McFarland United Church of Christ Sermons

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermon20120115/MUCC_Sermon_20120115.mp3

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermon20120108/MUCC_Sermon_20120108.mp3

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonNovember6th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20111106.mp3

“Shake it up”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC ______Reformation Sunday (October 30, 2011)Matthew 23:1-13 I did a Google search on hypocrisy. Some truly ugly images came up, a decent number aboutpoliticians, but a lot of them about Christians. And Jesus said, “therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do,for they do not practice what they teach.” Ouch. With images like that, is it any wonder that only 17% of people in the U.S. attend church?Really. Seventeen percent. While we’re here in worship, and our friends over at theLutheran church, and Christ the King parish, and the folks up the road at Crossroads Church areworshiping, 83% of the population is doing something else. Away at the cabin, attending roadgames for their kids’ sports, sleeping in, watching a movie on Netflix, having brunch with thefamily, working,…the list of opportunities for your Sunday morning are endless. Even amongour own faith community, our Sunday morning attendance is about half of our membership.We’d like to say we were in church more often than we actually end up in church. This is not aguilt trip. It’s a statement of fact. When I look at these things together – the photos, and the news stories, and the statistics –and then read Jesus’ words, I cringe. Is it any wonder people find better things to do with theirtime? When they don’t see faith making a difference in a person’s life. When they see obviousexamples of hypocrisy in the media. When people who say they are believers act in ways thatare contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlikeyour Christ.” Are you really making a God-space in your life if no one can see it makes anydifference? In today’s scripture, Jesus pointed out the behavior of the “religious” folks of his time – thestumbling blocks that made people cynical about religious faith. It was all about having super-wide fringes on a prayer shawl or getting seated at the head table during banquet. In ourtime, we might see these folks slapping Jesus fish magnets on their car, and carrying aroundbig Bibles (the bigger the Bible, the more Christian you are, of course). Claiming churchmembership, and rarely attending. Avoiding the homeless men at the top of State Street onthe way to a protest. Making a nice clean $25 online donation to a friend’s charity walk, andthen blowing $60 on a videogame. In other words, you’d see people like us. The early twenty-first century suburban Christianfor whom – most of the time - Christianity is a condiment, not the main course. One speakerI know puts it this way: Christians have become more comfortable wearing bibs than aprons.Christ’s church has become a place where individuals can come to consume – church dinners, pastoral care, programs, entertainment. We wear bibs; we are more used to waiting to beserved, than serving. Christ offered another vision: a community where people come to be transformed, wherethey learn to live as if God’s heavenly realm were already here, to spread the seeds of theKingdom of God. Christ’s vision was of lives transformed. Communities transformed. Theworld transformed. We follow a savior who shook things up. Who stood against the status quo. There was nothingof status quo in his ministry. Nothing about survival in his ministry. Not so much about goingin, but an awful lot about going out. One of our youth shared with me recently, “I’m not sure I have time for Jesus.” Preach, child.You are saying what we are all thinking. All of us here, and quite possibly, that 83% of peoplewho are doing something else this morning. If Jesus is just a condiment, a little added flavor into my day, he’s not worth my time. If I canfollow Jesus and not change anything else about my life, why follow in the first place? I haveplenty of other things I can do with a Sunday morning. I can give to charity on my own. I can volunteer with any number of organizations, from theHumane Society to the Red Cross to the AIDS Network, without it being one bit about faith.I can shake hands with my opponent on the tennis court and congratulate them on a goodmatch, be a good sport without Jesus entering into the equation. I can sing my heart out in thefall musical to wild applause, and God doesn’t have to be in the house. Hey, you can see all sorts of people claiming that they’re Christian, and it doesn’t make adifference in their life. They can lie, cheat, steal your boyfriend, then participate in the fooddrive; gossip, text message through the movie, leave the doggie doo on the path at the dogpark, and still show up for communion. So why bother? Why give to good causes through the church? Why get up and come here on Sunday morning? Why make time for Jesus? Because despite all the ways we prove ourselves unworthy, God loves us. God forgives us. Godimagines that the world can be different, and invites us to participate. God is on a mission,dragging the future into the present, and God wants us to be part of it. God made us – as imperfect as we are - to shake the world up. We follow Jesus Christ, a shake-it-up savior. We are descendants of the Protestant Reformers, who took on a church that hadgrown stagnant and inward-focused, out-of-touch with the real spiritual needs of those outsideits doors. We are not called to be Christians, following the model of the official religiouspeople, accepting the way things are as the way things will always be. We are called to beChrist-followers, dragging heaven into the world moment by messy moment. Why make time for Jesus? Because people need to hear the God-story over and over and over again. And you can bethe one to offer it. People hear so many terrible messages about themselves: lazy, selfish,technology-obsessed, overeaters, bullies, messed-up, damaged goods, undesirable…. Whenwhat they really need to experience is the simple idea: You are loved. You deserve respect.And I’m not just going to say something about it, I’m going to do something about it. I’m goingto give you the respect you deserve as a child of God. The world needs to see what Christ-followers really look like. Not for your own sense of pride,not for the best seat in the house, not so people can look at you and say, “what a super-religious-person she is.” Practice what Jesus taught. Because somebody needs to stand upand say, “things can be different” and start doing something to make it happen. Jesus said, “letyour light shine.” Put on your apron. Let God shine through you so the people who are facingtheir dark night see something different and reach for it. Make time for Jesus, because God is shaking it up, and that is where you’ll find heaven breakingin. Amen. http://ia700703.us.archive.org/18/items/MuccSermonOct30th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20111030.mp3

“Whose Image? God’s Image!”_Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC 18th Sunday after Pentecost (October 16, 2011)Matthew 22:15-22 The first presidential campaign I had any substantial interest in was the 1992 Clinton campaign.James Carville, a political strategist, was hired to keep everyone “on message.” He posted asign in campaign headquarters to remind everyone of that message: (1) Change vs more of thesame (2) The economy, stupid (3) Don’t forget health care. Point number two morphed into apopular catchphrase: “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was a phrase that caught our imagination,and a message that may well have won the election. Twenty years later, there’s a lot that has changed, and a lot that has stayed the same.Commentators on CNBC might be saying, “It’s the Dow Jones Industrial Average, stupid.” Somecongresspersons say, “It’s the deficit, stupid.” Those who are long-term unemployed maysay, “It’s the jobs, stupid.” The youth and young adults with five-figure student loan balancesand no employment prospects, who are protesting nationwide alongside aging hippies andWorld War Two veterans and union members, trying to raise awareness of how the financialtitans have stacked the deck against ninety-nine percent of our country’s population, aresaying, “It’s Wall Street, stupid!” What do these all have in common? Money. We hang an awful lot of angst on the economy,on money, on making a living, on making do. Last week, we discussed how sometimes, ouraccount balances can become idols. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus faces a challenge fromthe Pharisees and supporters of King Herod. What does it appear to revolve around? Money. Money – the topic that is publicly off-limits, but always on our minds. “They” say it’s not goodmanners to talk about money, it’s gauche, it’s not discussed in polite society. Or maybe youwere raised to not let people know how little you had. Maybe your employer says employeesare not supposed to discuss pay. Maybe you postpone opening your mail – willfully ignoring itsexistence because you can’t face one more bill (which may or may not be overdue). Money –financial resources - is the topic that comes up in the Bible thousands of times. And it’s also not the point of this passage. The money is a convenient vehicle to hang our anxiety on, to divert our attention from deepermatters. It happens when Jesus plants himself firmly in the seat of civil and religious power and daresthem to ignore him. The way Matthew tells it, this coin incident takes place during Holy Week.Sitting in the temple courtyard, Jesus is teaching. The Pharisees send their close followers, andsome of King Herod’s groupies, to ask Jesus a trick question. Starting with some praise, theymove on to the question of whether it is acceptable, under Jewish law, for Jews to pay taxes tothe emperor. This is not a question of tax relief from the IRS. This was about a fundamental values conflictbetween the life of faith and the political realm. This is a no-win question. Jesus answers, “yes,it’s acceptable to pay taxes” – and he’s unmasked as an incompetent rabbi, incompetentteacher, not worth following. Because Roman coins proclaimed, on one side, the divinity ofCaesar. Caesar is God, according to Roman values. In using those coins, in carrying themaround with you, you might as well be uttering blasphemy, if you’re a deeply observant Jew.