from doing into being

October 26, 2025 • Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Lessons: Psalm 23 (The Inclusive Psalms),
Martha Chapman, Guest Preacher

[You can view the full worship video recording at: https://youtu.be/sX3IJOrkesk]

Psalm 23 (The Inclusive Psalms)

 Adonai, you are my shepherd –
I want nothing more. You let me lie down in green meadows,  you lead me beside restful waters: you refresh my soul.

You guide me to lush pastures for the sake of your Name. Even if I’m surrounded by shadows of Death, I fear no danger, for you are with me.

Your rod and staff, they give me courage. You spread a table for me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil – my cup overflows!

 Only goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in your house, Adonai, for days without end.

THE “ROMERO” PRAYER - Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw (modified)

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kin-dom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kin-dom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that should be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you.
The only lasting truth is Change. God Is Change.
- Octavia Butler

FROM DOING INTO BEING

Dearly Beloved Community – Pray with me.
Let the words of my mouth be YOUR words, Holy One.
Let the ears of we, your Beloved Ones gathered here today, hear YOUR vision.|
Let our spirits rise up to meet YOUR challenge and YOUR pathway…
in YOUR abundant and un-controlling love.
Amen.

Good morning, family.

I am honored to speak to you today, as a long-time member of this Beloved Community… and as one of many folks in leadership roles for this congregation. I am honored to be part of this Worship Series, “Becoming the Church We Are Called To Be,” following powerful preaching by others in our community: K, Katie, Ashley, Alfida, and last week brother Dwight – all preaching in various ways about finding grace and resilience when in periods of transition. And often that feels like we are “surrounded by shadows of death.”

And, I speak to you as a Spirit in need of support and succor.

These days are very hard.

I can barely stand to read the news. I try to keep myself informed but feel powerless in the face of darkness and evil - the many ways that vulnerable ones being harmed, disparaged and considered not worthy.

It feels – quite often – like we are “surrounded by shadows of death.”

Some of you know me well enough to know that I like to DO THINGS. In the Scripture story about Mary & Martha… I am SUCH A “MARTHA!”

I just can’t help myself!

She, and I, like to ACCOMPLISH THINGS. And this can be great… but also can be a trap. A trap because “DOING” is not always what connects us to God… or what is needed. Sometimes, like Mary, God’s desire is for us to ‘just be.”

I want to FIX whatever is wrong. I want to DO SOMETHING. It’s how I’m wired – my family background taught me the value of hard work – of having grit.

I’ve come through a lot of hard times by working hard. When my first marriage failed – I went to psychotherapy and worked on myself. And then Thank God I met Paolo! Through my many injuries, I went to physical therapy and worked on myself. And it helped.  I have grit! The work changed me – forced me to adapt. And then THAT changed things around me.
As our hero, Octavia Butler, wrote, “God is change.”

Our journey here at Church of the Village now 20-years long has included a lot of hard work. It’s WORK to create a new community… a new “family” from 3 churches, each of which had a long story… a long journey already.

BUT -- sometimes hard work feels like it’s going nowhere. Like all the work and “grit” just fall into a void and accomplish nothing. Mean nothing. So then… what do we DO… if DOING is not the path forward?
Should we change what we’re doing?  Into what?
Should we STOP doing what we’re doing?
Then what?

Which work leads me… leads us through “the shadows of death” towards the table God has set for us? And which work is “just work” or is not “my job?” When do I …. When do we step aside and “make space for God’s grace to do the rest”’ as we heard in the Romero prayer? When do we stop and “just be?”

Which is the truth? The DOING… or the BEING?
I think - more than one truth is true.

Back to that in a moment.

Many of you know that The Church of the Village– in some ways – IS surrounded by shadows of death.’  We have a persistent budget deficit. Not ALL of our truth is grim – praise be – as we are blessed by amazing, strong, committed lay team - by vibrant, joyous Sunday worship that welcomes all kinds of folks from all kinds of places - by folks who have joined recently and folks who have been a part of this family of faith for years. We are blessed with music – with dance – with the pouring of waters and anointing with oil – with COFFEE in the back! And it is wonderful.

