On any given day (a continuing series) …

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Pastor Kris

[from a sermon preached at South Euclid United Church of Christ on August 16, 2015 on their God and Guns Sunday.]

On any given day in this great country that we love and call our home …
88 people will be shot and killed. 7 of them are likely to be children. At least 30 of those deaths will be murders. 50 will be suicides. 151 more will be treated for a gunshot wound in an emergency room.

On any given day …

The US firearms homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 developed nations who are our peers in wealth and population.

On any given day …
If you wanted to buy a gun, one would be easy to find. Wal-Mart. Dick’s Sporting Goods. But if you didn’t want to take the time or the risk of a background check, you could buy a gun at a gun show or online. You could buy a gun on Instagram.

On any given day …
One out of three Americans knows someone who has been shot.

Among US teen-agers, you’d find that one in five of them have witnessed a shooting.
In this past year when I have been invited to speak with Cleveland high-schoolers, I have asked them a series of questions beginning with: Do you know anyone in your family or your circle of friends who has been shot? Most every hand goes up. Raise your hand if you have seen a gun in the last 30 days? Again, most every hand. And for the final question: if you wanted to get a gun, would you be able to get your hands on one? Every single teen-ager raised his or her hand. Giving me the equivalent answer to, well, duh, of course I can get my hands on a gun if I wanted to, Pastor Kris! That’s easier than getting a smartphone.

DSC_6440 copyThe picture you see on the screen was at a rally last May. The young woman at the microphone was reading names of Cleveland children who have been shot and killed. She wanted to read her brother’s name – a teen-ager shot and killed by a policeman in March. Her brother had just broken into a convenience store in his neighborhood and stolen a pack of cigarettes. He was alone and unarmed when he was shot. What no one, including this young woman, realized was she would know 3 of the first 5 names on the list.

On any given day …

There could be a school shooting. Somewhere. There have been over 100 since Sandy Hook 2 ½ years ago.  The school shooting that got me moving on the gun violence issue Flowers and gifts sit along the Chardon High School sign along with a message of thought and prayer in Chardonwas at Chardon High School, 3 years ago. I was pastor to some teen-agers who were in the Chardon high school cafeteria that morning when the shots rang out. Thank God they were not injured, but the killing of 3 teen-agers happened in front of their eyes. I was with those kids later that same Monday. It was that day I found out that sandy-hook1every single one of the kids in our youth group, high school and junior high, had been on lockdown at their schools (Cleveland, Shaker, Euclid, SE-Lyndhurst –all of them). Guns in lockers. Shootings in the neighborhood surrounding the schools. It’s not just that our kids know the lockdown drill – they know it to be real. The killing of 20 first graders, their teachers and principal, at Sandy Hook Elementary happened not even a year after.

On any given day …
You could decide to spend a few bucks and a couple of hours at the Cineplex. Take in that new movie, Trainwreck with that famous basketball player. What’s his name? Two womenMovie_theater_shooting_in_Louisiana_3215760000_21972718_ver1.0_640_480 in Lafayette, Louisiana did just that on Thursday, July 23, and they are now dead. This happening just 2 weeks after the trial ended for the shooter who killed 12 and injured another 70 in a theater in Aurora, CO.

On any given day …
You could find a man carrying a gun inside a Wal-Mart. Openly, slung across his shoulder. It could already be loaded, or he could buy ammunition, load it right there and cock it. It’s been done, and it’s legal.

imagesIn another Wal-Mart, you could find a young black man who picked up a toy gun from Wal-Mart shelves, shot and killed by police responding to a false accusation on a 911 call. That happened too, just outside of Columbus, OH to John Crawford. His last words were: It’s not real.

On any given day …
Communities of color will bear the brunt of gun violence.

Black men are 10 times as likely to be murdered with a gun as white man. Black women, 3 times as likely to be murdered as white women. And for the age population of black males, 18 to 34, gun homicide is the leading cause of death.

On any given day …
Any woman is at risk if there is an unsecured gun in the home, especially if there has been valerie-jackson-800a pattern of domestic violence. Nine women every week die at the wrong end of a gun, and over 50% of them are murdered by their intimate partners. Just last Sunday, an ex-partner broke into his former home in Houston and murdered 5 children and their mama and 2 other adults in the home. The killer had served time on a domestic violence charge and was banned from owning a gun. The gun he used he purchased without background check on line.

On any given day…

There is the possibility of a shooting in a house of worship. In 2014, there were 176 deaths at a religious institution and over 60% of those deaths involved a gun. Until this summer, the last mass killing we remembered was at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee in 2012 in charleston-shooting-attack-mother-emanuelwhich 6 people lost their lives and 4 others were wounded.

Until Wednesday, June 17, when 9 people were gunned down at a mid-week bible study. Gunned down by a man who had been elcomed into their fellowship for an hour before he started shooting.

And yet, on any given day …
State legislatures like ours here in Ohio will be considering, passing, and governors will be signing laws that will have even fewer restrictions on guns than the few that are in place.  In the fall, Ohio will be voting on its version of a Guns Everywhere bill, and strengthening SYGanother Stand Your Ground bill. You know about Stand Your Ground or Kill at Will – those laws passed in 22 states that are associated with a 53% increase in what’s called a justifiable homicide, particularly among African Americans. Like Trayvon.
Gun Violence is hotly debated as a political issue, but it’s our position that gun violence is a public health crisis. And not just a public health crisis, but an assault on the sanctity of life. But if the halls of Congress and our state legislatures are where these decisions about the sanctity of life are being made, people of faith need to be there and vocal.

On any given day …

It is estimated that there are as many as 310 million guns in our country. That’s about 1 gun per person, except the population figure includes children and whole lot of people who don’t own any. All this uproar – and all this violence – comes from guns (sometimes lots of guns) in just 37% of American households.

PrintAll of this I know because since my retirement from active pastoral ministry 6 months ago, I have been engaged in full-time activism in the name of ending gun violence. My husband David Eggert and I founded the organization God Before Guns. SEUCC was gracious enough to God Before Guns is a multi-faith coalition of individuals and faith communities working to reduce gun violence. We envision and are working to be a nation in which our faith in God and each other elevates the sanctity of life above the fears that lead to a society armed against itself.

I bring the voice of that organization to the pulpit this morning but I also bring a pastor’s heart. I feel called to be a voice for those families I pastored, but as a Christian leader, I must bring that voice for all children. And long before I was a pastor, I was a mom, and now I’m a grandmother. I will honor all children’s lives by speaking out.
Which brings me to this morning’s text. I rarely preach from Revelation. This morning it’s not because I believe the Apocalypse is near. I’m not here to prepare us for the hereafter. I preach from the text in this way: as a lens through which we view our history and as a gateway to a greater understanding of our current reality. Our reality is not so very different from those early Christians – it’s both divine and human, spiritual and political, and a whole lot of our reality is hard for us to understand. God helps us make sense of it all. I believe that when Revelation says this is what must happen soon – it’s a wake-up call, it’s a flashlight shining in our eyes, it’s a tap on the shoulder, if not a full-blown shove into responding to what’s going on in our world.
What’s going on is that John received a revelation from Jesus, and he passes it along in letters to six different churches. The portion I read this morning just happens to be the most negative of the six. Sometimes letters (like the ones Paul wrote to the churches) begin with praise for something before they get to the nitty-gritty. Not this time. There’s no mention to this church of a job well done before he gets down to the tough words. He says, thermometer-hot.giflukewarm? Tell me about how that’s working. I can even understand cold. Cold is when you’re still in the dark about God through Jesus Christ. But you folks say you know Jesus, and when you say you believe, when you promise to follow, you can no longer be excused to be cold. And don’t even talk to me about being lukewarm.
The first century church folks had this letter read to them one Sunday morning. Can you picture how much squirming was going on in those pew chairs? You know how you know something about yourself and you just hope it’s not obvious to anyone else? They had to know they’d gotten comfortable and complacent. They got that way by compromise. Compromise with the culture outside of church. There’s a name for that in the bible – it’s called idolatry. It’s idolatry when we worship what we see outside of the life Christ calls us too, more than we worship the God who sent him.
10439347_10204423585255935_373974881229774368_nIt’s idolatry that God Before Guns is fighting. We believe that guns have attained the status of idols in our country. We are not against gun ownership, and we are not anti-2nd Amendment. What we abhor is how the 2nd Amendment is worshipped in our country. Over and above the 1st commandment of Thou shalt have no other gods before me, and the 2nd Commandment of thou shalt not make any graven image, and the 6th Commandment of thou shalt not kill. Where is God in the 2nd Amendment? I hear all the time — owning a gun is my God-given right. It is not.
Idolatry isn’t just about guns or any particular golden calf, it’s is about blindly following the values of our culture. Before we know God, how else would we behave? But once we do, …. Isn’t that why we are baptized? To symbolically die to our old way of life – saying no to the gods who seduced us into following them – and rising up out of the waters in order to commit ourselves to a new way of living? Isn’t that why we continue to study the stories of Jesus again and again, to learn from his counter-cultural message, and to model his activism against the status quo? Isn’t that the challenge of our churches to lead the way in valuing all life – most especially those whose lives are at risk – calling us to be workers in the field that grows wholeness and the fruits of justice and peace, helping to restore this world to the one God created for us?

