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Read Reverend Art Domingue's Sermons below.

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The Beginnings of a Ministry 1 - Jesus is Announced
01/04/09 THE BEGINNINGS OF A MINISTRY I – JESUS IS ANNOUNCEDIsaiah 40:3-5; Mark 1: 1-8Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of ChristOlympic Valley, CAJanuary 4, 2009Art Domingue, Designated Term Minister I have a sermon on announcements. It is a complaining, carping sermon that suggests that announcements are no more than a remedial aid for the heedless, that they tend to state what is already printed or re-stating what has been said three times. I will spare you the whole sermon but please know that announcements are not my favorite part of worship.   But there have been times when announcements were vital and people paid attention right from the start. When a vessel returned to its home harbor after a year or more at sea people got out their telescopes to see if one of her flags was flying at half-mast. If it was that was an announcement that not everyone in the crew was coming home. The announcement did not need to be repeated, only clarified.  The banshees were supposed to be beautiful women who sat on the rocks off the shore of Ireland. When they set up their wail it was an announcement that a fisherman had drowned. Perhaps it was only the wind but people listened and began to walk the beach waiting for the remains to be washed ashore.  Announcements can be powerful interjections that change the shape of people’s lives. From May, 2006 until September, 2007, I served as Interim Senior Minister at the Congregational Church of San Mateo. I had been hired to hold things together until the church found a new Senior Minister, “no major initiatives, please!” In my capacity as interim I got to sit in on much of the work of the Search Committee. Right from the start this committee decided that they would be pro-active. It would not be enough to create a church profile, to publicize their opening. to sit back and wait for ministers to contact them . Not enough! They called Conference Ministers, Seminary Presidents, ministers of churches with large congregations. They asked “Who is the most competent minister  you know?”Everyone had at least one name to share. Quite a list was created. The poor ministers who decided they were just right for the job and submitted their own profile were hardly noticed. These others, recommended by leaders in our denomination were contacted by one or more members of the Search Committee. They were seriously wooed. The committee was very thorough. They held phone interviews, checked references, sent members to visit the churches where potential candidates worked. Eventually they invited a select group to visit San Mateo. And, at the last, presented one candidate to the congregation. The announcement was like a trumpet fanfare: “We have met with the brightest and best of the ministers in our denomination. Here is our choice.”What a way to begin a ministry!  The Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon was announced! All this month we will be looking at the beginning stages of Jesus ministry; his baptism, his time in the wilderness and it all began when he was announced by his cousin, John the Baptist. The time was when letters of introduction, doormen announcing the name of the person just arrived… these things were all a part of getting started in a relationship. You didn’t bother giving someone your attention until someone you trusted said they were okay. You weren’t “at home” to just anyone who rang the doorbell. There was a preliminary process of leaving cards and checking references. If you have read any of the novels of Jane Austen you will know that the process was trusted and rigorously enforced.I assume it was much the same in Judea, there were all sorts of wild-eyed zealots vying for the public ear. You didn’t have to listen to any one of them and you probably didn’t until someone you trusted said: “Here is the real thing!”Jesus was announced by John the Baptist. John already had found his own following and his recommendation of Jesus did a number of things to jump start his cousin’s ministry.First it placed him within a chain of authenticity,  “May I introduce to you one predicted by the prophet Isaiah.”It is reassuring to hear that a religious leader is not a loose cannon, rather fits within a tradition, that she/he meshes with ancient forms. The Roman Catholic and Anglican churches offer this imprimatur to their clergy by placing them within the apostolic succession. The hands laid upon