First Plymouth Blog

The Missional Church

2010-08-04T12:53:00.002-06:00

In an article titled, "The 'Missional Church': A Model for Churches?" David Horrox writes, "The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an alternative community, with a different set of beliefs, values and behaviors. Ministers would no longer engage in marketing; churches would no longer place primary emphasis on programs to serve members. The traditional ways of evaluating 'successful churches' – bigger buildings, more people, bigger budgets, larger ministerial staff, new and more programs to serve members – would be rejected. New yardsticks would be the norm: To what extent is our church a 'sent' community in which each believer is reaching out to his community? To what extent is our church impacting the community with a Christian message that challenges the values of our secular society?"

Well, that lays out a significant difference between a traditional way of looking at church, and even a growingly popular way of doing church (marketing and programs and measuring "success") and a radically new/ancient way of being the church. Ultimately, to be true to the Gospel, the Church needs a transformation. Not a change, but a transformation. The purpose of the church is not to sell religious goods and services to its clients/members. The purpose of the Church is to be foretaste of God's kin-dom and the means to God's missional ends: healing the earth, ensuring the health and dignity of every person and the abolishment of violent way of dealing with differences.

What would it take for First Plymouth to take such a bold step?

Mission Trip, Day 5

2010-07-08T16:49:00.003-06:00

Not too many new pictures today--it's getting hard to fit in downloading pictures among all the activities. We do have a couple, though--of a couple of Cameron guys modeling some clothes from a clothing bank, and of one of our groups at Farm Share, a multi-service organization that serves farming families.

Tomorrow we close out our time in Miami and head south to Key West. There's no telling what kind of internet access there will or won't be there, so posts might increase or cease altogether.

No matter what, though, we'll post some photos at the end of the trip--and of course, there will be a slideshow.

Miami Mission, Day 3

2010-07-06T16:02:00.006-06:00

Here are some photos of our trip through today. Blogger is being spiteful, so for now these are presented without specific comment. They are roughly, in order, us from the First Plymouth parking lot through our first day of work (with groups 1 and 2 at the Camillus House soup kitchen and shelter; note the vegetarian youth minister holding a giant hunk of meat), last night's concert by Peruvian/Andean band Kuyayky, and today's jaunt to the beach. And Linda found a coconut! They've named it "Lumpy."

Bienvenido a Miami!

2010-07-05T13:58:00.005-06:00

The High School Mission Trip has landed in Miami! We're about 24 hours into our annual mission trip, and we've already had quite a lot of experiences. No pictures yet, since the cameras are still "out in the wild" with the youth, but so far today our youth have worked at Camillus House (a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Miami; picture at left, and web link above) and with children of farmers in Homestead.

Also on the week's agenda: working with seniors at an Alzheimer's day care, working with nuns at another soup kitchen, and much, much more!

More pictures will be coming soon, as soon as we get the cameras up and running. Tonight's agenda: taco bar and an authentic Andean band! It promises to be a wild one.

Know Your Staff: Cathy Benn

2010-06-12T16:18:00.003-06:00

We're starting a new series here on the First Plymouth Blog, called Know Your Staff. We've asked each staff member to answer some questions about themselves, and we've posted the unedited answers here. This edition's star: Cathy Benn!

Name: Cathy Benn

What is your official title? Parish Visitor

What would your title be if all titles were completely honest? What does this title say about your work at First Plymouth? Parish Nurse and Visitor.. Many of peoples concerns are health related. I don't have all the answers by far but I do have a nursing background.

How long have you worked at First Plymouth? Three years as of April 1st 2010

What's the best part of your average work day? The visit itself . I have the best job.

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of church? I love to paint paintings. I love to make pottery. I love my garden but I can't work in it as much as I used to because I can't get down on my knees so my gardener, Warren, helps me out so I guess you could say 'I love to look at my garden.' I love to take pictures. I like to bake bread and read and most of all I love to visit with someone who will laugh with me.

Let's play the "two truths and a lie" game. What are two things that are true about you, and one that is a lie? We'll let people guess in the comments section. I love to cook . I have dual citizenship. I have a bear phobia.

What other employment have you had in the past? I worked in pediatric intensive as an RN at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg Manitoba as well as an Urology and Orthopedics ward. An Allergy Clinic in Windsor Ontario, A Student Health Service at the University of Manitoba. I worked for Brilliant Ideas, a small business marketing business here in Denver. I had my own basket business with a friend 'The Golden Basket' I worked at the 'Listening Post' for Mabel Barth as a coordinator and I worked for Christian Living Campuses as a Director Of Activities.

How do you spend most of your non-work time? I split it up pretty evenly between my interests. My husband, hobbies ,chores and family. So predictable.

What's your favorite food? Apples that are both tart and sweet. 'Chips Pinks' in season.

What is your least favorite food? Lima beans

What's your favorite season of the church year, and why? Christmas of course because in that season people seem to show their love and compassionate feelings for one another.

What do you believe, in 25 words or less? I believe that there exists a greater consciousness and that we all make up its nature and that it can have an affect on each of us. I believe that we have a higher consciousness in all of us and we decide if we will tap into it.

Tell us something impressive about yourself. I love teenagers

What big new things are you working on at church? The biggest thing I'm working on is trying to be true to my self and yet be supportive.

Where are you happiest? On a walk in nature. Corny right?

What's one more thing that people should know about you? I am direct!

