 | The New England Church PulpitNew England Congregational Church UCC |
THE FRENCH CONNECTION | Matthew 22.34-40 | October 20, 2002 |
In France several weeks ago, I was keenly aware of the sense of community that the French, like much of Europe, value their time together. Perhaps not any more than we do, but to the point that they structure their culture to accommodate communion with one another. The government mandates a 35 hour work week, with 5 weeks of paid vacation for everyone. The businesses and schools are closed between noon and 2 o’clock for lunch which facilitates families being together mid-day, and then at 5 o’clock shops and businesses close. What stays open are the places where people meet for eat and drink...the restaurants, the cafes, the nightclubs and bistros, including the Moulin Rouge.
They have their problems with violence as much as anyone, but the French government is working diligently to understand and care for youth who are violent, taking responsibility as a society for such behavior. They have realized that the root of their anger and violence comes from the way parents, adults, and society have organized themselves and the consumer mentality that persists. (Thich Naht Hanh, Anger, p 141)
Community, and particularly the community of faith, is where we work out life. Here we are confronted with new ideas, here we are comforted when we are in need, here we are challenged to shed old skins so we can grow into new ones. No one exists as an island. Here we learn how to disagree appropriately and how to accommodate others while finding purpose for ourselves.
Jonathan Dean reminded us a few weeks ago that our image of God affects the way we act. If we see God as a violent, revengeful God, we will act in violent, revengeful ways. If we see God as compassionate and just, we will act accordingly. It is the same for a community. The people we choose to associate with will influence the way we act.
One of the things I value about this congregation is its diversity. The very things that might divide us ultimately strengthen us because we respect each other’s diverse opinions and the right to espouse them. We might disagree, but we can do it face to face; we might not like everything that goes on here, but for the most part we don’t leave when we don’t get our way. These past several weeks we have been challenged to see God in different ways; some have found it helpful, others have not. There has been a lot of conversation out and about, and this is good. It is what a faith journey is about...struggling to shed old skins in order to grow into new ones.
Jesus was a most controversial person in his day. He elevated women and the poor and the children beyond what society allowed. He empowered them to be fully human, and he engaged the religious leaders in debate about God’s inclusive nature, God’s unconditional love. He pushed them to the edge for the sake of others, and they killed him for it. He dared to challenge people to love others, even their enemies, as much as they love themselves, telling us that is the way we love God. Dare we do less if we take his name as an identification of our faith...Christian?
The community, church, the family of faith is more about serving than being served. In a nuclear family, parents don’t have children to serve them; they have children to be in relationship with. And in many ways, as the adults, the parents serve the children, that is until the parents get old and go to nursing homes, at which time the children repay the kindness and serve the parents. Do you participate in this church just for what you will get from it? Or do you participate to offer something to it as well? Do you come here looking only for those with whom you agree, or do you come here in this unique social environment to be part of a diverse group to challenge yourself to grow beyond what is comfortable, for the sake of the whole?
On any given Sunday we may not find meaning in a service at church. Others may find it meaningful. Our commitment to the community is for the whole community, not just what we can get for ourselves. So if someone is nourished while we are not, we are here to support them, and they for us when it is the other way around.
The connections with one another create the space for living. The wagon wheel is made up of many spokes, but it is the center hole they create that makes the wagon move forward. It is the non-being, the indescribable center of emptiness that is created when we are clay in the potter’s hand, when we build the community with the boards of our own lives. We do it together, every part being needed for the clay pot or house to be complete, and we do it for one another, not just ourselves.
Carol Christ talked last Sunday afternoon about religious experience being more in the context of how we relate to one another than in correct belief. A rigid system of correct beliefs alienates and stifles; it is a linear way of thinking. A system of overlapping circles more accurately describes a meaningful religious experience where we see God not in terms of what we believe but in the faces of the people we work with, with whom we worship, we live with, in the face of Nathaniel, where we see a part of God we won’t see in anyone else.
On our ship was a variety of people, of course. And I was interested to observe who sat with whom at the dinner table. Over the course of a week, one gets to know many of the people on board, and one evening I observed a couple sitting at a table all alone, two men who have been partnered for 30 years I learned later. Another couple walked in, a man and woman, who had been very bigoted and vocal about their dislike of certain groups of people. The only place to sit was with these two men, and I figured we’d see the sparks fly in a fairly short time. Au contraire!
The French have a way of cutting through tension...they drink a lot of wine! It does wonders for breaking down barriers. As the wine was passed and consumed at this table across the room, I realized in due time that all were laughing and having a great time. In subsequent evenings, they sought each other out for dinner each evening. I had to adjust my own prejudices toward the second couple myself, even as they adjusted theirs toward the first couple. It was communion of the highest sort. I think it is not coincidental that wine was the beverage of choice for Jesus’ last supper, communion table, breaking the tension, easing discord, nourishing the spirit with the fruit of the vine. And I thought then that perhaps we should have larger communion cups!
The leaves are falling, and yesterday I was outside trying to gather up the first layer, realizing there will be many more that are still clinging to the branches of the tree. I usually have 6 or 8 bags of leaves, which I suppose isn’t a lot by comparison, but the interesting thing is that there are no trees on our lot. All of the leaves I rake off my lawn are from my neighbors’ trees. I don’t mind raking up the leaves from my neighbor’s tree; it is part of living in a neighborhood.
Loving neighbor as yourself is the true understanding of loving God. The spokes of the wheel of the community are individual, yet together they create the inner space where the divine resides, a center hole that keeps the spokes together and the wheel moving. It is the divine connection. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
Tao Te Ching 11
(translated by Stephen Mitchell)
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
PASTORAL PRAYER
God in whom we live and move and have our being, grant us sanctuary from the noisy, frantic world in which we live, that in these moments apart we may touch the deep core of our beings, and find there a holy quiet, a divine serenity, a revered peace.
Remind us of our blessings, that we may be grateful: the loved ones who have come into our lives, some unseen, some known; the friends whose loyalty supports us when we most need it; the beauty of trees in autumn; the birth of a child; and the peace we find in the midst of the grief of a loved one who passes over.
Remind us of the hope of the world, that we may not be overwhelmed by the confusion and disaster of a world gone mad with selfish ambition and war. Visit us with the hope that some day swords will be transformed into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Renew our faith in all that would serve a divine purpose and let not our courage and our confidence fail because of the deeds of evil.
Remind us where we have failed to do what we should, and have done what we shouldn’t, not in shame but in a desire to strive for more honorable living. Where others have wronged us, may we forgive them, and where we have harmed ourselves, may we strive to a higher plane of living.
Remind us of others’s pain and grief, that we may share their burden. Remind us of other’s joys that we may celebrate with them, sharing their delight. May we not approach these with feelings of superiority or inferiority, but with love.
Guide us and empower us to living, in the name of the Holy One. Amen.
(Based on a prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick , A Book of Public Prayers)
| Copyright © 2002 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |