WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.179 Of course. 00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:20.193 When Pastor Darren said I want to get you up there one more time before you leave, I blithely said sure, I'm always as intrigued by the development of the things that I preach as anyone else, because I start out with the bad first draft and then God helps with the editing process. 00:00:20.193 --> 00:00:25.452 So I enjoy it as much for what I learn as for what I'm able to share. 00:00:25.452 --> 00:00:29.350 Then I started looking at the circumstances. 00:00:29.350 --> 00:00:35.345 Oh, it's my last Sunday worshiping regularly with this group of people no pressure there. 00:00:35.345 --> 00:00:39.350 And oh, it's Pentecost Sunday, okay. 00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:50.991 And then, as I was watching the news yesterday and it feels like the world is falling apart and division is overwhelming peace, joy and unity. 00:00:50.991 --> 00:01:01.326 Well, it's New Member Sunday, just to top that off, and I want to start with a musical reference. 00:01:01.326 --> 00:01:07.150 As you all know, I often do God throws these songs in my head and I just feel like I have to use them. 00:01:07.150 --> 00:01:12.753 So, in the iconic words of Sister Sledge, we are family. 00:01:12.753 --> 00:01:18.531 I got all my sisters with me and, poetic license, my brothers as well. 00:01:18.531 --> 00:01:27.391 This on this slide is how it all starts for me. 00:01:27.391 --> 00:01:51.224 When we talk about the church, we hear a lot about being brothers and sisters in Christ, and this verse this morning about being the family of God, the very children of God, and just like the image of God, the Father, as many of you have heard in previous messages that I've given, that can be complicated. 00:01:51.224 --> 00:01:56.534 Families can be complicated, did I say, can be? 00:01:56.534 --> 00:02:02.132 I probably should have said families are complicated and bringing it down a level. 00:02:02.132 --> 00:02:07.183 I think it's because people are complicated or I don't know. 00:02:07.183 --> 00:02:16.272 Maybe, to be more specific and honest, I think people tend to complicate things, maybe especially relationships. 00:02:18.640 --> 00:02:23.072 Jesus kept trying to break through with a simple message. 00:02:23.072 --> 00:02:34.832 Pastor Darren spoke to us recently about the Beatitudes where Jesus makes clear that power and wealth are not at the heart of his message. 00:02:34.832 --> 00:02:54.229 Jesus spoke particularly of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned and just basically attending the needs of the suffering, and that's in Matthew 25, 31. 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:56.514 It's always worth another read. 00:02:56.514 --> 00:03:05.653 Jesus even went so far as to say that when we do that for others, we are doing it for him. 00:03:05.653 --> 00:03:15.514 And I think, even more importantly, he added on when we neglect people who are suffering, we are neglecting Jesus. 00:03:15.514 --> 00:03:19.889 Well, what does this have to do with the church? 00:03:19.889 --> 00:03:45.656 Just like families can do harm and cause pain, the church can be a dysfunctional family and, as my grandma used to say, it can hurt like the dickens when spiritual brothers and sisters are the source of disruption and emotional trauma. 00:03:45.656 --> 00:03:48.182 What can we do? 00:03:48.182 --> 00:03:50.207 How do we respond? 00:03:50.207 --> 00:03:52.133 What is the church? 00:03:52.133 --> 00:03:57.146 Last week, pastor Darren spoke from Jeremiah. 00:03:58.469 --> 00:04:04.900 The words that really hit home for me were around the fact that God didn't need a temple. 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:08.413 Me were around the fact that God didn't need a temple. 00:04:08.413 --> 00:04:15.066 God doesn't need a building for there to be a church. 00:04:15.066 --> 00:04:24.764 I once heard a preacher say you don't go to church, you are the church. 00:04:24.764 --> 00:04:36.951 And it seems simple in a way like when Jesus told us in Matthew 22, 37 to 40, love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. 00:04:36.951 --> 00:04:38.403 He said. 00:04:38.403 --> 00:04:46.064 All the law and the prophets are summed up in these two commands, are summed up in these two commands. 00:04:46.064 --> 00:04:55.014 Well, when it comes to being the church, being the family of the very children of God, this phrase you are the church. 00:04:55.014 --> 00:05:02.259 For me it can be a little loaded. 00:05:02.259 --> 00:05:14.047 There are some challenges and opportunities that this concept has brought in my life and I want to share just a couple of things about those challenges and opportunities as we get ready to welcome some new members today. 00:05:17.401 --> 00:05:30.156 As many of you know, I grew up in the church and as my faith grew, I had growing pains, just like a lot of us did growing up. 00:05:30.156 --> 00:05:40.038 I doubted, I questioned, I rebelled, and some people in my church family were hurtful. 00:05:40.038 --> 00:05:42.434 I was rejected. 00:05:42.434 --> 00:05:45.281 I was even vilified by some. 00:05:45.281 --> 00:05:57.062 Now my reaction, much like my reaction to my dysfunctional biological family, was to close myself off more and more and become self-sufficient and independent. 