In My Lifetime

"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:

Download SL20220410

"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

"What Is Truth?" Sunday, March 27, 2022 Lent IV, 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.

Observing Transgender Day of Visibility

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 Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration

Transgender Day of Visibility 2022

On this Transgender Day of Visibility I want to introduce you to my friend The Rev Aaron Miller of MCC Hartford. Aaron is a dear man. A dedicated pastor. A loving friend and a gift to all who know him. This is called:

Every Note

Like a note in a song, we are each essential.
A beat cannot be skipped without interrupting the song’s rhythm and cadence. Would we say one note is wrong, unnecessary or has less value than another...
when the song is so beautiful that it touches our hearts and compels us to sing along?

Different since birth, the transgender experience has been, at times,
difficult, isolating, and even painful in a world that does not seek to understand.

Arms did not reach for me.
No band aids were offered to protect my spirit and to heal my soul. I was not accepted as one of the boys and I definitely was not a girl. I was a note in the wrong song.

I cried out to God “Why did you create me so differently?”

In the quiet of the sanctuary I had created...something stirred. A still small voice whispered
“You are a note in the song that I am singing”
I answered “Why then am I so different?”

And, God said “You are a beautiful note that creates the harmony in my song --- a song that you call humanity.
Melody and harmony need each other
to create something new and beautiful together.

So, play your note with joy, my child.
You are part of a song that is not yet complete.

Look and you will see...hearts opening to this beautiful song. Some are even compelled to sing along.

I ask that you have faith enough to trust the Songwriter For you are my beloved.
And, your note is beautiful and essential----to Me.”

Amen. 

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for First Reading

The wisdom of Ida B. Elliott

“Jesus taught so plainly that the [Realm] he came to establish is at hand, within [our] power…to discern as definitely and consciously as we grasp visible objects with the hand, to make the location of the [realm] certain he added, ‘The [Realm] of God is within you.’”

CLICK HERE for Gospel Reading

A reading  from the Fourth Gospel (John 18.28-40)

The guards took Jesus from Caiaphas’ house to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. Many religious people would not go inside the palace. They did not want to make themselves unclean... So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you say this man has done wrong?”

They answered, “He is a bad man. That is why we brought him to you.”

Pilate said to them, “You take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

The religious leaders answered, “But your law does not allow us to punish anyone by killing them.” (This was to show the truth of what Jesus said about how he would die.)

Then Pilate went back inside the palace. He called for Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of your people?”

Jesus said, “Is that your own question, or did other people tell you about me?”

Pilate said, “I’m not Jewish! It was your own priests who brought you before me. What have you done wrong?”

Jesus said, “My realm does not belong to this world. If it did, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over. No, my realm is not an earthly one.”

Pilate said, “So you are a king.”

Jesus answered, “You are right to say that I am a king. I was born for this: to tell people about the truth. That is why I came into the world. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to me.”

Pilate said, “What is truth?” Then he went out to the religious leaders again and said to them, “I can find nothing against this man…Do you want me to free this ‘king’?”

They shouted back, “No, not him! Let Barabbas go free!” (Barabbas was a rebel.)

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "What is Truth?"

Ah the question, “What is truth?” No generation of people has ever in history had to ask the question “What Is Truth?” more often than those of us alive on the planet at this time in history.  Not only have some people expected to be newscasters become disinformation sources for some of the most evil people  in the world. But we have to question and curate our own information and decide what is truth online. And if these were not bad enough, there is a way to create what is called “deep fake” videos that appear to show people saying things they never said at all. So how can we possibly know what is truth?

And I’ll be honest with you, there are days when I don’t want to hear the truth. It’s just too hard. It’s just too sad, too anxiety producing, too violent. I steel myself every time I turn on the television in fear of the horrible images that will appear on the screen. When my Apple Watch vibrates on my wrist I no longer look with interest, I look with dread.

Our reading from the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to John, contains some important lessons for us. As Pilate questions Jesus he hears something that challenges his outlook on “reality.” Pilate is dealing with a large number of people who have come to Jerusalem for the Passover holiday. The people have become loud and challenging to the authorities. And the religious leaders have identified the teachings of Jesus as the source of the “problem.”

Jesus has been preaching a message of Good News that requires faithful people to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and look to prison reform as a part of living an ethical life. Jesus teaches that love is the number one responsibility of someone who loves God. He has traveled all around the countryside preaching that it is not enough to follow rules of piety. He has questioned the control mechanism of the religious hierarchy. He has turned upside down what people have been taught is the way to be loved by God.

Jesus’ teaching requires the people to question what they are taught and hold it up against a message of love and kindness. And he advocated that if the religious rules are judged by whether the rule is based in love and if not… he just simply ignored it.

He walked through a field on the Sabbath and picked heads of grain because he was hungry. Religious rule broken.

He healed people on the Sabbath. Religious rule broken.

He ate with sinners and tax collectors. Religious rule broken.

He interrupted the stoning of a woman who had been caught in infidelity. (Only the woman was held to account when a couple was found to be having sex outside marriage.) But Jesus called out to the men who were about to throw stones and kill this woman saying, “Let him who has no sin cast the first stone.” Religious rule broken.

My own partner married hundreds of inter-faith and multi-faith couples as a Rabbi breaking the rules of her tradition. I did the same before it was cool. As a seminarian I was Anglican/Episcopal but that tradition was not ordaining openly gay priests at the time I was ready to be ordained. And neither was the Episcopal Church marrying gay couples at the time. But those religious rules that we broke actively, consciously, were not loving. They caused pain. Not only did they not transmit a message of God’s love, these rules left people feeling broken, unholy, left out, unloved.

Just as we must question every single sentence in the newspaper or on television and judge for ourselves whether it is true or not, we also have to ask the same questions of the religious rules we follow and expect others to follow. We must hold up everything against the truth of love and ask ourselves if we follow this rule will we be acting or speaking in a loving way. If not, we need to stop and question what we’ve been told is truth.

Questioning and reforming our own tradition may also cause us to be outcasts. And we see the results of anyone who goes up against the Kremlin each and every day. Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin is using religion to further his sick, sadistic invasion and subsequent war. He’s said that he wants to “de-nazify” Ukraine, a country led by a Jewish democratically elected by the people president of Ukraine and he wants to “save” the Russian Orthodox church. And many of the so-called religious right in the US thinks Putin is a good man even as he slaughters children in hospitals, sheltering in a theater, and separating families to the extent that half thechild population of Ukraine will ultimately be separated. Parents are taking orsending their children across the border to Poland just to get them out of a country where Russian bombs and missiles fall from the sky daily.

