Henrietta United
Church of Christ
Joan
Barnes, Elizabeth Pixley and Rev. Martha Koenig Stone
February
28, 2010 – Women’s Sunday
Psalm
27
“Living Our Faith, Then and Now”
Pastor
Martha speaks:
Psalm 27 is
the song of someone who has known deep pain and distress—someone who is
familiar with misery, anger and frustration— someone who is surrounded by
enemies—someone who calls out to God for help:
“Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God
of my salvation!” We can hear in this
Psalm the echoes of a desperate cry to God in a time of trouble.
But we also
hear, in this same Psalm, a passionate affirmation of trust in God—it is filled
with the deep assurance that God hears and responds to the call of the person
in need. In spite of trouble, in spite
of danger and fear, the psalmist affirms a hope in God’s presence and
power.
These two
opposite sentiments live together, side by side, in the mind and heart of the
psalmist—both the “agghh!” and the “ahhh!”—both the yearning and the relief—both the reaching
out for God’s hand, and the settling down into God’s embrace.
As we read
this Psalm in our women’s planning group, it caught our imagination. Even though we are thousands of years removed
in time from the writer of the Psalm, it seems to speak directly to the lives
of women today—indeed, to all of our lives.
We may not normally think of ourselves as being surrounded by enemies.
Most of us have never been anywhere near a battle. We live in a free and protected land, we are
blessed with education and resources, we enjoy
household conveniences and modern medicine and high-tech gadgets. Still, there are times when we experience
many kinds of stress and distress—times when we cry out for help. We find ourselves rushing to get things done,
searching for meaning and direction, scrambling for a foothold, worrying and
wondering and wishing for moments of peace.
Our “enemies” are different, but they are very real.
The women in
our group found ourselves feeling truly thankful for the church, and for the
anchor it offers for our lives, especially in difficult times. We spoke of the women and men of this church
who have been the hands and feet of God for us, and how we treasure things like
the silver communion set that symbolize the faith of those who have gone before
us and remind us of their dedication to this community.
But we also
had a sense that our faith, if it is to remain alive, can’t just be about the
trappings of the building or the saints of the past. We need to make it our own, and be open to
God’s Spirit today. And so we asked each other in our group, “What are the
‘enemies’ that surround you in your life? Where are you crying out to God for
help? What are the struggles that face
women, and perhaps all people, in our culture today?”
Then we
started to name some of those struggles.
Our conversation began to focus in on the complicated multidimensional
aspect of our lives—how the demands of family and work and friends and health
compete with each other. We talked about
how wonderful it is to have so many choices about what to do with our time—and
about how little time there seems to be to do the things we want to do—and
about the temptation to let trivial things take up that precious time. We talked about the blessing—and the curse—of
technology—how it can save us time, and eat up time. The same technologies that are developed to
help us can actually become time thieves, filling up our moments with
meaningless detail. And we noted how, as
more choices and conveniences are developed, our standards and expectations can
increase so much that we become confused and overwhelmed.
·
It
used to be that a clean house was dusted with a cloth and swept with a broom
and aired out now and then; but now that we have vacuums and disinfectant wipes
and HEPA filters, we try to rid ourselves of dust mites and allergens and microorganisms
of every kind.
·
We
used to put our cars away for the winter and travel on snowy roads with
horse-drawn sleighs; now we count on plowed and salted roads, and we feel
annoyed if we can’t hop in the car at the drop of a hat.
·
Email
has made getting in touch with people easy; but we dread getting behind and
having to catch up with too many messages.
We have more electronic connections with friends and strangers, but
sometimes fewer connections with neighbors right next
door.
·
Today’s
state-of-the-art software turns into tomorrow’s outdated junk, filling our
homes and crowding our space.
Our world of
endless choices is also a world of materialism, of strained relations, of job
insecurity, and of massive waste. We are
more knowledgeable, more technologically savvy, wealthier and healthier than
our Hebrew ancestors were, but we still know that feeling of “agghh!” and we still long for that sense of “ahhh!”
We were
inspired by the Psalmist’s ability to praise and thank God, even in the midst
of enemies. How is it possible to bring
such faith to the difficulties of life?
Is it possible to remain connected with God and each other, in the midst
of all this stuff, all these obligations, all these distractions? How can we live faith with all these overwhelming
changes & responsibilities?
Joan Barnes
and Liz Pixley have each offered to share some of
their thoughts on this—to name some of the struggles they face in their lives,
and also to offer us some encouragement by sharing something about how God
upholds them, even in the midst of those struggles.
Joan
Barnes speaks:
As a mom, my
biggest enemy is the feeling that I should be keeping up with the Jones’ or at
least keeping my kids up with the Jones’ kids.