“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” “I am the Lord your God, who broughtyou up out of Egypt, you shall have no other gods before me.” Big problem. On the other hand, Jesus could say, based on fundamental precepts of Jewish law, “no,absolutely not, this is blasphemy, a good Jew shouldn’t bow down to an Emperor, in anyway, even by using his money.” At which point, somebody would tattle back to the Romanauthorities, and then he’d be in deep trouble – because refusal to pay taxes identifies him withJewish zealots and rebels, violent sects who are subverting the empire, and you know thatthings never end well for ragtag mobs who challenge Rome. It’s not about the money. It’s about the power. I’m not instigating a revolt against the IRS or the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Nor am Icalling you to go out and participate in “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy Madison” – althoughif you did, I’d bless you on your way. I think you might find Jesus there among the unwashedmasses holding the sidewalk, making room for hope in the midst of despair. Really, this about power – do you bow to the might of Rome, or do you forcefully resist? Doyou keep paying your taxes into the system like a good subjugated population ought to – or doyou align yourself with the fringe elements who are aiming for revolution? Jesus, as always, opted for Door #3. He answered the real question, not the false either-orsituation he was presented with. Fundamentally, the question that Jesus answered that daywas an ancient one. Earlier than the Roman conquest of the Holy Land, earlier than the nationof Israel arriving in the Holy Land, earlier than Moses receiving the law on the mountaintop -before nations, before cities, before taxation and before tributes. It goes all the way back tofirst things. From the book of Genesis: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be likeus.” Ah. Whose image? God’s image. It’s not about what you pay, what you spend, what you carry around in your pocket. It’s about whose imprint you bear. Do you have clothes or accessories with a corporate logo today? What does that mean? Whydo the logos get bigger and bigger as a design element? They want us to know who made theseitems – because if we like it, we might want to imitate it, and we might want to know where toget it. Jesus gets it. He knows what they’re up to, the power games they’re playing. And so heanswers the question behind the question. Is Caesar’s imprint on the coin? Then it belongsto Caesar. And it can be issued by Caesar and repaid to Caesar and circulated by Caesar, andwithdrawn by Caesar. But whose imprint are you wearing? Who has placed their mark on you? Is it God’s Holy Spirit,by the waters of baptism? Was it Jesus Christ, God-with-us, changing your life? Was it theGreat Creator of all that is, who knew you even before you were born? God who created you, and saves you, and sustains you. God, whose imprint is in every fiber ofyour being, in your DNA, in those intangible elements that also make you, you. Your laughter,your tears, your passions, your gifts. Whose imprint to you bear, every day and night of yourlife? God’s. “Let us make humankind in our image, to be like us.” When someone is walking around in theworld looking for someone, something to imitate, they have so many options. Imagine if theysaw the imprint of God in the way you live your life – and they chose to imitate that. Imagineif they saw the imprint of God in the choices you make, and started asking questions. “Why doyou do that?” “It’s a Jesus thing.” Who gave the gift? God. To whom do we owe the gift? God. Who will call the gift back home,at the end of its days? God. Offer up to God, that which bears the imprint of God. Whose image? God’s image. Amen. http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermonOct16th2011_34/MUCC_Sermon_20111016.mp3

“Everyday gods”Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC ­­­ 17th Sunday after Pentecost (October 9, 2011)Exodus 20 and 32 Imagine a woman, recently retired, at home full-time, when she had been used to being at theoffice more than full-time. Or, if you prefer, a man, unemployed, who has applied for every jobhe might be remotely qualified for within a 100 mile radius, and even some he isn’t qualifiedfor. Or, perhaps, a teen, too young for a paying job, home alone for a chunk of the day duringsummer vacation. Imagine them, sitting at the computer, having discovered some mildly entertaining socialgame called “FarmCityGardens”, or maybe “MafiaRestaurantVille” online. At first, it’s a nicediversion from the hours and hours that need to be filled. A click, and a virtual field has beenplanted. Click. Harvested. Click. In the storehouses. Click. A dish is on the stove. Click. It’splated. Click. A cute little virtual figure heads across the screen to serve it to the customers.And so on, and so forth. It takes a certain number of seconds, or minutes, or hours, until the task is completed. Formany of them, if you don’t return on time, the crop withers or the food burns. After somepretend currency has been expended for seeds, and a few hundred mouse clicks to plant andwater and fertilize a field, you don’t want to lose your investment. There’s a little pressureinvolved – the game makers want you to come back, on a regular basis, and they’re prettyskilled at finding ways to make that happen. So