Unglued Church Launch -- May 30 and 31, 2014

On May 30 and 31, more than 50 leaders from eight churches in Pittsburgh Presbytery, together with Ayana Teter (Associate Pastor of Pittsburgh Presbytery), Philip Lotspeich (Coordinator for Church Growth, Presbyterian Mission Agency), Jim Kitchens and Deborah Wright (Adaptive Change Consultants, Pneumatrix) as well as eight Adaptive Change apprentices (Sarah Robbins, Tom Moore, Jake Clawson, Brenda Barnes, Larry Ruby, Linda Ruby, Ayana Teter, Susan Rothenberg) gathered to launch the "Unglued Church" pilot project.  Funded by a grant from the PCUSA, this two-year project will not only seek to help churches redefine their mission as they face the tsunami of change in our culture, but also train a cohort of teaching elders in our presbytery to work with churches into the future and help them use adaptive change and positive deviance to effectively live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their communities.  

Rev. Wright and Rev. Kitchens of Pneumatrix

The first phase of the project was for each church to participate in a "New Beginnings" assessment http://whatisourfuturestory.com/beta/the-process/.  The New Beginnings assessors visited with each church in April and created a comprehensive report detailing each church's assets, challenges and ministry opportunities.  This weekend, Rev. Lotspeich instructed the church leadership and apprentices how to read the reports, and outlined the next steps in the New Beginnings process.  

Each church -- including Emsworth U.P. -- will now hold a series of "house meetings" -- and that's where the fun really begins!  We are praying that the Spirit will bubble up in these holy conversations over the next few months as churches begin to dream and talk and listen to one another as they seek to become what God would desire them to be.  We pray that their conversations will be fueled by their love for Jesus Christ and not fear of the unknown.  We pray that each church will discover new things about the communities around them and the people they serve.  We pray that each church will open themselves up to a new beginning and a new future, whatever that may look like for each of their congregations.

My colleague, Rev. Sarah Robbins and I were privileged to lead worship this weekend, and we drew our inspiration from a sermon preached by Walter Brueggemann at The Festival of Homiletics last week. In the sermon, he reminded us that our churches are fragile clay jars, and that we are privileged to carry the treasure of the Gospel within us.  The treasure cannot be destroyed.  The clay jar, however, needs to be smashed from time to time.  The good news is that the Potter can put us back together, but we will not be the same clay pot we once were.  We will be reworked into another vessel, as seems good to God.

Please pray for this effort -- for the churches, the apprentices, and all of us who dare to imagine that God has not stopped dreaming of a new thing for a bunch of old clay jars.

Here is the liturgy we used in our opening worship on Friday night: 

Call To Worship                                                                                     

Gift us, O God, with divine imagination.

Mold us with holy intention.

Change us with your compassion.

Release us from our fears.

Break our stubborn habits.

Pry our idols out of our anxious hands.

Destroy all within us that is not your will.

Live through us, today, always.

Unison Prayer                                                                                    

Merciful God, weary from efforts to change our own lives, we hand ourselves over to you.  You are the only One who can center us firmly, rooting us in this moment, mindful of our potential.  Your hands hold us with warmth and you eyes see us with imagination.  We can feel ourselves beginning to turn with the energy of your purpose.  Weighty is your love for us, yet with lightness of heart we feel ourselves transforming, rising, and opening up to your grace.  Let us become vessels of your own design.  In Christ, we pray.  Amen.

Reading From Scripture

Jeremiah 18:1-10                                                                                    

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. ⁹And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12                                                                                    

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. ²We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. ³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Reflection: Smashing Our Clay Pots,  Ungluing The Treasure                        

We have this treasure in clay jars. 

That’s what Paul says.  That’s what he tells the church in Corinth.  We have this treasure in clay jars.

The people in Corinth were in quandary.  They were stuck, endlessly obsessing about the small stuff: class distinctions, differences between Jew and Gentile, questions about circumcision and proper foods, who could be an insiders and who were the outsiders.  What kind of hymnal, what color flowers, proper doctrine, polity and policy – you know, all the nit-picky stuff that can quickly sink a church. 

Paul believes that the church in Corinth has forgotten that our stuff and our rules and our doctrines and our traditions are not the point. They have forgotten that the church is not the treasure, but a clay jar that holds the treasure.  And it’s a good thing because a clay jar is…what?  (HIT THE POT WITH A HAMMER) Vulnerable.  Fragile.  A clay jar does not last forever.  The treasure inside the jar – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – is the thing that cannot be broken.

