"Breathing God's Breath" 5/27/12

Our text for today is from Ezekiel.  And while I’m guessing Ezekiel is probably not the top choice for meditative bedtime reading, it actually is quite memorable and interesting.

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 

First, a quick history.  The Babylonians marched into Jerusalem and destroyed and decimated the temple (~587-538 BCE) and in the years after, all the promising young Hebrews were dragged into exile in Babylon.  Probably they were not kept in prisons or even camps.  They were free to marry, build homes, plant crops and exchange goods.  There’s indication that they were also free to assemble and worship.  They had a hard time worshipping, however, because they never got over the destruction of their holy city and temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew people were not where they wanted to be, or where they were supposed to be.  So they lived with a sadness that ran down to their bones.

Our story today from Ezekiel begins with God seizing Ezekiel and “bringing” him and “setting him down” in the middle of a place.  If you read Ezekiel, you’ll find that this sort of thing happens to him a lot.  He’s forever being grabbed by God and moved from place to place.  This time, God puts him down in a remote and barren valley full of “dry bones.”  (I am reminded of the LaBrea tar pits in Los Angeles, where ancient bones of long-dead and extinct animals have been preserved in smelly tar and protrude from the ooze for people to see even today.  But unlike the bones at the LaBrea pits, these bones are “very dry.”)

We will soon learn that the dry bones are meant to be reminiscent of the ancient despairing Hebrews who were captives in Babylon during that time.  This valley of dry bones is a powerful and memorable image that also brings to our minds those times in our lives that seem utterly without hope.  If you’ve lived long enough, I’ll bet most of us have had a period in our lives that feels like that.  No life there, just a pile of dried-out bones.  Those dry bones times are real and painful, when despair sets in and we see little hope that anything can change. 

To the Hebrews “dry bones” meant their literal displacement and defeat.  To us, dry bones might mean a long unhappy marriage, a struggle with addiction, a physical condition that has left us despairing.  And the very last thing one imagines when gazing on dry bones is their potential to be anything other than signs of past life and present death.  Nevertheless, the question God asks Ezekiel is, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

The question is absurd on its face.  Many things may be thought about dry bones, but the possibility of their coming back to life is hardly one.  And Ezekiel’s ambiguous response may be heard several ways, “O, Lord God, only you know, since as far as I’m concerned dry bones are not going to pop back to life.  Or, if they do, I would just as soon not be around to see it.” Or maybe Ezekiel means, “If you, God, ask a foolish question like that, then I’ll give you the opportunity to answer it yourself.”  The bottom line – new life is inconsistent with dry bones.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” 

This is a passage of promise.  God tells Ezekiel exactly what to do and what will happen when he does.  Preach to those bones and I will lay sinews and flesh on them and cover them with skin.  I will put breath into them and they shall live.  Things will come together.  This is God’s promise.

When you read the Hebrew Scriptures you learn that Israel did a lot of waiting.  Abraham and Sarah were promised a son, only they had to wait 25 years for him to show up.  When the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt they waited 400 years to be led to freedom.  They would wait 70 years for their exile to Babylon to end.  All through scripture we see that God is faithful to fulfill God’s promise.  And all through scripture, people wait for that to happen, sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently.

Isn’t that the way it is?  Our culture doesn’t understand waiting very well.  We want it, and we want it now, no matter what piece of our life we’re talking about.  And if we don’t receive what we want when we want it in life, we wonder why God doesn’t answer our prayer or why God is not taking care of us.  Even if you’re someone who has had a lifelong walk with God, that might not have prevented you from walking through that valley of dry bones and saying, God, hello!  Remember me down here?  Are you seeing all these dry bones?  The promise of God is to breathe into the rubble and create life.  Of course, the question God posed to Ezekiel is also posed to us during those dry bones times in our lives – will we prophesy?  Will we do our part?   Will we trust the promise of God or will we throw up our hands and give up?  Here’s what Ezekiel did. 

