Joseph's Complaint

If you ask me, and no one ever does,
The whole thing was a mess
From start to finish.
And I had to wade my own way
Through it.

The day Mary said yes
Should have been the beginning
Of my joy. She didn't bring
Much to the marriage. No
dowery. No connections.

But I didn't require much.
As one of Nazareth's working poor, I
Just want a wife to make a
home. Have children.
Carry on the family name.

It began to fall apart
When she told me she was
"with child" without me!

My rights under the law
Were clear. I could denounce her.
She could have been stoned.
I couldn't bear that.

So I decided to make it a nice
Quiet separation. A quick, easy
Divorce. That's the kind of guy
I am. No trouble. No big deal.

Then came the dream and I somehow
Knew that something bigger than me
Was happening with Mary.
I had to go through with the marriage.

Mary began to show and nothing
Could stop the village tongues
From wagging. Everyone knows
Everyone's business in Nazareth.

Women clucked their tongues and
Pointed at us. Boys walking past
Me showed me "the horms" with their
Fingers spread on either side of their heads.
Groups of me laughed quietly behind me .

Then came the news that
The Romans wanted to count us,
So that they can better tax us.
More money to make their boot
On our neck heavier.

To makes sure they counted
Every last taxable Jew,
We had to go to the city of our
Birth, so I had to return to
Bethelem, my old hometown
With my pregnant, unwed fiance.

As we got closer, her time
Got nearer. No place would take us,
So we found a barn just in time.
Mother and child were fine.
Both lucky to be alive.

I cannot help but wonder
Where was God in all this?
I have been faithful, trusting,
And what did I get for it?

I still have to struggle
To feed my family, am no richer
For having been faithful.
Everyone will doubt my son's parentage.
In our land, those not of pure
Blood are unclean, outcast, unholy.

All I have left is trust,
The trust that somehow
God is involved in the mess
Of our lives, and will make
Something good out of it.

I cannot imagine what that could be.(For Robin Meyers)

From Mayflower Congregation Church on Dec. 19, 2010

From Rev Robin Meyer's Christmas message today entitled "Cleaning Up the Mess". (I'm paraphrasing):

We struggle so hard to have "the perfect Christmas" as it is defined by department stores, toy stores and auto dealerships.

There is no perfect Christmas in the Gospels. The first Christmas was marked by scandal. Mary was an unwed mother who Joseph could have ruined just by following the law. However, Joseph trusted that God would redeem the situation. And God did. So we too must find the perfect gift of trust, trust in the power of God to redeem our efforts through grace.

Highlights from Mayflower Congregational May 3, 2009

Choose This Day
Sermon Title: IDOLATRY OR COVENANT?

The Prayer of Confession: Lord of Life, help us to recover the meaning of covenant, and to remember that such relationships are at the heart of what we believe about faith. Whether it is the covenant of marriage, of parenting, of social justice, or of our collective expression of the gospel of compassion--covenant is the answer to idolatry. As we seek to be the beloved community serving others, help us to be a covenant people. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

Scripture Lesson: Dueteronomy 30: 15-19

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

Sermon Highlights:

The idea of "covenant" is central to theology. In the story of Israel, when the people of Israel kept covenant, they prospered. When they broke covenant, they perished.

However, covenant was often used to justify conquest, to occupy the "promised land" and kill or enslave those who happened to be living there. Everyone's "promised land" is someone's "present land." "Manifest Destiny" sounds good unless it is your "destiny" is to be conquered. God is NOT in the land grant business. To God, there are NO "chosen people."

What we fail to understand is that this texr shows that thinking about God is undergoing a change. It is a realization that faith is not about making bargains. Instead, our faith is about making a series of choices and facing the consequences of those choices, life or death. It is about "Consequentiality" (although that is not a word recognized by "Spell Check").

We have attempted to turn God into a divine Santa Claus for whom we are not "good for goodness sake," but for the rewards such goodness gains for us. This covenant reminds us that the "ways of life and death are set before us," and that in choosing life we have committed ourselves to certain responsibilities from which we cannot escape.

People have stopped taking responsibility for their actions. Has there been torture going on in Iraq and at Gitmo? It's the work of a few "bad apples," or the legal advice of some "bad lawyers." We even try to shift responsibility on God. Has a city and its people been devastated by a hurricane and flooded because aging levees crumbled? God choose to punish them for being wicked, poor and in the miniority.

If God is responsible for everything, then why has not God fixed things that go wrong? Perhaps we need to realize that God is not to blame.

We make God like us. We like rewards and punishments, so God must. We would reward good guys and punish bad ones according to our judgements, so God must. Our choices must be God's choices. Punishments we endorse must be endorsed by God.

