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Message 26, “And Crown Our Good with Sisterhood and Brotherhood?”, 7-11-10

download program: Service Program, 7-11-10

© Doug Slagle, Pastor, The Gathering UCC, all rights reserved

Recently, a liberal was walking down Main Street early one evening when he was soon robbed of his wallet and his watch, he was beaten severely and then abandoned in the gutter, a bloody and unconscious heap.  Shortly thereafter, a Pastor from a Progressive church walked down Main Street, spotted the unconscious man and very quickly moved across the street and hurried on by.  The Pastor said to himself, in justifying his actions, that the apparent victim could be a drunken homeless person or even someone faking illness in order to rob others.  Several minutes later, a local Democratic Party official was rushing down the street talking on her cell phone, when she saw the victim she continued on her way saying she had important political business to address.  Finally, a full half-hour after the victim had been attacked, a local Tea Party member also walked down Main Street.  He saw the victim, recognized him as a well-known liberal, but was horrified at his condition.  The Tea Party member stooped down, lifted up the victim, wiped his bloody face with his shirt, escorted him to his car and then took him to the downtown Hyatt Hotel where he paid for a room and all meals for as long as it would take the victim to recover.

I ask you, dear friends, which one of these persons was a compassionate human and a brother or a sister to the beaten and bloody liberal?

In my very obvious adaptation of Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable, I have not intended to elevate members of the Tea Party or to indict Progressives or Democrats.  Far from it.  Indeed, I could have easily reversed the characters in the story and had the victim be a Tea Party member with an evangelical minister and Republican Party official ignoring the situation.  The rescuer might then have been a Progressive member of MoveOn.org.

My point is to echo the lesson of Jesus.  When asked how someone could go to heaven and thus lead a righteous life, Jesus responded that people are to first love god and then love others – one’s neighbors- as much as one loves himself or herself.  Expanding on his version of the Golden Rule, Jesus then offers his Good Samaritan parable intending to shock and provoke his audience into seeing that their neighbors – their brothers and sisters – are not just those whom they personally like or associate.  To the Jewish ruling elites of the time, Samaritans were a despised group since they refused to worship at the true Temple and follow the majority opinions on how to honor god.  But here was Jesus pointedly telling his audience of Jewish priests and officials that a Samaritan – the worst of all political and religious enemies – could be their brother, their sister and their neighbor.

My message today is entitled “And Crown Our Good with Brotherhood” – a line taken from the famous anthem America the Beautiful.  As you may know, that song title is our message series theme for this month of July.  As we discussed last week how to have a balanced national pride that recognizes what is good AND what is wrong in our nation, and as we will consider whether God is an American Deity next Sunday, today we look at the topic of sisterhood and brotherhood and how we might truly seek to live up to those high ideals.  That ethic of common love is one which we often say in our nation that we believe in.  To love our neighbor as we too wish to be loved is also a spiritual value found in virtually every known faith tradition throughout history – from that of the ancient Egyptians to Native-Americans to Hindus, Christians and Muslims of today.

And yet in so many ways each of us – with me at the front of that line – we often fail to practice the Golden Rule particularly in our national political, religious and civic discussions.  We can turn on our TV’s tonight and watch any number of commentators not only advance their own beliefs but also personally attack, diminish and shout down persons with opposing views.  President Obama is called a liar, un-American, a communist, the Anti-Christ and an enemy of our constitution.  Just a few short years ago, President Bush was called a baby killer, a liar, a village idiot, a bigot and an enemy of the common man.  Liberals are regularly denounced by conservatives as bleeding heart, tax and spend socialists who want to impose a Stalinist type government that will control the lives of all citizens.  Conservatives are similarly bashed by liberals as ignorant, money grubbing, and heartless prudes who care nothing for working people and the poor.

And, please, don’t get me wrong.  I am a gay man who is likely more agnostic than most, who considers it an honor to have voted for Barack Obama, who believes in Progressive causes and who would like greater government oversight of our economy in order to prevent grave excesses and to assist those who need a hand up in life.   I am happy to speak, at another time, about my beliefs.  I do not apologize for them and I am very proud to be a member of a Progressive congregation where many also hold similar viewpoints.

When I read many of Jesus’ teachings and when I study all of the other faith expressions of the Golden Rule, I am struck by the power and higher call of our human hearts.  In each of us beats the compassion and love expressed by charity, goodwill and love.  We yearn to be people of the Golden Rule.  We yearn to be people who daily live out the ethic of sisterhood and brotherhood.  And yet, when I hear about some position of a conservative politician, I will mutter to myself or to Ed about how evil that person must be.  I will harbor a feeling of personal dislike – even hatred – for a conservative who bashes me as a gay man or who denounces universal health care – things I care deeply about.  And in my heart, in that place where I want to truly love others, a dark spot will be created and I will have lessened myself.  Indeed, as I harbor hatred for another, I hate myself.  As one with all humans, as one with all forms of creation, I must either elevate each or else diminish all.

Interestingly, two-hundred and six years ago this very day, on July 11^th 1804, a duel took place on the banks of the Hudson River that culminated years of vehement partisan discord engaged in by many of our seemingly virtuous founding fathers.  Vice-President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel whose origins were based in the debate between Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans.  Present day discord between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives, appears quite tame when compared to the debate between Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans.  Salacious gossip, vicious personal attacks and outright physical violence were common.  Added to the mix was, of course, the press which also divided itself into opposing camps.  One newspaper published accounts of Hamilton’s affair with his sister-in-law in order to discredit Federalism.  Soon thereafter, a Federalist paper printed innuendo suggesting Thomas Jefferson’s liaison with his slave Sally Cummings.

The father of our country, George Washington, tried valiantly to stay above the fray but when he seemed to side with his Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton against his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, he too was branded a Federalist and a Royalist.  Federalists – even though they advocated for a strong central government – were seen as representing the wealthy propertied class against the aspirations of the common man.  Tom Paine, the famous pamphleteer who assisted mightily in the American Revolution, later became a Jeffersonian Republican.  He wrote publically to Washington, a man whom he had previously championed, “I wonder whether you are an apostate or an imposter; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any.” He also loudly questioned Washington’s contribution to the Revolution and even said that he had cowardly spent his time in camp while others won the war for him.  A famous political cartoon of the time showed Washington being decapitated by a guillotine in a scene made to appear like the execution of King Louis the Fifteenth of France during the French Revolution.  As Americans, just as was taking place in France, we too engaged in vicious and hateful political warfare.  All of this was done in the name of politics.  From our very beginning, we have not engaged in civil and honorable debate.  From the Revolution to the Civil War to debate during the New Deal to the recent years under Clinton, Bush and now Obama, we have engaged in mutual personal political destruction.

In his farewell address as President, George Washington saw the perils of political factions and parties and forcefully appealed for a higher form of civic debate.  He said, “Political parties serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.” The father of our nation, certainly no saint, nevertheless appealed instead for civil discussion, cooperation and work for the good of the nation by ALL citizens.

Last spring, in his commencement address to the University of Notre Dame, President Obama seemed to echo Washington’s words when he appealed for our nation to find common ground regarding the contentious debate over abortion.  As much as I deeply cherish the lives of children and stand in awe at the miracle of birth, I also deeply respect the right of women to control the most personal property we must all hold dear – the right to determine the fate of our own bodies.  Obama instead asked us to find a way around this polarized debate where people of good intention seek to protect the right to life or the right to control our own bodies.  He asked us to work together to reduce the need for any abortion – to educate, to provide contraception, to do whatever is necessary so that very, very few pregnancies are ever unwanted.  In this debate that seemingly only has two very opposite sides, Obama urged us to cooperate, to understand the passions of the other side and to find that area where both sides might agree – that no child should be born unwanted.

As I discuss this issue, I imagine I am stirring up in many of you strong passions and stronger opinions.  I have them myself.  And I do not ask anyone to let go of their convictions.  As thinking and feeling people who each come from different backgrounds and circumstances, we are bound to disagree on many things.  Indeed, I believe that it is in honest and vigorous debate between opposing viewpoints that we might find the elements of what is true and right.  As I have said before, I believe that truth is rarely found on the extremes.  We do not live in a black or white world where answers are absolute.  Instead, we live in a complex world where issues are not easily solved and there is merit on many sides of a debate.  Truth, in my opinion, is most likely found in that murky and mushy grey area.

Three Sundays ago I did something here at church which I don’t like to do.  It was something I did secretly and perhaps nobody knows what I did.  I found on our table in the other room, where we all like to put out flyers for various causes or organizations, copies of a cartoon depicting members of the Tea Party as buffoons and ignorant hillbillies.  I quickly scooped them up, placed them in my pocket, and later disposed of them.  I apologize to whoever put those out for display.  But I don’t regret what I did.

Someone displayed a cartoon that did not promote their own progressive beliefs but instead personally made fun of the opposition.   Unintentionally, the message sent to other members and to visitors is that those who are not like us, are not welcome.  And we all strongly know that is not true.  I know this was not the intent of whoever placed the cartoon.  He or she was simply passionate about their own beliefs and is, I am absolutely sure, a loving person.

