We’re continuing our “kind of a Baptismal Vows Series” this week, so you can go ahead and bookmark page 34 in the hymnal now if you like!  

 The first week we read the story of the Baptism of Jesus alongside our Baptismal Vows and noticed how there was real risk, for John the Baptist, in accepting the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.  With freedom and power comes risk and responsibility.  Maybe we’re uncomfortable with risk, but we trust God enough to accept the risk.

Last week, we visited the uncomfortable verses about evil doers from Psalm 36, revisited the English translation of the Apostle’s Creed, watched a little Star Wars, and pulled this all together to say that Resistance is about saying Yes to Love.

This week we’re doing our annual, Book of Discipline Mandated review of our Safe Sanctuary Policy.

As someone who formerly held the job of youth and children’s ministry, today’s Bible reading is every family ministry worker’s worst nightmare!

To put this story in Modern Methodist terms, it’s like the whole church went to Camp Junaluska together, and Jesus didn’t get on the buses to take us from the Camp to the airport.  Then, Not even Jesus’ parents made sure that he had actually boarded the plane with us, until we reached our layover at Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas!  (Camp Junaluska is in North Carolina, just fyi – I thought it was in Alaska when I first became a Methodist!)

So we’re in Texas when Mary and Joseph realize that their weird, long haired kid is missing, and we don’t know where we lost track of Jesus, but he’s not here, so Mary and Joseph run to the ticket counter, beg the gate agent to exchange their ticket and fly back to North Carolina where they find Jesus giving a lecture to the Council of Bishops.  So of course, after they hug Jesus, they absolutely lose it on him!  Like, how could you do this to us! And Jesus is not even a little bit sorry!  He’s all, “of course I’m here!”  

Any other parents ever had their child say, “but I knew where I was!”

Stories like this one are half of why we have Safe Sanctuary Policies in our churches and Camps!

Our Safe Sanctuary Policies ensure that all Camp staff, camp volunteers, Church staff and volunteers, and all Clergy, including our Bishops have been background checked and are following basic safety rules such as:

1. Required training for all persons having direct contact with children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Training that includes an annual orientation that includes information about the local ministry setting abuse prevention policy. Paid staff who are required to attend these trainings should be

compensated for their time

2. Our standard practice is that all children, youth, and vulnerable adults will be

supervised by at least 2 unrelated adults and that no adult will be alone with

children, youth, or vulnerable adult(s) out of sight of other adults

The minimum standard is an open space (open door, window, etc.) such that activities can be observed and an adult who is assigned to periodically observe the activities.

3. No person shall supervise any age group of children or youth unless they are AT

LEAST 5 years older than the children or youth.

That’s our policy.  We background check, and people with a record of crimes against persons are excluded from ministry with vulnerable persons, youth,  and children.

We require training of all staff and volunteers who work with children or vulnerable adults.  And we’ll be sending out links to the online training soon!

We do not allow 1-1 interactions between one child and one adult and the standard is 2 unrelated adults who are at least 5 years older than the children or youth.  Unrelated adults is the rule because if you are spouses or otherwise related you may not be willing to testify in court against one another, or you may be more tolerant of wrong behavior. 

What this means for our story is that even though Jesus got left behind at Camp Junaluska, all the Camp Staff, volunteers and the Bishops would be background checked, trained, and be making sure that there were never any 1-1 meetings between an adult and young Jesus and at least 2 of the adults with Jesus would be unrelated.  So Jesus would have been safe.

And we have codified this priority for protecting children, youth and vulnerable adults into our United Methodist Documents. 

General Conference Resolution 3084, “Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse in

the Church, pg. 240, 2012 Book of Resolutions states:

As Christians we must take our responsibilities to our children, youth, and vulnerable adults very seriously. While policies alone may not be able to completely prevent all harm, sexual abuse can be prevented. We as the people of the United Methodist Church are dedicated to preventing all forms of abuse within our ministry and within our community.

And we define abuse: 

• Abuse: (is) intentional, negligent, or reckless behavior by a volunteer or staff

person that is harmful, injurious, or offensive. Abuse takes many forms and

includes, but is not limited to: physical abuse, neglect, self-neglect, abandonment, verbal and emotional abuse, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, involuntary seclusion, and wrongful restraint.

• Child Abuse:(is) an act committed by anyone which is not accidental and which harms or threatens a child’s physical or mental health or a child’s welfare.
• Physical Abuse: (is) when an adult injures a child other than by accident; including, but not limited to: assault, battery, shaking, slapping, burning, scalding, kicking and strangling.

