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Letters and Sermons from M. Kathleen Chesnut

“Fallow Time”

February, 2010

I noticed a garden area in the backyard of the manse. Gardens need care in order to flourish. There are times to reap and sow, times to change the type of crop you plant, and times to let the land lie fallow after it has worked hard to bear fruit.

This congregation has worked had.It has born fruit. And now it is time to lie fallow for awhile. This does NOT mean that we stop feeding the hungry people to come to us once a month, but it DOES mean that we focus on caring for ourselves. What ministry fills you with joy when you perform it? What is it that you want? What do you want from your pastor? From each other as members of the Body of Christ? What is it that you need from God?

Lent is a good time to ask such questions. It is the one time of the year when we KNOW how much God loves us. Yes, it is a time of wandering through the wilderness and examining our relationship with God. But Lent is that time of year when we KNOW that God gave us Jesus Christ so that we could have eternal life. God sent Jesus to travel through Holy Week to Easter Sunday to “save the World.” And we are certainly part of that world that Jesus loves.

We cannot reach the joy of Easter Sunday without going through all of Holy Week. Good Friday is NOT my favorite day, but without it we do not receive the gift of resurrection. Healing from past hurts is not fun, but it is the way to find new life. And new life is what Easter is all about.

And so we begin a time of lying fallow and healing.I plan to be spending Wednesday evenings (except Session Wednesday and the Wednesday of Holy Week) in the chapel praying from 7:00 – 7:30, beginning the first Wednesday in March.Come and join me some Wednesday. I will put together some prayer booklets.Bring the names of the members of our congregation who need healing, bring the names of members of the community as well.I f you feel a need to speak with your Pastor after prayer time, I will be available.

As we move through Lent, spend time nurturing your relationship with God. Remind yourselves of the awesome unconditional love that God has for all of us. And when Easter finally arrives after our journey through Holy Week and Good Friday, rejoice with the resurrection of our Lord.

“The Light in the Darkness”

January, 2010

(John 1:1-18)

I look outside this morning and I see darkness. This time of year, we leave to go to work in the darkness and when we arrivehome, it is dark as well. Winter is the time of snow and cold . . . and darkness.

We’ve turned the corner and the days ARE getting longer, but it is still the season of SADD. The lights inside our home don’t quite cut it. Something is missing. I have a mild case of SADD (seasonal affective disorder) that is luckily cured by using the right light bulbs; all I need is a few full spectrum light bulbs scattered about the house and my energy returns. I feel filled with life in spite of the darkness outside.

Darkness, it isn’t just something physical, is it? We just missed a big dose of it on Christmas Day when the underwear bomber was caught before he could deliver the present he had been planning for us. And it seems darker this year than it did just a few years ago, and a lot darker than it did Christmas time 2000, before 9/11.

I’ve had a bit of culture shock moving back here to New York after spending 4 years in North Dakota. Walking into the Motor Vehicle department, I expected to hand in my North Dakota license and walk out with a New York one. Didn’t happen. I ended up having to make a 300 mile round trip to pick up a copy of my birth certificate, find my Social Security card and a few other proofs showing that I was really me. And even then I didn’t walk out of there with a license with my picture on it. That came in the mail ten days later with some really strange 3D effects on it.

Darkness doesn’t rule. All we need to have the fullness of life return is one full spectrum candle. The Christ candle.

That’s why my favorite church service is the Christmas Eve candlelight service. The Christ candle shines in the darkness - all by itself it defeats the darkness around us. Then the service leaders light their candle from the Christ candle, and share that light with those on the end of the aisles. Then those people share, and the next person shares, and the next. And darkness is chased out of the sanctuary as the people of God share the light that they have been given. Christ – “the true light that gives light” to everyone.

We as Christians have a two-fold responsibility here. We cannot stand in the darkness with an unlit candle. Then the darkness wins, at least temporarily. Darkness doesn’t rule, no matter how thick it gets. That full spectrum Christ candle rules. We need to allow the grace of God to light our candle. We need to allow our friends’ love for us to light our candle when it goes out. We who love Christ cannot stand in the darkness with an unlit candle, because the next step after getting our candle lit is to light someone else’s candle. One lit candle defeats the darkness, one million begins to change the world.

We as Christians are the light of the world. We are called to light our lights from the Christ candle, be filled with light - and life - and truth and grace. And we are called to share the gift of life that we have been given.

It may be dark outside, but the sun IS coming.

Pastor Kathleen

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First News of Dickinson and Belfield - December

Pastor's Letter

Writing this month's letter is an interesting task. I need to somehow mix Advent and Christmas, and then, with no January Newsletter, I need to throw in New Year's resolutions. What do New Year's resolutions have to do with a little baby?

Let's see - Advent is preparing for the presence of Christ among us.Christ among us - just what IS that? A baby comes into the world, bringing with it a sense of newness and the wonder of potential unimagined.Just who will this child become? What wonders will this baby create? Who will its smile touch and transform their day? And when that child is the Christ - how much greater is the sense of newness and wonder. This is why we respond with the burst of generosity called Christmas shopping. We need to share, we need to give, when we think about the wondrous gift we have been given. But we need to remember the source of that generosity.

When we read the Advent texts, we see something different. We see Isaiah's vision of a new heaven and a new earth, of the swords beaten into plowshares - creating life rather than death. We hear Jesus speaking of his coming again to be with us. The child was born, lived with us; the child died and rose again - but this vision is yet to come. The advent texts have a tone of judgment. They ask us what have we done to bring Isaiah's vision into being. Have we embraced that Child as Gift? Or have we just said "What a cute baby.. . ."

These Advent texts speak to us - about us. We who have "walked in darkness have seen a great light." Advent reminds us that we have seen the light of Christ's love. Advent asks us what have we done about it. Have we repented (turned back towards God) and moved into the light, or just looked at the amazing display and walked off in another direction? The light of Christ was NOT sent to us just to entertain us. We are called to do something with that marvelous gift.

I read scripture at Dickinson's community memorial service hosted by hospice yesterday and was impressed with Father Austin Vetter's sermon. He spoke of grief as a time of darkness, a darkness through which we must travel, but a darkness in which we do not have to stay. The light of Christ shines in the darkness, even the deepest darkness, and it cannot be overcome. Nothing can overcome the light of Christ's love for us.

So, what do New Year's resolutions have to do with a little baby? If that little baby is the Christ Child - quite a bit. That little baby came to give us the gift of the resurrection, a gift we receive a taste of here and now as we allow Christ's love into our hearts .A taste that broadens as we share that love with others.

New Year's resolution? That becomes easy. If you walk in darkness, embrace the light and that darkness WILL diminish. That sense of newness and wonder that was born with the Christ Child will enter your heart once again. If the light of Christ's love already shines brightly in your heart, allow it to grow. Allow your Christmas shopping burst of generosity to take root, to live in your heart the whole year. Allow your heart to widen so that you, too, will cause someone's day to brighten and help their darkness to lift. And if we all share the light with others, those swords WILL be used to grow corn, sooner rather than later.

May the light of Christ be with you,

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - November

Pastor's Letter

As I sit here, the tree crews are taking down the old, diseased trees that occupy 4th Street West here in Dickinson. These trees have sheltered people for years, but have finally come to an end of their lives, an end to their service to God's world. For such trees, I am deeply thankful.

Trees meant much to me as a child.I would wander through the state forest behind out house, being careful NOT to get stuck in the swamp (although I did lose one boot in it once). Trees were great to climb, and look down on the world around me. There was even a tree from which I would fly a kite. But - trees die, more seeds get planted, and life continues on according to the plan of God.

November is the month in which we celebrate the harvest. Not as many people live on the land as they once did - but all people participate in harvest activities. Gardening, raising children, completing a difficult task that brings fulfillment - all these are harvest activities.

The Bible is filled with harvest metaphors and stories that still ring true to our modern ears. We plant seeds of all kinds - not just the kind that grow in the garden or field.S eeds of love, seeds of truth, seeds of faith. We plant them in our own hearts and in the hearts of other people.

