Sermons

First Christian Church

“Exile in Ohio”

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Our text for today is a message from God via the prophet Jeremiah encouraging the exiles in Babylon to make the most of their captivity by mixing it up with the population. By attempting to fit in they're caring for both themselves and the Babylonians.

In 586 BCE the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and began to deport the royal court, court officials, artisans and certain craftspeople to Babylon the capitol of Persia. This didn't happen all at once but more so occurred in waves or phases.

Historians not only know about these deportations but actually know how the exiles were treated by their captors. This knowledge comes from archives in Babylon that have been discovered and interpreted. The exiles were given opportunities to perform meaningful work such as carpentry, and in the boatyards, and as sailors (this was mostly for river sailing and not the open sea), royal messengers and hired swords or mercenaries.

This does not all translate to a life on easy street. To the contrary, life can be challenging when one loses control and you're subject to the will and whims of a people who have forcibly detained you. The Babylonians were strangers and Persia itself was a foreign culture with pronounced differences from Judean culture.

Yet this letter from Jeremiah which is in effect a prophetic word from YHWH offers both encouragement and hope calling on the exiles to make life choices and take actions that align with Babylonian culture. In this way, they can both care for themselves and their families and even contribute in positive ways to the foreign culture they now inhabit.

If we look a few verses beyond our text YHWH assures them that he will eventually bring redemption and return them to their home: I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from the nations, and all the places I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:14)

But there is a seventy-year waiting period in which God calls them to build, plant, eat, marry (not with Babylonians), have children, and make productive contributions to the city they now inhabit. God calls on them to do this as opposed to despairing and longing to return home. Another way of saying it is God is telling them to acquiesce to their newfound situation.

In regard to empires allowing the Jewish people to practice their religion the Babylonians were different than the Romans. The Romans initially allowed them a lot of leeway with both religious beliefs and practices, though this changed over time due to frequent revolts. Roman repression of Jewish religious practice culminated in the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

On the other hand, the Babylonians were always repressive and destroyed the temple early on in their conquest of Judea. But what is of most note is that the Jewish faith actually became stronger because of this repression with the development of synagogues and a renewed interest in Sabbath and dietary laws, and a deeper focus upon scripture and community prayer.

So, at this point there are two distinct things happening. The first is God's instruction that his people are to try to get along with their captors. Conversely, there was this clear progression and development of the faith which occurred during their exile. The creation of synagogues is one obvious aspect of this development.

Scholars are in consensus that the synagogue was a result of the destruction of the temple and came forth during the Babylonian exile. Even though the Lord has told them to try to get along and that he'll return for them in seventy years the people are not going to allow their faith to be diminished by their captors. They're going to move ahead and history shows that's exactly what they did.

It's a well know fact that we progress in a variety of ways not when were comfortable and complacent, but when we're struggling to meet challenges. That's when we have to be creative and courageous in order to adapt to changing environments. Things change and we have to follow suit.

I personally experienced this when I made the bold move from Tacoma to Shadyside, Ohio (You've heard this story before but the good one's bear repeating). From the very beginning I felt as though I was in exile and longed to return home and that feeling stayed with me for the next nine years. And like God's people I too experienced repression though not religious repression.

The story that most encapsulates this happened during my first year as senior pastor of First Christian Church. There was an annual festival that took place replete with carnival rides, vendors and a large scale bingo game that took place on the street right in front of the church. The tradition that was established is the pastor of the church would volunteer to help out with the bingo game.

I stepped up to the plate and was given an apron to wear in which I placed the quarters folks would pay to purchase a bingo card. While I was performing my duty I received another call and had to exit for a few minutes to use the church bathroom. Before leaving I asked the person in charge if I should leave my apron with them and he replied, “No, we trust you.” Because I didn't want to leave an apron full of money lying around, I took it with me.

Upon my return there was a lot of commotion, so I asked what was going on and was told that they had been frantically looking for me and the apron full of quarters. I told them the guy in charge said it would be okay to keep the apron on but that didn't seem carry much weight.

After that incident I was never again allowed to help out with the bingo game though I attempted to volunteer and then finally just gave up. I imagine a rumor circulated the village of less than three thousand people that the new pastor was a thief, though I don't know that for sure. Obviously, this unfortunate event contributed greatly to my feelings of exile due to a pervasive coldness that was apparent from many people I encountered throughout the village.

The people who were most hospitable were those of my own parish and the Fellowship of Churches which was a collection of congregants from the seven churches in the village. Beyond that the reception I most commonly received was often cool to ice cold and almost always awkward. If it wasn't for my faith in God and my conviction I'd been Called to the church, I probably wouldn't have lasted more than a year or two.

Because of this experience I can understand the religious/spiritual development of God's people during the Babylonian exile. My experience of exile in Ohio was also a time of considerable religious/spiritual development where I blossomed as a pastor. I had to move forward in order to remain in my position in the church and to exist from day to day within a community of suspicion and what felt like rejection.

I'm certain that this experience of exile and rejection was a key component to my marriage to Karen. I was around fifty years old when I proposed to Karen and was quite settled into bachelor life. Marriage was a huge transition and I was not entirely sure I could adapt to being a full time husband. I was so used to doing things on my own and thankfully Karen has consistently displayed remarkable patience and wisdom.

Karen took the edge off of exile, but I could never completely adjust to that level of rejection. The overall result of the repression I experienced was not unlike the way God's people responded to Babylonian repression. They too moved forward religiously and spiritually in order to cope with their new cultural environment and to continue to develop Judaism.

We all must and have done the same thing in our lives or we wouldn't be here being fed by Gods' word! This makes the psalms an important resource for us and a way of mirroring our own life's journey:

Bless our God, O peoples! Give him a thunderous welcome!

Didn't he set us on the road to life? Didn't he keep us out of the ditch?

