First Churches of Northampton

Search Committee Recommends Reverend Todd Weir, as Candidate for First Churches Senior Minister!

Meet Reverend Todd Lowell Weir, Pastoral Candidate

After 14 months of meetings, 110 Candidate profiles, 19 recorded sermons, 6 Skype calls, 2 in-person interviews & numerous references, the First Churches Search Committee is united and very excited to announce reaching consensus on recommending Candidate Rev. Todd Weir to call as First Churches’ new Senior Minister. God’s hand has truly guided us to a wonderful person, with the strengths & experience to help us move the church forward to what God is calling the congregation to be. Todd grew up nurtured by a loving Baptist church, and was ordained by the UCC in 1991. He currently serves as part-time Interim Pastor at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poughkeepsie, NY, as well as Program Director for Hillcrest House, a multi-service homeless residence. Before that, Rev. Weir was Pastor for 12 years at First Congregational Church, UCC (Poughkeepsie NY). After a thorough vetting, the Search Committee finds Pastor Weir to be a fully-fit, well-seasoned and superb candidate for our congregation, and community. We thank everyone in the congregation & greater church community for all their support & prayers! And we look forward to introducing Reverend Todd Weir during Candidating Weekend, June 9th & 10th – please join us!

You can download the first messenger of 2012 here!

You can download the December Messenger newsletter here [PDF].

There were several requests to have Mark’s sermon from Sunday posted, so here it is:

Sacrifice

Based on Genesis 22:1-14 and Matthew 10:40-42, 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost, June 26, 2011

Rev. Mark Seifried at The First Churches of Northampton, UCC and ABC

Where is God in all this?  Where was God in the tornado?  Where was God when Giselle’s house was burning? Where was God when Jesus was hanging on the cross?  Where is God?  I’ve asked that question many times and I know each of you have as well.  Where is God?  We couldn’t be faithful Christians if we didn’t ask those questions.  As Rev. Quinn Caldwell of Old South Church in Boston recently commented, “Lightning strikes.  Tornadoes whirl …  God is not in them, but in the moment afterward when people of good faith pray, “What now?”

Whatever God’s role is in shaping history, I am resolute in the belief that God does not inflict harm upon her children.  Do you believe that?  I hope you do!

So what do we do with our Old Testament story this morning? Abraham takes his only son Isaac to be sacrificed to God.  Abraham is supposedly doing this out of obedience to God … at least that’s what most traditional commentaries on this text say – that this story demonstrates Abraham’s obedience. If murdering your son is what being faithful to God is all about, I would reject our faith in a New York minute.

In her commentary on this lesson, Nanette Sawye rightly asserts that disregarding our ethics is foolish when it comes to living our faith.  She says, “This story does not compel us to affirm obedience over and above ethics. On the contrary, obedience to God must be rooted in ethics. It is good that we are concerned about the morality of the Abraham/Isaac story. We should be disturbed by the implicit violence of the story and by the moral paradox of Abraham being affirmed for complying with the violence. Like most stories, this one is reflecting an accepted morality, or narrating a moral struggle that’s being negotiated at the time of the story’s telling. In the case of child sacrifice, biblical texts show us that social attitudes toward the practice evolved over time. In Genesis, God commands Abraham to burn his child and affirms Abraham for his willingness to do so; but [later in the Bible] through the prophet Jeremiah, God condemns this practice. Today the very thought of such violence is morally repugnant.”

Sawyer goes onto say, “No condemnation [of child sacrifice] would be necessary if there were no infraction, so we are sensing the people’s moral struggle. They were disagreeing about the acceptability or the necessity or the morality of child sacrifice. At the time the book of Jeremiah was written, some communities were resisting this practice and feeling the moral repugnance we now feel. God renounces child sacrifice—as if to say, pay attention to this. God does not want children to be sacrificed. The biblical accounts testify to the moral struggle within communities.

Abraham did what he thought was right at the time, and we should follow Abraham in trying to do what is right to the best of our ability. But our understanding of what is right has changed [and will likely continue to change].  We need to pay attention to what we feel when we sense something is amiss.”

I have sensed something amiss for years now.  I have struggled with our nation’s political leaders waging the wars they have in Afghanistan and Iraq since the get go … and I have deep-seated doubts about the ethics of our involvement in Libya.  I don’t think we should go to war unless our whole country makes sacrifices along with the families of those who bury their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers that are killed in the conflicts.  As a nation, we have made no sacrifices for these wars other than mounting up more debt, which our children and grandchildren will have to inherit and pay.  Where is the ethics in that?  The best support we could give our troops would be through shared sacrifice, but maybe that’s too ambitious for a consumerist culture tht’s focused on I, me and mine.  In my mind, we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq solely on the basis of vengeance.  Scripture has something to say about that.  Both testaments say that revenge for wrongdoing is sinful and should be up to God.

The book of Romans, referring to an edict in Deuteronomy expresses it this way, speaking from God’s perspective: “Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay.” When we are wronged, sometimes we must sacrifice our legitimate human desire to work vengeance in order that God may have what belongs to God.  This means that we let God settle the score.  Violent reaction to violence leads to more violence, not peace, and not genuine justice.  As Christians we are called to follow the way of Christ through nonviolence.

When Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers pressed this intensely competitive athlete to agree that for three years he would take whatever abuse was heaped on him without a word. Robinson finally said, “Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a negro who is afraid to fight back?” Rickey replied, “I’m looking for a ballplayer with the guts not to fight back.”

I would not advocate this as a way to engage in race relations, but thanks be to God for the courage of this man.  He changed the world – not just the game of baseball. Jackie Robinson knew the meaning of sacrifice.  When most of us hear the word “sacrifice,” we think in terms of war, of our armed forces and the sacrifices they make for the preservation of the state. If we are to really be faithful to the gospel, Christians ought to be those who believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ ended all need for attempts at human sacrifice. Novelist Leo Tolstoy, in a sharp critique of people who call themselves “good Christians,” confronted the contradictions between the way of the cross and the way Christendom has chosen to go by waging war.

Tolstoy said: “A Christian nation which engages in war ought, in order to be logical, not only take down the cross from its church steeples, turn the churches to some other use, give the clergy other duties, having first prohibited the preaching of the gospel, but also ought to abandon all the requirements of morality which flow from Christian law.”

Tolstoy said this because he knew that the way of Christ is peace.  The way of men who vie for power and position is war.  You would have to bend, stretch and warp the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to be faithful by appealing to an ethics of just war.  War cannot be Christian in nature, regardless of the enemy.  And war cannot be just.  It may be justified, but it is never just because the sacrifices that are made become most costly to innocent civilians, not to mention most of the people fighting the wars are youth in the prime of their lives.

Some have suggested that World War II was a just war.  We may have been justified in stopping Hitler’s genocide of Jews and gays, and for keeping the Japanese army out of US territories, but we need to question the totality of the carnage. Some have done just that.  On August 9, 1945, Catholic chaplain George Zabelka, stationed on Tinian Island with the U.S. Army Air Force, blessed and prayed for the safety and success of the pilots and the planes about to deliver the atomic bomb they called the “gimmick” and drop it on Nagasaki.

A half century later he wrote these words:  “It seems a ‘sign’ to me that 1700 years of Christian terror and slaughter should arrive on August 9, 1945, when Catholics dropped the A-bomb on top of the largest and first Catholic city in Japan. One would have thought that I, as a Catholic priest, would have spoken out against the atomic bombing of nuns. (Three orders of Catholic sisters were destroyed in Nagasaki that day). One would have thought that I would have suggested that as a minimal standard of Catholic morality, Catholics shouldn’t bomb Catholic children. I didn’t.

“I, like the Catholic pilot of the Nagasaki plane, “the Great Artiste,” was heir to a Christianity that had for 1700 years engaged in revenge, murder, torture, and pursuit of power, the prerogative of violence, all in the name of our Lord.

Forty-five thousand human beings were killed by the single bomb dropped by “the Great Artiste.” Father Zabelka concludes, “Well, I was there, and I’ll tell you that the operational moral atmosphere in the church in relation to mass bombing of enemy civilians was totally indifferent, silent, and corrupt at best; at worst it was religiously supportive of these activities by blessing those who did them.”

We can read our Old Testament story today on various levels. We can spiritualize the message and say that this story is about being willing to “let go” of our children. We can interpret it as overturning the sacrificial system. After all, God interrupts and prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. But if this story is about condemning the sacrificial system, it bears acknowledging that Abraham is commended for his willingness to do what the story would supposedly critique.  If we follow the development of Judeo-Christian ethics, this story is a forerunner for Jesus’ gospel of nonviolence where he taught us to love our enemy, turn the other cheek, give the stranger a cup of cold water.  Nowhere does Jesus say or even imply that sending young people to battle is the way toward peace … just the opposite.  The Holy Spirit tells us that child sacrifice, and thus wars that are primarily fought by young people, are unethical.

As Nanette Sawyer says, “Child sacrifice is not right, and in this day and age we cannot imagine a God who would affirm someone for agreeing to do such a thing. Obedience to the point of immorality or cruelty is not what we are called to do, and it’s not what God wants from any faithful people. On the other hand, trying to love and worship God—which Abraham did—and trying to acknowledge our dependence on God and our giftedness by God—that is a wholesome spiritual practice which can lead to our moral development and to the betterment of the world. That was true then and it’s true now. God will provide, yes. It is good to trust in God, yes. Some things change, but some things stay the same.”

Let me end here on a lighter note. I came across a story in my studies this week as it relates to the sacrifice of Isaac.  It seems that a theological student had an appointment to visit his professor, Paul Tillich, in his home, to discuss an assignment. The student arrived at the appointed time, only to find Tillich in his study, surrounded by a chaotic scene of books pulled off the shelves, sheets of paper shredded and scattered around, and furniture strewn all over the place. Right in the middle of the mess sat Professor Tillich, with his two-year-old daughter.

“Perhaps this is a bad time, professor,” the student suggested. “No,” said Tillich. “This is a fine time. I have just learned something I never knew before. For the first time in my life, I understand Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.”

