Compassion, Christmas, and the Prince of Peace

I recently went to a sea life museum/zoo. It was a very interesting experience for me. Among the many thoughts and questions that came to my mind as I wandered through, was the reminder that most life inhabits a world of eating and being eaten, of protecting turf, of intimidating others in order to survive. At one point, I found myself asking (out loud), if this is our hereditary, how in the world can we ever expect or hope to have "peace on earth".

Later in the day, I remembered that the whole creature world - including mammals - does have stories of compassion between creatures. Perhaps it is this cultivation of compassion that contains our hope. (Thank you, Karen Armstrong.) When we can hear of a stranger's suffering, and have the same concern for the stranger, that we would have if the suffering belonged to us or to someone we knew and cared about - and have the will to act - I truly believe that we could change the world.

It means changing the hearts and minds of people, including those who are addicted to their own wealth and power. This sometimes seems so impossible; but I believe the impossible is possible - with God's help.

This Christmas, in the coming year and in the years ahead, I will continue to pray, hope and work for the coming of the Prince of Peace. I hope you will join me in that journey.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Prayer for the Prince of Peace

Okay, God, we need to talk. Have you been listening to the news lately? I believe in your goodness. I believe that you want goodness for us and for all your creation - that means everybody and everything - no exceptions. So what's a Christian to do?

We need so much. We need good health care for everyone. We need clean water and respect for the earth. We need people who can hear, really hear, different points of view. We need a world-wide compassion that reaches everyone. We need all people to consider the desperation of others as if it was their own, and then to do something to transform the desperation.

Okay, I'm a dreamer. I know it; but don't you call us to dream these dreams? Don't you call us to think about our lives, our gifts, and find something to do that will help make this a better world? Isn't the Golden Rule a part of every major world religion as we think about You? Am I really asking too much?

Please God, transform each of us into Creators of Peace, so that the Prince of Peace may be embodied in us for the world. So be it. Amen. Blessed be.

Isaiah, chapters 46 and 47

We read chapters 46 and 47 in our Isaiah Bible study class yesterday. We ended up in a very interesting conversation about the nature of God.

Some talked about contrasting views of God: angry God vs. loving God, Old Testament God vs. New Testament God.

Others saw the descriptions of God as being just the normal language of biblical times, connecting their views and experiences of God with the natural world. Life and death happens to everyone and everything. In our times, most of us no longer live on farms, so we are quite insulated from the experience and the reality of death. People of biblical times were always, somehow, close to death, and so the language of life and death was a natural way to talk about God.

Others talked about the political situation. In biblical times, Israel was a tiny country surrounded by other countries that were giants. As these giants fought with each other they inevitably crossed through Israel's territory, fighting as they went. Israel was like the little kid who was always getting beaten up by the bigger bullies and losing his lunch money. When someone constantly finds herself / himself on the bottom of a fight, always getting their lights punched out, it's human nature - self-preservation - to ask for a larger power to come help and give back some of what they've been dishing out.

So read some of Isaiah, find the places that describe God differently, think about your life, and add a comment. What do you think? What is God like in your thinking?

Worship for Dec.13th

You'll find our "Order of Worship" for December 13th at www.santabarbarafirst.org. On the side bar, find "prayers" under "faith and spirituality". Check it out!

Lester Brown's book, Plan B 4.0.

Dear Friends:

I have this week placed in the church library a copy of Lester Brown's book, Plan B 4.0., published by The Earth Policy Institute. The book describes what is being done globally to stabilize climate, stabilize population, eradicate poverty, and restore the economy's natural support systems. The Plan states that to accomplish these things will require a budget of 187 billion dollars, which is one-third of the annual current military budget of the USA, or 13% of global military budgets. As of mid-2009, direct U.S. appropriations for the Iraq war...have totaled some 642 billion dollars. Implementing Plan B 4.0. is not a matter of scarce resources, but of national and international priorities as to how available resources should be used.

