In a letter to Redwoods Presbytery Members, The Rev. Dr. Robert E. Conover writes: “Yesterday at our stated meeting, the presbytery voted by a 74/18 majority to express its opposition to the imposition of the rebuke to the ruling by the Presbytery Permanent Judicial Commission, and upheld by the Synod PJC and General Assembly PJC, that the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr had acted contrary to the Constitution of the PC(USA) when she conducted same gender marriage ceremonies…The motion was very thoughtfully crafted and carefully worded to express the presbytery’s opposition.  In other words, the vote of the presbytery was effectively a collective dissent by an overwhelming majority of members present…While the action of the presbytery yesterday does not undo the judicial decision, it does express the presbytery’s collective opposition to the imposition of the rebuke.  The position of the presbytery by yesterday’s vote is clear.  The decisions of the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly PJCs are also clear.  Does this create some ambiguity?  Possibly, but it is hardly the first time people of faith have been confronted by ambiguity, and I have every confidence that we will remain firmly grounded as we find our way through it…  Same gender marriage is at the forefront of society, national politics, and the church.  The Presbytery of the Redwoods has displayed repeatedly, and did so again yesterday, a way of being and behaving in the midst of challenging issues that is an example for both the church and the world: openness, grace and respect, even in the midst of profound disagreement and pain.  I trust this to be the way of Christ for the life of the world.”

Many newspapers are covering this important story. You can read a few of them them below:

LA Times: California presbytery defies church, backs minister in gay weddings 

Washington Post: Presbyterian churches ignore commission, won’t censure SF minister who performed gay marriages 

Marin IJ: Presbyterian church representatives refuse to rebuke former San Rafael pastor in gay marriage dispute

And the PCUSA begins to deal with some of the unknowns in the article below.

 PCUSA:  Redwood Presbytery votes to oppose GAPJC decision rebuking Spahr for performing same-gender marriages

And the story was also covered by KTVU, you can see the news broadcast below:

SAN ANSELMO: Church leaders refuse to sanction Presbyterian…http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/san-anselmo-church-leaders-refuse-to-sanction/vHJgJ/

“After 9/11 occurred and our government decided to go into Afghanistan, there was a lot of controversy — especially living here in San Francisco,” explained Wood — now 79 — in recounting the origins of a project now called Bare Roots.

“I was looking for something we might do at our church that could bring us together, that everyone, no matter their political leanings, could agree on and that would be positive,” Wood said.

Read the rest of this article on the PCUSA News and Announcements. 

   Our New Testament lesson is Acts, Chapter 10, verses 44 through 48.  These verses at the end of Chapter 10 of Acts are just the end of a longer story and we need a quick catch up before we hear this morning’s passage:

Cornelius, a Roman army officer and Gentile in Caesarea, a believer in God but not a Jew, has a vision that he is to send for Peter, one of the apostles.  It so happens that Peter, a devout Jew, has a vision as well.  He’s praying on the roof of his friend’s house in Joppa, anticipating a fine meal being prepared by his hosts.   He falls into a trance and sees a sheet being lowered down from the heavens, filled with all of the foods that good Jews aren’t supposed to eat – animals considered to be “unclean.”  He hears a voice: “Get up Peter, kill and eat.”  Peter responds, “No, way!  I’ve never touched this stuff, let alone eaten it!”  And he hears an answer: “What God has made, you must not call profane.”  This happens three times, which is God’s way of saying, “And I really mean it, Peter.”  And while he’s still trying to figure out what it is that God means, Cornelius’ men are knocking at the door to invite Peter to Caesarea.[1]

Now, a good Jew wasn’t supposed to hang out with Gentiles, but the Holy Spirit gives Peter a nudge out the door.  He travels to Caesarea, meets Cornelius and realizes this Gentile is having a genuine experience of God.  Peter starts preaching about this God who’s giving Cornelius visions, and about how Peter has been awakened to a reality he never understood before: “I truly understand,” he declares, “that God shows no partiality.”[2]  But before Peter can finish his sermon, the Holy Spirit short-circuits the usual order of things, and that’s where we pick up the story.[3]

So now reading the passage:

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, ⁴⁶for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.  Then Peter said, ⁴⁷“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Even on the Gentiles.  Even on us.  This passage reminds us that the question of whether the Jews were included in God’s plan for salvation wasn’t remotely a concern for the early church.  The Jews were a given, regardless of what they believed or did – they were, after all, God’s people.  The burning question for the early church was whether non-Jews were included.  The very earliest church was basically a Jewish sect, but in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is whittling away at this assumption, and this change was not easy.  To adapt from Jewish into non-Jewish cultures required excruciating growing pains.  Did new followers have to be circumcised – as adults?  Did they have to follow Jewish dietary customs?  People had strong opinions about how to answer these questions and none of them were answered unanimously or without a struggle.

Now, from our perspective a couple of thousand years later, the question of whether we should eat a bacon cheeseburger might seem trivial.  But, there’s that line, “God knows no partiality.”  No partiality.  And then Peter’s declaration that we cannot withhold the symbols of inclusion in the church from anyone who so obviously shows the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This hits us – the church – where we live right now.

First of all, it hits us where we live because, at least for the most part, in this room, we are the Gentiles.  We are the ones that everyone thought should be excluded, would be excluded, of course, because Gentiles were idolatrous pagans; not heirs of God’s covenant, and so not held to the same moral standards – we were the “them” in this scenario, the outsiders, the ones who were unclean.  In the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the father, Mr. Portokalos, mutters in Greek to his daughter’s Anglo-Saxon boyfriend, “When my people were writing philosophy, your people were still swinging from trees.”  Peter and the apostles had that same sense of superiority about pretty much everyone else including the Greeks when it came to holiness and righteousness, the standards by which God judges people, according to the psalmist.   Everyone else, everyone outside the covenant was profane.

But this encounter between Peter and Cornelius changed the course of Christianity forever.   It opened God’s plan for salvation to the whole world – to you and me, who would never have been welcome if the Holy Spirit had not planted this vision of God’s impartiality into their active imaginations.

And this story also hits home because when Peter declared, “God shows no partiality,” he also put us on warning: the rules were changed for us, so that we could come in – who are we, then, to prevent God from blessing the whole human family?   Who are we to stand in the way of God’s love?[4]  Who are we to say, “These are the rules.  These have always been the rules.  They always will be”?  Peter thought he knew the rules.  They were right there in Scripture.  But the movement of the Holy Spirit, present in us and among us and between us even now, trumps everything.  How dare we claim to know more than the Holy Spirit?

Last Wednesday, the President officially announced his support of gay marriage.  This followed a very controversial vote in North Carolina that bans gay marriage and any other type of “domestic legal union.”  I know and love people who have strong feelings on both sides of the gay marriage issue, and so I proceed with much care for both.  Those who have spoken loudly against gay marriage declare that being gay is against God’s intention, and they quote parts of the Bible that appear to speak against it.  Those on the other side of the issue, and I count myself among them, point out the contextual nature of the Bible, the lack of any understanding in Biblical times of a loving, gay monogamous relationship, and the fact that Jesus said absolutely nothing – nada – on the topic.  And the fact that we ignore many of the other archaic rules in the Bible, without blinking.

I believe we should give more attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit in today’s passage.  The vision Peter received clearly re-defines what is understood in the Old Testament.  You could say God changed God’s mind here.  Or, more accurately, you could call it the Holy Spirit at work in the church.  A Holy Spirit that constantly surprises, inspires, and guides people toward the gospel.  A Holy Spirit that falls on the very people you thought were living against God’s will.  A Holy Spirit that lifts up and sanctifies all people through the grace of Jesus Christ.[5]

Peter’s revelation in Acts 10 was that “he was only a mortal.”  What humility!  Peter noticed the movement of the spirit and realized that it was God, not himself, that had the power to judge. … This does not deny the importance of justice, or of living according to morals.  Rather, it declares that what that means is discovered through living in community together, through discerning God’s will together, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead.

Wherever you may stand on the issue of gay marriage, I urge you to take note of Peter’s example, to be open to being surprised by God, to be surprised by the “other” – because you – we – used to be the other, the ones who were profane.  Could it be possible that North Carolina’s Amendment 1 or California’s Prop 8, broad strokes of “religious” morality, would have been on the sheet God descended from heaven?  Could it be that God is telling us to be careful whom we call “profane” or “unclean?”

For those of you who are not on Facebook, besides the little tidbits about what’s going on in their lives, people often post links to other websites: news stories, humorous articles and photos, and a whole variety of videos, some of which are informative and others of which are entertaining.  Once again I am wishing we had a functioning projector because there are times when a picture is worth a thousand words and this is one of them.  Last week a friend posted a link to a video with the caption, “Skip your morning meditation and watch this instead.”  It was a five-minute video of a baby’s first bath.  The woman bathing the newborn may have been a nurse or a doctor – we can’t tell who she is, but we can tell by her slow, calm and caring touch that this is not the first infant she’s bathed.  But the camera is focused on the baby, who melts into the woman’s gentle strokes.  The water must be just the right temperature because the baby stays drowsy and calm.  The baby is the picture of trust, of comfort, of someone being loved well.  A number of people left comments on the video, including, “Imagine if everyone knew kindness, compassion and love like this.”   Another commented that the way the woman held and touched the baby made it clear that she recognized the amazing gift of life expressed through this child.[6]

If Peter lived today, instead of in first century Palestine, and if he had access to the Internet, I imagine that this video would have been his vision, rather than the sheet of unclean food.  I imagine that he would hear a voice saying, “Look at the baby, Peter.  You are trying to decide whom to wash in the waters of baptism, whom to include, in whom my Holy Spirit rests.  You look at my people and you see gay or straight, light skin or dark skin, Republican or Democrat, capitalist or socialist, Muslim, Christian, Jew.  When I look, this baby is what I see.  Every one of you is more the same than you are different.  Every one of you is precious; every one is an expression of my amazing gift of life.  Look at my children, Peter.  My blessing and my Spirit rest even in them.  And, even in you.”

May it be so for each of us.  Amen.

Still, I understand the difference.  Parents tend to feel self-conscious about a crying child, and tend to worry about distracting their fellow worshipers.  I know that when my own children were small, I was very relieved to have a nursery available, because that one hour in church was precious quiet time.  It really is hard to concentrate on a sermon when your 1-year-old is doing her best imitation of an air raid siren.  And while some parents want to stay in the pew and deal with the cranky child as best they can, others really would rather retreat to a “crying room,” like our Fireside Room where we have closed circuit TV broadcasting the worship service.

So what’s the balance?  How do we make families feel genuinely welcome?  This summer we’ll try an approach we’ve been talking about for a while.  We are going to unbolt the second-to-the-last-row pew (on one or both sides of the aisle – we’ll see what works) so that there is floor space between the last pew and the pew in front of it where small children can play quietly – not silently, but quietly – during worship.  We’ll come up with some quiet games, toys and art materials; maybe put a rug down to minimize the clatter of toys on the hard floor.

This will allow the children to worship with their parents, to begin to learn age appropriate worship etiquette, but most importantly, to experience being part of the worshiping community.  Before children are able to make sense of a sermon that appeals to adults, they can still become accustomed to the sounds of worship; they can feel the words and music wash over them in ways that touch the heart even if they don’t speak to the intellect – yet.  Children can watch their parents and the other adults participate in the liturgy.  They can feel the welcome of the church family that has promised to nurture them.  They can begin to feel at home in worship.

I started attending worship with my parents when I was about 6 or 7 years old.  My mother kept lemon drops or Lifesavers in her purse.  I was free to draw all over the worship bulletin.  I played plenty of games of tic-tac-toe in church, later graduating to hangman.  When my daughters were teenagers at my last church, all the middle school and high school youth sat up in the highest pews in the farthest corner of the back of the balcony.  I know many notes were passed and many giggles shared.  And at the same time, those kids felt at home in worship.

Watch for the moving pew.

My favorite activity was going on the cargo net which was over a creek and held up to forty people at a time!

-Jared

Read Zach’s reflection

Read Diana’s refelction

View photos

A few weeks ago, I found myself scanning across the local radio dial in my car on a trip to San Jose when I came across a new radio station which was playing music from the 1990s. While I was in middle school in the 1990s, it was also when I started getting into music. And one of those bands I found myself enjoying at that time was called The Dave Matthews Band. If you haven’t heard of The Dave Matthews Band, they are a band predominately from the 1990s which are known for being an alternative rock band who use a lot of non-traditional musical instruments ranging from violins, fiddles, and flutes in their music. While the majority of themes in DMB songs vary, a lot of their songs deal with issues like appreciations of life to more human justice issues, from violence and racism. But one of my favorite songs from the band is called “Everyday.”

The music video for this song is also probably one of the best music videos out there as well. While the video only has the band members singing the song in the background, the video shows a stocky, yet warm-hearted, geekish looking man in his 30s on the streets of New York City going up to strangers and offering to give people hugs. At the beginning of the video, the young man is finding it difficult for people hug him. After all, making eye contact with strangers is something hard to do in New York City, let alone hugging strangers. But after awhile, a clean cut man goes up to him, takes up his offer, and hugs him. A few moments later, an older woman in her 80s hugs him. Then a group of young African American men playing basketball hug him followed by a group of tough New York Firefighters, to even a skeptical, yet willing, late night talk show host Conan O’Brien who hugs him when the young man walks onto his set. While this video is simple and doesn’t contain any scripted words, fancy action scenes, or flashy graphics, it shows us just everyday people, everyday strangers, loving one another as the band sings the song with the lyrics in the background, “All You Need Is, All You Want Is, All You Need Is, Love. Everyday.”

This morning our scripture is all about love. In this passage that Martha and I have read for you, we find ourselves at a point in John where we see Jesus talking with his disciples not only about God’s love for them, but also their need to love others. In a sense, Jesus is painting a pattern for them. A pattern that is saying that as God has loved him (Jesus) he in turn, loves them. And since he loves them, they should not only remember that love Jesus has for them, but they should also pass this love onto others. “As God has loved me, so I loved you,” Jesus said. “This is my command, Love one another.”

I am sure all of us here have at one point or another have seen T-shirt shirts or bumper stickers which read, “Jesus Loves You,” or even sung this simple song at Sunday School or Vacation Bible School in your youth with the same title. In fact, when noted theologian Karl Barth was once asked about his most profound discovery about God, he surprised an audience of listeners by answering them by singing , “Jesus loves me yes I know for the bible tells me so.”

But while everyone has heard and knows the phrase “Jesus Loves You,” the truth is, do we really believe it? Granted, we have been reminded of it by slogans, the silly songs, and even those charismatic late night cable televangelists. But is it really true? Are we really loved by God? Am I Loved by God?

Despite this question sounding so simple, the reality is this: it’s a question that many people are struggling to answer. Everyday, people ask themselves, “If God really loves me, then why do I feel so much guilt in my life? If God loves me, then why do I live with so much regret? If God loves me, why do people say I am going to Hell for who I am?

And while we know we live in a fallen world where sometimes there is anything but love everyday, we also find ourselves struggling to understand why is it that sometimes we see people who talk about God’s love and the need for us to love others but it sure doesn’t appear that they are doing it themselves? Much more, if God’s love is supposed to be unconditional, then why is it sometimes presented by many as being conditional much like a contract—only being offered to a selected people who hold up their end of a bargain to do select things.

Recently, Rob Bell, a Christian author and pastor, wrote a book entitled “Love Wins.” The premise of the book outlines Bell’s view that many have distorted the idea of God’s love and forgiveness by making it seeming conditional, something that only can be obtained by those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

In his book, Bell writes, “First, I believe that Jesus’s story is first and foremost about the love of God for every single one of us. It is a stunning, beautiful, expansive love, and it is for everybody, everywhere. That’s the story. “For God so loved the world . . .” That’s why Jesus came. That’s his message. That’s where the life is found.”.

While Bell’s book has gained a wide popularity and much needed press, it also has gained tremendous criticism and Bell himself has also received a great deal hateful responses for his theology of unconditional love, not by those outside of Christianity, but from those in the Christian community. Bell’s argument about God loving and accepting all has brought him so much response from people who not only reject Bell as being a heretic and preaching a perverted gospel, but has him labeled by many as being a man who is leading people to Hell for his views on God’s love.

Even though this is such a bold statement by many who say that preaching unconditional love is an unforgivable sin, we must take a moment and ask ourselves, does even unconditional love exist in the first place? And if so, where did unconditional love come from?

One of the ways in which theologian John Calvin often described our relationship with God was that of a loving parent who loves their child. While there are many other ways to view God, I often like Calvin’s imagery of God because it provides for us an imagery of how God loves us in our own lives. And even though Calvin discussed the loving parent as being a father or a mother, I think it would be safe to use a person as a loving parent with anyone whom believed in us, who unconditionally loved us, and someone who no matter what we did in life, was always there for us. Maybe for some of you it was your father, maybe for others it was your mother. Or maybe it was an uncle, an aunt, or maybe an older sibling. Regardless, whom ever that person was in your life who always embraced you with love, its this love we felt from that person, the love we shared with that person, and the love that despite no matter what may have come between the both of you, that continued to exist because it was a love that couldn’t be restricted, relegated, or revoked. It was a love that was always real and a type of love that was always unconditional.

Recently, I heard a story on the public radio program, “This American Life” about a man named Roger who was from the inner city neighborhoods of Baltimore. The man, in his late 30s, grew up without a father and was raised by his mother. While Roger had a great deal of love for his mother, he spoke about how much he had hurt her when he was younger by getting into trouble. “At first, in my early teens I was into stealing,” he said. “Later, I found myself getting into drugs, and then into the Baltimore city gangs. And when my mother tried to convince me to get help, I didn’t listen to her because I was mad. And even though she had patience for awhile, she eventually turned me into the police after she learned of a shooting I was involved in. During most of the time I was locked up, I had nothing but anger towards her, anger that she betrayed me and didn’t love me anymore. But you know something,” he added. “She never stopped loving me. Even when I told her that I hated her and hoped she would die, she still loved me. And after all I have been through in my life, after all the hate I felt, she was the only one who continued to love me unconditionally. That is what love is.”

While theologians, scholars, and those in the church will continue to argue about the conditions one must receive God’s love for many years to come, the reality is this: even in our world, a world filled with brokenness, despair, anger and hate even by those in our own religion, unconditional love exists. All of us here at some one point or another have seen this unconditional love in our own lives. Maybe for you it was seeing a way someone forgave you when you did something wrong, maybe it was a way someone reached out to you when you were in terrible need, maybe it was someone who nurtured and comforted you when everyone else turned their back on you. Whoever this person may be, no matter what the circumstances were, in this moment in life, you saw unconditional love, unconditional acceptance, unconditional hope. This my friends is what God’s love is like. A loving parent who loves us no matter who we are, no matter what we may say or no matter how angry may be—like Roger’s mother, our God never stops loving us.

And if we can see it in the lives of those who mean so much to us, then we know it must have come from somewhere. Because unconditional love, a love that surrounds us no matter how fallen or broken we may be, can only come from someone who has no limit, no restrictions, no required merits on how much they can love us. Because love is everlasting, its always open, its always forgiving. And its so strong that even Jesus gave a son to die for us so that we could have such an unconditional, a such divine love.

And while sometimes it may require bumper sticker slogans, silly songs, do what ever you can to remember that God loves you. Even remember the words of Fred Rogers, from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood who once said, “when I tell children at the end of my program they are special, I mean it. Because they made it a special day by just being you. There’s no person in the whole world like you. And God loves you just the way you are.”

Links:

Dave Matthew’s Band Music Video for song “Everyday”:  Click Here

Read Jared’s reflection

Read Diana’s reflection

View photos

We are happy to be hosting you during the May 15th Presbytery Meeting. Click here for important information for your stay and travels.

We took at look at a permaculture master plan.  We learned how to create a drainage ditch so that compost juices and rainwater have a way of soaking back into the ground.  (it’s all part of the plan) We learned to safely and effectively use a pickax and shovel.  We found edible plants growing wild and helped some herbs find new homes.  We pulled out non-native invasive species from the riverbank.  We threw a lighted Frisbee, played “Sandman” at the park, jumped on a cargo net above a creek, went swimming, hiked in the dark, and had a campfire with s’mores.

Somewhere in there we realized, “that the environment is a lot more important than I thought it was…”  We decided that taking care of the earth is important, “cuz it’s perdy,” and “SO IT LASTS.”  We also talked about having an eco-clean up day here at FPCSA and the need to go back to the Woods for more fun on the challenge course!

Check out our photos on Flickr (scroll down, right side, under “follow us” press the white box with a blue and pink dot)

Read Zach’s reflection

Read Jared’s refelction

That is worth celebrating, but after the more than four years since the San Francisco Presbytery certified her as ready for a call, more than two and a half years since their vote to approve her ordination, followed by six trials before the Synod and General Assembly Judicial Commissions, Lisa is rethinking her call. That is not unusual after ten years in one ministry, which is how long Lisa has served TAMFS. But reading between the lines, I’d say Lisa is worn out. Or burned out. Who wouldn’t be?

She writes, “My friend and mentor Janie Spahr has counseled many LGBT folks like me struggling with the questions of whether to stay in the church, whether to pursue a call in our church, or come out to their congregation. The question she will ask is, ‘Are you willing to be curriculum for the church?’ … All of the ups-and-downs and ins-and-outs of this long judicial process have been part of what it means to be curriculum for the church. We have to learn together, and we don’t seem to learn well in the abstract. And I can’t say that it’s been anything but a privilege to do this work.  At the same time, even as I understand in a deep way that the whole of this journey, and the good work of being ‘curriculum’ has been a part of my sense of calling, this judicial process has also been personally painful. The many delays, and the waiting, have exacted a cost. There’s a kind of spiritual pain here that I’m still figuring out. Suffice it to say that our judicial process, as necessary as it may be, is hard on everyone, from the commissioners to the legal counsels on both sides, to the individuals whose lives are directly affected.”

I want to express my deep gratitude for Lisa’s courage and persistence in being “curriculum for the church,” and my profound sorrow and regret at the cost. Lisa will be in my prayers as she continues to listen for God’s calling. Lisa, ever the fine preacher, concludes: “But we believe in a God who is the redeemer of time, and we strive for that equanimity of thanksgiving that Paul speaks of and practiced in his own life. ‘Gratitude in good times,’ Calvin said, ‘patience in adversity, and [most of all] a wonderful security respecting the future.’”