Reality. A poet from AkronGranted, it’s easier to live a lukewarm life. What can one person do to change things?  It’s much easier to make friends when we don’t engage in talk about how we can’t do something – or how we can’t NOT say something because — Jesus! We care too much about what other people think, when we ought to be considering, what does God think about us? It’s in Luke that we read the words: Woe to you when all speak well of you.
I can honestly say that not all speak well of me. The internet and social media can be a11659455_10207345546743146_4554152818182394342_n very hateful place for any woman who dares to challenge those who believe that the answer is always more guns. I’ve been part of peaceful demonstrations that are protected by the First Amendment when the other side shows up, and the other side is 10660281_358918424261718_3141767135922155845_narmed.  With a handgun on their hip or an assault rifle slung over their shoulder, they say they are there to educate us.

As a clergywoman, I get some pretty random scriptures thrown at me to prove that God expects us to protect ourselves. I’ve been told that the commandment is not thou shalt not kill – it’s thou shalt not murder. Fine line of a distinction sometimes. It’s an ugly other side – google Jesus and guns sometime and see what comes up. People twist Jesus’ words about the disciples carrying swords to say that he’d now want them to be armed with assault rifles and to shoot back.
But, the Jesus I follow sweat tears preaching the Beatitudes. The Jesus I follow fed people, he didn’t shoot them. The Jesus I follow taught us not to fear anyone or anything, but to trust in God. The Jesus I follow told Peter to put down his sword when that could have saved him from death on the cross, and we want to talk about defending ourselves?

I cannot believe that God intends for us to be so afraid of each other – especially those-ce846ccc6cef2630 who do not look like us – that we must be armed at all times. What kind of gun would Jesus carry? He wouldn’t. This kind of talk is not Jesus talk.
I’ll tell you this. I’ve found a new normal in body temperature. When I am actively doing this work that I believe God calls me to do, if you were to take my temperature? I think it would register well above 98.6. Is it warm in here? I know it’s a muggy summer day in August, but can you feel the temperature rising? Is your temperature rising?

What if a current-day prophet had a revelation from Jesus Christ, and decided to write your church a letter?  Could he or she start off in this way? I can’t say you’re doing   everything right, but thumbs up for the heat that you are generating. I can feel it. Your temperature is rising so much that it’s being felt outside this building. Heat like that is contagious.

10649999_845746205436186_4819788049837062723_nI have felt that heat from your pastor and from this congregation. Your pastor linked arms with other clergy in a downtown march for criminal justice reform in Cleveland in the wake of the murder of Tamir Rice. There were several others of you there that day as well. Last December you opened your sanctuary to Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan10835254_10205592322033624_2584492036881264001_o Davis who was killed for playing his music too loud outside a convenience store, a couple of Novembers ago in Florida. Good for you. You are generating heat, and that heat brings hope, and that hope brings change.
I for one believe that positive change is possible, because I believe in the Gospel. The Gospel is all about change. It is the epitome of change for the better. My prayer is that temperatures will continue to rise for positive change in our country and for those fevers to spread among the lukewarm and even out in the cold corners where people do not yet know God. We could start an epidemic.
We could. Temperatures have been rising since Charleston, and praise God some have been engaged in this work for generations, while many others are just getting started. We mustn’t revert to being comfortable and complacent as long as 88 people are dying every day. People of faith must register the highest temperatures and we must lead the way. After all, we’re the ones who got that letter!

10983377_475940645892828_5159848889256535672_nHear the good news. On any given day, just as we heard in this morning’s scripture, even when Jesus may not be real happy about our lukewarm approach, he still knocks. If we open the door to him, he’ll come in. He’ll stay long enough to break bread at the table with us, and he’ll leave behind his Spirit. His Spirit of Peace. His peace that transcends time and place, and replaces our limited human nature with a peace that is beyond our understanding. The peace that he lived and expects us to live in his name.

On any given day, Praise God, may it be so.

img20150219_10385838 (2)

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist.

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On any given day …

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Pastor Kris

[The following is excerpted from a sermon I preached on Sunday, June 28, 2015 titled:  Is Your Temperature Rising   Text: Revelation 3:14-22  You can view the live and unedited video on YouTube. ]

On any given day in this great country that we love and call our home …

88 people will be shot and killed and 7 of them are likely to be children and 151 more will be treated for a gunshot wound in an emergency room. More than 30 have been murdered and 50+ are suicides.

On any given day …
The US firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 developed nations that are our peers in wealth and population.
There could be a school shooting. Somewhere. There have been over 100 since Sandy Hook 21/2 years ago.

On any given day …
There is the possibility of a shooting in a house of worship
In 2014, there were 176 deaths at a religious institution. Over 60% of the deaths by a gun.
We remember the mass killing at at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee in 2012 in which 6 people lost their lives and 4 others were wounded.
That was the last mass killing until Weds, June 17 in Charleston when 9 people were gunned down at a Wednesday night bible study by a man who had been at the table with them for an hour before he started shooting.

On any given day …
Communities of color bear the brunt of this gun violence.
Black men are 10 times as likely to be murdered with a gun as white men; black women are 3 times as likely to be murdered with a gun as white women. For the age population of black males, 18 to 34, gun homicide is the leading cause of death.

On any given day …
You could find a man carrying a loaded gun inside a Wal-Mart, but you could also see someone buying ammunition, loading the gun in the store and cocking it.  It’s been done and it’s legal.

In another Wal-Mart, you could find a young black man who picked up a toy gun from Wal-Mart shelves who was shot and killed by police responding to a false accusation on a 911 call. It happened just outside of Columbus, OH to John Crawford. His last words were: It’s not real.

On any given day …
Some celebrities so famous that you don’t need a first and last name. LeBron. Beyonce. Sadly,  first names are also all we need when we’re talking about Trayvon. Or Tamir. Their celebrity is that they died at the wrong end of a gun and they were children.

On any given day …
A state legislature will be considering even fewer restrictions on guns than the few that are in place. Ohio is prepared to vote on its own version of a Guns Everywhere bill. Stand Your Ground laws have been passed in 22 states, including Ohio, with those laws now being associated with a 53% increase in what a judge or jury can call justifiable homicide, particularly among African Americans.

On any given day …
You could access the website of the Council of Conservative Citizens that opposes “all efforts to mix the races,” and believes “that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character. The shooter at Charleston was a regular visitor to this website. According to the First Amendment, you have that right as does their founder.

But you also could be represented in Congress by someone who accepted donations from this organization, and there is the potential that our country could elect one of them as our next President.

