{"id":1029,"date":"2017-03-13T16:47:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T16:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/13\/welcoming-and-loving-in-difficult-times\/"},"modified":"2020-02-15T19:07:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T19:07:48","slug":"welcoming-and-loving-in-difficult-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/13\/welcoming-and-loving-in-difficult-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming and Loving in Difficult Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305Pronouns: she\/her\/hershttp:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

By Michele Cole<\/p>\n

03\/12\/17<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You know, one of my
\nfavorite holy days is Ash Wednesday, odd as that may sound. I can\u2019t
\nreally explain why that is, except that there\u2019s something very
\ngrounding about being reminded that we are from the earth and to it
\nwe shall return. It\u2019s a reminder that we are a part of the big
\ncosmic dance that includes all living things as well as inorganic
\ncreations like rocks and sand (particularly beach sand! \uf04a
\n) Or maybe it fulfills some kind of need to take a step back and
\nreally look at how I live in and relate to the world outside myself.
\nI know these days I love to hear Pastor Sara read the litany from Yom
\nKippur when she preaches in the joint ecumenical service; it\u2019s
\nbeautiful and life affirming. The downside to Ash Wednesday, at least
\nfor me, is that it\u2019s the beginning of Lent, which I\u2019ve never
\nliked very much. As many of you know I grew up Catholic, although in
\ntalking with others I find it was much the same elsewhere during that
\ntime. I was a very imaginative and sensitive child and my very
\ntraditional parish emphasized during Lent what was wrong with me, and
\nwhat I needed to do to be worthy. I was taught, or at least I
\nbelieved, that I was so bad that Jesus had to die because of me; and
\nso of course I felt very guilty that I helped to kill God. This isn\u2019t
\na judgement on the religion in which I was raised. This is how it
\nwas, and I took it all in. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, that\u2019s not the
\nend of the story. As I was reading an online article on the United
\nMethodist Church\u2019s General Board of Discipleship website a light
\nbulb went off in my head. I realized that the focus of Lent has
\nchanged since my childhood, and indeed began changing across
\ndenominational Christianity a few decades ago. Rather than a time of
\ngrimness that we just need to suffer through, the theology and
\npractice of Lent has changed its focus to embrace a quiet time of
\nreflection and preparation. This shift in perspective brought us back
\nto the days of the early Christ followers, when they saw Lent as a
\ntime of preparation for the sacrament of Baptism. For them, Lent was
\nthe home stretch, as it were, when converts to Jesus\u2019 Way received
\ntheir final faith formation before they entered the sacred covenant
\nwith Christ and Christ\u2019s church. \u00a0This time was not all inward
\nfocused, however; community members and soon-to-be members were
\nexpected to look outwardly as well, tending to those in need. Lent
\nculminated in Easter, but also in baptism into a new way of living
\nfor oneself and others.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I also learned that for
\nthis Lenten season, the Methodist Church has decided to focus on
\nliving out our baptismal calling, with a look each week at a
\ndifferent baptismal question. Now, before you decide this sermon is
\ngoing to be as dry as dust, please hear me out! Maybe it will be, but
\nI\u2019m finding it quite interesting how all of this is coming
\ntogether. You see, this week\u2019s question is – \u00a0\u201cDo you accept the
\nfreedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and
\noppression in whatever forms they present themselves?\u201d \u00a0Quite a
\nwell-timed question, as it fits in rather nicely with the Scriptural
\npassages I chose for today and, unfortunately, with the tenor of
\nworld events that have been happening recently.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our second reading for
\ntoday recalls the sheep and goats parable that is told just before
\nMatthew\u2019s recounting of Jesus\u2019 passion and resurrection. Given
\nthe timing as the last instruction before the end, it can be thought
\nof as holding special emphasis as the final word on Jesus\u2019 social
\nteachings. Let me put a little context around it, as I pulled most of
\nit out. This comes at the end of Matthew\u2019s chapter 25, where Jesus
\nhas been cautioning His followers about the coming of God\u2019s kingdom
\nand what their attitudes and activities should be. \u00a0 He has already
\ntold them to be alert, lest God come when they are not prepared, and
\nalso to be bold, not cautious, as they go about spreading the Good
\nNews and growing the number of disciples. Now he is taking those
\nteachings to a new level; not only are they to be concerned about
\ntheir own day to day living, but they are to notice and enhance the
\nlives of the neediest among them. This is not just a morality tale,
\nthough, of how we are to act \u2026 it is also a tale of how we are to
\nBE in the world and what attributes we are to cultivate in ourselves.
