Rev. Jane featured in Yakima Herald-Republic article: “Connecting with Jesus”

Hello, all. Check out today’s Yakima Herald-Republic. Rev. Jane was featured in an article called Connecting with Jesus. It’s the third part of a series called “Faces of Jesus” and features ten local people’s views of Jesus, including Rev Jane’s. I’ve excerpted her part below. Click on the title to read the entire article.

Connecting with Jesus

Photos by SARA GETTYS
Story by ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Today, a range of community members — from City Hall, church, jail, Starbucks, the Union Gospel Mission — share their personal beliefs about Jesus.Some are wrestling with hardships or their pasts. Some are in need. A few are progressive. A couple don’t believe. Most pray.

With a few exceptions, they are people who by and large aren’t usually in the pages of the newspaper. In it today, they describe their relationship — or lack thereof — with Jesus. They discuss their struggles, convictions, hopes.

[...]

The Pastor
Jane Newall

Jane Newall does not put Jesus in a box.“There is no box,” says the 37-year-old founding pastor of Yakima’s Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church. “Jesus is not stagnant.”

Newall doesn’t have a static view of Jesus. Instead, she believes he is present in each person.

“Whenever we help someone else, we’re helping Jesus directly,” she says.

Likewise, she doesn’t have a visual image of Jesus: “I think that helps me to expand who Jesus is. Jesus has many faces, not just one.”

“I know, for some people, a tangible image is what they need to meditate on to relate to God,” she says. “I don’t need that as much. If I can see or experience Jesus in everyone, as opposed to one particular type of person, that is closer, I think, to what he wants for us to do.”

“It’s a living process. We can help Jesus come into people’s lives and participate in that process.”

While Newall believes Jesus is present in each person, she also believes the Son of God will return to Earth in the flesh — as a woman, the Daughter of God.

“I believe God is male and female and a whole lot more,” she says. “God created us — female and male — in God’s image. There’s a prototype of God we haven’t seen.”

She points to Genesis 1:27, which reads: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Then, God blessed them. Both.

[...]

Lord Jesus be born in us tonight

the communion liturgy from our Christmas eve service:

Let us affirm the love that God has for us — a love that was not, and cannot, be hindered.
We thank God for coming unto us; we praise God for Christ’s birth into our world.
It was cold and Mary and Joseph were fearful.
But that did not stop the birth.
They had no place fitting for their child.
But that did not stop the birth.
And today we are still sometimes cold and fearful, certainly poor in many ways.
We often feel that we have no place and are unclear about what God wants of us.
But these things did not stop the birth of Jesus then, nor will they do it now. To all who are open to God’s leading, God comes.
Lord Jesus be born in us tonight.

love was visible in a child

the call to worship from our Christmas Eve service (shared with the Unitarians):

On this day new joy entered our world.
May we try by our lives to share joy with others each day.
On this day fresh hope entered our world.
May we bring hope to those who are heavily burdened.
On this day love was visible in a child;
May we show our love for others in concrete ways of friendship and service.
On this day the promise of peace on earth was proclaimed.
May we be lovers of peace and demonstrate this love by reflective responses to life’s challenges and trials.
Son of God, light that shines in the dark, child of joy and peace, help us to come to you and be born anew this holy night.

Welcome to the season of Christmas!

“Tomorrow, I will come” (The Great O Antiphons)

I just found out something cool.

First, have you ever heard of “The Great O Antiphons”? They’re the source of the verses in the hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel. Since the middle ages, they’ve been said or sung at evening prayer, one each per evening, the seven days leading up to Christmas eve. Each verse highlights a title of the Messiah and a prophecy from Isaiah: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Gentiles), and O Emmanuel (O God-with-us).

What’s cool is what you can see when you get to Christmas eve. You’ve just sung “O Emmanuel” (O “God with us”). You look back at the verses you’ve sung each day the previous week, and if you read the first letter of each verse (in Latin), you see the letters e r o c r a s formed: Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia which mean “Tomorrow, I will come.” It’s as if Jesus has just rewarded you with a personal whisper: “Tomorrow, I will come.”

That’s neat. The monks probably arranged it that way, but it’s a wonderful little extra-added sign of their faith (and an inspiration to ours). So, after seven days of praying these antiphons, we too can get to the last day, look back, see the message ero cras and rejoice that the Holy One will be here with us tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Christ will come.

Here are the great O antiphons:
December 17 — O SAPIENTIA: O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.

December 18 — O ADONAI: O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai gave him your law. Come, and with outstretched arm redeem us.

December 19 — O RADIX JESSE: O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.

