"Eternal God, lead me now out of the familiar setting of my doubts and fears, beyond my pride and and my need to be secure into a strange and graceful ease with my true proportions and with yours; that in boundless silence I may grow strong enough to endure and flexible enough to share your grace."  ~ Ted Loder

This week Eboo Patel spoke at our church. Mr. Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. Hundreds of young people and others of all ages streamed into our sanctuary on Wednesday evening to hear him speak. The space was buzzing with excitement.

On Thursday morning I heard Mr. Patel make this statement: "Hope is free. Fear is very expensive." I was listening to him in an interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio. He spoke quite eloquently about the need for interfaith dialogue and experiences for all people, youth especially, as they become the leaders of tomorrow.. But it was this statement that stayed with me, that caused me to dissect it and examine the truth in it.

Hope is free. Hope is primarily a function of imaginative faith.Hope causes us to open our arms, our minds and our hearts to something that is not yet realized. It costs us nothing but has the ability to produce amazing returns. Hope is something we rest in, something we long for, something we cannot buy but can give birth to. Hope expands us.

Fear on the other hand causes us to begin to accumulate an arsenal, to build fences, to close off the doors of who we are. In doing so, we lose our sensibilities and isolate ourselves. Fear leads us to be suspicious, to cut people out of our lives, to make our world smaller and smaller. Fear causes some to buy guns, others to medicate themselves in unhealthy ways, and still others to lash out with little understanding of those perceived to be 'different', 'dangerous'. It starts with one person and breeds but instead of causing growth it instead causes stagnation.  We have seen its effects in individual lives, in the lives of our country and the world. Fear is, indeed, expensive.

Perhaps the costly nature of fear is what led those who wrote the Bible to write these particular words more than any other: "Do not be afraid."  The angels say it, the psalmists, the prophets, the disciples and Jesus say it over and over again. "Do not be afraid." It is too great an expense in a life meant to be lived fully, with joy and thanksgiving, grace and compassion. "Do not be afraid. "

Winter seems to have made an entrance in Minnesota this morning…..enjoy the weekend.

"From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." Luke 12:48

In the church, right before Thanksgiving and before Advent is the time known to most as stewardship season. It the time of year when churches go to their communities and ask for each household's financial pledge for the following year. Each church does this somewhat differently but with the same goal: to create a budget for the coming year that will match the dreams for ministry of the congregation. The church staff and those who are involved in the ministries of any given congregation are aware of the needs of their neighborhoods, the church members,and  those who seek solace within their sanctuaries.Most churches are also involved in ministries that take them far away from their own life experiences to places of great need in the world. Each community discerns this financial need through their understanding of God's call in the life of their church.

This year in particular could be a challenging time in the life of any church. As we see the great needs around us, we also see people in our community losing their jobs while others watch the money they had counted on dribble away. We simply don't know what the next year will hold from an economic standpoint. How might life be different this time next year, for instance?

The truth is we have never known the answer to that question. We can only speculate, act wisely and be prayerful in our living. As I have been thinking about these acts of stewardship which we make, I remembered my Mother's words to me which were actually the words of Jesus: "To whom much has been given, much will be required." She said it most often when I was complaining about something I didn't want to do, something I wanted to ignore. In saying it she always reminded me of the gifts of my life. Though those gifts were most often not monetary, she reminded me of the many gifts I had that others didn't….a loving home, adequate food, a good education, a faithful community. She reminded me that because of the blessings of my life I was asked to share myself with others, that I had a responsibility to share the resources of my life with the world.

In Eugene Peterson's interpretation of this scripture verse, he has Jesus sharing these words: "Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities! "  How we use what we have been given, some which we never worked to attain but were just passed on to us, is a huge responsibility. How we choose to share the bounty of our lives is also a gift.  A gift to be shared.

"Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?"
          ~Dion

Today, in some ways, is a day of reflection. I grew up on the idealism of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy and the songwriters of the songs of the '60s. At a time when my view of the world was most malleable, these were the voices that inspired me. The words of these people, full of what a more peaceful, unified world might look like were planted deep in the rich soil of my evolving adulthood. Because I was also an odd adolescent, in love with the church, I interpreted the messages of these leaders in light of my faith, my understanding of this illusive community of God. Some of this happened consciously, most happened without my even knowing. I dreamed, along with Dr. King, of a world in which race would not be an issue, where all people would work together for a time of peace. From my faith perspective this was in line with what I understood to be the call of God on each of our lives.

