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Foundry is an historic, progressive United Methodist Church that welcomes all, worships passionately, challenges the status quo, & seeks to transform the world.
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Sunday Feb 14, 2016
Sunday Feb 14, 2016
from the Foundry UMC Lenten Series "Renovation Realities"
A
sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, February 14,
2016, the first Sunday of Lent.
Text: Luke 4:1-13
Why renovate? We renovate spaces because something is broken or damaged, because it is unattractive, because it doesn’t function in the way that is needed, because it has been neglected. We renovate to open things up or to create a greater sense of simplicity or peace. We renovate to remove layers of questionable choices in order to reveal what was originally intended. We renovate in order to make something more fully reflect our “style,” to reflect who we are. It doesn’t take much to extrapolate this to our personal lives, our relationships, or to whole communities. Just think about the renovation work needed in your life to repair something that is damaged in you, or to give some TLC to neglected places in your life, or to make changes that will allow you to express more fully and freely the person you really are. Perhaps the thing that most needs renovation in your life is a personal relationship that is broken or that doesn’t allow any space for you to move or that is marred by ugly behavior. Lord knows that there is renovation work that needs to be done in our human organizations—our political system, our justice system, our denomination. So much is in need of repair; so much needs to be opened up to make space for everyone. So much needs to be renovated so that light will shine on injustice, inequality, and brutality—revealing what needs to be abated, cleaned out of our lives. If only it were as easy to abate racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and all the other forms of evil, injustice, and oppression as it is to abate asbestos. If only tearing down the wall between factions were as easy as picking up a sledgehammer.
There are so many reasons to renovate! But there are also plenty of reasons not to. There’s a show on the DIY network called “Renovation Realities” that films homeowners who tackle a big renovation on their own without any hunky carpenter or contractor’s help. The results are fairly brutal; relationships reach breaking points and sometimes the meltdown includes whole bleeped out sentences getting spewed into the unfinished space before someone storms out. The Washington Post T.V. critic writes, “In seven seasons of “Renovation Realities,” the show has rarely, if ever, included the scene known in the home-improvement genre as the “reveal,” because there is never anything to reveal, except excuses. After days of sweat and sore muscles, the subjects of “Renovation Realities” almost always concede defeat. They run out of time and money. The drywall is only half-finished. The granite guys didn’t deliver the countertops. The tiles would not line up, the refrigerator wouldn’t fit through the door. The mostly demolished wall that prevents the life-altering promise of the open floor plan had in fact masked all the plumbing from upstairs, which will now have to be rerouted by a professional…It’s the only home-improvement show that dissuades you from undertaking any project at all; everything is fine the way it is. “Renovation Realities” is a 30-minute excuse to leave the to-do list undone.”[i]
As we begin this Lenten season, we are intentionally exploring the “Renovation Realities” of our lives. We will face head-on excuses and obstacles that can stall or derail the work. In the face of such obstacles what do we do? Our impulse may be to spew bleepable sentences and storm out of the story. But angry, frustrated abandonment isn’t a very creative option—and it leaves us with an unfinished mess. Renovation—of our physical spaces, our personal lives, our relationships, our institutions and society as a whole—will always include challenges, set-backs, and obstacles, some anticipated and others beyond our wildest imagination.
But here’s the thing: renovation is worth it. The work of renovation is the work of making things like new (from the Latin renovatus). Thomas Merton once said that being made new (“born again”) is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves. This suggests that renovation doesn’t make you and I lose who we are but rather clears away the things that get in the way of being who we truly are. Each one of us—you and I, in all our glorious particularity—are good creations of God, created out of love for a life-giving purpose. But we all need some renovation in order to become more of ourselves—or get back to ourselves—in order to align more fully to the vision God has for us. Each one of us is broken, neglected, or cramped in some way; we all harbor treasures hidden under layers of history; we also hold secrets both beautiful and painful. If we’re not careful, we can forget what’s there at our core. I keep thinking of the extraordinary, original 1904 floor tiles that have been uncovered in what we call the narthex and bell tower lobby. This beautiful artistry was covered over and forgotten for years. It was the process of renovation that revealed this gift and will allow it to greet all who cross the Foundry threshold for years to come. The renovation of our lives can uncover all sorts of beautiful things if we’re willing to do the work and deal with the struggles that will always be a part of the process. Uncovering and becoming who we truly are—who we have always been meant to be—so that we live with a greater sense of ease, confidence, purpose, joy, and freedom…is this possibility not worth the work?
