In My Lifetime

"Let There Be Light" Sunday, May 8, 2022, Easter IV, Sunshine Cathedral in Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, give us true faith, and make that faith grow in us day by day. And give us hope and love, so that we may serve our neighbors according to your will… now and forever. Amen.

Based on a prayer found at https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/prayers-for-hope.html

The Lessons

Click Here for First Reading

The Wisdom of Nona Brooks

“Three weeks of study and treatment with [Emma Curtis Hopkins in Chicago] brought Mrs. Frank Bingham back to Pueblo radiant and with health and joy [whereas before, she had been quite ill]…Friends and neighbors began asking Mrs. Bingham to tell them what had brought about her transformation. Informal classes grew up in response to these requests; she gave in simple language what she had learned from Mrs. Hopkins. [My sisters and I] were always invited to these meetings, and knowing how much we needed what she was giving…we accepted.

We were, as a family, in sad condition physically and financially…

I, myself, was in very poor physical condition, being able to eat only very soft, [specially] prepared food. For more than a year I had been praying almost constantly, ‘Give me light.’ On the Sunday before we were to start our new lessons with Mrs. Bingham, I attended my church, where during the communion service the song to be sung was, “nearer My God to Thee.’ I could not bring myself to sing the first stanza, ‘nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee, e’en tho’ it be a cross that raiseth me.’ 

I rebelled – I and my family had had all the crosses we could possibly bear. As the congregation sang I was filled with an inner turmoil, but as the song progressed I realized a complete surrender of myself and of the family conditions in order that I might be nearer to God and so I was able to sing the last stanza with the others. 

It was during the fourth class lesson...with Mrs. Bingham that my whole being was completely filled with a great light – a light brighter than sunlight, brighter than any I had ever seen. It filled me! It surrounded me! I was conscious of nothing but that intense white light! I thought that of course all in the room had seen the light too, but they had not. I alone had this wonderful experience. I discovered that I had been instantly and completely healed. 

Tho’ the actual healing was instantaneous, yet I truly believe that the months and months of praying that I might receive light had been a preparation for the healing which had actually come to me in the form of light.”

Click Here for Gospel Reading

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (9.1-18) 

Now, Saul, still breathing threats and violence against the Lord’s disciples, went to…[Damascus]…

On his journey, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.”

The men who were traveling with him stood there speechless, for they had heard the voice but had seen no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was unable to see. Therefore, they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days, he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. In a vision, the Lord said to him, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the…house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he may regain his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many people about this man and how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. Now he has come here [to cause trouble for] all who invoke your name.”

However, the Lord said to him, “Go, for this is the man I have chosen as a vessel to bring my name before the Gentiles and their governments and before the people of Israel. I myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for the sake of my name.”

And so Ananias went forth and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click Here for Audio Let There Be Light

Imagine… Ananias hears God’s voice telling him to go minister to one of the most ruthless haters of the people who followed the way that Jesus taught. Quite understandably Ananias says (in my paraphrase), “Saul? You’re telling me to go minister to this guy who has persecuted, jailed, maybe even killed, my friends? You want ME to go minister to this guy who is hell bent on destroying even more of us?” You can see how this might be alarming to Ananias.

This is the story of Saul who later is known to us as St. Paul or Paul the Apostle. A large portion of what we call the New or Second Testament is filled with his letters to this church or that church after his conversion. He is a Pharisee who has lead the persecution of those who believed in Jesus’ teachings. What a weird choice of people to carry the message of Jesus’ teaching to the Gentiles.

Even his conversion is ironic in that he is struck down and blinded by light. But Ananias, ever faithful to God’s call goes to Saul, laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.” And Saul did see and did carry the message of the teachings of Jesus and the love of God to many, many places and people far and wide.

Light is a powerful element. It pierces the darkness so that we can travel and work at night. It provides heat, it disinfects, it cheers our spirit, and it can blind us when the intensity is beyond our capacity to perceive. In the creation story in Genesis God’s first words are ויהי אור  (v'y'hi or)  “Let there be light!” Everything else in creation followed that command by God.

Even on a sunny Sunday afternoon this time in history seems filled with darkness. From the greed of the rich, to the pandemic, to the unprovoked war Russia is waging on Ukraine, to droughts, earthquakes, volcanos, a looming famine, and the news this week that women in the United States are about to lose the right to control their own bodies, this seems like a tipping point in history. It feels a bit like the darkest hour of the night. And yet…

We know that the darkest night is always followed by the creeping slow return of the dawn. Even if the day that is dawning if full of dark clouds, the light still scatters the darkness. Even when we meet the dawning of the shortest day of the year, the light still comes as our earth rotates around the lifegiving sun.

It’s hard to believe that morning will come when we are at that darkest moment in the night. It’s difficult to remember that Spring will come when we are buried in the cold and snow of winter. And yet, it comes. The morning dawns and the Spring buds bloom and our hearts are once again filled with hope.

Today we are confronted by the story of Saul who became St. Paul, the Apostle Paul, a man who served God in ways we can only imagine. He persecuted the early Christians and many of the Jews of his time because he thought his list of 613 laws were what God required of us if God was to love us. But when he was blinded by a light as he traveled to his next destination to terrorize those who followed Jesus, he had to stop and listen to the voice of God telling him he was wrong. And when the Spirit came upon him he changed, he repented and began to do his best to bring the message of God’s love to all who would listen.

Where are the dark places in our lives that need the light of God’s love for us? Where are we unable to see God’s goodness? Can we open our mind and heart to dare to hope for a better tomorrow? Will we resolve to do our part to feed the hungry, clothe and house the homeless, visit the sick and work for prison reform? Will we open our eyes to see not only the darkness of the world but also the goodness of people even in the chaos? The Spirit of the living God can change us. Will we believe it? Will we allow ourselves to the changed?

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220508

   

"To Follow Jesus is to Care for Others" Sunday, May 1, 2022, Easter III, Sunshine Cathedral in Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, give us true faith, and make that faith grow in us day by day. And give us hope and love, so that we may serve our neighbors according to your will… now and forever. Amen.

Based on a prayer found at https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/prayers-for-hope.html

The Lessons

Reading 05012022

The Wisdom of Vikas Khanna

“The power of food is really spiritual. It not only brings the whole family together on the same table, but also brings the whole world together.”

Gospel 05012022

A reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 21.1.10, 13, 15)

Jesus appeared again to his followers by Lake Galilee. This is how it happened:

Jesus was on the beach and called out to his friends (after they brought in a big haul of fish) saying, “Bring some of the fish that you caught.”

After cooking the fish, Jesus walked over to get the bread and gave it to them. He also gave them the fish.

When they finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me…?”

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

To Follow Jesus is to Care for Others 05012022

In our gospel reading today the risen Christ asks Peter if he loves him. In fact in the full reading of the passage Peter is asked the same question three times and Peter answers each time “…. you know that I love you.” And each time Peter is instructed to take that love and apply it to the world, “… take care of my lambs.” It is no accident that this is occurring as the risen Christ is quite literally is feeding them, caring for their essential physical need to have nourishment.

Sharing food and feeding those in need is perhaps the most important action we can undertake to build community and to build trust. Gathering together for a meal is considered essential in business for creating and cementing relationships, or at least was before the pandemic. And I can see business relationships suffering for the lack of face to face contact and particularly the inability to share food together.

What Peter is asked to do is to “feed my sheep, feed my lambs.” It might have been just as easy to use the words “feed the poor” or “care for those in need” but the image used is intentional, sheep, lambs. Because the responsibility of a shepherd to the flock is an essential contextual element in the story, Peter understands the responsibility that comes with the statement, “take care of my lambs.” This is not an option that can be corrupted by judgments of whether people in need deserve to be the object of the care required. The responsibility of a shepherd to the sheep and lambs in the flock is absolute, find them food, keep them together, protect them from attack.

This is perhaps the most important pronouncement made by the risen Christ to the disciples. When Jesus walked with them daily he taught them to care for the poor, to eat with strangers and sinners, to protect those who were oppressed, to rescue those who were abused, to heal the sick. But the risen Christ appears to them in their most comfortable setting, in Galilee where Jesus first met them and gives this lesson again… “feed my sheep, take care of my lambs.”

Perhaps the most literal illustration of this command to us by the risen Christ is the organization World Central Kitchen (WCK.org). Founded by Chef José Andrés in 2010 by Chef Andrés and his wife Patricia after the terrible earthquake in Haiti. Here is a quote from him on WCK.org website, “Everyone knows that food is central to life and family all over the world. What we learned very quickly was that food is even more essential in a crisis.”

World Central Kitchen goes where ever there is human suffering in the world and sets up kitchen to cook food side by side with the people where they are, building back community,  keeping the flock together while providing them the food that is essential to keeping them healthy in body and mind. They have one focus, one mission, feed people in crisis well prepared food, made in the style the people are familiar with, to nourish them yes, but also to comfort them in a time of trauma and crisis.

Two stories relating to food… When I visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in 1989 I was warmly greeted, an elderly couple invited me to sit with them and helped me navigate the prayerbook as this was my first Episcopal service. They were all very kind to me. But the most important thing that happened on that visit was after that visit, a small loaf of freshly baked bread was delivered to my home with a note welcoming me to the community the next day. I still see in my minds eye and taste that bread. It was much, much more than food.

