Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.            

Message

“…For we are all members of one body … do not let the sun go down on your anger … share with the needy … may your words give grace to those who hear … do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God … be kind to one another … be imitators of God … and live in love.”

In my New Revised Version of the Bible these verses are organized beneath the phrase, “Rules for the New Life.”  In the message, a Bible written in a more contemporary language, the verses are organized beneath the phrase, “The Old Way Has to Go.”  And in the New International Version they are organized beneath the title, “Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ.”  Each title is fitting in its own way.  The writer of Ephesians offers eight separate instructions on how to live to this very new Christian community.  And it’s not just anything, but a very special community comprised of Jews and Gentiles.  As I first read the verses I immediately thought of the Ten Commandments.  I reflected upon the Exodus commandments and the Ephesians rules and wondered about the similarities and the differences.  Three of the Ten Commandments are directed at individuals and the community and how they relate to God: “You shall have no other gods before me … You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God … Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”  The remaining commandments inform its followers how to treat others in their families or in their neighborhoods:  “Honor your father and mother …You shall not commit adultery or murder … You shall not steal or give false testimony against your neighbor … You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

More than a thousand years separate the offering of these keys to living.  Major and Minor Prophets shared visions, they shared dreams, they even made threats to those in their communities.  Wars were fought, lives were lost, geography burned, and yes, Jesus was born, he chose his disciples and ministered to the multitudes.  And finally he was punished and assassinated.  Christianity in some form or another has been established by this time late in the First Century.

So let’s revisit these titles in the three versions of today’s text:  “The Old Way Has to Go,” “Rules for a New Life” and “Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ.”  “The Old Way Has to Go” seems pretty clear cut:  old behaviors seem to not be welcome any more; people need to find a way to come together, to stop judging and feeling superior to one another, to speak to one another in truth and in love.  Rules: people in general are not real fond of rules and even more so Congregationalists really despise the rules; we push against the system.  Some people cling to rules as life itself depends upon

Pastor Lisa Horst Clark

August 5, 2018

1 Samuel 17: 4, 8-9, 32-40

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span…He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”…

 David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”

Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.  David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.

Reflections on Hamilton

It is the beginning of August, but an unusual Sunday here.  Today I am participating with around two dozen other clergy around the country, each whom have chosen a song from the musical “Hamilton” to preach on.  “Just like my country I’m young scrappy and hungry and I’m not throwin’ away my shot.”  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.”

Folks, we need to be hungry for God’s kingdom on earth and if we can’t feel it we need to follow those who can, those who feel the urgency of the moment, those who feel the potent strain between the world as it is and the world as it should be, those who do not just sit and wait for the moment to come to them but chase down those pivotal points that call for courage and conviction and sacrifice.  This is our moment, our time and our chance and we can’t throw it away.

Lin-Manuel Miranda apparently picked up a biography of Alexander Hamilton while on vacation.  He was a few pages in when he said, “I know this story.”  Alexander Hamilton was orphaned, self-taught and in the wake of tragedy he was able to write so powerfully that it inspired his community to send him to school in the mainland colony.  Once there, Alexander Hamilton used his writing as a force to move towards revolution, to become Washington’s aide-de-camp, a soldier, a war hero, author of the Federalist Papers, first Secretary of the Treasury, pickers of more battles than one, before going to the presses himself to reveal a scandalous affair and later dueling Aaron Burr, only to be killed in the process.  So what did Mister Miranda see in this story?  He saw an immigrant story of someone who was given an opportunity and grabbe

Rev. Cristina Airaghi

July 8, 2015

Mark 6: 1 – 13

             He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

             Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.  

Message

So today’s Gospel is made up of two distinct parts:  part one, Jesus visits his hometown, Nazareth, and part two Jesus sends out his disciples two by two.  But together, these two scenes have something to tell us, not only about God and God’s power but about our part in building the kingdom of God and about what can happen when hope and faith and God take center stage instead of ego, expectation and material things.

Up until now, in Chapter 6, Mark’s Gospel has been this action-packed whirlwind story that tells us about who Jesus is:  parables, miracles, forgiving sins, rejecting Satan, embracing the Sabbath and along the way he collects a few disciples.  But now in Chapter 6, having been out and about all over the region, Jesus comes home to Nazareth and we, along with the Nazarenes, hear him preach in the synagogue and we are able to ask, “Who is this man and where did he get all this?”  But unlike them, however, Mark would not have us surprised by Jesus’ power.  Where they cannot see past their familiarity with Jesus as merely a woodworker or as Mary’s son or James’ brother, we have been shown Jesus the healer, the miracle worker, the teacher.  They are too convinced of his ordinariness to see his powers and teachings and life-changing deeds.

For prophets, evidently familiarity breeds contempt, and similar expressions appear in classical literature at the time where Greek philosophers like to grumble that their own people did not appreciate them.  But Mark then turns to telling us about the action plan that comes next:  now that we know who Jesus is, what shall be the response of those who follow him?  For the disciples, the task is to go and preach a message of repentance, equipped with nothing but their sandals and a tunic on their back.  Despite the scarcity of their materials we are told that empowered by Christ’s command much was achieved through them.  The prohibitions against carrying bread, bag or money indicate that the disciples were itinerant preachers, not merchants or beggars, and this insistence on travelling lightly is why I have brought a few books to make my point this morning.  I haven’t finished either of them.  As you will see, my point is it’s a process not a destinatio

Pastor Lisa Horst Clark

June 24, 2018

1 Samuel 17:57-18:16

On David’s return from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved.

As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.

Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence, and made him a commander of a thousand; and David marched out and came in, leading the army. David had success in all his undertakings; for the Lord was with him. When Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David; for it was he who marched out and came in leading them.

Message

I have been trying to find the right way to consume news in general that informs and engages and evokes my sympathies and my abilities to act and doesn’t leave me circling in a pit of hopelessness with numbness and despair.  There are times when I feel this weight and the onslaught of heavy things that I start to feel so stuck that sometimes I find myself searching for good news somewhere in there.  There is this optimist e-mail that the Washington Post sends out and there it compiles all of just the good stories of the week and so I sit there reading stories about kids overcoming the odds, surprising acts of grace, kindness of total strangers and people working together for the common good.  And you know how this works: more often than not I find myself there weeping.  I am a crier by nature and these stories are heartening, but I find myself bringing disproportionate tears, as I am so relieved to hear these stories of human decency.  The floodgates open and there I am balling because I’m so hungry for a picture of promise in the midst of it all.

And so, disclosure time:  I am a straight, white woman who seeks to engage in the work of being an Ally.  I have heard from my LGBTQ kindred how the experience of many has been to look at the Bible and to flinch.  I’ve heard the stories of LGBTQ kids looking through the media and books and movies and what it has meant to see a glimpse of someone that looks like them represented.  And so I am here as a Pastor and someone who seeks to be an Ally and here is this Scripture that the L