The following are some of Pastor Michelle's recent weekly sermons and scripture readings. We hope you find these words helpful for your spiritual growth. If you wish to contact Michelle, feel free to use the contact form found on this website.
God Bless.
Unpacking Privilege Workshop
This workshop was taught by Pastor Michelle in April at the Annual Meeting of the Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ in April, 2022 and on September 11 at the United Church of Ludlow. The objective of the workshop was to look at privileges that some have that others do not and to consider how privilege can be shared. Click here for the recording that is from the presentation in April.
This workshop was taught by Pastor Michelle in April at the Annual Meeting of the Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ in April, 2022 and on September 11 at the United Church of Ludlow. The objective of the workshop was to look at privileges that some have that others do not and to consider how privilege can be shared. Click here for the recording that is from the presentation in April.
Sermon for August 13, 2023 Fear-less Faith
Old Testament Reading Genesis 37: 1-4 & 12-28
The Gospel Matthew 14: 22-33
I pondered this Matthew story this week while on Star Island.
Walking around the island or sitting on a bench, watching the waves crash against the rocks, I tried to visualize what the disciples saw - this ghostly figure walking towards them on the water and tried to imagine what I would feel if I were to see such a figure walking towards me across the ocean. Even with that scripture in mind, I can tell you that I would be pretty freaked out. I can imagine that I would look to my fellow pastors for corroboration, “Do you see what I see?” then we might collectively decide among: fight, flight, or faith, likely in that order. But I also have no doubt that fear would be in the mix. We just don’t have someone walking on water in our realm of experience or expectation. We, like the disciples, would likely be afraid,
Who among us is not afraid at some point? However, having fear does not mean that we don’t have faith; in fact faith is the antidote to fear. Peter had faith. He asked Jesus to allow him to walk on water and then he got out of the boat! That took a lot of faith. And while he was walking on the waves of faith bravado, wanting to do what Jesus was doing, the winds of humanity came storming in, intruding on his faith walk, breaking his focus, causing him to stumble. Yet even as he stumbled, Peter had the faith to know that Jesus could save him and Jesus reached out his hand and did just that. Although Jesus rebukes him for doubting, Jesus does not accuse Peter of not having faith, just of not having enough faith in that moment. Peter, like most of us, needs to keep practicing his faith so he can learn to fear-less.
Raise your hand if you know what a trust fall is? Keep your hand up if you have ever done one. A trust fall is just that - allowing your body to fall backwards with the trust that the person behind you will catch you. This is an activity often down with students at camp or at school but not usually on the first day that they meet each other. Why? Because you need to establish trust first, to get to know whom you would trust - maybe both in their character and possibly in their strength. We need to know not only that they want to catch us but that they can. When we feel confident in both, we have faith in them.
But what if in getting ready for that trust fall we get distracted? Maybe someone in the crowd is shaking their head which makes either the faller or the catcher question this action and doubt themselves? What if someone watching decides to heckle us saying “You are trusting that scrawny person” or maybe “you should lose a few pounds before you try this!”
This body and spirit shaming of any of the participants can create a gap that lets fear in. Or maybe it is just the distractions of the chaos of life - someone saying “hurry up!” or yelling “Free Ice Cream!” that causes the catcher to look away at just the wrong moment that breaks the trust, the faith, letting fear and even danger in.
Fear is a natural instinct. It can save us by making us wear a lifevest, helmet or seatbelt and run from danger. Faith is an added layer of protection on top of that: one that calms our bodies and minds in addition to our safety devices and instincts. But faith is not an instant fix. Like an athlete preparing for a competition, we must practice. We must exercise our faith to make it stronger, to build trust in the God who catches us in God’s way. That might be metaphorically reaching out and pulling us up out of danger or despair or empowering us to trust in ourselves or others to do that.
This past week was a metaphorical trust fall for me, albeit in a really beautiful place. I went to Star Island for a program called Soul Work for pastors. What I thought it would be and what it ultimately was were two different things but with the same outcome: my body, mind and spirit were refreshed.
Star Island is a Conference Center on an island that is part of Isle of Shoals, 10 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, NH. Since 1915, the island has been owned and operated by the Star Island Corporation “as a center for religious, educational, and kindred purposes consistent with the principles of Unitarian Universalism and the United Church of Christ.”
There were three different groups on the island last week: Star Gathering 2, YES, and Soul Work.
Star Gathering - about 175
YES - about 25
Soul Work 11 - 8 UCC Ministers and 3 UU
All three groups came together for communal meals three times a day and about a third attended both morning and evening chapel together. We also ran into each other a lot on the half mile loop around the inner island.
I came Bible in hand, expecting Bible studies and new deeper ways to practice my spirituality and faith. Instead, I received a journal, thought-provoking writing prompts and colleagueship. The prompts were things like “How does your church affirm your call?” - (wow - in so many ways - thank you!) and “What makes you feel like not enough in ministry?” In answering that question and others and sharing the responses with the group is where I experienced my trust fall.
First, I had to be honest with myself. I went to the retreat to try to put some bandaids over places in my ministry where I did not feel adequate like not knowing enough Biblical history or theology, not having deep enough spiritual practices, not having enough experience or enough time. I especially knew that I did not have enough education, never having attended seminary but taking different paths that led me here. Of the 11 people in my course on the island, I was the only one who had not been to seminary. The “not enoughs” were crowding in.
But as I listened to the other ministers share their doubts and insecurities, I realized we all have them. We all question and wish we had, did, or knew more or less. And, as I expressed my doubts, they reminded me that, like Peter, I got out of the boat. I am taking the faith walk and, like Peter and most of us, things come in to make me question or doubt. But as I begin to stumble, my faith reminds me that there is always a hand reaching out. This week, it was the 10 other ministers who affirmed and validated my walk but many of you do that as well - you remind me of why I got out of the boat and you keep me walking. In fact, you got out of the boat and took a walk on the water of faith in calling me.
Pause for a minute and consider the “not enough” moments in your life or faith journey. Maybe focus on one time or area when you did not feel like you were enough.
Now think about what made you feel that way? We often stumble under the weight of “not enough” because of unrealistic expectations that society puts on us or that we put on ourselves. We might feel that we have to meet an unrealistic standard of beauty to be thinner, taller, stronger, more or less buxom, more well-dressed etc. Or maybe we feel we have to reach a particular standard of intelligence measured in degrees, books read, how much we remember or how much money we make. Or we feel pressured to conform in how we act, vote, whom we should love, how we present ourselves and so many other pressures and we, like Peter, begin to fall.
But now I want you to consider whose hand is there to catch you. It could be a friend, a partner, neighbor, colleague, or even you when bolstered by faith. Who is catching you? Visualize them right now.
That hand, wherever it comes from, keeps us from falling, reminds us that we are enough just as we are. It gives us the strength to straighten up and keep walking, renewed and ready to turn around to reach out a hand to help someone else to fear-less.
I want to conclude with a poem on this scripture from Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes from his Unfolding Light website:
On the sea within me
there is one who cries out
and one who responds.
Within me, one who commands
and one who asks to be commanded.
One who panics in the chaos
and, yes, within me, one who is steady.
One who is terrified at the waves
and one who finds footing there.
One clings to the known
and one strides in mystery.
They reach out to each other
on the beautiful stormy sea within me.
As long as they hold onto each other
I do not sink. Amen
Sermon for July 23, 2023 Stewarding the Earth
Old Testament Reading Genesis 1:26-31 & 2:15 (The Message translation by Eugene Peterson)
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
(The Voice translation) 28: Then God blessed them and gave them this directive: “Be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth. I make you trustees of My estate, so care for My creation and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth.”
29-31
Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows on the earth and every fruit-bearing tree. They will be your food and nourishment. 30 As for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and every small creeping creature—everything that breathes the breath of life—I have given them every green plant for food.