And neither the “shadow of death” or these blessings are our whole story… More than one truth is true.

Here’s one of our truths at the Church of the Village:

We are in a season of transition…a ‘holding pattern’ in some ways… we don’t know what will come, but the way things are now won’t work long-term.

We are in transition with our clergy after Pastor Jeff’s retirement last June. K is with us part-time and he is absolutely wonderful but he also serves full-time at our sister church uptown, St. Paul & St. Andrew. I do not serve on the Personnel Committee, but I know they worked hard with our Conference—the geographic group of Methodist churches we’re a part of—to find new leadership for our next chapter. The Conference was not able to appoint a new full-time pastor for us. I can only imagine how frustrating that is for Personnel Committee folks— To work so hard, for so long, without finding an “answer”… or a new beginning… a new becoming.

We are in transition also with our building and budget.

Our Finance Committee—led by the amazing Amar Rajwani—keeps working to close the budget gap. Reorganized staffing, better deals with vendors, streamlined supply lines, and much much more income from space use have helped.

The Stewardship Team, led by the wonderful John Kleinig, works to inspire all of us toward greater generosity—so that more and more of our giving covers our operating costs. And, giving has grown! And – you’ll all have a chance to give a little later on today.

The Building Exploratory Team, on which I serve, has spent the last couple years doing a really deep dive into what it would take for our 92 year-old building sitting on top of a subway station so EVERY DAY IS LIKE THIS (voice shaking) to not drain our budget, but to be an asset to our ministry. With incredible, faithful work, we have a LOT more knowledge—but so far, no clear solution we can act on.

We don’t know what will come, but the way things are now are won’t work long-term. We’ve worked so hard for so long – and have not found a a new “answer,” a “new becoming.”

And that feels heavy.

That is one truth. AND – more than one truth is true.

So, with words from the Romero prayer we heard just now, I think it might

“help to step back and take a long view”

Because of the amazing folks who have joined this community recently… I’d like to share some of our “HIS-story” (or “HER-story if you wish) - the ‘family background’ that has shaped The Church of the Village. One of our truths - a “long view”. Knowing who we have been helps us move into who we CAN BE. Remember, we trying to BECOME the church we are called to be!

Brief shout-out here to the Church of the Village Archive team! Rod Kennedy, Martine Mallary, Jairo Samuda, Bruce Rescorl and others working on this. Give them some applause! That is part of our history, so if you want to help… to Rod if you are interested in helping.

So –our family background – the “long view” truth of the ancestors on whose shoulders we stand – and whose dysfunctions we inherit. Families are rich – and families are messy. Our hard-working church family is no exception.

The Church of the Village was formed 20 years ago when 3 Greenwich Village Methodist congregations decided they’d be stronger together. Those churches were Washington Square UMC, Metropolitan-Duane UMC, and The Church of All Nations. As a family—if you will, we “got married” and made a new family.

Washington Square—which I joined in the mid-1990s—was born from an 1860 merger. It served 19th century immigrants, was said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad and was known as the “Peace Church” in the 1960’s. It housed the Harvey Milk School, a high-school for gay teens, counseled women before Roe v. Wade on abortion, and sheltered conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. All great stuff. AND - as the city changed, the congregation shrank and the building literally crumbled. I helped pack it up when it was sold—and that really felt by being surrounded by “shadows of Death.” Yet that ending made room for a “next becoming.”

Metropolitan-Duane UMC – the name alone tells a story of union—formed when Duane Street merged with Metropolitan Church on this corner of NYC. We’re in it’s building, where PFLAG was founded in the 1970’s, where space was offered to a gay congregation to worship when few places would do so and to where the Salsa Soul Sisters lesbian social group met. But there was pain too— a few church leaders forcibly outed Rev. Ed Egan, in the 1970’s, ending his career. That church ended, too—but its ending made room for a next becoming.

