UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in SIMI VALLEY
Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 25, 2003
Memorial Sunday - Rural Life Sunday
Anne G. Cohen
John 15:9-17
For Our Reflection:
As Abba has loved me, so I have loved you.
This is my challenge, that you love one another as I have loved you.
- John 15:9,12
They expected the Kingdom and got the Church instead.
- Lloyd Geering, The World to Come: From Christian
Past to Global Future, c.1999
Pay It Forward
Paolo Freire, a 20th Century educator and community
organizer, once
described a tribe in Africa that practiced "futurism." If
members of a
village felt that a tree needed to be cut down, they had a meeting and
discussed the consequences of that act on nine generations to come.
Every decision regarding their land and their community was made with an
environmental impact study. They were aware of what had been preserved
and given to them through nine generations of the past. They knew that
it was their responsibility to pay it forward.
Rural communities in our country - family farmers - tend to have a
similar view of time and responsibility. They know about the regular
rotation of crops. Land must lie fallow and rest - or be restored by
nutrients from a variety of plants. The idea of the seventh year
sabbatical is an ancient one, passed through the generations to family
farmers today. It is wisdom paid forward so that the future will be
fed. It is wisdom lost in the modern phenomenon of agribusiness - where
the goal is immediate profit - and the future is somewhere else - on
someone else's land - when this patch is used up. This is the
generation in which we lost the family farm. This was the century that
we sold it and stopped paying it forward - at least for now.
Most parents and grandparents think about what they can pass along to
their children and grandchildren. There is enough of an awareness of
the future - that parents put time and effort into creating savings
accounts for college, buying stocks and bonds for retirement so that
they do not become a burden to their children. We collect objects
that
are valuable or meaningful.
Page Two
We make quilts of fabric and wood and stone. We write down our insights
and life stories, our memoirs and favorite observations about human
nature. We plan on having something to pay forward - other than debts
and regrets - at the end of our lives.
Our children, themselves, are, in many ways, our legacy. How HARD we
work to ensure a positive and compassionate future - by raising children
with positive and compassionate values. We preserve and protect their
well-being and their right to be uniquely who they are in a free and
fair society. We may not be thinking very CLEARLY about the 9th or 7th
or even the 5th generation to come. But we do, at least, have our
children in mind when we make personal decisions.
Even so, without a BROADER VISION of the future, we have ensured nothing
and paid nothing forward. By participating in an unjust economic system
- whether or not we profit from it - are we passing along savings or
debt to our grandchildren? Doesn't injustice breed injustice - and
pollution breed toxins - and unkindness breed retribution?
We have seen the cost of greedy, imperialistic, self-serving foreign
relations - as two towers and four airplanes crashed to the ground -
filled with innocents and misguided avengers. And we have seen what
terrorism breeds - in the annihilation of Afghanistan - in the shock and
awe and cultural decimation and shaming of Iraq - in the loss of so many
children, ours and theirs, in so many places - and in the current
continuation of bombings and suicide/homicides in Riyahd,
in Jerusalem,
in Hartford.
What is it, exactly, that we are paying forward today -
that will ensure a safe,
environmentally healthy,
internationally secure,
sociologically evolving,
theologically diverse,
personally creative and fulfilling
FUTURE for ANYBODY's children -
let alone their great, great, great, great, great, great, great
grandchildren?
What is it, exactly, that we WANT to pay forward - and how do we do it?
Page Three
Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see." It sounds simple,
but
it's not. It involves a deep awareness of time, of the interlacing of
events, of the interdependency (even interbeing) at
every level of life,
of the consequences of even the simplest act or word or thought. It
involves knowing what EXACTLY it is that you WANT to change or preserve
or transform or evolve toward. It involves seeing - imagining - being
the future - before it has become.
And this is where community comes in handy. In so many ways, it is
easier to see more broadly, more deeply, farther into the future - in
community - rather than all alone. Each of us sees partially; together,
a picture begins to form. And if we take into account the pieces of
wisdom and vision and hope paid forward through tradition and story -
reinterpreted in every age - our limited imagination can expand
exponentially. Our direction seems clearer - the changes we wish to see
are more likely to be embodied by all of us together. We keep each
other accountable and keep each other healthy with forgiveness and
laughter and constant growth.
The Society of Friends (Quakers) has a tradition called a Clearness
Committee. If a person is making a momentous decision about their
lives, they may call a Clearness Committee to sit with them for three
hours. During that time the committee - often the older members of the
community - may ask questions or sit in silence and reflection. They
are asked to sit without judgment, without offering advice or opinions -
merely be present and ask questions that may help the decision-maker
find clarity and direction. It is a community practice that cannot be
done in solitude. It broadens and deepens the awareness of time and
purpose - pays forward the wisdom learned and earned through experience
and tradition.
The Gospel of John was written for a community that had been
marginalized by its traditional community. They were caught in a
limiting frame of mind - seeing the future as a truncated experience of
persecution, suffering and loss. There was a deep need for HOPE - a
need to understand what had been paid forward to them - and what they
were responsible for paying forward from their precarious time to the
next.
John - or a member of John's community - added chapters 15-17 to the
Gospel. They are chapters filled with long explanations and
intercessory prayer - on the lips of Jesus - the main source of meaning
and purpose for the early Christian community. These chapters were
designed to give information, explicate previous metaphors - and to
comfort and reassure.
Page Four
Our text today may sound antiquated and obscure - taken out of its
original language, culture and time. But there is a message paid
forward to us, if we can decipher it - without twisting it too badly.