We must ask ourselves if every law and every rule of our religious traditions is truth. We must hold it up against the question, “Is it loving? Does is support affirming people? Does the rule show kindness?” These are the questions we must ask of everything.

As President Joe Biden said yesterday echoing the words of another American president Abraham Lincoln when he said. “Might will never make right. Right will always make might.” Ultimately truth will rise to the top. Ultimately love will prevail. And we can help it come sooner by questioning everything. Reading the sacred texts with an understanding heart that the message coming from God in any situation is love, love, love.

When Jesus said the realm of God is within, he may have been referring to our ability to think critically and question what we’re being taught or what we’ve been told is truth. We have within us the ability to question and to decide for ourselves. May we decide what is truth with wisdom, with kindness, and with love.

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 SL20220327

"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

"Season of Love" Sunday, December 19, 2021, Advent 4, 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

CLICK HERE for Audio

Because too many people are wandering in the wilderness, because too many people are sitting in the valley of the shadow of death, because too many of our conversations are laced with conflict and rancor, we light candles…

Because people all over the world are suffering, and we’re too often distracted to notice, we light candles… 

Today we stop everything and light these candles: one for hope, one for peace, one for joy, and one for love… (Light the fourth candle in your Advent wreath.)

May the light from these candles overwhelm the world.

May the light from these candles illuminate the valley of the shadow of death.

May the light and fire from these candles burn away everything that is preventing God’s love from being born among us.

Friends, be not afraid, even now — even now — God’s love is overwhelming the world, on earth as it is in heaven!

https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies

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 the Readings    

The Wisdom of Blessed Oscar Wilde

Who, being loved, is poor?

The Wisdom of St. Mother Teresa

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Gospel     

A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (1.39-46)

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord…”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Reflection "Season of Love" Advent 4 2021     

Today we arrive at the beginning of the final week in our journey to the manger. We have looked at the value of hope, the necessity of peace, the function of joy and logically we arrive at the reality of love in this final week of Advent. Today we’re going to look at what the word love means.

Love as a noun includes these meanings:

• strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. (e.g. maternal love for a child)

• affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests. (e.g. love for his old schoolmates)

• unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: such as

o the parental concern of God for humankind

o familial concern for humankind

• a person's adoration of God

• capitalized,  GOD

So without even considering the word love as a verb we have a LOT to think about when we consider the question, “What is love?” I think it’s important to look at this question in the context of the entire Advent season. There’s a reason why the Sundays in the Advent season have specific themes attached to them, specific themes in a specific order.

The theme for Advent 1 is Hope. I think we can all agree that if we are living in despair we have triggered our evolutionary survival behaviors. We are hard wired to do anything and everything we can do to survive. That means our concern for others becomes secondary to our own survival. And in extreme cases of despair we can even become convinced that living is not worthwhile. Hope is absolutely essential to our ability to be empathetic to others. So hope and our ability to feel empathy for others is really a necessary component of our ability to feel and express love for others, for ourselves, for the planet, and for God.

Even if we have hope for the future we also need peace of mind and the theme of peace for Advent 2 builds on the presence of hope. Even if we have hope for the future we also need peace of mind so that we can let go and let God work in our lives. This requires us to quiet our minds, quiet our spirits, and make space to listen for the still small voice of God speaking to us through other people and in the Holy Spirit’s voice within. It is very difficult to hear the still small voice when the noise that results from a deficit of peace in our hearts prevails. So achieving the will to welcome and work for peace of mind is such an important part of our journey.

Last week we had the theme of joy for Advent 3. At first look it may seem like joy is the result of hope, peace and love. But in fact, joy is a contingent element in love. Have you ever been really angry with your partner and tried to get in touch with the love you know you have for them? I contend that unless we can find some measure of joy we are incapable of truly experiencing love for humanity. Anger blocks love, lethargy makes us indifferent to taking action that mobilizes love in the world.

Love is not a passive emotion that comes and overwhelms us from a source outside ourselves. Love can be experienced as a feeling or emotion that is the result of hope, peace, and joy. But at the end of the day, love is not just a feeling. Love is evidenced by the action we take in relation to our fellow humans, creatures, the earth… all of creation.

In our reading from Mother Teresa we heard, “Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

Let’s just be really clear and honest with ourselves.

We don’t need to judge people when we live in hope.

We don’t need to judge people when we have peace of mind and spirit.

We don’t need to judge people when we are capable of really experiencing joy.

So let’s add one more reading to our service today, what I believe is a definitive reading on the topic of love, found in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Perhaps the best definition of love as an emotion is what we feel when we look into the face of a newborn baby. That is what Christmas reminds us of… the love that wells up inside us when we encounter the vulnerability, the hope, the peace, the joy of a newborn baby. As we enter this last week of Advent let us cultivate the ingredients that motivate us to take the action of love that makes a difference in the lives of people in the world. Let this be our meditation as we spend these last days leading to Christmas Eve.

May we all welcome the birth of love in the form of a tiny human newborn baby. My prayer and gift offered for each and every one of you this week is that you experience these things.

• “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

• “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” - Saint Francis de Sales

• “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” —Helen Keller

These are my gifts to you in this season. May the blessing of God rest upon you and upon all those whom you love. Amen.

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

Download SL20211219

Call to Worship

CLICK HERE for Audio

Because too many people are wandering in the wilderness, because too many people are sitting in the valley of the shadow of death, because too many of our conversations are laced with conflict and rancor, we light candles…

Because people all over the world are suffering, and we’re too often distracted to notice, we light candles… 

Today we stop everything and light these candles: one for hope, one for peace, one for joy, and one for love… (Light the fourth candle in your Advent wreath.)

May the light from these candles overwhelm the world.

May the light from these candles illuminate the valley of the shadow of death.

May the light and fire from these candles burn away everything that is preventing God’s love from being born among us.

Friends, be not afraid, even now — even now — God’s love is overwhelming the world, on earth as it is in heaven!

https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies

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 the Readings    

The Wisdom of Blessed Oscar Wilde

Who, being loved, is poor?

The Wisdom of St. Mother Teresa

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Gospel     

A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (1.39-46)

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord…”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Reflection "Season of Love" Advent 4 2021     

Today we arrive at the beginning of the final week in our journey to the manger. We have looked at the value of hope, the necessity of peace, the function of joy and logically we arrive at the reality of love in this final week of Advent. Today we’re going to look at what the word love means.

