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

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Episode Transcript

Whitney Higdon (00:00):
You. Welcome to worship At First Presbyterian

(00:42):
we, at First Presbyterian,practice a spacious
Christianity, which means nomatter where you are in your
faith journey, you belong andthere is space for you at the
table, there is space for yourdoubts and questions. We believe
doubts and questions are a giftthat invite us into deeper
conversations and a moreauthentic faith. We believe
diversity is a strength. Everystory is sacred and everybody

(01:05):
matters. We do our best to livethe spacious and radical love of
Jesus so that all might have achance to flourish in this
world. We are so glad to connectwith you in this way. We would
also love to worship with you inperson if you're ever in the
neighborhood on Sunday morningsat 830, or 10am and never
hesitate to reach out to us tolearn more about us or how we

(01:27):
might support you. I hope youenjoy this worship service.
Welcome

Unknown (04:01):
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 wellas using his words. So let us
begin. First. We begin insilence. Maybe close your eyes

(04:23):
or gaze at something gently infront of you and take a few deep
breaths youand then bring to mind or your

(04:45):
heart or speak out loud what youare grateful for you.

(05:07):
Dear God, please inspire ourhearts to come ever closer to
you. We pray for those peoplewho know us and accept us as we
are, those people who encourageus to see what really is fine in
life. We pray for all the peopleof your world, our sisters and

(05:35):
our brothers whose names we maynot know, but whose lives are
ultimately precious in yoursight. With all our hearts, we
pray for all your childreneverywhere, yes, everywhere. And

(05:55):
finally, we offer our strengthsand our weaknesses, our joys and
our sorrows, to your neverending care help us to remember
all through our lives that wenever need to do difficult

(06:16):
things alone, that your presenceis simply for the asking, and
our ultimate future is assuredby your unselfish love. In our
deepest gratitude, we offer thisprayer Amen.

Steven (06:41):
We're continuing our worship series on on holy
troublemakers, talking about theimportance of of getting into
trouble, good trouble, necessarytrouble for the sake of love and
justice. Now I want to highlightsomeone today who may seem like
the least likely troublemaker ofall, but this person understood

(07:01):
better than most thetransformative power of love.
Picture it with me. One of themost iconic opening sequences in
television history, a man opensthe front door into his home and
offers a warm and kind smile ashe walks to his front closet

(07:23):
singing, it's a beautiful day inthe neighborhood, a beautiful
day for a neighbor. Would you bemine? Could you be mine? Won't
you be my neighbor? Now I'mguessing 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

(07:48):
puts on a red sweater. Takes offhis dress shoes and puts on
sneakers, he looks directly intothe camera and says, I've always
wanted to have a neighbor justlike you, please. Won't you be
my neighbor? And you believedit, he sings and speaks directly

(08:10):
into the camera as if he'sinviting every child and every
adult who's watching to join himin the beautiful neighborhood of
love that he is creating. TheMr. Rogers Neighborhood is an
educational television show forchildren that that ran for 34
years. The host, Fred Rogers wasa musician, writer, puppeteer

(08:36):
and an ordained Presbyterianminister now in this world of
cell phones, Tiktok, AI,dizzying special effects, Mr.
Rogers created space where theimagination and curiosity of
each child were trusted,respected. You know, as I
consider the mental healthcrisis that we face today, Mr.

(09:00):
Rogers invited children to talkopenly, honestly about their
feelings. He would talk openlyabout divorce, death, sickness,
war, discrimination, I mean,topics adults were afraid to
talk about, and childrensilently wondered about. Mr.
Rogers would gently say,everyone, everyone has lots of

(09:22):
ways of feeling, happy feelingsand more difficult feelings like
anger, loneliness and sadness,and all those ways of feelings
are okay. It's what we do withthose feelings is what matters
most in this life, despite neveronce mentioning God in any

(09:47):
episode, Mr. Rogers' deep beliefand trust in God's unending
compassionate love saturatedeach episode. His deep belief in
the worth and the value of ofevery child, of every person,