Sexual Abuse: (is defined as)

1. any sexual contact or sexually explicit behavior initiated by an adult, youth or child toward a child;
2. any sexual contact or sexually explicit sexual behavior initiated by an adult toward a youth;
3. any nonconsensual sexual contact or nonconsensual sexually explicit behavior initiated by a youth toward another youth including, but not limited to sexual harassment; [and] any sexual behavior by a youth toward another youth younger than 14 and where the initiating youth is three years older;
4. any sexual contact by anyone (outside a recognized, committed, intimate partnership) toward a vulnerable adult, or sexually explicit behavior by anyone toward a vulnerable adult where the vulnerable adult is unable to provide meaningful consent.

• Emotional Abuse: (is) verbal assault or emotional cruelty.

Sexual Harassment and rape of non-vulnerable adults is also not OK, but the reporting rules are different, so that is not in this policy.  However our sexual harrassment or rape by our clergy is absolutely not tolerated and that is included in separate documents about clergy behavior.  

All clergy are mandated reporters in the state of Oregon, so I must report knowledge of childabuse and elder abuse.  There is no such thing as a seal of confession for United Methodist Clergy, when it comes to abuse. 

 I don’t have to report other crimes that are not against persons.

I also want you to know how to report abuse, including spiritual abuse by a Pastor, Deacon, or Certified Lay Minister.  When something happens, your Pastor should be a person whom you can trust to help you and to assist you with reporting abuse.  But sometimes an abuser will slip past our background check process, and our psychological evaluation and will try to do some harm.

If your pastor crosses a line, even if you aren’t sure if it’s abuse, please report us.

Here’s how!

Go to UMOI.org or  just search for Oregon Idaho UMC and that will take you to this webpage:  umoi.org

Yes, I always have that many tabs open!

Then scroll down to the very bottom

Which looks like this.  Do you see the word Staff across from the little bird and right above “Privacy & Terms of Use”?  Click on the word Staff

You see the picture of the Bishop, yes?  Scroll down a little bit more and you’ll see the contact info for the Bishop.

Scroll down further and you’ll see the District Superintendents.

All of Portland is in the Columbia District, so my Boss is Rev Karen Hernandez.  If you ever have any concerns about my behavior she is who you share your concerns with.

If you have concerns about a District Superintendent’s behavior, you can share them with a different Superintendent, or the Bishop.

If you have Concerns about the Bishop you can share those with a Superintendent, or your local Pastor, or you can google UMC Council of Bishops and report it to them.

I want you to know that there are consequences for clergy who do harm.  

Clergy who abuse anyone, spiritually, financially, physically, or sexually, will lose our ordination or licensing.  The policy of the United Methodist Church is that we turn in our clergy to law enforcement if they break the law by harming people.  We prioritize the protection of children, youth and vulnerable people over the reputation of our denomination.

Why?  Because protecting the vulnerable is a part of our Baptismal Vows.

Pick up your hymnal and turn to page 34.  Page 34, not hymn 34, there is no hymn 34. 

Not only do we vow to ‘accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.”  

Not only do the sponsors and family now to nurture the baptized, in Christ’s holy church,

But look at the top of p35.

The clergy person asks the whole congregation to take a vow to care for the Baptized.

I’ll read my part and then let’s all read your part together.

Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons now before you in your care?

With God’s help we will proclaim the good news 

and live according to the example of Christ.

We will surround these persons 

with a community of love and forgiveness,

that they may grow in their trust of God,

and be found faithful in their service to others.

We will pray for them,

that they may be truth disciples

who walk in the way that leads to life.

Notice what you have vowed to do as a congregation:

Let’s bring up our online friends and get the handheld mic,  so we can list this out together.

What do we as a congregation vow to do?

What do you see in these vows?

• To proclaim the good news
• Live according to the example of Christ – to be an example for the baptized
• Surround them with a community of love and forgiveness
• That grows their trust in God
• And teaches them to be faithful in service to others
• Pray for them
• Help them become disciples

Thank you!  Yes!  Let’s take down our online friends now, so we aren’t staring at them!

We are vowing to care for one another.

To surround one another with a community of love and forgiveness.

To create a place safe enough to grow trust.

Creating a safe place where love and trust can grow, requires us to center the needs of the vulnerable.

It’s more expensive to hire 2 nursery workers instead of 1.  But we must prioritize safety and abuse prevention over money.

There is room for forgiveness for abusers.  But they will not be allowed to volunteer or work with children, youth or other vulnerable people.  And we require that abusers be accompanied by a person of the church’s choosing at all times to make sure they don’t try anything.  Honestly, as a clergy person who has had convicted abusers ask me if they can attend church, they usually don’t attend after I let them know they will be supervised at all times.

