Deprecated: Function WP_Dependencies->add_data() was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 6.9.0! IE conditional comments are ignored by all supported browsers. in /home4/salvagh0/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131

Articles by salvagedfaith

The Playbook

Posted on Leave a comment on The Playbook

“The Playbook”

Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 and Luke 6:27-38

Good morning friends!

It is such a joy to be back in worship with you today as part of this year long celebration of one hundred years of ministry.

As I understand it, you’ve been spending these last several weeks remembering the abundance that Jesus brings to our lives…

An abundance of Hope…

Of healing…

Of purpose…

In a world that says there isn’t enough to go around and we should focus on me and mine…

Jesus sets a feast and pulls up chairs to the table.

There is always enough in the kingdom of God.

There is so much abundance we have to give it away.

I believe in these gospel truths. 

And these gospel truths… these words of Christ…

are in direct opposition to the narrative of our state and country right now.

As a preacher, I am always cautious about partisanship from the pulpit,

but our call to discipleship has implications in the realm of politics.

And, when leaders claim to be acting out of a Christian point of view,

as disciples of Jesus Christ, we must have a space to name where these things are in conflict.

Just a few examples come to mind…

Vice President Vance claimed there is a Christian concept called “ordo amoris” that leads us to prioritize our family members first and then our community, over people outside of our circles or borders.  This kind of theology justifies the dismantling of agencies like USAID and shuttering refugee resettlement, describing humanitarian assistance as wasteful.

It is such a distortion of the gospel that Pope Francis wrote a letter to the bishops of the United States clarifying that ordo amoris actually means we are called to elevate our love in Christ to love all, without exception. 

The pope’s words are echoed our gospel lesson today:

“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them… Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.” (Luke 6:32, 35)

In the Kingdom of God, in the economy of Jesus, we don’t have limited love, food, or resources to share.

We are called to always keep our eyes focused on our Savior and called to love every person, without exception.

Or as John Wesley might put it…

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

Another example.

This week, the official White House account posted a video of people being deported and captioned it, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” 

As Rev. Michael Palmer wrote in response, “ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response” and refers to the deep relaxation and tingling sensation some people experience from specific triggers, such as sounds. The implication being that the sound of someone being chained and evicted from our country would create a feeling of deep relaxation and a giddy bodily response.”

According to the Geneva Conventions, governments are prohibited from making prisoners or civilians objects of public ridicule, humiliation, or tools of propaganda. 

The dehumanization of groups of people leads to acts of violence and abuse…

which we have already seen in the story of the young girl in Texas who took her own life. 

She was being bullied by students who threatened to call ICE on her parents.  

No matter your politics or whether you think people who have entered the country outside of certain legal channels should be deported, we have a clear mandate in scripture for how we treat these individuals. 

From our gospel today: “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you…Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.” (Luke 6: 27, 31)

Over and over and over again in scripture we hear the call to welcome the stranger and the immigrant. 

Whether it is the gospel of Matthew (25:35), the letters to the Romans (12:13) and Hebrews (13:1-2), the writings of Moses in Deuteronomy (10:18-19) or Exodus (22:21), or the words of the prophets (Malachi 3:5, Job 31:32, Jeremiah 7:5-7):

“Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)

That is why as United Methodists, we include in our social principles the call to advocate for humane processes for migrants, immigrants, and refugees and to oppose all laws and policies that attempt to criminalize, dehumanize, or punish displaced individuals and families. (P 163, Basic Rights and Freedoms, G., 2020/2024 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church)

The abundance of God’s grace calls us to affirm the dignity, worth, and rights of all human beings. 

One more example.

In Iowa, right now, HSB 242 has been proposed to erase the rights of our neighbors, friends, and family who are transgender or nonbinary.

It removes legal protections against discrimination in employment, access to housing, education, and more for nonbinary or transgender citizens and removes their ability to legally change their identification.

It also defines sex and gender as male or female,

as has been observed, or clinically verified within six months, at birth,

and claims separate accommodations are not inherently unequal…

which is language that justified Jim Crow laws.      

It is part of the broader push in the state and nation to define gender in a strictly binary way and to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion supports and resources in public and private institutions. 

From our gospel lesson today:

“Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.  Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned.” (Luke 6:36-37)

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul has harsh words for the community as it sought to judge those who were different. 

They tried to make distinctions that would claim some were outside of the grace of God or concern of the community. 

As he writes to them, “there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  (Galatians 3: 28)

His words echo Genesis 1, which speaks of the beautiful, diverse goodness of all of God’s creation. 

God created humanity in God’s own image, male and female, meaning every person reflects the image of God. 

If some would point to that as proof of a binary distinction, how can we separate these words from the rest of the chapter?

 God separated the light from the darkness… but also gave us dawns and dusks.  

God separated the dry land from the waters… but also created the marshes and the bogs and the delta. 

God made the birds of the air and the fish of the sea… but also created penguins – flightless birds that live in the ocean.

The beautiful diversity of what God has made is far more abundant than binary categories.  

As United Methodists, we have long held that “because all people are of sacred worth and certain basic human rights are due to everyone, we are committed to supporting the equal rights, liberties, and protections of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity… moreover, because in many countries sexual and gender minorities are disproportionately impacted by social stigmas, discrimination, coercion and violence, we call on churches, governments, businesses, and civic organizations to do all in their power to combat such unjust treatment and to promote equal rights and protections for all.” (P 163, Basic Rights and Freedoms, I., 2020/2024 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church).

If you are paying attention, on a daily basis we are bombarded by political actions and news and stories that undermine the basic tenants of our Christian faith which call us to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

It is exhausting.

It is demoralizing.

It is heartbreaking.

And I have been wrestling with the words that frame this series you are engaging in right now here at Immanuel – it actually does feel like we are running out of hope and possibility because a couple of wedding guests are trying to steal all of the wine for themselves. 

When I find myself spiritually in that place,

usually after scrolling through social media and news stories,

I find that I need to come back to a place of grounding in my faith.

I’ve been reflecting, with everything that is going on, on what might be a playbook for how we shall live in these days. 

You know… I almost thought about this as “a playbook for resistance”

But someone recently reminded me that we are not called to be people who resist.

Resisting means to put up barriers,

but as people of faith who believe that the abundant love and grace of God is flowing through this world,

maybe our call instead is to be conduits and vessels for what God is already doing. 

One place that I have turned frequently is to this little book:

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.

Dr. Snyder is a historian who has focused on the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.  His little book of lessons are pulled directly from the experiences of peoples who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, and communism. 

It includes guidance like:

Lesson 4: Take responsibility for the face of the world.  The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice … signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

Lesson 12: Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite.  It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society.  It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust…

Lesson 15: Contribute to good causes.  Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life.  Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

I hear his words echoed, from a faith perspective, in the lectionary for today – Psalm 37: 

“Don’t get upset over evildoers… because they will fade fast, like grass.” (1)

“Trust in the Lord and do good; live in the land, and farm faithfulness.” (3)

“Commit your way to the Lord!” (5)

“Let go of anger and leave rage behind! Don’t get upset – it will only lead to evil.”  (8)

“The Lord loves justice. God will never leave the faithful all alone.” (28)

“The mouths of the righteous recite wisdom; their tongues discuss justice. The instruction of their God is in their hearts; they don’t miss a step.” (30)

“Observe those who have integrity and watch those whose heart is right because the future belongs to persons of peace.” (37)

The psalmist reminds us not to get ourselves worked up into a frenzy of the injustices of the world.

With such a constant barrage, it is natural for our fight, flight, or freeze responses to become activated.

But neither does the psalmist mean that we should stick our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening.

Instead, the call is to do good, to stand with integrity on our values, and focus on the positive differences you can make.

It is the call to not let our hearts be hardened, but to look for the places where people of faith are acting out of love and to join them. 

It is the call to commit ourselves to the ways of God.

Dan White Jr wrote in Love Over Fear:

“When you live in Culture War Mode there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear.

When you live in God’s Kingdom there’s always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love.”

As our gospel lesson teaches:

We are called to love our enemies.

To do good to those who hate us.

To bless those who might curse us.

Rather than fight back or resist when we are attacked, we are called to offer the other cheek.

I think that means that we stand firmly in the gospel of love and grace and hope,

which is abundant enough to sustain not only our own spirits…

but also to transform the hearts of the people who are seeking to harm us or the people we love.

Let me say that again…

We are a people who believe that the abundant grace and love of God is so powerful

That it is not only enough to sustain our own spirits in the midst of everything going on…

We believe the grace and love of God is deep enough, wide enough, strong enough, big enough, and powerful enough

to transform the hearts and minds and spirits of those whom we might call our enemies.

Our call, as people of faith, is to be conduits of that love and grace in the world.

Pray for our elected leaders.

Spend time with people face-to-face.

Find ways to support your neighbors who are being attacked through food, shelter, clothing, or contacting your legislators.  

Pay attention to what is happening and reflect on whether it matches your values.

Spend time in God’s word and ask how it applies to your daily life. 

Pick an issue you care about and work for change.

And through it all, let the abundant love and grace of God so fill your life

that in everything you do, you give it away…

even to those who you might think of as enemies.  

Amen.

Deeper Roots

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on Deeper Roots

A while back, I took a year long course called “Organic Ministry” offered through what was then the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center.

Once a month, nearly a dozen of us gathered at Taproot Garden south of the Des Moines area. 

We would spend our mornings getting centered and discussing one of our resources. 

Then we engaged on some kind of task on the farm.  We sharpened tools.  We planted seeds.  We pulled weeds.  We tended the chickens. 

We would gather for a meal together with incredible food from the farm and then had some time in the afternoon for reflection, before coming back together to connect the dots between what we had seen and practiced, read and heard. 

One of our primary texts for the class was The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber.

Barber is not an environmentalist or a theologian, but a chef, and he has grown to believe that “good farming and delicious food are inseparable.”

What he has discovered along his journey is that the future of food lies in activity that builds a sustainable food production system from the ground up.

When we care for every part of the process, from the soil to the water to the seed, we are in fact creating more delicious and healthier food.

I was amazed, every time we gathered, at the faith connections that we were making. 

One of the things that we so often lament in the church is the loss of vitality in our communities.  People are less engaged and our impact upon the world seems to be fading. 

What if, in the church, we need to remember that “good farming and delicious food are inseparable?”

What if we need to remember that tending the soil of our faith and the fruitfulness of our ministry are inseparable? 

One of the things that Bishop Kennetha has consistently shared with us is that she wants to help us go deeper, rather than wider.

A mile deep and an inch wide, she has often said.

And I know some of us have wondered… what does that mean?

In my Organic Ministry class, we learned a lot about wheat.

Image shows root systems of perennial and annual wheat over four seasons of the year. The perennial wheat is nearly 3 meters deep, while the annual wheat's roots are thin, whispy, and only in peak growing season reach 1-2 meters.
By Dehaan – Jerry Glover, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5203371

This photo shows you the difference between roots that are shallow and roots that run deep.

And both of them are varieties of wheat.

One the conventional annual wheat that goes into our food system today… and the other a perennial variety that once covered these lands.

Can you see the difference? 

The plains used to be a prairie with incredible biodiversity.

Grasses, shrubs, flowering plants covered the landscape and it was all sustained by an incredible root system.

Basically, roots are like fingers.

They dig down deep into the ground and give the earth the support it needs.

The roots had held the soil together and helped prevent erosion and they also loosened up the soil so that oxygen could filter through the ground, helping to provide fertile and sustainable land.

“The root systems’ ability to store energy and nutrients ensure that the prairie grass could always grow back quickly. And the grass, in turn, kept the rich soil in place as millions of bison fertilized it over thousands of years, depositing more nutrients into the soil’s natural fertility bank.”

The whole system was interconnected.

We wanted to live and grow food on the prairie.

We broke up the deep roots of the perennial grasses with farm equipment and replaced them with the shallow root systems of annual wheat and other grains that we could more easily control and cultivate.

Wendell Berry once wrote, “We came with visions, but not with sight. We did not see or understand where we were or what was there, but destroyed what was there for the sake of what we desired.”

The goal became the mass production of food, which in many ways fought against nature. 

We stripped the land of its nutrients and lost the root systems that sustained future growth.

And annual crops, with their shallower root systems require more water, because they can’t reach deep into the ground to reach it. 

We thought success was abundant production, but we weren’t paying attention to what we were sacrificing.

So in the 1930s, without the deep prairie roots to hold the earth in place, we become susceptible to disaster.

Nearly 75% of the United States experienced a decade of drought that devastated agriculture.

The shallow vegetation shriveled up, and the winds of what became known as the Dust Bowl blew away an estimated 850 million tons of topsoil in the Southern Plains alone.

Sometimes, it feels like the church is experiencing a kind of Dust Bowl.

And I wonder if for too long we were focused on growth, and cookie cutter ministries that were designed for mass production, and if we had vision but not sight…

If we did what seemed quicker and easier, rather than the much harder work of tending our root systems.

So maybe it is no wonder that when the winds of disruption and change and awareness of systemic problems came along that fruitfulness began to shrivel and the topsoil blow away.

One of the lessons maybe the church can take from agriculture today is a focus on reclaiming our identity and strengthening our root systems. 

You see, this image isn’t simply a comparison of conventional vs. perennial wheat.

It shows the work and research that is being done to develop new commercial varieties of perennial wheat that can come back in and revitalize our food system. 

The Land Institute has been working for decades on this project and this variety, Kernza, a wild relative of annual wheat, is now being incorporated into the Cascadian Farm brand from General Mills.

Dr. Lee DeHaan from The Land Institute describes what they have seen as ecological benefits already, “The length, size, and long life of the roots enable the grain to provide measurable soil health benefits and drought resistance while preventing soil erosion and storing critical nutrients – potentially turning agriculture into a soil-forming ecosystem.” (https://climatecrocks.com/2018/04/11/for-drawing-carbon-down-perennial-grains/)

Don’t we, too, want to be transformed into the kind of ecosystem that can sustain a more vital church?

Don’t we want to be able to be resilient in times of drought and winds of change?

Don’t we want to be a faith-forming ecosystem?

Well, the good news is, just like with the formation of this new variety of wheat, we have the tools we need already.

We simply need to go back and reclaim and remember how we were designed and who we are.

Colossians 2:6-7 (MSG)

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward:

Just go ahead with what you’ve been given.

You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him.

You’re deeply rooted in him.

You’re well constructed upon him.

You know your way around the faith.

Now do what you’ve been taught.

School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it!

And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

WOW!

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on WOW!

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8;  Psalm 29

A few weeks ago, I was able to make a trip to Hawaii with my family.

Twenty three of us… aunts, uncles, cousins, grandkids, siblings, parents, nieces, and nephews… in paradise.

One of the things that I am always on the lookout for in Hawaii are rainbows.

The mountains in the center capture the clouds as they move over the island, bringing light sprinkles nearly every day.

But water and sunlight means rainbows.

Nearly every day! 

The first day went by… and I didn’t see one.

The second day went by, and my dad asked if I had caught the double rainbow over the ocean that morning.  Nope.

Did I see the one the next afternoon?

*sigh* I hadn’t.

A WEEK went by and I hadn’t seen a rainbow.

But I also realized something else.

While I had been looking… I hadn’t really been paying attention.