Throughout the centuries, All Saints Day celebrated those who have gone on before us who have planted such seeds.I t is time to take a moment and reflect on those who have planted such seeds in our hearts. It is time to reflect on what our own harvest might look like, where have we planted the seed of love?

It is important to remember that we are not alone in the care of such seeds and seedlings.God is involved. God sent the rain that grew the trees of my childhood, that grew those trees on 4th Street West. That grew the seedlings in our own hearts.

That is why we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. We honor the creator of the harvest with gratitude for all that has blessed our lives.

Pastor Kathleen

Copyright © 2006 M. Kathleen Chesnut

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - September 2009

""Do Not Be Afraid"

Change is often difficult to face.We don’t want it.We want to do things the way that we have always done it.The day would not go well if we did not put our right shoe on first.Without that first cup of coffee drunk in that certain way, we lose our inspiration for the day.We refuse to do things differently.

But the world around us is changing dramatically.Our knowledge doubles every 7-9 years.At a Rotary meeting, I heard the new president of an educational institution say we will experience 10,000 years of technological change in the next century.The steel sword was high technology for 1,000 years; the CD is already in the way out.

Our psychological and our spiritual life is changing rapidly as well.The way we construct our world, called our paradigm, is shifting just as dramatically.

And so we are afraid.The health care debate as seen on TV is fascinating.One side is afraid of what the other side wants.Instead of any useful debate, we have “DON’T LET THEM DO THIS.”If we have 10 million new patients in our health care system YOU WILL NOT GET THE CARE YOU NEED (because there won’t be enough doctors, etc.)“They” will kill all our elders (and some day you will be one of them).Fear rules.That doesn’t mean that these concerns are groundless, but fear refuses to allow us to move forward and fix this problem of health care that will blow up in our faces if we ignore it.It will not go away, nor will our fear of what the other side wants.

Fear causes us to do things we would not otherwise do.We love our system (church, country) and we will do anything to “save” it.So we act to stop the forward movement – and sometimes accidently destroy the system (church, country).We kill that which we are trying to save.

We forget we are not the ones called to save, Christ is.When we are down and out, this is extremely reassuring.If we find ourselves in the driver’s seat, it is awfully hard to move over and let someone else drive.Then he gets to chose where we are going.But isn’t the destination chosen by Jesus Christ much better than the one we would chose if fear makes is close our eyes while we are driving?

We forget that Jesus is asleep in the boat with us.It is okay to close your eyes in the boat.Yes, it is going through a fierce storm and almost ready to capsize, but Christ will wake up and still the storm and we WILL make it safely to the other side.If we trust Jesus Christ more than we trust our fear.

We need to hold the hand of Jesus Christ, take a deep breath, and move forward.And then we will find ourselves in a world better and brighter than we could ever have imagined.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield -August 2009

"God Works . . .for Good"

The second Wednesday in July, I received a call from Jim Hope cancelling the Church Council meeting due to the impending storm.I thought he was being a wimp, but he was really being VERY wise instead.An hour and a half later, a tornado damaged over 400 buildings in Dickinson; a church as well as many people’s homes was destroyed.

I often speak of the changes in theology from the Old Testament to the New Testament.But there is one that I have yet to share with you.The Old Testament states in many places that good happens to good people and bad happens to bad people.This is why the friends of Job tell him that he must have done SOMETHING very bad to lose everything the way he did.But in the Prologue to Job we are told that Job is one of the most upright people there was.The Book of Job was written to argue with this theology.

The New Testament goes one step farther – again.It accepts that bad things happen to good people; after all, the best person there ever was ended up crucified.But in Romans 8, it tells us “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”Bad things happen, but God can turn those into good.

God was NOT punishing that church or the people whose homes were damaged.Freedom is built into the nature of the universe and bad things just happen.

The church was having an activity at the time the tornado arrived.No one was injured.With all of the damage done to our town, no one was killed.To me, this seems as if we were blessed.

We were blessed with the over 500 volunteers who signed up to clean up the debris (and more volunteers who did not sign up).We were blessed with the strangers who just showed up in people’s yards to help them clean up.We were blessed with the Adventist Disaster Response Team, which set up in the mall to accept and distribute donations.We were blessed with the businesses that contributed what was needed, including Columbia and Kmart.We were blessed by the Stark County Chapter of the Red Cross volunteers who contributed over 1800 hours of volunteer time and which served 4,874 meals to those who needed them.

We were blessed and continue to be blessed by the fund raising efforts to aid those who lost part of their lives through tornado damage.Many of the walls that have built up over the years in this town have fallen down or been taken apart, much as was the Berlin wall.

Dickinson needs to continue to come together, to forgive the past injuries and insults that have caused our divisions.People will need our help for quite sometime.The damage done by the tornado does not disappear once the debris is cleaned up.We need to continue to work together, to function as the Body of Christ, to spend our time building up each other – and not rebuilding those walls that have come down.May a new spirit of cooperation come out of our disaster.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - May 2009

"God's Power"

My sermon preparation often gives me my ideas for this letter. Last Sunday, I preached on “God’s Power.” The disciples had only recently been hiding in a locked room “for fear of the Jews”, and now they were being brought before those very same leaders after having healed a man. Asked by whose power they had done this, they answered “By Christ’s power.” (Acts 4:5-12) Now, I am preparing for next Sunday and read this: “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me he can do nothing.” (John 15:1-8)

These two texts mix well together. If we allow God’s power to feed us, as the vine feeds the branches, then we can accomplish great things. The disciples connected to God and grew the church from a few people to what Christianity is today. Throughout the history of the church, leaders connected to God’s power have arisen and renewed its life. St. Francis of was one such leader. When I was a child, I found his story inspiring. I have a statue of him for my garden, with birds sitting on his shoulder. Mother Theresa of Calcutta was one such leader as well. They were both branches who fed many smaller branches with what they had received from the vine, from Christ.

This power of God is available to us: when we travel through difficult times, those times spoken of in Psalm 23 as traveling through “the valley of the shadow of death”; when we face challenges that test our ability to love those around us; when we are asked to do difficult things so that the world we know can survive and grow.

If we disconnect ourselves from our vine, though, we will be “like a branch that is thrown away and withers.” Many people, believing God to be on their side, act in ways that they should not. Allah does not wish Islam to destroy America as those who initiated 9/11 thought. Their acts will have much less effect on our world in the long run than the life of Mother Theresa. The life and love of God that she shared with others will flow through time for centuries. People in future generations will be inspired by her story just as I was by that of Francis of Assisi.

Spending time in prayer, taking the time to sit in God’s presence, helps to connect us to our vine. The fear inspired by those acts on, disappear when we sit in God’s presence. We are empowered when we take the time to sit in God’s presence.

There are many things in our world that conspire to take away that empowerment. Our news program and the internet are filled with stories that scare us. Crime, swine flu, financial collapse and bankruptcy, terrorists, the agenda of the opposing political party… I could fill the rest of this letter with just what I have heard this week.

Our disciples who were standing before those leaders who had crucified Christ had something very concrete to fear – and yet they stood their ground. Peter stated that they did this “through the power of Jesus Christ.”

We need to stop imitating the disciples hiding in the Upper Room prior to their meeting the risen Christ. We need to connect our branch to that vine that is Christ’s love and allow that to empower us.

God is NOT on our side, but we can be on God’s side. Practice being in the presence of God through prayer and act accordingly.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - April 2009

"Fear Always Loses"

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - March 2009

"Fear Always Loses"

One of the texts the Lectionary has listed for Easter Sunday is Mark 16:1-8.The earliest manuscripts of this Gospel do not have verses 9-11, the verses that refer to the resurrection.The oldest manuscripts end with verse 8: “trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”

What is it that they were afraid of?WE know that the young man in the tomb dressed in white was an angel.WE understand what he meant when he told the women “he has risen!. . . He is going ahead of you into Galilee.There you will see him, just as he told you.”But the women at this point in the story were so scared they couldn’t even think.Their Messiah had been crucified and they didn’t even have a body to anoint.The had not understood what they had been told by Jesus.Their world was on shaky foundations and they were terrified.