And it happened just as God said. 31 Then God surveyed everything He had made, savoring its beauty and appreciating its goodness. Evening gave way to morning. That was day six.
Genesis 2:15 (The Message)
15 God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.
The Epistle Reading 1 Corinthians 4: 1-2
We are called to be responsible for the fish, birds, cattle, earth and every living thing that moves on it. We are called to be trustworthy stewards, trustees of God’s estate.
These translations from Genesis may not be the way you learned the creation story. I looked at 30 different translations of this scripture in preparation for today. I was particularly curious about the role of humankind in relation to the earth. Eleven of the translations said man should have dominion over the earth and all that is on it. Ten say that man should rule over it. In these translations, it often later says that man should subdue the earth. A few other translations use words like “reign over”, “be masters over” “Take charge of, have power over” etc. However, I like the word choice from The Message translation that we heard today “be responsible for” and line 28 of The Voice translation “I make you trustees of my estate, so care for creation.” That line still ends with “rule over “ the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth” but when you put it in the context of being a trustee caring for God’s estate it has a whole different meaning.
Being a trustee means that you are trusted. Not just anyone is normally chosen as a trustee of an estate. Some may call it an honor and others a burden, but it is definitely a responsibility. In the case when someone passes away, the trustee has to pay the bills of the estate, follow the wishes of the deceased in handling any responsibilities, and disburse any funds.
I was and am the trustee of my Mom’s small estate. That involved selling her house, paying the bills and distributing what was left. I still manage one small account that is my sister’s money because she is not capable of doing so yet. So, in taking care of my mom’s estate, she was also entrusting me in a small way with looking out for my sister. With her addictions and mental illness, that has not always been easy, especially from afar and many of the day-to-day burdens have fallen on my father, burdens I hope will be lifted soon as my sister is improving and is more able to fend for herself.
I am sure many of you have been or will be trustees of the estates of relatives, so you understand that responsibility.
However, being a trustee of God’s creation is an even bigger job -there is a lot to be responsible for. And, unlike an individual’s estate, there is not just one trustee, we are all trustees. Have you ever tried to manage by committee? Yikes, can you imagine all humanity working together to protect God’s planet? I love the idea, but the practicality of it is hard to imagine. And yet, we must try, or at least do our part. That is the responsibility that God has entrusted us with. God has given us absolutely everything we need to sustain all life on this planet, we have to find a way to care for it by putting it back in balance and keeping it that way.
Yet for many years people have used the Bible to justify having dominion over the earth, subduing it since God gave humans that power. But dominion has consequences as we see in our earth today with extinction of species due to overhunting, human infrastructure, pollution and climate change. The ripples of all those things create an imbalanced ecosystem and it is our responsibility to work to fix it.
It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of that responsibility and many of the gloom and doom climate change forecasts are so unmotivating that people just give up, but there are things we can do and there is always hope. We Christians know that and we have the responsibility to be hope in action.
My son Jordan Fields is an Earth Science PhD student at Dartmouth. His focus is on studying floods and how rivers respond to increasingly frequent extreme flows. Much of what I will now share is from a piece that he wrote after our recent floods.
He says, “The trouble with floods is not that they happen – that’s natural and inevitable, even without climate change – but that we’ve put ourselves right in the path of rising waters. I know this firsthand. I was starting the first week of my senior year of high school in Woodstock, Vermont when Tropical Storm Irene turned my bucolic hometown into an unrecognizable landscape. I spent the first six weeks of that school year emptying neighbors’ homes of the feet of accumulated sediment left behind by receding
floodwaters. Twelve years later,(during the recent flood), I was also right in the path of rising waters in central Vermont, this time intentionally, collecting data about large floods and their impact on downstream communities.”
“The floods will come. They will almost certainly be more frequent and, likely, they will
be bigger than any we’ve yet experienced in the post-industrial era. We’ve all but
guaranteed that by warming our world to a slow boil. But these floods don’t have to be
ruinous, or deadly. Vermont has been hit by two “1-in-500yr” floods in the last twelve years. In the first, six people lost their lives, 200 bridges were destroyed or damaged, and more than 500 miles of road were washed out. In the second, just over a week ago, there was one fatality in Vermont, and while many roads were still closed late in the week, the damage appears less extensive and only two bridges are out, while 35 more were to be inspected for damages. The contrast in outcomes between these two storms reveals broadly applicable lessons.
Jordan and his colleagues have been studying the lasting
effects of Irene on Vermont’s rivers for over a decade. What they’ve learned might
surprise you: much of the lasting damage to river corridors was done by contractors
after Irene, rather than the storm itself. In 2011, Deb Markowitz, then the secretary of
the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, lifted all regulations prohibiting the use of
riverbed gravels for road building, citing the need to repair critical infrastructure. The
result was a free-for-all for anyone with access to a bulldozer, backhoe, excavator, or
dump truck. Rivers were straightened, wood and logs moved during the storm were
removed, channel banks were armored with huge stones and bermed high. The channels were disciplined into submission.
Together, these efforts turned many Vermont streams into veritable canals, devoid of
life. Just ask the trout fisherman: the Ottauquechee, White, and Black Rivers still have
yet to recover their pre-Irene trout populations which once held trophy-sized browns
and rainbows. But it’s not just ecosystem health the storm’s response imperiled, but the
safety of downstream towns and people as well. The changes Tropical Storm Irene
brought to river channels – new bends, side-channels, log jams, and lowered riverbanks
that allow water to flow over them into the floodplain – all actually work in concert to
reduce flood risk downstream because they slow the flow of rising waters. Thus,
Vermont’s immediate response to Irene set the state up for even more damage in the
next flood.
Fortunately, other Vermonters saw the trouble, and corrected the state’s course. Mike
Kline, the Rivers Program Manager at the Vermont Department of Environmental
Conservation, had been quietly working on this issue for thirty years. His report to the state in the wake of Irene “Giving Rivers Room to Move”,
fundamentally changed Vermont’s approach. The state invested heavily in raising
bridges to above the highest projected flood heights, they painstakingly removed
undersized culverts and replaced them with larger ones capable of passing floodwaters,
and they launched a one-of-a-kind floodplain buyback program. The buyback program
provided funding to buy flooded homes at market rates and return them to natural
floodplain, allowing homeowners to get out of harm’s way and the river to return to a
functioning ecosystem.
In this way, floods can be an opportunity to reassess our relationship with rivers, to
work with them rather than against them. Kline’s approach proved its worth in Vermont
In this storm. Despite rivers rising to record, or near record, levels across much of the state, the damages to infrastructure overall were less severe than twelve years ago.
Vermont is a state of steep slopes and tight valleys – we will never be fully safe
from the inevitable deluges. In fact, as these 1-in-100 year floods become 1-in-20 year
floods – as the flood-modeling group, the First Street Foundation, predicts in a recent
study – we will have no choice but to accept that New England’s mill towns are poorly
sited for the modern era of a rapidly changing climate and be forced to adapt.
So what more can be done? Here in Vermont and across the US, more investments in
bridge and road infrastructure are desperately needed. While mundane, replacing
undersized culverts played a huge role in preventing the loss of more road miles in
Vermont in the recent flood. That Monday night as flood waters rose to near Irene levels on the Williams River near Rockingham, VT, Jordan stood next to the Bartonsville Covered Bridge, a historic landmark lost during Irene). The new
bridge stood high and dry, even as 18,200 cubic feet of water passed under every second.
That’s six large school buses of water rushing by every second. By comparison, the
average flow for July 10 th at this site is 45 cubic feet per second, about the volume of one small couch bouncing by per second.
While investments in flood-ready infrastructure will make a world of difference, they
won’t mitigate flooding alone. Investments in natural infrastructure are needed as well.
River restoration has become a growing movement in the last decade, with hundreds of
dams removed from rivers across the US, berms and levees lowered, and floodplains
restored. Projects that reconnect rivers to their historic floodplains not only rejuvenate
river and riparian ecosystems remarkably rapidly but they give the river room to flood,
room to move, room to slow down, protecting downstream communities.
