I have been unsure what words I might offer that could be of value in this national moment. I considered just leaving it be and yet conversations over this weekend with women in my life and in our congregation have revealed how gutted, violated, and full of fear many of our sisters and siblings feel right now about the overturning of Roe v Wade. My silence as a male pastor seems inappropriate. And since one side of this equation claims more publicly and vociferously Christian scriptural justification and language for their position, my silence as a Christian pastor seems inappropriate as well.

So, I want to share my response to a Christian word that I’ve been hearing people in the pro-life movement use in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. They’ve been saying that they “rejoice” in the outcome. Honestly, it makes me a little sick to my stomach when I hear it. It’s a word used in some of the most beautiful of our sacred texts – “rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4), “This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24), “I rejoice in God’s salvation” (I Samuel 2:1) “So you have sorrow now but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice” (John 16:22), to name just a few.

Rejoicing is something we do in relation to God whose wisdom far exceeds our own, not in response to a decision that intends to protect certain life while threatening others. Rejoicing is something that we do when encountering God’s mercy for all, not when a court’s decision removes human rights for one segment of our population in favor of another. Rejoicing is something we do when witnessing God’s win-win solutions to our terrible human predicaments not when those in power have decided that some must lose in order for others to win. Rejoicing in the Bible is often done when the poor are lifted up and the lost found, not when a decision has been made in which the poor will suffer the most. Rejoicing is what we do when prisoners are freed not when a whole new population of criminals is about to be created. Rejoicing is something we do when we realize that loving our enemies, as Jesus commanded us, actually creates friends not when we witness our defeated enemies gutted, violated and full of fear.

The use of the word “rejoice” reveals how deeply many in the pro-life movement have come to identify their perspective as God’s perspective which across human history has spelled profound trouble for so many. It’s a remarkable identification for conservative Protestant Christians to make given how authoritative they claim the Bible to be in their lives. Nothing is revealed in our sacred word that delineates when life begins much less a definitive answer to the question of abortion. It’s the same with homosexuality. If you had never read the Bible, you’d think our scriptures were filled with injunctions against same-sex relationships and abortion and yet the references to both are scant, nearly nonexistent. And yet they “rejoice” as though this decision is God’s, while so many of God’s children despair.

So, sisters in Christ – brothers and our nonbinary siblings too – I am sorry if you are in despair right now, grieving what is a withdrawal of fundamental liberties that had been ensured for you. I am sorry if you are fearful and anxious because of the power wielded by the highest court of our land. I am sorry if you as a Christian are wearied by the way our religion is misrepresented time and again. I’d encourage you to bring it all to God in prayer. Let Her hear your anger and fear, your frustration and raw emotions, your questions about what is to be done, remembering that God’s Spirit is still very much active in this world and with your assent can use your life (your mind, your heart, your strength, your creativity) as a conduit of goodness and grace for the sake of others.

And if/when that happens, I hope you rejoice in the miracle of God’s loving work through you. I hope you rejoice to see how love wins and are glad in it.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Will Burhans

Reflection and Renewal

“Love one another… for I am making all things new!” ~Jesus

Everyone is warmly invited to FCCW’s 182^nd annual meeting on Sunday, May 15^th, 20221 immediately after worship in the sanctuary and on Livestream. The agenda includes an update on strategic plan initiatives, expressions of gratitude and thanks,  and remarks and reflections from the Moderator and Lead Pastor.

Please take the time to review the 2021-2022 annual report (May 15, 2022 (Our 182nd Annual Meeting) in advance of the meeting. It includes current information on church membership, reports of blessings and struggles from sustaining and living ministries, minutes from two congregational meetings (which we will vote whether to approve), and much more. At the meeting, we will remember those whom we have lost in our immediate and extended church family (see page 7 in the report and be sure to let us know if anyone special to you is missing).

The annual meeting is an important moment in the life of the church where we take stock of our work and service and reflect on the beauty of our relationships with God and one another. See you there!

