Delightful Dance

• HOW DOES IT FEEL TO RECEIVE SOMETHING UNEXPECTED? (they answer) What word would you use to describe how you feel?

• “Delightful?”
• We are used to seeing the plate passed and being expected to give.
David gave everyone ‘bread and a cake of raisins’ out of his joy. He made sure that everyone would share in God’s blessing. He extended the celebration into every home. It had to make him popular.
It reminded me of the promise of ‘a chicken in every pot’. I’m pretty sure David wasn’t the first politician to think of giving away something sweet (or at least promising to do so) in order to win the affection of his people, Or to offer them something from the blessing he received. I imagine both thoughts crossed his mind.

I may not be the first preacher to offer a cookie in order to have her sermon judged acceptable either. Hmmmm.

We understand David’s giving stemmed from the joy he felt that came from God’s presence with him - in its concrete, physical form of the Ark.
You remember; the Ark was a chest containing the Tablets of the Covenant between the LORD and Israel. The Ark served as a throne for the ‘LORD of Hosts’ On its cover were two Cherubim, probably creatures with
the body of a lion or bull,
the head of a human, and
the wings of an eagle. In the ancient Near East, such creatures used to flank royal thrones.
The Ark accompanied God’s people into the Holy Land and LATER was the holiest object in the 1st Temple when it was built. But the Ark has been separated from God’s people because the Philistines captured it in the great battle with Israel in the days of Eli. In fact, it was the news of this great battle; the loss of the Ark and the death of his sons that caused Eli to fall, break his neck and die. Being near the Ark – the seat of God’s power, can be dangerous.

As our story explains the Ark has been at the home of Abinadab for about 20 years, a lifetime for a young adult. And David decides to bring it to his new HQ, the NEW city of David, Jerusalem.

You may be wondering how the story of King David’s celebration and dance relate to our everyday lives. Let’s see if we can find some connections to this interesting story.

We have to realize that David is not a simple man. We need to leave behind our Sunday School images of David because he is a man of complex motives. You probably began to wonder about them as you heard his story explained.

HE has consolidated the Jewish people following battles and defections. (Samuel I & II have so many good stories with twists and turns like soap operas, they might be classified as ‘beach reading’.)

David has created a new capital city on the border of the 2 kingdoms; --- Israel (to the North) and Judah (South) -- which are BOTH now under his rule. AND he’s been busy building a new Royal Family.
“He added wives and concubines and fathered eleven more sons - the text of the previous chapter says in addition to the first 6 by 6 different wives (5:13-16). He is a busy man. A foreign king acknowledges him (5:11), and David once again defeats the Philistines, this time rather extensively (5:1-25). He has become "greater and greater."

David’s initial decision (v.1) to get the Ark and bring it to Jerusalem has religious AND political UNDERtones.
Religiously; the Ark of Presence which once guided God’s people, would be returned to a place of honor and eventually a temple would be built around it (by David’s son, Solomon.) A priestly celebration that includes sacrifices and gifts to the people is an appropriate way to bring the Ark of God’s presence into its new home.
Politically; This symbol of God’s power will shore up David’s own power and ‘bless’ the new vision of a monarchy united under David. The (former) kingship of Saul left much to be desired, and the transition to a new administration has involved fighting and now victory for David. He needs to solidify his base and bring the people of both kingdoms together. And he needs to connect his efforts to God’s wishes so he can keep the respect of his people. Gifts won’t hurt.

We can ask if David’s motives are pure but we can’t really know the answer. If we read enough about David and his life we will learn he’s a complicated man of multiple motives, very much like us.

How often do you hear religious pontificating and wonder if any of it is self-serving? How often do you view your own motivation and realize there is often more than one reason for doing something or for giving a gift?

Do you remember Billy Graham’s many visits with the presidents? A Time magazine writer, Diana Walker, speculated a bit about motives and the intertwining of religion and politics;

How far could a pastor go without becoming part of the political game? (She asks) Graham was the most famous preacher on earth. Simply by standing next to Presidents, he conferred a blessing both on them and on their policies. Every one of them was aware of this, in ways that Graham sometimes was not.
Was it crossing a line when he invited presidential candidates to his crusades or sent along suggestions for their speeches at National Prayer Breakfasts? What about when he lobbied lawmakers on behalf of a poverty bill or an arms deal, or consulted with candidates on their campaign ads or their running mates?
It was one thing to serve as Eisenhower's or Johnson's private pastor. But it was quite another to act as Nixon's political partner, carrying private messages to foreign heads of state, advising on campaign strategy and assembling evangelical leaders for private White House briefings.

