All Saints Remembrances                                           

Della Rohrer was born August 19^th, 1916 and passed away December 24^th, 2018. In my eulogy, I compared Della to Lady Wisdom from the book of Proverbs, she was a strong spiritual woman, who laid a solid foundation for her children, her family and her home. She was active in the community, and especially her church. She worked both as a farm wife and later for almost 20 years at the Sandwich hospital. Della understood her role as a servant in the church, volunteering, baking, helping to clean the church, as member of the Sunshine Band, and attending regularly, even over the age of 100.

Harry W. Watts, passed away on March 29^th, 2019, at the age of 83, in Florida. I visited Harry twice, at his home on lake Holiday before he moved to Florida. I have been told that he attended Union Congregational and even served on the Trustees. He welcomed me into his home, and we enjoyed mostly small talk about his work, and commuting back and forth to his office, life in Lake Holiday, and his family.  Each time I left his home, he would tell me I could come by any time. We thank God for his gifts and his presence and time with Union Congregational.

Richard C. McInturf was born May 11, 1948 and passed away on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. It was Richard’s wish that his life be allowed to speak for itself, and so he asked that there be no funeral or memorial service for him. So we will respect his wishes, and only say that he was much loved by his wife, his friends, and his church family and is missed by them.

Deb Matthews was born October 5, 1954 and passed away September 21, 2019. Just the other day, someone was talking about how we more often see the rough edges of other people’s lives, rather than the solid person they were in life. Deb had some rough edges, but her commitment to her church, to music, to her community, and her country were solid. Almost every other day, with being our organist, with community choir, with being our moderator, choir practices, collecting aluminum cans, Sunshine band, and on and on, I am reminded how much a part of the Church Deb was, and what a huge contribution she made in her life – and that doesn’t even cover all that she accomplished in life beyond that. We already miss her contributions to Union Congregational, and to our lives.

Thomas Egan, was born December 28, 1930 and passed away, October 19, 2019. Thomas grew up in world of hardship and war, and served in the Army during WW2, and then worked at Caterpillar for most of his life. Having lived through these times, Thomas was very grateful for the blessings he had, and for the people who did things for him. Thomas was devoted to two women in his life, he lived with and cared for his mother when she fell ill and passed. Then he met Maureen and was just as devoted to her during her lifetime. Tom and Maureen each cared for each other through their illnesses, and were inseparable during their life together. Tom joined the church when he married Maureen and would often talk about it’s unique architecture, and how he liked the people here. 

Nov. 3, 2019                    All Saints                                         

This past week, at our Sandwich/Somonauk minister’s text study, we tried to break down Luke’s version of the Beatitudes from Jesus sermon on the plain. I admit it was a bit like trying to threat a needle with mittens, but we made the attempt. I hope this is helpful.

Blessed are you…. This phrase is often used in psalms to denote a spiritual blessing which comes from faith in God, and from relying up God, or God’s word for the living of our lives.

Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of heaven. As we know, the kingdom of heaven is one that is built on a foundation of relationships, friends, family. It is in these that the poor find a wealth of blessings, and comfort in time of loss. 

Blessed are you when you are hungry, for you will be filled. Hunger can certainly make you appreciate, even yearn for what you don’t have. This doesn’t just apply to food. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is often called the spiritualized version. In this version one can hunger, as Matthew points out for justice, righteousness, and more. Hunger makes us appreciate what is necessary in life, and through faith, the promise is that in pursuing those things, we will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. As a recent movie once noted, “real sadness and loss doesn’t occur in a person’s life until they love someone more than they love themselves.”  Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we learn how to love, and that love can be painful, cause us sorrow and a sense of loss, but it also teaches us to be thankful for those in our lives, and to one day give thanks for them, and to rejoice and be happy at the blessings that love has brought to our lives.

Blessed are you when you are Reviled or Defamed – one of my favorite country songs has a line that goes, “to say the thing that everyone says, isn’t the way man.” When Jesus talks about people being reviled or defamed, it isn’t because of something they have done wrong, but because they have taken a stand, and said what they believe needed to be said. Like the prophets they testified to their faith in God, and were rejected by those who didn’t believe.

Now for the woes, one of the members of our group noted that the Greek translation for woes was more like a warning, watch out! proceed at your own risk! 

Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your reward. Those who rely upon wealth for their lives, will often find that they have fewer and fewer relationships in which they will find comfort. It is possible to have it all, wealth does not imply separation from God, but a wealthy life, has to be grounded in faith and in relationships with others, otherwise it becomes isolated and empty, and that is a difficult task.  

