January 27, 2019 - Third Sunday after Epiphany - Lives Filled with Words

In today's Gospel, Luke 4:14-21 Jesus preaches at the synagogue in Nazareth. When this was the Sunday Gospel for 2013 I then understood these verses as Jesus seeing his ministry as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that day in Nazareth.

Three years later, in 2016, the word today leapt out for me and became the word opening these verses to stir my blood and imagination and transformed the message that Jesus delivered.

I no longer saw Jesus preaching that he and his ministry was some sort of culmination and end point of the quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 passage. Rather this was his teaching about how God's kingdom is contained in the world today, as it has always been.

Jesus was not alone in being anointed to bring good news to the poor and to proclaim the release of captives. In this world we are the body of Christ. Now is the time for us to proclaim the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

This builds us up to see God's kingdom today. Do we have faith that the Lord really favors this year or any year since these words were first uttered? There will always be social inequity, blindness and oppression. There are still captives. This insight came last year. 2018 was a year where the cruelty of a zero-tolerance policy was introduced in our country. Any revealed or secret hopes for global justice didn't happen last year or in the years before that. It is foreseeable there will still be injustice at the end of this coming year. Surely, we think, some wrongs must be righted before honestly being able to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Yet to believe these wrongs must be righted first, however, makes Isaiah and Jesus when they proclaim today a lie.  What Jesus is driving at in his first sermon is that Isaiah words are fulfilled in our hearing, in our collective.ear  And this scripture was read and was fulfilled in 2018, 2016 and in 2013, This Gospel is fulfilled each time it is read. This Gospel was read and fulfilled before 2013 and back and back each year to that Nazarene synagogue and further back to Isaiah. This good news is permanent, deeper and greater than we imagine.

I felt blessed today with a different joy as well. I was amazed not only by what Jesus quoted in this scroll but also what Jesus left out Here is the Isaiah passage:

Isaiah 61:1-2

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn

Isaiah's day of vengeance is not included in the sermon Jesus makes. For me, in this moment, that is God being revealed more fully. Pastor Ray preached that God comes for us. Jesus, the New Testament angels, and the Gospel all assure us to fear not. I cannot believe God is coming for anyone to exact retribution or out of anger. If I had other experiences in my life I might have different beliefs but that I do worship an angry God and I do not see the body of Christ proclaiming a day of vengeance.

This morning Eric led a class on Lauren Winner's book Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God. Today's subject laughter. Interesting topic when you are thinking about emotion. Laughter is not in the emotional thesaurus for good reason. Happiness can come from laughter but not all laughter come from happiness.

Janet posted in the Facebook Bible group we both belong to that 'The concept that "sin wants to be alone with people" is a warning that I need to vigilantly observe the friends and family that make up my community to ensure that they are not distancing themselves from the community, setting themselves up in a dangerous position. Likewise, I need to check myself to make sure that I don't retreat into isolation. I think that God wants us to live in relationship to other Christians, where we can find love, nurturing, and forgiveness, as well as guidance in following a faith-filled life"


Our congregational annual meeting was today, and Janet's words were particularly important to keep in mind. The Second Reading was 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 where Paul writes about the about the body being one and having many members. The Psalm reading was Psalm 19 which includes verse 12 "Who can detect one's own offenses? Cleanse me from my secret faults."

These readings all comforted me during the meeting. It was hard, but I laughed inwardly and; in the end; I let go of how I would have preferred the meeting to unfold.

January 13, 2019 and January 20th - Baptism of Our Lord through the Second Sunday after Epiphany - Baptism and the Body of Christ

My wife gave me a new inspiration to work from regarding this year's blog entries which will change how they are composed and structured. Last Sunday, for example, Pastor Ray preached regarding the lectionary text about the baptism of Jesus. Last year I would have written about the ideas and insights I had gleaned from the service.

Mary suggested I try write about my emotions relating to the services this year,  This requires a new starting point to reveal any emotional thread. For example Pastor Ray preached about how scandalous the baptism of Jesus is for some. They ask why a sinless Jesus need to baptized when baptism is all about forgiveness and remission of sins? Another "scandal" revolves around who had the authority to baptize God.

Theological catnip for many considerations but no real emotional thread for me. Emotions spring from the personal so I move now instead to what baptism means for me. Personally, baptism is not about the remission of sins. Instead it is about family and interrupted recognitions of living as Christ's body in God's kingdom.

