Aug 3rd: Remember to Remember, with Rev. Sharon Edwards.
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Rev. Sharon Edwards
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Remember to Remember with Rev. Sharon Edwards. Series: Beloved. Belonging. Delightful. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:11-20.
Feeling lost or searching for meaning? Join us this Sunday at First Presbyterian, either online or in-person at 8:30 or 10am. We’re exploring life’s thresholds, embracing doubts, and discovering a spacious faith that welcomes everyone. Come as you are.
Transcript:
Whitney Higdon: You. Welcome to worship At First Presbyterian we, at First Presbyterian, practice a spacious Christianity, which means no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you’re ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830, or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support You. I hope you enjoy this worship service. Welcome you.
Becca Ellis: Remember to remember from Deuteronomy. Remember to remember to remember to remember Moses had been talking to God’s people for a very long time. They would reach the promised land soon, and Moses was passing on instructions from God on how to live there. It was a hot, windy day, and the people were bored and itchy. And it’s hard to listen when you’re bored and itchy. So after a while, all the important words Moses was saying sort of just sounded like that. Remember to remember, to remember, blah, blah, blah. Moses was a very old man. Now he wasn’t entering the promised land with them, so he filled his farewell speech with so much advice that if we told it to you now, you’d probably get very bored and very itchy. Here are the three important parts. One, remember where you came from? Moses reminded them of their stories and the stories of their ancestors, hoping they could see God’s love for them, woven throughout like a bold red thread, creating patterns in a tapestry. A rescue here, a visit there. Oh, and don’t forget that miracle. Two. Remember who belongs in the middle. Love God with every part of you, and remember to choose leaders who love God too. Moses reminded them, leaders should let their love flow out to the people who need it most. Don’t forget about them. Don’t forget about the foreigners, the children without parents, and the widows. Nobody should be without belonging. Don’t push them to the outside of the group. Put them right in the middle, like they’re covered in a hug. Three remember where you’re going. Their time in the wilderness had been long, spanning generations. There were plenty of detours and missteps along the way, but God’s people had always been heading toward the promised land. They had always been meant to be blessings to the world. God was doing a new thing in a new place. You’ve had so much special time in the wilderness close to God and far from anything and anyone else, Moses said as he sent them forth into the new land. Now it’s time to go and choose God. Now it’s time to go and bless everyone else. You will feel fear. When you feel fear, remember you will feel lost. When you feel lost, remember you will feel shame. When you feel shame, remember God’s love stretches in both directions into all your yesterdays and all your tomorrows. God is the same, and God will be with you wherever you go. Remember to remember to remember.
Sharon Edwards: Have you ever entered a room and suddenly realized you’ve completely forgotten why you were there? Maybe you just weren’t paying attention or trying to do too many things at once, or perhaps it was a senior moment arriving way too early for your age. Of course, a recent scientific theory has determined this kind of forgetting may be a normal brain function when we walk across a threshold, a door or a barrier of some kind, our subconscious minds recognize we are going from one environment to another to prepare us for the possible dangers of a new space. Our brain does a quick short term memory dump in order to free up more active cerebral computing space so we can more quickly adapt and react to whatever we may encounter. This is an evolutionary adaption that helped our ancestors survive. So no, it’s not because you’ve lost your mind or because you are getting older. It’s just your brain up to old tricks. Today we find God’s people on a threshold. They have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and they now stand on the threshold of the Promised Land. Thresholds are those in between places, between one place and another. When we move from one room to another, one time to another, as in the threshold of dawn, as the light begins, but it is not quite fully a day, or the threshold of dusk, when the sun is below the horizon, but the sky is not quite fully. Ark, the Bible, is full of thresholds, places where God’s people are in between, times in between, kings in between, prophets in between. New possibilities. They’re not where they were, but they’re not where they are going to be. Thresholds are what we call liminal spaces. Liminality can be defined as a place of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in transitory situations and spaces when a person or a group of people is betwixt and between something that has ended and a new situation not yet begun. In this place and space, we can be disoriented and forgetful and even fearful. This is where God’s people were as they were on the threshold of the Promised Land, and this is where our reading takes place today. Bless the author of the book of belonging, Marika Clark, she took 32 chapters of Deuteronomy and summarized them for us. I appreciate that. I don’t know about you, but I can easily imagine myself getting very itchy sitting through 32 chapters of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is basically the final sermons of Moses that were delivered at the pinnacle of the 40 years of wilderness wandering as the people stood at the entrance to the promised land, this was their final countdown, the climax of their wild wilderness adventure. You see, they spent 40 years not only wandering, but also forgetting and therefore rebelling against God. In the Book of Numbers, right before the book of Deuteronomy, we are told the story of the death of the first generation who had left Egypt and wandered not only in the wilderness, but also away from God. The receivers of Moses’ wisdom in Deuteronomy were the second generation, the generation of hope. Moses’ message is full of law, the law illustrating