Oct 27
“The Greatest Glory to God”
Acts 16: 11-15 and Luke 18:9-14
This week, I heard an inspiring news piece about a huge consumer packaged goods company. So huge that 2.5 billion people use products that this company packages each day. Products like Ben & Jerry’s, Dove and Seventh Generation. This company who already had impressive recycling goals just this week set ambitious new ones saying that by 2025 they are going to: 1) halve their use of new plastics 2) collect and process more plastic packaging than they sell; and then 3) work towards a circular economy for plastics where plastics “stay in the economy and out of the environment.
I was inspired by their clearly articulated vision and by their plan and commitment to seeing it through.
Plastic waste is a huge problem we face but it is not the only one.
Food waste is also of growing concern. Did you know that 40% of food production in the United States is wasted, which includes 1 billion food items annually from U.S. Schools. All of this waste while at least 50 Million Americans suffer from food insecurity?[1] This food ends up in landfills which then rots, produces methane gas which then augments green house gases and contributes to global warming. Food waste is a huge problem.
But, I learned recently about a program called FoodRescue that works with elementary school kids to help them as they say “move from feeding landfills to feeding people.” It’s pretty simple they say. Give kids a vision and a way of acting on that vision. Instead of having only a waste basket in the school lunch room, there are bins to receive unopened food items and unpeeled fruit. They help kids see that food insecurity is a problem not because there is not enough food, but because the food that there is, is being wasted and not distributed in ways that would be most helpful.
But before we go any further, will you pray with me. Holy one, in your economy of grace may we come to know that no one is expendable but that by your redeeming and sustaining love all are to come home to our worth and worthiness in you. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, Oh God our rock and our redeemer, Amen.
~~~
Today we are taking time to remember and celebrate the saints among us. People who have a vision and inspire us. People that have perhaps helped us to see ourselves and the world around us in new ways.
I have been thinking a lot this week about what is it that makes someone a saint for us? In the Christian tradition it is understood that all who seek to walk in the way of Love are Saints. Sainthood is not just for those few who rise above the rest of us and are canonized because of their extraordinary miracles or acts of love. We are grateful certainly for those great examples to be sure. But on this day we are also grateful for so many ordinary people who have had a profound effect on our lives.
For me, as I have spent time thinking about it this week, the saints in my life are those people who show me what it is to not waste the precious gifts that God has given me. Saints are those people who have modeled for me what it is to cease spending energy in unhelpful ways of thinking and being with ourselves, others and our God. People who no longer waste time condemning ourselves and others for our perceived deficiencies and failings. People who instead model what it is to be free from self – loathing and the crushing weight of inadequacy, free from the ensnarement of shame and blame. Saints for me are guides that point to what a life of freedom, flourishing and fullness can look like. Saints show me what living love looks like and the freedom that comes with such living.
And Saints are also those that show me what it is to be champion recyclers. For they are ones who look around and not only see what and who have been cast aside but who find life giving, world healing ways to draw the discarded back into the single stream of God’s love where no one and nothing is wasted.
~~~
We see this in the scripture passage from Luke this morning. Two men go up to the temple to pray. But only one comes down justified. And the one that comes down justified is not the one that those hearing the parable would have expected. For those hearing the parable that day, the powerful and socially valued, would have expected that it would have been the Pharisee in the story that would be the one justified. For wasn’t his power and privilege evidence of it?
But Jesus says no. The justified one, the one brought back into the flow of God’s grace that day is actually the tax collector, the one others and even himself had deemed disposable.
~~~
There is a lot of talk about the divisiveness of our time and about how the fabric of our life together is being rent apart. There is a lot of concern that we as a society are losing the ability to have a conversation with people whose values or life experience may be different than our own. But I wonder if the problem is not so much that we do not know how to converse with people who are different from ourselves but that we tend not to even want to converse; that we tend to see others not as worthy of conversation all together!
~~~
I wonder if that is not the good news that Jesus is proclaiming for us now! Could it be that the Good News, the gospel message that to challenge us to see that waste is not an inevitable by-product of living? Could the gospel message be trying to help us see our error that we have cultivated and now live within a disposable culture where not only do we accept material waste but that also we have become acculturated to seeing some are deemed worthy and others as not, as others as waste? Could it be that the gospel message bid us see that such a way of living is not what God intends for us?
Could it be that God is asking us, like Jesus asked that Pharisee long ago, to catch a new vision for who we are and how we are to live together as one?
~~~
When Mark and I were first married we lived for three years in rural El Salvador. We arrived 6 months after the peace accords were signed after years of brutal civil war. We were part of a public health project that was working to fortify the infrastructure of health and education in a part of the country that was devastated by that war. We moved into a little house in Hacienda Vieja that had a beautiful view of an enormous mango tree in the little village center and then the mountains that bordered Honduras – in the not so far distance. One of the villages that we worked with in those years was called Potreillos, a 45 minute hike from our house. And the village elder in that town was a woman named Lydia.
