Our mission is to promote the worship of God as revealed through Jesus Christ and to promote the study of Scripture.  Relying on Scripture and prayer as our guides, we strive to serve humanity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Investing in God’s Future

Matthew 25:14-30

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

November 13, 2011

 

In this parable, is Jesus advising us to invest our money wisely, or at least put it in a savings account and not under our mattress?  Is this parable a stewardship parable because it talks about what we should do with our money as we invest in God’s future for our church?

If you will recall, we have discussed how parables are not to be taken literally.  A parable is a story, an illustration that points to a greater truth; an example that encourages the reader to ask questions, to explore possibilities of meaning. 

Jesus used parables, and exaggeration in parables, to encourage the reader to think more deeply about life; about faith and belief and how we are to live as God’s stewards and Christ’s disciples.  In this parable is a very obvious exaggeration.  The master entrusts his slaves with an incredible amount of money. In Jesus’ day, one talent was equal to about fifteen years’ wages for a laborer.  That’s an incredible exaggeration to make a point. But what point is Jesus trying to make?

            Perhaps we can begin our understanding as we place this parable into the context of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus is in Jerusalem, just a few days before he is arrested and condemned to die.  He is preparing to leave his disciples, knowing that they will be frightened and unsure and may, as the third slave in the parable, hide themselves where they believe they will be safe from harm. 

Through the example of this parable, he is encouraging them instead to invest themselves, just as a person would invest their money, for the sake of God’s mission on earth—to take risks of investment so that the gospel message of God’s loving provision will multiply and reach many.

 If they hoard themselves, just as the slave hoarded money, then they cannot and will not continue the ministry that he has started.  If they invest themselves, not just their individual talents, but all that God has given them—all 15 years worth of talents—then their lives, their faith, their abilities, their gifts will yield more and more.  For to invest is to then put into circulation and multiply all that God has given— so that their very lives become the source of God’s message for everyone they encounter.

When I am no longer with you, Jesus implies, if you hole yourself up; if you dig a hole and place yourselves there, my message will be as lost as you are lost. If you invest yourselves in all I have taught you, then all of who you are, my message that manifests through your gifts and talents, will bring a blessing to many.  

Jesus teaches the disciples in this parable by describing consequences for each action that a slave decided to take.  Jesus teaches, knowing full well that some will have more courage and faith than others to invest, especially as their master is facing earthly death. 

Courage.  Does that word describe what it takes to pledge one’s time, talent, and treasure; to have the courage to give even when you’re not sure how much you have to give? Faith.  Does that word describe what it takes to risk investing in this church, to have faith that the investment will yield two and three and even more times the original investment? The third servant's fear prevented him from taking the risks of a life fully lived, a faithful life that follows Jesus no matter what may lie ahead.

Bauckham writes in the Lectionary Commentary, "All that God gives us is given to be risked in new ventures in God's service. Every new step in living for God is a risk." In keeping with the theme of the stewardship of money, in the Christian Century, Warner creatively uses the example of church endowments, and the tension between preservation of money and preparation for using that money. He sees the money entrusted to the servants by their master as "amazing – a reckless, unearned, unheard-of trust." The first two "responded with daring, courageously doubling both the principle of the bequest and the principal behind it. The worthless slave did not understand what he'd been given." Warner's challenge might unnerve many a church leader and longtime member: He says, "When we are called to account, the question will not be how it is that we preserved the balance sheet or the bricks and mortar, but whether we emulated others' daring and doubled it. . ." (The Christian Century 11-4-08).

We can expand those words to include all giving, not just giving to the endowment or to the 2012 budget.  When we are called into account, the question will not be how well we balanced our books or preserved the bricks and mortar of this church building.  The question will be how well we multiplied our gifts, our lives, our very selves, for the continuance of the Gospel; how many people we reached through our mission to children, youth, and families; how many people heard from our lips and our actions, the saving grace of Jesus Christ; how many people were blessed by us, all in the name of Jesus Christ.

Let us not minimize the good courage and generosity that stewardship of our resources requires of each of us.  But let’s also not miss the big picture of the parable:  the big picture of lives being continuously transformed into the likeness of Christ; the big picture of this church being transformed and continuing to transform into the mission of God for our community and our world.

Have no doubt my friends, this parable is about stewardship, but it is a stewardship beyond how much money we give to the church’s coffers.  This parable is about stewardship, but it is a stewardship beyond how much we pledge this morning of our time, talent, and treasure for the 2012 year. This parable is about stewardship of the entire gospel message itself. 

Jesus speaks of the courageous risk that it takes to speak the gospel to all whom we encounter, act the gospel for all whom we encounter; speak our faith, act our faith, instead of keeping it safely hidden for just our own benefit or the benefit of those in our tight knit circle of family and friends.  Such risk takes courage to believe that Jesus is with us at every juncture. Such courage takes faith that Jesus is behind every action of stewardship.    

Let us honestly, courageously, openly ask ourselves, fully knowing that God is here with open arms and unconditional love as we ask. Do we invest wholeheartedly, with our total heart, mind, and strength to love God and love others by making sure that God’s will and ways are spoken and demonstrated here on earth as they are in heaven?  Or do we give out of obligation, or out of tradition, because that’s the way it’s always been done? 