Yesterday, at our inaugural Scholar-in-Residence workshop, the Rev. Dr. Alton Pollard reminded us of the beauty at the core of our nation, a vision captured in the words of our founding documents: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” Dr. Pollard noted, however that our beautiful, lofty vision as a nation has been covered over with the persistent reality of inequality and loss of life based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, education and more. Renovation is needed—“a new birth of freedom” is needed! To make things new in America—using the Thomas Merton perspective—is to become ourselves, who we have always been meant to be—perhaps our truest selves—a nation that actually embodies its powerful vision of equality and freedom and agency for all people. I recognize that perspective is overwhelmingly hopeful—that I’m assuming America’s “truest identity” is that of a nation who really desires to live up to our highest ideals. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author we studied in yesterday’s session, might argue that America’s “truest self” doesn’t need to be “uncovered” or “restored”—but rather is and has been consistently on display through the assumption that black and brown bodies will be currency to fuel whatever economy is on the rise—whether that is cotton or prisons-for-profit; and this, in order to maintain the illusory “Dream” that especially benefits those who call themselves white. There was a good deal of discussion around the tables yesterday about hope—or the lack thereof—in Coates’s book, Between the World & Me. Dr. Pollard reminded us toward the close of our session that as people of faith we have been gifted with the capacity to envision a future aligned with God’s Kin-dom purposes—purposes that are grounded in love, mutuality, peace, and justice; we are gifted with hope. It is up to us as people of faith, to bring a hope-filled vision to the work of national renovation, to believe it is possible for the United States to embody its most sacred and lofty values. Just to be clear—those values include making space for a multiplicity of religious expressions. For us to be driven by and aligned with Kin-dom purposes doesn’t mean imposing anything on anyone—except an all-embracing grace. We are called to live according to Kin-dom ways and that means—in addition to bringing a hope-filled vision for the future—we need to bring ourselves, we need to stay engaged, to be willing to sign up for a protracted, messy, uncomfortable, challenging journey to get there. People of faith have the gift of vision and hope—and we simply must continue to offer those gifts in concrete ways for the sake of the common good. This is what it means to “Opt In”—to choose to engage and to do the work that is needed when you might be tempted to try to “opt out.”
I have often argued that the first temptation Jesus overcame was the temptation to avoid the wilderness altogether—the temptation to “opt out.” After all, who wants to go where you know you’ll meet suffering and challenge and frustration and danger? But the Spirit poked and prodded, in that way She does, and Jesus paid attention and went. For forty days he was tempted to lose his way and lose himself by giving in to quick fixes and flashy finishes, to take shortcuts that might have seemed reasonable at the time. Jesus was tempted to lose sight of what it meant to be God’s child by embracing an illusory vision of comfort, immediate gratification, and fleeting fame. A couple of weeks ago, the lectionary gave us the next part of this story. Jesus persevered in the wilderness and emerged knowing his true self and his life’s work, that he was the Lord’s anointed one, sent to fulfill the prophecies of old, to proclaim the good news of the Kin-dom, and to reveal God’s liberating love. (Lk 4:18-19) Jesus’s forty days of struggle turned into three years of renovation work full of ups and downs, stops and starts, beautiful discoveries, and hateful backlash. But Jesus trusted in God and in the hope of new life. That—and the constant presence of the Holy Spirit—provided guidance and strength for the long haul. Jesus’ whole life was about renovatus, about making things new, about restoring and mending and healing and liberating. Jesus never spewed hate speech out of frustration and he didn’t abandon the project even when it was clear that it was going to kill him.
Why try to renovate our spaces, our lives, our relationships, our church, our nation, our world when we know the struggle and sacrifice involved? Because faith-driven renovation makes things into what they are meant to be. Jesus thought it was worth it. Thought we were worth it. And because of that, we have the capacity to hope in and to live for the promise of all things made new.
