Senior Pastor Archives - Christian Fellowship United Church of Christ

God, Disability, and the Church

“The primary problem for the church is not how to “accommodate” disabled persons. The problem is a disabling theology that functionally denies inclusion and justice for many of God’s children. Much of church theology and practice—including the Bible itself—has often been dangerous for persons with disabilities. The prejudice, hostility, and suspicion toward people with disabilities cannot be dismissed simply as relics of an unenlightened past. Christians today continue to interpret Scripture and spin theologies that reinforce negative stereotypes, support social and environmental segregation, and mask the lived realities of people with disabilities.” – Nancy Eiesland, PhD, author of The Disabled God

In her book The Disabled God, Nancy Eiesalnd works to advance a theology for people who are differently abled—in mind and in body, without loosing sight of the God who God is not hungry for power and control over creation but invites creation to create and share what Michale Welker calls “overlapping spheres of interdependence and creative responsibility.”

She writes to those who are not simply people waiting on God’s miraculous hands to make straight limbs that have grown weak; but those who struggle everyday with ability—and those who love them.

She writes to those who are not simply people waiting on God’s miraculous hand to bring sight to eyes that have never beheld a rainbow in the sky; but those who struggle everyday with sight—and those who love them.

She writes to those who are not simply people waiting on God’s miraculous hand to allow melodious sonnets to awaken ears that have never heard sound; but those who struggle everyday with hearing—and those who love them.

Eiesland proclaims the emancipatory presence of the disabled God, and encourages communities of faith to imagine wholeness and justice for every single person. She writes, “Like a faithful Jew who had conscientiously opened the door for Elijah each Seder and spun images of the majestic beauty of a Messiah who would shout out an order and the universe would tremble, I had waited for a mighty revelation of God. But my epiphany bore little resemblance to the God I was expecting or the God of my dreams. I saw God in a sip-puff wheelchair, that is, the chair used mostly by quadriplegics enabling them to maneuver by blowing and sucking on a straw-like device. Not an omnipotent, self-sufficient God, but neither a pitiable, suffering servant….I recognized the incarnate Christ in the image of those judged not feasible, unemployable, with questionable quality of life. Here was God for me.”

——-

“As a community of Christ we believe that all persons are children of God, created in God’s image, and affirm the inherent value, worth and dignity of all races, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, and gender identities, without regard to one’s marital status, family structure, faith and educational background, economic and social standing, mental and physical ability, military or civilian status. No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.

In the prophetic tradition of the progressive United Church of Christ, we extravagantly welcome all people into the full life, membership, leadership, mission, fellowship, worship, and sacraments of this church, and invite all to bear the responsibilities, blessings and joys of membership, ministry and life in this church. Recognizing that we are an increasingly diverse culture and that there are differences among us in private belief and interpretation of sacred scriptures, we covenant, as the community of Christ, to work and serve the Lord together in this church.”

–Christian Fellowship Congregational Church, ONA/A2A Statement

Jesus Didn’t Reject People…

At Christian Fellowship, this is not just a tag line. We mean it so much that this message greets everyone who comes to our church campus. We invite you to come and experience it for yourself any Sunday at 5:00 pm for our Evening Jazz Vespers, at 10:30 for our Morning Worship, or on Wednesday Evening at 6PM for our Fellowship Meal and Religious Education Programs.

Since 1887 Christian Fellowship has been on the cutting edge of progressive, inclusive, justice and witness-oriented ministries in the City of San Diego.

We believe that a living faith in Jesus Christ demands not only righteous living but a faithful engagement with the issues and challenges of our world. In the past, this has meant things like a national leadership role in the pre-Civil War Abolition Movement, active engagement in the struggle for women’s suffrage and the ordination of women, and very lively involvement in the Civil Rights movement. We are proud of our history, but not chained to it. Our faith calls us ever forward, particularly as we think about ecological justice issues, racial justice, homelessness and immigration concerns as a border community.

We believe that God’s Spirit calls us to work for the rights and dignity of all people, believing that God’s image is reflected in human variety and diversity. One of the ways that we express this belief is that since 2017 we have been an Open and Affirming and Accessible to ALL church, welcoming persons who are differently-abled, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender into full participation, leadership and ministry of our growing congregation.