I am not an advocate of the Tea Party or what it seems to stand for.  I believe in the exact opposite of many of its beliefs.  What I do believe in, however, is what I know each of you believe in too.  I believe in this unique place called the Gathering.  I believe in that name and what it stands for – a place to feel welcome, accepted, loved and celebrated no matter who you are or what you believe.  When I walked into this church three years ago, a man who thought that no church could possibly love and accept a gay man, I was blown away by how accepted I felt.  Immediately, I was greeted by our resident ambassador of welcome, Patti Wiers, and I was surrounded by others – straight and gay – who asked about me, who cared nothing about my sexuality and who warmly embraced me into their midst.  And I know this is true for anyone who comes through those doors.  We have loved and accepted Andre – a very vocal religious fundamentalist – and many of you have prayed for him and given thanks for him.

This is a progressive church – many of you are progressives as I am too – but we are also a church that radically seeks to live out the ways of the Golden Rule.  I know as sure as I know that the sun will shine again that we truly do wish to practice – to everyone we meet – the command of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.  And we do that by embracing all people and showing each other – and visitors – the dignity and respect we all wish to receive.

We have within ourselves the ability to imagine cooperation with our opponents.  That is the stuff of moral imagination.  Cooperation.  Empathy.  Understanding.  Genuine sisterhood and brotherhood should not be a dream of ours, but a reality.  And we can create that reality.  These are ideals that we can practice here and that we can promote in our families and circles of influence.  We need not forsake our sincere progressive beliefs, but progressivism itself calls us to a higher standard of conduct.  The words of Jesus and of millions of other people of faith call out across the span of history to treat our neighbors as we too wish to be treated.  This must begin with us.  This must begin with me.  We cannot wait for others to respect us first.

In a few minutes I will ask all of us to sing that most cliché of unity songs – “Kum Ba Yah”.  People often laugh and make fun of the seemingly naïve optimism of the song that speaks of empathy and common feeling.  Someone out there is singing and celebrating.  Someone out there is crying and in pain.  Someone out there is praying and hopeful.  The title words to the song are in French and loosely mean “come by my God”.   If all humanity is one with the Divine, if we are all its children, then the joy that one of us feels is joy that we all feel.  If one is in pain, we all hurt too.  To meet the needs of a hurting world, we must work together with both our friends and our opponents – treating each with love and respect.  Kum Ba Yah, my lord – come by my god, we are listening……….

I am interested in a couple of questions for our discussion…

1. What are some ways that we can improve civil discussion about politics, economics or religion in our nation today?
2. Do you think, in general, people tend to stay in groups and organizations comprised of like-minded people – those who agree with them?  Can a diverse group include people with significantly different belief systems?  How?

Message 25,”American Pride?”, 7-4-10

Download program: Service Program, 7-4-10

© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved

If some of you recall my message to us on the Sunday just before Christmas last year, I focused on the unique aspects of the Jesus birth story which make it so compelling.  Here was delivered into the world, according to the Bible, the savior of all mankind.  He was to be the King of Kings, Son of God, Redeemer, God in flesh.  And yet he was born in such lowly circumstances – in an unknown barn, surrounded by farm animals, to a mother of doubtful purity and celebrated by local sheep herders.  The King of all the universe came into this world next to an ass and a few pigs.  The humble circumstances of such a birth cry out from the very beginning that Jesus was to be a very different kind of prophet.  Humility, simplicity, lack of pretension and modest means are hallmarks of his life and, even without all other stories about him, the Christmas story stands out as a radical proclamation that we are called to a similar mindset – humility in all that we do, say and live.

And now, six months later, we celebrate a different kind of holiday – a secular one that recognizes the founding of our nation.  In Cincinnati today, we also celebrate the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community as persons of dignity and worth.  This July 4^th stands for us as a day to mark dual forms of pride – pride in who and what we are as a nation and pride in the many persons of the GLBT community.  We recognize and applaud the many principles upon which this nation was founded, how it has tried to live out many of those ideals and how, two-hundred and thirty-four years later, we remain a nation of laws protecting minorities like the GLBT community.  This is a day to be proud.  It is a day to engage in a just a bit of chest thumping – that we as a nation AND as a community of straight and gay people – we can claim and celebrate our unique identity.

But that pride impulse, so natural in all of us, is what I want to explore with you today.  And it is also the beginning of the theme for this month which I have entitled, as a question, “America the Beautiful?”  This will not be a political series or even a bash America series.  It will be, I hope, a time to re-focus our thinking and our search for what is true and good about this nation and, more importantly, about us.  As a spiritual value, we hold dear the notion of humility.  But how does humility intersect with national pride and our July 4^th celebration?  The same can be asked of gay pride – how can we have pride and yet also be humble?  Next week, we’ll explore the spiritual value of sisterhood and brotherhood.  We all believe it and we all proclaim it but how does it really get carried out in our daily lives especially in this time of polarized politics and deep divisions in how so many see our government and our world?  Do people act as if they are one humanity or do many often assume they are right, they are superior in thinking and all others are not only wrong but they cannot be sisters and brothers?  How do we, therefore, truly live out the ideal of one humanity, no matter politics, religion or other differences?  Finally, on the third Sunday, we’ll examine the notion that God is somehow also a nationalist and she or he has uniquely chosen and blessed America.  Is the Divine force for good in this universe American or simply a champion of ALL people and ALL creation?

Pride is Biblically seen as the original sin.  In the Biblical myth, as an angel, Satan was certain that he was at least equal with God if not superior.  He was banished from the heavenly realm for his pride and he then sought revenge on God by encouraging his own flaw in human beings.  And so, as the Bible says, man has struggled against unwarranted pride ever since Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptations of Satan.  And this flaw has found unique expression in nationalism.  Likely originating with the earliest tribes or clans, humans have expressed arrogance and pride in not only their individual identity but also in their identity as a group and nation.  We find it in the ancient rivalries between the Greek city states of Sparta and Athens, in the Roman empire, in the British colonial empire and, currently in our own nation.

American nationalism was given force and a beginning, many believe, by a foreigner – Alexis de Toqueville, a French writer and aristocrat who toured the U.S. during the early years of the nineteenth century.  In his famous work, Democracy in America, de Toqueville claimed that America’s unique place in history, as the first true representative democracy, makes it great and a force with which to be reckoned.  His book, along with Frederick Jackson Turner’s monumental work The Significance of the Frontier in American History, put forth the notion that combined with America’s ideals, its geographic location in the new world and its predominant European ancestry, the United States is destined to be a great power and a world leader.  These views – as they became embedded in our national psyche – gave rise to principles in this country of manifest destiny, the Monroe Doctrine and American exceptionalism.   The U.S. is destined –because of our innate goodness – to dominate not just our continent but the entire Western Hemisphere.  Because of our innate values promoting freedom and the dignity of the individual, the U.S. also need not obey universal standards and laws.  We are excepted from the means to being good because our ends – our goals – are good.

Please watch a brief video which vividly portrays run-away nationalism of the pre-war German people.  I am not showing this to in any way compare such hyper nationalism – such championing of Nazi ideology – to our own form of American pride or even American exceptionalism.  We must all be very, very careful in calling anyone a fascist or Nazi.  This clip, however, shows the degree to which national pride can become dangerous to the nation itself and to the world at large.   View Clip.

My goal today is not to attack or diminish our nation – especially on this day of all days, July 4^th.  Nor is it my goal to diminish pride in our country.  I believe, however, that just as humility was a spiritual value for Jesus and many of the other great prophets, so too should it be an ethic for us and for this nation.  Reconciling pride in one’s country and national humility are not competing ideals.  Indeed, Jesus did not run away from his calling as a skilled teacher and as one who discouraged hypocrisy and injustice.  He has gone down in history as the perhaps the greatest moral thinker of all time – he was not god but he was a truly historic man.  He was aware of his great abilities and, I think, he was also aware of his several flaws.  He experienced fear and doubt.  He attacked the judgment of god.  He got angry and he was not above calling others – particularly his enemies – names that were not gentle or kind.

And it is in his holistic recognition of his strengths AND his weaknesses that lies a lesson for our nation and for us.  As Americans, we have much to celebrate in our ideas and our ethics.  We believe freedom and personal choice are human rights and we have codified such beliefs in our constitution.  We allow individuals the rights that billions of people in other nations do not have – the right of free speech, of freedom to worship, of property rights, of free assembly, of due process, of fair trials, of habeas corpus and many others.  Our system allows those who wish to work hard and dream big, to succeed in life.  The Horatio Alger story of one who rises from rags to riches is not a myth and we see it lived out daily.  My own partner – not to embarrass him, was the first of his farming and blue collar family to attend and graduate from college, let alone achieve a master’s and law degree.  He has lived on his own and supported himself since the age of 16 and his hard work has paid off in the modest material success he has achieved.  Others in this room and in this church can tell similar stories about their lives – like one who was orphaned at an early age, raised by struggling grandparents, nurtured by the larger community, joined the army and later succeeded in the business world.  There are few places in the world where one can rise out of one’s station of birth and yet achieve great things.  We have never been a rigid class based culture in which the circumstances of one’s heritage determines one’s place in life.  The American ideals of individual liberty and hard work are still alive and we are right to celebrate and encourage them.

