The Children of Gaza

July 28, 2025 ~ Pam Marolla ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday’ preaching text was Luke’s version of the Lord’ Prayer. I am always taken by the communal nature of the prayer – i.e. “our bread, our trespasses/sins/debts‘ deliver us, lead us not . . .”

I became more aware, sometime in the last 2 decades, while co-leading a Bible study of this text/prayer just how communal it was. I was teaching about “ give us this day our daily bread” in a community where hunger and need for clean drinking water were daily issues. Who was I to have such regular abundance when these new friends, these children of God, these people who also prayed for “our daily bread,” would go hungry more often than not?

There are definitely orchestrated political and economic policies and events which exacerbate (if not institute) these situations. In the US it is frowned upon to mention such things from the pulpit, lest the preacher be deemed “too political.”

I mentioned them from the pulpit yesterday. I spoke of starving children in Gaza and the forces that were letting food ROT rather than let it feed the hungry. That’s about as far as I went with it when I started to note a few people giving each other that look that says “she’s gone about as close to the line as she can without crossing it.” I will respect that look until God calls me to do otherwise. I have been with this beloved congregation nearly 13 years and I love what we are able to do within the constraints of communal decision-making.

So, I started this blog – for those things about which I feel compelled to explore further. It reflects my opinions in the midst of my own calling and discernment to see Jesus “in the least of these.” (Mt 25) and to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with my God.” (Micah 6:8)

I stumbled across this hymn today by a very talented contemporary hymn writer. Musicians, artists, and poets have the ability to take us into places that preachers often cannot. You may recognize the tune from “Oh sacred head now wounded.”

What we have done/not done for the “least of these” is our message on how we have treated Jesus.

Adverse Religious Experiences/Trauma

June 19, 2023 ~ Pam Marolla ~ Leave a comment

Our congregation’s Safe Space group had a booth at Galesburg Pride this month. We heard a lot of stories of painful encounters between people and their [former] congregations. Our congregation is a place committed to helping people heal from the painful experiences. “Adverse Religious Experiences” are what we call them. If you pile up the effects of adverse religious experiences, the result is Religious Trauma.

My doctoral thesis highlighted the liberating nature of God – from Egypt to Exodus and to the end of time. I wanted to read deeply and study God as liberator because the predominant message of Christianity in the US is anything BUT “Good news for the poor and excluded.” Once you start reading scripture through this lens, it is difficult to do otherwise.

The following is a picture I created for people to share. Any message you hear about Jesus that shames people who have already been pushed to the edges of society [often by other Christians] or that doesn’t speak of Jesus as a healer, liberator, or One who loves unconditionally, may be a religious message, but it is not about Jesus – the light, the life, the living water, the Savior, the bread of life, living God, teacher, redeemer, and much more.

Sermon June 4, 2023 – A Liberating God

June 5, 2023June 5, 2023 ~ Pam Marolla ~ Leave a comment

The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to, which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me. go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. (Matthew 28)

Dear siblings in Christ, grace to you and peace. From the Abba God, from the only begotten, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Trinity Sunday. This used to be his Sunday that most preachers did everything they could to get out ofi. It is the only Sunday in the church year that is devoted to a doctrine.

How does the father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work together?

And we tried to figure it out. I mean we tried HARD! I have read so many commentaries about preachers, trying to figure it out and trying to get God to fit into a neat and tidy box.

I don’t know when that was, but at some point.

I realized that was ludicrous.

I wasn’t helping anyone by trying to talk about God as water and ice, and steam. Or the apple core and the flesh and the skin or any of those three-sided things that make you scratch your head and go like how is God like that?

Well, God ISN’T

And realizing that is the first step in realizing that God is so much more.

I printed out. And if you have a copy you’re welcome to grab it. There’s more in the on the way in and out but our newest hymnal has three pages of images for God in the Bible.

Because God is so much bigger. Than just Father Son and Holy Spirit or one meme put it. God is not two guys and a bird.

God is so much bigger! Last week. We talked about the Flames of the Holy Spirit. Well, Bob did. Great job, Bob. Thank you. That was inspired!

The flames of the holy spirit that rested on the disciples at Pentecost. You carry that flame from the day of your baptism. You carry that flame into the world. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Go Make Disciples. Of all Nations.”

“Teaching them.

All that I have commanded.”

Now there’s a trick here. You might have figured this out if we’ve been around for about 10 years. Or less. You’ve heard me preach. All right? All that Jesus commanded can be summed up in.

Love God. Love neighbor. Or to sum it up, oh just LOVE

All that I have commanded – and baptize them.

Teach them/disciple them in the ways of love

and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The name, the name, was never meant to be a limiter.