On any given day …
You could hear President Obama speak to the nation about another mass shooting. He’s done this now 15 times in his time in office.
It is estimated that there are 270 to 310 millions guns in our country. The entire population of the US is under 320 million. That’s about a gun per person except the population figure includes children and a whole lot of people who don’t own any. It’s estimated that these 300 million guns are present in 37% of households.

As some of you know since my retirement, I am now engaged in full-time activism in the issue of ending gun violence with several different groups and most particularly the organization my husband I co-founded, God Before Guns. I bring the voice of that organization to the pulpit this morning. I also bring a pastor’s heart which does not allow me to preach about anything else but the ramifications of the tragic loss of life of the faithful in Charleston, SC at Mother Emanuel AME church. I preach today because God has afforded me this opportunity to honor the lives of ..
The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, The Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Depayne Middleton Doctor, The Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., and Myra Thompson.

Honoring lives can be done in a multitude of ways. Our President did so by delivering the eulogy for Rev. Pinckney on Friday. I strongly encourage you if you have not already, to watch the YouTube video of his words. We prayu and sing and shed tears. We light candles and read names even when we are a thousand miles away. But we also honor lives by deciding to do. Something. Speaking out is something I can do.

In truth, I can’t NOT speak out. And that brings me to this morning’s text. I rarely preach from Revelation. And I do not preach from it this morning because I believe the Apocalypse is near or to prepare us for streets paved with gold and the pearly gates. I preach from the text in this way: as a lens through which to view our history and as a gateway to a greater understanding of our current reality, divine and human, spiritual and political, that includes and also transcends the understanding by our human senses. What comes from God does indeed transcend our human abilities. The bible scholar goes on to say that When Revelation says this is what must happen soon – it is a way of illuminating the nature of politics and religion in every age.

John has received a revelation from Jesus Christ, and he passes it along in the form of a letter. A different letter to six different churches. We read a portion of one of them this morning which happens to be the most negative of the six. There is no mention to this church of a job well done. No commendation before he launches into really tough words. What is this people’s greatest crime? It’s not that they’ve done anything horrible. It’s that they’ve done nothing at all. It’s not that they’ve been spewing hatred. They’ve been silent. They’ve committed the sin of being lukewarm. And in this revelation from Jesus Christ that John delivers to them: it’s a grievous sin not to choose, and it’s an un-Christ-like place to sit, if you’re sitting on the fence. Even cold can be understood – for cold is when we do not yet know God through Jesus Christ. But once we know, when we say we believe, when we promise to follow we can no longer be excused to be cold. And if we are lukewarm, it’s worse.

The first century church folks who had this letter read to them would have recognized themselves in it. You know how you know something about yourself – you just hope it’s not obvious to anyone else? They knew their sin was being comfortable and complacent. This letter nailed it. Comfortable and complacent comes about because of compromise. Compromise with contemporary culture. There’s a name for that in the bible. That compromise is named in the bible, and it’s called idolatry. The first commandment: thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second: thou shalt not make any graven image.
As an aside: our organization is named God Before Guns because we believe that guns have attained the status of idols in our country. That the 2nd Amendment is worshipped in ways that the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Commandment of thou shalt not kill are not. Any times in the work we do we hear that owning a gun is a “God-given right.” It is not.

In the larger context, idolatry isn’t just about guns or any particular golden calf; it’s about accepting the world as it is and following blindly the values of our culture. Before we know God, how else would we behave? But once we do, ….isn’t that why we are baptized? To symbolically die to our old way of life – saying no to the gods we have previously followed – and rising up out of the waters in order to commit ourselves to a new way of living? Isn’t that why we continue to study the stories of Jesus again and again, to learn from his counter-cultural message and to model his activism against the status quo?
It may be human nature to be lukewarm about God because we care too much about what other people think. But what does God think about us? Isn’t it in Luke that we read the words: Woe to you when all speak well of you. (Luke 6:26)

I can honestly say that not all speak well of me. I’ve learned that since I started being a voice against gun violence. The Internet and social media can be a hateful place to clergywomen who dare to challenge those who believe that the answer is always more guns. I’ve been part of peaceful demonstrations that are protected by the First Amendment when the other side shows up, and the other side is armed. Big assault rifles slung over their shoulders. There are places where my voice is not welcome.

But I’ll tell you this: I’ve found a new normal in body temperature, and I am actively doing the work that I believe God calls me to do, if you were to take my temperature? I think it would register well above 98.6.

Is it warm in here? I know it’s summer and there’s no air conditioning in this sanctuary, but can you feel the temperature rising? Is your temperature rising? If a current-day prophet had a revelation from Jesus Christ and decided to write you a letter, could he or she start off the letter with: I can’t say you’re doing everything right, but thumbs up for the heat that you are generating. I can feel it. Your temperature is rising so much that it’s being felt outside this building. Heat like that is contagious.

I’m one who believes that positive change is possible, because I believe in the Gospel which is the epitome of change for the better. I believe that temperatures are rising for positive change in our country, and I have seen some of that happening since the shootings in Charleston.

For now on any given day in our country…
The Confederate flag no longer flies over the Statehouse in Alabama, and South Carolina has pledged to work on taking down their own. God help us, may that be soon. Major retailers like Amazon, E-Bay, Sears, Wal-Mart, and NASCAR have stopped selling Confederate flag merchandise. Now if we could just work on Wal-Mart to not sell guns ….

92% of all Americans of voting age favor universal background checks – including a majority of gun owners and in both political parties. (It just does not seem to include our Congress!)

Churches all across the country are hearing messages today about racism and guns. Houses of worship are #RisingForCharleston. Some have been engaged in this work of racism and violence for generations, others are just beginning. But on any given day, the temperature must be rising for there is much to be done. People of faith ought to be leading the way. After all, we’re the ones who got the letter!

On any given day, just as we heard in this morning’s scripture, even when Jesus may not be real happy about our lukewarm approach, he still knocks. If we open the door to him, he’ll come in. He’ll stay long enough to break bread at the table with us, and he will leave behind his Spirit. His Spirit of Peace. His peace that transcends time and place, and replaces our limited human nature with a peace that is beyond our understanding. The peace that he lived and expects us to live in his name.

On any given day, Praise God, may it be so.

img20150219_10385838 (2)

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist. 

Note:  All statistics came from the following sources:  #RisingForCharleston, Everytown for Gun Safety,  from E.J. Dionne, Jr. “Charleston and the politics of evasion, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and The Washington Post.  These resources were duly footnoted and can be provided upon request.

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Guns in Churches … here’s why it’s a bad idea

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Pastor Kris

[The following was submitted to present at the Committee Hearing for HB 48 — Ohio’s version of  “Guns Everywhere” bill on June 10, 2015]

Chairman Maag and Members of the State Government Committee:

11215761_10207029133390794_7510965145239918170_n(1)Church has been a part of my life since I was a young child, all through my growing up years and all through my children’s growing up years. For the last 15 years I have served the church as ordained clergy in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where I have served churches as their Senior Pastor. I’m here today because I believe that expanding CCW rights to any of the previously prohibited places mentioned in HB 48 (daycares, institutions of higher learning, etc.) is a bad idea. But my statement is specific to the changes for houses of worship because that is where my experience is centered.

I am a Christian pastor who believes that faith communities have traditionally been – and must continue to be – places of sanctuary. By definition: Sanctuary is a sacred place. By definition: Sanctuary is a safe haven. Church fits both definitions. Church is where we go to commune with God, together with others. Church is a house of prayer and encouragement. Church must be inclusive of all persons. Church is a place of love and acceptance where we learn how to be God’s active messengers of love, peace and justice in the world.

That message of love and acceptance and that place of sanctuary (both definitions) are especially important for our children and youth. In the congregation I served in Cleveland Heights, I was pastor to a large number of middle school and high school youth and their parents. Those youth attend several different school districts in Cuyahoga and surrounding counties. To my surprise and shock, I became aware that every one of these children has been on school lockdown at some point in their schooling. They not only know the drill, they have seen it for real. Some of our youth experienced the danger first-hand from that horrible February Monday when T.J. Lane shot and killed 3 high school students and caused lifelong injury to 2 others. Those teen-agers know the danger because they were there in the Chardon High School cafeteria to witness it. It was just months later when the Newtown massacre of first-graders happened, and as a pastor, I was once again faced with helping those kids deal with their fears and anxieties. Our children know these situations are real. They know they could be victims themselves.