Word from the UCC in Arizona

2010-05-01T19:13:00.004-06:00

This is a post written by Eric Smith's good friend and Divinity School classmate Rev. Brian Frederick-Gray, who is serving Encanto Community Church (a United Church of Christ congregation) in Phoenix, AZ. We asked him to write an entry about the atmosphere in Arizona following the passage of the new immigration bill, and how faith communities are coming to terms with it. This is what he wrote:

I was at the Southwest Conference's Annual Meeting when we got word that Arizona Senate Bill 1070 had been signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer. SB1070 (as it has come to be known) is the harshest "immigration legislation" in the country. It requires state and municipality employed police officers, teachers, school administrators, school counselors, social workers, health care workers, and others to check the documentation status of anyone for whom they have a “reasonable suspicion” that they may be undocumented. Without proper documentation individuals may jailed or deported.

Many of us gathered at Annual Meeting had spent the days and weeks ahead of the meeting lobbying, praying, and organizing in hopes that Gov. Brewer would veto SB1070. When we heard that she had signed the legislation we immediately halted our opening business session for a time of silent prayer. The news was simply too gut-wrenching for us to continue our Conference-wide business.

In fact, the adoption of SB1070 dramatically changed the course of our Annual Meeting -- new amendments were added to resolutions, letters were drawn up to be sent to our political leaders as well as the 45 UCC congregations that make up the Southwest Conference, and we even abandoned plans to hold our 2011 Annual Meeting in Sun City in order to hold the meeting somewhere outside of Arizona instead.

After worship that first night I gathered with several friends and colleagues at a local watering hole where the conversation naturally centered around SB1070. Pastors from the border reflected on what their ministry will look like now, while folks from New Mexico talked about how stunningly different their state is from Arizona. Finally somebody asked me, "How will this go over at Encanto?"

For the last 20 months I've been serving as the Interim Minister at the Encanto Community Church, a small, revitalizing UCC congregation on the north side of downtown Phoenix. Church members are almost exclusively white, mostly retired, and not all that interested in hearing politics from the pulpit. "How will this go over at Encanto?" I answered as honestly as I could that night, "I'd be surprised if it registers with them at all."

Two days later I was back in the pulpit at Encanto. I preached a sermon called "The Work We Do" and focused on the "We" in that sermon title in order to preach about Annual Meeting and bring news of all the wonderful things that are happening in our Conference. I couldn't give a recap of the Annual Meeting without mentioning the central place SB1070 had in our deliberations and discussions.

And that is when this little church surprised me. In the handshake line after service and next door in the Fellowship Hall at Coffee Hour person after person came up to me absolutely heartbroken about the passage of this bill. I wasn't expecting that. But almost everyone in church has kids or grandkids who are part of the school system out here (either as students, teachers, or both). And when word started spreading through the schools on Friday that Gov. Brewer signed SB1070 any kid with dark skin started crying. They were freaked out and completely sure that the police were going to come into their classrooms that day, gestapo style, and drag them (or their parents, or their brothers or sisters, or their best friends) out of the country. It is simply appalling and downright scary.

I'm currently considering signing a pledge of non-compliance. The trouble is, non-compliance can itself be seen as an offense in SB1070 and could be enough to earn jail time.

Personally, I continue to hope and pray that this legislation will never go into effect. Injunctions and lawsuits have already been filed, and the Department of Justice worked through the weekend to address it. But then again, I was the same guy who had my doubts that Gov. Brewer would ever sign it in the first place. So I've been wrong before.

Of Immigration and Jesus

2010-04-26T08:18:00.000-06:00

What do we do when the law of the land requires us to violate the Gospel of Jesus?

This past week the governor of Arizona signed into law the strictest, some say harshest, law regarding immigrants that exists in our land. Folks from all over the political spectrum are weighing in. Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine wrote a brief response. Wallis has built his reputation on his balanced political stances and his careful reading of the Christian scriptures. He has this to say of the new law in Arizona:

“The law signed today by Arizona Gov. Brewer is a social and racial sin, and should be denounced as such by people of faith and conscience across the nation. It is not just about Arizona, but about all of us, and about what kind of country we want to be. It is not only mean-spirited – it will be ineffective and will only serve to further divide communities in Arizona, making everyone more fearful and less safe. This radical new measure, which crosses many moral and legal lines, is a clear demonstration of the fundamental mistake of separating enforcement from comprehensive immigration reform. Enforcement without reform of the system is merely cruel. Enforcement without compassion is immoral. Enforcement that breaks up families is unacceptable. This law will make it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona, and will force us to disobey Jesus and his gospel. We will not comply.”

Thirty Years of Ministry

2010-04-18T19:41:00.002-06:00

April 20th is the 30th anniversary of my ordination. Thirty years! It has taken me around the block a few times. I have made countless visits, dedicated parishioners' children and buried their parents. I have knocked on doors at 2:00 A.M. to inform people a loved one has been killed in an accident, or committed suicide; and I have crawled into car wrecks to pray with people as their life drained away with the gasoline, motor oil and antifreeze. I have preached hundreds of sermons, sat through more committee meetings than I ever want to count, and listened to the most intimate confessions of people who cannot live one moment longer with their burden. I have received numerous notes of thanks from parishioners that made me feel like a million bucks, and I have received a letter so vicious that I felt as though I had been physically kicked. I have cried, and I have laughed a lot because of the joy of it all.

Most of that time I did not pray every day. I was too busy.

Mistake.