The clay jar exists for one purpose and one purpose only-- to carry the richness and fullness of the Gospel.  And, as the text from Jeremiah tells us, the clay jar sometimes has to be broken and reshaped.  Again and again.  Breaking and reshaping the clay jar is the work of the potter.  That is God’s transforming work in us and with us.

Congregations can get caught up in thinking our job is to take care of the clay jar instead of the treasure.  Sometimes we think that the extraordinary power of the gospel begins with us.  But Paul reminds us that the extraordinary power comes only from God.

Tonight, it seems to me that the church’s best hope for the future is to be broken open and made new if we want to be suitable vessels for the treasure.  We need the potter -- who created these clay jars to begin with -- to reshape us and reclaim us. It is only in smashing our clay jars for the sake of Jesus that the power of the treasure can break loose in the world. Because that is the only treasure the world really needs – the power of Jesus in his generosity, forgiveness, hospitality and justice.

To borrow a brilliant phrase from Walter Bruggemann, -- it is time for us to get smashed for Jesus.  And tonight and tomorrow marks the beginning of our becoming unglued for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remembering Paul’s words:

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

I invite your group to place the clay jar in the bag provided for you, and take turns striking the jar with the hammer.  You can hit hard or softly.  You may end up with only a few large pieces, or many shards.  When everyone has had a turn, take out the fragments and lay them on the table.  Then we will pray together.

Unison Prayer

Let us begin this task of breaking open our lives in the service of our God.

Let us build something new from the fragments of these broken times in our church and our world;

Let us cry out for those who have no voice;

Let us work with what we have,

to help bring healing, justice and mercy

to those whose lives are filled with fear and suffering;

and know that God is with us, even in the dark of doubt.

Here are the broken pieces, God.

We trust that you will use them to renew in us a right spirit.

And now, give us peace for the evening and good rest through the night. 

Amen.

Benediction

May the peace of Christ comfort you.

May the love of God sustain you.

May the energy and orneriness of the Holy Spirit embolden you in all you do in the service of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

On this day and even unto the ages.

Amen.

Easter 6A -- May 25, 2014, Guest Preacher Jay Poliziani

Matthew 25:37-40

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,^* you did it to me.”

On Sunday, May 25th, we were overjoyed to welcome Mr. Jay Poliziani to our pulpit.  Jay has been the Director of Northside Common Ministries for three years. NCM is an affiliate operation of Goodwill of Southwestern PA and Jay has worked for Goodwill for over two decades in various social service roles.

Jay is a single father of one teenage son, and his educational background includes degrees in education, marketing and theology, all of which have proven to be helpful in different ways in his work at NCM.

Listen to Jay's message here:https://soundcloud.com/emsworthup/may-25-2014-11-18-37-am/s-RsaMV

You can read more about Northside Common Ministries by going to their website: http://www.ncmin.org

Easter 5A -- May 18, 2014

The Ram In The Thicket

For audio, click this link:https://soundcloud.com/emsworthup/may-18-2014-11-18-02-am/s-2zOJT

Acts 7:55 – 8:1a

⁵⁵But filled with the Holy Spirit, he (Stephen) gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ ⁵⁷But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ ⁶⁰Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.¹And Saul approved of their killing him.                       

Let us begin with prayer:  Lord of creation, we come to you with open hearts and eager ears.  Increase our understanding of your Word and gift us with faith to courageously live into your claim on our lives.  In Christ, we pray.  Amen.           

I have always thought the most horrifying text in all of scripture is the one in which we are led to believe that God is the kind of deity that tortures a devoted father by allowing him to believe for three horrible days that his beloved son must die.  And the part that really gets to me is that Abraham has to wrap his mind around the terrible idea that he has no choice but to murder Isaac in order to prove his faithfulness to God.  My question for the longest time was this – what kind of God would torture a person like that?  And – more to the point -- is that the kind of God I want to follow, must less love and trust with my whole heart? 

For years, I couldn’t read Genesis 22 without breaking into tears, but managed to get through it dry-eyed only after I realized that it is not the story of God’s cruelty, but a story about how we torture ourselves trying to figure out what God wants from us, and how very often we get it wrong.  I think the story of Abraham and Isaac tells us that violence is not an inevitable fact of our lives, and certainly not the will of God in the Old or New testaments.  Violence and vengeance are terrible choices we make all on our own, and they break God’s heart.  So much so, that God provides a ram in a thicket if we have imagination and courage enough to see it.  And even when we make the most terrible choice, God will do what God always does – create new life out of the bloody messes human beings create.   We see that truth most clearly on the cross.  And we see it today in another pretty horrible story from scripture.  The story of Stephen’s stoning in the book of Acts.