our hypothetical friend starts writing down the times the dishes are ready or the crops aresupposed to mature. They structure their day around it: “I planted pumpkins at 2 pm, so ifwe go out for dinner with friends, we have to be back by 8 pm, or they’ll rot on the vine.” Andsoon, this calendar of virtual obligations to imaginary entities rules their life. Now, this is not intended to be a rant against Facebook or other social media, or the evils oftechnology. Really, this is just a simple story that is played out millions of times every day oncomputer screens across the country. How very easily we fall into the trap of creating, andorganizing our lives around, our own gods! *** “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” That’s “gods,” small g. The people got what the people asked for. They had been so frightened, earlier, when God (bigG) spoke. They were so unsettled by God’s presence, that they said to Moses, “You speak tous…do not let God speak to us.” They would rather count on Moses to be the God-person, thanrisk encountering God themselves. So back up the mountain Moses went, and disappeared for 40 days. For forty days, the peoplewere out there in the desert, with no God, no Moses. Hmmm… Maybe this “no God” thingwasn’t such a great idea after all. You need something to follow. Something to organizeyour life around. Since God (big G) was too intimidating, they opted for something moremanageable, more accessible. “Let’s make some gods!” might sound like the height of hubris, a contrived conflict in thestoryline of the Israelites. It was foreshadowed, way back in chapter 20. “You shall have noother gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol….” Hello!? If you’ve beenfollowing the story, you know. Of course they’re going to do it. They needed a god. So they made a god (small g). Oh, it’s easy to pick on the Israelites for thisone. But we all need something to organize our life around, a center to our universe. Whenthe world is big, and chaotic, we need some way to make sense of it. It seems to much even tograsp, sometimes. And so we flail around, gleaning from what we he have already at hand, toput something together. A central organizing principle, one friend of mine calls it. Somethingto focus on when God (big G) seems impossibly far away. We are addicted to finding these small gods, to substituting them for the God who cannot bereduced to manageable proportions. We worship many gods, and they each have their ownsphere. It’s like we’re juggling gods, all day long. There’s the god of the meeting agenda, thegod of the Packers schedule, the god of athletic or music practice. There’s the report card god.The god of the grocery bill, the god of our morning step on the scale. We dance around gods of the calendar, the clock, our smartphones and tech gadgets, the daysour major bills come due, our credit rating, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, whether ourfavored political party is in power. When we are in front of them, they have our loyalty and ourattention. We organize our lives around them. We let them become all-powerful in our lives,believe that they shape our destiny. As if these gods had the power to save us. When in theend, we are children of a much mightier God. It’s a golden calf! It’s made from melted-down jewelry, for heaven’s sake! How can a god youmake, possibly compare to the all-mighty, all-powerful God who just delivered a resoundingdefeat to the most powerful empire in the known world? Who sets the boundaries of the sea,who placed the stars in the sky, who kept an impossible promise through all the generations. This is the God we worship. God, big G. God who said, quite clearly, “I am your God, whobrought you out of Egypt, who brought you out of slavery.” This is the God who sets beforeus the ways of life and death, who gives instruction for relating to both God and neighbor. TheGod who sings over, and over again, the songs of freedom. And it is this God who invites us to deny those other, puny “gods” any air time. Those godscannot bring anyone out of slavery. Those gods have no power other than the power we grantthem. We are children of God the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, who conquers thepowers of chaos, death and destruction. This is our God, sisters and brothers, who brings usthrough the wilderness and opens possibilities we can, even now, barely imagine. Thanks be to God. Amen. http://www.archive.org/download/McfarlandUccSermonOct9th2011_196/MUCC_Sermon_20111009.mp3

