas is AT LEAST at this stage, as he speaks his own
truth clearly.  He stands in his own integrity whether anyone is with
him or not, although it is worth pointing out that he remains with
the whole, and that might suggest that this sort of unity is large
enough for everyone’s integrity.

The
next level of “adult faith” seems like the one all of the
disciples were in the midst of transitioning into after the death of
Jesus.  It generally comes after a significant crisis, and James
Fowler calls this “Conjunctive Faith.”  This is faith that can
handle paradoxes and mystery, and let go of pieces of tradition or
faith from prior stages that don’t work anymore.  It is a stage and a
space where multiple truths can be held simultaneously, without
conflict.  So how might, “How very good and pleasant it is when
kindred live together in unity!” be heard here?  Perhaps this is
when “unity” becomes about seeking each other’s well-being
regardless of differences of perspective or differences of need.
Unity doesn’t require similarity, only love, and love flows from God.

I
cannot tell for sure if Thomas or the rest where in this stage yet.
I think most likely they were growing into it, and this is a story
about that transition.  This is, after all, a story remembering that
different people have different experiences and rather than all the
value going to the ones with greater experience, there is an
acknowledged blessing of those who follow without the experiences.
This is a story that anticipates us – the ones who did not
experience the first resurrection first hand, and yet celebrate it.  

There
is, for Fowler, a rare final stage of adult faith development, one
neither this story nor most people of faith reach.  I suspect that
most of the disciples reached it by the end of their lives, and I
further suspect it is what John Wesley was talking about when he
suggested that people could reach perfection in living God’s love
during their lifetimes.  I think that people in that stage would
hear, “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together
in unity!” and immediately grasp that “kindred” is universal
and “unity” comes when all the people have the peace that comes
after the needs of justice are met.

Was
it because the disciples had time with Jesus that they reached the
final stage?  Or was it because they lost Jesus and had to find the
ways to go on that they did?  Or both?  Or neither?  It is
unknowable.

As
United Methodists, we are taught about that idea of reaching
perfection in living God’s love during our lifetimes.  It is most
often called “going on to perfection” and most frequently it
serves to make me sad when I realize how far I am from that goal.
Yet, when I slow down enough to listen to the voice of God, I hear
God saying that I don’t have to be there yet, God hasn’t asked that
of me.  Rather, God says, I’m asked to be where I am, and be open to
the next means of grace that will help me walk along my journey.
And, that seems fair, because God is a just God, and God doesn’t ask
more of us than we can give, and what we can give is based on who we
are today and where we are on our faith journey.

Which
means, really that I’m back to the metaphorical journey with Jesus,
and am encouraging you to think about how your journey is going, and
what the next steps are, and to check to see if you need any help
along the way.  I can think of no clearer role for the church than to
help each other as we move along our journeys with Jesus.  Or, in
other words, we help each other move onto perfect.  May God help us
all!!  Amen

1James
W. Fowler Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development
and the Quest for Meaning (San
Francisco: Harper&Row, 1981).  Fowler’s stage 3:
Synthetic-Conventional”
Faith.  Summary found at
https://www.institute4learning.com/2020/06/12/the-stages-of-faith-according-to-james-w-fowler/
(I have and love the book, but thank God for other people’s
thoughtful work.)

2 Fowler’s
stage 4: “Individuative-Reflective
Faith”

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 11, 2021

Uncategorized

“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

Uncategorized

“Protest Parade and State Sponsored Violence” based on  Psalm…

  • March 28, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

Because
of the work of Marcus Borg and John Dominic Cross in “The Last
Week” I have been convinced that the first “Palm Sunday” parade
was an intentional protest in response to increased military presence
in Jerusalem of the Roman Empire for Passover.  

Those
who have been listening to me preach for years are familiar with this
concept, and this year I’ll be taking it in a new direction, but
first I want to bring everyone else on board with this idea, as it
can sound quite different from what I learned in Sunday School as a
kid.

I
think the key to understanding the protest is to think about
Passover, and what it is.  Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrating
God’s work to free God’s people from oppression from a foreign
government when they felt powerless to help themselves.  