The text warns us that not all choices are valid. Covenant is a two way street. We must choose those things which bring life. We must choose covenant over idolatry. Idolatry says that pleasing God by believing in the right doctrines will bring about rewards.

After 9-11, the ways of life and death were set before us. We could have chosen to follow the path of justice and had the aid of the world in bringing about justice to those who committed that act of terror and mass murder. That would have been he way of life. Instead, we worshipped the idols of revenge and agenda and brought about the deaths of thousands of innocent people and in the process lost our national soul.

We need a Theology of Consequence that will tell us that our choice of the cars we drive, how we care for our farms and lawns, whether or not we eat too much, how we use our wealth demonstrate whether we have chosen life or death, whether we have kept or broken covenant.

God is not Santa, not apart from Creation, but a part of it. As Paul Tillich put it, God is the "Ground of Being." We must choose to act in concert with this Ground of Being. Personal irresponsibility must end if we are to choose the path of life for ourselves and all Creation.

Mayflower Church Sermon 3-22-09 "Who Cares?"

Highlights from the March 22, 2009 service at Mayflower Congregational UCC Church. Rev. Robin Meyers, senior pastor.

Title of Sermon: Who Cares?

Scripture Lesson: I John 4: 7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Highlights from the Sermon:
At one time, the Church classified sins according to the danger they presented to the human soul. The worst, termed "The Seven Deadly Sins," are usually listed as being pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. (These form the basis for most TV mini-series.)

However, the last on the list doesn't sound so deadly to us. We think of it in terms of being a Couch Potato, Dagwood on the sofa. That is until we realize that the Latin word used for this sin is acedia which literally means "without caring", utter apathy.

In order for us to function, we have to tune out some things in order to concentrate on those things to which we should give our attention. Psychologists call this "negative adaptation." The danger comes from when we tune out everything not immediately important to our desires.

The Seven Deadly Sins were so identified because they were thought to be the source of lesser,venial sins. However, Sloth is itself the source of other Deadly Sins. Greed, for example, gets its marching orders from Sloth since Solth causes us to concentrate on ourselves exclusively. This also engenders the sin of Pride come through tuning out the needs and worth of others.

Sloth also corrupts religious devotion. There are far too many people who have just enough relgion to make them feel guilty, but not enough to make them feel responsible for their guilt, responsible in the sense of being "able to respond" to the needs of others.

John's counsel that we "show we are Christians by our love" is a call for us to become the beloved community. We live in a world that is looking for something real. The church's responsiblity is to become such a community. This we show through our love in action.

Robin said that he thanked God most for having found such a community in Mayflower Chruch.

Highlights from Mayflower Service 3/15/09

Scripture Lesson John 2:13-22 (Jesus drives the moneychangers out of the Temple.)
Relevant passage:

"Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!" also "The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body."

Sermon Title: "BERNIE: YOUR NAME IS LEGION"

Thoughts from the message:
Bernie Madoff is an example of the fact that some peoples' names are suggestive of their character since he "made off" with around $65 Billion of his investors' money. One of them was Nobel Prize winner and death camp survivor Elie Wiesel who lost both his personal savings and all of the money from a foundation he headed. Wiesel said, "We thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands."

Many people are responsible for the financial meltdown we find ourselves in. In a sense, we are all responsible for this because we have come to worship power, money, and fame above all else. Paul Tillich states, "Whatever is your Ultimate Concern becomes your God."

The church bears a special responsibility since to many churches preach as though Jesus is some kind of divine Bernie Madoff. Just worship and praise Jesus, we are told, and we will have material returns beyond measure.

We have forgotten the Jesus who condemned those in the Temple for making money off of God largely from poor people who had to pay money in order to have an acceptable animal for their sacrifice.

We in America, have felt that we somehow have some sort of special relationship to God which entitles us to take actions for which we condemn others. We invade countries on the pretext that they have weapons of mass destruction while ignoring that we have WMDs by the thousands. We condone Israel's killing of innocent civilians in the name of self defense while we condemn others who fight Israel's occupation of their homelands. We allow Israel to lie about have nuclear weapons while we threaten other countries nuclear programs.

We have forgotten Jesus' warning that one Temple does not have any more of a special relationshp to God as any other. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

The first hymn and last hymn of the service, which came from the UCC Lectionary for this Sunday, were particularly appropriate for this service.

The first was "O God of Earth and Altar" by G.K> Chesterton
The first verse is:

O God of earth and altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
But take away our pride

The last hymn was "God of Grace and God of Glory" by Harry Emerson Fosdick written in 1930 for the opening of the Riverside Church in New York City. I thought this verse very appropriate to the service:

Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.

Moral Failure in Gaza

Gaza Ambulance
My pastor, Robin Meyers, of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, sent us this message he received from John H. Thomas the General Minister and President of the UCC. Rev. Thomas talks about the UCC's attempt to help with the relief effort for civilians affected by the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Reports from relief workers in Gaza that we relate to are grim. Also discouraging is the fact that the email blast we sent out on Tuesday with an appeal for funds and a call to action, along with a statement and a lot of background material generated very limited response.

One person complained that we were too anti-Israel. That was about it. I think the public, including most of our members, has bought the administration line that this is about "our friend Israel fighting terrorists." No reference to the broader context of illegal settlements,the wall that is a land grab, the repression of the Occupation, the relentless removal of Palestinians from Jerusalem, and the dwindlingo pportunity for a really viable state. We try, but. . .

I've been invited on Thursday to a meeting with the Transition Team in DC on the subject of Israel-Palestine. This in response to an excellent briefing paper Peter Makari prepared for them. But the "point person" apparently named by the Obama team appears to be AIPAC's dream come true. So I don't anticipate much. Michael Kinnamon has been trying to get a meeting this week with the Israeli ambassador [,]and if that happens I'm to accompany him.

Moral failure? As my time winds down I'm more and more conscious of many failures, none more dismal than the failure of the churches at all levels to mount a consistent and persistent resistance to the war in Iraq and the attending evils.

I'm involved in the Religious Coalition Against Torture and will be in a press conference on Wednesday once again calling for the President/President-elect to adopt a Declaration of Principles Against Torture supported by church leaders and military leaders alike. But. . .too little too late?

At the end of this month we have scheduled a major consultation here on Israel-Palestine and how the UCC can assert itself more aggressively. But even that may now need to be cancelled or postponed as our Palestinian participants are cancelling - either they need to be involved in relief work there and/or are afraid that if they leave the West Bank [,] Israel may make it difficult for them to return. I'm trying to keep my gloom relatively quiet, but as you may sense here, I'm not in a great place at the moment. Thanks for your friendship and passion.

If you wish to help with the United Church of Christ's Gaza relief efforts, go to Gaza Humanitarian Aid Effort at this link.

Highlights from Robin's Sermon 28.09.08

Jesus driving the money men from the Temple
Here are some highlights from the Sunday service at Mayflower Congregational Church-UCC. "Where head and heart are equal partners in faith."

The Prayer of Confession:

Lord of Life, we pause in the midst of high anxiety about our country's financial future to remember the wisdom of the church about wealth and the life of the spirit. Once again, as we struggle to recover from an era of greed and corruption, we are driven back to words that are older than any political party or media spin: "The love of money is the root of all evil." Teach us, we pray, to heed the wisdom of the ages, not the seductions of idolatry. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

Special Music: "Simple Gifts" Shaker hymn, arranged by Mark Hayes

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:17-25 (The story of the rich man told by Jesus to "sell all you have and give to the poor.")

Next to the kingdom of God, Jesus' most freguent topic was money.

When Jesus attacked the Temple money changers during Passion Week, he sealed his doom.

Talking about greed is suddenly in in our world. We are reminded of the scene in the movie Wall Street where Michael Douglas' character states that "Greed is good."

We need to be reminded that the First Commandment is, "Do not make an idol for yourself out of anything."

Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and Wealth."

"The love of money is the root of all evil."

One commentator said, "Why do we borrow money from China so that we can buy oil from Saudi Arabia which in turn is poisoning our planet?"

Prosperity theology, the preaching that God will help us become rich, is the final and complete perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis once said, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."

The church of Jesus must challenge the present social/economic system in the nation, not merely endorse it.

Proverbs 19:17--"He who gives to the poor, lends to God." This is a much safers investiment than any bank.

The responsibility of the church in this economic crisis is the same that it has been throughout the ages. We must seek to help those harmed by these events and confront those who have caused it with the Word of Truth.

We need in these times to rediscover the joys of simplicity. In the words of the Shaker hymn:

It's a gift to be simple.
It's a gift to be free.
It's a gift to come down where we ought to be.
And when we come around to the place that's right,
We will be in the valley of love and delight.

Highlights from Rev. Meyers Sermon

God giving Adam the divine spark. Detail from Micahangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Sermon Date: May 11, 2008

Title of Sermon: Original Blessing

Scripture: Psalm 8
Relevant Passage: 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

(Note: Robin calls this his "Signature Sermon" meaning that he believes this sermon covers a topic he considers central to his ministry. The ideas in this sermon will be further explored in a book he will soon publish entitled: Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus.)

Sermon Highlights:

The doctrine of Original Sin, that humans are born sinful and sin because its in our nature to do so, has been a disaster for humanity, but great for the church. The church can claim that humanity has a problem and that it has the only solution. This gives the church a franchise on salvation.

The doctrine of Original Sin is not to be found in either the Hebrew scriptures or the Gospels. We largely get the idea from Augustine who wished to take away any idea of Free Will.

What if the idea of Original Sin is not true? What if there is no final judgment? No hell? What if faith is not a matter of believing certain ideas we know probably are not true in order to enjoy a reward we think is probably not real? What if faith is a matter of deep trust in a way of life rather than belief in doctrines?

Jesus wanted followers, not fans.

We must be mindful of our blessing of being born in the image of God, our Orginal Blessing, and the responsbility placed on us because of that blessing.

Original Sin promotes the idea that we all fail. When one projects failure, one determines failure. The person who does not love herself wisely and well will make a casualty of his neighbor.

We use humaness to explain failure. "To ere is human, to forgive, divine."--Alexander Pope. But is not our successes also due to our humanity? If we failed due to our humanity, who were we when we succeeded?

God made you and me, and when God did this, God created a masterpiece.

Each of us is a piece of God. The wonderful Latin phrase for this is the imago Dei. We should live up to our inheritance, not down to our sickness.

Prayer of Confession: Lord of Life, we too often forget that each one of us is a child of God. We may be imperfect, but we participate in the Divine Perfection. We have made mistakes, but we are not a Mistake. Help us to remember that we are born, not to Original Sin, but as a part of the Original Blessing. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.
Mayflower Congregational Church Web Site

Highlights from Rev. Meyers' Sermon April 13, 2008

Mayflower Congregational UCC Church
Sermon Date: April 13, 2008, 4th Sunday of Easter

Sermon Title: Christianity and the Common Good

Sermon Text: Acts 2:42-47

Relevant Passage: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Acts 2:44 (NIV)

Sermon Highlights:

Normally, when people think of Acts 2, they think of "Pentecost", not communism.

The early church seems to be following the teachings of Karl Marx, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The vast majority of the early converts to the church probably came from the ranks of the poor. (Some scholars believe that 90% of the people in Palestine at the time of the story were poor, many abjectly poor.)

The bread they ate when they fellowshipped might very well have been the only mean they would have had that day.

When we pray what we call "The Lord's Prayer", the requests that are made include food and debt relief, something that has resonance in our world today.

We are headed towards an internation food crisis. There are already food riots taking place in India and other developing nations.

We are spending $5000 a second fighting the war in Iraq.

Currently, we only provide Food Stamps in America to last 3 weeks in a month. We could provide the 4th week's food for far less than we spend fighting in Iraq.

Our tax dollars should go to feel and heal rather than to kill.

Today, the largest churches in our community are those farthest away from the poor.

The early church believed in something we once held to be a part of our national committment: a concern for the Common Good.

The Common Good means that we are responsibile for each other because we share a common humanity.

The members of our church who feed the homeless in OKC known as the "363 Group" spend about $20,000 annually out of their own pockets to help with the program.

This last Saturday, several members of the church participated in a program known to us as "Christmas in April". This program helps to repair homes for those too poor to do so on their own. (One teen in the program called it the "Mayflower version of Extreme Makeover.") The members spent thousands out of their own pockets to provide furnishing for the target family they helped.

We must rediscover the community. No gift or virtue can develop in isolation from the community. The idea of that there is no salvation outside of the church is not a statement of arrogance. It is a statement of reality. All love, grace, and hope must be realized within our community of faith.

(Rev. Robin Meyers' Sermons can be heard every Sunday in Oklahoma City on KOKC (AM 1520 at 9:30 am.)

Mayflower Web Site

Highlights from Robin Meyer's Sermon Today

We Who Are Strong Ought to Bear the Infirmities of Those Who Are Weak

Sermon Title: WE WHO ARE STRONG

Text: We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.--Romans 15:1 (King James Version)

Note that in this verse Paul uses a personal pronoun, not an indefinite one. "We," not "Someone" must bear the burden. I note that Paul uses a first person plural pronoun; therefore, the responsibility is at the same time personal and collective. I must do my part, and society, including the government, must do its part.

The weak should not be asked to subsidize the indulgences of the strong as is the case with the attempt to use the city sales tax to lure an NBA team.

Calling the vote, an attempt to become a "Big League City" is an example what George Orwell decried when he said, "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."

Paul does not speculate on why the poor are poor. There is no distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor. In the Bible, poverty is a condition, not a case study.

The verse, "The poor you shall have with you always" should never be seen, as it often is, as a reason to escape our responsibilities to the poor. Because the poor are always with us, there is always work for us to do.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was most concerned about the poor. How we respond to them shows just how real our faith is. We love because we have been loved ourself.

Most people have just enough religion to make them feel guilty but not responsible for what they should be doing.

Being a Christian is about how one carries oneself in the community rather than what one believes. The world needs more grace, not more creeds.

Hope

"Hope is the one thing for which there is no acceptable alterntive."--Robin Meyers