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then God said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as God commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 

The breath of God breathes on those slain bones and they lived.  Barbara Brown Taylor wrote about God’s breath:

If you have studied earth science, then you know that our gorgeous blue-green planet is wrapped in a protective veil that we call the atmosphere, which separates the air we breathe from the cold vacuum of outer space.  Beneath this veil is all the air that ever was.  No cosmic planet-cleaning company coms along every hundred years or so to suck out all the old air and pump is some new.  The same ancient air just keeps recirculating.  Which means that every time any of us breathes, we breathe stardust left over from the creation of the earth.  We breathe brontosaurus breath and pterodactyl breath.  We breathe air that has circulated through rain forests of Kenya, and air that has turned yellow with sulphur over Mexico City.  We breathe the same air that Plato breathed, and Mozart and Michelangelo, not to mention Hitler and Lizzie Borden.  Every time we breathe, we take in what was once some baby’s first breath, or some dying person’s last.  We take it in, we use it to live, and when we breathe out it carries some of us with it into the next person or tree or blue-tailed skunk who uses it to live.

The ancient Hebrews understood that things were all mixed up and connected much better than we do.  There’s a Hebrew word that means wind, breath, and spirit – ruach.  The same word is rich with all those meanings.  It was the ruach of God that hovered over the waters at creation.  It was the ruach of God that blew like a mighty wind at Pentecost.  It was the ruach of God that came into Adam and gave that clay life.  And it’s the ruach of God that Ezekiel asks to come and breathe upon these bones that they may live. 

For us, wind and breath and spirit are terms of meteorology and biology and theology.  But we can learn from our Hebrew forbears in the faith to think about it all together.  When we breath, we are breathing the breath of God, the breath that’s given life across the ages to all who have ever lived on our planet.  When we go outside and feel the wind on our faces, that’s the spirit of God reaching out to cool us, to touch us.  When we are able to think in this way, we are connected to all that is; partners in the give and take of creation.

Then God said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

“I will place you on your own soil.”  Throughout scripture, when God creates life and gives life, God doesn’t just leave people out there on their own.  God gives them a home.  When God breathes into Adam, God gives him a garden in which to live.  Likewise, God says to these living bones, I will bring you to your own soil.  Imagine the power of these words to an exiled people.  And so, God is not only the one who breathes life, God gives a home; a place of nurture, love, safety, provision.

For many of us all of those good things are associated with home.  For others, home has meant other things and perhaps we have painful associations with the word home.  What kind of home does God have in mind for them?

That's where we come in – for one of the primary callings of the church is to provide nurture, love, and a sense of safety to all who come through those doors; to be the family, the loving family that accepts you for who you are and where you are at the moment.  We should be the place where people can come, whether they’re dry bones or showing signs of life or full of the breath of God and full of life.  Church should be the place that God provides where anyone can come at whatever place they are and receive the unconditional love of God through our love.  God doesn’t only raise dry bones up and fill them with life.  God provides a home and it is our job to make sure that our church is that home.

As we close today, let us breathe into our bodies the very breath of God, mindful of those dry bones times in our lives, sharing that breath with each other.  As we breathe breath that’s gone through the lungs of everyone else in this room, we become organically a part of one another.  That’s what we try to symbolize when we share in communion’s bread and cup.  It’s about all of us, being one body, the body of Christ and providing a home for one another.  This is the home, as least for now; the place that God has brought each one of us. 

Amen.

What if I Told You? 5/20/12

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church

and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 

Matthew 16:18

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

that you have love for one another.

John 13:35

You might have seen something posted on Facebook recently called “10 Reasons I Left the Church.” I’m not sure who wrote it and now there are so many variations around it’s impossible to tell.  Some of the reasons included:

1.      I left the church because my questions were seen as liabilities.

2.      I left the church because sometimes it felt like a cult or a country club and I wasn’t sure which was worse.

3.      I left the church because I felt like I was the only one troubled by stories of violence and misogyny and genocide found in the Bible, and I was tired of people telling me not to worry about it because “God’s ways are higher than our ways.”

4.      I left the church because I wanted to help people in my community without feeling pressure to convert them to Christianity.

5.      I left the church because when we talked about sin, we usually talked about sex.

6.      I left the church because I believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that humans share a common ancestor with apes which I was told was incompatible with Christian faith.

7.      I left the church because one day, they put signs out in the church lawn that said, “Marriage = 1 man + 1 woman” and I knew the moment I saw them that I never wanted to come back.

8.      I left the church because there are days when I’m not sure I believe in God, and no one told me that “dark nights of the soul” can be part of the faith experience.