There were times when Graham brought out the best in Nixon--and times as well when Nixon brought out the worst in Graham.

If there is a bottom line in such matters of people, politics and religion, its that humans are delightfully complicated beings.
We can learn from David’s experience and his fear following Uzzah’s death that God’s power is greater than human motive and will not be manipulated. We can also note from David’s story, from Billy Graham’s story and from that of any president’s - that the fallout from our decisions spills into other people’s lives. Taking personal responsibility for our actions doesn’t mean others won’t pay a price for our misdeeds.
Life and our relationship to our AWESOME God is also delightfully complicated. There is more to David’s story that can speak to us.

David’s 2nd attempt at moving the Ark after a 3 month break - is successful and includes his solitary dance that must have raised some eyebrows. He is risking a lot with his behavior and the story shows us two ways of looking at it.
1. David’s joy is so complete that he sheds - along with his clothes – the trappings of Kingship; all the elegant robes AND the refined dignity of a Ruler are left behind in order to ‘dance his joy’ before the LORD. He is offering himself and his actions as a sacrifice after the initial sacrifice of animals. It is a gift to God.
2. (but) Then there is Michal’s (sor MeeCHAL, Hebrew prounounciation) viewpoint. She is the daughter of the previous King and knows how a King should act. She is right in acknowledging the prohibition of exposure of the human body, at least certain parts of it. There are numerous stories in biblical history condemning for such exposure. She is upset at her husband behavior and believe his gift is self-serving.
Who is right? We don’t really know except to see that David’s dance wearing a priestly garment isn’t rejected by supernatural action.
They travel all of 6 paces to be sure before sacrificing and beginning the dance.
David’s exuberant offering to God of joyful dance seems to be accepted.
Whether his exposing himself was undignified and showing off to slave girls, or the expression of humility before God - we just don’t know. David also acts against Michal, never fathering a child with her which seals his dynasty and ends that of Saul’s, Michal’s father. Their will be NO joint heir. Does David have Dual motives? Quite possibly. David is both a religious being and a political one, AND he is blessed in many ways.

What we find from this story is that God can work with humans, real humans, like us- who have dual motives and layers of reasons for our actions. If only we are willing to risk involvement and give our true expression to God.

David’s dance of delight and joy are at the heart of the message for us today.

God’s presence demands celebration and so does the expectation of blessings to come. David’s reaction is not typical. The dance of delight is too much expression for most of us. We are more lightly to THINK exuberance but hold back our action. Perhaps we are more like timid teenagers at a dance. Try this picture on for size.

(by William McNamara)
“You are responsible for fifty teen-agers. [Rather young ones.] So you gather them together and put them in the fellowship hall and tell them to dance. Leaving someone in charge of the music, You go for a cup of coffee.
You return and witness this scene, four or five girls dancing in the middle of the room, and all the guys hugging the walls.”

Does that sound familiar? Perhaps its “pathetic” but is it an accurate image of Christ’s Church today?
At the heart there are a few live ones, participating, doing the Christ dance, re-enacting the mystery of faith, the birth-death-resurrection of the Everlasting man.

The rest of us are hugging the walls, cuddling up to the institution and the structure, smugly and securely “doing our thing” on the threshold of the Church; and from that safe distance we watch and discuss the appropriateness of the action at the center.

We seem a long way from King David and delightful dance, don’t we? We don’t risk, our giving or our involvement by giving ourselves. IF anything, we tend to stake our money on the safety at the edges instead of risking coming close to God’s presence and what God can do with our energy and passion.

Why are we more like the teens at the edge of the room? Are we afraid of –
- being embarrassed or of getting too involved?
- Or Are we afraid that God will expose us, and discover we often have dual motives? Pause
-
Can we accept God’s blessing and risk the places it(God) may take us? It might mean allowing ourselves to be open to the potential of being shockingly, utterly transformed by our boundless, amazing, wonderful ‘known-yet-unknown’ God.