In the end, the lack of such adaptations to date are not for lack of funds. The Biden
administration’s infrastructure bill explicitly provides $47 billion for climate resilience.
It’s about our attitude. To adapt to our changing climate, we’ll
have to give up some control, and work with our rivers.” Jordan emphasizes.
As Christians, I think we understand some of what it means to give up control as we let go and let God. Letting the rivers take their natural courses is letting them take the course that God intended for them. Being responsible for this creation, being trustees of it, does mean we have some responsibility for managing it. In some cases that responsibility might mean not managing it - giving the environment, the ecosystem, room to follow its natural courses and doing our best to live sustainably in it in the ways that Jordan and other scientists have pointed out.
We need to act responsibly with hope in helping to work with the planet and all people and creatures on it. That is what being a trustee of God’s estate is all about. We need to remember that we are part of creation. There is a symbiosis that can and used to exist between humans and nature. We just need to work to get back to that as God intended.
As Paul says in our 1 Corinthians reading today: 4 “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy.” As trustworthy stewards of this earth, let us each do our part to protect and enjoy this beautiful place even as God is our refuge and hope when that task becomes challenging.
Amen.
Sermon for May 14, 2023: In Defense of Hope
Is this glass half full or half empty? Many would say it depends on your mindset. If you are in scarcity mode, worried or stressed, it is half empty; if you are hopeful, it is half full. As Christians, if we are not already there, we should work to see it as half full because we were given hope and help in the form of the Risen Christ and support from, depending upon the translation, an: Advocate, Counselor, Companion, Helper, Friend, Spirit of Truth or Comforter aka the Holy Spirit as we heard in the Gospel of John today.
The message here is that we are not alone; that gives us hope even in times of suffering or challenge.
Last week in our “conversation church” we looked at John 15: 12-13 from Eugene Peterson’s The Message “This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.” And Matthew 22: 37-39 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So when we consider our gospel reading today where Jesus, in this Maundy Thursday Sermon to his disciples says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” we are reminded that the greatest commandments are about love - loving God and loving our neighbors. And, as we have explored in the past, our neighbors are ALL the People whom God created, those like us and those very different from us: those of all races, creeds, gender, gender identity and sexual orientations; those of differing abilities, different economic and social status. Even our enemies, these too are our neighbors and we are called not just to tolerate them but to love them. What would happen if we could learn to love our enemies? I think, at minimum, we would not use the term enemy any more - maybe they would even become friends of a sort and remember we are commanded to put our lives on the line for our friends.
This loving all people - even those who think and act very differently from us can be hard work at times, but Jesus even planned for that. As he told his disciples during that Maundy Thursday supper, as he was preparing for his own death even though his disciples still did not get it, “I will ask the father and he will send another Companion, (Helper, Friend, Advocate, Comforter) to be with you.” In Jesus’ time disciples without masters or teachers were considered orphans. But Jesus’ is telling them and us, that “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.” This was both to foreshadow his resurrection and to let them know that even when he was not here, the Holy Spirit would be. They and we are not alone.
So what it means to be Christian is to love or to strive to love all as Christ loved all people, even and especially those, society considers less than or “other” and to have hope. And not only to have hope but to be prepared to defend that hope.
So how do we do all of this? I would like you to open your bulletin to the Word Cloud image of our brainstorming during church last week. The idea was to choose active verbs that represent what we, as members and friends of the United Church of Ludlow d0. In other words, what do we see as our mission here in this church, in this community, in this world? I created this Word Cloud by listing the words we chose last week along with how many votes each word got; the larger the word, the more votes it got. Let’s all say the biggest word out loud together on the count of three: one, two, three: Welcoming!
Is welcoming loving? Absolutely!
Can I have a volunteer to read the other large words? Caring, Celebrating Diversity, Loving, Giving.
Are we obeying Jesus’ command to love one another if we welcome all, celebrate diversity, love all, care for all and give of ourselves in doing so? I sure think so. Our path is being laid out towards a mission statement - a one or two sentence statement about what we do as people of faith, as the United Church of Ludlow. I encourage all of you to play with these words, adding a few more along the way. Maybe even consider it through the lens of your Star Word that you selected on January 8 to guide your meditation throughout the year. My word is “Awareness” and I have found myself stepping back from situations to see them from a different viewpoint all year in order to be more aware. How about you? By the way, if you missed out on a chance to get a word to guide your reflection, there is still a basket of words downstairs in the lobby - grab one and see where it takes you!
As you play with arrangement of those words, consider what else needs to be included and what that looks like within our walls and outside them. If we just welcome people who show up at our door, is that truly welcoming or do we need to go beyond and invite people? Is this just about church or are we welcoming the community by allowing Rotary, Windsor County Mentors and other organizations to use our fellowship hall for meetings. Should we hold more community events here like the Piano Concert and Lunch with Coolidge in order to be welcoming? What else can welcoming look like? How would someone walking by our church or checking out our website, know that we are welcoming to them no matter their nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ability, or economic status?
What would it look like to show that we celebrate diversity? What might we do differently to truly celebrate diversity?
What does caring or giving look like? Is it just writing a check to this church and various non-profits in need or is it rolling up our sleeves to raise money for victims of violence like those in Ukraine or victims of earthquakes like those in Turkey and Syria? Is it visiting with the sick and lonely and fighting injustice in our own country?
What does love look like? Is it just a product of these other active verbs - welcoming, caring, celebrating diversity or is it something more?
In our rich conversation last week, the other thing that came through clearly is the value of fellowship. People visiting often stay because they feel welcomed and they enjoy the fellowship of other people on the journey of faith. We are chatty - we enjoy sharing stories and laughter. We are hungry, we enjoy eating together. Could this fellowship be an outgrowth of the Holy Spirit as a friend, helper, comforter acting through and with us to help us live up to Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors?
Living in the least-churched state in the nation, at a time when more churches close than open, it would be easy to despair. Looking around this room seeing fewer than 30 people and seeing just one person under 20, could make us think that we are a dying breed. Yet last week George Thomson told us that we qualify as a vital church and we are: We have vibrant worship both in person and through Zoom, significant lay involvement, some community events, and we’re good at incorporating new members. The areas from the Vital Church Conference that we can still work on are: crafting mission and vision statements as we are working on now, being open to change - what might we do to put more of those chosen verbs into action? How can we bring in more diversity in age, sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity? How can we better live out our faith commitment by sharing it with others? What would Jesus do if he were present with us here today?
In other words, how can we more fully live out Jesus' commandment expressed in Matthew? I am going to end by sharing it with you in words and the hand motions I would teach students in my Vacation Bible School sessions at the North Pomfret Congregational Church many years ago. Picture me up here doing this with 20 kids. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In doing this, we are glass-half-full people defending the hope that we have through the model of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon for April 30, 2023
Psalm 23
The Epistle Reading: 1 Peter 2: 19-25
The Gospel John 10: 1-10
Sermon: Abundant Green Pastures?
This week I took my 7th grade students to the Hubbardton Battlefield. The only place where a battle in the Revolutionary War was entirely fought in Vermont. I assigned them roles of American soldiers and commanders in the battle and told them the story as we walked the land where this battle took place: the story of how the soldiers were eating breakfast at 5am when shots were heard in the distance from Sargent Hill. They knew this was the sentries warning them that the British were coming through the Gap and they went into action dropping everything to grab their muskets and find defensive positions in a battle that they would lose but yet was still claimed as a strategic victory in that many troops were able to escape to later fight and repel the British at the Battle of Bennington.
Standing at the top of Monument Hill looking towards Sargent Hill and the Taconic Range, now the Taconic Ramble State Park, the view is very similar to this living Psalm painting by Mary Melcher. The Hubbardton Battlefield is considered the most preserved battlefield in America because standing on that hill with my students, it was easy to imagine the British coming through the gap and the flanking maneuvers that they made because you cannot see any buildings - only trees and fields - just as the soldiers saw 250 years ago on July 7, 1777.