I was still getting into vacation mode.

Still carefully putting away all of my plans and thoughts and to-do lists from ministry both here and at the conference center. 

That second day of vacation, after all, we had a special session of annual conference that I joined virtually so that we could say goodbye to 83 churches as they left the United Methodist Church.

I had been in paradise.  But I wasn’t present. 

In an interview, Anne Lamott talked about prayer as getting outside of ourselves and paying attention:

Prayer is not about saying, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to pray now.’ Or, ‘Oh, I see I’ve made a notation here to pray at 2:15.’ It’s about getting outside of your own self and hooking into something greater than that very, very limited part of our experience here…

It’s sort of like blinking your eyes open. … It’s sort of like … when Dorothy lands in Oz and the movie goes from black and white to color, and it’s like having a new pair of glasses, and you say, ‘Wow!’

I started focusing on being more present to what was happening all around me.

Savoring every moment and bite of food and laugh of the kids.

And one afternoon, on a walk with my niblings, it happened. 

a blue sky in the foreground with clouds in the background and a rainbow between palm trees and a building

I turned around and saw a rainbow.

Wow.

The artist Michael Lipsey says that “if you’re not amazed most of the time you aren’t paying attention.” 

Because the truth is, you don’t have to go to Hawaii to catch a rainbow or a spectacular sunset or a glorious flower bursting forth.

We have the opportunity to get outside of our own selves and hook into something greater every single day.

It is the touch of your partner’s hand.

Or the way the sunlight filters through the leaves.

It is the frosting covered face of our children.

Or the swell of the organ in a hymn. 

Wow. 

The other day, I came into this sanctuary all by myself and sat on these steps.

And I was overwhelmed by it all.

Nine years of memories flooded my soul…

From the nervous excitement of that first Sunday and hearing your gasps as I threw seeds all over the church…

Playing and building with scaffolding and bricks during a stewardship drive…

The babies I baptized… and the grown-ups, too! 

The little ones who are now taller than I am…

Playing bass…

Singing with the choir…

The many, many goodbyes as we celebrated the promise of resurrection…

The meals we shared…

The singing and music and laughter…

We don’t always take the time to appreciate and celebrate each of those moments when they happen, but…

WOW.

I was all alone that morning… but not really. 

Because I was connected to something bigger than myself.

And friends… I know that this is a big morning with lots of emotions that just fill this space.

As Missy and I talked about it… we might have to do some liturgical weeping today…

But I also want and need you to know that this room…

this sanctuary…

this world is always filled with wonder and power and awesome things…

If we are willing to pay attention. 

In our scripture from Isaiah this morning, he sees the Lord sitting on a throne, with the hem of God’s robe filling the temple.

And you know what, I can imagine that Isaiah’s day actually started off pretty normal.

He might have gone to the temple that morning for prayer. 

Or maybe he was bringing an offering. 

But something happened to him in that space. 

He hooked into something greater than himself. 

He could see beyond the veil of his own limited experience of reality to catch a glimpse of the divine. 

And God’s glory filled the room.

Seraphs… angels… flew around crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy!”

“The whole earth is full of his glory!”

Everything around him shook and Isaiah falls to is knees…

Woe is me!

Woah!

WOW!

(it might all be the same prayer…)

The Psalmist is moved in the same way, hooking into the power of God in all of the earth

 as they listen to the rolling thunder,

or the roar of the ocean,

or the creaking trees of the forest…

they see the mountains tremble and the fire of God flash forth…

As the Message translation puts it:

            Bravo, God, Bravo!

            Gods and all angels shout, “Encore!”

            In awe before the glory,

            In awe before God’s visible power.

            Stand at attention!

            Dress your best to honor him!

…We fall to our knees – we cry out, “Glory!”  

And friends… I have to wonder how often we, too, might cry out in wonder and awe at God’s glory…

If only WE were paying attention?

Anne Lamott writes that “astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time.  Let it be. Unto us, so much is given.  We just have to be open for business.”

Next week, you will welcome a new pastor.

As part of that time, you will also hear from a guest, Josh Smouse, who is bringing to this church a word and some encouragement and direction from the CAT survey that you all took.

But before you dive into some of those ways that the church can continue to grow and thrive, I want to invite you to take a step back and ask a different kind of question:

Am I paying attention?

Am I spiritually “open for business”?

Have I been willing to allow myself to get hooked into something greater than myself?

A colleague posted on facebook this week a word about how we can change our experience of worship… and I want to share a few of their thoughts with you 

  • Pray before you get there.  Friends, you don’t have to raise your hands, but how many of you prayed before you came to worship this morning?  How many of you asked God to speak to you during this time?  What might be different if you opened yourself up to encounter God before you ever walked into this room?
  • Listen to worship music on the way.  What are some songs that speak to you?  What helps you to connect with God not just in your head, but in your soul?  How might that change what you are able to see and hear in this space?
  • Sing loudly and focus on God.  John Wesley talks about this in his directions for singing! … sing lustily and with good courage!  Have an eye to God in every word you sing.  Aim more at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature.  And to do this, he encourages people to attend strictly to the sense of what you are singing… what are the words?  What do they ask of you?  What are they inviting you to pay attention to?
  • Don’t run late.  We are all going to be late at some point… but the truth is that when we arrive harried and discombobulated, it is going to be harder to let go of those distractions.  Try to arrive and give yourself enough time to center and truly be present in this space.  After all, you don’t have a week to get present so you can see the rainbows!
  • Expect God to move. Oh friends… do you actually expect God to show up in worship? Are you ready for God to speak? Do you want to see the hem of God’s robe filling this space and God’s glory over all the earth? 

While trying to do a few of these things might truly change your experience of worship… they aren’t just about what happens in this room.

Because there are amazing, incredible things happening all throughout the ministries of this church…

Our little free pantry gets emptied nearly every day… and people show up to fill it again and again and again… WOW.

Our Immanuel Gospel Fellowship community continues to grow and their worship is so full of life and sound and chaos and joy… and you can come and experience it any Sunday at noon… and I encourage you to do so! You truly will cry out… WOW. 

People are going through really hard times in their lives… but you keep showing up with food and prayers and encouragement… you are present with one another… WOW. 

As she describes that third essential prayer, WOW, Anne Lamott writes:

Love falls to the earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted.  Love pulls people back to their feet.  Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil.  The sun rises.

And it is happening everywhere, all around us,  every moment of the day.

This whole earth is full of God’s glory.

It is not just the miracle of the rainbow… but also the loving embrace of a church for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations.   

It is not just the beauty of a sunset… but also the glorious diversity of our colors and cultures.

It is not just the rumble of thunder in the mountains… but also the roar of laughter as family and friends from many generations play together.

And if we prayerfully connect with God… open our spirits… pay attention to what is happening… I promise, you will be amazed by what you see.

I also know that there is a fine line between being amazed and being terrified.

In Isaiah, we discover there isn’t much distance between WOW! … and Woah! … and Woe is me!

Sometimes we are overwhelmed by just how great of a struggle we face…

Or how far we have to go…

Or by how much has been lost…

There is so much hate in this world.

So much violence.

So much destruction.

Sometimes the problems of the world make us say, WOW – how could that possibly be?

There are so many people who are unwilling to get outside of their own selves and their own limited experiences to hook into something greater. 

Yet even those poetic words of the psalmist, David… you know, the ones that recall the violent destructive power of nature… earthquakes, floods, raging fires…

They also name that above anything that has the power to destroy… is God.

The one who gives strength.

The one who touches our lips with grace and mercy.

The one who brings peace.