It is especially critical now in these times of too much violence in our culture, that our children know church as sanctuary — definition safe haven. A safe place where they can express their fears. A safe place where they can freely talk about anything. A safe place where they will not be bullied. A safe place where weapons have no place. One Sunday, two of our youth noticed a man in church who was carrying a gun. They were understandably frightened, and they did what kids are supposed to do. They told an adult, and the situation was quickly dealt with. Thank God, it was safely handled. From the advice of our local police department, we began displaying no weapons signs on all entry doors. We did this to reinforce the current law in place that prohibits guns in places of worship — unless an individual church decides to permit them. In other words, no church that wants firearms is prevented from allowing them. But for every other church (including mine) that has relied on this exclusion, HB 48 will put the burden of responsibility on them to keep guns away. With HB 48, will the No Guns Allowed signs on the doors likely be ignored? Will churches need to go to the trouble and expense of metal detectors and bag inspection as a regular part of Sunday morning worship? Will places of worship need regular lock-down drills? I pray not.

There is no evidence that most churches want firearms on their premises. There is no evidence that a majority of Ohio faith leaders are clamoring for more firearms in church. And so, Ohio’s elected officials should not consider a new law that presumes that firearms are welcome in Ohio churches. Nor should any new law force Ohio faith communities to take action to exclude them. Instead, lawmakers in Columbus should consider the tens of thousands of people outside of the Statehouse who want their places of worship to remain places of peace. Churches that are sanctuary – sacred spaces and safe
havens – are a powerful presence that have positive and rippling effects on entire neighborhoods and communities.

Guns are dangerous. The presence of a gun always increases the possibility of accidentally misplacing it and of accidentally discharging it. The presence of a gun increases fear and the intimidation (whether intended or not) of other persons. The presence of a gun increases the potential for deadly and injurious confrontation if the armed person loses his or her composure. There are no compelling reasons to increase these dangers in churches because there is no credible evidence that churches with no guns allowed are any more dangerous than places where guns are permitted. There is no credible evidence that allowing guns in churches will make people safer than they are without guns. As to the rights of CCW permit holders to carry their firearms everywhere, these persons represent a very small minority of the adult population in Ohio. Expanding their rights ignores the rights of all of the rest of us Ohioans who wish to have places where we can be free from being close to persons carrying concealed and loaded firearms.

As to guns being our protection: A church looks to God as our ultimate source of protection. As to wearing a gun in church even as we are passing the peace with others in the pews: As a follower of Jesus – as a Christian — I am called to a standard of loving my neighbor – a definition of neighbor that includes even my enemies. It will take my lifetime to meet that standard. If you are a Christian, you join me in that lifetime of work. If we believe – and we legislate – that we can only safely interact with other people if we arm ourselves against them, we will never get even get close to that standard.

I am a follower of Jesus. Jesus commands that we put away our swords. Swords were the weapon of choice in the 1st century. I believe Jesus would command us to do the same with today’s weapon of choice – a concealed carry gun. There is no place for guns in our houses of worship.

img20150219_10385838 (2)

Reverend Kristine Eggert

** With no advance notice to us, Chairman Maag began the session by informing all testifying witnesses that HB 48 was going to be amended and that places of worship would be removed.  The amended version was voted on and passed, but not unanimously, and with objection from members of the Committee and other testifying witnesses.  While we celebrate this decision, we do so with caution.  It is still a terrible bill, and we are under no illusiion that the provision for churches will not come up again.  With this change, I ended up giving spontaneous testimony making many of the same arguments for why daycare centers should also be removed.  As of the time of writing this, the amended bill has still not been posted for the public to see.

Posted in Activism, Christian, Concealed Carry Guns, Ending Gun Violence, God Before Guns, gun safety, Moms Demand Action | Leave a comment

I will make a difference …

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Pastor Kris

Saturday, May 9 was God Before Guns’ 2nd annual March and Rally across a downtown  Flyer JPEGbridge in Cleveland.  Our theme this year — Protect Our Kids from Gun Violence.  As is God Before Guns’ practice, several other organizations joined together with us for this event.  You can read their names at the bottom of the event flyer.  The crowd of 100+ was made up of a good mix of returning marchers and first timers.  With signs held high and American flags waving, we were on our way on a gorgeous warm sunny Saturday.  The spirit of the day was as bright as our new safety green t-shirts!

Joining us this year were some students from Facing History New Tech High School. I knew about this school after being asked to speak to the 11th grade several months ago when they10983377_475940645892828_5159848889256535672_n were preparing for a class debate about the 2nd Amendment rights vs. Community Safety.   This is a school where students are encouraged to stand up and speak out for justice, peace, and diversity.  The curriculum is designed so its diverse student population learned how to connect history to their own moral choices.  The goal is not just to graduate students but to create more informed citizens of its graduates.

I remembered asking the 11th graders about their own experience with guns.  Had anyone in their families or among their circle of friends been shot.  Killed?  Yes.  Had they even seen a gun.  Recently? Yes again.  If they wanted to get a gun for themselves, would they know how to get one.  Every hand went up.  Yes.  So as we prepared for this year’s March, I asked if there were any students who’d experienced gun violence in their family who might want to speak at the rally.

Yes, there was.  A young girl whose brother had been shot and killed by Cleveland policefamily-of-man-shot-and-killed-by-police-mourn-his-death-2dbc23128bd0cf0c just weeks before.  Her 18-year old brother made a bad decision back on a March night at 2 am.  He was caught trying to leave a neighborhood grocery store after breaking in and stealing cigarettes and some Canadian coins.   He was alone and unarmed.  No weapons found at the scene.   His sister decided she wanted to speak, and she worked on her remarks together with her teacher.  As we’d expect from any teen-ager, she wanted some of her friends to be there with her.   Did we have a role for them to play too?  Yes, we did. 

We began the Rally with reading the names of all Cleveland-area boys and girls 18 years old and younger who have died from gun violence since the Sandy Hook shootings in Dec. DSC_6440 copy2012.  It’s an arbitrary place to start in a city in which it seems that kids die all the time, but that date is significant to us because it was that school shooting which led to the birth of God Before Guns.  There were 30 names to be read.  She wanted to be sure she was the one to read the name of her brother which came near the end of the list.  She also wanted to be the first one to read.  She read the first name in her quiet and quivering voice.  She read the 2nd name.  That’s my cousin, she said.  She read the next name.  I know him too –– he’s a friend.  She hesitated before reading the next name and looked back at her friends who then gathered even closer to her.  They were already nervously awaiting their turn to read more names.  Were they fearful that they too would find familiar names on the list?   Could happen.  23 were teen-agers.   Suicides.  Homicides.  Undetermined.  The others?  A 5 year old.  A 2 year old.  A 12 year old.  A 1 year old shot and killed by his 3 year old brother.  A baby 16 minutes old.  The young man reading the name looked back at me as if to say, that can’t be right.  16 minutes old and dead by gunfire.  Already orphaned as his mother was now dead too.

If any of us were taking this event lightly, we were no longer.  There was no minimizing the reason why we were there.   I can tell you after 2 years of doing this work, it’s not easy getting people to attend gun violence events.  It’s difficult even when people agree with what we’re doing and support the message.  It’s a hot-button issue, and it can also be a dangerous issue.  The other side is armed.  And the other side has the right to openly carry loaded weapons right alongside us at our rallies.   We were grateful there was no such counter demonstration on Saturday.  But for any of us who might have been hesitant to be there, these students — especially this young woman — showed us courage.  It’s not easy to speak in front of 100+ people even for most adults, but these young people gave it their best.  But even more than that, if gun violence is a difficult issue to talk about, these kids live it.  Daily. 