With gratitude,

Sarah Gallop, Moderator

Marianne Carter, Clerk

On behalf of the Leadership Team

The theologian Karl Rahner wrote about “the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable.”

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for success, victory, expertise, accomplishment and achievement in this life.

It means that we should hold them lightly knowing that even the greatest of these will not satisfy.

This doesn’t suggest that we are neurotic.

It suggests that deep down, at the core of us, we know there is something more.

This doesn’t require us to decrease our desires for what we can attain, although at times acceptance of “what is” can be critical for our mental health.

It requires that we increase our desire for the Unattainable One, for God, understanding that the seed of eternity planted in our souls is ultimately what the yearning is for.

Here is Rahner’s full quote: 

“In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we come to understand that here in this life all symphonies remain unfinished.”

The restlessness, the yearning, the torment, is not a problem in our lives to eliminate but a friend reminding us of what is to come.

—Rev. Will Burhans

0ver 400 people poured into our sanctuary one afternoon this summer for the funeral of Mitch, a 25 year-old who died after a 4-year struggle with cancer. His family shared with me the blog he had written over the course of his final year. It was at once beautiful and crass, poignant and blunt, insightful and silly; all told, a remarkable offering of himself to others facing cancer diagnosis.

One of his posts, “Wedding Week”, speaks of his preparations for marrying the love of his life, a woman he affectionately called Squid, known by others as Sydney. He ends the post by saying “I can’t wait to start living the rest of my life with Squid.”

The rest of his life would be 3 months.

Sydney gave one of the most moving eulogies I’ve heard in 20 years of ministry. Still clear and articulate through her weeping, she spoke of her love for her husband. She said that she couldn’t imagine how painful it was going to be to live her life without him and yet she would endure such pain and worse for the 2 years of love and 3 months of marriage that they shared.

Sydney nor Mitch were particularly religious and yet Sydney articulated something that sits as the very beating heart of our faith; that for some reason, in this existence, inherent in the experience of love is pain… and yet, in the end, love prevails.

The archetypal visual imprint of this reality in the Christian psyche is the cross.

Whether Mitch and Sydney “knew Christ” in the traditional sense is largely semantics. That they knew the enduring power of Love is apparent and their lives – both this one and the next – are the better for it.

If someone you know is facing a cancer diagnosis you might want to check out Mitch Lortz’s blog at www.seriouslycancer.com  

I Am or Not

Moses once asked God “Who are you?” God said “I Am Who I Am” or translated better yet “I Am Who Am”.

The Human Being created in I Am Who Am’s image at first knew pure subjectivity and could say with God “I Too Am Who Am.”

The writer of Genesis imagined such unitive consciousness as dwelling in a beatific garden.

At some point a split emerged in human consciousness between the self and others; be that God, creation, or other people. Among the consequences, they came to believe that Who They Were was not granted them in grace by I Am Who Am but had to be established over and against Who They Were Not.

As a result, they became I Am Separate.

The writer of Genesis imagined it as a terrible banishment from the beatific garden, replete with a fiery sword-wielding angel barring the way back.

The spiritual journey of a lifetime then involves the passage back from I Am Separate to I Am Who Am.

Compassion and care for others as oneself, human and non-human alike, is one path that can get us back there: another’s hurt is my hurt, another’s people my people.

Community building and commitment is another: my separate I Am becomes a much broader I Am.

Silence and stillness, yet another: I relinquish all thoughts and identifiers and desires – even if just for 20 minutes a day – and I Simply Am Who Am.

A combination of the three is a spiritual exercise routine necessary to challenge the fiery sword-wielding angel that keeps us from the beatific garden where ultimately we belong.

The political right stands against abortion saying a woman’s right to choose cannot be valued over the life of a fetus/baby. In response, the political left says “government laws should protect not infringe upon my inalienable rights.”

The Christian right has little trouble reconciling their Christian faith with a gun-rights stance. The Christian left is baffled if not angered by what seems so obviously inconsistent with the faith.

To the question – WWJD? The Christian right is clear – Jesus absolutely stands on our side!