So
it might not be surprising that the Roman Empire, which had power and
control over the Ancient Jewish lands, got a little bit uncomfortable
when the city was overrun with devout Jews celebrating Passover.  Nor
would it be particularly surprising that Passover was a time when
people tried to reclaim autonomy, the faith of their ancestors, the
sanctity of their Temple, and the right to the fruits of their labor.
After all, the Hebrew Bible itself sets a rich vision for a just
society, and the ways that wealth flowed from the poor to the rich in
the Roman Empire (and every empire before, during, and since) was the
OPPOSITE of that vision.

It
might even be good to remember that in 66 CE the was a revolt by the
Jewish population that lasted for 4 years.  The final result was the
destruction of Jerusalem along with the Second Temple, and hundreds
of thousands of deaths.  So the Roman Empire’s perception of threat
wasn’t actually wrong.  The city and its many many Passover pilgrims
were primed for revolt.

And
that’s why the Roman governor came to Jerusalem from his normal digs
on the Mediterranean along with horses, flags, music, and a
significant number of soldiers prepared to take down riots. It was an
intentional show of force, meant to tamp down revolutionary
enthusiasm as well as efficiently deal with anyone who dared to start
anything.  All of this is not unlike crucifixion itself which was a
particularly horrid form of capital punishment done in public to
those who lead VIOLENT REVOLTS against the Roman Empire to attempt to
discourage others from doing so.

The
Governor’s procession came in the West gate, as the Governor’s home
was to the west of the city.  The big shiny military parade was an
annual event, something easy to anticipate.  So, Jesus and his
followers staged a counter-parade coming in from the East gate.
Instead of flags with the golden eagle of Rome, the people waved Palm
branches – the symbol of ancient Judea.  Instead of “Hail Caesar,
prince of peace” the people shouted “Hosanna” which means “God
save us!”  And let’s be clear, “God save us from our oppressors.”
(The name Jesus and the word “Hosanna” come from the same Hebrew
root.  Jesus literally means “God saves.”)  They went on to say,
according to Mark, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the
Lord!   Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna
in the highest heaven!“   Instead of being passively awed by the
display of violent capacity as in the western parade, the people put
their lives on the line by laying their outer garments (often the
only protection they had from the elements) on the road for Jesus’s
colt to walk on.  

So,
to cut to the chase, Jesus appears to be staking a claim to the
rightful kingship of Israel, which suggests that then the Roman
Empire is not the rightful king.  Jesus is having a protest against
the Empire.  BUT, it was a NONVIOLENT one, just so we’re clear.

According
to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus also engaged in a protest at the
Temple complex.  Both protests appear to have been wildly popular,
and the people were following Jesus and claiming him as God’s
deliverer (read: save-r).  Thus, the authorities got scared.  Thus,
they started to work to take him down, disperse his movement, and
threaten any who would try to follow in his footsteps as leader.
Thus the death on the cross even though the protests were NONVIOLENT.

Not
to give the ending away, but the presence of Jesus followers
remembering and embodying this story 2000 years later is a good
indication that the Roman Empire may have had the power to kill
Jesus, but it didn’t have the power to stop the Body of Christ.  But,
alas, I get a week ahead of myself.

Most
years I like to contrast the ways of God from the ways of Rome, and
to clarify that there was nothing particularly wrong with the Roman
Empire – it is the way that pre-industrial agricultural domination
systems work – and at the core it is the way ALL domination systems
work, and for reasons I don’t entirely understand, humanity was WAY
into domination systems.

But
this year, the story of Jesus engaging in acts of public protest, and
as a result having the authorities of the day send a violent guard to
grab him in the middle of the night, convict him based on false
testimony, and kill him in a way the State itself said was unjust
(PEACEFUL revolt) is all just hitting too close to home.

Last
summer the Governor put in place an executive order, in response to
Black Lives Matter protests,  requiring each local government in N.Y.
State to adopt a policing reform
plan that will maintain public safety while building mutual trust and
respect between police and the communities they serve. I have been
paying attention to what has happened in Schenectady and it is NOT
GOOD.

Here
in Schenectady, well after activists had release 13 demands1
that included an end to knee holds on people’s heads or necks, a
video was released of a police officer using a knee hold during an
arrest.2
In response to outcry, the police banned knee holds.  