If you are someone who has faint hope that these things can be done, I recommend you begin by reading Chapter 10 of Plan B 4.0, titled, "Mobilizing to Save Civilization." Things are being done that give us reasons to hope and inspiration to act.

You may also want to put the Earth Policy Institute's website - www.earthpolicy.org - into your bookmarks on your computer and to check it regularly. You will find updates on what is being done globally to address these four interrelated challenges: stabilize climate, stabilize population, eradicate poverty, and restore the economy's natural support systems.

If you are involved with education in any way - schools, churches, service clubs, or book clubs, the Earth Policy Institute provides free, downloadable resources for your use in PDF and PowerPoint formats, including chapters of Plan B 4.0.

I heard Lester Brown speak at UCSB about four years ago on Plan B 4.0. He is worth hearing, worth reading. Plan B has changed as the planet has changed over the past four years. Keep informed and stay involved!

Grace and peace, Wes

"Bring Your Joy to Church" Sunday

Think about it. What is your greatest joy? We'll be talking and sharing about that this Sunday. I hope you and your joy can join us! (2101 State St., Santa Barbara, 93105)

The EPA and greenhouse gases

The EPA has now declared greenhouse gases to be a danger to the people. This will empower them to regulate these gases, with or without the support of the Senate. I celebrate this decision! I fear our earth is moving dangerously fast to the tipping point where none of our efforts will be enough.

What do you think about the EPA decision?

Web

Check out the new stuff on our web site at santabarbarafirst.org!

"It's a Wonderful Life"

Dec. 4th, join us for "It's a Wonderful Life". Light supper at 6. Movie at 6:30 with conversation after the movie. 2101 State St., Santa Barbara. We will be in the Fellowship Hall, so enter at one of two doors at the rear of the building: 1 on Padre behind the picket fence or 2 off the parking lot under the awning.

A Prayerful Advent

November 29th is the first Sunday in a brand new church year and the first Sunday of Advent. It's a time to celebrate the sacredness of new beginnings, the innocence of new life and the profound Source of all our trust. This year, we will celebrate the traditional words of Advent in our Advent wreath liturgies: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Christ. Maybe these prayers can help to walk us through the season.


Hopeful God, when we listen too much to the news, when we fear too much for the earth, when we hurt from words or are bruised by loneliness, bring us into your hope. Remind us to see as you see. Invite us to think like stars. We will share the hope of your Spirit and live confidently in you.


Peaceful God, in these days of long nights, we seek your peace. Others may say we live in paradise, but we know there is no such thing as paradise. We know that many of our streets are not safe after dark. We know that many of our youth are not safe in their neighborhoods. We know that the generosity and compassion of our older folk are victimized by predators. We know that . . . , we know many things. And yet, we also claim your peace. In our most courageous moments, we can hold the reality of our world in one hand, and your perfect peace in the other hand, and we can say both are true. And we can say, God's peace will win. Please God, send us out to serve your peace.


Joyful God, take us to the ocean to see the light play on the waves. Take us to the park to watch the dogs play. Take us to first grade to remind us of unfettered curiosity of children. Give us colors and clay to play with so that we may rediscover the playfulness of creativity and creation. Surround us with symphony and jazz and rhythm and sound to let us float in overwhelming beauty. Remind us of the eyes of our beloveds and tell us again that all creation rests in your delight. And we will practice your joy.


Loving God . . . Loving God . . . Loving God . . . Loving God . . . Loving God . . . Loving God . . . Help us to discover what might happen within us if we truly lived with only these words . . . Loving God.


Mothering, Fathering, Anointing God, we thank you. We thank you for Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One, Divine Son, Brother, Teacher, Healer, Activist, Human. We thank you not just for him, but for how we have come to understand him, for how we have come to know him. In this Advent Season, on this threshold of Christmas, may his birth be a part of who we are becoming. May his innocence be a part of our hope. May his trust be a part of our peace. May his vision for life be a part of our joy. May his compassion be a part of our love. May his Spirit be a part of our own connection to you.

