Easter Morning

“On Sunday Morning”
Rev. Carolyn Waters
Easter Day, April 8, 2007
CCUM

What is the meaning of your life?

Some people have literally driven themselves crazy asking that question. Others seem to float through their existence never pausing to wonder.

But it seems like on a day like this, on a day in which we gather to celebrate “the risen Christ” with high energy, triumphant song, and shouts of Alleluia---it’s appropriate to stop and ask……… “what is the meaning of all this”----------and from that question, for me the next question is “what is the meaning of all this!” (Pointing at myself)

Purpose would be an easier focus. The purpose of my life could be directed at a goal, a service, relationship with others, a contribution to society through work, research, writing, or even discovery. If the purpose of one’s life was only to raise a family, that contribution alone is enough to potentially change the world.

Purpose is focused on what I do “out there”…………. What others can see and observe. Meaning, on the other hand seems to be an inside job. Purpose is what you see in me, meaning is what I live with.

I have a clear and convincing picture, at least for myself, about the purpose of Jesus life. When I am most confused about who Jesus was or is, I can always settle with saying his life served as a clear example of how to live and be in relationship with people and creation. That’s when I am most confused about Jesus. But when I am most confident and strong in my belief, I say the same thing. Jesus is the one whom I call “teacher” for living my life. It’s the word on the window behind us, “Rabboni”, teacher………the way Mary addressed Jesus in the garden after he had been in the tomb and then appeared to her. Upon recognizing him, she called him “Rabboni”.

Isn’t that enough? To find one’s teacher for life! To discover a “teaching” that serves to challenge and engage one throughout life, isn’t that enough?
To be the source of that teaching, as Jesus was for Mary, for most of you, and for me is certainly a clear and worthy purpose!
So why did the story add this resurrection piece? What was God thinking in allowing such a strange thing to happen? Good grief, look at how confusing things become when we start to untangle the resurrection. But on the other hand, look at how wide open the interpretation of our faith becomes when the resurrection is a part of our story.

Jesus lived his life with clear purpose. Jesus was crucified, died, was buried………and on the third day……….his life had meaning. In the act of his death, his life moved from purpose to meaning.

And what is that meaning? Well, have you found the answer to my first question? What is the meaning of your life? Somewhere hidden in the way we answer that question for ourselves is the answer for the meaning of Jesus life. It’s the flow of his words when he said “I am in you and you are in me. The Creator and I are one.”

I turned 54 years old yesterday. Those of you, who know me well, know that I always love a good party. My mother said that when I was a little girl “party” was one of my favorite words! Easter Sunday seems to be a really good reason to have a birthday party and wake up and smell the flowers, see the sunshine, and celebrate life kind of day! Even if I couldn’t stay up late last night!

If I follow the pattern of both parents, I have about 40 years of living left. And if the path I have ahead of me is anything like my parents, my mind and my body will serve me well.

40 years is a lot of living left to do. I’m confident that I’ve found a very good life purpose. Not only do I love my work, there are days that my work makes a clear difference for someone else. It is good to be alive! I celebrate life!

But I always ponder the meaning of it all. I’m always searching for something to explain “all this.” I often wonder, stand bewildered at the messes made in our world, hurt by the depth of despair and even hopelessness in some places and situations. When I am willing to really open my eyes and my heart to God’s creation, sure I see the beauty of the Rockies and the wonder of a tulip! I see the joy on the faces of the incredible kids in this church. I see the expectation in your eyes. But I also see changing of the earth from our own indulgences and wonder how long the tulips will bloom. I see the faces of the soldiers being killed, the innocent victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, starvation in Darfur……….and I ask “what is the meaning of it all?” Where is the resurrection?

Perhaps the meaning of the resurrection is about the journey we each take toward our death. The way we take that journey impacts the meaning of our death. Even more important, the way we take this life journey……impacts the suffering of our world, or not. Jesus had his eyes open to the suffering around him, and did all he could to alleviate that suffering. And his death had meaning. Jesus took every opportunity presented him to party and give thanks, and his death had meaning. Jesus considered the lilies of the field and could bask in their beauty, and his death had meaning.

Esther de Waal in her book The Celtic Way of Prayer says “the Celtic understanding of journey is in itself so rich and so significant. It is peregrination----seeking, quest, adventure, wandering, exile----it is ultimately a journey to find the place of my resurrection, the resurrected self, the self that I might hope to be, to become, the true self in Christ.”


I may have another 40 years to figure this out. To find that self, my true self………the one that helps me understand the meaning of my life……which is my true self in Christ. Or I may not have 40 years, or if I’m too distracted by my purpose I may never discover my meaning.

What are you banking on for the rest of your life?

A few weeks ago I heard Catholic Priest Father James Martin being interviewed on National Public Radio. (3-14-07) He said “Easter is harder to tame than Christmas.”

May you go into the world and have an extravagantly wild Easter day. May it in fact be so wild that something gets your attention, and changes the way you live the rest of your life.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday
“The Journey Home”
April 1, 2007
CCUM Rev Carolyn Waters


Luke 19:28-40
28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” 39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”



Jesus set out on the road to Jerusalem on this day we have come to call “Palm Sunday” with a clarity of purpose and vision that could not be stalled or stopped. How else could he have entered Jerusalem, knowing in his deepest self what was to happen in the days to come?

I have been doing this “Holy Week” thing with some kind of intentionality for over thirty years. The Holy Week being the days between Palm Sunday and Easter Morning, a journey so to speak with Jesus from the Parade to the Cross, to the Tomb, to the Resurrection. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but we do know how the story goes……..and really cannot ignore the ending even though we are at the beginning of the week.

So this year, I’m approaching this “Holy Week” in a new posture. How do we begin this very significant week in our faith story, knowing the ending? The question causes me to ask the same of the man Jesus. How did you, Jesus, ride the humiliating little donkey into the city of all cities while some people shouted Hosanna and others laughed? How did you, Jesus, participate in the drama of a mock trial knowing its ending? And how did you, Jesus, allow yourself to walk into the ending of your life as you had known it?

Esther de Waal in her book The Celtic Way of Prayer speaks of the Celtic understanding of the word peregrination…………which she says roughly translates as “journey” but means so much more than simply going from one place to another. In the Celtic tradition………pilgrimage or journey is a life long spiritual quest of finding one’s place or home with God. The peregrinatio, journey, or pilgrimage is very connected to the earth, the landscape, the vista or vision of what is in front……….out ahead…….while still bringing along and being with what is inside. As de Waal refers to it in another of her books, the landscape around us begins to reflect itself in our interior inscape, what is inside of us.

A person who is truly on “the journey” poses an attitude of being “ready to go wherever the Spirit might take them” (p. 2) and understands themselves as “guests of the world.” She says that when we are on such a journey what we are seeking is the place of our resurrection, the resurrected self, the true self in Christ, which is for all of us our true home.” (2)

Her words have caused me to reflect on how Jesus was able to enter Jerusalem. How he was able to embrace and receive the shouts of hosanna and praise on one day and several days later be humiliated by sneers, laughter, beaten and killed.

How do you enter such a week? Many of us have lived through what we would have thought to be “impossible weeks.” The operable words in that sentence are “lived through.” What seems to be an absolutely impossible situation to withstand………..and then finding ourselves on the other side having lived through……..must be the grounding that gives one the ability to live and the ability to face death with humility and grace.

No doubt there is the “something more” that Jesus represents for us, but in this week of the waving palms, the secret last supper, the pounding of the nails into the cross………………the man Jesus had to have been grounded in his very deepest self about the reason he was alive……….

All of his ministry, he seemed to be on a pilgrimage, his own peregrinatio, ready to go where the Spirit would take him, knowing that his ultimate “home” the destination of the journey……….was and is to be at home with God.

How else could he have entered Jerusalem?

Esther de Waal speaks of Christ himself being “the Way” and we as followers of Christ are people of the Way. I like that.

The “Way” is a particular path we walk as we go through life. Sometimes parallel with other spiritual paths, sometimes contrary to cultural paths, sometimes the “Way” we take has cobble stones that hurt our feet and cause us to stumble………just as the small donkey would have entering Jerusalem……… but always the “Way” is a journey that leads us home to the heart of a loving God, ever ready and willing to receive us in loving arms………..no matter the kind of week we’ve had, or the mistakes we have made along the way. Our life is a journey, a peregrination seeking that place where we are at last “at home” with ourselves, and “at home” with the one who created us. Dag Hammarskjold once said: “The longest journey is the journey inward.”

This Holy Week, as we all journey in our different ways toward the sacred table set for Maundy Thursday, or as we journey in our own different ways toward the darkness of Good Friday, or as we wake to the mystery and wonder of whatever the resurrection means to us…………let us not simply retell a story from our Christian history, let us not simply rehearse a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation………..rather let each of us take our own journey…………and dare to take an inward journey………..and ask the question that Jesus must have found the answer for………. “What is it that God wants of me?” I believe in asking that question and seeking the answer…….it is there that we find our home with God.
Celtic Saint Columbanus once said in a sermon: “the end of the road is the end of our life, the end of our roadway is our

"The Right Stuff"

“The Right Stuff”
Rev. Carolyn Waters
Jeremiah 17:5-10 & Luke 6:17-26
February 11, 2007 CCUM
My father was a simple man that I found to be a very complicated person. Of course, I had to live a few years and gain a few grey hairs to appreciate the complicated part of him!
I started thinking about some of my father’s “simple wisdom” this week when I saw a person that reminded me of someone from my adolescent and teenage years. It was so haunting seeing this man that I almost went up to him and ask if his name was Jimmy. But I choose to take the path of least embarrassment and just continue to wonder if “that man” might have been Jimmy Hollis.
Jimmy Hollis. Born in 1952, class of 1970, one year older than me. His father owned the “local telephone company” back when such a thing was possible. They had a lot of money! From grade school on, Jimmy was always the one in the middle of trouble.
The older I got the more exciting Jimmy’s behavior looked! So one of my high school evenings I joined a small group taking a ride with Jimmy. In Hinton, Oklahoma everything was a ride in the country so to say that would be redundant!
Well the car quit running. I don’t remember why. I do remember the car. It was a big old station wagon. I remember that because when the car stalled, we put down the tail gate, the three or four of us took off our shoes and splashed our feet in the water on the road and listened to the frogs. I can still hear the frogs, I can still feel the warm water on my feet, and I can still see the anger in my father’s eyes when I finally got home that night.
There was absolutely nothing wrong about any part of the evening, except that I was in the company of Jimmy Hollis. The words I remember my father using to justify the reason for my grounding were: “Jimmy Hollis is not made of the right stuff, you are not to be around him, do you understand?”
Nothing very complicated about that parental commandment. As was the case for most of my father’s instruction to his children, everything was very clear, to the point, cut and dry…………no room for misinterpretation or areas of grey to weasel around in!
“Jimmy Hollis is not made of the right stuff.”
Even though a part of me knew perfectly well what dad meant, there was also a part of me that thought Jimmy was one of the coolest guys around. He was also on a fast track to destroying himself.

Not made of the right stuff. How does one get made of the right stuff or what happens that the stuff one gets made of turns out to not be right.
Aren’t we all made of the same stuff? What, does some stuff get more attention that other stuff? Is some stuff worth more than other stuff? Does some stuff have more potential that other stuff? Don’t we all have the opportunity to take the stuff we’re made of and make something of it?
From some stories I’ve heard, before my father married my mother there could very well have been some fathers and mothers that said of Russell Hofman, “stay away from that young man, he’s not made of the right stuff!”
I still think Jimmy was made of the right stuff. It’s just that his stuff got a little out of order for awhile in his teenage years. Now I wish I would have gone up to that man I saw this past week and asked his name. If would have been such a joy to find out that his name was Jimmy.
People not made of the right stuff must be the one’s who end up being cursed or wowed! You know, from Jeremiah 17:5&6 “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes.” Not very appealing.
Then there are the woes in Luke 6, “woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full, woe to you who are laughing, woe to you who have a good reputation…..” Kind of takes the fun out of enjoying life, just like my dad seemed to take the fun out of being a teenager!
God knew Jeremiah had been made of the right stuff and hoped that Jeremiah would live a life reflecting the right stuff when he offered Jeremiah the blessing that comes from trusting in “the Lord.” (Jer 17:7&8) “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust in the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it doesn not cease to bear fruit.”
And what is the difference between the cursed and the blessed? It has to have something to do with the heart. The cursed turn their hearts away from God. The blessed, have their hearts searched by God and God finds within the heart of creation places of goodness, places of generosity, places of compassion, places of empathy, and places of self-less-ness. And in those places of creation, God turns and calls them blessed.
They are the people who have taken the stuff they were made of and turned it into what is good.
There are not people who were made of the wrong stuff. But there are people who have taken the stuff they were made of and turned it into what is selfish, destructive, materialistic, and everything of this world.
I’m not convinced that I want to be blessed all the time, or maybe even very much of the time. Listen to what constitutes being blessed: “Blessed are you who are poor, blessed are you who weep now, blessed are you when people hate you.”
I don’t know if I’m made of the right stuff to be such a person. It’s not the way the world operates. At least in Jeremiah the blessing comes in the form of fresh water and a live oak tree. Wouldn’t you rather be a live oak tree with roots planted deep into the rich soil by a wonderful stream of water than a poor, hungry, crying person hated by others?
Something is twisted here. Maybe that’s why my father didn’t like going to church.
And maybe when my father did go to church he wasn’t paying enough attention to the complicated simplicity of it all. Because now I believe my father was wrong. He was wrong about Jimmy. He probably wasn’t wrong about my needing to hang out with a different group of people at the time, but he was wrong about Jimmy not being made of the right stuff.
The last I knew Jimmy Hollis was heavily into drugs, had been through several marriages, and had used up most of his inheritance.
As I reflect on these words of blessing and curse, blessed and wowed, if Jimmy has had the hard life he is apt to have had, he understands more about being blessed than I do. My guess is that he has had far more occasion to touch the places of emptiness that equate themselves to being poor, that he has found himself in crowds of strangers with no place to go, and that his reputation has kept anyone of stature from claiming he was made of the right stuff.
But there was something else about Jimmy that most people didn’t take the time to see. He had a glisten in his eyes, a kind and gentle smile, an edge of creativity to make or fix anything.
Maybe, if he was able to escape the social structure of a small Oklahoma town, he lived his life out of the woes into the blessings that were in store for him………
Because, you know……….we are all made of the right stuff.

The Presence of Christ

“The Presence of Christ”
Rev Carolyn Waters
April 30, 2006 CCUM

Luke 24:13-49
13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
36While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence. 44Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The week following Easter, the UCC church on 6th avenue had on it billboard in the front: “Easter! Wow! That was fun! Let’s do it again.”

I don’t think so!

I think once in a lifetime is enough for a crucifixion, and that’s what precedes Easter. Remembering Easter once a year, recalling to mind the promise and new beginnings of life….now that’s a good thing. Perhaps there would be some wisdom to “doing Easter again”. Certainly there is more to Easter than can be grasp in one Sunday, or one telling of the story.

We are, finally Easter People. People who live in the hope of new life, the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of resurrection.

But to say, WOW, that was fun!

The only time I experienced Easter as FUN was when I was a kid and got to hunt Easter eggs in the greening wheat fields of spring.

There were some parts about Easter Sunday this year, and past years that far exceed the typical Sunday in the life of the church. That a good thing, something to celebrate…………..but Fun?

“Gee…that was fun!” were not the thoughts running through the minds of the two people on the road to Emmaus.

Going back to their regular life, these two people were remembering and retelling their experiences of the past several days when a stranger started walking with them. Not an uncommon thing. In conversation the two realized the stranger didn’t seem to realize what had happened in Jerusalem with Jesus of Nazareth.

You know how the story goes. Jesus asks questions, they answer………..finally Jesus sheds light on the meaning of it all………..they listen………..they are intrigued………invite Jesus to their house for dinner…and while breaking bread and drinking wine………they realize the stranger in their midst is the Christ.

The story in Luke goes on to another setting with more of the Disciples, where once again Jesus shows up………….in his physical form, and is recognized by the Disciples. He challenges them to touch his side and hands in order to believe that it is him.

“Their eyes are opened” to the meaning of the scriptures, to the point and purpose of the resurrection.

I think that most of us today tend to think of Jesus in almost entirely spiritual terms. Nevertheless, in this scripture passage from Luke we cannot help but see him in physical terms, risen in flesh and blood, in hair and bone, brain cell and vocal cord. I have to admit that this part of the story is not what persuades me in my Christian faith to believe in the Christ. BUT today we find Jesus coming to reveal that his body, as every human body, is a place where God exists and reveals all that is holy. That part I can accept. That part makes sense to me.

If we believe that Jesus risen in his body means that our human bodies can carry the very existence of God and can hold the presence of God's spirit, then the resurrected life is a life we live in the presence of God as God is in our presence. As Jesus' body took on new life through God's power in the giving of the life of Jesus for the world, then through the offering of his body, now risen, we can come to see in our bodies the same possibilities for new life. AND even more important I think, there is the opportunity to witness the presence of God through the spirit of Christ, living in others.

The resurrection story says not only that Jesus rose from the dead, but also that his body could never again be taken away from his followers, could never again be taken away from the world.

How can this be true? It is true because the Body of Christ is us. The church is the continuation of Jesus. We are the Body of Christ. We are Christ's hands and feet, arms and legs, eyes and mouth, and Christ's check book. We are everything Jesus is in the Gospel, for we are his body. Or at least, that is who we are challenged to be.

In the last ten days I have had the opportunity to be in a car for two hours with George McGovern, watch Ann Lamott work a literary crowd at Tattered Cover, and sit in meditation for an afternoon with Fr. Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber.

All of these people embody the presence of Christ.

For me, all of these people are living icons that give an open window to the holy, the mystery of life.

I don’t always know what to do with “the rest of the Easter story!” You know, the parts that come after Easter. I don’t think it’s a simple, WOW that was fun!

I struggle with the meaning. I easily follow and believe in the teachings of Jesus as a sane, sound, and meaningful way to live my life. But what of this resurrection stuff?

Finally this resurrection stuff is only as meaningful as it is able to manifest its meaning in your life. The resurrection stuff is only as powerful as I am willing to open myself to God’s presence within me, showing forth as the spirit of Christ in my life.

And that only makes as much sense as you are able to see and observe, much the same way the two on the road to Emmaus were able to recognize Christ in the stranger that was with them.

The living icons of my world live in the presence of Christ, and the presence of Christ lives in them. It is proof for me of the resurrected life. It is meaning for me of the presence of God within.

The greatest wonder of all is that we need not be a famous politician, a famous writer, a living saint of a monk, or one of the world’s greatest philosophers to embody the resurrection.

The spiritual truth that comes from the story is that the Good News of Jesus Christ is not about who we are, but about who God is.

The point of the resurrection is not about what happened to the body of Jesus, but the point of the resurrection is about what the body of Jesus became for the sake of the world………………..an incarnation of forgiveness and love for anyone that is willing to receive the gift.

This Most Amazing Day

Easter Sunday
“This Most Amazing Day”
April 16, 2006 CCUM
Rev Carolyn Waters

THE SUNDAY of the Resurrection is not only the greatest day of the church year; it is also the only one that is set by the moon. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. As complicated as that sounds, it makes ancient sense, since it means Easter coincides with the greening of the earth. Christ is risen and the whole world comes to life. Sap rises in dormant trees, spring peepers start their peeping, and the smell of tree blossoms fill the air. The connection is a happy one, surely guaranteed to renew our faith in the creative power of God.

I spent two days this week working in my yard. The difference I could see in the greening of life between Wednesday and Friday was amazing to me. It happens every year! I know this! But I have been so aware of it this year. Perhaps because I’m in a new yard or maybe it’s because I’m paying more attention.
Life comes to life. That’s what spring is all about. Life coming to life.
I want to imagine that is also what Easter can mean for us. That the life we have, often stagnant or stuck or speeding way too fast down a dead end road, that with spring, with Easter, with an understanding of the resurrection…….that life comes to life.
I imagine that all of us have at one time or another struggled with the meaning of the resurrection. If you’ve been paying attention to our Christian story, or really listened to the Gospel message I expect that you have questioned or doubted or at least wondered about the reality of the resurrection. I wonder about the historical reality of the resurrection, but I have little trouble understanding the meaning of the resurrection, if nothing else it is God’s continuing gift of love for us.
Don't we discover the resurrected Christ in those we love and who love us? Haven't we known the love Christ showed for us from the cross in the loving sacrifices others have made for us? Since childhood, haven't those who loved us and taught us our faith, opened a path for the resurrected Christ to enter our lives? We have no more "proof" of the resurrection than those disciples who peered into the empty tomb. But love has stirred our hearts and that love has enabled us to believe that Christ is risen and alive for us. At this point in the resurrection narrative we are reminded that one way the Easter story of Christ's resurrection is made known to us is through love. If others are to come to the faith we celebrate today, or are to be strengthened in their faith as they stare into the tombs and dead parts of their lives, then we will have to reflect for them the risen Christ by our love for them---whether they are family, friend or stranger.

John B. Cobb, Jr., is Professor Emeritus of Claremont School of Theology asks the questions:
Do we affirm the resurrection because of our experience of the resurrected Christ? Or is it important to believe that the New Testament accounts of the resurrection are based on historical fact? Christians disagree on this.

Cobb continues:
There is, in any case, one important difference between Easter and Christmas. The rise of the resurrection faith involved the belief that Jesus had appeared to his disciples after the crucifixion. It is probable that without some experience of the risen Christ, however we are to think of it, the disciples would not have initiated the movement that became Christianity. Whether or not they are important to us today, historically they were of great importance.
That God raised Jesus from the dead does not mean that Jesus was or is a supernatural being. It does mean that death does not have the last word, that reality is far richer than our small minds can realize. In the context of the whole story, it means that God affirmed Jesus’ message and the mission for which that message called. It means that in Jesus we find a clue to who God is. It means that Jesus’ call of the original disciples to mission is a call to us as well. It means that following Jesus is no guarantee of earthly success but that it does ground our hope of ultimate salvation through everlasting life with Jesus in God.

So the celebration of this Easter Day is an invitation to each and every one of us to at least examine our lives and open ourselves to God’s presence being in the darkest and most destructive places within us, to willingly pronounce death upon those places and open ourselves in this Easter time, this spring time to new life.

Paul Tillich once said that “new life would not really be new life if it did not come from the complete end of the old life.”
(Sermon Nuggets, 4-16-06)

Those are difficult words to accept whether speaking of change here and now, or accepting the reality of death. But through both our living resurrections and our resurrection in death, we are offered the opportunity of a new beginning. A new beginning that comes only with the cost of leaving the old behind.

In the story of the resurrection, Jesus did not continue to carry his cross. Many of us go through life carrying a lot of stuff on our back. Far too many of us hold on to the suffering and pain that has been a part of our lives for far too long. Easter is the invitation to let that go, to lay aside the heaviness of life and be invited into a new day, and new vision, a new opportunity to see the wonder, the beauty, the awesome gift of life.


Easter gives us the opportunity to recall
that people who are really willing to live in the light of the resurrection
are willing to live life as God sees and wills it,
not as we see and will it.

This is a most amazing day. This day is amazing because life is amazing. Life is amazing because the nature of God is such that love wins out over all else. Love is the strength of the universe because all other forces remain in the dark places, in the tombs.

The tomb had to be empty, because life if filled with light. Jesus came to show us how to live, and that lesson is one that continues even into death.

So on this grand day of green grass, clear skies, excited children, abundant tables, and an invitation to lay aside the heavy things you carry;;;;;;;;;;

Why not join with ee cummins and say:


i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Lost In The Dark

“Lost in the Dark”
John 12:20-36
CCUM April 2, 2006
Rev Carolyn Waters
Sermon Notes
John 12:20-36
20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Holy God, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 O God, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of All must be lifted up? Who is this Son of All?” 35Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.



Poem from “The Termacollective”……a group of people putting together a spiritual project called “The Box”

What in your life is calling you?
When all the noise of silence, the meetings adjourn, and the lists laid aside

And the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest.
What still pulls at your soul.

In the silence between your heartbeats hides a summons…..
Do you hear it?
Name it if you must
Or leave it forever nameless,

But why pretend it’s not there?

What pulls at your soul?


No one can give a definition of soul. But we know what it feels like…The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it---to remain children of the light.
Albert Schweitzer, Reverence for Life

In John Gospel Jesus is to have said: If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.

I venture to say that when we have lost touch with our soul…we walk in the darkness. When we have communion with our soul, we live in the light.

Story of 2 Year Academy for Spiritual Formation:

Covenant Group, Don Eddy, Petoskey MI



Suicide note Don left:
Never miss an opportunity to ask a friend or colleague “How is it with your soul.”

It’s a question John Wesley always ask of anyone in any group setting.

“How is it with your soul?”

Martin Buber & Aubrey Hodes
Martin Buber
No encounter with a being or a thing in the course of our life lacks a hidden significance … the highest culture of the soul remains basically arid and barren unless, day by day, waters of life pour forth into the soul from those little encounters to which we give their due.

The “little encounters” with one another. The “little encounters” with life.
The “little encounters” that make us flesh and bone.

RUMI Poet Persia

We began as a mineral,
We emerged into plant life
And then to the animal state,
And then into being human.
And always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring
When we feel the slight recall of being green again.

That’s how a young person turns toward a teacher,
That’s how a baby leans toward the breast without knowing the secret of its desire
Yet turning instinctively

Human kind is being led along an evolving course
Through this migration of intelligences
And though we seem to be sleeping
There is an inner wakefulness
That directs the dream.
And that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.


And just what is the truth of who we are? How far do we have to wonder from our own truth before we suddenly realize the darkness that surrounds us is so dark we can never imagine seeing the light again? How much of “the truth of who we are” do we connect with the image of who God created us to be? How much of our “truth” is in the “light” of who God is.

The inner wakefulness that directs our dreams and startles us back to the truth of who we are is the indwelling presence of God. The spirit of life and light. The essence of our soul.

Mary E Carreiro
The Psychology of Spiritual Growth

The soul is the life force---the only “permanent” part of a person. Evolution is a process of being lifted, by the soul, out of human pain and suffering…Spiritual will means a person uses her energy on behalf of the soul rather than on behalf of the human personality.

So the significance of soul is in the connection with spirit, not self. Or self in relation to spirit not personality?

It can all become rather confusing. I just know the reality of joy and the reality of depression and real forces that make for life and death. Jesus is always on the side of life and the side of joy…………….living in the light.

Our own train wrecks, deep seeded pain, trama, abuse of all kinds……..can easily turn our paths toward total darkness. In those times and in that place of darkness life is hell.

We are invited to live in the light. But we do not simply live there by declaring ourselves followers, by declaring ourselves Christian, or by self determination.

We move from places of darkness to places of light by invitation. The invitation from others inquiring about the state of our souls, by the invitation of Christ in offering forgiveness, by the invitation of a good therapist in healing old wounds, by the invitation of God in opening arms of love. We move from places of darkness to places of light by being people of faith.


Rumi
No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God.


(Rumi)
The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it’s gone.

Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.

Whole Lotta Love

“A Whole Lotta Love”
John 3:14-21
March 26, 2006 CCUM
Rev. Carolyn Waters

14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Odds are that if you were anywhere near a Sunday School class when you were between 8 and 10 years old, you memorized John 3:16. If you know any verse in the scriptures by memory, it’s most likely John 3:16. The verse in and of itself is….simply………..enough.

God so loved the world! That stands on it’s own.

God so loved the world that God sent/gave God’s only Son!

God so love the world that God sent God’s only Son that whosoever believes in him, shall not parish but have everlasting life! Makes for great poetry and not bad theology!

Except that I’d just as soon stay with the God so loved the world part………leave it there. Nice and simple, profound and complex in and of itself enough.

If you are scratching your head and trying to remember who sang “Whole Lotta Love” it was Led Zephlen. The lyrics to that rock song from the 70’s aren’t something to be quoted in a sermon, but the title has a nice ring and came back to me when considering what I wanted to focus on this morning.
Just how much love does it take to love the whole world? So much that only God is capable of such love. What does the statement that God so loved the world imply? And incredible amount of tolerance, forgiveness, and acceptance of the behavior of God’s children! Both when Jesus was credited with speaking the words and our reciting of the words from childhood memory and adult hope.

God so love the world that……….

In loving the world God offered the best gift possible to represent that love.
We attempt the same when we share ourselves with others in ways that go beyond the routine of daily relationships. There are times and situations in which we want to give the very best of what we have or who we are to another because of who they are for us or what they mean to us.

But almost without fail, no gift we give ever fully communicates our love or appreciation. If lucky the gift giving brings the hoped for joy within the spirit of the one we care for.

My mother turned 93 yesterday. She didn’t answer her phone in the morning, which brought worry to my mind as I always call her on Saturday morning and she always answers the phone. I found out later that she was in the community room of her senior apartment building eating birthday cake. She was too busy to sit around waiting for phone calls!

My brother that lives in the community where Mom lives threw a little birthday party for her Wednesday evening. Apparently it was quite the deal. Marti Gras beads, balloons, cupcakes and take out Chinese food. Of course Jacob the 21/2 year old grandson made the party real. My brother Jack and I conspired to give Mom a parakeet and habitat in which to live. We thought it was a safe gift as parakeets were not unfamiliar to our life when growing up. We also thought it would give her some company and something “alive” to talk to. The parakeet is green. Mom ask grandson Jacob what to name the bird to which he immediately said, “Go.” Everything in his world that is green is called “go.” Everything red is called “Stop.” So the bird is called go-go. And mother couldn’t be happier. She said she was so excited Wednesday night she couldn’t sleep.

What do you give a 93 year old mother that doesn’t need anything? You give her a parakeet and a roll of stamps. Why do you give her anything? Because you love her, because and even if she is your mother.

The giving and the loving doesn’t even begin to compare to the depth of love God has for this world or the gift of the person Jesus to show us how to live in relationship with one another and in relationship with God.

The greatest love you have for the one, two, five, or ten most important people in your life doesn’t begin to compare or measure to the depth of love God has for you or for me……………for the whole world.

That’s a whole lotta love!

The joy you offer to those you love or the joy you experience from their gift of life offered to you…………..doesn’t hold a candle, doesn’t even begin to offer a spark of a giant bonfire when compared to the joy God has in the gift of all creation and each and every human being on this earth.

That’s a whole lotta joy!

But as much as I want to simply rest in that vast ocean of love or luxuriate in the depth of that joy………….I can’t.

It’s not enough to simply give a birthday gift and feel good about it.
It’s not enough to realize God’s love for us and feel affirmed and accepted.

If that’s as far as the loving goes, then God’s love is lost on thankless children.

This well known scripture verse follows Jesus encounter with Nichodemus and his confusion about being born again. One can only assume that Jesus was doing his best to explain to those listening the depth of God’s love. In believing the depth of God’s love, transformation occurs for the believer. One is “born again” in spirit, in focus, in intention for living and believing.

When an understanding of that love occurs, an understanding of the representation of that love also occurs. The representation of God’s love is found in the person of Jesus. It is through his life, his ministry, and the way he died and lived beyond death that we see the image of who God longs for God’s children to be. And it is through the representation of God’s love found in the person of Jesus that we see what God expects of us.

Being loved goes a long way. Believing that we are loved is the foundation to our core personality and character. But being loved is not enough. Unless we figure out how to return that love, to respond to that love, then we haven’t fully realized the gift of the love we are offered.

My mother has loved me since her first awareness of me in her womb. I have absolutely no doubt of that. My mother loved me through my stubborn teenage years, my obstinate young adult period, the poor decisions I made in my 30’s and the trials and triumphs I have experienced the last 20 years.

But I didn’t always love my mother. In fact, for a number of years my prayer was that my mother would live long enough that I could learn to love her.

It’s happened. And in loving her, I have a greater appreciation of her love for me.

It makes me think of a couple of Charlie Brown comic strips:
Lucy once said to Charlie Brown, "Discouraged again, eh, Charlie Brown?" "You know what your whole trouble is? The whole trouble with you is that you're you!"
Charlie asks, "Well, what in the world can I do about that?"
Lucy answers, "I don't pretend to be able to give advice...I merely point out the trouble!"
Perhaps the greatest insight of this passage from John is to realize that we are part of the problem and God offers to whatever our problem is, the person of Jesus……….that through his life we can begin to see some solutions to our problems.
However, another conversation between Lucy and Charlie Brown indicates another part of the problem/solution.
Lucy speaks, "You know what the whole trouble with you is, Charlie Brown?"
Charlie answers, "No, and I don't want to know! Leave me alone!" He walks away.
Lucy shouts after him, "The whole trouble with you is you won't listen to what the whole trouble with you is!"
The solution begins with listening. .Perhaps if "you" are the problem, "you" can't be the solution. The solution has to come from outside ourself..
If loving isn’t a two way street, then the power of love, the gift of love, the sacrifice of love has little meaning.

If we are not able to see “our stuff” in the challenge of loving, we seldom reach the grace filled space of realizing the “gift of love”.

Hear again the last three verses of today’s lesson:

19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

If we dare to be children of the light, children of the love of God, children who see a vision of what life can be and what love can be and what relationships can be when lived in the embrace of God’s love for the world……..

If we dare these things………..not only will our lives be different, but the world will be a different place because of our response to being loved.