The one who has the power to heal… and forgive… and change… and transform… and create… and renew…

The one who calls…

The one who sends every day, ordinary people into the world…

So that we can pay attention…

Pay attention to the hurt, and the joy, and the love, and the struggle…

And with arms and hearts and lives wide open, can say, “Here I am, Send me.”  

Thanks!

Posted on Leave a comment on Thanks!

Text: Isaiah 12:1-6, Philippians 4:4-9

Holy God, speak into our midst this morning.  Fill us with hope, grace, and peace.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts and minds honor You this morning. May they be worthy of your calling and accomplish your faithful work in our midst.  Amen.

I thank God for you.

I do.  I really do.

I thank God for you, the people of Immanuel United Methodist Church.

I thank God for how the love you all have for each other and the world is increasing.

Robert Dunham wrote that “common struggle often forges an uncommon unity and love for one another.  Like the peace that holds the community fast in turmoil, love for one another and congregational unity are best received and celebrated as gifts.”

And as we gather today, I cannot help but reflect upon some of the common struggles that we have shared over these last nine years of ministry together. 

Some of them were challenges that we set before ourselves: raising money through a concert for DMARC, a gigantic garage sale for Joppa, or purchasing five brand new books for every student at Hillis Elementary.

But we have also been held together through turmoil. 

Some of them are simply the realities of human life:  

the illnesses, the injuries, the loss of treasured members of our community. 

We have prayed and grieved and supported one another – offering God’s strength and peace.

And then there were the realities that we didn’t see coming. 

Truly adaptive challenges we faced as the world changed… and is changing… and we’ve had to figure out how to reach new people in new ways.

We have gone through a pandemic… learning how to move worship online and connect with one another in new ways.

We have navigated conflict and conversation about human sexuality and racism and how to welcome immigrants and what kind of church we want to be for the future.

A changing economy impacts not just our church finances, but also demands more of us as we reach out to care for the hungry and the homeless on our doorstep. 

When I think about our scripture from Isaiah today, I remember that much of this text was written in a time of great difficulty. 

The first half tells of the judgment of the people, who weren’t following God’s will.

And the second half is full of hope and promise… but written from exile, having lived through destruction and removal. 

And yet, in all of it, Isaiah keeps an eye on what God has done.

On the grace and mercy of God.

Joy and praise and thanksgiving ring out…

not because everything is hunky dory… but because it is not. 

And in our own situations… we didn’t always know what we were doing, or how to do it, but by the grace of God, we’ve found ways to love, serve, and pray together. 

Not because we had the answers… or because the work was easy…

but because we knew that God was with us and would help us through.

It is the challenge of Paul and Timothy as they write to the people of Philippi.  This is from the Message translation:

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your                worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of         God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.            It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Although you have every reason to be anxious… and you have needs and requests to share with God… there is also reason to give thanks. 

Or… as Anne Lamott so honestly puts it in her book about the three essential prayers:  Help, Thanks, and WOW! :

“…at some point, we cast our eyes to the beautiful skies, above all the crap we’re

wallowing in, and we whisper, ‘Thank you.’

Thank you, God.

And in so many of those kinds of situations, there were moments when we got a little grumpy with one another. 

We are human after all, and we are still learning and growing and figuring these things out…

but we are doing it together…

And we’ve taken the time to share when things weren’t working out and have reached out when feelings were hurt and have tried to find a way forward.

Anne Lamott describes the prayer of thanks as a tool to move from “rashy and clenched to grateful.” 

I just love that imagery… and I can actually sense it in my body.

There are those moments when we are frustrated or in conflict and we truly are clenched. 

It is a posture of being on high alert, always ready to fight or flee or even freeze. 

In a world that is so divisive, we see that all around us.

But I think that God has used us and shaped us through gratitude, love, and grace to be God’s people and demonstrate a different path. 

We have tried to live out the advice from Paul and Timothy to be gentle with one another and to seek the peace of God.

We’ve stayed in conversation.  We’ve taken the time to listen.

And we have found ways to give thanks and celebrate the people who have come into our lives…

All of which takes that posture of abrasive and clenched living and turns it into a posture of openness and grace.   

The love we have for one another is a gift…

the bonds formed in the midst of common struggle are a blessing…

and they should be celebrated as such. 

Thank you, God.

Anne Lamott writes that “Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides.”

 And friends, as we have been grateful for the love of God… we have also let those prayers of thanksgiving turn into joyful service. 

[the numbers represent images of ministry projected during the worship service]

[1] Thank you God for the deeper relationships we formed with our neighborhood elementary school, Hillis, as we brought books for so many children and we have more and more people taking just an hour a week to read with those who need some extra help.  

[2] And thank you for helping us to continue efforts like Donuts for Dudes and Muffins for Moms where we can be present in our neighborhood and share God’s love with breakfast.

 [3] Thank you God for the ways that young people and their mentors here at the church bonded through hard work, study, and recreation at things like confirmation.

 [4] Thank you God for the impact you had on children in our church and community as we worked to help them learn more about your powerful and never-ending love.

 [5] Thank you God, for calling us to have hard conversations about your calling for our church in this world.

 [6] Thank you God, for bringing us together in fellowship and for new relationships formed over barbeque and basketball.

 [7] Thank you for challenging us to stretch beyond our own teams and ministries to build new partnerships with others, like the Interfaith Green Team Coalition.

 [8] Thank you God, for those who give so faithfully of their time and energy behind the scenes to make ministry here possible.

[9] Thank you God for the faithfulness of our predecessors like Mrs. Simser and the bibles we give our children and the faithfulness of third grade bible partners and teachers.

 [10] Thank you God for a seven year partnership and relationship with Imani church…

[11] … and for our new relationship with Immanuel Gospel Fellowship. 

 [12] Thank you God for the opportunity to go into the world to serve you through Volunteers in Mission, in our neighborhood, but also as far away as Omaha and Memphis.

[13] and thank you for challenging us to do hard things to raise funds and give time for ministries like Joppa and DMARC. 

[14] and for the deep connections that are created when we labor together for a common good.

[15] Thank you God for those who not only prepare meals for us every week, but who care for and minister to one another in good times and in bad.

 [16] Thank you God for those who knit and crochet blankets, for folks who feed and care and support, so that we can extend the love of Immanuel to those who need it the most.

[17] Thank you God for our staff and their faithfulness and willingness to serve. 

 [18] Thank you for the youth and volunteers and chaperones who go out and represent us so well in the community.

 [19] Thank you, God. 

Thank you. 

You know, I started out just trying to find a few highlights of the amazing work God has been doing here among us and the list just kept going on and on and on. 

As Paul writes to the church at Philippi, there really is so much to brag about. 

He praises their generosity, their support for his ministry.

He encourages them for the work that is still to come. 

But really… that’s the outline of all of Paul’s letters. 

And I can’t help but borrow Paul’s words… or rather, Eugene Peterson’s translation of Paul’s words.

“My dear, dear friends!  I love you so much. I do want the very best for you.  You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God.”  (Philippians 4:1, MSG)

Over these past nine years, you’ve made some tough decisions and have stretched in new ways.

I thank God for how you’ve been willing to answer God’s call. 

And as you continue to implement some of these changes…

And live out a new kind of welcome…

There will be bumps in the road.

It won’t all be easy. 

But in the midst of the muck and the hard stuff, keep your heart full of gratitude and your eyes on Jesus. 

As people of faith, God is continually calling us to do hard things. 

God is calling us to leave our comfort zones go and be in ministry with the least and the last and the lost.

God is calling us to welcome the little ones and the stranger and whomever else shows up.

God is calling us to give up our preferences for the sake of the mission. 

And maybe the hardest of them all…

God is calling us to be honest and real about our own vulnerabilities, our own brokenness, struggle, and pain, so that this community can walk with us, can love us, can remind us over and over again about the love of God in Jesus Christ that can transform even our broken souls. 