\nFor if you read the rest of the story, you will see that neither the
\nsheep who were kind to the needy nor the goats who were not, did it
\nbecause Jesus was alive in the marginalized. They didn\u2019t realize it
\nwas Him. Those who reached out expressed their compassionate care of
\neach other, their desire to help another in a time of great need. The
\ngoats had no such compassion and in fact, by saying \u201cwe didn\u2019t
\nrealize it was you\u201d betrayed their cynicism; had they known it was
\nJesus certainly they would have done something for Him. For their
\nneighbor, not so much.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So ultimately this is a
\nlove story, a story where we are the lovers, where because we are
\nloved we can in turn pass it on. It is a story that reminds us in
\nfairly clear language what we, in our love for each other, are to do.
\nFeed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, welcome the
\nstranger \u2013 while I imagine that we\u2019ve heard these words many
\ntimes before, they are taking on new meaning today, in a world that
\nseems to get meaner and harder with each news cycle. I admit to being
\nsomewhat of a Facebook junkie, and I spend some time each day reading
\nstory after story about one group pitting themselves against another
\nmore marginalized group, as if there is just a finite amount of love
\nand kindness in the world and it shouldn\u2019t be spent on \u2018them.\u2019
\nMore people are being overtly demonized, with more dire consequences,
\nthan in any time in my memory. It\u2019s easy enough to do, and there
\nare certain segments of our society now that seem to relish the task.
\nI was reminded of this when I saw Wicked last weekend, which was
\nfabulous by the way! \uf04a
\nI don\u2019t know how many of you know the story but in a nutshell, it\u2019s
\na story about the \u2018wicked\u2019 witch of the west and how she came to
\nbe wicked. And it turns out that it wasn\u2019t her doing at all. She
\nwas not \u2018the bad one,\u2019 but rather the victim of \u2018othering.\u2019
\nShe was different from birth, with a different color skin from
\neveryone else, and so she was ostracized. She developed a talent for
\ndoing spells and went to see the Wizard of Oz, who turned out to be
\njust a man, not really a wizard. She realized that he\u2019d come into
\npower on a lie, and was in the process of eliminating all diversity
\nin the land of Oz. She argued with him and refused to join him;
\ninstead she ran away. At which point the \u2018Wonderful Wizard of Oz\u2019
\nbegan to systematically demonize her, spreading rumors about her
\nevilness and telling lies about bad things that she had not done. By
\nthe end of it, the people of Oz were thoroughly convinced that she
\nwas bad to the bone, an evil wicked witch, even though her whole
\nreputation was built on lies. She was trying to do good, but the
\ncastle was twisting everything she did, until finally she was no more
\n\u2026\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to
\nthe present time, and the demonization of the \u2018other,\u2019 whether he
\nis an immigrant, or she is a refugee child fleeing from destruction
\nin her homeland, or they are a family of Muslims who are seeking
\nsafety from an extremist organization that wants them dead. How are
\nwe to think about the rhetoric that is flowing over us like so many
\nwords, telling stories about the people who are leaving all they know
\nto come to where they hope is a safe place, guided only by their
\nhopes and the love of God who wants all God\u2019s children to be safe.