Do we wholeheartedly, with our total heart, mind, and strength, reach out to children, youth, and families so that they know the blessing, the abundance of God’s love and provision just as we know it; so that they can in turn share that love and provision with others? Or do we bury our faith, hide our relationship with God, tuck away the gospel itself in some hidden place, and just take it out on Sunday mornings and emergency situations? 

God loves us and accepts us just as we are, with all our courage, all our timidity, all our willingness, all our reluctance, all our fears.  God loves us too much not to reveal to us God’s will for us, which is to grow in faith, to be continually transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. 

Do we dare to risk and allow that growth and transformation within ourselves so that the whole life of this church grows and is transformed into God’s mission post in Morrisville, VT?  Are we willing to live out our call to be God’s stewards, Christ’s disciples, responding every day to the call of God; so that our very lives become the source of God’s message for everyone we encounter?

Are we ready to be God’s people in here so that the gospel message of God’s loving provision will multiply and reach many of God’s people out there?  So that God’s will is done in Morrisville, in Lamoille County, in Vermont, throughout the world—just as God’s will is done in heaven?

 

 

                                            Called as Saints:  Them is us!

1John 3:1-3

Revelation 7:9-17

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

November 6, 2011

 

                As we continue our celebration of the saints of the church, I invite you to allow your imaginations to transport you to a vision of life with God in the hereafter:  the vision of John in the book of Revelation: 

“There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.”  (Rev. 7:9) Can you picture it?

            This remarkable passage has influenced Christian images of Heaven from the time John wrote it in the last decade of the 1st century CE.  It gives us a vision of what we would see when we too joined the throng of the faithful in the realm of heaven. 

What better day than today, when we honor the saints of the church, to ponder a vision of life with God in the forever. Can you imagine it?

            “They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’" (Rev. 7:10-12)

What better day than today, when we honor the saints of the church, to ponder a hymn of eternal thanksgiving from those who have gone before us?  Can you hear it?

            If we focus on this hymn of praise from the vast multitudes, we hear a song of thanksgiving for the ultimate victory over sin and death that they received, the victory fully revealed in the cross and the resurrection life with God beyond death. They celebrate the victory of God over all the powers that compete against God’s eternal purpose for humanity, the world, and all creation.  (The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Black’s New Testament Commentaries. London: Adam & Charles Black. 1963.)

            “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’  I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows. These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” (Rev. 7:13-14)

            It is thought that John of Patmos wrote this vision at a time when Christians were under great persecution from the Roman government.  John encourages the struggling church with a vision of heavenly light and glory.  His words give hope and encouragement to Christians who are at risk of death because of their professed faith in God.

            “For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."(Rev. 7:15-17)

            Almost invariably Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, is recited at services of memorial for those who have passed into eternal life; the same shepherd who guides the departed to springs of the waters of life where God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. When I sit with someone who is traveling that final passage to life eternal, often I see tears, tears that have no words.  And I imagine that when this beloved one gets to the other side, God will be there to wipe away those tears.

            It is good for us this morning as we celebrate the saints of the church, to imagine, to contemplate, to listen to the vision of John and to anticipate eternal life that is ours through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lamb of God.  Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.  Have mercy on us.  Grant us peace. 

            This exercise may dissipate quickly as we leave this place and continue our journey throughout the week.           We may see these words from Revelation as irrelevant for this day and age.  After all, we are no longer persecuted or fear for our lives for being Christian.

            And yet, how many of us are shy from professing ourselves as Christian—because we may offend someone, or are dismissed with words of “does it really do you any good?” How many of us are shy about inviting someone to church? 

            We hardly consider the drop in attendance at church and membership in church as a persecution.  But I must wonder if we are under an insidious passive persecution, from the evils of an age of being so busy that we’re too worn out on a Sunday morning; of an age where sports and technology have become the new religion; of an age where economic distress drains us financially and emotionally.

            In the daily grind of our busy, everyday lives, we hardly stop to think of our faith in the risen Christ that frees us from the sin of divided loyalties and to whom we pledge our trust for the future.  We hardly think of our faith that guarantees life in the hereafter, unless we or our loved one suffers from terminal illness.  We hardly think that the hereafter begins now in the present—in Christ we are free now from the bondage that not only challenges our loyalties but also diminishes our joy. How many of us in our desire to keep our faith private, have squelched the joy that is ours through Christ’s redeeming and freeing love, so that spontaneous expressions of alleluias and amens are unheard of even in the context of the worship service?

            As we continue our worship this morning, as we continue to contemplate the saints of the church who surround us, as we come to the banquet table of the Christ whose body and blood became symbols of life and freedom, I leave you with the words of this same John in his first letter to a Christian Church of the first or second century. 

I John 3:1-3: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”  And I add, we are not only children of God, but saints, as we follow the risen Christ. “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  And I add, as saints of the risen Christ, let us go into the world and help all know the risen Christ. “Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” And I add this invitation: live as God’s children, blessed and beloved.  Act as Christ’s saints, bringing that revealing love to a hurting world.  Pray that you will be transformed continually into Christ’s likeness; that you will know Christ’s joy so fully that alleluias and amens will sprout forth from your lips.  And go with the assurance that in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, you will know life eternal, where you will be lovingly sheltered; where you will hunger and thirst no more; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be your shepherd, and will guide you to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.

