The Minority Report (Sermon preached 31 October 2021)

This morning’s first lesson comes from a little book that is easy to miss; tucked, as it is, between two much longer historical narratives, Judges and First Samuel, in the Old Testament. The book of Ruth is like the anecdote you find in a footnote. That bit of backstory having to do with a character who will later become central: in this case, that character is David, Israel’s greatest king.

 

Still, the fact that this small domestic tale about a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law gets preserved at all, is kind of remarkable. Some say that the wise ones who ultimately determined what would be included in the Jewish canon of Scripture - some say they held on to this sweet story to preserve a minority opinion. A dissenting voice that was raised sometime during the fifth century BCE. After the Israelites who had been carried off into captivity in Babylon had come home to Jerusalem. After they had decided that any foreign wives picked up along the way should go back to where they came from.

 

Ruth was a needed reminder that their tribal God was also an inclusive God. So inclusive that the daughter of an enemy people, who worshiped a different one, a different god, that is, could wind up in their royal family tree...(read more)

The Other Side of Relinquishment (Sermon preached 10 October 2021)

Before my recent sojourn to Alaska for a meditation, writing and kayaking retreat, I had not spent much time around Buddhist monks. But along with us for that incredible week off the grid were two support staff, both vowed Buddhist monastics who happen to be married to one another. 

Soten took care of some of the heavier chores, stoking the wood stove, maintaining the pump and filtration system that brought water into the lodge, and hauling kayaks down to the beach. And Shinei was in charge of the kitchen. She had fourteen of us to feed, three times a day, out of a small workspace with few conveniences: a sink, stove and oven, some pots and pans, and a couple of large, well-aged cast iron skillets. The refrigerator was so tiny that most of the fresh stuff had to be stored in cartons on the floor of the large breezeway where our boots and foul weather gear were also kept. 

Shinei told me later that she had been chief cook, for a year, at the monastery in Oregon where she and Soten lived. Which explained in part how magically, it seemed, she was able to produce pots of steaming cooked oatmeal, fragrant soups, luscious home-made breads, salads, rice noodles with roasted vegetables and tofu, and one glorious morning, two skillets full of fresh baked cinnamon rolls...(read more)