He trained us first, passed us like silver through refining fires.

Brought us to this hardscrabble country, pushed us to our very limit.

Road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back;

Finally, he brought us to this well-watered place.

Psalm 66:8-12; The Message Bible)

Rev. Mitch Becker

October 12, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

“Fostering Faith”

Luke 17:5-10

Just prior to our text for today Jesus is talking to the disciples about fellow disciples who may sin and that they need to be rebuked, repent and forgiven. As we all know forgiveness is an immensely difficult thing to do and most often requires God's assistance. But surely that's not all they're considering as they ask Jesus to “increase their faith.”

At this point they've already heard other requirements of discipleship perhaps as much or more challenging than the need to forgive. These requirements would include making family ties secondary, giving up possessions, and most challenging of all picking up your own cross and following him.

Certainly, the cross would symbolize some aspect of sacrifice but even more frightening the cross was a common way the Romans punished and terrorized the population into submission. It was a horrible way to die, and Jesus is using it to describe discipleship. Is it any wonder that the disciples ask him, probably with some degree of anguish, to “increase our faith!”

The text as a whole is in two parts and the parts are connected in the theme of discipleship. The first part is a definition of faith using a mustard seed which is tiny maybe one or two millimeters across, and a sycamine (sick-ah-mine) tree which can be massive with an extensive root system. The point being that a very small portion of faith is capable of doing great things.

The second part of the text deals with what is expected of a disciple and here the image of a slave is introduced. At this point we have to remember that in ancient times slavery was an accepted social institution deeply ingrained within the culture. Therefore, Jesus has no qualms about using it to exemplify what it means to be a disciple.

The example he presents is that of a servant who prepares and serves a meal and is not expected to eat until later. The servant does whatever he or she is told to do and this is what Jesus expects of his disciples. Another way of saying it is disciples must fulfill their duty.

The text ends on a somewhat troubling note by saying that when the disciples have fulfilled their duty, they can consider themselves as “worthless slaves.” That phrase seems contradictory to the rest of the gospel, but on closer examination what it likely points to is our inability to manipulate God's immense generosity. In other words, God owes us nothing and the service we render is possible only because of our association with God.

One reason a phrase like “worthless slave” is troubling is that it suggests we don't have control over our own lives. A slave must relinquish any notions of autonomy at a moments notice to respond to the wants and needs of the Master. We don't like that and especially us Americans who are accustom to a lot of self-determination. We like our freedom and there's something in us that roundly resists being pressured or pushed into meeting the needs of others.

This occurred to me last week as I was loading Oreo into the car at the end of a workday. Suddenly, I heard a car coming up the hill on Race Street excessively revving its engine. It was apparent something was wrong and I had the feeling I might have to respond to the situation. That's when I noticed a hand sticking out the window signaling me to come over.

I left Oreo and walked over to the drivers side of the car where I encountered a woman in distress repeatedly attempting to put the transmission into drive. It soon became evident that wasn't going to happen and I suggested she allow the car to roll back to the turnout about 50 yards behind her. She saw that was the only option available and proceeded to back up.

Since the street seemed to be unfamiliar to her, I stayed stationary and when she got close to the turnout, I motioned to turn the wheel. I may have acted too soon as the right rear tire was now against the curb leaving the car blocking the street. I rushed down to see that the car needed to be pushed off the curb which meant pushing it uphill. With a growing feeling of desperation, I began to instinctively turn to the line of cars accumulating behind us in the hope that someone would lend a hand.

Finally, a young man parked in the church parking lot and came down to help push and then another young man came out of nowhere and also helped. With the three of us we were able to move the car forward and I reached in and grabbed the wheel guiding the car back into the turn out. I thanked everyone for their assistance and the woman was equally grateful. She called triple A and then her cousin to come and get her.

Now, my resistance to that hand sticking out the window motioning for me to come over cannot be entirely attributed to giving up my autonomy. It was obvious this would be a very public situation with some degree of danger involved as people anxiously passed her on the left. I don't know if she knew I was the pastor of the church and expected me to respond, but in doing so I gave up control over my own destiny.

Now that I've shared my little story with you there is another word that can be applied here and that word is “surrender.” Let's let Father Rohr step in here and talk to us about faith:

Remember, it's God in us that loves God. We on our own don't really know how to love God. It's Christ in us that recognizes Christ. It's the Holy Spirit, whose temple we are that responds to the Holy Spirit. Like recognizes like. That's why all true cognition is really recognition. Only in so far as we have surrendered to Christ and allowed the Christ in us to come to fullness can we love Christ.

“Faith” is not an affirmation of a creed, an intellectual acceptance of God, or believing certain doctrines to be true or orthodox. Yet many Christians have whittled faith down to that. Such faith does not usually change our heart or lifestyle. I'm convinced that much modern atheism is the result of such a heady and ineffective definition of faith. We defined faith intellectually, so people came up with intellectual arguments against it and then said, “I don't believe in God.”

Both Jesus' and Paul's notion of faith is much better translated as foundational confidence or trust that God cares about what is happening right now. This is clearly the quality that Jesus represents and then praises in other people. God refuses to be known intellectually. God can only be loved and known in the act of love. God can only be experienced in communion. This is why Jesus “commands” us to move toward love and fully abide there. Love is like a living organism, an active force-field upon which we can rely, from which we can draw, and we can allow to pass through us.

He begins and ends not only describing “faith” but also that most prized of all Christian virtues “humility.” We have to get out of the way for God to love God within us. It's as if we're mere spectators and to be content to be so is what it means to be humble. He points to humility again when he ends by describing love as something “we can allow to pass through us.” Again, essentially, we're just spectators watching God do his thing and God's thing is love.