From our point of view, their terror was unfounded.It was preventing them from experiencing the joy of the resurrected Christ.Fear clouded their eyes and the truth that was in front of them remained unseen.They were unable to share the Good News of the resurrection with Peter and the disciples as the angels asked them to do.Their fear controlled their actions.

We know the meaning of those words spoken by the angel, “He has risen!”And every Easter we proclaim with joy, “He IS RISEN”; acknowledging that the risen Christ is with us even to this day and hour.But when the foundation of our world is shaken, fear clouds our eyes as well.What we take for granted about our faith begins to dissolve.Our sense of Easter becomes but a momentary thing and that joy that is the taste of the resurrection becomes a dim memory that we begin to think that we imagined.

We, too, are unable to share the Good News of God’s love when fear overcomes faith in our hearts.But. Christ truly IS RISEN.Not rose one day two thousand years ago, momentarily passing through time and space on the way elsewhere.Christ truly IS RISEN, and is with us this day and every day.

It was too uncomfortable for the scribes who copied this Gospel to leave it as was, they NEEDED to speak of the resurrection, they needed to state it and underline it. Verses 9 – 19 state that Christ really did rise and really did appear to Mary Magdalene and to others, until finally the fact of the resurrection was believed.Leaving people trembling in fear when the foundation of their world crumbled about them was much too difficult for the scribes to do – much better to berate these people for lack of faith.And so we have verse 14b: “he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.”

But we – too – often have a lack of faith that leaves us trembling in fear.Sometimes we need to put ourselves in the place of the women who are too afraid to speak, too afraid to believe that the resurrection really had happened – until they experienced the living God, Jesus Christ, in front of them.Only then can we remember what comes next, that living presence that transforms fear into faith.This text, as originally written, was meant to be cathartic, to chase away our doubt as we place ourselves in the story, experience the fear – while at the same time knowing what comes next.We don’t get to Easter without traveling through Good Friday; not in the church year, or in our lives.This text reminds us of that – reminds us of the power of fear and the overwhelming power of faith that drives out all fear.

May the presence of the Living God be with you this Easter season and drive out what fear you might have within your hearts.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - March 2009

"Something is REALLY Changing"

The Christian Church faces one of the biggest challenges of its 2,000 year history. We find ourselves in a time and place in which our children think far differently than we do, in which their children will think even more differently. Our fascination with the TV has become a fascination with the computer screen in the generations that follow us. Our awe that we could speak to someone on the other coast has turned into commonplace “chatting” with those on the other side of the earth. Members of the younger generations spend more time on the internet than they do in church.

texts the Lectionary has listed for Easter Sunday is Mark 16:1-8.The earliest manuscripts of this Gospel do not have verses 9-11, the verses that refer to the resurrection.The oldest manuscripts end with verse 8: “trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”

May the presence of the Living God be with you this Easter season and drive out what fear you might have within your hearts.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - March 2009

"Something is REALLY Changing"

Our cherished signs and symbols, our traditions and ceremonies do not hold the same meaning for many of these people as they do for us. They stick their heads into our churches, see nothing that makes sense to them. How do we share the Good News of God’s love with those who do not understand what we say? How are we called to do and be church in this time and place?

Understanding some of the previous challenges helps us to understand that of the present day. The printing press, invented in 1452, changed the world forever. Prior to this, knowledge was passed on from scribe to scribe through labor intensive copying of the text. Few could afford books, even a copy of the Bible. Even many priests were illiterate. For knowledge of God’s Word, the faithful needed to depend upon someone else who could read and interpret it for them. It is hard for us to understand the technological breakthrough that the King James Version of the Bible was to those who first read it.

But for the people of the time to actually be able to hold a printed copy of the Bible in their hands and read it in their own language, rather a laboriously copied Latin version that few who could read understood, was an even greater miracle than that which we have today with our almost instantaneous worldwide communication. A new world was opened to them, one that they could hold and grasp and make their own.

Once it was possible to own a printed copy of the Bible and read it, dependence upon others’ interpretation was no longer necessary. Interpretations began to vary as more people read the Bible. Lay people were able to read and interpret the Bible on their own. Authority was no longer vested solely in the interpretation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy once Martin Luther posted his thesis on the church door in 1517, 65 years after the printing press was invented. The civil authority of his prince protected Martin Luther and the first Protestant Reformation was born.

A technology changed the Christian tradition. The faith, that deep understanding of God’s love for each and every human being, remained the same, but that generation, as did subsequent generations, “made the faith their own.” <as stated in the Constitution if the United Church of Christ> This happened slowly and subtlety, almost unnoticeably, as it passed from generation to generation until we reached the computer age, and the pace of change speeded up with the challenge of another new technology.

The age of the computer has burst upon us with another change in the way that people think and view reality. We have moved into what is called the Postmodern age. Many books have been written about how the computer and all that has come with it has changed us as a people.

This challenge has been augmented by a challenge from the world of ideas. In 1781, Emmanuel Kant published a book called Critique of Pure Reason. In this, Kant demonstrated that we impose reason upon what our senses tell us, that, in fact, our understanding of reality is subjective. What we perceive as “truth” is our own interpretation of truth, based upon what we pay attention to as well as what we ignore.

Those of us who grew up before the 60s have an understanding that truth is something objective that we can find, that we can reach out and touch. In our formative years, there was an “establishment”, an understanding of the way that things are and should be that many of us questioned. But we didn’t question that there WAS a truth that we could go out and find as we “searched for ourselves.”

Those who grew up after the 60’s and this questioning of the establishment, tend to see truth as something that can’t quite be captured with certainty. Our culture has lost the concept of an absolute truth, and we hear people talking about “my truth” and your “truth.” Lying has become a way of life for some, as truth is seen as relative and can’t be pinned down. What has been forgotten is that what is perceived is an interpretation of truth, rather than truth itself.

Our youth ask us many questions we have trouble answering with words that they can understand. How do we know that the interpretations of God’s Word from the past have any validity? Where do we anchor our faith, if God’s love cannot be proven?

At this point in time, we need to embrace that subjectivity, for it is there that we experience God’s love for us, it is there that we share God’s love with other .It is in being the Body of Christ that the church will share the faith of the ages with the children of the future – and many of the people of the present day who have yet to experience the miracle of that love.

How do we help the coming generations find the comfort in the faith that has been passed down to us if we cannot speak the same language? By simply loving them, and by translating the wisdom that was given to us into words and symbols that they can understand. God will help us with this challenge. Paul stated that he became all things to all people so that they might be won to Christ. Can we refuse this challenge and say we follow the faith that he shared with us?

One voice from past ages speaks of that still small voice within us. That voice that speaks of God’s love and faithfulness. God’s spirit exists within each of us, as well as outside of us. And it is to that spirit that we point when someone asks where our authority to speak come from. We may not be able to “prove” God’s love, but we can share it. We may not be able to “prove” God’s faithfulness, but we can be faithful.

We have become comfortable with our traditions; they fit us like a good, comfortable shoe. Paul challenges us to be uncomfortable so as to share the good news with those for who our comfortable shoe cannot fit. We need to remember that it is sharing God’s love that is important, not saving it for ourselves. It is the same challenge that the early church faced when deciding if the Gentiles were welcome, if those who thought so differently were to be invited to the table.

We are in the midst of another Protestant Reformation; new ways of thinking challenge us as the keepers of the faith. We are faced with giving birth to a new and vibrant expression of the faith of the ages. The UCC Constitution states that it is the responsibility of each generation to make the faith their own. We may not quite recognize the faith as expressed by the coming generations, but it will hold within it the same understanding of the awesome nature of God’s love, the same steadfastness of God’s truth.

We need to help the coming generations find God’s love and truth deep within themselves. It is our calling and our challenge.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - February 2009

"Comfort and Challenge"

I’ve been learning a lot working on the current sermon series on the foundational texts of the congregations. Putting together one comforting text with one challenging text at first seemed only a technique that allowed me to use more of your texts. Then I realized that I did it through the promptings of the spirit. Without first the comfort, we cannot hear the challenge. The fact that comfort texts worked well with those of challenge is NOT a coincidence.