Potreillos was a difficult town. The divisions that split the country were both alive and ferocious still within that mountain community. There was much distrust and fear. And yet, Lydia had a vision. She had a vision of her town as being one where clean water flowed, where children had enough to eat, where a health center was well stocked and staffed, where school bells rang, and where garbage was not thrown in the streets but was collected, sorted and recycled.
Lydia welcomed Mark and I, these strangers from another land, into her home and into her vision. She fed us with her pupusas and her smiles and her wisdom. We slept in her house and learned from her way. She was a saint to me. She challenged me, and made me uncomfortable at times by that challenge for sure. But deep down I knew that as improbably as it was, she loved me. I know she did. She loved me and she accepted me fully. Nothing was wasted on her. That I am sure. Her life had been a difficult one but it had also been winnowing. She could see clearly what was clearly needing to be seen. And when we left three years later leaving our home there to return to another here in Boston, it was Lydia that gave us this piece of embroidery that has hung in my kitchen for the last 25 years. This embroidery that says: “Olvidarte no puedo” Forget you, I cannot!
~~~
Lydia, the woman by the river in our scripture from Acts today heard the good news and took the risk of acting upon it. Lydia – the one who dared to see through a new lens and to hold up a vision of what living love could actually look like in her slice of the world. “Come and stay at my home” she said to Paul and those with him. And we know that Lydia’s home became home base for Paul and that it was Lydia and her vision that enabled Paul and those with him to continue to spread the vision of a new way of being in the world.
~~~
Would you join me in an exercise this week? Would you join me in trying to pay attention to times this coming week when we may be feeling disposable, or when we come across someone else who may be feeling tossed aside. Can we cultivate an attunement to the pressures we may feel to perform, measure up, make ourselves worth. Can we pay attention and then can we be saints to one another.
~~~
Can we speak
words hope and promise, cast visions for what can be, and life lives that are
full of welcome. Can we work together
towards the day when no one is tossed aside but that all find the fullness of
live and thriving within the household of God. . And may this place, continue to be a
gathering place for the saints, for you
and for me and for all who are to come.
That in this place we are reminded of who we are and whose we are. That this may be home base, a place that
proclaims to the world weary and cast down that says “come in and stay in this,
our house!” because in the words of St.
Lydia of Potrerillos” “forget you? We cannot!”
May it be so. Amen
Oct 27
“The Greatest Glory to God”
Acts 16: 11-15 and Luke 18:9-14
This week, I heard an inspiring news piece about a huge consumer packaged goods company. So huge that 2.5 billion people use products that this company packages each day. Products like Ben & Jerry’s, Dove and Seventh Generation. This company who already had impressive recycling goals just this week set ambitious new ones saying that by 2025 they are going to: 1) halve their use of new plastics 2) collect and process more plastic packaging than they sell; and then 3) work towards a circular economy for plastics where plastics “stay in the economy and out of the environment.
I was inspired by their clearly articulated vision and by their plan and commitment to seeing it through.
Plastic waste is a huge problem we face but it is not the only one.
Food waste is also of growing concern. Did you know that 40% of food production in the United States is wasted, which includes 1 billion food items annually from U.S. Schools. All of this waste while at least 50 Million Americans suffer from food insecurity?[1] This food ends up in landfills which then rots, produces methane gas which then augments green house gases and contributes to global warming. Food waste is a huge problem.
But, I learned recently about a program called FoodRescue that works with elementary school kids to help them as they say “move from feeding landfills to feeding people.” It’s pretty simple they say. Give kids a vision and a way of acting on that vision. Instead of having only a waste basket in the school lunch room, there are bins to receive unopened food items and unpeeled fruit. They help kids see that food insecurity is a problem not because there is not enough food, but because the food that there is, is being wasted and not distributed in ways that would be most helpful.
But before we go any further, will you pray with me. Holy one, in your economy of grace may we come to know that no one is expendable but that by your redeeming and sustaining love all are to come home to our worth and worthiness in you. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, Oh God our rock and our redeemer, Amen.
~~~
Today we are taking time to remember and celebrate the saints among us. People who have a vision and inspire us. People that have perhaps helped us to see ourselves and the world around us in new ways.
I have been thinking a lot this week about what is it that makes someone a saint for us? In the Christian tradition it is understood that all who seek to walk in the way of Love are Saints. Sainthood is not just for those few who rise above the rest of us and are canonized because of their extraordinary miracles or acts of love. We are grateful certainly for those great examples to be sure. But on this day we are also grateful for so many ordinary people who have had a profound effect on our lives.
For me, as I have spent time thinking about it this week, the saints in my life are those people who show me what it is to not waste the precious gifts that God has given me. Saints are those people who have modeled for me what it is to cease spending energy in unhelpful ways of thinking and being with ourselves, others and our God. People who no longer waste time condemning ourselves and others for our perceived deficiencies and failings. People who instead model what it is to be free from self – loathing and the crushing weight of inadequacy, free from the ensnarement of shame and blame. Saints for me are guides that point to what a life of freedom, flourishing and fullness can look like. Saints show me what living love looks like and the freedom that comes with such living.
