"Give All You Can"

This Sunday at the 11:15 worship service I referred to a sermon by John Wesley, "The Use of Money." You can read it here. It's pretty easy to read, once you get past the Old English. He's a bullet point preacher!

This got me thinking. Wesley suggests,

Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then "give all you can."

Here's the commitment my family is making from this. This year, We're giving more to charity then last year. The fact is, our income isn't dependent on the stock market. I have decades before I need to use my portfolio. Both Peter and I are in secure, salaried jobs. While the market is down for many people, our income isn't changing. Other people's incomes are changing, dramatically. They aren't able to give as much. That's why we are giving more. To us, that's what being part of a community is about.

How are you inspired by John Wesley?

"Words of the Earth"

Last Sunday at 11:15 worship the children shared a drumming piece called "Words of the Earth" with the worship community. This act of worship centered us and reminded us of our intimate connection to diverse aspects of creation and the Creator. Thank you to Carolyn Stanson for her words and to Carolyn and Ruth Van Vugt for working with the children. Here is the text from that prose.

WORDS OF THE EARTH

Listen to the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
Listen to the heartbeat of Mother Earth
as she calls us and connects us to all creation and to each other.

From ancient times until today the drum has been used as the heartbeat of Mother Earth to call us into the sacred circle to hear her message. Her words are simple….each of us is given a special gift on the day that we were born….a birthday gift…wrapped in love, kissed by the sun and tied with a rainbow. The gift is the world…we all get the same gift of creation to cherish and care for so we can preserve it for generations to come

The drum is a circle
The sun is a circle
The moon is a circle
The earth is a circle
And we are a circle….a circle of love that joins all of us together…hand in hand …heart to heart reaching out to all people of the world. When the circle is complete and the love comes back home, it is then that peace becomes a reality and not just a dream.

But not everyone listens to the message from Mother Earth
Listen …..Mother Earth is crying
Listen…Mother Earth is sighing
Listen…Mother Earth is calling
She is calling to the future She is calling to the future She is calling to the future
And the future is YOU (the children)

Repeat the Listen phrases
She is calling to the future She is calling to the future She is calling to the future
And the future is NOW

Honor the four directions
We drum to the East and the Spirit of Light (3 times)
We honor the power of the rising sun
We drum to the South and the Spirit of Love (3 times)
We honor the power of the wind
We drum to the West and the Spirit of Life (3 times)
We honor the power of the setting sun (which rises again after the dark)
We drum to the North and the Spirit of Strength (3 times)
We honor the power of the water and ice

HONOR THE FOUR SEASONS
We drum to the seasons Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall
We give thanks to the Creator and the gifts he gave us all
We drum to the seasons Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring
With thanksgiving for the blessings that each new day will bring

We drum to the East and the unfolding joy (3 times)
And the gifts that springtime brings

We drum to the South and the fullness of time (3 times)
And the gifts that summer brings

We drum to the West and the harvest of the land (3 times)
And the gifts that autumn brings

We drum to the North and to rest and renewal (3 times)
And the gifts that winter brings

We drum to the seasons Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall
We give thanks to the Creator and the gifts he gave us all
We drum to the seasons Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring
With thanksgiving for the blessings that each new day will bring


We drum to the Creator and we drum to all creation
We drum for peace in the world and for peace in our nation
We drum to honor our connection with Mother Earth and our connection with each other
The circle of love with friends and family, parents , sister, brother.

May the Heartbeat of Mother Earth bring us together in harmony with the one Creator of all things. It is then that the rhythm of the earth and all nature, the rhythm of the hearts of all people and the rhythm of life will become one.

This is the message from Mother Earth.
Repeat Listen and drum softly to silence

Words of the Earth
Carolyn Stanson

Leadership in the Middle

When I lived in Kansas, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection was the United Methodist church people had heard of. It's young and huge, and continues to grow. Every year they have a leadership institute that hundreds of pastors and lay people attend. Christ Church has sent groups to the institute in the past.

The founding pastor, Adam Hamilton, is somewhat controversial. He used to be very conservative, now he's more middle of the road. This often means for conservatives he's too liberal, and for progressives, he's not liberal enough. This week he wrote a commentary on the election of Barack Obama. You can read the entire commentary here.

One thing Hamilton emphasizes in his commentary is the diversity within the UMC. He lifts up Obama as an example of how a person can live in tension on social issues and have their faith allow them to be comfortable with the tension. Here's a quote from the commentary that really spoke to me as a United Methodist, and the way I come to decisions as a United Methodist. Hamilton suggests Obama offers a "both/and."

A few examples: Obama articulates a personal Christian faith and a desire to follow Jesus Christ, and he holds this together with a progressive concern for social justice and individual rights that he sees as rooted in his faith. He supports the right of a woman to choose, and he is the first Democratic candidate for president to write into the Democratic platform a commitment to reduce the number of abortions in America. He believes that marriage is defined as the union of a man and woman, and he supports the rights of states to grant civil unions. He believes that government has an important role to play in addressing the welfare of the populace and, to the chagrin of some in his party, he supports faith-based initiatives as important to addressing the welfare of our people.

Liberation Theology

I've been hearing Liberation Theology over and over again in the last several weeks. Liberation Theology is a stream of thinking about God that places God on the side of the poor and oppressed. It is usually linked with environmental justice. It sees salvation not as something an individual achieves, but that is only conceivable as an entire group of people are liberated from oppression. One stream within Liberation Theology is Womanist theology, which speaks from the experiences of black women. The community argues "there is no salvation apart form my community."

At the green fair in Rochester a couple of weeks ago Jack Nelson Palmeyer talked about how we aren't going to fix the energy crisis if we don't also look at the plight of the world's very poor.

As I've been preparing for Guatemala I've been reexamining the Latin American roots of the original thinkers in the Liberation theology movement. These include people like Leonardo Boff and Gustavo Gutierrez.

This week as I was teaching my class on the work of Jesus I spoke of Liberation Theology. And we critiqued it!

I heard it again last night in Barack Obama's victory speech as he insisted that our nation will be better for all people.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

I think there is something very important in looking at the big picture. Building God's Kingdom is about so much more than making sure that individuals have a personal relationship with Jesus. It's about ending the oppression of the poor and of the earth. It's about making sure that everyone has some modicum of justice. It's about helping people have authentic relationships. In many ways, Liberation Theology makes a whole lot of sense.