Sermon one asked: “Can we hear the challenge of the Bible without first hearing the comfort?”. It used Psalm 23 as the foundation for hearing Matthew 25:40: it spoke of that sense of the safety that comes from knowing that whatever valley we travel, God is present with us. The knowledge of God’s presence with us prepares us for the challenge of seeing that presence in another person. We experience the comfort as a foundation for our faith, and we respond with the act of loving those whom our God loves. We do this, and we arrive at that scene of judgment at which the king tells us, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

The second sermon asked, “Can we sing Psalm 52 without first singing Psalm 100?” The song of praise that is Psalm 100 reminds us of the wonder and power of the One who created us, and the One to whom we belong. Verse three makes that clear: “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” After we sing the Lord’s praise, then we are able to ask for and expect God’s mercy. We ask our God to “wash away all <our> iniquity, and cleanse <us> from our sin.” The major challenge of repentance is acknowledging our imperfection. We only do this with those we trust. Our words of comfort build that trust.

The third in the series spoke of the biggest challenge, that of loving our enemy. Its question was: "If you do not feel a sense of God's protecting love, can you take the risk of loving your enemy?" Psalm 121 again speaks of God’s presence with us, that presence that steadies us when faced with both challenges and crisis. The words of Matthew 5:44 are filled with risk if we heed them: “I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The foundation of faith spoken of in Psalm 121 gives us the steadiness to take that risk, and when we do, the world changes. Changing the world is the calling of the disciple of Christ.

The question for the fourth sermon has yet to reveal itself, but sermon five will ask; “If we did not know God’s love as patient, kind, always trusting and never ending, would we ever learn to love ourselves or our neighbor?” (1 Corinthians 12;12-20, 27; 13:4-8a, 13 and Matthew 22:38-40, along with Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). It is God’s love that we model when we love our neighbor, when we love our enemy – and when we learn how to put up with ourselves.

The life of faith is a process through which we grow. I get Yoga Journal, and it shows how to do some of those fantastic poses that some people (usually not me) can do. After the pose, there comes 3-4 pages of preliminary poses you need to be able to do before you are ready for the final one. It also has warm-up exercises for that particular pose. Our text of comfort act as the preliminary poses. We experience God’s love; we learn to trust that love; at some point, we feel secure and want to love those whom God loves. Each time we get here, we widen the circle of those whom we are willing to love. At some point our neighbor makes it in; at another, ourselves; eventually, our enemies. It is always a challenge; there are always more people to include. Each time we widen the circle, the world changes for the better.

Some of us make it to the point at which we can love our enemies, others find it challenging to love their neighbor. But it is the foundation of faith that is most important, for without a solid foundation built upon the rock of faith, we are but a house built upon sand. We need to get our foundation set up on the solid rock of our own experience of God’s love, our own experience of these inspiring, comforting texts. The more solidly we build our foundation, the higher we can build our life of ministry and Christian service.

The higher we can build, the wider our circle becomes, the more our world changes.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - December 2008

"'Tis the Season to . . . ?"

This IS one of the most difficult times of the year to navigate sanely.As a Pastor, I find the week before Easter very difficult as I prepare for Good Friday AND Easter at the exact same time.Mourning one moment with Good Friday and then rejoicing the next as I switch to Easter preparation is not the easiest transition a pastor can make.This time of year is similar for most people.

Some of us mourn as we miss those who we have loved who are no longer with us.And then the Christmas carols rejoice around us at the birth of new life.Some of us can’t be with those we love due to work or other considerations.The song, “Home for the Holidays”, is not necessarily welcomed by this group.Some of us get frazzled with preparations for making this a wonderful Christmas for others and lose the sense of wonder for ourselves.I write this as I ponder what Christmas decorations I will put up – the decorations that came out in Herbergers in August taking away some of the magic of decorating for me.Keeping our focus on the “reason for the season” is difficult, especially this year with the uncertain economic future.Fear can smother joy and our sense of thanksgiving just as easily as can stress.

We start at a high point on Thanksgiving Day and drop into Black Friday with all its frenzy.But the reason we buy all these gifts for others is because we are thankful for their presence in our lives.All the gifts are meant to symbolize our love and care.And whose presence in our lives are we more thankful for than that of Christ?

Women’s Groups in the church grew out of the need to give thanks to God in a concrete form.Much effort went into sending aid to needy people in China and India.When I worked at the UCC Historical Society, I read many of the writings of these groups. The women ofthe late 1800’s spoke of wanting to give something back to Jesus who had done so much for them, and so they raised money to help others.Then, with the Social Gospel movement in the early 1900’s which recognized the need and the right that all people have for the basic necessities of life, Christians started helping people because they needed, and deserved, help.This is NOT a bad thing – but it shifted focus to people and off God.Helping people out of joy and love for God is a much stronger motivation than the fact that theyneedhelp.We have lost something.This loss makes it easier for stress and fear to fill our hearts.

Where has the joy of Thanksgiving gone?It diminishes with the light as we move towards Christmas Day.We lose our sense of Thanksgiving when the cares of the world start to chip away at the wonder of Christmas, at the wonder that our God came to live here on earth with us – and is with us even now. With effort – and God’s help – we can recover it. The giving of thanks is NOT a one day phenomena, not if we want our spirituality to remain healthy and strong.

Our Advent theme this year is “From Thanksgiving to Gift.”When we give thanks joyfully, we recognize the gift of Christ’s presence with us.This presence is with us 24/7, every day of the year, whether we recognize this fact or not.Focus this Advent on the gift of Christ’s presence in your life; as the light disappears, remember the light of God’s love.And remember that the light returns and that Easter always comes.

What can we give Christ for Christmas but the gift of ourselves, the gift of being light to someone else who is traveling in darkness?Give Christ the gift of being light to another.

Don’t wait until Christmas Eve to light your candle and share it!

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - November 2008

"We Can Do It . . ."

I was watching Barak Obama’s statement after he was elected President of the United States, and I was inspired – and scared.With his repetition of the phrase, “We can do it . . .”, I felt as if I had a leader that I could follow and I became one of those who were repeating “We can do it” after him.I was comforted when he said “to those who would destroy our world, THAT WON’T HAPPEN.”

The fear in my heart came when the female commentator spoke of her expectations of our President-elect, and who then said“And we have yet to be avenged for 9/11.”

Making sure that “those who would destroy our world” do not get their way means LETTING GO of the desire for revenge.

Vengeance creates a vicious circle of violence.Yes, when we have been injured the desire for vengeance is THE natural human response, but to go down that road without thinking leads to a pit of destruction.When we travel this way, we often point to the Biblical injunction “an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”We feel that “they” killed thousands of us and thousands upon thousands of “them” should die in return.And – of course – when we kill their sons in battle and their parents as acceptable collateral damage – “they” want to destroy even more thousands of us.Finally the total gets to millions.

God does NOT want the total to get to millions.In fact, this vicious circle is what the Leviticus (24:20) and Exodus (21:24) passages were in response to.“What?He broke your arm and you want to kill him?Sorry – you only get to break his arm.”Or, as Leviticus states, “as he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.”

The Way of Jesus Christ goes beyond even that.Matthew 5:38-39 states “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left to him.”This is NOT the Way of the Doormat, but rather that of non-violent resistance – the way that Ghandi used in India that gained that country its freedom.

Freedom and Democracy do not come through vengeance, but through reconciliation and working together.More than one person was needed a hundred years ago to build a barn.The whole community would come together and build it.Each person would be helped in turn.We are still the same country with the same vision of freedom and equality.But this vision has gotten dusty and we have gotten the impression that the American dream is ONLY a spouse, a house, two kids and a pet.We have forgotten the foundation of responsibility, respect for the other, and hard work that our vision has been built upon.And when the foundation is ignored, it cracks and threatens the future of the house.

Barak Obama has a vision of reconciliation, of a two party system whose main goal is working together other for the good of the nation rather than focusing on personal agenda and power.We need to work together and re-build our foundation as a nation.And we need to follow in the way of our ultimate leader, Jesus the Christ.

