I’ve admired the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the very first time I heard of him. He undeniably understood that being Christian is about much more than what we believe; it’s about how we live. As we’re reminded in the Letter of James, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”[1] Dr. King was unquestionably a “doer of the word.”

The website americanflags.com says:

Martin Luther King Jr. faced constant backlash for his views on equality, often from white people who had no problem meeting his nonviolence with violence. He was imprisoned many times, being forced from his wife, Coretta Scott King, and their children. During his time in jail, King did not sit idly; he used it to continue his work, even penning the infamous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which highlighted his dedication to the cause.[2]

Let’s see… a man of faith, locked up for living out his faith, writing a letter from prison. Sound familiar?

The year I was born, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights activists of the time formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is still in existence 66 years later. I wasn’t able to access their website but the Facebook page of the SCLC of Southern California says, “SCLC’s focus is to ensure economic justice, & civil rights & to eradicate racism wherever it exists.”[3] That certainly sounds consistent with the gospel to me!

In 1964 Dr. King, at age 35, became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,[4] and rightly so as the Civil Rights Act was passed by the United States Congress the same year and might never have happened without the efforts of Dr. King and others. Among other things, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination, calls for the integration of schools, and makes it illegal to discriminate in employment. (I was too young to recognize the significance at the time, but I remember my small elementary school in East Tennessee being integrated in 1964, the year I started second grade.)

Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t just an activist; he was a gifted preacher and writer. I copied the following list of books from the website for the King Center, in case you would like to read them for yourself:[5]

·       Strength to Love. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963. This is a collection of Dr. King’s most requested sermons.

·       Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1958. Dr. King’s first book; the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the beginning of the Nonviolent Civil Rights Movement.

·       The Trumpet of Conscience. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1968. (Foreword by Coretta Scott King.) This book is taken from the 1967 Massey Lectures which King gave through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. King addresses issues including the Vietnam War, youth and civil disobedience and concludes with the “Christmas Sermon for Peace.”

·       Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1967. An assessment of America’s priorities and a warning that they need to be re-ordered.

·       Why We Can’t Wait. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963. The essential writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., James M. Washington, ed.

We can only wonder what the impact might have been had Martin Luther King, Jr. not been shot and killed at the age of 39[6] which, interestingly, puts him at right around the same age it’s speculated that Jesus was when he was crucified.  I’m sure that our Lord and Savior was waiting with open arms to welcome him.

Pastor Mary Jo

[1] James 1:22, New Revised Standard Version.

[2] “Happy MLK Day: Top 7 Martin Luther King Jr. Accomplishments” at https://www.americanflags.com/blog/post/martin-luther-king-jr-accomplishments

[3] “Intro” https://www.facebook.com/sclcsocal/

[4] Since then, several younger people have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Mairead Corrigan, 32 (1976), Betty Williams, 33 (1976), Rigoberta Menchú Tum, 32 (1991), Tawakkol Karman, 32 (2011), and Malala Yousafzai, 17 (2014).  SOURCE: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-laureates-by-age/

[5] “Books by Martin Luther King, Jr.” at thekingcenter.org. https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/books-bibliography/

[6] Dr. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

This month, most of us have or will have decorated Christmas trees with gifts wrapped in brightly colored paper and ribbons underneath. Personally, I enjoy buying gifts for my loved ones almost as much as I enjoy unwrapping the gifts they give me. But the best Christmas gift ever, without a doubt, wasn’t wrapped in colored paper; he was wrapped in a blanket, or swaddling cloth. Yes, I’m talking about Jesus!

I hope we all enjoy the music and lights and decorations, the parades and the parties. In the Letter of James we’re told, “Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all.”[1] Obviously, James wasn’t writing about the things I listed, but I’m confident that God smiles on us when he sees us celebrating the Son’s birth in those ways, too.

Remember, though, that Christmas isn’t a secular holiday like New Year’s Day or Independence Day. It’s much more than that. It’s a celebration of the birth of our Savior, the one who continues to teach us what it means to be faithful to God and who gave his life for us. When Jesus said, “No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends,”[2] I’m confident he knew that he was going to do exactly that. Still, I’m not suggesting that you focus on the crucifixion at this time of year, only that you remember it, as we do each week when we gather at the Lord’s Table. After all, Christmas is a joyous time of year!

Even with my notoriously poor memory, I still remember a few lines from a song we sang in a children’s program at Calvary Baptist Church in Alcoa, Tennessee when I was no more than seven years old:

Sleep, baby, sleep! Thy father tends the sheep,

Thy mother shakes the dreamland tree,

And from it fall sweet dreams for thee;

Sleep, baby sleep.[3]

I honestly don’t know who I would be if God hadn’t presented me with that priceless gift almost two thousand years before I was even born. I am grateful for all that I learned and continue to learn from the man that sweet baby would grow to be.

Have a merry and blessed Christmas!

Pastor Mary Jo

[1] James 1:17, Common English Bible.

[2] John 15:13, Common English Bible.