If someone is taking advantage of a vulnerable adult, it’s our job, each one of us, as the church, to say something.  Whether that means reporting abuse to the appropriate agency, or that means, telling your friend that the very nice person they met online who is asking them to send money is a scammer.

If a Pastor is doing harm, we must report it.  And sometimes we need to hold our Bishops and District Superintendents accountable for making sure that clergy who do harm aren’t allowed to negotiate their way out of losing their ordination by retiring then using their ordination in retirement to get another ministry position where they can harm others.

And I think, that if young Jesus was left behind at Camp Junaluska with the Council of Bishops, Jesus would lecture them about caring for the vulnerable, and using their positions of power to do justice and act with mercy and humility.  

To be servants of God, rather than Chaplains of Empire.

To not be afraid of doing and saying what is right.

Pretty much EVERY clergywoman, myself included, hates the song, “Mary Did You Know” because it is the most biblically inaccurate Christmas Song ever!

I mean… I mean… just listen to this schlock!

Mary, did you know That your baby boy Is the Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know That your baby boy Will one day rule the nations?

Did you know That your baby boy Was heaven’s perfect Lamb?

And the sleeping Child you’re holdin’ Is the Great I Am!

It’s so inaccurate that fellow clergywoman, Megan Westra rewrote the lyrics in response.https://heatherprincedoss.com/mary-freaking-knew/

Mary freaking knew, that her baby boy would one day rule the nations.

Mary freaking knew, that her baby boy was Lord of all creation.

Yes she knew! Read Luke 1, you fool, she sang about it then;

It helps, if when you’re reading,

you listen to the

WOMENNNNNNNN!

The man who wrote “Mary Did You Know” is the sort of conservative Christian who doesn’t believe that women can be Pastors, much less prophets, so it makes sense that his view of Mary is of an ignorant and submissive girl who has no idea what she is getting into.

https://religionnews.com/2021/12/17/mary-did-you-know-songwriter-mark-lowry-remains-grateful-despite-controversy-mainsplain-theology-pentatonix-christmas/

As Ruth said, when we sang O Little Town of Bethlehem on December 1st, only a man would think that Mary was silent about the birth of Jesus!

Ruth definitely identified the source of the problem!

Because as I read commentaries on today’s Bible readings, there were definitely two very different views of this story.  Male scholars typically took the view that Mary was an unwed teenage mother who was helpless, vulnerable, meek, and ignorant.

Female scholars, especially those of us who have had the experience of giving birth and parenting teenage girls,  view Mary’s experience as powerful.

First of all, teenage girls are not silent!

Anybody else here raised a teen girl?  Not silent!

Teenage girls carry within them a powerful rage because they see so clearly the injustice of the patriarchy, in the way their own bodily autonomy is objectified into what is appealing to men.  Even in the Gospel of Luke, the Messenger Gabriel doesn’t ask Mary if she’s willing to Mother the Messiah, he just tells her her body is about to be used.  But Mary, in true teenage girl fashion, intelligently questions Gabriel, asking, “and… this will happen how?  Because I’ve never had sex with a man.” (Luke 1:34)  And after getting her question answered, teenaged Mary, gets the last word, by taking back her agency and saying yes, even though nobody asked for her consent.

Second of All, Pregnancy is powerful.  Cis Men talk about Mary being vulnerable and helpless because they have no idea how much energy it takes to grow a whole human inside of you.  Men view birth as helpless and vulnerable because there’s nothing they can do to protect us from it.  But the muscles and sheer effort that it takes to give birth requires a marathon level of energy.

But I think perhaps the most significant difference in view is our views of power.

The “traditional,” patriarchal view of the world defines power almost exclusively as the power to destroy.

• The country with the biggest military is the most powerful.
• The corporation who can extract the most labor and resources for the least expense is the most powerful.
• The ruler who can impose their will over the most people, whether they like it or not, especially if they don’t like, is the most powerful.
• The biggest city with the most wealthy people is the most powerful, even though that same city will usually have many more people living in poverty.
• The bully with the scariest, “or else,” is the most powerful.

This is how we’ve been taught to define power.

Power as, “power over.”  Power as the ability to enforce your will on others.

Power as the ability to destroy and dominate.

The Prophet Micah offers us the beginning of glimpses of a different kind of power: Generative Power, that is the power of creation.