The impetus to pray for an hour a day came when I realized that preaching was no longer the piece-of-cake task it once had been for me. Preaching used to be so easy: I was so very confident of my answers-–as confident as my parishioners often were of their questions. I was sure of life, sure of my place in it, sure of my unshakable faith. Then came the news that a sister had been killed in a hiking accident. Then the rape and murder of a friend. Then discovering a lump in my body where there should have been no lump. Then a truck and I (on my bike) tried to share the same piece of pavement (I lost). Oh sure, the searing pain of the losses subsided with time, and the cancer is long gone, but the foundations upon which my world view rested were badly shaken. Preaching became far more difficult, for the simple reason that living became far more difficult. And I won't preach what I don't have the guts or maturity to practice. As I said to my parishioners one Sunday morning, "Preaching is easy. It's practicing that's hard." But then, many of them knew that already.
Thirty years. Both preaching and practicing are getting harder; so I pray all the more. Thirty years, and God keeps whomping me on the head and telling me to keep at it and to love more . . . and to pray more. Thirty years, and I am blessed beyond measure. And prayer is what binds it all together.
Pray for me. I shall for you.

April Fools: Humor in the Bible

2010-04-01T09:18:00.005-06:00

The Bible might have a reputation as one of the most humorless books around. I mean, it starts with a bang, but quickly descends into genealogies, massacres, and accounts of obscure kings. The New Testament gospels are pretty interesting, but let's face it, not all that funny. So on April Fool's Day, where's the humor?

There is some, believe it or not. Remember, the Bible is fundamentally rooted in oral culture, and so the kinds of stories that are fun to tell are often the kinds of stories that find their way into the Bible. Those stories are, occasionally, pretty funny. And if you know the original Hebrew and Greek, the text is actually littered with word plays and puns.

I'll just share one example to illustrate the point. The book of Acts is pretty ho-hum from a humor standpoint (lots of traveling and preaching and people getting stoned, and not the kind that makes them giggle). But there's one story in particular that stands out as probably, in my opinion, the funniest in the entire Bible. It's the story of Eutychus in Acts 20:9-12. I recommend reading it on The Brick Testament, and if you click on that link, you'll see why.

Eutychus was listening to a sermon by Paul. They were apparently in an apartment building, and not a house, since they were on the 3rd floor. (You can see a Roman example of the sort of building they were probably in, in the picture up at the top of this post). Paul was in town, and started preaching. He went on, and on, and on, and.......on and on. Finally Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, fell asleep. He fell out of the window, 3 stories to the ground, and when they got to him, he was already dead. Paul had killed Eutychus with his boring sermon.

Somehow, Paul is able to revive Eutychus. Everyone is relieved! Lesson learned, right? Wrong. Paul marches right back upstairs, Acts tells us, and continued to talk until dawn.

See, now that's funny! Who doesn't love a joke about boring preachers who just don't get how boring they are? And it's right there in the Bible! I imagine this as a story that Christians would have told each other for generations, remembering the time Paul, one of the most important and influential Christians of all time, literally bored a man to death.

What Is God In?

2010-03-08T13:08:00.003-07:00

In Confirmation, we've been talking about the historic creeds of the Christian church--the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and so forth, up to the UCC Statement of Faith. We've been taking the time to work through some of the theological concepts that those creeds espouse, especially the tough ones like the trinity, the holy spirit, incarnation, and the like. A couple of Sundays ago, we were asking what God's relationship to the world might be. Is God completely separate from the world? Is the world God? There are lots of ways to conceptualize the relationship.

One of the Confirmation students said he thought that God was in everything and everyone. I told him that he was a panentheist, and he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. But then I explained that panentheism is the belief that God permeates the world (but distinct from pantheism, which believes that everything IS God). He seemed pretty satisfied to be called such a thing.

One of my favorite songs is an ode to panentheism. I first encountered it at my small Baptist college in the South, oddly enough, and it's stuck with me ever since. The singer, Billy Jonas, has cropped back up in my life lately, since he does a lot of children's music that my 2-year-old loves. But I thought I'd share this panentheistic song, God Is In, and see what reactions people had. Remember: God in your Tupperware, but not the lids, so buy some spares.

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

2010-02-17T15:19:00.004-07:00

One of my favorite things about learning Biblical languages is catching all the little inside jokes and plays on words that are in the Bible. There are dozens of them, sitting there in the Hebrew or the Greek, but we read over them in English, completely unaware that they are there.

One of the most clever examples of this is in Genesis. Everybody knows what the first man's name was, right? He was called Adam. But do you know what his name means? In Hebrew, the names almost always mean something, and Adam's name is no different. His name is derived from the word "dirt," which is "adamah." So in Genesis 2:7, God is literally forming the "adam" from the "adamah," the man from the dirt. Right there at the beginning, humanity is linked with the earth God made us from.

The point is underscored a little later in Genesis, when God tells that very same Adam that "by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground; for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (3:19). The word the NRSV is translating "dust" here is the same word from earlier: "adamah." The scripture is warning us: don't forget who you are and where you come from.

These are the words we hear today, on Ash Wednesday. "You are dust, and to dust you shall return," we are told, with the imposition of ashes. It's a reminder of our mortality, and of the fragile nature of our existence, and of the limited amount of time we have here in this place. God has formed us from the dirt--the same stuff that the world is made from--and someday we will end up back there.

But Ash Wednesday is not about fatalism or nihilism. It's a call to purposeful living, to an honest assessment of our place in the world. We can read it as a call to ecological awareness, since it's right there in the first pages of our Bibles that even our bodies are part of the earth's ecosystem. But most of all, let's let Ash Wednesday be a call towards the understanding that our lives are held in God's hands, and that all our affairs--whether in our individual lives or our lives together--are intertwined with God and this beautiful world that God has created.

Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust--and thank God for that.

Confirmation

2010-01-28T14:11:00.003-07:00

Many of you received an email and/or a letter from the church about a week ago, detailing our ongoing fiscal difficulties, and announcing the 2010 Annual Meeting. As we prepare the Confirmation class for its attendance at the annual meeting, we've been talking about how churches work, what their processes are, etc.

In light of this ongoing preparation for the Annual meeting, this past Sunday in our Confirmation class, I had the students do an exercise. I gave them a copy of the 2009 budget, and then gave them the amount of revenue we expect to have in 2010 and 2011. As you may know, those numbers are far apart. I asked them, in three groups, to pretend that they were the church council, and to propose a budget that matches our resources to our expenditures.

Their responses were one part creative, one part outlandish, and one part somber. They quickly realized, going through the budgets line by line, that the budget wouldn't be balanced one $500 item at a time. One group proposed doing away with the church's telephones altogether, and having everyone email the church when they needed something. Another group suggested turning off the heat and air conditioning. One group suggested an across-the-board pay cut for all staff. A couple of groups suggested doing away with retirement. Two of the Confirmation students were unwilling to cut their own parent's jobs. One group thought we should rely on a cottage industry of elves for revenue. I wish I were kidding.

In the end, the Confirmation students realized that in difficult economic times, difficult decisions have to be made. None of the three groups made the same proposals as the other two; every group had its own take on the budget challenges, and every group proposed to face those challenges differently. In the end, I think they came away with a greater understanding of what it takes to run a church, and what it will mean when they take that vow of membership in May.

Those Confirmation students can be models for us. These are not easy times, but we can face them together, with eyes wide open, and with the knowledge that God stands with us and before us, calling us ahead on our mission. While we may not be unanimous about where we go from here, we can still go there together, bound to one another with love.

Let Jesus Point the Way?

2010-01-20T09:38:00.001-07:00

Gun sights with scripture references? Supplying US troops with good Christian help in killing enemies? Yes! In a January 20, 2010 BBC article the American company Trijicon, founded by a "devout Christian" and which says it runs to "Biblical standards", is putting biblical references on sharpshooters' gun sights. Just imagine, look down the barrel of your gun, find your human target and be guided with the reference to John 8:2, "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life". Jesus will light your way to your kill your enemy.

Hey, toss out any qualms about this. So what if Jesus said, "Love your enemies"? He didn't really mean it. Now being a "devout Christian" means letting Jesus point the way, literally, for you to kill.

What? You don't think that one scripture reference will be sufficient ammunition for you to kill someone? Wait! There's more! This company also supports the devout with yet another helpful passage. Found on the company's Reflex sight are references to II Corinthians 4:6: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." It just warms your heart, doesn't it? We can give "glory to God in the face of Christ" . . . by blowing off the face of our enemies!

Sorry for the sarcasm. I am sick with disgust about this. To twist the message of Jesus and the angels (whatever happened to "Peace on earth, good will to all people?) is beyond abhorrent.

Let me grieve for Christ's Church. Give me space to pray as Jesus taught us, "thy will be done … and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."

Let me grieve for Christ's Church. "Oh, my God, what have we come to?"

Water from Wine and Miracles from Community

2010-01-12T19:36:00.002-07:00

Many years ago I had the privilege of serving as a volunteer firefighter. One evening the fire department pager went off informing me of a house fire. I was home alone with my eight-year-old daughter so I could not respond immediately. I called a neighbor, and I all said was, "I'm home alone with Philippa and there's a house fire." "I'm there," were her only words and she hung up. As I pulled out of my driveway I saw my neighbor running for my house. I drove the second truck to the fire and, as is usual during the early minutes of fighting a fire, I was exceptionally busy. When the fire was out I had time to look around. The house was saved but heavily damaged. The woman who lived there was looking lost and confused. I can't even begin to tell you the sense of desolation I felt, that I felt every time, when I saw a family burned out of its home. "Here is where," I thought to myself, "we really could use a miracle right now." Here was want and need and shortage.

And then I looked closer. I was surrounded by, at this point, 3 different fire departments who had been called in to help. These women and men are all volunteers and had left their families and jobs to do what they could. I saw neighbors gathering up the children whose house had burned to bring them to secure beds and much love. I saw more neighbors coming to the aid of the woman who looked so desolate. I saw volunteer EMT's, who hadn't even been sent by dispatch, standing by to help in case anybody was hurt. I saw the caring and love and the eager compassion that makes community so remarkable. I remembered my own neighbor rushing over to my house. And I realized I was watching, watching, a miracle happen. I was watching abundance be born from lack, plenty breaking through shortage, water being turned into wine. When all we hear and read and see on the news day after day is of the bad that human beings can inflict upon one another, I watched the men and women of that community reach out to their own, and in the case of the fire fighters, literally put their own lives in danger to protect their neighbors. That part of us that is created in God's image, responded with a depth and compassion that transformed despair into hope. Only the presence of God can do that.

It was in this all-so-human episode that I realized I was catching a glimpse of what Jesus was doing in Cana: creating abundance out of shortage, building the bridges of love out of despair. This first miracle was indicative of all miracles: it came at time of need and shortage; it came to banish despair and reinstill hope in the human heart.