And Saints are also those that show me what it is to be champion recyclers. For they are ones who look around and not only see what and who have been cast aside but who find life giving, world healing ways to draw the discarded back into the single stream of God’s love where no one and nothing is wasted.
~~~
We see this in the scripture passage from Luke this morning. Two men go up to the temple to pray. But only one comes down justified. And the one that comes down justified is not the one that those hearing the parable would have expected. For those hearing the parable that day, the powerful and socially valued, would have expected that it would have been the Pharisee in the story that would be the one justified. For wasn’t his power and privilege evidence of it?
But Jesus says no. The justified one, the one brought back into the flow of God’s grace that day is actually the tax collector, the one others and even himself had deemed disposable.
~~~
There is a lot of talk about the divisiveness of our time and about how the fabric of our life together is being rent apart. There is a lot of concern that we as a society are losing the ability to have a conversation with people whose values or life experience may be different than our own. But I wonder if the problem is not so much that we do not know how to converse with people who are different from ourselves but that we tend not to even want to converse; that we tend to see others not as worthy of conversation all together!
~~~
I wonder if that is not the good news that Jesus is proclaiming for us now! Could it be that the Good News, the gospel message that to challenge us to see that waste is not an inevitable by-product of living? Could the gospel message be trying to help us see our error that we have cultivated and now live within a disposable culture where not only do we accept material waste but that also we have become acculturated to seeing some are deemed worthy and others as not, as others as waste? Could it be that the gospel message bid us see that such a way of living is not what God intends for us?
Could it be that God is asking us, like Jesus asked that Pharisee long ago, to catch a new vision for who we are and how we are to live together as one?
~~~
When Mark and I were first married we lived for three years in rural El Salvador. We arrived 6 months after the peace accords were signed after years of brutal civil war. We were part of a public health project that was working to fortify the infrastructure of health and education in a part of the country that was devastated by that war. We moved into a little house in Hacienda Vieja that had a beautiful view of an enormous mango tree in the little village center and then the mountains that bordered Honduras – in the not so far distance. One of the villages that we worked with in those years was called Potreillos, a 45 minute hike from our house. And the village elder in that town was a woman named Lydia.
Potreillos was a difficult town. The divisions that split the country were both alive and ferocious still within that mountain community. There was much distrust and fear. And yet, Lydia had a vision. She had a vision of her town as being one where clean water flowed, where children had enough to eat, where a health center was well stocked and staffed, where school bells rang, and where garbage was not thrown in the streets but was collected, sorted and recycled.
Lydia welcomed Mark and I, these strangers from another land, into her home and into her vision. She fed us with her pupusas and her smiles and her wisdom. We slept in her house and learned from her way. She was a saint to me. She challenged me, and made me uncomfortable at times by that challenge for sure. But deep down I knew that as improbably as it was, she loved me. I know she did. She loved me and she accepted me fully. Nothing was wasted on her. That I am sure. Her life had been a difficult one but it had also been winnowing. She could see clearly what was clearly needing to be seen. And when we left three years later leaving our home there to return to another here in Boston, it was Lydia that gave us this piece of embroidery that has hung in my kitchen for the last 25 years. This embroidery that says: “Olvidarte no puedo” Forget you, I cannot!
~~~
Lydia, the woman by the river in our scripture from Acts today heard the good news and took the risk of acting upon it. Lydia – the one who dared to see through a new lens and to hold up a vision of what living love could actually look like in her slice of the world. “Come and stay at my home” she said to Paul and those with him. And we know that Lydia’s home became home base for Paul and that it was Lydia and her vision that enabled Paul and those with him to continue to spread the vision of a new way of being in the world.
~~~
Would you join me in an exercise this week? Would you join me in trying to pay attention to times this coming week when we may be feeling disposable, or when we come across someone else who may be feeling tossed aside. Can we cultivate an attunement to the pressures we may feel to perform, measure up, make ourselves worth. Can we pay attention and then can we be saints to one another.
~~~
Can we speak
words hope and promise, cast visions for what can be, and life lives that are
full of welcome. Can we work together
towards the day when no one is tossed aside but that all find the fullness of
live and thriving within the household of God. . And may this place, continue to be a
gathering place for the saints, for you
and for me and for all who are to come.
That in this place we are reminded of who we are and whose we are. That this may be home base, a place that
proclaims to the world weary and cast down that says “come in and stay in this,
our house!” because in the words of St.
Lydia of Potrerillos” “forget you? We cannot!”
May it be so. Amen
[1] http://www.foodrescue.net/open-letter-to-schools.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_tG63LK65QIVGKSzCh2-6gj7EAAYASAAEgIJL_D_BwE