I don’t really know where our new President will take us, and I know I will disagree with him and be disappointed once or twice, but he has a vision.A vision of a united United States of America.And this is good, for “without a vision, the people perish.”

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - October 2008

"The Leaves areTurning . . ."

The leaves are turning. I wasn't ready when Columbia winter coats replaced bathing suits at Herberger's (in the last week of August), nor am I ready for the leaves to begin turning. My garden is still filled with green tomatoes that I want to ripen on the vine.I am getting tired of the parsley, though. THAT was a bumper crop this year. But we need to be open to change.

Mainline Protestants don't like going up to people and asking them if they are saved. We are somewhat insulted when someone does that to us - and so we answer "Yes, I was baptized." (I was told by a Lutheran bishop that this is the correct ELCA response to that question.)

We don’t want to offend someone else, so we stay quiet when matters of faith are discussed. We don't believe that there is only one, correct, way to interpret the Bible, or only one, correct, way to relate to Jesus the Christ. Especially those of us who worship in a Christian tradition other than the one in which we grew up. We take the gift of our faith for granted and forget that not all have been offered that gift.

A gift. Not a present, but a gift. A present has strings attached. A present is what you give your boss and co-workers at Christmas after you have carefully calculated the amount of money that you need to spend to make sure that they all are nice to you in the coming year. A present tells others exactly what to do and to think about you, it is an investment from which you expect to reap rewards. But a gift . . . the other gets to decide whether to accept it or not . . . to give something back in return or not . . . to hold onto tightly or to pass it on and share . . . a gift is truly what our faith is.

Isn't there something in your relationship with God that you want to share with your loved ones? With your friends, perhaps even with strangers?

Perhaps it is shows itself as a donation to United Way so that others might experience that help and care that you received. Perhaps it is giving a friend a lift to the store. Perhaps it is a prayer for someone in need. The list goes on. But what everything has in common is that the gift is an expression of love, a way of saying thanks to God for the gift that we have been given. And, yes, every once in awhile it includes telling someone what God means to us and how God has acted in our lives.

The last one is the hardest one for us to do. I find that I do this well on Sunday morning and when I am dealing with members of the congregations as Pastor, but in my role as an ordinary person, I find it much harder to do.I find I need to listen deep within, to listen to what God has to say. As with Moses, God will give us the words to say when the time comes. If we listen, if we open up our hearts.

But we have been given a tremendous gift, one that only gets stronger every time that we share it .The river of God's love that flows through us grows stronger each time we offer someone else a drink. In the long run, we are helping ourselves and growing our own faith every time that we share it - whether through actions or words. And. yes, many times action do speak louder than words.

We need to be open to change, to the change of sharing the gift of our faith with others. The leaves are turning and we are moving closer to the season of Gift.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - September 2008

"Challenge of Peace"

When our country was founded, Benjamin Rush proposed that George Washington have a Department of Peace as part of his Cabinet. What would our country have been like if we had accepted the challenge of a Department of Peace that sat right next to our Department of War?

Would the cost of interpersonal violence in our country be costing us $300 billion a year?How many starving people would that feed? Or house?

Our youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrialized nations. In 2004, 5,292 young people ages 10 to 24 were murdered - an average of 15 each day. Would some of these be alive if we had accepted the challenge of forming a Department of Peace? Suicide in 2002 was the third leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24. Would any of these people be alive today?

How much of the $62 billion spent for corrections by local, state and federal governments would we be spending on our schools instead? As far back as 1992, the cost of treating gunshot, cutting and stabbing wounds cost us $177 billion. Why do we choose to fight each other instead of loving each other?

Our children need a change.Statistics from 2003 state that seventeen percent of our high school girls have been abused physically and twelve percent have been abused sexually. Statistics from 2001 say that about one in three high school students say they have been in a physical fight in the past year, with one in eight receiving medical care for their injuries.

It is time for a change.

On February 5, 2007, H.R. 808 was introduced into Congress proposing the establishment of the Department of Peace and Non-violence. 65 Co-sponsors quickly signed on, with the first Republican Co-sponsor signing on this July. People are working together to make this change happen.

The Peace Alliance is a nonpartisan citizen action organization representing a growing constituency for peace. The current mission of the Peace Alliance is to work to pass legislation to create a United States Department of Peace. Their web site is: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/

This September 21st, they are organizing a call-in. According to their web site:

"The legislation will pass from bill to law under one condition: that a wave of citizen interest rise up from the American people and make itself heard in the halls of Congress. . .

Legislative aides have consistently informed us that our grassroots lobbying actions play a large part in a Representative's decision to [about whether they] cosponsor HR 808. By placing thousands of calls across the country we can make an impact heard throughout Capitol Hill. Please join us by gathering tons of people to make calls to Congress in support of the Department of Peace!"

Peace comes only when people make a commitment to it. How better to love yourself, your neighbor, your enemy - and your God than to work for peace?

Pastor Kathleen

NOT the Pastor's Letter - August 2008

"I don't really feel like writing this month . . ."

I don't really feel like writing this month. Since it is an off-month for the newsletter, my job doesn't require one. I feel sad - but sometimes it is good to write through the sadness.

As you can tell from Spirit's Page, my dog Dewey is getting ready to leave me. We started some new arthritis treatment - and it is working, but Dewey has decided that enough is enough. He can't see and he can't hear. There is no job for him to do other than sit in my garden and fall on the plants, keeping the garden safe from the rabbits that have moved into the neighborhood. I am not sure how much of the lack of success of my garden thisyear is from the bad growing weather (almost everyone else has had a poor garden), the rabbit (there really IS one this year!) or Dewey falling on the plants. I almost had some beans - but then Dewey picked those plants upon which to fall.

Dewey stops eating when things aren't going right. This would be the fourth time he has done it. The first time was when he moved in with me. I spent over $100 fourteen years ago and still had not found something he would eat. He felt like a loser having been dropped off at the shelter by his previous owner. (I picked him up the next day, and he hadn't had time to greive.) Finally, members of my congrgation started bringing in what they fed their dogs - and he ate Science diet. Either he finally found something he liked, or he had finished greiving, I don't know which.

He had also found a job - as my body guard. He was serious about learning this job, even though it was quite what a Border Collie-Husky mix was bred to do. He did such a good job that he saved my life.

He picked up the habit of pointing things out that he didn't think were quite right. One day, my Dad moved my car without telling me - and Dewey came and got me. The timer went off to tell me dinner was down and I was too busy listening to music to hear it. Dewey came and got me.

One day, Dewey complained about the way that the cellar smelled. As heating time had just started, I called the man in charge of parsonage maintenance, who siad the furnace hadn't been cleaned in awhile. The repair man said that it had only been working at about 40% efficiency. Later I discovered that dogs can smell carbon monoxide. Dewey saved me from carbon monoxide poisoning. I owe him my life.

It will be very hard to say good bye.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - July 2008

"Freedom WITH Responsibility

I sit here, looking forward into July 4th weekend, pondering freedom and all that it entails.I think, perhaps, that we have gotten complacent and take our freedom for granted - both as Christians and as Americans.

I remember in the last high school in which I substitute taught teachers who were afraid to take disciplinary action against students who needed it. They were afraid of the parental response - which was usually to take the teacher to task and NOT the student.

I remember stories told by my grandmother about rationing in World War II, and how all worked for the war effort .We ARE at war today - yet only our soldiers are paying for it with more than taxes.

I think about that first July Fourth and the Declaration of Independence, that document that ended:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Many of the 56 signers of that document had to pay an extremely heavy price for making that pledge. Five of them were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. The list goes on, and yet, what do we do?

We treat our freedom as an entitlement that we are given with nothing expected in return. We have forgotten the price paid by those who have lived before us. And as Christians, we have forgotten the price paid by Christ. Where is the integrity that resulted in the willing sacrifice made by the signers of the Declaration of Independence? It is doubtful that they would have acted differently had they known the price they would pay. Because if they knew that, they also would have known of the fruit of their efforts, the country that today we call the United States of America.