That’s what church is all about.  

Growing in love for each other and in love for God.

Giving thanks in every circumstance. 

Singing and shouting to the Lord for the excellent things God has done among us. 

May you continue to do hard things. 

May you continue to hear and be faithful to God’s call.

May you continue to be formed in love born of our common struggle to truly be disciples of Jesus Christ in this world. 

And through it all… may you continue to give thanks… keeping that attitude of gratitude that keeps your eyes above the muck on the one who gives us strength. Amen. 

Help!

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on Help!

Text: Psalm 40:11-17; Matthew 26:36-39;

Good morning friends! 

We find ourselves in the season of Pentecost. 

The season of the Holy Spirit.

Those first disciples of Jesus were transformed into apostles…

leaders of a community of people that tapped into the power of God for good in the world. 

You know, as much as we think about that phrase from the gospel of John…

that the world will know you are my disciples… they will know you are Christians… by how you love one another (John 13:35)…

I think this early Christian community was known by its prayer life. 

Just after the ascension of Jesus, there were about 120 folks that were part of the Jesus movement who all gathered together. 

Luke tells us that “all were united in their devotion to prayer.”  (Acts 1:14)

And when Pentecost came ten days later… where were they? 

Gathered together in prayer!

On that day, as their community grew by leaps and bounds, we are told that these thousands of new believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers.”  (2:42)

And everyone around them was amazed by what they saw. 

Prayer is powerful.

Prayer is power. 

It is one of the key ways that we stay connected with God. 

It is how we allow the Holy Spirit into our lives: our minds, hearts, and souls.

And as I thought about what I wanted to say to you in these last few weeks…

As I thought about what might be the most important thing I could leave you with…

I kept thinking about how important it is that we are a people of prayer. 

It is part of our vision after all – isn’t it? 

In Christ, we live a live of love, service, and prayer. 

And I know you to be a praying people. 

We knit and perl and crochet together prayers for others.

We add our neighbors and friends and family to our prayer list. 

But I’ve noticed something else about this church…

We are great about praying for others…

but we sometimes struggle with lifting up prayers for ourselves. 

Maybe it is because we don’t want to admit that we don’t have it all together…

Or because we don’t want to be seen as bragging about the good in our lives…

Or maybe we aren’t sure if it is something we need or deserve.    

The writer Anne Lamott describes prayer as:

“…taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up.  The opposite may be true: We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape.” 

Did you hear that? 

We might not be able to get it together… until AFTER we show up in such miserable shape.

You don’t have to have all the right words, or have it all figured out.

You just need to start. 

Over these next three weeks, we are going to talk about what Anne Lamott describes as the  essential prayers for our lives:

Help.

Thanks.

Wow. 

When I think about those three prayers, but especially the first one, “Help!” I realize that God already knows what we need. 

God already knows what is happening in our lives.

Really the question is… are we aware? 

Can we be honest with ourselves? 

Are we willing to admit that we are not in control? 

Perhaps this kind of prayer is easy in moments of true desperation. 

In 1815, the playwright Hannah More, described how, “under circumstances of distress, indeed, prayer is adopted with comparatively little reluctance; the mind, which knows not where to fly, flies to God. In agony, nature is no Atheist.”[i]

Later in World War I, people would talk about how there were no atheists in the trenches and foxholes.    

In those moments when we truly have run out of options, and nothing is left, we cry out, “Help!”

In our scriptures for this morning, we hear two variations on this prayer.

The Psalmist finds themselves surrounded by evil and sin.

Troubles are piling up, counting more than the hairs on their head.   

They cannot see a way out.

Their heart… their hope… fails them. 

“O Lord, make haste to help me!”

As The Voice translation concludes this psalm:

“I am empty and need so much, but I know the Lord is thinking of me.  You are my help; only You can save me, my True God. Please hurry.” 

In the Gospel reading, Jesus himself is described as grieved and agitated. 

He knows that betrayal and death are just around the corner and it is more than his soul can bear. 

And so first, he cries out to his friends for help… “remain here, and stay awake with me.”

But then he cries out to God:

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me…”

Save me… rescue me… from what I am about to go through. 

There are those moments of true and utter desperation that show up in our lives. 

Life and death moments…

Rock bottom moments…

When there is literally nothing else that we can do besides ask for help and prayer from those around us.

But I’m far more aware of those more everyday situations where we might need help and prayer, but we hesitate to speak up. 

We hate the feeling of vulnerability and think that we should be stronger than we are.

I can do this on my own, we say.    

We don’t want to bother others with what we are going through.

Or we worry about what they might think of us if they knew that we were having a hard time. 

Most of you don’t know my spouse, Brandon, because he’s not a “churchy” guy.    

Deeper than that, he has some experiences that have put him off from religion and we’ve established some good boundaries to help respect one another’s beliefs and needs.

I so appreciate all of you in this church for also doing so and allowing him to be who he is. 

Just over two years ago, we found ourselves going through a rough patch. 

I have preached on mental health, talked about suicide and depression, walked with many of you through those moments… but suddenly, there it was on my own doorstep. 

Brandon was experiencing feelings of hopelessness and depression and anxiety… and we were able to reach out and get him connected with the resources and therapies that he needed. 

But there were some incredibly difficult moments along the way, including a 9-1-1 call in the middle of the night when he had a poor reaction to a change in one of his medications. 

And as much as Brandon needed help in those moments, so did I. 

I knew I couldn’t fix it… but that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel shame or guilt for not being able to do so. 

I needed help and strength to walk that journey with him.

And I’m so grateful for a group of friends and colleagues who answered midnight texts and kept checking in on us and allowing me to vent when I needed to do so.

I’m so grateful for members of this staff and SPRC committee that created a safe space for me to share and talk about what was going on and who kept Brandon and I in your prayers.   

But as I was thinking about this sermon, I also keep asking myself why I didn’t share all of this with all of you while it was happening. 

Part of the reason is that Brandon himself was not ready to talk about it in a bigger way… and with worship being online, I didn’t want to share more of his story in such a public space…

It is one of the reasons why we aren’t sharing more intimate details and names of prayer requests in worship… because we are now livestreaming worship every week, we hold those more personal details for our internal prayer lists. 

But I also think my own hesitation to share in a bigger way reflects why it is difficult for all of us.

We don’t want to bother others. 

Or we don’t want it to change our relationship with them… worried that they will only see our weakness. 

Or you know what… maybe we simply want a space in our lives where we can pretend that everything is okay.

As your pastor, I think I worried about it impacting my ability to show up in the way you needed me to… even though, it was impacting my ability to show up in the ways you needed me to. 

And what I needed, but maybe was unable to communicate, was some extra grace as I spent a bit more time at home and when I couldn’t be as available as I wanted to be. 

I just kept doing what I could, hoping that things would be okay. 

I fumbled along… rather than asking for your prayers.

Rather than crying out, “Help!” 

Lamott describes this as the hardest prayer, because we are admitting defeat: 

“You have to surrender, which is the hardest thing any of us do, ever.” 

It is not easy to say, “I can’t fix this.” 

We struggle with admitting that things are not okay… sometimes even to ourselves. 

But then Lamott goes on to say:  “a lot of the time we don’t know when we’re surrendering that we’re actually, at the same time… establishing connection… to a power greater than ourselves.”[ii]

We “open ourselves to being helped by something, some force, some friends, some something.”

When we turn to God and when we turn to our fellow disciples with a prayer of “help!” we don’t just find answers… we find community.

We find people who are not just willing, but eager, to walk alongside us. 

We find a God who has always been faithful and good and who will never stop loving and caring for us. 

It is why the Psalmist is able to not just cry out for help, but to acknowledge the joy that comes to those who seek him.