Love as a noun includes these meanings:

• strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. (e.g. maternal love for a child)

• affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests. (e.g. love for his old schoolmates)

• unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: such as

o the parental concern of God for humankind

o familial concern for humankind

• a person's adoration of God

• capitalized,  GOD

So without even considering the word love as a verb we have a LOT to think about when we consider the question, “What is love?” I think it’s important to look at this question in the context of the entire Advent season. There’s a reason why the Sundays in the Advent season have specific themes attached to them, specific themes in a specific order.

The theme for Advent 1 is Hope. I think we can all agree that if we are living in despair we have triggered our evolutionary survival behaviors. We are hard wired to do anything and everything we can do to survive. That means our concern for others becomes secondary to our own survival. And in extreme cases of despair we can even become convinced that living is not worthwhile. Hope is absolutely essential to our ability to be empathetic to others. So hope and our ability to feel empathy for others is really a necessary component of our ability to feel and express love for others, for ourselves, for the planet, and for God.

Even if we have hope for the future we also need peace of mind and the theme of peace for Advent 2 builds on the presence of hope. Even if we have hope for the future we also need peace of mind so that we can let go and let God work in our lives. This requires us to quiet our minds, quiet our spirits, and make space to listen for the still small voice of God speaking to us through other people and in the Holy Spirit’s voice within. It is very difficult to hear the still small voice when the noise that results from a deficit of peace in our hearts prevails. So achieving the will to welcome and work for peace of mind is such an important part of our journey.

Last week we had the theme of joy for Advent 3. At first look it may seem like joy is the result of hope, peace and love. But in fact, joy is a contingent element in love. Have you ever been really angry with your partner and tried to get in touch with the love you know you have for them? I contend that unless we can find some measure of joy we are incapable of truly experiencing love for humanity. Anger blocks love, lethargy makes us indifferent to taking action that mobilizes love in the world.

Love is not a passive emotion that comes and overwhelms us from a source outside ourselves. Love can be experienced as a feeling or emotion that is the result of hope, peace, and joy. But at the end of the day, love is not just a feeling. Love is evidenced by the action we take in relation to our fellow humans, creatures, the earth… all of creation.

In our reading from Mother Teresa we heard, “Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

Let’s just be really clear and honest with ourselves.

We don’t need to judge people when we live in hope.

We don’t need to judge people when we have peace of mind and spirit.

We don’t need to judge people when we are capable of really experiencing joy.

So let’s add one more reading to our service today, what I believe is a definitive reading on the topic of love, found in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Perhaps the best definition of love as an emotion is what we feel when we look into the face of a newborn baby. That is what Christmas reminds us of… the love that wells up inside us when we encounter the vulnerability, the hope, the peace, the joy of a newborn baby. As we enter this last week of Advent let us cultivate the ingredients that motivate us to take the action of love that makes a difference in the lives of people in the world. Let this be our meditation as we spend these last days leading to Christmas Eve.

May we all welcome the birth of love in the form of a tiny human newborn baby. My prayer and gift offered for each and every one of you this week is that you experience these things.

• “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

• “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” - Saint Francis de Sales

• “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” —Helen Keller

These are my gifts to you in this season. May the blessing of God rest upon you and upon all those whom you love. Amen.

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

Download SL20211219

"Joy is on the Way" Sunday, December 12, 2021, Advent 3, 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

Click Here for Audio Advent 3 - Joy 2021

When I look around, I see shadows of sadness, families who have lost loved ones [in the tornados this weekend], people in prison, people who are isolated and feel on their own…

When I look around, I see shadows of grief, people dreading the holidays because of painful memories, because they're recently divorced, [because they have lost loved ones,] because they don't want to spend another Christmas alone… 

In the face of sadness, we light a candle of joy...

In the face of grief, in the face of loss, we light a candle of joy... (Light the third candle in your Advent wreath.)

May the light from this candle overwhelm the world.

May the light from this candle say to all that God’s joy is coming, on earth as it already is in heaven.

Friends, be not afraid, God’s joy is at hand!

https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies

Opening Prayer

Click Here for Audio of  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 Readings

From the Prophet Isaiah (12.3)

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

The Wisdom of the Psalter (30.5)

Misfortune lasts for only a moment,
    while divine goodwill endures for a lifetime.
Weeping may last throughout the night, 
    but at daybreak there is rejoicing.

Words of the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4.4)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

CLICK Here for Audio Gospel 

A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (3.10-16)

The crowds asked John the baptizer, "What should we do?"
In reply John said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"
He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."

Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "Joy Is On The Way"    

Joy is on the Way

It’s hard to believe we’ve arrived at the third Sunday of Advent. We’re now past the halfway point in our journey to Christmas. Just two weeks from today we will gather for our Christmas I Sunday service. All the hustle and bustle will be subsiding, all of the presents will be opened and most of the family visits and meals done. But today we feel the the mounting excitement of all that is to come in the next two weeks.

Advent 3 is the Sunday we celebrate joy. This is a hard thing as we review the past week, the rising numbers of CoVid… again, the news of devastating tornados in the US over this weekend, troop build ups on the border of Russia and Ukraine, and refugees on the border of Poland, the US, and other countries around the world. And yet here we are, on the edge of Christmas when we sing Joy to the World.

In Advent we live in a liminal space between the now and what will be. We wait and we look forward to the happy day when hope, peace, joy, and love are born anew in the world, for that day when the world pauses in its violence and anxiety to sing Silent Night together. Christmas is a time to spiritually rest, to renew our spirits, and to consider what a world that truly celebrates Christmas all year round could be like.

And when we get just a glimpse of what the world could be – unified, aware that we are all one family – the joy that fills our hearts is overwhelming. That is what Advent 3 is all about, contemplating the feeling of joy that we all can have when we awaken to the reality that we are all one human family, one beloved tribe.

What would it take to bring this concept, this idea to reality? Imagination. That is it. No complicated psychology, no international political science. Just the human imagination focused on the fact that we are all children of the One Parent who created us in her image, created us to love all of his creation.

It is no coincidence that hope, peace, and joy are the first three candles on our Advent wreath. These are the building blocks of love. Hope wipes away despair, peace conquers anxiety, and joy fills our hearts with laughter and forgiveness. This is the road to love, the love of Christ that fills us with compassion and calls us to be what we were made to be – kind, caring, empathetic, people who understand that hate is always overcome by love just as light obliterates the darkness.

