Let Us Be Known By Our Love - (not by our empathy gap)

From Omid Safi’s work, “Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition”

There is certainly a way to approach Christianity where love is bifurcated: love for God can become split and apart from love of neighbor. At times, love of neighbor becomes the “good deed” we do to satisfy the provocation of James who wrote that “faith without works is dead.” But what has become quite common within the Church in America is that love of neighbor is not just detached and secondary from love of God, but an act that can even undermine one’s love of God and God’s love for them.

The White Evangelical Church in America has viewed love of neighbor and empathy for neighbor with suspicion for some time now. It rose during the cultural conversations on sexuality, marriage, and family and has perhaps peaked during these cultural conversations on immigration and gender identity and gender expression. Members of these churches (as with all churches) had and have plenty of relationships with friends and family who are gay, trans, and without American citizenship. The love that is present in these relationships say one thing. The church leadership says that God says another. The leadership in much of the White Evangelical Church demanded a choice. And when quite a few members began to follow the love for friends and family, the leadership of these churches began to question the discerning qualities of the heart. Empathy became a temptation that could lead us away from God.

Here we are in a moment when those who profess a Christian affiliation within the United States are less empathetic than those who profess no religious affiliation. And Jesus wept.

I share this to elevate how good and worthy it is that Hiram Christian Church is living into its commitment to be an Open and Affirming Congregation within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In such a barren religious landscape, every act of compassion and love is a salve and blessing.

We welcome and affirm all who come to our doors, all who come seeking to be part of Christ’s community - of every race, ethnicity, creed, economic status, age, gender, marital status, education, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and citizenship status.  We invite all to participate fully in the life and ministry of the church. 

This is a clear commitment to everyone who is seeking to be part of a community of faith. It is also a clear commitment by everyone who belongs to this community of faith - and it is faithful work that reconciles a love that has been divided elsewhere in the Church and world.

It is my hope that this commitment unites the love that has been bifurcated in the Church and world for others, and also for us. That in any act of hospitality and inclusion, one may sense love of neighbor and God reuniting as one. That this may become a practice to steadily trust and see that God is the love that is between any and all of us. To follow this - into care, friendship, or solidarity - is not anything apart from God and faithfulness, but the exact image of it.

God is love.

Love is God.

God is the love that is everywhere in the world and in the church and in your life. And on and on and on until we sense that it is all one and the same.

Let us continue to follow and trust in it. Delight in it. And recognize it as sacred as it is. And offering our part to be faithful, may all of Christ’s Church soon be known again for what it was and shall be again.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript to the sermon, “Theory and Practice”

All Saints Day

Sunday, November 1

The Church will honor All Saints Day this coming Sunday morning in worship. This is a time to recognize the Saints from our communities and lives, to remember and give thanks, and to continue to be present to the grief that we carry. Friends are welcome to bring a photo of their beloved(s) to be placed upon the communion table this Sunday. Names can also be submitted to the office to be inserted into the bulletin and litany of the Saints.

Camp Sunday

November 8

Our Sunday Morning Worship service on November 8 will be Camp-themed. We’ll have some camp songs, hear some camp stories from some of our young church members, and we will give thanks to Camp Christian and the many blessings it provides to our Region and Church.

Faith and Memory: I & Love & You

I

& Love

& you

(Gratitude to The Avett Brothers)

After Joshua leads the 12 tribes into the covenanted land, he asks them to remember the God who has brought them out of bondage in Egypt and to renew the covenant with this God. But there’s a catch.

The people who are being asked to remember the Exodus event were not actually there. Not most of them.

Back in Joshua 5, there is a note that all of the men of military age passed away in the time between Exodus, Sinai, Wilderness, and Entry. It’s been more than 40 years and that’s enough for 1-2 new generations. Perhaps at this point, there is even a majority who were not there. And still, the people respond to the call by proclaiming,

For it was the ETERNAL our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage, and who wrought those wondrous signs before our very eyes, and guarded us all along the way that we traveled and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed (Joshua 24.17).

Most weren’t there. But they all remember.

This is not the younger generations simply recognizing that it happened to their parents and grandparents. Instead, they speak as if it had happened to “them” personally - to “us.”

What is so profound about this covenantal community is that it does not require a first-hand experience. It does not require that I had the exact same experience of the divine and sacred as you. It simply asks for an empathy - to sense and understand the liberating experience of another, and to allow that to be among the faithful history of the community.