What do we do with Easter?

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! We can not look for the living among the dead. He is not here. So what are we going to do?

If we look at four of the other passages on the list for today, we find four different things we could do, 4 different ways to respond to resurrection.

First, we look to Paul, because he gives us our earliest response. Paul went from one who arrested Christians, to one who became probably the most important Christian missionary. It changed who he was, what he did, how he lived. He experienced a total transformation! That’s one response to resurrection.

Second, we look at the Gospel of Mark. It ends with the women finding an angel in the tomb and no Jesus. The angel told the women to go and tell the disciples that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. But they ran in terror and said nothing. That may surprise us, but it fits with the rest of the people around Jesus who, in Mark, fail miserably. But then, I have a guess as to why it was written that way. I think the author wanted the people who would read the gospel to be comforted.

In the 70s, around the time Mark was written, Jerusalem was under siege. Ultimately, Rome took the city, slaughtered people and destroyed the Temple. When times are that hard, people are not trying to be good disciples; they’re just trying to survive! So reading about the failures of the disciples in the 30s might have been comforting to the people living in the 70s. It’s ok to fail, because resurrection doesn’t depend on you. Resurrection doesn’t fail when we fail. That’s another response to resurrection.

Third, we look to the book of Acts. By the time Acts is written, the church has developed more structure. They’re making rules. They’re making decision about what the church should believe. They’re also saying why they have the right to make these decisions. In Acts 10, we read,

Acts 10:39-42 reads: We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.

The authors of Acts are saying, “We are the right leaders because the baton has been passed to us.”

Others, outside of the church structure, were saying other things about Jesus and resurrection. There are other writings that were not included in the bible that talk about Jesus and God in different ways; these were important writings to many people. But, as time went on, those folks lost influence, weren’t as organized, and gradually disappeared from the institutional church. So the church’s way of responding to resurrection was to protect it, to make it solid, to make it permanent by putting it into a church structure and a belief structure. That’s another response to resurrection.

Fourth, we look at the Gospel of John. It begins with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Jesus was that word. In John, Jesus’ birth is not at Bethlehem, but at the beginning of time itself. Jesus is cosmic. But he is also intimately connected to us.

After his death, Mary Magdalene stands outside the tomb, crying because she thinks someone has taken his body. Jesus stands next to her and simply says her name, “Mary.” She cries out, “Teacher!” Then he tells her not to hold on to him. She must have turned, and in her joy, has grabbed onto him somehow. If she was crying before, what must she be doing now? What must she be feeling now? This is an intimate, emotional scene. And then Mary goes to the disciples and announces, “I have seen the Lord!” I imagine that Mary Magdalene brings all her humanity, all her experiences, all her emotions to bear when she is found by the cosmic, risen Jesus. She’s totally human. That’s another response to resurrection.

There are lots of ways to respond to resurrection.

• We can let ourselves be utterly changed, like Paul.
• We can know that resurrection does not fail when we fail, like the people in Mark.
• We can work to protect resurrection, to keep it safe and the same, like the people in Acts.
• Or we can imagine that the one that we love is mysteriously standing in front of us again, if only for a moment, and alive – and we can feel it.

Each of us will find our own way to respond to resurrection. It may even be different on different days or at different times in our lives. That’s ok. But somehow, let resurrection find you. Let it change your life. And then help it to change the world.

A Bible Study on Isaiah

Welcome to the extension of our study of Isaiah. A group of us from the congregation are meeting regularly to talk about the book and to ask, what is a prophet. What does a prophet do and say? Who are our prophets today and what are they doing and saying?

In our most recent meeting, we realized that we sometimes have thoughts to share between classes, so we're adding an on-line disucssion. We've read chapters 1 through 4 so far.

