Shekinah Glory

On Tuesday morning early I awoke to a disturbing sound. It was the piercing screams of my wife Carol. In a 6 a.m. haze I stumbled through the stairs and found Carol huddled in the fetal position on the kitchen floor. With every perceptible minor move Carol made her body quaked in pain and helping her into a chair was the most excruciating pain that I had ever seen her endure (even during the birth of Calla). Speaking of Calla she had awoken because of the screaming and was quite frightened. I soothed her and sent her to another part of the house. Calling 911 I realized that I had never dialed those numbers before for my own family. By the time the paramedics arrived I found myself soothing a frightened daughter, whispering encouragements to my wife, trying to quiet a barking dog and answering questions of the paramedics.

As the morphine from the paramedics began to kick in and she was able to put her arm in a sling it was obvious that this was going to be a long day for her, but that everything would be fine. By the time she was in the ER there were IV’s, x-rays, more pain medications and then a lot of sleep. As I sat for hours in the ER waiting for results and doctors and then slings I realized that I was given an opportunity to reflect upon being present for those in my midst who are in need.

During my time here at the Palisades Community Church I have had the privilege to meet with people in various stages of emergency and personal crisis. This is an essential part of the pastor’s job. I have been there after the stroke, called during heart palpitations, spoken to during the depth of despair, absorbing other’s misdirected anger, planning a loved ones funeral, accompanying someone to say goodbye to a recently deceased loved one, holding hands with someone who only has hours to live, hugging someone leaving their home of 60 years and talking with families deciding on whether to resuscitate a father. Being in the hospital on the other side gave me a reminder of the chaos, fear and anxiety that these situations bring. They also reminded me of the Biblical admonition that followers of Christ laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep.

As I noticed the beginning of Christmas decorations at the hospital and in public spaces during the day I realized that the drama of life does not stop for any holiday. It was in chaos and emergency that Mary and Joseph were in over 2,000 years ago in that cave with dirty animals, about to deliver their first child Jesus. Many will enjoy the holiday programs, the shopping, the opening of gifts, the deep relationships of family and friends this holiday season. Yet, let us remember that this holiday story was also played out in the midst of personal drama, fear and hope. If this is how Jesus came into the world can we expect anything less for our own lives?

This thanksgiving eve I want to talk with you about people in my history who have passed on to the life eternal. They no longer live, but it is not death that I want to focus on this evening of gratitude. It is the gift of their lives that I appreciate much more now that they are gone. May and Marcia where interesting and complicated souls. They were also two of the founding six members of the Saints and Sinners baking and cooking group.

I am fully convinced that people get to know each other in a deeper and more intimate way when they are kneading dough, chopping onions through tears, all smelling the same broth and then sitting together at table to consume what has been wrestled out of hands into pots or ovens. This is the relationship that I had with both of these women.

There are deeply personal experiences that I shared with both of these women that would have never happened if they had not shown up on Monday mornings and began listening and speaking. We talked of politics, religion, church gossip, talking old histories and asking questions of each other. It was not my expectations that such activities would lead me into deeper relationships with others, but they did.

So, when Marcia told me she had stage four cancer, but wanted no one to know, we spent months talking about her fears, pain and frustrations. In the end it was both sad and gratifying to say goodbye, pray and know that she could say with confidence that she was ready for this final stage in death. What an intimate gift I was given in those last days to be present not only as a pastor, but a confidant in an experience that only she would have.

Then there was May who did not suffer fools wisely. Yet that is what always endeared me to her. I always told her that she could take as much as she could give. Yet, there was a side that many people would never see of May that I was was fortunate to see in our private pastoral conversations. When someone says the words, “I have never told this to another soul…” One should sit up and take notice. I had conversations with May that still make me think.

So, on this holiday I will do as the Psalmist says and “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay my vows unto the most High.” With gratitude I will sit down tomorrow with a meal that I have helped create with my own hands and realize that those who I share this meal are people whom I am still excited to learn more about. It is my wish that you will break bread, clink glasses and grow closer to those whom you share intimate meals with. It will be you who will be changed in the process of opening yourself up to other’s and letting them in.

1. Match the story with the picture
2. Find the Biblical passage for the story
3. Write brief description for ten of the Biblical stories (1 paragraph)

Here are the stories:

