Jan 10th, 2021
CENTERING
Almighty God,
Your Spirit swept over the waters of creation;
You are sweeping over us now, creating something new.
Call us away from the distractions of the world
to experience what You are doing now, in us,
and through us,
and in our world.
Open us to a new awakening, a new beginning,
where we look through the lens of the goodness of Your creation,
experiencing all possibilities in You.
Turn us away from the negative lens,
and lead us to the light.
In the name of Jesus, who leads us into life, we pray.
O God, we hear your voice
and we see the way of Jesus set before us.
But it’s hard, dear God, to try again and again
to live up to our baptismal vows
and maintain our resolve to be your people in the world.
In repentance we ask you to forgive us.
Set us once again on a holy path that leads to you.
Reassure us you love us. Convince us you wash away the sins of the world and give us new lives, new tries, new days to live as your love in the world. Amen.
Based on a prayer by ~ Rev. Mindi of Rev-O-Lution
PRAYER REQUESTS
– Contact for personal list.
SCRIPTURE
Genesis 1 is a song, lyrical and open to several different translations. Some of my favorites are that the spirit of God hovered over the waters; the breath of God danced upon the waves; God’s life gathered the waters – the same verb Jesus uses to speak of a hen gathering her chicks. God shimmied. God two-stepped. God waltzed. God danced to create! God spoke to create! God sang and danced and rejoiced.
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Our next reading is Jesus’ baptism in Mark. Most scholars and historians agree that Jesus’ baptism by John truly happened. The Gospels spend much time explaining how Jesus was baptized by John and each provide slightly different theological reasons. It is embarrassing to say the sinless God-incarnate was given a sinner’s baptism to be made sinless. Since it is difficult to understand, embarrassing to the Jesus cause, it is likely a true event.
Why does Jesus do this? I believe because God shares our common lot, the reality we all have of being alive. And that means sometimes standing in the muddy, yucky, ditch called the “Jordan River” and seeking a blessing from God in the muck.
Mark 1:4-11
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
SERMON: Repent, Remember, and Reconcile
I want to talk today a bit about cults. This is a big term, usually used negatively, and defined differently among sociologists, theologians, politicians, and so forth. To me, Dr. Masoud Banisadr, once a part of a terrorist cult, gets closer at the idea of what a cult is and isn’t. He said, “If you ask me: are all cults a terrorist organisation? My answer is no, as there are many peaceful cults at present around the world and in the history of mankind. But if you ask me are all terrorist organisations some sort of cult, my answer is yes. Even if they start as [an] ordinary modern political party or organisation, to prepare and force their members to act without asking any moral questions and act selflessly for the cause of the group and ignore all the ethical, cultural, moral or religious codes of the society and humanity, those organisations have to change into a cult. Therefore to understand an extremist or a terrorist organisation one has to learn about a cult.”
From this we understand there are peaceful cults: Cults that prepare and force their members to act without asking moral questions. Just do as the leader says. To be selfless. To work towards the betterment of the cult group rather than another group.
There are many churches that are peaceful cults. You’re asked to check your brain in at the door and to not question the pastor. You’re asked to work selflessly towards the betterment of that church. You do not have a cult with the United Church of Christ. We’re very determined to have you do the hard work to think theologically about the world and to question your leaders. It means we’re chaotic, we’re not in lock-step, but we value this individuality.
Not all cults are evil. Not all cults are violent. Not all cults are crazy. But they are all powerful. They are powerful because individuals give their power to the leader. The leader then acts with the power of 10 people, 100 people, 1000 or 10000 people. Their every word, every action, has that much more impact.
Terrorist organizations are cults. Often they begin as a political party. A group of people aligned in thoughts and goals for how to run a government. Somewhere along the line it morphs into a personality cult. One of those in the political party begins to have others give them their willpower. Give them their voice. Their support. And stop thinking for themselves. The personality cult’s leader has others give up their own self agency to begin to support, defend, and promote the personality. This is our President Trump.
The Republican party is a political party. But the personality cult of Donald Trump is separate. The Republican Party is a political party with its own ideas of how to run the government. But you are not expected to give up your mind, ethics, and even life for the GOP. You’re not a traitor to the Republican Party if you vote Libertarian, Democrat, Independent, or not at all because it is a party – a group of people who are individuals, who change their minds, who generally agree, but sometimes disagree. A cult labels those who leave traitors. They are ostracized, attacked, and the enemy. A party does not do this.
We’re a party, per se, at our church. Generally we all agree on what it is to be Christian. But you’re not kicked out if we disagree. We value you as an individual. And if sometimes you’re visiting this church, or that, this Mosque, or that Temple, it’s okay. We’re united by our generally common ideals. We’re not lockstep. We’re a party – we’re hanging out together.