Second story… I attended another Episcopal church in the early 2000’s in Northampton, MA, a beautiful parish that sits right on the grounds of Smith University. I was so happy to find that they provided a “feeding” program there for the poor and wanted to be involved in it. But my joy was soon extinguished when I found that the program occurred during the Sunday morning service, in the basement sending a very clear message to those who came for meals, we will feed you but you are not invited to church, you are not welcome amongst us do-gooders for Sunday worship.

“Take care of my lambs” means providing for the essential needs of those around us. And this is where science enters the realm of spirituality. What I remember most about my Psych 101 class in undergraduate school is the study of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Abraham Maslow studied what humans need to fully develop, what people need to attain their full potential. In his study he found that the physiological need for food and water were the base. Next is our need for safety. Once these needs are met we need to feel part of a community, and to have our confidence built by feeling esteem for ourselves. These are the most basic human needs.

When we hold this scientific truth up to our gospel reading today what do we see? Caring for the lambs means feeding, clothing, and sheltering them. Caring for the lambs means bringing them into the company of our community and building up their self-esteem in that process. It is not enough to feed people in the basement we must cook with them, share food with them, invite them into our community, and treat them… well, as we would like to be treated in the same situation.

We cannot call ourselves Christian, followers of the teachings of Jesus, and ignore this command to take the love we feel for God and apply it to the most vulnerable people around us. Make no mistake, we are not called to offer charity, we are called to offer the true love we say we feel for God, the true devotion we say we have for Christ. Donating money is a good start but what is required of us is much more, to be invested in the people we are trying to care for and learning to love them with the same love we say we have for God.

Many times I’ve said to you that I believe we practice loving God by loving people and we practice loving people by loving God. The two are inextricably linked. We simply cannot do one without the other. Let us take our love for God, our love for the risen Christ, our love for the way that Jesus showed us into the world this week in small ways and large ways and care for the lambs, keep the flock of humanity together, in whatever way we feel called to do it.

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220501

"Resurrection Day" Sunday, April 17, 2022, Easter Sunday, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it

Opening Prayer

You have turned our mourning into dancing!

You have taken away our funeral clothes

and re-clothed us in joy,

so that our whole being—body, mind and soul—

might sing praise to you and not be silent.

Glory to the risen Christ! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The Lessons

Click Here for First Reading on Easter

A reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 20.1-16)

Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, gasping for breath. “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”

Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.

But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”

“They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.

Jesus spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?”

She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Sir, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.”

Jesus said, “Mary.”

Turning to face him, she said: “Rabboni! Teacher!”

Click Here for Final Reading Easter

The Wisdom of Rabbi Rami Shapiro

“I am not a Christian…but I am not willing to give up the resurrection so easily. I have been to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. I have seen where Jesus was laid, and where Mary Magdalene discovered him gone. I have stood in that tomb and felt its emptiness, and in that emptiness its power. I have spent moments alone in that place, and I have heard the cry, ‘He is risen!’ and I have understood it to mean that you and I can rise as well. I have felt the presence of the man, and have been touched by the power of the myth…

If this is…a story told that with each hearing we might move closer to Truth, then we have to ask not ‘what happened,’ but ‘what does the story mean?’

… Why do the women [of the story] see what the men cannot? Because the nature of the Divine as we experience it is essentially feminine. The embodied God is the Mother God; the universe is God’s body; matter is Mater/ Mother. The [story] is telling us that if you are to encounter Life you must open to your feminine consciousness, that aspect of yourself that resonates to the Whole, that deepest knowing that knows itself to be a part of and never apart from the reality of Life.

Why does Mary see Jesus as a
gardener? Because the gardener tills
the soil and removes the weeds. This is the task of humanity revealed in
Genesis. Jesus the Gardener reminds
us to break up the hard packed soil of
our lives, to let in the spirit that our body, like God’s body, the universe itself, might bring forth great beauty. But when he calls her name, when he enters into the intimacy of I and Thou, she knows him to be more that the Gardener, he is her teacher; the one who shows her how to care for her own garden…

We all seek meaning in the tomb of the dead. We all seek revelation, wisdom, and knowledge in the past. We are obsessed with the known, the conditioned, the fixed, and the frozen. But life lived in the moment is unknown, unconditioned, unfixed, and fluid. The living is not in the past or in the future, but only in the now. When Jesus calls Mary’s name he is calling her out of the tomb of the past and into the garden of the present.

Yet the present itself is quickly made past, if held on to. ‘Do not hold on to me,’ Jesus says to us. That would be another trap. It is not me…but what I teach that matters. This is why she calls him Rabbouni, rabbi, teacher, rather that Adonai, Lord. He does not asked to be worshipped, but heeded…

What does Jesus ask [us to] heed? Many things to be sure, but in the context of Easter one stands out: ‘Take up your cross and follow me!’ 

Why the cross? Because the way to realization requires the death of the ego, the mind obsessed with tombs, the mind that seeks the living among the dead. And follow him where? Not to Golgotha, but beyond it to the resurrection. Jesus is saying, take up the discipline of love and justice, let the ego that fears both be slain on the cross of service, and then body and soul will rise up, out of the tomb of the past into the eternally renewing present that is the Truth you seek…

Where you have taken refuge in despair, you need to hear Jesus call your name. Where your eyes are focused on the tomb, you need to hear Jesus call your name. Where you are trapped in the unfulfilled expectations of the past, you need to hear Jesus call your name.

And when you do you will know that Easter is not…a story of what was, but a revelation of what is, if you would only cease to seek the living among the dead.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click Here for Resurrection Day

After our reading from Rabbi Rami Shapiro I feel there is no need for another reflection. And yet it is Easter Sunday in the year 2022. Today we stand again in the tomb of despair, surrounded by grave clothes of 6 million who have died worldwide of Covid-19, surrounded by the grave clothes of the thousands who have already died and those who will perish today and tomorrow and the next day in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, surrounded by those killed in war and violence all over the world. Today we stand in the dark, cool, damp tomb looking for answers.

Once again we are reminded that hope can manifest even in a tomb. When Mary went to where Jesus had been laid early on that first day of the week after he had been crucified, her anguish was multiplied by the fact that his body was no longer in the tomb. She ran to tell the others that the Romans had stolen his body so that it could not even be properly prepared in accordance with Jewish burial customs. You see Jesus was taken down from the cross just before the Sabbath began so the women could not perform their final mitzvah of washing and perfuming his body before he was laid in the tomb. And so the women came on the first morning after the Sabbath to finish the work they could not perform on Friday after sundown.

When the men came they surveyed the area, convinced that what Mary had told them was true and they left her there. But she stayed. She remained in her grief at the last place she knew his body had been laid. She wept. And in her teary eyes did not see that it was angels who asked her why she wept. But when Jesus called her name, she recognized him as her teacher, her rabbi.

Just as Rabbi Rami Shapiro described, I have been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I have walked up the hill along the path that Jesus walked, dragging the cross as he climbed to Golgotha. I have seen the mockery that Christians have made of the holy place where he was crucified. I have seen the slab where his body supposedly was washed down before he was carried the short distance to the tomb given by Joseph of Arimathea for his body to be put at rest. I have stood in the very place where all of this is said to have taken place.

And yet at no time in my life have a felt the pain and sorry of Jesus death more acutely than this year. The convergence of Passover, Holy Week, and Ramadan has weighed heavily on my mind as the world seems to become more insane by the moment. It seems that despair upon despair has gripped this week. And yet, here we are again at Easter. And in the Northern Hemisphere the flowers and trees are blooming, the sun is shining and once again we hear the voice of our teacher calling our name, inviting us not to look to the future, not dwell on what has already passed away, but rather to live in the now, in this moment.

Jesus does not bid us carry the cross up the hill to Golgotha, rather Jesus bids us follow his example in this moment. Rabbi Shapiro says, “Where you have taken refuge in despair, you need to hear Jesus call your name. Where your eyes are focused on the tomb, you need to hear Jesus call your name. Where you are trapped in the unfulfilled expectations of the past, you need to hear Jesus call your name.

And when you do you will know that Easter is not…a story of what was, but a revelation of what is, if you would only cease to seek the living among the dead.”

If only we would cease to seek the living among the dead. THIS is where we find our hope, in helping the living, ministering to their needs, giving whatever aid and comfort we can to those who despair, to those how have no hope. We do not know what this year between Easter Sunday and Good Friday will bring. And thanks be to God we cannot know. Because the not knowing, the unknowing, is what forces us to live in the now. And this moment, now, is where hope is born.

Let us follow Jesus to a life of loving each other, helping our neighbor, treating the stranger as if they were members of our own family. We have heard Jesus call our name, we have seen the empty tomb, and now it is time to share the Good News that hope triumphs over despair and even death cannot separate us from the love that we share.

The world needs to hear the message of Easter this year more than ever. Death is not the end. The Ukrainian people are showing us the way. They know that whether they live or die what they fight for is their friends and neighbors. They know that capitulating to evil is not living. And they are showing the world the power of hope, the power of love, they are keeping resurrection alive for all of us in real time this year.

May they be victorious. May the souls of the departed rest in peace. May their memory be a blessing to the world. And may God give us the will and the courage to help them in this war with death. Because today we are reminded that love is more powerful than death. Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220417

"From Colt to Cross" Sunday, April 10, 2022, Palm Sunday, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Opening Prayer in Lent

May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature. 

May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people. 

May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly. 

May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God. 

May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness. 

May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen. 

The Lessons

Click Here for First Reading

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 12.12-15)

A great crowd in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was coming there. These were the people who had come to the Passover Feast. They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. [Quoting the Psalter], they shouted,

“Praise God! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the King of Israel!” 

Jesus found a colt and sat on it. This was as [Zechariah said], “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem! Your king is coming. He is sitting on the colt of a donkey.” 

Click Here for Gospel Reading

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 19.16b-22)

Pilate gave Jesus to them to be killed on a cross. The soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, Jesus went out to a place called The Place of the Skull (in the Jewish language this place is called Golgotha). There they nailed Jesus to the cross. They also put two other men on crosses, one on each side of Jesus with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate wrote a sign and put it on the cross. It read: “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” The sign was written in [Hebrew], in Latin, and in Greek. Many of the Jews read the sign, because this place where Jesus was killed was near the city. The leading Jewish priests said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King...’ But write, ‘This man claimed to be a king.’”

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written!”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click Here for "From Colt to Cross"

Today is the last Sunday before Easter. This is the week we walk with Jesus through his last week in Jerusalem. By tradition Jesus enters Jerusalem with his disciples to celebrate the Passover Festival on this day that we call Palm Sunday. He rides in on a donkey colt, not a great steed as the Caesars ride into town.

And when he enters the city the people lay palm fronds and even their clothing on the ground in front of him, showing him the same respect and honor they show the Caesar and Roman government pawns. Because this man Jesus is like them, he’s Jewish, he’s from Nazareth, he’s been around the country side preaching a gospel of love and compassion, standing up to the Pharisees and healing the people both physically and emotionally.

Today on what we call Palm Sunday they adore him, they honor him, they laud him. And yet, in just a few days he will hang on a cross until his human body dies and is laid in a tomb. Some, perhaps many, of these same people who glorify him on this day, will cry out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” after they have been brainwashed with propaganda from the religious authorities that prop up the occupying Roman government that controls their lives.

This year I think of the Russian people who, just two months ago, moved back and forth across the Ukrainian border visiting family and friends. Just a few weeks ago they phoned family members or sent emails back and forth about celebrations and holiday plans. Even the Ukrainian president’s family language is Russian. And yet, on February 24th Russian tanks crossed the border into Ukraine and everything changed.

The propaganda and disinformation campaign by the Russian government has been very successful in convincing the family and friends of Ukrainians that the people they know and love are evil, that they are Nazi’s of all things, and that they must be executed by bombs and missiles. The Russian people are convinced that their family and friends are a threat to their way of life. They have been brainwashed to believe that everything they knew to be true was a lie.

Can you see the parallels with Jesus? These people who will demand Jesus’ execution just weeks ago were following around the countryside, listening to him teach and preach. They were bringing their sick relatives to him for healing. They were amazed at the way he stood up to the Pharisees and they were happy that he preached a gospel of love, of caring for the poor and those in prison.

Propaganda and disinformation has been used for thousands of years to turn whole populations against good. Brainwashing has been used to manipulate people’s emotions and confuse them with alternate “facts.” These tactics require that people give up their natural curiosity. Disinformation can only work when people lose the ability to think critically and question what they are being told. Propaganda can work only when people choose to take the bait of being angry rather than being loving.

Following leaders even when they preach hate is not loyalty, it is willingly surrendering to a cult. As we listen to what people say, we MUST look at their actions and consider the RESULT of their actions. I would rather follow someone who spews anger and acts in a loving way than someone who speaks love with their words and murders children.

Let us remember the result of propaganda and disinformation this Palm Sunday. Pilate told the people he could find no fault with Jesus and yet handed him over to his own soldiers to be crucified. Do not believe those who tell you the “Jews” killed Jesus. That is an anti-Semitic trope that has been used to vilify Jews for centuries. The Jews did not crucify people, the Romans used crucifixion, not just a method of execution, but as an act of terror to keep the people in line. Public execution strikes fear into the heart of people and keeps them in line.

Let us use the stories of our own tradition to avoid making the same mistakes those who laid Palm fronds and garments on the dusty road in front of the colt that Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon. Let us remember these stories and look for disinformation and propaganda in our own time. Remember, you will know the evil ones by the fruits of their actions.

We must use our minds and hearts. We must remember that we are duty bound to hear and decide what is loving, what is kind, what builds up humanity, what is compassionate. Is crucifying a man who preaches love and heals the sick a logical action? Is invading a sovereign peaceful country, who willingly gave up their nuclear weapons, something that could possibly ever be justified? Does it even make SENSE to accuse someone who is Jewish of being a Nazi?

God gave us minds so that we can decide. May be choose life and love over death and hate.

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

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"Pro-Caesar is Anti-Christ" Sunday, April 3, 2022 Lent V, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Opening Prayer in Lent

May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature. 

May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people. 

May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly. 

May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God. 

May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness. 

May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen. 

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Reading

The Wisdom of Lola Pauline Mays

In this moment I am lifted into a divine realization and see the truth about myself, my family, my neighbor, and my country. I realize that God within me, as intelligence, can clear my way as my mind remains in a state of peace. I no longer fight a battle of appearances, because I have accepted victory from within. In this calm trust I am awakened to the truth that all God can do for me must be done through me. This stabilizes my mind…I thank God…today for inner peace.

CLICK HERE for Gospel Reading

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 19.1-16a)

Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged, and the soldiers twisted thorn-twigs into a crown and put it on his head, threw a purple robe around him and kept coming into his presence, saying, “Hail, [the Jewish] king…!” And then they slapped him with their open hands.

Then Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I bring him out before you here, to show that I find nothing criminal about him at all.”

And at this Jesus came outside too, wearing the thorn crown and the purple robe. “Look,” said Pilate, “here’s the man!”

The sight of him made the chief priests…shout at the top of their voices, “Crucify! Crucify!” 

“You take him…,” retorted Pilate. “He’s no criminal as far as I can see!”

 

The [religious authorities] answered him, “He should die, for he made himself out to be Son of God!”

When Pilate heard them say this, he became much more uneasy, and returned to the palace again and spoke to Jesus, “Where do you come from?”

But Jesus gave him no reply. So Pilate said to him, “Won’t you speak to me? Don’t you realize that I have the power to set you free, and I have the power to have you crucified?”

“You have no power at all against me,” replied Jesus, “except what was given to you from above. And for that reason the one who handed me over to you is even more guilty than you are.”

From that moment, Pilate tried hard to set him free but [Jesus’ accusers] were shouting, “If you set this man free, you are no friend of Caesar! Anyone who makes himself out to be a king is anti-Caesar!”

When Pilate heard this, he led Jesus outside and sat down upon the Judgment-seat in the place called the Pavement... 

It was preparation day of the Passover and it was now getting on towards midday. Pilate said to the [crowd], “Look, here’s your king!”

At which they yelled, “Take him away, take him away, crucify him!”

Am I to crucify your king? Pilate asked them. “Caesar is our king and no one else,” replied the chief priests.

And at this Pilate handed Jesus over to them for crucifixion.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "Pro-Caesar is Anti-Christ"

Just when you thought that American politics could not get any stranger, former National Trade Council Advisor in the Trump administration, Peter Navarro, accused the former Vice-President of the United States of America, Mike Pence, of being a “traitor to the American Caesar of Trump.” Yes. That happened this week just as we make our way to Pilate’s Governor’s quarters in Jerusalem where we find Jesus in the process of being humiliated by the agent of the Caesar in power at the time, Tiberius Caesar Augustus.

You may not believe this but times have not changed so much from then. Evangelical so-called “Christians” in the United States elevated Trump to the level of Caesar, convincing themselves that loyalty to him would get them the things they wanted… power, prestige, and most importantly the power of the government to legislate their version of morality.

In Jesus’ day, the religious authorities were not much different. They manipulated the general public by using religion to shame or scare people into doing what Caesar wanted them to do. In exchange the religious elite were allowed to keep their offices as High Priests, places of honor and respect.

In both cases the religious authorities who propped up these “Caesars” told their followers and in some cases themselves, that holding their nose and following a brutal authoritarian government was a reasonable trade for getting their own moral agenda enacted. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

It’s no accident that Vladimir Putin  orders daily murders, torture, and destruction ofa peace loving democratic country in the name of “saving the church” or “de-natzifying” the country with a Jewish president. Religious zeal has been used as a tool of manipulation of people since well… the beginning of religion!

In our gospel Jesus is humiliated by the soldiers in Pilate’s palace courtyard. He’s beaten, whipped, and a crown of thorns is placed upon his head making fun of the name the people have called him, “The King of the Jews.” They put a purple robe on him and harassed and made fun of him. But he did not strike back. He did not take the bait. And he did not capitulate and agree to stop making what John Lewis would call “Good Trouble.”

Just as Alexi Navalny returned to Russia after narrowly escaping death by poisoningonly to find himself jailed for decades, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for the Passover knowing what would happen to him there but also knowing that capitulating to evil and power does not bring about the realm of God on earth.

And so the people, manipulated by propaganda and disinformation, cried out for Jesus to be crucified. Imagine… just one week previous they had laid their cloaks and palm fronds on the ground as he rode into Jerusalem, not on a mighty steed, but on a donkey colt. They laid these things on the road ahead of him as a sign of respect and honor and yet, by Thursday they are screaming in the streets, “Crucify him!”

Some people try to make Pilate out to be the good guy in the story saying that he kept saying, “He’s no criminal as far as I can see!” But he did not release him. He did not set him free to live his life and continue to preach God’s good news of love. Rather he manipulated the people into thinking that he would have let Jesus go were it not for the High Priests and the people shouting for his execution.

We must be careful as we live each day at this time in history. Propaganda and disinformation is all around us. We must continually refuse to listen to what people say and instead look at the fruits of what they do. We must judge people by their actions, not their words.

I leave you today with a verse from the bible. I ask you to memorize it, hold it in your heart, speak it from your mouth, write it down, keep it, put it on a post it note or as a pop up on your computer. Keep it close at hand to you in this treacherous time so that you can remain focused on the most important thing. The verse is Deuteronomy 30:19….

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

The choice is ours. Will we follow the crowd and take the bait put out by propaganda and disinformation campaigns? Will we grow weary of war and turn away? Will we tell ourselves that taking in and taking care of refugees is not our job? Will we hoard our privilege and refuse to share our good fortune? Or… will we choose life, understanding that whatever we do for the least of our brothers we do for the sake of the Christ!

Choose wisely. Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220403

"The Heartbreak of Denial" Sunday, March 20, 2022 Lent III, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

 

Opening Prayer

May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature. 

May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people. 

May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly. 

May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God. 

May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness. 

May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen. 

The Lessons

ReadingLentIII20220320

The wisdom of Helen Van Slyke

“Yea, I, the Christ within, proclaim anew my birth.

Look unto me and be ye saved ye uttermost ends of the earth.

Saved from all that hinders the onward march of the soul,

The petty limitations that keep thee from the goal.

Destructive thoughts and wrong endeavor have earned their measure of the pain,

I look to thee, O Christ within, and I am whole again.”

GospelLendIII20220320

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 18.12-27)

A detachment of soldiers, their commander, and several guards seized Jesus and bound him. They took him first to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised that it was better for one person to die for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. That disciple was known to the high priest, so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter remained standing outside at the gate. The other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the woman who was in charge of the gate, and he brought Peter inside.

The woman said to Peter, “Are you not one of this man’s disciples?” He replied, “I am not.”

Since it was cold, the servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire, and they were standing around it, warming themselves. Peter was also standing there and warming himself.

The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly for the world to hear. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple...I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Interrogate those who heard what I said to them. They know what I said.”

When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that any way to answer the high priest?”  Jesus replied, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to my error. But if I have spoken rightly, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

Meanwhile, as Simon Peter stood warming himself, he was asked, “Are you not also one of his disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” Then one of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had sliced off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Again, Peter denied it. And at that very moment, a cock crowed.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

The Heartache of Denial - Lent III 2022

In our reading from the gospel according to John we find Jesus arrested, bound, and brought before the religious authorities. After all, he had been preaching a message of love, acceptance, economic justice and equality. Even today this is hardly the message that religious hierarchies warm up to.

In our reading, we get the information that Caiaphas, who had been named the High Priest for that year, had already voiced his opinion that literally sacrificing one man, Jesus, would calm the stirred up crowds and bring them back under control.

You see the Romans occupied the land around Jerusalem but they had nowhere near enough soldiers to keep the people under control if they rose up. So they made a deal with the religious authorities. The Romans would allow them to freely practice their religious rites as long as they kept the population under control, behaving themselves and following the rules of the occupied society.

But Jesus had disrupted this very delicate balance between the occupying force and the religious authorities control. And the people were acting up. And there were a LOT of people in Jerusalem. They had come from all over to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  So what better way to control the people than to put together a propaganda campaign to turn the adoring crowd against him. Have the crowd call for his execution and voila, problem solved.

So it makes perfect sense that Peter was not anxious to align himself with Jesus. What our story does not tell us is that Peter had sworn that he was willing to follow Jesus to the death. And Jesus had said to him, “You will deny me three times before morning.” That’s exactly what our story says. Peter was asked three times, “Aren’t you one of that guy’s disciples?” Peter says, “Who me? No way.” Three times. And then the rooster crows and Peter realizes that he has denied Jesus and in so doing has denied himself.

This story is important because when we deny our own divinity, our own connection to God, we are denying that we have a connection to goodness, to love, to compassion. When we deny the divinity of another human being, made in the same image of the same God of love, we are also denying out own divinity and therefore denying that love, goodness, compassion exist.

So yes if we enjoy privilege in the form of social position or financial comfort we are duty bound to use that privilege to help others. And make no mistake, giving money to good causes does not let us off the hook for using our influence to help others, speaking out for those who cannot speak. We are duty bound as humans to try our best to right any injustice that we see. And we are duty bound to see injustices to which we are, at this time blind.

This is a hard lesson but one we must learn if we are to grow in faith. When we see a wrong and do not speak up, we are just like Peter. We are keeping quiet and pretending not to “know” that one of God’s children is being victimized.  

When we do nothing to protect voting rights for every person in every democracy around the world, we are denying that we are made in God’s image.

When we tolerate our government not giving comfort and a new start to refugees, we are denying that we are made in God’s image.

When we hear racial or ethnic “jokes” told in our presence or despicable names used for some groups of people and do not speak up, we are denying that we are made in God’s image.

When we deny a woman’s right to make health decisions about her own body, we are denying we are all made in God’s image.

When we tolerate our leaders refusing to redistribute hideously out of balance wealth to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and care for the welfare and education of children, we are denying that we are all make in God’s image.

When Peter denied that he knew Jesus, he was denying himself, denying his commitment to God’s love, denying his duty to live by the words of his teacher. And remember, Peter is the “rock” upon which Jesus said he would build the means to carry on his teachings. So we all make mistakes, we all deny ourselves, deny those who are less fortunate, deny our connection to God. But when we realize what we have done, when the rooster crows in our lives and our eyes are open… What we do then is what is important.

As the brutal war Kremlin is waging against the people of Ukraine enters the fourth week we see the result of one man’s power used for evil. Entire cities leveled. Infrastructure destroyed. Thousands killed. Children targeted with bombs and missiles. This kind of evil seeps into people who are already in denial about who and what they are. In the United States, the people who openly praise Putin terrify me because they are denying that good exists, that compassion is God’s way.

But make no mistake. Love will prevail. It must. Because if we humans alive at this time in history do not rise to this moment to explicitly demand that this evil is punished, then another, and another and another dictator will repeat these patterns.

When World War II ended the most of the world said, “Never again.” Well friends it is happening again. What will we do? I pray that we will individually and collectively indict Putin for the war crimes he is committing and hold him accountable. If not, we will have declared that every life taken and destroyed is meaningless. We will have denied the value and divinity of the men, women, and children who have been slaughtered. Let us choose wisely.

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220306

"Who in God's Name are You?" Sunday, March 13, 2022 Lent II, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

 

Opening Prayer

May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature. 

May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people. 

May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly. 

May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God. 

May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness. 

May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen. 

The Lessons

Reading 20220313

A reading from A Course in Miracles

It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see…God’s strength denies your weakness… 

Strength…[sees] past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them…It brings the light in which your Self appears...Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped…

Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it…

The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away…No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle…and strength and light abiding in his [or her] heart.

The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows…Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own.

Gospel20220313

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 18.1-11)

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them. 

When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus.  Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that I’ve been given?”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Who In God's Name Are You? 03132022

It is appropriate that today we explore the question, “Who in God’s Name Are You?” All week I’ve been asking myself, “Who in God’s name are we? We are allowing an entire country of people to be terrorized, murdered, forced to flee their homes. Who in God’s name allows that to happen? How can we live in a world where this is the best choice we can make?”  Yes I’ve been asking myself this very question all week.

Like Peter in our gospel story I want to draw a sword and cut more than an ear off Vladimir Putin. I want to know that somewhere on this great wide planet that someone from among all of the smart people in this world can come up with a better plan than letting this monster kill thousands of people as if he is a little boy playing with toy soldiers. I want to know that there is a better answer than not provoking this maniac to what may still be his ultimate goal, thermo-nuclear war.

So what can I say to you today that has any prayer of making a difference? What “truth” do I know that can shine a light in this hateful, terrifying darkness? What can I say to sooth the fears of my friend who, like me, wonders in every moment if this is our last sane moment before we hear the news that a nuclear warhead has hit the mainland US?

Honestly, I don’t have a clue. There have been some difficult Sunday’s in my life to preach… the Sunday after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the Sunday after the tsunami hit Thailand, the first Sunday after Co-Vid was declared a pandemic two years ago today, the Sundays after school shootings, attacks on synagogues, floods, fires, earthquakes and just two weeks ago, the first Sunday after Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

But no Sunday in my memory has been more difficult to come to you and try to find something, anything, to say that might ease our anxiety or point to a future full of hope. All week I’ve asked myself, “What does it say about me that I can just go on about my daily life when my siblings in Ukraine are being slaughtered? What kind of person am I that I can just compartmentalize all of this and continue my work, enjoy my friends, laugh with my partner, and come be with you here, my beloved faith community?”

I’m not the biggest fan of A Course in Miracles but our reading today brought me comfort and a sense of peace when I read it. And I realized that I do have something to share with you today that is important, something that might ease the dis-ease of news overload and push out the feeling of impending doom that some of us are living in. You see what causes my despair is the fear that I can do NOTHING to change the course of my life, the feeling that I am caught up in some historical pattern over which I have no control. But that is not the truth.

As our reading said today, “Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped… Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it…” God is my strength, God is my light, God’s love is my truth. And I believe it with all my heart. That strength will prevail. And that truth will be known, no matter how many news outlets and internet news sources Putin tries to shut down, the truth will make its way to the hearts of the Russian people. They did not start this war but they have the power to end it and they will.

Our brother Jesus knew the power of knowing who we are. When Jesus answered I AM to the questions of those who came to do him harm he was naming himself as a child of God. I AM is the name of God, and as a child and heir we take the name of our creator as our own. I AM.  

I have no idea what will happen in coming days. Will next week’s news be even worse? Or will our collective prayers bring about the change we need to end this madness? No one knows. But there are a few things I do know.

I AM a child of God.

I AM a citizen of the world.

I AM a family member of every Ukrainian, or Syrian, or Korean, or Chinese, or Russian.

I AM not powerless because I live in God’s truth and that truth is the light in the darkness.

As our sister Ann Frank wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” That is who we are.

May the light of truth shine on the whole world and may we take from that light , strength to know our true greatness as children of a loving parent who wants only good things for us all.

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220313

"To Save the Whole World" Sunday, March 6, 2022 Lent I, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past

and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

 

Opening Prayer

May we be forgiven for forgetting our divine nature. 

May we be forgiven for failing to see the sacred value of all people. 

May we be healed of judging ourselves, and others, too harshly. 

May we forgive ourselves for not trusting in the absolute goodness and unconditional love of God. 

May we forgive ourselves and others of all mistakes, real or imagined, since God has always and only seen the truth of our endless goodness. 

May we now let our light shine and live as the children of God that we are. Amen. 

The Lessons

Reading03062022

The Wisdom of Julia Seton Sears

When the Christ Consciousness is risen within us, we feel the universality of life written everywhere on everything; there is but one starting point for all thought – God. There is but one ending place for all human faith – God.

Gospel03062022

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 11.1-3, 6-8, 14, 16-25, 27-30, 32-44)

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” 

So when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the religious authorities were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.”   Jesus then said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died.  So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.” 

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many religious leaders had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life…She said to him, “Lord. I have come to believe that you are God’s anointed, the chosen one…”

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him.  When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping…he became…troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the onlookers said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who restored sight to the blind have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Abba, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me…” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Save the Whole World 03062022

It’s Lent again. We’ve come through another winter of pandemic. We’ve survived the isolation, the fear, the loss of relationships. But we have survived to this season of personal reflection. We’ve arrived at this time of soul searching at the beginning of a war that is already displacing millions, killing thousands, and sending desperate Ukrainians running for their lives in a country that was just 11days ago a thriving modern democracy. These peaceful, hardworking people are invaded by a hostile Russian military war machine for the sole purpose of destroying democracy. They have done nothing. There is no case to be made that these peaceful Ukrainians have any responsibility for provoking the great Russian bear.

And so today is the perfect day for us to meet together and pray for forgiveness, and for wisdom, for insight and for courage. You see I’m not at all sure that I can ever be at peace with the reality that these Ukrainian people are being sacrificed to appease a madman. I do not think that I will ever recover from living at this time in history when the free world decided that these sweet, peace-loving Ukrainians do not deserve the same protection that you or I would have as an American, a Brit, a German, an Italian, a French, or Polish, or Hungarian.

Yes I know the logical arguments. If we try to save them we will be starting a war that quite probably will destroy all civilization on the planet and make it uninhabitable for at least 50 years in any urban center that is bombed with nuclear warheads. But that is the choice we are making. And it is important that we understand that this is exactly what is happening.

We must repent in our own souls for our part in this human tragedy that is unfolding because we are all responsible. But what can we do? How can we repent for something over which we have no control? How can we live with this level of powerlessness over history unfolding before our very eyes?

In the Talmud, one of the holy books of Judaism, in Sanhedrin 37a it is written:

“Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.” Because we are created in God’s image. Think of it, to save one life is to save the whole world. To bring food to one person is to feed the whole world. To comfort one person is to comfort the whole world.

In this case even that sounds impossible. But the place to begin to save the whole world is to save ourselves. We must realize that there is nothing we have done in our lives that cannot be forgiven. We must acknowledge that who we are when we take off our mask is exactly who God made us to be even if the world condemns us. We may have done some things that are considered bad in our lives but we are not bad people. We may have made mistakes but we are not a mistake.

Let’s start at step one this Lenten season and hear the voice of Jesus calling us to “Come out” of the tomb of self-condemnation, come out of the tomb of guilt, come out of the tomb of doubting our worth. When we rise up off the stone and walk out into the sunlight Jesus will have only one thing to say, “Untie him, untie her, untie them and let them be free.”

“Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.” Once we have begun to let go of our own self-doubt we can reach out to help one more person. There are many worthy charities that are doing the work of saving the Ukrainian people. JCC Krakow is providing food and finding housing, clothing, toys and safe spaces for Ukrainian refugees that are pouring in to Poland. World Central Kitchen is feeding the hungry in Ukraine and in countries to which they are fleeing. Refugee organizations in countries all around the world are preparing to welcome them and help them find homes, jobs, and education for their children.

Some people may still have the view that Lent is for giving up something. And mostly I think that’s not a helpful way to view Lent. But this year let’s give up guilt. Let’s give up self-doubt. Let’s give up despair. Let’s give up the idea that we can’t do anything. Because, “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.”

Jesus is calling us to “Come Out” of despair, shame, guilt, and hopelessness. Let’s start with ourselves and let’s go save the whole world this week.

Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220306

"Return to Love" Sunday, January 9, 2022 Epiphany, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy names. Amen.

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of Readings    

The Wisdom of Nona Brooks

 “God formed the universe out of [God’s] own substance…all that is…is Spirit; for, since Omnipresence is…there can be but one substance, and that substance must be the substance that is omnipresent, the God-substance.” 

The Wisdom of Christina Knox-Walthall

“There is only one presence and power in the entire universe…God, the Good, omnipotent. God created all space, the same God of love who made our planet made all planets and stars. The same God created all [people] in [the divine] image and likeness…All of space is filled with the same loving and protecting Spirit of God. Let us trust this loving Spirit within all [people]. Let us know that it is everywhere present.”

CLICK HERE for Audio of Gospel  

A Reading from the Gospel of Luke  (3.15-17, 21-22)

As the people began to experience a feeling of expectancy, they all wondered in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.  John answered, telling them all: “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming who is more powerful than I am. I am not worthy to loosen the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

After John had baptized all the people, and while Jesus was engaged in prayer after also having been baptized, heaven opened and the holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved One; in you I am well pleased.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "Return to Love"     

These days we often think of fire as the great destroyer of homes, businesses, wilderness, and human life. Over these past few years out of control wildfires have swept through populated areas around the globe wiping out everything in its path. Just this past week in the United States in Philadelphia a fire claimed 13 lives in one building, 7 of them children. Just outside Denver week before last there were as many as 1000 homes consumed in a matter of hours by fire.

But fire just as often keeps us alive. Tomorrow night when the temperature hits 5 degrees Fahrenheit / -15 degrees Celsius I will be very grateful for the fire that warms the water in the heating system in my home as I lay cozy in my bed. I will be grateful for the fire the burns in my water heater for my hot shower, the gas fireplace in my office, and the blue flames of my stove and oven in my kitchen.

You see fire is fire. When it is harnessed and controlled for our wellbeing it is a life giving element eclipsed only by water in its importance to sustaining human life. When it is out of control, swept by wind and dry conditions or coming from the center of the earth in a volcano it can destroy everything in its path. So is fire good or bad, a force for good or ill? The answer – it depends.

Fire is  a little bit like humans themselves really. We can be a force for good in the world, helping others, encouraging those who are discouraged, giving a hand to those in need. Or we can become self-centered, greedy, hateful, destructive to ourselves and those around us. But in the end, humans are humans and we are all made of the same stuff, created in the image of love that we call God. But we make a choice about how we will interact with the world.

When John was baptizing people and urging them to repent from their sins he was giving them a ritual to follow to remind us that we are not by nature evil, we are by nature good. And when we forget who we are we can symbolically wash away the stain of sin and death by entering the waters of baptism. But John knew that more was necessary than a ritual or even putting our will to bear upon our short comings. John knew that what is necessary to return to our true nature is a spiritual awakening, which he described as a cleansing fire that the teachings of Jesus would bring to our consciousness.

Today we celebrate Epiphany. This feast day in the Christian calendar commemorates two events of awakening and acknowledgement of God interacting with humanity – the Magi’s journey and visit to the child Jesus and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism. In the institutional church this feast day is described as the revelation of Jesus’ divinity, first to the Gentiles in the acknowledgment of these three foreign kings who journeyed over weeks and months to pay homage to him and in his baptism to those people who were in and near his own hometown, there with his own people and his early followers.

I guess what I’m thinking about today is the miracle that is embodied in the birth of every single human child. What a miracle this is when a baby is born. If you’ve ever been at or near the birth of a child you know that feeling, that RUSH of psychic energy that moves through a room when the child takes its first breath and cries. It makes me tingle just to think of it.

And I’m thinking about all of the other people who were at the Jordan river that day when Jesus was baptized. Did they see the dove flying above them? Did they hear the voice of God saying, not just to Jesus, but to them as well, “This is my belove child in whom I am well pleased”? If we are all made in the image of the One God can one of us be more special to God than another? I don’t think so. I believe that all of the stories that depict God loving Jesus give us a glimpse of how much God loves us.

And before you ask… no I do not think that any loving parent would make a human sacrifice of their child to appease a system that they themselves set up. But that is a discussion for another day. Our focus today is on the reality that we are all made from the same stardust that is the substance of the universe, the very substance of God. At our very essence we are love. And whether we are aware of it or not has no bearing on its truth.

As we begin this New Year in 2022 let us begin the journey back to our own birth, back to that moment of pure love, pure vulnerability, pure trust in God. And let us awaken to our own essence, our own belovedness as Jesus did at his baptism. Let us return to the beginning when all we knew was love. Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220109

 

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy names. Amen.

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of Readings    

The Wisdom of Nona Brooks

 “God formed the universe out of [God’s] own substance…all that is…is Spirit; for, since Omnipresence is…there can be but one substance, and that substance must be the substance that is omnipresent, the God-substance.” 

The Wisdom of Christina Knox-Walthall

“There is only one presence and power in the entire universe…God, the Good, omnipotent. God created all space, the same God of love who made our planet made all planets and stars. The same God created all [people] in [the divine] image and likeness…All of space is filled with the same loving and protecting Spirit of God. Let us trust this loving Spirit within all [people]. Let us know that it is everywhere present.”

CLICK HERE for Audio of Gospel  

A Reading from the Gospel of Luke  (3.15-17, 21-22)

As the people began to experience a feeling of expectancy, they all wondered in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.  John answered, telling them all: “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming who is more powerful than I am. I am not worthy to loosen the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

After John had baptized all the people, and while Jesus was engaged in prayer after also having been baptized, heaven opened and the holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved One; in you I am well pleased.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "Return to Love"     

These days we often think of fire as the great destroyer of homes, businesses, wilderness, and human life. Over these past few years out of control wildfires have swept through populated areas around the globe wiping out everything in its path. Just this past week in the United States in Philadelphia a fire claimed 13 lives in one building, 7 of them children. Just outside Denver week before last there were as many as 1000 homes consumed in a matter of hours by fire.

But fire just as often keeps us alive. Tomorrow night when the temperature hits 5 degrees Fahrenheit / -15 degrees Celsius I will be very grateful for the fire that warms the water in the heating system in my home as I lay cozy in my bed. I will be grateful for the fire the burns in my water heater for my hot shower, the gas fireplace in my office, and the blue flames of my stove and oven in my kitchen.

You see fire is fire. When it is harnessed and controlled for our wellbeing it is a life giving element eclipsed only by water in its importance to sustaining human life. When it is out of control, swept by wind and dry conditions or coming from the center of the earth in a volcano it can destroy everything in its path. So is fire good or bad, a force for good or ill? The answer – it depends.

Fire is  a little bit like humans themselves really. We can be a force for good in the world, helping others, encouraging those who are discouraged, giving a hand to those in need. Or we can become self-centered, greedy, hateful, destructive to ourselves and those around us. But in the end, humans are humans and we are all made of the same stuff, created in the image of love that we call God. But we make a choice about how we will interact with the world.

When John was baptizing people and urging them to repent from their sins he was giving them a ritual to follow to remind us that we are not by nature evil, we are by nature good. And when we forget who we are we can symbolically wash away the stain of sin and death by entering the waters of baptism. But John knew that more was necessary than a ritual or even putting our will to bear upon our short comings. John knew that what is necessary to return to our true nature is a spiritual awakening, which he described as a cleansing fire that the teachings of Jesus would bring to our consciousness.

Today we celebrate Epiphany. This feast day in the Christian calendar commemorates two events of awakening and acknowledgement of God interacting with humanity – the Magi’s journey and visit to the child Jesus and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism. In the institutional church this feast day is described as the revelation of Jesus’ divinity, first to the Gentiles in the acknowledgment of these three foreign kings who journeyed over weeks and months to pay homage to him and in his baptism to those people who were in and near his own hometown, there with his own people and his early followers.

I guess what I’m thinking about today is the miracle that is embodied in the birth of every single human child. What a miracle this is when a baby is born. If you’ve ever been at or near the birth of a child you know that feeling, that RUSH of psychic energy that moves through a room when the child takes its first breath and cries. It makes me tingle just to think of it.

And I’m thinking about all of the other people who were at the Jordan river that day when Jesus was baptized. Did they see the dove flying above them? Did they hear the voice of God saying, not just to Jesus, but to them as well, “This is my belove child in whom I am well pleased”? If we are all made in the image of the One God can one of us be more special to God than another? I don’t think so. I believe that all of the stories that depict God loving Jesus give us a glimpse of how much God loves us.

And before you ask… no I do not think that any loving parent would make a human sacrifice of their child to appease a system that they themselves set up. But that is a discussion for another day. Our focus today is on the reality that we are all made from the same stardust that is the substance of the universe, the very substance of God. At our very essence we are love. And whether we are aware of it or not has no bearing on its truth.

As we begin this New Year in 2022 let us begin the journey back to our own birth, back to that moment of pure love, pure vulnerability, pure trust in God. And let us awaken to our own essence, our own belovedness as Jesus did at his baptism. Let us return to the beginning when all we knew was love. Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220109

 

"Come and See" Sunday, January 2, 2022 Christmas II, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy names. Amen.

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of Readings

The Wisdom of Barbara L. Wolfe

 “[Jesus]…said we were to do greater works than he did. At this stage of our development we find this nearly impossible to believe, but this is our destiny. I remember the words and the work of Jesus the Christ. I follow [the] way to the best of my present understanding. Miracles come to pass as I grow in consciousness.”

The Wisdom of Albert C. Grier

“[Jesus was] not like [God] but [was] one with God…He…many times called himself the Son of [Humanity]. That Jesus revealed God is true, but even more true it is that he revealed [humanity].”

CLICK HERE for Audio of Gospel

A Reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 1.35-46)

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus pass by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” On hearing him say this, the two disciples began to follow Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He answered them, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him for the rest of that day. 

One of the two who had heard John speak and had followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. The first thing Andrew did was to seek out his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah” and he took him to Jesus. Jesus gazed at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, translated, is “Peter”).

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Encountering Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip came from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one [the One for whom we’ve been waiting]—Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of Reflection "Come and See"

"Come and See"

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Sounds familiar somehow doesn’t it? We’ve all heard it … Can anything good come from Frankfurt? Can anything good come from Mexico? Can anything good come from Iran? Can anything good come from Mississippi or Alabama? Can anything good come from the south side of Chicago, or south central LA, or Harlem, or the French Quarter, or…? We make assumptions about people based on where they live or where they come from all the time.

Our reading today from the first chapter of the gospel according to John jolts me every time I read it. I can hear Nathaniel sneering… “Nazareth? Give me a break. I’m not going to hear some bum from Nazareth. The messiah coming from Nazareth, ridiculous. I mean come on, can anything good come from Nazareth?” Even today, Nazareth is known as “the Arab capital of Israel” and if you’ve ever visited Israel you know that name is not one of honor but one of ridicule and disdain.

What causes us to make judgments about people based on where they come from? When traveling in Europe, people from the US (often referred to as Americans) are often judged as boorish or rude because they have been treated badly by someone from the US in the past. We all know that people with darker skin are treated dramatically differently in many western countries because they were originally brought to these lands as slaves or came as immigrants.

This is a good lesson for us on the first Sunday in the new year 2022. I am just a guilty as anyone I know for making judgments about people’s character based on where they come from. It’s not something I’m proud of mind you but it’s there inside me. I grew up in the racist and still segregated southern US. I’ve lived outside the country and experienced how people from the US are viewed from other countries. I now live in a state with one of the highest vaccination rates, the lowest crime rates, and the best healthcare in the world. Where I’m from, where I’ve lived, and where I live now defines me to some extent but only because people make assumptions about me based on those tidbits of information about me.

Here we are on the second Sunday, the last Sunday, in Christmastide. Next week the creche will be gone, the Christmas decorations will be put away for another year and we begin again, a new year that we all hope and pray will be better but one we all dread will find some way to be even worse than last year. We’re making assumptions based on past experience. A friend of mine described anticipating the coming new year as looking at a door ajar and timidly pushing it open slowly with a long stick, terrified of what is behind that door.

We’ve also made a lot of assumptions about what Christmas is all about. Last week I said I want to know the true meaning of Christmas. Each year I struggle to understand what it’s all about. I honestly struggle to understand why the season captivates people who do not identify as Christian and those who do not view Jesus as the Messiah sent to save the world from sin.

Our reading from Albert C. Grier today contains, perhaps, one of the most important sentences I’ve ever read, “That Jesus revealed God is true, but even more true it is that he revealed [humanity].” I read it this way, the birth of Jesus reminds us that we are made in the image of the creator of the universe and that every single human being is precious to God and ought to be treated as such. The way Jesus lived, what he taught about economic justice, the way he brought healing to people in need, AND the way he spoke truth to power, when those in power were oppressing the people, IS what we are at our core.

I just do not subscribe to the doctrine that Jesus was without sin. I simply do not believe it. If Jesus was fully human then he became angry and lashed out at people and we have a record of this in the gospels. He ridiculed the Pharisees, he was hideously disrespectful to the Syrophoenician woman who asked for healing for her little daughter, he became so enraged that he overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. Jesus was no meek and mild savior no matter how he’s “white washed” by some who make his very human nature into an idol that no longer even resembles a human being.

Jesus was born to young people who were not even yet married, born into poverty, because a refugee in Egypt at a young age, grew up the son of a carpenter in Nazareth, got tired, became angry, loved deeply and I sincerely hope he had sexual experiences. He wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He even disrespected his own mother when she pushed him to help the wedding couple at the wedding in Cana when the shame of running out of wine would have been a terrible social stigma for them. He ate with sinners, disappeared into the  wilderness to rest… by all accounts Jesus was a person just like you and me.

But we try to make Jesus into something greater than ourselves. We ignore the reality that Jesus told his disciples in John 14:12 that they could do greater things than he was doing if they only believed they could do it. And this is the message of this last Sunday in Christmastide for us as well.

Jesus was born just like us. Jesus was born to unwed parents into impoverished circumstances. Jesus was taken from his homeland as an immigrant to another country to escape certain death. Jesus grew up the son of a carpenter, a tradesman, in a town that was rural and viewed with disdain. Jesus had real human experiences and showed us the way to be better people. Jesus was one of us and if Jesus is divine as most Christians believe, then we TOO are divine, made in the image of a loving creator and put here on earth to care for creation and for each other.

As we begin this new year 2022 we are not called to be meek and mild and “accept” the “choice” of those who refuse to be vaccinated and put us all at risk in a worldwide pandemic. We are called to speak truth to power, to advocate for those who have no privilege and therefore no voice. We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, work for prison reform and truly care for those who are incarcerated, and in all cases do everything we can to ensure that everyone has access to healthcare, yes that’s what all those healing miracles were about.

We can do this. How do I know? Well there was a man named Jesus, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth who lived a life that is our pattern for living a successful, meaningful life. Yes it’s dangerous to live that way. He was brutally executed at 33 years old for refusing to capitulate to the status quo. We must acknowledge that living in the pattern of Jesus is not always easy or safe.

“Nathanael said to [Philip], ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’” When we get to know each other we get to know Jesus. When we see our true selves and uncover the deep love that is placed in our heart by God we have a little glimpse of what Christmas really means. Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220102

 

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church

where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy names. Amen.

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of Readings

The Wisdom of Barbara L. Wolfe

 “[Jesus]…said we were to do greater works than he did. At this stage of our development we find this nearly impossible to believe, but this is our destiny. I remember the words and the work of Jesus the Christ. I follow [the] way to the best of my present understanding. Miracles come to pass as I grow in consciousness.”

The Wisdom of Albert C. Grier

“[Jesus was] not like [God] but [was] one with God…He…many times called himself the Son of [Humanity]. That Jesus revealed God is true, but even more true it is that he revealed [humanity].”

CLICK HERE for Audio of Gospel

A Reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 1.35-46)

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus pass by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” On hearing him say this, the two disciples began to follow Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He answered them, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him for the rest of that day. 

One of the two who had heard John speak and had followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. The first thing Andrew did was to seek out his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah” and he took him to Jesus. Jesus gazed at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, translated, is “Peter”).

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Encountering Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip came from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one [the One for whom we’ve been waiting]—Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of Reflection "Come and See"

"Come and See"

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Sounds familiar somehow doesn’t it? We’ve all heard it … Can anything good come from Frankfurt? Can anything good come from Mexico? Can anything good come from Iran? Can anything good come from Mississippi or Alabama? Can anything good come from the south side of Chicago, or south central LA, or Harlem, or the French Quarter, or…? We make assumptions about people based on where they live or where they come from all the time.

Our reading today from the first chapter of the gospel according to John jolts me every time I read it. I can hear Nathaniel sneering… “Nazareth? Give me a break. I’m not going to hear some bum from Nazareth. The messiah coming from Nazareth, ridiculous. I mean come on, can anything good come from Nazareth?” Even today, Nazareth is known as “the Arab capital of Israel” and if you’ve ever visited Israel you know that name is not one of honor but one of ridicule and disdain.

What causes us to make judgments about people based on where they come from? When traveling in Europe, people from the US (often referred to as Americans) are often judged as boorish or rude because they have been treated badly by someone from the US in the past. We all know that people with darker skin are treated dramatically differently in many western countries because they were originally brought to these lands as slaves or came as immigrants.

This is a good lesson for us on the first Sunday in the new year 2022. I am just a guilty as anyone I know for making judgments about people’s character based on where they come from. It’s not something I’m proud of mind you but it’s there inside me. I grew up in the racist and still segregated southern US. I’ve lived outside the country and experienced how people from the US are viewed from other countries. I now live in a state with one of the highest vaccination rates, the lowest crime rates, and the best healthcare in the world. Where I’m from, where I’ve lived, and where I live now defines me to some extent but only because people make assumptions about me based on those tidbits of information about me.

Here we are on the second Sunday, the last Sunday, in Christmastide. Next week the creche will be gone, the Christmas decorations will be put away for another year and we begin again, a new year that we all hope and pray will be better but one we all dread will find some way to be even worse than last year. We’re making assumptions based on past experience. A friend of mine described anticipating the coming new year as looking at a door ajar and timidly pushing it open slowly with a long stick, terrified of what is behind that door.

We’ve also made a lot of assumptions about what Christmas is all about. Last week I said I want to know the true meaning of Christmas. Each year I struggle to understand what it’s all about. I honestly struggle to understand why the season captivates people who do not identify as Christian and those who do not view Jesus as the Messiah sent to save the world from sin.

Our reading from Albert C. Grier today contains, perhaps, one of the most important sentences I’ve ever read, “That Jesus revealed God is true, but even more true it is that he revealed [humanity].” I read it this way, the birth of Jesus reminds us that we are made in the image of the creator of the universe and that every single human being is precious to God and ought to be treated as such. The way Jesus lived, what he taught about economic justice, the way he brought healing to people in need, AND the way he spoke truth to power, when those in power were oppressing the people, IS what we are at our core.

I just do not subscribe to the doctrine that Jesus was without sin. I simply do not believe it. If Jesus was fully human then he became angry and lashed out at people and we have a record of this in the gospels. He ridiculed the Pharisees, he was hideously disrespectful to the Syrophoenician woman who asked for healing for her little daughter, he became so enraged that he overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. Jesus was no meek and mild savior no matter how he’s “white washed” by some who make his very human nature into an idol that no longer even resembles a human being.

Jesus was born to young people who were not even yet married, born into poverty, because a refugee in Egypt at a young age, grew up the son of a carpenter in Nazareth, got tired, became angry, loved deeply and I sincerely hope he had sexual experiences. He wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He even disrespected his own mother when she pushed him to help the wedding couple at the wedding in Cana when the shame of running out of wine would have been a terrible social stigma for them. He ate with sinners, disappeared into the  wilderness to rest… by all accounts Jesus was a person just like you and me.

But we try to make Jesus into something greater than ourselves. We ignore the reality that Jesus told his disciples in John 14:12 that they could do greater things than he was doing if they only believed they could do it. And this is the message of this last Sunday in Christmastide for us as well.

Jesus was born just like us. Jesus was born to unwed parents into impoverished circumstances. Jesus was taken from his homeland as an immigrant to another country to escape certain death. Jesus grew up the son of a carpenter, a tradesman, in a town that was rural and viewed with disdain. Jesus had real human experiences and showed us the way to be better people. Jesus was one of us and if Jesus is divine as most Christians believe, then we TOO are divine, made in the image of a loving creator and put here on earth to care for creation and for each other.

As we begin this new year 2022 we are not called to be meek and mild and “accept” the “choice” of those who refuse to be vaccinated and put us all at risk in a worldwide pandemic. We are called to speak truth to power, to advocate for those who have no privilege and therefore no voice. We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, work for prison reform and truly care for those who are incarcerated, and in all cases do everything we can to ensure that everyone has access to healthcare, yes that’s what all those healing miracles were about.

We can do this. How do I know? Well there was a man named Jesus, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth who lived a life that is our pattern for living a successful, meaningful life. Yes it’s dangerous to live that way. He was brutally executed at 33 years old for refusing to capitulate to the status quo. We must acknowledge that living in the pattern of Jesus is not always easy or safe.

“Nathanael said to [Philip], ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’” When we get to know each other we get to know Jesus. When we see our true selves and uncover the deep love that is placed in our heart by God we have a little glimpse of what Christmas really means. Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20220102

 

"The Work of Christmas" Sunday, December 26, 2021, Christmas I, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life

Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Eternal Spirit, we give you thanks for the birth of peace in the world again this Christmas. The joy we feel as we kneel at the manger is overwhelming. The love that blooms in our hearts flows out into the whole world. May we never let go of the hope this day brings to the world and may our lives unleash your goodness. Amen

CLICK HERE for Audio of Opening Prayer Christmas I 2021   

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Reading from Isaiah   

A Reading from Isaiah (9.2-7a)

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as [people] rejoice when dividing… plunder…
[Y]ou have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
For all the boots of tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,  to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting [Parent], [Sovereign] of Peace.
[The people’s understanding of God’s] greatness will grow continually  and there will be endless peace… justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Gospel According to John    

A Reading from the Gospel According to John (1:1-18)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a parent's only child, full of grace and truth. (John testified to this and cried out, "This was the one of whom I said, 'This one who comes after me ranks ahead of me because this one was before me.'") From this one’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through the Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Child, who is close to the Parent's heart, who has made God known.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "The Work of Christmas"    

Merry Christmas! In the world, today is the day AFTER Christmas. But in the church today is the 2^nd day of the 12 days of Christmas and the first Sunday in Christmastide. So here we are, decked out, “Christmasing” our way through these last days of the year. When the world stops celebrating we are just beginning!

Each year at this time I renew my quest to really understand the true meaning of Christmas. In the Advent season we get the clues each week, hope, peace, joy, and love. But these are abstract concepts. I want to know how to make them real in my life. I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

The easy way out is to look to the manger, to the child newborn, wrapped in strips of cloth and laying there in the hay for warmth. When we imagine this scene  our hearts fill with love, we see the adoring parents, the animals drawing near to the smell of something new that has come into their midst. It would be easy to Vew this scene, just as you see in the creche and say this is Christmas. Yet I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

We can imagine ourselves as shepherds in the fields, watching our flocks, looking out on the beauty of the landscape in the night as the sky covers us with the blanket of stars spectacular in their light show against the night sky and then a cloud moves and we see for the first time the star of Bethlehem burning in the night sky. As shepherds we know the sky as we know each  of our sheep and when we see the magnificence of the star the excitement we feel runs through our body like electricity! Wonder fills our minds and joy fills our hearts. But I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

In our reading from the Isaiah chapter 9 we read about the prophecy of a light coming into the darkness of the world, giving us hope. We read of boundless joy, of burdens lifted. We read of an end to war and a leader rising to teach us how to live in endless peace, how to live with justice and with righteousness… forever.

There are those in the Christian community who use this scripture to support their supersessionist belief that their faith supersedes all other faith traditions, making them irrelevant and in error. For my money this does NOT seem like a good start on bringing peace to the world, disrespecting all other faith traditions. Clearly this idea that the birth of Jesus renders all other faith traditions unworthy of respect cannot be the true meaning of Christmas.

What then? Is there nothing in the Christmas story that is relevant to our lives, in this pandemic weary world, in these last days of the year? What can we learn from these ancient tales that can give us hope, that can let us rest in peace, that will fill our hearts with joy, and make us overflow with love? You see, this year I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

Maybe it’s all here and still coming into being. Maybe it’s like the ingredients of a recipe laying on the kitchen counter ready to make the meal. Yes that’s it! The ingredients are here for us but where is the recipe? How do we put it all together? Ah THIS is the true meaning of Christmas. It is left to us to make the meal to feed the hungry, up to us to make peace with ourselves and our neighbors, up to us to spread God’s love in the world. Warriors boots and blood soaked garments will not burn unless we throw them into the fire.

Christmasing is not just one day a year, one season a year. Christmasing is a way of life, one day at a time, every day of every year for all our lives. That is the magic of Christmas… not that everything is made right on one day but that we work every day to bring hope, peace, joy and love into being for ourselves, our family, our clan, and the whole world. We must combine the ingredients, we must do the work to make the meal that feeds the hungry.

Let us leave each other today with the words of the great Howard Thurman who said, “When the song of the angel is still, when the star in the sky is gone, when kings and princes are home, when the when the shepherds are back with their sheep, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.”   Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20211226

Call to Worship

Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!

This is the day our God has made.

            Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Opening Prayer

Eternal Spirit, we give you thanks for the birth of peace in the world again this Christmas. The joy we feel as we kneel at the manger is overwhelming. The love that blooms in our hearts flows out into the whole world. May we never let go of the hope this day brings to the world and may our lives unleash your goodness. Amen

CLICK HERE for Audio of Opening Prayer Christmas I 2021   

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Reading from Isaiah   

A Reading from Isaiah (9.2-7a)

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as [people] rejoice when dividing… plunder…
[Y]ou have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
For all the boots of tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,  to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting [Parent], [Sovereign] of Peace.
[The people’s understanding of God’s] greatness will grow continually  and there will be endless peace… justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Gospel According to John    

A Reading from the Gospel According to John (1:1-18)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a parent's only child, full of grace and truth. (John testified to this and cried out, "This was the one of whom I said, 'This one who comes after me ranks ahead of me because this one was before me.'") From this one’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through the Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Child, who is close to the Parent's heart, who has made God known.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "The Work of Christmas"    

Merry Christmas! In the world, today is the day AFTER Christmas. But in the church today is the 2^nd day of the 12 days of Christmas and the first Sunday in Christmastide. So here we are, decked out, “Christmasing” our way through these last days of the year. When the world stops celebrating we are just beginning!

Each year at this time I renew my quest to really understand the true meaning of Christmas. In the Advent season we get the clues each week, hope, peace, joy, and love. But these are abstract concepts. I want to know how to make them real in my life. I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

The easy way out is to look to the manger, to the child newborn, wrapped in strips of cloth and laying there in the hay for warmth. When we imagine this scene  our hearts fill with love, we see the adoring parents, the animals drawing near to the smell of something new that has come into their midst. It would be easy to Vew this scene, just as you see in the creche and say this is Christmas. Yet I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

We can imagine ourselves as shepherds in the fields, watching our flocks, looking out on the beauty of the landscape in the night as the sky covers us with the blanket of stars spectacular in their light show against the night sky and then a cloud moves and we see for the first time the star of Bethlehem burning in the night sky. As shepherds we know the sky as we know each  of our sheep and when we see the magnificence of the star the excitement we feel runs through our body like electricity! Wonder fills our minds and joy fills our hearts. But I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

In our reading from the Isaiah chapter 9 we read about the prophecy of a light coming into the darkness of the world, giving us hope. We read of boundless joy, of burdens lifted. We read of an end to war and a leader rising to teach us how to live in endless peace, how to live with justice and with righteousness… forever.

There are those in the Christian community who use this scripture to support their supersessionist belief that their faith supersedes all other faith traditions, making them irrelevant and in error. For my money this does NOT seem like a good start on bringing peace to the world, disrespecting all other faith traditions. Clearly this idea that the birth of Jesus renders all other faith traditions unworthy of respect cannot be the true meaning of Christmas.

What then? Is there nothing in the Christmas story that is relevant to our lives, in this pandemic weary world, in these last days of the year? What can we learn from these ancient tales that can give us hope, that can let us rest in peace, that will fill our hearts with joy, and make us overflow with love? You see, this year I want to know the true meaning of Christmas.

Maybe it’s all here and still coming into being. Maybe it’s like the ingredients of a recipe laying on the kitchen counter ready to make the meal. Yes that’s it! The ingredients are here for us but where is the recipe? How do we put it all together? Ah THIS is the true meaning of Christmas. It is left to us to make the meal to feed the hungry, up to us to make peace with ourselves and our neighbors, up to us to spread God’s love in the world. Warriors boots and blood soaked garments will not burn unless we throw them into the fire.

Christmasing is not just one day a year, one season a year. Christmasing is a way of life, one day at a time, every day of every year for all our lives. That is the magic of Christmas… not that everything is made right on one day but that we work every day to bring hope, peace, joy and love into being for ourselves, our family, our clan, and the whole world. We must combine the ingredients, we must do the work to make the meal that feeds the hungry.

Let us leave each other today with the words of the great Howard Thurman who said, “When the song of the angel is still, when the star in the sky is gone, when kings and princes are home, when the when the shepherds are back with their sheep, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.”   Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:

Download SL20211226