[i]Hank Stuever, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/diys-renovation-realities-and-the-guilty-pleasure-of-watching-other-people-fail/2014/05/29/93d5c754-e5b9-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html
Sunday Jan 31, 2016
Sunday Jan 31, 2016
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, January 31, 2016, the fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
Text: Luke 4:14-21
“Should you live for your résumé…or your eulogy?” That is the question driving a short TED talk given by journalist David Brooks a couple of years ago. Brooks describes “résumé virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” He says, “The résumé virtues are the ones you put on your résumé, which are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that get mentioned in the eulogy, which are deeper: who are you, in your depth, what is the nature of your relationships, are you bold, loving, dependable?” Brooks further describes the tension that exists between “the worldly, ambitious, external side of our nature” (the side that shows up on our résumé) and “the humble side of our nature…[that] wants not only to do good but to be good, to live in a way internally that honors God, creation and our possibilities.” He says that most people—including himself—would say that the so-called “eulogy virtues” are the more important. But Brooks admits, “are they the ones that I think about the most? …the answer is no.”[i]
Some might want to debate the categories Brooks uses, but it seems to me that as we continue to explore the theme of “Blueprints,” the questions and issues he raises are helpful. Today is January 31st, the last day of January 2016. How did this happen?! We get 11 more of these months before the turn of the next year. Where will our time and energy be spent? What will you think about the most? The way we answer these questions—for ourselves and for Foundry Church—shape the “blueprints” that will be our guide through the rest of the year. These clarifying questions help us zero in on what we value, what we’re trying to create, who we’re trying to be, whether we are living for our résumé or for our eulogy.
The Gospel today provides the answers that Jesus gave as he began his public ministry. We pick up the story at the point just after Jesus returns from the wilderness. On that journey he wrestled with issues of identity and the devilish voice tempted him to focus primarily on the “résumé virtues”—those external values like material possessions, power, and prestige. But Jesus resists temptation and ultimately emerges knowing who he is and what his life is about. “Filled with the Holy Spirit,” he returns to his “home church” for the Sabbath observance. The words Jesus reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah reveal his clarity of identity and of purpose: Jesus is the Lord’s anointed one who is sent to “bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19) This is the blueprint for his life, the plans that outline his purpose and the values that define where he will spend time. The blueprints of Jesus’ life didn’t include a “popularity room” or space for domination, exclusion, greed, or revenge. Liberation and healing, patience and kindness, humility and compassion, love and courage, and the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit’s presence took up all the space (Big rooms for that stuff…). Jesus gave himself to the larger Kin-dom vision of God and that vision provided the focus and framework for his whole life. Jesus shows us a life that rejects selfish ambition and accepts God’s call to live for others, particularly those on the margins. He shows us what it looks like to “lose your life in order to find it.” (cf. Mt 10:39, Mk 8:35, Lk 9:24, Jn 12:25) Trusting God’s call and way, Jesus is able to live a deeply integrated life, a life in which his external ambition and activity is driven by and reflective of his internal values.
As we think about our own lives at this relatively early point in a new year, I invite us all to think about whether our external life reflects our internal values. If someone were to draw blueprints to describe the way you spend your time, energy, and money, what would that picture reveal? What gets the most space or assigned the best materials? If all of your life was sketched out on paper would you be satisfied with what you see? What would an objective observer deduce your purpose to be? What values would they see taking shape in the blueprints of your life?
The work of integration and purposeful living is always a work-in-progress. But regular review—at the beginning of a new year, or on a birthday or anniversary, for example (or during the Lenten season)—is a healthy practice. We can think about what needs to be shifted or created or refreshed so that our external and internal lives become increasingly aligned. If we are willing to engage in this honest reflection, we can draw up new plans, new blueprints, to guide us in the quest to create the life that increasingly reflects our most cherished values.
As we move into this new year as a congregation—turning from our Bicentennial celebration to the next century that stretches out before us—it is important to think about our blueprints for the future. Since my arrival a year and half ago, I’ve been engaging in audit work—formally and informally—to discover where our external practices, systems, schedules are aligned with our internal values and where there is dissonance. A great gift to me and to us all is the fact that we know who we are, what our purpose is, and what we value. And who we are is grounded in who Jesus is and what Jesus was about! We are called to Love God. Love each other. Change the World. Our core values appear every single week at the back of our worship guide, a constant reminder of who we are and what we want to drive our decisions and actions.