Woe to you that are full now, for you will be hungry. It’s ironic how the wealthy say, no one suffers more in poverty than a rich person. I imagine that might be true, no one knows hunger like someone who has always dined on the best in life. Also, no one hungers for justice and righteousness, more than the status quo, when it has been taken away from them. If we have empathy for others, and seek justice for all, we would all be much better off.

         Woe to you who laugh now for you will mourn and weep. I can only guess that Jesus is talking about the scoffers from Psalm 1. People who look upon the problems of others and laugh at their foolishness. In the psalms, these people really haven’t grown to love others, and make fun of even those closest to them. In time, when tragedy strikes them, they will truly mourn and weep, because basically, no one cares for them either.

Woe to you that are well spoken of… As I noted above, I believe that Jesus is speaking about those who say what everyone wants them to say. They are not boat rockers, trouble makers, and etc. They echo what their leaders say, and they expect others to admire them for it. Our scriptures tell us that God brings down the powerful and raises up the weak. If all we do is repeat what everyone else says, we will be remembered for that.

So, one of our pastor’s asked, what does this have to do with all saints Sunday? As I will note later in our Word’s of remembrance, our saints, whose lives we celebrate today, embodied many of these blessings, and avoided many of these woes. They built their lives on a solid foundation of relationships rather than things.  They appreciated the necessities of life that God provided for them and they hungered for justice and righteousness, through their work in the church, and their love for others. They understood sadness and loss, and were genuinely thankful in the living of their lives for others for others, rejoicing in them. And they were solid people who lived their faith without regard for condemnation or praise. They were truly people worth knowing, and following, as disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen.   

Oct0ber 27, 2019          Sola Gratia                                           

      Contempt. That’s the word that stood out to me, when I did my bible study of the text this week. So I thought about this for a few days this week, how does contempt separate us from God, and from each other? Let’s start with our lesson today.

       This week we have two people coming before God. The one a Pharisee, one of the more well off in the world, who gives a tenth of all his income, who strictly follows God’s laws, and fasts twice a week. The text says he stands by himself, probably at the front of the temple near the altar, not wanting to sully himself with those sinners, adulterers, or tax collectors near the back. As much as Luke has told us about the Pharisees, we are already ready to not like him very much, but the truth is, the Pharisee is not such a bad guy, by worldly standards. He probably does all that he says, and is a good Jew, and an upstanding member of the community, it’s just that contempt thing he has going on, that has him standing by himself, apart from God, and neighbor.

   The other person, coming before God is the tax collector. Now we all know how most people feel about taxes and those who collect them. But in Jesus day, they were liked even less, after all they were collecting taxes for a foreign power, and they had to take their incomes out of the taxes they collected, some took more, some took less. So the world looked upon them as mostly corrupt, and mostly traitors. Even worse, they had to associate themselves with foreigners on a daily basis, so they couldn’t keep the law, and were considered unclean. The tax collector knows he has not fulfilled the law, so stands at a distance.   

    Now here’s the kicker, it the tax collector who goes home justified. Now most of us have heard these parables of Jesus before, so we are expecting the arrogant Pharisee to be taken down a few pegs, but the tax collector, justified? Really?? Does such sincerity really work with God, forprostitutes, for sinners, for thieves, for traitors, for murderers? And how

about drug addicts, those who beat their spouses or kids, who drink tomuch, or even those who are just incompetent? Can they go home justified, if they sincerely confess their sins before God?? And if they can, what does that mean for us? Are we wasting our time with all this religious stuff? The answer of course to that is NO! we aren’t wasting our time.

In the church calendar, this Sunday is called reformation Sunday, the Sunday where we recall reformers like Martin Luther who said, “God does not need our good works, but our neighbors do.” And oddly enough, our scriptures tell us, love of neighbor is part of what it means to love God. Also, other parts of our scriptures tell us that it is far better for us to be a part of God’s plan, to know God walking beside us in our lives, and to share in the joy of God’s power and presence in our lives. But we can’t do that, without humility – like the tax collector, and we can’t do that with contempt in our hearts towards others – like the Pharisee.  

Contempt in our hearts towards others leads us to do some pretty horrible things. It leads us to ignore the poor – after all, it is their fault they are poor. It leads us to not care about those who are not as “good” as ourselves. It leads us to dismiss the rights of those who are not strangers, foreigners, non-citizen’s and certainly non-Christians. Worse than that, contempt in our hearts can lead us to dismiss coworkers we don’t like, family members who don’t agree with us, leaders who don’t live the life we think they should. Oh yeah, contempt in our hearts can lead us to undermine one another, destroy our relationships, and the social groups in which we live. And finally, of course contempt in our hearts can separate us from God.    

