FU - FairAndUNbalanced.com

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, May 19, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO
Message for the Pentecost: Holy Spirit Holes

God speaks to every human heart
in its own language,
in the light of its own wisdom.

When we open our lives to the Holy Spirit,
when we listen, in the stillness,
to the voice within,
our words and actions take on a meaning
that goes beyond our understanding.

This is our Pentecost:
That God's word, that the presence of Jesus,
is revealed in the universal language of love.
We communicate what we do not know ourselves.

The story is told in our lives, and in our hearts.
It is told in our scripture:

When the day of Pentecost had come,
they were all together in one place.
And suddenly a sound came from heaven.

Found on line:

- Mama Lucy, In Concert
Stuttgart, Germany

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, May 12, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO
Message: Prodigal - Becoming the Father

With every flaw, with every misstep,
we are loved as we are.
We are loved as we are becoming,
as we grow in the image of our father.

We are still learning compassion and healing,
still learning forgiveness and love,
learning to see all brothers and sisters,
to see ourselves, as we are seen by God:

Not as having grown, but as growing;
not as having arrived,
    but as children on a journey;
wanting to walk more closely with our Savior;
seeking to walk ever closer toward our home.

Found on line:
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
- Mahalia Jackson, London Concert, 1964

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, May 5, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO
Message: Prodigal - The Elder Son

Acceptance finds worth in the human heart.
Forgiveness discovers value in the human soul.
God never turns away from those who do wrong,
God has never turned away from each of us.

We do not admit our sister into God's family,
because no-one stops being a child of God.
We can not welcome our lost brother home,
because we are all still on a spiritual journey.

Jesus walks with each lost soul,
his hand is on every shoulder.
God's power overcomes
     even the barriers we build,
between each other, between ourselves and God.

Love is an invitation to walk together.
God's grace guides us.
The warmth of God's presence welcomes us.
We are going home.

Found on line:
Even Now Lord
- Andrew Culverwell

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, April 28, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

We know we have not lived up to our standards.
But honesty in the human heart is not easy.
We see the wrong that we do.
But truth in the human soul is hard.

We don't seek acceptance of what we've done.
We don't expect approval of what we've become.
But even when we've turned away from God,
we discover that God has never turned from us.

When we find forgiveness,
when we see acceptance,
when we experience love
that was never interrupted,
we realize that,
even when we felt we were alone,
Jesus has been walking with us all along.

El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
God Almighty, Lord most High.
You take away our shame and our guilt.
You welcome us back into our home.

Found on Line:
"El Shaddai"
Amy Grant

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, April 21, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO
Sunday Message: St. Mark's Mini School

What is our reward when we give of ourselves?
How do we profit from a time of teaching?
What compensation are we given for care?
What payment for kindness?

Each recognition of human worth,
saying a word, helping a friend, teaching a child,
each act of compassion,
sends out a ripple of hope.
Each wave of hope carries a vision.

When we see a child's success
in reading a story,
when we experience a smile of triumph in math,
when children play, when they learn,
we see a brighter future beyond ourselves.

We catch a glimpse of the mountaintop.
We have a newer faith in the promised land.
And we know God's kingdom is now.

Video of same song from April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday worship service
at Lakewood Church
Houston, TX

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, April 7, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

We are told there is a circle of righteousness.
We are told to despise those outside that circle.
And yet we embrace them.
We are told to reject those who are different.
And yet we invite them.

The one who came back for us has taught us
about God's love, about human worth.
We learn to love God, to love every child of God.
More than we fear man,
more than we fear death,
we follow that commandment of love.

We break bread together
in communion with each other.
We kneel in worship to a common God,
in faith with a common vision of active love.

Found on line:

Antoine Garth
Let Us Break Bread Together
with pianist John Ferguson
Saigon Conservatory
February 2004

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, March 31, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

We have been wounded,
but today we celebrate healing.
We have been corrupted,
but today we are made whole.

We had forgotten the value within us,
but today we are affirmed.
We had ignored the value of our neighbors,
but today we are forgiven.

We have been lost, even to ourselves.
But today we are rescued.
The Son who was taken from us,
the one for whom we mourned,
rose from death to set us free.

A favorite scene from the movie Tombstone takes place in a saloon. Gambler Doc Holliday and gunslinger Johnny Ringo trade artful insults in Latin. Both are uncommonly educated. Then Ringo escalates the contest. He taunts Holliday with a dazzling display, whirling and twirling his pistol. The crowd is impressed with his skill. Doc responds with a mocking display of his own, whirling and spinning a small metal drinking cup. The crowd laughs at the satiric humor. Ringo leaves in disgust.

In the strange connections that occasionally plague my aging mind, the scene reminded me of an ancient story, central to my faith. The prelude was one of violence.