And it is why Jesus, in his great prayer of desperation can reconnect with his Father, placing his life in God’s hands… Not my will, but yours.

In saying, I trust you with this… we are also saying, I am in relationship with you. 

Friends, when we share our own prayers for help with each other, we are saying to one another:

I believe that you care for me.

I trust that you are in this with me. 

And I know the power of God that is with us will continue to give us strength not just for this, but for anything that might come our way. 

In asking for help, we are creating the opportunity for us to be blessed by one another. 

That doesn’t mean that you need to feel pressure to air all your struggles with the whole body.

It is perfectly okay to have a smaller group of friends and disciples that you trust to walk with you… a friend or two that you know you can be honest and vulnerable with. 

Even Jesus chose to take along just a few disciples for his intimate time of prayer in the garden.

I needed that during my struggles… and was so grateful I had it. 

But I also want you to remember and to know that this is a praying church.

That if you ask for help and are willing to be vulnerable and share those needs with us, we will be here for you. 

We will be united in our prayers, quick and eager to help and respond and show up with whatever might be needed. 

Like that early Christian community, we are people who love one another, want what is best for one another, and are willing to share and surround each other with the love and grace and mercy of God. 

And I think that when we have the courage to be vulnerable and surrender, we will find that God will simply pour out even more power and strength upon us. 

May it be so.

Amen. 

[i] 1815, An Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of Saint Paul by Hannah More, Volume 2 of 2, Fourth Edition, Chapter 19, Quote Page 232, Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, London.

[ii] https://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/164814269/anne-lamott-distills-prayer-into-help-thanks-wowMusic:

Nehemiah: Everyone Is Included

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on Nehemiah: Everyone Is Included

Text: Nehemiah 11:1-2, 12:27-43

Nehemiah and company finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.

But when the work was complete, what they were left with was basically a shell of a city.

It had walls and gates.

It had a temple and temple staff and priests.

But what it didn’t have was people.

There were some who had lived amongst the ruins, but the majority of people were scattered in surrounding towns and villages. 

And so with this nearly blank slate of a city, Nehemiah had to figure out how best to create their ideal city.

On Tuesday, I joined with other clergy from our circuit for our monthly meeting. 

We represent twelve churches, almost all on this northwest side of Des Moines.

These gatherings help us think about how we can support one another’s ministry and what kind of work we might do together.

This Lenten season, we will be joining with some of these churches for a community Ash Wednesday service here at Immanuel with a choir made up of members from four different churches. 

And for Good Friday, we will gather at Walnut Hills for a Tenebrae service with special music led by five different congregations. 

But one of the main conversations that occupied our time was about how we are making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

As we think about the faithful disciples we have in our congregations, how are we empowering you all to go out and transform this city into what God desires it to be? 

And Pastor Lee from Valley UMC reminded us of a principle of community organizing. 

The question we should be asking is not always what I can do to impact this individual person today.

Sometimes, the question is, what do we want our community to look like in thirty years? 

What does God want our community to look like in thirty years?

And what might need to happen in order to get to that place? 

That was the kind of question Nehemiah was asking.

He heard God invite him to rebuild the community and the truth was, this isn’t the kind of work that could be accomplished in fifty-two days.  

And he knew from past experiences with the officials and leaders exploiting the common folks that you had to be careful with power.

They needed to set up a system where all sorts of people were included and welcomed and had a voice. 

So what did God want Jerusalem to look like in thirty years? 

And what would it take to get there? 

Nehemiah had a lot of options before him. 

They could have focused on including just the wealthy and educated.

They could have picked the best and the brightest.

But as we see when they start this effort of resettling, they intentionally worked to make sure that people from every part of their nation were included. 

To ensure they didn’t just pick out their favorites…

or just who they wanted to live in the city…

or just those who looked like them…

Nehemiah had the people cast lots.  

As we demonstrated with the children, casting lots was a way of randomizing the decision.

One out of every ten people were chosen in this way to move from the surrounding villages up the road and into the fortified walls of the city proper. 

And in one sense, this was a sacrifice for these people. 

They had to uproot from their small towns and establish themselves in a new place. 

But they were also invited to take on the responsibility of this rebuilding in the city in a way that allowed them to leave their own unique mark. 

It was a way of saying: your tribe matters to the good of the whole. 

We value having your part of the community at the table. 

We not only welcome you, we celebrate you. 

You are important to us. 

This community belongs to you… just as much as it belongs to me. 

And your presence here now will ensure that your part of the community will continue to be part of the future of this city and this people. 

That is the conversation we are having right now with our welcoming statement.

In the first sentence of the statement, we are invited to claim this kind of truth:

“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all.”

First… what does it mean that we celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community? 

This church has welcome and hospitality as one of its core values.

So many of you, in our Nehemiah community groups, shared about how you first connected with the congregation.

Time and time again, I heard the story of how you planned to visit a few congregations, but once you arrived at Immanuel, you never went anywhere else.

You felt love and support and welcome.

When I first got to Immanuel, I experienced that to be true as well. 

I’ve learned you are quick to show up at the bedside of a friend and have often visited before I even hear someone is in the hospital or sick.

I see the care that is taken to make this a hospitable and welcoming place:  from coffee time and funeral lunches to how you make space for others.    

On the sign outside our building, it says, ‘All Welcome!’ and you really want to everyone to feel welcome here.

Just this week, I was working on our statistical tables and I thought about just how much our diversity has increased this past year as we officially welcomed IGF to be part of our church.

But we also have a wide range of ages… from nine-week-old babies to nonagenarians.

We are wealthy and we struggle financially.

We are healthy and we need healing.

Some of us have been educated on the streets and some of us have taught in universities.

We vote republican and we vote democrat and some of us don’t vote.

And even Cyclones and Hawkeyes and Panthers all attend here and are still somehow able to worship together. 

More than that… we celebrate that diversity.   

We learn from one another, we partner with one another, and share our diverse gifts. 

But, sometimes I think the love and welcome of Immanuel is one of our best kept secrets. 

There are folks in this neighborhood and larger community who do not know they would be welcome here…

Even though the sign says, “All Welcome,” there are people who might wonder, “even me?”

We might not force them to cast lots and make them come inside our church, but being explicit about who is welcome and showing and affirming that broadly might help our neighbors to see this as a place that they, too, could find belonging. 

A place where they could share in ministry. 

So one of our congregational goals for 2023 is that we want to become a place that is known as safe, comforting, and supportive for all people.

And our welcoming statement is a part of that, because it helps us be more explicit about what we truly mean by welcome.

But, it also invites us to truly become a community equally shared and shepherded by all. 

There is another way that Nehemiah emphasized this kind of welcome and celebration of people from every walk of life.

You see, the time finally came to throw a party.

A real celebration for the completion of the wall. 

And he could have just held auditions and picked the best band and singers and the most famous speakers. 

But instead, he intentionally made sure that there were people from every part of the community present. 

They were sought out from all the places they lived. 

And they could have just had the party in one prime location… like the square where they rededicated themselves to God…

But instead, Nehemiah made sure that every single square inch of that wall was celebrated.

And in doing so, he honored and celebrated the work of all of the everyday people who played a part…

the goldsmith and the perfumer…

and the folks who carried stones and who held shields and who stayed up all night…

and the daughters and grandchildren who came to help…

He made sure that everyone who had been part of the work was valued and celebrated in the process. 

When I think about the impact of a welcoming statement like the one before us, I think about how even inside this caring, loving community, there are folks who might have a part of their lives they aren’t sure is welcome. 

They might hesitate to talk about their divorce.

Or worry about how their pew mates might accept their non-binary grandchild.

There are folks who might hesitate to participate in a small group because English isn’t their first language. 

