July 2006 Archives

Sent to Reconcile

Ephesians 2:11-22

July 23, 2006

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

When I lived in Wisconsin, I was involved in something called The Ulster Project. The Project was begun to provide a safe place in the United States for Catholic and Protestant teenagers from Northern Ireland to get to know one another, discuss what they called The Troubles and begin building bridges of understanding across what was a deep and painful divide.

As part of the project I went to Northern Ireland on two different occasions. I don't think I will ever forget the impact of my first trip; soldiers walking the streets of Belfast in full combat gear, automatic weapons in a ready position; armored trucks patrolling the city and the so called Peace Walls, erected between neighborhoods to make it hard for the paramilitaries from either side to cross over and detonate a bomb. I especially remember one such wall that ran right through a church building. The front door of the church was boarded up, since it would open to folks on the wrong side of the wall. I also remember walking through one of the Catholic neighborhoods with one of my hosts, Father John. We met some wee boys no more than eight or nine years old. During our conversation he told the boys that I was part of a group that helped teenagers go to America and asked them, if they like to go someday. "O, yes," they answered enthusiastically. "When can we sign up?"

"Well, now," Father John said, "You have to be a few years older and you need to know that some protestant teens would be going as well."

"No way," they replied. "We wouldn't go with the Prods, not even to America." When Father John asked them why, they looked at him like he was crazy as they replied, "Why father, because they're Prods and we HATE Prods. All Prods ought to die!" The Peace Walls that divided the neighborhoods were just as high their hearts.

Sent with Wisdom

Ephesians 1:15-23

July 16, 2006

Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf

There are some weeks when sermons just seem to flow. I do some basic research into the passage of scripture, I meditate, asking for guidance about what to say, I do some free-form writing, just letting my thoughts flow until I reach a point where ideas begin to coalesce and a sermon happens. This is not one of those weeks. When I read the passage from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, I was captured by his prayer that God would fill the church with a spirit of wisdom... so that with the eyes of their hearts opened they would know the hope to which God called them and the immeasurable power of God's Love. I was intrigued with the thought that we are sent to be in the world with wisdom -God's wisdom; wisdom that the author of James says is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy." [James 3:17 NRSV]