In these last two weeks of our Advent journey let us open our hearts to the joy that is around us even as we pray for those who are grieving and experiencing pain. Let us remember that joy comes to us in supporting those who have a particularly difficult time at the holidays. Our joy need not trample on the emotions of another because we can channel our joy into being present to those who need us, lending a hand, offering to listen, sometimes just sitting quietly together.

Let us open our hearts to one another. Let hope and peace and joy overflow within us as our hearts fill with compassion for the world. When we embrace the joy of the season we, too can sing out the words of Mary the mother of Jesus, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior …” Amen

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

Download SL20211212

Call to Worship

Click Here for Audio Advent 3 - Joy 2021

When I look around, I see shadows of sadness, families who have lost loved ones [in the tornados this weekend], people in prison, people who are isolated and feel on their own…

When I look around, I see shadows of grief, people dreading the holidays because of painful memories, because they're recently divorced, [because they have lost loved ones,] because they don't want to spend another Christmas alone… 

In the face of sadness, we light a candle of joy...

In the face of grief, in the face of loss, we light a candle of joy... (Light the third candle in your Advent wreath.)

May the light from this candle overwhelm the world.

May the light from this candle say to all that God’s joy is coming, on earth as it already is in heaven.

Friends, be not afraid, God’s joy is at hand!

https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies

Opening Prayer

Click Here for Audio of  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 Readings

From the Prophet Isaiah (12.3)

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

The Wisdom of the Psalter (30.5)

Misfortune lasts for only a moment,
    while divine goodwill endures for a lifetime.
Weeping may last throughout the night, 
    but at daybreak there is rejoicing.

Words of the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4.4)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

CLICK Here for Audio Gospel 

A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (3.10-16)

The crowds asked John the baptizer, "What should we do?"
In reply John said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"
He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."

Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of "Joy Is On The Way"    

Joy is on the Way

It’s hard to believe we’ve arrived at the third Sunday of Advent. We’re now past the halfway point in our journey to Christmas. Just two weeks from today we will gather for our Christmas I Sunday service. All the hustle and bustle will be subsiding, all of the presents will be opened and most of the family visits and meals done. But today we feel the the mounting excitement of all that is to come in the next two weeks.

Advent 3 is the Sunday we celebrate joy. This is a hard thing as we review the past week, the rising numbers of CoVid… again, the news of devastating tornados in the US over this weekend, troop build ups on the border of Russia and Ukraine, and refugees on the border of Poland, the US, and other countries around the world. And yet here we are, on the edge of Christmas when we sing Joy to the World.

In Advent we live in a liminal space between the now and what will be. We wait and we look forward to the happy day when hope, peace, joy, and love are born anew in the world, for that day when the world pauses in its violence and anxiety to sing Silent Night together. Christmas is a time to spiritually rest, to renew our spirits, and to consider what a world that truly celebrates Christmas all year round could be like.

And when we get just a glimpse of what the world could be – unified, aware that we are all one family – the joy that fills our hearts is overwhelming. That is what Advent 3 is all about, contemplating the feeling of joy that we all can have when we awaken to the reality that we are all one human family, one beloved tribe.

What would it take to bring this concept, this idea to reality? Imagination. That is it. No complicated psychology, no international political science. Just the human imagination focused on the fact that we are all children of the One Parent who created us in her image, created us to love all of his creation.

It is no coincidence that hope, peace, and joy are the first three candles on our Advent wreath. These are the building blocks of love. Hope wipes away despair, peace conquers anxiety, and joy fills our hearts with laughter and forgiveness. This is the road to love, the love of Christ that fills us with compassion and calls us to be what we were made to be – kind, caring, empathetic, people who understand that hate is always overcome by love just as light obliterates the darkness.

In these last two weeks of our Advent journey let us open our hearts to the joy that is around us even as we pray for those who are grieving and experiencing pain. Let us remember that joy comes to us in supporting those who have a particularly difficult time at the holidays. Our joy need not trample on the emotions of another because we can channel our joy into being present to those who need us, lending a hand, offering to listen, sometimes just sitting quietly together.

Let us open our hearts to one another. Let hope and peace and joy overflow within us as our hearts fill with compassion for the world. When we embrace the joy of the season we, too can sing out the words of Mary the mother of Jesus, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior …” Amen

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

Download SL20211212

"Righteous Peace" Sunday, December 5, 2021, Advent 2, 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

Click Here for Audio Advent 2 Peace

Advent 2 Candle Lighting

The first Sunday of the month is our regular Sunday for Communion. But during Lent and Advent we forego Communion Sunday until the anticipated festival, which is Christmas I on December 26. As we move into the new year 2022 we will have our communion services on the last Sunday in each month.

Today is the second Sunday in Advent, the candle of Peace…

Because of war, because of violence in our communities, because there is still so much unrest in our hearts, we light a candle of peace...

Because hatred is still so strong, because so many swords have not yet been beaten into ploughshares, we light a candle of peace…  

May the light from this candle overwhelm the world.

May the light from this candle say to all that God’s peace is coming, on earth as it already is in heaven.

Friends, be not afraid, God’s peace is at hand!

https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies

Opening Prayer

Click Here for Audio of  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 First Reading    

From the Writings of Baruch (5.1-4)

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, 

and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; 

put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name, "Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."

Click Here for Audio of  Gospel   

A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (3.1-6)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

John went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance…,
as it is written in the book of Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths clear. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click Here for Audio of Advent 2 Reflection "Righteous Peace"

This is the second Sunday in Advent, the Sunday with the theme – Peace. When we lit our Advent candle today our reading for that candle mirrored our gospel reading. So often when the think of peace we first focus on that which hinders peace.

In our candle lighting we called to mind violence, war, and hatred. In our gospel reading we find a quote from Isaiah the prophet that described peace as filling every valley and smoothing out the mountains so that the way is smooth. In both of these readings we might get the impression that whatever is outside us must be calmed and smoothed and soothed before we can experience peace.

We must remember that much of how the world works and many of the passages in our sacred texts are rooted in dualism. For instance, in Romans 8:6 we read, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Here at Sunshine Cathedral we do not believe that we must set aside our humanness, our bodies, our sexuality in order to be righteous. We believe that human beings are made in the image of God and that our bodies are not in constant conflict with our spirits.

