"Conflict of Values"
Scripture readings: Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22
Rev. Diane Hooge
Sermon on Sunday, March 23, 2003
As I was preparing for this sermon, I thought about a story that I heard from Sydney Thomson Brown, one of the presenters at the Earl Lectures that I recently attended in Berkeley, CA. She was dealing with a question around the subject of burn-out within social justice communities. She told us about a man by the name of Theo who was an intern in her Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto. He spent three years working in Chinatown in San Francisco. He became educated about tourism, about poverty and about the misery of people who live in desperate situations in this extremely high density neighborhood of San Francisco. One day Theo announced that he was going to go to seminary. He was asked to go before the Presbytery, and they asked him, "What is your call." And he responded "outrage". The long time leaders responded, "No, No, what's your real call?" And again Theo responded, "Outrage."
Sydney Thomson Brown spoke about how that led her to do a poll within her various communities of activists. She began asking the question of membership of three different groups, "What keeps you in this work?" Over and over she heard the participants talk about outrage. She also spoke to the issue of the importance of the community for each of those activists. She told us how communities need to be aware of the Spirit because the Spirit is there whether we bother to notice or not. It is the Spirit and the community that enable participates to find and live into courage.
If Jesus' family was anything like ours, I suspect that when he got to the temple they were not prepared for his actions. This passage from John, known as The Cleansing of the Temple is about outrage - outrage that was motivation for action. It was outrage that compelled Jesus to claim his values and live out of them - thus making a powerful statement.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke this story is told near the end of each Gospel where it becomes a precipitating factor in the decision to kill Jesus. However, John places this story up front. It is a story about values. It's a story that frames Jesus' ministry. There is no logic to its location. It almost appears to have been plopped into John's Gospel where it lands between the wedding at Cana, and the story of the night encounter with the ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus.
The setting of the story is the Passover celebration. The crowds are pouring into the city. Scholars inform us that Jerusalem would swell from 50,000 to 180,000 for Passover. The Bed and Breakfast industry did a brisk business. John is making a theological statement. The Passover story relates to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is also a story about conflict of values - values embraced by the religious structures. The purpose of including this story is to direct it to the church.
No one present at the time of Jesus' clean up would have forgotten the encounter. In what I suspect was probably pretty much a gridlock situation, Jesus begins to make his political and religious statement. Everything came to a halt. The vendors pulled off to the side. The butchering ceased. Cages of squawking birds began to be moved out the doors. More and more officials scramble to make their way through the crowd only to be stunned at the chaos that they encountered as they hear Jesus' words, "Destroy the temple, and in three days I will raise it up." No one got it, including his family and followers. It took the death of Jesus for the disciples to understand that he was talking about his own body. In attacking the temple, Jesus is attacking the laws that protected the distribution of economic and political power. It is out of compassion that Jesus forms and delivers his criticism. This was in marked contrast to the leaders of the day. He points out the injustice that has become a way of life for those marginalized.
Ever since the church began, we have been wrestling with these stories and attempting to make sense out of them for the present moment. Jesus was living into his vision by breaking the rules that kept the poor poor and powerless. He overturned the structure of the day and demanded a new way of life that authentically followed God.
Thursday night we gathered for prayer and music. There is a need for people to hear one another in times of grief. No matter where people stand on the war, there is lament over the loss of lives.
There have been a series of events that have pushed us as a nation, as a state, as a faith community to take a hard look at our values. 9/11, the loss of Paul and Sheila Wellstone, the movement towards war. Last October we kicked off our own Judson visioning process in an all church retreat. This coming weekend, we begin our nights of clarity. Nights designed to help us as a community to listen to the Spirit's movement. It is a time to clarify our values and to discern what God's call is upon us as a community of faith for this time and for this season. I believe that visions come out of the gifts that are built into the people who make up the community. The Visioning Committee has asked me to share my vision in order to have this sermon to bounce off of for our dinner gatherings.
The vision that I hold invites us to live more deeply into healing. It challenges us to be intentional in how we deepen our commitment to being a safe community. Healing often comes as we allow ourselves to be empowered by God to do that which we would not have the ability without God's strength. It involves a surrendering process. It means becoming vulnerable.
Part of my call within this congregation is to be an empowering agent of God to enable this community's gifts to be released. It demands that I prayerfully hold the space within Judson for the gifts that are built into each one of us to come forth. As they are tapped into - as they are nudged - as they are given wings by the Spirit my role is to help connect them or channel them to the places and times where they can be brought forth and utilized.
Outrage is often what fuels action. Part of my vision is that we tend outrage when it appears and not back off from it, but seek to channel it and rally around it. It is imperative that we expand and grow our peacemaking repertoire. Monica Lewis shared Thursday night that she felt keenly that the peace work around saying "No" to war with Iraq has not been in vain and we need to continue to be committed to peacemaking activities. I wholeheartedly agree.
For years I have held a vision of being a part of a faith community where there would be classes on Spiritual Direction and where small groups could be formed designed to help people explore their gifts and to gain clarity around what God is calling each person to be about. I recently ran across a quote by Jonathan Hull who stated, "Maybe not being ourselves is what kills us, sometimes decades before we die."