The crowd was peaceful, at first. Religious funds had been taken by the ruling authority of the foreign occupation in order to build a new waterway. The intent of assembling had been to calmly present the case against taking donations that had been meant for the temple. But a few in the crowd began shouting in anger at the sacrilege.

With a gesture from the prefect, the brutality began. Roman soldiers had infiltrated the crowd, disguised as peasants. They didn't bother with swords. On signal, they began to swing clubs. The crowd tried to scatter. Barriers blocked them. Some escaped, but many were killed. The clubs were raised again and again as Romans pushed and smashed without mercy. The sounds of grunts and thuds mingled with panicked cries. When the noise ended and silence reigned, bodies littered the ground.

It was one of several documented cases involving deliberate provocation of local custom and savage violence when resentment resulted. As the chief representative of the occupation, Pontius Pilate was hopelessly antagonistic. His brutality became a legend throughout the empire.

In ancient Rome, noted for its own brutal authority, Pontius Pilate had become known for excess. He was formally reprimanded by the Emperor himself. The next blood spilled in Palestine had better be his own.

Shortly after that, the annual passover was celebrated in Jerusalem. As was his practice, Pilate rode into the city surrounded by thousands of Roman soldiers in a spectacular show of force. He seldom lost an opportunity to intimidate and impress. This was no exception.

But, on the other side of the city, an itinerant preacher, an anti-establishment figure, seemed to be deliberately mocking him. He rode in on a donkey with crowds cheering him on. The brutal ruler was being made the object of derision.

The idea of a spontaneous Jewish mob springing forth to intimidate a hapless Pontius Pilate into killing Jesus doesn't make much sense to me. This was a guy who made a fetish of instigation and suppression of the most brutal kind. A mob organized to proclaim loyalty to Rome is especially suspect. We remember Zacchaeus the tax collector as one who was despised as a collaborator, profiting by cooperating with Romans. Are we to believe that a crowd gathered to proclaim themselves loyal to the same occupiers?

It strikes me that the dueling entries into the holy city, one by Pilate and the other by Jesus, became the defining moment that brought about the crucifixion. Pilate was a precursor to the psychotic Johnny Ringo, but with thirty five hundred tough soldiers at his call. This was not a man to perceive an insult and fail to respond, not an insult from those who suffered the misfortune to fall under his rule.

The unlikely mob, screaming loyalty to Caesar, shouting without fear, makes sense only in the context of the imperial threat. The next blood had better be that of Pilate. It is only in that context that the strange-beyond-strange impromptu chant, can be anything but one of the most bizarre rhetorical lapses ever: "His blood is on us and on our children."

What kind of wackiness is that? Even allowing for a wide gulf of social sensibility and multiple translation it seems weird. I'm trying to imagine a lynch mob confronting a local sheriff. Hand him over! We have just the rope for him. His blood is on us and on our children. Cultural differences can account only for so much.

But as a bit of Kabuki theatre, with notes taken by paid witnesses for the benefit of a ticked off Emperor, it all makes sense. Add to that the washing of the hands and Pilate speaking to the mob: "I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your responsibility!"

Uh, huh, uh huh. Now, Your Excellency Tiberius, about this "next blood spilled" business. Surely you can see it wasn't my fault. His blood isn't on my hands. It's on them and their children. The mob had to have been organized and financed on behalf of the strutting, blood-intoxicated, little tyrant. The script had been tailored to the behind-the-curtain specifications of Pontius Pilate.

And thus began nearly two millennia of attacks and persecution. In our treatment of Jews, Christianity has much to answer to Jesus for.

It is hard to see how the current attitude of many toward other religions can be considered representative of the Prince of Peace. It is a mutation of a shameful subterranean tradition, a perversion of faith.

Through history, while many felt an inner compulsion to live for Jesus, too many disciples of the Son of Man have been eager to kill for Christ.

We have in common our mortality, our weaknesses, our salvation in the form of a scarred and outstretched hand. And we also have in common, each in our own way, each in our own faith, betrayal and the hope of redemption.

In the coming week, we will celebrate the promise of evil overcome.

Deep within the human soul, Jesus finds something to cherish, something worth dying for. Something worth coming back to save.

And in all of human history, there is much, so very much, that needs forgiving.

Podcast: As Jesus Overturns a Christian Tradition

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, March 24, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

The faithful expected a Messiah to fight
against the injustice of a foreign force.
Instead we have a king who cares for us,
who washes our feet, who dies to save us.

We cheer him as he rides into a city.
We sing for him. We betray him.
We are rescued by him.
We find him in the downtrodden of every land,
in the lost ones of every faith.

We are grateful for what he sees in us,
what he is willing to die for,
what he is willing to come back for;
that he finds, hidden in the human soul,
all that is worth saving.

