He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
— Luke 16:27-31

We pray for unity. We pray for healing.

We want to be open, we want to be kind. We are commanded to love.

But how can we have unity with someone who rejects our humanity? How do we have dialogue with someone who refuses to accept what is demonstrably true? How can there be healing when we cannot even agree on the disease?

This is a challenge not only for this moment in time. It is not simply a matter of civics or politics. This is a question of our Spirituality and the practice of our faith.  In this story from Luke’s Gospel it is a matter even beyond life and death!

For Luke’s audience the question was “what do we do about people who refuse to believe in Jesus, who rose from the dead to invite us into eternal life and a life of community now?”
Jesus says, “Look. Some people just won’t accept the truth.”

I must note that here, in this “Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus,“ the rich man, who is in the place of torment for his sins, refuses to acknowledge that he has been wrong.  He is still living in his sin! He still expects poor Lazarus, in heaven, to be his servant. He first wants Lazarus to go to hell with him, and ease his discomfort and tend to his needs. Then he asks that Lazarus go serve his brothers by taking a message to them. As if they would pay any more attention to him now than when he was alive!

So often today, the poor, the oppressed, the victims of and descendants of systems of hatred, are expected to be gracious and to explain themselves and their hurt to those who have hurt them, who have benefitted from those systems, or who simply haven’t had the same experience. I admit that as a white man trying to prove that I am not racist, I chafe at a person of color telling me “it isn’t my job to educate you!”  I don’t want to think that I am that rich man, but I certainly am not Lazarus in this story. If I won’t listen to “Moses and the Prophets” why would I listen to the voice of one rising from this death?

Father Abraham has not been harmed by the rich man. Still, he does not give the rich man what he wants. The rich man doesn’t even understand the problem. He just knows that he is in agony. He continues to exist in his brokenness. Perhaps someday he will understand, repent, and be saved. But Luke doesn’t have Jesus tell us that. Abraham, however does stay with him, and listen to him in his self-inflicted pain.

And there is the answer for us.

We can’t force someone to acknowledge the truth. They must come to it on their own. The alcoholic must hit bottom. 

Evangelism is not supposed to be about beating someone until they accept Christ. It is sharing the Good News of God’s love, and about being with them in their struggle. We present the truth of the law, the prophets, and Jesus. We live as persons who have risen from death. The chances are good that they STILL won’t listen… Until they are in that moment of need. Until they have the realization that they are hurting themselves. Until they understand that they have been lied to.

And so, to live in community is to recognize that we will not agree. Some will reject your humanity. Some will question your motives. Be gracious. Do not accept a lie, but do not return hate for hate. Respond to hate with love. Respond to lies with truth. Ask genuine questions.

There are many people hurting right now. I want to believe that the events of Epiphany will provide a moment of Epiphany for this nation. We are broken. We are hurting. We are hurting each other. We as a people must repent.

It is not your job to unlock the door of someone else’s own personal hell. You can’t. But you can point out, as C.S. Lewis wrote, that “the gates of hell are locked on the inside.”

Show us the lock, Jesus, for you are the key. Help us to see the arrogance, selfishness, hatred, pride, privilege, greed, partisanship, tribalism, and so on which imprison us. Save us from this hell, and from these forces of death. Help us to seek the truth, uncorrupted by pundits, provocateurs, and profiteers. Help us to know others as beloved and to be known as your children. We pray this in your holy, loving, name. Amen.

On Sunday we will celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. We will have an opportunity to remember our baptism and renew our covenant with God. I invite you to have a bowl of water nearby as you attend virtual services.  The questions for the message are:

1. When have you experienced cleansing or healing?
2. When have you experienced purification or transformation?
3. What in your life and in the world requires a return to the basics and fundamentals?

When they saw the star, they were filled with joy.  They entered the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  
Matthew 2: 10-11

Last week while out walking, I got this idea to drop off New Year’s Eve bags to my Sunday School families. I felt it was a way to connect with them and to say hello! My thoughts then went to what I would put in the bags. Well, I decided on a bag of microwave popcorn, some hot cocoa, candy and of course some noise makers because what is New Year’s Eve without noise makers, right? But I also wanted to add something that would help families to come together and have a time for conversation.