Christian Fellowship Congregational Church UCC is a progressive and inclusive community of believers, and we believe by faith that there is a place here for you!

JAMES H. CONE #JamesConeWasRight

Earlier this year, on a six-acre site overlooking the State Capitol in Alabama, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened to the public. The country’s only memorial dedicated to remember the thousands of black lives that were cut short by state supported terrorism–lynching.

That very same day, the Reverend Traci Blackmon, Executive Minister of the United Church of Christ for Justice and Witness, described to a nearly all white crowd gathered at the International House on the campus of the University of San Diego her recent pre-opening visit to the memorial as a powerful witness to a horrific history.
The holograms, the 800 steel monuments carrying the names of more than 4,400 people killed between 1877 and 1950, and the life-like statues recall America’s greatest sin against Black America–black blood crying out from the ground. The terror of lynching in this country is a sin that the

The Rev. Dr. James Hal Cone called the country to reckon with injustice whenever he spoke from pulpits and platforms, or wrote from his professorial desk at Union Theological Seminary in the City New York. He named lynching as modern crucifixion and further connected lynching with mass incarceration–and called upon white Christians in particular to see their complicity in the state-sanctioned murder of their black siblings.

On the opening weekend of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in the small hours of the morning, Dr. Cone, the author of the ground-breaking theological masterpiece, The Cross and the Lynching Tree and more than 11 other books (including a posthumous memoir entitled, Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody) and 150 articles, went home to be with the Lord.

Dr. Cone was a distinguished professor of systematic theology and prophetic voice who boldly declared, in a field dominated by white men who were advancing the thinking of other dead white men–that God is not only the side of the oppressed, but that “God is Black [and] Jesus is Black.” Cone’s uniquely pitched voice, rising and falling like a masterful preacher, was the first to critique the dominating presence of whiteness in the theological academy, and in so doing forced the academy to accept what Black folk had been saying, singing and praying on slave plantations over 400 years ago and in Black Church across the country–“Yes God is real, for I can feel, him in my soul!”

In 1969 Cone wrote his first book, Black Theology and Black Power, in a makeshift office space in his brother’s AME church. Cecil Cone, like his brother was a theologian and AME preacher who by the age of 16 had been appointed by the bishop to his own church. It was in that safe safe that Dr James Cone wrote with righteous rage about need to celebrate blackness and faith in Jesus. In a lecture given at Union Theological Seminary, where he spent nearly 50 years teaching, he recalled writing Black Theology and Black Power from 7AM to Midnight every day except on Sunday, and how the spirituals and the blues keeping him company throughout his writing journey.

In God of the Oppressed Cone argued, as forcefully as he did in his previous work, that American has developed a insensitivity to Black suffering, and rendered white theology bankrupt in its refusal to see how the structures of systemic violence and racism embedded in the very fabric of this country consistently pushed Black folks to the margins of society. Cone not only pushed the black church–but he challenged the white church to join God in the struggle for black liberation in this country. He consistently questioned “Why didn’t we hear from the so-called nonviolent Christians when black people were violently enslaved, violently lynched, and violently ghettoized in the name of freedom and democracy?”, demanding a response that would side with a God who always stands on the side of freedom and liberation and against oppressors and oppression. Critiquing the Black Church Cone said, “You go to almost any black church today, and you don’t hear spirituals anymore. What you hear is this happy, ‘I’m prosperous’ kind of stuff. I’m not for that. You don’t come to church to be entertained. You come to wrestle with your spirit.”

Cone wrestled throughout his life and developed the case for Black Liberation Theology. It was “the voices of black blood crying out” from the ground that compelled him to never forget their fight for freedom, even amid the whip and the lash, and make it his own. Cone’s Black Liberation Theology was most visibly articulated in the preaching and teaching of the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr, pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Wright who led largest church in the United Church of Christ for over 36 years encouraged congregants like Common, Barack and Michelle Obama, to exercise their faith as people who are “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” In breaking with traditional theology, Cone made the Black experience the backbone of his Christian thinking– using slave narratives, the spirituals, the blues, and the empowering prophetic witness of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. As Cone’s thinking matured he began to push his writing and teaching to wrestle with the religio-cultural experiences of marginalized voices like James Baldwin–remarking in a Huffington Post interview with former student Paul Raushenbush in 2015: “God is red. God is brown. God is yellow…I don’t use blackness as a way to exclude anyone.”