Their school motto is:  I will make a difference.  They did.  No one was the same after hearing them.  But it mustn’t stop there.  We cannot smile and applaud them on Saturday only to go home and ignore this issue until this time next year.  We cannot unhear the names of these children who have died. We cannot close our eyes without seeing these brave young people whose shaking hands held the microphone.   We cannot call ourselves people of faith and wait until someone else decides this is important.  We are called to be leaders in reducing the number of gun deaths in our neighborhoods, schools, city, and country.

How can you become involved? How can you make a difference?  I personally invite you to Reality. A poet from Akronbecome part of God Before Guns.  Check out our website or like us on Facebook.  If you want to know more about us, send us a message. Ask to be put on our mailing list.   Invite us to speak to your organization. Please know that we are not the only organization worth checking out.  Any one of the organizations that endorsed our March and Rally is a peace-making, justice-seeking, actively engaged organization that is worth your attention and support. Find where youDSC_6565 copy best fit.   This is a complex issue that threatens to end far too many lives too soon and to destroy the future of far too many of our children and youth.   It will take every single one of us.  But any single one of us can do something. Think about Facing History’s motto.  Promise it first to yourself and then together with others …

I will make a difference. 

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Were you there?

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Pastor Kris

I was not.  I was not there when my eldest son was found dead in his apartment nearly one 10246679_10203733107232200_5037385974790360087_nyear ago.  No one in his family was there.  He died alone.  If we are accustomed to hearing the words, he died of natural causes, we are shocked to hear them when that person is but but 37 years old.  My son did not take good care of himself physically.  Even a recent diagnosis of diabetes did not seem to change that for the better.  He did not take good care of relationships either.   The last time I saw him was a few weeks before over a 2-hour cup of coffee in what was to be our last exchange of I love you’s.  It has been a large part of my grief that I was not there at the time of his death.  Though intellectually I may know that I could have done nothing more to have prevented this from happening, I was his mother and I would have tried.  Something.  Anything.  But I was not there.  No one was there.

In my years of serving churches as Senior Pastor, I have been witness to many final moments and last breaths taken.  I have come to accept, if not exactly understand, that sometimes there seems to be an agreement forged between the dying person and God.  So, someone holds on until a last family member arrives.  Or, they hold on until after the family leaves the room to spare them that moment.  Sometimes there are poetic, prophetic last words.  Or none.  Peaceful but not always.  Other times there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to why then.  My father died in the middle of the night, hours after my mother, his beloved wife of 54 years, had gone home to get some sleep.  For the times it seems a person has some control together with God, for far too many others there is no control, for them or anyone who loves them.  A life is stolen by a drunk driver.  A life is ended by a loaded gun aimed at them, with intent or gross and arrogant negligence.  Were the parents of the Sandy Hook first-graders there on Friday, Dec. 14?  No, they were not.

I’m writing this on the morning of Good Friday.  It’s a luxury of time that I haven’t had in previous years.  I always preached on Good Friday until last year with my son’s untimely death and this year newly in retirement.  Last night we attended a Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service that began with a lively and friendly dinner among 130 new friends, much like a lively dinner with Jesus and his disciples. After all, Jesus’ ministry was just three years old, growing fast, and friendships were always newly forming.  Dinner was breadfollowed by serving each other the Bread and the Cup, sign and symbol of what was to happen to Jesus next.  The morning after would come his arrest.  The afternoon would be the death of him.

Were you there?

We sang that old hymn as the evening was coming to a close.   It’s a song that has made its way into our mainline Protestant hymnals, but its origin was from plantation slaves in 1800’s America. It is better sung IMG_0218 without looking in a book at the words.   Were you there when they crucified my Lord?   Take a listen.  Just try to hear or sing the refrain without tears welling up.  Mine freely fall.  Sometimes it causes me to tremble.  Tremble.  tremble. 

Only a few of his followers were there for his death.  Mostly women.  His courageous mother.  Other friends had fallen asleep or betrayed him or couldn’t muster up the will to be present.  Maybe still others just couldn’t be there for quite valid reasons. Still others didn’t realize, couldn’t accept, shut their eyes to,  or did not yet know.  Who he was.  This Jesus.  What impact his death would have.  What dangerous power this would bring to their world.   And how they would be changed. 

good fridayNone of us were there.  We only know the ancient story from those who were.  If we had been, we would not have kept his death from happening.  What I trust is this.  God was there.  My God.  Our God.  Our God who knows what it’s like to lose a son.  

That is my comfort.  I was not there, but God was.  Just as God is here with me wiping away the tears as I remember losing my son, amidst a promise to continue following and learning from God’s son.

Easter Sunday will come.  Of that I am sure.  Easter comes not a moment too soon for me.  It will be the one-year anniversary of my son’s death.

From a mother on Good Friday.  

Posted in Activism, Ending Gun Violence, Good Friday, Good News, Gospel, Grief, Lent, Loss of Child, Moms Demand Action, Retirement | 2 Comments

Already? ‘Cause I’m still working on it …

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Pastor Kris

coffee-and-newspaperReading the newspaper every morning has been a practice of mine for my entire adult life.  Strong, black coffee to accompany the reading is essential.  Nothing has changed about that in retirement, except much of the reading is now done on a IPad, rather than on newsprint.  And rather than looking at the clock knowing I have to get ready for work, I can relax and indulge in another cup and yet another interesting article.

It surprises me every morning both how serious the news is and yet how much space is taken up with what seems so frivolous.  It amazes me what gets front page attention and what gets buried.  Take for example, two recent stories interesting to Christians in the United States.  The story of Rev. Creflo Dollar who posted a YouTube video asking for 200,000 people to send him $300 so he could purchase a $65 million private jet.  Project G650, the effort was called, until it was quickly taken down off the Internet because of social media’s rampant reaction to the latest stunt from another prosperity gospel preaching, custom-suit wearing, luxury home living evangelist.   What would Jesus think about this Gulfstream for God?

In the same time period, a cherished Christian leader, teacher, and preacher died with much less fanfare and media coverage.  But then, Dr. Fred Craddock wasn’t known for his flash, ratherCraddockFred he was known for his sincerity, humility, story-telling grace, and both preaching and living the message of compassion.  In the words of someone who both loved and respected him:  He” takes us up slopes we have feared to climb, opens out vistas we never thought to explore, ..”  I was privileged to have met him and to have learned how to find my own preaching voice through his writing and from professors who were fortunate enough to be his students.  Contrasting with a ministry that asks for $65 million for a luxury jet, Fred’s family asks for contributions to the Craddock Center whose mission is to enrich the lives of the people of Southern Appalachia — heartfelt work that was always part of his ministry.

And yet both men claim Jesus as their savior.  And though both men have large followings, I hope both would say that it is not them that we are to follow, it is Jesus.  It’s part of the adventure of being a Christian, I suppose.  As Maya Angelou once said, “I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‘I’m a Christian. I think, ‘Already?  ‘Cause I’m still working on it.”

I’m one who has been working on being a Christian all of her life.  Admittedly, the intensity of the work has its ups and downs.  It seems that it’s during the transitions that the intensity heightens and the joys of the discovery deepens.  It’s what gets me through the changes.  Divorce.  Death of my eldest child.  But not just through the tough times.  The good times too.  David and I together these past 11 years, knowing that it wasn’t enough for 519us to be so extraordinarily happy.  We felt called to look beyond ourselves from the very beginning moments when we were falling in love.  Our first opportunity to answer the call was our first mission trip.  Clean-up work in New Orleans gave new focus to our life together.  From that came a new desire to give.  To give back and to give away.  Time.  Expertise.  Energy.   And money.

And the strangest thing happened.  As we committed ourselves to giving more away, we became less fearful about not having enough for ourselves. Of any of the above.  We started paying more attention to the times when Jesus told his followers not to be afraid.  We started trusting in God’s abundance, rather than wringing our hands about some imagined ghost of scarcity.

