SFUU Sunday Service: April 4, 2021 (God As Change)

13 00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:42.360 Tricia Caspers: Good morning, and welcome to Sierra foothills unitarian universalists for our Easter service. I'm Tricia Caspers, member of this congregation our congregation is served by Reverend AJ van time, who is available for pastoral care by phone or email.

14 00:05:43.710 --> 00:05:51.930 Tricia Caspers: We are joined for this service by patty left rich or musical director and Adrian dill our director of religious education.

15 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:55.350 Tricia Caspers: And we are joined by all of you.

16 00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:58.920 Tricia Caspers: You are all welcome here today.

17 00:05:59.970 --> 00:06:16.110 Tricia Caspers: In all the beauty of languages, cultures and skin tones that come together in your uniqueness, you are welcome here in all the ways that you experience and express gender, you are welcome here.

18 00:06:17.640 --> 00:06:23.460 Tricia Caspers: In the beauty, that is, who you love and how you love you are welcome here.

19 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:40.320 Tricia Caspers: In all the varied ways you move through and interact with the world, you are welcome here with all the religious and ethical traditions that inform your spiritual life, you are welcome here.

20 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:48.480 Tricia Caspers: Whether you come feeling despair or hope for our world and its future, you are welcome here.

21 00:06:50.040 --> 00:07:00.120 Tricia Caspers: Whether you celebrate the resurrection of Jesus or the last day of Passover or just another Sunday, this morning you are welcome here.

22 00:07:01.590 --> 00:07:08.010 Tricia Caspers: No matter how long you've been away nor how soon you will return, you are welcome here.

23 00:07:09.450 --> 00:07:17.100 Tricia Caspers: You are invited to join us with an open mind a loving heart and willing hands, we welcome you today.

24 00:07:22.080 --> 00:07:23.790 Rev. AJ van Tine: i want to add my own welcome.

25 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:25.170 Rev. AJ van Tine: To add to trisha said.

26 00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:38.550 Rev. AJ van Tine: Welcome everyone to this Easter morning, especially welcome any newcomers, who were with us, thank you for being with us today, just so you know after the post, would we move into breakout rooms for conversation in our coffee hour.

27 00:07:39.570 --> 00:07:49.170 Rev. AJ van Tine: But if you are news I am available and someone from our membership committee will be available to talk with you and answer any questions you may have, after the service, so we can go into our own breakout room for that.

42 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:05.670 Rev. AJ van Tine: I would like to invite trisha to begin our worship proper by leading us in lighting our chalices.

43 00:10:11.130 --> 00:10:12.600 Tricia Caspers: We, like our tell us.

44 00:10:12.630 --> 00:10:21.810 Tricia Caspers: With these words from gospel of mark Chapter four verses three through eight the parable of the sower. 45 00:10:23.550 --> 00:10:40.860 Tricia Caspers: Listen, a sower went out to sow and, as he sowed some seed fell on the path and the birds came and ate it up other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and it's spring up quickly.

46 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:52.080 Tricia Caspers: Since it and it spring up quickly, since it had no depth of soil and when the sun rose, it was scorched and since it had no root it withered away.

47 00:10:53.010 --> 00:11:11.070 Tricia Caspers: Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and that yielded no grain other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain growing up and increasing and yielding 30 and 60 and 100 fold.

48 00:11:18.630 --> 00:11:20.580 Tricia Caspers: Now please join this and singing.

49 00:11:20.610 --> 00:11:26.190 Tricia Caspers: Our own num number 275 joyful is the dark.

50 00:14:07.350 --> 00:14:13.200 Rev. AJ van Tine: Thank you penny and now like to invite Adrian up to offer the story for all agents i'm.

51 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:15.840 Adrean Dills: Good morning.

52 00:14:15.930 --> 00:14:25.470 Adrean Dills: singing is actually exactly what I wanted to talk about this morning, many religious traditions includes something called devotional singing.

53 00:14:26.130 --> 00:14:37.950 Adrean Dills: devotional singing is powerful but it's also different than just rocking out to our favorite songs today I want to talk about being you, you and being a devotional singer. 54 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:45.990 Adrean Dills: Now, when I say devotional singing you might think about a Baptist choir like really rocking out to the spirit of God.

55 00:14:46.410 --> 00:14:55.350 Adrean Dills: You might think about monks in a cloister singing Gregorian chants or maybe set session of Hindu by john's and it kept on.

