A still, small voice and ...clothed and in our right mind

6/23

I hear Stephen playing the piano as I enter the sanctuary. It feels good to hear him in the semi-darkness. 

A woman from Brazil comes in looking for a service, but seeing things not quite ready to happen soon leaves. (I wish Junia were here....).

As always, it’s good to see son Dan here. His support means a lot. 

It’s a Sunday to gather in a circle of chairs. I feel what I want to say today is important and I’m anxious to get to it.

We’ve got two great passages today. ..First, Elijah and what we call the still, small voice passage.  (Still best in the King James Version..1 Kings 19: 1-4(5-7)8-15a)And the other, Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac. (Luke 8: 26-30)

First, Elijah. We’ve been following him around awhile. You may remember remember him from the throw more water on it contest with the priests of Baal.  His confrontation with Ahab the dogs will lick your blood...Now he's tired. He’s had enough. He’s ready to just lie there in state of depression, not even interested in eating.

First angels get him up again. Encourage him to eat...for the journey... so he 

Goes to wait for God. Another one of those 40 day situations. (Whenever you read that, it’s another way of saying feels like eternity..) He hides in the cleft of the rock, waiting for God to pass. 

He looks for God in all the mighty expected places....the  storm, the wind, the earthquake, the fire...but God is not in any of those. In the end it's a still, small voice---- encouraging him to get up and get going again....

We need to look, listen  for God’s presence in surprising, unexpected places. God is not always in the big and overwhelming. While we wait, we can be like Elijah. Waiting for the still, small voice...And even as we build new plans, let us not miss what God can say and do with us now,  just as we are.

Now, Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac. I just love the way that sounds. There is of course, the socio-political interpretation. The demon says its name is legion... like the Romans. Occupation,domination can make you crazy. Lose your identity.

Dostoevsky saw this story as a parable for what was happening to Russia in his day, the people plunging over the cliff like possessed swine following the rising tide of anarchic revolution. Camus in his dramatization saw it as a parable about the rising tide of nihilism.

But from a therapeutic perspective, this man was so possessed, he'd lost his own identity . My friend Nancy Lee Head of the PHEWA Presbyterian Serious Mental Illness Network..helped me to understand a lot about being bipolar...There were these moments when she would feel completely connected to all people, to everything, all creation. Felt so good she would go off her meds and then completely lose any sense of herself, lost in chaos..

Jesus drives demons into the swine, they hurtle over a cliff. And here's the best part... The next day they  find the demoniac clothed and in his right mind. And that's what scares people.

I’m reminded by what we have learned from family systems studies of the formerly incarcerated and their families. How families create a narrative with assigned roles. And changes in those roles are disrupting and painful, even if someone has regained their life. Unless a reentry process has been gone through helping the famjly to adjust, recidivism is soon to follow. 

Despite what people say, people getting healed is unsettling, disturbing and families, communities will actively or passively resist it.

What does it feel like to wake up clothed and in our right mind? If we are the person whose life has been reclaimed? The former demoniac wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus wants him to remain in his community as witness, as testimony. 

One of our former members told me that it was the custom in his tradition every Sunday for the preacher to say Thank you Jesus for waking me up clothed and in my right mind....Not a bad place to begin. 

We can help each other with that, like angels bringing food for the journey. Beginning with doxology, with thanksgiving...not a bad place to begin.....

We make our circle. Sing our amens. The Session meets briefly to reflect on the week ahead.

Later, I will notice Jane and Sanctuary NYC engrossed in deep conversation.

I will return still later trying to track down my missing cell phone. 

Only the lost boy asleep on the steps. 

I say to you RISE

6/9

It's Sunday. Stephen is here ready to do whatever is needed. Jay is helping to move tables, sweep the steps. get ready for worship. Soon enough, the service begins. 

Today we are dealing with two primary passages, I Kings 17: 8-24 and Luke 17: 11-17. 

I say to you rise.... So says Elijah to the young man, son of the widow in 1 Kings. 

Whenever we think of rising from the dead, our thoughts always automatically go to Easter and Jesus' resurrection. But it's not just Jesus’ resurrection that confronts us. We have these stories as well. 

We are looking at,and looking for, nameable moments when God’s power is visible.

First, this much is clear: our God is the God of life.

I give the back story of Elijah. Of the paradigmatic characters Ahab and Jezebel. The worst King ever of Israel, marrying Jezebel and adopting the worship of Baal.  And out of the backwoods of Gilead comes the Rastafarian sounding prophet with the name that means Yah is my God. Come to challenge Ahab. 

Needing to hideout for awhile, he comes to the home of a widow with  barely enough to eat, he asks her for a cake. She has virtually nothing but  takes what she takes what she has and shares with Elijah and then.... more comes...it never runs out....

With Jesus, when he comes to the widow of Nain, what Jesus feels...in the Greek, is compassion...not just feeling with, but passion with....in the Greek, it's a deep passion,  literally feeling in his bowels, his  guts...so we’re called to gutsy compassion....

Again, the bottom line is, Our God is a God of LIFE

There were economic implications in both cases..when a widow's only son dies, she is left dependent on the charity and compassion of the community...what we are looking for is not dependent charity but compassion, community, justice....in both cases,the  child returned to the mother. (Of course I always have to wonder about what we don't know....what happened in  the rest of their lives? )

Jesus is called a prophet because his raising of the widow's son  he reminds them of Elijah.

The messages for us are clear: 

God wants us to live

God wants us to rise

We are about the business of reclaiming lives

If we are willing to be gutsy, and risky, (the widow risked ALL she had....)more will come.....

It is there if we believe it, what we have to do is claim it....to name it, to will it....

Afterwards, people talk. There are people who were moved to tears. People whose lives have been reclaimed. And there others. With names. The nameable moments,the nameable people, are already there. With us. In our circle. They know it is real.  That's why we are here. God is saying to us, Rise....we just have to believe it. Yes, again, and will it.

Our congregational meeting goes well. John agrees to bring his ministry of service into the office of Deacon.  Hugo agrees to become an Elder again, and for the first time Stephen and Don accept the call.

There is passionate discussion about the sale of the manse. There is agreement to proceed IF there is an agreed upon strategic plan. IF there is guarantee that we won't just spend the money but have an agreed upon way of moving forward. 

It's what I want.

After hours of discussion and discourse, we are of one mind.  Hugo and Arcadia invite whoever wants to come for for pizza and cold beer at a nearby place. We sit around the table. Feel the warmth of the sun. The coolness of the breeze. The warmth of each other. There is a shared feeling. Its one of hope.

I say to you, Rise....