Thanks be to God for our children.  Thanks for the challenge of scripture and for our demanding, uncontainable, mysterious God … and thanks be to God for our growing sense of justice based upon our knowledge of a merciful God made known in Jesus of Nazareth.  This is a God to worship.  This is a God to emulate and follow.

First Churches has a long relationship with Conaspeh, an interfaith organization in Haiti.  You can now learn much more about Conaspeh, including its inspiring work, through its blog.

Our congregation is mourning the sudden loss of Dot Swain, a member of the Baptist congregation for decades.  The obituary below ran in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.  Note that the original publication listed the 24th as the date for her memorial service; it will in fact be on Saturday, February 26.

Dorothy G. Swain, 92, of Kimball Street, Florence, died suddenly Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, at home.

Dot was born in Hampton Falls, N.H., on June 30, 1918, daughter of the late Mildred (Brown) and Roscoe Swain. She attended schools in Hampton Falls and at nearby Hampton Academy. At the age of 17, she went off to Gordon College of Theology and Missions in Boston to fulfill her dedication to full-time Christian service. She received an A.B. degree in theology from Gordon and continued on to major in education at Boston University Graduate School, earning an M.A. degree.

A long career in teaching and religious education began in New Salem, grades 5-8 in a one-room setting. This was followed by two years as director of Young People’s Work at Winchester (Massachusetts) Baptist Church, followed by a move to Northampton to become Director of the newly organized Pioneer Valley Council for Weekday Religious Education (PVCWRE). As an itinerant religious education teacher, Dot was associated with this interdenominational Council for 25 years. This PVCWRE was a highly recognized part of the National Weekday Religious Education movement, and she became actively involved at the National Committee level.

Released time (WRE) education classes were so novel that the Massachusetts Council of Churches needed appropriate curriculum for all its classes statewide, and she was commissioned to write several courses. Soon Dot was writing manuals for Sunday and vacation church schools, and, for a short time, joined the editorial staff of the American Baptist Publication Society in Philadelphia, becoming editor of two junior high publications. In 1964 she wrote a widely used book of leadership training for laypersons in Christian education, Teach Me to Teach, published by Judson Press.

In the meantime there was a camping chapter in Dot’s life, lasting nine years. She held administrative positions at Camp Ataloa, a Baptist Girls’ camp at Ocean Park, Maine, as well as summer camps in Kansas and Lake Louise, Mich., and at Camp Anderson nearby. As a camp director she was associated with Green Lake, the American Baptist Conference Center in Wisconsin.

When the released time programs ended in 1969, Dot began teaching in Chesterfield in Grade 6, going on to teach language arts and social studies there for 17 years. Many of the children she taught have stayed in touch, and she would often run into and greet people in the area who were well-remembered students, parents, or associates during her lengthy and productive career.

As a member of the Northampton First Baptist Church, Dot was part of the blending with the First Church of Christ (UCC) that became First Churches. She served on many committees, which included the Board of Deacons, Memorial Committee, Pastoral Advisory Committee, and the Church Council, and in fact attended a council meeting the night before she died. She was also a member of the church’s Dorcas Society and played in the bell choir.

She was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, a professional honorary Society of women educators, and served as secretary of the Tuesday Afternoon Club of Easthampton, a 100-year-old women’s society with literary roots. She was a mentor, guide, and inspiration to many.

Dot’s active and inquisitive mind, fed by a love of reading and crossword puzzles, kept her up-to-date with all that was current. She was well-known among her family and friends for her poetry and written commentary on daily life, and for her artwork, particularly her meticulous pencil sketches of churches, homes and pets. A historian at heart, she had a great memory for details, as well as a penchant for making and preserving friendship. Family ties were very important to Dot and she had a special relationship with her niece Jan, with whom she shared a cross-country train trip to Portland, Ore., in 2004.

She will be missed by many, especially by her beloved house mate, Beatrice V. Fitts, with whom she shared 50 years filled with countless friends, trips, and summers in Waterford, Maine. She is survived by two nieces, Janice Jassmond of Exeter, N.H. and Judith Huss of Alton, N.H.; two nephews, Stephen Marston of Exeter, N.H. and John Swain of Hampton Falls, N.H.; and several great-nieces and nephews and great-great-nieces and nephews as well. Dot was preceded in death by her sister, Pearl Marston, and brother, Kenneth Swain.

Friends and family are invited to attend her memorial service on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 11 a.m. at First Churches, 129 Main St., Northampton. Donations in Dot’s memory can be made to the First Churches Capital Campaign. Pease and Gay Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Please join us for a sacred celebration of Carols and Candles on Christmas Eve at 7:15pm. The Bell Choir will begin the service with the Prelude at 7:15pm with the worship service beginning at 7:30pm.

This simple service with beautiful music and prayer will enliven the sense of the Holy for young and not-so-young alike …
O Come, All Ye Faithful!

THE STATE NEEDS AN INNOCENCE COMMISSION
By Rev. Mark Seifried

NORTHAMPTON – Last spring, I served on a jury for several days during a trial for an alleged child rape. At the end of the testimonies, my juror number was selected as one of two alternates, which meant I was not able to be part of deliberations. I heard all the same testimony that the rest of the jury heard. They came up with a verdict of “guilty.” I was sorely disappointed.

