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Random Beautiful Things

6/25/2020

COVID-19 has affected all our lives. As many other worshiping communities, we too, out of an abundance of love for those most vulnerable, have suspended in-person gatherings. However, there are opportunities to connect virtually and find spiritual support:

1. Sunday morning virtual worship at 10 a.m. To get the link for Sunday worship and/or participate in any of the below offerings, please email info[at]fbcnewton.org

2. Our fortnightly participatory Bible Study has also gone virtual.

3. Adult Sunday School that meets at 9 a.m. on Sundays has also gone virtual.

We miss being present physically in the church, but here are some random beautiful pictures to enjoy. Hang in there. You are not alone.

Hope in the Midst of Despair

6/12/2020

"In human beings, knowledge of the living God awakens a thirst and hunger for life. It makes them dissatisfied with what they are, and impels them to look for a future in which more life will enter the lives they already have."
Jürgen Moltmann

The past days and weeks have been heavy. First, there's a pandemic that we thought we had a handle on. Now we are seeing that numbers are spiking in various parts of the world. We are also experiencing a series of nationwide protests that reveal some deep fissures and divisions in society that continue to plague living together in love. We have lots of work to do. What do we do? How do we do it?

It is easy to lose hope in the midst of this enormous weight that we individually and collectively bear. How do we begin to hope when hopelessness and despair are strong?

Despite the weight of the world, God calls us to hope. Indeed, as the above quote from Moltmann puts it, hope infuses a new burst of life in our hearts and makes us look toward the future. Sometimes, considering the good things that are present in our lives catalyzes this hope. I was chatting with Lauri's mother, Marilyn Arnold, the other day and she was describing how nice it is to physically see things growing in a garden. This is what Marilyn observes:

In the spring, I and my family worked together to put in a good-sized garden. We planted all kinds of tomatoes (Ramona, beef steak and cherry among others), pretty varieties of green or yellow beans, ear corn, peas, cabbage, zucchini, strawberries and potatoes.

Gardens can feed a 'multitude' of people, just like Jesus fed the multitude. In older days, much of the food families ate came from their garden. The women would often can much of the vegetables for the winter months. Potatoes were stored in a bin in the storm cellar. The women were proud to show off their jars of pretty fruits and vegetables.

As a child, I remember asking my mother if we could open a jar of peaches from our peach tree for a delicious summer snack. The juice from the peaches would run down our face and arms, but we didn't let any go to waste. We sure had good eating during those times.

In these days, we don't rely on our gardens as much as we used to, but it is still a joy to watch growth happen from start to finish. And what could be more delicious than a slice of tomato that we nurtured and cared for?

Whether you are enjoying a fruit or vegetable from your own garden, or ones you bought at the store, may it remind you of the one who created them all to both nourish us and for our enjoyment.

None of us, of course, need to be reminded that planting and attending to a garden takes effort, and care. It is perhaps something to consider as we think of hope in the midst of deep divisions. We can, with God's help, make efforts to care for the garden of life. Pulling out the weeds, pruning, trimming, watering, and making sure they get enough light, among many many other things, are prerequisites to enjoying the produce.

Let us imagine a new future. Let us hope. Let us work.

Christian Nationalism in the New Testament?

5/22/2020

Our very own Sze-kar Wan, Professor of Biblical Studies at Southern Methodist University, shared his reflections on Acts 17.22–31 on Sunday, March 17.

Sze-kar's question/dilemma is a deeply Christian one
What is it about Christianity that makes it possible, even acceptable, to threaten the existence of others—even those who profess the same faith and worship the same God, let alone those who do not call themselves “Christians.” It might be easy to dismiss those carrying a Bible in one hand and an assault rifle in another as fringe elements. But we can’t hide from the fact that they and we and I call ourselves “Christians.”

...read on...

I’ve been struggling with trying to come to terms with Christian nationalism. I grew up Evangelical, my home church was the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, and I went to an Evangelical seminary with the full expectation of working within the Evangelical circles. I spent two summers doing evangelistic work in Boston Chinatown, going around the neighborhood, which included the old South End where Chinese immigrants could afford to live, making public announcements in English, Cantonese, and my native Hoisanese. I am still very proud of that work. But the capitulation of American White Evangelicals to rightwing politics has produced a frightening form of nationalism—a form of nationalism that is partly based on racism and partly based on Christianity. This alarms me especially these last few weeks when images of angry people, armed with guns and God and threatening violence on anyone who advocates isolation and face masks, flash all over the internet. The world sees men in fatigues and flak jackets, armed to the teeth—in one case even carrying a grenade-launcher—barging into statehouses, restaurants, and whatnot, demanding that they be, quote, “liberated” from the lockdown. Invariably they brandish God as one of their weapons of choice.