[3] Ferd F. Buermeyer, “Sleep, Baby, Sleep.”

November is a busy month. The time changes,[1] we honor our veterans, we celebrate Thanksgiving, and many of us decorate for Christmas and start our shopping. Students may be “cramming” for finals. We could easily become overwhelmed, but the truth is, we don’t go through any of it alone.

Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s Gospel were, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[2] Not only that, but in John’s Gospel, referring to the Holy Spirit, Jesus told the disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”[3] There are reminders in the Hebrew Bible as well that God, the Creator of the universe, is with us; Isaiah 41:10 is just one example:

Do not fear, for I am with you;

      do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you; I will help you;

      I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.[4]

Other than cramming for finals, the situations I mentioned in the first paragraph are fairly easy to handle, but life frequently throws things at us that aren’t so easy to handle – illness, financial struggles, interpersonal conflicts, the death of a loved one, and more. But let me remind you again, we don’t go through any of it alone.

I was diagnosed with cancer in December 2021. It was something of a surprise, but for some reason God has seen me through it to this point with relatively little suffering. Why? Not because I’m so special, but because God has a plan for me. I don’t have to know what that plan is; I only have to trust. Maybe tomorrow, or next week, or next year, my overall health will deteriorate, and I may find it hard to trust, or I may be quite literally calling out to God to deliver me. It’s o.k., because even that I won’t go through alone.

I doubt that there’s a city in the entire nation that doesn’t have people living on the streets; that’s certainly our reality here in Lompoc.[5] Sadly, it isn’t unusual for other people to assume that unhoused people are in that situation because of drug or alcohol abuse, or mental illness. The reality is that many of them are homeless because they lost their jobs and don’t have anyone to turn to.  Homelessness can be a sad downward spiral. Using myself as an example yet again, even if Charlie and I found ourselves with insufficient income to provide housing – especially since we would need a place that would allow two dogs – we still wouldn’t be living on the streets, because we have children who would take us in, and family members or friends who would probably do the same if we were that desperate. It would be humbling, but we wouldn’t go through it alone.

Mentioning that family and friends who would undoubtedly help us out is actually a nice transition to where I’m headed with all of this. If we didn’t have a good relationship with our families and we didn’t have close friends, the thought of being homeless would be frightening. Relationships take work. We have to put in the time. We have to listen. We have to be there for one another. In many ways, all of that is true of our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ.

Having a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ is no guarantee that life will be easy. Illness still happens, finances become tight, and yes – we lose loved ones, sometimes to death and sometimes to broken relationships. And it hurts. But it’s comforting to know that there’s someone we can turn to, someone who loves us and is more than ready to listen and to offer comfort. How much better, though, when we already have a strong relationship with that someone. In my experience, we can make it through the tough times a lot easier when we’ve already taken the time to build a relationship God and with Jesus Christ. They’ll always be there for us, but we may not recognize it unless we’ve taken the time to get to know them, to listen, and yes - to give back by being there for others.

Pastor Mary Jo

[1] Be sure to “fall back” on November 5!

[2] Matthew 28:20b, New Revised Standard Version.

[3] John 14:16, New Revised Standard Version.

[4] Isaiah 41:10, New Revised Standard Version.

[5] I sometimes invite those people to church but, so far, none of them have shown up. Maybe it’s because they’re embarrassed that they can’t shower or wash their clothes, or maybe it’s because they don’t have a safe place to leave their few belongings.

I haven’t had a lot of energy recently and most of this month’s article is a reprint of an article from a blog I used to write, Following Christ on the Streets.[1]  Appropriately, though, the topic meshes well with the book study we’re doing at Dinner Church, Let it Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven[2] by Bishop T. D. Jakes.

Following Christ is the best kind of life I can imagine. Seriously.  Sometimes, though, it would be so easy to turn around, walk away, pick a different path… because Jesus asks a lot. He asks us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.[3] He asks us to forgive those who sin against us seventy times seven times,[4] and that doesn’t mean to keep a tally; it means to forgive them every time – EVERY time. It isn’t easy.

In reality, forgiveness is like a muscle that needs to be exercised, forgiving the same offense over and over again until it no longer haunts us. Bishop Jakes, in Chapter 2 of his book, says, “If we allow our reactions to reflect our pettiness and shortsightedness, then we miss the larger opportunity to move forward and effectively grown into new and greater responsibilities.”[5]

Sometimes my readings from the Hebrew Bible in particular make me feel a little uncomfortable. An example of that would be the vengeful Psalms. Here are two illustrations:

O Lord, you God of vengeance,
    you God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    give to the proud what they deserve![6]

For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
    let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter,
     consume them in wrath;
    consume them until they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
    that God rules over Jacob.[7]

Sorry, but those aren’t the prayers Jesus meant for us to pray for those who persecute us![8]

It's o.k. to “vent” – one of the lessons I believe can be learned from the vengeful Psalms –  but it’s important to be careful that’s all I’m doing. I can wander away for a little while, but like a toddler on a harness, God isn’t going to let me wander too far. Eventually, I can’t help but turn back to God and allow myself to forgive, to be soothed and comforted and, definitely, focus on praying for the person who has wronged me or someone I love.

I’ve shared in one of my sermons that God has made it possible for me to not only forgive someone who wronged me, but to come to a place were I can honestly say I love and pray for that person. Granted, it may have been easier to allow God to pull me back because I was feeling more hurt and betrayed and outraged than angry; my desire for revenge didn’t go all that deep. I have no doubt, though, that God keeps me on a pretty short leash. I’m not allowed to forget my own sins so easily, and I believe we’re all damaged in some way and for the most part are doing our best. Nobody really wants to be a bad guy, any more than I really want to walk away from following Christ.

Sometimes it feel like it would be easier to turn around, break the bonds that tie me to an ethic and a moral code that require me to do the right thing, always. The truth is that being Christian is the greatest constant in my life. Although, like a spoiled child, I sometimes have fits of rage or selfishness, at my core I want to please my Heavenly Parent in everything I do. I’ll keep on following Christ and pray for mercy and grace, even for those who have wronged me.

Pastor Mary Jo

[1] Mary Jo Bradshaw, “Musings: Sometimes I Want to Turn Around,” at followingchristonthestreets.com, September 9, 2016.

[2] Jakes, T. D. Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven. 1st ed. New York: Atria Books, 2012

[3] Luke 6:27.

[4] Matthew 18:22

[5] Jakes, 41.

[6] Psalm 94:1-2, New Revised Standard Version.

[7] Psalm 59:12-13, New Revised Standard Version.

[8] Matthew 5:44.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,
I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,
For I'm part of the family,
The Family of God.

You will notice we say "brother and sister" 'round here,
It's because we're a family and these folks are so near;
When one has a heartache, we all share the tears,
And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.[1]

I was thinking about my family and that song came to mind. For me, family has always been about much more than blood.

My oldest brother, although he carries our dad’s last name, was actually born to Daddy’s first wife, Mary – I was named for her and Daddy! – and a man she had known before their marriage.  Biologically, Robert isn’t my brother, but try telling me he isn’t my brother and see how quickly I get annoyed!

I joke that I married Charlie “to get the kid.”  Matt was three when I first saw him and turned four just about 3-1/2 weeks after we were married. Matt had two moms – Pat, Charlie’s first wife and the woman who gave birth to him, and me, the mom who (mostly) raised him. He’s my son, and always will be. I love that boy (… even if he isn’t technically a boy anymore but a grown man.)

Both Jennifer and Marie Michelle, or Mimi, were both young adults when I “adopted” them. With Jennifer, it started as a joke when we were in the gift shop of a museum with my grandson Richie, who was a small child at the time, and the clerk said, “Let me guess – three generations?” Jennifer was insulted on my behalf because biologically she’s too old for me to have birthed her, but I thought it was funny. When Marie Michelle, who had been living in France prior to coming to the US, was going to bring her firstborn daughter here, she asked if I would be Emmanuelle’s grandmother; I said “yes” but then extended it to being Mimi’s mother, making her a “PK” – “Preacher’s Kid” – on two continents, Africa and America! Jennifer has blessed me with two granddaughters and Mimi with three. Those are my girls, just like Sara and Amanda are my girls.

For four years, just prior to being called to pastor First Christian Church in Lompoc, I worked as a “Youth Employment Specialist” for the City of Los Angeles’ Economic and Workforce Development Department. I was informally known as the “department grandma” because the other Youth Employment Specialists were that much younger than me!  Lorena was one of the young people I worked with for four years, a caring, hardworking, beautiful spirit and a single mom. I didn’t ask permission before declaring myself her abuela, or grandmother. I love that girl every bit as much as I love the grandchildren that share my DNA.

And then there’s Asiel, my oldest great grandson. Some of you may remember him from when he visited about two years ago.  Our oldest grandson married his mother when Asiel was just a little guy, and now he’s 14 and a high school freshman. (I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around that one!)  I don’t care what anybody says. He’s my great grandson, and always will be.

So what does any of that have to do with the song lyrics I shared? Officially, nothing; but as the Church – and by that I mean “the Church Universal” and not just the local church – we are family. We have one Father, YHWH God, and an amazing older brother, Jesus the Christ. We may have moments when we’re in conflict and even angry with one another, but we’re expected to love one another.

Here at First Christian, I’ve found it easy to love my brothers and sisters. And I feel a bond with total strangers I encounter here and there who are Christian, even when our theology may be world apart. Remember, reading the letters we find in our Christian Bible is a good reminder that we’ve never agreed on everything! But because we’re family, we’re here for each other. That’s a priceless gift.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God!

Pastor Mary Jo  

[1] Bill and Gloria Gaither, “The Family of God,” © 1970, William J. Gaither, Inc.