We can learn much from King David. He lived a full and complex life. He is remembered for his greatness and yet the stories of his mistakes are repeated along with the glories of his successes. Still God blessed him and used him.

God can use us.

God accepts our offerings of passion and delight and uses us for good. God knows our motives and works with us and thru us to accomplish great things for all people. God can use everything and anything we give.
We are at the dance.
Some of us are timid and afraid of being exposed.
Some of our dance cards are too full to wait for the amazing partnership God has in mind.
Some of us are wondering if our passionate dancing will be accepted or judged.

What is keeping you at the edge of the room? What keeps you from sharing your gifts and dancing?

Question and Answer

Sunday we had a wonderful experience in worship of hearing three members speak of their experience of questioning God. Their stories touched us and their pain resonated with our stories. We were still left with our questions, we were just touched by their faithful response.

Theodicy has been a central religious issue for- well ever. Read the Psalms and you 'hear' the cry of God's people again and again. I just read a good perspective on our struggles written by Keith Giles and posted at The Ooze. How can God allow. . .?

"For now we live in a fallen world. God is still in control, but more often than not God allows things to happen and He works through the wreckage.

We are co-workers with God in this effort. He allows us the honor of extending grace to the sinner, comfort to the afflicted, and hope to the hopeless.

In fact, Jesus so identifies with the poor, the broken, the imprisoned, and the outcast that he says "whatever you have done to one of the least of these you have done it to me."

So, the next time we are tempted to ask, "How can God allow...?" we have to realize that God is permissive, but He is not passive. He takes what is intended for evil and turns it to good. He is in the business of turning darkness into light, and He calls us to the same ministry of reconciliation.

Maybe, when it comes to suffering and injustice we should ask ourselves, "How can we allow..'"

I wanted to share it since it fit so well with our stories of strengthening faith along with questioning God. We have our work before us - always.

Keith Giles is a pastor who doesn't take a salary in a house church where 100% of the offering goes to help the poor in the community and within the Body. You can download his books for free over at his blog: http://www.KeithGiles.com.

Conversation Around The Table

Annual Conference can be like a giant fellowship meal because it provides multiple occasions for sitting around tables (Brethren do like to eat) and conversing about the issue of the day. This year some difficult issues were (and remain) before us.

One was a specific query asking if the language of the Church of the Brethren 1983 Annual Conference paper on Human Sexuality would continue to guide us as it applies to same gender covenantal relationships. Another was a Standing Committee statement passed on from the 2008 conference called, “A Statement of Confession and Commitment”. Both papers were referred to a newly revised process for Dealing with Strongly Controversial Issues, which will allow us to listen to each other’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings on the topics. This means we are committing ourselves to a process where listening becomes as important as making a point.

As a denomination, a nation, and around most tables we are “not of one mind” on the issues surrounding human sexuality. Therefore, it is important for us to learn to listen to each other as we endeavor to be understood.

At the pre-conference Ministers’ Event, Celia Cook-Huffman made the following suggestions for exploring a difficult topic.

Use Effective Communication
Emotions come first, think of feelings as data, seek first to understand (rather than looking for agreement or problem solving), gather facts, check assumptions, everyone’s story counts, ask yourself if a facilitator or mediator would help?

Focus on the Positive
What is working in the relationship? What are the benefits? Where is there agreement? What are individual strengths of the people involved?

What is the Ideal?
What do you really want?

Key strategies such as Listening, Expressing Intentions, using statements to Reflect and Restate what the other person has said will help us hear each other more clearly. As the conversation continues we can Focus on new information (not repeating old tapes from our history) and remember to Focus on the problem. These mechanics will certainly help us. Most of all, Pray for your sisters and brothers and for yourself. God can use an open spirit in ways beyond our imagining to bring about shalom and justice in the world. Amen, may it be so.

only a little scripture

Well, in San Diego for Conference and what a boring weather forecast. . . yeah, the most wonderful boring forecast I've ever scene. Thursday: High of 70, Friday, high of 70, and on it goes. No wonder people risk falling off into the sea every time the earth shakes out here. They are already close to heaven. Oh and incredible humus and falafel next door at the mall. Walking around the mall I felt like I was in an O.C. episode. Obviously I've been up too long. Time for bed. Too bad I can't just open the window, but I guess it's safer this way.