I am not going to debate the politics or the science behind all this. My question is: What is it about Christianity that makes it possible, even acceptable, to threaten the existence of others—even those who profess the same faith and worship the same God, let alone those who do not call themselves “Christians.” It might be easy to dismiss those carrying a Bible in one hand and an assault rifle in another as fringe elements. But we can’t hide from the fact that they and we and I call ourselves “Christians.”

Today’s text in Acts 17 gives me a clue. Luke puts Paul in Athens, on the famous Mars Hill, Areopagus, to debate the Greek philosophers, but what I find discomforting is that he does so by marshaling Greek philosophy. The message to the Greeks isn’t that different from the message to the Jews earlier in Acts: All need to repent (17.30)! But the rationale here is different, yet also the same. To the Jews, Luke appeals to biblical prophecies to make his case: Jesus is the messiah Hebrew prophets all point to. Now to the Greeks, he uses the same strategy: Questions raised by Greek philosophers are answered, ultimately, by the resurrection of Christ. In both cases, Luke uses the profound resources available and familiar to his target audience to convince them that he, in fact, knows better than they what they are looking for. In the case of the Jews, he offers Christ as a fulfillment of long-awaited messianic prophecy—even if they have no idea that their long search is over. To the Greeks, he refers to what philosophers have long railed against vulgar religiosity—that God could not be identified with the images and statues we all see and touch in the temples (17.24–25)—to tell them that this emerging thing called Christianity in fact represents the highest realization of Greek philosophical ideals.

He cites an inscription found in Athens, “To an unknown God” which can also read “To an unknowable God.” The Greek is capable of meaning both, and I think that’s intentional. He then “proves,” as it were, this unknowable God turns out to have made concrete revelation of the divine nature—by creating the heavens and the earth (17.24), engendering the human race by making the first ancestor (17.26), giving life to all living beings (17.25), and finally by appointing “one man” to be the judge by raising him from the dead (17.31). If we wish to find God, even touch God, Luke tells us, we don’t look in “temples made by hand” or through services rendered by “human hands” (17.24–25), because God is in fact “not far from each one of us” (17.27). But that’s not a Christian idea; Greek philosophers had been saying the same thing for centuries before the Christians came into the picture. Their longstanding search “proves,” for Luke, that God is the creator. What they have long aspired to has been achieved in its highest form in Christianity.

Luke goes one step further, though. He tells his audience that we all belong to the same race, the race of God. He begins by citing what is familiar to his audience, this time a saying by the Greek poet Aratus, “We too are his people” (17.28). But then he immediately reinterprets the saying to mean we are “the people of God” (17.29)—that is, the Yahweh of Jacob, Abraham, and Adam! And that--our common ancestry—is the basis for repentance.

Know what exactly is happening here. The basic criticism against popular religiosity, that non-thinking people are fixated on images and statues, comes not from Hebrew Scriptures but from the learned elites present in and produced by Greek culture. They define high Greek culture. But then Luke transplants the whole argumentative edifice in Christian soils by erecting it on the biblical creation story. And that, according to Luke, is the basis for repentance. In a single stroke, Luke co-opts a Greek story and makes it into a Christian one.

Why does that bother me now? It didn’t before but now does. It’s one thing for a minor, persecuted sect like the Christians in the late first century to claim universality. Then it sounds like a bravado designed to pump energy into a flagging movement or to encourage those who are discouraged or who are losing faith. But it is something categorically different when, two centuries later, Christianity is weaponized into a supremacist ideology to silence all dissenting voices—dissenting religious and political voices, I might add. Leaving its humble beginning as a proscribed sect, a superstitio, a religio illicita, as the Romans called it, that is, an illegal social group, it becomes the principal ideology of imperial domination. If diversity represents a danger to governance, Christian universalism is the answer. All thoughts are subsumed under the Christian label. And the type of muscular, militaristic Christianity we witness today is a direct descendant of that. I call it hermeneutical hegemony.

Is there a solution? It’s not accidental that here Luke emphasizes the resurrection at the expense of the cross (17.31). Elsewhere, Paul calls Jesus’s death on the cross “love,” as he says in Galatians 2.19–20. It represents a concrete act of self-giving that grounds triumphalism in the death and suffering represented by the cross. We all want victory, but are we ready to endure that defeat which is an integral part of victory? Maybe if we as a culture and I as a person am less focused on winning and more on losing, we might have enough humility to get through this without hurting anyone.