At first glance, there’s absolutely nothing good to say about this text.  Stoning is a barbaric and horrible act, and if we were actually standing in this story while Stephen was being stoned to death, we’d have to avert our eyes.  Although scripture is riddled with references to stoning as proper punishment for any number of crimes from being a wizard to being a thief, it doesn’t change the fact that death by stoning is an unspeakably horrible way to die.  In our own time, stoning is still legal in Afghanistan, Iran, sections of Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Women in particular have been threatened by religious authorities with this hideous punishment as a way of controlling their behavior and keeping them in line.  And I’m sure it’s a deterrent that works very well.

So there isn’t much to celebrate in this story.  Stephen was a devoted apostle, whose primary responsibility in the early church was to care for the widows and others who could not care for themselves.  Stephen was one of the original deacons of the church, in fact, and when he wasn’t doing compassionate deeds in the name of Jesus Christ, he spread the word about Jesus Christ.   Stephen healed and preached and did what he could to not only talk about how Jesus changed his life, but also demonstrate through his life what kind of difference Jesus made in him.  And as we see in this text, all of this good work got Stephen into a boatload of trouble with the Jewish authorities.  Stephen’s speech in his defense when he is brought in for trial is what sealed the deal.  It’s a long speech that you can read for yourself in Acts 7, verses 1 – 54, but the long and the short of what Stephen said to the Jewish leaders is that God’s chosen people had been a troublesome lot from day one.  They had a long history of being stiff-necked and mean, and had never met a prophet that didn’t want to push off a cliff, run out of town or crucify.  Moses had found the chosen people nearly impossible to lead, and Jesus had been just the latest example of God’s messengers that the religious leaders had been only too happy to reject.  In other words, Stephen spoke the honest truth, just as Jesus had done, and got a similar result.  Stephen held up a mirror to his accusers and it made them so angry that they couldn’t resist the impulse to smash Stephen into a million bloody pieces.

Stephen was only the first of many Christians who met violent ends simply because they spoke and lived the truth as best as they could manage it.  In fact, from that day on when Stephen was killed, many of the new Christian/Jews skee-daddled out of Jerusalem and scattered like so many fertile seeds across the landscape of the Roman Empire.  For centuries, the fledgling church survived but just barely.  Christianity was continually in hiding, or on the run, or in big trouble with somebody who found the message about Jesus bothersome.  But somehow the church managed to grow and kept on growing. A couple centuries later, Christianity became so successful that it became the official church of the empire and stopped being any real trouble to anyone at all.  Over time, Christians were no longer the persecuted ones, but became the ones doing the persecuting of other faiths.  And as history has taught us, horrific violence against individuals, communities, tribes and whole countries has been committed in the name of one god or another has been raging ever since.  Atrocities have been inflicted by people of faith, as well as on them.  The bloody result of religious zealotry looks pretty much the same regardless of which god is being vindicated.

Can it be that our God really as cruel as the cruelty we inflict upon one another?  Or is there something else to explain why humanity hasn’t stopped stoning one another since the beginning of time?  In our advanced culture here in America, our weapons of choice have become a little more sophisticated than sticks and stones.  Instead, we use bombs.  Lethal injections.  Drones.  Automatic weapons.  Humanity still hasn’t kicked our brutal habit of leaving behind a bloody path in the name of justice.

It’s tempting to focus only upon Stephen’s peaceful countenance as he dreamily stares up into space while men are gathering around him ready to crush his skull and tear open his body. That’s certainly what the church has historically done with martyrs like Stephen.  We focus on the worthiness of their deaths, their fearlessness in facing down rocks and knives and lions.  But we avert our eyes from the carnage.  None of us can bear to see Stephen being stoned to death anymore than the disciples could bear to see Jesus suffer on the cross.   We close our eyes to the violence, blame the bloodshed on God’s plan, and quickly move on to resurrection and sainthood for at least some of the victims.  As for the rest, well, that’s just how the world works.

I hate this story about Stephen’s death, but I also think there may be a sliver of light here that looks an awful lot like grace here if you look closely.  There he is, standing on the sideline, with his eyes wide open, watching every moment of Stephen’s agony.  Saul.  Saul is there on the scene, helpfully holding the coats of the guys stoning Stephen. Because, you know, stoning a young healthy man like Stephen takes a while.  Better to strip down to the undergarments, because stoning is hard, sweaty work even with a cooperative victim like Stephen.

