‘Filoli’

October 29, 2023

Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40

First of all, I would like to acknowledge that the last two weeks were so important for Nan and I. It was important for us to just take some time to stop, to reflect, and to focus in on what really is important, rather than just running from one critical thing to another. What was truly important in terms of family and friends, as well as on all of you back here…laboring on our behalf both in deed and in prayer.

And while it will take some time to process all that we heard and saw, and all that we didn’t hear or see, it was a good and affirming time for both of us. And while I am sure that ‘running the good race’ so to speak will resume in short order, at least we had a chance to catch our breath and reorder our lives enough to be able to look forward to what lies ahead.

And over the last two weeks I thought frequently about what I would share with you today, trusting that it would become clearer as we approached the time for us to return home. And I would like to share that being away, and looking back during that time, I became increasingly aware of just how fortunate we all are, to be in this place, to be walking together, seeking to be what we feel called to be and to do. And this feeling of being blessed gained strength and clarity each day that I briefly touched base with all that was going on in the news regarding what at times seemed like a headlong societal rush away from learning how better to love and care for one another. Which was also why I was so convinced that we were moving together in a direction that was both good and right for us.

Sharing all that I saw and heard over the last two weeks, first in rural Texas, and then in the bustle of the San Francisco Bay area however would take far more time than a Sunday morning message. But I am sure that some of those reflections will emerge in conversations going forward.

However, the thing I wanted to share today that seemed to capture the essence of what we saw and heard, and what I reflected on when looking back at our own community, came about earlier this week. It was on Tuesday that we were invited to go on a tour of my niece Cassie’s boyfriend’s place of work which was nestled in the middle of the Santa Cruz Mountains just south of my sister’s home.

The place we went to was named ‘Filoli’ and consisted of an expansive estate built very early in the 20th Century as a home for a couple who wanted it as a place to get away from the busyness of city life, and to entertain numerous friends and guests. Filoli truly was a remarkably beautiful place with numerous year-round gardens and orchards, as well as a mansion that was in excess of 55,000 square feet. And all of this beautiful craftsmanship and stunning design was centered within a property that was more than 600 acres in size.

We arrived around 2 o’clock in the afternoon on a bright sunny day with the temperature hovering around 70 degrees. Slowly we wound our way through the beautiful gardens which themselves were over 16 acres in size, before touring the mansion which truly seemed like a step back in time into the early 20th Century, as everything has been painstakingly restored to the estate’s original lustre as an historic landmark. Spacious rooms, intricate artisanal carpentry and craftsmanship along with stunning flowers and an organic vegetable operation, within a climate that winter truly does not visit, were fascinating and awe-inspiring.

And that in itself would have been entirely enough for a delightful afternoon, however it was the curious name of the place that caught my interest and helped me to tie together what we had seen over the two weeks with my reflections on what we have back here in our own community. The original family who had the estate mansion built was the Bourne family and it was Mr. Bourne who came up with the name of the property based on the first two letters of each part of his personal credo.

The ‘Fi’ in Filoli came from, ‘Fight for a just cause’. The ‘Lo’ came from, ‘Love your fellow man’, and ‘Li’ was drawn from, ‘Live a good life’. ‘Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, and life a good life’. And it was those three things that I felt captured the essence of both who we are as a church family, and all that we are striving together to be and to do here. And of course, I feel that it was no coincidence at all that it also tied in so well with both the words and the spirit of our gospel reading for today.

‘Fighting for a just cause’, underlies much of our community outreach in Patterson as we seek to meaningfully care for our neighbors in need. It is in the book of James in Chapter 1 and beginning in verse 14 that we hear, ‘My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you? Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat.What good is there in your saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!”—if you don’t give them the necessities of life?So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead’.  Surely our work in both our Blue Door Thrift Shop and in our multiple opportunities for folks in need to obtain food through our Food Pantry operation addresses this point directly.

Also, in our attempts to be inclusive and welcoming of all whom the Spirit places before us, we are participating in work that is a ‘just cause’. I remember in seminary when one of my professors shared that the words of the prophet Micah in chapter 6 and verse 8, were even more meaningful if we considered that the word ‘justice’ as it is mentioned, is a verb. In that short passage the prophet says, ‘He has shown you Oh mortal One, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with your God’.

The first instruction therefore becomes, ‘you have been shown what to do, ‘to justice’…to ‘justice in all you do and say’. That is both what we are called to to pursue, and what we draw nearer to each time we stand in witness to the incredible blessings we have received and then in turn offer up in the service of our neighbors and friends.

        The second line of Mr. Bourne’s credo, ‘to love your fellow man’, is also one of the defining characteristics of who we are. It is that which drives all of our interactions with others, both here in our family of worship, as well as in all of the outreach we conduct in everything else we do as a church. I know I have said it before, but when we as a group of people seek to listen to and to follow the Holy Spirit, then each interaction we have with someone who appears before us, be it in the thrift shop or food pantry, the farmstand, chicken bar-b-que, or Christmas Tree lot, is in fact an opportunity to extend love and concern, as well as friendship and fellowship. And though we are not always perfect, we have each other to keep us all headed in the right direction, and by grace the goodness and love of our God continues to go forth.

        And lastly, at least for us, the third line referred to in Filoli, to ‘Live a good life’, is actually the result of the previous two endeavors. Each time we extend a blessing, no matter how large or how small, we are blessed in return. Several times this past week we were thanked profusely for some thing or other that we had said or done. And each time it was something that we did more out of habit, or ‘just because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time’, neither of which really called for such aa sincere expression of gratitude. And I found myself reminding the one who was so grateful, that we were in fact also blessed in the act of being able to serve them…that both receiving from and offering a blessing to another were two sides of the same coin. And also importantly, that having someone tell you that you really didn’t need to do what you had done, would have meant that you were denied the blessing of being able to give, of being able to even more fully enjoy the ‘good life’ the Spirit always offers those who truly seek to love as they themselves have been loved.

        And so, while we truly did think of you, and think of you often, it was good to get away far enough and for long enough to be able to reflect on just how blessed we really are, right here in our own little community…

…blessed and graced by our Lord as a people willing, able, and practiced in the art of loving one another…

…for in this…truly all the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled…

…it’s good to be home…

…amen