When I first read these reasons I cringed as I remembered some of my own past painful experiences in churches.  I’ve attended church all my life and believe me, I can understand why people would leave church due to some of these reasons.  But I also felt a deep sadness and sense of frustration because church, as I have come to know it, is none of these things.  And yet the perception continues. 

[excerpt from “Why I Love Jesus But Hate Religion,” by Jeff Bethke]

What if I told you, Jesus came to abolish religion?
What if I told you getting you to vote republican, really wasn’t his mission?
Because republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian,
And just because you call some people blind, doesn’t automatically give you vision.
If religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?
Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?
Tells single moms God doesn’t love them if they’ve ever been divorced
Yet God in the Old Testament actually calls the religious people whores
Religion preaches grace, but another thing they practice,
Tend to ridicule Gods people, they did it to John the Baptist,
Cant fix their problems, so they try to mask it,
Not realizing that’s just like sprayin perfume on a casket
Because the problem with religion is that it never gets to the core,
It’s just behavior modification, like a long list of chores.
Let’s dress up the outside, make things look nice and neat,
Its funny that’s what they do to mummies, while the corpse rots underneath,
Now I ain’t judging I’m just saying be careful of putting on a fake look,
Because there’s a problem if people only know that you’re a Christian by that little section on your facebook
In every other aspect of life you know that logics unworthy
Its like saying you play for the lakers just because you bought a jersey

What if I told you that I agree with the gist of this video?  There is too much hypocrisy and judgment and arrogance in Christianity; that it is too often a slavish devotion to this institution called the church rather than a heartfelt response to Jesus.

What if I told you that many of my friends have long ago given up on the church?  They think it’s crazy that I, a woman with a wife who likes martinis and art films is actually an ordained minister.  They wonder why I support the religious body that has beat me over the head with its Bible and its cross. 

But what if I also told you that I love church? I don’t think Jesus came to abolish religion, only the insincere, hypocritical practice of religion.  After all, Jesus was, himself, religious.  He attended synagogue, he recited Psalms, he hung out with devout Jews as well as gentiles and he loved them all.  Jesus, in my opinion, didn’t come to start a new religion.  Jesus was a Jew who seemed intent on reforming Judaism.  The church came after Jesus.  It evolved because of people like Paul who were inspired by what they knew of Jesus.  And I think Jesus still calls his followers into community.  You can’t practice Christianity in isolation.  Christianity is inherently relational.  “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them”  (Matthew 18:20).

The problem is that there is so much in the church that I do not want to have to put up with – like Qur’an burning, homophobic pastors, and general disregard and mistreatment of the most vulnerable in our society, like the poor, the mentally ill, refugees and immigrants.  It’s no wonder that I and so many others are like the pop singer Prince – we want to be a persons formerly known as a Christian.  The church has done some embarrassing things in its day and I don’t want to be associated with a lot of it.  And wouldn’t it be nice if we could just get rid of all the trouble-makers, all the people that mess things up.  But that's when it gets tricky because I include myself in that big category of people who, at times, fail to truly follow Christ.  

But in the church, we’re stuck with each other and that’s a good thing really.  In the church, humanity is way to close at hand to always look good.  Humanity is as close as the guy singing off tune sitting next to you in the pew.  It’s as close as the fidgeting toddler and the mother who doesn’t realize the he’s driving everyone crazy.  It’s as close as the woman sitting next to her who grieves that she’ll never give birth to a child and eyes that cranky child with envy.  It’s as close as the woman who just barely crawled out from under her depression long enough to get herself to church today and wonders if there’s a place for her here.  It’s as close as the imperfect preacher who hopes her sermon offers enough for that listener she sees who is so thirsty for a word that he leans forward for absolutely anything.  It’s as close as the teenager who walked to church alone and who finds a complicated worship service in which everyone seems to know when to stand and when to sing except for him – but even so, he gets caught up in the beauty of something bigger than his own invention.”  (paragraph adapted from Lillian Daniel’s article, You Can’t Make This Up:  The Limits of Self-Made Religion.) 

Since the beginning of time, human beings have worked together and feuded together and just goofed up together.  They come together because Jesus came to live with these same types of people.  And thousands of years later, we’re still trying to be Christ’s body.  We are the only body he has now.  And we are charged with a sacred duty to carry on his work in this world he loves.