To learn how to be content as a mere spectator is one way to explain the purpose of quiet, centering prayer. By simply sitting in silence for prolonged periods of time not asleep or somehow unconscious to what's happening but rather fully aware of God's loving presence. Quiet, centering prayer creates the necessary conditions to surrender the ego and its relentless neediness allowing God to be with God.

Of course, that's not always the meditative experience that occurs. Sometimes you're profoundly in the presence of God, but much of the time it's just a restful observation of of positive thoughts and pleasant memories. God appears when the mind becomes completely quiet with full surrender of both the past and the future. It is an immersion into stillness where anything can happen and therefore requires a great deal of trust or faith because it's a total letting go of control.

From this place one can be truly led by the Spirit and it's what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) The phrase “...poor in spirit” is another way of describing “humility” or that ability to surrender the neediness of the False self to whatever God has in mind for you.

You can see how patience becomes an important component here. It's much like the way Oreo waits for me in the car when I disappear for some reason. On the day I wrote this sermon Karen invited me to have a latte with her. We met at Starbucks and sat in her car enjoying our drinks and conversation while Oreo waited patiently in my car.

She often stood in-between the front seats staring out the back window because that's the last place she saw me. She waited for my return unaware of my presence in the car next to her. And so it is with quiet, centering prayer. You're waiting for God to show up in the last place you saw him. In the meantime, there's lots of positive thoughts and pleasant memories to entertain, but like Oreo, what you're really waiting on is for the Master to return.

Rev. Mitch Becker

October 5, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

Luke 16:1-13

“Gotta Serve Somebody”

You might recognize the title of this sermon “Gotta Serve Somebody” comes from a Bob Dylan song and it speaks to Jesus' teaching today. In the gospel lesson Jesus gives us a choice in that we can serve either God or mammon with the clincher being you can't serve both! Another word for mammon is “wealth” or the acquisition of it which Martin Luther called the “most common god on earth.”

In a culture like ours where the charging of interest is a common/accepted practice we sometimes forget that it was forbidden in the Bible. It was forbidden mostly because it exploited the vulnerable poor which is why we say in the Lord's Prayer: “Forgive us our debts.” But when we encounter a debt collector (the manager in the parable) who is actually reducing poor people's debts by 20 to 50 percent – which probably results in the original amount borrowed without hidden interest charges – it may strike us as rather odd behavior.

One way to approach this is to look at economics in Roman-occupied Galilee in the first century. Rich landlords and rulers were loan sharks charging exorbitant interest to acquire land when the peasant defaulted on the loan. This practice was in direct violation of covenant law. Even though the word “defraud” isn't used Jesus' audience would know that debt contracts included exorbitant interest hidden from illiterate peasants.

New Testament scholar William Herzog says, “The hidden interest rates appear to be about 25 percent for money and 50 percent for goods.” The debt collector in our story was probably just reducing his own profit margin. The reason he's doing this was stated at the beginning of the text: He was losing his job and didn't think he could take care of himself, so he was making friends in order to be taken care of by others.

Let's see how The Message Bible can help us out here:

Now here's a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They're on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits.

I want you to be smart in the same way – but for what is right – using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.

In other words: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

The man that we bought our property from lives in a house he recently built just above us on the hill. He called Karen the other evening and told her he's going to clear off all the vegetation on the hill above us. He's entertaining the possibility of fire coming up the hill because the grass and shrubs have become very dry. It's not an unfounded concern.

It probably didn't help that I attempted to burn debris during the burn ban that I was not aware had begun, and I told you about the fire department coming and putting it out. The fire department had to have been notified by one of the neighbors on the hill and they apparently told him about the incident. So, now he wants to remove any possibility of fire.

A couple days after he called it occurred to me, in the middle of the night (of course) that clearing the hill of vegetation could result in erosion and excessive water runoff. At present we have no means to keep water from flooding our property if it came down the hill. I spent more than an hour with my journal, in prayer, and dancing away unrestrained energy, and I returned to bed and fell asleep.

Property ownership doesn't necessarily equate to wealth, but it can be a significant factor in building up wealth. The quote from Martin Luther about the acquisition of wealth being the “most common god on earth” applies here because I sense that I'm a bit too worried about my property. I've never owned an expanse of property, so this is new to me, but I have been a Christian leader for some time, and I can sense when I'm straying into unholy territory.

Idolatry can be sneaky. It sort of creeps up on you which is the demonic aspect of it, and you have to make an intentional effort to become consciously aware of what's happening. The culture around us is of no help whatsoever. The culture both inadvertently and often deliberately encourages idolatry because it sends the message that happiness and security come through the acquisition of things. Things like property, cars, houses, cell phones, clothes, expensive food and so on.

This is a pervasive problem that none of us can escape because the idolatrous behavior is deeply ingrained within all of us. We have been trained and conditioned since childhood, but as adult people of faith we need to wake up. Here's how Jesus helps us to do that:

Now. I want to ask you to use your imaginations for a few moments and you can close your eyes if you'd like while I paint a picture: Jesus has found a grassy knoll that rises a bit above the crowd of mostly peasants, though there may be a few Pharisees and scribes. They have heard about the miraculous healing he has done, and there may be a few who've seen or even been healed themselves.

The devoted who are always close by, the ones referred to as his disciples, often call him Master, and it's rumored that he could be the Messiah the one they've been waiting for. Jesus is an itinerant preacher who has come to their town or village and they're not going to miss this opportunity to hear him. Because someone had the good sense to record what he said we still have it with us. Here it is put into contemporary words:

Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or – worse! – stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious isn't it. The place where your treasure is, is the place you'll most want to be, and end up being.

Your eyes are like windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one God, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt of the other. You can't worship God and money both.

If you decide for God, living a life of God worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than the birds. Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion – do you think it makes that much difference?

Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten-best dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers – most of which are never even seen – don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. (Matthew 6:19-34; The Message Bible)

That part about not getting worked up about what might happen tomorrow and God helping when the time comes applies to me and my worries about our property. But perhaps the most striking teaching that applies to our theme of idolatry is when he says to not be preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving!

That's what happens when you crossover from the land of ego grasping to the land of God's goodness and grace. We're trained as children to grasp after things and when we're infants that's perfectly understandable. Grasping is a reflex that helps us develop our muscles and motor skills. But after that development has happened we need to move on to deeper spiritual development.

What Jesus is revealing is we're surrounded by God's grace and are being cared for and our task is to recognize this God-reality. To see it. That's what it means to spiritually wake up. The culture around us is fast asleep, but Christ in his teaching and example has shown us The Way to awaken to God's constant care.

Can you imagine the load that is lifted from you when you no longer are grasping, devising, scheming and politicking to get to the next thing on your agenda? It's like a hundred pound sack of potatoes you've been carrying around all your life finally gets lifted off your back. Whatever God sends your way is now enough which is what he's getting at when he says, “Don't worry about missing out.”

It's also what the Apostle Paul means when he says God told him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a)

Rev. Mitch Becker

September 21, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

Numbers 21:4b-9

“Shadowlands”

The people of God are complaining and for good reason because they've been in the wilderness for forty years and seem to be getting nowhere! God has sent them food to eat in the form of manna that they describe as “cakes baked with oil.” They're sick and tired of it, so they're speaking out against Moses, but something a bit different for our text is they're also speaking out against God.

So, God, in his infinite mercy and compassion sends poisonous snakes to bite them. We can assume here that unlike the flood where God is moved by grief that this is genuine anger caused by the people's lack of trust. God's anger is so potent that many Israelites are killed by the snakes and God gets the desired response which is for the people to repent. They plead with Moses to intercede, and he does and God instructs him to make a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole. Those who look upon the raised bronze snake will be healed.

Now, the people have been to Sinai, and they've received the covenant, and this lack of faith is a violation of that covenant. Therefore, we can begin to understand why God would feel the need to punish his children. Sometimes a parent needs to help their child develop good behaviors and teach self-control and a sense of responsibility through corrective actions. A term often used is “tough love.”

And this is tough love indeed as God doesn't take the snakes away but rather allows the snakes to physically and painfully bite the people who then become sick. What God does do is he offers a cure which is to gaze upon this serpent on the pole. At which point a person is healed but not before they suffer possibly becoming nauseous, vomiting, dizzy, pulse accelerates, and blood pressure goes up and if something isn't done organ failure and death.

This really exceeds the notion of “tough love” and could be seen as outright sadistic behavior. What in the world is the message here that God wants to convey not only to his people but to the faithful centuries in the future?

If we're not actually suffering in some physically painful way then we're surrounded by it every minute of the day. In the Sudan a humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions is occurring due to a civil war. Though aid is trying to reach the suffering it is being blocked by the parties involved in the war. What is happening in Gaza can also be described as a humanitarian crisis being perpetuated by a war between Hamas and the nation of Israel restricting aid that's trying to reach the suffering masses.

These humanitarian crises are not due to natural causes or climate change or deforestation or anything like that...the source of the crises is the human heart as recorded in the Book of Jeremiah: “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle no one can figure out?” (Jeremiah 17:9; The Message Bible))

Do you think it's possible that God, at times, is perplexed by our behavior? And when I say “our” it means I'm not just pointing a finger at the nation of Israel or the warring factions in Sudan or Putin or anyone else who is being dark and deceitful and violent. Jeremiah is pointing his finger at the nation of Judah, but when he describes the human heart, he means all of humanity. Father Rohr has more to say about this:

In many ways, the struggle with darkness has been the church's constant dilemma. It wants to exist in perfect light, where God alone lives. It does not like the shadowland of our human reality. It seems that all of us are trying to find ways to avoid the mystery of human life – that we are all a mixture of darkness and light – instead of learning how to carry it patiently through to resurrection, as Jesus did....

There are no perfect structures and no perfect people. There is only the struggle to be whole. It is Christ's passion that will save the world. Jesus says, “Your patient endurance will win you your lives” (Luke 21:19). He shows us the way of redemptive suffering instead of redemptive violence. Patience comes from our attempts to hold together an always-mixed reality. Perfectionism only makes us resentful and judgmental. Grateful people emerge in a world rightly defined, where even darkness is no surprise but an opportunity.

This week the Dalai Lama said something on my desk calendar very similar to Father Rohr's comments: When we meet tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

This last week there was a tragic event that occurred in the murder of Charlie Kirk a popular conservative activist who traveled around to different college campuses and held rallies. Charlie Kirk's worldview that he'd share with these young people is not something I could align with, but he was a child of God – loved and cherished by God as we all are. What happened to him is an expression of the dark and deceitful heart the prophet describes.

As people of faith, we need to respond in prayer for those closest to him, but also for those at the rally that day who witnessed his murder. No one comes out of such experiences without some degree of trauma that has to be worked through. When someone is murdered right before your eyes the everyday world you've become accustomed can suddenly change and any notions you've previously had about the world being a safe place may be shattered in an instant.

You can be virtually shocked into another reality and now run a very high risk of suffering from PTSD or other mental health complications in the long run. And this is happening to people on a daily basis across this country where the collateral damage from gun violence alone is staggering and incomprehensible.

One of the ways people respond is to point fingers and place blame upon other people who are seen to be the source of the problem. But it's that blame game that keeps us from finding the sense of community we need to effectively cope with these enormous social problems our culture faces. The blame game itself is not violent in nature, but it creates the seedbed for these violent acts.

Father Rohr hits the nail on the head when he says that Jesus has offered the world its salvation which comes not through redemptive violence, but through redemptive suffering and that's the key. Jesus demonstrated redemptive suffering upon the cross and sadly the world is largely ignoring the message even though it is the central symbol of the most practiced religion in the world.