a priest’s head at the time of his ordination are a part of a chain that can be traced right back to the hands of Peter, about whom Jesus said: “This is the rock upon which I shall found my church.” John placed Jesus within such a chain of authenticity: “May I introduce to you the one predicted by the prophet Isaiah.”And secondly John announced that Jesus was going to take the faith tradition to a new level. “I will not be worthy to tie his shoes.”There were several ways in which Jesus differed from his cousin John:For example, John kept the word of God in the wilderness. He avoided population centers. He went about in rough robes made from camel’s hair. We’re not talking camel hair as found in the Brooks Brothers catalogue, but something crude and itchy. John was living on locust and honey, grasshoppers and honey combs. His hair had never been cut. This was not a mainstream magnet.Jesus, on the other hand brought God’s Word to the world. He frequented the synagogues. He spoke in market places. He visited the homes of all sorts of people and used everyday experiences as material for the stories he told. Faith was not a personal profession that you hid in the bush. It was a guiding force for life in full society. “Here is one, quite different from myself, but truly he is the Son of God.”And Jesus message was quite different from that of his cousin, John. John preached a process for the forgiveness of sins. He urged all who would listen to face up to their failings and then come to the waters. They would submerge as sinners; they would emerge as forgiven people.” The promise was heard. John was baptizing hundreds in the Jordan River. His ministry was a glaring success, but when he announced Jesus he said: “This man will take us to the next step.” All I have to offer is water. He will offer fire!”People sometimes ask me why we don’t have a prayer of confession as a regular part of our order of worship. Sometimes I answer: “Our need is to move beyond confession. Let’s not get stuck on what’s wrong. It’s true that Paul spoke for many of us when he said: ‘I don’t seem to be able to do the good I want to do, too often what I do do is that which my heart abhors. There is no health in me.’ That’s true but Jesus invites us to move from abasement to home.”Jesus took sin very seriously but it was his belief that God had taken care of that, and if we could live as forgiven people our lives would be set on fire. “Your sins are forgiven. Get up and walk! And run! And inject enthusiasm into this weary world.”John said: The one who comes after me – I am not worthy to tie his shoes – I have water. He offers fire.I have spoken to you before of my fondness for a book by two Quaker, Phillip Gulley and James Mu=lholland. It is If Grace is True. The authors’ thesis is that if grace is true then everyone has already been forgiven, everyone already counts as one of God’s beloved, that there is no one who will be left outside the fold.The authors describe the great banquet to which everyone will be invited:                At the great banquet, the only tears will be tears of joy. We will see a Fundamentalist Christian embracing Gandhi, a humbled Hitler washing the feet of a Holocaust victim with his tears, Jesus kissing Judas. The lion lying down with the lamb. pp. 190-191. And it gets better:                And we know who will be seated next to us. We may complain that God does                not understand what that person did to us. How cruel and petty and evil that                person was. How she showed no remorse. We may stomp your foot and refuse to be seated next to him. We may say we can never forgive. But then                someone will tap us on the shoulder and we’ll turn to look in the eyes of someone we hurt. Someone to whom we were cruel, petty, and evil. Someone to whom we never apologized. Someone who has every right to refuse to sit next to us. But who…say(s). “I forgive you.” Jesus wants us to move beyond any preoccupation with sin, our own or that of others, to claim God’s forgiveness, to live as people no longer burdened b y the past.  And the best of the good news is that the party will not start without us. We may want to hold on to our resentments. We may want to underscore our neighbor’s sin. We may want to petition God to strike the sinners … but all this will come to naught, for God has already forgiven. God loves everyone. John made the announcement. He set his cousin within a chain of authenticity. He proclaimed; “Jesus will move beyond my ministry. “I have water… He brings fire.”Jesus was announced! That’s quite a way to begin a ministry