And so, what if I told you that I love the church, imperfect as it is and I’m not ready to give up on it?  A future without church is bleak because the church I know is a loving, supportive family; a place where I join with people who care about the same things I do, like working for justice, being a friend to the outcast, feeding the poor, being a voice for progressive Christianity to balance out all the voices spewing hate and ignorance who almost exclusively claim to represent Christianity.  I know I am a happier, healthier person better able to serve the world because of the church. 

Our humble prayer today, as we gather in this church and on behalf of those who gather in churches everywhere, is that Christ will be a bright light in our hearts and in church so that we might truly proclaim Christ’s love for all.  For it is by this love that everyone will know that we follow Christ.

Amen.

Love is Everything 5/13/12

Love is Everything

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

May 13, 2012

As the God has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept God’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.“  This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.                                                                                                                                                          John 15:9-17

On June 25, 1967 the very first live, international, satellite television broadcast was watched by over 400 million people, at that time the largest television audience ever.  The broadcast was called “Our World,” and it had a simple purpose:  to bring the world together through music.  Fourteen countries contributed live music for the 2 and a half hour program.  The United Kingdom commissioned the Beatles to write and perform a song that contained a simple message that could be universally understood around the world.  Beatles manager Brian Epstein said that they really wanted to give the world a message that could not be misinterpreted; a clear message that would communicate that love is everything.  [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4p8qxGbpOk]

As usual, the Beatles come through with a terrific exegesis, this time on our gospel passage from John 15.  Here’s the setting for this text:  Jesus and his followers have just shared their last Passover meal together.  Soon Jesus will walk to the Garden of Gethsemane where he will be abandoned by his followers and left alone to be captured.  Later he will be tried and executed.

However, in spite of all that is to come, in that ordinary upper room in the Holy city of Jerusalem, Jesus bends over each one of his trusted followers and does something shocking.  With a wrenching poignancy that redefines their relationship in a most visceral way, Jesus gently washes their feet.  Now, as John reports Jesus words in our text for today, they are friends, not master and slave, not teacher and student.  Any former status between them has been wiped away right along with the dust between their toes.

As David Ewart writes, “They are friends – they are equals who have a solemn obligation to look out for each other’s good – even to the point of laying down their lives for one another (something one would normally only do to defend the honor of a blood relative).”  And they are not just friends with Jesus.  Jesus is commanding them to be friends with each other since that is how he will soon love them. 

And so in this single unassuming act of washing their feet, Jesus illustrated a new model of spirituality.  In contrast to the patriarchal paradigm that the disciples had always known, Jesus demonstrated in that upper room a new covenant theology of communion and community.  Jesus turns things upside down for them with his simple yet radical message of friendship and love.  And what’s more, he turns things upside down for us because he asks us to do the same.

It’s not always easy to love as Jesus loved.  Dr. Peter Storey, a South African spiritual leader who worked alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela in dismantling apartheid said, when we invite Christ into our lives, he insists that we let him bring along his friends.  With a clear message that could not be misunderstood (the Beatles would have approved!), Jesus says, you cannot truly love me and not also love the ones I love.  You are to love one another as I have loved you.  You are to love one another as friends. 

In the end, we are called, we are challenged to look everyone – everyone – in the eye and think to ourselves, you are my friend.  There is still something about friendship that strips away the layers of cynicism from even the most jaded among us.  There’s such simplicity in the feeling of friendship. 

Many of us give of ourselves through volunteer work – soup kitchens, mission trips, service agencies.  All of our efforts are good and important, but if we are able to consider the people we encounter in those efforts to be friends, it’s especially meaningful. For a couple of years now, I have volunteered once a month or so at Dimitri House, an overnight shelter for men.  Dimitri House is very small - only 7 beds.  As they say at Dimitri House, we don’t try to do it all, but what we do is done well and with great love and care.  

I love my work there because I have conversations with people I would not otherwise encounter.  Through the years, I’ve gotten familiar with some of the guests and know them by name.  A few weeks ago, Lisa and I were at public market and we passed a man playing an accordion.  We stopped for a moment to listen and I realized, “Hey, that’s Andrew!”  I was so excited to see him.  I had no idea he played the accordion.  And he’s good!  We stood chatting a while.  He showed me his CDs and then parted ways.  I realized Andrew isn’t some guy that needs a place to sleep.  Andrew is a friend. 

