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7/7/2024 0 Comments July 7, 2024: Take Nothing![]() Old Testament Reading: 2 Samuel 5: 1-5 & 9-10 The Gospel: Mark 6: 1-13 Have you ever noticed how many storage units have been cropping up across the Vermont landscape and everywhere else? I often drive through these Green Mountains enjoying the farms, fields and forests and when I am seemingly in the middle of nowhere - there they are: Self Storage Units for 30 or more different people. While storage units have their place, particularly for the in-between times of our lives, do we Americans really need that many? Do we really need that much stuff? I am guilty of having too much stuff also. Russ and I have a home that is over 100 years old. They did not have as much stuff back then, the closets are small, so in our four-bedroom home, we each have closets in two different bedrooms. Of course we also have four bedrooms and a full attic for only two people, so we have a lot of stuff in general, as many of us do. You know how whether you are packing for one night or five there seems to be a lot of “stuff” that you have to bring with you from combs to toothbrushes, face creams, medicines, shoes, and, of course, clothes? Nowadays, with the fees for luggage, we try to smash all of that stuff into our carryon luggage and some bargain fares do not even let us have carryons! But Jesus “ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.” The disciples would definitely have qualified for the bargain flights, as long as their staffs were collapsible. But what does it mean to “take nothing”? For the disciples it meant that they were clothed in faith, trusting that their essentials would be provided for them in the homes that welcomed them, by the people who listened to them. Those people were rewarded, as needed, with the removal of unclean spirits, by the healing of the sick. For others who would not listen to them, who barred their entrance, the disciples were to visibly “shake the dust off their feet” in front of them as they left, as if washing their hands, or in this case, feet of them. The increase of wealth even for people not in the aristocracy in Medieval Europe in the 11th-13th Centuries gave rise to the Mendicant Orders who resisted having a life filled with “stuff” even communally owned stuff like most monasteries had. Father Thomas Nairin in his article “Begging without Shame: Medieval Mendicant Orders Relied on Contributions” (March-April 2017 Health Progress: Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States) says “members of mendicant orders were itinerant preachers, moving from town to town to preach the Gospel. Consciously modeling themselves on the disciples of Jesus, they went about two by two and were to "take nothing for the journey, neither knapsack, nor purse, nor bread, nor money nor walking stick."3 The form of poverty embraced by these religious communities involved the renunciation of all ownership of goods, communal as well as individual. To survive, the mendicant friars asked for alms as they preached, traveled and worked along the way.” Buddhist monks in Thailand and other Asian countries rise before dawn and silently go around seeking alms. The donations of food from lay Buddhists provide the primary support for thousands of monks in Bangkok and other places. The disciplinary rule for monks says that they should not engage in agricultural labor, should keep only a few possessions and should eat whatever appears in their bowls from their daily alms collections. Those medieval friars took Jesus’ words literally and many Buddhist Monks seem to live that way to focus on their spiritual lives as well, but what about us? While many of us have a lot of stuff and could use some yard sale pairing down or even have some downsizing in our future, this scripture is less about our physical stuff than our spiritual stuff. The question really is, is all of our physical stuff getting in the way or taking the place of our spiritual stuff? Do we spend our lives accumulating physical stuff rather than building our spiritual selves which can then go out and help others? It is very easy to do that and I would hazard a guess that we have all done that, at times. Father Richard Rohr discusses this in his book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. In it he lays out that the first half of our lives is about stuff. We have to establish careers and homes to support and maintain our growing families or even just ourselves. He notes that in the first half of life we establish our identities and part of the process of doing that is having enough stuff to feel secure. He describes this first half of life as building our container: the container of our identity. Rohr says, “We need a very strong container to hold the content and contradictions that arrive later in life. We ironically need a very strong ego structure to let go of our ego. We need to struggle with the rules more than a bit before we throw them out. We only internalize values by butting up against external values for a while. All of this builds the strong self that can positively obey Jesus–and “die” to itself.” It is in this dying to the self needs of the first half of life that Rohr says that we move into the spiritual second half of our lives; in that second half, we do not need so much stuff. We are secure in ourselves and can spend more time looking inward, building our spiritual selves, being content with what and who we are and considering how we can deal with the inevitable challenges and tragedies that will happen in our lives and how we can help and support others through them as well. And we must do this. Rohr says that “if we stay in the protected first half of life beyond its natural period, we become well-disguised narcissists or adult infants (who are also narcissists!) –both of whom are often thought to be successful “good old boys” by the mainstream culture.” These are the people who worship stuff, ideas or even country over Jesus and advocate for limiting rights rather than expanding them for all, as Jesus would. Jesus refused political power when tempted by Satan in the wilderness and he said to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s when it came to paying taxes. Jesus believed in the separation of church and state that our constitution upholds. He would want us to honor and celebrate the freedoms in our country as we did this week - honoring and celebrating our country and all Americans in whatever shape, size, race, gender, gender identity, economic or disability status or faith they do or don’t have. We are called to follow Jesus’ model to welcome and love all, even our enemies and to “take nothing” on that journey. That journey is primarily a second half of life journey, as Rohr would say. Our identity containers are built. We have learned from our successes but even more from our failures. We have fallen down and gotten back up again. We are ready to metaphorically grab our staff and embark on that inward spiritual journey. But do we still have too much literal or figurative stuff in the way? Taking nothing is hard, even with the lower priced airfare. Taking nothing is a letting go, a trust in both ourselves and God that we are and we have all we need to really embark on that spiritual journey. It is a way of finding inner peace among outer turmoil. It is a way of focusing beyond ourselves and our individual needs. We really do not need anything to take a contemplative journey with Jesus as our guide and model. Taking this journey, we realize that we do not need stuff to love ourselves and others. We don’t need stuff to get through life’s challenges; we just need faith. As Rohr says, “Faith is simply to trust the real and to trust that God is found within it–even before we change it.” The ability to make positive Jesus-like changes: to welcome, accept, love and help all people is what Jesus sends all of us disciples out to do even though some may take offense and question this wisdom just as the people of Jesus’ own hometown questioned him. So, armed with faith, let’s grab our staff and get going; maybe we can recruit a few fellow pilgrims along the way. Amen. Pastor Michelle Fountain