So despite its bloody history, this place felt tranquil. As one of my students said, “We’re really in the sticks now.” And they were - as they reenacted the battle grabbing sticks and seeking defensible postures in the woods, even in this war game they were different, they were more calm - the middle school version of lying in green pastures.
The very familiar Psalm 23 is a a Psalm of comfort - with the inference of the Lord as Shepherd leading us to a place of respite, a beautiful pasture to rest in with food, clear water, beautiful views and the assurance that even in difficult times, God is walking with us, protecting us.
There are 43 different places in the Bible where God or Jesus is either stated or inferred, as in Psalm 23, to be a shepherd caring for and leading the people. And why not? Isn’t it comforting sometimes just to follow and to feel that someone will protect us and take care of our needs on this beautiful earth?
In John 10 the image is expanded to not just a shepherd but the very gate that lets the sheep in for protection and keeps those who would harm them out. John 10: 7 says ” Very Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” and later in verse 10 we are told “I came that they may have life and have it abundantl./”
In much of history, as evidenced throughout the woods of Vermont, sheep were enclosed in pens made of rock walls rather than wood. In fact, in Jesus’ time, there was not always a gate on these stone sheep pens, rather the shepherd, at times, was literally the gate either standing or lying in the entry to the pen. So the image of Jesus as the shepherd and the gate here can be both literal and figurative.
First, let’s consider the shepherd, throughout history there have been and still are false ones - those who act like they are in charge, who seek followers of their way, ways that serve them as individuals - inflating their status, power, and income. Jesus tells us in this parable in John that those false shepherds are “thieves and bandits” trying to climb over the wall to get to the abundant green pastures, their own version of heaven on earth, without acknowledging a higher power beyond themselves. But sheep are often smarter than they are given credit for and most of them will not follow a false shepherd, at least not forever, because they know the voice of the shepherd that offers them the comfort and protection of abundant green pastures.
Sometimes we need to go out into those Green Mountains and pastures to break from the cacophony of false shepherds that might pull us in different directions - to be able to hear the voice of Jesus, letting the sheep in, protecting them and offering pastures to graze in and the beauty and contentment of that green pasture near a beautiful lake that is evoked in Psalm 23.
Now that we have established Jesus as the true shepherd calling the sheep we have to consider the question: who are the sheep? At the 228th Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ on Friday and Saturday, the theme was “Who is our Neighbor?” and it is not so far from the question of who are the sheep that Jesus is letting in.
If we think about it through the lens of the life of Jesus, the answer is clear. As we heard at the conference through the example of the Good Samaritan, a true neighbor is “the one who demonstrated mercy” towards the injured man. That injured man was a stranger from a different place with different beliefs and lifestyles, but the definition of neighbor was offering mercy to this person who was different, with nothing expected in return. And remember that Jesus commanded us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So our neighbors are all people - those like us and those very different from us and we are called to love them all: American and foreigner, queer and straight, people whose skin, lifestyle, economic status and beliefs match ours and those whose skin, nationality, beliefs, economic status and lifestyles are different from ours.
Being a sheep feels so passive but we are not called to be passive. In answering Jesus’ call, we also need to follow his model, which is not always easy as 1 Peter 2:20-21 tells us
“But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.”
So what are some of these hard things that we are called to do? We already know from the example of the Good Samaritan and the commandment to love our neighbor that we have to love and care for all people, but if we want to continue to enjoy abundant Green Pastures and we want them to be there in the future for our children and grandchildren, we cannot be passive sheep just grazing on what is there-using it up, we must be active disciples preserving it and making sure there will be abundant resources for ALL God’s children in the future.
Our Keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting this weekend was Vermont environmentalist and author Bill McKibben and he laid out both our current challenges and how we can address them clearly. He began by telling us the challenge of time. “We knew everything we needed to know in 1989 and we did nothing.” In the 34 years since then, we have released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than in any time in all of history and the average temperature across the globe has increased almost 2 degrees fahrenheit. McKibben told us, “Your body can’t tell the difference but the planet can” noting that the extra heat trapped in the earth’s atmosphere is the equivalent of 400K Hiroshima explosions each day. Nine million people die each year due to illnesses such as asthma caused by these extra emissions.
What impact does that have? Ancient sea ice is melting, raising the levels in the oceans. The weather system has been upset - increased heat and dry land has led to forest fires on huge scales and unhealthy air to breathe. Some areas are seeing more rainstorms. There has been a 70% increase in storms of 2 inches or more. Fort Lauderdale got 25 inches of rain in 6 hours recently. In Pakistan, they got 800% of their annual rain in three weeks destroying their earthen homes and displacing 33 million people.
Americans produce 25% of the carbon that is released into the world’s atmosphere. If 30 million people are displaced as climate refugees, that means 8 of those 30 million are on us.
McKibben emphasized, “Climate change is by far the biggest and most dangerous thing we have done..We are running Genesis in reverse and fast...winning slowly is just a different way of losing..the physics does not work” But he also had a message of hope, noting it is not too late.
“We need the church,” he stated, noting that people in churches say that some goals are more important than economic growth and endless accumulation.” He also reminded us that we are called to “love our neighbors” and that means everyone around the world who is being disparately impacted by climate change.
This idea was echoed in the UCC’s first Earth Day Summit a week ago that I watched. “Facing reality is a pre-condition of hope” the speaker stated emphasizing, “God is calling us to restore this great gift of creation.”
How do we do this? McKibben advised us to “Stop using energy from hell and start using it from heaven.” Emphasizing the benefits of solar energy he said, “Point a sheet of glass at the sun and out of that comes cold, light, and heat.” Solar energy is the cheapest way to produce energy on the planet and the cost to install it has gone down significantly in recent years.”
The next best source of energy is the wind. While he noted that many people don’t like to see windmills, he advised us that in times of emergencies like we are currently in, we need to readjust our aesthetic sense and think of windmills as “breeze made visible.”
We also need to divest from fossil fuels. According to one Earth Day Summit speaker, since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, the top banks have lent more than $1 Trillion to expand oil reserves. What can we as individuals do? Purchase hybrid, electric or more fuel efficient cars, drive or fly less or purchase carbon offset credits from a company that commits to removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere to offset what we do, and move our investments into more green portfolios, divesting from fossil fuels.
My students and my own sons have often bemoaned that they did not create this mess that the planet is currently in but they are expected to suffer under it and fix it. Many, including my own son Jordan, have questioned whether they should bring children into this world. While Greta Thunberg and young people around the world have worked to call attention to the problem, we are the ones who have the most power to solve it.
In a new organization called Third Act, Bill McKibben notes that 70% of the financial assets belong to Baby Boomers. It is our age group that can afford to take the actions to move to more renewable energy sources. This new organization has led protests in front of those large banks holding banners that say “Fossils Against Fossil Fuels” in Burlington and sitting in 100s of rocking chairs in front of a bank in Boston in a “Rocking Chair Rebellion”, cutting up credit cards from these large banks and calling for change.
“The most important thing an individual can do is be less of an individual,” McKibben states promoting the idea of working with others to make a difference. He adds that if we do all that we can, we have a reason at least not to give into despair.”
Next week at the Windham Union Association meeting at 3pm in the Peru Church, we will hear of how a church installed solar panels - join me there to hear about that option. Some churches have Green Teams to help their church and members become carbon neutral. Others plant pollinator gardens and have Green Fairs to teach their community members how to live more sustainably.