The defendant could not have committed the crime. According to testimony, the alleged rape occurred while five other people slept in the same small room, yet no one in the room could corroborate the story of the alleged victim. One person was lying less than 6 inches away. No one heard a peep. The alleged victim was fully dressed. By my calculations, no one could have the physical attributes necessary to perform the act for which the defendant was accused and convicted.

Evidently, the jurors who deliberated never took human anatomy into consideration, or the fact that there was no physical or other evidence of rape. The prosecutor did his best to pull at our heartstrings, so that the verdict was based more on emotion than evidence – or even common sense.

The accused did not speak English. He had a Spanish interpreter throughout the trial. Although he was dressed each day in a shirt and tie, tattoos were exposed above his collar. The prosecutor did not have to work hard to make the jury, most of who were white and of the middle class, believe that this man embodied evil. The defense witnesses described someone wholly different than the prosecutor characterized. Most of the witnesses for the defense also spoke Spanish and had darker skin than the jurors. To me, racism and classism trumped justice.

I was sick and went sleepless for more than a week. A couple of weeks later, I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would sit on a committee for the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ to establish an Innocence Commission in Massachusetts. I said, “Yes.”

Since then, I have learned that our jails and prisons house scores of innocent women and men. There are myriads of stories like the one I experienced. Massachusetts is among three states in the country not to have an Innocence Commission.

Just in the last few years, 130 persons have been found innocent of their convictions of serious crimes through DNA testing. Even more wrongful convictions involve mistaken eyewitnesses, informants lying, false confessions, failures by defense attorneys, police misconduct and fraudulent science. Without an Innocence Commission, not only are many people wrongly convicted and punished, but real culprits escape justice and are left free to commit more crimes.

I urge you to join with the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ to insist that our elected representatives support a Massachusetts Innocence Commission. We foresee this commission promoting the following reforms:

* Post-conviction DNA testing.

* Scientific methods of eyewitness identification to eliminate bias.

* Videotaping confessions to reduce or eliminate false confessions.

* Careful analysis of jailhouse informants to eliminate those who are lying as a benefit to their own case.

* Independence of crime labs from police and prosecution, and conduct of crime lab work under direct scientific principles.

* Blue-ribbon commissions to investigate any allegations of misconduct of prosecutors, police or defense attorneys.

* Standards, pay and workload conditions of defense attorneys brought closer to those of prosecution to achieve equality in the adversary court system.

* Support of educational programs for police forces to promote less biased and more effective methods of investigation.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives has for several years tabled a bill that would accomplish some of what we are hoping for from an Innocence Commission, namely to provide scientific and forensic evidence when showing good cause. We are hoping that this law or one like it goes on the docket of the new legislative session. We are urging the Judiciary Committee to ensure that it does. Let us pray for the day when justice runs through our land like milk and honey and the innocents are free to taste of it.

The Rev. Mark Seifried is a transitional ministry specialist with the United Church of Christ, the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts. He lives in Worcester and is now serving the First Churches of Northampton.

A Matter of Faith

Based upon Luke 11:1-13, 9^th Sunday after Pentecost, July 25, 2010

Rev. Mark Seifried at First Churches UCC and ABC in Northampton

I went on a road trip earlier last week with a 75-year-young widow to bless and scatter the ashes of her deceased husband into Narragansett Sound.  I love this woman and was looking forward to spending a few quality hours with her.  I also grew close to her husband and was looking forward to helping the family find closure after long struggles with his health prior to his death.

So, knowing my friend Sherry gets anxious about being on time, I showed up to her house 10 minutes before the prescribed time of 8:00 AM.  Being a motherly type, she made sure that I used the bathroom, but asked me not to dilly dally.  I didn’t so we got on the road before 8:00 – 15 minutes ahead of her documented and detailed schedule.  Yes, she has the whole day planned to the minute, so that I could get back to Worcester and take a nap before heading out here for a pastoral visit and committee meeting.  Did I tell you that Sherry was driving?  She decided that I drove enough now that I’m commuting 8 to 10 hours a week.  Besides, for more than 10 years, she hasn’t let anyone else chauffer her– it makes her nervous.

So, Sherry pulls away from her house like you would expect a sweet 75-year-old widow to drive: cautiously and almost a bit pokey.  Well, that didn’t last long.  Within 5 minutes she had me riding the phantom brake on the passenger side.  She was driving like a 16-year old boy who can’t control himself because of raging hormones, and I’m thinking, “Lord, this is going to be a long day.”  Well, 2 minutes later, it’s as if she transformed back to the cautious sweet woman I know and love.  She goes through this routine a few times of driving slowly and then gunning it and is scaring the b’Jesus out of me.  I ask her why she seems to be driving like Dr. Jeckyl and Mrs. Hyde.  While going 55 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, Sherry takes her eyes off the road to look at me and says, “I know where the cops sit all the time.  I slow down when I’m close to the spots where I’ve been pulled over before.  I wish I’d have brought the fuzz buster.”

