Opening Words:  by Rev. J. Barrie Shepherd -  “Temple Cleansing”  Shepherd recently retired from the First Presbyterian Church of New York City

Such mad scrambling
            of beggars round the thresholds
                        as the shekels flew.
                                    denarii tumbled
In the dust, even the sacred temple coinage
clattered
            to the gutters from the tables of the changers
                        overturned
                        in his cold fury.
How the lame then learned to walk,
            even to chase after
                        those rolling golden coins,
            The blind picked out the secret glint of
                                    copper on the cobblestones,
            The dumb set up a howling fierce commotion
                        over who had grabbed what first!
Surely more sudden healing came about
            through that swift act of holy anger than
                        in centuries of begging for a miracle
                                                                       about those gates.
Today again the beggars
            and the changers ply their trade
                        as if miracles had never come to pass.
Healing, like anger, can prove to be a passing thing,
            while cleansing never lasts that long,
                                                            particularly in a temple.

PRAYER: One Small Face by Margaret Starkey

Out of the darkest time of the year, out of the bleakest days,’ we make a season shine with lights. With mounds of greenery, the brightest ornaments, we bring high summer to our rooms, as if to spite the somberness of winter come.  In time of want, when life is boarding up against the next uncertain spring, we celebrate and give of what we have away.  All creatures bend to rules, even the stars constrained. There is a blessed madness in the human need to go against the grain of cold and scarcity. We make a holiday, the rituals varied as the hopes of humanity. The reasons as obscure as ancient solar festivals, as clear as joy on one small face.

READING:  Jesus in Matthew 5:1-19

AND seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came up to him:
And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
 Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you                                  falsely, for my sake. 
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. But woe unto you that are rich! for you have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for you shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

SERMON:    “All We Like Sheep”  -  Rev. Alison Hyder

                        One of my tasks as minister is to give tours of the building to tourists and visitors. This is often confined to the details of the construction: the whale ivory buttons in the Honduran mahogany pew rails, the globes of Sandwich glass, the trompe l’oiel, and the lucky poverty that preserved the organ (and by the way, we will be continuing that tradition of holding winter services downstairs starting on January 8^th). But periodically I get into a conversation about our faith and the history of the church.

                        Universalism is a home-grown form of Christianity, an antidote to the judgmental, angry God widely preached in the 18^th century and still common today. But many people are surprised at the long history of Unitarian thought that goes back to the origins of Christianity itself. It is a theology that stresses Jesus’ human nature and moral teachings, his accomplishments and struggles. The early Unitarian churches in Poland and Transylvania emphasized action over dogma. Jesus’ example is more important than his identity.

                        The United States was rich soil for the Unitarian emphasis on moral responsibility and the potential of human achievement. If Jesus uplifted and ennobled humanity, then America would give it wider scope. Hundreds of parish churches throughout New England joined the Unitarian movement, which produced great social and civic leaders, like John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, Paul Revere and Thomas Paine. Thomas Jefferson once claimed  "I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience neither to kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of the only true God is reviving; and I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.”  

                        A rash hope!  But Jefferson was convinced that we would recognize Jesus as the noble ideal for the American character.  He explained, “… I am a Christian in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other." (Morse's Jefferson, American Statesmen Series, p. 304.) In a letter to William Canby, he wrote, "Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus."

                        In order to access Jesus’ teachings, Jefferson decided to compile his own version of the New Testament, paring down the text and rearranging it in order of subject, such as “Moral precepts and teaching,” parables,” “family and childhood,” and the like. Jefferson left out the stories of the miracles and tried to keep only the authentic words and actions of Jesus. He described his compilation … as "a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen." He told John Adams that he was rescuing the Philosophy of Jesus and the "pure principles which he taught," from the "artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms as instruments of riches and power for themselves." After having selected from the evangelists "the very words only of Jesus," he believed "there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." …

                        Jefferson wanted Jesus without interpretation, without all the comments and stories and backstage gossip -  in other words, Christ without Christianity. And so he devised his own gospel, putting the King James translation side-by-side with the same verses in Greek, Latin, and French. You can still buy the Jefferson Bible, or read it online.

His purpose was to present a code of morals, suitable for instruction in ordinary living, not a code of religious dogmas and supernatural beliefs, [so] that readers  … will be better able to appreciate the strikingly sublime ethical philosophy of Jesus when his words are separated from the other doctrinal issues. They will be able to agree that these "doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the happiness of man."  [From the website of the Jefferson Bible, www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/jeffintr.html  edited by Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.] 

Who was this man who has inspired followers and changed hearts throughout time? Jesus was a thoughtful man, intelligent and attractive and with the confidence of one who has found his purpose in life. He saw outside the box, ignoring rules and roles that hurt people or labeled them. He respected the marginalized and the merchant alike. All belonged to God. It’s this loving inclusion that inspired his disciples and spread the Christian movement. God’s love, Jesus said, shines on the rich and the poor, the good and evil alike. God cares for all people. And so all people could follow Jesus’ words. Throughout the world, in communist China and Canadian suburbs, Kenya and Chile, Jesus Christ has engaged and comforted the generations.

            And yet poet Alla Renee Bozarth reminds us “What Jesus Really Said:” 

Not much.
I am
Here
Now
With you.
I see you.
God-in-you.
I need to touch you.
I need you to touch me.
I need to be alone.
I will not leave you alone.
Respect all beings.
Be compassionate.
Take risks to help others.
and to become your whole self.
Be present in every moment
Love as fully as life allows.
Live as fully as love allows.
I love you.
Let yourself be loved.
Accept acceptance
Remember me.

There’s little there about sin, or obligation, or converting people. No fear or hatred. Just a reminder to appreciate the moment and accept all of God’s loving in the life and people around you.