\nLet\u2019s take a moment to look at the lessons in the first reading,
\nwhen God called Abram and Sarai out of the land of their birth to
\nventure into a new land where their descendants will number like
\nstars in the sky.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Abram and Sarai were the
\nultimate strangers; at a time when there were no Motel 6s or Google
\nEarth maps, they trusted God and went where they were told. They were
\npromised that they would be safe, that they would be led to a new
\nland, and that they would be a blessing to the world. This story
\ndoesn\u2019t say how they were treated along the way, whether they were
\nhassled or confronted, or whether they encountered the hospitality
\nthat is so critical to so many stories in the Old Testament. What we
\ndo know, though, is that they made it through to each place they were
\nled. They brought their customs and beliefs to a foreign land and
\nworshiped their God, and apparently were left alone to do this in
\npeace. And of course from them was born the Jewish people. This isn\u2019t
\njust a creation story, though, detailing how the people of Israel
\nbegan. It is also a metaphor for how we are supposed to live, and to
\nthink about others who are strangers in our lands. As Timothy F.
\nSimpson has pointed out in the online forum Political
\nTheology Today<\/i>, \u00a0this story is intended both
\nto make us think that we should be them (that is, that we should be
\nfollowing where God leads, and trusting in God\u2019s promises), but
\nalso that we could be them. That like Sarai and Abram if we follow
\nwhere God leads we could be traveling to places we\u2019ve never been
\nbefore, meeting people unlike us and bringing blessings to whoever is
\nthere before us. This heightened sensitivity, or empathy, for the
\nstranger takes us in a couple of directions. It can lead us to put
\nourselves in their place, encouraging us to treat them as we would
\nwish to be treated if we were far from home and family. We are also
\nled to recognize the blessings brought into our communities by those
\nwhose talents and perspectives are different from our own. We are
\ncalled to be inclusive, to recognize the humanity of the stranger, to
\nbe welcoming \u2026\n<\/p>\n

Welcoming \u2026 it can be
\nvery hard for us to do, especially when those we greet look or act
\ndifferently from us, or from how we think they should. Heightened
\ntensions in the United States and around the world are resulting in
\npolicies targeting Muslims and brown skinned people, murders of
\npeople with brown skins or turbans, anti-Semitism resulting in bomb
\nthreats and cemetery desecrations, and more murders of trans women of
\ncolor. In the absence of facts, \u2018alternative truth\u2019 is leading
\nAmericans to fear and hate immigrants, refugees and anyone outside of
\nour comfort zone. Yet all is not yet lost, even though sometimes I\u2019m
\nnot sure I recognize our country anymore. Amid yells of \u201cgo back to
\nwhere you came from\u201d we have to be the people of welcome, of
\nabundant love. We have to recognize the humanity of those who others
\ndemonize, and share our humanity with them. We must model for the
\nworld what we would like the world to become, and represent not only
\nthe wanderer but also the One to whom we belong. If that sounds vague
\nI\u2019m afraid it is, because each of us has a different talent to
\nshare, and more or less time to exercise it. Each of us has a
\ndifferent perspective on current events, and how we would like to
\ninfluence them. What I\u2019m really suggesting is that we need to be
\nawake to what is going on around us at all levels of our society, and
\nto be ready to respond in whatever way makes the most sense for each
\nof us. As we seek to reach out to the least of these, and welcome the
\nstrangers among us, we often need to look no farther than next to us,
\nor down the street, or sometimes even no farther than our own mirror.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>In
\nthe Matthew passage, the point is made that Christ has aligned
\nhimself with the \u2018least of these\u2019 and in so doing, is found in
\nall of us. I would argue that when we think about bringing compassion
\nand love to each other, we should also pay attention to how we can
\ncare for ourselves. It can be hard to do, I know, because I\u2019m
\nworking on it myself. It can be very easy to look after everyone else
\nbut ignore our own very real needs for love, connection, compassion.
\nRight now I\u2019m very concerned about how many people are hurting,
\nboth the targets of nastiness and those of us who care about them and
\nfor them. The 24 hour news cycle is producing lots of anger, despair
\nand hopelessness as it seems we go from one painful episode to
\nanother. Many of us are simply exhausted and are struggling to make
\nsense of what\u2019s happening around us. It\u2019s in times like this that
\nwe are called to nurture ourselves, to bring that same abundance of
\ncompassion and love to ourselves that we give to each other. It\u2019s
\nok to recognize that our energy isn\u2019t limitless and our passion
\nneeds feeding before we can feed another. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This brings me to another
\nchallenge that I\u2019m struggling with; I don\u2019t have an answer for
\nit, I just want to put it out here for your consideration. I\u2019ve
\ntalked a lot today about loving the least of these, and reaching out
\nto our neighbors, especially those who are being oppressed and
\nmarginalized by society. But, that leaves out a group of people whom
\nwe may not want to consider but who I feel we must. What about those
\nfolks who are doing, saying and believing things that we find
\nabsolutely abhorrent? Those whose attitudes we believe to be
\ncompletely wrong and even contrary to the Good News that we listen to
\nand love? I don\u2019t know if you remember, but Sara preached about the
\nquestion I raised at the Connection gathering a few weeks ago,
\nwondering how peace and anger can co-exist, how we can be peaceful
\nwithout losing the edge that draws us into social action. I am now
\nraising a similar question, but one that may make us a little more
\nuncomfortable. At least it makes me squirm. \u00a0I\u2019m trying to figure
\nout how to love someone who I would much rather hate, or at least
\ndetest a lot. Who I may actually think is dangerous to me or to our
\nsociety. I don\u2019t mean that squishy kind of love that Kay Jewelers
\nsings about, but instead the robust love that we are told to bestow
\non each other just for being a child of God in whom Jesus lives. What
\ndoes that love look like when its object is someone we don\u2019t like?
\nHow do we manifest it in our lives, and how do we come to terms with
\nit ourselves? I also wonder if, by saying that there are people who
\nby their words or actions don\u2019t merit my love and concern, am I not
\nbeing just like those very people who hate others and wish ill for
\nthem? \u00a0Does the guilt or innocence of the person impact my Christian
\nlove for them? Just a few of the questions swirling around in my
\nhead. I\u2019d welcome a conversation about them sometime if anyone
\nwants to take that one on!\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our readings for this
\nmorning provide guidance as we consider the baptismal question I
\nposed earlier \u2026 \u201cDo you accept the freedom and power God gives
\nyou to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they
\npresent themselves?\u201d \u00a0If we are to answer yes to this question, we
\nmust follow the direction we receive from God to welcome the stranger
\namong us. \u00a0To feed, clothe, visit and care for the least among us
\nwith an abundant compassion and love that reaches out because our
\nneighbor is in need, recognizing that Christ lives in everyone we
\ntouch. To care for ourselves because we see the Christ in ourselves,
\nand to provide us with the strength and determination to keep
\nreaching out where we are needed. And finally to love without measure
\nnot only those who are loveable, or those who we \u2018should\u2019 love
\nbut also those who think differently from us or who have different
\nvalues. Because to resist evil and injustice do we not need to
\ncounter it with love as well as with action? As Martin Luther King
\nJr. said in his 1963 book of sermons Strength
\nto Love<\/i>, \u201cReturning hate for hate
\nmultiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of
\nstars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
\nHate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies
\nhate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies
\ntoughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says
\n\u201cLove your enemies,\u201d he is setting forth a profound and
\nultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an
\nimpasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies\u2013 or else?
\nThe chain reaction of evil\u2013hate begetting hate, wars producing
\nwars\u2013must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of
\nannihilation.\u201d\u00a0These were timely words in 1963 when Martin
\nLuther King Jr put them to paper. They are equally of timely today.
\nMay we find it in ourselves to love our enemies, even as we struggle
\nfor a world where all are treated fairly and welcomed without
\nhesitation. <\/p>\n

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n

http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305Pronouns: she\/her\/hershttp:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/ By Michele Cole 03\/12\/17 You know, one of … Continue reading Welcoming and Loving in Difficult Times<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,38,39,33,728,730,312,726,76,731,56,729,727],"class_list":["post-1029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-abaram-and-sarai","tag-ash-wedneday","tag-challenges","tag-michele-cole","tag-mlk","tag-preach","tag-schenectady","tag-sheep-and-goats","tag-welcoming-and-loving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}