And then we get on the interstate.  Within a minute of her accelerating up to 85 miles an hour, I’m white knuckling the door handle, every muscle in my body is locked in place for impact.  She says, “Reverend!  Say a prayer that I don’t get a speeding ticket.”  By this point, I am losing all semblance of peace, so I say, “Sherry, I don’t think God cares if you get a speeding ticket.  In fact, it would be divine intervention if you did get one.”

She inquires, “Don’t you think God cares if we get you back in one piece.”  To which I reply, “Yes M’am.  I do think God cares.  You, however, can afford a speeding ticket if you can charter a boat to scatter Joe’s ashes.  Beside, we’re plenty early.  We could spend a half hour on the side of the road, and still get there on time.  I think you should pray that we get to Narragansett Sound and back home safely.”

After a minute of silence between us, Sherry is maintaining the 65 MPH speed limit and tells me that I should alert her if I see the speedometer going above 70 miles an hour.  I don’t think it was my comments that made her more cautious.  I think she may have discovered what Søren Kierkegaard meant when he said, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who prays.”  Sherry prayed we would arrive home safely and she cooperated with God to make that so.

Here’s the thing … God knows what we need before we ever pray.  In the case of our road trip, God knew that, for our safety, Sherry needed to slow down, but like all of us, she is given free will to do whatever she well pleases, including drive like a maniac.  Enough about Sherry.  I want to talk about prayer which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but bear with me.  This is good stuff.

If you think about it, prayer is pretty simple.  When we pray, all we are doing is letting God into our lives.  Effective prayer is more about listening for God than our telling God what we need or what we expect in terms of divine favor.  Or as Joan Chittister said, “Prayer is an attitude toward life that sees everything as ultimately sacred, everything as potentially life-changing, everything as revelatory of life’s meaning. It is our link between dailiness and eternity.”  I would add to that: Prayer helps us understand God’s purpose, presence and power.  Prayer humbles us and opens our will to be more aligned with God’s will.

That’s why the disciples in our lesson for today wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray more like he prayed.  They saw what prayer did for Jesus.  It transformed him from an ordinary man to someone with extraordinary power and a magnetic mystical presence.  When he prayed chaotic situations morphed into miracles.  The disciples wanted to emulate the way he prayed because it blurred the distinction between heaven and earth.  Jesus could take someone who was out of their mind and imagine them as rational.   And so he laid hands on them and prayed over them until they felt God’s blessing and received healing.  He could imagine fishermen as the founders of a religious movement that would last for millennia.  He could imagine death as just a port of call before the next great adventure in the spirit world.  He could imagine all the evil in the world being swallowed up by love and grace as the order of human nature.  All this came to him as a result of his connection to God in prayer.

So that’s the context of our gospel lesson for today.  The disciples were used to saying rote prayer and following age-old tradition so that their obligation to God was complete.  Juxtapose this with what they saw and heard in Jesus’ prayers.  It was novel.  They heard intimacy they had never heard before. Jesus called God “Papa”!  He seemed to be filled with holiness and so reflected the essence of God back in prayer; the essence of God being love and grace.  The disciples did what many of us do.  They prayed the prayers they learned at home and in school.  As one commentary on this lesson said, “The disciples’ problem was not their prayer technique – it was faith.[1] They didn’t need new prayers.  They needed to be connected to their God.

A 10^th century Benedictine monk, Peter de la Celle,[2] seemed to sum up our lesson for today.  He said,  “When grace comes first and touches the mind, prayer is enjoyable and devout. It is like a morning rain shower. [However] Prayer is laborious when your heart is far away from your prayer, and God is far away from your heart. Your heart is far away from you if it is preoccupied with unimportant concerns, lukewarm in religious fervor, or immersed in carnal desires.”  Prayer is a matter of faith, a matter of the heart, a matter of relationship between the one praying and God.

In other words, as we pray, if we think of God as anything other than love … if we think of God as wanting anything other than what is best for us … if we think of God’s presence as anything more remote than the tenderness and care we have experienced in our most intimate lover … we’re going to struggle with prayer … we’re going to have a hard time realizing God is even on the scene … we’re going to see the shadow side of life rather than light and love.  Jesus said that prayer was a matter of faith.  If you think God will pummel you with problems, then all you’ll associate with God is problems.  Well, scripture says, “If a little girl is expecting an egg and you give her a spider, that’s the same as praying without faith.”  God gives us what we need when we need it, and if we don’t see it, that’s our problem in that we’re not seeing things right or we’re praying for the wrong things.

Let me give you a case in point that is near and dear to my heart.  When my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, she was told she might have six months to live.  The oncologist said that she could prolong her life another 4 months or so with chemotherapy and keep the tumors from growing so big that they became painful.  Mom accepted the diagnosis and treatment plan but she said that God was in charge of the prognosis, so she prayed for a miracle.

She called me the day of that doctor’s visit.  She was matter of factly, saying, “You know I told you about the lump in my abdomen.  I’ve got cervical cancer and the doctor said it’s spreading rapidly to other parts of my body.  He told me to put my affairs in order because he thinks I’ve got less than a year to live, and that’s if I start chemotherapy next month.  If I don’t go through chemo, I may have six more months.”