Micah, like Mary, came from a small town, rural, working class family.  Micah worked as a prophet around 730 years before the first Christmas.  Micah went from small town boy to court prophet to 3 kings of Judah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, but he never forgot his hometown roots among the small-time farmers and shepherds in the foothills of the central highlands of Palestine.

You will probably recognize Micah by his most famous quote, Micah 6:8

“God has told you, O mortal, what is good:

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

The reason Micah was calling for justice and mercy and humility was because the Kings and local leaders were foreclosing on small farms and homesteads, tossing whole families into the street and dooming their children to starvation. (Micah 2:2; 9)

Micah’s calling as a prophet was to proclaim that God cares about the little people.  That the God of Jacob, is the defender of shepherds and poor farmers.  That God favors those whose daily labor is tending life.  The life of plants, the life of livestock, the life of the people who eat the food and wear the clothes woven from the wool and the flax.

In today’s reading, it’s inside the bulletin, if you want to follow along,  Micah is proclaiming that God has had it with the Big Kings from the Big Cities of Samaria and Jerusalem.

Next time, God is going to raise up a leader from backwater little Bethlehem.

A leader who will act like a good shepherd and take care of the people.

A leader who will bring security to their lives.

A leader who will understand that peace is far more powerful than war.

A leader who understands that real power is the kind of creative power that nurtures life.

We’ve been focusing this Advent on Room.

On Making Room for the Holy in our lives, just as the mysterious Inn Keeper made room for the Holy Family.

On Making Room for Joy by saying no to the myth of scarcity and yes to God’s abundance.

On Making Room at the Table for All of God’s Beloveds, because it’s God’s Table, it’s God’s Church, it’s God’s world.  We are limited in what we have and what we can do, But God is unlimited!

Today we are Making Room for a View.

Not the romanticized view of the Star of Bethlehem shining over an open fronted barn with a silent Mary and a baby Jesus who never cries.

Today we are Making Room for a different view of Mary and a different view of Power.

Generative Power.

The power to create and to tend life, not the power to destroy and oppress life.

Look at what the women said.

• Listen to Elizabeth talking about the power of a fetus leaping with joy.
• Listen to teenage Mary singing forth joy from the depths of her being when the whole world is telling her to be ashamed!
• Listen to Mary echoing Micah – talking about taking out the Big City Kings and raising up the lowly.
• Listen to Mary talking about a world where the hungry get the good stuff, and the rich walk away empty handed because they don’t get to steal from the poor anymore.

Mary was a teenage Prophet.

Mary was an Apostle – one of Jesus’ original followers who was there for the whole story.

Mary was a Leader in the early church.

Mary had a vision of the way the world could be if we embraced God’s Generative/Creative definition of Power.

• A View of Power as the daily labor of tending life.
• A View of Power as tending what we love, instead of fighting what we hate.
• A View of Power as reclaiming our agency from those who seek to dominate and oppress,
• A View of Power as saying yes to God’s vision of what the world could be if God’s will was done here on earth as it is in Heaven.

Teenage Mary, and small town Micah lived in a world very much like our own.

A world where Bullies, whether they be Kings or Corporate CEO’s seek to enrich themselves by denying God’s call to care for the Lowly.

Teenage Mary, and small town Micah were not powerful people from important families.  They were small town, working class folks who found their voices, and shared a view of what the world *could be* in the face of what the world is.

There are those who say that God’s Reign of Generative Power will never come here on earth as it is in heaven.  But I don’t particularly care how right they may  or may not be.

Because like Mary, my inner teenager has a few things to say about justice and mercy.

And I would rather be wrong about believing in the Power of God’s Love than be right about the Power of destruction and oppression.

A Place at the Table.  Peace
Montavilla United Methodist
December 15, 2024
Rev Heather Riggs

You can hear in my voice that I am still recovering from the flu!

I am so grateful for every single one of you who have pulled together to handle all the things while I was sick last week!

I’m so grateful for the time to be able to rest and heal that I’m going to echo Paul, and scholars do believe this letter to the Christians in Philippi was written by the actual Paul in the mid-50s, so like Paul…

I thank God for you in my prayers.

I’m so thankful for all of you.  You have brought joy back into ministry for me.

I love the way you have been real partners in ministry!

My crystal ball is broken, I don’t understand what’s going on in the world, or how exactly we’re going to get through all of this…

But I’m sure about this:

God is at work within us and God will stay with us in this work through the beginning of whatever it is that God is doing next in God’s Church.

You are all my partners in God’s grace, both while I was out sick, and while I am present.

The way you showed up, signed up, said yes, AND said no when you needed to instead of doing too much and becoming resentful, means a lot to me.

