Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.

Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Holy Troublemakers A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 22.36-40; Matthew 6.21; John 13.34.

Ever wondered what love really looks like? This Sunday, we’re diving into the world of Mr. Rogers and exploring how small acts of kindness can change everything. Join us online or in-person – you won’t want to miss this inspiring message.

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At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

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Keywords:

Fred Rogers, love and justice, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, social justice, mental health, compassionate love, educational television, racial tensions, Vietnam War, Land of Make-Believe, agape, moral document, vulnerable neighbors, helping others., presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Sharon Edwards, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

Whitney Higdon: 0:00

You. Welcome to worship At First Presbyterian we, at First Presbyterian, practice a spacious Christianity, which means no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you're ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830, or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support you. I hope you enjoy this worship service. Welcome

Unknown: 4:01

Greetings, friends. The holy troublemaker we are exploring today is Fred Rogers, so we will be praying in a way that Fred liked to pray, as well as using his words. So let us begin. First. We begin in silence. Maybe close your eyes or gaze at something gently in front of you and take a few deep breaths you and then bring to mind or your heart or speak out loud what you are grateful for you. Dear God, please inspire our hearts to come ever closer to you. We pray for those people who know us and accept us as we are, those people who encourage us to see what really is fine in life. We pray for all the people of your world, our sisters and our brothers whose names we may not know, but whose lives are ultimately precious in your sight. With all our hearts, we pray for all your children everywhere, yes, everywhere. And finally, we offer our strengths and our weaknesses, our joys and our sorrows, to your never ending care help us to remember all through our lives that we never need to do difficult things alone, that your presence is simply for the asking, and our ultimate future is assured by your unselfish love. In our deepest gratitude, we offer this prayer Amen.