And of course, Saul heartily approves of this execution.  He loves it.  It could be that Saul even had something to do with making sure this death would happen.  Saul not only approves of the killing of this one particular troublemaker, but he will go on -- as Acts chapter 8 tells us -- to ravage the new Christians by entering house after house to drag off men and women, committing them to prison or worse.  Saul is every inch the true believer, a real zealot in maintaining the purity of the Jewish faith.  Saul is the most persistent of persecutors and continues to be so until Acts chapter 9 when he will have his life turned upside down by the murdered Christ himself.  After that, Saul is no longer who he was; he is transformed into Paul – the apostle who will not longer measure truth by how closely it’s protected and guarded by religious insiders.  In fact, Paul breaks open the message of Jesus to everyone he can get to listen to him – Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. 

And Paul never forgets Stephen.  We know he didn’t, because Paul soon found himself in a position similar to Stephen’s and had to defend himself in front of another zealous crowd who just couldn’t wait to stone Paul.  And in that moment, Paul calls upon the memory of Stephen.  He tells his accusers he remembers standing there, holding the coats of Stephen’s executioners and seeing the blood pour out of Stephen’s body.  Paul is no longer who he was, but he still carries that memory of who he used to be.  The memory must have haunted him.  But it is a memory that shapes Paul’s ministry, and you can see it in Paul’s writings.  When Paul’s Jewish brothers and sisters refuse to accept that Jesus is, in fact, their Messiah, Paul does not seek to harm or destroy the enemies of his new faith.  Instead he struggles with their refusal in genuine pain and prays that all of Israel may find its way into the arms of Jesus. 

Despite all the violence he committed against Stephen and others in his past, Paul is finally able to see the God’s better way.  Paul finally saw the ram in the thicket that God had been waiting for him discover the whole time.  Paul’s path was diverted from proving his faithfulness through persecution of the impure.   Instead, Paul proclaimed the faith of Jesus Christ, an open and welcoming faith that is secure not in its’ ability to defend itself from enemies.  The security of Christianity is not rooted in our willingness to defend it from its enemies, but in the One who has already passed through death and brought us to life everlasting.  The One who taught us words of forgiveness.  The One who is indeed our rock and our fortress.  Though we are tempted to hide behind barricades, guns and bombs, stories such as this one remind us of the One who overcame evil not be defeating the enemy, but by loving the enemy and thus defeating death itself.

So there is light in this story after all.  We see it in the Christ-like forgiveness demonstrated by Stephen and how his words were absorbed through the eyes and ears of Saul.  Perhaps the seeds of Saul’s transformation were sowed right there, in that horrible moment where God took the heartbreak of human violence and transformed it into something life-giving that would open up the gospel beyond what anyone could imagine.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Reverend Walt Everett and hearing him speak at Sixth Presbyterian Church.  In 1987, a man named Mike Carlucci shot and killed Rev. Everett’s 24-year old son, Scott.   For a year afterward, Rev. Everett was unable to work at all.  Everett saw his life spiral downward, seemingly out of his control. He felt despair, rage, depression. His marriage, already on shaky ground, cracked under the strain. Everett prayed to God, beseeching him to show him a way out of the darkness. But Everett discerned no response. He attended a support group meeting with other family members of murder victims—the only people, he figured, who could possibly understand the anguish that consumed him. One night he heard a woman in the group say that anyone who committed murder “should be taken out and shot immediately.” Then he learned that the woman’s son had been killed 14 years earlier. He wondered if that’s what his life would be like for the next 14 years.

Eleven months and two weeks after the murder of his son, Everett sat in a courtroom in Bridgeport for Carlucci’s sentencing. Everett had never before set eyes on his son’s killer, who arrived at the courthouse three hours late, having indulged in one last cocaine binge before prison. The judge asked Everett if he wished to make a statement. Everett rose and spoke for 10 minutes, though he doesn’t remember a word of what he said. Then the judge asked Carlucci if he would like to speak. Carlucci stood and said:

“I’m sorry I killed Scott Everett. I wish I could bring him back. Obviously, I can’t. These must sound like empty words to the Everetts. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry.”

That simple expression of remorse would change the course of Everett’s life. “It was,” he said, “as though at that moment God said, ‘I’ve been asking you to wait. This is what I’ve been asking you to wait for.’”  It was the ram in the thicket moment for Everett.  That moment when he glimpsed a better way to manage his heartbreak.  His decision to forgive Carlucci, he says, was not meant to ease the guilt that weighed on the soul of his son’s killer. It was more selfish than that. He says he offered forgiveness to save his own life.