We use it as a formula and, you know, the Lutheran Church is pretty good about formulas and other formal things. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit V

But in the scripture, God is imaged as a quality – like glory, hope, and strength and truth. That’s who God is.

Or even as an element of nature – blazing bush, cloud, cypress, dew, light, Morningstar, rain, root, shade, sun, thunder, vine, wind. None of those things can be contained – especially wind.

That’s the beauty of solar and wind power.

You can use them for energy but they’re not going to run out. That is God. so you take all of these images for God, and you roll them together and you sort of have a picture.

But just a glimpse.

Of the infinite and intimate nature of God.

Jesus has been called Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus called himself bread, cornerstone, cup, drink, dwelling place, fortress, fountain, gate, hiding place, horn of salvation and so much more.

God has been compared to numerous animals so that you can picture strength and protection, and wisdom.

And the Lamb of God.

God has been referred to in scripture as a woman as a comforting mother, a laboring mother, a midwife, or just a mother.

“you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Deut 32:18)

That’s the creative force of God. And the best way to talk about creative force is birth.

We are born of water and the Spirit. Of God

God is referred to as a man but not solely as a man. The bridegroom. The Father, the husband, the king, the son.

And the embodied person – Breath. Ears, eyes, face, feet, finger, hand, mouth, nostrils, voice, all parts of the body,

and as different types of human workers – The Advocate, Avenger, Builder, composer. God’s a musician!

Creator

friend garment maker, healer horse rider, house cleaner, judge, keeper, lawgiver, maker. Master, metalworker, parent, planter, potter, priest redeemer. Servant, Shepherd, teacher, wine grower, warrior, and wrestler.

and as Divine being, deity, God of weather, goddess of wisdom, head deity, monster slayer. Son of man.

I hope you can take this list with you and just let it spark your imagination.

Because God is so much more than we can stuff into a trinitarian box.

In fact,

one of the things that God is,

And is best at is relationship.

This book is one of my favorites. It’s called The Divine dance. by Richard Rohr

Rohr talks about the Trinity as playing with each other, the one who is the creative Interacting with the one who is Spirit wind breath, ruach

And the Son. The Son who was in the beginning at creation, the Son, who became flesh, became one of us who walked the earth and experienced humanity. First hand.

It’s not a hard book.

But it’s a beautiful read. I just want to give you a couple images.

because God is, Relationship.

You can’t manufacture God’s love. It doesn’t come out of that box that we put God into.

Rohr writes.

“You can go to church every day for the rest of your life. God isn’t going to love you any more than God loves you right now. You cannot make God love you any less, either. Not an ounce less. Do the Terrible Things, steel and pillage, cheat and lie and God wouldn’t love you less. You cannot change the Divine mind about you, the flow is constant. Total.
Rohr, The Divine Dance

And 100% for your life.

God is for you. We can’t diminish God’s love for us, What we can do however is learn how to believe it receive it. Trust it. Allow it. And celebrate it. Accepting Trinity’s whirling invitation. To join in the cosmic dance.

ibid.

*****************

That’s the God, that Jesus was inviting the disciples and us – to share with the whole world. Right? Not to conquer them, not to beat them – literally and emotionally until they confess what we confess.

but to believe and trust in this outlandish and liberating LOVE

That is something that we would want to share.

Not something we have to share.

One other place Rohr writes. And he’s sharing an image from Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine, writer, philosopher Mystic. Everything.

She called the spirit “endless fertility and fecundity, veruditas – the quality of divine light that makes everything blossom and bloom in endless shades of green.” And he writes “Hildegard was likely inspired by the lushness of her surroundings. At her monestery which I was able to attend in similar reference for the natural world.

Green is chosen to represent, as it were, the Divine Photosynthesis.

That grows everything from within.

By transforming light into itself

Precisely the work of the Holy Spirit

This is a wonderful time of year to see plants grow. We drove up to Wisconsin this weekend. We got to see the rolling hills of The Kettle Moraine this weekend. So green. Photosynthesis – you take seeds – and dirt.

Just seeds and dirt. That’s what we start with in March. It’s a ridiculous act of faith, of hope. Add water. Add light. And you’ve got verdant growth. Life, beauty, creativity, love!

That is the God that Jesus called us to make Disciples of others.

To baptize. To wash the muck of the world’s hatred and evil off of us.

To rise up. Baptized into the mission of Jesus

Baptism, isn’t –

I told this at my class when Owen preparing for his baptism. Baptism, isn’t fire insurance? It’s not about only about the afterlife.

It’s about living that life in relationship with God. Who is EVERYTHING. It is about being attached to the MISSION OF JESUS

And I’m going to tell you a secret.

There are people who dearly don’t want us to know this.

Bob preached about it really well last Sunday. “How dare you?”