Steven: 6:41

We're continuing our worship series on on holy troublemakers, talking about the importance of of getting into trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble for the sake of love and justice. Now I want to highlight someone today who may seem like the least likely troublemaker of all, but this person understood better than most the transformative power of love. Picture it with me. One of the most iconic opening sequences in television history, a man opens the front door into his home and offers a warm and kind smile as he walks to his front closet singing, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor? Now I'm guessing most of you know who I'm talking about. That's right, Mr. Rogers Fred Rogers, as he continues to sing, Mr. Rogers, takes off his suit jacket and he puts on a red sweater. Takes off his dress shoes and puts on sneakers, he looks directly into the camera and says, I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you, please. Won't you be my neighbor? And you believed it, he sings and speaks directly into the camera as if he's inviting every child and every adult who's watching to join him in the beautiful neighborhood of love that he is creating. The Mr. Rogers Neighborhood is an educational television show for children that that ran for 34 years. The host, Fred Rogers was a musician, writer, puppeteer and an ordained Presbyterian minister now in this world of cell phones, Tiktok, AI, dizzying special effects, Mr. Rogers created space where the imagination and curiosity of each child were trusted, respected. You know, as I consider the mental health crisis that we face today, Mr. Rogers invited children to talk openly, honestly about their feelings. He would talk openly about divorce, death, sickness, war, discrimination, I mean, topics adults were afraid to talk about, and children silently wondered about. Mr. Rogers would gently say, everyone, everyone has lots of ways of feeling, happy feelings and more difficult feelings like anger, loneliness and sadness, and all those ways of feelings are okay. It's what we do with those feelings is what matters most in this life, despite never once mentioning God in any episode, Mr. Rogers' deep belief and trust in God's unending compassionate love saturated each episode. His deep belief in the worth and the value of of every child, of every person, led to his stance on issues of social justice, believe it or not, in his very first week on air, he talked about the Vietnam War. You know, he created this imaginary land, the land of make believe, where there was a king who built a wall to keep out the enemy. The King's subjects breached the wall with messages of kindness and compassion, and Mr. Rogers said it's better to connect with someone than to judge and label them and to dehumanize them. That's a message we seem to have forgotten today. Mr. Rogers made good trouble by living out the greatest commandment of our faith. It says in the Gospel of Matthew that an expert in the law tested Jesus with this question, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, Love, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is just like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hanging on these two commandments. Okay, so an expert in the law testing Jesus, asked him, you know, Jesus, of all the 613 laws of Moses, which one's most important? And I can imagine Jesus without hesitating, said, Love Love God. And the best way to love God is to love your neighbor as yourself. Now the Greek word Jesus is using here for love is agape, which means a dogged determination to care for and to want what's best for another person, even if that person's a stranger or maybe even someone you don't even like very much. To love your neighbor is to want what's best for your neighbor as much as you want what's best for yourself. Now that's a really revolutionary concept in this individualistic culture centered on looking out for yourself, even at the expense of your neighbor, to love your neighbor as yourself is to not be willing to accept less for your neighbor and their family as you would be willing to accept for yourself and your family. Now consider this lens to view the so called Big, beautiful bill that Congress just passed now a budget, whether that budget be for a nation or that budget be for your family, a budget is not just a financial document. It's a moral document. It reveals where your priorities are, as Jesus said, Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. This legislation threatens devastating cuts to food assistance, healthcare access, education, mental health resources, shelter resources that are there for for the most vulnerable of our neighbors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, low wage workers, immigrants, the homeless, while at the same time offering expanded benefits to the wealthiest of Americans. This bill threatens to sacrifice the well being of your neighbors on the altar of political expediency and economic inequity, the central question of our faith, and certainly, Mr. Rogers believed this, the central question of our faith is not, you know, is this Democratic or Republican, or is this a. Progressive or conservative, the central question of our faith, is this Christ like or not? Does this help us better love our neighbors, especially our most vulnerable neighbors, or not, to love God is to want for your neighbor, especially the most vulnerable, to want for your neighbor, what you would want for yourself and not be willing to accept less. Fred Rogers said, we live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say, well, it's not my child, not my community, not my problem. Then there are those who see the need of their neighbors and respond. I consider these people my heroes. Friends. Be a hero. Find a way to get in the way to speak up. Cause trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble for your neighbors. You know, Mr. Rogers showed us what it looks like to love our neighbors without using words. There was one episode in 1969 when racial tensions were high, Martin Luther King Jr had just been assassinated when Mr. Rogers invited officer Clemons, an African American police officer, as his guest now Francois Clemens, was a professional opera singer, the actor who played the officer was also gay and a lifelong friend of Fred and his wife, Joanne, and they accepted him and loved him for who he was. Now in this episode, it was a hot, hot summer day, and Mr. Rogers invited officer Clements to dip his feet into the kiddies pool with him to get cool. Now this was at a time when public pools were only open to white residents, and when the Civil Rights Act was passed requiring public facilities to be integrated, many communities just filled in their swimming pools, rather than having blacks swimming swim in the same pool with them. There was a part of one swimming pool where the owner put acid into the pool so no one then could swim in that pool. In this episode, on a hot summer day, Mr. Rogers invited officer Clements to take off his shoes and his socks and dip his feet into the cool water. Seeing a black man and a white man next to each other with bare feet in cool water was a powerful image showing that a new kind of neighborhood was possible. They didn't mention racism, but they enjoyed a moment where the two of them peacefully cooled off together, that's the gentle but trouble making way of Mr. Rogers, who modeled the type of neighborhood he believed in, where neighbors wanted what's best for one another. When officer Clemons had to go, he used Mr. Rogers' towel to dry his feet, and then Mr. Rogers used the same towel. You know, seems like an insignificant detail today, but then it was revolutionary. 24 years later, Officer Clemens made his last appearance on the show. The two reenacted the same scene as Clemens sang the song many ways to say, I love you this time, though, when Clemens was ready to leave the pool, Mr. Rogers stooped over and took his feet into his own hands and dried them dried Mr. Clement's feet, imitating Jesus washing and drying the feet of his disciples with the words. Love one another as I have loved you. Fred Rogers, gently boldly lived his faith, even when it meant taking risks, even when it meant getting into trouble, good trouble. He believed your neighbor, your neighbor is the one most in need of your love and care. And Fred Rogers believed honoring our neighbor is how we live out God's love and God's purpose in the world. How do you honor your neighbor? This is what he wrote, I believe appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what's best in a person and when we want what's best for them, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbors, we're participating in something sacred. In Fred Rogers words, he said, I think everybody, everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable. The greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that they're loved and capable of loving. Let that sink in for a moment. The greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that they're loved and capable of loving. Fred said, the underlying message of the neighborhood is that if you experience that somebody cares about you, it's possible that you'll then care about others you begin to live that love. He said, I believe at the center of the universe, there dwells a loving spirit who longs for and desires what's best for you and desires that we long for and care about and work for, what's best for one another. Mister Rogers, neighborhood went off the air in 2001 and the Reverend Fred Rogers died just two years later, but the values he lived, the love of Jesus that He embodied and shared, the kind of neighborhood he created that's needed now more than ever. When Fred Rogers was a boy and he witnessed the suffering of others, and he'd get scared, his mother would say, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. Fred Rogers, a holy troublemaker, reminds us today that we are the helpers we are looking for. May it be so. the blessing today, I want to offer these words by Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, you don't ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you when I say it's you, I like I'm talking about that part of you that knows life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch, that deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without Which humankind cannot survive, the love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over violence, justice that proves more powerful than greed. So in all that you do, in all of your life, I wish you the strength and grace to make those choices which will allow you and your neighbor to become the best of whoever you are, friends go in the peace and the love of Jesus, and May the love that you offer to your neighbors near and far bring a little peace to them. Amen.

Whitney Higdon: 28:06

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these podcasts possible or support the many ways, first, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community, you can make a financial gift online@bendfp.org every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts, and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bend fp.org, and click on the link. Give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people's lives. Thanks again. I hope to See you next week. You