From Romans 14:22-23, The Message Translation

"I think Christianity has created a great problem in the Western world by repeatedly presenting itself, not as a way of seeing all things, but as one competing ideology among many. Instead of leading us to see God in new and surprising places, it too often has led us to confine God inside OUR place. Simeon Weil, the brilliant French resistor, said that the “tragedy of Christianity is that it came to see itself as replacing other religions instead of adding something to all of them.”

- From Richard Rohr in Everything Belongs

“A Letter to a Young Activist”
by Trappist monk Thomas Merton

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. And there too a great deal has to be gone through as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything…

The Gospel lectionary scripture for today tells of the healing of the woman with the bent back (Luke 13:10-17). What makes the related story even more engaging is that a religious leader of the time expresses annoyance to the gathering crowd that the healing occurred on the Sabbath. Now, such a sentiment may sound absurd to us today (and it certainly sounded absurd to Jesus then), but within the world of the religious leader, it made sense. The religious laws, permissions, and prohibitions based upon the Sabbath had grown quite lengthy and complicated. Yet, the original spirit of the Sabbath remained simple and the same: it was a day of rest, a day to keep Holy, and, as Isaiah put it, a day to refrain from serving one's own interests and pursuing one's own affairs.

WAG MORE, BARK LESS

~John Wesley

And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

God comes to us from unexpected places, and in unexpected ways.
A burning bush, an infant, a rush of wind...

How Divinity speaks to us and connects with us
is of vital importance to many.

This Sunday at 4pm we will continue our Spring Session class
on Religion, Theology, God, The Bible, Jesus, Christianity.....
and just generally.... "What's It All About?"

We will talk about and share some of the ways God speaks to us still,
in the words of others, from the world around us,
and through the still small voice within.

If we have time,
we will also begin to take a look at some of the early church symbols,
and the symbols of other faith traditions,
examining what they mean,
and looking at what they say to us.

This class is open to all who wish to attend -- all are welcome.
This is a journey, and the journey begins Sunday.

Hope to see you there. :)

Shalom,

Emma

This Sunday at 4pm we will begin a Spring Session class
on Religion, Theology, God, The Bible, Jesus, Christianity.....
and just generally.... "What's It All About?"

Or... (with a smile and nod to Douglas Adams):
"Life, The Universe, and Everything".

This class is open to all who wish to attend -- all are welcome.
This is a journey, and the journey begins Sunday at 4 pm
at the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Meeting House.

We'll also be discussing plans for a church picnic.
Your input is welcome.

Hope to see you there. :)

Shalom,

Emma

Why? It seems like such a simple question,
and yet it is one as complex and as old
as tragedy, accident, pain, and misfortune.

When violent things happen to people whom we consider to be good and innocent, our world is suddenly tossed into turmoil. We find ourselves struggling to make sense of moments and events that really defy explanation. In our struggle for reason, we may thrash about, seeking someone to blame, someone to hurt (to cause pain to in the name of pain), someone to punish. Lacking a credible target, or "enemy" to defile and/or vilify, we may even create one as needed, or make one of ourselves, pouring the salt of guilt over our own woundedness, perhaps in some strange way, allowing us to be numbered among the innocent victims.

At these intersections of innocence and violence, our internal systems of fairness and justice are challenged. We are suddenly confronted with the very real possibility, as evidenced by events right before our eyes, that the world in which we live may indeed be horribly unfair, may not make logical sense, and, in fact, may quite likely be badly broken.

This is a stunning realization.

Out there, somewhere, perhaps even now as you're reading this, rolls a bus
of courageous Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and just
generally Queer, kids. They are the SoulForce Riders [Equality
Riders], and their route takes them into many of the very places where
people may want least to openly encounter them-- largely conservative
evangelical colleges. Sometimes they are allowed on campus. But
sometimes, as they visit, the people of the college keep themselves
hidden away, behind closed doors. Occasionally, police will even
block the entrance to a campus to forcibly keep the SoulForce Riders
out.

Ages ago, a group of disciples huddled behind doors closed and locked
as well. They were afraid. Afraid for their life. Afraid that what
happened to Jesus might happen to them. Afraid of what
people might think of them, afraid of what people might say.

But it was behind those doors, closed and locked,
that the risen Christ came, stood among them,
and reached out to them with a message of peace.

Now Jesus was the LAST person the disciples expected to encounter that
day, much like a bus full of openly Queer folk rolling onto a conservative
college campus. But the risen Christ cannot be kept out.

In many ways, the GLBT community is one of the wounds in the body of
Christ, and on the Sunday after Easter, as we reflect on John
20:19-31... and as we reflect on fear... we also remember the brave
riders, and the people with courage enough to reach out in the face of
their own doubt, and touch the wounds in the body of Christ.

Sunday at 4 pm
at the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Meeting House
the conversation continues.

I hope to see you there. :)

Shalom,

Emma

All too often we expect all the answers from our faith tradition. Yet while it has
been recorded that Jesus was asked 183 questions in the Gospels, he only answered three of these directly.

Jesus was great at asking questions, and the questions he asked were
good questions- questions that invariably led people to places where
transformation was possible. In his book, "The Questions of Jesus",
John Dear, a Jesuit Priest, says, "Jesus leads us into liminal, and
therefore transformative space, much more than taking us into any
moral high ground of immediate certitude or ego superiority. He
subverts up front the cultural or theological assumptions that we are
eventually going to have to face anyway. He leaves us betwixt and
between, where God and grace can get at us, and where we are not at
all in control."

Our journey to Easter has been through questions, and so it's fitting
that on Easter Day we conclude with the question a "gardener" asked
Mary in the garden outside of the tomb:
"Who Are You Looking For?"

Who are YOU looking for?
Who is YOUR Jesus?

Sunday at 4 pm
at the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Meeting House
the conversation continues.

I hope to see you there. :)

Shalom,

Emma

In 1967, a movie opened in theatres about a customary ritual, a young
woman bringing her fiance home for dinner to meet her parents. It was
entitled, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?". What made this movie
particularly interesting, and even socially groundbreaking, was that
the young woman in question was white, and the young man was African
American. The young woman's parents prided themselves on being
progressive, but suddenly they were about to have the very principals
they professed tested in the relationships of their own family. They
knew who was coming to dinner- their daughter's fiance -but he was not
who they expected.

All social issues aside, in 1967, interracial marriage was illegal in
16 states. And yes, Virginia was among them. But things were about
to change, and Virginia was about to play a significant role in the
striking down of the laws barring interracial marriage.

That saying is tacked above my desk at work, written on a large strip
of paper, like the heart of a huge fortune cookie, the print and paper
weathered and worn by time and touch. How many times have i fingered
that strip? Too many. I picked it up over 4 years ago at my ministry
intensive in Dallas, Texas-- a week-long intensive immersion
experience designed to better prepare people for a lifetime of
ministry.

It was waiting for my fingertips in a large bowl of other folded
paper strips, all containing various quotes from Parker Palmer,
poised on the edge of a large labyrinth. As i walked the labyrinth,
thinking on that saying, it began to open and unfold in my mind.
While many may have discarded their saying afterward, as if they were
finished with them, i kept mine. I wasn't sure that i would ever be
finished with it.

It used to be kept in my purse, in a drawer, in a pocket, never far
from my fingertips, but generally hidden from my view, and thus, my
thoughts. I mean, really, who wants to keep being reminded that they
have weaknesses?

Me.