We just enjoyed our Summer Strawberry Social and are looking forward to seeing you at our next events:
- Neighbors’ Hot Dog and S’mores Picnic on July 21st 12-3pm.
- Next Death Cafe on Saturday July 27th at 4pm.
- INC Pot Luck Picnic on July 28th at 1pm.
- Village Fair and UnFair 5K on August 17th (please register and order t-shirts by July 17th).
(Referenced Passage: Mark 5: 25-33) You may watch the Recording HERE
This is such a beautiful passage. Someone reaches out for help. I think of the crowded subway car when I think of this passage. Everyone is touching everyone else, jostled around with no place to go. It can be overwhelming, even creepy at times. There’s too much going on.
But someone reaches out for help. Someone pays attention.
When someone reaches out for help, Jesus doesn’t pretend it didn’t happen or rush on pretending he didn’t feel it. He turns and sees this woman. She’s probably never been seen before this moment. He listens to her whole story. He doesn’t take credit for anything. He gives her back her own agency. Your faith has healed you. Your faith.
No one is judging. The people may be a little confused, but in that confusion there’s no room for judgement or shame. There is only room for love and compassion for this woman and her story, even amidst the busy, overwhelming jostling of life. This is what happens when we really listen to one another. This is the beauty of one person taking time out of the business and other business to stop, see, and listen. It’s healing.
This is love. Unconditional Love.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Nate’s Reflection from last week. The one about unconditional love. It’s true. We put so many conditions on love and that begs the question: is that love? What is love? How do we love? Especially since we’re called to love everyone. Not just the easy people or the deserving people or the people who meet our conditions.
We are all brothers and sisters.
It takes a lot of courage to practice what we preach. It’s so easy to talk the talk and skip that walking the walk part—without even noticing. Maybe that’s why we do practice a confession and forgiveness. The confession is to help us notice our own mistakes. Not the mistakes other people make, our own. It’s to remind ourselves that we are also forgiven. Not just other people, but us! Forgiveness is perhaps like love…infinite.
Love. It’s all love. Coming together each Sunday reminds us that this, Love, is our collective anchor. Love and Welcome.
I heard a wise woman say this past month, “I didn’t get here teaching one thing and doing another”.
It’s not easy. A lot of the Stories are about us putting ourselves in other people’s shoes. Sure, it’s easy to put on the nice, shiny pretty shoes that make us look good. The ones that make us seem a little taller and a little more put together. It’s not so easy to put on the shoes of those in the stories who reflect and echo and share our not so good sides or even the complicated and messy sides of us. The shoes that make us want to cringe and hide. The first thing is to admit it—yup, I’ve put on some of those icky shoes and done some of those icky things.
The uglier ones that fit us for one reason or another when we didn’t know better or weren’t paying attention. The icky ones that didn’t fit, but helped us to “fit in”. (Sigh). We’ve all been there.
It’s okay…and that’s why we’re forgiven. When we acknowledge and accept our mistakes as our own, we have more compassion for others and their mistakes. When we pretend our mistakes didn’t happen or that they weren’t as bad, we open ourselves to judgment and shame—both being the giver of and being the receiver of.
Again, it’s okay, we’re forgiven. When we allow ourselves to be forgiven for our mistakes…only then, can we truly make amends. Only then can we truly forgive others. We can’t do this if we don’t forgive ourselves or if we don’t allow ourselves be forgiven. It’s like love…we can’t truly love others if we aren’t worthy of love ourselves. It comes from within…or perhaps these are the precious things that come through us.
It’s human nature to notice the “bad stuff”. It’s human nature to point out what’s going wrong. To judge this, that, and the other thing. To shame the big, giant mistakes and hold onto them….for ever!!
It’s human nature to try to make sense of things. It’s human nature to try to sort things into boxes, but humans and nature don’t make sense. It’s part of the Mystery. We are filled with Good…PAUSE….and bad. We are filled with Hope…and despair. Kindness…and meanness. Courage…and weakness.
We’re not supposed to be just one thing. And that’s okay…maybe that’s exactly why Forgiveness is such a core practice on the Path of Love/Jesus. True, deep Forgiveness is the root of Compassion.
We don’t like our weak spots. We like to avoid our weak spots. But only by spotlighting them can the light get in and only then can we become people who understand one another and are capable of being forgiven and forgiving. If we’re not careful, we avoid our weak spots by pointing fingers, judging, and shaming. We create conditions to our love and forgiveness. We come up with reasons why people are undeserving of the Love we claim. We’re no longer filled with that beautiful spirit of: Unconditional.
People usually aren’t failing. They are usually struggling and they need help. Often in ways that are hard, or impossible, to see. We can never truly and fully walk or fully understand someone else’s shoes, but we can stop, turn around, listen, and see one another.
We set one another up for failure when we don’t truly see one another and reach out to help. We help by remembering…oh yeah, I’ve been there too. It’s scary. I’d really like to walk away from you and this. What if people think I’m like this person because I’m associating with them? I’ll help, but dissociate myself from them by making it clear that I’m just helping and these aren’t my mistakes!!
Oh boy. Faith is hard. Claiming a faith is hard.
It opens the door to so much judgement and shame. Ironically, it’s the major thing that faith is judged and shamed for. Judging and shaming. The throwing of stones. Hmmm. Perhaps, that’s just human nature and not faith itself?
Yes, human individuals and groups have made so many mistakes and had big failures and done horrible things. But there has also been so much good, and hope and solace. Perhaps, we need to remember that being human is complicated. That having faith and walking a path of faith…is hard!
Perhaps this is why we anchor ourselves in faith. To remind ourselves of what matters most and what is precious so we don’t get lost along the way. To remind ourselves of how we want to be present in this world for grace and what we truly want to focus on in this life. Maybe it’s Unconditional Love.
Nate’s statement of faith last Sunday was: Love and Friendship. Charlotte’s statement of faith might be: Courage (forgiveness) and Kindness (love). Our church’s statement might be: Love and Welcome. We talked about this a few weeks back. What is your statement of faith? PAUSE
A statement of faith is the anchor in this world. The thing to come back to when we get lost or begin to get lost. We easily get busy and get lost and jumbled in the chaos— like the crowded subway. Church is one of the places that can bring us back to ourselves and grace. Church can be the Reminder.
This is the hard work. It is easier to point out what other people are doing and not look closely at ourselves. It’s easier to get lost in the noise of life than to quiet the mind and listen. Shh. It’s said that God is Still Speaking, but God is no longer a booming voice from the sky, or a burning bush, or a blinding light. It’s a still, small voice and a deep Remembering.
Remembering is what brings us back to the way of Jesus/Love. Remembering is what brings us back to our statement of faith. Remembering is what brings us back to our mistakes that guide us to become more compassionate to out neighbors. Remembering is what reminds us that we are forgiven and charged with forgiving others. Remembering…
Remembering that when we fall, we can get back up. Remembering to ask for help when we need it. Remembering to pray when it feels like there are no answer. To offer help when we have it. To love when it’s the hardest. To forgive when it feels impossible. To walk with unconditional love through the most beautiful of times and the most terrible of times.
And trust that when we reach for the robes of Jesus/Love…we will be helped.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 