Cone, born in Fordyce, Ark, was a devoted son of the Black Church–and it was to the Black Church that he committed his full life. Raised in the New Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bearden, Cone’s preachers during his formative years preached about a God who was fundamentally on the side of the oppressed; a God who deeply cared about the conditions of the poor and marginalized people–especially black people whose backs were broken from having picked cotton all day, and whose fingers bled from having woven reed basket under southern suns, and whose children, barefooted and often barely clothed, were indeed the powerful hope and dream of the enslaved.

Cone embodied the hope of the slave, and in 1958 and 1961 respectively, earned a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from Philander Smith and Garrett Theological Seminary. He then went on to earn the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from Northwestern University in 1963 and 1965. In My Soul Looks Back, Cone asks, “What is the relationship between my training as a theologian and the black struggle for freedom? For what reason has God allowed a poor black boy from Bearden to become a professional systematic theologian?” He concluded, “As I struggled with these questions…I could not escape the overwhelming conviction that God’s Spirit was calling me to do what I could for the enhancement of justice in the world, especially on behalf of my people.”

Cone lived a passionate, spirit-filled life, and yet his most enduring legacy is not to be found in the intellectual library he left behind, but the lived experience of freedom and hope by Christians of every color and hue. Cone contended that “any talk about God that fails to make God’s liberation of the oppressed its starting point is not Christian [and] Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in a society is not Christ’s message.” Although Cone definitatively functioned within an African American Christian context, his message of love, liberation and justice for all is one that continues to resonates across countless cultural, ideological and even religious boundaries.

Bro. Rev. Dr. Cone, thank you for allowing the fire of God’s Spirit to burn so freely and ferociously within you. By your witness you have taught us to live not only unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian, but you have taught us that liberation is not only freedom from evil, but freedom to love. Well done, thy good and faithful servant. Rest in peace, and Rise in POWER!

Webcast of the Funeral Service for Dr. Cone

Inward Spiritual Disciplines: Fasting

In the Gospel of Matthew, after the Transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of James, John and Peter, Jesus walks into a nearby crowd that is gathered by the mountain. While there a Father finds his way to Jesus, desperate for a divine intervention from the Master Healer. The father’s son is not well, and suffers greatly from epileptic episodes that causes him to fall into bodies of water and open flames. The father confesses to Jesus that he has brought his son to the Disciples, but they were unable to heal him—so he is bringing the concern of his son directly to Jesus. Jesus performs a miracle in that moment and sets the young boy and his worried father free. After watching the healing of the young lad, the Disciples ask Jesus why they weren’t able to heal him. Jesus’ response to them is somewhat stunning. He says that they, the Disciples, were unable to perform the healing because they lacked in faith, and did not compliment their lives with fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21).

Biblical Fasting is a Spiritual Discipline that must always begin with a sacred purpose and intention. It is one of several Inward Spiritual Disciplines designed to stretch and mature us in the faith. Throughout the biblical cannon there 77 different references to fasting, and among those who practiced the Spiritual Discipline were Moses, Esther, David, Anna, Jesus and many others. In each of these instances those who fasted, abstained from eating foods of any kind, and sometimes abstained from drinking water too. While in our modern world we have stretched the idea of fasting to not find itself “confined to the question of food and drink…[but also] to include abstinence from anything” that keeps from closer relationship with God–mobile devices, driving cars, spending money, etcetera [1]. For the purposes of this discussion, fasting is defined as abstiaining from food (and sometimes water) for spiritual/religious purposes.

It must be noted that fasting is not a Spiritual Discipline that stands isolated from other religious traditions. Some form of fasting, for spiritual purposes, is practiced by nearly every religious tradition in the world. In the Muslim tradition the season of Ramadan is established as a time for fasting. During this season Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, every day for a month. In the Jewish and Hindu religious traditions fasting is also encouraged and takes place on holy days like Yom Kippur (Jewish) and Purnima (Hindu). This is to say that fasting is not solely a Christian practice, but that it is a religious practice that is used throughout the world to discover and renews one’s connection with the Architect of the Universe.