Acts 2: 1-12 As most of you know, I have been enrolled in Lay Academy for the past 3 years. For those that do not know what Lay Academy is; the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ hosts a Lay Academy program, offering courses of study to pastors and lay people who seek to: deepen their faith, strengthen Christ's church, and grow in spiritual maturity. We meet five weekends per year at the Wisconsin Conference Center in DeForest and are usually led by instructors from various Seminaries or specialists in that subject's particular field. It is a fantastic program and I highly recommend it. I have learned much from my Lay Academy experience. It has been quite a journey so far. From the first class on Theology where I was so afraid these classes would be way over my head to my most recent class on Evangelism. My faith has been tested, stretched and has grown more than I could have ever imagined. During our class on the Old Testament we were introduced to the term “exegesis. This Greek word, means a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. We were taught that through exegesis we were to look at the historical background and ask questions to discover the meaning, surrounding the text and how we can use this today. Well, lets give this a shot. So what is the historical background to today's text? Pentecost is historically and symbolically related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot , which commemorates God giving the Ten Commandments to the people, fifty days after the Exodus. Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as the "Birthday of the Church". Let's keep that in mind, the “Birthday of the Church”. So what happened to this “Jesus Movement” after the death and departure of it's founder? What were the disciples going to do? How would they go on without their leader? All along they had displayed fear and had questioned what they should do next. They must have felt totally lost and afraid, but as they had been instructed by Christ, they prayed and waited. Acts, chapter 2 opens up and it says “they were all together in one place”. This was for the celebration of the 50th day after the Passover when the Jewish pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate God's gracious provisions of harvested food, land and Torah. Who was there? Verse 13 of Acts 1 says, “Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women including Mary the mother of Jesus as well as his brothers.” What exactly were they really doing? Waiting and probably wondering. What were they waiting for? In Luke 24: 49 Jesus says, “so stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” In Acts chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus also tells the disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. After hearing Jesus say these words in many different ways, they must have been convinced because they waited. Waiting. Now, how many of you like to wait? Like a child, waits for their birthday to arrive, or worse yet...Christmas to arrive? Waiting for a loved one to come home, that you haven't seen for a very long time. For the traffic light to turn green so you can go. For a baby to arrive. We all spend a good share of our lives waiting. Sometimes we do it patiently. Sometimes, not so much. How do you think the disciples were at waiting? Were they patient? Did they wonder what this power was that they were promised they would receive? How would the Holy Spirit come to them? What do you think this would this feel like? Or look like? But alas, all they could do was wait. Our texts describes the Holy Spirit as “the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and that tongues of fire appeared among them and rested on each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, how would you expect the Holy Spirit to arrive? Tiptoe quietly in? Nah, I suspect that there were a few of those disciples that would have needed to be convinced. Probably Thomas for one. What a fearsome sight this must have been. A wild violent wind whipping through the room and red flames dancing over their heads. Not a sight you see every day. Then to make things even more interesting, they began speaking in other languages. Why was this? Well the Holy Spirit had now given the disciples the tools to share the good news of God, through witnessing (or evangelism). This was for ALL people, even from other nations. What an inspiring sight this must have been. It WAS the Birthday of the Church. Because of their witnessing, these Jews of other nations, became believers and now followers too. Now that you think about it, it seems that time has not changed this practice over the years on how we too can grow the church. This text for today reports a miracle that is often overlooked because it is not as flashy as most. No one is healed. No one is raised from the dead. No one has a demon driven out. No one's water is turned to wine. No ones sees a storm stopped by Christ's command. What we do see is that every person gathered in Jerusalem heard the Word of God in their own language. How was this done? Thru the Holy Spirit giving the disciples and even us, the gift of Evangelism. This miraculous story reminds us that to hear God's Word we have only to open our ears, for God speaks God's Word to all people, in all places for all times though the power of the Holy Spirit. How do we speak to the guests that come into our church? How do we speak to the people outside these doors? Do we speak their language? When the Holy Spirit is present, we speak the language needed, for them to understand. Just like the disciples who now were speaking the same language to the devout Jews of other nations. It's the sharing and receiving of the Good News that is Evangelism and that in turn will grow the church. Oh, and there's that word that has so many connotations. Did you hear it?...Evangelism. What thoughts come to your mind? TV evangelism? Someone pushy? Tent Revivals? Knocking on doors? In your face? How about this; A messenger that brings the Good News of God, an Angel, Testimony, Acceptance, Relationships, Love. Have