Taking Our Cares to the Good Shepherd

5/8/2020

Member and ordained minister, Rev. Eunice Wilson, preached a sermon recently from John 10:1-10. How are we supposed to imagine God as Good Shepherd while we are burdened by so many cares? Read on to see how Eunice unpacks this with a tender heart.

On Thursday morning, as I was approaching this sermon once again, and hoping to finalize it, I got two phone calls. One was from my cousin Vangie who told me her sister’s house had burnt down last Sunday. Thank God that Carol, her son adult son, Bobby, and adult granddaughter, Ally, all got out safely with only the clothes on their back. Then, there had been a text from my friend Lindy in Vermont. When I returned her call, she began to tell me of her brother-in-law and how sick he was.

When done with these two phone calls, and feeling very burdened for them, I asked God how am I supposed to write a sermon with these burdens on my heart and mind? The thought came to me that these situations can’t be put aside, so somehow they must be included in the ideas and prayers we share today.
As we begin to look at todays scripture we will first look at the story in Chapter 9 immediately prior to today’s scripture. We have the healing of a man by Christ. This man was blind at birth. Jesus made a mud pack for the man’s eyes on the Sabbath which was prohibited, and he proceeded to put the mud on the man’s eyes. After the healing the temple leaders questioned the man and eventually threw him out of the temple as they were so infuriated by his stance that Christ was a man from God. To be excommunicated from the temple is a serious thing. This man, previously blind and now seeing, had gained some status in society only to be put in a position of shame once again. To be excommunicated meant loss of spiritual and social standing.

After the healing of the blind man, we then we have the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. As Jesus tells the story, the temple leaders do not understand what he is trying to tell them. So, he explains it again in simpler terms. The characters we are given in this story are interesting. We have Christ, first, as the good shepherd and then as the gate, then we have the gatekeeper, and finally we have the people who try to enter the sheep pen by not going through the gate, but by climbing over the walls of the pen.

In this video, while the first people calling the sheep didn’t give their best effort, it is well know that sheep do indeed know their master’s voice, and will respond only to his voice. It is also known that the shepherd knows his sheep and often gives then names. These sheep pens in rural areas were often communal pens, large enough for a number of flocks of sheep. This is why it was so important for the sheep to know and follow only their shepherd’s voice.

The gate keeper was an actual person who was hired to let in only the right sheep as he recognized the shepherds. At night, once all the sheep were in, the gatekeeper actually slept across the opening to protect the sheep from being harmed or leaving the pen.

We have Jesus then saying he is the gate. Not the gatekeeper but the gate. The right way to enter and exit is by way of the gate, or by Christ. So, is Christ the good shepherd or is he the gate? Because these are metaphors, examples of how Christ thought, operated and acted, he indeed can be both. And, Christ can know us by the fact that we enter the pen or kingdom through him, and we can exit the same way. And Christ can know us by how we follow him. Christ knows each of us by name!

We also have people who enter the pen through other means. This would implicate the temple leaders, or other people who have ulterior motives rather than acknowledging Christ. This can include people who have distorted ways of thinking, and behaving. Folks who operate from erroneous theological messages from their past and present that can prevent them from going in by the gate. Feeling unworthy to approach the good shepherd, the Christ, our Christ directly, can be another reason for wanting to enter but not through the gate.

Where does this leave us? My own strong belief is that in order for us to recognize Jesus as our Christ, our Good Shepherd, or the gate, is if we first identify ourselves as a child of God. We are children of God who are totally loved and totally forgiven by God, and totally accepted by God. If we recognize this relationship, then it makes sense that we would then be able to recognize and want a relationship with Christ. By following Christ we attempt to return God’s love back to God. We return love back to God directly, and by giving to and loving other people. It is when we hold on to these beliefs that we can confidently approach Christ’s gate and enter in. And, when we exit, we follow Christ, our shepherd.

Many of us have been feeling penned in. We are socially isolated in our homes. Most of us are tired of it. Some folks can’t work from home. They are waiting for unemployment checks to come. Some folks are so tired of isolating that they are ignoring the CDC’s recommendations on how to try and avoid the corona virus. Some churches are still meeting in person. Some are using masks and distancing to worship together.