My wife and I were both from Lutheran families with strong traditions and, when we were young, both of us were heavily involved in church life until the churches we served differed from the ones we had idealized. By the time we were married we followed our spiritual path as a couple without formal ties to a particular church. When our son was born it felt like an open question or riddle as to when he would be baptized and who would make that decision.

Years later, as members of Creator, that changed. Eric was old enough to make his own commitment. Then my concern turned to the potentially awkward questions about why he had not been baptized earlier. This really would not have been questioned at Creator but I wasn't aware of that when we were first members. When our pastor suggested that he and another girl, who were of the same age, could be baptized together it felt like the stars aligned and this was the way his baptism was meant to be.

My son's baptism filled me with unexpected elation. I experienced God's presence in a personal, tangible way. The best way to put this in words was being suddenly becoming aware of living in a particularly wonderful city. An undeniable experience. It was both tangible in a way that is hard to put into words and simultaneously I knew everyone would not share that same awareness.

A new song that closed the service filled my heart, Canticle of the Turning. Every word cast more light in my heart and the answer to the question "Could the world be about to turn?" revealed a truth about the possibilities and realities inherent in every baptism.

After reflecting on my personal feelings about baptism the Gospel lesson opened an emotional connection as I thought about the baptism of Jesus. His Father's words were "This is my son with whom I am well pleased." Strong words. I understood my father affirmed this in our relationship but he never said it out loud. These are words I feel but have never said to my son as well, perhaps because the right situation never presented itself or some crazy worry the words will not be believed.

I particularly was tempted to say them when I traveled to Houston this week with my son. We visited the Rothko Chapel and saw the musical Book of Mormon.

Mark Rothko's 14 paintings, the physical building and the grounds were all revelatory. The longer I stayed the more I learned from the artist what to pay attention to regarding what I brought with me in my soul - the death of my mother, life as I'm currently experiencing it. and the mystery of baptism. What I learned went beyond the words I can use as I am here with simple metaphors. This more than met my expectations of what this Rothko work would mean on this visit.

What I did not expect was what the Book of Mormon revealed. I anticipated laughs, not the insights revealed in the strong, satirical jabs by the South Park creators. I didn't know much about the musical beforehand. Incredibly, there was a song, Baptize Me that was sung by a Mormon missionary character and someone playing an African woman. Innuendo and tension in the song built as the characters confess that this is their first time doing it. The woman uses the language of a young girl in love to describe what she is feeling and the missionary boasts about well he will baptize her.

The suggested connection resulting from all the innuendo had the potential to be more scandalous, from my perspective, than Jesus being sinless or who could baptize him. Yet, instead came another emotional connection. After the baptism the two are singing.

I'm wet with salvation
We just went all the way
Praise be to God
I'll never forget this day

This is definitely emphasizing the physical aspects of the sacrament. The theme of the musical comes to the repeated assertions in the lyrics that the Book of Mormon is important and  "This book will change your life.". This is picked up in the lyrics of this song as well  There is a freedom in using this language in this particular way. It highlights how the lives of the characters are truly changed by this baptism.

Of course there is another baptism of an individual in described in detail in the New Testament in Acts 8:26-40 telling the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Here is another story that touches me more emotionally and expands the idea of baptism being meant for everyone universally who understand the Good News.

This inclusiveness informs me, in an almost a deeper way than the baptism of Jesus, about what it means to be Christian and how transformation happens through the Good News.. 

My week of writing about my feelings around baptisms ended on Sunday the 20th with the Holy Baptism of Sadie. There was the normal Presentation, Profession of Faith, Thanksgiving at the Font, the Baptism and the Welcome sections that Creator follows. What I felt is what I always feel at baptisms at Creator. There is the openness of the community and the joy of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament.as the Baptismal font is filled with water.

This was expressed well today in the Post Communion Canticle when we sang,

"Cup o'erflowing, life outpoured, given as a living token of your world redeemed, restored."       

Sacraments, scriptures and sacred bonds can constantly remind us to remember and recognize God's kingdom is both coming and is here.

There is a quality to life that interrupts that recognition and distances us from what gives life. That source is not containable. It changes who we are and the humanity we long to express.