you ever experienced a Pentecost or Evangelism moment? I'm sure most of you have and didn't realize it. It was maybe a time when you shared something about your faith with someone or maybe someone shared something about their faith with you? It is indescribable what can happen. You may not see tongues of fire but you certainly will feel something. And that's the Holy Spirit. Let me give you an example. Some of you were present the Sunday when Ryan Krattiger shared his journey of faith through his travels to Juarez and his experience with the ACT Ride. We were all pulled into that moment as he spoke. We were sharing in his experience. At that moment, the church was alive with the Holy Spirit. We all felt it, in fact most of us were actually brought to tears. The love, relationship, the message. For myself, I can say that I have recently been so fortunate to be on the receiving end of some inspiring moments in this church during our Fellowship time. I've witnessed some beautiful faith stories that have been shared with me. I wish I could sit down with each one of you and hear your faith journey, for being on the receiving end, is truly feeling the Holy Spirit at work. I have found, after these experiences, that I leave church feeling like I'm walking on a cloud all day. Now, that is what church is all about and I feel like I want to share it with everyone. It is such an infectious emotional feeling. Our Fellowship time is a time for sacred moments such as these. It's an opportunity to share with others. To feel the Holy Spirit at work. Experience it and then to take it out beyond our doors and share it with others. You may have noticed, a little slip of paper in each of your bulletins. On your slip of paper is one of 8 statements that can be used to start a conversation with someone. I'd like to encourage you to try talking to someone during Fellowship time today talking about what your slip of paper says, and then listen to what story you hear back. Wait until you see what happens. I think you will be surprised. Evangelism is so easy and the rewards are huge. Give it a try. Christ may have died on the cross and rose again on Easter morning, but without Pentecost, our Easter story would have eventually become a forgotten memory. When Christ had left he promised to send the Holy Spirit in his place; to guide, teach, comfort and remind us of who we are and who's we are. Share that good news today with someone and see what happens. Happy Birthday! Amen. http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonJune12th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110612.mp3

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonJune5th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110605.mp3

http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonMay29th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110529.mp3

“Holy Conversations”_                  _____              Second Sunday After Easter (May 8, 2011) Rev. Kerri Parker, McFarland UCC                                 Luke 24:13-35 Back when I worked for a social services agency, we used to run into a pretty big problem on Friday afternoons.  You see, we had an immigrant assistance program, but it was only staffed four days a week.  That was all we could manage with the funding we had, to have people providing services Monday through Thursday.  If someone walked through the doors on a Friday, there was no one who could assist.  It was so disappointing to say, “I’m sorry, there’s no one here right now who can help you with that.  Can you come back on Monday?”   To make it even more challenging, the folks we worked with had very limited English language skills.    They were primarily Spanish speakers, who came to us because they wanted to learn English, to become fluent in local culture and part of the community.   Most of them approached us because they needed help dealing with complicated, grief- and anxiety-filled situations in their lives.   And when the staff was gone for the week, all the receptionist knew how to say was, “ellas no estan” – “they’re not here.”   That was the limit of what we could do.  “No, there’s no one to help you.”  The person’s need – no matter how important, no matter how sad it was – would have to wait.    That was the limit of the communication we could offer.    If their need didn’t present itself in the appropriate way, at the appropriate time, they were out of luck.   Now when I arrived, I can’t pretend we had any great improvement in the situation.  I had five years of extremely rusty high school Spanish under my belt.   I couldn’t even roll my ‘r’s anymore.  I didn’t work for the program, but somehow, shortly after I joined the agency, the receptionist got wind of this alleged skill.  And so when I was the only manager in the office on a Friday afternoon, I would get the phone call.   “Um, there’s somebody out here looking for help, and I don’t know what they’re saying.”   So I would trot out of my office, over the front desk, and introduce myself.   If I was lucky, they would respond with, “¿Hablas español?”   If I was not so lucky, they would launch immediately into the detailed explanation of their need, in Spanish, and I was left to stand there, looking sympathetic, but not fully following.   