After more questions, choking on my tears and asking what she was going to do, Mom said, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I’ve already asked God for a miracle, and I got this feeling of peace, so I’m turning this over to God.”  I don’t want to make my mom out to be a saint.  She was an ordinary woman who struggled with big issues for many years, but – through her cancer journey, beginning with the diagnosis – she grew to be a woman of faith.

For example, she was determined that chemotherapy was not going to be a bad thing, so when she was able, she made picnic lunches for her and anyone else who was going to be in the chemo room (as she called it).  She made broth for some who couldn’t hold down solid foods.  She brought peppermint candy for others who couldn’t eat anything at all.  She brought homemade fried chicken, potato salad, fruit cocktail, and angel food cake for anyone else who had an appetite and wanted a real lunch.

She took her treatments with joy and prayed with faith … and her faith became contagious.  She told everyone God was going to give her a miracle, and you know what?  Mom never was really sick.  She felt weak sometimes, so laid low more than usual, but she thought it was a miracle that she could enjoy resting so much.  She lost her appetite from time to time, but to her it was a miracle that she dropped the 35 pounds that she had been hoping to shed.  It was a miracle that she had gone from being a compulsive over-eater to someone who could moderate their food intake.  There’s more.  One member of my family who had chronic problems with money stopped going to Mom for so-called loans.  He was praying for miracles for Mom, too.

Oh, did I say that Mom lived another 4 years?  During that time, she took 2 cruises and went on seven other trips.  She had the strength to baby sit five grand kids on a regular basis and shop for their birthday and Christmas gifts – which she loved more than anything.  She spoke at 9 more conventions to inspire thousands of more people to call on their higher power to heal them of their addictions.  Miracles.  Until two days before her death, Mom never experienced any pain and the medicine we had on hand took care of that quickly.  The day before she died, she told me that she had no regrets, no grudges, and no enemies.  She was able to name more than thirty miracles that she had received since her diagnosis when she first started praying for a miracle.

Mom learned to be grateful for every day she was given and for every relationship she had.  Despite being quite a talker, she learned to be quiet so that she could notice all the miracles with which God was showering her.  She learned the wisdom that Jesus taught his disciples. Mom learned to pray with faith because she had an intimate relationship with her Lord who she believed would do anything for those who love Him – even suffer death so that we might live abundantly.  This is a God to worship.  This is a God to go to in prayer.

Jesus tells us that if we pray with faith, if we believe, God will be faithful to us in return.  I pray that you will take this lesson to heart so it can transform your life.  If you’re struggling with an issue right now, be it your health or the well being of a loved one; if you are struggling with an addiction; if you are at wits end because of a strained relationship, rather than asking God to fix it, scripture says to pray and to be specific.  Tell God what you need.  If you need strength to see it through, pray for strength, not an easy fix.  Or maybe you need faith to trust that God will provide, so pray for your faith.  Maybe you don’t know what you need, as was the case with my Mom, so pray for a miracle, knowing that sometimes a miracle is a swift death and sometimes it means more time and struggle.

Let me say one more thing about prayer.  When we are in the midst of struggle, ask God what the struggle is supposed to mean to you and what God wants you to learn from it.  I also think it’s fair to get angry and let God have a piece of your mind … just like you do with your most intimate friends and family members.  But tell God specifically what you’re angry about: being alone perhaps, not being able to handle the pain, being fearful of what’s next, feeling betrayed.  Tell others, tell me, what you’re praying about and ask us to pray with you and for you.

My deceased friend who I was referring to earlier had his last big stroke.  It debilitated 80 percent of his brain.  His wife, Sherry, said she was afraid of doing the wrong thing because she didn’t know how to proceed as his healthcare proxy, whether to put in a feeding tube or to let him die, so we prayed for wisdom.  After the prayer and a time for reflection, Sherry was able to recognize that there was little hope he would ever be able to enjoy life again.  He wouldn’t walk or speak or sail, which was his deepest passion.  He wouldn’t be able to process words others were saying.  Sherry decided that God was calling her husband home and that medical intervention would be wrong.  So we prayed again – this time with thanksgiving for wisdom given and received.  We gave thanks for her husband’s wonderful life, all the adventures he was able to have, and love shared.  We even prayed in faith for Sherry’s peace as she watched her husband die.  And that’s what she received.  Even the death of her husband became answered prayer, God’s amazing grace!

Jesus asks us to be specific in what we pray for.  Don’t bargain with God, and pray in faith.

I would like to apply this lesson to our corporate life as a church.  I want to ask those of you who are willing to begin praying everyday at noon with me for a miracle for this church.  I don’t know what God wants of us except to be faithful, so let’s just pray for a miracle and see what happens.  From this moment on, let’s be faithful both in praying and in giving testimony when we see miracles taking place here.  I’ve witnessed several miracles this week.  I hope some of you can give testimony to them in a moment when we share what we are praying for.  For now, just let me say I give thanks for you because each of you is a miracle and through your faith God will do more than we can even imagine.