Deep Within the Carol III - Why Lies He in Such Mean Estate
12/21/08 DEEP WITHIN THE CAROL III – WHY LIES HE IN SUCH MEAN ESTATE?Luke 2: 1-7, Matthew 5: 1-8Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of ChristDecember 21, 2008Art Domingue, Designated Term MinisterIt’s almost Christmas and there’s a great deal of theology in the air. Much of it comes through Christmas carols piped in over stereo systems.                 Peace on earth and mercy mild/ God and sinners reconciled…That’s a bit more complex than Jingle Bells                O holy child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray:                Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.This suggests that Christmas is more than a day for the kids.This morning I would like to consider Christmas theology.Theology, put on a diet, whittles down to talk about God. It’s not a science. It is more like a conversation, people sharing their ideas about a subject for which there will never be a final word. Just when we think we understand God and can put our ideas into words, someone comes along and says – rightfully – you’ve forgotten this, and this, and this. Your God is too small. Often theology is often conversation with steam. Believers tend to be passionate about their opinions. That’s why God talk is often banned from polite society. Still I intend to risk it and talk with you today about Christmas theology.At Christmas season the big theological word is incarnation. Translated from its Latin roots incarnation means “in the flesh.” It shares the root word with carnival, carne asada, carnal knowledge, even carnation for before that flower was mutated to reflect the whole rainbow it was flesh colored. The word incarnation has used by people who are trying to talk about the connection between God and Jesus. It suggests that God took flesh, became human in a drastic attempt to communicate. The story is told – I don’t believe it ever really happened but it’s a true story… The story is told of a man who absolutely refused to accompany his family to church on Christmas Eve. The idea that God would come to earth in the form of a baby was too fantastic and besides he had other things he had to do. A soon as the family left he went out to the shed where he had been building a doll house for his daughter. Just a few finishing touches and it would be ready to be placed under the tree.Inside the shed the man quickly discovered he was not alone. A bird had gotten in and was startled by his entry. The bird darted to and fro battering its wings against the rafters. The man open the shed door and flapped his arms but this only agitated the bird all the more. The man thought to himself: “if only I could become a bird – just for 30 seconds - I could lead this bird out the door.”Now this was an honest man, and insightful. He realized what he had just wished. He came away from the shed, left the door wide open and went to join his family at church.                 God, in Christ, to earth descended…It was a desperate attempt to communicate. God wanted a relationship, some way to share, love, compassion and peace.Please know, however, that this idea of God taking flesh has never been the final word.As the Rev. James Gilliom once wrote:                 Who ever heard of a god getting involved in human misery? Presidents don’t                stand in bread lines. Generals don’t die in trenches. Or, the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins:                (Do you) think that after making the world (God would) consent to be                taught carpentry?Some have insisted that their God would not – could not - stoop to being born in a stable, to go from  borrowed cradle, to borrowed grave; that their God would not be susceptible to the normal human frailties of temptation and sin and thus, could never really be a human.  Christmas theology has been a house divided. The wisest and best of all the Christmas theologians have adopted both sides at once saying: Jesus is fully human, Jesus is fully divine.No one ever said theology had to make sense. It’s an open, ongoing conversation. And if that’s all it is I would have given it up ages ago. What matters for me is that theology is a conversation from which people take can find hints for their lives.For example, if we thought God came in human flesh, it would raise our respect for flesh, our own and others. I remember when Joanne and I rejoiced in our son’s growing interest in athletics. He then had no use for anything that could hurt his body.  With Paul he was coming to see his body as a sacred temple, one of the places where he and God and the full enjoyment of life could meet. Theology has practical ramifications.For example, if God took flesh to dwell among us then we have to scuttle the notion that God will remain safely apart in the heavens, or securely captured within a book. To meeting with God might not require secluded meditation apart from the world. God could be right beside us, in our neighbor.If we believe that God chose to be born a human, then theology will lead us to charity. Our concern for our neighbor cannot be limited to the state of his soul, but will include care of her flesh. Does he have enough to eat? Does she have a place to sleep?  Mahatma Gandhi was speaking Christmas theology when once he said: “If Christianity is ever to come to India, it will have to come first in the form of bread.”Especially exciting for me is the possibility that if God came to earth in human form once then God could chose to do so again and there is the possibility, the remote possibility that God would choose to live in one of us. That’s scary. Not only for the responsibility of housing such as guest, but because the world would think us nuts.The last thing about Incarnation that I wish to mention comes from a question hidden deep with the carol:                 Why lies he in such mean estate?Our present hymnal has simplified that a little. We just sang the new words:                Why lies the child in manger bare?There’s a third way to ask the question: Why didn’t God come in a limo?There’s nothing wrong – per se - in being rich. Nothing can separate us from God’s love, not even wealth. There is no proof that the poor are all saints. But Christmas theology professes that God chooses to move in with the least, to assist with the balance of power, to compensate for the poor distribution of life’s necessities and if we wish to side with God that’s where we will stand too. Christmas is a lot deeper than Jingle Bells and saying Happy Birthday to a baby. It’s a celebration of God’s desire to be very close to each one of us. God, in Christ, to earth descended….Peace on earth and goodwill to all.  