Another man I’ve met through Dimitri House is Phil.  The last time I was working at Dimitri House, Phil and I were discussing another regular at Dimitri who was having a particularly hard time and Phil said, “You know I think as all of us guys get older, it gets harder.  Earlier in our lives, we figured we didn’t have a place to live because we were just going through a rough few years.  Now, we’re in our fifties or sixties, and we’re realizing that we might not ever have homes.”

When I am sitting in our beautiful home I think about Phil and Andrew and all the homeless right here in our city.  And when it’s time for my overnight shift at Dimitri House and I’m getting my stuff ready to go, I look longingly at our comfy bed and think about the futon I’ll have to sleep on overnight at Dimitri and I think, do I really have to do that tonight?  And I know the answer – yes.  I need to do my part because my friends need me.

Since Jesus loves us with an uncompromising love, we are called to love one another in the same way.   But when we are able to look at the other as friend, the work is easy.  When we get it right, the work of love is hardly work at all. 

The Bible, with all 66 books, comes down to eight little words from our text today – love one another as I have loved you.  Love.  There is no other.  There is no compromise.  Think of the other as friend.  Love one another. 

And you know what?  We can do it.  We really can.  We can do it because we are loved by one who will not give up on us no matter how far off track we’ve gotten.  We can do it because in Christ there is more than enough love to go around. 

In Romans 13:8-10, the apostle Paul, not to be confused with Paul McCartney, wrote a similar message:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, “You shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment are summed up in this word:  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

All you need is love.

All you need is love.

All you need is love, love.

Love is all you need.

Amen.

Touch and See 4/29/12

Touch and See

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

April 29, 2012

Today we continue exploring some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.  Last week, we considered John, chapter 20, the so-called “Doubting Thomas” story.  Today we look to Luke’s gospel, picking up just after Jesus has mysteriously appeared to some of his followers  in the village of Emmaus.  They had not previously recognized Jesus.  They had spent the afternoon with a stranger whom they invited to stay for dinner.  And as they gathered round the table to share a meal, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them.  And suddenly, Luke tells us, their eyes were opened and they saw, not a stranger, but Jesus, sitting across the table from them.  He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.  They respond by jumping up and heading back to Jerusalem to share the good news with the disciples. 

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.                          Luke 24:36b-48

Touching can be as routine as a handshake or a high five.  It can be as threatening as a clenched fist.  If it is unwelcomed or inappropriate, touch can exploit; it can devastate.  Or, as the Easter account in Luke 24 describes, touching can be the means whereby the risen Lord chooses to make himself known. 

As Luke describes the events, the followers of Jesus are excitedly telling stories that perhaps Jesus isn’t dead after all when suddenly Jesus pulls his mysterious appearing act once again materializing in their midst and scaring them half to death.  They’re about ready to call in the Ghostbusters when Jesus says, Wait, it’s me.  Here, touch me.  Touch my hands and side and see for yourself.  The resurrected Christ, according to this story, is no ghost, no apparition.   He’s not the product of the disciples’ overheated imagination.  Jesus is made known to them with touch.  Jesus is touchable.

Touch was often an important component in Jesus’ ministry.  Little ones climbed into his lap.  Lepers, made outcast by their disease, were restored by his healing touch.  A woman needed only to touch the hem of his robe in order to be healed.  I John 1:1 proclaims the joyful resurrection message, “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…”

Touch nurtures.  Before birth we were all enfolded in our mother’s womb, then nurtured by milk from her breast.  As we grew perhaps we were consoled on a parent’s shoulder, congratulated with a hug or handshake on a commencement day.  Life’s milestones are often marked by touch.  Babies who are held, hugged, and kissed develop healthier physical and emotional lives than those who receive little physical contact.  Long before a child understands anything about the meaning of love, he or she feels loved by physical touch.  Hugging and kissing a six-year-old as she leaves for school in the morning fills up her emotional love-tank, preparing him for a day of learning. In a crisis it is almost instinctive and natural to hug, at least in our culture.   In a crisis, we have a deep need to feel loved.  We cannot always change the events, but we can survive if we feel loved. 