56 00:14:55.680 --> 00:15:12.930 Adrean Dills: Seeing hari Krishna has, these are all ways to sing about God or the spirit of life with our whole heart, personally, I like devotional singing that is simple just a couple of lines or words so that I can really get into a meditative spirit.

57 00:15:13.980 --> 00:15:28.980 Adrean Dills: Some of these songs are joyful some are sad, some are loving, some are pleading when we connect to the music with our whole heart, we are connecting with that image of the divine or universality.

58 00:15:29.640 --> 00:15:39.360 Adrean Dills: My first connection with devotional singing with the La loo us in church, you know, a la loo yeah they're fun to sing.

59 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:47.250 Adrean Dills: But they also mean something very special Ali luhya literally means praise the Lord or praise the divine.

60 00:15:47.640 --> 00:16:05.010 Adrean Dills: So when we sing Ali Lou yeah we are seeing a spiritual song to honor God and even, as you use, we have the La loo yes in our handle they're there for us whenever we need to sing a song of praise to a glorious and mysterious divine.

61 00:16:06.150 --> 00:16:08.370 Adrean Dills: So let's cruise through our him the little more.

62 00:16:09.570 --> 00:16:13.980 Adrean Dills: check out number for a one kumbaya right. 63 00:16:16.830 --> 00:16:25.050 Adrean Dills: So you can sing any one of these verses like someone's laughing Lord kumbaya right.

64 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:40.200 Adrean Dills: kumbaya literally means come by here, so this is picturing God is kind of a friendly presence, who shows up, no matter what's going on and just drops by to say hello that's great to have someone with us like that, on the journey of life.

65 00:16:41.340 --> 00:16:50.970 Adrean Dills: We can cruise through a little more, and maybe find something very different number 261 when Jesus wept when Jesus was.

66 00:16:53.280 --> 00:17:00.300 Adrean Dills: Falling to mercy flow, the door.

67 00:17:02.310 --> 00:17:08.850 Adrean Dills: Oh that's so sad It makes me want to cry what kind of a God cry.

68 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:28.710 Adrean Dills: Obviously, a personal one who mourns right alongside us this is a beautiful prayer and also a very different picture of God so here it is it's Easter Sunday, which were many Christians is the most important celebration of the year, you thought it was Christmas, Easter.

69 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:40.200 Adrean Dills: So this is the anniversary of the bank day when Jesus comes back to life and assures his followers that their faith their love is stronger than death itself.

70 00:17:40.890 --> 00:17:49.800 Adrean Dills: Does that make you want to sing with joy to shout hallelujah to the rafters do you want to cry and gratitude does this even connect with you today.

71 00:17:50.790 --> 00:18:00.330 Adrean Dills: God ask right, whether we believe in a personal God, who knows and loves us a universal force maybe a divine presence. 72 00:18:00.750 --> 00:18:07.920 Adrean Dills: An Avatar of incarnation or divinity a great clockmaker in the sky, the miracle of life.

73 00:18:08.430 --> 00:18:17.760 Adrean Dills: Whether we think of God is a stand in for our better human nature or we feel like the regular world is utterly miraculous just the way it is.

74 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:25.080 Adrean Dills: We don't need to be stuck with just one devotional song and we shouldn't be afraid to sing them either.

75 00:18:25.650 --> 00:18:38.820 Adrean Dills: We should sing with our whole heart in a way that feels true and right to us today, so, if you like to sing in the shower or as you clean up your room whether you're having a party sort of day or.

76 00:18:39.540 --> 00:18:48.810 Adrean Dills: a really great one or really sad one think about how you picture the big picture, God life, the universe, what is it called today.

77 00:18:49.290 --> 00:19:06.210 Adrean Dills: And then just sing that name or a phrase over and over again until you feel like you're done, you might want to drum or clap change the tune and that's how we all can be you you devotional singers I hope that inspires you to give it a try today.

81 00:19:21.270 --> 00:19:30.360 Tricia Caspers: Octavia Butler was a writer known for breaking new ground as a woman, and as an African American in the realm of science fiction.

82 00:19:31.080 --> 00:19:53.490 Tricia Caspers: She thrived in a genre typically dominated by white men and her novels often combined science fiction with African American spiritual ISM the following lines are verses from the religion earth seed created by the character lauren philomena in the novel parable of the sower.

83 00:19:56.610 --> 00:19:59.490 Tricia Caspers: All that you touch you change.

84 00:20:00.510 --> 00:20:19.110 Tricia Caspers: All that you change changes you, the only lasting truth is change God is change, why is the universe to shape God, why is God to shape the universe.

85 00:20:20.190 --> 00:20:44.310 Tricia Caspers: God is change God is infinite irreversible irresistible inexhaustible indifferent God is trickster teacher chaos clay God is change beware God exists to shape and to be shaped.

87 00:20:50.520 --> 00:20:57.720 Rev. AJ van Tine: In this community of mutual care we celebrate the great joys of life together and help share the sorrows of burden and grief.

88 00:20:59.370 --> 00:21:12.690 Rev. AJ van Tine: As such, each week we share specific joys and sorrows from the lives of our Members, if you have a joy star, you would like shared on Sunday, you can email joys and sorrows at minus a few u.org and anytime with what you would like to be said.

89 00:21:14.610 --> 00:21:20.730 Rev. AJ van Tine: If you have something this morning that you haven't emailed but you would like to share now, you may type it into the chat bar for others to read.

90 00:21:24.210 --> 00:21:41.550 Rev. AJ van Tine: One sorrow, we have this morning is from tricia casper Ross she asks that you hold her family in your thoughts as her cousin cody died of a drug overdose overdose last week he leaves behind his fiance and five month old baby Stella.

91 00:21:46.230 --> 00:21:56.820 Rev. AJ van Tine: With this one articulated sorrow any type into the chat and all the joys and sorrows that we know we carry with us the things that change us.

92 00:21:56.850 --> 00:21:57.900 Rev. AJ van Tine: And we them.

93 00:21:59.430 --> 00:22:10.080 Rev. AJ van Tine: Holding all those in our hearts, I invite you now into a time of meditation and reflection as I offer this prayer adapted from the Reverend Kathleen rowland's.

94 00:22:15.930 --> 00:22:18.780 Rev. AJ van Tine: great mystery which grounds us and surrounds us.

95 00:22:19.650 --> 00:22:22.950 Rev. AJ van Tine: divine presence known by many names and, in many ways.

96 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:25.740 Rev. AJ van Tine: spirit of life.

97 00:22:27.660 --> 00:22:38.940 Rev. AJ van Tine: We come together this Easter morning to rejoice in the ongoing song of life that is within us and around us in this season of renewal of life bursting into bloom or song.

98 00:22:39.600 --> 00:22:50.580 Rev. AJ van Tine: The hidden beauty of nature, preparing to unfold remind us that we to have a hidden inner beauty, reflecting the image of your creative power.

99 00:22:53.070 --> 00:22:57.510 Rev. AJ van Tine: Good for all the beauty that lives in us and among us, we doubt it's realization.

100 00:22:58.770 --> 00:23:09.210 Rev. AJ van Tine: We question our talent or beauty our abilities our value we become cynical about love jaded about peace, less hopeful about the future.

101 00:23:10.230 --> 00:23:19.800 Rev. AJ van Tine: We roll stones across entrances build fences and wall that indicates closed fists instead of open arms.

102 00:23:22.950 --> 00:23:37.650 Rev. AJ van Tine: spirit of resurrection remind us of the power of hope to triumph over fear the power of love to prepare prevail over the horrors of hate the potential for peace to be victorious over hostility.

103 00:23:40.350 --> 00:23:43.500 Rev. AJ van Tine: We pray for all that is still possible, but not yet fulfilled.

104 00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:55.170 Rev. AJ van Tine: We pray for an end to this pandemic for the recreation of a world not identical to the one we knew, but the one that was broken and hurting and exploitive.

105 00:23:56.490 --> 00:24:04.260 Rev. AJ van Tine: But a new way of being marked by grief and to holding more compassion more patients and less patience.

106 00:24:05.340 --> 00:24:09.840 Rev. AJ van Tine: More patients for our pains and our problems, and our slowness.

107 00:24:10.980 --> 00:24:17.340 Rev. AJ van Tine: and less patience, for those who are callous in the face of suffering with a systemic or particular.

108 00:24:18.510 --> 00:24:22.890 Rev. AJ van Tine: Less patience, for those who stand in the way of progress and reform and healing.

109 00:24:26.040 --> 00:24:31.950 Rev. AJ van Tine: We pray this morning in grief and the wake of another attack on the US Capitol this week.

110 00:24:33.060 --> 00:24:42.750 Rev. AJ van Tine: Just one more tragic event and a litany of violence and shootings from these past weeks resurfacing and drawing us back into the old traumas of violence and bloodshed.

111 00:24:43.800 --> 00:24:53.100 Rev. AJ van Tine: Like a relapse into an illness that we know we must end can address, yet we have leaders who only fail to deliver the obvious medicine.