Sent with Authority
Mark 6:7-13
July 9, 2006
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
There is an ancient Hindu folktale that tells the story of a tiger who happened to be raised with a herd of goats. This tiger ate grass like a goat, butted heads like a goat, even bleated like a goat. Then one day another tiger came into the clearing where the goats were feeding. There was no doubt about what this tiger thought he was. Seeing the goats he let out an earth shattering roar. While the goats fled in terror, the tiger -who was raised with the goats- hesitated. Some spark of recognition stirred inside him. Watching this great being, he flexed his muscles, feeling a call to something more. But he couldn't quite believe in himself or what he saw. A goat's life was all he had ever known and all he could truly imagine, so he turned and fled with the other goats.
Now there is nothing in the world wrong with behaving like a goat -if you're a goat. But there is something wrong with it, if you are, in fact, a tiger!
As individuals and as communities of faith we who have been called and commissioned by Christ, all too often act like tigers who have been raised with the goats -forgetting who we truly are and thus failing to live into the fullness of who we are created to become. Such was not the case for the first disciples -at least not in the story we heard read today from Mark's gospel.
"Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition." [Mk 6:7-8] The disciples of Jesus were called, commissioned, empowered and sent with authority to do the very same things that Jesus did! Now there are times in the gospel stories where the disciples are less than they can be; but not this time. This time, Mark tells us "they preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits." [Mk 6:12-13] This time they dared to trust who they were and what they knew. This time they dared to trust themselves, because they trusted Jesus.
But just what is the authority and power with which Jesus sent those disciples and with which he just might also be sending us? This authority is an internal knowing, a lived experience; it is something expressed from the inside out. It's the authority of knowing who one is -a child of God- and what one's God-given, God-empowered gifts are. It's the authority of a tiger who knows he is a tiger and acts like one! And the power is the power of Divine Love, awakened; a power which, when the disciples dared to trust it and to live out of it, would heal and call forth its reflection in the heart of each and every person.
For more years than I care to acknowledge, I have from time to time experienced a stirring deep in my gut that totally unsettles me every time it comes. For instance 3-4 years ago at a Dances of Universal Peace workshop, in a discussion group about how we could use the Dances to make a difference in the world, the unbidden thought arose: "You need to take the Dances of Universal Peace to women in prison." When preparing a class on prayer and checking some on-line resources about the use of the Metta or Loving-Kindness Meditation, I came across an article that talked about the powerful effects that teaching inmates to use the metta had in one prison, and again I thought, "You work near a prison, you need to take the dances or meditation or something to the women there." When I was reading about one of the leaders in Interplay and his work with young men in the department of corrections, once more it came, "When are you going to contact the prison and do something?" Each time I have felt this stirring and had these thoughts, panic sets in and I immediately come up with some reason why I can not do it.
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With this history in mind what happened at the recent Dream On Sisters event in Indianapolis is not too surprising. I was on my way to one of the Discovery Groups for which I had registered when I happened to pass by a group whose title was something like Women's Prison Ministry. It was in the room right next door to the group I really wanted to attend. I caught the now familiar flicker, attempted my usual dismissal and walked on to my assigned group, entered the room and sat down. At that point the nudging became somewhat less gentle, "You can get information about this workshop in a number of places. What's going on in the next room, you need to experience!" So I went.
The prison ministry workshop was led by Dana Blank, who until June of this year had been the Warden at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. As Dana shared her story, I sat there spellbound. I don't recall and didn't write down what Dana said about the kind of career she had prepared for prior in college. I do remember her saying that she applied for a job at the prison because someone told her there were openings at the prison and she needed a job. She was hired and planned to stay only until she could get a job she really wanted. But the women and the system captured her heart and ignited her passion and for the past 38 years she has worked at the prison. What was and is remarkable about Dana is the insight she had into the needs of incarcerated women and her passion, her energy and her drive to do something to meet those needs.
Early on Dana recognized that some 80% of incarcerated women are mothers. One statistic she quoted was that something like 1.5 million children in our nation have at least one parent who is in prison. Under her visionary leadership the Indian Women's Prison has developed the Family Preservation Program which is a vast network of multidisciplinary services, both in the prison and outside, geared toward fostering healthy families. It includes things like parenting classes, a special children's visitation room with toys and activities and Day Camp -a once a year event where children are brought into the prison every day for a week to be with their mothers or grandmothers and do the kinds of things kids and moms on the outside might do. The aim of this program is to maintain bonds between the mother and child and stop the cycle of incarcerated moms, incarcerated kids. In addition inmates are given the opportunity to earn high school and college degrees, something which very few of them have when they enter the system. Another amazing program is one where inmates care for and become the primary trainers for dogs who will later become life-giving assistants to persons with a variety of disabilities. Caring for and training these dogs awakens compassion and caring in the women, things which have often been stunted due to their life situations. There are also a number of different programs to meet the spiritual needs of the prisoners including a group that combines a 12-step approach with teaching from a powerful spiritual work called A Course in Miracles. In 2004 a permanently installed Labyrinth was even opened within the prison gates. Through everything they do there is an atmosphere of respect for these women, who happen to be in prison.
"The thing is," Dana said, "we don't try to sugar coat things. These women have committed crimes and we make no bones about telling them again and again that what they did was wrong. But we also tell them that life doesn't have to be the same when they leave here. We tell them that they have the power to make things different. But saying that is useless without giving them the skills to make it so." Her philosophy must be right on target, because when asked about recidivism her co-presenter said that nation wide the recidivism rate for women is 67%. For the Indiana Women's Prison its 7%.