After all, I don’t want my kids to be left out of their peers’
experiences and grow up with a sense of missing out. To this end, my husband and I finally broke
down and bought a Wii, my son insisting that knowing
how to play is indeed a life skill. In
the face of relatives and friends making pilgrimages to Disney, my husband and
I wrestle with the question, “Should we make plans to go?” If we don’t go, or go only once, will the
kids be scarred or blame us? And the
keeping up is not purely materialistic either.
There are lots of messages and expectations about parenting skills and
behaviors I feel I have live up to also or I’ll be a lousy parent. I feel
guilty and sort of give sideways glances to see if anyone is watching if I give
my kids juice or let them watch too much TV.
What’s wrong with me that 5-2-1-0s, I’m not keeping my kids healthy heroes? So where does it all end?
I came back
to God and the church last year because something was missing. I think the keep up with the Jones’ mentality
kept my focus on myself. Constantly wondering,
“Am I doing it right?” does not foster inner peace but self-doubt. God and the church help me focus on what is
truly important or essential in life—a relationship with God and others. I find the various missions and outreaches
of the church allow me to forget my selfish petty worries and focus on true
needs of the community, whether local or global.
One Bible
passage that I find particularly comforting is Luke 12:22-25:
He
said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more
than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither
storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
Of how much more value are you than the
birds! And can any of you by worrying
add a single hour to your span of life?”
This helps me
keep things in perspective as I try to live faithfully.
Elizabeth
Pixley speaks:
I am by
training a botanist and a biologist. I also consider myself an environmentalist
– I had the privilege of teaching a course in environmental science for about
25 years during my teaching career at Monroe Community College. And I am a
Christian.
For most of
my professional career, I felt a real disconnect between my environmental
concerns about the biological world and my church. That is to say,
environmental concerns were not discussed. Our human role in pollution,
resource depletion, environmental justice, global climate change and other
problems seemed not to be a spiritual or moral concern. They seemed to be only
my personal enemies, not those of the church leaders, even though human
activity has caused them.
I am glad to
say that within the past decade, I have been much encouraged by the
increasingly active role churches and other faith communities have taken in the
area of religious environmentalism. One of my personal heroes in this recent
movement is the Rev. Sally Bingham, a petite but very persistent Episcopal
priest in California who almost single-handedly founded the national group
called Interfaith Power and Light, whose mission is to help faith communities
reduce their impact on global climate change through energy conservation and
other actions. There are now about 30 state chapters of Interfaith Power and
Light, including New York. Courageous people like Sally Bingham give me hope
for the future!
So how is
HUCC doing these days in the area of religious environmentalism? First, Pastor
Dave does preach from the pulpit about care of our planet. Second, Henrietta
UCC is a member of NY Interfaith Power & Light. Third, in 2009 we formed
the Going Green Task Force. And lastly, HUCC has generously provided a meeting
place for the interfaith environmental group Living in
Harmony since 2002!
I would
recommend to you an excellent book published by Sally Bingham, titled Love
God – Heal Earth. In it 21 leading
religious voices from many different faiths speak out on our sacred duty to
protect the environment. Her introduction began with the following
statement—“The bad news first: The Climate is changing. The good news: So are
people of faith.”
I would like
to end my comments by reading what one of these religious leaders wrote in the
book Love God – Heal Earth. Rev. Fletcher Harper is the Executive
Director of Green Faith, an interfaith group based in New Jersey.
“I
Believe Three Things:”
First, I believe that people’s most powerful
experiences of God almost always happen outdoors. Pastorally, most religious
leaders don’t know what to do with these experiences … I believe religion must
embrace them to be a force for ecological good.
Second, I believe that capitalism as
currently practiced tends in an addictive direction and shapes individuals to
believe that consumption is life’s purpose. Until this style of capitalism
changes, creation is at risk and people will be stuck in consumerist bondage
until they realize that spiritual freedom and moral decency come, in part,
through responsible consumption.
Third, I believe that oppressed communities
around the world suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation,
their health threatened and their access to power over their own environment
denied. I believe that religious-environmentalism must include political
activism to create safe, healthy environments for communities of color and poor
communities, and seek greater power for these communities to protect their own
environmental health.
Pastor
Martha speaks:
What are the
“enemies” that surround you in your life? I invite you to take a pencil from your pew,
and jot down a word or two on your bulletin about the enemies you face. Maybe you feel pressed by the fast pace of life. Or maybe your struggles are of a different
nature—worries about money, failing health, low self-esteem, lack of focus in
your life, or something else. Take a
moment to identify some of those things and to tell God about them, and to ask
for a sense of God’s presence, God’s arms holding you and guiding you…
Friends, God
knows the enemies we face. And God lifts
us up in the midst of those enemies. In
this season of Lent, we remember that even Jesus had times of temptation and
doubt and struggle. We know we are not
alone when we pray, “O God, deliver us not unto the will of our enemies!” So let us join together in the Litany of
Affirmation, sharing our faith with one another…
(Leaders
come forward for the Litany.)