Re-formed and Re-forming

Micah 3:5-12

Matthew 23:1-12

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

October 30, 2011

                Jesus’ words are pointed and harsh.  Jesus’ words are clear and searing.  For time is short.  Jesus has come to Jerusalem, his final stop on his earthly journey of bringing God’s message to the people.  Jesus knows that in Jerusalem is where his earthly ministry ends.  Jesus must push the message of God’s love clearly before his time on earth ceases, for in just a few short days he will face an unfair trial, a serious beating, and a tragic death on a cross. 

            He speaks directly and candidly to the people for whom he has so much compassion; for whom he came to heal and free and bring God’s joy of abundant life.  And his message is all about those who are charged with leading the people—those who are regarded as God’s messengers and God’s models:  the religious authorities of the day. 

These religious leaders are deserving of respect, Jesus tells the people, because of their education and their status; their words are to be heeded because they are the ones charged as God’s messengers.  But their actions have burdened the people with so many rules and regulations that the people’s joyous faith has turned into a religion of requirement. Their teaching lacks compassion for those they teach.  They have lost touch with the God of grace and peace who stirs desire in the hearts of all.  Their phylacteries, that is their adornments that are supposed to remind them of their solemn charge, have become just adornments that bring them special places of honor at banquets and at church. 

            Jesus’ message is similar to the message of the prophet Micah 800 years prior.  Micah spoke at a time when Assyria threatened the existence of the Hebrew nation in the northern and southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.  He brought God’s message that there must be justice for all people, including those at the bottom of the social strata:  the poor and widowed and orphaned must be cared for, as this is the way of God.  He preached at a time when other prophets of that day taught and acted against God’s message.  Micah claimed that such false prophets lead people astray; those prophets who preach what the political leaders pay them to preach; a message that oppresses the poor and drains the people.  Micah warned if folks listened to these prophets and acted on their teaching, both kingdoms eventually would come to ruin as a symbol of the spiritual ruin of the individuals who inhabited the land. Micah’s prophecy proved to be the correct one.  Within the next two centuries the Hebrew people were in exile.  And in Jesus’ day the Hebrew people did not have a nation to call their own. 

            What Jesus observed in the religious leaders of his day is similar to what Martin Luther observed in the religious leaders of the 16^th century as he sought reform in the Christian church.  Luther saw a church that was burdening the people.  People were required to pay the church for salvation:  the bigger the indulgence, the more assured they were of salvation.  People were told they had to work for salvation; the concept of grace and God’s unconditional love was lost somehow, and joyous faith had been replaced by religious burden.  Martin’s outrage at such a message led to what we celebrate this Reformation Sunday:  the restoration of the church, the purpose of which was to re-unite people with their God of grace; to resurrect joyful faith and bury burdened religion.

            What Jesus spoke of would be like if the leaders of this church, starting with me and spreading to the lay leaders, preached tithing and did not tithe themselves; taught hard work for the mission of this church in order to be accepted and welcomed into our fold—and then didn’t do the work themselves.  It would be as if Jesus saw our church as rooted in obligation and requirement rather than welcome and love; doing good works in order to gain status and favor rather than doing good works as a result of the joy we experience because of God’s grace.

            Lest our leaders see themselves as better than the prophets of Micah’s day, let us keep in mind that religious leaders in every day and in every age struggle with what it means to lead in a way that welcomes and edifies; that ensures peace and justice for all people; that models good works that follow joyous faith. 

Lest I as your pastoral leader see myself as more humble than the Pharisees and scribes who adorned themselves with phylacteries so that they received special treatment and position, I need to look in the mirror at the phylacteries I wear every Sunday:  robe, stole, cross—and be ever mindful that my seat here is higher than your seats.

Lest we reformed Protestants see ourselves as having the corner on salvation through grace and not works; who believe that works that are eternally significant only follow faith in the God who freely welcomes us; let us carefully inspect our own rules for how to be a Christian.  Do we place in higher esteem those who dress more fashionably, who give more to the church, who work at all the fund raisers, who wear the robes and stoles?   And we can think of other rules, can’t we? As in all times and cultures and churches, the list is endless.

            All religious leaders, ordained and lay, struggle with how to be leaders who live up to the things we say to others and the things we expect from others. All of us struggle not to just act like Christians, but to be authentic Christians, authentic followers of Jesus who genuinely desire to bring peace to the troubled, to bring justice to the oppressed and abundance to the poor; to be able to discern when to comfort the troubled and when to trouble the comfortable. 

            Thomas Long suggests that Jesus is addressing here the dynamics of power in a religious community.   The issue for Jesus is not the title or status of the religious leaders of his day, but styles of leadership and interaction among all people of faith. Today, some of God's humblest servants bear the titles 'rabbi,' 'father,' and 'reverend,' and calling oneself 'sister' or 'brother' is certainly no guarantee of humility."

It's not the title of pastor or moderator or trustee or deacon that matters, but the attitude of our hearts.  It’s not the title of Congregationalist or Methodist or Baptist or Catholic that matters, but the actions that show that we have embraced true Christianity.  "The true purpose of these phylacteries and fringes [is] to keep the faithful ever mindful of the [ways] of God, to assist the worshiper in prayer.” 