General Assembly ended today, August 1, and it has been a wonderful experience, although I admit to being a little bit homesick! Worship, the workshops, even the business sessions have been valuable, but I admit to a case of information overload. It probably goes without saying that one of the greatest blessings has been the “family reunion” aspect; I’ve seen seminary colleagues, former congregants, people I’ve served with on committees here in the Pacific Southwest Region, people I admire, and more. I want to share just a taste of the experience with you.

Many of you know that my favorite Bible verse is Micah 6:8: 

God has told you, O mortal, what is good,
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
    and to walk humbly with your God?

From my point of view, that one verse from the Hebrew Bible sums up what our focus as Christians is meant to be – “Do what is fair and just to your  neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.”[1] A lot of the conversations, preaching, and presentations at the General Assembly have touched on these very points.

GA-2338, “Concerning Food Waste, Food Insecurity, and Environmental Justice” includes the following, which touches on both justice and kindness:

… the General Assembly urges all Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations, organizations, ministries, and institutions to take seriously our responsibility to care for all Creation and “the least of these” by advocating for public policies and/or personal actions that create just, healthy, and sustainable life on Earth…

GA-2339, “Compelled to Witness: Answering the Cry of our Palestinian Siblings is very much about justice and kindness and says:

the Bible’s narrative—beginning with creation and extending through the calling of the Israelites, the prophets’ witness, the ministry of Jesus, the witness of the apostles, and Revelation’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth and the Tree of Life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations—speaks of God’s blessing extending to “all the families of the earth (Genesis 12.3)”

A Resolution close to my heart because I have transgender friends, and which passed unanimously, is GA-2352, “Invitation to Oppose Anti-Trans Legislation and Affirm the Dignity of Transgender and Gender-Diverse People” says, “scripture affirms the human dignity of all people….”

As for humility… it would have been impossible for me to return from this General Assembly, or any of the GA’s that I’ve attended, without feeling humble. The musicians and singers, the presenters, the workshop leaders and, of course, our General Minister and President, the Rev. Terri Hord Owens, were all phenomenal. The entire event made me humble – not proud! – to be a Disciple!

I also thank God for the blessing of running into so many friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen in years. I only wish I had taken more photos!

Pastor Mary Jo

[1] Micah 6:8b, the Message Bible.

Earlier this year the Board voted to begin the process of becoming Open and Affirming, in other words, to officially become a church where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and non-binary persons (LGBTQ) are fully included in the church's life and ministry, a decision that will require a congregational vote. With that in mind, today’s article and the Wednesday Update articles for the next several weeks will address different aspects of what it means to be Christian and LGBTQ.

I want to begin by sharing my own journey to becoming an “ally” of the LGBTQ community.

Although I didn’t make the decision to be baptized until I was eleven, I’ve considered myself Christian for as long as I can remember. For the first 7-1/2 years of my life I was attending Sunday School and worshipping in a very conservative Southern Baptist environment. At that age, of course, sex and gender were not part of the conversation, but I was introduced to John 3:16 (For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – King James Version) and the idea that “God is love” (from 1 John 4:16.) I also had a mother who expected me to treat everyone with respect. The Church and my mother laid the foundation.

As early as fourth grade, when I was already active in a United Methodist Church and had no idea that homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism even existed, I had a gay classmate. I’m not sure even he realized yet that he was attracted to boys rather than girls, and he didn’t “come out” to me until I ran into him roughly thirty years later. (By then I was already an ally.)  At least two of my friends from Junior High School were also gay. All three were likable, friendly boys; two were in the “advanced” classes. I gave the whole issue very little thought throughout my teen years and just treated people the way I would have wanted to be treated, an important lesson I learned from Jesus.[1] 

When I was nineteen and a new mom I met the Assistant Nursery Attendant at the church I had attended since Junior High and where Charlie and I had been married, a now closed congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.) When she told me that she was lesbian I essentially fell back again on “the Golden Rule” and told myself that even though – as I had been taught – homosexuality was a sin, God loved her anyway. As we became closer, though, I questioned that and prayed for God to help me understand the “right” attitude I should have as a Christian. The answer? To paraphrase … love is love; and if God didn’t have a problem with same-sex relationships, neither did I.

At some point I became a member of a committee under the umbrella of the South Coast Interfaith Council, the Committee to Promote Understanding of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People. (Isn’t that a mouthful!) The Chair of the committee was a pastor in the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church,[2] the Rev. Duane Moret, himself a gay man.

Even though, at the time, I thought I had missed the boat on going into ordained ministry, I believed God wanted me to be a sort of “evangelist to the gay community.” So when my church, located in the city with the second-highest LGBTQ population in California (behind San Francisco) and essentially equidistant between a gay bar and a lesbian bar started a small group ministry, I met with the pastor and told him I wanted to start a small group and open it up to our gay neighbors. He didn’t understand why I would want to start a small group for LGBTQ people when I myself didn’t fit into one of those categories. The thing is, I didn’t want it to be an exclusively gay group; I wanted it to be an inclusive group. In a way, it was as if I was speaking a foreign language. When he wasn’t on board with the idea I asked, “Where does that leave me?” His reply was, “Maybe you need to find another church.” I realized he was right. ( I want to be clear: he was a very good man, and what he said to me was not intended to be cruel; he was being honest, and I appreciated it.)

