A message by Mike Kasputes on Diversity Sunday, February 19, 2012
Psalm 139
Mark 9:2-9
This morning we have gathered in a place that many of us know well – our church. It’s a place of comfort and safety – it’s a loving place. As a part of our ritual we reach out each Sunday to pass the peace to old friends and new faces. We create inclusive community through handshakes and hugs. We embrace the struggles of members and non-members and offer our prayers as we remember them. Each week we live today’s theme of Known-Loved-Included-Remembered.
We come together and create this church for many diverse reasons. One reason could be fellowship; an interaction with people which feels more personal than an internet chat. Another could be a longing for stability in our lives; the traditions of worship can surely echo stability. Or perhaps a spouse, partner, or parent led you by the ear in hopes that you’ll find more awareness of yourself. Yet, I like to believe that under it all is a common thread. It’s a bond that ties us deeply together …. It’s a desire to know God. As the ancient words of Psalm 139 read: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me”.
When we come to church we share both the journey and the experience of trying to know God. I like to think that we each seek God in our daily lives in some way. Personally, I remind myself each day of my desire to know God by singing the words of a Cherokee morning song; We n’ de ya ho. Which freely translated means; I am of the Great Spirit, it is so. Like some of you, I also meditate each day, which helps me to feel God’s presence on a more personal level. During these meditations, God touches my soul and shines brightly behind my closed eyes. I once experienced God touching me with water. It was on a beach in Maui during a difficult time in my life, and at daybreak that morning I found myself sitting on the beach, just off the roadway with the water 30 feet away. During that meditation I could feel a few drops of rain, like warm tears from the sky, which was followed by a lone wave coming in and wrapping around my legs and gently staying for a moment before returning to the sea. Some friends told me that they saw a rainbow that morning ending on the beach where I sat, which they thought was awesome, and I had to agree, since to me it was undoubtedly God. I pray you’ve experienced God in such special ways.
We each carry a different image of God which we’ve created out of our journey through life. It’s a picture composed from our past influences and experiences. Perhaps God is an old man with a beard for you. Or maybe God is a very understanding woman. Maybe God is neither male nor female, but fabulous and awesome just the same. Last Sunday, the confirmation class worked to express their images of God using magazine clippings, glue and paper. These collages reflect many of the ways they see and realize God in their daily lives, and you might get a chance to see these images outside in the gallery. I like being part of this church for many reasons, but the greatest is that I see God in each of you. Just watching each of you receiving communion is enough to bring tears to my eyes, for there is so much love of God in your devotion. I am very humbled and oh so glad to be a part of this special family.
I think that how we know and treat others is a reflection of how well we know ourselves. You, my family, treat me well because of who you are. Others haven’t always been so willing. When people are unfamiliar or even ignorant of others, they tend to use labels as a means of ‘knowing’ someone. Labels can so easily breed bigotry, and the God I know does not inspire bigotry. Oh yes, labels start easily, and maybe even out of convenience or fun but they can rapidly spread hurt rather than love. The woman in line at the soup kitchen isn’t homeless, she’s Agnes. The man in a doorway asking for change isn’t a panhandler, he’s Peter. And at one point a little boy was labeled early in life: first as the slow kid in school. Then he was labeled for throwing a ball like a girl. Later in life his label became the queer next door, and the liberal fag. And once his mobility was challenged he became the stickman, the cripple and even Tiny Tim. Those labels weren’t God speaking, and thankfully I knew God didn’t think of me that way.
In our quest to find God and to know God we need to be aware of ourselves. We need a space and time to reflect safely – insulated from a world of rapid motion, perhaps in a place like this church. That of course doesn’t mean that the rapid and changing world is not aligned with God – fore isn’t change one of the few true constants in nature? Isn’t God who had the wisdom to create the mechanisms of Evolution? We often think of evolution as biological, but hopefully evolution also occurs in the spiritual world. I have experienced God and know God during change -often happy change, but sometimes it’s been change that is very sad. And the speed of those changes was just as apt to be spontaneous as slow and gradual. God is everywhere in the changes in our lives if we allow our heart to feel God’s presence. Feeling God in transitions of life helps us to realize our souls and accept our own strengths and frailties. Accepting ourselves allows us to fully accept others and to better see God in them without the need for Labels. Acceptance allows us to do God’s work. When we push away from labels we change how we help others through love and compassion.
During a time of unexpected change in my life, I had a dear second cousin share some words of wisdom; that “life is a series of choices”. And as time has passed, I’ve come to appreciate the truth in those simple words. So what choices can you make to know God? How will you know others? How do you know yourself? Do you sense the radiance rather than just the color of someone’s face? Do you feel the gentleness of their presence or just the mass of their body? Do you know the compassion in their hearts or just the expression of their frustrations with life? Do you listen to their story and truly hear what the words are saying? You can know them. We can know them. How we think and communicate about others – how we know them – helps them to know themselves. We provide the springboard that allows them to transfigure how they know others, and in so doing how they know God.
Through gratitude and praise we know God. I often remember a Hymn that my mother taught me, which begins: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” I’m sure many of you know it as well. It echoes of The Letter of James Chapter 1 verse 17, “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” By giving thanks we find ourselves closer to God. The gift of life is so very precious, it’s a gift beyond all that money can purchase. It’s a gift of love.
I began this message with a simple thought, “How Do You Know”. I’d like to close, by sharing part of a poem I wrote a few years ago. It’s called ‘How Do You Thank’
How do you thank the day for sunshine,
When brilliance opens to starry skies?
Listen now for bird song mornings,
And marvel at a newborns eyes.
How do you thank time for lessons,
When caterpillars soar on butterfly wings?
Watch as rose stems lift budding blossoms,
And summer camp hands in circle sing.
How do you thank God for life,
This world of Eden shared from birth?
Reach to neighbors far and near,
And lend a hand that’s true and dear.
God Bless.