Recently a church member loaned me the cassette tape version of Anne Lamott’s book, "Blue Shoe". Its such fun to hear the story while I am driving because it takes place in our own backyard: Mt. Tam, West Marin, Stinson Beach, The Redwoods retirement home (though she calls it The Willows) and the wonderful St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City where she is a member and the head Sunday School teacher. Though her colorful experiences can be entertaining, she also has the ability to touch our hearts with her very direct honesty and humor. Lamott tells many tales about raising or being raised by her son Sam. On a night when the boy was having trouble falling asleep, afraid and sad over conditions in his young life, Anne tried to offer him some comforting words. She encouraged him to remember that God was with him all the time and that God loved him. As she tried to gradually exit his room, he stopped her in her tracks by calling out to her in the dark saying, "But Mom, I need a God with clothes on!"

I wonder if Sam had heard our morning passage from Paul in one of his Sunday school lessons. Paul said, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are: and being in every way like a human being."

Did you hear the way that Paul said that? He didn’t direct the people of Philippi to do exactly what Jesus did in his life. Instead, he encouraged them to have the same attitude toward God that Jesus did; an attitude of letting go and emptying himself, a willingness to be transformed into a God-inspired human being. What does that look like? The thing is that it is different for each one of us since we each come to this life with different gifts and talents, different genes and different interests, different abilities and different emotional, financial, and physical environments. We struggle to know what it means for us personally to let ourselves be emptied so that God can come in and fill us up.

E. B. White, the wonderful author of Stuart Little and of Charlotte’s Web described the problem this way. "If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

Luckily for us, we do have some guidance in the form of the Biblical stories, the words of Moses and the Prophets and the ways the Gospel writers experienced and communicated Jesus for us. The world today is incredibly different from the world of Biblical times and yet there has been little change in the ways we act toward each other as human beings. The Biblical writings are offered to us as a plumbline for our own lives. Jesus said there are just two commandments to keep in mind: to love God and to love our neighbor. As we go through our daily routines, how many times do we stop to ask ourselves, "Who is my neighbor at this moment?" "Can I empty myself right now and be God with clothes on for her?" These are helpful questions for us as we enter the hospital room of a friend or church member who is ill, when we notice a co-worker who is stressed and struggling to cope with life, when we see people risking their lives as economic migrants crossing the border or barely holding onto life as refugees in Darfur. Can we empty ourselves of our agendas and our priorities and let God’s priorities fill us up? Isaiah is not quit as general or gentle as Jesus but instead he gets down to specifics in the guidelines he left for us. "Let the oppressed go free." "Share your bread with the hungry." "Bring the homeless poor into your house." Isaiah says that if we empty ourselves and let God work through us in these ways, we will truly experience God’s presence with us. In the Prophet’s words, "Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and God will say, Here I am."

We can’t all be everywhere, trying to be God with clothes on. The thought of all the issues in our world can be overwhelming, as E.B. White says. But that is the wonderful thing about being part of a church community that has members with a full range of talents and interests and passions for the condition of our neighbors both locally and around the world. We can’t all be involved everywhere but we can be aware and we can pray and when on the day that God nudges us to empty ourselves and be filled up by God, we can say, "Yes, now it is my turn, now it is my issue. I can’t say no. I must respond. Here I am, Lord!"

Earlier this year that happened for a large group you, both adults and children, when the Outreach Commission planned an interfaith work project to prepare a garden in Marin City. Adults, youth and children from our congregation and from Congregation Kol Shofar spent a Sunday afternoon working with members of the Marin City community breaking up soil, moving old play equipment, building relationships and embodying a vision for a beautiful garden along side a pre-school. The experienced transformed those involved as they worked alongside each other. You can see their smiles in the photo on the wall near the door of the sanctuary. People were touched by that short afternoon project and have asked for another similar opportunity in the near future.

This year the Congregational Life commission with inspiration from the Church & Society commission has helped us as a congregation, every Sunday morning, affect the lives of coffee pickers in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. In recent years, the price of beans has dropped drastically causing many poor people in Central America to lose their only source of income for their families. By using Fair Trade Coffee which costs significantly more than Folgers at Costco, we are doubling the price per pound that workers receive. Unaware of this project last year, the Session did not budget for that increase which is why you see the small round "Coffee Fund" pot next to the urn. The great news is that the Washington Post reported last Sunday that the situation in Guatemala is turning around. The use of Fair Trade coffee has allowed more workers to stay employed while at the same time, farmers have found that by growing premium coffee beans, highest quality beans, a higher price can be demanded in the general marketplace. You and I are willing to pay more for our cappuccinos and lattes. Coffee workers still earn about $4.00 per day but working conditions have improved as foreign buyers want to be seen as socially responsible – a result of the pressure applied by the Fair Trade advocates.

In 1999, this congregation helped the Vila family resettle here in Marin County after the United States welcomed them in as part of the 20,000 people who escaped the war in Kosovo. At least 100 of you were involved in some way to help them adjust to this very different place. You found a rental house and helped with rent, you cleaned shelves and donated furniture and toys, you offered rides to shopping and job interviews and ESL classes and assisted with medical and dental care. You poured out your hearts to this family of ten. We celebrated with her parents when eighteen-year-old Zeli graduated with her class from Tam High in 2003. It wouldn’t have happened without the help all of you and especially of one church member who month after month gave Zeli a book of bus tickets that she needed to commute from Corte Madera to Mill Valley for the ESL program at Tam High. That person wondered who her neighbor was and found that it was Zeli.

These are just a few of the hundreds of ways this congregation empties itself. I’m sure you can think of many more examples.

So what does God look like with clothes on? Here at Westminster we are nudged, inspired and prodded by each other to empty ourselves and let God work through us to bring love and a just world to our neighbors wherever they are. There are opportunities for children, women, men, career people, retired people, all of us. But it can’t happened without your financial support. October is the pledging month at Westminster. Next weekend is our Dedication Sunday. Our elected Session Elders will be making program and mission plans for 2005 and it is critical for them to be able to predict the income for the year as they do their planning. The Finance Commission asked me to ask you to please submit your pledge card today or bring it next Sunday for our Dedication. More cards are available on the Narthex table.

Thank you for the ways that you personally encourage and inspire both Doug and myself, the staff and the others in the pews to empty ourselves and make space for God to fill us up and work through us, to be transformed as human beings here in Marin county and around the world.