BTW "a little help from friends" is incredibly rewarding. We have hymnals for the Ministers' Pre-Conference event coming from Laverne and San Diego COBs with folks delivering them to us. How very wonderful it is when Brethren work together in unity. Ps. 133

stuck in the boat in a storm

Well I missed the post this week, but I do have some sermon notes so I'll paste them in here.

“ok, admit it, you’ve been in the boat. . .we’ve all been in the boat at some point.
We were taking a normal trip across the lake, or across town.
It was a normal drive on a normal day.
Suddenly, the waves of crisis rise and threaten to swamp the boat.
Maybe it was a car that crashed into yours,
Or a call from your family with shocking news
Or a piece of mail that turned your life upside down.
It could’ve been the sudden end of a job or the death of a loved one.
Maybe it was a diagnosis for you or serious trouble for a family member.
Whatever happened it was overwhelming and potentially life changing.
Do you remember that day? Can you still see the giant waves and feel the water flooding the boat?
When it happens, we sound just like the disciples,
We cry out, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

It is a natural human response to cry out to God, even if our prayer is only an “O God, help me!”
The disciples cry echoes those we hear in the Psalms, written generations ago.

“Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! (v. 24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?” Ps. 44:23-24

“Wake up! Bestir yourself for my defense, for my cause, my God and my Lord!” Ps. 35:23

“Rouse yourself, come to my help and see!” Ps. 59:4b

When our boat is threatened and the waves look like something from the movie, A Perfect Storm, we call out to our Lord and our God.

Communication is always good, any counselor will tell you such. The same is true for communication with God. Calling on God in times of trouble is natural and proper. It is best when part of an on-going communication like daily prayer, but it is good at anytime to talk with God because God welcomes us and desires to be close to us.

Notice (in the story) that Jesus doesn’t wake up and chastise the disciples for rousing him nor for asking for help. He first rebukes the storm. He does so with the same words that he uses to exorcise demons. He commands demons to cease and be silent, and they do.
The Divine Power within Jesus is stronger than the evil, which was seen as the root cause of demons and their uncontrollable behavior. Jesus has power over chaos just as the Creator did in the beginning of the earth.
“the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God* swept over the face of the waters. Then God said,”
KJV says, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.


We might look closer at this story. As short as it is, there are details that help us see Jesus and more importantly understand who he is.
• Jesus wants to go across the lake, which is predominantly Gentile territory. We know Jesus’ mission is primarily to Jews, but he is not excluding anyone and this trip foreshadows the later activity of the church. Jesus crosses lakes and crosses boundaries so he can minister to everyone. It was certainly important for Mark’s original readers to hear this message of inclusion when many of them were not Jews.
• Jesus is tired and goes to sleep which shows us his full humanity. We worship the risen and exalted Lord yet it is important for us to remember in his humanity for that was and is, God’s way of connecting with God’s children. Jesus needed to rest. And in his rest we see the trust at the core of his life.
• His sound sleep implies his trust in a watchful God AND it implies trust in his disciples. You don’t curl up and go to sleep in a boat if you don’t feel safe in the hands of those in charge of keeping it afloat.
• Jesus trusts in the skills and judgment of these men who are familiar with the sea. Certainly they have been in troubled waters before and got thru them.

Jesus trusts in God and trusts in his disciples. Which may make their lack of faith seem even greater until we look closer.
Did you notice that Jesus didn’t say, “there is nothing to be afraid of.” Jan Richardson of Painted Prayerbook.com says
“The disciples were right to feel afraid. Yet their perception of reality was defined solely by the storm and only increased their experience of being overwhelmed. The presence of the storm was not the whole truth of their situation.”

But they began to panic and when we panic, judgment becomes compromised. Our ability to act with decisiveness slips and we tend to become RE- active. When adrenaline flows, ‘Fight or flight’ is our response. When they REacted, IN FEAR and PANIC, the disciples lost the ability to use their experience in the situation.

Jesus calms both the waves and the disciples. THEN he turns and asks for the source of their fears.
He had faith in them, he has faith in God. Do they NOT YET have faith?
Implied in the way he asks (at least in the Greek) is his trust that they WILL come to faith, even if they are not quite there yet. “Have you still no faith?”

And what does faith look like when a crisis hits?
What did you do when your boat swamped?
What happened after the “O God, help me!”