Found on Line
"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna"
Palm Sunday
April 17th, 2011
Apex UMC Chancel Choir
100 S. Hughes St.
Apex, N.C. 27502

In response to a comment regarding Burr Deming's
Good People Participating in Great Evil vs Larry Craig,

Reprinted in T. Paine's:
Pointing Out Homosexual Sin is Not Oppression

of course you deserve equal rights. You are a child of God...we are indeed all sinners and we each are allowed to live our lives as we each see fit."

- T. Paine, March 18, 2013

Then why don't gay people deserve the right to marry? Especially in this country where our laws are not based on sinful and not sinful and where civil marriage can be distinct from religious marriage?

I respectfully disagree with you that the Church is oppressing people by pointing out a sinful lifestyle.

- T. Paine

The Church is not simply "pointing out a sinful lifestyle." Pope Francis called legal marriage equality "a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God." That's not saying "it's wrong, don't do it." It's saying "they should not be allowed to live their lives as they want." Much like how some people say "I don't care what gay people do behind closed doors, but why do they have to shove it in our faces," whatever is pointed out behind the closed doors of a church is one thing, but trying to change laws and affect the lives of everyone (not only Catholics) is what I take issue with.

That said, as a society, should we enshrine those rights into law today which our Judeo-Christian heritage, faith, and past laws have found to be sinful?

In a government not based on faith, when preventing so harms other people, most definitely. I like the fact that I can be Jewish even though 1000 years ago that was a sin.

The Church's position has changed on issues, and I feel like this goes back to the heart of what I took from Mr. Deming's original post. Evil exists because good people do nothing about it. So I can't sit by and accept the Church's current opinion and acts knowing that the opinions hurt people and knowing that the Church might change it's mind.

1000 years ago, at a time when the Church still believed that being Jewish was a sin, would you have denied me equal rights because your Church told me I was sinning by my very existence?

Or would you love the sinner, hate the sin, and at least let me live my life though you disapproved of it?

Emily is an occasional, continually welcomed, contributor, whose thoughtful comments are always well expressed. Although we encourage her to devote herself to a life of poverty as a blog writer, rather than waste her time in productive endeavors, she ignores our advice.

In response to a comment regarding Burr Deming's
Good People Participating in Great Evil vs Larry Craig

It seems to me that the position of the Church has changed a bit when it comes to certain things. I'm doing a little bit of reading, and I learned that in AD 325, we would have been forbidden from having this conversation. While I don't know if talking to me would be considered a sin as such or maybe just frowned upon, I'm also finding that apparently just by being Jewish I'm sinning. So my question is, do you think I deserve equal rights even though I'm a sinner? If we're all sinners, why are some sinners allowed to live their lives as they please (assuming they hurt no one with their sin) while others are denied that basic liberty?

If the position of the Church has changed regarding Jews (at least so much as to allow you to engage in conversation with me), what would make one so certain that these things the Church was wrong about but these things (when people not hurting anyone are still being oppressed by the opinion of the Church) the Church is right about?

- Emily, March 14, 2013

Emily, of course you deserve equal rights. You are a child of God. We are all sinners; every last one of us. If rights were reserved only for those without sin, we would all be in dire straits.

It used to be cultural tradition that Jewish men did not talk to women in public, especially if they were Rabbis. I think Jesus ( a Jew) pretty much blew that out of the water in the Gospel of John when he talks to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He asks her for a drink of water, and she is flabbergasted that a Jew would even deem to speak to her, a woman and a Samaritan. In the end, she accepted the living water of which Jesus spoke and ran back to her village to proclaim that she had met the messiah.

The same goes for Catholics conversing with Jews and others. I think that was a remnant of tradition and not doctrine. It certainly was not in line with following Christ’s example for us.

I don’t think you are a sinner because you are Jewish. Like I said, Christ was a Jew. Salvation comes from the Jews accordingly. The Catholic Church has indeed changed its thoughts over the years and recognizes that one does not have to be Catholic or even Christian to go to heaven. That is up to God to decide. The Catholic Church, as it was founded by Christ, proclaims that it is the fullest revelation of the faith and therefore the most complete way to find salvation. It is not the only way. God is not bound by sacraments or anything he left as revelation to mankind. Those are for man’s benefit.

And, in further answering your question, we are indeed all sinners and we each are allowed to live our lives as we each see fit. God gave each of us the free will to do so, even when we choose to sin. That said, as a society, should we enshrine those rights into law today which our Judeo-Christian heritage, faith, and past laws have found to be sinful? I respectfully disagree with you that the Church is oppressing people by pointing out a sinful lifestyle. I would further argue that in most cases, where children are involved, that sinful lifestyle does indeed have a negative impact on others. That said, the Church does not make law. It does point out and hopefully influence people so that the laws they make will be moral ones. It has no power to do so itself though.

The Catholic Church, and every other institution comprised of humans, is not perfect and is not infallible in all matters. Since it is made up of fallen men and women, how could it ever be perfect? The church is a hospital for sinners; not a museum for saints. Even so, it is Catholic belief, as proclaimed in scripture that when it comes to teaching on the dogmatic and doctrinal matters of the faith, the Holy Spirit itself will protect the magisterium of the Church and the Pope from teaching in error when specifically proclaimed on such matters of dogma and doctrine. We are all free to accept or reject that teaching as we each see fit accordingly.

I am certain that there is much that you could teach me, Emily, and that if we were to talk that we might find we have a lot more in common than what you might guess. That said, I am thankful for the opportunity to have this conversation with you. And while society might have frowned upon it 2000 years ago, I am certain it is not a sin for us to talk today. I am certain I will meander into other sins accordingly with which I will need to confess. Talking with you is not one of them.

T. Paine, a generous conservative contributor, also writes for his own site, where sin is confessed, and dialogue is encouraged.

Please visit Saving Common Sense.

Listen As You Go -

Keeping Him in Prison More Important Than Innocence - Podcast
Text

Good People Participating in Great Evil vs Larry Craig - Podcast
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The Path of Paul Ryan's Head - Podcast
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Gay Love - Throw Away All But Two Spiritual Rules - Podcast
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[Listen, There's More]

Introduction, Traditional Service,
9:00 AM, March 17, 2013
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

Jesus prayed in a peaceful garden,
at night, surrounded by olive trees,
He prayed alone, and he knew that soon
he would be standing alone, all alone.

We see Jesus today in those who are rejected.
We see Jesus in those who are outcast,
in those who struggle to survive,
in those who have fallen away.

And we say to them:
I will kneel with you.
I will pray with you.
This time, at long last, I stand with you.

Found on Line
"Winds Through the Olive Trees"
at GodTube.com

In response to T. Paine's comment on
Good People Participating in Great Evil vs Larry Craig

Hmmm... So it is a great evil to condemn a sin that God and His scripture tells us is wrong?

I agree that we should not and must not condemn the sinner, as we all would be condemned for some transgression or the other accordingly.

That said, to call evil "good" and to call good "evil"... well woe to that person. Seems I read that somewhere once, not that many folks, including many Christians, would necessarily recognize that quotation these days.

- T. Paine, March 14, 2013

My short answer is that I see only two important rules of the road. They go hand in hand. Everything else worth considering flows from those:

Love God with everything that is in you, and the day by day form of that, love your neighbor as yourself. Nothing in spiritual law, nothing in the Bible, nothing from the biblical prophets, is valid if it doesn't flow from those two simple things.

If you can figure out how the denigration of real people derives from those rules, when those real people are guilty only of love for others of the same gender, then go ahead and believe what you will. I'm okay with that as long as you do not attempt to enforce it through the law, or use government to withhold rights from those you see as spiritually guilty.

As long as you do not abridge the rights of others, I'm fine with you applying to yourself the proscription of Leviticus 18:22 against homosexuality, if you want to use it as a basis of your private conduct. I'm okay if you want to think of it, as did the all too imperfect Apostle Paul, as an affliction.

I'm also fine if you want to stay away from Red Lobster because Leviticus 11 calls the eating of shellfish an abomination.

I will tend to object if you decide to execute disrespectful children, as Deuteronomy 21 instructs, since your private morality is no longer private when you impose it on others. Similarly, if you sell your daughter into slavery, following the rules laid out in Exodus 21, you may want to keep me off the jury at your trial.

I am aware that blaming the victim is the new style of contemporary Republican thought, but if you take that to the point of actually executing young, unmarried, victims of rape, as Deuteronomy 22 guides you, I will try to stop you from taking action. If I fail I hope secular, non-biblical, authorities succeed.

I am aware that, amazingly, some misguided believers think of faith as a mechanical process. Some believe that an Old Covenant was replaced by a New Covenant, something directly denied by Paul, and merely contradicted by Jesus.

But if you want to think that, in olden days, executing children, killing rape victims, taking the lives of those who eat shellfish, selling little girls into slavery, was all okay: was all, in fact mandated by a loving God right up to the time of the crucifixion, go for it. If you want to think all these things were moral and reflective of divine Truth up to the New Covenant, and that suddenly morality changed, then I think you have the right to believe as you will.

I will regard your thoughts as weird at best, a complete spiritual distortion at worst, but I'll stand by you as a friend.

I just will not endorse or share attitudes so far removed from the only biblical laws that matter, from which flow the only spiritual rules that should direct our lives:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

And we both know who makes that clear as crystal for us.

Podcast: Gay Love - Throw Away All But Two Spiritual Rules