One can only imagine the untold numbers of women who have been freed from demons that haunted them, the children that have been rescued from a life of crime and the healing of lives -emotional, physical and spiritual- that has been triggered by the passion of one woman, who used her God-given, God empowered gifts to awaken in others a passion for justice, compassion and love.
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I'm still not sure what the stirring in my belly is about or what I am being called to do with it. But one thing I do know for sure is that within each and every one of us lies the power of Divine Love to heal and transform, to empower and make new. When we dare to tap into that power, when we dare to live with the authority of tigers who know we are tigers, using our unique God-given God-empowered gifts it will make a difference in the world and just as importantly it will make a difference in our lives as well. We are sent with the authority of Divine Love, which will -if we dare to trust it- guide and empower us action by action and moment by moment to become the beautiful, awesome powerful tigers we were and are created to be. May we dare to go! Amen.
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Freed for LIFE!
Mark 5:21-43 (The Message Translation)
July 2, 2006
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --
So says the document we call the Declaration of Independence; the document that began what some call a great experiment in human freedom. Sometimes for some people, in the living out of this experiment these words seemed more of a hope than a reality. Yet they are foundation, the hope, the dream, the vision that holds us together and shines a light to guide us through a reality that can be and is often far from the fullness of this dream. In a few days we will celebrate the beginning of this experiment and the freedom that it promises. As we do so, let's turn to Mark's gospel and hear the story of two people who came to Jesus seeking Life.
The first one we meet is of the local Jewish leaders, Jarius, who, Mark tells us, comes to Jesus and falls to his knees and begins begging for a miracle. It is hard for us to imagine the impact of this scene; this powerful man kneeling at the feet of the upstart rabbi from Nazareth of all places. And if that were not startling enough, in a society which saw girls and women as more of a burden than an asset, as property rather than as a full human being, Jarius humbled himself before Jesus not on behalf of some important person, but on behalf of his daughter. In his love for his daughter and his desperate hope that perhaps this Jesus really could heal her when all human resources had failed, Jarius risked stepping beyond what was safe and comfortable and secure. In his love and in his hope he took a radical, reckless, daring step.
The second person we meet is nobody important; just a women who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, a woman who was one of the living dead - an outcast who could have no contact with anyone outside of the red tent to which bleeding women were confined; a woman who had tried everything, exhausted every possibility and spent all her money; a woman hoping just to get close enough to touch the hem of his garment; a woman hoping beyond hope that in that touch her life would be restored; a woman who was at the end of her rope, but evidently not at the end of her hope; a woman who reached out and touched his robe and immediately knew she had been healed. And Jesus knew it too. He could have gone on with Jarius and that would have been that. But Jesus was not content that anyone should experience physical healing alone. He knew that there was more that was needed for LIFE. And to Jesus, no matter who it was that touched him, that person was important.
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Now surely this woman could have kept quiet. After all, according to the law, she was guilty of contaminating this teacher. She had been healed, but if she spoke up perhaps in his anger he would condemn her and reverse her healing. Yet, having come this far, she could not turn back, so she approached Jesus and fell at his feet. Rather than condemning her, however, Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! And in so saying, Jesus says to this woman, AYour hope, grounded in faith gave you the courage to act first in reaching out to me and now in coming forward. Your hope grounded in faith has set you free.@ The woman is reborn! She has not only been healed physically, but she has also been brought back into the family of faith. Her dignity and worth affirmed, her place restored, her future opened.
As all this was happening, messengers arrived with bad news. AIt=s too late,@ they told Jarius. AYou took too long. Your daughter is dead. Nothing can be done. We told you it was useless to come to that man. But because of your crazy hope you weren't even with your family when your daughter died. But they need you now. Come, go with us. Come back where you belong.@
Overhearing the words of the messengers, Jesus said to Jarius. "Don't listen to them; just trust me." In essence, Jesus is saying to Jarius, ATrust in the hope that brought you to me and don=t limit God! Despite how it seems, do not give up hope. Keep your faith alive. With God, nothing is impossible!@ Jesus went with Jarius and in the face of the laughter and skeptic hostility of those who were gathered, brought new life to Jarius and his daughter.
Two hopeless situations, two powerful affirmations of LIFE! In the face of any reality which seems to make hope impossible; when human resources and human endeavors are exhausted, when we are at the end of our rope, when everything seems to be lost, God is still at work. And we are still called to hope. Hope grounded in faith and nurtured by love will -if we let it- lead us to actions which set us free to live fully alive in God=s love.
Trust me, I really wanted to end the sermon right there, it would have been enough. But perhaps because on this July 4th weekend we will be celebrating the rich heritage of our country or because I have just come back from a five day conference during which we were called to dream God's dream for our lives and our world and then act with radical compassion to do whatever we are called to do to make those dreams a reality, something deep inside me would not allow me to stop.
With our nation spending about $100,000 per minute on the conflict in Iraq and about $18,000 per minute in Afghanistan, with more than 36 million people and 17.6% of the children in this country living in poverty, with more than 45.8 million people, employed, but unable to afford health insurance and with a culture that seems to say questioning any of this is unpatriotic there is much that seems to threaten the dream
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of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness -a dream I believe is rooted in God's dream for the world. But just as surely Jesus calls us to trust that as God is at work in our individual lives even when it seems hopeless, Christ calls us to claim the truth that God is at work in our nation and our world. Surely we can't by ourselves end terrorism, stop the war, feed all the hungry children, and provide adequate health care for all people. But we can each do something. If, like Jarius we dare to kneel at Jesus feet, if like the woman we dare to reach out in faith we will catch God's vision and dream God's dream and know what we are called to do. Perhaps we will be called to risk stepping beyond what is easy, safe or comfortable to proclaim God's love in ways that free us all for life, true LIFE, the Life that God wants all of us to know. But whatever we are called to do, let us remember that hope grounded in faith and nurtured by love will -if we let it- lead us to actions which set us free to live fully alive in God's love. Amen.