My appeal is for a balanced and reasoned national pride. As much as we can justly be proud, an ethical form of nationalism is willing to acknowledge past mistakes and remaining flaws.  And, balanced nationalism understands that one’s nation is not the only one in the world to practice great ideals.  Indeed, American national pride can celebrate our own achievements without believing that we are unique or better.  Just as the rags to riches ability to rise in the U.S. still remains, many parts of Europe currently have rates of upward mobility greater than that of the U.S.  Statistics show that men and women born within the lowest quintile economic class in our nation are presently more likely to remain in that status into adulthood then similar people in the Nordic countries and Great Britain.  As much as we celebrate individual rights, there are still some to whom we do not grant such rights of due process and habeas corpus.  As a matter of principle and not politics, I believe that holding men and women in detention at Guantanamo Bay for nearly ten years without a trial and without legal representation is against the ideals of our constitution.  Yes, these persons are not U.S. citizens nor are they recognized soldiers for another army – and thus subject to prisoner of war protections.  They hide in civilian clothing and they cowardly kill innocent people.  And they could turn their criminal trials into a public relations platform for their murderous and fundamentalist ideology.  But American ideals mean nothing if they only apply to us.  If we champion the rights of all persons, we must champion and protect their rights too.  Even as they try to use our ethics and ideals against us, we must not shrink, I believe, from our civic moral beliefs.  Indeed, I believe our constitution and Bill of Rights were motivated by a Divine moral imagination to extend individual liberties and rights to ALL persons.  If that is so, such ideals do not stop at our nation’s borders.  They are universal in their intent.

Our history is littered with national mistakes that, I believe can enhance our national pride if we openly confess them and work to not repeat them.   Indeed, it was Jesus who called people to confess their sins, to go and do them no longer and, as a result, have truth set them free.  Native Americans were killed on a whole-scale manner while land on which they had lived for centuries was taken from them, African-Americans were held in slavery even as Thomas Jefferson wrote that all people have the right to life and liberty, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War even as he fought to uphold our national ideals, Woodrow Wilson signed into law the alien and sedition act which caused widespread discrimination against foreign born, Franklin Roosevelt authorized the detention of Japanese Americans during World War Two while we fought against just such racist ideologies, the McCarthy hysteria of the 1950’s ruined thousands of reputations solely through innuendo and rumor – without due process – and, most recently, the Patriot Act and the anti-immigrant law in Arizona have come to pass even while we have just elected the first man of color as our President.

Balanced pride in America compels us to be proud of our constitution, our traditions, the ideals of Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Lincoln and the Bill of Rights which protects each American.  Those are great hallmarks in the history of humanity.  There IS greatness in the American experience, culture and form of government.  But we also have deep flaws and deep divisions and deep wounds both in our past and in our present.  And, we do not possess all of the answers in terms of how to best address the problems of the world.  Many other nations have greatness in them too and have worked to elevate the rights of humanity to standards in some cases that are greater than in the U.S.

We argue here at the Gathering that we do not profess to know absolute answers to spiritual questions.  Is there a God and does she or he offer us a divine afterlife?  What is the source of universal truth and how do we find it?  We have our ideas on these questions – some of us believe things in different ways – but we adamantly refuse to assert that our way is the right way and the only way.  We profess a form of religious and spiritual humility that asserts that we have beliefs but we continue to explore them and we are open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.  A religious fundamentalist of any stripe will, as long as I am Pastor, be welcome here, he or she will be listened to and treated with respect and some of their beliefs may even sound valid to us.  Even as I say that, we will also not run away from pride in our own beliefs and our right to equally profess them.

The same standard of ethical pride or humble confidence in who we are, also extends to other areas of our lives and our culture.  Gays and lesbians must rightfully be proud of who we are.  We are, quite simply, gifts from the Divine One just as any other person is too.  But pride in ourselves as a community must also recognize our own limitations, our own frailties and our own similarities to all people.  We are prone to division, arrogance, and prejudices.  There are some gay men who devalue lesbians and the same is often true in reverse.  Many homosexuals cannot understand and thus discriminate against those who are transgender.  We frequently stereotype ourselves and belittle gays who are too feminine, too flamboyant, too masculine or simply too gay.  Many of us prize the idea of being “straight acting”, thus diminishing the very pride we say we have.  Can we simply just celebrate the unique portion of humanity that we represent – without diminishing others?

My appeal in this matter, as in our national pride, is that we check our egos and our motivations in all things we do and say.  This is not false humility or meek self-denigration.  It is confidence in who we are combined with a healthy recognition of our flaws and needs for personal or national growth.

And that is exactly how we must, I believe, begin to celebrate national or gay pride.  Yes, as the song goes, we can be proud to be Americans – where at least we know we are free – but, more importantly, we must be proud to be caring, generous, compassionate and just human beings.

Let us have within ourselves – and then let us promote it to others – the balanced pride in our nation and ourselves that is humble, that recognizes our mistakes and that acknowledges we alone do not have all the answers to human government and ways of life.  May we, later today, joyfully sing “America the Beautiful”, may we thrill to the fireworks and the celebrations that mark our national birthday and may we – straight and gay alike – walk proudly and in unity through the streets of this town asserting our rights and our identity as people of God.  May we also do so with full awareness that we are not perfect and that we have many, many miles to go before we live up to all of our ideals.  I wish you all

Message 24, Let’s Play, 6-18-10  

download program: Service Program, 6-20-10

© Pastor Doug Slagle, the Gathering UCC, All rights reserved

A famous quote in the Bible, from the Book of Ecclesisastes, speaks of a time or a season for every purpose in life.  There is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.  The ultimate purpose for humans, according to the book, states that “there is nothing better than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives and that every person should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his or her labor…”

On this cusp of summer solstice and on a day when we acknowledge and celebrate men and fathers, I want to encourage us to embrace the theme from this month – summer fun.  As much as we have examined over the last two weeks getting out into nature’s church and basking in its wildness or participating in the sacred ritual of baseball – as a player or a participant, my message today is a fitting conclusion to this series.  We spend so many of our Sundays here deep in reflection and serious thought.  The point of this series is intended to not only be light and fun – to coincide with the beginning of summer – but to also speak to the spiritual truth that fun, play, laughter and recreation are spiritual values and they are important for our well-being.  As much as life can be a struggle for many people, we know that is not how it should be.  We are to build and help create heaven here on earth for all people and all creation.  It is a purpose to which Jesus set as his goal – to remind us that “the Kingdom of God is at hand”.  We are each little gods who not only work for the good of family, friends, and the world at large, but we are to seize this time, as the Bible says, to eat, drink and rejoice in the glories of life.  We are to have fun.  We are to laugh.  We are to play.  These are spiritual truths for all of us and, I think, particularly so for men and dads who too often see life as serious, agenda driven and time constrained.

And those are attitudes I too often exhibit myself.  With my two girls here, whom I love more than my life itself, I must admit that one of my shortcomings as a dad was to not play enough with them.  Looking back, I wish I had not taken the responsibilities of being a dad so seriously – to work, save money, plan, and structure their lives in order to prepare them for the hard realities of life.  Those are important to be sure and I don’t want to diminish the idea of responsibility.  Into that mix of roles that a dad can serve, however, is one of playmate, laugh leader and fun creator.  Indeed, for all men and for all people, the enjoyment of life is an essential principle to embrace.  The Divine creator has given us life not to dwell on how difficult it is, but to use the fruits of our labor to help others and, importantly, to play.

Believe it or not, there is a National Institute for Play whose director asserts that for adults, play is an essential ingredient to a successful and happy life.   Participating in regular play inspires resilience, patience, flexibility, creativity and intelligence.  Far more than mere rest or recreation, active and fun filled play – for the child or adult – is an emotional re-set button for how we think and act.  As Erna Olafson recounted in her message to the congregation about a year ago, there is a lot more involved in playful activities than just fun.  Adults and children consciously and unconsciously learn about the ways of life in the midst of play.  We learn in playing how to cooperate and how to negotiate with others.  We also learn how to be persistent in our tasks and to discover activities that make us happy and satisfied.  As noted earlier, we are creatively inspired from play.  Sigmund Freud asserted that humans require “Spielraum” – a German phrase for room or space to be creative and curious.  This involves the freedom to be creative by acting out fun-filled daydreams, fantasies and make-believe play.

Fathers and men can be particularly helpful to themselves and to children by encouraging such behavior.  With children, men and, indeed all adults, must not simply promote play but we should be willing to actively engage in it – amongst ourselves and with our children.  Too often adults say they are too busy or too mature to engage in simple games of tag, make-believe or hide and seek.  Children, as a result, get the message that their activities are not important or that they are simply immature and must instead try and act like an adult – serious and business like.

But the exact opposite is true.  In a day and age when I believe far too many children are being robbed of their childhoods by over-regulated and scheduled lives – ballet lessons, math tutoring, second language classes, soccer leagues, etc. etc. – we have devalued the importance of and the spiritual ethic of joy, happiness and pure, un-regulated play.  Even in pre-schools and kindergarten classrooms, children are pushed to learn academic skills at earlier and earlier ages.  They are denied, in the process, the essential activity of play during which they learn life skills necessary to be fulfilled and happy.

Men and women should engage in play with children and not try and direct it through rules or suggestions.  Dads should be willing to play doll with their daughters and their sons.  Indeed, it is seen as extremely important that boys be allowed to play with dolls as this does not necessarily indicate feminine or gay tendencies.  Playing with dolls is a part of make believe and such activities promote creative thinking and the cognitive skill of “executive function” which enables one to self-regulate regarding rules, discipline, anger and behavior.  In make believe, children talk to themselves about what is appropriate speech and attitude.  Indeed, one psychologist suggests that adult self-talk is directly the result of childhood make-believe play.  When we internally think about certain situations and how to handle them, we are acting out what we hopefully enjoyed as children – how to employ reason and common sense in everyday life.

But play for fathers, men and women need not be all about what we learned from it as children.  Playful activity needs to be a part of adult lives.  I am far too serious for my own good.  I need to let go sometimes and be willing to make a fool of myself.  Play for adults reduces stress, encourages empathy, allows for the creation of community, fosters a better sense of humor, generates optimism and improves our immune systems.  Being playful and fun spirited enables intimacy between friends and partners and it is a vital ingredient in healthy romantic relationships.  We’re encouraged by many therapists not to be so serious about love and sex and to instead add elements of playfulness and role-playing into those areas of our lives.  All of this is to promote play – especially for men and dads – not just as a command or as something that is good for us.  Finding joy, fun and celebration in life is perhaps more importantly a spiritual ethic.

We so often read in the Bible about Jesus the man who comes across as dour, serious and a major kill-joy.  Adults often see spirituality in any form as involving deep introspection, prayer, sacrifice and acting respectable.  We come to church, we dress appropriately, we sit quietly and we do as we are told.  And we often listen to a minister who tells us how awful we are and how much we need to try and act better.  How many of us have listened to a minister wag his finger at us as we literally squirmed in our seats and were filled with guilt and shame?  You are welcome to boo and hiss if I ever come across to you as a so-called Preacher or self-righteous moralizer.  Believe me, I am as in need of growth in life as anyone else…

I believe, however, that Jesus was often a wild and crazy guy!  The Bible says that many people of his time commented that he was a glutton and a drunkard because he enjoyed parties so much.  Many of his parables included great parties or lavish feasts.   In performing his first public miracle, he turned six, twenty-gallon pots of water into the finest wine – all to be drunk at just one wedding celebration.  He hung out with prostitutes.  He allowed one to use her hair to wash him with oil.  He told little jokes and spoke in puns as when he told Peter – a name that literally means pebble – that upon this rock – upon Peter –  he will build his church.  Or when he told many of his disciples who had worked as fishermen, that he would turn them into fishers of men.  He used funny put-downs of hypocrites when he compared them to whitewashed tombs – clean and fancy on the outside but dirty and full of death on the inside and when he humorously told the wealthy that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of needle than it would be for them to enter heaven.  Imagine picturing that scenario in your minds!

Alone among history’s prophets, Jesus celebrated children and proclaimed that anybody who wants to be a part of God’s Kingdom – heaven on earth – he or she must approach God like a child.  As is so often the case, man-made religions and creeds have turned Jesus into a stern but often sad taskmaster.  He was, instead, a champion of life, of joy and of a playful spirit.  Kids were his models for how we should act and that says everything about what Jesus valued.

But Jesus is not the only spiritual figure to promote joy and playful celebration.  The Buddha frequently spoke of the value of a happy heart.  He proclaimed that being joyful was not only a balance against negative attitudes and experiences but that acting in a joyful manner actually transforms our minds.  The Buddha said we are to actively cultivate happiness, compassion, love and generosity towards others.  When we do, we also become joyful.  And this is most exhibited by the Dalai Lama who has suffered greatly in his life yet who is playful and seemingly always happy.  Indeed, he states that, “The purpose of life is to be happy.”

We also see that a playful spirit was encouraged by great spiritual thinkers.  St. Augustine and St. Aquinas each promoted play and joke telling as important for spiritual relaxation.  The Bible describes, in one of the Psalms, God as playfully using clouds as his chariot and sunlight as his shiny clothing.  God brings forth grain for nourishment and wine for our pleasure.  And, in a remarkable scene that is endorsed by the Divine One, King David is described as one day joyfully stripping down to his undergarments and then dancing through the streets of Jerusalem – all in praise for the gifts of the God.  I cannot imagine a leader of any nation doing such a thing without large numbers of the population immediately declaring him or her insane!

I chose this topic on play for this Sunday – Father’s day – because I believe it is particularly important for men and dads in our culture to be more involved in the lives of children.  The arc of progress is moving ever forward in that direction – men of my dad’s generation would rarely involve themselves in regular and daily child-care.  The mere idea of a house-husband who stays home to raise his kids while his wife works was virtually unheard of, whereas today it is more common.  Men are getting more involved in the lives of their children – from diaper changing to feeding to being quite active in their lives.  Even more, however, I call on myself and other men to get involved in play with kids – to encourage it, engage in it and value its importance.  And, as much I say this to men – and to myself, I say it is so for all people.  Play is important!

We see, therefore, that play and playfulness in people

• Is a Divine ethic because it helps us be more sensitive to others, to focus on issues outside of ourselves, and….
• It is a Divine ethic because it leads us to enjoy the here and now and to be thankful and to rejoice.

When my two girls were younger, I one day decided that our family needed to build unity and spirit and laughter.  And, in some silly inspiration – a time when I took to heart the need to be playful – I invented with my girls what I called the “Slagle family cheer.”  It is totally ridiculous, non-choreographed and literally a stupid thing – hopping on one leg, flapping my arms, barking like a seal and shouting “Go Slagle”!!  I sometimes did the cheer in front of my girls because they would at first laugh and then would become mortified that their dad could do something so totally lame and “un-cool”.   I even threatened to force them to do the cheer with me in public settings or even at the worst of all places – someplace where their friends or peers would be watching!  Of course I would never have done such a thing but, at a few places like the mall or a restaurant, I would begin the cheer and my girls would look at me in horror and then quickly run away as if this idiot of man could not possibly be related to them.  Secretly, I hope, they thought it was funny, totally silly and, while dorky, also endearing.

I hope on this Father’s Day, on this day we celebrate all men, that we can fully embrace this June theme of summer fun.  Whether that involves heading out into nature to witness the Divine hand of creation or venturing to a ballpark and enjoying the slow rhythm of baseball, I hope the motivating factor in those endeavors is to have fun, to rejoice, to play and to find in ourselves a place of peace and total contentment.  Life is not without its trials and our moral imagination encourages us to serve the needs and cure the hurts of others.  In doing so, however, we find that play and merriment and celebration are spiritual practices.  Let us find our inner child, let us dream of fantastic worlds and let us play silly and funny games.    May we each – fathers, men, women and children – enjoy this great big playground called life.

Talkback questions to ponder… As we often do here, I open things up for your comments, thoughts or opinions.  As a part of that, you might consider some of these questions: 1) What importance does playfulness have in your life? 2) What is it about children that allows them to be playful and creati

Message 23, Baseball Spirituality, 6-13-10

download program: Service Program, 6-13-10

© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All rights reserved

Ernie Harwell, the author of the book on baseball entitled The Game for all America said, “Baseball?  It’s just a game – as simple as a ball and a bat.  Yet, it is as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes.  It’s a sport, a business – and sometimes even a religion.” And another baseball commentator once said, “A baseball park is the one place where a man’s wife doesn’t mind him getting excited over somebody else’s curves!”

Such quotes capture what it is about baseball that is so enduring and why it is that we love the game.  Continuing this month’s theme of Summer Fun, our look today at the game of baseball is a way to remind ourselves that ballparks are also symbolic churches in that they showcase many spiritual qualities we all profess and admire.  Baseball might begin in the spring and end in the fall but it is most identified with summer.  Indeed, I don’t believe we can fully experience summer if we have not, at least once during the season, spent a hot summer afternoon or evening playing softball or sitting at the ballpark.  We might watch it on TV, but that is not what I have in mind.  I hope we can each experience – either as a participant or as a spectator – a sweltering summer day at a baseball diamond, the flies buzzing, the dusty heat all around, a pitcher winding up to throw a fastball and hear the quick thump as the ball smacks the catcher’s glove or, perhaps, a solid thwack as the batter connects and launches a ball over the shortstop’s head.  This is summer fun in all its glory – the heat, the fans pressed close, beer, peanuts, a rundown field with a chain link backstop or a gleaming ballpark with red, white and blue pennants – all spent on a long, lazy afternoon.

Just as we considered last week our goal to spend time in the great outdoors and worship in nature’s church this summer, we can also worship the great institution of baseball.  It is not a perfect game nor is it necessarily the best.  But it symbolizes summer.  It evokes qualities and ideals that have universal and spiritual significance.  By examining something that has meaning for us as a culture, I believe we learn things about ourselves and what truths are important to us.  Baseball is an enduring cultural summer pastime for us because of its basic simplicity, its relative non-violence, its slow pace and its continuing message of hope and getting another chance.

To start us off, I want to invite up front with me – and I hope I don’t put him on the spot – one of our congregation’s experts on baseball – Elijah Miller-Cox. To all of you who don’t know this, Elijah is our church youth group!               INTERVIEW ELIJAH…..

Baseball, in my mind, has spirituality and the Divine written all over it.  For me it is the most optimistic of sports and pastimes.   There seems to be, in the game, always one more pitch, one more out, one more inning, one more game and one more season.  Even in losing, with baseball there is always the next day or “wait until next year!” We can see that this is a spiritual ideal that resonates in our lives.  There is always a second chance for redemption, for correction and for turning over a new leaf.  This is a value we embrace here at the Gathering – we continue to seek each Sunday greater insight and a better understanding of what is Truth.  We do not claim to have certain knowledge of the Divine or of life itself.  We are ever growing, ever learning, ever being resurrected and ever going up to bat and seeking the elusive keys to life that will teach us how to throw the perfect curveball, hit the slider or avoid an error.  We may often strike out but there is always the next Book Club or the next Sunday to come together and reflect and grow anew.  In us – as in baseball – is the stuff of forgiveness and redemption.

Baseball also tells us that there is a rhythm and a dance to our lives.  Seasons begin in hope and end in hope.  Games begin and end without any set time frame.  An inning may be over quickly or one may drag out indefinitely.  As much as we are a culture that is fast paced and frenetic, baseball calls us to slow down, to think and pursue a goal no matter the clock.  Our lives have no set time limit – just like baseball – but we ever stride up to bat, ever seek a hit and ever seek that elusive way home.  It is interesting that in baseball, a batter begins his quest at home while seeking to end it there too.  How much of life is about a cycle of running the bases, getting hits, often striking out but always learning new strategies and new ways to hit the ball?  And all of that is done while pursuing the goal of returning home again.  As T.S. Elliot once wrote, “In my beginning is my end…home is where one starts from…In my end is my beginning.” I don’t believe it is stretch to assert that in the rhythm of baseball are the elements of why we love it and why it has meaning for us.  We see in it the game of our lives – a journey for meaning and purpose and value so that when we do make it home we realize we are just beginning – one more pitch to throw, one more time at bat, one more season to play – one more chance to get it right.

And a baseball game is also one of the great celebrations we can experience.  From the opening singing of the National Anthem, to cheers at every hit, to the seventh inning stretch, to the final out and the fireworks that often follow, a game is not so much a contest or a battle as it is a time to celebrate.  As fans, we celebrate the unifying aspects of being in a cheering crowd.  As players, we celebrate the possibilities of the game – of testing one’s skills and one’s wits against another.  As an event, baseball celebrates fun – relaxing and talking with others in the crowd, being outdoors on a sunny day or balmy night, drinking a beer – or several beers, enjoying a picnic like meal – hot dogs, mustard, popcorn.  As a game, we celebrate players earning what they achieve – hits, strike outs, double plays, runs batted in.  All of these echo the magic moments of life – the expectation, the striving, the coming together as one to share food, to play, to be outside, to yell, to gaze at fireworks and to cheer great effort or achievement.

Baseball thus calls its players to do their best.  Runs are earned and are rarely given.  Even with a bad pitch, the batter must still hit the ball to the right place and successfully run the bases.  David Ogilvy, a retired player, said once in advice to young players – “Don’t bunt.  Aim out of the ballpark!” And that is an ethos we all try to follow in life – to do our best, to work, to strive and to succeed not for the sake of the prize but for the satisfaction of great effort.  The love of the game motivates players to strive for success.  Leo Durocher, a famous team manager, once said, “What do we play ball for except to win?  If I were to play against my mother, I’d trip her.  I’d help her up, brush her off, and tell her I’m sorry.  But, darn it mom, you aren’t going to make it to third base!” Such an attitude is said in jest and it evokes a certain streak of unwholesome competiveness.  But, I believe Durocher spoke to the fun streak inherent in baseball and in life.  We seek, we strive, we work.  In the process, we are thrilled to be in the game, thrilled to be playing, thrilled at our efforts and our work – and all of that combines fun, personal satisfaction and a strong work ethic.  Playing baseball – just like living life – is fun work.

Finally, I believe baseball historically has reflected much of what is good in the human spirit.  As I have said many times – almost like a broken record – humanity is influenced by the supernatural force of moral imagination.  The story of human culture is marked by tragedy, warfare, brutality and injustice.  But history’s clear and consistent pattern is one of slow but steady progress towards justice and towards mutual respect and cooperation.  This is for our own survival as a species.  We see that conflict and inequality are zero sum games.  Nobody wins.  If the story of life is the survival of the fittest, then at the end, only one species or one person still stands.  And what kind of victory is that?  The winner finds that, instead, he or she has lost.  This unconscious ethic is a supernatural force at work deep within us and it is perfectly reflected in the game of baseball as individual players act out the moral imagination of cooperation instead of personal interest.

Players understand that what might be good for themselves individually may not necessarily be good for the team.  It takes a joint effort to win – nine persons all working in tandem to score runs and prevent the other team from scoring.  As with many team sports, collective efforts win the game.  Even more so with baseball, however, players often sacrifice themselves and their individual interests for the sake of the team.  Bunts and suicide squeezes are executed in order to move a base runner into scoring position.  Sacrifice flies are hit to allow a runner to score from third.  Pitchers and base runners allow themselves to be replaced by another – in the interest of the team.  And, players will often sacrifice their bodies by sliding into second base in order to prevent a double play throw to first or a successful throw to home plate.  I don’t want to stretch this analogy too far but such acts are common in baseball.  They reflect the ideal that we must cooperate and, indeed, even sacrifice our self interest for the sake of the whole.  Without an inherent moral imagination to work for the common good, a baseball team will rarely be successful.

And this ethic to work for what is best competitively has also historically been at work in the game.  Despite the stain of segregation in baseball that gave rise to the Negro league of the early twentieth century, baseball soon moved to the cultural forefront through integration.  At a time when African-Americans still rode at the back of buses, ate at separate lunch counters and went to separate and unequal schools, Jackie Robinson in 1947 became a hero to many by showing quiet grace and skill as he integrated major league baseball.  He was better than most white players – winning rookie of the year, most valuable player and joining the All-Star team numerous times – all while maintaining a quiet dignity and basic spirit of humility.

By signing Robinson, the Dodgers and baseball showed the nation that decency, equality and full celebration of all people based on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, can move humanity forward.  Twenty years before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream speech”, baseball and Jackie Robinson lived out the dream by making America and baseball better in the process.

While the African-American comedian Dick Gregory can still say, only half in jest, that “Baseball has been very good to my people.  It figures.  It’s the only way we can shake a big stick at a white man without starting a riot”, the words of Lou Gehrig ring just as true when he said, “There is no room in baseball for discrimination.  It is our national pastime and a game for all.”

And Gehrig himself, like Jackie Robinson, stands still today as a hero for the ages.  Suffering from a terminal illness which today bears his name, Lou Gehrig upon his retirement spoke with the grace and moral imagination that is so often a hallmark of baseball.   On June 21, 1939, Gehrig poignantly retired from baseball instead of dragging down his beloved Yankees as he progressively became paralyzed.  Having played in over 2100 consecutive games and having a .341 career batting average – higher than his teammate Babe Ruth – Gehrig tearfully called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” as he retired and replaced himself midseason – a sacrifice for the game and for the fans.

I spoke last week of finding the time this season – as a part of fun experiences this summer – to venture into the great outdoors to worship in nature’s church.  In those places of supernatural beauty with mountains, forests, lakes and animals, we can see the Divine creative hand at work.

Echoing my appeal from last week, I commend us to the game of baseball this summer.   I can think of only a few other pastimes that so fully represent this season to us.  And, in so many ways, ballparks across the country are churches too.  They evoke the timeless aspects of life – of finding meaning in the hope, patience and perseverance of the game.  Of sacrifice and fun, of earning your success in life to the quiet dignity of cooperation, baseball is, as Walt Whitman said, the people’s game.  In this vision of mine, at a ballpark later this afternoon when Elijah Miller will take to the field to play another of his games or when the Reds continue their winning season today, we are reminded of words from the Bible describing a great cloud of witnesses.  In this summer fun pastime of baseball, there is a cloud of witnesses finding companionship, sharing a meal, drinking a beer, cheering and watching a game that knows no time limits, champions cooperation, exalts the best of humanity and daily calls each of us – whether we are players or spectators – to live according to its Divine traditions and to simply, “Play Ball!”

Message 22, Nature’s Church, Part One of Summer Fun Series, June 6, 2010  

download program: Service Program, 6-6-10

View a pictorial video of Gathering nature photos (click here then on the fourth video – green page)

© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All rights reserved

I love summer and all of the ways that we enjoy it.  For me, summer has always meant vitality, warmth and fun.  I remember as a young boy counting the days and weeks until summer came – not just for the release from school but also for what it meant to me and the things I loved best.  During the summers of my youth, I enjoyed tramping through the woods behind our home, following the Reds and their great players like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, going to the pool to swim, summer camp spent sailing on a lake or long journeys in the family car to National Parks out west.  There was work to be done as a teenager when I delivered newspapers or ran the rifle game at King’s Island or served as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.  But summer still remained a time of fun and expectation for me and that still influences how I think about it even today.

And that theme of summer fun will be the focus of our June message series – to find glimpses of meaning and inspiration in our upcoming summer.  I want to explore what we might learn about ourselves and our world in the process and I want to use this theme as a way to further our search for meaning and spiritual truth.  Today, I want to consider how what I call “the great outdoors”, not only frames one of the things we might love best about summer experiences, but also how we can see and worship the Divine in it.  Next week, we’ll look at the summer pastime of baseball and explore through its rules and traditions ways that can explain how we approach life and spirituality.  And finally, two weeks from today, we’ll think about play and how it is a way we can both honor and appreciate fathers and men.

Experiencing nature and the great outdoors is something that we can enjoy at any time of the year but which, I think, we celebrate most during the summer.  It is a time when vacations mostly center around visiting someplace where experience the outdoors, when we spend weekend afternoons in our yards or at a local park or when we play and are active in an outside game or sport.  I love being outdoors.  I love experiencing nature in some form – on a bike, at a beach or on a trail.  Such times invigorate me and allow me to return to times and places where I must be indoors or at work.  Most of us thrill at opportunities to be outdoors in whatever form and I believe it is deep within our human DNA to seek a return to our home, our cradle and the very source of creation – the natural world.  Indeed, I believe that nature and the outdoors constitute not only the largest and greatest of all churches but that in it and amongst it we find the Divine, the Mother or Father God we yearn to understand and feel.  On this day in early June with three months of summer yet before us, I hope we might dedicate ourselves and some of our available time to venture outside, to bask in the sun, to listen to the wind and crickets and bird chirps and then let go of all that binds us to our artificial and human-made world.  We will continue to ponder and explore spiritual truths here each and every Sunday but I challenge us this summer to seek such truths in the mystery, transcendence and holiness of nature.  I challenge us to turn away from human made worlds and return to places that no human hand has built.  In those places, I believe, we can find the Divine One – that infinite power of goodness, peace and renewal which is expressed through all creation.

John Muir, the great nineteenth century naturalist who inspired Teddy Roosevelt to create many of our National Parks, once wrote that “Every particle of rock or water or air has God by its side leading it the way it should go; The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness; In God’s wildness is the hope of the world.” For Muir, experiencing nature was the surest and easiest way to experience the true attributes of the Divine.  To venture into the wilds of nature was to undertake a serious and dedicated effort to worship and celebrate the supernatural realm.  For Muir, the natural world expresses and conducts the Divine to humans.  For him, it was and is living and breathing Scripture in which we can find perfect and unchangeable truth.  Echoing Muir, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous transcendentalist philosopher – whose writings inspired Muir, he said, “The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.  The noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God. It is the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to the individual, and strives to lead back the individual to it.” Indeed, even the Bible declares in many of its Psalms that the heavens and the earth each proclaim the power and majesty of the Divine.  The beauty of nature, its great complexity, its abundance and its many mysteries each speak of a supernatural power at work.  In nature’s midst, we can marvel at such a truth and thus visually see with our own eyes universal goodness and virtue.

Much like we can often sense God or the mysterious Divine presence around us, returning to nature encourages us to listen, feel and rely on intuition.  As we move away from technology and manmade distractions and enter the great outdoors, we learn to heed the warning calls of birds as storms approach, the shape and color of clouds to forecast weather or the subtle variations of plant life in a particular area that indicates proximity to water or even directional compass points.   Indeed, human science is often no better than nature’s clear and loud voice and it is in that voice when we might hear God if we should only stop and listen.

And, as much as we learn to hear holiness in nature, we can also learn what it means to find true inner peace and a sense of trust .  The power of the natural world is immense and so we must learn trust and acceptance within it.  All of the best minds and billions of dollars cannot stop the flow of oil as it leaks in the Gulf of Mexico.  When we rely too much on our own flawed human capabilities, we are quickly humbled by nature.  I learned this lesson myself just last week when Ed and I travelled for a day to the Florida Everglades and ventured deep into them in a small motor boat.  As we hurried back to the marina in our boat, a speck in the vast and open waterways of the Everglades, we saw dark, grumbling and ominous clouds hurrying towards us.  We’d been warned before we left about being in the open during such storms but on a bright, sunny afternoon we were not concerned.  Very quickly, though, near the end of our adventure, we were engulfed in a hard and driving rain, visibility was difficult and the purple clouds above threatened to strike us with flashes of lightning.  I was concerned and indeed scared.  The open water is not a place to be during a thunder storm.  But, as I reflect on that moment and others like it when I have been in the wilderness, I realize how small, insignificant and powerless I am before the mighty god of nature.  We are humbled in the wilderness as we witness forces that we cannot begin to comprehend – the power to lift up mountains, to sculpt deep canyons, to build thousand mile long ocean reefs teeming with diverse life and,       to quickly and mercilessly alter the prevailing environment through storm, hurricane, flood and earthquake.  Humans are mere ants in the immensity of nature – ceaselessly toiling to mold the environment to our liking only to see nature inevitably and inexorably defeat our efforts.

The Bible talks about being still and humble before the power of God.  With my heart racing as I sped our boat through miles of driving rain and crashing thunder, I too was kneeling before the Divine.  I can look back now and thrill at that moment – drenched and frightened as I was – but alive and in the embrace of a greater power.  A return to nature reminds us of mysteries all around that, despite our arrogance, we cannot control but must simply and quietly accept as a part of this universe into which we are privileged to be a part.  And in that acceptance, we learn that we can trust in the goodness and the purpose of the great outdoors.

In our recognition of this power, we also find that as we submit to it, we do not become spectators or observers or tourists.  We come to understand that we are an intrinsic part of its large fabric and diversity.  We are one species, tiny specks of creation, that are ourselves puzzle pieces in the greatness of the outdoors.  We are nature and nature is us.  We are no different from the wild shrubs growing on some prairie or a slumbering antelope on the plains of Africa.  In that respect, we realize that as we are a part of nature itself we are also part of God.  In us is the Truth of all creation and in the mysterious realm of holiness and supernatural power, we find each of us.  Walt Whitman, the noted American poet, wrote in his famous compilation of poems Leaves of Grass, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.  I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love. If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.” As one who searched for meaning in his loves and in his existence, Whitman chronicled for us the stirrings of our own hearts – how we too want to know where we came from and what purpose we serve.

As a part of nature, we exist to create and populate but also to live in unison with and not apart from rocks and plants and stars and animals.  The dust of galaxies a million miles away courses through our veins at this very moment and one day – in some far off distant time – the very atoms in us will swim as a whale through deep oceans or will stand high and mighty as towering mountains.  As Whitman understood, we are but leaves of grass – persistent and ever growing, ever dying, ever being reborn and forever a part of the great outdoors.

Nature, according to John Muir, is our true home.  As he wrote, “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

If nature is our real home, and all that we build for ourselves in the shape of houses or huts or skyscrapers are artificial and plastic, I believe we must both return to and celebrate the natural world.  So often I hear from various people that they do not attend church even though they may believe in a higher power.  For them, walking through a tree-lined park or even hitting a small white golf ball over acres of manicured grass is church indeed.  And, I agree with them.  What great cathedrals with golden altars, stained glass, vaulted roofs and painted ceilings can match nature’s church with an inky night sky speckled with starry lights and great canopies of forest and jungle underneath populated by striped zebra, bald eagle or shiny beetle?  The pretensions of man assume we can create churches to our liking when, I will submit to you, the universe is a far greater place of worship and our fellowship with creatures and plants – great and small – is a very friendly congregation.  If you wish to surrender yourself to occasional Sunday times in the great outdoors, I celebrate that decision.  My only appeal to you is that no building is a church and, as Jesus himself claimed, he had no home.  Perhaps humans should remember such humility when they construct elaborate churches or when they choose where to worship.  Our church, our home, I believe, is where we meet together and wherever we honor both one another but also those who hurt and are marginalized.  There is value not in any man made place but in our community and when we find the time, as we do when we experience nature, to ponder and meditate on the mysteries of the Divine, that is where god exists and where we will find her or him.

To each of you, my friends whom I truly love, let us think about our summer fun that lies ahead.  In doing so today and over the coming few weeks, let us venture back to the wild and uncontrolled realm of the outdoors.  Let us search for its mysteries and its power.  Let us experience its beauty, its wonderful complexity and its awe inspiring power.  May we humble ourselves before this divine throne, worship its gift of life and submit ourselves to its power.  Our souls hunger for a return to that home of ours.  As Whitman wrote, our souls and our bodies sing with the joy at being one with all creation.  Nature defines us – we are born, raised, loved and die all as a part of its great mystery.  In it, we find peace and order and goodness.  Nature does not kill or steal or harm for nothing.  Its song is us, we are its verses and our lives are a part of its melody.  And so I encourage us to go home this summer – go home to the forests and meadows and oceans of all creation and meet, in those places, the Divine One.

Sunday May 23, 2010  

Service Program, 5-23-10

Good Morning

I want to take you to the “Hundred Acre Wood” of Winnie the Pooh.

Pooh was walking through his Hundred Acre Wood on a beautiful spring morning and Piglet was not far behind

Piglet sidled up behind Pooh.

“Pooh”, said Piglet..Taking Poohs paw…

“Yes Piglet” said Pooh..

“Nothing”, said Piglet..

“I just wanted to be sure of you”…

At that moment in time Pooh was Piglets Hero

To me a Hero, in keeping with the theme of the month is someone you can be sure of.  And being sure of someone or something means something different to all of us.

In a world of economic uncertainty, political unrest, and the breakdown in family homes, Who and What can any of us be sure of?   As Piglet is sure of Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood on that Spring Morning I would like us to reflect this Spring morning  on who we can be sure of…and who can be sure of us? Not only as individuals but as a church..a Gathering..as a whole.

A little about me..

Some of you may know the type of work I do.  I am a Social Worker who has worked in the field of helping the less fortunate for over 26 years.   In the last 15 years I have worked specifically in the area of Sexual Victimization.  Six years ago I worked exclusively with children who were victims of child sexual abuse, and their families.  I, along with a team of workers helped these young victims to better understand that what happened to them was not their fault. We know that these type of crimes are about power and control.   We helped them understand that at the time of their victimization that they were powerless to stop the attack. Many felt guilty because they did not say “NO” or they were unable to fight back.

Often they were victimized by the very one that at one point they were  “Sure of” . A father, grandfather, brother, uncle… a neighbor, a teacher.

I often have people ask me “Don’t you get depressed hearing all these stories of pain”?  “I tell them that I don’t think about the abuse and pain so much.  Rather I think about the possibility of healing”.  Because to think this way keeps me focused on the daunting task at hand.

Healing was the favorite part of my job.  The time when I could help a child understand that though they were once powerless when someone hurt them, that they have all the power now to be okay. In Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” and In Psalm 147:6 The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. I would like to say this was the outcome of my work..that these children were healed from their broken heart…and the ones who hurt them were cast to the ground or in other words getting punished for their acts.  I don’t have to tell you this was rarely the case.  Injustice some might say.

However, over the course of 8 years doing this job, and out of the number of children I worked with there were those few that had mended hearts, and were able to walk away “Being Sure” they would not be defined by their abuse and pain.

After eight years of working directly with some of the most horrific cases of child sexual abuse in Northern Kentucky, and despite the fact that I was focused on healing rather than the pain, I began to experience burn-out.   And once burn-out sets in one can become cynical and less productive in whatever work they are doing.  The children that I saw in the first year of my job I was beginning to see again.  They were either re-victimized or I was seeing their siblings, or cousins.  I knew it was time to take a break.  But what would I do?  I still believed in healing.

I want to take you out of the Hundred Acre Wood to a different place and time.

I want to take you to Jerusalum

In February 2004 a movie open to a storm of Controversy.  The Passion of Christ… My boys, Jude was 17 and Elijah (you all know Elijah! was 7).  Jude had gone to see the movie one evening and as was standard I would lay awake in bed until I heard his keys in the front door.  At that point as many of you can relate to; that sound of keys in a door late at night from someone you love has a way of making the world okay.  Also, which was a standard practice Jude would come to my bedroom door tell me he was home (like I was asleep right?) and tell me a few brief things about his evening.  On this night he told me he had seen the movie The Passion of Christ and we talked very briefly about it.  But he said something that I held for the next few weeks until I saw the movie.  He said “Mom there is going to be a part in the movie that you are not going to be able to handle, I thought about you immediately when I watched it”.  I thought he meant the violence.

A few weeks later I went to see the movie with a friend.  During this time I was still working at the Family Nurturing Center working with sexual abuse victims.  Very shortly in the movie there is a scene with Mary and Jesus as a young boy.  She is comforting him, holding him, nurturing him, the first time that I saw Jesus and his mother as possibly real people.  I loved that part in the movie.  In a way it deepened by faith.  Wow! I remember thinking.  They had a relationship.  Mary is mentioned so little in the bible.  At that point if Jesus were to take Mary’s hand he would…in keeping with my Winnie the Pooh tale…have been “Sure of her”.

The movie progresses and throughout I could not help but to think of why my son Jude would say there would be a part I could not handle?  I was probably more focused on his statement than on the movie.  I was intrigued.

The crucifixion scene began.  This was obviously the controversial part of the movie.  The one in which some would say was an unnecessary  “blood bath”  scenes gone too far to portray the death of Jesus.  “Over the top” some would say.  I was fine until…..Mary the mother of Jesus was shown in the scene.  And there she is…Without a doubt the scene my son said I could not handle.

There was Mary.  A mere spectator if you will in the crowd watching her son being brutally beaten.  The mother that was with him throughout every major event in his life.  Though at this event she was helpless.  As she watched she cried from afar. Tears streaming down her face.  At that moment..in that cinematic scene she stood out to me as  Heroic.  She could not save her son from being crucified.   But she did an act more heroic.  She loved her son, “No matter what”, to the bitter end.   And I knew…I knew too well that as a mother of two son’s there may be a time..like Mary where I could not extend my hand.  My son’s may not be able to “Be sure” of Me, nor I of them.  That things could happen in life that even I… a good mother…a loving mother…could not prevent.  This was the scene.  The one that little did I know at the time would be a reference for me to change paths in my career. My son knew me all too well.

Change in directions

I am still a social worker but I no longer work exclusively with children who have been sexually abused.  I spend my days now, and have for the last 6 yrs. working with a population of individuals that some people in their extreme approaches would like to see put on an island and forgotten…perhaps castrated…incarcerated for life..and put to death.  Lepers as are  referred to in the Bible.  In the Old Testament  they were ones “Not to be touched, and to be out casted”.  We have not unfortunately caught up to the New Testament and times when in:

Matthew 9:35 referred differently to Lepers…

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

See I work with what some would say are Modern Day Lepers I work with Sex Offenders.  Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last ten years you understand what a hot topic this population is right now.  You cannot watch the evening news without a new report of sexual offending,  nor a new law that has made it more difficult for this population to live in society.  I refer to it as a modern day Salem Witch Trial.

Now as I have had to answer the question “Don’t you get depressed hearing about children being sexually abused”?  You can imagine the questions I get about working with this population.   If I have a moment of their time this is what I tell them.

I tell them a story about my first court trial that I was called to testify in.  It was a young man age 24 years old and he was facing 15 years in prison.  He was one class short of completing his Bachelors Degree and he was engaged to be married.  For every parent this would be what would be wanted for their young adult child.  I won’t tell you the details of what had occurred but I will say the crime involved a social networking site, Facebook, MySpace, and the female victim was sixteen years old.

Throughout the trial I watched his mother and I could not help but to reflect on the scene with Mary in The Passion of Christ.  This scene never left my visual thoughts, and I suspect it never will.  She would tear-up, put her head down, nervously reach in her purse for another tissue.  The trial ended for the day and we all knew this boy (her son) was most likely going to spend time in prison.  Though there was a chance he could get probation, be on the Sex Offender Registry, and continue treatment in our office which he had already been doing since his arrest 6 months earlier.

At the end of the day the mother walked up to me and took my hand.  She looked me in my eyes with tears running out of hers and said “Will you take care of my son”?  “My son”, she said needs someone he can count on that is going to help get him through this”.  “This is bigger than my job as a Mother”.  To me what she was saying is she wanted someone who her son “Could be sure of”.  I knew then if I answered her in any way I had a big responsibility and commitment to this mother and her son.  Because you see at that moment in time he was still her son.  No matter what he had done to hurt someone else.

Because of testimony and our willingness to work with him at our office the judge gave him probation and strict orders that he would be violated and sent immediately to prison if he so much thought about another sexual offense.  And that he continue in treatment. She specifically ordered him to continue seeing me for therapy.  She was a female judge and again I wondered was this a “Mother thing”?  Did the judge also recognize that he would need someone “to be sure of”.

I continue to see this young man weekly.  He has not missed one appointment in almost the four years that he has been with our office.  He has made tremendous process.  Will he hurt someone again?  I can’t be sure and I certainly cannot promise a court, probation officer, the victim’s parents, nor his mother that he won’t.  What  I can say is this…that if he continues to take his treatment seriously he will have a really strong chance of NEVER hurting another child.

I often remind those who continue to want punitive punishment for these individuals that first and foremost we need to remind ourselves that they are a person.  They are grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers,  and someone’s son.

I sometimes get asked by the offenders themselves when they first meet me why I do this kind of work?  I am a woman after all, and don’t all women want people like them behind bars?  The answer is easy I do this because I am a mother to two son’s.  If my children needed help and I couldn’t be there I want someone who cares enough about them to be there in my place.

The Gathering..

Voltaire the famous French philosophers said: “One of the chief misfortunes of HONEST people is that they are cowardly.

I chose the Gathering to be my church and my son’s church because upon visiting this congregation I immediately felt a group of Honest people trying not to be cowardly.  A group of people that would be as I have attempted to be for the last years; to stand up for what I believe is right. To not be cowardly when at times it would be easier to do so. I believe The Gathering backs their words by actions.   We do the right thing because it is the right thing to do!

As we progress as a church and we continue discussing what populations of individuals we want to work with in the way of volunteering that we do so with a strong commitment.  That we embrace this work in a way that they can count on us… That they can “Be Sure of Us” no matter what.    That they can reach for our hand at any given time and we will be there for them. At a time of uncertainty I hope that our Little church on the Corner can be one that others can “Be Sure of” when perhaps others in their lives cannot be there for them.

Thank you for listening to my story.  And in keeping with tradition I open up time for reflection and discussion.

Message 21, “Superhero Values”, 5-16-10

download program: Service Program, 5-16-10

© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC

For those of you who have been here over the last two weeks and heard the messages on heroism – or those who have read them – perhaps you have thought about the topic and whom we call heroes.  Two weeks ago we considered the idea of everyday heroes and how we can practice heroic imagination – how we must think about and plan ahead – how we will act in situations where we face significant risk and danger.  Last week, as we focused on women and their roles, we sought to redefine what it means to be a heroic female or male in our culture.  The hero is not necessarily the mother who sacrifices all for the sake of family nor is it necessarily the woman who pursues a career outside the home.  It is the person who freely and boldly chooses his or her own path in life despite what cultural norms might say.

In order to conclude this series on heroism, I want to consider today some of those mythical and fictional heroes of books, television and movies who often personify our cultural heroic ideals.  These are figures like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or Spiderman – who still capture our imagination.  Young boys and girls over the last hundred years have dreamed that they too could grow up to be just like Superman – a mythic figure admired by millions, who flies through the air, who possesses great strength and who stands for peace and justice.  (show superman clip)

Many of us want to be like Superman because of his many heroic qualities like his strength and his goodness.  And that is generally the case with the many other fictional superheroes who have become a part of our popular culture.  Batman and Spiderman fight the bad guys.  Wonder Woman is a beautiful but strong and intelligent woman.  It is interesting for us to note, however, that all of the pop-culture superheroes, as well as the several Bible heroes we know, are also vulnerable and flawed in certain ways.  When we idolize a superhero, we do not want him or her to be god-like in perfection.  They must retain aspects of humanity that allow them to be accessible and identifiable.  In that regard, our heroes can be great but they must not be so great as to make them individuals we cannot emulate.  The writers and creators of the superhero stories designed them to reflect us in our greatest aspirations about ourselves and, also, to reflect us in our so called feet of clay.  To be a hero is not to be strictly god-like but to also be very human.

Superman, as we all know, spent much of his life disguised as his alter-ego Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter.  Clark is usually depicted as the classic 1950’s nerd – with large glasses, bumbling ways, and a lack of confidence around women like Lois Lane.  The superhero Batman likewise spends most of his life disguised as Bruce Wayne who was orphaned as a child when he personally witnessed his parents being murdered.  Batman fights crime but he has a dark and sinister side that is not afraid to use violence to fight violence.  Spiderman is an ordinary teenager in disguise named Peter Parker and Wonder Woman is the alter-ego of a demure and old-maidish secretary named Diana Prince.  From the Bible, Moses, as the preeminent Jewish hero, was at first a confused and indecisive figure.  David was the classic ninety pound teenage weakling before he killed the giant Goliath.  And Jesus was also a soft and compassionate man who anguished over his impending arrest and who cried out to God on the cross complaining about the unfairness of his death.  A consistent and important part of our cultural hero stories and myths, indeed of how we look at heroes in general, is that he or she must be someone we can relate to in terms of their human frailties.

We see, in them, reflections of ourselves who yearn to be great and powerful but who are too often weak, vulnerable, shy or morally confused. The reality of life and the reality of ourselves is that while we aspire to be better, we are also human.  Too often we are constrained from acting heroically by our failures and our flaws.  The heroes we admire do not shrink from fighting for what is right.  They do not refuse to be powerful or heroic.  What is distinctive about any hero we admire is that they act in heroic ways despite their flaws and despite their humanity.  They rise above their basic humanity – their weaknesses – to act in ways that are seen as superhuman.

Many of the fictional heroes will also only appear in public wearing a costume that accentuates their powers.  During the rest of their lives they remain hidden and closeted and fearful of the wider world understanding or knowing who they really are.  Clark Kent even says about Superman – and ultimately about himself, that “maybe he keeps a part of himself hidden so he doesn’t scare people away.” We can all identify with the idea of wearing a mask or a symbolic costume to prevent the world from knowing who we really are – what are our flaws and real thoughts.  We can also identify with how we show only a part of ourselves to the world – the good side that is culturally acceptable.

The message of the fictional superheroes, I believe, and the lesson we can learn from the topic of heroism is not to simply copy all of the qualities we admire – like bravery, strength and power.  Even when we honor real life heroes, we must not turn them into persons so unlike ourselves that it is impossible to be like them.  Heroes are not gods.  They are human beings who simply act in ways that we admire.  As I have proposed many times, the Jesus we honor and study is not a heroic god.  He is us.  We are him.  In spite of his humanity, in spite of his humble birth and in spite of the several ways he acted less than heroically – when he cried, when he revealed his temper and when he showed fear – Jesus could still point us to the high ideals of compassion, forgiveness and advocacy for social justice.

On the night before his execution, just a few days after he overturned tables in the Temple in a fit of temper against greedy religious merchants, Jesus knew he would soon be arrested.  The Bible story says that Jesus was highly agitated and even sweat blood in his anguish over whether to flee or submit to arrest.  And, on the cross, the Bible stories say Jesus cried out to God asking why he was being subjected to such a death.  Indeed, I believe it does Jesus an injustice to call him a god for in doing so we have made him perfect and thus all of his great attributes are no longer extraordinary.  A god should act perfectly.  But a flawed and weak human being must struggle and overcome long odds in order to be heroic.  We can admire Jesus all the more because, as a human being and not a god, he acted compassionately and was able to forgive his enemies and those who hurt him.  He rose above his humanity and his weaknesses to be a hero – a man whose teachings resonate for us still today.

And that is precisely what Superman achieves.  Out of the human nerdiness and bumbling ways of Clark Kent emerges a hero who fights for decency and justice.  Out of the closet of his identity as Clark Kent he becomes a powerful and capable hero.  And the same is true of Wonder Woman – another superhero in our popular culture.  She was created not as a feminist hero who is equal with men but as one who is superior to men.  As William Marston, the psychologist who created her said, our culture has come to despise many of the traditional feminine characteristics because they are perceived to be weak.  He said, “the obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” (show Wonder Woman clip)

Echoing what we considered last Sunday on Mother’s Day, in a fun and campy way, the message of Wonder Woman is that the demure, soft and bookish woman can also be feminine and strong.  Even though much of how Wonder Woman is portrayed panders to some of our cultural stereotypes for women – that they be sexy, have flowing hair and wear perfect make-up – the other message from her is that women can also be smarter and stronger than men.  From the apparent weakness of an overly feminine nature can emerge a hero – to be admired by girls and boys alike.

And that is what we find important when we consider how hero stories and myths apply to us. Humanity and imperfection are what make us real.  But we need not be held captive by such weakness.  Superheroes, like many of us, feel a need to mask their vulnerability and that part of themselves which is despised by the prevailing culture.  Superheroes nevertheless are able to transcend such weakness and act with power and ability.  Moses was a man who fled from responsibility only to become the one who would lead the Jews out of slavery.  Jesus was a poor, sensitive kid conceived out of wedlock who became, arguably, one of the greatest prophets and moral leaders in history.  Superman is an alien, from a distant planet, who is raised on a small farm and who grows up to be a cowardly reporter, hiding his identity.  He has, however, become the archetype of the masculine ideal – a man who is strong, handsome, moral and works for good in the world.  Wonder Woman is a bookish and weak secretary who becomes a sexy and powerful crime fighter.

Indeed, the same standards that we apply to our cultural superheroes are what we apply to our leaders and our President.  We want them to be handsome, strong and intelligent.  But, what often makes them great in our eyes is not their heroic attributes but when they are able to transcend their flaws.  Abraham Lincoln was a strong and resolute leader despite his ordinary and awkward appearance and his modest small town background.  FDR pulled the country out of a depression and acted as a bold commander in chief despite being a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair.  Lyndon Johnson became only second to Lincoln in advancing civil and equal rights for African-Americans despite his southern, racist roots.   And, despite being a deeply flawed man, only Richard Nixon, who made his career as a communist baiting colleague of Joseph McCarthy, could open relations with Red China and begin substantive nuclear disarmament treaties with the Soviet Union – both of which have made the world safer.  We see, therefore, a common thread even in our leaders whom history applauds.

What heroic actions are in us, hidden by our ordinary and flawed masks?  What muscular and strong caped crusader who fights against injustice in this world lurks in our mild mannered bodies?  I certainly do not claim to be a hero – far from it – but I have had to step beyond my hidden and inner flaws to become more genuine and true to the world.  It was not easy coming out.  It was not fun to leave a comfort zone where the world considered me normal.  But I am finding that in my weaknesses and in my humanity are the elements of what can make me strong.

For this month of May, when we celebrate both Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, I believe we can better define what constitutes a hero.  In doing so, we can better understand ourselves and how we too are called to everyday heroism.  We see that in being heroic we must not just act in a good or courageous manner.  We must risk ourselves – our lives or our reputations.  We must transcend that which is within us that tells us we are too weak or too afraid or too confused to act.  And we must then choose the path or the action that is our own way and not subject to what the culture defines for us.  As women move beyond tradition and feminism to embrace the strength to choose what is good for them, as gays and straights defy cultural norms to be honest and loving citizens, fully equal in society, as any person who moves beyond past weaknesses or hurts, we can transcend our flawed humanity.  Despite our fears, we can boldly serve this inner city community, despite our own needs and wants, we can generously give of our time and resources, and despite that which makes us weak – our past hurts – we can be heroically transformed.  There is a quote at the Freedom Center exhibit on lynching, by Thee Smith, which says, “Let’s work together to rescue ourselves and our children from the fate of becoming bystanders in a world without sanctuary.” The superhero in each of us must transcend our own human fears and weaknesses and refuse to any longer be a bystander to inequality and injustice in this world.  I propose to us today that this church, as an entity itself, must refuse to be a bystander and it too must commit itself to heroic deeds.  That hero in us, and in our church, yearns to be free, to come out of the closet, and to act boldly and compassionately to change the world.

Message 20, “A New Mother’s Day”, 5-9-10  

Download the program: Service Program, 5-09-10

© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved

The Gathering is nothing if not a wonderfully unique and different church.  Indeed, our friends within our parent denomination, the UCC, marvel at how we march to the beat of a different drummer.  Our diversity and our willingness to claim our own distinctive identity keeps us vital and strong.  We might say we are Christian but non-Christian and traditional but non-traditional.  And we are a church that is not a church.  We cannot be easily explained and I think we like it that way.

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Message 19, Heroic Sacrifice, 5-2-10

Download program: Service Program, 5-2-10
© Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC, all rights reserved

As we begin this month of May, I hope to focus our attention over the coming weeks on heroism and the values we use in celebrating that trait. This hopefully applies for us not only on the last day of the month, Memorial Day, but also on any other day of the year. As humans, we have a long history of elevating certain unique persons to heroic status and then worshipping them almost as gods. The practice approximates that of religion and, often, religions are created because of human hero worship. Indeed, we might say that Christianity itself began as a form of hero worship – a great figure was martyred and his followers struggled with how best to continue both his memory and his teachings.

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Message 18, What is Truth, 4-18-10

download program Service Program, 4-18-10

By Pastor Doug Slagle, The Gathering UCC
©Doug Slagle, 2010; all rights reserved.

Billy Wilder, the famous twentieth century filmmaker, once said that if one is going to tell people the truth, you had better be funny or they will kill you! And, as if to prove that point while adding a just a bit of morality, Mark Twain commented that a real gentleman would never tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies!

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