Epiphany and Magi and Questions

2010-01-06T20:48:00.003-07:00

Have you ever stopped to think about how very odd the story of the magi is? Not that the entire birth narrative is any way normal, mind you. But the story of the magi takes an already odd tale and twists it even more. Here we have a baby so poor his cradle is a cow's feeding trough, and then these apparently rich magi (we don't know how many), show up. They had been following "his star" for quite some time, searching diligently for the child. When they find him they kneel before him, paying him homage, giving him gold and other treasures. Take out the sappy romanticism and think about how likely this is. We get the impression, particularly growing up with the hymns and stories inspired by this tale, that these were astrologers, or deeply religious pilgrims, epitomizing the devout life and trekking off in sure and certain knowledge that they will see the messiah, and get their answers to their lifelong questions. Which the Church helpfully provides

However, as odd as this sounds, I am not so sure that the Church is here to give us answers. Rather, the Church is here to help us explore the questions, to give us guidance, to teach us to pray. The Church is here to help us grow in our relationship with God, with Christ and with each other. The Church is here to help us seek our God-given star and follow that, because we DO believe that a life with meaning and grace is offered to all of us; we DO believe that although the way be hard and the search be long, it is worth it; we DO believe that although we may articulate our journeys and our answers differently, we share in common God's image of love in which we all live and move and have our being.

This is why the story of the magi speaks so powerfully to us. Because we know on some intuitive, spiritual level that the journey is worth it. We know that sometimes we just have to risk and leave a place of security to find a deeper home. We know that a star guide will us, that there will be a way in the wilderness, that there will be an end to the wandering.

Although the Church does not supply trite answers, it does make a promise. It promises that God's promises are true. And God has promised us, in the form of an infant born in a stable, that our lives have meaning and are infused with grace, that God has come incarnate among us. God promises us that there is always a star to guide us, if we but have the courage to take the risk and follow it. God promises us that at the end of our journeying we shall find God's love born(e) within us, bringing us the peace of soul and mind that we seek.

So arise, my friends in Christ, shine! Your light has come! And the glory of God is risen upon you!

Christmas Is Not What We Think

2009-12-17T21:11:00.002-07:00

Listen to the hymn Mary proclaimed when her world was turned upside down; listen for the Word in the words when she was told, by an angel, she would bear a child out of wedlock:

Μεγαλύνει ἡ ψυχή μου τὸν Κύριον
My soul doth magnify the Lord,

καὶ ἠγαλλίασεν τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Did you listen? Did you hear those subversive words in there? Do you realize how much challenge is in those words to our well ordered world, and how it would change business as usual? Why, they would turn it upside down. Upside down! Oh sure, we celebrate the warm and fuzzy feelings we get at Christmas, but listen to Mary‘s hymn, and then think about how Jesus was received by the world once he came into his maturity. This same baby, this same love incarnate, this same one who makes us feel all warm and good inside is the One who got nailed to a tree because his teaching was turning everything upside down. In fact, this is the very charge that society brought against the early church because it was trying concretely to live the teachings of Jesus. In the book of Acts, as they were dragging Jason off to prison his accusers
said, and I quote, "These people have been turning the world upside down." What kind of church is THAT, I ask you? Scripture is filled with some mighty upside down thinking.

One of the remarkable messages of incarnational theology is the startling reminder that we are created in the image of God, and if that doesn‘t turn our image of ourselves, and each other, upside down, I don‘t know what will. You, and the person you like least in this world, are both created in the image and likeness of God. And God is love. We are created in the image of love: that is our deepest humanity, our deepest identity, and THAT is why Christmas turns us upside down because it reminds us that that is who we are expected be, how we are supposed to behave.

Incarnational theology changes us, everyone, it changes us. It scatters our pride in the imaginations of our hearts and it exalts our humility. Christmas fills our hungry souls with good things as it starves those areas that we mistakenly think should be right side up. We come to the manger expecting to find what we think we are going to find, what we think we always find, only to discover that this cute little baby can, and does, turn our well ordered world upside down.

Standing in the Middle

2009-12-10T19:46:00.004-07:00

There is an old Hassidic tale of a student who asks the rabbi, "Teacher, why does the Torah say, 'place these words upon your hearts'? Why does it not tell us to place these words in our hearts?" And the rabbi responds, "It is because, as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in."

Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan said much the same thing: "God breaks the heart again and again and again until it stays open."

The way of Christ—the way of keeping the heart open—is, in its own way, quite simple. But never, ever, ever make the mistake of thinking it is easy. As G.K. Chesterton once said, "Christianity has not been tried and found lacking. It has been found difficult and left untried." And it is difficult because it demands that our hearts be willing to be broken and yet to stay open as Mary's, to be wounded and yet forgive as the prodigal father, to be fearful and yet face Pharaoh with the courage of Moses, to give all we have yet live in abundance as the impoverished widow, to fail miserably and yet try again as Peter, to proclaim life and yet die as Jesus, to walk the wrong path, and yet turn around as Paul. It is to love in and into the cruciform way of life, and to resolve that we will be part of the world's needed healing and not part of its continued wounding. It is to stand in the gap between a world that glorifies power and violence and in response to proclaim a message that is perceived as weakness and to walk a Way that is understood to be unrealistic. Christianity has not been tried and found lacking. It has been found difficult and left untried.

If we are to be a church where no one will look at us and see the impression of what has hurt us but rather the image of the one who called us, then we must be willing to stand in the gap: to stand in the gap between the world's violent reaction to its pain and God's loving response to that same pain. We must be willing to stand in the gap between fundamentalist beliefs that violently condemn others as wrong and a faith of light and love that teaches that the Way of Christ is more about behavior and less about creeds. We must be willing to stand in the gap between a world that glorifies the tomb of shock and awe and the God that offers the womb of grace and awe. We must be willing to stand in the gap between our own fear-based reactions and our faith-based responses, and have the courage to be, and to choose, and to walk with Christ and all faithful pilgrims who choose life over death, love over fear, generosity over scarcity. The Christian Church must ever be willing to stand in the gap between the ways and values of the world, and the Way and Value of Life.

May it be ever so.

The Mountain Of God II

2009-12-02T20:23:00.004-07:00

In my last post I spoke of the Mountain of God, and of humanity's attempt to scale that peak to discover union with the Holy. I would like to expand upon that a bit.

In this admittedly limited metaphor, the base of this mountain is so vast that it spans a huge portion of the globe. That being the case part of its base is found in a jungle, and another part in a desert. Part of its base is found in an archipelago and part of it in a large city. Obviously, to begin to climb the mountain from those different places takes radically different skill sets. A person skilled in the jungle would perish in the desert and vice versa. Likewise the person from an archipelago in a bustling city. The path up the mountain looks different in each place. In fact, one way up might not even look like a path to someone from a different part of the globe.

This is an apt metaphor for religion. Because of historical circumstance and cultural differences the paths up the Mountain of the Lord look very different from each other at the base. And because they look so different people get to thinking that THEIR path is the only path and the others lead nowhere. People will fight, even kill, to prove themselves right.

It is only those who climb high enough up the mountain and thus who leave their ecosystems of origin behind who begin to catch a glimpse of other paths making it up the mountain. And it is only then that we realize that we have been climbing the same mountain all along.

Part of the solution to this religious internecine warfare is to help people climb: climb away from the security of the base of the mountain; climb to where the air is thinner and the view more expansive; climb to an understanding of religion that recognizes that we need paths up the mountain, and that there are other paths more suited to other people and their context.

So we climb, looking out for others coming from different directions and encouraging them on the way.

This Advent - The End of the World?

2009-11-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

Some Thoughts about Advent from the Rev. Andrea LaSonde Anastos

The new liturgical year began November 29, with the First Sunday of Advent...the season of the church year that many worshipers would vote “Least Likely to Be Missed.” There’s a lot of resentment out there about Advent and about the purpose of Advent which, in case you have forgotten, is about attentive waiting.

Attentive waiting is in short supply in the world today, even in churches. We live in a culture that wants instant gratification and the instant fix. Our culture pressures us to front-load Advent with all the Christmas traditions so that we can hurry and get our Christmas trees down December 26 in preparation for Easter candy hitting the stores.

Would the world as we know it come to an end if we were to celebrate Christmas during the 12 days of Christmas, and Advent during Advent? The short answer is probably, Yes.

Yes, and that fear is what drives many of us to fight so fiercely to avoid Advent with its attentive waiting for something so much bigger than “the birthday of Jesus.” Advent is not about a baby in a manger; it is about all that scandalous, subversive stuff that Jesus taught like caring for the least and forgiving our enemies, like being servants rather than power-brokers, like creating that realm of justice and peace we are always talking about. Creating it right here, right now so that Christ can come again to administer God’s commonwealth.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world as we know it were to end this year? Maybe this Advent.

A Call To Engage the Bible

2009-11-25T20:43:00.004-07:00

When I'm not hanging out with the youth at First Plymouth, I moonlight as a PhD student in Biblical Interpretation at Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver. As part of that life (but connected with church life), I spent the weekend at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in New Orleans, LA (also the site of our last two summers' high school mission trips). It was a really fantastic experience; I heard lots of great papers, saw from friends, and got starstruck by all the (relatively) famous bible scholars I ran into in the hallway.

One of the most provocative sessions was put on by HarperOne publishing. It featured several of their authors (including Iliff's own Pam Eisenbaum), talking about the publishing world and their differing takes on Paul. Bart Ehrman, a very widely published and well-respected author, sent a shot across the bow of ministers and churches like First Plymouth.

Ehrman's basic question was this: why do my books sell so well? (They sell really well). It's a pretty good question. Why do books about the bible, which is so little-read in this country, sell so well? Why are people so eager to buy a book explaining the scholarship (or lack thereof) behind The DaVinci Code, or a book about the formation of the canon? Why is there such hunger for knowledge about the bible and Christianity?

Ehrman says it's our fault, and I think he's right. He says that churches (and the ministers who are hired to run them) have abdicated their responsibility to teach the bible, and it's difficult to argue with that. When someone finally picks up the bible and reads it (or picks up one of Ehrman's books and reads about it), her first reaction is often this: "why didn't my minister tell me about this? Why didn't I ever hear about this in church?"

Those are great questions. We, as churches and ministers, often don't talk about the difficult parts of the bible: how it sometimes contradicts itself, how it seems to condone sexism and slavery, how it portrays God in unsavory ways, and how at times it seems downright unholy. We skip the parts where Jesus criticizes wealth in the strongest terms (or explain it away as hyperbole), ignore Revelation and Leviticus altogether, and usually stick to the feel-good parts of the bible that don't really challenge us.

And that's why Erhman's books sell. He's giving it to them straight. We're shying away from our own sacred scriptures.

How can we right this wrong? How can we reclaim our own holy texts, and how can we make them relevant to this generation? It won't be by ignoring them, sugarcoating them, or cherrypicking only those parts of the bible that make us feel good. Churches like First Plymouth, which stand for progressive theological principles, should be grounding our faith in a deep engagement with the bible.