Any Christian today can wear a cross or tout bumper stickers that imply superior allegiance to a superior God.  In any of our professions of faith and work for God’s mission, we can ask ourselves; do our professions follow a heart that knows the joy of salvation?  Are our acts manifestations of a heart of gratitude that responds to the invitation to share the joy of salvation? (Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion).

            Today we mark our reformation—a time in Christian history when the course of power in the religious community had gone askew; and one man, and those who followed, worked to change that course, so that all would know the grace of God and the joy of knowing and truly following the risen Christ.

            Next Sunday is All Saints Day.  Next week we celebrate the saints of the church, past and present.  These are people who have made a difference in our lives; who have contributed to our spiritual health and growth; who have manifest a true heart of Christian love as genuine followers of the risen Christ.  The saints can be any one of us, not because we’re better than others or more holy or wear special clothes; but because we have decided to receive God’s free love, to make it our own, and to share such love with others through word, but mostly through action.

            Two Sundays from today is Pledge Sunday when we manifest our love of God through the pledge of our treasure for God’s mission of this church to the world; when we promise to give a portion of our time and talent to the mission of God through this church:  so that folks here and around the world will know the love of Jesus, the peace of Christ, the abundance of God’s provision. 

            Let us challenge ourselves:  will we give according to how we have received?  Will we give because we know God’s incredible grace and we wish to share that grace with others?  Will we give because we believe in justice for all, the rich and poor and everyone in between?  Do we share because we believe that as all share then everyone will have enough?  Do we give as a statement of our genuine faith in God, our one true parent, who gave us Jesus, our one true teacher?  As we give, let us assent to those words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 23:11-12: The greatest among you will be your servant.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

At the Core of Giving

Leviticus19:1-2; 15-18

Matthew 22:34-40

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

October 23, 2011

            We are commanded by God to love:  to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  We are told by Jesus to love:  that all the commandments, all 612 laws in Deuteronomy of how to live, are wrapped up in two intertwined commandments:  Love God.  Love your neighbor.

            But how can we be commanded to love?  Isn’t love a feeling?  Someone can’t just come up to us and say, “Love that person”, if we don’t feel love.  Jesus loved the most unlovable people.  How can God expect us to do as Jesus did?  Isn’t that too much to ask?  Isn’t it enough to just tolerate those we find so hard to love?

            Quite a number of years ago I was first introduced to the concept of love, not as a feeling, but as a commitment.  The primary ingredient of love as it is presented in the Bible is not affection but a pledge of loyalty. We may have warm feelings of gratitude as we reflect on all that God has done for us, or how folks in our church family have supported us throughout the years; but warm feelings are not what we read about in Leviticus.  In Leviticus, God demands us to have stubborn, unwavering commitment for all people.

            And commitment is a setting of the heart, something we choose to do, a way we freely choose to live. We decide to love someone, not because we feel warm fuzzies or infatuated tingles.  We decide to love someone because we have chosen to commit ourselves to loving that person.

             Any of us who has been married for a long time knows of this commitment.  After the warm fuzzies and enraptured attraction wear off in about a year or two, commitment really has to take hold; the promises we make during our marriage vows.  Our spouse loses his or her initial shape.  Our spouse proves to not be as good a provider as we hoped.  Our spouse isn’t as attentive as we’d like.  And oh, those annoying habits that send us up a wall.

             Any of us who has raised children knows of this commitment.  After the initial rapture of holding our child for the first time, comes the 3am feedings, the chronic lack of sleep, the wailing that will not stop.  Then our little darlings turn into people of “no” and mine”, and eventually don’t listen to us at all. And they may even end up on our living room couch, raiding our refrigerator and not cleaning up after themselves.

            But that’s our relationship with spouse or child, people that we have felt love for in the first place.  Commitment may have to kick in at points along the relationship, but we have that initial warm feeling that started the relationship.  How about those unlovable ones that we could not imagine feeling love for?

            To wrap ourselves around such love, we must begin with the first commandment:  to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind. How do we do that?  How do we commit ourselves to love God in this way?  Putting God above all else: family, country, work, church?  Marcus Borg tells us that "Within ancient Jewish psychology, the character of the heart depended upon its orientation, what it was pointed toward or centered in…what mattered was the orientation of the self at its deepest level, its 'center' or fundamental loyalty" (Jesus: A New Vision).  And as we orient toward God with our whole being, committed to this orientation, it follows that we would love as God loves. We are told in the Scripture to commit ourselves to God who is the epitome of love. This is the God in whose image we are created, so to love is to reach deep inside for our own image: the image of love.  commandments and how do we commit to loving as God commands us to love?  

            Perhaps we begin by focusing on the God who created us in God’s own image.  Stephen J. Patterson describes the basic reality of God as love itself, for "to love God is to love love itself.” To love God is to be devoted to a basic and fundamental reality that runs through all of life and creation. "When we're trying to figure out the meaning of life, when we're trying to make sense of everything, this reality can give life its richness and ultimate meaning. This is the reality that beckons us to live better than we live. . .this is the reality. . . that can be as powerful in the shaping of human life and relationships as we want it to be" (The God of Jesus: The Historical Jesus and the Search for Meaning).     