And so I pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, through our faith in Jesus, make for us a miracle.”  Amen.

[2] Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

At Jesus’ Feet

July 18, 2010, Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Mark Seifried at First Churches of Northampton, UCC & ABC

Based upon Amos 8:1-2 and LUKE 10:38-42,

For many years, a business man bought popcorn from an old street vendor each day after lunch.  One day he arrived to find the peddler closing his stand at noon.  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

A smile wrinkled the popcorn man’s leathery face.  “By no means.  All is well.”

“Then why are you closing your popcorn stand?”

“So I can go home, sit on my porch and sip tea with my wife.”

The businessman objected.  “But the day is still young.  You can still sell.”

“No need to,” the stand owner replied.  I’ve made enough money for today.”

“Enough?  Are you absurd?  You should keep working.”

The spry old man stopped and stared at his well-dressed visitor.  “And why should I keep working?”

“To sell more popcorn.”

“And why sell more popcorn?”

“Because the more popcorn you sell, the more money you make.  The more money you make, the richer you are.  The richer you are, the more popcorn stands you can buy.  The more popcorn stands you buy, the more peddlers sell your product, and the richer you become.  And when you have enough, you can stop working, sell your popcorn stands, stay home, and sit on the porch with your wife and drink tea.”

The popcorn man said, “I can do that today.  I guess I have enough.”

Perhaps we can hear Jesus’ words to Martha that the man chose the better option, which will not be taken away from him.  We’ll delve deeper in a moment.  For now, please pray with me …

In the story of Martha and Mary, we find that they seem to be just like us.  Their friend Jesus, the itinerant rabbi was coming to dinner.  They made preparations like you and I would.  They cleaned the house, polished the furniture, began preparing dinner and made things just right.  Finally, Jesus arrives at the house.  Mary sits down, asks Jesus how he is doing and what is going on in his world.  All the while, Martha is running around like a fool.  The table is set, but Martha goes back and lines up all the silverware and shines the plates.  The lettuce for the salad has been picked, but she has to wash it again.  The roast is in the oven, but she keeps opening and closing the door to make sure it’s still cooking.  Martha is so distracted with her “many tasks” that she forgets she invited Jesus for his companionship and wisdom.  She’s upset that Mary isn’t fussing with her.

I can see her darting in and out of the room, trying to get Mary’s attention.  Martha clears her throat so Mary will look at her, but gets no response.  Mary is listening to Jesus.  Martha clangs the cups in the next room, but her noise goes unheard.  She goes to the kitchen and bangs pots, but Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet and gives him all her attention.  Finally, Martha gets so upset that she yells at Jesus, and says, “tell my sister to get off her back side and help me.  Can’t you see I’m working my fingers to the bone to make this a nice evening?  Neither of you seem to care!”    Jesus pretty much says, “Dinner smells great, but you’re making a fuss over nothing.  I came all this way to spend time with you and don’t care if we get take out and eat off paper plates.  Sit down and relax.  Your sister has the right idea.  You’ve gone from being a hospitable hostess to a nag.  Now you’re trying to manipulate me and your sister.”

So who do you identify with?  Martha or Mary?  Here, deep into the dog days of summer, many people in the congregation are taking vacations. From what I’ve observed, there are “Mary Vacations” and there are “Martha Vacations.” Some people love to take a vacation in which they try to see six European countries in six days. Or they have only two weeks to engage in every single outdoor sport at least once during their vacation and they make the best of it: snorkeling, sky diving, mountain climbing, spelunking, parasailing, tennis, golf, etc.

Some may wonder when they’re going to rest and they say, “Rest? We can rest at home when we get back from my vacation.”

Other people are of the “Mary Vacation” type. They want to “get away from it all.” For them, a great vacation is lying upon a beach or sequestered in a woodland cabin somewhere and doing absolutely nothing. They are into serenity, contemplation, and quiet relaxation. That’s their idea of a vacation.

One type of vacation is no better than another. They are just very different. One vacation puts a premium upon rest and rejuvenation; the other upon adventure and surprise. Either can be a great way to renewal.

This, I think is similar to the tension we get in our gospel lesson for today.  It illustrates for us that there is a time to go and do and be like Martha.  And there is a time to sit and reflect like Mary.

Since we talked last week about the meticulous ministrations of the Good Samaritan and all that he did for his neighbor in need, this morning, I want to focus a little more on what the blessings of being like Mary would be for some of us.  First, let me acknowledge that relating to Mary is hard for me and for many of us.  We are used to doing. We do lots for our family.  We may do lots for our neighbors and church.  Some of us are very effective as community leaders.  Many of us do great work with other organizations that make the world better and more just for others.  Jesus says, “that’s wonderful, but it’s not full discipleship.  To be my disciples you must sit down, be quiet for a while, learn to relax, and listen to me.”  And yet, we protest.  We don’t have time to be still.