And physical touch is a universal way of expressing all types of love. Physical touch, for example, is a powerful vehicle for communicating expressions of intimacy.  Holding hands, kissing, embracing and sexual intimacy are all ways of expressing love, physically to one’s partner.  It's easy to see that kissing, hugging, and touching would boost the tenderness in your romantic relationship. However, as we’ve noted, physical expressions of affection can strengthen all sorts of connections.

In her fascinating book The How of Happiness , Sonja Lyubomirsky discusses a study in which students were assigned to two groups. One group was the control; one group was assigned to give or receive at least five hugs each day for a month - a front-to-front, non-sexual hug, with both arms of both participants involved, and with the aim of hugging as many different people as possible. The huggers were happier.

Another study showed that women who got hugs several times a day from their husbands had lower blood pressure than those who didn't get hugged as often.  When we hug, the chemicals oxytocin and serotonin are increased and that’s why happiness is boosted.  (You never know what you’ll learn in sermon research!)  Interesting fact: in order for the flow of those chemicals to be optimized, in order to boost your mood and to promote bonding, a hug has to be held for at least 6 seconds.

Along with hugging, scientific studies show that playful and affectionate touching makes you feel closer to the people important to you. And touch is important even with strangers -- studies show that subliminal touching (touching so subtle that it's not consciously perceived) dramatically increases a person's sense of well-being and positive feelings toward you, the toucher. For example, research shows that when restaurant servers touch their customers, they increase their tips by more than 3 percent.

Expressing affection (in whatever way you express it) makes a big difference in relationships. For instance, people are 47% more likely to feel close to family members who frequently express affection than to those who rarely do so.

Now, I am fully aware that not everyone is a hugger.  I’ve no doubt that all this talk of hugging and touch is making some of you uncomfortable.  If someone stranger announces “Free hugs!” and accosts you with a big bear hug it is not likely to boost your happiness.  Let me clarify – I’m talking about human touch that is welcomed.  We all have differing levels of comfort with touch.  Touch that contributes to happiness and emotional well-being is always appropriate and welcomed.

Touch is a means by which we communicate to others the love of God.  The risen Lord continues to touch us through the touches of others, bringing acceptance, encouragement, trust, and hope.  We offer ourselves as vehicles for that love when we reach out to another offering help, companionship, tenderness, care.  And touch is a means by which we experience God’s love, as we are recipients of touch from those who care for us. 

Ours is a tactile faith.  Jesus is made known to us in the breaking of the bread that we hold in our hands. And like the disciples in Luke 24, touching is still the means whereby the risen Lord chooses to make himself known.  It’s just that today we have a different way of touching Christ than the disciples did so long ago.  We still have the body of Christ.  It’s just that it is made known to us in each other.

(Video – Reach Out and Touch, by Diana Ross; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7qCG2_aaA)

Redeeming Doubt 4/22/12

Redeeming Doubt

Rev. Lee Ann Bryce

Community Christian Church

April 22, 2012

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.                 John 20:19-31

I grew up going to Sunday School every week and our text for today seemed to stick with me.  As a child, I suppose I always thought of Thomas as “bad.”  I knew the story well.  After Jesus had been crucified, the other disciples told Thomas that Jesus was alive, but Thomas refused to believe it.  He demanded to see Christ for himself.   Thomas was the dull, doubting follower of Christ who had no faith.  In my child’s mind the takeaway message was clear – don’t be like Thomas!  Believe!  Don’t doubt!

Over the next two weeks we’ll be taking a look at some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.  As you examine these texts it becomes clear:  Jesus’ followers, his closest friends, knew Jesus in a different way after his death than they did before his death.  Before his death they knew him as a finite, mortal, flesh and blood human being.  Specifically he was a Galilean Jew.  If his body was typical for that time he might have stood just over five feet tall and weighed 110 pounds.  (This would be small by today’s standards, but is considered representative of a first century male.)  Jesus, 110 pounds soaking wet, had to eat and sleep like any other human being.  He was born and he died.