            And if we are made in God’s image, then our image is the image of love.  That is why Jesus embodied love in his own life in a more radical way than the simple love of neighbor might suggest—Jesus was the ultimate manifestation of God and human, woven into a dance of love and action; feeling and commitment to those around him. And we should be prepared to be called by Jesus to love God and neighbor, if we call ourselves Christians and have committed ourselves to the ways of Jesus.

            Perhaps Thomas Merton says it best. "To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name. If, therefore, I do anything or think anything or say anything or know anything that is not purely for the love of God, it cannot give me peace, or rest, or fulfillment, or joy." (A Book of Hours, Kathleen Deignan, editor.)

            So then as we continue our journey through stewardship season, we can meditate on love as a commitment to act in the ways of Jesus.  We act in love by giving of our time, talent, and treasure, as a commitment to love God with our whole mind and strength.  We act in love by giving of our time, talent, and treasure as a commitment to love others through the ministry of this, God’s church.  We give because we love.  And the beauty is that we then love more, because we have given.

            Kate Huey (Sermon Seeds, UCC) gives a beautiful example in her own life of the core of giving which is the commitment of love to God and others.  “Several years ago”, Huey writes, “inspired by the witness of two older

            And God sent us Jesus to show us, for Jesus is the ultimate model of this kind of love.  It took commitment in God’s law of love to love prostitutes, to love sinners, to love those who betrayed him. Jesus treated the shamed with honor and declared the unclean clean. He loved the unlovable. He loved his enemies. And through Jesus’ teaching and model, he commands us to be so centered in God that we too can commit ourselves to love as he loves.

            He challenged the Pharisees that they had committed themselves not to love God and people, but instead to love rules and regulations, to love their status as ones who followed all laws; to focus on loyalties to money and government, and to their religion above all else, even God.  He reminded them from their own study of scripture in Leviticus that the only rules to go by are rules of love:  that their primary loyalty and focus was to commit their whole being to God. And then they could love others.

            Two thousand years later, we might ask ourselves how Jesus is challenging us. What are the rules we go by that displace the primary importance of commitment to God with our whole heart, soul, and mind?  Do the rules we live by supersede the rule of love? Even the rules about how to be good Christians? Are our loyalties to money and politics greater than our loyalty to God and loving others with a fierce commitment no matter what?  In our decisions, do we ask ourselves if God is indeed first in our hearts and our lives? How do we wrap our minds around these two women, longtime and faithful members of the church who told me their stories of tithing, I decided to take the step of increasing my own giving to the church I loved. Increasing to a tithe was a challenge but it surprised me that my feelings followed after the action, or after the commitment, if you will. I found that I loved my church more when I gave more to it, much as we love our children more after giving of ourselves to them over many years. So it seems that when we decide to set our hearts in a direction, toward something or someone, and when we do the things that fulfill that commitment, our feelings often follow afterward.”

            The laws of giving and loving, I believe, are God's way of guiding us to do what we need to do, what's good for us, how we are created.  These laws give us the direction for setting our hearts. Such giving with love at the core is a dance between commitment and action and feeling. 

            I encourage each of us this stewardship season to go to God prayerfully and seek the love in whose image we are created; to seek the love that is good for us, that sets ourselves in a direction that brings health and wholeness. I encourage each of us this stewardship season to seek the core of giving which is love, and to ask, how do I show my love through giving?  How do I show my love by giving to others through the mission of this church?  How do I show my love by giving of my treasure that supports my pastor to visit those in need, that supports this building that houses so many of God’s ministries, that supports this worship that I have come to count on? 

            How do I show my love by giving of my time so that I support the Christian Education of our children?  By giving of my time for the fundraisers that help sustain this ongoing ministry? By adding to worship by singing in the choir or reading scripture? By helping to collect food for the hungry or to clean out someone’s house that has been ravaged by storm?  By helping to build a handicap ramp or a home for a family in need?  How do I show love?  How do I engage in that dance of commitment and action and feeling, with love—with God—at the core of my giving?

            As you spend time in prayer, expect some things to happen.  Expect your minds to be turned more toward God.  Expect your hearts and souls to be focused more on the ways of God.  Expect a sense of commitment for the good of your neighbor.  Expect that your desire to act will increase, and as you act, your love toward God and neighbor will also increase. Expect that you will come to enjoy the dance of commitment and action and feeling.

“To Whom and of Whom”

Exodus 33:12-19

Matthew 22:15-22

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

October 16, 2011

            Stewardship season. The season that occurs reliably once a year in the life of any congregation that hopes to continue its ministry into the future.  Stewardship season. The season that is as uncomfortable as it is necessary, for any congregation as they consider that juxtaposition between their personal needs for food, shelter, and clothing; and the needs for the continuation and growth of their church family in their church space.   
            But don’t we talk about stewardship all year long? Especially during our offering time? We give and dedicate our treasure, our time, and our talent every Sunday, don’t we?  Why do we even need a dedicated time every fall? Well we need this dedicated time for a couple of reasons.

            A significant reason, frankly, is a practical one:  the Trustees have to know if we’ll have enough money to fund the 2012 year; if we’ll have enough treasure to maintain our building, to pay our staff, to afford our curriculum, to have candles for our worship space, to heat our sanctuary and dining room on a Sunday morning.  We need to know if we’ll have enough giving of time and talent to teach our children, to work on fund raisers, to further our mission to the community. 