At the least, it is an act of pluralism to include in equal stature the sacred experiences of the other. We can understand the benefit of this when trying to merge 12 tribes together.

But more for any congregation, this is an act of charity and love. To listen and understand the power of God’s deliverance in the life of another friend and member of the church. To consider it of such great worth and honor to then gracefully stitch this event of one into the memory of the whole. To consider God’s saving grace for another as significant as if it had happened to you personally. This is the act of faith that not only witnesses the broad movement of God in the world, but an act of love that reckons every co-liberation and co-creation a gift to the whole as though it were all saving your life.

Perhaps, because it is.

Let us listen for what God is doing within the world and our community and remember.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript of the sermon, “Remember” (due to wifi issues during the service, a video recording is not available).

Speaking of what God is doing in our midst…

O&A Celebration and Re-commitment

Sunday, October 25

This coming Sunday, we’ll gather to recognize our second anniversary of becoming an Open and Affirming congregation within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This is a service of celebration for the faithful work of the church in the act of prayer and discernment and for the blessing that has come from articulating the love and welcome explicitly. This is also a service of re-commitment, seeking prayer and guidance to continue to open wide the doors and co-create a church that is not only open to, but representative and led by all of God’s beloved.

All Saints Day

Sunday, November 1

Sunday, November 1 will be the service recognizing All Saints Day within the life of the Church. We return to this service annually to remember our beloved who have passed away and honor their love and the grief that we carry. For the litany of Saints, all are welcome to submit any name(s) to be read and remembered. Please contact Lisa in the office and the name(s) will be printed and added.

It's nearing the time of Halloween and what better time is there to share stories of ghosts, ghouls, and haunts?

The church will be hosting another storytelling event to bring the community together around our stories. Whether you have a personal story or hold closely to a legend that was passed down to you, come out and share. Whether you believe in ghosts or just enjoy the thrill and mystery, come out and listen.

Stories can be around 5-7 minutes each. No pressure to share. All are welcome. Refreshments will be provided. BYOB.


Covenant at Sinai: A New Order(ing)

A New Order(ing)

Recreating the world for ourselves and others.

The Exodus epic reveals the common spiritual path articulated by Richard Rohr, from order (Egypt) to disorder (Waters of Liberation) to re-order (Covenant at Sinai and Entry & Land of Promise). There is a trust in the potential of the Law to help cultivate a new order and keep the people free. Moving through the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Law is to gain an appreciation for the Law’s great care for the vulnerable. While many in the Church have come to dismiss the Law as restrictive, we can sense and understand the sacred intention to lift and keep the people free and flourishing.

“You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
— Exodus 22.20
“You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes.”
— Exodus 23.6

To commit to an ethic of care between one another is to not only respond to God’s great care of us with care for God’s other beloved children, but to offer our part to sustaining a house, community, and world that are more closely aligned with the hope and heart of God. As we commit to a rule and ethic of care and justice, we co-create the order around us. This is powerful to remember, particularly when we find ourselves abiding within a time when the rule of law and ethic of care is suffering from abuse and neglect. In such a time of dis-ordering, the commitments we make to one another can not only help sustain us, but can become part of the re-ordering the world sorely needs.

When Moses is told by God, “When My angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I annihilate them…” there is a special note from the sages:

Rashi wrote that the annihilation is of the gods and not the people.

And perhaps most importantly, Ibn Ezra brings forward the idea that the “angel” is the Torah/Law.

Then, it is of the imagination and possibility to envision/remember that the people were not brought low by a physical angel or army, but transformed by a people committed to a Law and Way that has the power to shape, cultivate, and re-order.

Here is an alternative interpretation to contend with the matter of religious violence, and it also provides an encouraging word of what it can look like to be faithful in a landscape where idols reign.

We abide within a society that often talks about “Law and Order,” yet this moment is better described as lawless and disordering. Our commitments to one another can help us make our way and re-create the order around us. May it be so.

Peace and Re-order,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript and Video of the sermon, “The Floor on the Mountain”

In Our Church and Community:

Register for the first online lecture here.

Register for the second online lecture here.

“Ghost Tour” this Friday and Saturday

From Sunday Morning

10 Reasons Why

10 reasons why

To go. To stay.