I had a dream the night prior to writing this sermon which began in my office, and I was with a child who was possibly my youngest brother Jay who died after a long struggle with cancer. Suddenly, there was a sound in the next room of something tapping on a window. I was afraid to open the door not knowing the source of the sound and what I might be called to do about it.

Upon opening the door there was a black crow that had come through a hole in a screen and was trying to fly back out through the hole. It managed to get outside but became entangled upon a rod that ran parallel to the window. I found myself just above the bird as it struggled to be free and it did make some progress but needed help to complete the task.

I leaned over and picked up something that looked like an inflated Coke bottle made of some soft material and with it I helped the crow free itself by gently pushing it forward. It freed itself from the rod and dropped down something like five hundred feet toward the ground below and just before it struck the ground it flew! A happy ending!

The three most important symbols in the dream are the black crow and the black Coke bottle and my brother Jay who struggled five years with cancer. The black crow represents the dark human heart and the black Coke bottle that's used to free the crow is the dark human heart that becomes the instrument of salvation. My brother symbolizes redemptive suffering or the patience required for salvation to be granted. The crow almost hitting the ground before it flies away is also symbolic of the need for patience, even great patience, before salvation comes from God as sheer gift.

Some dreams are just processing the events of the day, but others are a gift from God coming straight from the unconscious self or in spiritual terms what we might call the soul. Dreams can be a way God talks to us and should always be taken seriously, especially the ones that come from the depths of our being. Whenever God speaks to us it matters and there's another way God communicates and that's through his angels.

Karen and I have been watching “Touched by an Angel” a television series that ran on CBS around the turn of the century and is now on Netflix. They made around 200 episodes in nine seasons and were in the first season, so we'll be watching it for a while. I've already noticed a couple things Monica, the main character, often does which is to reveal her true identity at some point during the show.

She will tell them flat out that “I'm an angel” and then she starts glowing and the response is varied and frequently its some expression of fear at which point she'll often respond by saying “Don't be afraid.” When that happens she sounds just like the angels in the Bible who tell people like Mary, Joseph, Zachariah, the shepherds, and the women at Jesus' tomb to not be afraid. It's an important gospel message and as followers of Jesus we need to take it to heart.

On the day this sermon was written I drove past Roger Nydafur's home and his American flag being at half-staff reminded me it was 911. The violence that surrounds us every day whether it be gun violence or some other type is not going to magically disappear.

What God has given us is a choice as to how we're going to respond to it. The angels tell us to not be afraid of the darkness because salvation is reached by embracing it. Those suffering from PTSD must learn how to transform their suffering into healing and personal growth and that takes tremendous courage, hard work, and sincere, heartfelt prayer.

Rev. Mitch Becker

September 14, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

“Amen or Ouch!”

Luke 14:25-33

When we read the gospel sometimes, we can respond with a heartfelt “Amen,” but other times we just say “Ouch!” and this scripture text is definitely an “Ouch!”

We live in a consumerist society that's constantly trying to sell us products. Typically the products being sold are promoted as being low-cost and in some way or another low-risk. Our text today offers a challenge to the market driven approach. It begins by using a term that grabs our attention because it seems out of context with the rest of the gospel...the word used is “hate.” (Ouch!)

Using the word “hate” isn't completely out of context for Luke because a couple chapters prior to this he was talking about families being divided over the gospel message ((Luke 12:51-53). Therefore, it should not surprise us that an allegiance to Jesus might result in family strife. Still, the question remains: Does Jesus literally want us to hate some of the most important people in our lives?

First, we need to consider that Jesus sometimes uses inflated language to make his point. Secondly, Jesus' bible was the Old Testament where we can find the word “hate” used to more so indicate strong preference. When the narrative describes Jacob “loves” Rachel and “hates” Leah, that actually means he just loved Rachel more than Leah. (Genesis 29:30-31)

It really begins to come into focus when Jesus makes the comment about disciples needing to “carry the cross” indicating that self-interests, or any other competing loyalties, must be sacrificed for the sake of the gospel. This is then augmented with two short parables and The Message Bible does an excellent job of aligning the parables with the gospel message:

Is there anyone here who, planning to build a house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: They started something they couldn't finish.

Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce?

Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss-it goodbye, you can't be my disciple.

To explore this a bit further let's look at an excerpt from the commentary I relied on by Jeannine Brown:

In this passage, Luke's Jesus calls people to a kind of discipleship that is not cheap....not easy, and not to be entered into without deep consideration of the consequences and cost. The passage speaks to the importance of loyalty and allegiance to Jesus over all other competing loyalties, including family, self-interest, and possessions....

We will always prefer teaching and preaching about God's grace, that is, God's own covenant loyalty to redeem and save, but we ought not neglect preaching about covenant loyalty that is expected from us in return. Salvation in Jesus is not merely a transaction. It is, at heart, a covenantal relationship. And no relationship lasts without loyal commitments and actions. Because the one that redeems us also calls us into costly discipleship. Jesus' command to “Follow me” is both gift and demand.

I was five years out of high school when I became a student at Linn Benton Community College. By the time I finished my first semester I was earning C's and D's and it was apparent that my aspirations as a student were in jeopardy. The problem was I had a competing loyalty at the time – I was an alcoholic. Drinking was at the center of my life as opposed to a commitment to my studies.

Then I found Christ and became a committed Christian virtually overnight. The grades I earned in the next semester were far more reflective of my actual ability as a student. Though I “fell away” from the faith after about nine months in that time of sobriety I learned how to be a student. What I learned carried me through to graduation and an associates degree in science.