God wants there to be abundant green pastures available and shared by all. Following Jesus means making sacrifices as Jesus did to make that happen. Russ and I are working on this. We have solar panels and a heat pump. We have cut down our use of plastics by over 50% by buying concentrated cleaners and soaps and putting them in refillable glass bottles and using reusable containers. I, like many of you, drive a Prius. Most of my investments are in Green energy, but I can still do more. Today, I am cutting up this credit card from a large bank. I still owe money on it and do not own another credit card so will have to work to pay this off but I am not going to support this bank any longer than I have to and will look for a more environmentally responsible credit option.
None of us can do everything but all of us can do more and that is what God is calling us to do. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” Amen.
Old Testament Reading Genesis 37: 1-4 & 12-28
The Gospel Matthew 14: 22-33
I pondered this Matthew story this week while on Star Island.
Walking around the island or sitting on a bench, watching the waves crash against the rocks, I tried to visualize what the disciples saw - this ghostly figure walking towards them on the water and tried to imagine what I would feel if I were to see such a figure walking towards me across the ocean. Even with that scripture in mind, I can tell you that I would be pretty freaked out. I can imagine that I would look to my fellow pastors for corroboration, “Do you see what I see?” then we might collectively decide among: fight, flight, or faith, likely in that order. But I also have no doubt that fear would be in the mix. We just don’t have someone walking on water in our realm of experience or expectation. We, like the disciples, would likely be afraid,
Who among us is not afraid at some point? However, having fear does not mean that we don’t have faith; in fact faith is the antidote to fear. Peter had faith. He asked Jesus to allow him to walk on water and then he got out of the boat! That took a lot of faith. And while he was walking on the waves of faith bravado, wanting to do what Jesus was doing, the winds of humanity came storming in, intruding on his faith walk, breaking his focus, causing him to stumble. Yet even as he stumbled, Peter had the faith to know that Jesus could save him and Jesus reached out his hand and did just that. Although Jesus rebukes him for doubting, Jesus does not accuse Peter of not having faith, just of not having enough faith in that moment. Peter, like most of us, needs to keep practicing his faith so he can learn to fear-less.
Raise your hand if you know what a trust fall is? Keep your hand up if you have ever done one. A trust fall is just that - allowing your body to fall backwards with the trust that the person behind you will catch you. This is an activity often down with students at camp or at school but not usually on the first day that they meet each other. Why? Because you need to establish trust first, to get to know whom you would trust - maybe both in their character and possibly in their strength. We need to know not only that they want to catch us but that they can. When we feel confident in both, we have faith in them.
But what if in getting ready for that trust fall we get distracted? Maybe someone in the crowd is shaking their head which makes either the faller or the catcher question this action and doubt themselves? What if someone watching decides to heckle us saying “You are trusting that scrawny person” or maybe “you should lose a few pounds before you try this!”
This body and spirit shaming of any of the participants can create a gap that lets fear in. Or maybe it is just the distractions of the chaos of life - someone saying “hurry up!” or yelling “Free Ice Cream!” that causes the catcher to look away at just the wrong moment that breaks the trust, the faith, letting fear and even danger in.
Fear is a natural instinct. It can save us by making us wear a lifevest, helmet or seatbelt and run from danger. Faith is an added layer of protection on top of that: one that calms our bodies and minds in addition to our safety devices and instincts. But faith is not an instant fix. Like an athlete preparing for a competition, we must practice. We must exercise our faith to make it stronger, to build trust in the God who catches us in God’s way. That might be metaphorically reaching out and pulling us up out of danger or despair or empowering us to trust in ourselves or others to do that.
This past week was a metaphorical trust fall for me, albeit in a really beautiful place. I went to Star Island for a program called Soul Work for pastors. What I thought it would be and what it ultimately was were two different things but with the same outcome: my body, mind and spirit were refreshed.
Star Island is a Conference Center on an island that is part of Isle of Shoals, 10 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, NH. Since 1915, the island has been owned and operated by the Star Island Corporation “as a center for religious, educational, and kindred purposes consistent with the principles of Unitarian Universalism and the United Church of Christ.”
There were three different groups on the island last week: Star Gathering 2, YES, and Soul Work.
Star Gathering - about 175
YES - about 25
Soul Work 11 - 8 UCC Ministers and 3 UU
All three groups came together for communal meals three times a day and about a third attended both morning and evening chapel together. We also ran into each other a lot on the half mile loop around the inner island.
I came Bible in hand, expecting Bible studies and new deeper ways to practice my spirituality and faith. Instead, I received a journal, thought-provoking writing prompts and colleagueship. The prompts were things like “How does your church affirm your call?” - (wow - in so many ways - thank you!) and “What makes you feel like not enough in ministry?” In answering that question and others and sharing the responses with the group is where I experienced my trust fall.
First, I had to be honest with myself. I went to the retreat to try to put some bandaids over places in my ministry where I did not feel adequate like not knowing enough Biblical history or theology, not having deep enough spiritual practices, not having enough experience or enough time. I especially knew that I did not have enough education, never having attended seminary but taking different paths that led me here. Of the 11 people in my course on the island, I was the only one who had not been to seminary. The “not enoughs” were crowding in.
But as I listened to the other ministers share their doubts and insecurities, I realized we all have them. We all question and wish we had, did, or knew more or less. And, as I expressed my doubts, they reminded me that, like Peter, I got out of the boat. I am taking the faith walk and, like Peter and most of us, things come in to make me question or doubt. But as I begin to stumble, my faith reminds me that there is always a hand reaching out. This week, it was the 10 other ministers who affirmed and validated my walk but many of you do that as well - you remind me of why I got out of the boat and you keep me walking. In fact, you got out of the boat and took a walk on the water of faith in calling me.
Pause for a minute and consider the “not enough” moments in your life or faith journey. Maybe focus on one time or area when you did not feel like you were enough.
Now think about what made you feel that way? We often stumble under the weight of “not enough” because of unrealistic expectations that society puts on us or that we put on ourselves. We might feel that we have to meet an unrealistic standard of beauty to be thinner, taller, stronger, more or less buxom, more well-dressed etc. Or maybe we feel we have to reach a particular standard of intelligence measured in degrees, books read, how much we remember or how much money we make. Or we feel pressured to conform in how we act, vote, whom we should love, how we present ourselves and so many other pressures and we, like Peter, begin to fall.
But now I want you to consider whose hand is there to catch you. It could be a friend, a partner, neighbor, colleague, or even you when bolstered by faith. Who is catching you? Visualize them right now.
That hand, wherever it comes from, keeps us from falling, reminds us that we are enough just as we are. It gives us the strength to straighten up and keep walking, renewed and ready to turn around to reach out a hand to help someone else to fear-less.
I want to conclude with a poem on this scripture from Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes from his Unfolding Light website:
On the sea within me
there is one who cries out
and one who responds.
Within me, one who commands
and one who asks to be commanded.
One who panics in the chaos
and, yes, within me, one who is steady.
One who is terrified at the waves
and one who finds footing there.
One clings to the known
and one strides in mystery.
They reach out to each other
on the beautiful stormy sea within me.
As long as they hold onto each other
I do not sink. Amen
Sermon for July 23, 2023 Stewarding the Earth
Old Testament Reading Genesis 1:26-31 & 2:15 (The Message translation by Eugene Peterson)
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
(The Voice translation) 28: Then God blessed them and gave them this directive: “Be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth. I make you trustees of My estate, so care for My creation and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth.”
29-31
Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows on the earth and every fruit-bearing tree. They will be your food and nourishment. 30 As for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and every small creeping creature—everything that breathes the breath of life—I have given them every green plant for food.
And it happened just as God said. 31 Then God surveyed everything He had made, savoring its beauty and appreciating its goodness. Evening gave way to morning. That was day six.
Genesis 2:15 (The Message)
15 God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.
The Epistle Reading 1 Corinthians 4: 1-2
We are called to be responsible for the fish, birds, cattle, earth and every living thing that moves on it. We are called to be trustworthy stewards, trustees of God’s estate.
