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to respond to God's love and transforming Spirit.

Are you ready to be raised from the dead?
March 9, 2008
Acts 20:7-12

A recent study released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life indicates that nearly half of American adults surveyed, are leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances, or abandon their religious affiliation altogether.
As a pastor, I find this stuff pretty interesting. It sort of confirms my hunch that organized religion can become a major obstacle to God. Nothing new, really. As we know, Jesus confronted this issue pretty strongly among the religious people of his day.

Do you remember the story that I shared with you last week from the movie, "The Godfather" where that wise priest takes a stone from the water in the fountain and shows it to the Godfather, breaking it open to show him that it is completely dry on the inside, illustrating his point when he says, "People have been exposed to Christianity for centuries, yet Christ has not penetrated them. He does not lead from within."

Maybe, our disillusionment with organized religion comes in our longing to see people who have been changed by its message. We wish people would just show up and take off the mask and be real. We are tired of seeing the hypocrisy in the church. Yet maybe it is really because we see it in ourselves.

This crazy image comes to mind of our churches being filled with dead people, folks who have not yet been awakened to their own life, the kind of life Jesus taught us about and modeled for us. . .where grace, forgiveness, love, freedom, and generosity are a way of life.

You may have noticed all these butterflies that are surrounding us here in our meetinghouse. (thank you, Karen and Ken!) What a great metaphor for the transformation that is possible for each one of us. These little butterflies give me hope in the midst of death. They are a reminder to me that death and the darkness of the cocoon do not have the final word.

My friend Sharon gave me a card several months ago that I have on my dresser at home. It reads, "Every ending holds within the seeds of a new beginning." Death and Resurrection. This gives me such hope.

I watched the movie, "Into the Wild" the other night and sat and cried for about 5 minutes when it was over. It struck me the next morning that this story is a mythic journey of death and resurrection. And as I often say, all good narrative is really a story about us. This is a story of how loss can be transformed into a deeper wisdom in one's life. There is a piece of dialogue in the movie that I so resonated with as the daughter in this story is observing a change taking place in her parent's tumultuous marriage. Her bright, handsome brother has just graduated from college and he immediately sets out on this quest to try to find himself. He has not been in communication with his family for over a year and she is reflecting on her parent's grief and the impact their son's absence is having on their lives.

She says, "Their anger and desperation is giving way to pain. Pain is bringing them closer; even their faces have changed. . . Instincts that seem to sense the threat of a loss so huge and irrevocable that the mind balks at taking its measure. . .people softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss." She goes on to say that these are not the same parents that she and her brother grew up with. Her parents were being transformed through their grief. In a very real sense, you see them being raised from the dead, awakened from living an unconscious life. (An amazing film, based on a true story, filmed in Oregon.)

My brother Jim and his wife, Ginger who live in southern California, are currently facing a very sad loss in their lives. Due to the sub prime mortgage crisis, their home has gone into foreclosure and in two weeks they will need to vacate the home where their children have been raised. Twenty years of family memories and all the home equity they'd hope to have at this time in their lives, snatched out from underneath of them. I have been in close contact with my brother and tried to be an encouraging presence as he walks through this very difficult passage in his life. I have great hope that there are seeds of a new beginning in this ending for them. I hold great hope for their future. They too, are being softened by the "forced reflection that comes with loss." These death experiences often have an amazing ability to awaken us, to raise us to a new level of awareness and gratitude.

There is this story in Acts about a group of people worshipping on a Sunday morning, and if I could describe the kind of church I hope our church is becoming, this would be it. Luke, the writer of Acts, recounts an experience one Sunday in meeting for worship. This is a church where dead people come back to life. Listen, as I read this passage from the Message translation.
"We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Master's Supper. Paul addressed the congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul talked on, way past midnight. We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he was dead. Paul went down, stretched himself on him, and hugged him hard. "No more crying," he said. "There's life in him yet." Then Paul got up and served the Master's Supper. And went on telling stories of the faith until dawn! On that note, they left-Paul going one way, the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life themselves."

Church for many of us has become a place of slumber, a place where death is expected. I find this so sad. Shouldn't church be a place of resurrection, of awakening? Shouldn't every Sunday be Resurrection Sunday? This passage even mentions that this church was full of light, yet someone still fell asleep, died in fact. I think that some of us have been in a spiritual coma for years, even gone to church for many of those years, but haven't yet awakened to our own life and its potential!
Jesus calls us to the adventure of life in light of the resurrection. He brings new life, yet we are often quite comfortable and settled with death.

During the season of lent leading up to Easter, we have been focusing on the theme of forgiveness. Maybe part of our own spiritual slumber stems from the bitterness and resentment we are holding onto for something that has happened to us, either recently, or a long time ago. Jesus wants to heal us of this pain. Jesus wants to raise us from the deadness of an unforgiving heart. Jesus wants to awaken us from the mediocrity to which we have become accustomed and give us new life.

How many times have we heard people say? "Sheesh, church is boring." Maybe you have children who have said this to you. Maybe you have felt this. What's wrong with this picture? Why is church and boredom so often synonymous concepts? Maybe it is because we church-goers are resistant to resurrection. Are you ready to be raised from the dead? Where does Jesus need to touch you this morning? Are you open to receiving the healing touch of God in this very place? Are you and I ready to be awakened to a conscious life? Are we ready to cooperate with God in cultivating a life of growth and awareness that is cutting edge, exciting, far from boring?

As I pray for our meeting each day, I pray that the Living Christ will penetrate our hearts and open our spiritual eyes to see what needs to change within us. . .not out there. I pray that each of us will be healed of our deepest wounds so that we might become co-creators with God in being healing change in our world.

Today as we gather in community following meeting for worship, in addition to celebrating Sophia's birthday we will spend a little time dreaming together about what God is stirring in us. However, I think that it is critical that before we ask these questions of our community, we must first ask them of ourselves.

What do I need to keep doing in my life that is life-giving? What do I need to stop doing that is killing my soul and spirit, maybe even my body? What do I need to take up and do that is fresh and new and God initiated? If we are going to add something, we may need to let go of something. I happen to think God is more concerned with our willingness to change than any of our busy frenetic guilt induced doing.

So let's spend a few moments in silence reflecting on this. You might want to use the queries that I have placed in your bulletin.

Do I need to remove something from my schedule?
Do I need to add something new and life-giving to my schedule?
What increases my aliveness?
What decreases my aliveness?
How much of my day is driven by fear?
How much of my day is energized by love?
What keeps me from being aware of my inner longings?

May God awaken each of us this morning to our own life and how he wants us to live it. Amen.

(Quote used in worship…Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and writer describes our calling in life this way. "The greatest accomplishment in life is to be what we are, which is God's idea of what He wanted us to be when He brought us into being. . .Accepting that gift is accepting God's will for us and in its acceptance is found the path to growth and ultimate fulfillment.")