The Christian left has little trouble reconciling their Christian faith with a woman’s-right-to-choose stance. The Christian right is baffled if not angered by what seems so obviously inconsistent with the faith.

To the question – WWJD? The Christian left is clear – Jesus absolutely stands on our side!

Neither side is correct. Jesus doesn’t stand on sides at all. Jesus hangs. He hangs crucified between our polarized positions, pinned down and stretched out by our righteous certainties.

The only absolute that we should be claiming from our relationship with Jesus is our absolute need to approach it all with humility, assuming that God’s truth lies somewhere beneath.

The best way to try and discern that truth is to do so together.

– Rev. Will

Chickens are sentient beings with complex brains, individual particularities, social lives, emotions, and the capacity to suffer

Most all of our eggs, even many labeled “organic” in the stores, are derived from factory farmed chickens called Layers who suffer mightily at the hands of industrial agriculture. Many know this but keep the knowledge just the other side of conscious.

Christianity declares that Jesus took suffering upon himself to spare the suffering of others. We flip the cross on its head when we cause the suffering of others to benefit of ourselves.

Does this apply to animal as well as human “others”? Animals we domesticate as well as animals we eat? I’m not sure why it wouldn’t.

I respect those who become vegan to refuse companies that make animals suffer for cheap and easy products. Personally, I’m not quite at that decision yet but grappling with it this summer.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the 2-dozen eggs that Rev. Judy brought to me after her New Hampshire vacation. They come from chickens who live happy free-pasture lives at Meadowstone Farms in a town named after our Lord’s place of birth – Bethlehem.

Rev. Will Burhans

July 18, 2019

The third season of the hit Netflix show, “Stranger Things”, is out.  It’s about a shadowy violent presence breaking forth from an alternate universe to spread pain and ruin in our own.

The Demigorgon accomplishes its nefarious purpose by literally absorbing people into its hideous and monstrous form becoming ever more voluminous and destructive.

The show is set in the 1980’s with a group of young teens as the heroes who fight to vanquish the Demigorgon. For those of us who grew up in that era the show captures well an 80’s yearning for some higher purpose beyond roaming the malls, watching MTV, and sporting bad hair-dos.

But the story-line of “Stranger Things” is a complete reversal of the story-line of salvation according to Christian theology which declares that as hideous and monstrous forms arise in this world (oppressive governments, unjust corporate practices, earth devouring technologies, our own overzealous egos, etc…), there’s a hidden power breaking forth from another to spread love, healing and restoration.

God accomplishes God’s benevolent purposes by absorbing people – no matter their social station or hair-dos – into Christ’s presence, inviting them to be the hands and feet and heart of the Loving Savior in the world.

The strangest thing is how hooked we are as a country – despite our Christian roots – by the belief that domination, retribution and violence will redeem us from evil, when the truth of the matter, told in such true movies like “Selma”, “Gandhi”, “Mandela” and “Dead Man Walking”, is that the breaking forth of love in the face of evil is the only path of redemption.

July 11, 2019

Jesus tangled with politics when he healed a stranger on the Sabbath.

Jesus tangled with politics when he shamed a few “good” men who were preparing – rocks in hand – to exact justice on a woman caught in adultery.

Jesus tangled with politics when he submitted himself to capital punishment by crucifixion, revealing the depraved injustice of Rome’s renowned justice system.

Many say “be careful tangling church and politics!” I agree we should be careful.

But “careful” does not mean keeping the church a place of personal spirituality and silenced on broader issues of human welfare.

When Jesus, the Son of God – a politically loaded emperor’s title, btw – offered us examples for how we should be, he pointed directly, time and time again, to how we treat the foreigner and the stranger. Herding groups of them into detention centers to keep them apart from us is antithetical to His gospel.

Won’t you be careful tangling church and politics with me and Rev. Judy and consider coming on Friday night at 7pm to the steps of the State House to hold vigil for an end to our country’s detention camps? We’ll be joined by thousands and thousands of others across our country all calling for the same thing. Email me if you are interested and for more information see www.lightsforliberty.org