I see clearly that this trust led us to yet another transition.  Retirement.  It’s real, and it’s all new landscape for me.   But in the wise words of the man sitting across from me in this newly shared home office space, …. you don’t have to have it all figured out today. 

Hmmm.  Sounds alot like being a Christian.  And, thank you God because I do not.  Have it figured out.  But I promise, I’ll keep at it.

Pastor (Recently Retired).  Parent.  Activist. 

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So, how do you like retirement. Part Deux.

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Pastor Kris

It’s now 14 days — and more significantly to a pastor, 2 Sundays — into this new phase of my life.  The first Sunday we were out of town visiting kids and grandchild.  Yesterday I expected that we’d visit a local congregation though we hadn’t decided which one.  But it was cold and snowy (again), so I took my first Sunday snow day EVER (I don’t believe in closing church on a Sunday, and I never did) and stayed in the entire day.

David and I spent much of the day putting the office together.  When we bought this house IMG_1153we decided on one table, rather than 2 desks.  We envisioned that we’d be sitting opposite each other on our laptops on the weekends. How sweet. Then both of us retired from jobs where we were the boss and had the largest office, and it became a question of where we’d put our stuff in this smaller shared space.    It’s one of the reasons why I had an Open House Book Sharing event at churchIMG_1152 before I left.  There simply wasn’t room at home.   That said, it’s looking good, if not compact.  It’s cozy warm IMG_1151when the sun drifts in through the window, and it’s really good to be together.  Even Indy joins us under the table.

David’s doing the work of God Before Guns this morning, and I’m supposed to be writing.  It’s what I did and loved best about my 15 years of ordained ministry — writing a sermon every single week — but this is very different.  Writing about myself is a chore.  I remember the first semester of seminary when I was suddenly sitting in a classroom 23 years after my undergraduate days.   One of my first classes involved a weekly exercise of writing a 3-5 page paper about myself.  I tired of it quickly and will admit I was tempted to just start making things up.  I didn’t, as I was much too serious a student for any such shenanigans.  Not at my age and certainly not when I was just figuring out what it meant to be there and making sure I was worthy of staying.  Me — an Indiana University School of Business graduate — learning how to talk theology.  You know the expression we’re not on the same page?  I felt like I wasn’t even in the same book!  Me — a 45 year old woman unsure what’s next in life — given the gift of a full-ride scholarship.  Obviously some important others were more confident in my ability to see this through than I was.   It wasn’t until I was about to graduate with a 3.75 GPA that I could accept that their confidence was well-placed.

For awhile after, I continued to have dreams that I was about to graduate and there’s that one class I didn’t complete.  That one requirement I neglected.   A dream much like my occasional ones about high school (ancient history) when I seem to be the only one who doesn’t know her locker combination or what class I’m supposed to be in.  But a much more recurrent dream is about Sunday morning church.  I’m supposed to preach, but I’m late, or I don’t have my notes.  Or I’m there on time but the church looks nothing like what it’s supposed to, and no one seems to know me.  I call it my unprepared dream.  I had a version of it every weekend during the entire time I was a pastor.  I even had one the weekend after I retired.  I’ve never understood the why of it.  I was never not prepared for 547831_847924770191_648639734_na Sunday morning.  I was never late.  As for the unexpected happening on a Sunday morning, I considered my ability to think on my feet and to react spontaneously and appropriately one of my greatest gifts to ministry! I loved my work and felt secure in it. Why did (does) the dream plague me?

The interesting thing to me is that I’ve not had a single dream about what it will be like to be retired.  Retirement is probably what I”m the most unprepared for.  I got my first job at age 16 and with the exception of some years at home with my kids, I’ve always worked at a paying job.  I completed 4 years of undergrad while working full-time and did the same (plus being a single mom to 3 children) for my graduate work in seminary.  I know how to be prepared for school and work.  I was good at both, and I excelled.

Retirement?  It’s yet to be determined how good I am at this.  But, so far?  I”m loving it.  My most recent unprepared dream had nothing to do with church, it was about the imminent birth of our second grandchild.  We’re the grandparents assigned the important job of staying with big brother Walt while Mom and Dad are in the hospital.  David and I are on call, expected to drop everything when we get the call.  We’re prepared (and eager) to do that.  But in my dream, I didn’t look at my cell phone for hours and missed the call. Then I couldn’t dial my daughter’s number.  It all happened without us being there.  I blew my job as grandmother.

When I woke up from the dream, I thought, what could be sillier than that?  I excel at10614249_10205667190703078_615790488725558009_n being a grandma!

And so on this the 14th day of retirement, I’m thinking I can handle this next phase of my life just fine.

Blessings,

Pastor (Retired).  Parent.  Activist. 

Posted in Grandparents, Pastoral Ministry, Retirement | Tagged | 1 Comment

So … how do you like retirement …

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Pastor Kris

On Sunday last, I preached my final sermon as Senior Pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights, OH.  It was a retirement celebration unlike any other ever in the imageshistory of Discipledom.  It was the last Sunday before Lent begins.  We call it Fat Sunday at Disciples.  Wearing our Mardi Gras colors and sporting beads around our necks, we closed worship with a set from Samba Joia, a Brazilian drum group led by Disciples’ indexpercussionist extraordinaire, Dylan Moffitt.  You can’t listen without dancing, and I”ve got to believe that God was moving to the beat as well. Worship was followed by a traditional pancake breakfast and open mike appreciation for 8 years of ministry together.  It was as close to perfect as a day can be!

As early as that afternoon, the questions started.  So, how do you like being retired?  On Sunday afternoon, it felt like it was time for a major nap, except I couldn’t fall asleep.  Too much good stuff rolling around in my brain.  On Monday, when I was asked the same question, I said it felt like having a snow day.  It literally was a snow day and the church office was closed.  It’s another snow day today with temperatures not expected to reach above zero.

There is a difference though.  When I was an active pastor leading a congregation, snow days really didn’t matter.  Sermons still had to be written.  Surgeries still happened.  Memorial services still go on.  When you’re a retired pastor, not so much.

Last night was Ash Wednesday.  It was my first experience of attending worship, rather than leading it.  I”ll confess it felt strange.  I”ll confess it was tough not to think about how I would have done it differently, critiquing the sermon and choices of music.  But I can also say that mixed in with that was a real appreciation for how it was done differently and what I could take from it to use in my own ministry.  Preachers do that, you know.  We steal each other’s stuff all the time.  We like to call it collegial respect!

The sermon was based on Psalm 51: 16-17.  The Message translation.  It’s a passage that’s often read on Ash Weds, one that I’ve used several times myself.   The Rev. Courtney 10351228_755923797789535_8136342306803569528_nClayton-Jenkins preached it well, and I realized quickly that I have something new to learn from the passage this year.  Lent is a time to clean house — our spiritual houses.  Lent is a time to be in touch with our relationships — especially our relationship with God.  Lent is a time to check out how we’re doing with that following Jesus promise — and to make the necessary adjustments to get back to it.  I’ve been leading that effort for so long that it’s been easy to put my own adjustments aside for when I have time.  And a pastor never has time during Lent!  This year I do.  Have time, that is.  Rev. Courtney said that this can all be overwhelming, so she suggested this:  start in one corner and work your way out from there.

Good advice.  But I’ve got some work to do before I can even get started.  I have to figure out what my corners are.  The old ones have gone and have been replaced by ones I”m not yet familiar with.  I think I’ll write about finding that corner this year.   A very different sort of writing than when I was a pastor.  I did alot of writing during Lent.  I had a prayer discipline in which I prayed for and wrote to every single person in my congregation, as well as writing a series of Lenten sermons and blogging.  What I gave up, I used to say, was free time.  Before you feel sorry for me, it was also ego-satisfying.  I had a built-in audience.  This year, not so much.  In previous years, I was writing about and to others.  This year, it’s more about me, and I”m not so comfortable or skilled with that.  Perhaps it’s a good thing fewer people will be reading this year!

So … how do I like retirement?  So far, so good.  I’m excited to begin a search to find the corner where I can reconnect with God, not as pastor — just as myself.

