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The Lord's Prayer
Our Father/Mother God, who are in heaven, hallowed by the name.
Thy kin-dom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our transpasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kin-dom, the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Sample Sermon
For people who are new to Dumbarton, we want to provide a taste of what sermons at DUMC are like. While no sermon is typical, this sermon, by our pastor Reverend Mary Kraus is a good sample."The Song of the Disordered"
Following a phone conversation recently a friend sent me a letter including these lines, "Many people hold certainty dearer than truth. We want to learn only what we already know, we want to become only what we already are." And some even embrace ‘The Principle of the Dangerous Precedent' put forth by the British academic who said, ‘Nothing should ever be done for the first time!"
I confess I don't have much difficulty applying this diagnosis to my own thinking and acting and I get so irritated when I catch myself - or I am caught. There is some comfort knowing I am not alone in this that part of human nature it to hang on to that which is certain our habits, biases, opinions familiar structures but when we insist on certainty - it means we shy away from creativity and that distorts the gospel and shrinks our lives.
I give thanks for the creative people in this congregation - all of us for creativity is about the art of life. It is about the way we live, how we love, what we risk, and why it is how we let our line shine!
Isn't that why we are both stunned and captivated by the account of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, James and John to follow him and without any negotiation about salary or benefits they immediately leave their fishing boats and go with him.
As Bert shared last week - his understanding is that they were part of a community. That may be true - but even in community what would happen if one of our beloved, trusted Dumbartonians called us to make a radical change. Even one we knew was needed. Can't you feel that resistance rising within you?
What Peter and Andrew and James and John did suggests that much of what we assume is fixed, irrefutable, unchangeable - really isn't. It can change - we can change - that's what the gospel is about. Recently I came across the definition of a leader as being a "non-anxious presence." I believe that is what Jesus was for the disciples and why they followed him. Jesus takes the fear out of uncertainty. At least enough fear to energize our creativity. His light shows there is more to the world than our established ways and says "Follow me!"
A colleague recently sent me a letter expressing gratitude for an exchange we had at a recent meeting. He said, "Here's a thank you which comes from the pen of Iain Crichton Smith, one of our Scottish poets it goes like this:
Children, follow dwarfs and the giants and the wolves
into the Woods of the Unknowing, into the leaves
where the terrible granny perches and sings to herself ...
Avoid the man with the Book, the Speech Machine
and the Rinsoed Boy who is forever clean.
Keep clear of the Scholar and the domestic dog,
and rather than the sunny smoothness, choose the Fog.
Follow your love, the butterfly where it spins
over the wall, the hedge, the road, the fence.
And love the Disordered Man who sings like a river,
whose form is love, whose country is forever.
He went on to say, "Is that not brilliant Christology - the 'Disordered One whose country is forever'." I agree - it is a brilliant description of Jesus. Yes - follow the Disordered One, the un-anxious presence.
And what is the song this Disordered One sings to us? First it tells us that certainty is not all it's cracked up to be. God weaves change and surprises and possibilities. The question is not whether there will be change, but whether we will bend it to the good in our life together.
I read this story about an old man in Ireland who lived alone - his only son serving a prison term for political activity. He wrote his son that he didn't know who would spade up his garden so he could plant his potatoes.
And his son wrote back saying. "For heaven sakes don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the guns!"
Very earlier the next morning, a dozen British soldiers invaded the garden and dug the whole thing up. But didn't find any guns.
The elderly man was totally bewildered and wrote us son telling what happened and asked what should he do the son's answer was - just plant your potatoes!
Now that's creative and revolutionary. That shapes the world in a new way, but it wasn't a great front-page battle. It is about the creativity of the common life. It's about repenting and letting go of "it has to be this way." It's about letting the light shine brightly. Showing that certainty is not all it's cracked up to be.
A second song the Disordered One sings to us is that things are not always what they seem. We heard it twice this morning, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined." Light has dawned. Repent, for the kindom of heaven has come near!
What is this saying to us? Among other things - I take it to mean that it's only when you see that something different is possible that it becomes possible.
Physicist Richard Feynman writes: If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. He goes on in technical language about matter - much of it beyond my understanding - then concludes, Well, these scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty.
I think Feynman is saying that life is shot through with mystery and therefore with immeasurable possibilities. And I would add that to see life, to see yourself and others rightly, takes imagination. Love the Disordered One who sings like a river....whose country is forever.
Imagine Washington renowned in the world as the city where schools are the best in this nation. Where everyone has good health care and we all intentionally live in culturally diverse neighborhoods.
Imagine Haiti without the crushing poverty.
Imagine Guatemala healed.
South Africa a light to the world.
Imagine racial justice achieved.
homophobia dissipated, sexism banished.
Imagine it or it won't happen.
Imagine it, pray for it, commit and create it.
And finally, the Disordered One sings to us
that time is not always as confined, as small as it seems
when Jesus invites those fishermen to follow him
he is inviting them into a "forever" - for the long haul
When Dumbarton became a Reconciling Congregation those of you who led that movement knew you were committing to the long haul. And we aren't there yet - are we? Neither as a church or a society. But next week we will celebrate how far we've come! And what future we imagine.
Healing, justice, peace, reconciliation - all the things creativity is about in our little lives and our small world - all take time but not more time than God has "forever" is what we are part of.
That's why Robert McAfee Brown says that, "more than anyone else Christians don't have to be afraid to fail. We need fear only not risking, not daring to be creative." Outcomes are up to God. The resurrections of us and of our failed or partly successful efforts.
So, the gospel says - take the risk. Repent (turn around) for the kindom of heaven has come near. Come, and follow me - says Jesus. Take the risks as many times as there are risks to take.
Risk imagining yourself whole and loving and a blessing.
Risk mending a breech between you and someone.
To do something for the sake of justice.
To exercise compassion.
To lift someone beaten by the side of the road, or the pew, or your desk.
There are lots of blanks in this sermon. You'll have to fill them in because it is an invitation to be creative
but remember:
that "a non-anxious presence" is with you always
to the end of the age - and that's long enough so
Avoid the man with the Book, the Speech Machine
and the Rinsoed Boy who is forever clean.
Keep clear of the Scholar and the domestic dog,
and rather than the sunny smoothness, choose he Fog.
Follow your love, the butterfly where it spins
over the wall, the hedge, the road, the fence.
And love the Disordered Man who sings like a river
whose form is love, whose country is forever.