“Living in denial is not the same as having faith. Whatever the sources of our anxiety, faith helps to provide the tools we need to maintain our vision and to see the truth within the waves that seek to command our whole attention. Says Jan Richardson, Faith asks what is defining our reality?”
Faith challenges us to cling to the One who has power over the chaos that is swirling around us. In fact, God’s power can even be found within it.
Perhaps it is hard for us to picture this scene in today’s world. We find it hard to believe -or at least understand- this story of miraculous calming.
• It is hard for us to get our heads around miracle stories. We may not typically be literal readers of the Bible, but we hear these stories in a way that categorizes them as something that happened in biblical times and couldn’t happen today.
o A God who has power over the natural world is ok in theory but how do we really account for times when God doesn’t stop the chaos or the hurricane and people die. In our “post-Enlightenment eyes, nature works by fixed laws and anything miraculous in the natural world is an infringement of these laws. God then becomes an occasional intruder into the world. We either “have faith” or we don’t
o Intruder status limits God to a part-time player in our lives who we call on when crisis hits, “God save us” when at other times God is irrelevant.
o In this worldview, is it no wonder that people today find God incredible or not worthy of faith.”

Yet what if we remember that God is not an “intruder” in our world, but we in God’s. At least that’s the closer to the truth we can’t comprehend. God is in nature itself and do we dare limit God to what we can accept and explain? Or do we prefer to say God is only what we CAN’T explain – at least now, in this century.

Yesterday, at the jr high conference, I showed clips from Al Gore’s movie an Inconvenient Truth and within it were pictures of the earth from space.
It is incredible to see the globe on which we live. And we think we understand it, now. – when truly we are still learning about the miracle of creation and the beginnings of the universe.

How can we comprehend the creation of a human or a gnat when a spacecraft travels far out into the galaxy and looks back at the speck, which is earth.
God is far greater than anything we can imagine.

That’s what the disciples discovered in the storm. When Jesus enters in, their eyes are opened to the presence of the Divine in their midst and they are filled with fear, the kinda scared, and VERY awed, reaction humans have when they are near the Holy.

When Jesus asks the disciples, “why they don’t yet have faith?” he knows they have a lifetime of learning ahead of them but the time is coming when they will have to act on what they DO know. So Jesus keeps teaching them and leading them and TRUSTING in them so they can learn to trust in him and the God from whom he comes.
We are no different than the disciples in the boat.
We’re still trying to understand the Divine Jesus.
We really want to have faith. – we know we need it.

Because we deal with storms all the time and When Jesus enters in, there’s hope for calmer days and clearer vision, even in situations that need a miracle.

A man or woman can find a way out of addiction.
A world on the brink of war, takes a step toward peace.
Or You find a way to live, in spite of the death of a spouse that devastated your life.
Leaders of countries who have no official relations, might find a way to speak.
A path that was not visible before, in the panic of the crisis, become clear.
Or maybe A few loaves of bread feed a multitude of people.

Are any of these things less than miraculous?

It is time for our vision to clear so we can walk in faith.
It is time for us to recognize the holy in our midst, not limit that Spirit to a 2,000 year old story.
It is time for us to claim the assurance that Jesus offers.

Do we YET have faith?

Inside-Out

David is anointed King. Its a story for children with low self esteem, or perhaps for any of us who forget that although "mortals see the outward appearance, the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Sam.16:7) Do you ever wonder how David felt about all this? Perhaps it appeared an opportunity to get away from the smelly sheep. Maybe it was just a chance to join the rest of the world after being 'banished' to the fields with duties left to the youngest brother. As conflict begins to enter David's life, I wonder if he ever missed those quiet fields?

It is interesting that from the moment "The spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David" (1 Sam. 16:13) his life gets VERY complicated. Yes, he gets to be King eventually and that has its own complications, but along the way he is put into the service of the current king, Saul, he ends up in battle with a giant, he gets pursued and fears for his life thanks to the king's jealousy, paranoia, and "evil spirit". The story of David's friendship with Jonathan is lifted up and made part of children's curriculum. (Let's all turn against our parents in favor of our best friend. . .?) We often skip some of the most interesting parts of David's life.

David rose and fled that day from Saul; he went to King Achish of Gath. ¹¹The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” ¹²David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. ¹³So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. ¹⁴Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”1 Samuel 21:10-15

David received God's blessing and answered God's call and life was exceedingly difficult, "interesting" at least. How do we received God's call? Do we only expect the blessing part and forget about the difficulties? Are we 'up' for "interesting" or must our callings be sweetness and light?