After his death, Jesus’ followers came to know him in a different way.  Paul experienced him on the road to Damascus as a brilliant light and a voice.  In II Corinthians, Paul says, “Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now.”  (5:16)  In the gospel stories of Easter, it is clear that Jesus after Easter is different from what he was like before his death.  In our text for today from John chapter 20, Jesus passes through walls and mysteriously enters locked rooms.  Earlier in John Jesus is mistaken for a gardener near the tomb.  In Luke two of his followers walk with him for some time and have an in-depth conversation with him without recognizing him (Luke 24).  He appears and then vanishes.  Though we’re not quite sure what this post-Easter Jesus is, the gospel accounts all indicate that he was significantly different after his death than the flesh-and-blood person they had come to know before his death.

Given this background and the confusing mysterious appearances of Jesus after his death, doesn’t Thomas get a bum rap?  In several gospel passages Thomas shows himself to be a practical, concrete sort of guy.  In the midst of Jesus’ long farewell discourse before his death, Jesus assures his followers, “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places…where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way to the place where I am going.” All the other disciples nod their heads like they know what Jesus is talking about, but Thomas replies, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going.  How can we know the way?”  Thomas is plainspoken and gutsy.  He wants to understand what’s going on, and be able to face the situation at hand. 

In our gospel passage for today, Jesus has already shown his hands and his sides to all the rest of the gathered disciples earlier when Thomas wasn’t around.  And Thomas is just not the sort of person to say, “If all ten of you saw Jesus at the same time, then that’s good enough for me!”  Thomas wants proof.  He’s merely asking for the same assurance that the others have already been shown.  He says, “Unless I see…I will not believe.” 

And with these words, Thomas becomes a stand in for all of us who want to see something for ourselves before we decide whether or not it is true.  Often we distance ourselves from Thomas by pretending we would respond differently.  When we call someone a doubting Thomas it’s generally not a compliment.  We assume Jesus was chiding Thomas with the words, “Have you believed because you’re seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  But Jesus wasn’t scolding Thomas.  He offers his hands and his side.  Jesus gives Thomas exactly what he needs to believe.

In our culture, doubt is often viewed as a weakness.  We value strong, decisive opinions and actions.  A “strong faith” implies that no doubt is present.  That’s all well and good, but what do you do when you pray and wonder if anyone is listening?  What do you do when you question whether God really exists?  When you have trouble believing the old religious formulas?   When doubt creeps into your life and leaves you sarcastic and cynical about faith?  Some people keep those thoughts and feelings to themselves because they don’t want to be judged by those who seem to have all the answers.  Others decide it’s all hocus pocus and give up altogether on religious faith or traditions that seem irrelevant or outmoded.

Think about it like this.  During these past years of economic uncertainty, perhaps we’re tempted to give up altogether on investing in the stock market.  After all, we’ve seen it  spiral downward and we see our investments lose money.  During time like that, fear rises and we’re not sure what to do.  Some investors bury their heads in the sand, hoping things will get better.   They look with envy on the savvy investors who seem to be doing well.  Others respond by panicking and selling their stock and putting the cash in a metal box for safekeeping.  Most financial advisors would say that neither response is the appropriate one.  They might even say, “Buy more!” when the market is down.

Religious faith is a bit like that.  Or should I say religious doubt?  When doubt creeps into our souls, it may frighten us.  We may feel like hiding or running away.  There is an alternative response.  What if we understood doubt as fertile ground for growing our faith.  Doubt helps us to ask deeper questions, notice things that were invisible to us before, seek for what has been hidden, test what we think we believe to see if it has staying power. 

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it.  People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.  A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.  (The Reason for God:  Belief in an age of skepticism by Tim Keller.)

Maybe we’re reluctant to confront our doubt because we’re afraid we’ll find we’ve made a bad religious investment.  On the other hand, if we are willing to take the risk and stay for a while in the land of doubt, we may find doubt as the door into a vast expanse of faith.  If we deny or run from doubt, we will always wonder what is or is not true.  But, if we face our doubt, we may just find that faith is real.  That God exists.  The there is more to those old religious formulas than we thought.  We might be surprised to discover that we are held in the palm of God’s hand;  that our certainty and trust have grown. 

Yes, we may just find that faith is the best investment we could have made.  Like Thomas, we just couldn’t see it until we passed through the rocky, inhospitable land of doubt.