I settled on a coloring page that they could do together, but it wasn’t just a simple coloring page it had places for the families to think about their hopes, dreams, goals and intentions for the new year. My immediate reaction was yes this is perfect but then I began to hesitate. Would they think this was weird? I worried that it might put pressure on the families. That they would feel that they had to do this and if they didn’t, would they then feel guilt?

I became aware that those were my concerns, and I was placing them onto my families, so I decided to trust my initial reaction. I needed to give them the option and let them decide if this was an activity that was good for their family. That decision was not mine to make and if I didn’t include the coloring page then I was making the decision for them. So, I included it in the bag with all the other goodies.

Today is Epiphany, when we celebrate the magi coming to Jesus and his birth being revealed to the whole world.  When I began to get responses from the families, I had that a-ha moment that I didn’t need to worry about it because God would do God’s work when they explored the things inside the bag. Epiphanies don’t just happen on this day but happen all the time. Make sure to take time to see those Epiphany moments.

God,
You are always at work within and around us and because of that we experience those moments of awe and understanding. Those moments when the lightbulb turns on and we get it. Sometimes we get busy doing all our stuff and miss those epiphanies. Help us to slow down, to keep our eyes and ears open so that we don’t miss them. So that we can experience your wonder.
Amen

Marty

Psalm 148 1-9
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens;praise him in the heights above.
 Praise him, all his angels;praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon;praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever—he issued a decree that will never pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth,you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds,stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills,fruit trees and all cedars.

The rain that we just had was so refreshing and renewing to my spirit and soul.  I love it when it rains, perhaps because I am a native Southern Californian, and it doesn’t rain here very often.  I love the way it smells before it rains and how everything is washed clean. I love seeing a rainbow in the sky, and we had a beautiful one with this past storm.  Everything just seems brighter after the storm because all the dust and dirt has been washed off.  However, the winter storms are my favorite because if we are lucky and it is cold enough, we get snow on our local mountains and we can see the stunning sight of snow-covered mountains here in HB.  We are blessed to live in a place where you can stand on the beach and look at snow covered mountains through the palm trees! Not everyone gets to experience that in real life.

We need to remember to praise God for all that he created for we are so blessed by his creations.  We also need to remember to share that praise with others.  To reflect the love of God that we feel and to publicly praise God for our many blessings. Perhaps in this new year we can work on remembering to praise God for all the blessings that we are surrounded by every day. Yes, we have our troubles and issues, but we live in what my father used to say was the best area, in the best state, in the best country, in an amazing time.  We need to remember that and be thankful.

Suzanne

Gracious and Loving God, In this new year create in us a heart that remembers to praise you for all that you have done for us.  Help us to remember to know how blessed we truly are.  As we are slowly seeing the light our of this storm on COVID, help us to remember the important lessons that we have hopefully learned.  That we need to treat each other with kindness and respect and that we need to take care of each other. Help us to live more closely in the ways that Jesus taught us to live. We know that we will not be perfect but help us to continue to strive to love each other more. Help us to see your light in this world and to reflect it others that we encounter. Amen

Happy New Year!
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. 
What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
–Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

As I am typing this (last year, on Monday) the rumble of thunder is competing with the rattle of rain on the roof. The community is beings cleansed and watered, as if to be made ready for the new year. I will soon be leaving to go away for brief time of renewal. I know that as I enjoy time with family, our thoughts will inevitably drift to the future and to what the new year will bring.

I am pretty certain that we share the common dream of a swift end to this pandemic. We have had enough of this “time to refrain from embracing!”  We want for 2021 to be a time to embrace; to embrace each other and to embrace the possibilities that our reunited lives can bring. We know that we still need to spend time in mourning, but we want 2021 to be a time to dance. Most importantly, 2021 must be a time to heal.

This new year can be a time of healing. Yes, we seek heling of the bodies, relationships, businesses and lives which have been through this disease. Moreover, I believe that 2021 can be a time of healing for our community, for our nation, and for the world.
Let this be our goal, our toil, and our pleasure: to be makers of peace, builders of beloved community, and healers of relationships.

Now is the time.

Pastor George

God of Wonders, You who makes all things new: move through us in this new year. Move in our hands and our voices that we might bring healing with our words and our work. Be the light which guides our path and the very ground of our being. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Your questions for Sunday’s worship:
1. Where do you go when you seek answers?
2. Who comes to you seeking affirmation, information, guidance, or support?
3. Where can you shine a light in this new day?