I cherish the living tradition of wise reflections, questions, and interpretations that bring forward such nuance in the text - that expand scripture and ground it in experience. We can benefit from this library of commentaries and conversations that bring these grand theological claims embodied in epic into the lived experience of ourselves and our world.

In the Exodus story, we hear the proclamation that God is a god of liberation. Burning bush and Moses. “Let my people go.” 10 plagues. And then… out! Out from the city into the desert and to the water’s edge. Drop the staff and the waters part. We all pass through.

God is a god of liberation. Except, this may not be how the story always goes.

Liberation is a struggle. Whether the bondage that holds us is a set of physical chains or the disease of addiction, whether it is an oppressive society demanding we repress who we truly are or the fear of how we may be received once we reveal our true selves to friends and family, liberation is a struggle. Rarely is it all forward-moving. Rarely is it all linear.

So coming across works like The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan is a gift. In it, Rabbi Nathan tells a variation of the story of exodus. Connecting to the 10 trials of Abraham, he says that there were the 10 plagues and then the 10 miracles at the sea (we’ll get to another set of 10 on Sinai this coming Sunday). However, these miracles seem to come not as faithful demands intentionally paralleling an ancestor, but as a stalling tactic.

“We will not cross until the Sea appears to us as yawning holes.” 

Ok. Moses waved the staff and the yawning holes appeared. “Rise and cross” he said to the people.

And then, another requirement.

“We will not cross until the Sea will become before us like a valley.” 

Ok. Moses waved the staff and the valley appeared. “Rise and cross” he said to the people.

And then, another requirement.

On and on and on.

10 requirements. 10 miracles. 10 reasons to hesitate. 10 reasons to proceed.

Every requirement issued. Every demand fulfilled. Moses would reply, “Rise up and Cross” each time, and the people came forward with a new requirement. Until finally, they and the ground are prepared to move.

Liberation is like that.

Fits and starts. Ebb and flow. Back and forth. Round about and around again.

And what we might also glean from this beautiful epic is that not only is God a god of liberation, but God is a god of patience, grace, and presence.

God doesn’t just open the door and leave, nor does God run ahead and leave bread crumbs to find the way. God moves and flows with us - forward and backward, detour and return, rest and ready. God hears the cry of the people and responds. God understands the suffering of bondage and God understands the struggles of liberation. God remains steadfast and with us in and through it all.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript and video for the sermon, “Liberation is Anything but Linear”

Link to The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan

In Our Church and Community:

Rev. Chris hosts a gathering of friends and members to share their stories and wisdom in carrying loss.

This is open to the public.

We’re glad to be hosting the LWV to share about Election Security.

The Church is hosting a conversation with OH-72 Candidate, Jeff Clapper (D), Thursday evening.

Register through the link here.

Register for the second conversation here.

Beginning October 14

Sinking In

Sinking In

What the cast of Genesis reveals about ourselves and the God who chooses us.

Making our way through the book of Genesis is to come across a cast of characters that are a collection of courageous and cowardly, faithful and flawed, greedy and generous. Everybody in the line of patriarchs and matriarchs is incredibly imperfect.

After entering into covenant with Abram and Sarai, they travel, evade danger, entertain angels, and eventually have two children. One is banished, then blessed; One is blessed, then almost sacrificed. Also, Abraham offered up Sarah twice to save his own skin (what a guy).

Isaac and Rebecca get together, have two children - Esau and Jacob. It plays out as something of a rivalry with Jacob nipping at the heels of Esau - always wanting what Esau has and wanting to be Esau - as he was favored by Isaac. Their story even involves Jacob conspiring with their Rebecca to steal the blessing of Isaac from Esau… 

Jacob runs away, hides out, and marries two women - Leah and Rachel. Between them and two handmaids, this throuple+ has 13 kids among them. Jacob wrestles with God, reconciles with Esau, and when all of that sibling rivalry is settled, it begins to fester among the 12 brothers.

Joseph is Jacob’s favorite, but everyone else hates Joseph. Joseph tells all of his siblings about a dream he had where the sun, the moon, and the stars all bowed down to him… He doesn’t have the best social skills; he comes across as arrogant and entitled. So the brothers conspire to get rid of him, and just stop short of killing him. They throw him in a pit, sell him into slavery, and he’s taken down to Egypt.

If you have ever thought that your family was dysfunctional… you’re in good company.