One way to view this accomplishment is in terms of making a radical shift from being loyal to an addiction to becoming loyal to my studies and in that regard to my personal hopes and dreams. At the same time I was developing a new found loyalty to Jesus which eventually became the most important thing in my life. This was confirmed by the faith community that surrounded me in seminary and testified to it at my ordination.

Since my conversion to Christianity my life has taken on one commitment after the other always in the pursuit of what Father Rohr calls going “deeper into the mystery of Christ.” But at times when I enter unfamiliar territory I may have to back up a bit. The last time this happened I encountered what you might call: “no Time.” It was an inner experience of the artificial or false nature of Time.

One way to think about Time is to imagine it something like a grid on a map. The intersecting lines on a map create squares that help you narrow down where, for example, a town might be located. Map grids are artificial in the sense they're human made systems superimposed upon a map.

Time is also a human made system designed to help you structure your life, make plans, show up at appointments, achieve goals and so forth. Time is very important to us, but in reality its a human made construct. Infants have no concept of Time though begin to acquire some perception of it very early on. But anything that has been acquired can be unacquired. Maybe a more spiritual phrase to use here is “let go of.”

In the depths of quiet, centering prayer one morning I began to let of of my perception of Time to enter into what I'm calling “no Time” or the absence of Time. To do so feels like a heavy burden that one lets go of and when it happened to me it was so unfamiliar it scared me a bit. Even though it was a freeing experience it still felt like unexplored territory. Undoubtedly, “no Time” is an aspect of the kingdom of God and the liberation that comes with it, but sometimes you have to slow down and let the rest of your being catch up.

As you know, Karen and I read a devotion from The Secret Place every morning and the devotion for the day I wrote this sermon was entitled “Jesus Glasses.” The author told a story from her childhood about becoming accustom to her lack of ability in reading signs or viewing the television in their home. She would just move closer to the television set. It wasn't until the teacher at school rearranged the seating assignments placing her at the back of the class making it difficult for her to see the chalkboard that she realized something needed to be done.

She ended up getting rosy-red framed spectacles to correct her vision and after that she could see every word on the board, the individual leaves on the trees, and even the laugh lines on people's faces. Up until this point she had no idea what she was missing!

We're missing a lot as well until Jesus clears our vision with his truth, compassion and forgiveness. But to get to that means to, and in his words, “renounce all that you have.” By that he means to let go of possessions, relationships, attachments (including addictions and bad habits), and even your very life.

What I'm describing when using the term “no Time” is a letting go of your life because it's the equivalent of letting go of the ego. The ego and Time are dependent upon each other because the ego is perpetually created by either anticipating the future or through memories of the past. But the only thing that is real is who you are and what you're doing in the Now. 

 To stay in relationship with God means to stay in the present moment which is the only place God ever is. Once you retreat back into your very selective memories of the past or envision the future whether fearfully or hopefully, you're back to creating your False self and out of relationship with God. To put it succinctly, if you want to follow Jesus you have to let go of both the past and future.

In our text today Jesus's audience is made up of mostly first century peasants. They're going to understand him when he talks about the high cost of discipleship in terms of letting go of people, plans and possessions. Letting go of the ego and the way Time makes the ego possible isn't going to mean much to them.

To twenty-first century middle class Americans a psychological term like ego and its spiritual equivalent the False self will be far more palatable. And it is Time that functions as the primary contributor to the perpetual creation of the ego. Eliminate Time and you eliminate the ego and then you can see the world and the people in it in the same way Jesus did.

From here sayings like “love your enemies” and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” and what it means to be “born again” begin to make sense. Let go of Time and all that's left is Now and that's where you'll find God.

Rev. Mitch Becker

September 7, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

Hebrews 12:18-29

“Whole Lotta Shaking Going On”

One way to look at this portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews is with the following aphorism: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” It is typically attributed to the philosopher George Santayana (San-tee-yawn-nah) which gives a somewhat pessimistic spin to history and to human behavior in general.

Throughout the letter the author has been using history to talk about faith and the chapter which precedes today's text is sort of a Faith Hall of Fame where listed is a host of past faith heroes. They're characterized as people who lived “by faith” implying that we need to follow their example. But in the next chapter which we're considering today there's a shift that occurs where we're told to learn from history, but the big difference is to not repeat it.

Our passage today begins with fear and trembling at God's presence on Mount Sinai and is probably meant to remind the reader of fearful events during the Exodus. Looking at the big picture Mount Sinai can be considered a dangerous, and even treacherous mountain, but to the ancient Israelite's it was a holy place. The author of Hebrews is emphasizing the sacred nature of the mountain by invoking images of a different mountain - Mount Zion.

Another name for Mount Zion is Jerusalem and its from this holy place that the faithful acquire what they need to sustain them on their faith journey's. This is in stark contrast to what they experience at Mount Sinai with its darkness, fire, tempest, and loud words, yet this frightening theophany also has a place in developing one's faith. To experience the theophany is not pleasant but it is tangible and not to be discounted. Sometimes we need to be shaken up to get rid of the dirt and dust the community of faith has accumulated.

We prefer the more peaceful approach of Mount Zion with the festive angels and the new covenant in Jesus' blood, but the human ego being clever and often stubborn needs a more direct approach at times. Therefore, the author tells us: “His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.'”

A more appropriate term here might be “shakedown” indicating a radical change of the whole of Creation both spiritual and material. God becomes something of a house cleaner shaking the dust and dirt not only from the faith community but also within the spiritual realm. This leaves us with a twofold task to not only look for things to hold on to during God's shaking, but at the same time counter intuitively contribute to the shaking since its purpose is to cleanse the faithful.

Recently we've begun to take time out during worship for a “Moment for Movement” which is a few minutes of dancing or moving about to music. The idea for this came out of a workshop at the General Assembly where the workshop leader gave me special permission to include this in worship. By that I mean she said, “And Mitch here can call upon his congregation to dance during worship.”