Amazingly, the two men struck up a correspondence that morphed into a friendship.  Carlucci cleaned up his act and his life, and Reverend Everett eventually presided at Carlucci’s wedding.  Everett says, “I can never forget what happened to Scott,” he said. “It has forever changed my life. But when I look at Mike, I don’t see the person who harmed Scott. I see somebody who’s been changed by God, and I celebrate that.”(1)

A broken heart is an avenue, a crack for life to come in, a place for God to plant the seed of new life.   We do not need violence to protect us.  We do not need violence to express our shattered souls.  We do not need violence to bring justice.  The myth of redemptive violence is just that – a fable that can only destroy us. 

There is a better way now that Easter has come again for us.  The world does not need another martyr, willing to die for their faith.  It needs more Rev. Everett’s and Sauls who are willing to live out their faith.  The world needs more people who are able to see the ram in the thicket.  People who are willing to take the different and even more dangerous path to the peace and forgiveness and openness of Jesus Christ.   May we be those people. Thanks be to God.  Amen.

(1)All quotes are from "Forgiving the Murderer" by Paul Solotaroff in Rolling Stone Magazine, June 24, 2004. Downloaded on May 16, 2014. http://www.willsworld.com/~mvfhr/walt's.htm

Because we're all hungry for something.

Find out what God is up to in Pittsburgh's North Side and South Side neighborhoods as we welcome two individuals deeply involved in Christ's mission of feeding the hungry.

May 25 -- Jay Poliziani, Director of North Side Common Ministries

http://www.ncmin.org

June 1 -- Jennifer Frayer-Griggs, Coordinator of The Table Ministry at Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community

http://thetableministry.blogspot.com

Easter 4A -- May 11, 2014

Tender Shepherd

Audio available at: https://soundcloud.com/emsworthup/may-11-2014-11-15-42-am/s-EbCdA

John 10:1-10

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁷So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Let us begin with prayer:  Holy and Gracious God, you call us by name, Beloved, and beckon us to follow you.  May we hear your voice clearly today, through your grace.  We pray in Christ’s name.  Amen.

Ok, folks.  Here’s a true story for you. My Uncle Tom is known in our family to be rather eccentric, but I am pretty sure he’s also the only person I know who has had hands-on experience in being something like a modern day shepherd.  I remember visiting him at his farm in Chester County a few years ago and noticing that he no longer had sheep grazing in his fields.  “Oh yes,” he said.  “I finally sold them, and boy was I happy to get rid of those sheep.  In fact, once we got them loaded on the truck and the man who bought them drove away, I was so relieved that I got into a hot bath and drank a whole can of Hawaiian Punch.”

I told you.  A little eccentric.  I couldn’t make that story up if I tried.

 I read an article this week in which another disillusioned shepherd put it this way:  “Sheep are either suicidal or stupid—probably both. Sheep are just born looking for a way to die.  Sheep are forever putting themselves in unnecessary peril, much of which could usually be avoided by doing something simple like turning around.”[1]

 People who deal with the care and tending of sheep know the trials and tribulations of shepherding very well.  They will tell you that sheep are, quite simply, a pain. More urban creatures like us -- who have neither tended nor been traumatized in caring for the animals -- may have a hard time understanding exactly what Jesus is up to in our scripture passage today.  

I imagine that we are much like the cast of characters listening to Jesus.  His audience is a mixed bunch of disciples, Pharisees and the family and neighbors of the formerly blind man whom Jesus has just healed in the previous chapter.  In fact, John 9:1-10:21 is all one massive textual unit that follows the pattern used elsewhere in the gospel of John of sign -- dialogue -- discourse. Jesus performs a sign, which is followed by a dialogue as its onlookers try to figure out what the sign means, and concludes with Jesus’ discourse or interpretation of the sign he has performed. 

In a mixed group such as the one listening to Jesus in this text, it’s very likely that only a few of them have first hand experience in being a shepherd sheep.  As usual, I think the people who most understand Jesus are the ordinary folks. Not the religious professionals. Not the Pharisees or the fisherman, but the people who know what it is like to coax a whole bunch of pesky, stupid sheep to keep moving until they are safely in the pasture or wherever else they need to be.  The Pharisees and the fisherman without first hand shepherd experience probably don’t get Jesus’ joke at all.  The family and neighbors of the blind man, however, are probably laughing with amazement and gratitude.  

The ordinary people get the joke Jesus is telling them because they know that all of this talk about sheep obediently doing anything is ridiculous.  The last thing sheep will do is follow along obediently.  Sometimes they’ll follow for a time, but very often they will wander off into a jagger bush.  The shepherd will go after the straggling sheep, coax him out of the jagger bush, and pick all the thorns out of the sheep’s wool coat until his fingers are bleeding, all the while knowing that the sheep has probably not learned a blessed thing from the experience and will end up in another jagger bush tomorrow.