So back to the sad news of my beloved cousin Carol and of my friend Lindy’s b-i-l. My first cry to God was how can I write this sermon now given how burdened I feel. What I did was immediately give them up to God. I prayed for each of them. I asked God for healing and God’s presence for them. Symbolically, I entered by the gate while making these requests. Not only did I enter by the gate, but I envisioned taking the hands of Carol, Bobby, Ally and Lindy’s b-i-l and sister through the gate with me.

I am hoping this vision of being able to go into the pen for safety and comfort, and then to eventually leave it to find good pastures following our good shepherd will be a comfort to us now and for our everyday life when it is back to “normal” whatever that will be.

Remember that the good shepherd leads the sheep. Whatever your burden at this very moment, leave it with Christ. And, for those you care about who need special protection and blessings right now, I hope that you will take their hands and invite them to enter the gate that is our Good Shepherd.

A caution here. Besides the sheep knowing the shepherd’s voice, when trouble comes along such as a predator, the sheep will panic and scatter. They will go in all different directions being more vulnerable to whatever the cause. I would remind you that we are a church family. Please don’t isolate yourself. If you have a need, the worse thing you and your family can do is scatter. Call, text, or email someone from the church. Call John, Wendy, me, or whoever you feel comfortable calling. Let’s stay together as a group, and follow our Good Shepherd together.

Depending on which Biblical version we use, if we enter by the gate, we are promised a life to the full, or, a real and eternal life better than we could ever expect, or yet another version states that we will have an abundant life. Now, this does mean that all Christ’s sheep will have a good job, enough food, or make enough money, and have a stable always peaceful life. No. What it does mean is that we will have an abundance that is more of what is in our hearts than with what is in our hands. It is a trust in our shepherd that we will not be led astray, and that he will give his life for us if need be.

Let us symbolically take by the hand folks we would like to and symbolically lead them through this gate of safety and comfort into a fuller life with Christ. Let us keep them in our hearts or express them on our lips as we pray. Amen.

Traveling 'Underground Railroad' Book Group

10/30/2019

Newton, where we have been since the year 1780, has been home to at least two stops on the historical Underground Railroad, a network of secret safe houses and routes that were used to escape slavery. Using Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead's fictional novel, Underground Railroad, as a starting point for discussion, the traveling book group celebrates Newton's legacy of freedom and invites further conversation to foster thinking about social justice in our own time.

Reading the novel is not a prerequisite for joining the discussion. This is an opportunity for us to come together and think about the world and our part in it.

First stop: The evening of Sunday, November 10. At a church member's home in West Roxbury. Space is limited to 12 people. RSVP: john[at]fbcnewton.org for more details.

Second stop: Thursday, November 14. 7 p.m. At Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington Street, Newton. Free. Also, open to all. At this special gathering, participants will be treated to a brief tour of the building along with a mini presentation of the historical Underground Railroad. Information: 617-796-1450.

Open (& Affirming) Mic Night, Sun Oct 27

10/10/2019

Do you or someone you know have a gift or story that has not been shared or heard often enough? Invite a friend and come join us. Come and affirm and be affirmed. Encounter something beautiful.

This is a space for people across age range and ability to come and celebrate a gift they have or want to explore. Sing a song, play an instrument, tell a story, perform an act, speak about your art. Anything you are passionate about.

The Chapel, Sunday, October 27. 10 people. 4-5 minutes each.

We’ll have hors d’oeuvres & beverages. Feel free to bring a little something to add to the table.

Interested in signing up or displaying your art?
Email info[at]fbcnewton.org

Kids Room Mural

9/18/2019

Exciting things are happening this Fall and our children are, without a doubt, at the very center of it. Join and assist our beloved member and artist Nina Bellucci as she primes the walls in the Kids Room this Saturday, September 21. Children of all ages are invited to join Nina at 12 p.m.

This is a project that will be done in a few stages and completed this Fall. The project is inspired by Psalm 36:9: "In Your Light We See Light." This is the translation of the Hebrew inscription in our sanctuary. Encourage your children to find where it is the next time they are in church.

Listen to Nina in her own words describing the next stages of the project: "Kids will be able to paint their name(s) on a cloud, which will have their own rays projected, ultimately illustrating the promise of Psalm 36:9. We can continue to paint clouds and add names as more children come to the church."

Our children are truly like little rays. Let us encourage them to let their light shine.

Nina Bellucci is an accomplished artist. To find out more about Nina, visit her website, check out Musa Collective she is part of, or listen to a podcast in which she is interviewed.

Open (& Affirming) Mic Night, June 2

5/6/2019

The Chapel, 6 p.m. Sunday, June 2.