God's call comes to all people, thankfully in less dramatic form than David's call. We are all challenged to respond in trust, humbled by the fact that we are the chosen of God and hopefully prepared for all the "interesting" adventures that are part of God's call.

Out Of My Head

Tomorrow's sermon:
John 3:16 may be the best known verse in all the Bible, certainly in the N.T. We usually hear it apart from the story of Nicodemus and the two are closely related because Jesus is making a point that Nicodemus has trouble understanding. Jesus and 'Nic' are speaking two languages from two different worlds. After last week’s tri-language worship service, we can appreciate the difficulty of communication when people speak different languages.

I sympathize on another level with poor Nicodemus. You see, he can’t get out of his head. He’s a well-educated Pharisee and used to debating the fine points of LAW. Nic was a devout worshiper of the One God of Abraham. In fact, the Pharisees were the ones who said everyone should have to obey the same rules as the high priest and observe the same strict diets as the priest did.

Nic just believed in the letter of the law.
If it required 2 dove be sacrificed for J-walking then he would sacrifice 2 dove.
If you could only travel 4,000 cubits on a Sabbath day, then he wouldn’t take one step more. (complex computations determined the distance)
Nicodemus was much like the devout Roman Catholic homemaker in the days when it was forbidden to eat meat on Friday. She would take the family stick of butter and wrap it up on Thursday night and put it in the freezer for later use. A fresh stick would come out on Friday so that should there be even the tiniest bit of meat on the butter from a past meal, no one in her family would be committing a ‘mortal’ sin by ingesting meat.

You certainly can’t fault Nicodemus on the piety front. But he’s stuck in a literal world and as long as he hangs out with other Pharisees -other literalists,- his logic works, but when he meets Jesus, all that he knows comes into question. He realizes he has heard a prophet speak and he wants to hear more. He begins the conversation with what he knows (head) to be true,
“Jesus is a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do the signs he does, apart from the presence of God.” (Jn 3:2) Then Jesus speaks from another world view. It is as if he is speaking a different language and Nicodemus is confused.

We’ve all had those conversations that begin with the assumption that we’re on the ‘same page’ as the person to whom we are speaking.
“You know,” I say, “The folder with the bills in it.”
My conversation partner answers, “Sure I know” and we continue talking - unaware that we are each referring to a different folder until the conversation hits a point at which we look at each other strangely unable to fathom why this simple request is so hard to understand and then - - - we realize – somehow – that our reference points are different and we’re not talking about the same folder.
Oh, and when these conversations are about directions, and reference points are different - well at least one of the 2 are already lost, literally.

Jesus concern is for the LOST, for those who can’t see and hear on the Divine Level. In the other gospel accounts, Jesus speaks in parables. Stories with deep meanings and many layers - to enlighten people to the Divine way of seeing. In John, we have layers of meaning, without the parables. And Jesus’ POINT-OF-REFERENCE is vastly different than the people around him. And Jesus’ word choice doesn’t make it easy for Nic. He uses a couple words that have dual meanings.
Jesus uses the word, ανωθεν which means “From above” “from the first”, and “anew”, or “again”.
Amen, amen, very truly, I say to you, If someone is not born ανωθεν he will not be able to see the kingdom of God.
Born from above? Born anew? Born again? How can we be sure what our ears are hearing and our minds translating?
And the word Jesus’ uses for Wind and Spirit is the same word, also.

It can be confusing to us as well as Nicodemus. We have to remember, John’s gospel often has two layers to whatever is being said. We, as the readers, are often clued into the higher level, because we know the full story of Jesus life, death and resurrection. The people Jesus speaks to, whether disciples, Pharisees, Jewish leaders, or bystanders, are often at the lower level. They are trying to make sense of his words using their brain when something else is needed to help with the translation. Nic needed to get out of his head when he listened to Jesus. He needed to listen with the ear of his heart. He needed to let his gut tell him what his mind couldn’t.