This is my prayer for you: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters, because, boy howdy, do we have some decisions to make! 

 I pray that your choices will lead to you being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians while he was in prison in Ephesus, knowing that his appeal as a Roman citizen was most likely going to lead to his execution for treason, because he refused to worship the Emperor.  So Paul had no right to be this happy!  Paul should have been scared out of his mind, and there were probably times that he was overcome with fear.  But in the moments that he was writing this letter, Paul was at peace with his future, because he trusted that God would continue to be at work in the lives of the people whom Paul was in ministry with, long after Paul was gone.

Christ came into the world during tumultuous times.

49 years before the first Christmas Julius Caesar ended the Roman Republic by declaring himself Emperor.  The transition from Republic to Empire eroded the civil rights of the citizens and non-citizens of Rome, increased taxes on the poor to fund the excesses of the Emperor, and set off an endless cycle of wars of expansion that in in the time of Christ they had the sheer gall to call the Pax Romana — that is, the Roman Peace.

Into this Empire, in the days of Caesar Augustus, the Emperor sent out a command to all the people to return to the city of their birth to be counted in a census, so that he would know how many people he had available to tax.

And because in the Roman Empire, women didn’t really count as people, Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown.

And maybe they delayed their departure because it looked like Mary was ready to pop any day and they hoped to travel after the baby was born.  But Jesus didn’t cooperate with that plan, so by the time Joseph and Mary made it to Bethlehem, Joseph’s family were all packed into every conceivable space.  So all they had left was the barn.

But when you’re family, it doesn’t matter how small the house is or how small the table is, or if all the chairs are already filled.  You find a way to make room.  You get out the card table.  You pull the sawhorses out of the garage and lay a tablecloth over a piece of plywood. You turn over a bucket and put a pillow on it to make a chair.

Love will find a way to make another place at the table.

Love will find a way to make sure that there is enough on the table for everyone.

There’s no such thing as a table that is too small.  

There’s only hearts that are too small.

But we live in a Western Culture that was shaped by the Roman Empire.  A culture that tells us that there is never enough.  A Culture that tells us that there are only so many seats at the table.

A culture that the original Paul challenged.  The original Paul, not the authors of the pseudo-pauline letters who told us that women should be submissive to their husbands, but the Paul who left women in charge of local churches.

The Paul who in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 17-33 gave us some instructions on how to share God’s Table.

Paul was mad at the Corinthians because they were acting like Romans of Empire at God’s table.  The rich, who didn’t need to work late and could show up early for their gatherings of the Lord’s Supper would bring food and wine and they would often eat and drink till stuffed and drunk and leave nothing for the poor members of the Church who had nothing to bring to the Lord’s Table.

They had this attitude that those who donate the most should get the most out of the church.  But Paul told them that this is not the way of the Body of Christ.

Paul told them that at God’s table, we wait for one another.  At God’s table there are no factions.  Or as the authentic Paul said in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This is why we are sharing our Advent Offering with Rahab’s Sisters and why we will give away 100% of our Christmas Eve offering to Family Promise, even though our 2025 budget plan is still substantially in the red!  We’re working on it, but it’s going to take God’s abundance to make this work! 

 Choosing to share is a choice.

It’s a choice to trust in God’s Empire of abundance, rather than the Roman Empires tradition of grasping scarcity.

Sharing our building and our resources is like sharing a table.

It’s saying that there is room in this building.

There is room in our hearts.

There is room at this table, because it is God’s Table.

 When we are grounded in God’s abundance there is more than enough  at the Table.  

More than enough space.  

More than enough resources. 

More than enough love to go around.

 It’s when we get stuck in thinking that there isn’t enough to go around.  

When we forget that this is God’s Table…God’s building…God’s Beloved Community.   

When we start thinking that this is our Table, our building, our resources, our money, our little group of friends.. That’s when we start to think that we don’t have a big enough table to share and we’re right!    

If the table is my table, there isn’t enough, because my resources are limited!  

I’m limited!

God is not limited.

And there is peace and joy and hope in placing our trust in God’s unlimited grace.

A peace and joy and hope that is far bigger than our circumstances.

God’s grace invites us through the Prophet Baruch, to find joy, peace and hope in the midst of the worst of times.

Baruch was a secretary of the leaders who had been carried away to be held captive in the Babylonian court.  He was a nobody, who wrote a couple of things and sent them to his friend, Jeremiah in Jerusalem.  He’s such a nobody that his writings are not included in the official Bible, but we still have them in the apocrypha, along with the story of Hannuka. 

Baruch reminds us to rejoice in the face of hard times.