A promise of baptism is a reminder that we are all named, claimed and valued by God, we are bound together as the body of Christ, and that we live in hope within God's world.

January 6, 2019 - Epiphany - From the Hidden into Plain Sight

And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.

- Rainer Maria Rilke Unbound

Worship today started with Third Day's God of Wonder. All of us sang "God of wonders, beyond our galaxy You are holy, holy"  and I was struck again by how easy it is to set God apart from being mortal on this earth precisely in the season where we also celebrate the "Emmanuel God with us" change in our world and the Epiphany that follows.

Pastor Ray's preached about the lectionary reading leaving out The Slaughter of the Innocents described in Matthew's Gospel that begins just where the lectionary ends. When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the Magi he was furious, and he sent and killed all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under according to the time he had learned from the Magi". This, says Matthew, was in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31,31:15, "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more".

The historical accuracy of Herod's slaughter is debatable but that is probably not why it is left out of the lectionary. It is hard to be reminded of the evil that can happen in response to the hope and transformation that Epiphany represents. People naturally want to avoid any "negativity" or even disagreements in life. The Slaughter of the Innocents, as recorded in Matthew, was triggered by Herod's anxiety and fear.

There are so many members of Creator that make my heart leap with joy, or with deep concern, when I see them. And when we talk about Christian love this is what I imagine. I follow and dedicate myself to the Christian story because of the multiple opportunities that move me seeing someone simply as another person encountered in life to becoming important and real with life stories and qualities that make them stand out.

I could talk about all the talks with people now important to me that made my heart swell today. The person I talked to most, however, did not simply engage me in a joyous conversation. He was coming from a place of anxiety and fear. Part of this was due to the member's physical health. Part of his anxiety was rooted in how he was relating to other Creator members at this time.

We are human beings who make decisions from and live with perceived scarcity, petty differences we imagine as huge barriers. We retreat from dealing with or expressing those differences and barriers. They cause us to make judgments of one another and initiate more of the very anxieties that we try to avoid.

As we talked I heard this man, who was struggling with anxiety, expressed fear about the future of our congregation given some recent experiences he had with our other members. Too many times I have reduced conversations like this in the past, and listed to what was said as arguments where I need to take one side or another after hearing them and render an appropriate judgment. Yet I know there can be another way.

I thought about the Wise Men following the way of the Bethlehem Star today. Their knowledge made an obscure star obvious in both meaning and distinctiveness. I say this because there would have been astronomers in Herod's court. They did not see the star. Many people in that time looked into the night sky. They did not follow the star either because it was neither obvious to them nor they did understand the star's meaning.

Being Christian helps some of us understand and find the meaning of that one star out of the multitude we could see. Being Christian opens our minds to the possibilities and the stories of the one among many and that they are unique. We constantly learn what it means to live in community with the many and the heart moving within us that makes them individuals that  stand out is part of the meaning of the Bethlehem Star.


Today I am not thinking of that star as some manifestation in an ancient night sky that revealed that God is with us. After all, how does a bright star lead to one stable or even a small city?  Rather this star shining is not a light merely making itself visible in the night sky but a star that makes the world and others visible to us, This is the Epiphany that I am celebrating today.

January 1, 2019 - Personal 2018 Worship Journey with Creator

There was a different focus that I appreciated last year's 2018 worship. In 2017 there were many  2017 global celebrations.The 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the once a year, Holden invitation for global participation in the Holden Evening Prayer vesper on February 7th were among the most prominent.

In 2018 strict government policies seemed to polarize people's opinions on social justice issues. From the zero tolerance policy that separated families this summer to the Border Wall funding issue that is currently keeping the government shutdown.

On February 25th The Voices for the Voiceless Choir gave what could be their final performance. This was a choir of young people from the Clackamas area who work together to bring awareness of the blight of child trafficking that exists in the world today. They sang a piece called Sancti Pater composed by David Martin of the Happy Valley Arts Academy. The sound was close to the sacred medieval chants in Latin sung in churches.

Also in February a few Creator members attended the film 101 Seconds premier at the Portland International Film Festival. The film focused on surviving family members of the two victims of the 2014 Clackamas Mall shooting. Paul Kemp, one of those featured in the film, has devoted himself to challenging the current status quo reactions that have settled in over the U.S. after decades of mass shootings. His brother-in-law, Steve Forsyth, was killed at work in the mall by a 22 year old with a stolen AR-15.

