Author: Doug Slagle

Message 80, Christmas Eve, “A Very Dickens Holiday: Faith Like a Child”, 12-24-11

Click here to listen to message, see below to read it.

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved

A well known contemporary humorist and writer, Larry Wilde, once said “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”  And Erma Bombeck, a well-known funny woman in her own right, added to those sentiments by saying “There is nothing sadder in this world than to awake on Christmas morning and not be a child.”

Indeed, Christmas of all days year ‘round, is one most anticipated by children – and perhaps most dreaded by many adults!  But as we have considered this very Dickens holiday, I think we have found over the past two Sundays just why Christmas is best seen through the eyes of a child.  It ought to be a simple holiday when relationships, family and service to others are valued more than elaborate gifts, parties and decorations.  We yearn to find meaning in the day by remembering the ideals of the one whom we honor – ethics of compassion, innocence, humility and peace.  And Charles Dickens understood all of that.  In most of his novels, it is the adults who need to change and adjust their thinking for the better.  And it is the children in his stories who suffer the most but who still retain the kind of faith, love and wide-eyed wonder that gives our world hope.

Such Dickens ideals echo those of Jesus who implored adults to let little kids join him.  “Don’t hold them back,” he once said.  “The kingdom of heaven belongs to them!”  Since even Jesus claimed that heaven is something we help to create here on earth, children and their innocent ways are what make life better and more like heaven.  Even more, it is for the sake of youth and for the future of humanity that we work and serve and give.  In many ways, therefore, it is fitting that this time of year is best celebrated in the company of children – or in the company of those who act and think like children!  As Erma Bombeck said, Christmas is empty and sad if we do not reclaim the child in us all.

I remember the second Christmas of my daughter Sara.  The must-have gift for kids that year was an animated wonder toy called Teddy Ruxpin.  This large stuffed bear would talk, sing, move his mouth and blink his eyes – all in some fantastic but silly way.  Her mother and I thought at the time that Sara was old enough to receive such a gift.  So, expensive as it was, we bought it for her and made it her featured gift.  After we helped her unwrap the gift and open the box, and after I figured out how to work it, Sara stared at this 1980’s technological marvel.  It seemed to perplex her for a minute or so but, instead of delighting in this live action stuffed bear, she quickly turned her attention to the brightly colored wrapping paper and a large red bow.  She was soon playfully tossing the paper around, wrapping it around her head, playing with the ribbon, crawling inside of the box and completely ignoring the singing bear!  Simple things occupied her and delighted her far more than that expensive toy.  Pulling the box over her head and playing peek-a-boo was much more fun.  We realized we should have given her several wrapped, but empty, boxes!  Money, technology and knowledge of such things had not corrupted her yet – as they do almost everyone when they reach a certain age.  Whenever that happens, we lose something beautiful, pure and almost divine.

Contrasted with my memories of my young daughter Sara are those I have of my maternal grandfather.  When I was young, I recall Christmases with him when, after a few glasses of holiday spirits, he would become very, very silly.  He would decorate his bald head with bows, put on ugly clothing other people had received, dangle tree ornaments from his ears and mug for me and my siblings.  We thought he was crazy but absolutely hilarious.  My grandmother, who was more serious, would frown at his antics but that caused him to be even more silly – he’d stick his tongue out at her and continue on.  At Christmas, this mature, older man became a child again – and he made the day alive and fun and full of laughter.

Charles Dickens does much the same with characters in his novels.  We remember the kids in his novels – the innocent and naive David Copperfield, the conniving Artful Dodger and his humorous antics, and the pure Tiny Tim who thinks far more about the happiness of others than he does of himself.  As much as Dickens identified with children who suffered as he had, he championed their interests and he was strategic in using them to prick the consciences of his readers.  Victorian England was prone to distrust the poor – often questioning their work ethic and morality.  Prevailing thinking of the time, and sometimes even today, believed that people were personally at fault for being poor or in debt.  Thus, they were punished in debtor’s prisons and their plight was ignored.  While Dickens knew such thinking is generally false, he also knew that nobody could question the work ethic or motivations of children.  They are innocents who had absolutely nothing to do with their suffering.  Who could not sympathize with and cheer for his children characters?

Indeed, it is Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” who captures our hearts and sympathies.  Despite his infirmity, he exclaims that he hopes people at church see him as physically challenged, especially at Christmas. It might be pleasant for them, he says, to see his infirmity and be reminded of the one who helps the blind see and the lame walk.  Later on it is he who prays for Scrooge and Tim is given the most remembered line in the novel – “God bless us everyone!”  This was a not a child feeling the shame of his condition or the neediness of it.  He saw himself in simple terms and with childish innocence.  He felt blessed and not cursed, he felt loved by his parents and by a Jesus with whom he sensed a common cause.  As Tiny Tim says in the novel, “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child himself!”

While we do young people no good by idealizing them and turning them into saints, we all recognize the characteristics in them that we forget to practice as adults.  Such qualities enable belief in Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and all sorts of magical ideas.  Children are less inhibited about love, play and laughter.  At some point in life, we learn too much, we become a bit too cynical and much too serious.  We lose the sense of mystery, playfulness and implicit trust that young children have.

We are most reminded of our child-like deficit at Christmas when the world is filled with lights, gifts and fun.  We are reminded to change our thinking, much like we discussed last Sunday, to find the child in us all.  Jesus tells us that to think and believe like a child is to have true faith.  When power hungry adults who followed him asked Jesus who among them was the greatest, he called a child to stand in their midst.  And then he said that whoever wants to understand the divine heart, whoever wants to experience heaven-like contentment, he or she must change and have faith and humility like that child, like any child.  When you serve and love children, he said, you have served and loved the divine.

Faith like a child is the kind that believes in magic, the kind that trusts in the implicit goodness of others, the kind that suffers when others suffer, the kind of faith that is humble and simple.  It is the kind of pure and totally trusting faith that I remember in my daughters when they were little – when they would toddle along beside me and instinctively reach up their little hands to hold mine and go anywhere with me, their sweet trust so complete in their daddy.

Such innocence can be dangerous, but as adults we push that aside too far – our instincts tell us to mistrust and doubt and look with a cynical eye at anything and anyone.  Jesus says NO to that!  Real spirituality involves hope and trust and unconditional love.  It involves letting go of the self and reaching for the hand of beauty, wonder, kindness and laughter.

Jesus follows up his encouragement to have faith like a child by saying that whoever would harm the innocence of any child, whoever who takes away the hope a child has in a secure and comfortable world, is evil and of no good.  To ignore the condition of children – much like ignoring other outcast members of society – is to ignore the heart of god.

Woven into the very fibers of our being, intrinsic to our human DNA, is a concern for others.  When we turn those impulses off and gratify only our selfish needs, we have abandoned the essential spirituality that makes us uniquely human.  In Jesus’ male dominated and paternalistic Jewish and Roman culture, children had little status.  They had the same diminished importance as women, slaves, the poor and the diseased.  For Jesus, however, love, care and concern for all marginalized people, – and especially for children – are essential to a spiritually inclined heart.

And Charles Dickens believed exactly the same.  By converting to Unitarianism from Christianity, he did not reject the teachings of Jesus.  Dickens simply believed he found a faith that really practiced them.  A Unitarian motto of the time – and one that resonates strongly with me – was “deeds, not creeds”.  And so Dickens wove into his novels the kind of Jesus ethic that focused not on religious salvation, doctrines of belief or intellectual theology, but on “hands-on” service to others – most importantly children. Indeed, when confronted with the reality of a lame and sick Tiny Tim who will die without compassionate intervention, Scrooge begins to change.  Likely suffering from rickets – a disease that can be reversed with proper diet – we see at the end of “A Christmas Carol” that Tim will live.  This is because Scrooge intervenes in his life, assists his family and begins to pay Tim’s father higher wages.  Like Jesus, Dickens implores us not just to have faith like a child, but to protect that trust and nurture it by caring for and assisting any child who suffers.

Seeing the faces of children at Christmas is, like Tiny Tim says, to be reminded of Jesus and all that he taught.  Like other great prophets of history, he pointed us to the impulses and ways of life which we instinctively know are true.  In each human heart is the seed of the divine, the spark that yearns to love, cooperate and care for others.  We were not wonderfully made to be isolated, sullen and selfish, but to bond, love, enjoy and marvel at the great beauty around us.  How can we not see in the face of any child – black, brown, dirty, crying or sick – something so wonderful?  How can we not celebrate the birth of any new life – like all of the grandchildren recently born into our Gathering family?  How can we not love this place – as I do – when kids and teens are running around, playing and laughing?  How can we not bless and be cheered by child-like goodness and love that we see in any of us – as we saw, for example, in Danny this past Sunday who so generously gave of his time to write each person a Christmas card?  As the great painter Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.”

Much like Christmas honors a poor, likely illegitimate child born to a teenage mother over two-thousand years ago, we must also use this night, this holiday, to resolve to honor, serve and protect each and every child.  In each one is the divine gift of wonder and innocence.  To each child has been given trust and hope in the goodness of our world.  We must not let poverty, illness, discrimination or lack of opportunity destroy that in any child.  Like we have determined to do here at the Gathering, to serve homeless youth in our community, we must protect that child spark of life – in children, in ourselves and in our world.

When you go home tonight, when you awake in the morning – on Christmas day – let your inner child out.  See the world in new and fresh ways.  Be silly, be joyous, celebrate with abandon!  Grab the tinsel, the wrapping paper, the boxes, the ribbons and the wine and throw a party!  Let go of your serious self and reach out to family, friends and others with a trusting but humble hand –  “Here I am,” you might say, “It’s Christmas and I want to play!”

Message 79, “A Very Dickens Holiday: The Reason for the Season”, 12-18-11

Click here to listen to message or see below to read.

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved

Victor Hugo, the famed writer of Les Miserables, once wrote that the great battles in history are often small and obscure.  They are the mundane battlefields of life – that of fighting poverty, isolation, depression, and abandonment.  The heroes of such battles are unknown folk who nevertheless achieve success by changing the circumstances of their lives.  They change how they think and act in ways that transform their lives and their world.

       What I have struggled with the last several Christmases is how to make sense of this holiday.  How do I celebrate what is traditionally a day that honors the supernatural conception and birth of the son of God? – Events I am not sure really happened.  Do I revert to a more secular observance or can I find some meaning and purpose in Christmas? 

Most of us experience the warm and celebratory feelings of this holiday – feelings that involve friends, family, gifts, songs and parties.  More importantly, though, I have come to see Christmas not for its religious significance but as a day to uphold and honor the essential reason for the season – as the saying goes.  I have concluded that it is not a mythological Christ figure who gives the day meaning, it is the man himself.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  And it is from him, from this person of history and the ideals he taught, that I find meaning which resonates in me and in many others.

As we seek to look at the holidays through the perspective of Charles Dickens – a person who has influenced its celebration perhaps more than any other – we find a man who also saw it as a holiday that embodies the high ideals to which we aspire all year.  Even more, Dickens saw it as a day that ought to encourage and motivate positive change.  In his life, and in that of Jesus the man, personal change was a guiding principle.  For Dickens, Christmas was about calling us to live as our better angels.

Much like honoring Martin Luther King’s birthday or that of Lincoln or even the holiday of Memorial day, on Christmas we commemorate not just a person, but the values, ethics and principles he espoused and called others to follow.  Jesus was an actual man of history, one who promoted change – in outlook, in attitude, in compassion and in life.  His breathtaking teachings were appeals to be true to the heart of the Divine – that of humility, peace and mercy.  He implored his followers to discover their inner truth – whatever that might be – and thus be set free.  No longer must one be caught in chains of past shame, guilt, depression or anger.  By examining the truth of oneself, one is able to see the pain, hurt and bitterness that hinders the kind of contentment and compassion for others that only a few people ever completely find.

Despite the humble, impoverished and likely humiliating circumstances of his birth and youth, it is obvious Jesus experienced just such a personal epiphany.  Because of his own experiences, he was able to discover the kind of mysterious grace that allowed him to see life and humanity in wondrous and revolutionary ways.  We must be meek, kind, gentle, non-violent, caring, serving, and forgiving people in order to find genuine happiness.  In doing so, we are set free to celebrate and happily embrace life.  And that was a hallmark of Jesus – a man who never missed the opportunity to party and to dine with anyone and everyone – thieves, tax cheats, prostitutes, lepers and religious snobs all the same.  He called them to the same kind of personal liberation and joy he experienced.

And the life and teachings of Jesus were just such a beacon to Charles Dickens – a man who was profoundly influenced by his ideals.  Suffering the extremes of poverty, humiliation and abandonment in his youth, Dickens later experienced an awakening.  Despite being forced, because of family debt, to work in a hellish factory pasting labels on shoe polish cans at the age of twelve, despite his own mother refusing to allow his release from such work after the debts were paid, and despite later being sent to a school for poor boys – where he was beaten, poorly fed and ignored – Dickens was able to transcend such horror and hurt and become a successful, happy man.  He become a novelist who ranks as one of the all-time greats, a philanthropist who lavishly gave away money to family, friends and charities, and a man known for enjoying a good time – one who was called the “Master of Revelry.”

And Christmas played a primary role in Dickens transformation.  As a young man, he saw the hypocrisy of traditional Christianity which was even more apparent to him around Christmas.  In the midst of holiday festivities, when he saw the wealthy of Victorian England extravagantly spend on parties and gifts, he also saw working poor families, orphans and people in debt who were ignored and left to suffer like he had.  Dickens thus quit the Episcopal Church of England and joined London’s Essex Chapel, a Unitarian congregation.  There he found not a renunciation of Christmas but an embrace of humanist values.  Unitarianism focused not on religious creeds and ways to find personal salvation, but on finding, proclaiming and practicing universal love.  This was a religion, he believed, after the true heart of Jesus – that all people are capable of personal transformation to become more caring, generous and helpful to others, and in the process to be more joyful and happy.  The essence of such spirituality is one that resonates strongly for me – that life is one long process of becoming a better person in order to go out and make the world a better place.

Christmas calls us to just such change and growth.  Much like we remember values of justice, tolerance and equality when we honor, for example, Abraham Lincoln’s birth, so too must we remember the values of forgiveness, humility and service to others when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We may not know its exact date, but the historical fact that he lived and died is without question – and Christmas of all days is one we can and should use to honor what he taught and how he lived.  In celebrating his ideals, we are reminded the call to confront our own demons that keep us chained to unforgiving, unloving, angry and selfish attitudes.  Christmas, as a day to remember Jesus, called Dickens to just such inward change.  He was a man who could have remained trapped in the hurt and anger of his own horrible youth.  He did not.  And Christmas calls us to similar transformation – whatever the chains that imprison us.

I know of my own feelings of being alone, unloved and hurt – sentiments which come from my past.  And

they influence my actions today and how I approach life.  I have empathy for those who hurt and those who are marginalized – because I have felt the same – but I also find a certain inability to fully love myself and thus fully love someone else.  The power and mystery of Christmas, the ideals of Jesus, continue to call me to love openly and lavishly – and to do so I must let go of past hurts, shame and lack of love for myself.

Charles Dickens found the change inherent in Jesus’ life and teachings as instructive for his own life.  And he used those ideals to write perhaps his most famous novel – that which we know so well as “A Christmas Carol.”  The story has come to embody holiday feelings and celebrations but it is ultimately a story of personal transformation – just like that of Jesus, Dickens and others who confront inner ghosts.

Ebeneezer Scrooge does NOT have a religious experience where he meets and is changed by a supernatural Christ.  There are no Christian symbols of eternal salvation or redemption in the story.  Instead, Scrooge changes by himself – by remembering and confronting his past pain, his present angry attitudes and his potential future of a lonely and forgotten death.  Through his journey of self-discovery, he comes to understand himself – how his lonely and painful youth turned him into a bitter and selfish man.  He sees how people all around him, throughout his life, still reached out to him with love and forgiving hearts, but his anger turned them away.  And he recognizes the hurt he thus causes others around him and most of all, the hurt he inflicts upon himself by remaining an unhappy and isolated man.

What Scrooge undergoes is a Unitarian form of salvation – a truly spiritual one in which I firmly believe.  Change for the better and growth in oneself comes not from some outside god or goddess.  It comes from within.  It comes from our own hearts and minds pricked by the need to throw off chains of fear, sadness, selfishness, anger or loneliness.  It comes by then cognitively altering the way we think about past hurts, ourselves, and life.  Why should I continue to feel unloved when I am surrounded by a sea of loving and caring people?  Why must I hold onto past hurts when, by forgiving others, I can free my mind to think of present blessings?  Why should I be angry when life is so much more fulfilling by being kind and content?  Might I then experience true happiness?  Might I then be capable of being more giving, more loving and more caring – and thus better able to help build a better world?

Because of Jesus, the life he led and his appeals to change and grow, we celebrate his birth on Christmas – whenever that really occurred.  And that holiday thus should represent for all of us the power and mystery of personal transformation.  Like Jesus, like Dickens, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, we are each capable of continual self-discovery, healing and resulting happiness.

I read recently an interview of Lisa Beamer, the wife of Todd Beamer who was killed on 9 – 11 when he and others worked to thwart one of the hijacked planes.  He is the one of “Let’s Roll” fame.  In this interview, she was asked how she has managed over all these years to cope with being a single mother, especially at Christmas.  How has she managed to stay positive, happy and content despite the brutal death of her husband?

Lisa responded by saying how she learned from her husband’s death to capture and cherish each and every moment in life.  Out of her initial devastation and fears for the future of her family, she remembered how on the morning Todd left for his flight to California, they got up early and spent time talking and sharing over breakfast.  It was a simple but happy marital time together.  And then Todd got their kids up to say goodbye and proceeded to playfully wrestle and twirl them through the air as he often did – causing laughter and pleas for more.  She remembered those moments frozen in time and she remembered the joy of them and the contentment they brought.  She told herself how that is how she must live – to capture each day’s small moments of pleasure – time with a friend, seeing a wondrous sunset, eating a great meal – and then remember to give thanks for them.  We never know when we might die, she said.  But if we purposefully capture such moments of joy, embrace them, and live fully in them, we will never be sad.  At the end of our lives, we do not regret what we have done, she says, we regret instead what we should have done.  Her goal is to have no such regrets.

Such a story embodies what I hope to convey in this message. It embodies a personal decision to change how we think.  It embodies a decision to live in the present, to live joyfully and to share that with others.   None of us are without past or present pain and struggle in our lives.  But Christmas tells us we can be free of that.  We need not be chained to our past or present – like some modern day Scrooge.

There is an old native-American story about a chief who tells his grandson about the battle that goes on inside each person.  It is like two wolves, the chief said, that fight inside us all. One wolf is evil.  It represents anger, envy, arrogance, greed, sorrow, self-pity, lies, guilt, ego and resentment.  The other wolf is good.  It represents peace, joy, love, hope, serenity, compassion, empathy, generosity, truth and charity.

The grandson thought about all of this for a moment and then asked his grandfather, “Which one wins?”

The chief replied, simply, “The one you feed.”

The reason for this season is, indeed, Jesus.  It is that poor child born in a sad and stinking barn.  Jesus taught that we need not be held captive by the ghosts or demons or wolves of our past.  Christmas can be the birth in you and in me of new ways of thinking and acting.  In the coming holiday nights, when angels near and far sing aloud with joy, while friends and family lovingly stand watch, I pray we find that Jesus child in the cradle of our souls, the one who calls us to change and then embody peace on earth, and goodwill to all………..I wish you all a very happy, and trans-formative, Christmas.

Message 78, “A Very Dickens Holiday: Light in the Midst of Darkness”, 12-10-11

To Listen to the Message, click here.  To read, see below.

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering, UCC, All Rights Reserved

One of literature’s most famous fictional characters, Charles Dickens’ Ebeneezer Scrooge, says near the beginning of the novel “A Christmas Carol”, “Out with merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer… If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ upon his lips should be boiled in his own pudding, and then buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

          While many credit Dickens with inspiring modern December holiday celebrations from his “Christmas Carol” work, that of decorations, parties and abundant gifts, this was hardly his goal.  Indeed, while Scrooge is an exaggerated character in his cynical, bitter and greedy attitudes, Dickens used him to reflect the prevailing cultural norms in nineteenth century England.  The worship of wealth, relentless work, disdain for the poor and insensitivity toward the weakest members of society were all hallmarks.  Today, perhaps instead of heeding the lessons of “A Christmas Carol”, our culture’s holiday season is marked in a similar manner – more by what we do (buying, cooking, partying, drinking) than by what we think; more about the ups and downs of business sales and frenetic activity than by silence, peaceful reflection and relationship building.

Dickens railed against many English cultural attitudes in most of his novels.  His concern for the poor and the ill treatment of working class people was a constant theme.  Much of it sprang from experiences of his own youth when Dickens was sent to an English work house to help pay off his father’s debts.

Two thousand years earlier, the few remaining Jews in Jerusalem fought a similar battle against a dominant culture of profligacy, greed and insensitivity.  Successors to Alexander the Great’s empire controlled Israel and much of the known world.  People were dominated with the sword as entire nations were swallowed up and ruthlessly eliminated.  The Jewish temple in Jerusalem, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was turned into a place to honor a human Emperor – and not a Divine presence.  Pigs were slaughtered within it – all as a calculated affront to the Jewish people.  Trade and commercialization were the focus – what could this Greek empire take from conquered nations?

From that dark time came the Jewish Macabbean revolt and an eventual retaking of the Temple.  And the so-called miracle of Hanukkah happened.  It was a minor miracle in the large scheme of miracles but one that still resonates today.  In the darkness of the Temple, facing a hopeless task of relighting the religious lamps until enough consecrated oil could be made, the lamps were lit anyway.  Hope and promise won out over despair.  And the lamps miraculously remained burning for eight long days – thus the modern eight day celebration of Hanukkah.

But just as Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was a cry in the darkness of England’s soul – a plea to recapture the essence of the holiday, that of peace, celebration, goodwill and charity, so too was the original lighting of Jewish Temple lamps.  Into the bleak night of a culture deadened by oppression and cruelty, a light of defiance was lit.   Those ancient Jews would echo an old Chinese proverb that says, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”       

Dickens did the same by employing symbols of light and darkness to illustrate his central theme in “A Christmas Carol.”  That theme is best stated by Scrooge’s dead partner Marley – life is not about the business of making money and reducing humanity to a mere economic commodity.  Instead, life is about making the the well-being of humanity our chief business.

From that theme,  Dickens used images of darkness to symbolize an insensitive culture – the cold and dark offices of Scrooge, the use of ghosts, the grey and foreboding boarding school to which young Scrooge is confined, the run down cemetery to which a frightened Scrooge is led at night to be shown his own forgotten and moldy grave, the cover of darkness as thieves scavenge for pieces of the dead Scrooge’s estate.

To contrast the dark Dickens saw in English society, he used images of light to promote a world that might be created. Much like Dickens himself, the character Scrooge spent an unhappy childhood, unloved and away from home.  But light still fought against that darkness.  We see in his past how Scrooge was brought home by his sister Fan to attend a light and merry holiday celebration – moments of joy in neglected boy’s life.  We see light in Scrooge’s life when, as a dashing young man, he meets the beautiful Belle who brought him happiness and cheer.  We see it in the holiday party thrown by the young Scrooge’s boss and in the imagery of the lighted glory of the Ghost of Christmas Present who carries a fiery torch that drips kindness and gentleness on others.  Light and love suffuse the Cratchit home where, despite their poverty and the infirmity of Tiny Tim, the family celebrates Christmas by a warm fire.  Holiday light emanates from a bleak and small hut visited by Scrooge and one of the ghosts.  The coal mining family still celebrates Christmas in the midst of their drudgery.  And we see light on the dawning morning of Scrooge’s epiphany when he throws open the shutters to his dark apartment and welcomes Christmas sunshine.  All of these and more were symbolic lamps of hope and spiritual encouragement lit by Dickens in a dark, Victorian world of debtors prisons, work houses, and overcrowded orphanages.

Dickens crafted his characters in a such a way as to hopefully inspire the better angels in his culture.  Belle, Scrooges former love, hears her present husband tell her he had just seen an insensitive Scrooge working late at night  in his offices while his partner Marley lay near death.  Even Scrooge cannot help but realize Belle chose family and happiness over him and his decision to focus on making money.  She, though, is clearly rich in the blessings of life – a caring partner, a beautiful child, a home of contentment and love.

We find Dickens promotion of positive thinking, cheerfulness and kindness in Fezziwig – young Scrooge’s employer who celebrates Christmas with his workers and who generously gives them holiday bonuses.  In Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, Dickens shows us a man filled with the spirit of his mother, Scrooge’s sister Fan, who loved people, and enjoyed their companionship.  Scrooge is wealthy, Fred remarks, but his money does him no good.  Charitably, Fred says Scrooge is a man to be pitied but not despised – his greed, ill humor and cynicism have their own punishments of loneliness and isolation.  In spite of all that, it is Fred who cheerfully wishes Scrooge a merry Christmas and invites him to his party.

And, using his most obvious symbols against English society, Dickens writes of two wretched and starving children who emerge from under the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present.  On their foreheads are written “Ignorance” and “Want”.  When Scrooge reacts with alarm at the pain of these children, the Ghost repeats one of Scrooge’s favorite phrases – one that often echoes across unequal and insensitive cultures – “Are there no prisons?  Are there no workhouses?”  Even a ghost points an accusatory finger at English society and, perhaps, our own.

The redemption offered Scrooge comes with his realization that only in the present can he change the errors of the past and influence a brighter future.  Scrooge’s hurt from an indifferent and unloving father obviously turns him into a bitter man.   Masking the anger and despair of his childhood, Scrooge pursues money and selfishness as ways to protect himself from future hurt.  Like some people even today, Scrooge made a conscious choice to reject the universal keys to human fulfillment – that of personal connection to family and friends, kindness, and positive thinking.  The holiday we each celebrate is often one that reflects our own attitudes and ethics in life.  Is there joy, love of others, charity and a focus on people and not things in our holiday celebrations?  Do we embrace the happiness of the here and now, or are we caught in the chains of our past – ones that hold us prisoner leading us to a cold and forgotten grave?

Scrooge comes to understand he must live in the moment – in the moment of the season, this time of cheer, of family, friends, charity and joy.  The present is all we truly possess.  It might be wasted and spent on work, self-indulgence, depression and anger or it might be spent on relationship, compassion and outreach to others.

Just after this most recent Thanksgiving, I was given a rare gift by a good friend.  Stopping at my computer late on Thanksgiving night, after hours spent cleaning my kitchen from the celebrations, I opened an e-mail sent to me by this friend.   As a custom, that friend sends a letter to one or two people every Thanksgiving.  In it, this friend expressed thankfulness for me and what I had added to this person’s life.  Using many details and sentiments about me to which I can hardly live up, words that nevertheless brought tears to my eyes, this friend gave me a gift far beyond any holiday present I might receive.  I was given the gift of time, of heart, of appreciation and of generosity.  It is a gift I will cherish and that I will save – not as an ego booster but as a meaningful and powerful expression of love.  It is a reminder of the goodness in this person and in so many other people in my life.  How blessed I am to have the friends and family that I do.  How blessed I am to have received such a light on that Thanksgiving night.

What I hope this message might convey is our need to defy the prevailing holiday winds in our contemporary culture.  It is a need to light a symbolic Hanukkah lamp or sing a Dickens Christmas carol in the midst of an indifferent, often money focused, busy, workaholic, self-centered, and greedy world.  While millions starve, while homeless citizens spend nights on our cold streets, while many blessed children go to sleep each night hungry and unloved, while many homes are sad  places of anger and strife, people seemingly act in ignorance of such things – they give each other chia pets, gaudy ties and sweaters that will never be worn.  We attend holiday parties where small talk is exchanged masking the human disconnection we often feel.  The banality of our holidays is often quite sad.

Might our actions this holiday season be ones we aspire to practice – to eliminate holiday chores that create stress but which do not give purpose or joy:  the rushed gift buying, cheerless parties, and indifference to what people all around us really desire?  Our families, our friends, and strangers all long to be loved, recognized and cherished.  Furthermore, in an age of plenty, when do we have too much?  When might the holidays be celebrations of all that we already have?  When might families reconcile past hurts, deeply bond and forge the ties and create memories that will last forever?  When might we practice the long lost art of conversation and genuinely listen to one another?  Might the gift of ourselves, our attentive ears, our time and our love be enough this season?

If we are too simple in our celebrations, we risk becoming like Scrooge – bleak and dreary.  But I know we each know when enough is enough – a simple tree, simple but lovingly prepared food, basic gifts that show thought more than cost, the quality of time and love more than quantity of mere things – these, I hope are more than enough.

Just after Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount, when he taught the lesson that it is the meek, the merciful, the poor, the hungry, and the persecuted that are those closest to the Divine heart, he implored his listeners to light their symbolic lamps and place them high on pedestals.  “You are the light of the world”, he said,  “A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone…In the same way, let your light shine before others…”

Such figurative lamps are the attitudes and ideals we practice in our world.  It is the humble one, the peacemaker, the giver, the cheerful one who brings light into the darkness of a pain filled world.  The holidays should be times of simplicity, reflection, and sharing.    So too, they are potentially joyous times filled with meaning and purpose if we so choose.  Might a gift we offer to another person be a heartfelt “I love you – and here are the reasons why…”  Might a gift we give be time spent with one who could use the pleasure of our company?  Might a gift we give be our renewed dedication to give and to serve those organizations working to improve humanity?  Might our parties, decorations and meals be simple affairs that elevate human relationship?   May I encourage for us all a simple but meaning filled holiday?

Those first Hanukkah celebrations two thousand years ago were humble nights punctuated by people of faith joining together to bring light into a dim world of oppression.  And Charles Dickens encouraged the same in his culture.  Even in the crudest and most meagre of homes he described – that of the Cratchit family – words of holiday truth ring out, words that resonate for all humanity and not just a privileged few.  If, as I so relentlessly repeat in here, that we are each gods and goddesses called to help transform our world into heaven on earth, then I pray Dickens’ famous words repeat with resounding joy in the upcoming holiday season – “god bless us everyone!”

I wish you all much peace and even more joy…

Message 77, “Winter Readiness: Storing Up and Attitude of Gratitude”, 11-20-11

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved

To listen to the message, click here.  To read, see below.

Most people who get to know me soon realize I am not a morning person.  I have the most energy at night and I hate putting an end to my day.  So I stay up later than I should, but I pay for it in the morning.  The cold glare of first light is not kind to me.  My hair stands up at all angles, there are bags under my eyes, and I am usually still half asleep.  I might mumble a few words, but I’m mostly silent.  Until I get my fill of caffeine, I am not a happy, chirpy person in the morning.  And yet, I probably should be.
I recently read a story about gratitude…….that made me think.  Have you ever experienced a sleepless night when you toss and turn in bed, you cannot get comfortable and you lie awake for many hours?  You fret and worry because you have an early appointment and yet sleep eludes you.  When the alarm does go off and wakens you from the few minutes of sleep you did find, you stumble into the shower, grumble about the early time, and then chase down coffee and toast.  Off you go to your appointment only to face morning traffic.  Your day, you tell yourself, has not begun well and most people would agree.
What if, instead of that scenario, you cannot sleep because your bed is a pile of dirty rags on a hard, dirt floor?  You awaken in the morning from a fitful sleep not from an alarm but from rain falling on your head.  Any grumbling that is heard is from your empty, hungry stomach.  And your commute to work is to walk a few miles to the local dump, where your day’s task is to scavenge for scraps of food and clothing in order to survive.  Such a scenario is not fiction – it happens to millions around the world every day.

This contrast of stories pricked my conscience.  What right do I have to wake up on any morning with a complaint on my lips?  What if I woke each day with a simple expression of gratitude that I was awake and alive?  What if, from the beginning moment of every day, I gave thanks for having a clean bed, a roof over my head, food to eat, friends to meet and work that satisfies my needs?  What if I gathered from my heart all of the gifts and joys and experiences I have accumulated…. to then see that compared to so many, I am a richly blessed man?  Might my perspective on life, on other people and on myself be totally different?  I think it would.  Indeed, as an old proverb says, “I once was distraught because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”

From our “Winter Readiness” series this month, we have learned life lessons using metaphors associated with this time of year.  We learned two weeks ago that we cannot escape the universal law of consequences.  Each of our actions and thoughts affect our lives and those of others.  We harvest…..what we sow.  And last week, using the analogy of threshing………we looked at how times of adversity are good for us.  There are kernels of insight and growth that come from the threshing of life – and we can either embrace challenge, or flee from it.

Today, I want to look at the spiritual discipline of gratitude.  After storing up ……….all of the good crops we have received in life, can we learn to adopt an attitude of gratitude for them?  Can we draw upon the storage bin of our hearts all that we have harvested and winnowed and then give thanks?  I propose that none of us can find genuine peace and happiness until the very core of our souls is thankful for all of the big AND little things we have.  There is no man and no woman who cannot find blessings in his or her life – no matter their age, health or wealth.  And thus, few people have an excuse to be unhappy.   Indeed, happiness IS gratitude.  Depression and despair, my friends, is a lack of gratitude.

And recent research is proving this point.  Concluding a recent landmark study on the power of gratitude, two psychologists from the University of California at Davis and at the University of Miami, found that grateful people are healthier, happier and more successful in life and in relationships.  The researchers assigned one group of people to write down five things for which they were grateful over their past week.  Another group was assigned to write down five hassles they experienced in their past week.  After ten weeks of doing this, the gratitude group felt markedly better about their lives.  They reported fewer health complaints, they spent an average of 2 hours more per week exercising, they were more optimistic about the future and they felt closer to the significant people in their lives.  And a surprising outcome was also evident.  The gratitude group reported offering other people more emotional support and help with personal problems.  Gratitude cultivated goodwill for others.  An attitude of gratitude, it seems, is the perfect antidote to depression.

And such gratitude should also reach directly into our homes and families.  Another researcher, Dr. John Gottman of the University of Washington, discovered a way to predict, after only three minutes of observation, and with 90% accuracy, those inter-personal relationships that will thrive and those that will not.  For every negative expression towards a loved one – a frown, put-down, complaint or expression of anger – there must be at least five expressions of appreciation for the other – compliments, smiles, or statements of gratitude – if the relationship is to succeed.   If this ratio is skewed toward the negative, the relationship will most likely fail.  How often do we look past the small hurts we suffer from people in our lives, and see instead the big picture of love, loyalty and decency from family, friends and significant others?

Gratitude, though, is not just found in mere words.  It is a cultivated and learned attitude.  The gratitude of which I speak is not a form of self-congratulation for all that one has achieved and acquired in life.  It does not to look around our homes and give thanks for the car, the flat screen TV or the computer.  Living in a culture that celebrates materialism and the aspiration to get rich, we are prone to be less and less grateful for what we do have.  If my eye is constantly yearning and seeking more, new, better and shinier, when will I have time to give thanks for the older, the sufficient and the reliable?  I must learn the power of gratitude for the simplicities of life, for the basics of food, shelter, and companionship.

An attitude of insufficiency, however, leads to suffering and pain.  We think to ourselves that we deserve more – in things, in relationships, and in experiences.  The opposite is true.  We find meaning and happiness in constancy, forgiveness, patience, loyalty and simplicity.  Almost all of us have more than enough material things – stuff that only gets old and soon becomes clutter we don’t throw away.  Jesus encouraged his followers to store up in heaven the kind of wealth that does not rust or get eaten by moths.  For a man who literally owned nothing, the Jesus ethic was one of contentment and gratefulness.  That is the stuff of real wealth.