112 00:24:55.140 --> 00:25:14.700 Rev. AJ van Tine: We pray with all those watching the trial unfold in minneapolis opening fervently for justice to roll down like waters for this to be a moment where we, as a nation say no more say that there must be accountability and consequences, a callous taking of life, say that black lives matter.

113 00:25:15.780 --> 00:25:27.870 Rev. AJ van Tine: say that democracy matters as the right to vote is under siege it again in Georgia and other states where those who have hoarded power and wealth for so long, fear to lose their grip on our governments.

114 00:25:31.590 --> 00:25:39.150 Rev. AJ van Tine: spirit of life as we feel you flowing and pulsing within we pray for a courageous and joyful thing.

115 00:25:40.380 --> 00:25:52.410 Rev. AJ van Tine: Empowering us to become our finest and truest selves empowering us to see your image and all our siblings and kin empowering us to participate with you in the creation of a new time of life.

116 00:25:53.700 --> 00:25:59.190 Rev. AJ van Tine: In which love justice beauty and peace are abundantly available to all.

117 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.690 Rev. AJ van Tine: Let us be a part of the love that you give.

118 00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:06.240 Rev. AJ van Tine: We change.

119 00:26:07.260 --> 00:26:08.160 Rev. AJ van Tine: and be changed.

120 00:26:09.900 --> 00:26:11.910 Rev. AJ van Tine: For this we pray amen.

121 00:26:13.710 --> 00:26:14.310 blessed be.

122 00:26:17.610 --> 00:26:22.800 Rev. AJ van Tine: I invite you to continue in the spirit of meditation reflection and prayer as we hear him.

123 00:26:24.030 --> 00:26:24.840 Rev. AJ van Tine: Open heart.

124 00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:12.960 Rev. AJ van Tine: Right tricia up to offer for reflection.

125 00:28:20.250 --> 00:28:32.730 Tricia Caspers: My dad and I sat at the dining table of his rented house in pollock pines the room was dim and the House was always cold and I was 17.

126 00:28:34.050 --> 00:28:38.910 Tricia Caspers: I don't remember what brought us to the table we weren't the kind of family.

127 00:28:40.560 --> 00:28:46.410 Tricia Caspers: That ate dinner together, in fact, it was rare that we were ever home at the same time.

128 00:28:47.580 --> 00:28:53.040 Tricia Caspers: But in the course of our conversation at that table I told my dad that I was an atheist.

129 00:28:53.970 --> 00:29:11.310 Tricia Caspers: Unlike lauren old Amina and parable of the sower I didn't think that my disbelief was a big deal because we didn't go to church I knew that my family was Christian because my grandmother had raised me and taught me to say my prayers at bedtime when I was little.

130 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:16.020 Tricia Caspers: But God it wasn't something that any of us ever discussed.

131 00:29:17.520 --> 00:29:28.740 Tricia Caspers: i'm disappointed to hear that my dad said when I told him if it wasn't for God I wouldn't be alive, right now, if it wasn't for God I wouldn't be clean and silver.

132 00:29:30.180 --> 00:29:33.450 Tricia Caspers: I got angry then and made an excuse to leave.

133 00:29:34.710 --> 00:29:41.880 Tricia Caspers: Because the thing is my dad had been drinking and using drugs for more than half my life at that point.

134 00:29:43.620 --> 00:29:47.970 Tricia Caspers: And he had been alive, yes, but not present for me.

135 00:29:49.050 --> 00:29:55.590 Tricia Caspers: I didn't want any part of a God, who have answered prayers or worked at a snail's pace.

136 00:29:57.780 --> 00:30:02.730 Tricia Caspers: My dad never was able to stay clean for long and eventually his addiction killed him.

137 00:30:04.260 --> 00:30:19.980 Tricia Caspers: Well, I never felt the need to lie to my dad about my beliefs as lauren all Amina does with her father, I was never able to tell him about my anger, not only about God, but also for every time.

138 00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:28.080 Tricia Caspers: My dad disappeared once for four years.

139 00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:33.210 Tricia Caspers: And every time he returned and pretended he'd never been gone. 140 00:30:34.800 --> 00:30:50.280 Tricia Caspers: lauren's father is a Baptist minister and one night he disappears forever she's never able to tell her father what she truly believes God is change all that we touch we change all that we change changes us.

141 00:30:51.690 --> 00:31:11.250 Tricia Caspers: I don't know about you, but I think change is super hard, and it is constant and i'm really drawn to this idea of God, as change because it requires me to sit with the discomfort of not knowing, but it also allows me to change my mind about God.

