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Michelle L. Torigian

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Michelle L. Torigian

Monthly Archives: June 2013

General Synod Lesson #1 – – You Can’t Do Everything!

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by mictori in Current Events, Life, Pop

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

General Synod, Jesus, Lazarus, progressive Christianity, two places at once, UCC General Synod 29, uccgs29, United Church of Christ

Here I am at the United Church of Christ General Synod day 2. Exhaustion is already coming upon me, but I think much of it is due to time change. Or maybe it’s information overload. Anyway, I’m cherishing the time I have here as many, many of my friends are present.

What makes me sad is that I’m realizing I can do everything. I can’t be everywhere.

Times conflict. From wanting to go to two workshops during our 2030 event on Thursday to wondering which workshop I should go to this afternoon, I wish I could do more. Learning is one of the primary reasons I come to Synod. And I must choose which topics I am most passionate and in need of more information. Yesterday, I chose an intensive workshop on women’s equality issues. I would have loved to have gone to the workshop on taking care of our veterans, but for me, women’s issues are my number one passion. As a 2030 friend reminded a number of us the other day: “You can’t do everything at Synod.”

So I’m going to miss workshops that my friends are facilitating. And I’m going to miss workshops on fascinating topics. That’s life. I think the sooner we accept that we can’t be two places at once, the smoother life may go.

I remember a story in the Bible where Jesus was going to heal a young person when he was interrupted. When he got to the house, the young person had died. Likewise, when his friend Lazarus was ill he was working on other things. People weren’t exactly happy when Jesus came late, but he was human, and did the best he could.

Each of us at Synod will do the best we can connecting with friends, bringing new information to our churches and participating. We are giving 100 percent of the energy we have. We wish we could give more. But our bodies and brains are human. We pray that we remember that the spirit is always willing but the flesh is weak.

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General Synod – – The Adventure Begins!

28 Friday Jun 2013

Tags

General Synod 29, Opening Plenary, progressive Christianity, UCC General Synod, UCC General Synod 29, United Church of Christ

20130628-154741.jpg

I am at Opening Plenary of the 29th General Synod of the United Church of Christ. I’ll be updating this blog with some photos and thoughts throughout Synod. Follow me on Twitter @mictori or follow the UCC General Synod at #uccgs29.

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Posted by mictori | Filed under Pop

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Shame is Humanity’s Worst Illness

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by mictori in Current Events, Life, Music, Pop, Pop Culture

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divorce, Grace, guilt, Kate Winslet, Melissa Etheridge, Mercy, Michelle Torigian, motherhood, New Testament, progressive Christianity, shame, Stephen Patterson, stigma, woman at the well

Recently, Melissa Etheridge called out Angelina Jolie’s choice to have a double-mastectomy as “fearful.” Etheridge commented that nutrition and stress cause cancer to begin in the body.

Unfortunately, Etheridge did nothing to help the stigma that already comes with cancer. Sure, not all cancers have stigmas. But when we hear that someone has cancer, often the first thing that comes to our mind was “they took care of themselves” or “they didn’t take good enough care of themselves.”

Through Ethridge’s words, shame was imposed upon someone else’s tough choice.

Shame and stigma seeps into each part of our daily lives, from our meal choices, to how we parent, to how we schedule our day.

According to the Bible, it didn’t take humans long to experience shame. Just one mistake and shame became so embedded in their souls. They experienced the shame even before God called them out on their actions.

Life is full of regrets. Of course, we should always continue to reevaluate our actions to make sure we aren’t damaging our neighbors, creation or ourselves. But, at some point, shame becomes so deeply a part of who we are that it holds us back from enjoying life and relationships.

As we continuously live under the umbrella of shame, whether our own or the shame we impose on others, we will never find the good enough in our lives. There is no room for grace or mercy. There is only room to live in perfection.

Perfection will never happen.

Jesus tried to banish shame when he touched the unclean. Yet, that message has not stuck well with Christians. If it had, people wouldn’t look down upon those with HIV/AIDS, STD’s or a variety of other “lifestyle” acquiring diseases. Jesus showered the woman at the well with grace and, yet, we manage to continue to shame people who have had divorces or multiple marriages. (Take for instance a comment recently made about Kate Winslet on being pregnant with her third child by a third husband.)

I remember in my seminary New Testament class with Stephen Patterson that he mentioned disease was the physical ailment and illness was the social stigma that accompanied many illnesses. While we may not look at the exact same things as unclean in the 21st century, we still have shame and stigmas associated with behavior and appearances.

Does it matter that someone had a child out of wedlock or got divorced? Does it matter that the person at the fast food restaurant is overweight? Does it matter that someone caught an illness because of an action or choice they made? Why do we shame women who breast feed or don’t breast feed? Why do we shame women for becoming stay-at-home moms or working full time? (And why is so much shame pour out on women?) Isn’t it tough for each of us to live day-to-day that maybe we should grant others a little bit of grace and mercy that we, ourselves, have also received?

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Sermon: Clean or Unclean? We’re All One.

16 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by mictori in Current Events, Life, Pop Culture, Religion

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Clean, discrimination, divorce, Galatians 2, homophobia, Jesus, LGBT, Luke 7, Luke 8, Martin Luther King Jr., Michelle Torigian, race, racism, segregation, Sermon, St. Paul United Church of Christ, UCC, Unclean

This sermon was delivered at St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Road, Cincinnati on June 16, 2013.

Luke 7:36-8:3
Galatians 2:11-21

Back in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said that the 11 o’clock hour on Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week. People of different races, ethnic groups attend their own churches. People of various political or theological views also huddle together in their own faith communities.

Even in a 2012 article, it was found that only seven percent of churches with less than 1,000 attendance are multiracial.

We think we’ve come far in this world. No more segregated water fountains. Interracial couples are legally allowed to marry all over our country where it wasn’t legal a few decades earlier. Yet, very often people of a certain color live in one neighborhood while another race lives in a separate area. And, like in 1963, we still celebrate God in very different spaces.

People always use scripture or faith to find ways to separate the “us” from “them” and to distance themselves from “the other.” Back in the 1800’s people used to scripture and faith to justify both slavery and abolition. Texts from Ephesians 6 and Titus 2 were used to affirm slavery whereas proponents of abolition looked at the ongoing Biblical themes of justice and equality to affirm their stance. Still today, there are multiple issues that one side affirms with Scripture as the other side opposes the issue with Scripture as well. And this keeps our communities divided and ever so segregated.

Why do we have this mentality of us versus them? Of course, it’s not new.

In the gospel reading from Luke, we see Jesus eating with a Pharisee. So, yes, Jesus associated with those with greater societal standing. And then a woman who the world sees as the “other” or somehow “less than” comes in and showers Jesus with attention. Jesus affirms that he experiences more love and hospitality from the woman with the lesser reputation than the Pharisee with the better reputation.

We don’t know much about this woman except that she was a sinner. We don’t know what type of sins she engaged in. They could be referring to her more as a law-breaker rather than a sinner. But wasn’t the Pharisee a sinner too?

The Luke text reminds us that Jesus associated with all types of people: women, the unclean, those who were sick. In fact, he didn’t just hang out with them, but he touched them when healing. He allowed them to touch him too. Whether it was touching dead corpses, people with leprosy or the woman with the hemorrhage, when Jesus came in touch with these people, he became unclean like them – at least according to Jewish Law. Scripture never says he went through purification rituals each evening. As our Wednesday study class had learned the other night from the Saving Jesus Redux video, Jesus had become unclean to relate and save the unclean.

If anyone was allowed to be judgmental, it was Jesus. But even Jesus wasn’t that judgmental about sins. He focused his life and ministry on showing love and grace.

In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Cephas used to eat with the uncircumcised Gentiles even though he was circumcised. Cephas would eat with those who followed very different food rules.

Then James and the group who followed the law, the Jewish members of the early Jesus movement, came back into town. In order to keep people happy or to have people continue to like them, Cephas and Barnabas ditched their relationships with the Gentiles. This is when Paul confirms that there is something greater that the law that some of them followed: grace. Through that grace, both Jews and Gentiles learn to place their differences aside.

During the first century, people segregated themselves because of their rituals and food choices. Sixty years ago it was water fountains and eating spaces. What are today’s issues?

This gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves from whom would 21st century Christians divide themselves and who would Jesus hang out with today? Those who have engaged in drug use in their past? Those who swear? Our gay brothers and sisters? Interfaith or interracial couples? Those who pass a hungry man on the street? Those who own guns? Those who are against guns? Democrats? Republicans? Liberals? Conservatives? Divorced people or people who live together before they’re married? Maybe all of the above???

Wherever Jesus was, it was probably one of the least segregated places in Israel because people from different groups of people wanted to hear about love and grace. They wanted to experience healing. And Jesus himself hung out with both the Pharisees and the unclean. If Jesus showered all sorts of people with love instead of intense judgment, should we do the same?

We may not agree with our neighbors on how they live their lives. As individuals, we each build our moral codes based upon how we relate Scripture to our sense of reasoning, experience and traditions. And we don’t see Scripture, reason, experience and tradition in the same ways. But we aren’t necessarily given a free pass to shun people just because our faith and their faith doesn’t line up. Just the opposite. We are called to be in the presence of those with whom we would never intend to associate.