Because we know who we are and what we value, the work really is to determine the plans—the blueprints if you will—that will support, strengthen, and facilitate the faithful expression of our purpose. Our vision, discerned through house meetings, one on ones, collaboration between the Board and staff, and holy conversation, provides specifications for where we need to invest and build. It is the broad plan for how we will focus our activity so that we live out our mission. Our vision is
To be an intentional covenant community that:
· helps people of all ages connect with God & each other
· calls, equips, sends, and supports spiritual leaders to serve the church and world
· practices radical hospitality & inclusion
· builds partnerships in mission locally & globally to create beloved communities of economic, racial, and social justice
Our 2016 budget, the addition of two full time Directors for Family Ministries and Connecting Ministries, developments in servant leader recruitment, upcoming Scholar-in-Residence program and VIM trips to Baltimore are all aligned with our mission, values, and vision. In fact so much of what we do day in and day out—our wide welcome, our worship life, ID ministry, ESL program, children’s messages and Sunday School—all these and more are an external expression of our internal values. I give thanks to God for the integrity that Foundry Church exhibits. But, as with all of our lives, there are always places that need some work, places where there is need for a new plan, new investment. We need to set some concrete, measurable goals within the framework of our vision. We need to consider how to connect more meaningfully with our growing “online” congregation. We need to offer more opportunities for study and fellowship. We need to teach the meaning and expectations of the covenant we share. We need to improve our website and strengthen ways to connect through communications. And if we really want to help people connect, we need to figure out how to maximize Sundays—the day when the most Foundry folks are able to be together—and may need to reconfigure the Sunday schedule in order to do that. All these things are part of the “blueprints” that create space for us to more faithfully love God, love each other, and change the world.
Taking our cue from Jesus, we are reminded that if we are to truly be integrated and aligned with the things that matter most of all, our focus cannot be only on our personal, self-focused preferences and desires. Our work is to give ourselves to the larger, Kin-dom purposes of God—which will mean necessary sacrifices and compromise. We will be asked to give up things that work for us in order to make space for others to connect with God and each other. We will be asked to participate in the hard and exciting work of discernment and change for the sake of the larger mission—just as we are living through the “dust” and inconvenience of construction for the sake of creating renewed spaces for hospitality and meaningful connection. I hear and sense a lot of energy around opportunities to strengthen our shared life as Foundry Church. So I look forward to seeing the ways that you—and I—will stretch ourselves and give of ourselves and “lose our lives” in order to find the even more integrated, purposeful life that God has in store.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, encouraging us to live out “eulogy virtues”—or, better, Kin-dom virtues —as persons and as a congregation. And the good news is that the Spirit not only encourages, but also empowers us to create and implement beautiful, purposeful, life-changing, Kin-dom-inspired plans. Thanks be to God!
[i]https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_should_you_live_for_your_resume_or_your_eulogy/transcript?language=en
Sunday Jan 24, 2016
Sunday Jan 24, 2016
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC January 24, 2016, the third Sunday after the Epiphany.
Texts: 1 Cor. 13, Luke 4:21-30“Mature” is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “completely developed, fully ripe,” “highly developed in intellect, outlook” and “thoroughly developed, perfected.” I would hope that we would strive for maturity in our lives—though, if you’re like me, you catch yourselves sometimes acting in ways that show just how far you have to go toward that goal. It is these moments when Anthony rightly names my behavior as “bratty.” Being a “brat,” acting like a child, pouting, wanting my way…those moments when it seems that there is no room for patience, wisdom…you may be able to call to mind your own immature behaviors that pop up from time to time...
Today, we have heard the familiar 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. In this letter Paul is addressing some behavior issues. Folks in the church are embroiled in power struggles and many are lording over other people their particular gifts which they assert are better than others’ gifts. They were squabbling about leadership, some thought they were especially wise, and others were carried away with speaking in tongues and still others argued that miracles and miracle-workers were most important and valuable. Bottom line: the church was fighting. And as I’ve heard people say: “There’s no fight like a church fight!” Conflicts in church can be particularly nasty and brutal—and excruciatingly painful.
A friend I grew up with in my youth
group in Sapulpa, OK who still lives in the area took his
young family back to our home church. He
volunteered, teaching in the senior high Sunday School class and working with
the youth on other things. It came to
pass that a terrible conflict arose in the church—staff members were being
attacked and small groups were gathering in secret meetings. Accusations flew and terrible things were
said. My friend was disgusted and
emotionally devastated to see adults we had grown up with and looked up to as
leaders in the church acting in such mean-spirited ways.
I also remember an international mission trip I helped lead that included both youth and adults. It was amazing during the course of the trip to observe the behaviors of the so-called “mature” adults in comparison with some of the youth! There was one instance in which two grown men—intelligent, accomplished men—got into a shouting match right in front of the teenagers (I don’t even remember what it was about)—they cursed and flung insults at one another until I felt sick to my stomach.