142 00:31:12.360 --> 00:31:28.110 Tricia Caspers: i'm not an atheist anymore i'm still figuring out what I do and don't believe, but I for sure don't believe that god's decide that God decides who's prayers are answered in full, in part, or when.

143 00:31:29.700 --> 00:31:44.370 Tricia Caspers: If, as all Amina says, all that we touch is change and God is change, then we are all shaping God, every day, and at the same time, God is within us.

144 00:31:45.150 --> 00:32:02.130 Tricia Caspers: The prayer itself becomes God my father's work to stay clean and sober for however long it lasted was also gone when I chose to walk away from the table that day God was with me.

145 00:32:04.170 --> 00:32:12.450 Tricia Caspers: And when my dad died in a car crash 3000 miles away from me God was with him in his last moments.

146 00:32:13.470 --> 00:32:16.590 Tricia Caspers: And if God was with him, I was with him to.

147 00:32:17.640 --> 00:32:20.310 Tricia Caspers: i'm choosing to believe that for now.

148 00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:33.060 Tricia Caspers: today's ancient reading is from Matthew chapter 28 verses one through eight. 149 00:37:34.980 --> 00:37:43.080 Tricia Caspers: After the Sabbath as the first day of the week was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

150 00:37:43.980 --> 00:37:59.520 Tricia Caspers: And suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descending from heaven came and roll back the stone and sat on it his appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.

151 00:38:00.810 --> 00:38:05.400 Tricia Caspers: For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

152 00:38:06.630 --> 00:38:15.690 Tricia Caspers: But the angel said to the women do not be afraid, I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified he is not here.

153 00:38:16.650 --> 00:38:27.870 Tricia Caspers: For he has raised, and, as he said, come see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead.

154 00:38:28.380 --> 00:38:44.160 Tricia Caspers: And indeed, he is going ahead of you to Galilee there, you will see him, this is my message for you, so they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.

155 00:38:50.880 --> 00:39:02.790 Rev. AJ van Tine: On on Easter morning Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus is victory over death and the ultimate critical moment in the Christian story and narrative.

156 00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:16.350 Rev. AJ van Tine: which traditionally involves christ's atonement for the sins of humanity and the beginning of the Church, or at least the community of his followers that would continue his message and Ministry of religious and social reform.

157 00:39:18.240 --> 00:39:25.770 Rev. AJ van Tine: As his followers roll away the stone they found something changed something unexpected an empty tomb.

158 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:40.740 Rev. AJ van Tine: Strange angel with a message for them, something that would change them and would continue to change them and, ultimately, change the course of the world, as they change the world for good and for ill.

159 00:39:43.500 --> 00:39:52.170 Rev. AJ van Tine: Whatever the story may mean to each of us personally I think all right hope we can all appreciate this point right those terrifying.

160 00:39:52.470 --> 00:40:04.800 Rev. AJ van Tine: And yet exciting moments of historical and personal consequence and change how they change us and how we participate in them as well, we have certainly had our fill of those moments this year.

161 00:40:07.650 --> 00:40:18.240 Rev. AJ van Tine: In this year in this difficult time, one of the practices that's been grounding me is receiving a little message of inspiration and hope each Wednesday in my inbox.

162 00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:37.890 Rev. AJ van Tine: In the form of the braver slash wiser email it's edited by one of my colleagues at the you you association and it features stories and reflections each week from various unitarian universalists you can sign up or read the [email protected] slash braver wiser.

163 00:40:40.230 --> 00:40:48.360 Rev. AJ van Tine: The edition from this week, this past Wednesday the Reverend Rachel lumbered took us back to the congregation where she was a child.

164 00:40:48.990 --> 00:40:56.640 Rev. AJ van Tine: and told us about gassy the Elder Member who emerged from the struggles of her life with a commitment to beauty and elegance.

165 00:40:57.570 --> 00:41:14.190 Rev. AJ van Tine: gussy was known for always wearing a formal suit a hat and gloves to every Sunday service and on Easter, of course, you would completely outdo herself with an Easter bonnet full of flowers, not unlike many of the planets and hats i'm seeing the Warren today.

166 00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:28.320 Rev. AJ van Tine: When guess he died in her 90s only Easter, the Community grieved and lamented that they would miss her distinctive style and Easter bonnet on that I holy day.

167 00:41:29.940 --> 00:41:43.050 Rev. AJ van Tine: Then someone had an idea what if everyone came wearing bonnets just like Jesse had done word spread and on Easter morning the sanctuary was filled with vibrant bonnets on the heads of people of all genders.