Jesus was one who prioritized relationships over rules. He healed the sick on the Sabbath, touched the unclean making himself unclean and ate with all sorts of people. Might Jesus be asking us to place our relationships with others over legalism and minute differences? If Jesus, who some think was perfect, was able to associate with all sorts of people and become unclean to be like them, then we who are definitely not perfect are absolutely called to associate with other imperfect people. And as for me, I’ve experienced some of the greatest hospitality and unconditional love from those who many people consider “unclean” in our society.

The way we each look at faith, at our beliefs are going to be different. At a church like ours, it’s not what you believe because, let’s face it, we’re across the board. And thank God we’re not told what to believe. But even when we are different and we’re individuals, we’re still part of the body of Christ. We’re not called to agree with one another but be one in Christ. We are still in covenant with one another even as we live autonomously. There is the Great Connection, and whether we see it on this side of heaven or that side of heaven, we will see that all of us are loved by God and called to do the same.

So as we go forward in asking ourselves “Where is God calling us” do we need to ask ourselves who is God calling us to invite and include? Are we needing to reflect on who we include and reach out to? What would this church look like if it were filled with those who are so different than us? This would be scary – – yet how would this help us to grow and live out the great commission that the Spirit has be nudging Christians to do for centuries?

As we abide in this most segregated hour of the week, let us find ways to bridge the great divide as there is no longer slave or free, male or female, clean or unclean, us or them, but, instead, one in Christ. Amen.

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Is Any Prayer Stupid?

15 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by mictori in Current Events, Life, Social Media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

clinical pastoral education, CPE, God, Michelle Torigian, Prayer, progressive Christianity

Five years ago, during my time in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as a chaplain, I made it one of my goals to become better at praying out loud. Now, until that point, I never felt confident in my public, impromptu/extemporaneous praying. My prayers never felt strong or fancy enough for others to hear.

During my CPE summer, I had many opportunities to pray aloud with the nursing home residents and their families. By the time the summer had concluded, I felt much better in my public prayers.

That doesn’t mean I still don’t get nervous praying out loud…

Recently, I wrote a prayer for online publication. One individual decided to call the prayer “goofy” in the comment section. They also said that the prayer “seems like a Facebook status with the word ‘God’ placed in front of it.”

People are allowed to think what they wish about my writing. However, if I am speaking from a genuine place of concern, is it “goofy?” And are many of our status updates just words of concern from our hearts? Don’t we want God to hear our status updates?

While it may seem there are goofy prayers being said or written, any time people try to connect to God through words (spoken or written), it’s a prayer. Any time we hold the ones we love, fear, dislike and don’t know in our hearts, it’s prayer. When we connect with the Divine in an effort to strengthen our ties to God, our neighbor and ourselves, it’s prayer. So what words work? And what words fall short?

I don’t believe God cares what words we use when we pray. I think God’s concern is that we take moments to reach out – sending love and healing into the universe.

So say what you want to say to God. God wants to hear it in any form. You can sing it, sign it or dance the prayer. Fluffy language will not make the prayer come true any faster. God accepts both frills and simplicity in prayers. If others think your prayer is stupid, God doesn’t. Keep praying – just as you are. God is bigger than any combination of words.

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Where the Imperfect and Perfect Meet

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by mictori in Current Events, Life, Pop

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Church, God, Grace, Holy Spirit, imperfect, pastors, perfectionism

Reflecting on Sunday mornings as a pastor, I know I try to recall all of the announcements, prayer requests and logistical worship comments. Guess what? Even with writing myself notes I still forget things.

Most of our churches are not crafted like a production. Sure, some larger churches with multiple staff are able to spend more time and focus on the entertainment value of worship. They are able to dedicate more resources on their worship.

Even then, it’s still not perfect. Imperfections are cast in the shadow of the entertaining spectacle.

As much as we hope to be, every one of us pastors must face the reality of our own imperfections. Each and every liturgist, usher/greeter, children’s time deliverer, acolyte, communion steward, choir member and musician are imperfect. A candle will fail to light, a name in Scripture will be mispronounced and the pastor will forget to lift up one of our ill friends during our time of sharing prayers.

Each week, we do the best we can to make sure the focus is on God and our relationship with the Divine. In the process, mistakes will be made. Yes, unfortunately, they will distract from our focus on God. Yet, we continue to do our best, work at our mistakes for the good of God, our neighbors and, of course, the good of ourselves.

No matter how mild or severe the mistake, here’s the thing: God is still present. God is still active. The Holy Spirit continues to inspire, and God is still worshiped. No matter what little (or big) mistakes we make along the way, God still loves us and showers us with grace. God will never fail to meet us as we worship no matter how bad the preaching, singing or praying is in our congregations.

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