Because she specifically chose me out of the crowd, I felt a nudge from the Spirit to follow through when I returned home. I was more than pleased, even a bit surprised, to see most everyone moving about on the first attempted “Moment for Movement.” It's not for everyone but it seems to appeal to most everyone. Some people are just talking, and some are not moving at all, but by and large there seems to be movement happening.

To bring this into context with our passage today we can think of the “Moment for Movement” as counter intuitively participating in God's shakedown. To act in a counter intuitive way means to do something that is unexpected and may even seem to be contrary to common sense, and it's typically the opposite of what you're used to doing.

People often resist counter intuitive behavior for the very reason Father Rohr shared with us last Sunday. He told us that we're much like our pets. We like things the way we like them and don't appreciate when change is introduced into our lives. I knew this before I tried this little experiment which is why I was surprised when most everyone did it.

In our passage today God promises to not only shake the earth but the heavens as well. Why would God want to shake up his Creation? To answer that lets consider the COVID pandemic which in many ways was a shakedown. It radically affected all of us and we had to respond in sometimes unusual and creative ways in order to stay in relationship.

My recent bout with COVID was not a pleasant experience but the worst of it was clearly the social isolation. I did not like having to wear a mask and beyond that being in exile in the guest room of our home. The isolation was compounded due to my poor hearing made even poorer by my congested sinuses. Karen and I responded in a resourceful manner by texting each other with our cell phones. Though awkward, texting allowed us to stay in relationship and since it circumvented my poor hearing altogether resulted in effective communication.

An even better example of how a shakedown results in relationship was the surge in use that occurred with the communications technology called Zoom. During the pandemic Zoom began to be put to use in myriad (mere-ree-ud) ways enabling people to safely stay in relationship. Today I meet with the regional minister and pastors in the region every Tuesday morning building upon relationships that would otherwise not exist.

One more example which I can't resist because it incorporates actual physical shaking is the 7.1 earthquake Karen and I experienced in Lancaster, California. As we were sitting in the theater everything began to shake and the lights came on. Suddenly, our individuality vanished as we in the theater became an instant community under threat by a natural phenomenon. We all looked at each other with these quizzical looks on our faces making comments about what had just happened. Without any kind of consensus, we all began to move toward the exits.

After arriving at our apartment complex, we began a conversation about earthquakes with two complete strangers. People wanted to talk about the earthquake and share what they did during the shakedown. Earthquakes can lead to social interaction that otherwise would never happen.

This last week the culture itself was shaken up by yet another mass shooting this one occurring in Minneapolis. An especially horrible shooting (though what mass shooting isn't) because this one targeted primarily children while they were praying during worship. Two are dead and one is in critical condition and eighteen people in all were injured.

I say we've been shaken up, but the reality is mass shootings have become so common place we're mostly numbed out by them. This is the thirty-third school related mass shooting and the four hundred and ninth mass shooting this year in the United States. In comments made following the school shooting the mayor of Minneapolis said, “We need more than thoughts and prayers.”

At one level I understand what he's trying to say which is we need to respond to these traumatic events with responsible legislation and effective mental health programs. But at the same time his comments reveal a common notion the culture holds about prayer which, among other things, encourages people to not take religion seriously.

There is no action more powerful nor more apt to lead to the transformation of one's soul than prayer. And I'm not just talking about quiet, centering prayer. I mean any prayer that's done in alliance with God's Spirit and comes from the heart. By “heart” I'm referring to the foundation of one's being as the Hebrew bible describes in 1 Samuel:

“When he (Saul) turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him (Saul) another heart....” (1 Samuel 10:9a) And a few verses before that Samuel tells Saul, “Before you know it, the Spirit of God will come upon you and you'll be prophesying right along with them. And You'll be transformed. You'll be a new person!” (1 Samuel 10:6; The Message Bible)

And the transformation of a human being's heart is only one life altering aspect to prayer, Father Rohr tells us about another and in this case, he is talking about quiet, centering prayer:

Without a conscious living in the flow of the Spirit – through us, within us, and for us – and those are the three movements – I think prayer can become merely functional. But if we live within that flow, prayer can become an experience of mystical communion. There is no problem to be solved; it's simply enjoying what is, learning how to taste it, learning how to receive it, learning how to see God in it, and knowing that this “now” – whatever it is – is enough.

We might call this “contentment of being” and is something to seek especially in the later aging years of our lives where thankfulness becomes a typical response to life. Instead of looking ahead to the next ego desire to be acquired quiet, centering prayer develops within us a deep, abiding appreciation for whatever is present in the moment.

That sense of scarcity that the culture has implanted within us in order to sell us things gradually disappears leaving an internal state of peace that is independent of outside forces. It radically changes the way you see the world and best of all it brings you into intimate relationship with God which is the whole point of following Christ.

We may not view a shakedown as a positive thing, and certainly it often doesn't feel that way, but through the power of prayer any shakedown can bring us closer to God.

Rev. Mitch Becker

August 31, 2025

Port Angeles

First Christian Church

“Daughter of Abraham”

Luke 13:10-17

This “daughter of Abraham” has a disability that's caused by a demon or some other evil force. The woman had been suffering from her disability for eighteen years and probably couldn't imagine living in any different manner. She's in the synagogue, so we might assume she attended worship on a regular basis.

On this day there is an unusual amount of excitement because a prophet from Galilee is present, Jesus of Nazareth. The word was out that he'd be teaching in the synagogue. The woman had most likely heard the talk about him and about how he preaches the coming of the reign of God and heals people.

Surely, her life had been full of disappointments and she likely is trying to keep her hopes in check but she's not going to miss this opportunity to be healed. As she enters the synagogue there is a great deal of activity until Jesus begins to teach. After the teaching ends an invitation is extended and the woman is so severely crippled that she stands out from the crowd catching Jesus' attention.

He tells her to come closer and what happens next simply amazes everyone. He puts his hands on her broken, bent body and tells her she's free from her disability. She feels the power of the Holy Spirit surge through her and immediately straightens her once deformed back. She stands tall and praises God!

It's at this point the ruler of the synagogue, which would be a Jewish lay-leader in charge of administration and worship, confronts Jesus about healing on the Sabbath. Jesus responds with an argument about how people tend to their animals on the Sabbath, so why wouldn't he heal a “daughter of Abraham?” This designation as a “daughter of Abraham” also lends credibility to the healing occurring on the Sabbath. What more appropriate time to heal a faithful Jewish woman?

It's also a temptation to label the synagogue leader as a “bad guy,” but that really doesn't do him justice. After all, a faithful reading of the Torah will reveal that the seventh day was set aside for rest and work is prohibited. Second, Jesus isn't totally discounting Sabbath restrictions since his argument incorporates cases when people do legitimate work on the Sabbath such as the necessary care of animals. How much more important is it to heal a “daughter of Abraham!” The text ends by saying Jesus' adversaries experience humiliation while the people celebrate the amazing outcome of the realm of Spirit flowing out of Jesus into a broken world.

The “daughter of Abraham” had suffered from her disability for eighteen long years severely limiting her mobility. This would result in her being dependent upon family and friends and the synagogue for help and support. Then one day in the synagogue she's healed by a prophet passing through town. Not only would she now have essentially a brand new body, but she'd also be challenged with a totally different lifestyle. Now she'd be able to go to work and perhaps support herself and even contribute to the community. The last proverb in the Book of Proverbs describes what a woman might do in ancient Israel for work:

She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for the household and tasks for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.... she makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers girdles to the merchant. (Proverbs 31:13-19, 24)

Let's explore a bit further what this level of change might mean for the “daughter of Abraham” in spiritual terms. We can begin with some thoughts from Father Rohr helping us to not only understand the challenges faced by the woman in our story, but also how we are challenged when significant change enters our lives:

The Greek word for “repent (metanoia) means to change your mind. I'd like to emphasize change, because that's not something we humans as a species are attracted to. We're much like animals in this regard. Animals are creatures of habit. Those of us with a dog or a cat know their behavior is predictable. If we change some daily routine, they'll get upset. I'm afraid to say we're much the same. We like things the way we like things. And yet the first words out of Jesus' mouth tell us that he comes to give us a philosophy of change: “Repent,” – change your mind – “for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

If people refuse to change, what my mother used to call “bullheadedness,” the world will only get worse. We have to learn how to dialogue, how to forgive, and how to trust, and how to give people the benefit of the doubt. In the United States, our country has become very cynical about truth and love. We hear politicians take oaths to be fair and just leaders and we all know it doesn't mean anything. We expect everybody to be for the truth of their group and their “kingdom.” But Jesus tells us to change our minds and accept the kingdom of God, which is what's good for the whole.

On the whole Jesus' words don't mean much to the swath of people in our culture giving way to the seduction of power. This isn't hard to understand because the human ego wants to feel special and achieves that in the presence of power. The inflated ego likes nothing better than to move people around like chess pieces on a board as C.S. Lewis describes in his book “Mere Christianity.”

Jesus has given the faithful an alternative path to follow in his ministry of healing and proclamation. If you read on after our text he immediately goes into a description of the kingdom of God using images of a grain of mustard seed and leaven a woman hides in flour. Everything he says and does leads at some point to the kingdom of God.

And what he says at the culmination of these two short parables is also of great import and speaks to our theme of change. He says, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24) The key image here is the narrow door meaning entry into the kingdom requires considerable discipline and dogged determination.

It requires the faithful to be open to change and as already described we're not particularly keen on change. And if that's not narrow enough for you consider the fact that being open to change isn't enough in itself. One must actually learn to invite change by living a life that freely moves into arenas of challenge and difficulty.

As you know Karen is with her daughter and our granddaughter at the writing of this sermon. By the miracle of modern technology Karen and I have been in communication via texting in real time. Her difficulty with the airlines began with a strike by the employees of Air Canada resulting in the cancellation of her flight home. She has rebooked and her last text revealed they're at a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.

Her next flight to Paris will board at 7:25 the next morning. In Paris they'll board another flight to Newark, New Jersey and she was working on booking her final flight from Newark to Seattle. Obviously, things have not gone according to plan and Karen has had to reach deep down into her experience as both a traveler and a grandmother since Sadie is less than happy about it all.

Of course, Karen could not have anticipated these difficulties but that's not the point. The point of existence for those of us following Jesus Christ is to be open to challenges that result in growth and change. To resist growth and change will only make things worse in the world.

Challenges help us learn how to let go of things like attachments, desires and unhelpful emotions allowing us to resolve problems. And all of this amounts to practice leading up to the ultimate letting go of the False self – the collection of images, beliefs and teachings mostly acquired by conventional cultural conditioning. This collection of electronic messages in the brain constitute what most people think they're made up of. The True self cannot come forward to take its rightful place until one lets go of this False self.

Jesus describes this process as being “born anew” or being “born again.” (John 3:1-8) It is a psychological/spiritual change of such magnitude that the word “transformation” more aptly describes it. One huge hurdle that must be jumped is that since the False self is all a person has ever known when it is let go of it feels like dying. That in itself is enough to stop the process.

Again, it is spiritual discipline combined with some form of guidance and support by a spiritual director or wise therapist that helps you to keep moving forward feeding the transformation. Father Rohr beautifully describes it as “living deeper into the mystery of Christ.”

In these dark times we're now living through the need for the faithful to follow The Way that leads to enlightenment has never been more needed or important. God be with us.

Rev. Mitch Becker

August 24, 2025

Port Angeles