In theological education there is a track called CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education. It is taught within a hospital setting. The curriculum often focuses on case studies that are laid out and presented by the class members. Chaplains, like our own Karla McGray, spend time doing several units of CPE. The outcome is that students begin to weave life together. There is a naming of psychological, emotional, spiritual issues. One is invited to discern where they see God working in the situation. They are invited to name what God's invitation is within each case study. This is a process that can help people re-frame their beliefs in a more integrative manner. It's not designed with right or wrong answers. It's designed to enable the participants to gain clarity over what they believe and to obtain integration. It is part of my vision that we be able to offer this model or a variation of this model to enable folks who want to go deeper to have an opportunity to do so.
I envision some new models of small groups that can help facilitate growth.
Part of the challenge of our Adult Education is to begin to provide some options for people who desire to take a look at their discarded theology and find tools to look at scripture from a different viewpoint. One of the weaknesses for the liberal church is that it is often easier to state what one doesn't believe and more difficult to talk about one's beliefs. It’s important to know the history of the liberal end of our denomination and to celebrate what it has to offer.
Part of the goal of our children's program is to enable them to be biblically literate. There is a need to periodically offer a course on Bible 101 so that adults can have a safe place to gain an overview of the Bible.
Another section of my vision is to begin the process of shifting some of our structure so that it does a better job of integrating all of our programs and weaves them into a more solid whole. The important aspect of this is that the structure has to be fluid so that as we continue our visioning process, we can introduce new structural pieces that will be needed into the system. We are learning and will have to continue to learn how to live with ambiguity as we are receiving information about who we are and what we desire to become under God's guidance. Our process will demand changes.
I recently shared with the Pastoral Relations Committee that I have been accepted into a leadership program with our denomination. In the past, I would have been very pleased to enter into a Lilly Foundation endowed project. However, after I looked it over, it did not seem like the right match for me. I have been open to participating in a leadership training that would enable me to help Judson make the shifts that will be necessary to embrace a new vision. There is a new training event in New York that friends have been encouraging me to attend in New York that I've decided, with the blessing of PRC to attend. I believe that when one is ready for a new approach or new teaching, that the teacher's come.
My denominational vision for the church is that we find those people and places within our denomination that resonate with who we are and that we begin to build more depth in those places. For years, Eileen McLaughlin and Jim tenBensil have been attending the music conference that is held at our wonderful Green lake Conference Ground each August. It is time to begin to look at seed money for establishing scholarships that can help to off-set the cost of education for people who want to be a part of events that can help them to grow - and can be brought back to Judson for our own growth. I hope to see us connected with events at Green Lake and the Baptist Peace Fellowship.
As part of the visioning, I think we need to make space for new adjunct ministries that might be birthed with new vision and directions and dimensions that would fit who we are becoming.
I take great delight in the blended music program that is developing under the leadership of Barbara Bozonie. I was thrilled with the orchestra that we had Christmas Eve, and see it as a place that allows gifts to be offered. It was thrilling last week to experience all the music and art that came forth from this congregation. Because the arts offer great healing dimensions, it would be wonderful to see teachers come forth who would work with folks who want to be exposed to certain art forms.
I would love to find a set of hand bells for our congregation that would offer a way for an intergenerational group to play together.
We are about six and a half years away from our 100th anniversary. Ever since I arrived I have held that date as a measuring point for assessing who we are becoming. I often think about the children who come down front for Time with Children and I continually visualize them in six-seven years when we will have a large Jr. High group and a growing High School group. Now is when we have to be preparing for this growth. Now is when we need to be assessing our classrooms and our building use to determine a long range plan that will accommodate and welcome our growth.
Just as we need seed money for education for adults, we need to be thinking about establishing seed money for our youth who will benefit from trips together to enlarge their worlds. We need to think through how to help subsidize mission trips where work projects can be accomplished.
We are fortunate to have a Minister of Christian Education and Youth that has the kinds of skills with kids that Paula has. I look forward to having a plan for growth for CHOW that will include how we grow teachers and other leadership for CHOW. A significant part of my vision is that we help to call forth the blueprints that are built into each one of our children. When we welcome children into our midst we are responsible for helping them to name the gifts within themselves and to grow them. I take great delight in the comfort level of our children who participate on Sunday mornings.
When I arrived at Judson, I wondered if there would be an opportunity to work with seminary students because I have enjoyed this aspect of ministry in the past. This past week I had a letter from United Seminary asking if we would be interested in having a student intern. The timing isn't right for this year. However, it is part of my vision. I believe so strongly in healthy liberal churches, and I don't know how else to influence and pass on the components of this kind of congregation except through welcoming students into our midst who are seeking to be leaders in churches. It takes a community to help develop leaders.
It is imperative to foster the humor and sense of play that naturally exists within our relationships within Judson. We are reaching a size where we need to have folks who will help set up times of play. I strongly believe that it is much easier to pray together if we have played together.
In January I offered these words as we kicked off our Visioning process. It is the gift of love that is the underpinning of Judson. The Christian faith is not stagnant, it is a movement. We are all being invited into the river of life. We each hold our successes and our failures. We come with our weaknesses and our strengths. We come struggling to make the right choices. We long for meaning and many of us desire transformation. We come knowing that to be a part of a faith community offers us an opportunity to grow. On this third Sunday in Lent, let us set aside our fears ands claim the words of God, "You are my beloved son/ you are my beloved daughter. I have placed you here and called you to be my own. In you I delight." Amen.