Blessings –

Rev. Kristine Eggert

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist. 

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Wow …

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pastor Kris

[excerpts from my last sermon as Senior Pastor of Disciples Christian Church.  Preached yesterday, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015.  Today begins my first day of retirement]

With the possible exception of the man I live with, pretty much no one asks me about a sermon before I preach it. Even David has weeks of not knowing anything about what I’m going to preach before he hears it at 9:00 for the first time. But this week was an exception. I couldn’t count the number of people who wanted to know – have you written it yet?, people asked me 3 weeks ago!   I bet this one is really hard to prepare for. I don’t envy you! Boy, I can’t wait to hear it.

No pressure! It’s not like it was waking me up at night thinking about it. Actually, the thought of writing this my last sermon as your pastor was waking me up at night. The pressure coming from the outside was nothing like the pressure on the inside. Some of  it was knowing how much I love everything about preaching, and it’s impossible to know what it will feel like to not do it every week.   I’ve also been told I’m pretty good at it, and I sure wouldn’t want to let anyone down this last week.  And, it’s also really difficult for finales to live up to the hype.

So, in my 3:00 am musings about all this, I started remembering famous finales. The seinfeldfinale I thought about the most was Seinfeld.  The Seinfeld finale came after 9 seasons. Just one more year than I’ve been at Disciples. Seinfeld produced 180 episodes, but I’m sure I’ve preached far more times than that in 8 years. I don’t get the summers off, and I don’t get to play repeats!

Do you remember the finale? People really didn’t like it. Of course there was enormous pressure for it to be funny. But it wasn’t just that. It was the direction it took that was different from what anyone expected. George, Elaine, Kramer, and Jerry end up in jail. They are on trial for watching a man get mugged and doing nothing about it. They disobeyed a Good Samaritan law by not doing anything which sounds like a pretty typical Seinfeld episode.  So what was our disappointment? It wasn’t like we had ever witnessed an unselfish act from any of them. Seinfeld was funny because the characters were the most self-absorbed and socially apathetic people we could imagine. It was a show about nothing, so we could laugh freely about anything and everything.

The finale was guilty only for staying in character. Maybe the wrath of the fan base was that ultimately we wanted more for these people. We wanted something to happen to them that mattered. Though they were friends with each other, they were isolated from the rest of the world.  That’s not at all who God created us to be.  God does not intend for us to live that way.

And that’s where I’ll part ways with this analogy. Because for whatever this finale of a sermon will or will not be, no one can say that these past 8 years have not mattered. They have. We might want for more time together. We might wish for things to be different. But no one can say that we part ways unchanged. We are not the same today as we were in 2007 when I arrived as your pastor or whatever subsequent year you became a Disciple. And though this is my final sermon as your pastor, nothing else is final about today. For any of us or for any of the ministries of Disciples Christian Church.
Because we do matter. Because we do not live as self-absorbed and isolated human beings. Because we are connected to the living and breathing gospel message, and we are the Body of Christ.

So, enough talk of disappointment or disenchantment, discouragement, denial or finales. This morning we share one of the most beautiful, mystical, powerful and wildly miraculousimages stories in all of scripture. It’s called the Transfiguration. And oh, my, sweet Jesus what happened on that mountain! What an incredible joy and privilege for this text to fall on my last Sunday.  Not every preacher would say that. I have colleagues who’ve managed to make it through their entire careers without preaching a sermon on this text. They don’t like it because it seems too outlandish, too unbelievable, too difficult to explain.

Not me. I absolutely love it. I looked through my files and found that I’ve preached it 8 times in 15 years. I’m not here to explain it away or to make it seem like some ordinary hike up an ordinary mountain on a day with ordinary clouds in the sky. This was a God will knock your socks off sort of day. I won’t try to whittle it down to an explainable size because I want us to be in touch with just how large our God is. It’s OK not to understand how it could have happened. It’s OK to just say. Wow.

Wow. 

Jesus is The One – the one we follow, the one who turns our world upside down, the one in whom our redemption lies – and those concepts are so large that we ought to expect the unexplainable and occasionally bask in the outrageousness of it. Jesus the man who lived and walked and taught and healed. Jesus the man known to hang with fisherman and tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus the man who made some very important people angry enough to kill him. Jesus the martyr and moral teacher and friend of the poor. Wow. But there’s more. Jesus who is suddenly and mysteriously lit up from the inside. To men and women who hardly knew why they dropped everything to follow. Realizing there was just something that radiated from him that spoke of eternal truth. Something that radiated from him that lit up their souls. And on this day, that something lit up the sky.

Wow.

That’s what we are a part of at Disciples Christian Church. Have been since our earliest days and will continue to be long after I’m gone. What do we do with moments like this? Maybe we are like Peter and we don’t really know what to do. Peter’s first thought is to organize it, contain it, and put a box around it. Church people know what’s coming next.  Better get to work on a budget. These building are going to cost something.  They won’t build themselves.  Better look at our donor pool and start asking for money.  Churches are always asking for money. We’ll have to agree of course about exactly what these buildings will look like. This is going to make people mad Peter. Better call for the vote. What do the by-laws say? Do we have a quorum on this mountain?

God love him. Peter came perilously close to missing the point. Peter’s so busy talking about his plan that the voice from heaven has to interrupt him to be heard. God’s voice saying:

This is my Son the Beloved. Listen to him.

Wow.  There isn’t a plan that is better than that. Maybe it’s not about a building. Maybe it’s about somehow creating space for people to experience the power and majesty of God. Maybe it’s not about where you sit — in pews or flexible seating. Maybe it’s about standing together in the mystery. Maybe it’s not about stability and order and leadership staying the same. Maybe it’s about wonder and change. Maybe it’s less about worry and more about hopeful expectation. Maybe it’s about Jesus drawing near, no, not maybe – it is about Jesus drawing near, so near that his presence may unsettle our plans. But while his presence unsettles us, it also uplifts us. Uplifted into a relationship with the One who meets us, accepts us, and loves us for who we are and where we are in this very moment.

Maybe it’s not about what we want, but what God wants for us. The great genius of God who made the heavens and earth and all that is in them – that same God reaches out and touches each one of us. Jesus’ hand on Peter’s shoulder was nothing less than God’s own touch. Wow. I have felt that hand on my shoulder every time I have opened my mouth to preach. And if my words have moved you, it’s because that same hand is touching you. It’s not because I’ve hit a home run – it’s because God has.

So … to that last sentence of our text this morning. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  That’s the sentence I always wish we could leave out. It seems to un-Jesus like.  Why the command to silence? Aren’t we supposed to tell everyone about Jesus?

We are. But I think I get it. If we were to tell of this moment before we held it inside of ourselves for a spell, it would be more like it was a final moment. And you know, finales never live up to the hype. It would be as if nothing could top it. As if the best of us had already been played out. Let’s box it up. Box ourselves up. WOW moments can take a lot out of us.

But WOW moments are intended to fill us up. What is most important for now is to have had the experience. To realize how profound it was. Jesus would say now take some time and let it work in and through us. To let the experience shape us, transform us, and prepare us for what will come next.

I leave you this morning so filled with WOW moments from every baby I held, every youth I baptized, every person whose life I celebrated at their death. Every person I watched 10960351_10206118935076405_8865662471526246895_ogrow in leadership. Every participant who became a disciple and dug deeper. From every word I said that you have heard and every challenge you have taken on from my words. Every kindness you have shared. Words will not do justice today in trying to tell you what those moments have meant. The important thing is that we had the experience. We were witness to the humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ in our encounters with each other.

What we did together mattered. We are not the same as we once were. And, Thank You Jesus, there is nothing final about this day.

Wow.

Rev. Kristine Eggert

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist. 

Posted in church growth, Church Transformation, Retirement, Saying Good-Bye | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

All I Really Want is …. Joy

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Pastor Kris

[excerpts from a sermon preached at Disciples Christian Church on Sunday, Dec. 14 on the 2nd anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings and the Third Sunday in Advent when we traditionally light the Joy candle.  The text is from the very obscure prophet Habakkuk who has a single focus in his writing:  If God is a God of justice, why is there so much injustice in the world?]