Neither would Christ have acted differently had he known how entitled we also feel for our Christian freedom.

For much of my own life I have felt entitled to these freedoms. It wasn't until I substituted in that high school that I really thought long and hard about what freedom costs. Those parents who felt that their students deserved schooling without any consequences for poor behavior were undermining the foundation of our freedom as Americans. Freedom without responsibility cannot long exist. Freedom in a country cannot exist without the integrity of its citizens. For our country to continue strongly into the future we need to "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

And as Christians, we have a greater challenge, for we are challenged and called to love those who hate us. I have read on the internet that Congress is considering establishing a new Cabinet position - a Department of Peace and Reconciliation. The degree to which partisan politics has divided us threatens us as a nation.We need to remember our unity. For a Christian this unity comes from participation in the Body of Christ. As stated in 1 Corinthians 12 - "the eye cannot say to the hand 'I have no need of you'" - nor can Republicans say to Democrats "I have no need of you" - or the other way around. Independents are needed as well!

Freedom need responsibility to be accepted in order to flourish. May we stop taking our freedom for granted.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - May 2008

"Dueling Ideologies"

(revised January not-the-Pastor's letter)

We no longer live in a world whose many cultures are foreign and therefore considered "barbaric." We travel the streets of our cities and find stores and restaurants that include the food and traditions of every continent (possibly NOT Antarctica, but then, who knows?). We travel the internet from our personal computer and find the world, with its many ideas, at our finger tips.

Humanity has two different reactions to this. One is to open up and welcome the diversity with its new knowledge and experience of what it means to be human. The second is to close down and ignore the validity of the experiences of 99% of the human race.

In October, I spoke of the difference between prescriptive and descriptive theology - in which prescriptive theology has ONE, PRECISE point of view, claiming any other to be heresy, even evil. And descriptive theology states the speaker's experience of who God is, but allows that God is much more than his or her experience of God.Prescriptive theology is exclusive, while descriptive theology is inclusive.

While prescriptive theology has been around forever and has caused countless religious wars, Inquisitions and other destruction and death (including much of the population of Germany during the Reformation), the modern version is a little different. I believe that the human race is on the edge of a new era, an era when we will finally begin to hear the call to love all of God's children. A time when we will look at those who experience God differently as an occasion to learn more about who God is, rather than as a threat to "true belief" and "right thinking." Right being will take precedence; accepting that there is a reason for all the different flowers in God's garden and enjoying the view, rather than seeing anyone different than us as a weed.

The modern version of prescriptive theology uses hate to derail the forward movement of the human race. It uses terrorism - both as a weapon and as a reason to hate those who are different. Islamic terrorists destroyed our confidence as a nation on 9/11. Domestic terrorists used that destruction as reason to beat up law abiding US citizens who looked Middle Eastern. Terrorism breaks into violence that calls the other person less than human as they are not carbon copies of those doing the violence. We have so many places that ethnic or religious cleansing has/is occurring that it is hard to see the presence of God. Hate begets hate and the forward movement of humanity grinds to a stop.Fear freezes us in place and prescriptive theology rules.

Not necessarily. God is present, even when we have closed our eyes in fear and cannot see what is in front of us. We who are Christian have a God who tells us to "fear not" on more than one occasion. We are told to "fear not" when we havelocked ourselves in that Upper Room through fear of deadly violence. "Fear not," we are told, when something new, such as the birth of a Divine Child, awaits us. We will only stay frozen if we focus on the terrorists instead of God's Divine Love. When we focus on the God of love, we move forward.

There is tremendous power in the act ofloving those who hate you.(Luke 6:27-28, Mat. 5:43-48)First, the cycle of violence is derailed.It does not go past you; it does not go past the present moment and into the future.It is thus a gift that we give to our children. Secondly, it creates peace in us. We no longer become creatures consumed with rage. We become a new creation. Third, as in nonviolent resistance, it challenges the other to accept your common humanity.In fact, this IS the power of nonviolent resistance that changed both the landscape of India and America. Many of our contemporary heroes, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, knew well the power of loving those who hate you.

The transformative power therein is unbelievable.It transforms the self, the one receiving the love, our society and the world at large. Light breaks into darkness. When we focus on the God of love, the world becomes brighter and the grip of terrorism loosens. When we focus on the God of love that vision of Isaiah wherein the lion and the lamb lie down next to each other moves closer to reality.

That vision, of the sword beaten into a plowshare, was not just wishful thinking. Yes, it did not happen in Isaiah's lifetime and probably won't in ours. But in our children's time? Or perhaps in their children's time? At some point, it will happen that "they will neither hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain." Each time we make the choice to return violence with love rather than hate that vision comes closer into being.

We who accept the call to love as God loves will win this battle. God rules, not terrorism or fear. We choose what will rule in our hearts - love or fear; inclusiveness or exclusiveness. It may take several generations, or only this one. But God's kingdom rules. Peace will reign.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield -April 2008

"On Using our Freedom"

America was founded mostly by Christians, true, but we forget that they would not necessarily have accepted each other as followers of Jesus Christ. Many early Americans left Europe as they were not allowed by their society to worship God as they were called to worship God. Puritans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists - all of these were persecuted at one time or another in the countries of Europe.T he wars of the Reformation devastated the German countryside as one group tried to push another out of power or force everyone else to worship in a particular fashion. The freedom of religion guaranteed by the American Constitution meant that this degree of conflict was to end; it was a dream of the peaceful coexistence of different visions of the God who is.

I am not going to defend the preaching sound bites that Fox News aired of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity UCC, Chicago.The appropriateness of his remarks are to be judged by his congregation and God, not by me or Fox News. I will defend Jeremiah Wright's right - and responsibility - to preach as he feels he has been called to preach.

I was offended by the "God damn America" sound bite when Iheard about it.My perspective on 9/11 is that of a pastor of the New York Conference whose church was only 140 miles north of New York City. Several members of my congregation had been working down there that day - one became sick from inhaling the dust from the destruction.

I went to youtube and watched the 8 minutes of sermon that preceded this sound bite. I was still bothered by the "God damn America" ofJeremiah Wright,but I understood it better.I t was uttered by an impassioned pastor of an inner city church - a black church with a completely different experience of 9/11 than my white suburban church in New York State. There are many examples of prophets in the Old Testament admonishing their leadership, just as Jeremiah Wright did in his sermon. The leadership then didn't like it any better than we do today.

I find that I was angry for a different reason when I watched the eight minutes preceding the "America's chickens are coming home to roost" sound bite aired by Fox News as if it was original Jeremiah Wright. (see http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ) es, Rev. Wright said this - but he was quoting a white American - Ambassador Peck. And the interview from which he quoted aired on Fox News. Wright said that Ambassador Peck"was upsetting the Fox News commentator to no end." Fox News knows well where the quote originated.

Yes, Fox News has free speech. But it has a responsibility to the truth as a source of news for the American public.Deliberate distortion meant to destroy is neither news nor free speech. As an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament, I am troubled when freedom is used only to destroy. Both sides of this story have not been told. In First Corinthians, Paul points out that we are free to do many things - but that, as Christians, we should use our freedom to lift up the other, never to destroy. As a Christian, I have to say that such is a misuse of our American freedoms.

The Rev. Jane Fissler Hoffman, Interim Conference Minister of the Southern California-Nevada Conference, is a member of Trinity UCC. She states:

" I have spoken with several reporters about our experience at Trinity but am never referred to in print, I presume because my experience is POSITIVE! Milt and I are members there very intentionally because it is a Christ centered, Spirit filled congregation where the worship is powerful; the preaching is spiritually insightful and prophetic; the welcome to all is warm and embracing; mission is both local and global ; tithing is encouraged and expected; members bring and read their Bibles; and disciples are nurtured in the faith…Do I agree with every word from Rev. Wright's mouth? No. (No more than I agree with every word my husband says! ) But I have seen and experienced the dominant direction of his whole ministry which is toward love and justice and peace for all people in the name of Jesus Christ. That is what I respect."