What
followed was a fraught process that added up to the police pushing
through the police department’s OWN ideas of what police reform
should look like.  Which a problem.  No one can claim things are OK
here.  We are not, after all, a city without a record of our own –
Andrew Kearse was a man of color who died in police custody in 2017.
We know we have parts of our city that are profoundly over-policed.
We know that the police end up being called into situations with
mental health crises, and are not trained or capable of responding,
and things go very badly. That is why there is a desire to move some
of the police funding to social workers who can respond with
training!

This
past week, our city council passed the police reform report put
forward by the police department.  Upon careful inspection the ban on
knee holds on people’s heads and necks …. as been revoked.  Knee
holds are, apparently, back in.  Similarly, there is something called
“pain control” that I didn’t even want to google, but refers to
controlling people by hurting them.  I’m quite confident that this
isn’t the way humans treat people that they see as fellow humans,
much less God’s beloveds.

It
all feels to me to be far too familiar to the Jesus story.  Jesus was
inconvenient to people in authority.  He empowered “nobodies.”
He helped the community work together.  He questioned authority,
including questioning economic practice.  He stood up for God’s
visions, God’s people, God’s dreams of justice.  And it was so
threatening that they killed him to silence him.

Friends,
I have on some of my worse days, had to hold down a person who was in
the midst of a crisis to prevent the person from harming self or
others.  I hate it.  It turns my stomach, even years later, to think
about it.  But we were able to stop him without harming him, or
putting pressure on his head or neck.  

And
many, many, MANY times in my life I have responded to people in the
midst of crises, people hijacked by their amygdalas, people out of
their own control.  And 99.something% of the time, people can regain
control with just TALKING.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO NEED to dehumanize
anyone, accused of any crime, by seeking to control their actions
with pain or with a knee on their head or neck.  EVER.  We need to
keep talking about this – to each other, to the police chief, to
the mayor, to city council, AND to the governor’s office.  The plan
submitted by our city is NOT sufficient police reform for our
community.

Next
week we will be celebrating Easter, God’s incredible powers of life
that overcome even death.  But this week we need to be unsettled by
the world’s powers of death, and violence, and who they’re used
against.  

Jesus
was the victim of state sponsored violence.  Who else is like him,
today?  Amen

1http://www.allofusuntitledandfree.com/

2https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/us/schenectady-police-officer-knee-on-man-video/index.html

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

“God’s Table Extended” based on Jeremiah 31:31-34 and 1…

  • March 21, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

Rabbi
Rafi Spitzer of congregation Agudat Achim in Niskayuna, led an
amazing workshop this week entitled “People of the Library: An
Introduction to Talmudic Literature and the Mythic Transmission of
Jewish Tradition for Clergy of Other Faiths.”  Schenectady Clergy
Against Hate is a VERY cool organization, and I learned a lot.  

Rabbi
Spitzer talked about the roots of modern Rabbinic Judaism as emerging
in the period after the destruction of the 2nd
Temple (70-200 CE).  This is the same period as the formation of most
of the Christian texts.  Jesus lived earlier, of course, but most
scholars date the earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, to 70 CE
because it mentions the destruction of the Temple.

That
is, both Modern Judaism and Christianity-As-We-Know-It (as a separate
faith tradition) emerged after, and in the response to Rome’s
destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.  It was in making sense of
this horrific disaster that new expressions of God’s ways in the
world emerged.

This
is particularly interesting to me because the Hebrew Bible was
written down in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and the
First Temple in 587-586 BCE, when the Jewish leaders and scholars
were sent into exile.  The stories, of course, were much older, but
they were written down then, and that means that they were written
down with the question “why did this happen to us?” at the
forefront.

That
is, the Hebrew Bible gets written down and tries to make sense of
death, destruction, and disaster.  The majority of the “New
Testament” gets written down and tries to make sense of death,
destruction, and disaster, AND concurrently the Jewish Mishnah gets
written down and tries to make sense of death, destruction, and
disaster.  

