He drew a circle that shut me out – Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win and we drew a circle that took him in!
            Outwitted,
            by Edwin Markham


READING
But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise. In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.
                                     - Galatians 3.25-30 (The Message)

REFLECTION
​We are about halfway through our sermon series on spiritual vision, Seeing through God’s Eyes; in which we are reflecting on the five core values that constitute our vision statement: valuing and accepting everyone, embracing spiritual and cultural diversity, focusing only on what unites us, serving with heart, and living in hopeful expectation. On Sunday we will focus on the third of these values, focusing only on what unites us.
 
This is a challenging value to live out, is it not; finding that one spiritual j’ne sais quoi capable of bringing us together and holding us in fellowship? For example, should we heed this value, there would be no room for many of the attitudes and actions we so cherish: arrogance, ridicule, gossip, scorn, or outright rejection. Nor would it be possible to protect the church by clinging to a fixed set of doctrines, liturgy, and, in general, the way we’ve always done things. It would seem that to focus on such things would create a rather small, homogenous fellowship; or, if conceived as a circle as in the poem cited above, a constricted circle that has no room for diversity or difference of any kind. Unity is described rather arrogantly as anyone like us.
                                                                                                                         
What if, however, we would rather be humble, as the good news suggests, and let Love draw the circle? What if we took seriously the Disciples recognition of ways of practicing faith differently from us? You remember the expression, “We are not the only Christians, we are Christian only.” And what if we humbly gave up possession of the truth of faith as delineated in so many creeds and doctrinal formulations? What if, again, we took seriously the Disciples desire to have “No creed but Christ?” What would happen to our circle? It would be large indeed, allowing room for a broad swath of believers, even the arrogant “He” in the poem cited above.
 
Even such a large, diverse circle must have a center, a focus that draws all in and makes of it a united fellowship. That center, that focus, is what we will attempt to identify on Sunday. I hope we can, because that large circle fellowship sounds attractive to me!
 
I hope to see you on Sunday.
 
Bo

​Scripture: Genesis 32:22-31 (CEB)
Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.”

But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.”

Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.”
But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel, “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.

Reflection:
I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been wrestling all week! After the tragic events at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, I wrestle with how to respond. Media would like us to respond in a certain way and politicians would like us to respond in another way, and I'm confident that God would have us respond in still yet another way.

We meet Jacob when he is about to reunite with his brother Esau, in which he is nervous about this meeting because of their history. But God has told Jacob he is to go back to his homeland and he cannot do that without meeting up with his brother, from whom he stole the familial blessing. What does God want him to do? What does society tell him will happen? I wonder what his family is saying?

As Jacob wrestles with a difficult situation, he wrestles with both God and humanity, and as the text reminds us, he prevails and "comes out on top." But Jacob doesn't just "come out on top" receiving a medal or a prize. Jacob wins because he receives a Divine blessing, a blessing in which he will be able to bless others with his blessings from God.

When we as a faith community continue to "wrestle" with what it means to "see through God's eyes" and what it means for us to live into God's vision for us we can wrestle with confidence. As we wrestle with how to respond, how to live as God's love in this world, we can do so knowing that God will bless us in our wrestling so that we can continue to bless our community and world around us.

We hope you will join us on Sunday morning at 8:30am or 10:30am to explore this further!

​Laura

​I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see.
I sought my God, but my God eluded me.
I sought my brother, And I found all three.
                 - William Blake 

READINGS
“And as for the outsiders who now follow me, working for me, loving my name, and wanting to be my servants— All who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it, holding fast to my covenant— I’ll bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’ to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar. Oh yes, my house of worship will be known as a house of prayer for all people.” The Decree of the Master, God himself, who gathers in the exiles of Israel: “I will gather others also, gather them in with those already gathered.”
                               - Isaiah 56.6-8 (The Message)

When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”  Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.
                               - Luke 7.1-10 (The Message)


REFLECTION
Last week we began a sermon series entitled:

Seeing through God’s Eyes
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me;
my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."
                                 (Subtitle by Meister Eckhart)
 
This series is intended to provide fresh insight into the nature of vision in a spiritual sense, because we at OPCC have recently embraced a new vision of ministry. To live into that vision – to commit ourselves to that vision – we must understand that it is not simply a slogan suggested by a consultant, a description our leaders put together one evening over coffee, or hastily prepared cliff notes about an article someone read in an obscure magazine.
 