There once was a principle that ruled American media called the Fairness Doctrine. This decreed that both sides should have access to the airwaves. If this were still in effect, this misuse of America's freedom of speech would not have occurred. Fox News would have had to provide time to Trinity UCC and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in rebuttal. Freedom of speech only truly exists when all are given the opportunity to speak and be heard.

Much has been written by member of the UCC in response to this.Make up your own minds. Read the letters, watch the sermon excerpts, and pray for our American freedom.

Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - March 2008

"The Dawn is Coming"

Dawn is coming, though it is yet still dark.

This sentence is the essence of Holy Week. Starting with Palm Sunday, we travel through a period of darkness, a period of obsessive self-interest, into the sunrise and dawn of a new age.

Yes, the crowd proclaims Christ King. But only because they believe they will get their heartfelt desires from this King. They expect their desire to no longer be last, to no longer be under the tyranny of the Romans to be fulfilled; their desire to come first in the scheme of things will finally come true. This King is for them, and them alone.

But Christ no sooner arrives in Jerusalem then he overturns the apple cart - or, literally, the moneychangers' booths. God's agenda, not the crowd's own interests, determines how things shall go. It is much easier for the foreigners to obtain the birds and other sacrifices in the Temple itself, and to change their money right there. Of course, it is much easier for the merchants as well - especially to charge double the value for providing the convenience. Self-interest and ease are chased out of God's house. And some get annoyed. They want things to go their way - and that is not Christ's way.

They plot - and darkness grows. The cries of "Hosanna" dim. Some forget the healing touch of Jesus as their fear of the Roman's swords return. Others, who never allowed that touch to occur, murmur with the Pharisees - and plot.Darkness grows.

"By what authority do you do these things?" Christ is asked by those in charge. He answers in parables, only understood by those who wish to make an effort. "Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him." They plot - the darkness grows.

Judas, one of the disciples, is upset that Christ will not use the power that he has over the people, over the government and the Romans. One who can heal as can Christ has the power to overcome everything on earth. He wants Christ to rule, to be the political Messiah telling people what to do and what to think. He offers to betray Christ - whether out of greed or an effort to get Christ to act as he wishes, we do not know. But darkness grows.

This darkness Jesus has already overcome with his sojourn in the wilderness and the temptation of the devil. His will is the freedom of humanity, the freedom to choose a life of plotting and darkness, as well as the freedom to choose alife of gift and light. This week, humanity chooses to plot.

On that Thursday, Jesus has his Last Supper with his disciples. On the same night he is to be betrayed, he gives the Christian Church the gift of his presence always with us. "Do this in remembrance of me," the disciples are told. And we do to this day, celebrating the gift to all of Christ love and grace as we come together around the table. But that week, humanity moves into its darkest days.

The next day, all desert the Christ. The crowd that had proclaimed him as King now proclaims him a criminal. The disciples hide.Peter denies his Lord. The women watched, but at a distance.

Jesus experiences the most degrading death that a first century Jew could experience - crucifixion. There is a hint of dawn in the words, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." But few see a hint of light on that day. The darkness falls and rules the world for two days.Hope seems lost while darkness rejoices.

But dawn comes on Easter Sunday. Those who persevere in the light of hope experience the greatest gift ever given a human being. "After Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb." Instead of his dead body, they experience his living presence saying to them, "Do not be afraid." Instead of mourning in darkness, they experience the dawn - and the gift of the presence of the risen Christ.

It was exceedingly dark, but the dawn came. The world has never been the same.

Whatever darkness and plotting comes into our lives, that gift of the presence of the risen Christ is ours as well. However those around us have chosen to use their gift of freedom, that greater gift of the presence of the risen Christ is there with us saying, "Do not be afraid."

We may find ourselves in darkness at some point in our lives, but the dawn comes.

Pastor Kathleen

(Bible quotations from the NIV Gospel of Matthew.)

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - February 2008

"Things . . .Happen"

There are verses in the Old Testament that imply if you are good, then only good things will happen to you. They also imply that if something bad happens, you must somehow deserve it. Taken to its fullest expression, this turns God into an elaborate puppet that we make do what we want by praying, behaving, etc. It labels us as failures when disaster strikes.

Although this concept DOES exist within the Old Testament (especially in Proverbs), the Book of Job refutes it. In the beginning of the book, Job follows the law to the letter, afraid he might have misspelled once. Always making sacrifices for his children as they might have misspelled, once or twice. Job is not a happy man.Instead he is filled with worry; he has not experienced God's love, only God's law.

Job is upright and faithful. And in spite of this, he is tested. His life falls apart.His friends tell him to admit his guilt - as otherwise why would bad things have happened? His wife tells him to "curse God and die." He suffers, holding on to his faith in God, but finally he gets angry. And asks God why.

God gives no answer to the "why." Instead, God shows Job how God holds the universe together. While the whirlwind that God shows Job does not answer the question why, it does show the presence of love within that whirlwind, of an order that does somehow exist in the chaos of life. Job has never "met" God before, but having met God in his descent into darkness, he now believes in God, a God who responds to his cries of pain. His faith is stronger at the end than at the beginning of the book. And the Job at the end, with his newfound faith in God, is a more joy-filled man.

God is not a puppet. Instead, God is the source of love, that love that helps us through when things do NOT go our way. A God who wants to gift us with love, especially that love that helps us when we travel through that "valley of the shadow of darkness", that holds our hands until we find ourselves surrounded by light once again. Nor are we failures, but rather beloved children of God.

In the Gospel, Jesus is asked by his disciples whose sin caused a man to be born blind. They expect him to say either the man or his parents - but Christ says, "Neither." Christ, himself, did not ascribe to the theology that if something bad happens to someone that it is deserved. His full answer is to heal the man of his blindness. When I preach on Job, I say that Christ's answer to Job's cry of pain was to take the road to Calvary. Christ's answer is to go through that "valley of the shadow of death" and on to the other side - the resurrection.

In this wilderness of our lives, things happen. They do not come as punishments. We can act as Job's wife and friends and claim that they do, we can get angry with God and ask why. We can ask for a reason. But there is no answer other than that of Christ holding our hands in the darkness. Nor can reason explain that love that travels through Good Friday to Easter. God's love and presence gives us answers that reason cannot. And we, as did Job, gain a stronger faith in the God of love.

We are heading into the wilderness of Lent. A wilderness that Christ himself traveled on the way to Easter. Our goal is also Easter, when we celebrate the gift of the resurrection that Christ came to give to us. Whatever darkness we may experience in this wilderness, we are not alone.Christ is with us.

Pastor Kathleen

NOT - the Pastor's Letter January 2008

"Dueling Ideologies"

In October, I spoke of the difference between prescriptive and descriptive theology - in which prescriptive theology has ONE, PRECISE point of view, claiming any other to be heresy, even evil. And descriptive theology states the speaker's experience of who God is, but allows that God is much more than his or her experience of God. Prescriptive theology is exclusive, while descriptive theology is inclusive.

While prescriptive theology has been around forever and has caused countless religious wars, Inquisitions and other destruction and death (including much of the population of Germany during the Reformation), the modern version is a little different. The human race is on the edge of a new era, an era when we will finally begin to hear the call to love all of God's children. A time when we will look at those who experience God differently as an occasion to learn more about who God is, rather than as a threat to "true belief" and "right thinking." Right being will take precedence; accepting that there is a reason for all the different flowers in God's garden and enjoying the view, rather than plucking out anything different than ourselves as weeds.

The modern version of prescriptive theology uses hate to derail the forward movement of the human race.It uses terrorism - both as a weapon and as a reason to hate those who are different.Islamic terrorists destroyed our confidence as a nation on 9/11. Domestic terrorists used that destruction as reason to beat up law abiding US citizens who looked Middle Eastern. Terrorism breaks into violence that calls the other less than human as they are not carbon copies of those doing the violence. We have so many places that ethnic or religious cleansing has/is occurring that it is hard to see the presence of GodHate begets hate and the forward movement of humanity grinds to a stop. Fear freezes us in place and prescriptive theology rules.