They might hold back their concerns about whether they can afford to stay in their home. 

An explicit welcome helps us convey:

We not only welcome you, we celebrate you. 

You are important to us. 

And you have something to offer this community that we need. 

This community belongs to you… just as much as it belongs to me. 

But it also says, we will continue to have your back… just like we did before.

We will work to support you and walk alongside you in the future we are claiming together.

And if needed, we will go to bat for you in the struggles that you face in this world. 

The celebration and dedication of the wall was also a celebration and dedication of the future for the city of Jerusalem. 

They held before them a vision of the kind of place they wanted to be in thirty years. 

A community where all parts were cherished and had a role to play.

A community that would hold one another accountable to the commitments they had made.

A community that would have one another’s backs whenever hardship would come.

And I hold this community in my prayers as you discern and think about the kind of place you want to be in thirty years as well. 

Nehemiah: Renewing Our Commitment

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on Nehemiah: Renewing Our Commitment

Text: Nehemiah 8:5-10; 9:1-3, 38; 10:28-29

Last week, we talked about some of the opposition that the builders and Nehemiah faced while building the wall. 

He had to deal with scandal and oppression perpetrated by his own officials…

but he also had to create plans to protect the people from enemies who wanted to attack and destroy their work. 

And then suddenly, the work was complete.

It took just fifty-two days to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. 

FIFTY-TWO DAYS!

My drive home takes me down 63rd and they have been working to rebuild the bridges on Highway 28 over the Raccoon River since last summer and are only halfway done. 

But these everyday folks rebuilt the walls of the entire city in fifty-two days. 

So… what happened next? 

Did they throw a party?

No.  Nehemiah counts up the people.  

He takes a census of all of the Israelites and counts up 42,360 people, an additional 7,337 slaves, 345 singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. 

And they take up an offering. 

You know, like you do. 

And then do they throw a party?

Nope.

Because all along this has not been a story about rebuilding a wall.

It has been a story about rebuilding a people.

Rebuilding a community that was centered on God. 

As we talked about in the first week of this series, in order to get to the good stuff and address their needs related to belonging and identity, they first had to make sure that they cared for safety and security needs. 

But once the walls were built and the gates restored and the officials were brought back in line from oppressive practices… well, the people could breathe. 

And they could begin to refocus on their relationship with God.

In fact, rather than Nehemiah initiating the next steps, he writes that the people gathered together and asked the scholar Ezra to bring out the Law of Moses. 

Ezra also had a calling… to rebuild the faith of the people, and his story can be found in the first half of the Ezra-Nehemiah saga.

As a priest, he understood that a right relationship with God was the only true source for security for the people. 

And he understood that God’s law was the foundation for that “right relationship.”  

The people are ready to listen.

So Ezra pulls out the scroll of the Law of Moses.

Many scholars think that this was likely what we know today as the Book of Deuteronomy, or “Second Law.” 

And from early in the morning until noon, he reads aloud from the scroll to the people. 

But friends… here is just how far away from the faith and their heritage the people were…

Ezra read the words, presumably in Hebrew… but the Levites, the priests, had to translate.

These, after all, were people who had grown up and spent their whole lives in Babylon and Persia. 

Or, they were the everyday folks who had been left behind and lived under oppression and they didn’t have priests and schools and institutions in place to continue their traditions.

They were all strangers to their own culture and they didn’t understand their own language 

And when they understood what the laws of Moses were asking of them, they wept.

Out of shame.

Out of guilt.

Out of frustration. 

This did not feel like a joyful discovery… but rather it only highlighted in their hearts how far away they were from God and who they had been called to be.

At one of our meetings with Global Ministries, we spent some time listening to the stories of Native American United Methodists. 

I can’t help but think of how the United States brutally removed indigenous people from their lands, when I think about the time of exile in Babylon for the people of Judah.

And in so many instances, our federal government and the religious partners who helped manage schools, focused on assimilation and removal of native culture, rather than allowing their traditions to flourish.

The same happened to Africans who were captured, sent halfway across the world, and forced into slavery. 

As the General Board of Global Ministry, we watched together, “More than a Word,” which explores the use of Native American mascots. 

What struck me among the stories were the voices of younger people who grew up either on reservations or even in more traditional white culture, but who were rediscovering their cultural identity.

Their identity had been forgotten.  Or even worse, it had been described to them as shameful, something that had to be destroyed. 

And it was hard for some to find a safe space to explore what that identity and history meant in their lives. 

So part of their weeping was about a loss of that identity.

But the other part of their grief came from knowing just how far they had been from keeping God’s laws. 

Suddenly, the rules were laid out for them plain as day, and they didn’t know how they could possibly ever make up for what they had left undone. 

But Ezra and Nehemiah don’t see this as a moment to pile on shame. 

They urge the people to dry their tears, to end their lament, to let go of their guilt and instead to gather in their homes and feast and give thanks.  

Because this is a fresh start!  

As one of my favorite hymns reminds us:

This is a day of new beginnings,

Time to remember and move on,

Time to believe what love is bringing,

Laying to rest the pain that’s gone.

This is their chance to let go of the past and put into practice the word of God that they have rediscovered. 

What has come before this moment is in the past. 

This moment they get a clean slate to start afresh and rededicate themselves to God. 

As they continue to hear God’s word read, they rediscover rituals and traditions.

One of these is Festival of Booths that takes place in the seventh month… and lo and behold, they are in the seventh month!

So they follow all of the instructions and for the first time in generations, they honor this week-long holiday.    

They also hear once again words that shape their identity as a people.

They remember how they were called together out of slavery in Egypt to be a people, set apart and holy.

That meant things like following a certain diet, refraining from intermarriage, and being dedicated to the Sabbath…

None of which were things that they had been practicing.

So, later that month, they join for a fast of repentance and recommitment. 

They rededicate themselves to the law, trusting in the God who has been steadfast and merciful. 

All of the officials, priests, and officers, singers, temple staff, gatekeepers and all of the people who were old enough to understand joined together in a binding oath to follow what they read about in Deuteronomy. 

They recommitted themselves to the law.

Their focus was on crossing every t and dotting every i. 

Keeping the Sabbath.

Refraining from intermarriage. 

Practicing Jubilee.

Offering to support the temple. 

Dedicating their first fruits.

Bringing in the tithe. 

As we think about what it means to rebuild our community, a huge part of what we need to do is remember who we are. 

A key difference between us and the people of Judah at this time is that we have a different frame of reference and a different calling.

We are not called to be a people, set apart and holy, isolated, focused on following every letter of the law.

God knows that we will fail if we try… because the people of God failed over and over again.

Last year, we joined together in UMC 101 and we explored together some of OUR foundational beliefs and practices. 

We remembered things like:

Our focus on grace and faith put into practice.

The call to reach out and share the love of God with all people.

A charge that makes room for difference and invites us to use our brains and celebrates diversity. 

All grounded and centered in the core of Christian tradition… praising the God of all creation who became flesh and lived and died and rose again so that we might truly know life. 

In Jesus Christ we have been redeemed and made right… not because we followed the law, but by his grace, and God continues to empower us by the Holy Spirit. 

And we remembered that our congregation exists for a purpose.. to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God. 

This is who we are. 

A people who love God and accept the grace God offers… and then live out that love and grace in our daily lives. 

We are called to be a witness… a light and a leaven in society, a reconciler in a world that is divided, to go into places of pain and show Christ’s hope. (Book of Discipline ¶220)

In just a few minutes, we will be invited to the table. 

Just like the people of Judah embraced their traditions and practices, this is a practice that is at the core of our being.

This is a place where we are empowered to start again.

This is a place where we recommit ourselves to God and one another.

This is the place where we find God’s strength and grace for the new beginning that awaits us.