“How dare you, Jesus, hang out with those people that we have put in their place.”
Rev Bob Clark

That was memorable, Bob. “How dare you?”

And I’m going to tell you why. It’s because God loves everybody.

and when you hear somebody who says, “yeah but, what about traditional Christian values?”

I want you to have the words to respond to them.

Those traditional Christian values.

Are oppressive.

Those traditional Christian values were the values of the Confederacy.

Jesus was not about traditional Christian values.

And I hope we can go out into the world and share a different message.

That God is so much more. And so are we.

We are bearers of this light. To the world.

And sometimes, it seems like the whole world is being swallowed up by darkness. By hate.

Hate is not a traditional Christian value. There are people who will try to tell you it is.

Jesus, never EVER said. “Hate the sin. Love The Sinner.” That’s not Jesus. That’s something else.

****************

My dear siblings.

Who do you know that needs to hear this message?

That God is a LIBERATOR.

God is LIGHT.

GOD IS LOVE

and we can start our prayer petitions with Our Father Who Art in Heaven, or we can start them with Mother, Mother Spirit, God, Light of the world, or any number of images we find in the Bible and in our hearts.

The language is inclusive of all the attributes of God.

And God is not offended.if we say, mothering spirit,

You have that voice. And you have to share it.

If you found that like that, love that embrace.

You have the story that needs to be shared.

For so many generations. We pawned off our children to Christian Ed. We all, we thought we were doing the right thing.

But my parents never taught me about this Jesus. There was nothing exciting or life giving about the Christianity that they had learned.

They thought that Sunday School teachers were more well-equipped.

They weren’t.

Some are. Rhonda – you’ve got the Spirit. You have got the Spirit! But we have to be talking to our families. To our loved ones about this liberating God. You don’t have to tell people to come to church – you can. You can invite them to hear about this liberating God.

But we each – Jesus commissioned ALL the disciples and us, to tell this good news.

Don’t be embarrassed about it. Don’t let someone say you’re not a real Christian because we’ve all heard it. “Oh, you go to that church.”

We’ve all heard it.

Have the words to defend your faith.

Because in the end, it’s not going to be the small and narrow voices.

That get to define who God is. God is everything, everywhere, and ALL LOVE.

I hope today you can feel that love. And know that love.

And share that love.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen

They changed the ending! And it was Amazing!

March 10, 2023March 11, 2023 ~ Pam Marolla ~ Leave a comment

My daughter and I went to see My Fair Lady on International Women’s Day. Yes, given the themes of the show, it was an odd choice for the day. But we were celebrating her birthday, and her childhood copy of the VHS tape had been worn out by frequent use. We watched lots of musicals in her childhood. She’s 31 now. Who doesn’t love opulent costumes, a two storey set with a winding staircase, and wonderful music, even if the male roles in the show are some of the most misogynistic ever.

So we almost blinked and missed it at the end. In fact, we were walking out when it dawn on us. “Hey, I know we haven’t seen the movie in something like 25 years, but was the movie ending the same as the one we just saw?” I drove the 45 minutes home while she did the research.

The movie we so loved in her childhood was a 1964 production of a 1956 Broadway Musical. The musical was based on a 1912(3) George Bernard Shaw play entitled Pygmalion (based on Greek mythology). If you don’t know the basics, professor Henry Higgins takes on Eliza Doolittle on a bet that he can turn her from a lowly flower seller with a Cockney London accent – into a “proper” lady. When Eliza “passes.” Henry takes all the credit. She leaves. He sings “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face.” She comes back. Though there is some indication that the professor has evolved somewhat, as soon as she comes back, he says, “Where the devil are my slippers?” The curtain closes. The implication is that he assumes she will find him the slippers. It is rather inconclusive as to whether they end up together or not, but in the 50s and 60s, chances were pretty good that this is what the viewing public would have wanted. (It’s a 3-hour show – trust me, there’s more to it, but not substantially.)

Something changed in 2018. Perhaps it was #MeToo. Perhaps Broadway was interested in faithfullness to Shaw’s own take on the ending, which has Eliza ambivalently leaving Henry to go to her father’s wedding. She does find her own worth and leaves Professor Higgins behind.

I found a clue in the scene where there is a small suffragette protest in the street. “Votes for Women” read the signs. In 1913, this would have been a current topic just before the beginning of WWI. The suffragette movement was gaining momentum in the US, UK, all over Europe, and worldwide.

The change in 2018, was neither ambivialent nor inconclusive. When Henry says, “Where the devil are my slippers?” Eliza’s response is to walk out on him. The unspoken change? She put in the work. She has learned her worth and value. She can do without Henry Higgins.

Happy birthday to my strong, sweet, and intelligent daughter. I like the new Eliza better. None of us are quite the same as we used to be.