It
seems to indicate our faith traditions are deeply rooted in trying to
make sense of death, destruction, and disaster, or that God is up to
new things when prior systems are destroyed, or that in trying to
preserve what used to be we end up making new things possible, or
that God can bring good even out of bad, or maybe all of the above.

In
any case, I think it is interesting, and worth continuing to ponder.
Especially now, when we have experienced death, destruction, and
disaster, and are wondering what we and God will be up to next.

Our
Hebrew Bible Lesson today from Jeremiah speaks lovingly of the “new
covenant” between God and the people.  This is such a foundational
idea in Christianity that we may not know that this passage is the
ONLY time such an idea emerges in the Hebrew Bible.  

“Foundational,”
you say, “why?”  Think of the words “old testament” and “new
testament” and remember that testament is a synonymous with
covenant here.  This is how some people made sense of the whole
Christian tradition.  That said, there are far too many who take
these words to mean that the Hebrew Bible is old, or outdated, or
replaced, and that is problematic.  We intentionally use the words
“Hebrew Bible” to recognize our shared biblical tradition.

Anyway,
back to Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is a prophet of the exile, and  for much
of the book Jeremiah warns of the dangers of the impending exile.
However, once the exile happens, Jeremiah’s tone changes, and he
turns to comfort and hope.  This passage is part of that, promising a
return to God’s promises and relationships.  The promise is
particularly full, as it speaks to both the northern and southern
kingdoms, the wholeness of Ancient Israel.  It is also full in that
the new covenant will not be dependent on the people’s faithfulness.
God will take care of it.

“I
will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall
they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,”
for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their
sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33b-34, NRSV)

It
is a lovely vision, in some ways the ultimate comfort: a relationship
with God one can’t mess up.

The
Christian church has claimed this covenant as their own.  Take these
words from our communion liturgy, “By the baptism of his suffering,
death, and resurrection you gave birth to your church, delivered us
from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by
water and the Spirit.” (UM Hymnal, page 9).  

I
have some deeply mixed feelings about this claim.  On the one hand,
it fits with my assumption that our status as beloveds of God is
based on the nature of God (grace) and not on our performance.  On
the other hand, it seems rather profoundly to miss out on the idea
that God wants us to take care of each other, and that our actions
matter in the building of the kindom.

Or
maybe I’m exaggerating.  After all, Jeremiah’s idea isn’t that the
people ignore God’s wishes.  Rather it is that they know God and
God’s grace so well that it is inherent in them and they live it out
naturally.  (I have mixed feelings about this too – in that it is
lovely, but simply not true of Christians I know.)

In
1 Corinthians we read the first historical record of communion.  Paul
had planted the church in Corinth but had been away for a few years.
In the first century CE the communion meal was a full common meal
(think potluck) during which the last supper was remembered.
Apparently in the time after Paul left things had gone off kilter a
bit.  According to Marcus Borg:

the
wealthy (who didn’t have to work) would gather early for the meal.
By the time the people who worked (most of the community) got to the
meal, the wealthy had already eaten and some were tipsy.  They may
also have served the best food and the best wine to themselves before
the others arrived.  Such was common among the wealthy of the world.
For Paul this violated the ‘one body’ understanding of the body of
Christ.  It meant bringing hierarchical distinctions of ‘this world’
into the body of Christ.1

Borg
goes on to explain the later threat to those who eat and drink and an
“unworthy manner”.  “In this context, eating and drinking the
bread and wine ‘in an unworthy manner’ refers to the behavior of the
wealthy in perpetuating the divisions of ‘this world.’ In Christian
communities, these divisions were abolished.”2

How
quickly the early church struggled with the equality and equity of
God’s kindom!  How hard it is to let go of hierarchy and let love for
all be the way decisions are made.  How familiar that is.  Those of
us who are white have been trained in mostly subconscious ways that
we are at the top of a hierarchy, and when left to our own devices we
will re-create systems that put our needs at the top while telling
ourselves it is OK.  Like the wealthy Corinthians might have said,
“We told them it started at 4, but they don’t make it until 5:20.
Why should we have to wait when we TOLD THEM what time it started?”
Or when a white person takes their own shame, guilt, anger, or
aggression as a reason to violate, harm, or kill  people of color.
Or even in the tiny little micro-aggressions of every day, related to
who gets heard, who gets believed, who is expected to be soothing,
who is expected to sooth, and whose pain matters.