To get the discussion started, I might ask:

1. What stands out to you about the first 4 chapters or about the discussions we have in class so far?
2. How do you understand the balance of religion and politics in Isaiah's time and in ours?
3. What would happen if our government officials added the position of prophet to cabinets and councils, local, state and national?

The questions are wide open on purpose. Interact with the book, with each other and with your faith journey. What's coming up as important for you?

A Celebration of Life

Should we have fun in worship?
Yes!

Why?
Because among all the other things, worship is a celebration of the gift of life! Life is God's gift to us. Life is good. Sacred life is absolutely stunning.

As we enter a worship space, or whenever we consciously, purposefully acknowledge that we are in the presence of God, we open ourselves to a depth of joy that is true and will always be true, no matter what is happening in our lives.

Life is not always fun. When difficult things are going on in our lives and we bring those things to God's presence, with all the courageous honesty about ourselves that we can muster, God's joy will sit next to our grief, our sadness, our fear, our anger, and will befriend us and our hard times. In that befriending, our tragedies, our fears, our rage will be transformed into opportunities for a greater depth. We grow. We find new resources, new ways of seeing and understanding, and we will be more available for God's gift of sacred life.

Worship is one of the places where we practice bringing our courageous honesty and opening to God's presence, this Sacred Center, this transcendant joy. And ultimately, yes, that's fun!

One voice in Christianity? No.

There has never been one uniform voice in Christianity. There have always been many voices expressing many different points of view. It was that way in the first century, second century, third, fourth, etc., and is still true today.

Conservative voices in Christianity today work from their point of view, but they do not speak for all of us. There has always been a more liberal Christian view and I'm happy to say that the liberal or progressive Christian voice is gaining momentum.

So if you have a spiritual hunger, look for a church that is truly inclusive. They are out there. There are many congregations in many faith groups who are liberal. We are one. ALL are welcome: First Congregational Church of Santa Barbara, 2101 State St., Santa Barbara, CA.

Ashes - you, me or us?

The church has a holy day coming up on February 25th; it’s called Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent, and has been a day of confession. It invites us to make a decision to go in a different direction. This opens up a lot to talk about.

First, I have a lot of problems with the way the Church has talked about sin. We human beings can certainly do a lot of stuff that is destructive, hurts people and is just plain wrong; but I also think the Church has used ideas like sin to simply control people.

Second, “confession can be good for the soul”, but, when forced on or dictated to another, it can also make one’s soul feel like it is held in a vice on someone’s work bench.

Even with these hurtful traditions, I think Ash Wednesday and confession can be turned to the good, especially this year. This is why.

First, sin is not just something that happens when someone does something destructive or hurtful or wrong; whole groups of people, whole cultures can do the same thing. As a group, Caucasian people have not had a good track record with other races. We (yes, I am Caucasian) have oppressed just about every group of people who have a different skin color than ours. Many groups either have someone they discriminate against or are themselves the objects of discrimination. The collective “We” can certainly find enough to be sorry about.

Second, our world is in trouble. Nations practice distrust for one another. International corporations seek to make a profit regardless of who they may hurt or use. The prison system disproportionately arrests and imprisons persons of color, usually male. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is disappearing. And please, don’t get me started on global warming! If you want a list of things to be sorry about, this may help get us started.

Third, you might say, “Yeah, things are bad, but I didn’t do it.” To that I would say, “Yes and no.” Unless you’re very powerful, it’s unlikely that any one person made this mess in which we live; and unless you’re very powerful, it’s unlikely that any one person will be able to fix it. But if you follow systems theory, we are all responsible. System’s theory says that everyone in a group contributes to whatever happens, good or bad. The bad news is that we are all responsible for our mess. The good news is that we are all able to do something about it.

So this year at Ash Wednesday, I will offer prayers on behalf of us all. I will ask forgiveness for the way we – We – have done things that are destructive, hurtful and just plain wrong. And I will ask for blessing on our creativity and cooperation, so that we may be empowered to make a decision to go in a different direction.

There is a lot to talk about. There is a lot to pray about.