But the main reason appears less practical:  as people of faith, we have decided that we have been called by God to be God’s representatives on earth, manifest in this church family in this church building.  And we have decided to put our trust in that God to provide all we need, even as we pledge to ourselves to God’s work.  And we show that trust by giving a portion of our treasure, time, and talent to further God’s work through this place and through us, God’s people.

            I think Jesus said it best in his response to the Pharisees who challenged him with a stewardship question.  Their question about paying taxes was really a question about in whom to put trust for security for the future. They asked Jesus, do we put our trust in Caesar by giving Caesar our money?  After all, without the Emperor we could not possibly survive.  Jesus replies to them, sure give your money to the one whose face is on the coin. It only makes practical sense.  If you don’t give Caesar due taxes, then you will not receive the services from those taxes.

But in whom do you place your ultimate trust?  It’s kind of like Jesus coming to us and saying, yes you need money because money is the way your society has set up the system for obtaining so many of your basic necessities, since people don’t live off the land like they did even 100 year ago.  But if you trust the money and the society that developed it more than the God who created you and provides for all your needs, then perhaps you need to rethink your priorities.

            Moses knew the dangers of placing trust in things of the world rather than in God.  His conversation with God in our reading this morning shows how anxious he is about survival and provision into the future.  He knows that no matter how much material security the Hebrew people have; without God, they will not be able to look to their future with any degree of certainty. 

            We may wonder about Moses’ continued pleading with God to be with them and to show they are favored in God’s sight.  After all, God re-assures Moses over and over again. Part of Moses’ anxiety probably has something to do with the verses that precede our reading for today.  If you will recall from last week, the Hebrew people had given up on the God who led them out of Egypt. They were convinced that Moses’ 40 days on Mount Sinai meant that he had abandoned them and that God who supposedly had led them out of Egypt was not real.  So the Hebrew people did what anyone would do who is worried and needs concrete evidence of security.  They crafted a god out of concrete possession by designing an image of a calf out of all the gold they had in their possession. 

God was pretty angry with them for their shortsightedness.  But I also think God understood how finite we are and how difficult it is for us to put our trust in that which we cannot see.  So God had them design an ark in which God’s presence would be visible to them as smoke during the day and fire at night.  I think God’s understanding of our need for some tangible evidence of God’s presence is one of the reasons God sent us Jesus:  so we could have a human, visible face of the God in whom we place our trust.

            There are other ways we can see visible, tangible evidence of God.  Think of the visible, tangible evidence of God alive in our church.  Every Sunday morning we pass peace, greeting one another in the name of Christ whose peace surpasses all human understanding. And we see God in each other’s faces and warm hugs and handshakes. Every Sunday morning we seek and find the God who listens attentively to our prayers for healing.  When I ask for special prayers where we lay our hands upon the one for which we are praying, that person is surrounded by living presence. We see God in the faces of our children, as our Sunday School is blossoming.  Just this past week some folks I met on the street asked me about our church, saying that they’ve heard our church is doing well, that the congregation is vibrant and hopeful. Our face to the community is that we are a welcoming church, ready and able to serve the needs of the families in our community.  Just this past week someone commented to me how wonderful it is that we have “Youth Rocks” at our teen center. 

            We have come to realize that part of our continued health and vibrancy into the future is the excitement of all of us who have committed ourselves to being the church that is known in the community as alive and growing and serving.  And we realize that a part of the excitement comes from having a full time pastor who works in partnership with the people. The Executive Council had a long discussion about full time ministry and decided that despite our continued financial challenges, full time ministry is one of the things needed to answer God’s call to ministry and to be confident into our future. 

            Think a moment about your recent past. Even as you travelled along your journey for five long years without a settled pastor before I came, you sensed God’s presence with you.  You were understandably stumbling and were not sure about your future.  Attendance was down and the financial coffers were severely dwindling.  You relied heavily on your endowment.  You questioned your ability to support full time ministry.  But your trust in the God that called you was clear as you took steps of faith, with the face of Jesus ever before you as your evidence and strength.

             The true sign of a healthy church is when the leadership is free to share with its congregation the not so good as well as the good.  In a healthy church, communication is free flowing so that we share fully in the decisions around our church’s future.  Do we have financial difficulties?  Yes, we do, just as any church today.  The Trustees do a Herculean task of paying our bills, and sometimes do it with very white knuckles and by delaying payments.  Do we have enough investment in our endowment to continue to supplement our giving when our ledger doesn’t balance?  The endowment is dwindling and it’s dwindling fast. We have not had a significant donation designated for our endowment in many years.  Do we have enough members to sustain full time ministry, to maintain our building, pay for fuel and lights, staff the office and buy the paper for our bulletins?  We are a small congregation in hard economic times.  And it’s so very difficult to know how much to hold onto so that we have enough food, clothing, and shelter; and how much to give to God’s church.  These decisions are even more difficult for those who are on fixed incomes.

            How do we reconcile the undeniable growth in our church that we witness every week, with the undeniable economic reality of the people who bravely and faithfully have pledged to answer the call to continue God’s work through this church? 

