Shekinah Glory

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.

When Your Present Seems Worse Than A Terrible Past
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

The rabble has stirred up the people of God. Oh that it where like the days when we were in Egypt. The food was so much better. Can’t you just taste it? We had meat? Look at our diet now we had cucumbers, leeks, onions, garlic and melons. Manna is not a very tasty stew! That is what happens when your present seems worse than a terrible past, you complain. Let me remind you that these desert bound people are living out the freedom that God has given them from the harsh lash of slavery.

Although our current situations are not as dire we often look back on a past that is glorified in our minds. Many of have sat with the relatives and remembered how much better yesterday was. We look at them dumbfounded, but we sit and listen. I remember in my first pastorate I encountered this quite dramatically. It was a small south Louisiana church with mostly elderly members. There had been a time when there had been more in the church, but it had never been a huge church. Day after day I would encounter the sadness of another 70 year old pining for the days when the church was so much better. Yet, when I suggested changes there was defiance.

“We tried that before and it wont work.” “We have always had our Bible study during the day, young people should get their priorities straight.” “We can’t throw away that Sunday school material. It was good enough for my children and grandchildren.” “She has always done that job, the young don’t do it right.”

I found myself not wanting to do anything new, feeling that I would be stopped or stifled of any new idea. What was the most depressing for me was listening to the weekly complaints. It was a litany of reminiscence over the glory days. There were obviously sad thoughts of children who had now moved miles away. It got to the point that I made the walk down that hallway to my office and intentionally looked away from the bulletin board with the historical time line that ended ten years before my tenure there.

What changed this? It was when I climbed up into the rafters and took down the Christmas pageant lights and set that had conspicuously been placed so that everyone who entered the building had to look at them. When these mementos of yesteryear were put into the closet the pain started to recede. It didn’t mean that it went away, it just made living in that moment as a community much easier. Something about putting away these items from yesterday gave them permission to let go.

Yet, one of the most amazing things to me was when I studied the notes of old meetings from those years that held so much nostalgia, they were tough years for that church. There were fights, deaths and economic strife. They seemed like a church on the verge of implosion, and they even fired a pastor. When those beloved children would return they did not remember those years so wonderfully either. They talked of youth groups that had no say and beloved ministers gone. How could the memory be so far away from the reality?

It is a human propensity to try and create a better past. Alcoholics in recovery call it “euphoric recall”. I always think that it is a lot like denial, but takes much more unconscious creativity. The church’s past attendance multiplies like the fish and loaves, the minister was always knew exactly what the church needed, the children were better behaved and the people’s faith was much more authentic. The only problem is that these grand memories of the past are generally a figment of our imagination. Don’t get me wrong, there may have been more in a relative sense, but I would guess that they were so great because they make us remember times when we were happy, when we felt accepted and when we felt secure. Plus, it is my experience that our human conditions do not change and no matter what time period it is we still experience the same joys, tragedy and grace in any generation.

My question has always been: “How can a people that have been set free from the lash of slavery complain about freedom that God has so obviously given them?” Oh I can identify with Moses’ predicament. “I am not able to carry these people alone, for they are too heavy to carry.”

Yet, isn’t that missing the point? God does respond. God gives Moses the strength he needs and raises up helpers to prophecy. Joshua says, “stop them, you are our leader.” And Moses says one of the most instructive things for any community wanting to thrive. “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”

They opined for the days of slavery because their perception was that times were much better than they really were. Yet, through the prophecy of Eldad and Medad God shows that God is free to talk and work through whomever God chooses at any given time. Moses is not jealous but wishes that everyone could prophecy and that the lord would place the Spirit in everyone. Often we opine for past times that were bad because they don’t represent change and instability, but God wants us to all move forward in recognize how the Spirit is prophesying in our current communities.

It is time for us to live in this moment, not the moments of the past. Then we can fulfill our possibilities and not fuel our regrets. Walking while looking backwards will always trip us up and cause us to fall. If we keep a steady vision on the path ahead of us we are much more likely to enjoy the world surrounding us.