10 people. 4-5 minutes each.
We will affirm and celebrate all ages and abilities.

A space for people across age range and ability to come and celebrate a gift they have or want to explore. Sing a song, play an instrument, tell a story, perform an act, speak about your art. Anything you are passionate about.

Come if you are participating. Come if you are not.
We need each other to affirm each other.

We’ll have hors d’oeuvres & beverages. Feel free to bring a little something to add to the table.

Interested in signing up or displaying your art in our beautiful Chapel where the event will be held?
Email john[at]fbcnewton.org.

Lessons in Encountering Difference

3/20/2019

Floral tributes at the Botanical Garden in Christchurch on Monday [Marty Melville/AFP

Each time humans encounter difference, it is an opportunity to learn about ourselves and others. Whenever we encounter someone who is different from us, a process of reevaluation begins to take place. At times, people who are different make us feel uncomfortable. This is oftentimes simply because they look, sound different, eat, and behave differently from “us.” At other times, such discomfort arises because there are many lies that are often told about others. These lies gradually sink into our imagination and we start believing them. The man who chose to hurt and wound others in Christchurch, New Zealand, succumbed to such lies. The only way to see through those lies is to authentically get to know those different from us.

“Learning about other people and cultures is intended to make the world safe for human differences,” said Mahtab Sirdani, one of the three guests who led the first of our curated Interfaith Second Hour discussion series. In the past, we also had Jewish, Muslim, and Christian interlocutors to discuss if the three faiths worshipped the same God. In all of these conversations, two things became clear. One, there are real differences between the faith traditions. These differences are often a source of disagreement. Two, even within the same faith community, there can be drastic differences. Think, for instance, about the many differences between Catholics and Protestants and Orthodox Christians. This is what John Boopalan, our Minister for Community Life and Theologian in Residence, presented on at a conference in Princeton this weekend. Click here to see more. We are beautiful together not in spite of our differences but because of our differences.

For Lent this year, choose to learn about a community that is different from you. This is a good time to learn about our Muslim neighbors. Yusuf Mosque is a mosque close to our church community. Given the recent tragic and harmful event against Muslims, we are going to be writing cards of support and sympathy this Sunday (March 24, 2019), immediately after service. Come join us. If you so choose, please do send a card directly to our Muslim neighbors at Yusuf Mosque (186 Chestnut Hill Ave, Brighton MA 02135) or another Muslim community close to you.

Remember, there is always something we can do. Let us try.

Open (& Affirming) Mic Night, Sun Feb. 10

1/24/2019

The Chapel, 6 p.m. Sunday, February 10.

10 people. 4-5 minutes each.
We will affirm and celebrate all ages and abilities.

A space for people across age range and ability to come and celebrate a gift they have or want to explore. Sing a song, play an instrument, tell a story, perform an act, speak about your art. Anything you are passionate about.

Come if you are participating. Come if you are not.
We need each other to affirm each other.

We’ll have hors d’oeuvres & beverages. Feel free to bring a little something to add to the table.

Yes, there's more!
Artists are displaying their work. Keep reading.

Leo Hannenberg, Photographer

I have been am amateur photographer on and off for more than forty years. My father was an impressionist painter and his style still influences my work. I get great joy at walking through the parks in the greater Boston area capturing the beauty of the lakes and rivers as well as the creatures I meet along the way. I had a successful showing of my photography two years ago at the Indalo gallery in Newton, MA. I look forward to displaying my photographs in other galleries and continuing to develop my craft.

To learn more about Leo, click her to visit his webpage or his Facebook page. You can contact Leo at info[at]leohannenbergphotography.com.

Deborah Archibong, Artist

Deborah Archibong is an artist who does beautiful work with beads. Check out her jewelry and fashionable wears featuring simple and elegant styles at her Facebook page. Deborah also sings and it will be treat to hear her and also see her work.

Tana Walsh, Visual Artist

Tana Walsh was born in Texas and grew up in Austin. She has loved drawing and many forms of artistic expression since she was a child. She grew up in a home filled with art. Her father collected art as a "hobby." Therefore, she spent many an hour looking and studying the art that surrounded her. Tana has a BFA in Interior Design from Texas Tech University, with a continuing education focus in the area of Art Therapy. As an artist, Tana works from an image she takes with her own camera and/or the still life that she creates.

"I took my first painting class as part of my fine art degree requirements for my undergraduate degree. I realized, at that time, how much I loved working with color and the medium itself. My life took a different path and I did not return to painting until 2005."