                        Anyone, with a little self-discipline and humor, can emulate Jesus. Anyone can care for those in need, battle stereotypes, and seek the path of justice. Everyone can share. Nancy Mairs the writer and Catholic worker agrees.  Her husband once remarked, “I love how ordinary some of the [Biblical] miracles are. “Feeding multitudes with a few loaves and a couple of fishes. Any of us could do it.”  Mairs adds,

He knows whereof he speaks. Our friend Kansas has just called to report he’s retrieved a bounty of potato chips from the dumpster behind Fry’s Supermarket, and can George drive them down to Casa Maria [soup kitchen] for Friday’s lunches? Those potato chips were there not by the will of God, I’m sure, but by the will of the store manager who noticed the expiration date; and the hand of Kansas, not the hand of God, gleaned them. There is nothing supernatural at work. That’s the miracle: not that some unseen almighty force showers potato chips down upon our heads, but that a man goes dumpster-diving and rescues the potato chips while most of them are probably still edible. Since this man does not want the potato chips for himself – he couldn’t possibly consume them all – from a personal perspective his act is wholly gratuitous. It signifies love. Through performing this miracle over and over and over again, we are made whole.  [Nancy Mairs, Ordinary Times, p. 180, Beacon Press]

                        But many people don’t know how to feel whole. Humans are easily wounded, and we learn pretty early on to lash out in anger, especially when we are unsure and afraid. And the world simply reinforces this impulse. We maintain order through fear – fear of harm, of poverty, of exclusion. If we conform, we are rewarded with safety and status. Compete, and we can make the rules. While Jesus reminded his Jewish listeners to care for the widows and orphans, the vulnerable and poor, we humans are more inclined to see suffering as a punishment, and fortune as a sign of God’s favor. So we reward the rich even as we blame people for being homeless, ill, or oppressed.

                        “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,” rebuked the prophet Isaiah [53:6]. “Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord: and I will heal them. But the wicked are like the tossing sea that cannot keep still; the waters toss up mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.” [Isaiah 57: 19-21]

We look for guidance, but like sheep, we are too easily frightened. We fly headlong without thought or purpose, buying, trying, dieting for praise and success, little questioning our value system.  And no words of Jesus will tell us how to find Mr. Right, or charm our boss into giving us a promotion. Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, and was silent about art and music and scientific research. He never claimed to be divine, or even particularly smart. But he did understand the human heart, and he knew that no one could live in isolation. We all yearn to feel in relationship with the world. We want to belong. And the biggest sin that we can commit is to break the connection that binds us to each other and to all living things. Jesus continually urged us to see God as our father, so that we would feel, deeply, that we are all equally created and equally loved. Whether he was eating with tax collectors, healing the sick, or palling around with women, his one true goal was to bridge the gaps that separated people from full community. All are embraced by God.

                        How think you? [Jesus asked,] if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he finds it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.  Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.  [Matthew 18:12-14]  The more we knew God, Jesus taught, the more we would love another without exception or envy.

                        Jesus hoped that his wisdom and example would lead us to a closer relationship with God. In Christian Century Magazine, B.A. Gerrish remarks, “What Christians actually experience in their encounter with Jesus Christ is a heightened awareness of God, which is symbolized and celebrated in the joy of Christmastime: they are drawn under the sway of Jesus’ uniquely powerful sense of God. ‘To ascribe to Christ an absolutely powerful consciousness of God and to attribute to him a being of God in him,’ Friedrich Schleiermacher states, “are entirely one and the same thing.’” In other words, Jesus was significant not because he was uniquely God, but for his sure and unique awareness of God’s indwelling presence.

                        Gerrish, a professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, believes that the important question for Christians is not Christ’s nature, “…but with the actual experience of Jesus Christ that has led to the confession of his divinity, or of a unique being of God in him. We are surely on firm ground if we assert that what Christians actually receive from Jesus Christ is saving faith, meaning both … perceiving one’s experience under the image of divine benevolence [and] a consequent living of one’s life out of an attitude of confidence or trust. The work of Christ … is the gift of saving faith, which is not belief about Christ, but confidence in God through Christ – a confidence that rests on the perception of a pattern in one’s life. What is believed about Christ is the implication, not the precondition, of this gift of faith.”  [“What Do We Mean By Faith in Jesus Christ?” Christian Century October 6, 1999, emphases mine]

                        “Always,” mused Clinton Lee Scott, “it is easier to pay homage to prophets than to heed the direction of their vision.” The temple lies guttered and dirty. Corruption prevailed. It is simpler to deify Jesus than to live like him, serving the smelly and bitter rejects of society, preaching to heedless and hungry mobs, touching the proud-hearted and vain. But if we truly believe as Jesus did we know that we are all related, our ills and sorrows one. We are inextricably bound up together in Creation’s web, the redwood and the butterfly, the river and the sheep. There is only God, inspiring us with life and breathing purpose into every atom.

                        Living in a small town the evidence is clear: the loss of one job can impact several families, and change a neighborhood, and close a store. One more senior may have to shovel her own sidewalk, or need help with heat. One dog abandoned may mean fewer rabbits, trashcans tipped, littered streets. Everything has an effect - for good and for ill -that reaches far beyond our narrowed sight. And so it is here where we live that we should look for God. The mystery surrounds us, and the need is clear to see.

                        Let us hold sacred the ties of community that bind us together and manifest God’s love. As we sit together in silence, let us be grateful for the service that gives meaning and wholeness to our lives.

CLOSING WORDS: in the words of one of my favorite Unitarians, Charles Dickens,

“God bless us, every one.”  And Merry Christmas!