If you have ever thought that you needed to be perfect to be a person of faith or belong to a faith community… let me tell you a story… or two or three.

What does all of this suggest about humanity? About the God that would choose such a cast? About the relationship between it all?

Our tradition has inspired a host of beautiful works of art often conveying a majesty and some image of “perfection” both in God and humanity. While this can perceive a divine nature that is wondrous and some idea of complete, it can contribute to molding an image of God in our minds that is not only whole, but deserving or demanding of wholeness. Such an image creates distance between us and God. And such an image seems to be distant from our scripture.

In the beginnings of the tradition, the wisdom seems to speak and name the nature of humanity as complex and complicated, beautiful and mysterious and holding potential for all things. We “contain multitudes” to put it plainly. And this is not a problem for God. Not at all.

God not only abides with the complex and complicated, but chooses us and loves us.

Perhaps a work of art that could better shape our image and relation with God is something different than two images of perfection reaching towards each other. Perhaps a simple “hand of God” reaching out to the world would be more true.

Two fingers held together. This is a symbol of humanity and divinity paired together - spirit and matter bound as one - reaching out with holy invitation to meet us and claim us - as we are and not for what we may become.

God truly loves humankind in all of our humanity.

In a moment when all the world is talking about artificial intelligence as superior to humanity or as “god-like.” When the titans of industry question the worth of humankind itself because technology is more efficient, productive, and could replace 100% of what we “do.” And when cultural Christianity presents God and a “saved” human being as the image of perfection…

There is something beautiful and glorious in the devoted love of God to humanity in its fullness- quirks and flaws and inefficiencies included.

There is something sacred about humankind already, as complex and complicated and quirky and flawed as we are and forever may be.

Let’s see what can emerge when we begin with such a story.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript and Video of the sermon, “Even-Steven”

In Our Church and Community:

Registration to these lectures is now live:

Register here for the first lecture on October 15 @ 4pm EST

Register here for the second lecture on October 15 @ 7pm EST

Chosen to Serve

Chosen to serve

GOD said to Abram,

“Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

I will make of you a great nation,
And I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you shall be a blessing.

This is another beginning within Genesis; an entry into a particular covenant with God to help bring healing, repair, and blessing into the world. To follow the story and faithful history is to encounter a God that is faithful to this covenant and a people who often are still trying to figure out exactly what this covenant means for them - and what it asks of them.

We see both hospitality offered to wandering strangers and the conquering of neighboring kingdoms.

We see prophets convey the urgent concern for the vulnerable and priests equate divine favor with invincibility.

We see hearts repent and hearts turned to stone.

Turn to the news today and you’ll see the same story.

Within each of the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), there is a non insignificant presence of conviction that their particular covenant reveals a divine favor that is understood to be exceptional. At the more benign end of the spectrum, such exceptionalism is something that is made known upon death and judgment. At the more harmful end of the spectrum, exceptionalism is grounds for a particular community to be entitled to greater rights than others and exempt from responsibilities to others - for some, it may even grant a sense of mastery and dominion over all. Most acutely in this moment, we may hear the language of religious exceptionalism from a cast of national politicians in Israel and our United States and the clergy who fan these flames.

To witness the suffering that comes from such language and interpretation can cause both those rooted in the tradition and those with a more pluralistic view to do away with any such phrasing of “chosenness” or “favor” completely. And that may be needed for a time.

But there is also something so very moving and fundamental to the tradition and our spirituality that is held within all of this that is worthy of extracting from all this exceptionalism, and that is the intimate connection between the divine and us. This brilliant imagery where the holy speaks and calls us by name. This profoundly intimate communion where the sacred calls us beloved and invites us towards blessing. This can be heard and honored - and it should be.

The wisdom of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers us a grounding and orientation to approach this idea of chosenness:

A chosen people is the opposite of a master race, 

First, because it is not a race but a covenant; 

Second, because it exists to serve God, not to master others. 

He goes on,

A master race worships itself; a chosen people worships something beyond itself. 

A master race values power; a chosen people cares about the powerless. 

A master race believes it has rights; a chosen people knows only that it has responsibilities. 

The key virtues of a master race are pride, honor, and fame. 

The key virtue of a chosen people is humility. 

A master race produces monumental buildings, triumphal inscriptions, and a literature of self-congratulation. 