An attitude of gratitude is also not a religious exercise – one of grateful feelings toward an unseen and unknown God.  People are the ones who build heaven on earth by marshaling the forces of goodness and compassion.  Since that is the case, being grateful should be directed to people and not a Divine Being.  Building a grateful heart is to give thanks, for example, for the clothes on our backs at this very moment – for the farmer who planted and harvested the cotton, the mill owner who spun it, the garment worker who wove it into beautiful cloth and the seamstress who sewed it into the garment we wear.  No longer should we take for granted the chain of humanity that serves and blesses us.  We are deeply thankful for them.  None of us, rich or poor, are islands of achievement.  Literally thousands of people have helped make us and enable us to be who we are.

Gratitude then causes us to see humanity in a different light.  We owe more than mere thanks to our world.  We owe debts of caring, time and money – all to pay back and be grateful for what we have been given by the human gods and goddesses who have served us.

Real gratitude is not an end-zone dance of self-congratulation – to use a football analogy.  It never shouts to the world “look at me and all that I have done!”   In fact, we have accomplished very little all on our own.  I daresay that without the inter-connected blessings and gifts from others, we would be nothing.  Nothing!  A gratitude attitude recognizes that every one of us has received far more in life then we have given away.  When we deeply internalize this fact, we are humbled by it.   It chastens us and our pretensions of self glory.   Who I am and what I have are the result of sacrifices from so many.  The only proper response, the only truly spiritual response, is to be profoundly grateful.

How do we adopt a gratitude attitude?  How do we transform our outlook that often takes for granted the gifts of life we constantly receive?  How do we genuinely become joyful and happy people?  Experts, ancient prophets and contemporary theologians all say gratitude is a discipline we must exercise and regularly work to nurture.  It rarely comes naturally.  Ultimately, it means seeing life through a lens of grace.  As the traditional hymn tells us, this is amazing grace.  Amazing in its big and small gifts.  We must receive them as if we are starving and have just been given a loaf of bread.  We were dying and then we are given the means to life.  Our feelings should overflow with grateful joy – we ought to be overwhelmed.  That is how we should feel and act each and every moment of life.

To get to that sublime feeling, psychologists recommend we do just what was done in the earlier mentioned study.  To exercise our gratitude muscle we should daily give thanks.  One method to do that is to keep a gratitude journal.  Each morning or evening we should write down five things for which we give thanks.  Next, we should regularly write a spouse, partner or loved one how much we love and appreciate them.  Finally, experts recommend standing in front of the mirror from time to time and verbally reminding yourself of the good in you and who or what helped create that attribute – your parents, the privilege of education, friends, your faith community, the book you recently read, etc. etc.  You are beautiful and kind and smart not because of yourself…….but because others helped make you that way.

Many of you know the story of Anne Frank.  She was a remarkable girl with a wisdom and maturity far beyond her years.  As did over six million other Jews, Anne and her family suffered terribly.  Enduring two years hiding from the Nazis within two small rooms – never able to venture outdoors or see the light of day, the Franks lived in constant fear of discovery.  After betrayal to German authorities, Anne and her family were transferred to a detention camp and later moved to Auschwitz.  Anne’s father was selected immediately off the train to die in the gas chambers.  Anne, her sister Margot and her mother were chosen to work in the hard labor camp – carrying heavy stones and breaking up sod.  Anne became very thin, infected with scabies and often tearful at the sight of young children being led to the gas chambers.  In the winter of 1945, after transfer to Bergen-Belsen, Anne and her sister found themselves crammed along with one-hundred thousand other women into freezing, outdoor tents.  An epidemic of typhus spread through the camp.  Anne’s sister caught it and fell from her bunk too weak to move.  She was gathered up and then buried alive in a mass grave.  Anne, also suffering from typhus, died a few days later at the age of sixteen.

Despite such a short life of unimaginable suffering, Anne remained almost miraculously grateful.  Poignantly, she wrote in her diary, “I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you…..and be happy.  In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.  I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.”

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for so much.  I offer thanks for my family and my two daughters – two young women beautiful in soul and in heart.  I cherish the days they were given to our world.  I am grateful for the goodness of friends and relationships past and present – for the gift of love, caring and tenderness from each of them.  I am also grateful for my work – for this place that puts food on my table but, more than that, brings me in contact with people who are not perfect – as I am not perfect – but who see the world and ask not what is in it for them, but what they can do for it.

I could name a million more blessings in my life.  All of us could.  But I hope and pray this Thanksgiving we might each resolve to practice gratitude.  Each day, from the dawning moment of first light to the dying seconds before we sleep, may we find the time to be gracious to others, to be thankful, to deeply sense the magnitude of all that we have been given.  May we stand in humble awe before the wonder and beauty stored up in our lives.  As the Buddha once said, “We have no cause for any other feeling but gratitude and joy…”

 I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving and much peace…

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering, UCC, 10-16-11, All Rights Reserved

To listen to the message, click below:

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering, All Rights Reserved

To listen to the message, click here:

I recently heard about a Pastor who challenged any member of his congregation to come forward and, in return for $100.00, hold one of their fingers in the the heart of a candle flame for a full fifteen seconds.  As would likely be the case in many congregations, a cocky young man immediately raised his hand and came up to the front of the church.  He placed his finger into the flame but soon flinched and was only able to keep it there for six seconds.  The Pastor smiled a satisfied grin and then looked straight into the eyes of the young man, in front of the entire church, and asked him if he could imagine that fiery pain not just in the tip of one finger but over his hand, arm and indeed his whole body.  He asked him to imagine such pain, over his entire body, lasting not just six seconds, but an hour, a day, a year, ten-thousand years!  And then in a solemn voice this Pastor told the young man that even after ten-thousand years, it would be just the beginning of eternal burning pain that an unforgiven sinner would experience in hell.  If the young man wanted to save himself from such a terrible fate, he could repent of his sins and accept Jesus Christ as his savior then and there!

As much as I disagree with such persuasive tactics, this was simply a demonstration of what many world religions teach about the existence of hell.  During this month of Halloween, when thoughts turn to scary things as a way to laugh at our fears, the idea that hell exists as a real place is perhaps the ultimate fright we might face.  What rational person would choose to horribly suffer forever, or wish to think of family and friends experiencing the same?  Indeed, I have heard many Pastors half jokingly say their real occupation is to sell fire insurance.  The famed evangelist of the early twentieth century, Billy Sunday, even said that if hell does not exist, then he and many other preachers were taking money under false pretenses.  And Billy Graham, not to be outdone by any hellfire and brimstone preacher, once shouted that the problem with many churches is that because there is not enough hell preached from the pulpit, there is too much hell in the pews!

And, so I will take Billy Graham’s advice.  You will get your fill of hell from me today.  To be very blunt with you, hell is real.
While Judaism, Islam and Christianity all have similar beliefs on the existence of hell, such views of divine punishment are seen by some theologians as coming from an ancient view of justice.  Ideas about second chances, rehabilitation, personal change and mitigating circumstances were unknown in many ancient cultures.  In a world where only good and evil could exist, there was no room for grey areas.  Wrongdoing and evil must not only be punished but must be done so with extreme and final measures.  While we can argue the same notions are true in our own nation, the idea of an eye for an eye, death by stoning for immoral behavior, crucifixion and a sentence to eternal hell were seen as fair and just in past cultures.  Humans must work to ruthlessly eliminate evil.  The idea of hell served that purpose.

Many religious historians believe the fiery image of Hades originated from the Jerusalem trash dump.  Just over the south wall of that ancient city was a long valley into which all of that city’s waste was dumped.  The bodies of executed criminals were placed there as fires were kept perpetually lit in order that trash and accumulated filth would be consumed.  A portion of this area is traditionally held to be the Potter’s field where Judas was hung and buried.  Ribbons of smoke continuously wafted up from this stinking, fiery valley.  If there was anywhere on earth that ought to be avoided, it was this spot.  It was easy to imagine hell as just like that very real place.  Indeed, writing in the Biblical Book of Revelation, John saw a vision where the dead stand in front of the throne of God as the book of life is opened up and read.  All who are not written in the Book of Life, the list of persons eligible for Heaven, are cast into the lake of fire, an image perhaps borrowed from the Jerusalem trash heap.  That is where all evil resides forever.

Halloween, for us, is a playful holiday to laugh at and even make fun of things that scare us.  Ghosts and goblins are frightening but to dress up as one is to mock it and reduce it.  It is interesting to me, however, that many still find the religious concept of hell to be so threatening.  On the one hand, we are called to worship and honor a gracious and loving God who created us and has our best interests at heart.  But this same God supposedly uses coercion and threat to bully us into loving him or her.   “Believe in me, love me and obey me or else I will condemn you to hell.  My justice cannot be questioned.  I am God after all.”  And if we do choose this God, is that really love of such a deity or merely fear of his or her threat?