To take off our mourning clothes and refuse to be oppressed.

To dress ourselves in the dignity of God.

To wrap ourselves in justice.

To trust God to shine through us in our darkest hours.

To remember that peace comes from justice.

And respect comes not from the wealth of Empires, but from the Grace of God.

So get up, church!

Be on the lookout for what God is doing!

See the people gathered at God’s table, and rejoice that God is still with us all.

How Much is Enough.  Joy
Montavilla United Methodist
December 8, 2024
Rev Heather Riggs

When I was maybe 12, I remember being at a family holiday family gathering where my Aunt Sandy brought deviled eggs.  I love deviled eggs!  My grandmother liked for the children to be served first, so I was near the front of the line, and as we were serving ourselves buffett style,  when I got to my Aunt’s deviled eggs, I took *3* deviled eggs.  My cousin, who is about the same age as I am, told me that I was being rude.  He said, you should only take one, until everyone else has one, then you can come back for a second one if there’s any left.

I was really embarrassed.  I had already touched all 3 eggs because we were picking them up with our fingers, so I couldn’t put them back, so there they were, 2 more eggs than I should have taken, loudly proclaiming my gluttony for all to see!

In my defense,  my parents never taught me that.  I was an only child, so the topic of taking one until everyone was served just didn’t come up.  

Nobody had taught me that if you have more than enough for yourself, guess what? You are eating somebody else’s portion.  It’s not that you worked harder.  It’s not that you are better than them or somehow more deserving. It’s not that you made it first in line. (Life isn’t a Black Friday doorbuster!)  if you have more than enough for yourself You’ve got somebody else’s portion. 

I think this is what John the Baptist is talking about in our second reading when he says, 

“Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.” 

I mean, having 2 shirts doesn’t sound like more than enough to us today, but John was one of those, extreme minimalism, everything I own fits in my backpack, kind of people!

So I don’t think that having 2 shirts means you have too much.  But having way more resources than anybody could use in one lifetime definitely is.

The less extreme, more applicable point is that people who have way more than enough have got somebody else’s portion.

In the first Century AD that John and Jesus were born into, the economy was basically divided into people who had more than enough and people who had not nearly enough.

There were rulers, major landholders, and Roman officials who had more than enough, and there was everyone else who was just barely scraping by.  

Sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?

Major Landholders were building extra barns to hold all their olive oil and wine while they didn’t pay their laborers enough to live on.

The Roman Officials and local rulers, like Herod, lived in palaces, where they never had to look at the poor while they are the food and wore the clothes that the poor could not afford due to low wages and extortionate taxes, levied to pay for the constant wars to expand the Roman Empire.

Roman Tax collectors collected taxes from everyone, and they didn’t get paid a wage for their tax collecting, so they would extort more money out of the people to line their own pockets.  Roman soldiers worked with the tax collectors as enforcers and took a cut from the tax collectors for their services.  Soldiers sometimes also harassed people into giving them more money.

Which is why John specifically gives instructions for tax collectors and Roman Soldiers.  They were literally taking food from the plates of the poor, because the poor are much easier to harass than the rich, who can afford their own protection.

This is why John says to the Tax collectors, 

“Collect no more than you are authorized to collect.” 

And to the Soldiers, 

“Don’t cheat or harass anyone, and be satisfied with your pay.”

This is the world in which the Innkeeper made room for Joseph and a very pregnant Mary.

Some Bible scholars think that there was no such a thing as an Inn in the first century.  When Jesus sent the disciples out, he told them to just wait for someone to offer them a place to stay in their home, so maybe that’s what everyone did?

What if the Innkeeper of our childhood Christmas pageants, was just an average homeowner?  

What if, all the houses who had a guest room were already full, and Inna Keeper was a poor widow, living in a one room house with her son and his wife and 4 grandchildren and the only room they had was the shed where they kept a couple of milk goats?  

I can totally picture that because I’ve served in rich churches who could afford to hire me as a musician and I’ve served in poor churches as a volunteer, and something that I’ve noticed is that people who have experienced not having enough, are always willing to share what little they have, because they have a theology of abundance…a belief that God will provide enough, where there is not enough.

Today’s Isaiah reading comes from that place of joyous abundance.  Drawing water with joy from the Springs of salvation that is ever-flowing. Placing our trust in the abundance of God even in a season where we cannot see God’s abundance is a subversive kind of joy.  A joy that rejects the narrative that there is not enough to meet everyone’s needs.  A joy that says, God has created more than enough for everyone if we just share what God has given us.

Sometimes the problems feel so large that we feel like we’re not enough.  