And then I would be forced to admit, “Solo un poquito.  Lentamente por favor.”  “Just a little.   Slowly, please?”   We would stand there, cobbling together a combination of our limited Spanish and English vocabularies – Spanglish – and gestures toward specific lines on important documents, until we could arrive at some sort of mutual understanding of what was going on.  Often, I could find some way to lessen the crisis – explaining what the important letter was asking, telling them what time the court appointment was, explaining what their next steps might be.  It was an exhausting way to end my week, but it made up some of the most meaningful moments of my time there. --- How do you have a conversation with someone when you don’t speak the same language?   You start with any fragile connection you can build.  You start with a one-to-one relationship. You build this relationship on storytelling and empathy, on careful listening, borrowing words and concepts from one another.   You keep trying, opening your hearts to one another, cobbling a new language together, and listening for the wisdom that comes in these holy moments. --- Jesus and the disciples were speaking two different languages that day, on the road to Emmaus -  two different languages, two different worldviews.    The disciples were speaking the language of the world as it existed before Jesus, before resurrection.  The limited vocabulary they had to work with was: fear, suffering, division, death, my-way-or-the-highway, the empire wins.   So when Jesus asked them, “what are you talking about, as you go along?” that was how they answered him.   “We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.”  We had hoped (past tense).    We had hoped that he would fit into our notions of what a Savior looks like.    All the while, standing beside them with an inquiring, sympathetic look, was the unlikely Savior from an unlikely place, who they could not recognize. And so Jesus reached out to them, using Resurrection language, born in the light of an unlikely Easter morning.    Language rooted in his teachings, but now filled with the music of divine love. The vocabulary was this:  Promise.  Anticipation.  Fulfillment.  New Life.  Generosity.  Widening possibilities.   He heard their version of the story, and offered his own vocabulary to flesh it out.    Jesus accompanied them along the way, taking the time to travel this road with them.    He had sympathy for where they were, emotionally.   They had heard of the resurrection, but as of yet, it was still just a tale.  The language of the world-as-it-is was still more powerful, in their minds and hearts.   So he cobbled together the language they had with the language he had, to make a new thing they could understand.   In-between places call for in-between language.   Language that admits to the world as it appears to be, but layers over it a good and gracious God, a divine presence that wills life for us all.   Jesus language.   A new language that consistently says, “yes, but…” – “Yes, suffering, but sympathy, too.”  “Yes, death, but life, too, beyond that.”    “Yes, unjust powers, but also a holy community where those powers do not reign supreme.” --- This is the language of Christianity.   This is the language that disciples and evangelists used to spread Jesus’ way throughout the world.   These are the building blocks of our conversation, of our relationship with one another.    And in today’s tale of the road to Emmaus, we hear one of the first conversations in this new, resurrection language.   We are Christians.   We are an Easter people, and we speak resurrection language.   Jesus taught it to us, all those long years ago.   And Jesus is still teaching it to us.    This is what God calls us to do, as disciples of the Risen Christ. My friends, Jesus shows us how to do it.   Jesus shows us how to grow a church.  Jesus shows us how to do ministry together.   Find the lost and lonely ones going along the road.    There’s not some mystical secret about this.  It’s not rocket science.  The lost and lonely ones are going down the road, just like you and me.   We bump into them all the time.   Sometimes they’re here, sitting in a chair next to you on Sunday morning, desperately lonely and yet they struggled to walk out their own front door.   Sometimes they’re slouched on a sofa, or at a desk at school, immersed in their own private thoughts, convinced nobody loves them for who they are.  Sometimes they’re in the next cubicle over at your workplace, trying to figure out how to get through the thirty five things they have left to do today before they collapse, exhausted, into bed.   These are Jesus’ people.  They are walking along the road talking about what they have experienced, using the only language they have, to make sense of what happens to them on a daily basis.   And they need Good News. Do what Jesus did:  befriend them.  Befriend these people.  Listen to them.  Listen with love to what is burning in their hearts.  Offer them the gift of resurrection language:  Hope.   Fellowship.  Caring.  Possibility.   New life.  Extend the gift of table fellowship to the lost, the lonely and the broken ones.   Share a table.  Break bread together.  Christ will be there, too. Amen. http://www.archive.org/download/MuccSermonMay8th2011/MUCC_Sermon_20110508.mp3