The ordinary people get the joke because they know most sheep will happily follow a stranger, at least for a little while, until the stranger has decided the sheep has become more trouble than it’s worth and ditches the sheep for a more manageable animal like a cow or horse.  The shepherd will then pick up the sheep from whatever ditch in which the stranger has abandoned the sheep and deliver the panicky animal to safety.  The shepherd will do that knowing full well that, given half a chance, the sheep will take off again when the next sheep thief comes around.

You see, I don’t think this is a story about what kind of dirty, rotten sheep we are, and if we just clean up our act, we’ll be able find the shepherd.  I think it’s a story about the kind of shepherd Jesus is. 

Jesus is the kind of shepherd who isn’t about to sell us out to thieves and bandits out of sheer frustration, then go have himself a bath and a can of Hawaiian Punch.  Jesus is the kind of shepherd who will wait patiently for us to discern his voice among all the other voices that attract and distract and ultimately disappoint us.  This isn’t really a story about sheep, but about a shepherd who doesn’t give up on the sheep he loves, but keeps the gate open and the lights on and will even throw a big party complete with a big old slab of roast beef when we somehow stumble home.  This is a story about a shepherd who doesn’t just turn water into a couple bottles of wine, but hundreds of gallons to keep the party going for days. This is a story about a shepherd who, when he sees one of his sheep suffering, isn’t above improvising with a handful of ordinary dirt, mixed up with a big healthy wad of spit, to bring a blind sheep back to life on the spot.  This is a story about a shepherd who is in crazy, long-suffering love with the most ridiculous animals God saw fit to put on this earth.  Yes, that would be you and me, and the rest of ridiculous humanity.

I can’t help it.  When I think about shepherds, I think about the lovely song from the Broadway show “Peter Pan” – Tender Shepherd. http://youtu.be/JsE4mwWuRZU Tender Shepherd is one of the loveliest songs I’ve ever heard.  It is one of the first lullabies I can remember my mother singing to me, and it is one of the first lullabies I can remember singing to baby Rachel.  If there was an official song for Mother’s Day, I would nominate Tender Shepherd.  The lyrics are simple and lovely – “Tender shepherd, tender shepherd.  Watches over all his sheep.  One in the garden.  Two in the meadow.  Three in the nursery, fast asleep.”  And then, when she got a little older, Rachel and I made up new lyrics:  “Tender shepherd, tender shepherd.  I’m a very little sheep.  One for my mommy, two for my daddy, three for the Rachel Ann, fast asleep.  Fast asleep.”  During Rachel’s nursery years, her dad and her mom were Rachel’s gate and green pasture.  Every night we carried her back into the safety of the sheepfold of her bedroom.  Ours were the voices Rachel could hear and trust to chase away the thieves and bandits.  The problem is that we do not stay in the nursery for very long and the voices of mommy and daddy are eventually replaced by other voices. 

Jesus doesn’t tell us what the tender shepherd’s voice sounds like.  Learning to hear his voice is something we must do for ourselves and practice every day.  And the problem, of course, is that the only way to learn to listen to Jesus is to listen to other people.  To rephrase the famous Theresa of Avila quote, if “Christ has no body but yours; no hands, no feet on earth but yours,” it follows that Jesus has no voice on earth but the voices of ordinary human beings.[2]  And listening well is a skill that comes about as easily to us as it comes to sheep.  Which is to say, not easily at all.   And considering the many and varied voices that hit us from every direction, I’d say it’s getting harder all the time to distinguish the voice of Jesus from the cacaphony.  

But our tender shepherd gives us a clue in our text today about what his voice does not sound like, and maybe that’s a good place to begin.  The tender shepherd’s voice will not come as words of scarcity that tells us that we better get all we can because there isn’t enough.  The tender shepherd’s voice will not deceive us into believing we are too lost and covered with thorns to be worthy of love.  The tender shepherds voice will not lead us to the place where we decide it’s so much safer to be cynically shutdown than hopefully openhearted.  The tender shepherd’s voice will not tear us down, but build us up.  And, most amazing, the tender shepherd’s voice will not call us by any other name than the only name that matters -- beloved. 

It may have occurred to you that if the only way we can hear Jesus’ voice is by listening to the voices of other people, then the only way other people can hear the voice of the tender shepherd is by listening to us.  And that’s where the rubber hits the road, because the only thing we Christian sheep are worse at than listening carefully is speaking carefully.  In fact, I read another observation this week by a shepherd who really knows his sheep.  It is only lambs that bleat a gentle "bahhh." Sheep blurt a disturbing "BLAGHGAGHHAGHAFFTT!!!!!" [3]  I am such a city kid that I had to go to a You Tube video to learn that sound.[4]  It is tough for a human voice to replicate that terrible noise, but it does drive home the point that we should resist bleating so loudly in our native tongue and learn to speak the tender shepherd’s gentle, but courageous language of love, forgiveness, and encouragement. 