The pop singer Whitney Houston has been making a much-publicized comeback in the last few weeks. C’mon you know you have heard it on television, seen it at the checkout counter. We all want to act like we don’t care about such things, but many of us are drawn to these celebrity disasters. Hey, if there is a People magazine in my vicinity or TMZ happens to come on television I am like a moth to a flame. I have made peace with my obsession with pop culture. All I have to say is that fortunately I was traveling for the most part during the 25 hour Michael Jackson coverage or I would have never produced a sermon or come to the office. Now we have moved to Whitney. It is her nearly ubiquitous revelations of excess, verbal abuse and redemption. It is all inspiring stuff. She has capped it off with 2 days of revealing interviews with Oprah Winfrey. We all know that this is somewhat choreographed for the cameras. We have come to expect it, but boy do we love it, hey I love it.

We are a country obsessed with celebrity’s problems. The drug overdose of Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson’s current overdose death and rock star Kurt Cobain’s suicide represent cautionary tales of excess and tragedy. While Whitney Houston represents a long line of people who have publicly come clean about their problems and sought out to change their lives. CNN asks will Kanye West’s rapid apology for his interruption of Taylor Swift’s MTV video music award video be enough? Is Chris Brown’s community service enough for brutally beating the singer and his ex-girlfriend Rheanna? Do these things really matter more than for their entertainment value?

So, what do we take from being national peeping toms? As Americans we love a good story arch, one that has someone finding redemption at the end. We also love cautionary tales of those who could not get their lives together. So, aside from the real personal stories I think there is some type of yearning that our obsessions show us about our human conditions. I think that we yearn for redemption, but fear that we cannot change and will go the way of the cautionary tale. We love it when it is on the small screen of our television, or the small screen of our computer, but not when it is in the wide-open spaces of our lives.

It is hoped that Houston has the experts, support, money and spiritual change to be one of the relatively small statistics that have long term recovery from addiction. It is when we move from the small screen to our large lives that producers, handlers and publicists do not exist to make the story more palatable. We are the ones who have suffered the abuse, the mental illnesses, the broken homes and the addictions. The statistics show that the well-adjusted family was either a myth or something that you should thank your lucky stars. Most of us have sat in the emergency rooms, detox centers, with bruised sisters in the bedroom hiding and talking with the doctors inside the mental health unit after someone’s suicide attempt. Sometimes we are just barely holding it together ourselves underneath the surface and are doing everything that we can to make sure that it looks all right on the outside.

What is to be done? Where is there relief? How can we be honest enough with others if we cannot be honest with ourselves about our conditions? Jesus and James know two answers to those questions. They are surrender to simple faith and sacrifice. You see all of them are advocated in both of these texts. There are many people who have a variety of views on transformation, but not one of them includes denial, evasion or passive aggressiveness.

So, Jesus talks about simple faith, the faith of a child. You’ve heard the song, “I believe the children are our future.” Although the sentiment for children may be good, that line always seems to me to fly in the face of Jesus admonition to bring the children unto him. That to enter into the kingdom we must come to him like a child. It seems that children possess something about faith that we lose in our desire to not be seen as vulnerable. They possess wonder, trust, the ability to learn and most of all a tendency to live in the present moment. When was the last time that you were able to focus on nothing for an hour without being distracted? They can live in the present moment enough to be honest, sometimes brutally honest. You have heard it up here when children answer my questions with the truth and not the sanitized answer. They have not yet layered themselves with a protective covering that allows them to avoid the reality that is right in their midst. Simple acceptance of our true situation is an essential beginning to surrendering our lives to God.

Then James brings the spiritual life one step further. James knows that faith without works is dead. According to James these good works yield but equality and peace. We cannot stay merely in the childish state of accepting faith, we must progress forward toward something greater than ourselves. What is that? It is service to others.
Drama is good for the stage, for Oprah but not so good in life. If you are tired of live being a rollercoaster get off the ride. If you are looking for a life with meaning it is time to become like a child, get real about your life and ask other’s for help. Then you cannot stay a child in faith, but must growing in good works toward others that display equality and peace. It is this spiritual path of wisdom that will give life meaning and begin transforming your life.

Mark 7:27-38

Welcome to Rally Day, the beginning of a new church year and the challenge of full participation in the life of this community. It is a time of fun, enjoyment, good food and the the opportunity for us to recognize those who will volunteer for us in the upcoming year. It is a truly special day where we are able to dedicate our new garden and celebrate the lives of those in our community that have been so integral to our faith. So, thank you teachers who plan, teach and play. You help us to think about our faith in new and challenging ways. We pray with you that this might be a positive experience of growth in your own life as you nurture the spiritual lives of others. Thank you to all the people who helped make today possible. Polly, Robin Anne and Dorea who worked out the food and moon bounce!

Today I think it is also a time to challenge us to remember what is so important to us about this place. To rally you for the upcoming year here at our church, in this community and to make a difference in our world.

We are sitting in the Palisades Community Church what was once the only church in this neighborhood. I want to challenge you to think about what it is that makes this place of interest to you? What do you believe? What do we believe as a community of faith? We are the easiest church to join membership wise in the entire district. We have relatively little theological, biblical, liturgical, financial giving suggestions or voluntary commitments required of you. Many of you probably have more voluntary commitments outside this body that make much more time and financial obligations on you. So, why do we come here? Is there a reason other than we like each other’s company to come to this place? Is there more to life than inspiration and a weekly repose?

This church had a very important purpose from its inception. It was to teach children about the good news of Jesus Christ and to worship God. This place grew from it’s teacher’s commitment to showing those in the neighborhood that same good news. Teaching was synonymous with its most early Church schools. It was important from its beginnings that this was a church that relied deeply upon people from the community to volunteer to sustain it in those early years. Even down to its congregational form of governance this congregation has a minister that has no vote in leadership, does not run meetings and does not run the annual meeting. It is all done by volunteers.

This church has achieved been an essential witness to this community over the years. In a neighborhood that sometimes had a violent history with African Americans and when most churches could barely understand civil rights this congregation joined the first church movement that brought together African American churches and Caucasian churches across the country. When most churches had no idea what inclusive or ecumenical might mean this church was open to people of radically different faith experiences and beliefs. We have albums of pictures and photos lining the walls of memorial hall showing that this church has functioned as a central part of this community.

Our best does not have to be entombed in memorials, we do not need to become one more museum to what faith used to be. Let me be clear, if this church is to flourish beyond the kindness and care that is displayed between you to each other it will be because you have decided to work hard to make this place viable. It is painful to say but there doesn’t have to be a place like the Palisades Community Church in the future. Plenty of churches our size have just ceased to be because they no longer had the finances, the will or the energy to go on.

In twenty years will there be any significant mark for the kingdom of God that we have planted in this location? Will your life have made a significant mark? I think we are just beginning to see the fruit of our faith. We have a beautiful garden outside that was put together with a minimum amount of fuss. We used far less money than expected from our memorial fund which gives us opportunities for a new projects. That shows me there is vitality in this 85 year old church.

Of course I think that it is vital that there be an ecumenical witness in the D.C. region that does not press its ideological views on the masses. This church must grow into a place of discovery and resist the temptation to see our openness as the easy way out of faith. We have an opportunity to be witnesses to God’s love in an area where there is little time for love, a place where love is seen as merely a romantic time drain, a place where faith must fit into a blackberries schedule. We have an opportunity to show that faith is not simply moral piety, but a lived and active service to God and each other.

The challenge is not my vision for the future, but that you have one as well. It is not that this place is important to me, but that it becomes an essential community of faith. It is not about what my faith in God is, but that you are nurturing your faith as well. It will not be what the pastor plans that sustain this church into the future. It will be your gifts, time and finances that will make this the place that your visions from God will make it. It is my prayer that you will find your distinctive voice for service and transform this community into one that everyone around knows is a beacon of God’s love.

I believe that liberals must repent of passionless faith, refusal to give away their money, ideology over people to inherit God’s Kingdom

I believe that evangelicals must repent of sexism, homophobia, greed, love of power and complicity in violence to inherit God’s Kingdom.

I believe that I must repent of sanctimony, hubris and narcissism to inherit God’s Kingdom.

Let’s get to work!