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6/23/2024 0 Comments June 23, 2024: Armed with Faith![]() Old Testament Reading:1 Samuel 17: 32-49 The Gospel: Mark 4: 35-41 Was David cocky or confident? Was he in it for the reward? He did ask at least three groups of people what the killer of this Philistine, Goliath, would get as a reward in the portion before our scripture reading today. The repeated answer, recorded in 1 Samuel 17:25 “The King will greatly enrich the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter and make his family free in Israel.” David’s brother Eliab thinks David is just shirking his shepherd duties when he shows up asking these questions; he thinks he just wants to watch the battle. When word of David’s question gets to Saul, he calls David in and almost laughs in his face, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy and he has been a warrior from his youth.” “You are just…” fill in the blank here. Throughout history, people have been told they are just - something that is considered not enough. You are just an enslaved person, you are just a woman, you are just a farmer, you are just a peasant, you are just one person, you are just a …. “ The list could go on and on and we often say this to ourselves as well. I am just a teacher, I am just a healthcare worker, I am just a retiree, I am just a questioner, etc. But with faith, we can turn this message around. We can say, “I am just enough.” I am just enough to deal with this challenge, I am just enough to comfort this person, I am just enough of a friend, I am just enough to help myself. God reminds us that we are just enough, that we have just enough faith, strength, intellect, compassion, creativity to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. That is what David knew because of his faith. He knew that as young as he was, as small as he was, as inexperienced in battle as he was, he was just enough. Saul’s armor didn’t fit - it was too much. David was just enough as he was. He bent down and picked up those stones and you know what? One was just enough, because he was armed with and protected by faith. In our Mark Gospel from today it seems that the disciples fell short on faith. They did not have “just enough” to get them through that storm. Their mindset was “We have Jesus on board, no storms should come” but a storm came and they were afraid. Jesus had plenty of faith; he wasn’t worried about the storm, in fact, it might just have rocked him to sleep. But the disciples still needed to grow in their faith. They needed the kind of faith that says bad things will happen but that it is still possible to find peace amid a storm. A faith that says, “We can ride out this storm,” not a faith that says, “Storms should never happen, enemies will never come, life will never be difficult”; that is a thin faith indeed. That is why Jesus, rudely awakened by his frightened disciples, first calms the storm - “Peace, be still!” - and then works on calming and teaching his disciples, saying, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Faith. Jesus had just taught the disciples the parable of the mustard seed, that something tiny can grow to something huge that provides food, shelter and shade and he likened that to the realm of God. Those tiny seeds are the seeds of faith that can grow so big that a boy can beat a giant with a slingshot and we can get through the storms that come into our lives. Faith does not mean that we won’t be battered by storms; we will. It means that if we are armed with faith, we have the ability to be that calm amid the storm, like being in the eye of a hurricane where all is calm even though there is a ring of towering thunderstorms outside that peaceful space. Faith says, “Take a deep breath; you can deal with this, even when the storm actually does hit you.” Faith is a letting go. As the expression goes, “Let go and let God.” The first thing we have to let go of is fear, not an easy task. We are all afraid at times. We worry about our children, relatives, and friends; we worry about bills; we worry about our country and the world. We worry about change; we worry about growing older. It is normal to have some fear, but faith allows us to acknowledge the fear and start bailing out the boat. Faith allows us to give some of that fear to God who shares the burden, the yoke of fear and challenges, with us. While we are bailing out the boat, God is telling the wind and our hearts, “Peace, be still.” I think we need to practice using Jesus’ words during the stormy times of our lives. As we deal with change, loss, or fear, we need to tell ourselves: “Peace, be still.” We need to breathe it in as our Peace Song says, “Breathe in Peace” and this time we can breathe out “Be Still”. Let’s try it - breathe in saying to yourself “Peace” and breathe out “Be Still”. If we keep doing this, breathing in Peace and breathing out “Be Still” we will also be doing what the song says next “When I breathe out, I breathe out love.” When we breathe in the peace of God that calms us, that stills our storms, then we can indeed breathe out love. Remember to Breathe In, Breathe Out…Breathe In, Breathe Out. David was confident, not cocky and we can be too. I want to end with a poem by Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes, about the Mark scripture: The boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. —Mark 4.37-38 Despite the panic you do not panic. In my anxiety, you don't engage, but are asleep, not just calm, but out like a baby, as if rocked. As if even in turbulence you are rocked in your mother's arms, secure in a greater peace, trusting in a grace deeper than the sea. Beloved, lay yourself down in the little boat of my worries, in my storms, with your peace, your trust that all is in God, the boat and the storm alike, rocked by grace. You are the boat of my confidence, the cushion for my worried soul. Even in the most frightening tempest you are with me; my inward storm is calmed. Salvation is more than merely ease or safety, but to be with you, to go on with you or to drown with you. Jesus, in your boat, together, storm or calm, in you, I am at peace. Amen. Pastor Michelle Fountain |
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