These translations from Genesis may not be the way you learned the creation story. I looked at 30 different translations of this scripture in preparation for today. I was particularly curious about the role of humankind in relation to the earth. Eleven of the translations said man should have dominion over the earth and all that is on it. Ten say that man should rule over it. In these translations, it often later says that man should subdue the earth. A few other translations use words like “reign over”, “be masters over” “Take charge of, have power over” etc. However, I like the word choice from The Message translation that we heard today “be responsible for” and line 28 of The Voice translation “I make you trustees of my estate, so care for creation.” That line still ends with “rule over “ the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth” but when you put it in the context of being a trustee caring for God’s estate it has a whole different meaning.
Being a trustee means that you are trusted. Not just anyone is normally chosen as a trustee of an estate. Some may call it an honor and others a burden, but it is definitely a responsibility. In the case when someone passes away, the trustee has to pay the bills of the estate, follow the wishes of the deceased in handling any responsibilities, and disburse any funds.
I was and am the trustee of my Mom’s small estate. That involved selling her house, paying the bills and distributing what was left. I still manage one small account that is my sister’s money because she is not capable of doing so yet. So, in taking care of my mom’s estate, she was also entrusting me in a small way with looking out for my sister. With her addictions and mental illness, that has not always been easy, especially from afar and many of the day-to-day burdens have fallen on my father, burdens I hope will be lifted soon as my sister is improving and is more able to fend for herself.
I am sure many of you have been or will be trustees of the estates of relatives, so you understand that responsibility.
However, being a trustee of God’s creation is an even bigger job -there is a lot to be responsible for. And, unlike an individual’s estate, there is not just one trustee, we are all trustees. Have you ever tried to manage by committee? Yikes, can you imagine all humanity working together to protect God’s planet? I love the idea, but the practicality of it is hard to imagine. And yet, we must try, or at least do our part. That is the responsibility that God has entrusted us with. God has given us absolutely everything we need to sustain all life on this planet, we have to find a way to care for it by putting it back in balance and keeping it that way.
Yet for many years people have used the Bible to justify having dominion over the earth, subduing it since God gave humans that power. But dominion has consequences as we see in our earth today with extinction of species due to overhunting, human infrastructure, pollution and climate change. The ripples of all those things create an imbalanced ecosystem and it is our responsibility to work to fix it.
It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of that responsibility and many of the gloom and doom climate change forecasts are so unmotivating that people just give up, but there are things we can do and there is always hope. We Christians know that and we have the responsibility to be hope in action.
My son Jordan Fields is an Earth Science PhD student at Dartmouth. His focus is on studying floods and how rivers respond to increasingly frequent extreme flows. Much of what I will now share is from a piece that he wrote after our recent floods.
He says, “The trouble with floods is not that they happen – that’s natural and inevitable, even without climate change – but that we’ve put ourselves right in the path of rising waters. I know this firsthand. I was starting the first week of my senior year of high school in Woodstock, Vermont when Tropical Storm Irene turned my bucolic hometown into an unrecognizable landscape. I spent the first six weeks of that school year emptying neighbors’ homes of the feet of accumulated sediment left behind by receding
floodwaters. Twelve years later,(during the recent flood), I was also right in the path of rising waters in central Vermont, this time intentionally, collecting data about large floods and their impact on downstream communities.”
“The floods will come. They will almost certainly be more frequent and, likely, they will
be bigger than any we’ve yet experienced in the post-industrial era. We’ve all but
guaranteed that by warming our world to a slow boil. But these floods don’t have to be
ruinous, or deadly. Vermont has been hit by two “1-in-500yr” floods in the last twelve years. In the first, six people lost their lives, 200 bridges were destroyed or damaged, and more than 500 miles of road were washed out. In the second, just over a week ago, there was one fatality in Vermont, and while many roads were still closed late in the week, the damage appears less extensive and only two bridges are out, while 35 more were to be inspected for damages. The contrast in outcomes between these two storms reveals broadly applicable lessons.
Jordan and his colleagues have been studying the lasting
effects of Irene on Vermont’s rivers for over a decade. What they’ve learned might
surprise you: much of the lasting damage to river corridors was done by contractors
after Irene, rather than the storm itself. In 2011, Deb Markowitz, then the secretary of
the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, lifted all regulations prohibiting the use of
riverbed gravels for road building, citing the need to repair critical infrastructure. The
result was a free-for-all for anyone with access to a bulldozer, backhoe, excavator, or
dump truck. Rivers were straightened, wood and logs moved during the storm were
removed, channel banks were armored with huge stones and bermed high. The channels were disciplined into submission.
Together, these efforts turned many Vermont streams into veritable canals, devoid of
life. Just ask the trout fisherman: the Ottauquechee, White, and Black Rivers still have
yet to recover their pre-Irene trout populations which once held trophy-sized browns
and rainbows. But it’s not just ecosystem health the storm’s response imperiled, but the
safety of downstream towns and people as well. The changes Tropical Storm Irene
brought to river channels – new bends, side-channels, log jams, and lowered riverbanks
that allow water to flow over them into the floodplain – all actually work in concert to
reduce flood risk downstream because they slow the flow of rising waters. Thus,
Vermont’s immediate response to Irene set the state up for even more damage in the
next flood.
Fortunately, other Vermonters saw the trouble, and corrected the state’s course. Mike
Kline, the Rivers Program Manager at the Vermont Department of Environmental
Conservation, had been quietly working on this issue for thirty years. His report to the state in the wake of Irene “Giving Rivers Room to Move”,
fundamentally changed Vermont’s approach. The state invested heavily in raising
bridges to above the highest projected flood heights, they painstakingly removed
undersized culverts and replaced them with larger ones capable of passing floodwaters,
and they launched a one-of-a-kind floodplain buyback program. The buyback program
provided funding to buy flooded homes at market rates and return them to natural
floodplain, allowing homeowners to get out of harm’s way and the river to return to a
functioning ecosystem.
In this way, floods can be an opportunity to reassess our relationship with rivers, to
work with them rather than against them. Kline’s approach proved its worth in Vermont
In this storm. Despite rivers rising to record, or near record, levels across much of the state, the damages to infrastructure overall were less severe than twelve years ago.
Vermont is a state of steep slopes and tight valleys – we will never be fully safe
from the inevitable deluges. In fact, as these 1-in-100 year floods become 1-in-20 year
floods – as the flood-modeling group, the First Street Foundation, predicts in a recent
study – we will have no choice but to accept that New England’s mill towns are poorly
sited for the modern era of a rapidly changing climate and be forced to adapt.
So what more can be done? Here in Vermont and across the US, more investments in
bridge and road infrastructure are desperately needed. While mundane, replacing
undersized culverts played a huge role in preventing the loss of more road miles in
Vermont in the recent flood. That Monday night as flood waters rose to near Irene levels on the Williams River near Rockingham, VT, Jordan stood next to the Bartonsville Covered Bridge, a historic landmark lost during Irene). The new
bridge stood high and dry, even as 18,200 cubic feet of water passed under every second.
That’s six large school buses of water rushing by every second. By comparison, the
average flow for July 10 th at this site is 45 cubic feet per second, about the volume of one small couch bouncing by per second.
While investments in flood-ready infrastructure will make a world of difference, they
won’t mitigate flooding alone. Investments in natural infrastructure are needed as well.
River restoration has become a growing movement in the last decade, with hundreds of
dams removed from rivers across the US, berms and levees lowered, and floodplains
restored. Projects that reconnect rivers to their historic floodplains not only rejuvenate
river and riparian ecosystems remarkably rapidly but they give the river room to flood,
room to move, room to slow down, protecting downstream communities.
In the end, the lack of such adaptations to date are not for lack of funds. The Biden
administration’s infrastructure bill explicitly provides $47 billion for climate resilience.
It’s about our attitude. To adapt to our changing climate, we’ll
have to give up some control, and work with our rivers.” Jordan emphasizes.