We don’t know enough.  

We don’t have enough. 

We ourselves, feel like I am not enough.  

And so we freeze, because we’re not sure if we can do anything meaningful.   

We get caught up in the narrative of scarcity that whispers insidiously, right into our biggest insecurities.  

Whispering that since we can’t fix it all, then we can’t do anything!  

This lie steals our hope and steals our joy and prevents us from doing anything at all.

It’s true that we can’t fix it all, but we can do what’s right in front of us. 

Grandma Inna Keeper didn’t have much to offer, but there was no way she was going to let that baby be born on the street, even when the only place she could offer was a goat shed!

Together, as a church, we have more than a goat shed.

We have a large building with many spare rooms!  Although sometimes it may feel like a broken down shed with the backlog of maintenance!

But we do have a big building, and endowment funds, and most importantly we have one another – us, together praying and serving and loving one another and our neighbors as Jesus asked us to. 

We the Beloved Community:

• Who have given so much of your time to help house houseless families with Family Promise.  
• Who have lead so many urgently needed ministries in this place over the last 100 years!
• Who are, right now, discerning how we can make more room in this building, that we are stewarding for God, for ministries that put clothing and food, and dignity and wellbeing back into the lives of people who’s portions have been devoured by those who have more than enough.

This isn’t easy discernment.

It’s hard to imagine a way of using the building that we’ve never seen before!

It’s hard to envision how we will do ministry when we aren’t spending so much time on keeping the dang building in repair!

It’s hard to imagine what it will feel like to not be in control of the whole building anymore.

But we were never in control of this building to begin with!

This building belongs to God!

Many of your parents helped build this building and steward this building for God, so that there would be a Methodist Church in this community.  A Methodist church who believes in 

doing no harm

Doing all the good we can, and

Deepening our connection to God, the source of all our joy.

The insidious whispers of scarcity and not enough-ness have always sought to prevent the people of God from believing in God’s abundance.

But God offers us joyful abundance as a much better replacement for our fears.

(slide1 : What were you doing together when you experienced Joy as a part of this Church?)

This week.  Your assignment is to talk with one another about the times you experienced joy as a part of this Church.  

Remember, the church is not a building!

The Church is us – the Community of the Beloved!

So find someone to sit next to, and pair up in 2’s or 3’s and each person share about one time that you experienced joy as a part of this church.

Let’s bring up our online friends:

Who would like to share?

Raise your hand if the thing you shared could still be done if we don’t control the building and need to schedule space to do it?

Take this question home with you. Maybe discuss it with your friends and families:

(slide 2: What is possible for us as a Church, as individuals, as Portlanders, as Oregonians, as Americans, if we say no to the lie of scarcity and embrace God’s joyful abundance?

Jeremiah 33: 14-16 (Common English Bible)

The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill my gracious promise with the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time, I will raise up a righteous branch from David’s line, who will do what is just and right in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is what he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

It’s THAT time of year.

Time to pull down those boxes of Christmas Ornaments, set up the tree, and just generally Deck the Halls.

Every year when I pull out those boxes, I promise myself that I will go through everything when I put it away and get rid of the broken ornaments, the lights that don’t work, and… that weird thing isn’t really a Christmas decoration.  But at the end of the season, I just don’t.  I’m tired.  I want it all to go away as fast as possible.  So everything gets tossed back into the boxes and stuffed into the attic higgledy piggledy!

So last year, I did it at the beginning of Advent.  I sorted through all the boxes and got rid of broken things, worn out things, things that don’t work and the things that no longer make sense (and maybe never did!) while the rest of my family decorated.

There’s 5 of us because we share our home with our adult children, so: 

• my husband put up the lights that still work
• Oli and Gwen and Aelric decorated the tree and the house
• And I spent 5 hours sorting and letting things go.

I cleared out 2 large rubbermaid tubs worth of broken and no longer useful things!  It felt soooo good!

Which made room for new things that work. 

And made room for a simpler and easier clean up.

Advent is season for making room.

The word Advent is both a verb and a noun.  

To advent, is to enter 

For example:

“The whole party rejoiced at my advent to the house!”

An Advent is a beginning.

For example:

“The advent of my highschool experience was in1985!”

The Churchy use of the word Advent is both as a verb and a noun.

We are celebrating the Advent of Jesus into the world.

And

We are at the Advent of the church year.

The beginning of the church year isn’t back to school or New Years.

The beginning of the church year is the season of Advent, where we make room for Jesus, like the innkeeper made room for Jesus’ family even though there was no room.

Bring up our online folks please!

What do you like about the Innkeeper?

• How many of you remember the Innkeeper from the story of Jesus’ birth?  Raise your hands.
• Take a minute and talk with your neighbors…What do you like about the Innkeeper?  (Would a few of you be willing to share what you like about the Innkeeper?)
• Bonus question:  Who can tell me which gospel the Innkeeper appears in?

The Innkeeper doesn’t appear in any of the gospels!  All we have is a passing mention in Luke chapter 2 verse 7 that Mary lay Jesus in the manger because there was no Guest Room available at the inn.

OK – you can take our online friends down, so we’re not staring at them!

The Innkeeper isn’t in the Bible, and yet the Innkeeper is a totally relatable character.  Because like so many of us the Innkeeper’s life is overfilled to the point that there’s no room for anybody else.  Between making a living, accommodating all the out of town guests, keeping the house in working order, taking care of their own family, dealing with health issues and mental health issues, caring for their animals, getting food on the table, and trying to participate in the local Innkeepers guild — I’m making all this up, making the Innkeeper relatable, since the Innkeeper is a made up character anyway!   The overwhelmed Innkeeper really didn’t have any room in their life for a young pregnant couple with zero ability to plan ahead!

And yet, the Innkeeper made room.

They made space where they didn’t have space.

They reprioritized, they rearranged, they maybe tossed some junk they were storing in the barn, maybe put some fresh straw in the manger, and turned it into a bedroom with a manger for a crib.

Advent is a season for making room for God.

I love playing the Innkeeper in Christmas pageants because literally making room for God is such a life-giving thing!  It’s like, yes!  I did the right thing!  I let Jesus into my heart and my home!

But real life isn’t that simple, is it?

I think that Jesus does show up in our lives every day, but we have been enculturated to not recognize Jesus.

We have been taught by our culture to fill our lives with work and housekeeping, and family, and dealing with our own issues, and to buy more shiny things to sooth ourselves when we become overwhelmed.

And none of those things are bad.  

It’s not wrong to take care of yourself! 

It is Good to take care of yourself.  

Jesus took naps!

Jesus shared dinner with friends!

Jesus took breaks!

But our culture tries to convince us to fill our lives to overflowing so that there will be no room for the holy.

No room for the holy work of being there with a friend in need.

No room for volunteering to help others.

No room for resisting evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, as we vowed to do in our Baptismal vows.

No room in many of our church buildings for those in need, because we have filled our rooms with broken and outdated things.

In these times when we feel like we have no room.  

Here at the Advent of a new year,  this is the time to sort through our things.  Not just sort through our stuff, but sort through our lives.

What things am I doing that don’t work for me anymore?

What feels broken?

What is doesn’t fit with this season of my life?

What can I let go of to make room to breathe?

What can I let go of to make room for the holy?

This is confusing work, so don’t do it alone.

Maybe share your journey with a friend.

Maybe pray with the Psalmist, today’s Psalm. 

Psalm 25: 4-5 (CEB)

Make your ways known to me, Lord;

    teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth—teach it to me—

    because you are the God who saves me.

        I put my hope in you all day long.

Maybe read it each morning or each evening.

We put our hope n God to help us make room in our lives for the holy, however the holy shows up.

I saw the Holy show up a couple weeks ago at Rahab’s Sisters Sparkle Party.   

Rahab’s Sisters is a non-profit that rents space in our building to provide radical hospitality to Fem and Queer folks through: food, resource navigation, supplies, counseling, and a safe place to be.

How many of you got to see Rahab’s Sisters rearrangement of our space last week?

Rahab’s Sisters had their gala fundraiser, the Sparkle Party, here a couple of weeks ago and we got to play Innkeeper for them.  We didn’t really have a big enough room for their party, or the right kind of spaces, but we shared what we do have.  We let them move all the books and tables and old things into the lobby and make room in our old building to decorate and  celebrate the work of welcoming the Holy Family of our Fem and Queer neighbors.

I noticed that moving around all the things, and looking at all the pictures of their guests and the stories and supplies they displayed, gave some of you an idea for how we could repurpose this old building to do more good in the world.  How we could make more room for the ministries that our community needs.

It’s not a secret that we’ve been talking about trading places with Rahab’s Sisters in relationship to the building.  Selling them the building so they can have more responsibility and more use of the building, while we stay here and have less responsibility for the building, and more time for ministry.

I invite you this week to have conversations with your Church friends about what it might look like to make more room for the Holy in our ministries and our space use.

What room do we really need for the ministries that matter?

and 

How can we make room in our church for the Holy?