The conversation with my pastor took place as Pastor Duane was starting an independent church that met in a home on Saturday evenings, Holy Spirit Fellowship. Even though I expected to join North Long Beach Christian Church, where the Rev. Gary Shoemaker was pastor, it seemed like a good opportunity to visit other churches on Sunday mornings before settling in at NLBCC; I decided to worship with Holy Spirit Fellowship for the sake of consistency.[3]

I suppose Holy Spirit Fellowship – HSF for short – would have been considered a Pentecostal church. Depending on their gifts, people prophesied, spoke in tongues, and laid hands on people to pray for healing. One evening, shortly after leaving the church where I had been an active member for probably thirty years, I thought… “What if I’m wrong? What if I left my church because I support LGBTQ people and it really is a sin?”  I was in a definite spiritual crisis, so I went forward for prayer. And God spoke to me. “You keep asking the same question, and you keep getting the same answer.”  I never questioned again.

There aren’t words to tell you how blessed I have been over the years by my gay, lesbian, and transgender friends, many of whom are some of my dearest and best. Charlie and I were active at Holy Spirit Fellowship until it closed, attending yearly retreats and volunteering at the Long Beach Pride Festival. I’ve officiated same sex weddings. I’ve spoken at gay funerals. I’ve informally adopted a lesbian daughter. I’ve vacationed and gone camping with lesbian and transgender friends. I’ll be rooming at the General Assembly with two transgender friends, one male-to-female and one female-to-male, both of whom consider themselves non-binary, meaning they aren’t male or female but a little bit of both.

Yes, I’m an ally, not only during Pride Month (June) but every day of my life. It’s who God has called me to be.

PASTOR MARY JO

[1] Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.

[2] As stated on their website, “Metropolitan Community Churches … are an international collection of churches and faith communities that was founded in 1968 in the United States by a brave out gay Christian pastor named Rev. Troy Perry.” https://visitmccchurch.com/who-is-metropolitan-community-churches-mcc-and-what-do-you-believe/?utm_source=eng&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=website&utm_term=what-believe-english

[3] Holy Spirit Fellowship moved to North Long Beach Christian Church when it outgrew the home where it had been meeting, and continued to meet there until it closed.

 I had what I call a “Senior Moment” on Pentecost, May 28, and skipped over an important part of the message. That may have actually been a good thing since more people will read this article than were in church that day.

John 20:19-23
New Revised Standard Version

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Of course, it’s clear from the passage that was read today that the gift of the Holy Spirit is more than a gift; it’s also an obligation. Think of it as a commission.

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That’s a big responsibility. We pray every week, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”  Some translations say, “Forgive us our sins.”[1] But do we mean it? I hope so!

If we’re honest with ourselves, forgiveness doesn’t always come easy, even if the offending party apologizes. It can be even more difficult if there is no apology.

Conveniently, I recently discovered a book by Bishop T. D. Jakes, titled Let it Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven.[2]  I admit I haven’t gotten very far in the book – chapter 1, I think – but what he seems to be saying is that we need to forgive for our own emotional health. In one of my favorite passages so far, Bishop Jakes describes unforgiveness as a kind of cancer, writing, “Our inability or unwillingness to forgive past offenses often festers and metastasizes within us, quietly growing into a blockage that impedes every area of our lives.”

That’s the end of the section that was left out of the sermon, but I have more to say on this topic…

T. D. Jakes’ point is nothing new. I’ve heard it said for a long time that holding a grudge against someone doesn’t hurt them; it only hurts the one holding the grudge. While it would be nice if we always forgave out of pure motives – because it’s what Jesus asks of us – I believe forgiveness is important enough that the reason for it doesn’t really matter.

Here are two more quotes from Bishop Jakes:

When angry, bruised women from South Africa screamed in outrage because of the atrocities they had been exposed to under apartheid, Nelson Mandela and members of the African National Congress (ANC) knew that a small idea like revenge would destroy the far larger idea of national healing and survivial for their country.[3]

When Dr. King resisted the lure of his own anger and submitted to the larger idea of a nonviolent movement that was led and filled with justifiably angry people, he preserved the future and changed our world.[4]

I can’t argue with either point; those “large ideas” were healthy and healing. At the same time, I also want to be very clear that it isn’t always wise to “forgive and forget.” This is only one example, but in the case of someone who was the victim of domestic abuse, forgiveness can be healing but forgetting can be dangerous.

Forgiveness. God demonstrates it. God demands it.

PASTOR MARY JO

[1] E.g., Luke 11:4a, Common English Bible.

[2] T. D. Jakes, Let it go: forgive so you can be forgiven, New York: Atria Books, 2012

[3] Jakes. Kindle Version. Location 253.

[4] Jakes. Kindle Version. Location 260.