God’s expectations and hopes as to how they will live in the new land. Basically, God is saying, don’t be like your parents. Listen to me, Do what I say. You will live long and prosper. I’m wondering if any of you are on a threshold like the Israelites were. Thresholds are as much imaginal places as they are literal and physical ones. There are thresholds we take intentionally, such as a change in job or place of living. Other times, thresholds are thrust upon us, as in the death of a person or relationship, a significant birthday or a change in the status of our health. Perhaps you’re not quite where you were, but also not where you wish to be. Indeed, we are in a time when many structures are being changed, and we are called to begin to build something new. There is a monastic tradition called stazio. It is the practice of stopping one thing before beginning another. It is an active acknowledgement that the space of transition and threshold is a sacred space, a holy pause full of possibility. In this place between is a place of stillness where we let go of what has come before and prepare ourselves to enter fully into what comes next. So let’s do stat SEO. Let’s pause together, you and I and the wandering ones on the cusp of the Promised Land, and see how Moses’s three point sermon gives us some wisdom. First, remember where you came from. God’s people were encouraged to remember all the steps that have led them here. Remember how God and your ancestors wrestled to. Together, and how God again and again showed you grace and gave you opportunities to begin again and again, but most especially that you were slaves in Egypt, starving and far from home. Remember how God fed you and freed you and you and led you into the wilderness, even when you kept wandering far away from God. I’m wondering, what do you need to remember? To remember in your own life? Frederick Buechner, an author and pastor, says this, there is a deeper need yet, I think, and that is the need, not all the time, surely, but from time to time, to enter that still room within all of us, where the past lives on as a Part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive to ourselves and turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is, remember, Frederick says, the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously, to remember the lives we have lived. Remember to remember where you have come from second, remember who belongs in the middle. As people who are pushed about and treated horrifically, it would be logical for them to want to do the same to others. People with unresolved trauma, traumatize others, but God invites them to a different way, as God’s chosen people who have received my blessings remember you now must be a blessing. You were lonely and hungry, as the book of belonging puts it. Don’t push people to the outside, put them right in the middle, like a big hug. Who can support you in this threshold place. But also, who can you support, even in this liminal time of uncertainty for your own life and our own collective lives, who needs to be included? Can you remember the gifts you have received, and are those, there are those who are wandering, who needs a gift you can offer. Remember who belongs in the middle. And finally, remember where you are going.
The Promised Land was full of promise, where they had been heading all along. God promised them new life in a new place, the wilderness was a time of shaping them and strengthening their trust in God muscle where they are going. They will be asked to choose life over and over again. Life means to love and obey God, even when we don’t always know exactly where we are going. There are some basic truths I will never forget a time in my life when I felt as though I was on a threshold and I asked God in fervent prayer, God, where am I going? What is my purpose? And the answer came to love and be loved. I would have liked a bit more clarity, but actually, that’s pretty solid. We are all called to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God, and to co create with God the promised land for all God’s people. You know, Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness for the most part. He was a good leader. He was a pillar of strength, guiding them like a shepherd, and even saved them from God’s wrath by convincing God not to destroy them in spite of their walking astray from God’s ways. But Moses was also not so perfect. We really don’t know why, but Moses does not enter the Promised Land. God tells him he will not enter it. God leads him up to where he can see and survey the expansive new home of the people. But Moses himself does not cross over, and so it will be for us in each generation, we are encouraged to remember where we have come from, the trials and the errors, the successes. And the gains, but also to keep at the work that is still left to do, building a world of justice and peace, mercy and love, we keep working for a world, for a community that we may not see in our own lifetime, so in the days ahead, notice the thresholds. Know that they are sacred places. As a book of belonging reminds us we will feel fear, but remember we will feel lost, but remember we will feel shame, but remember God’s love stretches in both directions into all your yesterdays and all your tomorrows. God is the same, and God will be with you wherever you go. Remember, to remember. Let us pray, loving one. Thank you for your faithfulness. In the midst of our forgetfulness, may we trust that our wilderness, wanders and wanderings have strengthened us for these liminal spaces where we feel lost, forgetful and full of fear, help us to remember where the world continues to be on a threshold of hatred and war, push us forward with courage and conviction to step into the land where Peace and Love prevail and together we say, Amen.
Receive The blessing. You are beloved. You belong. God delights in you, and may others know this truth through the living of your life. Amen.
Whitney Higdon: Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these broadcasts possible or support the many ways. First, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community. You can make a financial gift [email protected] every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bendfp.org, and click on the link. Give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people’s lives. Thanks again. I hope to see you next week.
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