Matters of the Heart: Excerpts from The Rev. Dr. June Christine Goudey's Sermons January 2003-September 2004, Woodland Hills Community Church   Easter is a startling experience its not about the bunny its about the body, the thinking feeling miracle each of us walk around in every day.  Easter is about my body, joined with yours to make a community of difference that changes the world, one body at a time.   Resurrection is something we practice day in and day out with each other. We take risks, we conquer fear, we comfort grief, we offer forgiveness, we tell the truth in love, and we resist despair. Resurrection is something we experience through remembering; remembering what its like to be loved for who we are, to be accepted for who we are, and most of all to belong.  Resurrection is about connection, not isolation and it's about so much more. Resurrection is always about moving on, taking hold of life, and never letting go. Why? Because life is just too good and too important to be left graveside.    The journey towards resurrection is no ordinary journey.  It demands change. But no indulgences can be bought. No IOUs can be given. The journey takes us through the valley of death. It leaves us shaken; it leaves us breathless, and it leaves us transformed.  Few Christians have the stomach for it; yet we all yearn to know its power.  Where are you on this journey?   Baptism is about cleansing, because it is a bath. But more than cleansing is involved.  Baptism shows us God's embrace and our place in God's community. We gain a sense of identity in Baptism as well as a sense of belonging and belovedness.  We learn to take our physicality as a gift, an elemental aspect of life that is precious in life and in death.   I'm not an expert on love, but I am a convert.  I've converted my understanding of God's love from self-denial to self-transcendence. I believe that all of us are so interconnected by life and so interdependent with one another that personal well-being can only be accomplished by contributing to the well-being of others.   Anger is a tool of love. If we use it wisely we will strengthen the bonds of friendship we have worked hard to build.  But if we are unwise in our use of anger, we will deny love and destroy community. The power of love is its power to unite and hold together diverse people, and diverse views in one community.  When anger works love prevails and well-being is the fruit of our labors.    Worship is first of all about transformation, not rest.  If you want a rest, if you want a laid back Sunday, try another church,  there are plenty of them around. But if you want a wake up call for your life, if you are looking for something new, this is the place to be and this is the word to hear.   Suffering signifies the presence of something that is alien to our soul, something that needs to be attended to not endured. One who is compassionate identifies the suffering as an affront to the [sufferer's] integrity and helps them overcome it. Compassion is an imaginative act because it opens us to the moment, to the real ness of life that is all around us.   Hospitality in the church is not an option. It's a sacred obligation rooted in love! When love is present hospitality overcomes hostility; when hospitality is present entertaining angels is as easy as extending your hand.  Love is a skill that requires a full-bodied commitment.  Love is available in one form only: love is the natural response of a healthy mind and a healthy heart! There is no right way to pray for prayer is many things; but the starting point of prayer is presence, God's presence requires your presence. That's what Jesus means by ask, seek, knock, be present to your situation and take an active stance towards what you need.  Abraham Heschel, the noted Jewish mystic, spoke of prayer as "Knowing before whom you stand."  Prayer implies knowing whose presence you are in and trusting that presence to guide you to well-being. God's love requires community, a community of lovers willing to practice compassionate love, deep forgiveness, and lasting resurrection.  Without God's love in our bones there is no forgiveness, without forgiveness in our hearts there is no resurrection.  The lessons of Holy week are many: humankind is capable of great evil, and evil is real; but before you embrace the cross as a gift of God's love, spend sometime wrestling with the truths of your own world. Take a hard look at your own way of being in the world.  If you like what you see, so be it. But if you find a chink in your armor, remember this, Holy Week is not the greatest story every told: Easter is!    Life is not about clinging to the past, it's about growing wings and freeing yourself from the constraints of fear.  A faith worthy of God is a faith willing to hope in the faithfulness of a gracious and generous Spirit who trusts us enough to be ourselves.   What do you fall back on when fear confronts you and threatens to overwhelm you?   Do you rely on the word of God, living and active to guide you through uncharted waters?  Do you speak words of comfort and reassurance to yourself?  Do you put on the armor of fear or the armor of God? If your faith rests in a loving, gracious God, active and alive in your life, creating newness and joy out of deadness and despair, then you are on the road to resurrection. There is a difference and it matters.    When your heart sees rightly you can never lose hope, never succumb to despair, and never look back.  That' s why Bartimaeus followed Jesus. His heart was too full of possibilities too full of hope and too full of God for his own good.  When our Stewardship is sound, our heart is too full of possibilities, too full of hope and too full of God, for our own good.  It's that simple; stewardship is about sharing the wealth of our hearts for the sake of the world.    Can you trust yourself to be fully present, to be seen and heard clearly, to embrace others without fear, to show warmth and forgiveness in your dealings with one another. Can you ask God to cast out your demons and heal your soul, to grant you an imagination free of fear?  If you want to receive the power of your divine birthright, the blessing of the Spirit everyday of your life, then become love, become human, become present to the power you already are. May God give each of you the power to see your gifts and graces and to use them wisely.   Imagination is about saying yes, believing in more, and stepping into the future through the power of hope. Far from being a divine gift bestowed on artists and other "creative" types alone, imagination is something every human being shares with another.  In its simplest form imagination is the interconnected process by which we create a life for ourselves.    Hope is not something we possess like personal wealth, hope is something towards which we walk and walking, whether it be done physically or spiritually takes energy, the truthful energy of love that helps us overcome the lies that so often become the daily bread of our existence.   Grace greatens us! For too many years communion tables have been bordered by a misguided sense of confession.  Our Protestant forbears taught us that in order to receive the grace this table offers, we have to be baptized and continually confess our sins and rehearse our unworthiness. Nothing could be further from the truth.  This table is for everyone, baptized or un-baptized who believes God's love is their love.  Grace is a gift not to be grasped but lived, not stored, but shared, not silenced but communicated over and over and over again. When grace is present in your life you get to be you all the time! Cherish the "I am" at the heart of who you are and you will find God hugging you into life. The choice is yours, the table is set and the invitation has been sent.  Now it's your turn to RSVP.