00:05:57.062 --> 00:06:07.420 I'm fine without them, was my mantra, and I thought God doesn't need a building, and neither do I. 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:13.071 God and me, we're fine without all of that. 00:06:13.071 --> 00:06:15.576 And I built a life that worked pretty well. 00:06:15.576 --> 00:06:25.482 I visited church buildings from time to time, as I had told our former pastor Walt the first day I met him. 00:06:25.482 --> 00:06:29.240 I'm not much of a joiner, but I love to visit. 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:47.896 It's likely not a surprise to anyone that one of my favorite songs growing up was the Simon and Garfunkel song, " I am a rock, and those lyrics say I am a rock, I am an island. 00:06:48.016 --> 00:06:55.920 I was committed to being strong, to loving God and to doing good, but on my own, thank you very much. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:02.963 I was great at giving help and comfort, especially in my role as a lawyer. 00:07:02.963 --> 00:07:08.581 I was terrible at asking for or receiving it. 00:07:08.581 --> 00:07:11.050 Now. 00:07:11.050 --> 00:07:38.963 I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I had chosen a very hard road, chosen a very hard road, and God and Jesus trudged it all the way, sending beams of love and light through people who showed up on my path my grandparents, my sisters, people I met in those occasional church visits, people I encountered in my work and in volunteer work. 00:07:38.963 --> 00:08:01.151 Now I'd sit at these fountains of love and light like a traveler wandering in the desert when they get to an oasis, but each time I'd turn down the invitation to stay, to get more deeply involved, and after filling up my little tank, I'd head on out alone again. 00:08:01.151 --> 00:08:08.223 I was perpetually running on empty, but I didn't really know it. 00:08:08.223 --> 00:08:10.932 We are the church. 00:08:10.932 --> 00:08:15.257 We are the church became for me I am the church. 00:08:15.257 --> 00:08:19.622 And that was a risky journey fraught with peril. 00:08:19.622 --> 00:08:24.413 It was not the path I think my loving God wanted for me. 00:08:24.413 --> 00:08:29.524 Nevertheless, he never left my side as I trudged along. 00:08:31.870 --> 00:08:34.232 And that's the challenge for me. 00:08:34.232 --> 00:08:45.606 To think that, since we are the church, we don't need other followers of Christ to worship and love our Lord. 00:08:45.606 --> 00:08:48.618 And truthfully, we don't. 00:08:48.618 --> 00:09:00.544 What we do need and more often than I think, most of us are comfortable admitting is help along that path. 00:09:00.544 --> 00:09:19.090 We live in a world that prizes self-sufficiency, accomplishment and independence to a level that I think is toxic is toxic. 00:09:19.090 --> 00:09:34.364 Our birth families are often scattered and we can do and get nearly everything we need for survival on the Internet without actually having to encounter other people IRL in real life. 00:09:34.364 --> 00:10:00.163 But we're social creatures God made us that way and we are all, from time to time, the bleeding soul whom the Samaritan encountered on the side of the road, in need of a kind word, a warm cloak, a soft bed, a hot meal. 00:10:00.163 --> 00:10:20.796 There are a lot of people like that in our world today, and at times we are all the Samaritan with an opportunity to help, with an opportunity to help. 00:10:20.816 --> 00:10:38.244 And, that being said, as important as joining together is, I do want to say one thing Not all family members are good for us, and I don't believe that God demands that we stay in situations that are harmful for our well-being. 00:10:38.244 --> 00:10:42.160 Now, this is a conversation worthy of several sermons. 00:10:42.160 --> 00:10:52.921 It takes discernment, it takes love, but Jesus gives us, through Paul in Romans, a little guidance. 00:10:52.921 --> 00:10:54.504 In Romans 12.18. 00:10:54.504 --> 00:10:58.859 It says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably. 00:10:58.859 --> 00:11:05.780 So keep that in mind as we're navigating this concept of the church as family. 00:11:05.780 --> 00:11:13.410 Families can be challenging, including our family in Christ, but I feel like when I started to open my heart. 00:11:13.410 --> 00:11:35.207 When I started to open my heart, when I became more willing to be vulnerable, I found that a family, instead of hurting, can buoy us up when we're sinking and bind our wounds when we're bleeding. 00:11:37.275 --> 00:11:42.607 Now, my subtitle for this sermon is " tale of two scans. 00:11:42.607 --> 00:11:56.859 As most of you know and you know not to load this day anymore it was almost exactly five years ago to the day when I got the news that my mammogram didn't look so good. 00:11:56.859 --> 00:12:08.207 Now I've talked to many of you from this pulpit about how the going got pretty rough as I trudged along on my own, even with my soulmate Dave here by my side. 00:12:08.207 --> 00:12:14.687 I knew God was there, but somehow I couldn't find my way to love and peace at all. 00:12:14.687 --> 00:12:19.907 And as the diagnostic process continued, the news just got worse and worse. 00:12:19.907 --> 00:12:22.621 Yep, it's cancer. 