Even in the backs of some of the most skeptical of minds, this form of divine justice rings true.  Evil is bad and so there must be a place where final justice awaits.  The Hitlers, Ted Bundys and other thoroughly nasty people deserve punishment, we tell ourselves.  An eternity of burning pain seems fair for someone like Hitler.  Even if he did make the trains run on time and he was good to his dog, his evil outweighed his good.  Too often in our own minds we consciously weigh the sum of our own life actions – the good on one side of a scale and the bad on the other.  Our hope is that good will outweigh the bad and our souls will avoid eternal hell.  Even as some of us don’t believe in hell, we hedge our bets, we figuratively buy fire insurance by keeping a running balance sheet of our good and bad deeds.

My problem with this religious approach to eternity is its ultimately selfish outlook.  Love of truth, justice, compassion and goodness in that perspective is often simply a way to avoid eternal hell.  Even a belief that Jesus was the Christ and is our Savior is often just a free ticket to avoid hell.  And such views are myopic as well.  The same mindset that hopes for the promise of Heaven and fears the horrors of hell, often overlooks the very real horrors of garbage dumps around the world where children and families are forced to live on, and scavenge within, to survive.  It ignores the tortured life of young gay boy, daily harassed and bullied so that the only way for him to avoid that pain is through suicide.  Blind eyes are turned away from children in our city who are immigrants or homeless and whose only place of refuge is a clean school with breakfast and lunch.  We can save the salary of an administrator or cut school budgets if we forget about those children.

We also know the evils that exist in the minds of many – us included – hatreds, subtle prejudices, violent speech towards those with whom we disagree, anger at loved ones, unforgiving attitudes, selfishness, depressions, arrogance, addictions, etc, etc.  There are nursing homes full of ignored and dying elderly; orphanages full of unwanted and unloved kids; homeless shelters full of unwashed and untreated men and women; overcrowded jails where there is no hope, rehabilitation or redemption; wartime morgues in which death is simply a daily count of bodies.

I remember one of my trips to Haiti when I visited even that nation’s most notorious of poor neighborhoods.  Into “Cite Soleil” as it is called, City of the Sun, we ventured.  I gasped in horror at the actual sight of a bloated, dead human body lying in a gutter, people simply stepping around it.  Pigs rooted in mounds of garbage, homes were plywood and plastic sheet shacks, endless streams of people wandered with no seeming purpose.  The streets were hot, narrow, and strewn with trash.  The gutters were open sewage streams.  One relatively clean building in this warren of poverty housed young children piled two or three to a crib.  They suffered from terminal tuberculosis and AIDS.  Sisters of Charity nuns tended them until they died.  It might be a cliche to say this, but I’ve seen hell.  I’ve been to it.  You have likely visited it too.  Such a place is found all around the world.  Oh yes, hell is real.

Oscar Wilde once said, “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”  Adding to that thought, Tennessee Williams remarked, “Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself or herself aside to feel deeply for another person.”  Hell is all around us and we have each helped to create it.

My friends you have heard me say before that God is not an outside force controlling our lives and our destiny.  He or she is us and it is our duty, therefore, to help build heaven on earth.  That is the only spirituality that has any meaning for me.  That is the only reason for this church to exist – for all of us to be here today, to volunteer and to give.  The Gathering does NOT sell fire insurance.  As long as I am Pastor, it never will.  We’re here to be fire-FIGHTERS putting out the flames of hell in our own lives and in the lives of those in the community.  We practice and believe in a spirituality of the here and now.  Jesus began his public ministry claiming the kingdom of god – heaven – is at hand.  It is here and available for us right now, he said.   As small “g” gods and goddesses, it is ours to create, build and sustain – in our minds, in our hearts, and in the lives of those who need it the most.

There are numerous religious and theological reasons for denying the existence of a supernatural hell – the one of eternal suffering and torture.  Indeed, one of the most compelling arguments against a religious view of hell is that logically it makes the existence of heaven impossible.  How could heaven be a perfect place of joy, love and eternal happiness if it is populated by persons who know friends and family are burning in a perpetual lake of fire – hell?  Indeed, that supposedly heavenly existence, for me at least, would be worse than hell.  I cannot fathom an eternity of knowing that people I love are suffering forever.

Another compelling argument against a supernatural hell is that it is inconsistent with the loving and all gracious God most religions describe.  That God is one of mercy and love who would never eternally punish his or her creation for their momentary and weak lapses.  This loving God would also never stoop to forcing people to love him or her.  The threat of hell is inconsistent with that God.  Such a threat does not represent a free will choice on the part of humanity, but a blatant way to coerce belief.

Whatever ways one might choose to refute the possibility of eternal hell, that is not my primary concern today.  We confront very real hells that can exist in our own minds and in our world.
We have the power to fight those hells and even defeat them.  In the hell of our own suffering, our own negative attitudes, our own subtle prejudices and hatreds, we can change.  Indeed, heaven and hell are often a state of mind.  John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, wrote in that book, “The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of hell……..and a hell of heaven.”  Truer words were never spoken.

With my firm belief in the power of cognitive therapy, the private depressions we experience, the pain of hurt feelings, the stabs of bitterness and the lonely hopelessness we can all feel – these are very real hells in our own psyches that we can defeat.  Turning our minds toward the blessings we do have, toward the good we can help build in other lives, toward the gifts we receive from friends and family – all these are ways to create heaven in us and in others.

When we as a congregation work at the Freestore, prepare a meal for Inter-Faith Hospitality families, serve a homeless teen at Anthony House, or work to raise money for them, we are creating a vision of heaven.  When we think about the words of a Sunday message – as I often do – and then go home and seek to change the way we think and act, we are building heaven.  Fighting the very real hells in our own lives and in the world is our mission, our passion and our purpose.  We give money, serve, love one another, show up here on Sundays – all to eliminate the hells of here and now.
In the Book of Revelation, John also wrote of his vision of a new earth where every tear will be wiped away with no more mourning, crying, sickness or pain.  The streets will be paved with gold and all humanity will share in earth’s bounty.  It is that vision of heaven on earth that I seek.  It is not here yet.  It may never be.  But we can and must see the beauty that is available to us.  We must capture the joys and pleasures of life no matter how difficult or hopeless it may sometimes seem.  We must make it our life purpose to work for that experience and possibility in each and every life.  Hell is indeed real but it need not be allowed its victory.  In our own lives, in our own minds, in the lives and minds of those who do hurt and suffer, let us fight hell and build heaven.  Into whose life will you help build heaven today………tomorrow………and for countless tomorrows ahead?
I wish you, one and all, much peace and even more joy.

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering, UCC, All Rights Reserved, 9-25-11

With the message series theme this month of “An Old Fashioned Revival”, my hope has been to stimulate reflection on renewal and growth.  What individual purposes do we each have in life?  How do we revive and practice non-violence in speech and actions in our national political and religious discussions?  Last, week, we thought about finding purpose for churches in general.  Today, I want to look at the Gathering – to take an inward look at where the church is headed.  As we move into a crucial time – when budgets, pledge campaigns and plans for next year are undertaken, let us think about this place and its future.

As Pastor here, I am privileged to know many Gathering stories.  There are two members here who recently began a close friendship based on mutual support and encouragement.  They regularly meet, have travelled together and formed the kind of beautiful relationship as friends that makes me smile in deep appreciation for how this place brought them together.

Another member here drove home after hearing one Sunday message, and tears came to this persons eyes.  Measuring up to what was asked in the message seemed impossible – life is too hard and full of difficulties.  Nevertheless, this member got home, got out pen and paper and wrote down all the ways to fulfill the message ideas.  This member e-mailed me the list and continues to report how life is better and changed.

Another member told me about meeting a young child at an Inter-Faith Hospitality night whom that member had connected with several months prior at a Project Connect lunch we cooked and served.  This child was particularly taken with the member.  In only an hour, the child had formed an attachment.  Parting ways after lunch was difficult.  When the child saw this member again many months later, and remembered that person, a huge smile came across the child’s face, the relationship was renewed and efforts were made to stay connected.  The Gathering does not just serve homeless youth, it touches their lives.

Just before last Christmas, another member told me their reluctance to attend Christmas Eve service.  Christmas was not filled with good memories.  It hurts too much and this member is reminded of alcoholic parents and Christmas promises never fulfilled.  But this member attended the service anyway, heard the message on seeing the holiday through the eyes of a servant, saw the video with images of serving – accompanied to Dick Buccholz’s version of “Little Drummer Boy”, and this member began crying.  Christmas was not about personal hurt but something higher and more beautiful.

I have seen countless times when faces brighten in here at the sight of a Gathering friend not seen in a while; I have heard of numerous acts of kindness and service for fellow members, seen hundreds of selfless acts of community outreach – members working in manual labor at the Freestore, hugging young people at Anthony House, playing with children at Inter-Faith Hospitality, quietly paying for gifts, food and clothing for homeless teens.

When I said in my message last week that the ultimate sign of a highly effective church is that it impacts, for good, the lives of people, how can anyone not see a beautifully effective church in the Gathering?  This is not me or any of you individually that does such work.  It is us.  It is this congregation.  It is the Gathering.