The Church of All Nations, founded in 1904, began as a justice-centered outreach to immigrants on Houston St. By the 1970s it was a Spanish-speaking congregation doing great social justice work, but it dwindled to one family resistant to change. None of those members are with us today. That church, too, ended—and again, the ending made room for a next becoming.

These communities which created The Church of the Village 20 years ago each had a rich history of social justice advocacy. AND a history of ‘being stuck.’ The messy hard work of coming together sometimes felt like being “surrounded by the shadows of death.”

AND - through the work – or maybe just by “being” - somehow there was an opportunity for God's grace to enter. A chance to ‘BE” or maybe TO BECOME.  

Spoiler alert: It got better! It got wonderful! We’re here. We’re here worshiping and laughing and arguing and loving and WORKING and BEING in this scary transition period -- not knowing who will lead us… not knowing what path to take with our building… not knowing how our greater Methodist denomination will adapt – or maybe won’t adapt … we have problems, and we have hard choices to make.

AND…

There is joy. There’s community. Looking around at all your beautiful faces today and knowing my siblings online are here too – I am comforted.

More than one truth is true.

Problems and transcendence are both here.

So – what do we DO?
Or maybe – how do we BE?? How do we BECOME?
Much “doing” has BEEN DONE; I’ve described a lot of it and there’s a lot more.

And the truth is – a “new beginning’ …. A “new becoming” is is ONE of the truths that we really need.

Which brings me back to the Romero prayer.
Here again are some of those words:

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kin-dom is not only beyond our efforts,
 it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work…

 We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.”

This gives me comfort. Helps me slow down. Have patience -

More than one truth is true.

Work and grit matter –
AND – through the ‘doing’ –
It is necessary – it is right – it is God’s desire for us

To

Just

Be.

Just “being” can inspire a shift - can CHANGE something instead of DOING something. And maybe – by changing something – I change. WE change. Because God IS Change. Sometimes it’s enough to BE – to make space for becoming.

We’re in a tough, transitional place as a church.

AND

We’re in an AMAZING, pliable, hopeful place as a church where it is possible to blossom into something new - something -- let’s us BE CHURCH in a new way.

More than one truth is true.

Exciting, right?

And terrifying.

The way we are now must end to make way for a new beginning. We don’t know what shape that will take. So… in a way we’re surrounded by shadows of Death,

AND - we fear no danger (and there ARE dangers) …
We fear no danger
for GOD is with us.
God is WITH us.

Gods anoints our heads with oil!

Today we have a Healing Service – today we each can choose to be anointed with oil as a symbol of our connection – our trust in God’s luring love – maybe by DOING and maybe by BEING… and maybe by seeking which one is right for now.

I don’t know what comes next.
We don’t know “the answer.”
And, it’s dark and scary.

AND –

There is music and dance and coffee!
And prayers and worship and community and anointing with oil.
And even WHEN we’re surrounded by shadows of Death,
We fear no danger, for you are with us, God.
You spread a table for us, you anoint our heads with oil –

More than one truth is true.

We seek a beginning, a becoming -  step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.”

And while we do that… We dwell in GOD’S house.

We DWELL – and we LIVE & LOVE.
And work and try and we fail and get up and we try again – because
The Kin-dom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We, at the Church of the Village, will accomplish in our lifetime one tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Sometimes, we need to just BE so that we can BECOME.

And sometimes we need to DO.

More than one truth is true.

 We are changed by the effort… the DOING changes us and IS changed BY us.

So…

 SURELY goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in your house, Adonai, while we seek to accomplish OUR tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is your work, as we DO and as we learn and as we strive to BE so we can become.

We seek a beginning, a step along the way for your grace to enter…and to do the rest for days without end.

We are in YOUR HOUSE. GOD.
We are in YOUR HOUSE.

For days without end.
For days without end.
May it be so.

Copyright (c) 2025 - Martha Chapman
All rights reserved.