December 20 — O CLAVIS DAVID: O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no one closes; you close and no one opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

December 21 — O ORIENS: O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

December 22 — O REX GENTIUM: O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all, you are the cornerstone that binds two into one. Come, and save humanity which you fashioned out of clay.

December 23 — O EMMANUEL: O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the nations and their Savior. Come and save us, O Lord our God.

prayer concerns and celebrations (Dec 17)

Please pray this week for the following prayer concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship December 17th:

Concerns.  Prayers for healing for Lou’s friend Marge, for Robyn; safe travel for Sean; special grace for Sue and for Ken; comfort for Steve and for Debbie in the loss of their cats; and love and grace for Moses.  [Long distance addition: prayers for healing for Laura's cousin Kyle]

Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Celebration: Thanksgiving for the gospel concert.

O give thanks unto God, and call upon God’s Name; tell the people what things God has done!  Psalm 105:1

Holy One of many names

the call to worship from Sunday’s worship service:

Let us acknowledge the awesome mystery embodied in every person.
Through us God comes to unique and personal expression.
Let us give thanks for the abundance of life on this earth.
Through it we and all people may be nourished. (MMorwood/adapted)

We pray: Holy One of many names, whose presence we most often recognize only in retrospect, may we be blessed this day. In this season of Advent, may we become more aware of your presentness. May we see you in each other, hear you in the music, hold you, as we give and receive gifts of love. Amen

Welcome to the third week of Advent!

Is Jesus’s family not good enough for James Dobson?

Recently Time magazine published an article written by James Dobson, leader of the group Focus on the Family. The title of the article was Two Mommies Is One Mommy Too Many.

In response, Rev. Jane wrote the following letter to Time Magazine:

Is Jesus’s family not good enough for James Dobson?

Jesus’s great (times 27) grandmothers, Naomi and Ruth, raised Obed. Boaz was a sperm donor.

David’s love for the man Jonathan surpassed his love for a woman.

Biblical scholar Virginia Ramey Mollenkott counted 39 different families and living arrangements in the Bible, of which heterosexual marriage is only one.

We do not know if Jesus had a sexual orientation. He spent time with men and women. The disciple whom Jesus loved lay his head on Jesus’s lap during the last supper.

The prophet John the Baptist came with a message to turn the hearts of parents towards their children. James Dobson’s heart is not turned towards children. He advocates in his books physical violence as a way to discipline a child.

Why would Time magazine publish an article about what is best for children written by such a man?

God’s love is too full to remain abstract (another devotion from Chris Glaser)

Hi, everyone. Here’s another one of my favorite devotions from Chris Glaser’s The Word is Out: Daily Reflections on the Bible for Lesbians and Gay Men. This one’s for December 23rd:

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end…. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:8, 13

A chaplain from Detroit began sobbing as conference songleaders taught us a new song about a young gay man named Kurt. On the night of his death, after a difficult visit with his family, he told a minister, “Love heals.” The story, passed along by word of mouth, inspired a hymn writer to compose a song with that refrain: “Love heals.” The chaplain cried because he was the minister to whom Kurt had confided his final thoughts! He did not know that Kurt’s story now lived in a song.

Long after the Bible is gone, God’s Word of love will serve as a healing balm, overcoming pain, division, suffering, and death. God’s love will transcend all words with which we try to capture and express it.

Anyone who has been in the arms of a lover or by the bedside of a loved one who is dying knows that words can never embody the heights and depths of love, love’s rejoicing and love’s suffering. That’s why God’s Word became flesh, because God’s love is too full to remain abstract and must be incarnated in flesh and blood to touch us.

As Kurt prophesied, “Love heals.”

We have faith and hope in your love, God.

What I went through to meet a biblical scribe

Hi, all. This October, as many of you know, a small group of us (Terry, Kathy, David, me, Deb, and Rev. Jane) studied the Dead Sea Scrolls in preparation for going to see some of them at an exhibit in Seattle. Below is a little piece I wrote about the experience of seeing actual biblical manuscripts. (I originally wrote it for my co-workers at the Writing Center (where I work), and had posted it on our blog there. This was before we had this church blog!) Anyway, hope you enjoy. Laura

(Parts of Psalm 119, found in Cave 11 and dating to the first century.)

I’ve studied biblical languages, taken biblical studies courses, stared at many a facsimile of biblical manuscripts, but there’s nothing as powerful as being in the presence of original ink on original parchment from two thousand plus years ago. So when I heard that a few of the Dead Sea Scrolls were coming to Seattle (to the Pacific Science Center), I knew I had to go see them. And I was really going just to see them. I actually cared less for what these particular fragments were saying or what they meant to modern day textual critics as much as for simply being in their presence.