Friends, it doesn’t matter what has come before.

There is no reason to weep or grieve or feel shame for what has been done in the past.

Because here we receive the grace of God that is our new beginning.

So may we, too, come and recommit our hearts to God on this day. 

Nehemiah: Having Each Other’s Backs

Format Image
Posted on Leave a comment on Nehemiah: Having Each Other’s Backs

Text: Nehemiah 4: 1-3, 6-9, 16-18; 5:1-7

Here at Immanuel, we have team of folks who have working together on a safety and emergency response plan.

One of the things that this group has discussed is that there are different kinds of potential threats to a community.

Those that are external, like a tornado… and those that are internal, like a fire.

And so you need to respond differently to each. 

With an external threat, sometimes you need to hunker down and shelter in place.

But an internal threat might require you to exit the building and get to another location. 

In all these plans however, our focus is on working together as a community to make sure people are safe and cared for. 

Nehemiah shares his account of the call he receives from God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem… and in the process rebuild the community of the people of Judah. 

Last week, we talked about how so many people responded and rolled up their sleeves and got to work on this effort. 

Each took on their part of the project with enthusiasm! 

And yet, it was not all smooth sailing. 

The project immediately faced obstacles and threats that could have derailed the entire thing.

Some of these were external threats… from groups that opposed seeing Nehemiah succeed.

But some of them were internal threats and problems within the community itself. 

First, let’s look at those external threats.

Nehemiah had been sent with authority from the king of Persia to rebuild this wall.

But the reach of the Persian Empire was vast and covered far more than this little corner of the world. 

Regional governors had been appointed to oversee all of these different areas of what we now know as the Middle East and they didn’t all get along with one another. 

Early on in chapter 2, we are introduced to Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab, who oppose the efforts of Nehemiah before he even gets started. 

“They were very angry that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10, CEB)

But why were they so upset? Why did they care?

Well, they each represented groups that had been ancient enemies of the Israelites. 

When God helped Moses lead the people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, they forcibly displaced and battled with many other peoples and cultures. 

Some of these groups would have rejoiced to see their neighbors brought to their knees and definitely didn’t want to see them rise in prestige or power again. 

But there also may have been a sense that the Israelites were getting special treatment being allowed to restore their community.

Maybe they had a bit of jealousy about work of restoration that wasn’t happening in their own city-states. 

So they begin to ridicule and attack the Jews and diminish the work that is being done.

One of my favorite taunts comes from Tobiah, who exclaims, “Why, if a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight.” (4:3, MSG)

What a puny little wall, he is saying. 

What shoddy work, done by miserably unqualified people.

At first, the people of Judah were kind of inspired and energized by these taunts… redoubling their efforts until the wall was nearly half of its intended height.

But, as often transpires – violent and hateful words began to become physical attacks.

Sanballat, Tobiah, and these enemies of the people began to plan an assault against the wall. 

Living under constant attacks can be exhausting.

Before too long, the words got under their skin. 

The people began to believe that they couldn’t be successful. 

“The builders are pooped, the rubbish piles up; We’re in over our heads, we can’t build this wall.”  (4:10, MSG)

Through it all, Nehemiah turns towards prayer and asks for God to hear their cries.

And then, he gathers up all of the people and gives one of those inspirational speeches that lifts their hearts. 

“Put your minds on the Master, great and awesome, and then fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”

What is more… he puts into action a plan so that the people will be unstoppable.

He creates these partnerships so that half of the people stood guard with shields and lances and the other half would work at rebuilding with a tool in one hand and a spear in the other.

Each person had someone else who had their backs. 

Because they were all spread so far out in different parts of the city, they used trumpets to rally folks together if an attack came from any direction. 

And when they needed to, they took turns and switched places… which was vitally important, because they worked from dawn to dusk. 

When evening came, no one returned to their own homes, but they camped out and slept in their clothes, guarding the wall. 

Faced with an external threat, they hunkered down and sheltered-in-place… keeping their eyes focused on God and committed to having one another’s backs.

Friends, I think of all of the ways that our church did that throughout the pandemic. 

We may have had to hunker down, but we didn’t give up the things that were important like worship or small groups… we just found a new way to connect with online and printed worship.

We formed care groups so that we would be responsible for checking up on one another. 

Elder care ministry and teacher buddies were formed so that folks who might be more vulnerable had extra support and encouragement. 

And as we are coming out of this pandemic season, I think about those external forces of competition that we might be facing. 

The Samaritans and Ammonites and Arabs in this story didn’t have to be their enemies, and yet as they battled for attention and resources, they believed lifting yourself up means putting someone else down.

Our “enemies” aren’t quite so obvious. 

But we, too, are competing for people’s time and attention in the multitude of things that pull at them from different directions.

And sometimes, we can feel as if we are having very little impact and can get discouraged. 

Maybe we start to cry out, like the Jews did:

We are pooped and burnt out and can’t possibly compete.  We are never going to be able to get back to where we were.

And so we, too, need to encourage one another and have one another’s backs.

We need to give one another permission to take turns and share the load.

We need to celebrate the progress that we ARE making and all of the small ways that God is working in our midst.

One simple way, today, that you can do that… In the foyer we have a table with cards that say, “What I love about my church.”  

Fill one of those out and add it to the wall…

and take some time to read all of the good and encouraging things that others are saying about who we are and what we are about. 

Alright, we’ve talked about some external threats… but what about when the call is coming from inside the house? 

All of this great work is happening in rebuilding the wall, but before too long, Nehemiah starts to hear some complaints from the people against one another.

You see, the everyday folks who lived in and around Jerusalem still had to feed their kids and tend their flocks. 

And decades of first Babylonian and then Persian rule had nearly wiped them out with the taxes and levies that were enforced. 

What is worse… governors and officials who had been appointed to oversee these collections in the past had lined their own pockets through excessive fees and charging interest.

The people had nothing left.  They were burnt out and overextended.

Some of them were forced to sell their children into slavery or mortgage their land just to eat.

What good would it do to build the wall and bring Jerusalem back… if the people were gone and the land was no longer theirs? 

So Nehemiah calls all of the leaders together and holds them accountable.

No longer would interest be collected.

Fields and vineyards and children would be returned. 

The leaders are there not for their own personal self-interest, but for the good of the whole…

Centuries of prophets had called out this kind of selfish and oppressive behavior in the time before the exile… and Nehemiah made his leaders commit to walking in the ways of God.   

In the life of our community, the internal threats we face are a bit different.

But I do wonder about the ways that we have burnt people out who are overextended…

How might we need to work to share our burdens of ministry more equitably? 

What would it look like if we each worked to give of our time and talents to support the work of the whole ministry of this church… instead of relying upon those who are already carrying the load? 

I also wonder about who we have forgotten and who has been pushed to the margins. 

We have done really excellent work of reaching out to support some groups like our elders. 

Are there neighbors whose voices and lives have we overlooked?

For many years when I first came to Immanuel, Imani was a completely separate church that shared part of our building. 

For the last four years, we have created the same kind of space for Immanuel Gospel Fellowship, but now they have become part of our larger Immanuel community. 

What does it really mean, however, to extend welcome to people of a different culture or ethnic background?

What does it really mean to claim them as a part of us and us as a part of them? 

And what would that look like for welcome of homeless neighbors? 

Or community members who rely upon food stamps?

Or our youth who are LGBTQ?

How can we partner and work together and make sure that people know that we have their backs? 

Threats to community are abundant and can be internal or external.

But in all things, let us keep our eyes minds focused on God, who is great and awesome, and work together as a community to have one another’s backs.

Let’s fight for our children, our families, our neighbors, and our community. 

Amen.   

Copyright © 2026 Rev. Katie Z. Dawson. All rights reserved.