Entire books have been written about the Holy Spirit so, obviously, I don’t have the space to go into great detail in this article, even though it’s much longer than usual; still, with Pentecost occuring this year on May 28, I want to point out a few things about both the holy day and the topic of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is a Greek word meaning “fifty days” that was originally used to refer to the Jewish holiday called Shavuot. Appropriately, although Shavuot was originally a harvest festival, it came to commemorate the giving of the Law, or Ten Commandments, to Moses; Pentecost, for Christians, commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Believers. The following is from the Jewish website Aleph Beta:

The Bible describes the Shavuot holiday as an agricultural celebration: the festival of Reaping (Jeremiah 5:24, Deuteronomy 16:9–11, Isaiah 9:2). Today, Shavuot is most widely known as the Jewish holiday that commemorates the day God gave the Torah to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, although Biblical references to Shavuot refer only to a spring harvest festival.

According to the Torah, it took seven weeks for the Israelites to travel from Egypt to Mount Sinai. The name Shavuot, meaning “weeks,” refers to this seven-week period. Each day is counted, which is known as the Counting of the Omer, or Sefirat HaOmer. In the days of the Temple, the counting marked the seven weeks from the wheat harvest on the spring festival of Passover, to the harvesting of barley on Shavuot.[1]

For Christians, of course, Pentecost is recognized as the day the Believers were given the Holy Spirit, specifically as described in the story in Acts 2:1-21, where “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”[2]

You may also remember the story in John 20 where Jesus appeared to the gathered disciples after his resurrection and “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”[3]  

What you may or may not realize is that those are not the only accounts of the giving of the Holy Spirit.

The first example of people being gifted with the Holy Spirit is found in the Hebrew Bible, where Bezalel is gifed with the Holy Spirit, enabling him to oversee the building of the Tabernacle, the precursor to the Temple. Exodus 31:1-5 says:

The Lord spoke to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with a divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge, and every kind of skill, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every kind of craft.[4]

Another example from the Hebrew Bible is the story of the seventy elders, found in Numbers 11:

So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their place there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.[5]

There are also multiple accounts of judges and prophets being given the Holy Spirit.[6]

A lesser-known account in Christian scripture of God pouring out the Holy Spirit can be found in Acts 10. While Peter was preaching to a crowd of Gentiles, people considered “unclean” by many devout Jews of his time, “the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word”[7] and “they[8] heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.”[9]

Of course, God doesn’t give us the Holy Spirit entirely for our own benefit. In 1 Corinthians 12:7 Paul writes, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”[10] That’s right – for the common good.  Just as we’re expected to use our material resources – our money, for example – to help out our needy sisters and brothers, we’re expected to use our spiritual resources to encourage one another and to build up the Body of Christ, the Church:

He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.[11]

The five roles listed in Ephesians 4 aren’t the full list. Here are some other spiritual gifts, although not all, and where you can find them listed in the Bible:

Romans 12

·       Prophecy

·       Ministry

·       Teaching

·       Encouragement

·       Giving

·       Leadership

·       Mercy, or compassion

1 Corinthians 12

·       Wisdom

·       Knowledge

·       Faith

·       Healing

·       Performance of miracles

·       Prophecy

·       Discernment of spirits

·       Tongues

·       Interpretation of tongues

As we look forward to celebrating Pentecost, I hope you’ll prayerfully consider what gifts God has give you, and how you can best use those gifts for the good of your church and your community.

PASTOR MARY JO

[1] “Shavuot: What Is Shavuot, When Is Shavuot, Shavuot Meaning & Importance” at alephbeta.org. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.alephbeta.org/shavuot/what-is-shavuot

[2] Acts 2:4, New Revised Standard Version.

[3] John 20:22b, New Revised Standard Version.

[4] Exodus 21:1-5, New Revised Standard Version. Also see Exodus 35:30-35.

[5] Numbers 11:16-17, New Revised Standard Version.

[6] Judges 3:10, Judges 6:34, 2 Chronicles 15:1, Joel 2:28-29, etc.

[7] Acts 10:44b, New Revised Standard Version.

[8] “The circumcised believers,” Acts 10:45.

[9] Acts 10:46, New Revised Standard Version.

[10] 1 Corinthians 12:7, New Revised Standard Version.

[11] Ephesians 4:11, New Revised Standard Version.

I don’t think there’s any question that Easter, the day we remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the most important day in the Christian year. The resurrection isn’t only the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry; it is also a very real reminder to all of us that “… God so loved the world that He gave His only son….”[1]

I imagine Mary Magdalene “and the other Mary” – maybe Lazarus’ sister – going out early in the morning, the sun just a glow in the sky and dew still on the grass, to lovingly tend to the body of their Lord, their hearts heavy and their eyes still red from crying. I think of people I’ve lost who were important to me, and how it hurt, and try to imagine that pain multiplied… because this was Jesus!

But he wasn’t dead – not any longer! He lived, and died, and lived again so that we might live. What a gift!

I love the song made popular by Sandi Patty, “Was it a Morning Like this?” Some of the words are:

Did the grass sing?
Did the earth rejoice to feel You again?