Now, a Personality Cult, such as is around our President, does not tolerate differences. Does not tolerate independent thinking. Does not tolerate questioning the story and reality that the personality promotes. So in our case, our President is insisting that our election was rigged, that the system lost or intentionally destroyed votes for him for his reelection, and that he won his race. The judges, the counters, the lawyers, our Vice President, and all others who say President Trump did not win a second term *must* be liars because President Trump says they are. Those who are in the cult refuse to consider other realities and enforce the alternative reality on their world.
This often drives away friends and family. A person is even encouraged to not associate with “the enemy” – anyone who is not in the cult. As a person ends up with fewer and fewer friends and family who are outside of the cult, he or she clings to the cult more. The cult is their new friends. Their new family. The cost to join the cult and stay with it becomes higher and higher. Jobs. Lovers. Children. The more that is lost due to the cult, the harder it is to walk away. Walking away would mean cutting losses. Would mean admitting things have gone too far. Would mean admitting fault.
We humans – we avoid fault and failure. So we usually cling harder and harder to our cults. Remember not all cults are personality, or evil, or religious. A business can have a cult following – people who won’t give up on them no matter how poor their service gets. “I’ve already been through this much for them, why would I give up now?”
Most people follow a sports team in a cult-like manner. This is an accepted cult in the USA. Buckeyes? You’re crazy to give up on them! Crazy to think they aren’t amazing! Go Bucks! Totally a cult, even with its own rituals making it almost a religious cult. (OH? IO!) But it isn’t an evil cult, nor a personality cult. It’s a sports cult. Even those who move out of state tend to still follow and root for the Buckeyes because the allure and attachment to a cult is very hard to break. We put our identities there. It’s hard to think of ourselves outside of the cult. If I’m not a Buckeye, who am I? If I’m not a Trump Supporter, who am I?
A personality cult becomes a terrorist organization when the cult leader begins to demand their followers to terrify, to scare, others into obeying. The personality cult already has established one does not question the leader. One does not consider other ethical or moral points of view. The personality cult has already cut off a person’s friends and family who disagree. So, isolated but for other cultists, the terrorist organization becomes more and more extreme. The terror imagined and inflicted becomes greater and greater. The individuals in the cult are harder and harder to communicate with. Reason with. Reach out to.
But not impossible. Dr. Masoud Banisadr was once part of a terrorist organization. He has escaped. He teaches on cults, including terrorist cults, and how to dismantle them.
The big word here is reconciliation. Cults have power because the people in them don’t see a way out. Don’t have a community to go back to. Have lost contact with family, with friends. And are… lost.
Community is what everyone walking away from a cult needs.
This week, the personality cult of Donald Trump became a full-on terrorist organization. This matters to our church. The shift shocked many in the personality cult who were not ready to become a terrorist cult. These people are having ethical dissonance. Have a moral injury. Who they are is *not* terrorists. And yet, their identity in Trump was dragged into sedition as our President attempted a coup. A coup is taking over a political system outside of its established norms and rules. So, in the USA, taking over the government outside of an election. The reality of what was happening as we watched our capitol fall to confederate flags, Trump Train flags, and a violent group inflicting terror on us is not the reality of who we think we are. For some, this is their wake up call.
You’re in a cult that has moved into being a terrorist organization.
It’s time to listen to the Baptist’s cry: Repent. Confess your sins.
Repent – the years of ignoring and forgiving racism. Repent – the years of permitting sexism and treating women as sex objects. Repent – the hypocrisy of proclaiming life begins at conception and is sacred and then pulling babes from their mothers and locking them in cages. Repent – destroying the creation of God for the love of money. Repent – the sacrilege of gassing a pastor out of their own church for a photo op with the Bible upside down. Repent – abiding and supporting as the weak, the stranger, the foreigner, the resident alien, the ones God tells us to defend and care for were abused, deported, and killed. Repent – recall your Baptism in Jesus the Christ’s name – and be saved.
Jesus got into that dirty muddy water with us. Jesus has waded with us through the shameful times we’ve been in. Jesus is beside us right now. And the Baptism he offers is a gift from God. Given to us from God and meant to restore us to our proper places as equals. As brothers and sisters. As cleansed and blessed.
Repenting. Waking up to what’s happened. It is followed by action. Reconciliation. Building those relationships back up again. Going to those friends and family and coworkers and seeking forgiveness, and beginning anew.
The church’s hard job is to walk with people as they work out their confessions, forgiveness, and – potentially – reconciliation. It’s our job to keep reminding people that God doesn’t give up on us. We may chase idols of sports, or Presidents, or other cults – but Jesus keeps on inviting us back to the water. It’s our job to be community. Community to those we agree with and those we disagree with.
Loving community.