168 00:41:44.550 --> 00:41:51.840 Rev. AJ van Tine: Reverend lundberg shares that the Church has continued that tradition, people were Easter bonnets and other hats every Easter morning.

169 00:41:52.290 --> 00:42:04.020 Rev. AJ van Tine: People who loved guessing people who never knew gassy and people who weren't even born before her death have all been invited into gutsy story or commitment to beauty and joy lives on.

170 00:42:06.600 --> 00:42:20.460 Rev. AJ van Tine: That story stuck with me this week, because what simpler Easter story is there have a personality of love and beauty dying as an individual, but rising and gaining new life as a Community.

171 00:42:21.630 --> 00:42:26.430 Rev. AJ van Tine: As a response in love honoring a life that spread a message of love and beauty.

172 00:42:29.550 --> 00:42:31.950 Rev. AJ van Tine: Because change is constant.

173 00:42:33.600 --> 00:42:43.200 Rev. AJ van Tine: And to some degree, all change is loss and there is some grief in every little change, and yet there is also beauty and newness and excitement and every change.

174 00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:59.670 Rev. AJ van Tine: As Octavia Butler is parable of the sower reminds us, we are not merely at the mercy of a changing and chaotic universe, but we are that universe, and we shape and change God and the world as much as it changes us.

175 00:43:02.160 --> 00:43:17.610 Rev. AJ van Tine: Now, because I can't help but bring my love of theologically spilled specific terms to bear on a sermon I have to tell you that this kind of religion, this kind of Theology can be described as process theology the 20th century theological movement.

176 00:43:20.040 --> 00:43:32.880 Rev. AJ van Tine: which incorporates a lot of modern understandings of science and the way the world works, so the simplest definition of process theology comes from James cobbs distinction between nouns and verbs.

177 00:43:34.050 --> 00:43:43.740 Rev. AJ van Tine: You see, we tend to think of what's real what reality is what things are really real as nouns a planet, a person, a rock a God.

178 00:43:45.120 --> 00:44:03.720 Rev. AJ van Tine: But process theology that says that instead verbs are the most real moving growing loving changing becoming that actions and process and change is what the stuff of existence, really is, according to this theology.

179 00:44:06.030 --> 00:44:15.390 Rev. AJ van Tine: Take the original parable of the sower found in three of the four Gospels of the New Testament the market version being our child's lighting this morning, although all three are pretty similar.

180 00:44:16.260 --> 00:44:24.780 Rev. AJ van Tine: This parable is ultimately about change and growth that happens within the true believer, hence the agricultural metaphor of the seed growing. 181 00:44:26.460 --> 00:44:33.540 Rev. AJ van Tine: So traditional thought might say that the seed is most real or the sapling or the plant that eventually grows.

182 00:44:35.640 --> 00:44:40.920 Rev. AJ van Tine: process theology, however, would say that the growth is what is most real.

183 00:44:42.060 --> 00:44:55.680 Rev. AJ van Tine: But the growth as a fractal process and expression of the larger process of all life unfolding on earth not really something with a definable beginning and end as such, but real and important for how it grows and how it changes.

184 00:44:57.630 --> 00:45:07.470 Rev. AJ van Tine: The idea here is that the word of God, the message of Jesus and his ministry it's not as simple fact to learn and then possess as an object of knowledge.

185 00:45:08.130 --> 00:45:21.090 Rev. AJ van Tine: But it is a seed planted which grows or not, as the parable says, depending on outside factors like the bird the heat Satan you know common horticultural obstacles.

186 00:45:22.410 --> 00:45:35.310 Rev. AJ van Tine: But if it is planted in good soil in someone who is attentive dedicated not distracted by wanting to look presentable or gather wealth and power, then transformation change and growth can happen.

187 00:45:38.220 --> 00:45:46.440 Rev. AJ van Tine: Is what we believe about what's important matters, it will shape how receptive we are to the seed of the word when we hear it.

188 00:45:47.280 --> 00:45:55.290 Rev. AJ van Tine: If we think that our own status and more and wealth are more important than the message won't take root if we think the message is nice and interesting interesting, we might.

189 00:45:55.830 --> 00:46:03.120 Rev. AJ van Tine: Have it with us among us for a little while, but if we don't make it a home in our heart they won't take root it won't have those deep roots and it will wither in the sun.

190 00:46:04.500 --> 00:46:09.990 Rev. AJ van Tine: Let me be clear i'm not just talking about the word that Jesus and his disciples preached.