The Woman at the Well
Daniel and the Lion’s Den
The Woman and the Dragon
Jonah and the Whale
John the Baptist Preaching
Job’s Loses Everything
Adam and Eve
Stoning of Stephen
Tower of Babel
I Stand At the Door and Knock
Birth of Jesus
The Crucifixion
Expulsion from Paradise
Jesus as a Child in the Temple
David Slays Goliath
Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
Creation
Saul’s Conversion
Pentecost
Elijah Taken in a Fiery Chariot
Ten Commandments
The Good Shepherd
Jesus in the Garden
Samuel Presented at the Temple
The Resurrection
Jacob’s Dream
Doubting Thomas
Noah’s Rainbow Covenant
Mary with Baby Jesus
Abraham sacrifices Isaac
Peter’s Vision
Jesus Taken from the Cross
Queen Esther
Cain and Able’s sacrifice
Jesus’ Arrest
David Plays Harp For Saul
Jesus Baptism
The Final Judgement
The Flood
The Ascension of Jesus
Lot Flees with Family
Three Men in a Furnace
Moses in the Bullrush
The Mount of Olives
Parting of the Red Sea
Paul’s Shipwreck
No Room at the Inn
Golden Calf
The Prodigal Son
Lazarus Resurrection
The Transfiguration
Ruth in the Field
The Last Supper
Elijah and the Ravens
Mary and Martha

What is left of its leaves
tip the clear sky.
It is mere highlight
for trees in the foreground.
A functional tree
whose purpose
is clearly ornamental,
only to be blended
in a full landscape,
a small part of the whole.
Far less showy
than the small Hollys
who blush crimson
in this full morning sun.

Liturgy For Salvation and Thanksgiving

(While liturgy is being read someone should be showing pictures on screen to illustrate the text and a person with a guitar should be playing).

Opening Scripture Psalm 68

Hear me, Lord, for your mercy is good;
In accordance with the multitude
of your compassions look on me.
And do not hide your face from your servant;
Because I am afflicted, hear me quickly.
Come near to my soul and redeem it;
On account of my enemies deliver me:
Your salvation, God, has protected me.

Opening Prayer

Holy One,
We have deteriorated
Toward evil for too long.
Why have we ignored infirmities
Hidden deep within our society?
They are the parasitic cancers
Which liquefy our form,
eating away at our very core.
The talons of this virus
Have squeezed away our breath,
Taking our courage for being.
We know that evil is not a substance
But a defect of good,
A wound or privation of good .
Broken, disrupted and disintegrated
We are a people split
From health and wholeness .
Yet, our weaknesses bring you no alarm.
For Christ came to fulfill the prophecy.
To save his people
From their sins .
He came for those who are sick
Because the healthy
Have no need of physicians .
It is his strength that is made perfect
In our weakness .
Why have we not changed,
Moved closer to your salvation?
Our paralysis stems from fear
Fear of what grows inside us
That might someday outpace us
Fear of dwindling returns into nothing,
Fear that one by one our communities
Will ebb into historical documents
Fear that the damage is too extreme
To save what you have given us to keep.
Yet, when all seems hopeless we know
You have not left us alone without grace!
Salvation embraces all human reality,
Transforms it, and leads it
And its fullness into Christ.

Movement for Wholeness of Individuals

Without knowledge of self
There is no knowledge of God .
Lord, how do we know ourselves
Except to see through dark glasses ?
Still we come to Christ for healing.
Leprous , drunk , raving in cemeteries ,
Carried on mats , caught in promiscuous sex ,
Blind Bleeding from unstoppable periods
We still come to be made whole.
There is great hope in seeking health.
Whether we dip in water,
Have the spit of the teacher in our eyes
Or having our demons
Thrown into pigs
We know that if we were but touched
We would be restored again.
What we lack in belief
We make up for in weak faith.
In return we hold that your grace
Is sufficient for our needs.
We seek to be made living
To be made fully alive
By growing in holiness
And sanctifying our lives.
Breath into us the breath of life.
It is your fidelity to us
Is what gives us courage
To be true to ourselves.

(at this point individuals who desire healing may come forward for anointing with oil and laying on of hands).

Movement for Wholeness of Community

We are not alone
And our path to salvation
Is not solitary;
We are members
Of the Body of Christ
We share the fate
Of our brothers and sisters in Christ
We are justified by the righteousness
And bear responsibility
For the sin of the sinners .
If one member suffers
All the members suffer,
Or if one member is honored
All the members are honored
Yet, often we are divided kingdoms
Crumbling and falling into obscurity
We are devoured by each other
While sharpening our teeth
On each other’s bones.
Instead of entertaining angels,
By sharing everything as others have needs
Or working toward communities
Where each works their share
We attempt to horde
Our treasures here on earth.
If we are thinking beings,
We must regard other life
With equal reverence
To our own.
We see what is evil
Is what annihilates, hampers or hinders life.
By the same token goodness
Is the saving or helping life.

(At this point Offering will be taken with benevolence envelopes)

Movement for Wholeness of Creation

Though rulers may ignore us,
Authorities may deny our worth,
Those in power of the dark worlds
May shut us from their corridors,
And even if spiritual forces
From heavenly realms
Bind and hobble our paths
We do not serve them.
We are still your faithful servants
And you are in control
The sovereign of heaven and earth.
It is our earth that we
Only think we understand intimately.
We know we’re here to learn
The earth by heart
And everything is crying
Mind me, mind me, mind me.
Your judgment of creation:
“It is good!”
Still it is hard to tell whether
We are trying to love creation
As much as our creator.
Is not our wish for this creation
To remain alive
Much greater than our wish
That we remain alive?
Fat pastors speak of the end of the world
When what’s approaching is the end of exploitation
Hysteric prophets speak of deciding between good and evil
When the people need to decide
Against oppression and hunger.
All life is interrelated.
We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
Tied into a single garment of destiny.
Therefore whatever affects one
Directly affects all indirectly.
We pray for a new heaven
And a new earth
That will wipe away the damage
We have wrought upon them.

Movement Toward Thanksgiving For All God Has Done

Sources:

Browne, Gerald, M. translator, The Abbreviated Psalter of the Venerable Bede, pg. 53 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, 2002.
St. Augustine Handbook On Faith, Hope and Love, pg 11, Relevant Books, 2006
Tillich, Paul, “Religion and Health” The Meaning of Health: Essays on Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and Religion, Pg. 17, Exploration Press: Chicago, 1984.
Matthew 1:21
Luke 5:31
II Corinthians 12:9
Gutierrez, Gustavo A Theology of Liberation. Pg. 151, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 1971.
Calvin, John Institutes of the Christian Religion, Pg 35, The Westminister Press: Philadelphia, 1960
I Corinthians 13:12
Mark 1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4, Luke 17:11-19
Mattew 11:19
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 5:5-8, Mark 2:3-10, Luke 5:18-25
John 7:53-8:11
Mark 10:46-52
Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-47, Matthew 9:20-22
Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 8:27-37,
II Corinthians 12:9
Moltmann, Jurgen, Source of Life: Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, pg 54 Fortress Press, 1997.
Metz, Johannes Baptist, Poverty of Spirit, Pg 14, Paulist Press, New York, 1998.
Mother Maria Skobtsova: Essential Writings, “The Second Commandment” Pg. 47 Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2005
I Corinthinas 12:26
Mark 2:24
Galatians 15:5
Hebrews 13:2
Acts 2:45
Ephesians 4:16
Matthew 6:19
Schweitzer, Albert, Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology, pg. 262, Beacon Press, Boston, 1947.
Ephesians 6:12
Fulton, Alice, Cascade Experiment: Selected Poems, “Everyone Knows the World is Ending” Pg. 33, Norton: New York, 2004.
Soelle, Dorothee, The Mystery of Death, Pg. 94, Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2007.
Dalton, Roque Poemas Clandestinos, pg 55, Curbstone Press, Willamantic, 1986.
King, Martin Luther A Testament of Hope: Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” pg 254, Harper: San Francisco, 1986.
King Jr., Martin Luther The Measure of a Man, Pg 48, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1988.
Revelation 21:1

I have been working on Marketing for Carol’s next book. What do you think of this one?

or this?

I want to thank the council for giving this opportunity for the public to express its feelings on marriage equality in the District of Columbia. I am the Rev. Brian Merrritt a Senior Pastor at The Palisades Community Church an interdenominational, ecumenical congregation that has met in the Palisades neighborhood for over 86 years.

Let me state from the outset that I do not believe that the District has any compelling reasons to infringe on the liturgical rights of legitimate minority religious groups and the free exercise of their religious practices. In an instance such as marriage, it is time for us to return to the reason the framers of our constitution wisely inserted the idea of separation of church and state into our form of government. Too, often it is insinuated that this is to protect the national, state and local government from anything but a secular influence. Yet, the understanding of separation of church and state is to protect religious people (especially minority groups) and their worshipping communities from the imposition of state sanctioned ecclesiology, theology or liturgy.

When I participated in a same sex marriage ceremony at my church, they are marriages in our liturgical context regardless of whether you grant your citizens full civil rights or not. You cannot by any vote of council change the nature of your particular mandate: That is to assure the equality and equal representation of civil rights to each one of the citizens who lives within the bounds of the District of Columbia. So, unless you pass the resolution recognizing the civil rights inherent in the liturgical acts already happening in many of our religious communities, then the same sex members of our congregations will continue to be denied full rights and access as citizens of this District.

If the District imposed a fee/tax on every baptism, would you have the right to say that only infant baptism is valid? If the District imposed a fee on membership, would you have the right to say that every church member must believe in the Westminster Confession of Faith to be a member of a Christian congregation? If the District taxed those who participated in communion, would it have the right to determine who is worthy of receiving the elements? How is the liturgical act of marriage any different?

The difference is that if you imposed a state ecclesiology, theology or liturgy on those acts, they would infringe on majority religious organizations and that would be unthinkable. The District must resolve that government has waded into regulating liturgical acts and that it is time to side with the freedom of religion that our founders so deeply cherished. Though some in the majority may fear the freedom my congregation craves, they are not harmed, but strengthened by religious freedom.