00:12:22.621 --> 00:12:27.767 Yeah, it's the invasive and aggressive kind and, by the way, it's on the move. 00:12:27.767 --> 00:12:29.280 We need to act right away. 00:12:30.736 --> 00:12:31.961 I wasn't getting any sleep. 00:12:31.961 --> 00:12:33.495 I was barely eating. 00:12:33.495 --> 00:12:34.756 I wasn't getting any sleep, I was barely eating. 00:12:34.756 --> 00:12:44.648 The path around was getting darker and darker and, honestly, I could feel stuck in the shadow of death, full of fear. 00:12:44.648 --> 00:13:04.475 And by the time they decided to give me a PET scan, that full-body, all-in-one cancer detection test, I was in full panic mode from the moment I heard I was getting the test until, thankfully, many days later, I got the news that the cancer was confined to my breasts. 00:13:06.197 --> 00:13:24.969 Now, as I started treatment, very aggressive treatment, a few weeks later I reached out to Pastor Walt, who I had fortuitously met several months before, and with his loving encouragement, I decided to dip my toe back into the pool with all of you. 00:13:24.969 --> 00:13:49.522 I worshipped online because this was during the pandemic, just to make things even more exciting, and I worshipped online in my bathrobe, fighting all the lovely things that happen to you when you're going through chemo, and I was desperately in need of comfort and peace. 00:13:49.522 --> 00:13:54.889 I'm still on that journey, to be honest, even though I'm cancer-free. 00:13:54.889 --> 00:14:13.489 As the weeks and months of being online with all of you, and then, when the world opened up and my immune system was back online and coming and being here in person, something in me changed. 00:14:13.489 --> 00:14:17.163 I have Dave up here with me today. 00:14:17.163 --> 00:14:24.876 Something in us changed Now. 00:14:24.876 --> 00:14:58.485 There was no big aha moment, but for me at least, the restless beast that was installed in me during my childhood, yelling constantly about my unworthiness, screaming about how much there was to be afraid of, got quieter and sometimes, with increasing frequency, I could hear another voice you are my beloved child. 00:14:58.485 --> 00:15:02.443 All is already forgiven. 00:15:02.443 --> 00:15:07.164 Come here and rest in me. 00:15:07.164 --> 00:15:08.899 We've got this. 00:15:08.899 --> 00:15:11.961 What changed? 00:15:14.297 --> 00:15:27.048 The biggest thing I can think of all right, it's time is that I started hanging out regularly with all of you. 00:15:27.048 --> 00:15:39.788 I started seeing that, even though my birth family was kind of a mess, god had been sending a family full of love and light all along my journey. 00:15:39.788 --> 00:15:49.865 This next slide I've been keeping for years near my desk, reminding me that falling down is part of learning to walk. 00:15:49.865 --> 00:15:55.222 This is my grandmother and this is me at about one year old. 00:15:55.222 --> 00:16:01.860 As I've walked this path with you, this photo has come to mean so much more to me. 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:18.635 It's God's love made manifest Invitation to feast with a loving family at all points on my journey, even when I kept turning them down. 00:16:18.635 --> 00:16:21.860 God never gives up on us. 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:24.004 I love that about God. 00:16:24.004 --> 00:16:32.042 Now our life has changed for the better because of our time here with all of you? 00:16:32.121 --> 00:16:35.908 And why two scans, right? 00:16:35.908 --> 00:16:48.782 Well, recently my blood tests were less than perfect, something that sends fear, stark fear, through anyone who has been through cancer treatment and they said you know, before you leave for Wyoming, let's do another one of those PET scans. 00:16:48.782 --> 00:16:54.666 Well, spoiler alert, as I said, all was fine. 00:16:54.666 --> 00:17:10.509 But as I was going through the process and no, I didn't reach out to any of you, I didn't ask for prayers I am a work in progress but it was different for me this time because in my heart, I knew I had all of you. 00:17:10.509 --> 00:17:13.023 I already had your prayers. 00:17:20.815 --> 00:17:24.741 I didn't feel alone as I went in for the test and waited some very long days for the results. 00:17:24.741 --> 00:17:32.660 I ate, I slept and I was even able to pray Now, it was the Lord's Prayer in the 23rd Psalm, on a loop. 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:40.457 But I think those words are for when our words desert us and the results. 00:17:40.457 --> 00:17:52.804 When the results came in, I ran around the room and screamed and laughed with Dave, and all of you were there, Just as you're here with us. 00:17:52.804 --> 00:18:04.744 Just as you're here with us, just as your love and grace and sweet spirits will be with us wherever we are, including the wilds of Wyoming. 00:18:04.744 --> 00:18:18.385 Now this last slide speaks to me about where we are in our journey With a deeper and more sturdy faith. 00:18:18.385 --> 00:18:24.406 Still a couple of cubs pun intended for anyone who knows this guy from Chicago. 00:18:24.406 --> 00:18:44.333 We still have tons to learn, but we're not alone and we're armed with the knowledge that, when the darkness comes calling, we're armed with the knowledge that, when the darkness comes calling, we can snuggle with our family and tell the devil to go. 00:18:44.333 --> 00:18:44.595 Talk to mama. 00:18:44.595 --> 00:18:44.694 Amen.