As Christians, I think we understand some of what it means to give up control as we let go and let God. Letting the rivers take their natural courses is letting them take the course that God intended for them. Being responsible for this creation, being trustees of it, does mean we have some responsibility for managing it. In some cases that responsibility might mean not managing it - giving the environment, the ecosystem, room to follow its natural courses and doing our best to live sustainably in it in the ways that Jordan and other scientists have pointed out.
We need to act responsibly with hope in helping to work with the planet and all people and creatures on it. That is what being a trustee of God’s estate is all about. We need to remember that we are part of creation. There is a symbiosis that can and used to exist between humans and nature. We just need to work to get back to that as God intended.
As Paul says in our 1 Corinthians reading today: 4 “Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy.” As trustworthy stewards of this earth, let us each do our part to protect and enjoy this beautiful place even as God is our refuge and hope when that task becomes challenging.
Amen.
Sermon for May 14, 2023: In Defense of Hope
Is this glass half full or half empty? Many would say it depends on your mindset. If you are in scarcity mode, worried or stressed, it is half empty; if you are hopeful, it is half full. As Christians, if we are not already there, we should work to see it as half full because we were given hope and help in the form of the Risen Christ and support from, depending upon the translation, an: Advocate, Counselor, Companion, Helper, Friend, Spirit of Truth or Comforter aka the Holy Spirit as we heard in the Gospel of John today.
The message here is that we are not alone; that gives us hope even in times of suffering or challenge.
Last week in our “conversation church” we looked at John 15: 12-13 from Eugene Peterson’s The Message “This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.” And Matthew 22: 37-39 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So when we consider our gospel reading today where Jesus, in this Maundy Thursday Sermon to his disciples says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” we are reminded that the greatest commandments are about love - loving God and loving our neighbors. And, as we have explored in the past, our neighbors are ALL the People whom God created, those like us and those very different from us: those of all races, creeds, gender, gender identity and sexual orientations; those of differing abilities, different economic and social status. Even our enemies, these too are our neighbors and we are called not just to tolerate them but to love them. What would happen if we could learn to love our enemies? I think, at minimum, we would not use the term enemy any more - maybe they would even become friends of a sort and remember we are commanded to put our lives on the line for our friends.
This loving all people - even those who think and act very differently from us can be hard work at times, but Jesus even planned for that. As he told his disciples during that Maundy Thursday supper, as he was preparing for his own death even though his disciples still did not get it, “I will ask the father and he will send another Companion, (Helper, Friend, Advocate, Comforter) to be with you.” In Jesus’ time disciples without masters or teachers were considered orphans. But Jesus’ is telling them and us, that “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.” This was both to foreshadow his resurrection and to let them know that even when he was not here, the Holy Spirit would be. They and we are not alone.
So what it means to be Christian is to love or to strive to love all as Christ loved all people, even and especially those, society considers less than or “other” and to have hope. And not only to have hope but to be prepared to defend that hope.
So how do we do all of this? I would like you to open your bulletin to the Word Cloud image of our brainstorming during church last week. The idea was to choose active verbs that represent what we, as members and friends of the United Church of Ludlow d0. In other words, what do we see as our mission here in this church, in this community, in this world? I created this Word Cloud by listing the words we chose last week along with how many votes each word got; the larger the word, the more votes it got. Let’s all say the biggest word out loud together on the count of three: one, two, three: Welcoming!
Is welcoming loving? Absolutely!
Can I have a volunteer to read the other large words? Caring, Celebrating Diversity, Loving, Giving.
Are we obeying Jesus’ command to love one another if we welcome all, celebrate diversity, love all, care for all and give of ourselves in doing so? I sure think so. Our path is being laid out towards a mission statement - a one or two sentence statement about what we do as people of faith, as the United Church of Ludlow. I encourage all of you to play with these words, adding a few more along the way. Maybe even consider it through the lens of your Star Word that you selected on January 8 to guide your meditation throughout the year. My word is “Awareness” and I have found myself stepping back from situations to see them from a different viewpoint all year in order to be more aware. How about you? By the way, if you missed out on a chance to get a word to guide your reflection, there is still a basket of words downstairs in the lobby - grab one and see where it takes you!
As you play with arrangement of those words, consider what else needs to be included and what that looks like within our walls and outside them. If we just welcome people who show up at our door, is that truly welcoming or do we need to go beyond and invite people? Is this just about church or are we welcoming the community by allowing Rotary, Windsor County Mentors and other organizations to use our fellowship hall for meetings. Should we hold more community events here like the Piano Concert and Lunch with Coolidge in order to be welcoming? What else can welcoming look like? How would someone walking by our church or checking out our website, know that we are welcoming to them no matter their nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ability, or economic status?
What would it look like to show that we celebrate diversity? What might we do differently to truly celebrate diversity?
What does caring or giving look like? Is it just writing a check to this church and various non-profits in need or is it rolling up our sleeves to raise money for victims of violence like those in Ukraine or victims of earthquakes like those in Turkey and Syria? Is it visiting with the sick and lonely and fighting injustice in our own country?
What does love look like? Is it just a product of these other active verbs - welcoming, caring, celebrating diversity or is it something more?
In our rich conversation last week, the other thing that came through clearly is the value of fellowship. People visiting often stay because they feel welcomed and they enjoy the fellowship of other people on the journey of faith. We are chatty - we enjoy sharing stories and laughter. We are hungry, we enjoy eating together. Could this fellowship be an outgrowth of the Holy Spirit as a friend, helper, comforter acting through and with us to help us live up to Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors?
Living in the least-churched state in the nation, at a time when more churches close than open, it would be easy to despair. Looking around this room seeing fewer than 30 people and seeing just one person under 20, could make us think that we are a dying breed. Yet last week George Thomson told us that we qualify as a vital church and we are: We have vibrant worship both in person and through Zoom, significant lay involvement, some community events, and we’re good at incorporating new members. The areas from the Vital Church Conference that we can still work on are: crafting mission and vision statements as we are working on now, being open to change - what might we do to put more of those chosen verbs into action? How can we bring in more diversity in age, sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity? How can we better live out our faith commitment by sharing it with others? What would Jesus do if he were present with us here today?
In other words, how can we more fully live out Jesus' commandment expressed in Matthew? I am going to end by sharing it with you in words and the hand motions I would teach students in my Vacation Bible School sessions at the North Pomfret Congregational Church many years ago. Picture me up here doing this with 20 kids. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In doing this, we are glass-half-full people defending the hope that we have through the model of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon for April 30, 2023
Psalm 23
The Epistle Reading: 1 Peter 2: 19-25
The Gospel John 10: 1-10
Sermon: Abundant Green Pastures?
This week I took my 7th grade students to the Hubbardton Battlefield. The only place where a battle in the Revolutionary War was entirely fought in Vermont. I assigned them roles of American soldiers and commanders in the battle and told them the story as we walked the land where this battle took place: the story of how the soldiers were eating breakfast at 5am when shots were heard in the distance from Sargent Hill. They knew this was the sentries warning them that the British were coming through the Gap and they went into action dropping everything to grab their muskets and find defensive positions in a battle that they would lose but yet was still claimed as a strategic victory in that many troops were able to escape to later fight and repel the British at the Battle of Bennington.
Standing at the top of Monument Hill looking towards Sargent Hill and the Taconic Range, now the Taconic Ramble State Park, the view is very similar to this living Psalm painting by Mary Melcher. The Hubbardton Battlefield is considered the most preserved battlefield in America because standing on that hill with my students, it was easy to imagine the British coming through the gap and the flanking maneuvers that they made because you cannot see any buildings - only trees and fields - just as the soldiers saw 250 years ago on July 7, 1777.
So despite its bloody history, this place felt tranquil. As one of my students said, “We’re really in the sticks now.” And they were - as they reenacted the battle grabbing sticks and seeking defensible postures in the woods, even in this war game they were different, they were more calm - the middle school version of lying in green pastures.