Would you be upset if I told you that I know for a fact that Jesus is wrong, that he is full of the same ethnic and religious prejudices that are a product of his culture? I hope that you are not shocked to find out that Jesus is not all knowing, that he was still learning throughout his adult ministry on earth. I know that it shocked me to realize that Jesus is of the same mortal coil as you and I. Yet, for him to be otherwise would diminish an essential aspect of Christ’s incarnation, the fact that he was human.

This passage is shocking to me for a couple of reasons. First, it shocks me that Jesus uses such raw language with this woman looking for help. What happened to loving your neighbor as yourself? Jesus says something that most of you would fire me for if I said in good company. He seems so mean and ethnically prejudiced.

Second, how can Jesus make the wrong decision? This seems to go against my need for a Superman. It appears that he acknowledges that he was wrong and when enlightened by the Syrophoencian gentile Jesus changes his mind. Things are not always what they appear to us. In the beginning of this text he is not the gentle Jesus that I saw in my children’s Bible.

I hope that you will let me indulge in telling one of the first jokes I ever heard. My father told me this joke when I was a little boy. I am sure that you have heard it, it is a classic.

Once a Baptist preacher, a Methodist preacher and a Catholic priest go fishing with each other one summer day. As they share a thermo of coffee it becomes a morning of deep ecumenical discussion. They talked about Salvation, they talked about their differences in Baptism, they talked about the differences in their worship services. As the early morning sun begins to crest the coffee begins to make its way to each of their bladders.

“Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom” says the Baptist minister and stands up in the boat. Climbing over the edge he appears to walk on the water and to a wooded area on the shoreline. In a few minutes he walks back, climbing back into the boat and picks up his fishing rod.

A few minutes later the Methodist excuses himself and climbs out of boat, walking across the lake to the wooded area. After a few minutes he returns to the boat and picks up his fishing rod as if nothing has happened.

The Catholic priest sat through all this in amazement. Even though he was astounded, he didn’t want to betray that he was shocked that others might possess something miraculous. So, he sat and wondered. As the morning moved on the Catholic priest shifted uncomfortably in his bench. His bladder was about to burst and he really could not hold it any longer.

So, he said a small prayer and said, “Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.” After taking a deep breath and muttering “help me Jesus” the priest stands and steps out of the boat. Before he knows what hits him he is plunging headlong into the water. Not wanting to face his friends he swims to the shore and waits for them to finish in the boat.

Chuckling to each other the Baptist turns to the Methodist and exclaims, “Do you think we should have shown him the rocks?”

Okay you can groan now.

Things are not always what they appear. Our perspectives as finite creatures is not all encompassing. We often think that our worldview is absolute, but it is one of many. We think that our success as a country means that we have some sort of moral authority. Although many believe that our power is a sign of God’s blessing, others see it at a sign of oppression.

What Jesus is reminded by the Syropheonecian gentile woman is that he is forgetting part of his own Jewish wisdom tradition and heritage. Jesus is compelled as a person of faith to recognize and help the stranger. She reminds Jesus that she is a living being worthy of help. Jesus acknowledges her faith and all the rest of us Gentiles are eternally grateful.

Often we think that our success as a country means that we have some sort of moral authority in the world. That our perspective is immutable and walking through the New Mexico desert for work is inferior. I know we don’t saying it that way, but that is what it all seems to come down to in the end. We have done this for years in the church. Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Assembly of God, Holiness, Orthodox, Methodist, Lutherans and we all think that our views are Christ’s. How humbling it is to see a messiah that everyone is sure they know best change is mind out of the wise statement of another.

If you think you are better than anyone one else in the world, you are wrong. Whether it be the Mullah in Iran or the annoying neighbor down the street. We are once again called to love our neighbor, no matter who they may be. This is the essence of being good. As Madeleine Delbrel points out, “[t]here is no authentic love of God without love of neighbor, and their is no love of neighbor without goodness.”

So, we are back to were we are often with Jesus. We are called to show concrete, actionable love to others, even strangers. It is the path of wisdom. It is the path of resisting being right over doing right to others. Jesus is shown to be wrong and we are the ones who benefit.