Remember your baptism. Remember. Remember who you are. You are God’s beloved child. Called by your own name. Not the name of another. Not by political party. Not by sin you did directly or indirectly. No – called by your name. “You are my Child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Remember Paul literally killed Christians, and yet, when he saw the light, he responded to it. He repented. He built back up those relationships he’d destroyed. And to this day we read his words with reverence.
We are the religion of second, third, seventy-seven and more chances. We are the place to realize we’re standing in mud and muck and in need of saving. We preach the Good News to the poor, the weak, the imprisoned – God loves you. God loves you. And we love you. Rise, child of God, and begin again anew your life with Christ and with all people in the name of Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM
Our God created new life forms and brought them up from the waters of chaos,
embraced them, and called them good.
Jesus, baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist,
became living water for us and embraces all of us.
Water changes forms – turning into mist, into clouds, into rain and snow. Water becomes our blood. Our food. Our drink. Water changes, but it does not go away. The water that poured over Jesus pours over people to this day.
When you shower – you shower in water that turned into wine. Water that parted for the Israelites to cross. Water that carried the ark up and out of danger. Water gifted by angels to Hagar. Water that wet the lips of Adam and Eve.
From water, God creates, and recreates. Water embraces us in the womb. Living water embraces us all of our lives. And like water, we rise with Jesus to join the cloud of witnesses about us.
Jesus embraces those who are poor, oppressed, marginalized
and all others who come seeking.
We follow Jesus with our Baptism,
marking a starting place for new life and new ways of being.
We join Jesus in love and service.
Let us prepare our hearts and minds to see, feel, and hear again the vows of Baptism.
Do you renew and affirm the promises made at your Baptism? If so, say I do.
I do.
Do you recognize the call of God to be God’s people always?
I do.
Do you embrace the way of Jesus in faith and ministry?
I do
Do you accept the nurture of the Holy Spirit who renews your spirit each day?
I do.
Do you accept and embrace others who seek a liberating faith in God?
I do.
In renewing your baptismal vows,
remember your Baptism as a mark of acceptance
and welcome into the care of Christ’s church
where you may begin again your Christian faith and life.
A Unison Prayer:
O God, we rejoice in your grace, given and received.
We thank you that you claim us,
that you wash us, strengthen us, and guide us,
that you empower us to live a life worthy of our calling.
In the way of Jesus, make us as water in a dry and thirsty world.
Establish us to be places of refreshment.
Root us and nurture us in love,
that with all your people, that we may rightly and justly serve you.
Fill us with your fullness
that our lives may overflow in service and love. Amen.
Benediction:
Thank you, God, for blessing us with memories of Jesus’ baptism and ours.
Thank you for removing our reluctance, doubt, and fears,
for replacing them with courage and commission.
We go forth with your calling, direction, and blessing. Amen.
Renewal based on the service: Seeking Higher Ground, Service Prayers for Baptism of Christ Sunday was written by the Rev. Rosemary McCombs Maxey, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and is retired clergy and a member of Fellowship Congregational United Church of Christ, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Further Resources: https://www.daretodoubt.org/cults
Let’s set aside the task of defining what a cult is and instead focus on recognizing how cultic groups operate.
The following questions are adapted from a checklist developed by Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., Executive Director of International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). This list is not a diagnostic tool. It is only meant to help you analyze for yourself whether you may have cause for concern based on common patterns found in cultic groups.
• Does your group show unquestioning commitment to its leader, alive or dead?
• Are doubts and questions discouraged or punished?
• Are mind-altering techniques such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, and sleep deprivation or overworking used in excess (which, unwittingly or not, often serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leadership)?
• Does the leadership dictate how members should think, act, and feel? How they should dress, where they should live, and whom they should marry?
• Does the group feel they’re on a special mission to save humanity? Do they see their leader as a special being or an avatar?
• Does the group have an us-versus-them mentality?
• Does the leadership induce feelings of shame or guilt in order to influence or control members? Often this is often done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
• Does the group require members to cut ties with family and friends, or to radically alter the personal goals and activities members had before they joined?
• Is the group preoccupied with bringing in new members and/or making money?
• Do you fear backlash to yourself or others if you leave—or even consider leaving—the group?
If you answered ‘yes’ to some of these questions, it does not automatically mean you are in a cult. We acknowledge the subjectivity of words like “excessive” and “radical.” What’s considered excessive one person may seem like not enough to someone else. Trust yourself. What’s true for others does not have to be true for you.
Where Is the Line Between Destructive and Healthy?
That line may be different for every person. You are the one responsible for you. It’s important to emphasize that not all groups are harmful. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish whether a religion or organization is destructive or not. There is what Steven Hassan, leading cult expert and founder of Freedom of Mind Resource Center, calls an Influence Continuum, a spectrum of healthy and unhealthy influence:
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 