It
took Paul saying, “don’t violate God’s table like that” for it to
be heard.  But I’m guessing that the reason he knew it was happening
was because the impoverished members of the community had been saying
so for quite some time, and finally tried a new way of getting their
needs heard.  I am hearing from Asian and Asian American friends and
colleagues that violence against Asians and Asian Americans has been
a regular part of their lives in the United States all along, and has
been FAR worse for the past year +.  I am also hearing exhaustion and
horror that a white man used his own shame as motivation for mass
murder, mostly of Asian women.  

And
let me say, because it MUST BE SAID, that a person doing sex work
does not IN ANY WAY change their human value, nor make it permissible
to harm that person.  Indeed, most people who support themselves with
sex work are people who exist in the most vulnerable positions of our
society, and as such are worthy of the most care and support to
counterbalance the harm they’ve lived.

The
Children and Youth of the Church have been working this Lent to
support a Lenten project to respond to hunger. They have invited us
to collect one canned good or  nonperishables a week to donate to the
SICM food pantry.  We are invited to bring those gifts this coming
Saturday (March 27 for those watching this NOT on Sunday) at the
flower sale.  Those tangible gifts serve as a reminder of other
people’s tangible needs.  It is also possible to make a donation to
SICM through our website or by check, knowing that SICM can buy food
at the Regional Food Bank at a very discounted rate.

That
is to say, that as we prepare God’s Communion Table for ourselves
today, given Paul’s admonitions, it might be a good time to be sure
that as we receive God’s gifts of grace, life, and hope, we extend
the table as we are able.  Or, perhaps this is  time for gifts to
Patty’s place.  Patty’s Place is an outreach-based service for women
at-risk, exploited, or involved in sex work. They provide immediate
resources and long-term referrals.

I’m
less than sure we’re embodying Jeremiah’s new covenant, but I am
entirely sure that the part that says that God is with us, in our
hearts, and claiming us as beloveds is true.  And I’m sure that we
have wonderful ways to respond to God’s love – with love, even,
ESPECIALLY in the midst of disaster.  Let’s do it!  Amen

1Marcus
J Borg,  59 Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order
the Books Were Written (United
States of America: HarperOne, 2012), 59.

2Ibid.

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 21, 20201

Uncategorized

“Lifted Up, I Guess” based on  Numbers 21:4-9 and…

  • March 14, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

I
don’t like the Numbers story, or how it portrays God.  I don’t like
that John references it, and adds it to his conception of Jesus.  I
gave serious thought to avoiding both of these scriptures today, but
I don’t actually believe in avoiding difficult things.  (Fine, also I
didn’t have a better idea.)

Just
in case you didn’t listen to the Numbers reading, or don’t naturally
object to scriptures, let me be clear about what I dislike about it.
It says that the people got impatient with God, and God punished them
for their impatience by sending poisonous snakes to kill them, and
when the people were upset about that Moses intervened and God told
Moses to make bronze serpent and put it on a pole for the people to
look at and be healed, and they were.  So…. I dislike the narrative
that God punishes, and even more so that God punishes impatiences,
and even more that God’s punishes by  killing.  As a bit of an aside,
it also seems distinctly unfair that there was that whole golden calf
incident where making a golden calf was BAD, but in this story making
a bronze snake is the solution.  But that is relatively unimportant
in comparison to the “God killing people for getting impatient”
theme.

Ok.
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest, because now I can
approach the story from a different angle.  The first piece of making
peace with this story is acknowledging that people are meaning
makers, and that means that sometimes we make meaning where it
doesn’t exist.  So, if the people in the wilderness encounter
poisonous snakes, it makes plenty of sense that they’d make meaning
of out of it and claim that it is God’s punishment.  People do that.

Having
said that, I think we can get more out of this story by (hesitantly)
entering into the mindset of the story than fighting with it.  I
don’t actually think God punishes people by sending poisonous snakes
– or having a person lose their job – or creating hurricanes – or
creating a virus to kill millions.  However, I think the “solution”
in this story is interesting part.  Also, since people still
attribute struggles in their life to Divine punishment, so we don’t
have much space to stand on to judge the ancients.