This is the third Sunday of Advent when we re-light the candles of Hope and Peace and add a third: a candle of Joy. Today is also the occasion of a national observance called the Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath.  This is not a new observance. Organizations such as Faiths United Against Gun Violence and The Brady Campaign have been supporters for decades. But as gun violence keeps happening, and as newer organizations like Sandy Hook Promise and the Newtown Alliance have added their support — now the Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath coincides with the anniversary of the shooting of the Newtown shootings. The national observance was at the National Cathedral in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon.  I watched it live-streamed — perhaps you have seen portions of it.

Today marks the actual year anniversary of the day when 20 first graders and 5 teachers and 1 principal were gunned down in less than 5 minutes on a Friday morning shortly after sandy-hook-victimsclasses began at Sandy Hook Elementary. Do you remember how you felt when you first heard the news that Friday? Do you remember your reaction when you first started seeing photos of those 20 adorable first-graders. With the jagged 6 year old smiles of missing teeth.

I do.  I remember it all.  I remember also that it was the third Sunday in Advent.  How could I possibly preach about Joy while we were still in shock over the tragedy. I began by recalling a favorite book of my children when they were growing up. I wrote and re-wrote, prayed and prayed again for God to give me the words.  When the moment came to speak, I opened with a favorite book of my children when they were growing up, Alexander and61T6oqNHSVL the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Do you know the story? 6 year old Alexander wakes up and trips over a skateboard as he’s getting out of bed.  The day goes downhill from there.  He drops his sweater into the sink while the water was running. At breakfast, he gets no prize in his breakfast cereal. He doesn’t get the window seat in the carpool. His teacher criticizes him for singing too loud. There’s no dessert packed in his lunch, and his brother pushes him down in the mud on the way home. When he punches his brother, he’s the one who gets in trouble.

I said. That should be the stuff of a child’s life. Instead, Friday happened in Newtown, Connecticut. How do you write an obituary for a 6 year old? And then how do you write 19 more?

A lot has happened since that day two years ago. It’s no longer abstract or distant or about strangers for me. David and I have stood alongside Daniel Barden’s father, Mark when he gave testimony to the Ohio Assembly in Columbus over gun legislation. I’ve met Jesse’s dad and heard him speak through his tears. I’ve be there in person to hear Erica’s story. Erica is the adult daughter of Principal Dawn Hochsprung. These people are real. 2 years later their grief is still palpable. Yet they have somehow found the courage to be activists for there to be not one more gun death of a child.

I wish I could say their work is done. It’s not. One could say that a lot has NOT happened10854841_576870275747136_5538885774136047590_o since that day two years ago.   There have been 96 school shootings since Newtown — one more since this graphic was published.  And for the immensity of that issue, we know that keeping our kids safe is larger even than school safety.

Gun violence ends children’s lives at rec centers in Cleveland.  The autopsy revealed on Friday calls 12 year old Tamir Rice’s death a homicide.   At convenience store parking lots in Florida.  I was part of a gathering on Monday evening together with sybrinafultonluciamcbath1several of you hearing a mother’s tragic story of her 17 year old son, Jordan Davis, shot and killed for playing his music too loud.  In gated communities in Florida.  I’ve walked with clergy through downtown Cleveland in silence and wearing a hoodie, in solidarity with Trayvon Martin’s family. In the last two years, I’ve become aware that it’s dangerous being a child in America.  Just how dangerous – let’s watch together this video produced by the Children’s Defense Fund.

I used this video a few weeks ago when I was invited to speak to the 11th grade class at Facing History New Tech High School – a Cleveland magnet school in Old Brooklyn.  These students were involved in a project about 2nd Amendment Rights and Mayor Jackson’s proposed ordinances for limits on guns vs keeping communities safe.  Before they engaged in their own debated, they invited 2 people on opposing sides to speak.  City Councilman Zack Reed who is a strident voice for 2nd Amendment Rights – and someone who speaks from a faith perspective. Me.  Councilman Reed and I have crossed paths on a few occasions recently. In two of them, we asked Cleveland high schoolers if they knew someone who’d been shot in their families or their circle of friends. Most every hand went up. We asked if any of them had seen a gun in the last 6 months.  Most hands were up.  In the last 30 days?  Still many hands.  In the last week?   Had they ever been on school lockdown for real.  Most every hand up.  And perhaps the most frightening question: do you know how to get your hands on a gun? Every hand went up.  Oh, that’s easy Pastor Kris.

The prophet cries:  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you Violence! And you will not save?

I’ve debated with Councilman Reed and others and I’ve stood toe to toe with Open Carry Activists downtown in Public Square knowing full well that the assault weapon slung over their shoulder was loaded. I’ll admit, it’s taken some courage for me to be able to do that.
But the real courage comes from Habakkuk because he debates God.  That’s courage! He calls God out on God’s promise of justice vs God’s failure to act. He demands to be heard, and though he’s considered a minor prophet, there’s not another who is more confrontational with God.

And yet.   And yet, he’s not denying that God exists – he wouldn’t be crying out to God if that were the case. He is not denying that God is all-powerful; he wants to know why God isn’t using that power to change things.

And he laments – why do you make me see this, God?

Do you ever ask a question out loud and as soon as the words have left your lips, you know the answer? I think that’s what happened to Habakkuk. He knew why he had to see. He just didn’t want to see.  He didn’t want to know about the violence around him. None of us want to see or to know. But we have to.

Even at Christmas. Especially at Christmas, knowing far too many families will still be grieving the loss of a child.

We need to see and to know so we can get angry. Anger might seem counter-intuitive to a season of joy, but it is not. In order for there to be joy in our world, it will take prophetic anger that brings injustice out of the shadows and makes it visible. We heard that anger from the ancient prophet, and I found it in another prophet’s voice, though he would probably not call himself that. Ray Horton is a PhD student at Case Western who wrote an essay for Rust Magazine titled “Love’s Anger”. Just a portion:

I’m talking about a love that gets angry. A love that rejects false hopes and empty promises and instead will take up the most hopeless of lost causes for the one whom it loves. …Justice is what love looks like in public… Justice is what happens when love spills over its private, personal boundaries and shapes our interactions with one another… While it may not be all quiet, peace, and harmony –it’s a love that binds communities together based on an acknowledgement of our need, or vulnerability, and the memory of all that we’ve already lost.

God is large enough to handle our anger, and God will answer us as he answered Habakkuk. Write the vision. Make it plain enough that everyone can see. Make is so plain that even people who think they are too busy to know. Those who do not want to know. Those who want to ignore it by running past you – even they will not be able to forget what they’ve seen. Justice will come. Peace will reign. Those who live by their faith will see their reward. Yes, there’s more waiting than you’d like. Yes, there’s more trouble ahead.  Yet, in the meantime, rejoice.

Rejoice? Two years ago on this day when I did not know what to preach about rejoicing, I used the words from the Apostle Paul about rejoicing. Paul was in prison and about to be executed and yet he wrote to his churches telling them to rejoice through that suffering. Here now the words from Habakkuk as he closes his small bit of writing. Listen for his Yet.

Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;
Though the produce of the olive fails,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock is cut off from the fold,
And there is no herd in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
And makes me tread upon the heights…

JoyWe can rejoice because we know with God’s help, we can do better. We can rejoice because we can stand where God calls us to stand. We can rejoice because there is nothing more precious to the heart of God than justice and peace for all of God’s people.

Does anyone else here wonder what it was that was written on Habakkuk’s tablet?

Was it Rejoice?  Joy?  Or perhaps if in his anger of love, he wasn’t quite ready to rejoice, maybe it was the word Yet.

And yet I will see and I will act.

Pastor.  Parent.  Activist. 

 

Posted in Activism, Black Lives Matter, Ending Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, Sandy Hook Elementary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment