Thursday Thoughts
A Bottomless Well of Love
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 04/18/24
“For, our Lord God is so good, so gentle and so courteous that he can never assign final failure to those in whom he will always be blessed and praised….For before he made us he loved us, and when we were made we loved him; and this is made only of the natural substantial goodness of the Holy Spirit, mighty by reason of the might of the Father, wise in mind of the wisdom of the son. And so is man’s [sic] soul made by God, and in the same moment joined to God.”[1]
When Julian of Norwhich (14th century English mystic) wrote about her mystical visions of God, at the very center of her retelling was a profound conviction that we are deeply and irrevocably loved by God. This month’s sermons are taking us through 1 John, a powerfully poetic piece written to encourage the church community to keep on in the faith and to not allow themselves to be cowed by fears that they weren’t enough. The most powerful statement of God’s character comes in chapter 4, verse 16: God is love.
To say God “is love” rather than God “loves,” removes all distance between God and love. To say that God “loves” leaves open the possibility that God might not love (like love is a choice that God might one day stop making). But to say that God “is love”reminds us that love is God’s very being. It isn’t a choice, but rather an honest expression of God’s very character.
What greater assurance could John give his readers who are struggling with fear that they aren’t enough than to point to the very essence of God’s character as love! We love - and have faith and walk in the light - because “God first loved us” (4:19). We don’t have to live in fear that we aren’t perfect - we have only to let ourselves be loved and to love the world around us as best we can.
What is one small way you can love the world around you this week? Earth Day is on Monday, can you love the world by planting something or caring for an outdoor space? Can you love the world by reaching out to a friend, family member, or acquaintance who might need some encouragement? Can you make reconciliation with someone you have harmed? Can you help carry someone’s burden through an act of service?
God’s ever abundant, overflowing love can fill us to overflowing if we open ourselves up to it by loving God and loving others!
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
[1] Julian of Norwich, Showings, translated by Edmund Colledge and James Walsh (Mahweh,
NJ: Paulist, 1978): 282-84.
"Remembering the Prophets"
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 04/04/24
Mary
Magdalene.
Mary the Mother of James.
Salome.
Joanna.
The other women.
These are the voices of the earliest preachers of the risen Christ - the women who found Jesus’ tomb empty and proclaimed what they had seen to the rest of the world. This week after Easter I am reminded again to give thanks for their faithful witness. They were the very first to proclaim what we shout out with joy on Easter morning - Christ is Risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Fifty-six years ago on today’s date, another proclaimer and American Baptist died: Martin Luther King, Jr. The day before his death he spoke at the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. In his speech, he demanded that the city treat its black civil servants with justice and dignity and urged the black community to band together in nonviolent protest of the injustices. In that speech he used the image of Moses looking into the Promised Land after having helped free the Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt.
“Like anybody, I
would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned
about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to
the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not
get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will
get to the promised land!”[1]
Today is also Maya Angelou’s birthday (she would have been 96). Most well known for her biographical writings and poetry, she also worked with Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights movement. In her poem “Caged Bird,” she writes,
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Speaking of her own life experience, she reminds us that Christ’s work to free us from the grave must extend to all folx.
At the[1] beginning of the book of 1 John, the author writes, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of Life” (1 John 1:1). The Evangelist was very concerned that the readers knew that they were writing from a place of first-hand knowledge.
Today, as we walk out of Holy Week, let us remember with thanksgiving the witnesses who came before us and spoke prophetic truth so that we might know how God was and is at work in the world. Mary, Mary, Salome, Joanna, the other women, MLK Jr., and Angelou still speak truths to us about Christ’s work in this world and the human condition that needs healing.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/02/us/king-mlk-last-sermon-annotated.html
A New Command
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 03/28/24
New Command.
Love one another.
On that night when Jesus had gathered with his disciples, ate the bread, and drank the wine, he also knelt down and played the role of servant to all of them. Even the one who he knew was already in the process of betraying him. Even the one he knew would deny him before the sun had even risen. He washed their dirty, tired feet.
All of them.
I have always been captivated by this memory of Jesus wrapping himself in a towel and washing his disciples’ feet. In part because it is overwhelming to think of the God who created sunsets kneeling at anyone’s crusty feet. And in part because I myself don’t want that job (the feet, that is)! Yet, as the story goes, the God who put the ocean’s waves in motion, knelt and did that not once - but many times. And there is no record that Jesus put any limitations on who would walk away with clean toes. Apparently Peter really struggled with this, not wanting Jesus washing his feet at all - Peter put limitations on Jesus.
But, Jesus insisted that Peter also needed his feet washed. Peter needed to let Jesus serve him so that he too could go out and serve others. “For I have set you an example,” Jesus told those around him, “that you also should do as I have done” (John 13:15).
A new command.
Love one another.
While we won’t wash each other’s feet (but will wash hands at tonight’s service), we are still called to honor this new commandment, still called to serve, still called to love. Even if we have betrayed or denied Jesus by not loving. This is a season of renewed life. The chance to try again. The chance to remember again that we are deeply loved by the God who both created the Milky Way and who loves us enough to wash our feet.
A new command.
For all of us.
Blessings, Pastor Amy
Siblings, let me be your servant,
Let me
be as Christ to you.
Pray
that I may have the grace to
Let you
be my servant too.
We are
pilgrims on the a journey,
And
companions on the road.
We are
here to help each other
Walk the
mile and bear the load.
I will
hold the Christ-light for you
In the
night time of your fear.
I will
hold my hand out to you,
speak
the peace you long to hear.
I will
weep when you are weeping;
When you
laugh I’ll laugh with you.
I will
share your joy and sorrow,
Till
we’ve seen this journey through.
When we
sing to God in heaven
We shall
find such harmony,
Born of
all we’ve known together
of
Christ’s love and agony.
Siblings,
let me be your servant,
Let me
be as Christ to you.
Pray
that I may have the grace to
Let you
be my servant, too.
Standing a Little Bit Straighter
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 03/21/24
As I write this the earth is standing a little bit straighter than it was yesterday. Today is the vernal equinox! Today the earth stands parallel to the sun, with neither axis tilted away. For this day, the northern and southern hemispheres will receive an equal amount of light. We call it the “vernal” equinox in the northern hemisphere because we are moving toward spring (“vernal” = “of spring”).
Not that I want the southern hemisphere to be in darkness, but I feel like they have held onto the longer days long enough. It’s our turn now!
In all seriousness, when it comes to sunlight, the earth is going to do its thing, splitting the long days between northerners and southerners and bringing us together in sunlight equality twice a year.
Much of our Scriptures (both Hebrew and Christian) are concerned with the fair treatment of all people. The Hebrew prophets are full of commands to treat insiders and outsiders fairly. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he writes that baptism is what brings equality between people:
“As many of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:27-29).
Paul isn’t saying that people have their race,
ethnicity, or gender removed at baptism, but rather that these often arbitrary
things no longer determine some folx to be more valuable than others or more
deserving of freedom or God’s grace. Baptism is the equinox - that which brings
equality between folx. Joining Christ by joining in his life, death, and
resurrection in the healing waters of baptism is the grace that helps us come
face-to-face with others as our siblings in Christ.
It is hard to believe that this proclamation of Paul’s can actually play out in real life where so many realities conspire to give more to some and less to others. We’d like to blame that all on the “world,” but we have plenty of inequalities inside the church as well - such as chancels that aren’t accessible to folx with limited mobility or whole churches that aren’t accessible to LGBTQ+ folx and their families.
As we head into Easter on this first week of spring, may we remember that like the earth coming back to its equinox, God’s grace can bring us back to equality with one another. And may we always be a people who seek out places of inequality so we might more faithfully share this good creation with one another.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
Re-Remembering the Day the World Shifted
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 03/15/24
I was supposed to have been teaching in person that day (I think on Aristotle), but my university had no safe water because some disease had been found in the local water system (ecoli? Salmonella?). With no way to wash my hands and no masks (remember when we thought we just had to wash our hands to prevent COVID spread?), I moved my classes online that day. I knew full well that I would probably not be back in person with my students again that semester. Indeed, the university decided the following day to shut down the campus and go entirely online. We thought it would be for two weeks.
Within just a few days, the world became almost unrecognizable as we lost our daily structures: worship services, classes, restaurants, family visits, etc.
In the last four years we have all learned many new skills that have enabled us to connect virtually to other folx, but we also carry a load of grief over the losses brought by the pandemic and the losses the pandemic kept us from grieving with our communities.
As you remember this week four years ago and all that has come since, also remember that God walked beside us through all the loss and uncertainty. God also grieved as people turned against one another, as bodies shut down, as children regressed in learning, and rejoiced as people rallied to make it through together. As we remember four years ago, if you haven’t already done so, it might help to shift your memory view enough that you also can see that God was there on March 13th, 2020. God was at every hospital bed, in every home where people hunkered down in fear, everywhere. God walked through that time as well - don’t forget this! I have found it helpful when remembering painful things to pray the simple line, “God, you were there as well.”
In Psalm 42 the Psalmist reflects on their own past grief and their questions of where God was when their world turned from good to bad. Then they took hold of the hope that although they were living in anguish now, they would not always be living in anguish:
“‘Why so dispirited?’ I ask myself.
‘Why so churned up inside? Hope in God!’
I know I’ll praise God once again,
For you are my Deliverance;
You are my God.”[1]
As we re-remember the start of the pandemic, let us re-remember God’s presence with us during that time and let it give us assurance that God is always with us, even when the world turns upside down.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
A Blessing for Collective Grief
This world.
Impossible.
Unthinkable.
We are brought to our knees.
God, today, there is no true north.
And when I last checked,
the sun did not rise at all.
Today, the innocent still suffer,
buildings still fall,
families still grieve.
A world has ended without
any reasonable fanfare.
This is the way of tragedy,
how it breaks in and robs us while we sleep.
Help us to know what to feel,
what to do,
how to grieve–together.
Blessed are we
who try to see things clearly,
though the truth of it all feels
unimaginable.
Blessed are we who ask and wait, and ask again,
for answers that may not come,
for hope that seems hard to find,
for comfort that is not easily offered.
Along the way
show us how to live
when we’ve lost the things
we cannot get back.
Remind us that you, Oh God,
are our home and our refuge.
When life’s unthinkable fragility
Is too difficult to hold,
take my hands.[2]
[1] Psalm 42:5, The Inclusive Bible
[2] “For Collective Grief,” in Kate Bowler’s and
Jessica Richie’s The Lives We Actually
Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (New York: Convergent, 2023), p. 74.