Over and over like a trumpet underground
Did the earth seem to pound "He is risen!"
Over and over in a never-ending round
"He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!"[2]

 I don’t know how the Easter Bunny became associated with Easter. Maybe because Easter is about rebirth and rabbits are know for their high reproductive rate? Easter eggs, though … they symbolize the empty tomb.  I hope we all remember that the tomb was empty when the two Marys showed up, a sign for all the world that Jesus died for us and our faith guarantees that we, too, both have and will rise to new life.

Alleluia!

PASTOR MARY JO

[1] John 3:16a, New Revised Standard Version

[2] Jim Croegaert, Was It a Morning Like This lyrics © Meadowgreen Music Co., Heart Of The Matter Music. 1996.

Lent can be a somber time of year, and understandably so. We know that Good Friday is coming, and with it the reminder of the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior; but more important and more power than the crucifixion is the resurrection. There is much more to this season of the Church year than suffering and sacrifice.

The tradition of spending forty days in prayer, penance, and abstinence is believed to have started around the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, a council of Christian Bishops called together and led by the Emperor Constantine I. The tradition is usually, and appropriately, linked to the forty days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert in preparation for his ministry,2 and in many Christian communities fasting is still an important part of Lent. But fasting isn’t really a discipline that’s practiced in all Christian circles. (Fasting was never a part of my religious upbriging but in high school I tried to emulate some of my classmates. As a vegetarian, giving up meat would clearly have been meaningless for me, but so I gave up chocolate. Now that was a sacrifice!)

Lent can and should be a positive experience for those of us who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. You may have noticed that the prayer focus for each Wednesday of Lent, according to our Lenten Prayer Calendar, is “to grow closer to God.” Ideally, that’s something I hope we aim to do every day of our lives, but the truth is we get busy and we get distracted. Lent is a good time to renew our focus on our spiritual growth. As it says on the website Christianity.com, “Lent season is an opportunity to grow closer to God, to remember Jesus' life and death, and to focus more on him and less on ourselves and our busy schedules.”

I have a few suggestions, and you may well have ideas of your own.

1. Commit to reading your Bible, especially the Gospels, since Lent is about the life of Jesus.

2. Set aside a little time each day for prayer and meditation, possibly using the Lenten Prayer Calendar as a guide.

3. Use these forty days as a time to work on giving up bad habits or cutting down on activities that distract you from your spiritual life.

4. Look for new ways to help others, perhaps buying a meal for someone who is struggling or setting aside a little extra money for a worthwhile charity. (Here at First Christian, we’re collecting for the North County Rape Crisis & Child Protection Center and the special Easter Offering which goes to college students in leadership development programs, global mission partners, health and social service ministries, the formation of new congregations, support for pastors and chaplains, and other ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

5. Give a little extra time to volunteering, whether it’s time you put in to help out at the church or for some other local cause.

6. Select one person you know or have heard of who has committed a crime or done something cruel but not necessarily unlawful and say an extra prayer for that person each day from now until Easter. Who knows – you may feel moved to continue praying for that person indefinitely.

Jesus’ entire ministry was devoted to helping others and to bringing God’s earthly kingdom into being. His physical ministry ended with his crucifixion, but the work goes on. God relies on God’s people to continue that work, and Lent is a good time to remember.

PASTOR MARY JO

February is Black History Month and, as Co-Chair of the Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Committee here in the Pacific Southwest Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), I feel duty-bound to address, at least briefly, our country’s history of racism toward our Black sisters and brothers. I won’t pretend to be a historian, so please be patient with me! It’s also a lot to cover so I will be continuing this subject in at least one or two of my Wednesday Updates in February.

First of all, let’s go back – way back – to the Book of Genesis: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them.”[1] And now fast-forward to Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, written around 55-57 of the Common Era, where he writes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[2] In between those verses are numerous stories of conflict between various groups, but none of those conflicts had anything to do with race or skin color; in fact, I learned as a Cultural Anthropology major in college  that the term “race” as it is currently understood has only existed since the 19th century CE. As for Bible verses that not only seem to support slavery but actually do support it, we need to remember that (1) the slavery described in the Bible was not race-based; and (2) it wasn’t as brutal as the slavery practiced in this country up until 1863.

Before I zero in on racism against Black or African American people, I want to acknowledge that they are hardly the only ethnic group that has experienced racism in the United States, or that still does experience racism. The Indigenous people who lived on this continent long before the Europeans arrived, Latinos, Asians… anyone in the United States who doesn’t present as White has probably experienced racism.

Fitchburg State University in Massachussetts has a very helpful website of anti-racism resources that covers some of our sad history.[3] Much of the information in this article is from that site, which includes a timeline indicating that “American Chattle Slavery” existed for 246 years, from 1619 to 1865; segregation was legal for 89 years after passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, from 1865 to 1964; and after passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 racism can still be seen in the disproportionate representation of People of Color in our prisons.