I’m sure that most of us, have at one time or another, experienced someone who dismisses us and our ideas, who are unwilling to help us in a time of trouble, who are always looking to find fault with us. These people are suffering from contempt. But here’s the real question, do we suffer from contempt as well?. Are there people in our lives that we treat that way? People that we ignore or dismiss, that we are looking to find fault with, that we are unwilling to help. Are we, like the Pharisee, separating ourselves from God, because of our contempt for someone in our lives?  And how does that affect our friends, our family, our neighbors, our social groups, and even our church?

Now the title of this sermon is Sola Gratia – it is the doctrine that we are saved by God’s grace alone. It was part of the reformer’s criticism of the Catholic church, which at the time, was telling people that by their good works, on behalf of the church, they would be saved. But it really is a spiritual doctrine of how to set ourselves right with God, first by acknowledging it is only by God’s grace and not our good works that save us, and second by recognizing that it is by God’s grace that others are justified, rather than by our opinions of them. When we can do this, we will act towards one another as God intended, and God will be present with us in our lives. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Sept 27, 2019              Deb Matthews                                     

             Deb Matthews passed away on Sept 21, 2019 

         The picture I have up on the screen is from a photo I took some 14 years ago. In the church at that time, we had a sculptor who had read Leo Buscaglia book “Love”. In the book, Leo describes a student in one of his classes, who suddenly stopped coming to class. This disturbed Leo, so that he went out in search of the student, only to find she had passed away. Along the way, he found that she had left a hole in the world, people who knew and loved her had experienced a loss that they did not know how to fill.

         The sculptor, took this idea to heart, and came up with this idea for a cross with a hole in it, a Jesus shaped hole, describing the loss the disciples must have felt when Jesus died upon the cross. Interestingly enough, on the day we put the cross up, I noticed the church steeple in the background, and took this picture, of the church filling the hole that Jesus left behind.

         Now I know that Deb wasn’t Jesus, and neither am I for that matter. But Deb’s sudden loss has indeed left a hole in our lives, and a significant one at that. If you read her obituary, you will see quite a list of accomplishments, 30 years playing organ and piano for Union Congregationgregational, 11 years teaching music at Somonauk School District, 30 years working for the Somonauk Post Office, coaching T-ball, softball, and soccer. She was a girl scout leader for 10 years, member of the Sunshine band, active in the Indian Valley Theatre, active in the American Pool players, pianist and director for the Somonauk community choir, State Chaplain for her union for 25 years, Secretary-Treasurer for the DeKalb county RLCA, and a National Delegate for her state.

         And it is more than just a list of accomplishments that we will miss about her, it will be about who she was. In my two year and a half years that I knew her, she could be thoughtful, patient, kind and gave of herself to others. She cared not only about people she knew, but people she didn’t know who were suffering. She attended a number of church association meetings as our church moderator with me, and was engaged and involved in them. She was very patriotic and very Christian in the way she looked at the world.

         Our church members will miss her leadership, serving as moderator, on the trustees, collecting cans for the angel fund, starting the chime choir, faithfully serving as our organist and choir director, playing for any number of funerals and weddings, both here and at the nursing home. We will miss her laugh, and sense of humor, her gathering us for meals on Wednesdays at Rambo’s, her faithfulness to friends and family, and companionship, shown even to new comers. In fact, one couple that has joined us recently as they sort out their mother’s estate, told me the reason they kept coming back was Deb, who got their number, called them regularly, and made them feel welcome here.

         Now I realize that Deb had her other moments, we all do, but in this time of mourning her loss, we as Christians choose to focus on the blessings that God has given us in the life of Deb Matthews, because it is these blessing that lead us to life. In fact, that is the truth of our human existence, that set of behaviors that give life to ourselves and to one another, that set of behaviors that have been revealed us in Jesus Christ!

         And so, back to my picture, as I noted above, I noticed the church steeple in the background, filling in the hole left by Jesus. Jesus left us the church, as a place for us to not only hear about the good news, but to practice it with one another. After being a minister for 30 years, I know there are some troublesome people in churches, but they are far outweighed by the truly wonderful people you will meet. People who will be a blessing to you, people who will give you life, people who will fill in the hole left by lost loved ones. Deb was one of those people, a disciple of Jesus Christ, and while we feel a sense of loss at her passing, the angels in heaven are rejoicing at her presence among them, and one day too, as Jesus says, we will rejoice as well in the blessing God gave us in Deb Matthews.   

Oct. 20, 2019         Wrestling With God                                                            

Let’s talk about Jacob this morning. Jacob was a thief, a trickster, a cheater, a scammer. You remember the stories about Jacob, how he talked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright for a bowl of lentils? You remember how Jacob, stole his father Isaac’s blessing by dressing up in furs and pretending to be Esau. You remember how Jacob himself got scammed by Laban, working for seven years to marry Rachel, and instead got Leah. But Jacob got even in the end, using a clever trick to con Laban out of over half his livestock. Yes, Jacob was a thief, a trickster, a cheater, and a scammer, but this was all to change.

After Laban asked Jacob to leave his family and take his ill gotten gains with him, Jacob headed back to the land of his father, but along the way, he got word that his brother Esau was coming to meet him. Now Jacob was afraid of Esau, because he had stolen Esau’s birthright and blessing, so he figured Esau would be out for blood. So that sneaky Jacob, divided his group into two parts so that when Esau attacked one group, the other might flee, and he put servants bearing gifts in front, so that maybe he could buy Esau’s forgiveness. And last of all, that sneaky Jacob, stayed well to the rear, so he could get away. Even that night, Jacob, camped his people on Esau’s side of the Jabbok river, and then went back across the river to sleep in safety on the other side. And that’s when it happened. God came.

In the middle of the night, Jacob found himself wrestling with an angel, and Jacob being a good trickster, was a good wrestler, so the match went on till dawn. And at daybreak, Jacob demanded a blessing from the angel, and the angel commended Jacob for wrestling with God and with human beings, and then touched him on the hip, and his hip fell out of joint, so that he now walked with a limp. And the angel told Jacob, that from now on he would be called Israel, which means God rules my life. No longer would Jacob be the trickster, the thief, the con man, now Jacob would play it straight, and rather than seeking to use God for his purposes, he would obey God, and trust in God to see him through.

So that next day, as Esau and his men come to meet Jacob, Jacob sets himself at the head of his people, so that if Esau is angry, the attack will fall on him, and his family might escape punishment. And to Jacob’s complete surprise, Esau hasn’t come to attack his brother, but to welcome him back home with open arms!

I guess I always see this story as the moment when Jacob went from being a trickster to being God’s servant. And I think that for many of us, we spend our youth relying upon our strength, our cleverness to see us through, but at some point we lose our strength, and we find out we aren’t so clever, and for those who wrestle with God, God touches our lives. Rather than continue to play the games of humankind, we turn our lives over and trust in God. At least I think that’s what happens for those who wrestle with God, who seek to know who God is in our lives, and what that means for our lives.

Now for those who choose not to wrestle with God, I imagine their lives are still plagued with the fear and bitterness of growing old. I imagine that the peace eludes them and anxiousness abounds. But what I really like about the meeting of Jacob and Esau, is that it reminds me of the story of the prodigal son, Esau greets Jacob, not with death but with life. The story helps us to imagine that maybe we don't always have to be afraid, that life may be filled with grace and blessing, and that if we give God a chance to rule our lives, we might find something far better than we have already. For those who wrestle with God, God has touched our lives, and although we might walk differently in our lives, God is indeed a blessing that we know we cannot live without. And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Sept. 29, 2019     The Rich Man and Lazarus                                

The story of the rich man and Lazarus always reminds me of something I saw on one of my Habitat Trips to Ecuador. Being wealthy Americans, who are well known for their love of shopping, our hosts took us to a Mall in the capital city of Quito. Now Quito is a large city of some 3-4 million people, so they have some pretty good sized malls, with lots of shops in them. The one we went to was in a building some 5 stories high and the length of a football field.

A unique feature of this mall was that it had see through glass walls facing a central square, so you could look in and see the shoppers, and shoppers could look out and see the square. There was just one disturbing thing about this, the beggars who sat outside the mall. Quito has a rather large population of beggars who come down from the hillside looking for work in the big city. When they get to the city, they send out members of their family who can’t work to beg on the streets. Almost every corner seems to have someone asking for a handout.

The mall had even more people like this, cause where there is money, there are beggars. The mall even hired security to keep the beggars away from the glass, so they wouldn’t disturb the shoppers, but you still had to walk through them to get to the mall, and as you looked out the window, they were still in plain sight. Later that evening at vespers, we had a time of sharing, and a number of our youth were quite disturbed by our trip to the mall.

It seems they didn’t like being watched shopping, even if from afar, some said it made them feel guilty of something, some said it made them second guess what they were spending money on, some felt like they should just leave and give their money to the beggars. Others noticed the way people just walked past the beggars as if they weren’t even there, how they sat at the restaurants in the mall and shopped for luxury items, seemingly oblivious to the poor beggars sitting just 15 to 20 feet away outside the glass.  

     The leader of our group, who had devotions that evening, and who knew what we were going to experience that day at the Mall, read to them the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and asked the youth to talk about what they heard in the story. Some noted that the rich man seemed to not notice Lazarus at his gate, just like some of the people seemed not to notice the poor all around them. Other’s pointed out that the rich man must have known Lazarus, because he asked for Father Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his thirst. Some thought the rich man felt Lazarus deserved his fate in life, and was surprised to find that in death, God favored Lazarus. This reminded others about how we treat the poor in our world, blaming them for their situations, saying we can’t help them all, expecting them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Still others, worried about our place in the world, for compared to Ecuadorians, we are quite a wealthy people, and what that might mean for our afterlife.

It was quite a discussion, and at the end of the discussion, our leader that evening, noted that it was our faith in Jesus Christ, that helps us to bridge the gap between rich and poor, heaven and hell. It is our faith in Jesus Christ that helps us recognize how the world ignores or blames the poor for their situation. It is our faith in Jesus Christ that leads us to missions and ministries that reach out to the poor, hoping that we can make a difference in their lives, even if we can’t help them all. It is our faith in Jesus Christ, that helps us to understand wealth and power as a way to help others, rather than to simply indulge ourselves. And it is our faith in Jesus Christ, that moves us to action, that will be our salvation in this life and in the life that is to come. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

Sept. 22, 2019          Eschatology                                           

This past Monday, I had to drive my youngest daughter Emily to Peoria for a Dr’s appointment. So we drove to Peoria Monday afternoon, and on the way back, because I didn’t have anything thawed out, I chose to stop at a local tavern on the way home. Now about three to four times a year I like to do this, because usually, while I am eating at the counter, someone will talk to me and ask what I do for a living. Of course, I tell them I am a minister, and that usually leads to questions about the bible or about Christianity. And this time, didn’t disappoint.

The young man sitting a chair away from me, was confirmed in a UCC church, but had become an atheist while away at college. It seems he had taken a number of philosophy courses, became a fan of Friedrich Nietzche and came to believe that religion was some sort of scam. According to him, Christianity preached “Pie in the Sky when you Die by and by”, in order to get people to give money, and to get people to be good moral people. Instead of wasting time loving some God, we should really be loving other people.

“You’re talking about the problem of Eschatology” I told the young man. “Eschatology? What’s that?” “Eschatology is the part of Christian theology that deals with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the human soul. Nietchze understood this, in reaction to the Catholic Church of his time, like you said, to get people to give money, and to make them be good moral people, basically so they would do whatever the church told them.  But when Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, I don’t think he is talking about what happens when we die, I think he is talking about something else.”

“I think Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, not so we can prepare ourselves for the final judgement, but so that we will live differently in the here and now.  The most important part of that living here and now, is just what you said earlier, its about loving one another, it’s about caring for people, it’s about caring for every human being on the face of the planet. Only then will the kingdom of heaven come, not when we die, but here and now on earth. And that is what the final judgement will be about, not how much money we give, or how morally good we are, but about how we loved one another."  

Now, what I just shared with you, was really a boiled down version of an hour and a half discussion, and in the end, the young man and myself agreed to disagree about the purpose and value of Christianity, shook hands and departed. But you know, if you sow a few seeds, who knows what might grow?

Anyway, I shared this story with the local clergy group, and they said that this was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the dishonest manager this Sunday. The dishonest manager, changes his behavior before he gets fired, so that he might be welcomed into the homes of those whose he manages. The dishonest manager, doesn’t play by the rules of society, but uses his power and position, to make people’s lives better here and now. And yes, he does this all quite selfishly for himself.   

The dishonest manager, chooses God’s righteousness, rather than the righteousness of money or society, so he will be welcomed into the homes of the people. The parallel for us, is that we are called to find ways to live toward a future in which God’s kingdom becomes present among us now!

Last week, we read the story of the Prodigal Son, and in that story, we saw the love of the Father for the Son, that was willing to overlook how far the son had fallen, in order to be reunited with him. This week, we are invited to expand our compassion for others, beyond just family, but to all with whom we work and interact. The gifts God has given us, our talents, our abilities, the positions of power we are given, are meant to be used for the good of all. I am not suggesting we do anything illegal, but to find ways we can use the mammon of men, to bring the kingdom into the lives of those we interact with, who knows, by such kindness God's promise is to welcome us into God’s eternal home. And that’s the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.