From
within the story, the problem is that poisonous snakes are killing
people, and the people request Divine intervention so they can live.
Replace snakes with a virus, and we are right there with them.  We’ve
prayed for God’s help on this.  (Most of us think the vaccines were
God’s answer, and like many things, God’s answer came through the
hard work of people.)

The
ANSWER for “poisonous snakes are killing us” being “make a
bronze snake and put it on a pole for the people to look at” is
REALLY WEIRD.  As in, if you asked me to brainstorm answers to
poisonous snake bites, I don’t think it would come up in my first
1000 options.  (Ready:  move camp away from the snakes, find
something to absorb the venom, look for an antidote, find ways to
pacify the snakes, figure out how to avoid the snakes, find out how
to repel the snakes.)  See… none of that has gotten anywhere close
to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole.

So,
for just a moment, what if we take this story as more parable than
historical narrative?  What if the SUPER WEIRD SOLUTION is something
designed to make us THINK and PONDER and consider, rather than, say,
replicate?

Then
where is the metaphor?  Debie Thomas in “Journey with Jesus”
says, “In order to be saved, the people have to confront the
serpent— they have to look hard at what harms, poisons, breaks, and
kills them.”1
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  

Avoidance
doesn’t solve problems.  Systemic change doesn’t come without a deep
understanding of what is broken and who benefits from the breaking.
In making a replica of our problems, we may just learn how to fix
them.  There is some GOOD STUFF here once the space is made for it to
speak with its own voice.  Thank you metaphor and parable
perspective.

Interestingly
enough, this sort of fits the virus + vaccine issue – you don’t get
to a vaccine without looking at the virus very, very carefully.  You
also don’t get immunity without some access to CREATED replications
of aspects of the virus.  (Metaphors make life.  Humans are meaning
makers.  Did I mention that?)

OK,
having found some actually useful meaning in the Numbers passage, now
we’re tasked with connecting this with John’s take on Jesus’s death.
#buckleup

As
you might have noticed, John 3:14-5 says, “And just as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
By “lifted up” John is talking about crucifixion, but he is
doing so in a very intentional way.  Clearly, physically speaking,
crucifixion could be understood as being “lifted up” but it was
DESIGNED as a means of public shame and punishment that was so
horrible as to discourage others from engaging in anti-Empire
activities.   This was capital punishment in an extra public and
grotesque form. So, calling crucifixion “lifting up” is
RECLAIMING it, denying its power to shame, and reframing it from a
faith perspective instead of a worldly one.

To
call it “lifting up” is to claim that they saw God in Jesus, and
the most extreme shame and pain and death the Empire had to offer
didn’t change that.  In fact, to call it “lifting up” inverts it,
taking an experience meant to shame and suggesting it brought honor.
Calling it “lifting up” refuses the power of the Empire to make
meaning, and claims that power for the community of faith.

But
the gospel writer doesn’t even stop there!  Instead John reframes the
Numbers story to make meaning out of Jesus.  As the bronze snake
replica healed the people who had been poisoned and would have died,
so the crucified Jesus heals the people and offers them full and
abundant life with God.  Or, as Debie Thomas puts is:

So why did Jesus die?  He
died because he unflinchingly fulfilled the will of God.  He
died because he exposed the ungracious sham at the heart of all human
kingdoms, holding up a mirror that shocked his contemporaries and
still shocks us at the deepest levels of our  imaginations. 
In other words, he unveiled the poison, he showed us the snake, he
revealed what our human kingdoms, left to themselves, will always
become unless God in God’s mercy delivers us.  In the cross,
we are forced to see what our refusal to love, our indifference to
suffering, our craving for violence, our resistance to change, our
hatred of difference, our addiction to judgment, and our fear of the
Other must wreak.  When the Son of Man is lifted up, we see with
chilling and desperate clarity our need for a God who will take our
most horrific instruments of death, and transform them, at great
cost, for the purposes of resurrection.2

The
death that is human violence, fear, and competition is transformed
when Jesus is “lifted up” and shows the power of compassion,
grace, hope, and collaboration.  The powers that harm are subverted,
the power of love is …. lifted up.  In THIS is life.