191 00:46:10.920 --> 00:46:17.400 Rev. AJ van Tine: I mean the capital T truth, however, understood and expressed in various cultures and various times that breaks through.

192 00:46:17.700 --> 00:46:31.050 Rev. AJ van Tine: any and all lies deceptions defensiveness and ignorance that truth that grabs hold of our hearts when we see it, and helps us become the best versions of ourselves to serve the world around us as best we can.

193 00:46:32.910 --> 00:46:44.670 Rev. AJ van Tine: Granted today we're mostly using the metaphors from the Bible, because it is Easter, but we could just as easily be talking about the word taught by Buddha or Muhammad or the spirits, of the four directions.

194 00:46:46.890 --> 00:46:55.620 Rev. AJ van Tine: But back to the followers of Jesus, in the wake of his death and resurrection because what they believe about his death and resurrection.

195 00:46:56.040 --> 00:47:04.200 Rev. AJ van Tine: creates the core of their concept about God and religions What helps make leads to Christianity becoming a it's not just a.

196 00:47:04.980 --> 00:47:20.550 Rev. AJ van Tine: Jesus movement followers a strange subset messianic sub sect of Judaism, in the first century of that time, but it becomes its own religion its own different theology and cosmology.

197 00:47:22.230 --> 00:47:26.430 Rev. AJ van Tine: And then their beliefs and how they act then impacts and shapes history. 198 00:47:27.960 --> 00:47:32.220 Rev. AJ van Tine: it's as simple as if they didn't believe that he actually rose again, regardless of what.

199 00:47:32.970 --> 00:47:44.280 Rev. AJ van Tine: Historically, happened if they didn't believe he actually rose again, then they would not have had the same motivation or conviction to continue their preaching they might not have thought that he was the savior the Messiah at all.

200 00:47:47.010 --> 00:48:00.510 Rev. AJ van Tine: or another example, about how the ideas that we hold shape and change us and the world that the church eventually adopted Greek ideas about a unchanging and therefore perfect God than unmoved mover.

201 00:48:01.590 --> 00:48:12.030 Rev. AJ van Tine: These ideas led to both the oppressive conservative ISM of the Catholic Church and many European governments right there is perfection and stillness and things should not change and grow or adapt.

202 00:48:13.620 --> 00:48:28.680 Rev. AJ van Tine: But it also led to the idea that there were immutable unchanging laws of nature, set forth that could be discovered and understood, and this is a foundational assumption of the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment, which our modern society owes so much to.

203 00:48:29.850 --> 00:48:38.940 Rev. AJ van Tine: Even though quantum physics and other reason discoveries have complicated that idea of universal laws of nature that don't change on very smaller very large contexts.

204 00:48:42.360 --> 00:48:47.130 Rev. AJ van Tine: It matters what we believe about the universe about how it works and our place in it.

205 00:48:48.420 --> 00:48:59.220 Rev. AJ van Tine: Because the answers to those questions will inform and dictate the answers to the questions of what do I do what should I do next, how will I spend my life on this earth.

206 00:49:03.570 --> 00:49:14.520 Rev. AJ van Tine: And so that question of how does the universe work, what is the nature of God and reality, are we simply at the mercy of chaotic forces beyond any of us.

207 00:49:15.480 --> 00:49:23.400 Rev. AJ van Tine: Is the world ultimately static and unchanging and nothing we can do, can change the pre determined course that is set in stone, like a perfect glass mirror.

208 00:49:25.110 --> 00:49:34.050 Rev. AJ van Tine: Or are we part and parcel of an interdependent web of all life able to strum a vibration in our one little corner, which will reverberate throughout the cosmic.

209 00:49:35.880 --> 00:49:48.750 Rev. AJ van Tine: How can we respond to all that life and death, offer us to create resurrections and co creations with God and each other to continually renew the promise of life and hope and love in a dangerous world.

210 00:49:52.380 --> 00:50:03.600 Rev. AJ van Tine: My friends, we find ourselves in this third quarter of the pandemic, not yet at the end of our isolation and the limited constricted lives we have had to lead through a whole year.

211 00:50:05.040 --> 00:50:16.200 Rev. AJ van Tine: But we are able to see on the horizon, a return to something we know it will not be returned to the normal we knew we know that we are changed and changing ourselves in light of this experience.

212 00:50:16.830 --> 00:50:25.710 Rev. AJ van Tine: It is both a great big shared experience and it was also a deeply personal and individual experience at the same time.