These examples show that you can have very mature—that is, highly developed—gifts and skills, you can be the most efficient, capable, and smart person around. But is that kind of maturity all there is—or most important? // “Blueprints” is our current sermon series here at Foundry. Blueprints present a vision of how people allocate space for their homes. If you look at home designs from different historical periods, different social classes, or from different cultures, you will see that the spaces in the home are organized to support the ways that people live and where they spend energy. For example, front porches used to be the norm—but these days you might find more developed back patios; walls come down in older homes as remodels cater to the new desire for “open concept.” Some blueprints might show plans for a music room or library or chapel or home theater. Some spaces will be larger and more elaborate while others will be small or nonexistent based on what we value. When I was apartment hunting for Anthony and me in Manhattan, I looked at one lovely little (!) apartment near Central Park in which the “kitchen” consisted of a space the size of a coat closet equipped with a dorm fridge and a hotplate! In our lives, we can have very developed “spaces” for intellect or skills. But, if we’re not careful, we can focus so much on those spaces (efficiency, smarts, skills) that we forget the need to make room for other kinds of development and maturity. The maturity that matters in God’s eyes is really quite simple: love. Love is the thing that needs to be fully developed and perfected. And the love that I’m talking about is not the love we have for our cars or our shoes such that we build bigger garages and closets. Agape is the Greek term for the kind of love that needs more room in our lives. This is the kind of love that God has for us…this is the kind of love that God IS.
John Wesley made the centerpiece of all his preaching and teaching the concept of Christian Perfection. People got hung up on this term in his day for much the same reason folks get hung up on it today: how can anyone be “perfect”? What does it mean? And doesn’t it just make those of us who struggle against tendencies of “perfectionism” that much more neurotic?? Well, Wesley never meant more or less than that we are to grow in love, that we—by the grace and power of God—are to grow in that perfect love that is God’s love…that we are to let all the spaces and rooms of our lives become so full of the love of God that the light of that love will radiate, motivate, infuse all that we do. That is the goal of the Christian life: to go on to perfection, to perfect love, to grow in love.
If you have amazing gifts, well-developed gifts that aren’t motivated, offered, and lit from within by love, you’ve got room to grow. This is what Paul makes clear in his letter to the Corinthians. If you are a great public speaker or writer, but have not love…if you’re a brilliant prophetic teacher and preacher, but have not love…if you give large amounts of money to good causes and to the church, but have not love…you are nothing, gain nothing. Even if you’re the brightest bulb on the tree, your light is nothing without love. Paul goes on to describe the love that is our goal, the love in which we need to be perfected, the love that is fully developed, fully mature. It is patient and kind. We could stop right there and focus on just those two things—if we could consistently be patient, if we could consistently be kind, then just imagine the difference that would make! And, while this passage of scripture is frequently used in sentimental ways, what Paul goes on to say strips us of any illusion of sentimentality. Because he names habits that plague human relationships: in addition to impatience and unkindness, he mentions envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness, irritability, resentment, deliberate wrongdoing, deceit, dishonesty. Which of these things do you struggle with the most? Where is God calling you to grow today—to adjust the “blueprints” for some remodeled living? I ask because none of us have “gone on to perfection” to use Wesley’s phrase. But it also doesn’t work to say, “well, perfect love is impossible to achieve, so I don’t need to try to be truly loving, patient, kind.” All of us need to continue to grow in this perfect love.
John Wesley would often say that if God had said that it was so, then God had the power to make it so. And in Matthew’s gospel account Jesus says this: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven… For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
“Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” in love…If God has said it, then God must be able to accomplish it—in US. “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” This perfect love is what it means to be truly mature. And the only way to be “thoroughly developed, perfected” is by God’s love dwelling more and more abundantly in you. We need to open ourselves to God’s love so that that light will shine and illumine all the “rooms” of our lives, revealing and dispelling any fractious, destructive, mean-spirited ways of acting and living. The light of God’s love is what helps us to see ourselves more clearly. For we know that God sees us with absolute clarity. God sees my occasional brattiness and all my other flaws and needs for growth; God sees you too. You and I are fully known by God. And the miracle is that God loves us perfectly, even still.
This perfect love took a human face in Jesus. And when this perfect love went to his home church for a visit, they couldn’t stand the thought that he wouldn’t just share his gifts with them, they were enraged at Jesus’ implication that the miracle of his love would be offered to people whom they deemed enemies, to people they despised. When Jesus went to his home church to visit the adults with whom he had grown up, perhaps folks who had taught him the Torah, and played with him as a child, perhaps adults whom he had admired…what happened? They tried to kill him. There’s no fight like a church fight… But thanks be to God that God’s love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Because that means that there’s still love—and hope—for us. Amen.
Sunday Jan 03, 2016
Sunday Jan 03, 2016
A sermon
preached by Rev. Dawn M. Hand at Foundry UMC, on January 3, 2016 for Epiphany Sunday.
Sunday Dec 27, 2015