So our reading from Baruch reflects this wholistic view of what it means to be human but gives us some valuable guidance on what we can do to realize peace.

First we are instructed to, “Take off the garment of [our] sorrow and affliction…” We are not required to prove that we are compassionate and concerned about those who are oppressed and in need in this world by wallowing in despair. We can let go of sorrow when we grieve and we can embrace healing as it seeps into our lives. So our first act in achieving peace is to “Let Go, and Let God” when it comes to things that are out of our control. We are not required to perseverate on sadness, sorrow and pain to prove we are good people, to prove that we love God and the family of humanity.

Secondly we are instructed to take positive action, “… put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God…” This image of taking off one garment and putting on another garment is a beautiful way of describing how our internal spirit is completely integrated and connected to our human body. So what does it mean to put on a robe of righteousness. Well I think it means that we are to focus our minds on what it means to be righteous.

When we look up the word righteous in the dictionary we see synonyms like ethical, decent, just, and honorable. These words describe how we treat ourselves and how we treat others. And most of you know from doing your own therapy and self-reflection that how we treat ourselves is ultimately how we treat others.

• When we judge ourselves harshly we will inevitably judge others harshly.
• When we expect perfection of ourselves, we will expect perfection from others and we will be disappointed.
• When we disrespect our own bodies we will disrespect the humanity of another.
• When we act justly toward ourselves, we are likely to act justly toward others.

One of the most flawed people I ever knew in my life taught me one of the most important lessons of life, “Treat yourself as you would treat your very best friend.” You would forgive your best friend for falling short, for losing her temper, for being stressed out to the point of despair. And if we say to ourselves the same thing we might say to our very best friend we begin to live into what it means to be righteous.

Finally, we take the actions of removing the robe of affliction and putting on the robe of righteousness, our scripture says that God will put upon our heads (into our minds) “… the diadem of glory of the Everlasting.” We will no longer be known as someone who makes themselves a martyr to our own shortcomings and to the evils of the world. Instead we will be known by the name, “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory." People with whom we interact will know that we are centered in God’s peace not in the anxiety and stress of the evil in the world.

Now none of this means that we should segregate ourselves from reality. Perhaps we ought to limit how much news and bad news media we consume. But we still need to know what is going on the world. Keeping our mind on God does not mean that we ignore science and injustice. In fact, keeping our minds on God and living in peace means that we do everything we can to work for justice and to keep ourselves safe from CoVid and from other kinds of illness.

Our peace of mind is not divorced from our health or our mental attitudes. We are not at the mercy of circumstances. There are actions we can take to help us attain peace. On this Sunday of Peace in our Advent season let me leave you with this from Romans 14:19, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” When we become more peaceful that “rubs off” on those we meet. Peace spreads from one person to another even more easily than hatred and fear.

Let us focus on what we can do by treating others with respect even when they may not be acting in a respectful way, let us open our hearts to hope, let us allow ourselves to love unconditionally. This is the path to peace.

Let us pray,

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,

Courage to change the things we can,

And the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

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

Download SL20211205

Call to Worship

"For a Time Such as This" Sunday, November 21 , 2021, 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

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Opening Prayer

God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.

As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no Kaddish may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.

And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.

Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world. Blessed is God, in Whom no light is extinguished. Amen.

(Prayer by Rabbi Reuben Zellman - https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/prayer-for-transgender-day-of-remembrance)

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for First Reading

From the Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson

You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

CLICK HERE for Final Reading

From the Book of Esther, Chapter 4

14…[Mordecai said, I]f you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance … will arise from another place, but you and your … family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16… I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of Reflection "For Such a Time as This"

November 20 is International Transgender day of Remembrance. And this being the Sunday closest to that day is the Sunday we recall this important day. This is the day each year when we remember and memorialize those children of God who have been murdered in the past year as a result of the hatred we call transphobia. This day of memorial was founded in 1999 by a small group of people to memorialize the murder of Rita Hester in Allston, Massachusetts… just a few miles from where I live.

Rita Hester was a transgender African American woman who was murdered on November 28, 1998. And the grief and anger of her murder inspired people in the Boston area to examine the intersectionality of Rita Hester’s multiple points of marginalization… she was African American, she was transgender, she was a woman. The conscience of a community was jolted to recognition of bigotry upon bigotry that culminated in her death.

The idea of memorializing those murdered as a result of transphobia was born from one murder in 1999 and by 2010, Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in 185 cities in 20 countries. And each year the names of those murdered in the past year are read aloud as we will do for our dead again this year. Did those who organized that first memorial in 1999 have known that their actions would lead to a worldwide memorial observance that would raise awareness of transphobia 20 years later?

It seems that human beings are hardwired to marginalize other human beings. In our story from the book of Esther this morning Queen Esther is challenged to risk her own life to save those of her fellow Jewish people who were about to be exterminated by the evil Haman. Now Haman’s hatred of the Jewish people was a direct result of the refusal of one Jewish man to bow down to him as he walked in and out of the gates of palace. That Jewish man’s name was Mordecai, the uncle of Queen Esther.

Esther did not take on this cause to save her people. She did not set out to save her ancestral family living in the realm of King Xerxes in Persia. His palace was in what is modern day Iran near the border with Iraq, far away from the ancestral home of her people in what is known as Israel today. She was not an activist. But she found herself in a position to speak truth to power, to tell her husband, King Xerxes, the plans of Haman to exterminate her people.

But in order to speak to him she had to risk coming into his presence without an invitation. And if he was displeased with her intrusion she would have been executed. She was asked by her uncle Mordecai to go in to the king. She was hesitant. But her uncle asked her an important and poignant question, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

This is where we find ourselves today. Who knows but that we have come to our position of privilege for such a time as this. Even as gay men and lesbians we enjoy the protections of the law and the privileges of tolerance if not acceptance. This is not so for our transgender siblings. We are duty bound to use that privilege to work for justice on their behalf, to use our voices to speak truth to power on behalf of those who are voiceless.

In the United States 2021 has been the deadliest year on record for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans at 46. The Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide research project released an update of Trans Murder Monitoring showing 2021 to be the deadliest year for trans and gender-diverse people since the began collecting data, with 375 registered murders in the past year.And we know this number to be far, far larger.