Slavery in the United States was an ugly, dehumanizing, and shameful episode in our nation’s history. Wikipedia reports:

The treatment of slaves in the United States often included sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like whippings. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of each other again.[4]

As early as the late 1700s there was a network of people who offered sanctuary to enslaved people in the South, allowing them to escape to freedom in the northern states. This came to be known as the “Underground Railroad.” According to the website history.com:

Most of the enslaved people helped by the Underground Railroad escaped border states such as Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland. In the deep South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made capturing escaped enslaved people a lucrative business, and there were fewer hiding places for them. Fugitive enslaved people were typically on their own until they got to certain points farther north.[5]

Although the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 is generally believed to have ended the enslavement of Black People in the United States, I was shocked to learn that it was much more complicated than I thought. The Emancipation Proclamation was a war-time declaration that didn’t actually apply to the border states that had remained in the Union (as opposed to the Confederate States.)

The 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865 and says, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” That was a step in the right direction but, unfortunately, it didn’t go far enough.

[1] Genesis 1:27, New Revised Standard Version.

[2] Galatians 3:28, New Revised Standard Version.

[3] “Anti-Racism Resources” at fitchburgstate.libguides.com,

[4] Rosenwald, Mark (December 20, 2019). "Last Seen Ads". Washington Post. Retropod. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019. Reprinted at Wikipedia.com, “Treatment of slaves in the United States”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatment_of_slaves_in_the_United_States#cite_note-1

[5] “Underground Railroad” at history.com, October 29, 2009; updated January 26, 2023. Accessed February 1, 2023. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad

A coworker with the City of Los Angeles once asked me, “How long have you been a Christian?” I answered, "I think I was born this way." I wasn’t trying to be flippant, nor was it a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Lady Gaga song – a song I’ve never actually heard. I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't consider myself Christian!

Even though I don't remember my parents or my siblings being big churchgoers when I was a child, at least after we moved to California, I suspect that Christianity is in my DNA. My paternal grandfather, Athel Daugherty, was a lay leader in what Daddy described as "a little country church." Daddy's best friend in Tennessee, Elmer Seals, was a Baptist preacher.  My mother's family were Baptist, although she was Presbyterian. 

These are some of my early memories: walking to church after a rain and being horrified when I dropped my white King James Bible, a gift from my uncle and aunt for my third birthday - zippered closed, fortunately! - into the gutter; fantasizing about teaching all the dogs to speak English so I could tell them about Jesus, and then take them on a spaceship to a distant planet where they could live happily as good, Christian dogs. (This latter story, I realized several years ago, represents my first "call to ministry!") I remember putting my pennies in the offering plate in Sunday School and memorizing scriptures for the Sunday School pageant and Christmas program. I remember singing in the Children’s Choir at Grace United Methodist Church in Long Beach.

And speaking of Grace UMC, I think I had been in California for about a year when I realized it was almost Easter and I needed to find a church. (Ironically, the classmate I counted on to point me in the right direction - naively assuming that everyone went to church - named a church that she herself rarely attended.) I was a Methodist, and then a United Methodist, from around age nine to age fourteen, when I wandered into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.) I still had only a vague concept of the differences between denominations; I just considered myself Christian. I have to believe the Holy Spirit guided my steps into a denomination that is determinedly non-creedal.

As a teenager, I attended at least three different Bible studies, one held in the home of a Presbyterian (PCUSA) youth pastor, one held in the quad of my high school during our lunch break, and another at my home church, East Side Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Long Beach, a church that has sadly since closed.  I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover so many times I can’t count them, although that doesn’t mean that I’m a Biblical scholar!

I have been interested in learning about non-Christian religions probably ever since I discovered that Christianity isn’t the only religion in the world. (Imagine how delighted I was to find out that our 12-year-old grandson, Jacob, who is Roman Catholic, is also interested in learning about other religions!) When I was in elementary school our youth group visited the Reformed Jewish synagogue just a short walk from Grace UMC. I visited a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses as they remembered Christ’s death, the only time of the year when they have communion, which is only actually available for eating and drinking by those who are part of the 144,000. I also attended gatherings of Nicheren Shoshu Buddhists with a high school friend.

I'm still fascinated to learn about the beliefs and practices of people who don't believe or practice their faith the way I do, and even – sometimes – to read their sacred texts. I've worshipped with Christians and Non-Christians: Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists and Bahais, and of course Muslims. I've learned a lot and respect other people’s beliefs – realistically, there were differences in theology even in the First Century Church.

I’ve never been tempted to convert to a religion other than the one that has made me who I am. Still, I am confident that the Holy seeks a way to reach each of us in whatever way is most fitting for that individual’s context, and I honor and celebrate the ways my friends respond to that call, or push, from God.

Maybe my story is the story of God preparing me for my call to pastor First Christian Church in Lompoc, a church that I knew would be a perfect fit as soon as I heard that it hosts the Islamic Center… a church that is filled with loving, caring, generous people… a church full of people who love God.  Thank you, and thank God, for the honor and the joy of being your pastor.

Pastor Mary Jo