Holy Week's focus can influence how a congregation will experience a given year. This year's Holy Week began and ended on the concept of purity and dirtiness. Pastor Ray emphasized the dirty job of cleaning feet and pointed out that this task was traditionally reserved for the lowest of all the servants. Some servants wanted to refuse to do it. After all, livestock roamed the marketplace and droppings combined with the dust from unpaved roads made sandal-strapped feet quite filthy.

We like our faith to be very spiritual and cerebral, Pastor Ray explained and Jesus, by example, will have none of that. On Easter Vigil, after the stories the water of the baptismal font was blessed, we renewed our baptismal vows and received a sprinkling of baptismal water while we sang We Are Baptized in Christ Jesus. The emphasis was on washing. The great flood washed away bad things to start over again. The waters of baptism washed us clean. A stronger emphasis on purity than the waters of baptism connecting us to Christ and one another. Purity and cleanliness seem pervasive os far in our Holy Week services.

On Easter the sermon was on the beauty of Mary not recognizing Jesus until he calls her name is highlighted and the spiritual truth of that. A focus on not being dirty can keep us from Christian mission. We can see this coming up against Jewish purity laws. Unfortunately when the spiritual is explained in physical terms, physical credulity can quickly become strained. Whenever we come to faith by emphasizing the importance of the empty tomb truly being in the physical world, the result becomes messy.

Take this particular insight about the physical story emphasizing the dirtiness of the resurrected body of Jesus. First off, the body was prepared before the tomb and,even if it were not, would dirt, bruises and abuses on a body coming through the resurrection be enough to obscure the identity of Jesus from Mary after a verbal exchange? Secondly, what is Jesus wearing for this mistake to occur (which begs the question was there a miracle as far as clothes to wear was concerned?). And finally, all the wounds and marks made must either no longer be on his body, continuing the miracle, or they are ignored by Mary when she doesn't recognize Jesus.

Messy indeed. I do not argue against the empty tomb. At issue is how much life-experience reality must be either ignored or our focus turns to all these trivialities. We can simply try to dismiss them but when emphasis is given to physical body resuscitation as a central tenet of our faith, our Christian story must inherit this messier resurrection. We quickly are forced to fall back on the mystery and / or assert God can do anything. However, when we resolve the messiness in this way it limits the rational substance of any argument going forward.

This dirty / cleaned up story came again on the Christmas Eve service. Pastor Ray preached about how the shepherds would have been filthy and likely used uncouth language, It made an impression. After the sermon every time the shepherds were referenced this came to my mind.

On Mother's Day Pastor Ray's sermon continued to explore the metaphors in the Bible used to describe God or how God can physically manifest to us. He preached about hearing a keynote speaker in Colorado, an Episcopal priest - Lauren Winner - who wrote a book called Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God. She is familiar to many in our congregation as one of the Animate Faith presenters from several years ago. (for those who have the book or DVD this was Session 6)

To continue with the other metaphors, her thoughts regarding clothing could be summed up in a line from her book "God clothes. God is our clothing. And, finally, God draws us into the act of clothing, by instructing us to clothe others."  To underscore this she references Genesis 3:21 and what God generously does for Adam and Eve just before they are expelled from Eden. God shows love and gives them protection by functioning as a tailor or seamstress in this verse, "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."

Winner becomes fascinated with the intimacy of how God clothes us and and what inspiration can be drawn when we ponder God being tied to our clothes. God as near to us as our clothes is something she aspires to believe even though she admits that faith is elusive for her. Also, in Genesis, the God / clothes intimacy is inextricably bound to shame of our bodies. God understands us in that shame on a level that is uncomfortable to accept.

Last year's Pentecost revealed a different perspective on the story than I had in the past. The different responses from this crowd of "devoted Jews from every nation under heaven" makes it obvious the whole crowd did not experience what was described by scripture in the verse before. There were those who see the cloven tongues, as of fire. There were also bewildered foreigners. The comments about this bewilderment indicates they likely did not see the flames, but only heard Galileans speaking in their native language. Lastly there were those in the crowd who sneered at everything that happened.