And so today we remember some of the names of people murdered for simply being themselves. Names of people who are loved by friends and family, people whose contribution to the wellbeing of human kind is now lost to history. They were sent to their graves with all of the potential of their lives, the art, the literature, the music, the engineering, the mathematics, physics, and other scientific knowledge that might have changed the course of history. These names serve to remind us to remember them all by name. These are but of few of those we lost to violence born of hate and bigotry.

 

Tyianna “Davarea” Alexander

Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín

Bianca “Muffin” Bankz

Dominique Jackson

Fifty Bandz

Alexus Braxton

Chyna Carrillo

Jeffery “JJ” Bright

Jenna Franks

Aidelen Evans

Diamond Kyree Sanders

Rayanna Pardo

Jaida Peterson

Dominque Lucious

Remy Fennell

Tiara Banks

Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga

Natalia Smüt

Iris Santos

Tiffany Thomas

Keri Washington

Thomas Hardin

Whispering Wind Bear Spirit

Sophie Vásquez

Danny Henson

Serenity Hollis

Poe Delwyn Black

Oliver “Ollie” Taylor

Tierramarie Lewis

EJ Boykin

Taya Ashton

Shai Vanderpump

Miss CoCo

Pooh Johnson

Zoella Martinez

Disaya Monaee

Brianna Ulmer

Kièr Solomon

Mel Groves

Royal Poetical Starz

Jessi Hart

Jo Acker

Rikkey Outumuro

Jenny De Leon

Marquiisha Lawrence

For these all those unnamed in this and all generations we remember their lives. We remember those who loved them and miss them. We mourn for them and for all humanity who are the worse for their loss.

“Let us pray. 

Speak to us this day, O God,
and humble us to hear your word.
Make us still enough to notice your presence,
Quiet enough to hear your voice,
Brave enough to speak your good news,
and wise enough to follow your spirit.

So often we pray to you for life:
to preserve life, to prolong life, 
to guard life, to begin life.
Today we pray for something else.
We pray for courage to lose our life for your sake, 
and we pray for the wisdom to find it. 

As Mordecai challenged Esther to be faithful at all costs,
make us hear the voices of people oppressed,
whose stories challenge our way of life. 

We pray for your children everywhere:

For your people who are suffering,
Discriminated against because of their race, gender identity, 
sexuality, or religion. 
For your people who are fearful,
Faced with losing their access to healthcare or treatment. 
For your people who are isolated,
Living in the shackles of addiction or abuse

Holy comforter, challenger, redeemer,
We know that you are in our midst.
Help us recognize your spirit on the move,
and empower us to join your work.

Help us be your church, reformed and still being reformed. 
Help us be your people, formed and still being formed. 
Help us boldly share the news of your love,
For such a time as this. 

Amen.”

https://andalsowithyou.blog/2017/07/27/prayers-from-matthew-and-esther-for-such-a-time-as-this/

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

Download SL20211121

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

CLICK HERE for Audio of the Opening Prayer

God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.

As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no Kaddish may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.

And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.

Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world. Blessed is God, in Whom no light is extinguished. Amen.

(Prayer by Rabbi Reuben Zellman - https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/prayer-for-transgender-day-of-remembrance)

The Lessons

CLICK HERE for First Reading

From the Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson

You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

CLICK HERE for Final Reading

From the Book of Esther, Chapter 4

14…[Mordecai said, I]f you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance … will arise from another place, but you and your … family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16… I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

CLICK HERE for Audio of Reflection "For Such a Time as This"

November 20 is International Transgender day of Remembrance. And this being the Sunday closest to that day is the Sunday we recall this important day. This is the day each year when we remember and memorialize those children of God who have been murdered in the past year as a result of the hatred we call transphobia. This day of memorial was founded in 1999 by a small group of people to memorialize the murder of Rita Hester in Allston, Massachusetts… just a few miles from where I live.

Rita Hester was a transgender African American woman who was murdered on November 28, 1998. And the grief and anger of her murder inspired people in the Boston area to examine the intersectionality of Rita Hester’s multiple points of marginalization… she was African American, she was transgender, she was a woman. The conscience of a community was jolted to recognition of bigotry upon bigotry that culminated in her death.

The idea of memorializing those murdered as a result of transphobia was born from one murder in 1999 and by 2010, Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in 185 cities in 20 countries. And each year the names of those murdered in the past year are read aloud as we will do for our dead again this year. Did those who organized that first memorial in 1999 have known that their actions would lead to a worldwide memorial observance that would raise awareness of transphobia 20 years later?

It seems that human beings are hardwired to marginalize other human beings. In our story from the book of Esther this morning Queen Esther is challenged to risk her own life to save those of her fellow Jewish people who were about to be exterminated by the evil Haman. Now Haman’s hatred of the Jewish people was a direct result of the refusal of one Jewish man to bow down to him as he walked in and out of the gates of palace. That Jewish man’s name was Mordecai, the uncle of Queen Esther.

Esther did not take on this cause to save her people. She did not set out to save her ancestral family living in the realm of King Xerxes in Persia. His palace was in what is modern day Iran near the border with Iraq, far away from the ancestral home of her people in what is known as Israel today. She was not an activist. But she found herself in a position to speak truth to power, to tell her husband, King Xerxes, the plans of Haman to exterminate her people.

But in order to speak to him she had to risk coming into his presence without an invitation. And if he was displeased with her intrusion she would have been executed. She was asked by her uncle Mordecai to go in to the king. She was hesitant. But her uncle asked her an important and poignant question, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

This is where we find ourselves today. Who knows but that we have come to our position of privilege for such a time as this. Even as gay men and lesbians we enjoy the protections of the law and the privileges of tolerance if not acceptance. This is not so for our transgender siblings. We are duty bound to use that privilege to work for justice on their behalf, to use our voices to speak truth to power on behalf of those who are voiceless.

In the United States 2021 has been the deadliest year on record for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans at 46. The Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide research project released an update of Trans Murder Monitoring showing 2021 to be the deadliest year for trans and gender-diverse people since the began collecting data, with 375 registered murders in the past year.And we know this number to be far, far larger.

And so today we remember some of the names of people murdered for simply being themselves. Names of people who are loved by friends and family, people whose contribution to the wellbeing of human kind is now lost to history. They were sent to their graves with all of the potential of their lives, the art, the literature, the music, the engineering, the mathematics, physics, and other scientific knowledge that might have changed the course of history. These names serve to remind us to remember them all by name. These are but of few of those we lost to violence born of hate and bigotry.