Israel, to a degree unique in history, produced a literature of almost uninterrupted self-criticism.

A chosen people is not a master race but its opposite: a servant community. 

~ Not In God’s Name (Confronting Religious Violence)

This, is wisdom and grace.

God calls us beloved and chooses us for good and sacred work. There is intimacy and communion - with God and with the world. This sense of “chosenness” and “favored’ can not only play well with others, but nurture the soul that understands it - leading to humble service to others and a beloved community where we all know what it means to be chosen, favored, and exceptional.

May we be courageous, humble, and true to the calling upon us. May we offer our part of the covenant to God and neighbor.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

p.s. The manuscript and audio to the sermon, “One Covenant, Two Covenant; Red Covenant, Blue Covenant.” (A wonderful special guest during the sermon led me to utilize the audio rather than video to respect privacy)

In Our Church and Community:

Have you ever wanted to hike the Buckeye Trail in Hiram, Ohio but didn't know where to begin? Join local birding enthusiast and amateur arborist, Dave Factor, at 11:00 am this Sunday (9/27) at the Hiram Post Office as he leads a hike through the Village's new trail sections. After the hike, stay in the Village and enjoy a beverage for the Hiram Beer and Wine Festival!

Park It On Your Lawn: Survival v. Salvation

Park it on your lawn

Not large enough to contain everything, but large enough to notice.

As we wrestle with some of the imagery of the story (mostly that of divine violence), we can move from an interpretation where God used violence to condemn violence (something that never works and a heretical feature to a God of love) and move towards an interpretation where violence itself becomes the flood. We have read and perhaps even known of the all-consuming nature of violence to destroy what was once flourishing. This re-creation myth conveys what the people have known so very well, and becomes less a story of divine judgment and more a warning about the lesser qualities of our own potential and a story of divine deliverance and salvation.

Noah, build an ark.

450 feet long.

75 feet wide.

In your front yard.

This is enormous. Not large enough to contain a pair of every single creature, but don’t worry about that, says the commentary from Kli Yakar:

The text specifies for us the measurements of its length, width, and height for two reasons. First, to inform us of the magnitude of the miracle that a small space contained much, as there were large creatures there such as elephants and re’emim [wild oxen].

We’re entering into the miraculous. God is a god of abundance and there will always be enough room for all. The ark is 300 cubits long and 50 wide and don’t worry - there’s room. That’s the miracle of generosity and compassion.

But if there is a miracle in the amount of space, there is no such miracle offered to help Noah along with the timeline. The commentary tells us that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark! (Yes, time is perhaps something different in these stories as Noah lived into his 600’s…)

But 120 years of work! Why couldn’t God perform a miracle here that led to some Disney-fication of the story so that all of the forest creatures are suddenly helping in the work of sawing, hammering, and pitching like with every Disney princess? Noah didn’t receive any help - and for good reason.

I love this note from Rashi about why it took Noah 120 years to build the ark:

MAKE THEE AN ARK — There are numerous ways by which God could have saved Noah; why, then, did he burden him with this construction of the Ark? So that the men of the generation of the Flood might see him employed on it for 120 years and might ask him, “What do you need this for”? and so that he might answer them, “The Holy One, blessed be He, is about to bring a flood upon the world” — perhaps they might repent (literally, return to God) (Sanhedrin 108b).

Yes. Even from the beginning, the future is fluid.

Even within a story where everything appears certain and cast, mercy, care, and repentance can all change everything.

One could have come over to ask what Noah is doing and that could have changed one’s heart.

That person is now helping Noah and others come by - they hear, learn, change, and more are in the work.

Perhaps everyone - or just enough - change and repent and the flood waters of violence that had been rising cease and abate.

Perhaps the flood never comes.

This is the image of God found in our tradition from the very beginning. A creating God who loves and is committed to us - even when we pursue our own destruction - always.

God still enters into our world - even when the future seems certain and cast already for us. Speaks and stirs within humanity to find one, two, or more who might care enough to work and serve to partner with God to save.

But this isn’t just to save ourselves and our loved ones (although this, too, is noble). The call of God to find a partner in some saving work is going to involve some measure - some action - some sign - to try to bring in and save someone else.

And so God tells Noah, build an ark. It’s going to be huge. It’s going to take you forever. In the end, it may not even be necessary.

Yeah. That’s the kind of God we’re working with.

So if there is a call within you to join in God’s saving work…Perhaps it is to help save part of creation from the rising waters of the climate crisis, or to help save our nation from the rising waters of corruption, division, greed, and violence. Perhaps it is to help feed our hungry children in our community, or to help the most vulnerable children and young people in our communities to trust that they are members of, and belong to, this world.

If you’re responding to a call, and partnering with God in this saving work, let it be known. Let it be visible. Unless it requires discretion and privacy (which some good and faithful work does), make it known like a 450 foot ark on your lawn. Perhaps others will join in the work. Perhaps those of us who need to repent will repent.

Perhaps salvation will come before the waters ever do.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript and Video to the sermon, “Starting… Now”

In Our Church and Community:

This service has returned for the Fall Schedule

Connect and listen to the soul.

The Adult Elective Sunday School Class will Begin this Sunday @ 9:45am

We’re moving into this work by James Finley to learn more about Merton and what his faith and work may have to offer to our own.

Begin Again

Begin Again

We set off into Summer with a blessing for the season: travels and exploration, good work and good rest, surprise and discovery whether at home or afar. It has been so good to learn how you have spent and shared your summer, and how the divine has met and moved with you into and through it.

Now, we are preparing for a return of sorts to a fuller schedule of services and gatherings to nurture faith and life within your heart and our communities.

  • Our Adult Sunday School program will begin at 9:45am this Sunday.

  • Our Sunday Morning worship service will begin at 11:00am this Sunday.

  • Tonight welcomes the return of our Contemplative Service @ 5:30pm - a welcome breath during the week.

This season also includes the return of our Potlucks, Community Breakfasts, Story Telling Sessions, and our Youth Group gatherings.

We’re even trying some new things like collaborating with the Hiram College Nursing Department for some service opportunities and welcoming the community for conversations with candidates for office.

It’s all part of how we live into our vision of following Christ in the ways of love, cultivating community, and doing our part of restorative justice. And it’s so good that we can share in this life and work together.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

The manuscript and video of the sermon, “If/Then, If/Then/Until.”

Your Generosity

A note from Marcia Muster regarding the donations for our siblings in Springfield.

Ken and I drove to Springfield yesterday, it took under three hours. We went to a community center. A security guard instructed us to go around to the back of the building and people would unload our car. They weighed everything we brought and put it on the shelves of their food cupboard. Ken filled out a form telling what organization the food came from.

They took us to the community room. We met the director. She told us they delivered 100 boxes to homes of Haitians yesterday. We asked if they preferred money or food. She said both are important. They like to see faces and interact with those bringing food and supporting the Haitians. Also, it helps to lessen the strain on local grocery stores. She said people have been very generous, coming from all over the state.

The money is important. They need money to help pay rent, legal fees, rental cars, hotels, if necessary. Haitians have to go to Cleveland to apply for asylum. We met two Haitian women and their children. One woman had just been granted asylum. They were going to read through her documents and see what steps she needed to take to complete the process. There might be opportunities to volunteer, you might email her directly.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, Hiram Christian Church is very generous.



Casey Kelly Rollins, Director

Caseyrollins59@gmail.com

Springfield District Council Society of St. Vincent de Paul

In Our Church and Community:

Finders Keepers, Losers...

Finders Keepers,

Losers…

Life after losing.

“Get behind me Satan!” (Matthew 16.21-28)

I have found this scripture to really push at my understanding of Christ as endlessly compassionate and gracious. The story goes that Jesus was sensing the impending threats to his life - you cannot go on critiquing and challenging empire without risk. Rome has little tolerance for “constructive criticism” and the Religious Authorities at the time had little tolerance for anyone who disturbed the incredibly fragile co-existence within empire. And Jesus shares this with the disciples.

But as Peter sees it, God would never allow for Jesus to be harmed; God would not allow for him to even “dash his foot against the stone.” But that is the view of another character, and Jesus makes that plain. If we had forgotten, the language that the author employs brings us right back to the earlier scene of Christ in the wilderness - tempted by the devil with power, wealth, invincibility and control. Every time, Christ turns it down for that which is genuine.

In this passage, Jesus seems to expel more emotion at Peter than he ever did with the devil. And perhaps we are to pay attention to this… not necessarily because of any sense of condemnation, but to receive the urgency within it.