The bible has informed and inspired Christians for nearly 2,000 years. It can do the same for us. Let's get started. Who's with me?

(Top image: part of the text of John's gospel from the Codex Sinaiticus, probably the oldest extant copy of the New Testament).

The God Who Sings

2009-11-23T22:29:00.002-07:00

from Jenny Morgan, Interim Associate Minister

We celebrate Mom’s 70^th birthday this week. I live almost 2,000 miles away from my family, so finding ways to celebrate important birthdays is an art form for which I’ve had lots of practice. Phone calls, flowers, cards, occasional surprise visits, and now a First Plymouth Congregational Church blog post. (Mom doesn’t quite yet understand what a blog is, so I’ll send her a copy via snail mail.)

Last week I asked, “Mom, how will you celebrate 70?” Knowing exactly how my family (1 incredible sister, 2 amazing brothers, 3 out-of-this-world, remarkable sisters-in-law,

1 extraordinary nephew, and 1 beautiful and talented niece) planned to honor her, I was surprised by Mom’s response. “Oh, maybe God will sing happy birthday to me! I don’t like making a big deal about my birthdays…too much fuss.”

I tried to hold my cynicism at bay, but I’m certain it leaked out as I rolled my eyes on the other end of the phone. God singing? Come on, Mom!

But then Zephaniah 3:17 from the Bible popped into my brain and the cynic in me drifted away. “The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty One who saves; he will rejoice over you with gladness, take great delight in you, and renew you with his love; he will exalt over you with loud singing!”

Maybe she’s right. God does sing over us. And the family is also celebrating her life tonight. They are taking her out for a very special dinner, delighting in her (with God and with each other), renewing her with their love, and singing a loud, mostly out of tune song in her honor.

May we all be aware of God’s voice singing over us.

And by the way…Happy Birthday, Lucy Morgan, from your oldest kid! God is indeed singing over you, taking great joy in you, and loving you fully! Let’s make a great big fuss about that.

Hearing the Voice even now,
Jenny

The Mountain of God

2009-11-19T21:17:00.005-07:00

Religion is generally an idolatrous affair. Seriously. I know this sounds odd coming from a minister--someone ordained to uphold religious truth--but perhaps I am just a freak.

I have traveled a good bit and have met people of many faiths. I cannot say I have ever met a person of no faith, just of no religion. I have never met a person who did not believe in anything: every sane person I have met has had a sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice, etc. Faith is there; it is often not conceived or articulated using an established religion.

Religion is the attempt to understand the thin places. It is the attempt to articulate the experience of something "Other." Or someone Other. That's when the trouble starts. We take these experiences of the numinous and force them into concepts that we can understand, concepts that can only be as big as our mind has developed. Then we call that concept "God." But it is not God. It is only our understanding of our experience of God. Yet once we name our understanding as God, we then enthrone our understanding and worship that. Religion is an idolatrous affair.

Ultimately, for religion to serve us, it is helpful to remember that it is a path up the mountain of God. It is not the mountain. It is not God. It is a path. Yes, I do believe there are many paths, and I will address that in a later post.

I follow the Christ path, the Jesus Way. In him I discover life and balance. With him I understand better how to love and forgive (and be forgiven). Beside him I am called to the Way of the Servant: loving as he loved, living as he lived.

It is a hard path. Jesus never promised it would be easy. Quite the opposite, in fact. But I only find it a treacherous path when my religion slips into doctrine and dogma, seducing me into ortho-credo as opposed to orthopraxis and ortho-agape.

Keep me humble, God, and help me to worship you and not my idea of you. So be it.

Give a Gift that Gives Twice - At Least!

2009-11-17T19:10:00.007-07:00

It’s called an Alternative Gift Market, and it’s going on at First Plymouth this Saturday and Sunday. It’s your opportunity to give something a little different this holiday season – something will give at least twice. Come sample a wide array of fair trade and earth-friendly gifts and support artists and artisans around the world at this special market. (And then head across the street and check out the World Gift Market at First Universalist Church – even more opportunities for great earth-friendly holiday shopping!)

This is a chance to simplify your holiday gift-giving and help others at the same time, to support those with needs greater than our own by purchasing and sharing their talents with others. Unique, socially conscious selections make your holiday shopping a pleasant and satisfying experience.

Among your shopping and gift-giving opportunities at the Alternative Gift Market: Sabeel, Earthlinks, Yobel Market, the Heifer Project, Habitat for Humanity and Women Build/Habitat, Outreach Uganda, Sanyork Fair Trade, Jasmine Company, A Mark on the World, the Women’s Bean Project, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Support Africa Foundation, People of Hope/Project Salvador, and Project Rwanda.

There is also a fantastic silent auction benefitting two community programs. The English Language Acquisition (ELA) project, co-sponsored by First Plymouth and Temple Sinai, teaches English to about 100 recent immigrants at any given time, allowing them to find work and live with dignity in a new culture. Volunteers provide the teaching, but the workbooks cost $30 per student per year. The Inner City Health Center provides medical and dental care for a nearly 7,000 uninsured Denver residents. Over eighty health care professionals donate their time, but funds are needed for medical supplies.

AND a bake sale to benefit First Plymouth youth programs, lots of great Christmas music, community, fellowship, and fun. All at 3501 South Colorado Boulevard on the corner of Hampden Avenue from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. (Come worship with us Sunday morning, too, at 9:00 a.m. or 11:11 a.m. – we’d love to see you there as well!)