I don’t often speak on the floor of Pittsburgh Presbytery meetings.  I don’t know if it’s because I was so freaked out after my oral parts of trial 3 years ago, or whether I’ve just displayed enormous good sense in not adding my voice to the BLAGHGAGHHAGHAFFTT that often passes for debate in some of our less shining moments.  I think presbytery can be a scary place sometimes for some ministers.  Although we begin each gathering with worship that is always rich and deep, the meeting that follows too often devolves into polity and politics.  Pittsburgh Presbytery can be a place of pretty pesky sheep.

But on the Wednesday night before the meeting, while watching the Pens game and scrolling through Facebook, I saw a post by a minister in Chicago that contained 260 names of the more than 300 young women who were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria and are now being sold as “wives” for $12 a piece by the terrorists who captured them.[5]  Now, you recall that I prayed for all the missing girls last Sunday and I continued praying for them through the week.  But there was something – I don’t know – startling and moving about seeing their names on my computer screen.  An abstract situation of global concern became a living, breathing, and strangely personal tragedy. 

So I used my voice on the floor of the presbytery on Thursday afternoon.  I passed out the names of the girls and asked those who were in attendance to pray not for a situation, but for a particular young woman.  And because the young women have been robbed of their voice, I asked the presbytery to use its voice to publicly proclaim that we join with our colleagues in the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to call upon the government of Nigeria to use all available peaceful resources to rescue the young women kidnapped on April 15, 2014 and other occasions. We are grateful for the work of the Presbyterian Ministry to United Nations for expressing the concerns of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) within the United Nations community for the girls who have been abducted in recent weeks, for the education of all Nigeria's children, and for peace and justice to prevail in the country.  Further, we pledge to pray without ceasing for peace to reign in areas of the world where women cannot be safely educated, acknowledging that the empowerment and education of women, especially young women, is the most powerful weapon in the fight against terror, violence, poverty and injustice in the developing world.  In this resolution, Pittsburgh Presbytery responds to Christ’s call to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free.

The thieves and the bandits think their voices can drown out the voices of justice, but we are the tender shepherds that God has called to prove them wrong.  The thieves and bandits think they can hurt and exploit God’s children and nobody will notice, but we are the tender shepherds God has called to speak against evil wherever it exists -- halfway around the world or down the street. The thieves and the bandits think they can frighten us into silence, but we will not remain quiet when justice requires we speak.  The thieves and the bandits believe they can bully us into settling for a whispering scarcity, but we will insist upon abundant life for all of God’s children.   We will use our voices – in prayer, in writing, in speaking, in worship, and even in sometimes choosing not to speak -- to be the voice of the tender shepherd in a world of lost and captive and hurting and broken sheep.  So all of God’s beloved may have life, and have it abundantly.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

---

[1] http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Dirty-Sheep-Mike-Baughman-05-06-2014.html

[2] http://www.journeywithjesus.net/PoemsAndPrayers/Teresa_Of_Avila_Christ_Has_No_Body.shtml

[3] http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Dirty-Sheep-Mike-Baughman-05-06-2014.html

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE_erLQW0Q0

[5] http://achurchforstarvingartists.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/please-pick-one/

What's Happening at Emsworth U.P.? -- May, 2014 (Pucks and Bucs Edition)

Pastor's Letter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Last Sunday, I preached about one of my favorite stories in scripture – the story of the two disciples and the well-worn path between Jerusalem and Emmaus (Luke 24:13 -35).  The two disciples in the text retreat (perhaps rather hastily) from Jerusalem, feeling like the entire world has come crashing down on their heads.  For them, the facts of the matter are quite clear. Jesus is dead. The women who say they saw an empty tomb and spoke with angels are full of baloney.  Cleopas and the unnamed disciple are so filled with misery, they don’t even notice the stranger who joins them.

The disciples were so busy dwelling in the events of the past, they didn’t even realize the stranger walking beside them was the Resurrected Christ. 

It seems that everyone has an opinion on why the North American Church, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) in particular, is having significant difficulties.  Like the disciples on the Emmaus Road, many of us are so focused on who or what is to blame – the culture, the millennials, the “spiritual but not religious,” the media, the liberals, the conservatives, you name it – that even if Jesus came along and smacked us in the head, I’m not sure we’d recognize him.  What the Emmaus story shows us is that the question we need to ask ourselves is not, “What happened?” and “Why did this happen?”  Instead, the church of the Resurrected Christ needs to be asking, “What’s next?” and “Where is Jesus leading us today?” 