(10:08):
led to his stance on issues ofsocial justice, believe it or
not, in his very first week onair, he talked about the Vietnam
War. You know, he created thisimaginary land, the land of make
believe, where there was a kingwho built a wall to keep out the
enemy. The King's subjectsbreached the wall with messages

(10:34):
of kindness and compassion, andMr. Rogers said it's better to
connect with someone than tojudge and label them and to
dehumanize them. That's amessage we seem to have
forgotten today. Mr. Rogers madegood trouble by living out the

(11:01):
greatest commandment of ourfaith. It says in the Gospel of
Matthew that an expert in thelaw tested Jesus with this
question, teacher, which is thegreatest commandment in the law?
Jesus replied, Love, Love theLord your God with all your

(11:21):
heart and with all your soul andwith 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 Prophetshanging on these two
commandments. Okay, so an expertin the law testing Jesus, asked

(11:46):
him, you know, Jesus, of all the613 laws of Moses, which one's
most important? And I canimagine Jesus without
hesitating, said, Love Love God.
And the best way to love God isto love your neighbor as

(12:11):
yourself. Now the Greek wordJesus is using here for love is
agape, which means a doggeddetermination to care for and to
want what's best for anotherperson, even if that person's a
stranger or maybe even someoneyou don't even like very much.

(12:37):
To love your neighbor is to wantwhat's best for your neighbor as
much as you want what's best foryourself. Now that's a really
revolutionary concept in thisindividualistic culture centered
on looking out for yourself,even at the expense of your

(12:57):
neighbor, to love your neighboras yourself is to not be willing
to accept less for your neighborand their family as you would be
willing to accept for yourselfand your family. Now consider
this lens to view the so calledBig, beautiful bill that

(13:23):
Congress just passed now abudget, whether that budget be
for a nation or that budget befor your family, a budget is not
just a financial document. It'sa moral document. It reveals
where your priorities are, asJesus said, Where your treasure

(13:46):
is there your heart will bealso. This legislation threatens
devastating cuts to foodassistance, healthcare access,
education, mental healthresources, shelter resources

(14:06):
that are there for for the mostvulnerable of our neighbors,
children, veterans, people withdisabilities, low wage workers,
immigrants, the homeless, whileat the same time offering
expanded benefits to thewealthiest of Americans. This

(14:32):
bill threatens to sacrifice thewell being of your neighbors on
the altar of politicalexpediency and economic
inequity, the central questionof our faith, and certainly, Mr.
Rogers believed this, thecentral question of our faith is

(14:53):
not, you know, is thisDemocratic or Republican, or is
this a. Progressive orconservative, the central
question of our faith, is thisChrist like or not? Does this

(15:14):
help us better love ourneighbors, especially our most
vulnerable neighbors, or not, tolove God is to want for your
neighbor, especially the mostvulnerable, to want for your

(15:35):
neighbor, what you would wantfor yourself and not be willing
to accept less. Fred Rogerssaid, we live in a world in
which we need to shareresponsibility. It's easy to
say, well, it's not my child,not my community, not my
problem. Then there are thosewho see the need of their

(15:59):
neighbors and respond. Iconsider these people my heroes.
Friends. Be a hero. Find a wayto get in the way to speak up.
Cause trouble, good trouble,necessary trouble for your
neighbors. You know, Mr. Rogersshowed us what it looks like to

(16:27):
love our neighborswithout using words. There was
one episode in 1969 when racialtensions were high, Martin
Luther King Jr had just beenassassinated when Mr. Rogers
invited officer Clemons, anAfrican American police officer,
as his guest now FrancoisClemens, was a professional

(16:48):
opera singer, the actor whoplayed the officer was also gay
and a lifelong friend of Fredand his wife, Joanne, and they
accepted him and loved him forwho he was. Now in this episode,
it was a hot, hot summer day,and Mr. Rogers invited officer

(17:12):
Clements to dip his feet intothe kiddies pool with him to get
cool. Now this was at a timewhen public pools were only open
to white residents, and when theCivil Rights Act was passed
requiring public facilities tobe integrated, many communities