            First we acknowledge that we are a church in transition.  We are growing in numbers of children with the same number of teachers.  In order to continue to grow, we need more teachers.  The Christian Education Committee is meeting after worship to discuss a new model of Sunday School for the spring, in which folks are asked to teach four-week segments.  We have every day practical needs that are increasing:  for copy paper, for new gutters, for new computers as ours age and threaten to crash, for fuel oil that is rising in cost, for napkins and cups for fellowship time.  Several folks have risen to the challenge and have given one-time donations.  We now know that full time ministry greatly aids in the health of this congregation; we agree that our music ministry is invaluable, and our secretary/sexton is essential.  Yet, we don’t quite have the resources to fully fund salaries at reasonable levels. 

            Second, we re-examine our giving of treasure, time, and talent.  We go again and again in prayer to God to search our hearts and to ask in whom we put our trust for our future.  In Caesar? Or in God?  Do we clutch onto our money and time as though we won’t have enough unless we clutch?  Or do we trust that God will supply all our needs, just as God always has?  Do we build golden calves that we can see because it’s so hard to put trust in an unseen reality?  Or are we willing to look at the visible manifestations of God that will keep us into the future—in the face of Jesus, our children, one another?

            With transition and growth comes re-examination.  We are in transition and we are growing.  Each of us, all of us, needs to re-examine what it means to support this church with time, talent, and treasure as we grow.  When someone decides to become a member of our church, they pledge their support through prayer, through attendance, and through giving of time, talent, and treasure.  We have longtime friends who also pledge such support.  We just baptized Riele into this fellowship, which means that Riele’s parents have agreed to teach Riele what it means to be a vital member of God’s church, until that time when she can make that decision for herself at confirmation.  For every child among us who has been baptized and welcomed into this family of faith, it is the charge of their parents, it is the charge of all of us, to teach them what it means to be a vital member of God’s church until they can make that decision for themselves at their confirmation.  We teach them by word; most of all, we teach them by example.

            Being a part of God’s church is as much privilege as it is responsibility.  Being called as God’s church is as much mystery as it is visible signs of God’s presence among us.  Being the people of God’s church brings miracle and challenge, joy and anxiety, as we look all around us at the wonders of God manifest here and as we pray, as Moses prayed, O God, please be with us.  We cannot go into the future, your future without you as our focus, our guide, the absolute center of our lives.  As we travel along our trust journey with God, may we ask God to tune our focus, increase our faith, open our eyes to the miracle that is the First Congregational church of Morrisville, VT.

The Cornerstone

Matthew 21:33-46

October 2, 2011

World Communion Sunday

Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola

            This is an odd choice of text for World Communion Sunday, isn’t it? Or is it?  Why would those who compiled the lectionary choose this Gospel message of violence and murder on a day when we celebrate the diversity of our Christian brotherhood and sisterhood, unified at the table of our redeemer Jesus Christ?  And why would I agree to preach from such a text on the one day of the liturgical year that we celebrate with Christians everywhere, Christians who are as diverse as the four corners of the world; Christians who are as unified as a simple meal of bread and fruit?

            In order to even begin to answer these questions, we must first understand the context and the purpose of this parable for its original audience way back in the first century.  The story of Jesus was first told orally, by those who knew him first hand, and then by their students and their children after them.  The story was not actually written down until decades later. And although the overall content of the Gospel message is pretty much the same in all four gospels, each 

Gospel has its own tone, as it was written down at a certain time and for a particular community of first century believers.

            The Gospel according to Matthew was written down around 85AD, over 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  This was a community of Jews who were suffering from the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple just 15 years prior in 70AD.  This is the same temple that we hear of in the news.  Only one wall remains, which is referred to as the “wailing wall.”  And to this day pilgrims come to pray at this wall.

            At that time, Matthew’s community was in conflict with itself.  In response to Jerusalem’s destruction, the Jewish religious leaders of the day were working hard to make the boundaries around Jewish law and tradition more solid.  Only Jews were included in the fold of God, and only those who abided by strict Jewish law. The rest of the folks in the community, also Jews, were working to embrace Jesus’ message of welcome and inclusion for all, Jew and gentile alike.  Such conflict sets the scene for this parable.

            This parable was meant for those who resist and even reject Jesus and his message of wide welcome; and although the parable is also in the Gospels according to Mark and Luke, the tone of the parable here is harsher. If you will recall from our discussion in previous Sundays about the role of parable in Jesus’ teaching, a parable is a story that is not to be taken at face value.  It is an allegory; a metaphor for a truth that Jesus is trying to teach.  This parable is the second in a series of parables that Jesus relates to the Jewish authorities who have come to challenge him and his authority.  Their challenge comes after Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, and just about a week before he is put to death.

            Jesus’ response to the religious leaders is based on his contention that they are leading people away from Jesus’ message of welcome, inclusion, and salvation for all people, a message that is not new; a message that they heard through the prophets over the centuries. 

              In this parable, the landowner who has built the vineyard is God.  In this parable, the tenants whom the landowner has put in charge of the vineyard are the religious leaders throughout history.  In this parable, the slaves of the landowner who were beaten or stoned by the tenants are God’s prophets throughout the ages.  In this parable, the son of the landowner who is killed by the tenants is Jesus himself.  The message of the parable is that throughout the centuries religious leaders have rejected the prophets whom God sent to speak the truth of God’s intentions for them.  And now they are poised to have a hand in the death of the ultimate One whom God has sent. Somehow, Jesus gets through to these leaders and they know he is talking about them.  But they still will not listen. In fact, according to this account, they want to silence him and his message. 