Deep Witnin the Carol II - Rest Beside the Weary Road
12/14/08

DEEP WITHIN THE CAROL II – O Rest beside the Weary Road and Hear the Angels Sing

Isaiah 30:15; Psalm 37:3-7a; Matthew 11:28-30

Squaw Valley Chapel, United Church of Christ

Olympic Valley, CA

December 14, 2009

Art Domingue, Designated Term Minister

There are many things I love about Christmas! Cutting a tree and carrying it home; finding gifts that fit my favorite people; hearing from these favorite people through their cards and letters; singing carols at full volume in church; trying everyone’s favorite, baked Christmas delicacy. There are a lot of things I love about Christmas.

And there are a few things about Christmas I could do without: how I feel after I’ve tried everyone’s favorite, baked Christmas delicacy; the ungracious thoughts that accompany my reading of the 3 page, single spaced, Christmas letter from cousins that contains news of hangnails and every other indignity suffered these past 12 months. And what really gets my goat is hearing from the UPS store that the just-right-gift I have for my sister-in-law will cost “only” $67 to pack and ship.

There are a lot of things I love about Christmas and some that leave me riled. How good that Christmas contains within itself the message, “Give it a rest!”

And from deep within another carol:

But my occasional flap about Christmas is nothing compared to the ranting of George Bernard Shaw:

                I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas. It is an indecent

                subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject…. Christmas

                Is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the

                press. On its own merits it would wither and shrivel…. And anyone who

                looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages. – J. Bryan III,

                Hodge Podge Two, pg. 111.

Give it a rest!  Rest is one of the commands of Christmas. If only we knew how to pull it off.

When the poet, Amy Lowell, was not writing her poems she worked at being completely at rest. For her, rest meant the complete absence of all unwanted stimulation; it meant life lived in her own little bubble and no interference, please. Checking into a hotel, she always rented two rooms; the one she planned to stay in and the one immediately above. No unwanted footfalls would bother her rest. Going to performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra she invariably bought three seats together and sat in the middle one. She found the music was restful but couldn’t stand it to have anyone speak. Ms. Lowell kept a kennel of sheep dogs for her enjoyment, but one morning, after a night of unexplained barking, she said to their keeper, “Kill them.”

For some rest means the absence of anything that might rouse them, but that’s not the rest that’s recommended in the Christmas story.

The story is told of a co-ed who returned to the dorm after blind date. Her roommate asked, “How did it go?” “Terrible!” she said. “I had to slap him three times” “He got fresh?” “No,” she answered, “I thought he was dead.”

Christmas rest is not the absence of all stimulation.

The 18^th century Puritan divine, Cotton Mather, made it clear to his congregations that rest was a four letter word signifying sin.  “Idle hands are the Devil’s tools….”

The Rev. Cotton Mather was an early advocate of effective time management. He believed every moment should be used to the glory of God. In his diary he writes a personal resolution to improve the time spent in the outhouse:

                I resolved that my attendance on the …necessities of nature should be

                accompanied with some holy thoughts of repentance and an abased soul.

               -Diary cit. Donald Hall (ed.) The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes, pg. 7.

Rest for some evokes laziness, provokes guilt, leaves them fearful that they aren't living up to God’s expectations...

There is an old Salvation Army hymn that has as its chorus: “There may be some on me and you, but there ain’t no flies on Jesus.” – Susan S. Tamke, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord, pg.5.

Rest, for some is a four letter word, for others the absence of all stimulation, but neither describes the rest that the Christmas story commands.

My understanding of the rest recommended in Christmas is that it is a gift, a gift God gives to anyone who decides to trust God’s goodness and love.

In the Christmas narrative angels go forth to share the good news of God’s love for all people. But there is a disconnect. Few are prepared to hear them. The innkeeper doesn’t hear them; he is too frazzled by all those guests. The guests don’t hear them; they are too worried about the details of citizen registration and how much tax they are going to have to pay. Even the shepherds, settling down for the rest of an evening were at first impervious. The angels’ shenanigans terrified them and it was not until they let go of their fear, and made room for God’s goodness that they heard the angel’s song.

Christmas rest is not the absence of stimulation but the result of believing that God loves and cares for all that God has made.

As Isaiah has it:  In returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be our strength. -30:15.

Rufus Jones, notable Quaker, once told the story of a blacksmith from his home town. The blacksmith was so extraordinarily short that he harbored a bit of an inferiority complex. When he fell head over heels in love with a girl of the village he never imagined she ever would return his affections. It was love from afar. But one day the object of his affection came to the forge to order a set of hinges. He showed her samples. She praised the quality of his work. Made bold by her words, he proposed and she accepted. Immediately the diminutive blacksmith jumped up on his anvil and gave her a big kiss. They decided to immediately tell both families the good news. On the way the blacksmith asked if he could kiss her again. “Oh no,” she said, “Not in public.” “Then,” he said “I’m not going to carry this anvil one inch further.”

Rufus Jones went on to describe some of the anvils he had carried at various times in his life. He made the observation that it was only when he placed himself in God’s care, that he was able to set his anvils down.

Trust is the adult plot line of Christmas. The story is that God is interested in human life, that God reaches out to all of life, that we can never place ourselves beyond that reach, and that nothing will ever separate us from God’s love.

Trust that part of the Christmas story and you will discover that you have found rest.

It’s there deep within the carol:

                O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.