In practicing the Spiritual Discipline of fasting within the Christian religious tradition a fast must begin and end with God, and the fast itself must be littered with prayer. To fast one must have a clear intention, from the outset, that it is designed to seek union/communion with God, otherwise the fast is simply a missed meal. In my own practice of this discipline I discovered a clear difference between fasting and missed meals. There are often days when I arrive to my study early in the morning to begin the work of the pastorate having not eaten breakfast. I settle in and begin praying, writing sermons and prayers, and exegeting Biblical texts—and hear my stomach growl. It is often late in the afternoon and I realize I have gone the entire day without eating. While I have been consuming myself with very important and life-giving holy work, the fact that I have missed meals does not make that time a fast—because I did not begin my day with a clear intention to fast. The truth of the matter is that in my zeal for holy work, I actively chose not eat–which is very different than fasting. Fasting in this regard is not about missing meals, but fasting, as Spiritual Discipline, is about seeking God. A Christian fasting must be led by the Holy Spirit, and have holy purposes and intentions in mind from the very beginning. Donald S. Whitney writes,

[w]ithout a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience about willpower and endurance.[2]

It cannot be said enough that fasting, as a Spiritual Discipline, is not about dieting, losing weight, preparing for a medical appointment, or presenting religious superiority or soleminty. Jesus says, “And when you fast, don’t put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting…When you fast, brush your hair and wash your face. Then you won’t look like you are fasting to people, but only to your Father who is present in that secret place.”[3] Fasting, when practiced as a Christian Spiritual Discipline, is about holiness, seeking godliness and transformation into the likeness and character of Jesus while still being present to fulfill the ordinary demands of one’s day.[4]

John Wesley, often hailed as a father of Methodism, would refuse ministerial ordination to those who would not subscribe to the Inward Spiritual Discipline of Fasting twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays.

What happens when is fast is that we place our bodies under submission, and utilize the roaring, groaning and churning of our stomachs (bodies) to remind us of the holy purpose for which we fast and reset our minds and hearts on things that are holy and just.[5] Fasting is not a difficult Spiritual Discipline to practice, and to be sure there are no hard and fast rules for the Christian on fasting–Jesus encourages it as a regular practice of our faith and offers in his silence, a freedom to practice it reguarly. The biblical text invites us to practice the discipline to mature and grow in holiness as did the many who fasted before us.[6] To be sure, when Jesus spoke to the Disciples about their inability to bring about healing in the body of the young epileptic lad, Jesus expressed the need for the disciples to compliment their lives with fasting and prayer. There are many reasons Christians are led by the Holy Spirit to the Spiritual Discipline of fasting, a few of them are:

A desire to strengthen one’s prayer life
To seek Divine guidance and direction for one’s life
To express grief and loss
To seek deliverance and protection for life
To express Repentance and Reconciliation with God
To humble oneself
To express concern for the work of God
To minister to the needs of others
To overcome temptation and rededicate oneself to God
To express love, devotion and worship of God

If you have not practiced this Spiritual Discipline before, I want to encourage you to try it. Maybe you’ve practiced it years ago, but had not given it much thought until now, I want to encourage you to try it anew. Maybe you’ve witness the extremes of fasting and said, “…that’s not for me!” I want to encourage you to prayerfully reconsider it, as spiritual practice worthy of testing out and experimenting with; just as you’ve tested the Inward Spiritual Disciplines of Prayer and Meditation in previous weeks. In your discernment time, before you begin the practice of this discipline, ask the Lord to reveal to you a clear purpose and direction as it relates to your fast. What do you need? What are the needs of your community? your church? the neighborhood? the nation? the world? Perhaps you’ll begin the practice by setting aside a few hours on a certain day once a week. Maybe those few hours will lead to its practice a couple of times a week, from dawn to dusk. Perhaps that will then lead to a yearlong weekly commitment with a Sunday School class, men’s/women’s ministry or choir group. Whenever it is that you are led, or pulled by the Spirit, to begin the practice ease your way into it —and do so with godly intentionality and holy purpose. And who know, perhaps the sacred Scriptures we read and recite each week just might be true and the God who sees in secret will reward publically for the inward work on spiritual lives.

Some things will only change when we led by the Spirit, just like Jesus, into seasons of prayer and fasting.[7]

Faithfully,

Dr. Hill

[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Press, 1960), vol. 1, 38.

[2] Donald S. Whitney, 199.

[3] Matthew 6:16-18, CEB.

[4] Romans 12:2, CEB.

[5] Philippians 4:8, CEB.

[7] Matthew 16:21, NRSV.

Inward Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

Over the door of my childhood home hangs a beautiful piece of framed art that defines the theology of prayer for our family. It is a simple piece of art with only twelve words, all written in a beautiful script. Like most of us who purposefully place pieces of art on the walls of our home, we notice their beauty occasionally—but less and less as the months and years go by. Soon it becomes part of the wall and our eyes linger less, which in turns makes our minds and thoughts linger even less. I suppose that piece has been hanging on the wall of our family home for nearly 20 years now, but this fall I paused to take notice of its beauty, simplicity and the theology that is speaks to those who leave the serenity of our family home to walk once again in world.

"Prayer is less about Changing the World and more about Changing Ourselves" — “Prayer is less about Changing the World and more about Changing Ourselves”

Richard Foster affirms this theology of prayer as writes, “[t]o pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives.”[1] Prayer is fundamentally an act of change. In prayer, even before one word is spoken aloud, or within our hearts, we give life to a desire to be changed in the act of bowing our heads, lowering our eyes, and in clasping our hands. To enter into a posture of prayer is to fundamentally confess a willingness to be changed by prayer—to confess a need to live into a different reality than what is present.

None of us come into the knowledge and wisdom of God knowing how to pray. Even the disciples, after having been withJesus himself for a number a years—still needed to be taught how pray and so they asked the Good Teacher, “Lord, teach us how to pray.”[2] Prayer is a learned Spiritual Discipline and therefore prayer must be practiced again and again. A South African minister once said,

“Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures and talking about it is very good, but it won’t teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice. I might listen for a year to a professor of music playing the most beautiful music, but that won’t teach me to play an instrument.”[3]

The Holy Spirit is our tenured Professor of Prayer. Her job is to teach and instruct the people of faith how to pray, and to beckon us all in an uninterrupted life of prayer. Scottish Theologian P. T. Forsyth, who penned a wonderful book on prayer entitled The Soul of Prayer observed that

“Prayer is to religion what original research is to science.”

If we are to unearth new discoveries, reach new zeniths in faith we must commit ourselves fully to engage in this life-giving work of original research with the Holy Spirt serving as our Primary Professor and Research Advisor.

What is true is that developing a consistent prayer is not as easy as it may seem. There are so many things and activities in our world which constantly seek to pull us away from the practice of this Inward Spiritual Discipline. But with time and commitment, a healthy consistent prayer life can be achieved, developed and nurtured. Nearly two years I ago began a weekly practice of gathering, on a conference call, with a group of about 50 African American pastors at 4:20AM (PST) every Sunday morning for prayer.[4] It has been a tremendous commitment to say the least—but each Saturday night I prepare for the call by checking my weekly alarm, ensuring my phone is charged, and volume loud enough to wake me up. I then turn over to rest comfortably until I am pulled away by the Spirit for that weekly early morning prayer call. On the occasions when I fail to pull myself from rest to prayer, it shows in the pulpit—and on the Sundays when I rise to the occasion—it too shows in the pulpit. What I can attest is that the weekly early morning discipline makes a significant difference in my pulpit; prayer indeed is less about changing others, and more about changing us.

Prayer, like all other Spiritual Disciplines, is not something that is to be mastered but it is a discipline that is to be practiced. To be sure there will be good days, and not so good days—but the measure of one’s success is not about good verses bad, but consistent practice and persistence to the very end.

Faithfully,

Dr. Hill

[1] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 33.

[2] Luke 11:1, Common English Bible

[3] Andrew Murray, as quoted in Christian Today, February 5, 1990, 38.

[4] Bishop John E. Guns(Florida), Dr. Victor S. Couzens(Florida), and Dr. William Curtis(Pennsylvannia) convenue a weekly prayer call for Pastors and Clergy each Sunday at 4:20AM PST. The number to dial is 712-432-0370, the access code is 262425. #PastorsPray

God, Disability, and the Church

Jesus Didn’t Reject People…

JAMES H. CONE #JamesConeWasRight

Inward Spiritual Disciplines: Fasting

Inward Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

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