When I was young the Pentecost story amazed me. I longed to live in those times. I wanted to feel the great wind and see those flames. Later I went through a time where I thought that the world doesn't and can't work in ways that defy natural law. This year I envisioned it as a choice to be made. The choice is to hide from God becoming known in the world or not. Another way to look this might be shifting our focus more to faith in "what might be" rather just on "what is".

There are many factors contributing to the making of this choice or focus. One factor is preparation - to be open to possibility of "seeing" manifestations of God that might be - like divided tongues, as of fire. I believe the disciples anticipated something they could not predict, that something might be coming. What makes me say this is Peter's response to those who sneer, "They are filled with new wine". He reminds the crowd it is nine o'clock in the morning. This is not only offered as a proof they are not drunk. Peter's observation also ties this moment to the hour of the day the crucifixion of Jesus started.

God even speaks through the words described here as sneering. These people don't simply say "They are drunk" but rather "They are filled with new wine" These are words that resonate with Biblical implication. Take an earlier verse, Luke 5:38 "... new wine must be poured into new wineskins." Perhaps this is an indirect witness, beyond what the speakers intend, that the disciples are filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit.

This tied in with author Lauren Winner's quote:

You have a choice:
see God as here or not;
see salvation, or see only
human courage; see the divine
subtly at work or see chance

Ascension Sunday took on a new meaning for me, based on a podcast of Pastor Amanda of Central Lutheran Church. The podcast gave it's audience an opportunity to learn more about the importance of the Ascension and contemplate what would have happened had Jesus not ascended to heaven.

In the past I have never been comfortable with the Acts 1:9-11 Ascension account. I fancied it as a supernatural reason to explain what happened to Jesus' body. Imagining Ascension as a physical event was awkward for me and questions naturally arose. Is the physical body of Jesus really going to heaven as physical as earth? Do I have faith in that kind of heaven? I shied away from contemplating the Ascension, from picturing Jesus as depicted below, and from all those uncomfortable questions.

Pastor Amanda presents a different and powerful view of the Ascension's importance to us today. After the Ascension God's mission, that Jesus continued in the world, moves from a resurrected one to a collective and mutually accountable body of Christ.

She points out the Ascension tends to be downplayed because it is far easier for people to "star gaze". A new insight for me that rings completely true. We like our stars and prefer looking to one savior rather than looking to the body of Christ as it exists today to bring about the kingdom of God.

I recognized myself at the end of the podcast as mostly being a star gazer. My vision of the Ascension, as just described, attests to my star gazing. My mind's eye attempted to look only to the physical body of Jesus in the sky and not to the body of Christ on earth.

All this inspired me to read John 3:16-17 and understand these verses from a different perspective and a more Trinitarian view:

First the translation often quoted and held dear:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him"

Replacing the masculine pronouns with God John 3:16-17 reads like this:

"For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, so that everyone who believes in God may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through God"

John 3:16-17 is a New Testament verse that Jesus, as an individual, did not write. On this Trinity Sunday replacing the pronouns feels like a subtraction of an individual identity that allows me to imagine God's more collective identity through the current body of Christ and to expansively reflect on the immensity of God's love.

Particularly after Easter Creator's worship, the Gospel readings, sermons, and life experiences became unusually intertwined. There were recurring poetic images and insights that came quickly and built on one another. This is not altogether surprising since many of these Gospel readings were taken from John.

Fear and faith seemed to come up more than usual this year. Pastor preached one Sunday about Jesus and the storm at sea, for example on the relationship between our fear and our faith. He asked the congregation when we were in a difficult situation - if our first reaction was fear, did that made us doubt that our personal faith in the constant, solid rock of Jesus? Nobody raised their hand to admit they had that kind of doubt but I found this was my answer to that question.

The importance of Jesus calming the storm at sea is neither primarily about some that Jesus is really God nor about having faith that Jesus exhibiting superhuman powers. The question Jesus asks is not designed to shame the disciples for not knowing he is God. Instead this passage suggests the authority of Jesus does not, in the end, come from any proof that he is God or from astonishing feats he accomplished that no other person can do. Looking at the details in this Gospel passage leads to other interpretations.

Let's examine those details. This story starts out in the evening, when the habits, daily life and powers humans follow during the day do not hold as much sway. Fear of the unknown is heightened. As the boat is crossing to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they are also crossing other boundaries, into Gentile territory, where they will be met immediately by a man possessed by a legion of demons rushing at them from the tombs. So in this passage, the wind and the sea may be creating a visual manifestation of the dangers and fears of being in the boat with him.