Two years ago, as many of you recall, this congregation was hit with the news of Steve’s departure.  There seemed to be lots of dark clouds on the horizon.  How would this church survive?  Some said that the church had lived a good life but now it was time to simply fade away.  Others said they would leave if there was a long interim period.  Through one of those semi-miraculous confluence of situations, I had a desire to be fulfilled and of use in a role I love – that of being a Pastor.  And the Gathering had a need for a Pastor and was willing to take a risk with me.

Two years later, most would agree the Gathering avoided those dark and stormy clouds on the horizon.  No longer do members talk of leaving or of shutting down the church.  Finances remain precarious but there is no immediate danger.  There is new energy and vitality.  And please, do not take these words today as self-praise.  I have played a role in this regard but NO more so than the members here – than this collective body of caring and generous people.

As good as it seems in the current stability, compared with two years ago, what has been achieved is nice for a while but the church cannot remain as it is now.  Effective churches are not complacent, they take risks with new ideas and new ways to impact lives.  I want to encourage this congregation to purposefully take on such challenges – to bring ALL members into active involvement, to expand what is done and to never rest in a status quo.  In doing so, new stories of change, learning and serving – like some I just told – will be shared for years to come.

The Gathering purpose, therefore, is to offer a progressive spiritual message, by word and deed, that changes lives for the good of both members and those in the community.  To evolve and grow as a congregation – to refuse to rest on past successes – the Gathering must, and I repeat must, continue to grow in size and in depth.

To be very specific with you for a few moments, we are still a church in the beginning stages of life.  We have not reached maturity in being able to sustain this place without significant efforts and sacrifices by members and the Pastor.  The goal must be to reach a financial point where this congregation can fully support itself in ways that are consistent with other established churches.

For the long term viability and survival of the Gathering, it needs sufficient funds to pay for:

1) an annual contribution of 10% of total giving into the church reserve fund.  This is saving for an emergency – the loss of income from a major donor or to fund a future project.

2) an annual contribution of 10% into the outreach account to fund partner community organizations like Anthony House.  Such funds might come, as they will this year, from fund raising efforts like tonight’s benefit concert.

3) the lease of a larger space that includes designated off street parking,

4) provision to the Pastor – me or whomever serves in this role in the future – wages and benefits that are competitive with what is offered at other established churches.  Because of my love and commitment to the Gathering, I am willing for a time to accept below market wages because I know that is all this congregation can currently afford.  But, for the long term health here – not for my benefit – the Gathering must reach a point where it can offer its Pastor competitive salary and benefits.  Movement toward this goal is important to us and to me.

To achieve these four goals and thus survive for the long term, I repeat and emphasize my earlier statement – this congregation must grow in size and in depth.  To fund all of these goals, hopefully within five years, the church needs to double current pledging families – going from 25 pledging families to 50.  In overall numbers for the congregation, that would take the Gathering to between 75 and 100 active members.

I wish that increasing our member numbers were easy – that we could go out and tell people how great this congregation is as a spiritual community and the next Sunday there would be standing room only and overflowing offering baskets!  But that is not likely to happen.  This congregation will have to work at this goal, to make strategic plans, to have every member take seriously the value of the church and its need to grow.

I believe the Gathering offers a good product as a spiritual community.  It is not divided into factions or groups of angry members.  It celebrates all people, beliefs and ways of life.  We encourage and offer opportunities to develop deep friendships.  Outreach and community service are important here.  Our particular niche is to serve homeless youth and the Gathering continues to expand work in that area. Thought provoking, life challenging and musically excellent Sunday services are offered.  For the congregation, a question must be, “why is the Gathering not growing faster?”

We should not be so smug as to say that the Gathering is a perfect fit for everybody. It is not.  But it offers a spiritually inclusive and progressive community attractive to many.  I believe there are three factors holding back Gathering growth…

1) Our location in Over-the-Rhine is a mental stumbling block for some.  Sadly, many people in Cincinnati perceive the church location as dangerous.  Whatever underlies that perception, many folks who know nothing about Over-the-Rhine are afraid of this location.  We should NOT move or change because of this mindset, but it is one to acknowledge as limiting growth.

2) The size of this room – our worship space – is a stumbling block to growth.  This space can seat a maximum of 60 people comfortably.  On the average good Sunday, we approach or exceed the magic number that churches use to measure space needs.  Any church must have at least 20% of its seats available for newcomers – and those seats should be near the entrance and easily accessible.  If we put ourselves in the shoes of a visitor, he or she wants to quietly check out a church, sit in the back, and take time to evaluate the experience.  Visitors want to slip into seats quickly, easily and anonymously.

If we are 80% full, and that means attendance of 45 to 50 people which is often realized, the Gathering is at maximum capacity.  As a result, space here is limiting growth because of a lack of open and easily accessible seats for visitors.

3) The final factor holding back growth is the most significant one.  The Gathering has no easily accessible off street parking.  Finding nearby parking spots is very difficult.  For those who cannot walk long distances, that is a very big factor.  For those who harbor fears, this is a big factor.  In snow or bad weather, walking a long distance is an added factor.  Some members have returned home when a reasonable parking spot was not available.  If a member has done this, how many visitors have also – people our congregation may never meet?  The lack of parking is a huge issue – the biggest one I believe.  The use of nearby parking lots has been explored and none are open to us.

What are solutions to these three factors limiting growth?  I cannot dictate answers.  The congregation must decide those since the Gathering is led as a democracy.  Members are the leaders.

In my opinion the Gathering will not grow to a congregation size capable of financially achieving the goals I outlined earlier unless it finds a new space.  I say this with sadness as this space has been very good.  This location says a lot about congregation values.  If it should move, the Gathering will not change its character as an urban church serving the needs of an inner city community.  The Gathering should, I believe, only consider new space in an urban setting within a few miles of here.

The space needs teams has investigated several options.  It has concluded the church is not in a position to purchase a building.  Most buildings the church could afford are in poor repair and would require major investment.  Combining forces with another church, the team has found, is not a viable option either.  Other churches contacted have politely rejected us sharing their space.  The remaining option – renting or leasing a larger space with ample parking – is the team’s recommendation.  The search for such a space has not yet been undertaken aggressively.

Stuart Blersch and I recently met with two local Pastors who told of terrible things in their wealthy churches – factions, fighting, bitterness, selfishness, and greed.  Stuart and I remarked how unlike the Gathering is to that, even though it is a relatively poor church.

This is a special, special place.  There is real and palpable love here.  People walk their talk.  There is little pretense.  Folks are caring, giving and devoted.  The church operates cooperatively and in peace without leaders and committees.

I am so blessed to work here.  I am thankful for the opportunity and privilege.  It is because of my love for its members and for what the Gathering is – its history, its values and its purpose – that I want to see it survive and thrive long after all of us are gone.

The Gathering needs to grow.  That is a plain and simple fact.  It cannot rely forever on the significant sacrifice of individual members and its Pastor.  It must stand on its own collective strength.  I ask each of you – I ask all of those who hear this message or who read it online – to join together, to get involved in specifically offering solutions to this need to grow.  With each suggestion, the Gathering then needs volunteers who will put them into practice.  Every member needs to be involved in this work.  If impacting your life for the better, if changing the lives of other members for the better, if having a spiritual oasis of deep friendship and community, if serving the needs of homeless youth – if all of these are important to you and are things you wish to continue, the Gathering needs your help.

I ask for your thoughts and ideas now, and perhaps in a future separate congregation meeting.  I ask for action and bold, new solutions.  Growth in our personal lives and in that of this church is not an option – it is a necessity for survival.

I wish you all much peace and even more joy.

© Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering, UCC, All Rights Reserved, 9-18-11

Audio file:

As a church, we do not have one of those changeable signs out front that often serve to both promote and provoke.    The best church signs, I think, are witty and don’t seem so self-important.  Some actual phrases posted on church signs that I have found to be very funny are:

The first, “God, help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.”  Or another:

“Life stinks, we have a pew for you.”  Or another:

“We’re not Dairy Queen, but we have good Sundays.” or

“Are you bored?  Try a missionary position here.” and, perhaps my favorite,

“Do you know what hell is?  Come here our preacher.”

Intentional or not, such signs serve a purpose.  They often convey the character and personality of a church.  Usually, the character of a church flows directly from its vision of itself and its implicit purpose for existence.

As with any organization – be it a Fortune 500 multi-national corporation employing tens of thousands of people or a small family of two or three, each successful grouping of people has a well-defined purpose for its existence that adds value to the world.  Some purpose statements are simple but precise, they are daily put into practice and they continually help focus the organization toward meeting its values and goals.  Other organizational purpose statements are outdated, inconsistent, not well known and offer little or no direction.

Ultimately, the stated purpose of a church or congregation, and the degree to which that purpose is practiced, will determine the church’s success or failure.  As we discussed in the message two weeks ago on finding and then writing a personal purpose for life, the stated mission of any church is not about setting specific goals of action or of achievement.  Those are important but they must flow directly from the vision and values of the organization.  Everything a church does, as much as possible, should relate to and support the purpose statement.  As Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Those who have a why to exist, can bear with almost any how.”

What collective values and passions cause a church to continue to exist and hopefully thrive?  What motivates members to give their money and time?  Within the community and world, what does the church do that has impact?

These are essential questions and, I believe, of vital importance to the long term success or failure of any organization and especially for churches.  As I just said, absolutely everything that is done in an effective church will be motivated by a desire to fulfill its purpose – from cleaning the restrooms, to handing out programs, to music played and sung, to outreach in the community, to weekly Sunday services, to any of the smallest tasks performed.  Vision, values and purpose inform, motivate and define everything.  In this way, a spiritual community stays true to its reason for existence and thereby offers each of its members a higher reason for attending, giving and volunteering.  A clear vision also offers visitors a reason to want to belong and attend again.  Who wants to be a part of a church that has no idea for why it exists and no higher purpose other than to consume valuable resources others produce?

It is said that organizations with a clear purpose, that regularly work to implement it in all that they do, succeed far more than those with a non-existent or poorly implemented mission statement.  Over the last ten years, companies voted as some of the best to work for in terms of values and compassion for both customer and employee, they had a nearly 7% stock appreciation compared with a 1% appreciation for companies not considered best to work at.   Employees and customers are drawn to organizations that have meaning, purpose and impact for the betterment of the world in general.  They not only know where they are going but they operate with consistent values which inform all that they do.   These companies impact the lives of others for the better.  While a for profit corporation is not the same as a church, factors determining success or failure are still the same.  People are drawn to churches that have determined they will make a difference and then they actually do so.

In this message series on revival, we will have considered four areas of renewal that are valuable to any of us.  Two weeks ago, we looked at finding a personal life purpose.  Last week, we considered national revival and finding civility and non-violence in our dialogue.  This week we will consider church revival in general – finding the mission for churches, and in particular, progressive churches, to exist.  Finally, next week we will look at specifics as they relate to the Gathering.  What are our collective purposes and how will we achieve them in the coming years?

George Barna, the well known church analyst and pollster whose work examines the state of religion in America, performed an influential study on churches that are highly effective and those that are not.  He found that only 10% of churches are highly effective, about 50% are effective, with the remainder as failing.  His criteria for evaluation were not based on size, wealth, denomination or theology of a congregation.  Indeed, nearly thirty percent of all churches in American have memberships of under 100 people, and at least 10% of those are rated as highly effective.  He focused solely on whether a church had impact in the lives of its members and in the community.

Ineffective churches, he found, had four things in common.  First, they accept mediocrity as a standard.  Not only is the Pastor not encouraged and supported to be as good as possible, members are OK with token volunteerism, small giving and lackluster planning and execution of events.  There is little excitement or passion within the congregation.  People seem to just go through the motions of keeping the church running.

Second, ineffective churches also take few or no risks in anything they do.  They fail to innovate and are content with doing things the way they have always been done.  Experimenting with new ideas, advancing new projects, dreaming big for the future – all of these are not undertaken.  Stagnation is the result.

Third, ineffective churches are closed, insular and non-inviting. They believe visitors can find them if they want to.  There is no strategic effort to think about the visitor and how he or she might perceive the church or even choose to attend.  New people have to like them as they are.  There is little concern for offering a welcoming, friendly, comfortable and easily accessible facility to attend.

Finally, ineffective churches do not offer a compelling reason for belonging beyond being part of a social group.  Personal growth and learning is not encouraged.  Service to those outside of the church is not emphasized.  These churches are merely nice places to visit once a week.  They are not integrated into member lives and they offer few opportunities for personal growth through learning or through serving.

Effective churches, on the other hand, encourage the development of deep and significant relationships within the congregation.  The formation of friendships and deep relationships is vital.   These churches invest in and value excellent Sunday services – for the music and the message.  Pastoral messages uplift and challenge.  Music is meaningful and played with excellence.  Effective churches are strategic in how to bring in new people, they encourage and develop ways for people to grow spiritually, they promote giving and volunteering as a holistic and spiritual exercise – every member participates in the life of the church.  Effective churches serve those in need within the community and, finally, they equip and train people how to spiritually minister to and heal themselves.

To boil all of that down, churches should exist to impact for good the lives of people.  One way to do that is by encouraging and challenging members to grow, learn and deepen their spirituality.   Churches should challenge members to spiritually think and question the values and meaning of life, to ask thought provoking questions, and to seek out, through reading or study, new insights for better living.

Second and most important, a church exists to organize and challenge its members to volunteer and financially give as a way to express the value of service for others.   Doing church is not a spectator sport.  Churches should invite and engage people to be players – activists who participate in improving not only their own lives but those of others too.  Just as any effective organization needs every member to get involved in its purpose and mission, so too do churches.

You have heard me say before that churches are not museums of saints on display, a place of supposedly perfect people for the outside world to admire.  Churches are like spiritual hospitals and medical schools where people come to get better and learn how to help others.  As with any medical care, though, most patients do not simply lie in bed and expect others to cure them.  They take an active role in their personal health and vitality.  Furthermore, as communal organizations, churches bring together the combined energy and resources of their members to go out into the community and help make a difference.  The money I give or the time I volunteer, taken alone, cannot make as much difference as they can when combined with the money and effort of others.

Finally, churches offer a unique social setting that enables members to form deep, lasting and meaningful relationships with each other.  If each member of a church can say that some of his or her best and most important friends are from that same church, if opportunities are continually provided to develop and grow such relationships, then something right is happening.  Effective and successful churches are places where close friendships are both common and deep.

Recently, I heard a few of us lament the plight of progressive churches in our nation.  Since many progressive people question the standard religious purpose for churches – that of worship and obedience to a supernatural god – most progressives simply stay away from anyplace calling itself a church.  And that is, indeed, a problem.  Too many GLBT folk, I often sadly note, stay away from any church simply because they have been so hurt and demeaned by many churches and denominations.

Many of us reject that standard religious purpose for churches that I just cited – that of worship and obedience to a supernatural god.  But that does not mean we should reject principles that make any church or any organization effective.  A church purpose – or any organizational purpose – should be for the good of all people.  A progressive church, therefore, is in the unique position of being able to actually practice what it preaches.   Progressive churches really do advance the well-being of all people – not just those who belong, believe or act as they do.  Universal human growth, universal human potential and the betterment of all humanity and all creation are what motivates a progressive church.

As I have listed some general purposes for churches, progressive ideals must be added to them.  They are values that are favored by many in our nation.  One need not be a believer to join a progressive church.  Atheists are welcome.  One need not be straight, or white, or suburban.  One can be a transsexual, a person of color, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a skeptic, a homeless person, disabled, young, gay, whatever!  And nobody in a progressive church will ask you to change your unique identity.  You are beautiful just as you are.

As a place that truly welcomes and celebrates all people, a progressive church is also a place of challenge and encouragement.  Members are not content with rigid dogma taught to them by supposedly enlightened men and women.  There is no spiritual rest for progressive church members.  Indeed, the spiritual work is all the harder because spiritual truths must be continually examined and re-imagined. Progressive church members question.  They seek.  They wonder aloud and to themselves.  Doubts continue to percolate and that is good.  Life becomes one long exploration of what is new, beautiful and wondrous.  The ancient is combined with the new.  Mystery is embraced along with reason.  The rational mind plays an important role, combined with myth and allegory, to determine important lessons for life.

Everybody is loved, valued and appreciated.  In Progressive churches, there is no sin under the sun except for that which does harm to another.  Progressive churches promote the Golden Rule as the standard for true morality – members strive to love and treat others as they too wish to be loved and treated.  People accept responsibility for their actions but they are not forced to carry guilt and shame imposed by false religious standards.  Forgiveness comes from within and from others.  The ethic is to live humbly in this world – meaning that other pathways for life, purpose and faith are equally valid.  As a progressive church member, one respects, loves and serves.  One gives, learns and grows.  Scripture is drawn from many sources and is ever-evolving.

It takes courage to be a progressive church member.  Such churches are not common.  If one rejects religion, one usually rejects church.  But progressives offer a new vision of church that takes the qualities of any effective organization and uses them to serve and impact all people, all faiths, all sexual identities.  No judgement.  No intolerance.  No false or outdated standards.  Love, peace and the true ethic of Jesus, Buddha and other prophets of history – compassion for the least of humanity – the hurting, sick, marginalized and poor; a rejection of privilege based on class, ethnicity or religion; a commitment to personal integrity – acting and speaking in ways that are consistent with beliefs.  Such are the ways of Jesus and of progressive churches.  I believe they are the ways of future spirituality.

In that regard, churches serve a vital and unique role in contemporary lives.  When functioning at their most effective, progressive churches profoundly impact the lives of the community and their members for good.  There are no other institutions that offer opportunities for meaningful personal growth, vital social interaction that builds deep friendships, and ways to serve the poor, outcast, homeless and hungry.  Indeed, my vision of an effective church is that of a beautiful, affirming and diverse community where all people are challenged and loved.  Churches change the human condition……………… and thus they change the world.

I wish you all peace and joy.