 

Tyianna “Davarea” Alexander

Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín

Bianca “Muffin” Bankz

Dominique Jackson

Fifty Bandz

Alexus Braxton

Chyna Carrillo

Jeffery “JJ” Bright

Jenna Franks

Aidelen Evans

Diamond Kyree Sanders

Rayanna Pardo

Jaida Peterson

Dominque Lucious

Remy Fennell

Tiara Banks

Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga

Natalia Smüt

Iris Santos

Tiffany Thomas

Keri Washington

Thomas Hardin

Whispering Wind Bear Spirit

Sophie Vásquez

Danny Henson

Serenity Hollis

Poe Delwyn Black

Oliver “Ollie” Taylor

Tierramarie Lewis

EJ Boykin

Taya Ashton

Shai Vanderpump

Miss CoCo

Pooh Johnson

Zoella Martinez

Disaya Monaee

Brianna Ulmer

Kièr Solomon

Mel Groves

Royal Poetical Starz

Jessi Hart

Jo Acker

Rikkey Outumuro

Jenny De Leon

Marquiisha Lawrence

For these all those unnamed in this and all generations we remember their lives. We remember those who loved them and miss them. We mourn for them and for all humanity who are the worse for their loss.

“Let us pray. 

Speak to us this day, O God,
and humble us to hear your word.
Make us still enough to notice your presence,
Quiet enough to hear your voice,
Brave enough to speak your good news,
and wise enough to follow your spirit.

So often we pray to you for life:
to preserve life, to prolong life, 
to guard life, to begin life.
Today we pray for something else.
We pray for courage to lose our life for your sake, 
and we pray for the wisdom to find it. 

As Mordecai challenged Esther to be faithful at all costs,
make us hear the voices of people oppressed,
whose stories challenge our way of life. 

We pray for your children everywhere:

For your people who are suffering,
Discriminated against because of their race, gender identity, 
sexuality, or religion. 
For your people who are fearful,
Faced with losing their access to healthcare or treatment. 
For your people who are isolated,
Living in the shackles of addiction or abuse

Holy comforter, challenger, redeemer,
We know that you are in our midst.
Help us recognize your spirit on the move,
and empower us to join your work.

Help us be your church, reformed and still being reformed. 
Help us be your people, formed and still being formed. 
Help us boldly share the news of your love,
For such a time as this. 

Amen.”

https://andalsowithyou.blog/2017/07/27/prayers-from-matthew-and-esther-for-such-a-time-as-this/

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

Download SL20211121

"Listen for the Good News" Sunday,November 14 , 2021, 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

Click here for audio of Opening Prayer  

Eternal One, we thank you today for the Good News of God’s love for us. We affirm that your goodness is the image upon which we are made. We acknowledge that the divine spark is placed in each one of us and that our task in life is to nurture that light and feed that fire of goodness until it is a burning flame of passion for justice and compassion within us.

Help us to live in the light of your love and spread that Good News of love to the ends of the earth. Amen.

The Lessons

Click here for audio of first Reading    

From the Wisdom of Christina Engela

“It seems to me that those who claim to be 'true' and 'bible believing' Christians and yet spend all their time and energy spreading unhappiness and hatred for others - and are themselves consumed by [hatred of others] - are by the very definition of the term - false prophets.” 

Click here for audio of Gospel Reading    

From the Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 7

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click here for audio of the reflection "Listen for the Good News"    

Our readings today warn us about false prophets. When I think of prophets, I think of particular people in holy scripture who are described as prophets – people like Micah, Ezekial, Isaiah, and Jesus himself. We think of prophets as foretelling the future or at least pointing out the logical consequences of a pattern of behavior. They also answer questions that linger in the collective human consciousness.

Micah for instance in chapter 6 asks and answers the question, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?” He gives examples of what other people are teaching. How about a burnt offering of  a year old calf, or a thousand rams, or a river of oil? These were extreme examples of burnt offerings that people were making to God to appease the deity similar to what other religions taught had to be done to please their gods. And then he asks the question that show up the idea of burnt offering sacrifices to God as pagan ritual. He says, “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” These people already knew that human sacrifice was off the table.

Prophets teach us how to be better people. In our day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Malala Yousef, and Greta Thunberg. All of these modern day prophets call out injustice and point to the logical consequences of following an errant pattern of behavior. At the bottom of all of their prophecies is a call to mercy, a call to love, a reminder that God and God’s creation loves us and is worthy of our love in return.

Now that we know what a prophet is let’s move on to understanding how to discern a prophet from a false prophet. The first thing we have to remember is that within every great lie is a kernel of truth. Every form of propaganda preys on real inner fears of a population. Every point of disinformation begins with something that people fear. In our modern world we are bombarded by false prophets – propaganda and disinformation – every time we glance at a television or pick up our phones.

Let’s take advertising for instance, we know that advertisers are paid to make their products and services appear to be the best. Advertising is propaganda, but we know that (for the most part). But news is supposed to at least have the goal of objectivity, to present facts without attempting to “steer” the consumer of the news in one direction or the other. State owned media is a necessity for autocrats and dictators. One of the first thing that happens when a dictator takes power is that they exterminate objective news agencies and put in place media that carries their version of truth and that only without criticism of their regime.

False prophets in the form of media outlets that spew propaganda and disinformation are on the rise across the world. Even our own Christian tradition has become part of the machine of propaganda and disinformation. But how can we discern which is true prophecy and which is false prophecy? They often look the same, they appear to be “news” or at least some form of objective commentary. So how can we possibly know?

Well actually it’s easier than you might think! Prophecy shows us a path to love, to mercy, to justice. False prophecy stirs fear, anger, and hate within us. Propaganda that promotes a particular point of view from a particular political perspective demonizes the other, paints all of the “other” with the same brush, makes no allowances for personal differences, and stirs contempt if not hatred of anyone who does not follow their view.

Our first reading today sums it up very well I think, “It seems to me that those who claim to be 'true' and 'bible believing' Christians and yet spend all their time and energy spreading unhappiness and hatred for others - and are themselves consumed by [hatred of others] - are by the very definition of the term - false prophets.” Could it be this simple?

Our gospel reading features Jesus teaching, “Watch out for false prophets… By their fruit you will recognize them… every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit… Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” If the result of an action called for by a prophecy promotes justice, mercy, healing, and love, then that is a true prophecy. But if a prophecy only points to division, violence, and hate, that is a false prophecy. Be especially aware of any point of view that suggests people resort to violence. Even if that kernel of truth in the lie is appealing, the call to violence is a dead giveaway.