We have a similar difficulties. Today is Trinity Sunday, the day when we celebrate the 3-fold nature of God. Try to explain that in a Children’s Story! I’ve heard it done this way.
H20 is water… Here we have water, H20
It is also ice… which is H20
And it is steam…if we apply enough heat to the water in a kettle we get steam which is H20.
Three very different looking and feeling elements and yet the same compound of 2 elements, hydrogen and water, in the same combination of 2 Hydrogen molecules to 1 Oxygen. But somehow ice, water and steam is an insufficient allusion to the Almighty.

I heard another good try this week. It goes like this.
I am my parents’ daughter, my brother’s sibling and my children’s mother. I’m still Nancy, just one person with all 3 roles of daughter, sister, and mother. It’s a good effort at explaining that there are three primary ways that people have experienced the divine.

• We know of the Creator, the master of the universe, maker of all that is.
• We know of Jesus, called the Christ or messiah in whom rested the fullest expression of the divine that a human body could hold. People experienced God when they were with Jesus and so came to worship his name.
• And he promised the Holy Spirit, Paraclete, the great comforter would be with his followers to assure, guide and empower for continuing his work and his mission.
3 in 1, yet it is not an easy thing for us to get our heads around.

I don’t believe in suspending reason completely either. I think religion - good religion - has to combine faith and reason. Philosophers have differed over that concept for centuries.

Thomas Aquinas saw reason and faith as two ways of knowing.

"Reason" covers what we can know by experience and logic alone. From reason, we can know that there is a God and that there is only one God; these truths about God are accessible to anyone by experience and logic alone, apart from any special revelation from God.

"Faith" covers what we can know by God's special revelation to us (which comes through the Bible and Christian Tradition). By faith, we can know that God came into the world through Jesus Christ and that God is triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). These truths about God cannot be known by reason alone.

Faith builds on reason. (Aquinas said) Since faith and reason are both ways of arriving at truth -- and since all truths are harmonious with each other -- faith is consistent with reason. If we understand faith and reason correctly, there will be no conflict between what faith tells us and what reason tells us. http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/RE/R-A4--00.HTM

Yet faith and reason leave out an important component, the body. There is a knowing that comes from a deeper place than the mind whether it be reasoning about our experiences or thinking in faith. Our bodies understand some things that our heads can’t.

Last week at Arlington Church of the Brethren, we had a different experience of worship. We moved to the music and clapped for a sermon most of us couldn’t understand. We took clues from the facial expressions and the actions of people, but I think we felt something at a deeper level. There was an excitement and Holy Presence here that could be felt. There was a communal understanding of praise as we swayed and sang the simple word, “Alleluia”. It was experience that went beyond our heads.
There are times, like when we kneel to wash each others feet, that our bodies understand in a language our heads don’t receive. How is it that a candlelit sanctuary conveys the holy? Explain to me what happens when we move into a circle on Christmas eve and we each hold a small candle and transfer the light from one to another. Tell me what it is in that moment that makes it so easy to believe that a newborn baby can change the whole world.

Our bodies experience something in moments of movement that adds to what we see and hear in a way that creates an inner knowing. Along with the sound of “Silent Night” comes the acceptance of Angelic hosts and an understanding of a Creator who “enters in” to humanity.

Jesus’ said,

“The wind/spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”

We don’t always know and yet, Jesus expects Nicodemus and US to understand that the point of reference of the Spirit is different than is that of the world.

The body-knowing that happens in worship is why we return here every week. It’s why we love to go to camp, it’s why we worship together rather than alone. We feel God’s presence here, when we sing together and pray together.

We feel God’s presence when we stand in God’s creation under the trees or the stars.
We understand at a deep inner level when we look to a cross and lift up our eyes that we are responding to the inner knowing that God is with us. It’s a knowing that takes us beyond the literal understanding that God is not up, nor limited to the communion table, AND YET,

At communion we celebrate God’s presence with us, not IN the elements (at least not in Brethren theology, although you are free to believe differently) because we celebrate the God who is here in God’s community.
And Christ is here in a special way when our bodies taste broken bread remembering a real body that was broken by the power of worldly authorities and yet a presence remained that could not be eliminated.
We understand with that deep knowing when we drink juice that there is life offered to us that goes beyond the blood in human veins and connects us to the God of all eternity.

“For God so loved humanity, that God sent the son of all that God is, that whoever believes, with all their body and soul, may have greater life. God did send this special presence so that humanity would be judged but that all of the world might be saved thru him.”