            This was a struggle reflected in Matthew’s community:  those who were willing to attempt to embrace the challenging message of Jesus vs. those who wanted to hold onto what felt secure and safe—to include only those who are like us and go by our rules of living. The message of the Gospel to Matthew’s community was clear:  even though there are those who reject Jesus’ message and may even kill his message, his message is the message from God.  And it has become the cornerstone of how God wants us to live in God’s world.

            Okay, so this parable makes sense for the community for which it was written:  a community that was going through growing pains as they experienced their first lessons of diversity, and conflicts around who’s in and who’s out; a community that was hoping to make real the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the Cornerstone of their faith. 

            So now we return to my original questions. Is this an odd choice of text for World Communion Sunday?  Why would those who compiled the lectionary choose this Gospel message for us today as we celebrate World Communion Sunday?  And what message does God have for us in our time and in our culture? 

            I believe that this message is absolutely relevant to the world’s Christians,  especially today as we celebrate the unity of all who profess belief in Christ as our cornerstone, yet are so diverse in culture, life circumstance, political persuasion, and economic reality. Today we celebrate the unity of Christian brotherhood and sisterhood, as we recall and remember Jesus’ final supper with his disciples.  We celebrate our oneness through the Cornerstone Jesus Christ by whose model and teaching we live; through whose life and death we are redeemed; through whose resurrection we are freed to live forevermore.   And even more than in Matthew’s community, the Christian community across the globe is expansively diverse; as diverse as the earth’s landscape; as diverse as the languages we speak; as diverse as the cultures that uniquely define us. 

            We are diverse culturally, so we interpret the Gospel with a bent toward our own culture.  Each culture has a bias of who’s in and who’s out.  We are diverse economically, with America’s poverty not even beginning to approach the poverty of other parts of the world.  And those who do not have enough to eat will interpret Jesus’ message differently than those who have enough.  We are diverse in our political situations, seeking perspective from monarchy to dictatorship to democracy.  We are diverse in our beliefs about family structure and what constitutes family; the roles of men and women;  and the rearing of children.  We are diverse in our theology:  how to interpret our differences within a religious context.  

            In the United States today so many people are excluded from Christ’s church because of the color of their skin, the cleanliness of their bodies, their inability to add to the operating budget.  So many are excluded because of their family make up or their sexual orientation.  What can we do as members and friends of this church as we seek to take seriously our Cornerstone Jesus Christ and bid warm welcome to everyone, no matter how diverse?

            We have help.  We have help as we carefully study Jesus’ words and model in the Gospels, as we carefully contemplate Jesus’ message of including the marginalized; welcoming the outcast, embracing those who are labeled unacceptable.  We have large bodies of Christian teaching that can be helpful to us. Our church is part of the denomination of the United Church of Christ that takes seriously Jesus’ message of inclusive welcome for everyone. The United Church of Christ, historically and intentionally, has maintained that as much as “we are one” in faith, we are also very different from one another, and those differences must be celebrated and embraced.  The UCC by history and by intention has maintained that no one is to be excluded from this communion table. 

            The forebears of the UCC were the first in the 18^th century to work actively to end slavery and to fully embrace African Americans.  They established schools for African American children. They were the first to ordain a black man.  They were active in the campaign for women to vote and first to ordain a woman.  The United Church of Christ was the first mainline denomination to recognize that gay men and lesbians are to be fully embraced into Christ’s fold and was the first to ordain gay men and women.  The UCC is the denomination that coined the expression “God is still speaking”, a term that in practice means, in part, that we welcome everyone, whoever they are and wherever they are on their life journey. And we can embrace our heritage and look to our denomination for guidance as we listen carefully to Jesus’ ancient yet timeless message to us, as we listen carefully to a God who is still speaking to us in this day and age as we interpret together how God would have us welcome whoever comes to us, from any journey in life.     

            It’s not easy to follow in Jesus’ ways.  It requires us to stretch and grow beyond our comfort zone.  But Jesus is clear.  If any of Jesus’ followers shuns even part of Jesus’ message of inclusive welcome for all, his message remains as certain and steadfast as the cornerstone of any building.  And the Cornerstone of Jesus Christ himself lives vibrantly through anyone who dares to receive him. And the good news, my friends, is that no matter who we are—believer, doubter, excluder or includer—we are widely welcomed into God’s grace.  No matter where we are on life’s journey—ready to welcome, not ready to welcome fully, unsure of whom we want to welcome—we are welcomed into God’s embrace. 

            But be aware—God’s love is not stagnant.  God’s love is dynamic.  As God embraces us, and we rest in that embrace, we will be filled with a love that beckons us to share with others, no matter who they are.  And be ready—as we open ourselves to receive that wide welcome, we will be changed more and more into people who welcome others, no matter what their life circumstance. 

            And that, my friends, is Jesus’ full message and intention throughout the gospels:  to love one another as God loves us; to embrace one another in the oneness of Christ our Cornerstone.  Let us celebrate today with Christians everywhere. Let us celebrate our unity, as simple as a meal of bread and fruit.  Let us rejoice in the richness of our diversity—as  far-reaching as the four corners of the earth.