213 00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:41.520 Rev. AJ van Tine: not unlike how it must have been to be a follower of Jesus somehow comprehending what it meant for their teacher to die to lose that personal relationship and yet also find a way to resurrect his spirit and his teachings and loan.

214 00:50:44.190 --> 00:50:53.670 Rev. AJ van Tine: My friends, we are facing down a decade of critical consequence regarding climate change we change the climate and the climate changes us.

215 00:50:55.200 --> 00:51:08.040 Rev. AJ van Tine: The world that we knew before a world before rapid wildfires before catastrophic hurricanes, with no response in between a world before tornadoes in the south and polar vortex is in the Midwest that world.

216 00:51:08.670 --> 00:51:16.980 Rev. AJ van Tine: is dying, it is going away, but a new one is yearning to be born, if we can find the ways to be the change.

217 00:51:17.610 --> 00:51:37.050 Rev. AJ van Tine: To love one another and the earth and the cosmos and co create, with all that is was and may get be we may get find the strange beautiful terrifying joyful resurrection that lies in potential in the heart of every soul and the seed of every plant.

218 00:51:41.580 --> 00:51:47.760 Rev. AJ van Tine: I want to leave you this morning with one last quote about process theology from theologian Gordon confident.

219 00:51:49.350 --> 00:51:52.920 Rev. AJ van Tine: He offers a notion of God, as a symbol of orientation.

220 00:51:53.970 --> 00:52:04.980 Rev. AJ van Tine: That can help draw us or drive us beyond our present ideal and values into a new and open future transcending anything we today can even imagine.

221 00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:19.020 Rev. AJ van Tine: So whatever the symbol of orientation is for you, I hope you can identify it, whether it is God or gods Jesus or Buddha the divine mystery or the promise of humanity.

222 00:52:19.350 --> 00:52:35.160 Rev. AJ van Tine: Whatever that symbol of orientation is for you, that helps draw you beyond your present ideals and into a new and open future whatever it is, that is, the ground of hope and the mechanism through which we changed the world and we ourselves are changed for the better.

223 00:52:36.540 --> 00:52:37.380 Rev. AJ van Tine: And you find it.

224 00:52:38.700 --> 00:52:39.570 Rev. AJ van Tine: You cherish it.

225 00:52:41.190 --> 00:52:43.740 Rev. AJ van Tine: may change you and may you change it.

226 00:52:46.200 --> 00:52:46.980 Rev. AJ van Tine: may be so.

227 00:52:49.980 --> 00:52:55.830 Rev. AJ van Tine: And as Adrian spoke about earlier, maybe we sing together to celebrate this beautiful.

228 00:52:56.460 --> 00:53:06.990 Rev. AJ van Tine: interaction of change and celebrate and honor the divine the constant change wherever we find it, however, we understand it, and the budding and bursting spring full of potential and becoming.

229 00:53:07.620 --> 00:53:16.380 Rev. AJ van Tine: May we sing together in joy and hope, as the earth awakes again sing with me him 61 please low the earth awakes again.

231 00:55:51.090 --> 00:56:04.380 Tricia Caspers: It is often said that the offering is the sacrament of the free church, that is to say everything this congregation is and has is only what we bring to it.

232 00:56:04.950 --> 00:56:17.640 Tricia Caspers: Our time our talents and our treasures in person, this is embodied by the powerful ritual of literally passing the plate and chipping in.

233 00:56:18.990 --> 00:56:24.780 Tricia Caspers: With our online services, however, we ask that you contribute to our collection after the service.

234 00:56:26.670 --> 00:56:42.540 Tricia Caspers: By going to our website or using text to give as potter as part of our epic of generosity, we also split our monthly collection with a local community organization aligned with our values.

235 00:56:43.140 --> 00:57:02.880 Tricia Caspers: This month share the plate recipient is the auburn interfaith food closet which provides nutrition nutritious food to individuals and families in the auburn area who do not have sufficient resources to purchase it themselves, thank you for your generosity.

236 00:57:15.450 --> 00:57:17.730 Rev. AJ van Tine: Happy Easter my friends and happy Pasach.

237 00:57:19.410 --> 00:57:25.110 Rev. AJ van Tine: All that you touch you change and all that you change changes you.

238 00:57:26.400 --> 00:57:27.240 Rev. AJ van Tine: may it be so.

239 00:57:28.620 --> 00:57:38.640 Rev. AJ van Tine: And please join me in our words to extinguish our chalice as we go forth maybe we carry the flame piece in low until we meet again blessed to be.