Jesus appears to be "asleep" on a cushion at the stern, asleep at the spot in the boat where the boat should be steered. The storm comes up. There are fishermen among the disciples so they are unlikely to be overreacting to the life-or-death situation they are experiencing. Jesus is not providing any direction and, as a result, they are afraid. Even when Jesus wakes up he does not try to guide the boat to safety (as the disciples might have anticipated) but uses his words to calm the wind and the sea.

The way Jesus uses his authority here can be viewed as a powerful messiah who does what only God can do. Yet at this particular moment, if Jesus only wants his followers to recognize and believe in him as the messiah or God, this spectacle is a failure, just as it would be today. Jesus knows the minds and hearts of his disciples. He would know what would convince them he was God and would also know how to calm their fears. I doubt any of this is God's only or even primary intention.

Also, let's suppose there was a disciple who had faith and no fear. Would that disciple still wake Jesus up or would he or she have faith that Jesus would wake up at the appropriate time. Or, perhaps, this disciple would simply trust that Jesus had the situation in hand to calm the sea before the boat was swamped even if he was asleep? The view of Jesus simply showing he is God by exhibiting this extraordinary power to inspire faith in him becomes something worth contemplating on many levels.

Yes, there can be other views. This could be the Gospel telling all the truth but telling it slanted as Pastor Ray preached in another sermon. Jesus intimately knows the limitation of his followers faith when confronted with fear. Jesus knows his followers can't gain the faith to overcome all our fears. The good news is that this is not required to calm the storms that come up in our lives. Calm and peace comes from his words, even though all our fears may not be allayed.

There is another frame that this can be seen through .The musical Jesus Christ Superstar explores the man and God nature's of Jesus. In the song Heaven On Their Minds Judas sings from a decidedly modern perspective:

You've started to believe

The things they say of you.

You really do believe

This talk of God is true.

And all the good you've done

Will soon get swept away.

You've begun to matter more

Than the things you say

Consider these lyrics and Jesus calming the sea together. There appears to be a conflict in the lyrics regarding whether the figure of Jesus or his teaching is more important. That conflict is reconciled in this Gospel passage.

When Jesus calms the storm he matters more because of the things he says.

My wife also inspired insights in 2018. It started with Mary shared a sermon she had found on YouTube about Nicodemus preached by Colin Smith. She was exploring the Nicodemus story and being born again inspired by my Trinity Sunday post. She thought I would appreciate the ideas Smith expressed in this sermon and I did.

Smith first emphasized the life Nicodemus had led until his meeting with Jesus. His life was a reflection and a result of all he had done to follow a holy life. This was a man who knew how to keep the Sabbath holy. Smith asked those listening to his sermon to put themselves in his shoes and also to imagine they were master builders, like Nicodemus was in his faith life, of a house that could represent that life.

Nicodemus wanted to share this house he had built with his lifetime of faith. Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a master builder of faith and belief based on what he first says to him. Nicodemus wanted to share his life with Jesus, as one master builder might want to share with another, a house he has personally planned and built through his lifetime of attention and perseverance.

Nicodemus, perhaps, intended to ask, from one builder to another, the questions that would help to make this project of his lifetime of faith and belief even better. He did not expect the response he received. What Jesus essentially answered him was the equivalent of a master builder looking around and saying "You can't do anything further on this project from here except to tear it all down."

Smith feels we all eventually wind up in same the place Nicodemus finds himself in. We know that what springs from our best effort will not get us closer to God. This is another perspective to the Nicodemus story I didn't consider at all in this blog . Smith absolutely helped me to understand Nicodemus in a new light (where, by the way, the night in this night conversation is never emphasized).

2018 began the year with series Living for Peace and Justice. we read and discussed as a congregation The Day the Revolution Began, a book by N.T. Wright. The subtitle is Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus' Crucifixion.

In September a few of the congregation began to read (with others) the entire Bible and share posts in a Facebook group called A Year of Contemplating the Word that was started by Pastor Ray. We have been able to keep some accountability with one another together with sharing some amazing insights.

In September, at 93, my mother peacefully passed away at her assisted living facility. This shaped or influenced much of what I experienced in worship during the last quarter of the year.

All of this you can read in detail yourself in the past blog posts for 2017.