Need more information or directions? Call the church office at 303-762-0616.

Fort Hood and Interfaith Initiative

2009-11-13T16:16:00.003-07:00

from Senior Minister George Anastos

Church member Anne Kleinkopf and I are members of the steering committee of the Abrahamic Initiative. The mission of the Abrahamic Initiative is to provide a forum for dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims and to foster mutual understanding and appreciation for the faith perspectives of the three traditions. You can learn more about the Abrahamic Initiative at sjcathedral.org.

In light of the Fort Hood shootings last week, Anne and other members of the Initiative's steering committee wrote:

"The Abrahamic Initiative affirms its belief that Islam, alongside Judaism and Christianity, is a religion of peace, tolerance, and compassion with its core values rooted in the love of all people. We further affirm that hatred and violence are not part of the teachings of Islam and that the vast majority of Muslims absolutely reject the use of violence. Further, we recognize our Muslim compatriots to be as patriotic and loyal to America as any other constituency.

"We therefore call upon all citizens of Colorado to resist the urge to categorize any persons with stereotypes that may be harmful and unjust and to remember the universal admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves, and during this difficult time, to reach out to our Muslim neighbors with compassion, respect, and understanding."

May it be so.

The Blogger Flogger

2009-11-11T13:04:00.001-07:00

from George Anastos, Senior Minister

"We should start a First Plymouth blog" our Youth Director told me enthusiastically. "It will be a great communication tool and we can really get the electronic generations engaged."

I guess I am not electronic; I grew up analogue, not digital. I feel good about that. I do still have transistors though. (Note to electronic generations: "transistors" were big gas-filled tubes that populated the guts of televisions and radios and children back at the dawn of time (1950's). They belched occasionally and we got static on our radios and snow on our TV screens and conduct demerits on our report cards.)

Back to blogging: I have always thought bloggers were a bit off. Not because they want to write, but because of what they have to put up with as a result. The few times I have read a blog I have been stunned, not by the blog itself, but by the responses (reactions would be a better word). Writing anonymously, respondents go for the blogger's jugular and write some pretty petty and even mean things. Sometimes they seem to flog the blog. Anonymity at times is a vehicle for license.

But blog I shall, O brave, new world. I haven't decided yet if I have the courage, or perhaps the good sense, to read or not read the responses. That may depend on how provocative a given entry is. So stay tuned. Analogue Man is evolving and walking upright. My transistors are feeling a belch coming on and I may have to write something.

"Whole Earth" Engineer Honored

2009-11-10T09:54:00.005-07:00

First Plymouth is a "Whole Earth" church, committed to loving and respecting the interconnectedness of all of God's creation and practicing wise stewardship of the earth.

We are proud to have as a member of our congregation a civil engineer by the name of Don Roberts, who has just been recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as a 2009 Distinguished Member for "visionary contributions that have brought the principles of sustainability into the lexicon of the engineering profession and for his passionate dedication to educating the next generation of engineers in service to others." Don lives out the "whole earth" philosophy in his commitment to sustainable development worldwide. Congratulations, Don!

First Plymouth "LOFTS" into Community Service

2009-11-09T14:18:00.010-07:00

First Plymouth's first LOFT (Living Our Faith Together) project was a resounding success on Sunday. LOFT is a new mission focus for our church, and it involves a community outreach project on the second Sunday of each month. Watch for more information each month on this chance for everyone to participate in helping out in the larger community.

Beautiful fall weather made for a perfect "Got Dreams" Thanksgiving food drive at the University & Dry Creek King Soopers today. Thanks to Heather Greenwood's tremendous organizing efforts, the dedication of so many First Plymouth volunteers, the cooperation of King Soopers, and the generous and caring spirit of so many of our neighbors shopping at King Soopers, we were able to collect a grand total of:

310 cans of cranberry sauce

324 boxes/bags of stuffing
956 cans of vegetables
362 gravy packets/cans
114 bags of cookies
81 boxes of crackers
118 aluminum roaster pans
81 $15 King Soopers gift cards (total: $1,215)
$130 in additional King Soopers cards
25 cans of miscellaneous items (yams, etc.)

It was exactly as Jay (the founder of Got Dreams) had told us it would be: it started out a little bit calm, and then rapidly picked up speed. And we could never judge by outward appearances what sort of response we'd get to our requests for donations: a pinched-looking old man you'd think would be a skinflint would end up being extremely generous. A couple of gen-X'ers who looked like they didn't have much money to spare would contribute practically a whole meal. There's a powerful lesson there.

What was perhaps the most inspirational of many inspiring things was seeing our children volunteering in so many ways: counting food items, filling boxes, and handing out fliers.

It was a deeply moving and inspirational day - and just a lot of FUN! - and we're so thankful to Heather, Troy, and the rest of the volunteers who've made LOFT a reality.

First Plymouth Starts Blogging!

2009-11-05T18:21:00.007-07:00

Welcome to the First Plymouth blog! We're glad to see you here and hope you'll come back and visit often.

On Mondays, we're planning an overview of what's happening at First Plymouth for the coming week. Midweek look for a post from a member of the program staff - perhaps George Anastos on something relating to the upcoming sermon or his thoughts on events and developments at church and in the community, Eric Smith on youth issues and concerns, or Jane Anne Ferguson on her sabbatical pilgrimage. And occasionally at other times, there might be a guest post from a member of the congregation or a friend of the church.

We're excited about joining the world of blogging and look forward to chatting with you this way.