| "My Parable of Trust"
by The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson Delivered at MCC's Region 3/5 Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 2009 Sermon Text: Psalm 23 and Mark 6:30-34; 53-56 I love the powerful, familiar image of God as our Shepherd, Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who feels in his body and spirit the longing of communities for faithful, trustworthy leadership. Jesus, who sought to mediate the presence of the Ultimate Shepherd of our souls and our lives. It is a shame that we only hear the 23rd Psalm at funerals – it is great to hear it today, in this context. The Message Bible calls it “a psalm of trust in all circumstances.” It reminds me of the Bette Midler song, "From A Distance," with that great line that says “God is watching us!” Even when it feels like God is watching us “from a distance,” we know God’s eye is on that sparrow. When we are losing an Elder, when change is all around us, when we are facing financial uncertainty, even when facing danger or death, God is near, actively watching and caring. When your church is without a pastor, you are not without a shepherd! God is your shepherd, and will see you through to the next decision, and on to the next generation of leadership. Jesus, in this passage in Mark, is torn up because the people were “like sheep without a Shepherd,” and he longed to be that Shepherd. MCC, we have to have the compassion Jesus had. There are so many places today where people are crying out for the radically inclusive message of MCC. At our recent sub-Regional Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, there were people from six countries, in addition to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, who desire the presence of MCC, of an inclusive, welcoming ministry. When, they say, we can have an MCC? Rev. Lillian Ferguson, from MCC Paducah, Kentucky, I want you to know that your members Bob and Phil wrote me from Owensboro, Kentucky, a town of 50,000, where they say there are lots and lots of gay people who are in desperate need of a church!! In Rwanda, pastor Alexander, whose wife has HIV/AIDS and who heard about us through Rev. Steve Parelli and Other Sheep, said, “Rev. Nancy, MCC’s message of God’s inclusive love needs to be preached here on a thousand hills!” Rev. CeeJay, from the Philippines, got a new computer, thanks to MCC, and set up a five city tour to meet with all the groups there longing for MCC, longing to hear of a Good Shepherd. To meet the need, they rented a bus and their people traveled for weeks. Rev. Ray Neal and partner Mark, sold everything, and moved to Seattle to work with our church, which had been struggling for years. Now the church is growing every week; they are filled with passion and hope. MCC New Orleans struggled for survival after Katrina, with under 20 people. Rev. Clinton Crenshaw and his partner moved there, with the support of MCC Baton Rouge, which took them on as a parish extension. Now their worship averages in the 70’s. They are in the center of the community and of a city that is rebuilding, and ready to be on their own again. All over the world, people need to know there is a welcoming Shepherd. Vision of Hope MCC from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in addition to supporting our work in Moldova, has a vision for a multi-site ministry in Reading and York, Pennsylvania. There are other churches who are catching such a vision! It is the only way MCC will reach out into some smaller cities in North America, and even around the world. Our church plant in Asheville is hoping to launch weekly worship in late September. We need a church in Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island. Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, Long Island; in Montreal and Ottawa. Some of you know that this is in your future! Thanks to Rev. Elder Arlene Ackerman and Rev. Karla Fleshman, for a firm foundation for church planting. We must now have the courage, commitment, creativity to build on this, with passion and excellence! It will take trust in the Good Shepherd. To encourage you, I want to tell my own story, my parable of trust. Two years ago, I was vacationing in Tennessee, hiking and walking all week, in some very challenging places. The last day, my partner, Paula, and I decided to take an easy walk at a State Park. It was a flat trail and at one point seemed to turn closer to the river’s edge. After going a little ways, it became apparent that we had taken the wrong path. Paula was in front of me, and turned around first. I went to check out the end of the path and then turned around to return. And the next thing I knew, I was in the river! I had fallen about ten feet off a cliff, into a fairly deep place in the river. When I came up for air, I still had on my binoculars and glasses. And I realized that the cliff curved inwards, and I could not climb up. I had not broken anything, or hurt anything, other than my pride. Paula had heard the noise of my descent and my splashing in the water, and came running to see if I was OK. I immediately looked around and saw a large tree that had fallen into the water, about 50 feet up the river, and told her I would swim there and try to climb up the trunk of the tree to the riverbank. So I swam and she ran to meet me. The tree was rotting and covered with sharp branches, and I knew this was going to hurt some. I pulled myself up on the tree, shimmied up, and then a branch broke, and I fell back into the river, this time, scraping my back and side. Ouch! Paula reached down and took my binoculars. (They were heavy, not helping me, and they were expensive, I wanted to save them!) I saw another place, another 50 feet up the river, where the bank was very close to the water, and it looked like I might be able to get out. When I got there, again, the embankment was thin, and curved inward, so there was no way to leverage or climb up on to the bank. Paula came down to the very edge, secured her feet, and grabbed my arm. On the third try, she pulled me up onto the riverbank, and I crawled up and was on land. Paula, who is a photographer, was kind enough not to take my picture. I was covered in leaves, dirt, scratches, mud, and river scum. We walked (actually, I kind of hobbled) back to the car, noticing the place where we had missed the turn off. There was a campground and, mercifully, a shower, that, even with cold water, was very welcome. Now here are the five lessons of my fall into the river: FIRST: Not All Falls Are Fatal. Thank God! We may be a little hurt of embarrassed, but not fatally. Sometimes it’s just our pride that is wounded. We are shaken, but not destroyed. I remember the feeling of relief in the river, that I was not badly hurt, that I was able to keep going. Sometimes we need to remember that we can get up again, we can start over, we can move on. Once in a while, we are in the river before we know it, and we are not even sure how we got there! Have you ever had that experience? Sometimes when we fall, we are overwhelmed by shame. We become afraid to trust ourselves again. How could I have slipped, not been watching where I was going? Not every fall is fatal, in fact, most aren’t. We can survive. I know pastors who get thrown off by a difficult pastorate, a bad match. Maybe your skills and this congregation’s need just didn’t quite mesh. Maybe you tried a ministry that didn’t succeed. This is not the end of the world. Sometimes it is the end of a relationship, or of a job, but it is not the end of the world. Sometime we try and fail. The only way not to fail is not to try. We have to get up, we have to try again. I never thought, “Well, I fell into river, I’ll never hike again.” No way! SECOND: It Is Often Easier To Get Into Trouble Than To Get Out Of It. Trying to climb on that felled tree branch was a long shot, I knew it, but I had to try. When I fell again, I knew this was no easy dilemma from which to extract myself. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to throw us off the path. There are things we know better than to do, but we do them anyway. There are ways we risk our health, our sanity, our sobriety, our emotional and spiritual health. Times when we have fallen out of love with God and with our community and we know we need to get back, but we can’t see how! I love stories about how people found MCC. There was David, a board member of MCC Los Angeles, years ago, who has since died of AIDS. When he was a young man, in the US Navy in San Diego, he was in trouble a lot – with alcohol and emotional pain, he was self-destructive with internalized homophobia. His friends finally got sick of him: they tired of trying to bail him out of trouble. One day – this is true! – they tied him up, threw in the trunk of the car, and dropped him off on the front lawn of MCC San Diego. What a way to arrive at MCC! But, oh, sometimes, we need friends like that! THIRD: Sometimes, It Is Time To Let Go! I wanted to hold on to my binoculars. But, I had to hand them over, until I could get up out of the river. It helped to have someone I trusted to hand them to! We are not indispensable; we need give others a chance to shine! Sometimes it is no longer ours to carry. I admire Rev. Elder Arlene Ackerman and her grace in letting go of a role (even though she is not retiring!). I thank God for Rev. Elder Glenna Shepherd, who is doing the same, and now serving as interim pastor of MCC in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sometimes, we have to trust God with what we have been carrying not let it weigh us down anymore. We have to find ways to travel more lightly. We are not God! God is the shepherd! And God has the answer to every problem we could imagine. Sometimes I have to tell myself that many times a day. When it is time to let go, we have to trust the God who made heaven and earth to carry the load! What could you let go of today that would lighten your load, help you move on? What do you need to give to God today that you can no longer carry? FOURTH: Help Can Come From Unlikely Sources. I was amazed that Paula had the strength to pull me out of the river. Of course, her version of the story is that it was a raging river and she jumped 50 feet off a cliff and swam and pulled me to safety. Not quite, but, really just as good. God can use anyone, any process, to help us. And God is always the source behind the help. You know we have special, “extra grace required” (EGR) people in MCC. I remember Johnny. She was loud, and difficult, probably today would identify as trans, but considering her age, that was probably not an option. She was a character. If you were the last person at church, you had to take her home, and often, that was me. She had a habit of monopolizing newcomers, especially if they were attractive women. She brought these huge, unsightly bags to church every week, and if the ushers tried to tell her what to do she would whack them with a full bag. Literally! In the bag were gifts she found in the trash or at yard sales. One day she was handing out “fortune cookie” Bible verses. This was the fundamentalist’s answer to fortune cookies with fortunes in them, which were “pagan,” and therefore “bad.” I took one (how could I refuse) and shoved it in my desk drawer. Months later, after she had died, it was rainy day, the roof was leaking, there had one too many deaths, financial challenges, you know the kind of day I am talking about. . .and I came across that fortune cookie in my desk. Oh, what the hell, I thought, I am desperate. I opened it and it said, “Cast all your care on God, for God cares for you.” And I sat there and wept at my desk. Thank you Johnny. Thank you God, who works in mysterious ways, through anyone God chooses. Sometimes, God picks just that one who will surprise and humble us. Sometimes, we all need a hand up. Sometime, you may be that hand, or you may be the one struggling to get out of the river, that’s what Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan meant. God gave Paula strength beyond her own strength that day, or, I might well have been in the river a lot longer. FIFTH: Get Back On The Path! For MCC, for us as pastors and lay leaders, we must return, again and again to our vision, our calling. Our calling is our identity, in the margins, at the edges, being the Human Rights Church. There are many wonderful churches in the world, but none of them can do what you and I are uniquely called to do. Thank God for the UCC, for the Episcopalians, those who are working in mainstream. They reach, however, only about 7% of the American population; and, they do not have our mantle, or reach the people we reach. GOD HAS A PATH FOR US, MCC!! When Paula and I walked back, we came to the place where we took the wrong path, and it was so obvious! There was even a little, low barrier! But we had rushed by it, missed the clear path that veered off to the left and slightly up a hill, far away from the water’s edge. We took what looked obvious at first, and ignored all the warning signs. This is the story of so many of us in MCC, who got off the path, or never found it. MCC is a place where people who never believed they could belong anywhere, can not only belong, but find a path, the path of discipleship, of following the Good Shepherd. Just think, if there had been no MCC in your town, when you need a safe space, and a place to be challenged to live your calling. How many people do you imagine today, are looking for a path? We have our path, and God our Shepherd knows us, knows MCC, knows our path, and calls us to find others who also need to find their paths. I invite you to recommit today, to get back on the path of liberation and justice, of hope and reconciliation, with God as our Shepherd, Jesus as our leader, and the Spirit our Guide! May God be gracious to you, and help you through every fall, every disappointment, every challenge. Amen. ________________________
Sermon Delivered By:
The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches
www.MCCchurch.org |
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