It
is so in our lives as well, may we pay attention.  Amen

1https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2944-looking-up

2Ibid.

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 14, 2021

Uncategorized

“Nonviolence” based on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and John 1:43-51

  • January 17, 2021
  • by Sara Baron

I’m
intrigued by the words in 1 Samuel, “The word of the LORD was rare
in those days; visions were not widespread.”  The story says, in
those days, it took a while before the one being called by God
realized it.

Since
the beginning of October we have offered a “Contemplative Prayer
Service” on Sunday mornings at 10AM.  Since the middle of November
it has been online.  I’ve gotta admit, it has exceeded my
expectations.  They were pretty low 😉  It turns out that getting on
zoom, muting your mic, and praying while other people are sitting on
zoom (mostly with their mics off) praying actually IS more connected
than praying alone.

It
is easier to be still then.

This
week I’ve found that I can’t get through the day without some silence
in prayer.  I just get too agitated.  And the angst builds and
builds, until I take time away from inputs to simply be with the
Divine.

These
defined times of prayer – with others in the Contemplative Prayer
Service as well as the ones I’ve taken out of deep and abiding need –
have reminded me of some things I’m embarrassed I’d forgotten.
Perhaps I hadn’t forgotten, but at the very least they came as well
needed reminders when other things had started to take precedence in
my being.

Ready?

First,
God is still THERE, or HERE, or however you say it.  I’d like to
claim I NEVER forget that, but each time I settle into prayer and I
sense the peace that passes understanding and the grace that abides
I’m … surprised again.  Maybe this is just because God’s goodness
is better than I’m ever able to remember, but each and every time I
encounter it I’m relieved to find it there.

Second,
stillness is …. possible.  It often feels impossible right until it
happens.  I get drawn into the news, into the COVID statistics, into
my own to-do lists, and then I get distracted by baby cries or
squeals,  – or emails or texts – and the whole of life seems to be
carefully created to keep me from finding stillness (and letting me
have excuses about it) but then when I do it, it is still there
waiting for me and it is GLORIOUS.

Third,
there is a vibrant, thriving, almost tangible connection between all
living things and the Living God.  When the noise of the world isn’t
in the way, the spiritual wonder is breath-taking.

Perhaps
these reflections are able to serve as a reminder to you of things
you also know.  Or perhaps they serve as a reminder of a need to find
time for contemplative practice.

For
me, they serve as a source of transformation.  My emotional responses
to the world right now are….sharp.  I’m horrified.  I’m terrified.
I’m disgusted.  And yet, closer to home, I’m also delighted, and
exhausted, and grateful, and worried, and relieved.  It is just a
whole lot to hold.

I
have been thinking about the retreat we did in 2017 with Bishop Susan
Hassinger, looking at spiritual practices that uphold social justice
work.  This might also be called the grounding for building the
kindom, or following the way of Jesus without burning out.

The
needs of social justice work, of kindom building, are so BIG that I’m
overwhelmed by them unless I get grounded in the unfailing love of
the Divine.  Worse, in this moment, I’ve finding it easier to get
pulled into the polarization of our society – which dehumanizes
“the other side” than ever.  This is a BIG problem, particularly
for one who seeks to be a Jesus follower.  

Are
you ready for today’s challenge?  One of the great interpreter’s of
the life and teachings of Jesus in our tradition, the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote,

To
our most bitter opponents we say: “We
shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to
endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force.
Do to us what you
will, and we shall continue to love you. We
cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because
noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is
cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you.
Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the
midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still
love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our
capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for
ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we
shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double
victory.”1

image

I
feel quite confident that the most bitter opponents of the work of
Rev. Dr. King, and the kindom, have been hard at work in our society,
and their work has exploded into violence, death, fear-mongering, and
the disruption of our democracy.  Rev. Dr. King worked against the
forces of white supremacy, by working for the full humanity of all
people.  

And
that man, that wise prophetic man, that man whose life itself was
taken by the violence of the world, is the one who said, “Do it us
what you will, and we shall continue to love you.”

