April 27, 2021
Hello church family near and far,
Once upon a time, I used to read voraciously. I was part of a book club for years that met once per month, but I always finished the assigned book within two or three days and had time to enjoy others. I loved movies too, and stories of all kinds. This, while continuing my education, raising three amazing kids as a single mom, and serving my first church. I couldn’t have imagined starting a book and not finishing it, even if I didn’t like it. Now, I have a stack of books on my nightstand and in my office that are half-finished – ones that I loved, even! Novels and devotionals and inspiring books about church and faith – and I fall asleep through nearly every movie I try to watch. I am absolutely a nerd at heart, but God help me if there are drawn out battle sequences in a movie; I fall asleep in seconds. It drives me crazy.
So there I was, watching “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” with my beloved, and getting into a fascinating philosophical discussion about its deeper themes with my son via text, when I realized that there was a bunch of background information I needed to understand what the heck was going on in the show. I had seen most of the Avengers movies, but again, slept through at least half of them. And in my youth, I was MUCH more an X-Men nerd than a Marvel nerd, so I knew nothing about Captain America and the rest. So Dennis and I have started the movies from the beginning.
Hang with me here.
This morning, I also resolved to pick up one of those half-finished books. It’s called “Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again” by Rachel Held-Evans, an amazing young storyteller and theologian who died in 2019 after a sudden illness at the age of only 37. In the very first chapter, she tells the story of an imagined Israelite family in exile in Babylon, and the father telling his young and impressionable son the story of creation from Genesis. The son, Haggai, has come home full of the scary and exciting Babylonian creation story, because the festival celebrating it is going on in the city. It’s the story of Marduk and Tiamat, a story historians know as the Enuma Elish. (Incidentally, this story was first discovered in the ruins of Ninevah in the mid 1800s, written on clay tablets dated to the 7th century BCE. Can you imagine?! The story itself is even older, the oldest known creation myth.). Full of war and death and betrayal, the story is similar to many around the world: the war results in Marduk making himself king of the gods, the world is created from the blood of his enemies, and human beings are created as the servants of the gods and of the earthly king who is Marduk’s emissary. The creation story from Genesis is set in stark contrast, full of beauty and wonder and holiness.
“No battle,” Papa says.
“No grandmothers getting split in two,” Mama adds.
“And all people are God’s emissaries, not just the king?” Haggai asks.
“Yes. All people are God’s emissaries,” Papa says. “We are each created in God’s image, charged with watching over creation. We are not slaves, my son.”
We are not slaves. Each of us is beloved, wanted, created with purpose and intention from the boundless creative power of a loving God.
Battle is not our natural state. Compassion is. Relationship is. Understanding, and forgiveness, and love is. Because we are made in the image of God.
In the mythology of Captain America, a sickly young boy longs to take his place among those who fight evil and restore order. His defining characteristics are compassion and the courage to put it to work. And it is not the super strength he gains that makes him a superhero, but the way his compassion and courage – the core of who he is, according to the scientist who chose him – are increased as well.
Like Haggai, and like the beleaguered characters in superhero movies of all kinds, we are constantly drawn into battle. Physical or verbal or ideological, we can become addicted to the fight, reveling in what divides us. We relish the stories of supposed evils done by those different from us, regardless whether or not they are true. Battle – even when it’s just an internal dialogue of self-justification – can be fun and exciting, affirming ourselves as Right and Good, and everyone else as Wrong.
But this isn’t what God wants from us, or for us. This is not who we were created to be. We must not be silent in the face of evil; far, far from it. But it must be our compassion and courage that leads us. It must be humility and wisdom that guides our discernment. And it must be love that does the work, because that is the only power that can.
We are not slaves, beloved. We are free. We are emissaries, made in the image of the one true God. Stand tall, as the beloved one you are, and carry agape with you wherever you go.
In God’s wondrous love,
Pastor Dawn
Worship Any and Everywhere!
Living the Resurrection: Healers
This Sunday, as we explore the faith of the earliest church and see what we can learn from the way they loved and practiced it, we will join the apostle Paul and the church in Ephesus. Life was not easy for any of the new and struggling churches that were springing up all over the known world, but they were on fire in their faith, healers of bodies and hearts and communities. As you prepare your heart for worship, you might like to read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We will talk about all of it in worship, as well as what some of the other apostles had to say about healing bodies and spirits in the name of Jesus Christ.
And then, join us for virtual coffee hour after worship at 10:45am. If you have never joined us, we hope that you will consider doing so, especially for the sake of those who can’t join us in person for worship yet. Gathering together in this way is a great gift you can give to yourself and your church family. You will get the link in your email as always; if you prefer to join by phone, we can share that with you, too. If you've never joined us but would like to, call the church office at 775-423-4714 or shoot us an email at office@eumcfallon.org. We'd love to connect!