Not necessarily. God is present, even when we have closed our eyes in fear and cannot see what is in front of us. We who are Christian have a God who tells us to "fear not" on more than one occasion. We are told to "fear not" when we havelocked ourselves in that Upper Room through fear of deadly violence. "Fear not," we are told, when something new, such as the birth of a Divine Child, awaits us.We will only stay frozen if we focus on the terrorists instead of God's Divine Love. When we focus on the God of love, we move forward.

There is tremendous power in the act ofloving "those who hate you."(Luke 6:27) First, the cycle of violence is derailed.I t does not go past you; it does not go past the present moment and into the future.It is thus a gift that we give to our children. Secondly, it creates peace in us. We no longer become creatures consumed with rage. We become a new creation. Third, as in nonviolent resistance, it challenges the other to accept your common humanity. In fact, this IS the power of nonviolent resistance that changed both the landscape of India and America. Many of our contemporary heroes, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, knew well the power of loving "those who hate you."

The transformative power therein is unbelievable. It transforms the self, the one receiving the love, our society and the world at large.Light breaks into darkness. When we focus on the God of love, the world becomes brighter and the grip of terrorism loosens. When we focus on the God of love that vision of Isaiah wherein the lion and the lamb lie down next to each other moves closer to reality.

We who accept the call to love as God loves will win this battle.God rules, not terrorism or fear. We choose what will rule in our hearts - love or fear; inclusiveness or exclusiveness.I t may take several generations, or only this one. But God's kingdom rules. Peace will reign.

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - December 2007
"Holiday Thinking"

Okay - so I get to ask all the retailers that I blamed the Christmas rush on to forgive me.After working in a department store as a Holiday associate, I NOW have a different perspective on the matter.The problem is all those customers . . . . I also need to point out that Herberger's during the Holiday season is NOTHING like those videos of extreme shoppers that we see on the TV - but it still gives me a different point of view.So what is all this hubbub about?

People want the BEST for their loved ones.The best present, the best deal (that way they can afford to give TWO presents), the best. . . everything.Perhaps because they want to make up for a bad year, perhaps because their loved one needs uplifting,perhaps . . . perhaps because they really do love the other person.

THE BEST is really the relationship itself.Working on the relationship itself is not a showy thing - like a valuable piece of jewelry.It isn't a tangible thing that the other person can hold onto.But it is the BEST thing.Connection and relationship - that is what the Holiday season is really about.We re-connect with some, remember that the relationship really isn't what we would wish it to be with others, and celebrate the presence of Christ in our lives with more.The more fully Christ is present, the stronger the relationship is - even if the other person is NOT a follower of Jesus Christ.For Christ is most fully present in the warmth of love.

And then the New Year comes, and we make resolutions to improve those relationships that need improving, to strengthen those which need strengthening.And, most often, we do NOT keep these resolutions.We don't fix the relationship, we don't quit smoking.We are not as strong and confident, as we would like to be.

We forget that the source of strength is the same as the source of love.We forget that our relationships are only as strong as their foundation - that foundation which is our relationship with ourselves and with God.The best resolution would be to strengthen our relationship with God, and the others will follow.And next Christmas we will already have given the best gift, the gift of a stronger relationship with those we love - because we ourselves have a stronger relationship with our God.

There are many resources we can use to do this. Both our Conference and our Presbytery have websites with letters from our respective executives.I've included the December messages in this newsletter.I have also listed some of the respective national resources.Other online resources exist - as well as the traditional print resources that most of us are used to.Daily prayer, daily study - these serve to help connect.Volunteering helps as well.And don’t forget some time spent on that relationship that you are trying to strengthen.

We want the BEST for those we love - and with God's help, we can give our best.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - November 2007

"Connections and Gratitude"

Let's see - November newsletter, so I get to talk about Thanksgiving.And this is probably at LEAST the tenth time I've written a Thanksgiving Pastor's Letter.What can I say that you haven't heard before?I bet that some of you could write this yourself.After all, we've all lived through LOTS of Thanksgiving dinners.

While Thanksgiving itself is a secular holiday, it is based on the important principle of giving thanks.Those of us with a thankful attitude are rewarded through the way we experience life.Those of us whose life is based on "gimmee this and gimmee that" find life does not meet our expectations.But we already know all this.What can I say that you haven't heard before?

I went to the Homiletics magazine website to find out what they have to say about it.Their article began with this idea:

"When Jesus said he was the bread of life, he didn’t mean he was to be our entire spiritual diet."

I started laughing, especially when the article told us to imagine Thanksgiving dinner with just bread and water.Perhaps if we were starving we would appreciate a dinner of bread and water - but what we really want is the apple pie, and the turkey and stuffing, and definitely something made out of chocolate, and wine and cheese and crackers, and . . . Oh, yes, and saying the blessing before we eat.

What the article reminded us of was that we really do need that blessing, that acknowledgement of the foundation of this secular holiday.That acknowledgement that the Pilgrims made when they made it through their first hard winter, a winter that only a remnant survived.That acknowledgement that God has been with us the entire year, that whatever we have been through that we are not alone.

But Thanksgiving - and our spiritual life - is much more than that.

I remember when my parents were alive and I was living on the east coast I would get in the car on the day before Thanksgiving - and the 4 hour drive would take about 7 hours.If I was lucky.And I felt that the trip was worth it, as my sister and her family would do the same - only their hour drive took only hour and a half.Visiting with her was worth that extra 3 hours.We would eat, and then play pinochle - and I would win.(Okay, I would only win 75% of the time.You need to lose every once in awhile or they won't play with you.)But it was not the winning that made this a memorable time, it was the re-connecting.

Re-connecting.We need these connections with other people - with our family and our friends.Christ is the foundation of our spiritual life, but our church and friends and family are necessary parts of a whole, healthy spiritual life.And these connections that we have are a major part of that for which we are thankful on the third Thursday of November each and every year.

Pastor Kathleen

First News of Dickinson and Belfield - October 2007

"Describing God"

How do we know that "God is good"? There's a greeting series that goes:

first person:"God is good."

second person:"All the time.God is good."

first person:"All the time."

When you hear people saying this series, their voices are filled with joy and meaning.In their own lives, the people speaking have has an intense experience of the goodness of God.They are not speaking from book learning; they are speaking from life-learning.And what they have learned is that a truth-filled way of describing God is "good."

When we do this, we are using descriptive theology.We are describing how God has worked in our lives, how we have experienced God to be."God is love", "God of grace," God of glory" are all phrases we use."Prince of Peace", "the Great Physician", "the Good Shepherd" - we use these to speak of our relationship with Christ.

Each of use have our own set of phrases that we use when we speak of our experience of who God is.That we have our own set does not invalidate the set that someone else has.My own experience of Christ focuses on Christ as healer and gift-giver.Others focus on Christ as the one who forgives us.

If I say that God is "green" in this fashion, my statement does not exclude all the others of the rainbow.You may only experience God as "blue."We could get to arguing over whether God is "green" or "blue" - at least until someone reminds me that all you need to do is add yellow to your "blue" to get my "green."

If I had been using another theological method - that of prescriptive theology - I never would accept that there is blue within my green world.Prescriptive theology excludes all who have a slightly different view of God.Some forms of prescriptive theology focus on the actual shade of green that God is supposed to be.

When we speak at this level, we are telling God who God is, rather than allowing God to just be."I am sorry God, but the devil created that shade of green - is doesn't belong to you", we say, forgetting that God created the rainbow.Forgetting, also, that God declared to Moses, "I am who am."

God created us and our ability to reason.We cannot contain God in our thoughts; we can only dimly hint at that reality of who God is.When we describe God, we include all of who God is - even those aspects of God that no human person (other than Christ) has experienced.We include all of God's children as well.

Take care,

Pastor Kathleen

Previous Pastor's Letters

2007 - July-September 2007 - April - June 2007 - January - March
2006 - October - December 2006 - to September

Sermons - this is the beginning of a sermon from Kathleen's 9-sermon series on her understanding of what makes the United Churchof Christ unique. Links to the rest of that sermon as well as any others that have been posted are after the excerpt.