He
refused to face violence with violence, he believed that the Jesus
movement was founded in NONVIOLENCE.  He refused to meet hate with
anything but love.  Now, of course, LOVE did not mean “compliance.”
Love meant naming evil, love meant good analysis of power dynamics,
love meant strategic planning of protests, love meant taking care of
the people’s spiritual well being so they could keep on working for
God’s greater good.  Love does not require us to back down.  Love
does not require us to become passive.  Love does not require us to
become silent.

But,
love does require us to seek the well-being of ALL OF GOD’S BELOVEDS,
and dear ones, this week, that includes people who are part of white
supremacist groups, and people who are part of QAnon cults, and even
the people who use those people to gain and keep power.  Love
requires us to want what is good for all of them, although – thank
goodness – that doesn’t include that they get to keep power or
continue using violence.  Perpetuating violence hurts both the one
who is violated and the one who violates.  No goodness or love comes
out of it.  


But
following the way of Jesus, nonviolent, loving resistance, that
builds the kindom.  You may remember the admonition in Matthew to
turn the other cheek, “But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as
well.“  (Matthew 3:39-40, NRSV)  Walter Wink’s teaching informed me
that these teachings are the ultimate in nonviolent loving
resistance.  In those days there were two forms of striking a person
– one used for equals and one used for inferiors.  A backhand vs. a
slap.  The left hand was NEVER used because… well… toilet paper
hadn’t been invented yet.  To turn the other cheek is to respond to
the diminishing insult of a backhand with an invitation to hit again
– but this time as an equal.  Similarly, the Hebrew Bible forbids
anyone from leaving a person naked in the process of seeking loan
repayment.  So, if a person seeks restitution of a loan by demanding
your OUTER garment, and you offer your INNER garment as well, you put
them in the situation of having to refuse to take both or stand in
violation of religious law.

I
sort of wish today’s gospel lesson has the question “Can anything
good come out of Nazareth?” asked to Jesus himself, but I think
John does well with it anyway.  The answer of the whole book is “YES”
and the person asking the ignorant question is immediately aware of
his error.  Loving nonviolence here includes seeing the world, and
its locations, a new.

I
am a little bit concerned that because I have focused on spiritual
grounding for kindom building, and nonviolent resistance
as the form of kindom building, that someone might not have
heard me speak imperative truths.  So, please give me a moment to be
abundantly clear:

People
who perpetuate violence in the name of Christianity are not following
Jesus.

Christianity
itself has been profoundly co-opted by white supremacy in this nation
(and many others), and it is our obligation to CONTINUALLY root it
out, transform it, and be self-aware of how it is playing out in our
lives and communities.

The
violence we have seen in terms of mobs attacking governmental
institutions in this country are the angry expression of
mostly-white, mostly-men who believe they have a fundamental right to
be more important than others.  Like any other abuser, they are most
violent when they fear they are losing control.  THEY ARE LOSING
CONTROL, and they are truly terrifying as such.

The
progress we have seen in humanizing people from the fullness of
humanity is NOT GUARANTEED – these angry abusive mobs have friends
in very high places, and a lot of backing.  

God
is always, always, always on the side of full and abundant life for
ALL PEOPLE.

So
that’s the side we are on.  We don’t want power consolidated with
mostly white mostly men because no one group is able to adequately
seek the good of all groups.  It is only through shared knowledge,
resources, and power that we can seek the common good.

And
THAT is why I want us to be grounded in contemplative prayer, good
analysis, and God’s grace.  Because I believe those are means of
countering the insidious voices of white supremacy and it’s close
cousin the patriarchy.  To move towards the kindom requires seeking
clearly what is happening, and letting God’s love transform us, and
the world through us.

So,
dear ones, please find the time to connect with grace.

Please
allow grace and love to fill you up.

Please
let Rev. Dr. King’s reminder of the way of Christ continue to
challenge you.
Please recommit to
Jesus’s way of nonviolence.

And
may God grant us wisdom for the facing of this hour.  Amen

1Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “On Loving Your Enemies”  found at
https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2015/01/19/martin-luther-king-jr-on-loving-your-enemies/35907
on March 29, 2018.

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

January 17, 2021

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