Waking up this morning I found myself thinking about that young girl, wide eyes, open heart, ready to take giant steps in the world. I am not sure I ever thought about a day when the country I call home, the country I love, would take the steps to elect a person of color to the highest office in our land. As I watched the images of celebrations across the country last night, young, fresh, faces full of their future, I felt once again that sense of hope and possibility, the belief in being able to change the world, perhaps being able to realize a time when the things that divide us will become immaterial in the pursuit of the common good.

I thought of my high school friend, Marlene Cofer. Marlene was a tall, lanky light skinned African American who loved language. She moved through a room with grace and class, quietly being a presence in a room. I will not make any claims that we were 'best friends'. That was not a real possibility in a small town in southern Ohio during my teen years. It just wasn't done. But we shared a love of reading, of poetry. When I was with her I had the sense that I was a part of something fuller than when I was with only my white friends. At a high school reunion a few years ago Marlene arrived with a thick anthology of poetry in which her work had been included. There were no other published authors in our class. I was so proud of her for being persistent, for continuing to pursue what she loved while working as a bank teller.

Not long after that reunion, I learned that Marlene had died of a rare and fast moving cancer. Her beautiful voice, her graceful presence had been silenced. But not before it was preserved in the black and white writers chase their whole lives.

In Marlene's presence I knew a fuller picture of what it means to be the whole people of God. In my adult years I have known that experience many more times, I am happy to say. And now, perhaps as a country, we might also open our eyes and our hearts to what it means to be the fullness of the American people.

It seems the seeds those powerful voices planted in my soul continue to find ways to be reborn.

"I've always felt, in all my books, that there's a
deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence –
providing they have the facts, providing they have the information." ~Studs Terkel

I think I was in college when I read Studs Terkel's book Working, a series of interviews with people about their daily work. The stories of a teacher, construction worker, nurse, and newspaper boy, to name a few, captured my attention. Later when it was turned into a successful musical by the same name fueled the notion that the work we do is really the art of our living. With our work we paint the picture of what it means to be the people of the day and time of our time in history.

In the book, Mr. Terkel, through these interviews, paints some very real pictures of people's dreams and disappointments, their hopes for their future and those places of great joy. After reading this book, I will never see a construction worker using a jackhammer and not remember the account of the man who comes home from work, dirty and tired, to sit in his recliner and watch the much-needed respite of television. As he sits his body still drums with the rhythm of the hammer that shaped his day. His body, internally, never stops the incessant thumping.

And then there is the story of the young boy who delivered the morning newspaper in his neighborhood. Riding his bike, the freedom of the early morning pulsing in his veins, he winds up with the power of a major league pitcher, throwing the paper toward the doorstep of the houses. His joy? To hear the sound of "boing!" as the paper hits its landing.

Studs Terkel died this past week at the age of 96.He lived a good life in which he said his work was "listening to what people tell me." He documented the context in which people lived. In so doing he made their lives real to the rest of us, making them somehow more human, more understandable.

Tomorrow we head to the election polls. As we do, each of us carries with us the context of our lives, our work and those values, beliefs, hopes and dreams that have shaped us. This will guide how we vote and for whom. It can really be no other way. In some ways it is like the real estate adage, it is 'location, location, location." I had a seminary professor who said we shape our theology in much the same way. Our location, where we live, our work, our life experiences,shapes what we believe and what we don't, and guides our understanding of God.

The real task of being a citizen is to try as much as we can to see, not just our own lives, but the lives of others, the whole of what it means to be the most privileged country in the world, as we make our choices. The real task is to look toward what will be the good for all the people and not just our own particular context. It is a difficult thing to do. But if being a citizen of the United States of American means anything it must mean that we work in all the ways we can to be just that….united.

It is a privilege not to be taken lightly. Vote.

So here we are. We have a choice to make. ~Studs Terkel