The sad thing about this is that many Christians don’t know Jesus very well or we have forgotten him.  Most don’t take the time except for an hour on Sunday morning to get to know him.  I guarantee that if those of us who are married skip an entire week without spending time with our spouses, our relationship would not be of much worth if it could exist at all.  To have a connection with Jesus, we must take the time to cultivate the relationship.  This lack of time is a cultural thing.  We see lots of accomplished, busy people who we think are successful and we want to emulate them.  We see other more common people and we say, “Oh, the poor man.  He’s so devoted to his family, to his career, to his church, and to his community.  He sacrifices himself so diligently.”

This is not so much an appraisal of any of you who are busy, but rather an indictment of our culture.  According to Presbyterian writer and pastor Eugene Peterson, the word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal.[1] In a book for pastors and church leaders who are some of the busiest people in the word, Peterson is tough on us when he says, “Being busy is not devotion but defection.”  The adjective busy set as a modifier to Christian should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker.  I, along with a few of you and others we know, are busy for two reasons.

We are busy because we are vain.  We want to appear to be important and significant.  So, what better way than to be busy?  The long hours, the crowded schedule, the heavy demands on our time are proof to ourselves and all who notice that we are important.

Peterson doesn’t stop there.  He throws a “one-two” jab to knock us off our feet when he says, “We are also busy because we are lazy.  We let others decide for us what we will do instead of resolutely deciding for ourselves.”  People ask us, “Can you do such and such?” and without thinking we say, “Yes.”  This happens at work, at home, at church, and other places and we don’t even think about it.  We mark it on our calendars or record it in our Blackberry even if we have no interest in the undertaking.  It would take effort to refuse, and besides, the refusal might be interpreted as a betrayal or a calloused disregard for people in need.

So, busy people, how can we, who espouse to love ourselves and our God, crowd our week with so much activity and still hope to have any semblance of order, of self-worth, or of holiness.  How can we expect to know ourselves, much less Jesus when we are imprisoned by our schedules?

When do we get to be Christian?  When do we get still enough to hear the still small voice of God?  I have a suggestion and it comes from the Ten Commandments.  And it has to do with keeping the Sabbath.  Rabbi Abraham Heschel reminds us that the first biblical use of the word holy was in the story of Creation when God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.  Holy is a word meaning set apart or designed for a special purpose and represents the mystery and majesty of God.  No other object than Sabbath time in the Bible’s Creation story is endowed with the quality of holiness.  Keeping Sabbath time is keeping touch with the holy in us, around and between us.

Keeping Sabbath means that we take time each week to do nothing, to let God be God and run the affairs of the world, to just be – to be with ourselves, to be with family and friends, to be in prayer, to be with God – in church, in nature, in poetry, prose, music and silence.  Keeping Sabbath and being faithful to Jesus means that we take time to weigh the blessings and the trials of life and we bring them to God for blessing.  Our problems on Friday are tempered by Sabbath-keeping on Sunday and by Monday they’re not even problems.  After a day of quiet and prayer and play and maybe even a nap, we discover that some of our problems may be blessings in disguise.  I intend to preach another time on Sabbath keeping and share with you my belief that if all Christians practiced keeping holy the Sabbath, we could save the planet which is in peril due to our addiction to fossil fuels and the busyness associated with their consumption.

Keeping Sabbath and spending time with God is nothing new.  Just 50 years ago it was the norm, even for poor people who you would think would want to work to try to get ahead in life.  Take for example a figure from history.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34^th President of the United States, was born in Texas during 1890. He was brought up in Abilene, Kansas. He was the third of seven sons. His family was extremely poor and they lost their family farm in Kansas before Dwight was a teenager.

Later in life, Eisenhower fondly remembered those early days and the life lessons learned. He specifically recalled a family night, an evening of Sabbath-keeping, where they were playing cards.  The former president, told about a time when he was a boy and the family was playing a game called Flinch.  He said,  “Mother was the dealer, and she dealt me a very bad hand and I began to complain. Mother said, ‘Boys, put down your cards. I want to say something, particularly to Dwight. You are in a game, in your home with your mother and brothers who love you. But out in the world you will be dealt bad hands without love. Here is some advice for you boys. Take those bad hands without complaining and play them out. Ask God to help you, and you will win the important game called life.”

The president added, “I’ve tried to follow that wise advice always.”  He took time to ask God for help with the big questions he faced as a general and as the president of our country.  He took time and asked God for help with personal issues and family life, too.  By most accounts, he had a pretty blessed life and was accomplished in most endeavors.  We, who live so frenetically, would do well to slow down, and to regularly go to God for help like Ike did throughout his life.  We would do well to choose to spend time with Jesus like Mary did in our lesson for today.  Busyness is a habit that takes time to break, so we need to start by praying about it.

And so, I pray for each of you, that you may find meaning in the fullness of your life, but that you don’t pack it so full that it becomes so busy that you squeeze God out.  I pray that we all grow to know the countless blessings that come from Sabbath, from spending quiet time, play time, and prayer time with family, knowing that Jesus our brother is hoping to have some time with you, too.  If and when you take that time, I guarantee that you will find grace upon grace in the day and in your life.  You will find perspective.  You will find peace.  You will find love.  You may even find yourself who you’ve been running from so hard.  Amen.