In this story, Jesus says these words:
As Abba has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love...
This is my challenge, that you love one another as I have loved you.
My gleaning from this is that God loves me. I pass that love to you so
that you can love others. And I believe that this is true, not just for
Jesus or for ordained clergy, but for each one of us. God adores each
one of us.
Each one of us is challenged to pass on the overflow to others.
And, in this way, the world is transformed and made whole.
In this way, we are the change we wish to see.
We are empowered to pay it forward.
For those of us who need visual aids, there are a number of movies that
have explained this to us - complete with soundtrack and Technicolor.
"Pay It Forward" (for instance), "It Could Happen to You,"
"Everafter,"
"It's a Wonderful Life" - to name a few. In some ways, we think
of
these stories as fairy tales, imaginary places where good people - who
practice consistent random acts of kindness - change their world for the
better.
If these stories are fairy tales, then so is the Gospel. And if this is
so, then I believe deeply in the power of fairy tales to change the
world - for better or for worse. Fiction or biography, tall tale or
history, stories are a way of paying forward the wisdom earned through
human experience in the real world. The value of paying forward is
proved repeatedly - even here in this community - where we gather weekly
to share and hear and interpret stories - find meaning for our lives and
then embody that meaning the rest of the week.
We ARE the new players in the old stories. We are the change made by
our ancestors. And it is our responsibility to pay it forward -
"it"
being the love of God - in whatever shape or form it comes to us. How
do we pay forward the gift of a heart that saved the life of our child?
We raise that child to be uniquely who she is - with values that are
positive and compassionate.
How do we pay forward the gift of this unique community of amazing
people - who seek meaning and spiritual depth together with hopes of
changing the world? We do two things, one harder than the other.
Page Five
One, we build a house so that the vision of the beloved community might
stretch its wings and become more visible, more influential, more fully
present in the community. That's the easy one.
Two, we make darn sure that the things that occur in that building - the
human interactions, the words spoken, the intentions played out - are
positive and compassionate. We make sure that everything that occurs
-conflict and worship, study and questioning, growth and grief, laughter
and work - we make darn sure that EVERYTHING that occurs is mindful,
healthy, hopeful, inclusive. We maintain an awareness of our
responsibility to be the change we wish to see - to change the world
with a loving word or a freely offered meal - to pay forward (to the
ninth generation) a more loving and just, a more forgiving and peaceful
way of life.
Let's get clear on what kind of world we wish to live in.
Let's start acting like that world is already here.
And let's pay it forward - with every breath we have left.
*********
BULLETIN
Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
+ Call to Worship Hymnal #825
(responsive)
+ Hymn of Hope We Plant a Grain of Mustard Seed
Hymnal # 540
+ Opening Prayer (unison)
Thank you for all I forget are gifts, not rights.
Forgive me for all the grievances I remember too well.
Save me from the self-pity, the self-seeking,
the
fat-heartedness which is true poverty.
Guide me, if I'm willing, (drive me if I'm not),
into the
hard ways of sacrifice which are just and loving.
Make me wide-eyed for beauty, and for my neighbor's need and goodness;
wide-willed
for peace-making,
and for the confronting of power with the call
to
compassion;
wide-hearted
for love, and for the unloved,
who are the hardest to touch and need it the
most.
Dull the envy in me which criticizes and complains life
into a
thousand ugly bits.
Keep me honest and tender enough to heal,
tough enough
to be healed of my hypocrisies.
Match my appetite for privilege with the stomach for commitment.
Teach me the great cost of paying attention
that, naked
to the dazzle of your back as you pass,
I may know I
am always on holy ground.
Breathe into me the restlessness and courage
to make
something new, something saving, and something true
that I may
understand what it is to rejoice.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress. I will
be at
peace.
Silent
Reflection
The
Assurance of Good News (unison)
God is
making something new, something saving and something
true. Let us rejoice!
Sung
Response
"Hallelujah. God be praised!"
Conversation with Our Children
Reading from the Christian
Gospels John 15:9-17
Teaching and
Proclamation
Pay It Forward
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to
Prayer Be still and know that I am God Hymnal #
743
Time for
Silence
Our Joys and
Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung
Response In
Solitude Hymnal #521 vv. 1 & 2
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory
Prayer of
Dedication (unison)
Because of those who came before, we are;
in spite of their failings, we believe;
because of and in spite of the horizons of their vision, we, too, dream.
Let us give - remembering to praise,
to live in the moment, to love mightily, to bow to the mystery. Amen.
+ Sending Hymn God, Speak to Me, That I May
Speak Hymnal # 531
+ Commissioning (responsive)
One: Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime;
Many:
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
One: Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete
sense
in any immediate context of history;
Many:
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
One: Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be
accomplished
alone;
Many:
Therefore, we are saved by love.
One: No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the
standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Many:
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love
which is
forgiveness.
One: Let us go forth and pay it forward.
+ Sung
Response
Hymnal # 236
Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja,
Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja,
Halle, halle, halle - lu - ja,
Halleluja, halleluja.
+ Postlude
WORSHIP NOTES:
The cross marks (+) in the order of service are an invitation for those
in
the congregation who are able to stand to do so.
The New Century Hymnal or "Hymnal" has a black cover.
The Chapel Songbook is a blue, looseleaf notebook.
Opening Prayer is by Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace,
c.1984, pp.100-101
(adapted slightly)
Prayer of Dedication is by Barbara Pescan, in Singing
the Living
Tradition
#680
Commissioning is by Reinhold Neibuhr, Ibid. #461
(last line added)