Living in our media driven world is hard. Discerning the will of God is hard work. And part of our duty as people of faith is to sort the so-called prophecy, the “news” and decide what is true and what is false. Understand that well-meaning people will often fall victim to false prophets but their words are still poison. Remember that in every great lie is a kernel of truth. And know deep within your heart the you will know false prophets by the fruit that their words produce.

The teachings of the humble rabbi from Galilee can always be our guide. When Simon Peter, the most dependable disciple of Jesus cut off the ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest him in the garden where we was praying, Jesus did not yell, “Get ‘em boys!” He picked up the ear and reattached it to the soldier, healing him completely. The message from Jesus was clear, it was merciful, it promoted non-violence.

We are all battered by propaganda and misinformation daily. It is our job, our duty as people of faith to discern the prophets from the false prophets. As Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.”

Let us pray, Holy One give us hearts and minds that seek justice and long to do mercy. Keep us humble by reminding us to interrogate our own motives constantly. Help us understand that unless we hear your message of love for humanity and all creation we cannot regard those words as prophecy. Help us learn to love even the false prophets as we point to their error. In your many names we pray, Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link bel0w:

Download SL20211114

 

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

Click here for audio of Opening Prayer  

Eternal One, we thank you today for the Good News of God’s love for us. We affirm that your goodness is the image upon which we are made. We acknowledge that the divine spark is placed in each one of us and that our task in life is to nurture that light and feed that fire of goodness until it is a burning flame of passion for justice and compassion within us.

Help us to live in the light of your love and spread that Good News of love to the ends of the earth. Amen.

The Lessons

Click here for audio of first Reading    

From the Wisdom of Christina Engela

“It seems to me that those who claim to be 'true' and 'bible believing' Christians and yet spend all their time and energy spreading unhappiness and hatred for others - and are themselves consumed by [hatred of others] - are by the very definition of the term - false prophets.” 

Click here for audio of Gospel Reading    

From the Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 7

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher

Click here for audio of the reflection "Listen for the Good News"    

Our readings today warn us about false prophets. When I think of prophets, I think of particular people in holy scripture who are described as prophets – people like Micah, Ezekial, Isaiah, and Jesus himself. We think of prophets as foretelling the future or at least pointing out the logical consequences of a pattern of behavior. They also answer questions that linger in the collective human consciousness.

Micah for instance in chapter 6 asks and answers the question, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?” He gives examples of what other people are teaching. How about a burnt offering of  a year old calf, or a thousand rams, or a river of oil? These were extreme examples of burnt offerings that people were making to God to appease the deity similar to what other religions taught had to be done to please their gods. And then he asks the question that show up the idea of burnt offering sacrifices to God as pagan ritual. He says, “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” These people already knew that human sacrifice was off the table.

Prophets teach us how to be better people. In our day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Malala Yousef, and Greta Thunberg. All of these modern day prophets call out injustice and point to the logical consequences of following an errant pattern of behavior. At the bottom of all of their prophecies is a call to mercy, a call to love, a reminder that God and God’s creation loves us and is worthy of our love in return.

Now that we know what a prophet is let’s move on to understanding how to discern a prophet from a false prophet. The first thing we have to remember is that within every great lie is a kernel of truth. Every form of propaganda preys on real inner fears of a population. Every point of disinformation begins with something that people fear. In our modern world we are bombarded by false prophets – propaganda and disinformation – every time we glance at a television or pick up our phones.

Let’s take advertising for instance, we know that advertisers are paid to make their products and services appear to be the best. Advertising is propaganda, but we know that (for the most part). But news is supposed to at least have the goal of objectivity, to present facts without attempting to “steer” the consumer of the news in one direction or the other. State owned media is a necessity for autocrats and dictators. One of the first thing that happens when a dictator takes power is that they exterminate objective news agencies and put in place media that carries their version of truth and that only without criticism of their regime.

False prophets in the form of media outlets that spew propaganda and disinformation are on the rise across the world. Even our own Christian tradition has become part of the machine of propaganda and disinformation. But how can we discern which is true prophecy and which is false prophecy? They often look the same, they appear to be “news” or at least some form of objective commentary. So how can we possibly know?

Well actually it’s easier than you might think! Prophecy shows us a path to love, to mercy, to justice. False prophecy stirs fear, anger, and hate within us. Propaganda that promotes a particular point of view from a particular political perspective demonizes the other, paints all of the “other” with the same brush, makes no allowances for personal differences, and stirs contempt if not hatred of anyone who does not follow their view.

Our first reading today sums it up very well I think, “It seems to me that those who claim to be 'true' and 'bible believing' Christians and yet spend all their time and energy spreading unhappiness and hatred for others - and are themselves consumed by [hatred of others] - are by the very definition of the term - false prophets.” Could it be this simple?

Our gospel reading features Jesus teaching, “Watch out for false prophets… By their fruit you will recognize them… every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit… Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” If the result of an action called for by a prophecy promotes justice, mercy, healing, and love, then that is a true prophecy. But if a prophecy only points to division, violence, and hate, that is a false prophecy. Be especially aware of any point of view that suggests people resort to violence. Even if that kernel of truth in the lie is appealing, the call to violence is a dead giveaway.

Living in our media driven world is hard. Discerning the will of God is hard work. And part of our duty as people of faith is to sort the so-called prophecy, the “news” and decide what is true and what is false. Understand that well-meaning people will often fall victim to false prophets but their words are still poison. Remember that in every great lie is a kernel of truth. And know deep within your heart the you will know false prophets by the fruit that their words produce.

The teachings of the humble rabbi from Galilee can always be our guide. When Simon Peter, the most dependable disciple of Jesus cut off the ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest him in the garden where we was praying, Jesus did not yell, “Get ‘em boys!” He picked up the ear and reattached it to the soldier, healing him completely. The message from Jesus was clear, it was merciful, it promoted non-violence.

We are all battered by propaganda and misinformation daily. It is our job, our duty as people of faith to discern the prophets from the false prophets. As Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.”

Let us pray, Holy One give us hearts and minds that seek justice and long to do mercy. Keep us humble by reminding us to interrogate our own motives constantly. Help us understand that unless we hear your message of love for humanity and all creation we cannot regard those words as prophecy. Help us learn to love even the false prophets as we point to their error. In your many names we pray, Amen.

For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link bel0w:

Download SL20211114