Within Christ, there is a sincere understanding of calling. There is a sense of calling to teach, reveal, and embody the love of God and to be as true to this as possible - even when there’s risk and cost.

Christ is trying to be faithful to the calling. Peter can’t accept it.

Peter is holding on to an idea and a hope that Christ will be something else. Maybe it is like the vision offered to Jesus in the wilderness, or maybe it is closer to the image of the Messiah within the Jewish tradition. Either way, it is an image that does not and cannot include suffering. Peter is holding on to an image of God that is actually interrupting the real image of God before him.

This is what leads Jesus to speak the words that contain the essence of the gospel…

“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”
— Matthew 16.25-26

Peter is certain that he knows who God is, what God is doing, and where he stands in all of this. Until he isn’t. Peter is holding on to something that he must now let go of. Peter must lose this, or he will be left only holding onto an idea and an illusion, not the genuine.

What is God trying to do before and within us?

Are we willing to let go of our ideas of who God should be and what God should be doing?

Are we willing to let go of our ideas of who we are in relation to the image of God we have held?

These very questions hold the possibility of a radical deconstruction/conversion/rebirth and so we can have some grace with ourselves as we receive the questions. These are not easy questions. They are not questions that just pass us by. They are perennial within the life of faith and a faith community, and there is some urgency to it all - that the questions are worthy of us.

There is always threat and risk in losing - a cost to the self that often involves some portion of identity and spirit. And, there is something beyond the loss. Something that is found only after we have let go and lost.

What must we let go of, in order to discover the genuine?

Let us honor and wrestle with these faithful questions to be ever more faithful to God, ourselves, and one another.

Peace,

Rev. Chris McCreight

Manuscript and Video of the sermon, “Finders Keepers”

In Our Church and Community:

Food and Resource Drive for our Haitian Neighbors in Springfield:

There are many ways to help our siblings in Springfield, and one way that the church is helping is by holding a food drive to provide groceries. Foods can be dropped off in the kitchen of the sanctuary building or brought to the worship service this coming Sunday, September 6th. The collections will be delivered the following week.

Community “HillFest” at Hiram College on Monday, September 7 from 6-9pm

Our Contemplative Services will return on Wednesdays, beginning September 9th @ 5:30pm

It was so good to host The Hiram Rapids Stumblers this last Sunday evening for Hiram Village’s Summer Concert Series. Partnering with the Parks and Recreation Board, we’ve offered the sanctuary as a “rain location” for these concerts. It’s a gift to be able to host and use this phenomenal space in all the ways that serve our community.

Hiram College is organizing a Community Choir and Community Band Ensemble:

Along the Way

Along the Way

Relationships, Partnerships, and Friendsihps

Community and Blessing

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed a gentleman out and about in the Village. He was wearing a sunhat and sunglasses, and carrying a small can of paint and a paint brush. Moving along a path that been known but undistinguished, he proceeded about and painted a light-blue stroke of paint along trees and poles with great care - the color of distinction of the Buckeye Trail.

After years of work from Hiram Village, the Buckeye Trail now moves into and through Hiram. And because of the church’s generosity and partnership, the Trail also moves into and through the grounds of Hiram Christian Church.

From the South, the Buckeye Trail merges with the path through the native meadow and into the parking lot. It moves north across the lot and then West at the corner. There are at least four blue stripes on the church grounds - markers and guides for hikers to continue on.

It’s a wonderful development, and telling of all that we can do to help others find and continue on their way.

Ideas and conversation. Time and energy. Negotiation and persuasion. Gift and sacrifice. Hospitality and care.

It’s part of what we do as a people of hospitality and as fellow sojourners; part of what we do as the Church.

I hope that you’ll come and admire this fresh paint around town and on our grounds. And I hope that you’ll take a moment to reflect and remember who has helped provide the markers and prepare the path for you. I hope you’ll take a moment to offer gratitude, and then consider what we as Hiram Christian Church are doing and may still do to prepare the way for others and encourage us all as we proceed along.

Blessings in your coming and going, and along all the paths you encounter this Summer.

Rev. Chris McCreight


The video recording of the sermon, “You’re Doing Great” is not available due to some absolutely perfect visitation from one of our young people, but the manuscript can be found here.

In Our Church and Community:

Our neighbors in Springfield face an incredibly vulnerable experience now without Temporary Protection Status. If you are able and wanting to contribute some gift to help at this time, consider this ministry.