If you don’t know already, the Dead Sea Scrolls are almost 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, found in remote caves near the Dead Sea in the late 1940s and 1950s. They date from the 250 BCE to about 70 CE* – basically before and during the time of Jesus. Before these discoveries, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated from the early middle ages, around 900 CE (although we do have New Testament manuscripts that go back to the first and second centuries CE). So if you’re a scholar, these discoveries are the finds of the millennium. They do wonders for your ability to tell the accuracy of the received text of the Torah, Prophets, Psalms, etc, as well as for your ability to better understand Christianity and rabbinic Judaism, both of which began just after these manuscripts were placed in these caves.

For me, I’d studied long enough already. So, when I found myself stuck behind clumps of people loitering around the first displays (you know – the ones showing facsimiles of the nearby Qumran settlement’s pottery, textiles, etc), I was frustrated. I figured, “To hec with this stuff! I want to see the scrolls!” So, like a doctor anxious to find the heart attack victim, I weaved my way through the people, hardly glancing at the other exhibits, until I got to the last room — “The Library.” As if I wouldn’t’ve been reverent anyway, the near-darkness told me I was entering a place of ancient human presences.

Be born once more, O Christ, within us (a devotion from Chris Glaser)

Hi, everyone. I’ve been reading Chris Glaser’s The Word is Out: Daily Reflections on the Bible for Lesbians and Gay Men and, well, he’s got some inspiring and empowering stuff in here. I highly recommend it as well as all his books.

Here are his thoughts for yesterday, December 11th:

My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you… — Galatians 4:19

An injury to my back reminded me how a problem in one part of the body affects the whole, causing a generalized malaise. I thought of a man who has always been quick to complain of aches and pains, who nonetheless has outlived the wife who cared for him, and who now depends on a daughter who either fits into the category of codependent or compassionate, depending on who makes the call. The daughter has been severely ill herself, but her father goes on about his own phantom afflictions.

My mind jumped from his body and mine to the Body of Christ, the church. Though it has inflicted real pain upon its lesbian, gay, and bisexual members, it protects those members who are spiritual hypochondriacs: those who claim they will be hurt if we find acceptance in the church. This looks more like codependence than compassion to me.

The pain causing the church’s malaise has been misdiagnosed as homosexuality, when in reality, it is the pain of childbirth: the Body of Christ being formed once more within the church’s womb, a body that includes lesbian, gay, and bisexual members.

Be born once more, O Christ, within us!

prayer concerns and celebrations (Dec 10)

Please pray this week for the following concerns and celebrations brought before God during worship December 10th:

Concerns for lonely and suffering people, for people with cancer (including Jerry’s sister-in-law Darlene, and Josie’s daughter Rose), for people with HIV/AIDS, for the many in the gay community who consider suicide, for Kyle (Laura’s cousin fighting another brain tumor), for extended families, for silent concerns, for the church, for the people of Darfur. [Monday addition: Megan asks for prayer for depression during the holidays, as being without her two children is very hard on her. We'll definitely keep you in our prayers, Megan. Laura]

God, the source of all health: So fill our hearts with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy we may make room for your power to possess us, and gracefully accept your healing of ourselves and those for whom we pray; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Celebrations for those living with HIV/AIDS (particularly Bill and Chris), for someone doing fine now after a suicide attempt, for a generous donation which enabled us to pay some of our back-tithe to the denomination, for this church.

Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all things and fill them with your blessing; you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance. We thank you at all times, in all places, and in all things. Amen.

Clear the way in us, your people

the call to worship from last night’s worship service:

Clear the way. An Advent Litany.

God of surprises, you call us from the narrowness of our traditions to new ways of being church, from the captivities of our culture to creative witness for justice, from the smallness of our horizons to the bigness of your vision.

Clear the way in us, your people, that we might call others to freedom and renewed faith.

Jesus, wounded healer, you call us from preoccupation with our own histories and hurts to daily tasks of peacemaking, from privilege to pilgrimage, from insularity to inclusive community.

Clear the way in us, your people, that we might call others to wholeness and integrity.

Holy, transforming Spirit, you call us from fear to faithfulness, from clutter to clarity, from a desire to control to deeper trust, from the refusal to love to a readiness to risk.

Clear the way in us, your people, that we might all know the beauty and power and danger of the gospel. (Joan Puls, Gwen Cashmore/cw)

Welcome to the second week of Advent!