A few months ago, your session and pastor decided to start asking forward-thinking questions about the future mission and ministry of Emsworth U.P.  Through our participation in a PCUSA pilot project, “The Unglued Church,” we hope to discover what God would have us do to proclaim an unchanging gospel in a world that is changing rapidly.  Although Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, it is clear that the way in which faith communities practice, worship, and communicate their faith will be changing significantly in form and function. 

Eight churches in Pittsburgh Presbytery are participating in the “Unglued Church” process, which was conceived by a group of pastors here in Pittsburgh, drawing upon the assistance of two Presbyterian ministers in California who have significant experience in adaptive change work for churches like ours.  

The project began last month when assessors from the PCUSA spent a day with each of the churches to help us develop a clear and objective portrait of our communities, our congregations, and our resources.  Many of you participated in a discussion with the assessor here on the evening of April 21.  At the end of May, representatives from all eight churches will gather to receive the finished report and begin the next steps in doing the important work of adaptive change in our congregations for the sake of the gospel.

There is no predetermined outcome in this process. Nobody will tell a congregation “what to do.”  My hope is that throughout the process we may look at alternatives that have never crossed anyone’s mind.  In fact, adaptive change means that what happens next in our life as a faith community may, indeed, look quite different in 5 years.  My hope is that many of you will be part of these conversations over the next two years as we meet in one another’s homes, at the church, at coffee shops – to work out our faithful purpose as people of God. 

It is important as we go through the “Unglued Church” process that we listen to one another carefully, pray deeply as individuals and in community, study scripture together and joyfully expect to hear God’s word for us as we gather in worship.  Over the summer months, we will participate in worship that will be designed to draw us closer together as the Body of Christ.  We will hear each other’s stories and share the Lord’s Supper frequently.  As the year goes on, we will continue to invite guest preachers and laypeople to help us see how Jesus is already at work in our community and how we are being called to serve alongside him.

Change can be frightening.  Change can feel threatening.  But I am convinced that if we are faithful to the Gospel, and committed to one another, this journey on which we are embarking will be life saving and life-sustaining for all of us.

Next year marks the 120^th anniversary of this church.  I can think of no better way to honor the legacy of the saints who came before us in this place than to do the hard work of living into our call to ministry for the next generation of God’s people. 

Thank you, as always, for all you do for this church – your work, your prayers, and your contributions of time and talent.  It all matters deeply in this small corner of God’s kingdom.

In shared ministry with you,

Pastor Susan

Thank You for your Generosity!  In the first quarter of 2014, Emsworth U.P. made the following mission gifts:

Meals on Wheels:  $278.75
Shepherd's Door:  $250.00
Board of Pensions Assistance Program (PCUSA):  $100.00
One Great Hour of Sharing:  $572.00
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance:  $200.00
Pittsburgh Presbytery Mission:  $200.00

Summer Reading Pastor Susan will be leading a summer book discussion around Barbara Brown Taylor’s New York Times bestseller, Learning to Walk in the Dark. We will gather on four evenings:  Wednesday June 11, 25 and July 9, 23 at 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  The book is available now for purchase from Amazon.com, or at your favorite bookstore.  Read a description of the book at Amazon by clicking this link: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Walk-Barbara-Brown-Taylor/dp/0062024353/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399469351&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+to+walk+in+the+dark

Flip Flop Summer Worship Watch for more information about summer worship as Pastor Susan at Emsworth U.P. and Pastor Donna at Community Presbyterian invite our congregations to a flip flop summer of worship, story and song beginning in July through Labor Day weekend.   The June issue of Happenings will have a complete summer worship schedule. 

Clean Up Is Progressing Work on the clearing the overgrowth parking curb side of Hiland Avenue is progressing. 


Guest Preacher on May 25th We will welcome Jay Poliziani, Director of Northside Common Ministries (http://www.ncmin.org), to our pulpit on Sunday, May 25.  Make it a point to be at worship on the 25th to personally welcome Jay to our church. 

The Unglued Church Our work has begun!  The next phase of the process  will continue on May 30-31 with meetings at Presbytery on Friday from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m..  If you are interested in serving our church in this process and helping shape our future ministry here in Emsworth, please contact Pastor Susan. 

Pastor's Schedule  Susan will be attending the Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis for her 2014 continuing education on May 19 – May 24.  For pastoral assistance during her absence, please contact Jon Stellfox, Clerk of Session