(17:34):
just filled in their swimmingpools, rather than having blacks
swimming swim in the same poolwith them. There was a part of
one swimming pool where theowner put acid into the pool so
no one then could swim in thatpool. In this episode, on a hot
summer day, Mr. Rogers invitedofficer Clements to take off his

(18:00):
shoes and his socks and dip hisfeet into the cool water. Seeing
a black man and a white man nextto each other with bare feet in
cool water was a powerful imageshowing that a new kind of

(18:24):
neighborhood was possible. Theydidn't mention racism, but they
enjoyed a moment where the twoof them peacefully cooled off
together, that's the gentle buttrouble making way of Mr.

(18:46):
Rogers, who modeled the type ofneighborhood he believed in,
where neighbors wanted what'sbest for one another. When
officer Clemons had to go, heused Mr. Rogers' towel to dry
his feet, and then Mr. Rogersused the same towel. You know,

(19:12):
seems like an insignificantdetail today, but then it was
revolutionary. 24 years later,Officer Clemens made his last
appearance on the show. The tworeenacted the same scene as
Clemens sang the song many waysto say, I love you this time,

(19:36):
though, when Clemens was readyto leave the pool, Mr. Rogers
stooped over and took his feetinto his own hands and dried
them dried Mr. Clement's feet,imitating Jesus washing and
drying the feet of his discipleswith the words. Love one another

(19:59):
as I have loved you. FredRogers, gently boldly lived his
faith, even when it meant takingrisks, even when it meant
getting into trouble, goodtrouble. He believed your
neighbor, your neighbor is theone most in need of your love

(20:21):
and care. And Fred Rogersbelieved honoring our neighbor
is how we live out God's loveand God's purpose in the world.
How do you honor your neighbor?
This is what he wrote, I believeappreciation is a holy thing,

(20:45):
that when we look for what'sbest in a person and when we
want what's best for them, we'redoing what God does all the
time. So in loving andappreciating our neighbors,
we're participating in somethingsacred. In Fred Rogers words, he

(21:11):
said, I think everybody,everybody longs to be loved, and
longs to know that he or she islovable. The greatest thing we
can do is to help somebody knowthat they're loved and capable

(21:32):
of loving. Let that sink in fora moment. The greatest thing we
can do is to help somebody knowthat they're loved and capable
of loving. Fred said, theunderlying message of the

(21:53):
neighborhood is that if youexperience that somebody cares
about you, it's possible thatyou'll then care about others
you begin to live that love. Hesaid, I believe at the center of
the universe, there dwells aloving spirit who longs for and

(22:19):
desires what's best for you anddesires that we long for and
care about and work for, what'sbest for one another. Mister
Rogers, neighborhood went offthe air in 2001 and the Reverend

(22:41):
Fred Rogers died just two yearslater, but the values he lived,
the love of Jesus that Heembodied and shared, the kind of
neighborhood he created that'sneeded now more than ever. When

(23:06):
Fred Rogers was a boy and hewitnessed the suffering of
others, and he'd get scared, hismother would say, look for the
helpers. You will always findpeople who are helping. Fred
Rogers, a holy troublemaker,reminds us today that we are the

(23:33):
helpers we are looking for. Mayit be so.

(26:51):
the blessing today, I want tooffer these words by Fred
Rogers, Mr. Rogers, you don'tever have to do anything
sensational for people to loveyou when I say it's you, I like
I'm talking about that part ofyou that knows life is far more
than anything you can ever seeor hear or touch, that deep part

(27:13):
of you that allows you to standfor those things without Which
humankind cannot survive, thelove that conquers hate, peace
that rises triumphant overviolence, justice that proves
more powerful than greed. So inall that you do, in all of your
life, I wish you the strengthand grace to make those choices

(27:41):
which will allow you and yourneighbor to become the best of
whoever you are, friends go inthe peace and the love of Jesus,
and May the love that you offerto your neighbors near and far
bring a little peace to them.
Amen.

Whitney Higdon (28:06):
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(28:26):
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(28:49):
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