Vision in a spiritual sense represents the discernment of God’s view of us, God’s yearnings for us, and what we can be as we move into the future. Cervantes in The Man of La Mancha describes vision as “seeing life as it should be” rather than seeing it “as it is.” Meister Eckhart describes vision as “seeing through God’s Eyes.” In less eloquent language, we defined it last week as the difference between “eyesight,” and “Insight,” or “insightful understanding” of life that far surpasses what the eye can see by penetrating to God’s view, to life as it should be, to seeing through God’s eyes. Helen Keller summarized this difference succinctly and profoundly in saying that “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
 
We at OPCC want vision beyond eyesight, the discernment of God’s will for us to which we may sincerely cling and proudly commit our efforts. This week we will reflect on the first of five core values in our vision statement – Valuing and accepting everyone – and its relationship to the first characteristic of vision; insight.
 
I think you will agree that opening ourselves to the widest possible range of “others,” those who differ from we insiders: culturally, ethnically, politically, financially, in their sexual choice of partner, Christian denomination or even religion altogether; opening ourselves to such others requires a significant insight into its origin in God; because, let’s face it, the very thought pushes us far beyond our comfort zone.
 
Here’s a spoiler alert. We tend to think that acceptance of others – as mismatched and different as they may be - requires a significant sacrifice of us; so significant, in fact, that we think of ourselves as martyrs. Otherwise stated, we share of our fullness so that they may find some sense of fulfillment. But what if this simply was not true? What if we are not whole until we reach out to others?
 
What if wholeness – in God’s eyes – cannot be conceived in any way other than being in relationship, in community? What if William Blake is right in the worship heading above, that we find neither ourselves nor God… until we find our neighbor? We will examine this possibility on Sunday. Join us, won’t you?
 
Bo 

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
             - Helen Keller                                     
 

READING:
John 9.1-3, 6-7 (The Message)
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
 
The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” “I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?” With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.” The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.” They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.” Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?” “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him. Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.” Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?” Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
                  - John 9.1-3, 6-7, 18a, 26-41 (The Message)
 
 
REFLECTION:
In 1893, Daniel Burnham witnesses the realization of his vision; The White City, short for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Where most of his contemporaries see the barrenness and isolation of Jackson Park – the park as it is - Burnham and his colleagues see the beauty and grandeur of the world’s fair to top all world’s fairs – the park as it could be.
 
In the stage version of Don Quixote, you may recall the magnificent soliloquy of Don Miguel Cervantes while awaiting trial before the inquisition. When confronted by another prisoner demanding that Cervantes give up his “fanciful flights of idealism and hope” and see the world as it is; Cervantes responds in so many words that he has seen the world as it is, itself fanciful, even mad. “Perhaps,” he continued, “to be too practical is madness.  To surrender dreams; this may be madness.  To seek treasure where there is only trash... too much sanity may be madness.  And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”
 
And let’s not forget Ezekiel who almost despairs in the face of his peoples’ exile, represented in vison as the valley of dry bones - life as it is. Ezekiel is confronted by God with a question, “can these bones live,” – i.e. life as it could be. With God’s grace and guidance this vison is fulfilled.
 
These men share at least one thing in common, each is blessed with a perspective that far surpasses sight, reaching into the realm of vision. From life as it is to life as it could be.
 
These examples offer some indication of the direction Jesus is headed in this week’s gospel reading. He offers the man born blind sight to be sure, but in addition he offers him vision, insight, understanding of the life he promises – life as it could be. Jesus promises to bring things into the clear light of day and demonstrate the difference between sight and vision. The Pharisees have the former, yet lack the latter, the most important thing.
 
On Sunday we will begin a sermon series on vision – Seeing through God’s Eyes – which is both timely and significant as we seek discernment on another step toward fulfilling our recently affirmed vision of ministry; “right sizing” the space we use in our primary ministry of worship and spiritual formation in order to partner more significantly with service oriented not-for-profits in our broader community. This will be a big step to be sure; a big decision. For this reason, we must make sure we discern the difference between sight and vision; life as it is, or with God’s help life as it could be. I hope you will join us on Sunday as we begin this new sermon series, and are led in worship by insideOUT, the last opportunity to hear them in their current incarnation.
 
Join us if you can. and remember, everyone is welcome!
 
Bo