The very familiar Psalm 23 is a a Psalm of comfort - with the inference of the Lord as Shepherd leading us to a place of respite, a beautiful pasture to rest in with food, clear water, beautiful views and the assurance that even in difficult times, God is walking with us, protecting us.
There are 43 different places in the Bible where God or Jesus is either stated or inferred, as in Psalm 23, to be a shepherd caring for and leading the people. And why not? Isn’t it comforting sometimes just to follow and to feel that someone will protect us and take care of our needs on this beautiful earth?
In John 10 the image is expanded to not just a shepherd but the very gate that lets the sheep in for protection and keeps those who would harm them out. John 10: 7 says ” Very Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” and later in verse 10 we are told “I came that they may have life and have it abundantl./”
In much of history, as evidenced throughout the woods of Vermont, sheep were enclosed in pens made of rock walls rather than wood. In fact, in Jesus’ time, there was not always a gate on these stone sheep pens, rather the shepherd, at times, was literally the gate either standing or lying in the entry to the pen. So the image of Jesus as the shepherd and the gate here can be both literal and figurative.
First, let’s consider the shepherd, throughout history there have been and still are false ones - those who act like they are in charge, who seek followers of their way, ways that serve them as individuals - inflating their status, power, and income. Jesus tells us in this parable in John that those false shepherds are “thieves and bandits” trying to climb over the wall to get to the abundant green pastures, their own version of heaven on earth, without acknowledging a higher power beyond themselves. But sheep are often smarter than they are given credit for and most of them will not follow a false shepherd, at least not forever, because they know the voice of the shepherd that offers them the comfort and protection of abundant green pastures.
Sometimes we need to go out into those Green Mountains and pastures to break from the cacophony of false shepherds that might pull us in different directions - to be able to hear the voice of Jesus, letting the sheep in, protecting them and offering pastures to graze in and the beauty and contentment of that green pasture near a beautiful lake that is evoked in Psalm 23.
Now that we have established Jesus as the true shepherd calling the sheep we have to consider the question: who are the sheep? At the 228th Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ on Friday and Saturday, the theme was “Who is our Neighbor?” and it is not so far from the question of who are the sheep that Jesus is letting in.
If we think about it through the lens of the life of Jesus, the answer is clear. As we heard at the conference through the example of the Good Samaritan, a true neighbor is “the one who demonstrated mercy” towards the injured man. That injured man was a stranger from a different place with different beliefs and lifestyles, but the definition of neighbor was offering mercy to this person who was different, with nothing expected in return. And remember that Jesus commanded us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So our neighbors are all people - those like us and those very different from us and we are called to love them all: American and foreigner, queer and straight, people whose skin, lifestyle, economic status and beliefs match ours and those whose skin, nationality, beliefs, economic status and lifestyles are different from ours.
Being a sheep feels so passive but we are not called to be passive. In answering Jesus’ call, we also need to follow his model, which is not always easy as 1 Peter 2:20-21 tells us
“But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.”
So what are some of these hard things that we are called to do? We already know from the example of the Good Samaritan and the commandment to love our neighbor that we have to love and care for all people, but if we want to continue to enjoy abundant Green Pastures and we want them to be there in the future for our children and grandchildren, we cannot be passive sheep just grazing on what is there-using it up, we must be active disciples preserving it and making sure there will be abundant resources for ALL God’s children in the future.
Our Keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting this weekend was Vermont environmentalist and author Bill McKibben and he laid out both our current challenges and how we can address them clearly. He began by telling us the challenge of time. “We knew everything we needed to know in 1989 and we did nothing.” In the 34 years since then, we have released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than in any time in all of history and the average temperature across the globe has increased almost 2 degrees fahrenheit. McKibben told us, “Your body can’t tell the difference but the planet can” noting that the extra heat trapped in the earth’s atmosphere is the equivalent of 400K Hiroshima explosions each day. Nine million people die each year due to illnesses such as asthma caused by these extra emissions.
What impact does that have? Ancient sea ice is melting, raising the levels in the oceans. The weather system has been upset - increased heat and dry land has led to forest fires on huge scales and unhealthy air to breathe. Some areas are seeing more rainstorms. There has been a 70% increase in storms of 2 inches or more. Fort Lauderdale got 25 inches of rain in 6 hours recently. In Pakistan, they got 800% of their annual rain in three weeks destroying their earthen homes and displacing 33 million people.
Americans produce 25% of the carbon that is released into the world’s atmosphere. If 30 million people are displaced as climate refugees, that means 8 of those 30 million are on us.
McKibben emphasized, “Climate change is by far the biggest and most dangerous thing we have done..We are running Genesis in reverse and fast...winning slowly is just a different way of losing..the physics does not work” But he also had a message of hope, noting it is not too late.
“We need the church,” he stated, noting that people in churches say that some goals are more important than economic growth and endless accumulation.” He also reminded us that we are called to “love our neighbors” and that means everyone around the world who is being disparately impacted by climate change.
This idea was echoed in the UCC’s first Earth Day Summit a week ago that I watched. “Facing reality is a pre-condition of hope” the speaker stated emphasizing, “God is calling us to restore this great gift of creation.”
How do we do this? McKibben advised us to “Stop using energy from hell and start using it from heaven.” Emphasizing the benefits of solar energy he said, “Point a sheet of glass at the sun and out of that comes cold, light, and heat.” Solar energy is the cheapest way to produce energy on the planet and the cost to install it has gone down significantly in recent years.”
The next best source of energy is the wind. While he noted that many people don’t like to see windmills, he advised us that in times of emergencies like we are currently in, we need to readjust our aesthetic sense and think of windmills as “breeze made visible.”
We also need to divest from fossil fuels. According to one Earth Day Summit speaker, since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, the top banks have lent more than $1 Trillion to expand oil reserves. What can we as individuals do? Purchase hybrid, electric or more fuel efficient cars, drive or fly less or purchase carbon offset credits from a company that commits to removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere to offset what we do, and move our investments into more green portfolios, divesting from fossil fuels.
My students and my own sons have often bemoaned that they did not create this mess that the planet is currently in but they are expected to suffer under it and fix it. Many, including my own son Jordan, have questioned whether they should bring children into this world. While Greta Thunberg and young people around the world have worked to call attention to the problem, we are the ones who have the most power to solve it.
In a new organization called Third Act, Bill McKibben notes that 70% of the financial assets belong to Baby Boomers. It is our age group that can afford to take the actions to move to more renewable energy sources. This new organization has led protests in front of those large banks holding banners that say “Fossils Against Fossil Fuels” in Burlington and sitting in 100s of rocking chairs in front of a bank in Boston in a “Rocking Chair Rebellion”, cutting up credit cards from these large banks and calling for change.
“The most important thing an individual can do is be less of an individual,” McKibben states promoting the idea of working with others to make a difference. He adds that if we do all that we can, we have a reason at least not to give into despair.”
Next week at the Windham Union Association meeting at 3pm in the Peru Church, we will hear of how a church installed solar panels - join me there to hear about that option. Some churches have Green Teams to help their church and members become carbon neutral. Others plant pollinator gardens and have Green Fairs to teach their community members how to live more sustainably.
God wants there to be abundant green pastures available and shared by all. Following Jesus means making sacrifices as Jesus did to make that happen. Russ and I are working on this. We have solar panels and a heat pump. We have cut down our use of plastics by over 50% by buying concentrated cleaners and soaps and putting them in refillable glass bottles and using reusable containers. I, like many of you, drive a Prius. Most of my investments are in Green energy, but I can still do more. Today, I am cutting up this credit card from a large bank. I still owe money on it and do not own another credit card so will have to work to pay this off but I am not going to support this bank any longer than I have to and will look for a more environmentally responsible credit option.
None of us can do everything but all of us can do more and that is what God is calling us to do. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” Amen.
