LIVING THE QUESTIONS

 

My title comes from a popu1ar, contemporary study series with the title: Living The Questions. Right up front they explain that THIS IS AN OPEN-MINDED ALTERNATIVE TO STUDIES - THAT ATTEMPT TO GIVE PARTICIPANTS ALL THE ANSWERS

 

AND INSTEAD STRIVES TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE PARTICIPANTS CAN INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER IN EXPLORING WHAT'S NEXT FOR CHRISTIANITY.

And in a book I'm reading right now by Paul Nixon - he says - what's next for our mainline Christian churches - Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and UCC - is that by the year 2100 - a mere 92 years from now - most of our churches will be long gone! ! !

 

And I believe it has largely to do with our discomfort of' Hving with the questions' as opposed to 'knowing the answers.' Our population is largely involved in shifting to churches that feed them the answers and shifting away - running away - from churches that leave them with questions. Like our own beloved denomination that is proud to say that we believe in ending our sentences with a comma •. and not with a period. Are you comfortable with a comma?

 

My message this morning is in this question: PRAY NOT SO MUCH THAT YOUR CHURCH HAS THE RIGHT ANSWERS - BUT CAN IT ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS?

Jesus begins our lesson with an easy question. WHO DO PEOPLE SA Y THAT THE SON OF MAN IS? That's an easy question and if the disciples were paying attention in class they cou1d spout back the answer - and they did: SOME SAY JOHN THE BAPTIST, BUT OTHERS ELUAH, AND STILL OTHERS JEREMIAH OR ONE OF THE PROPHETS.

 

If the test was mu1tiple choice - A, B, C, or D - the answer wou1d be E - all of the above. But them comes the essay question: BUT WHO DO YOU SA Y THAT I AM? And how the disciples answer that question - and how WE answer that question - makes all the difference in the world. It's a kind of 'gottcha' questions. Who are you willing to say Jesus is?

 

Knowing that WHAT you say - will determine HOW you live.  Right down to and including ­what you do on Sunday mornings, how you treat your neighbor, and what you do with your wallet.  Jesus was a master at asking rhetorical questions. So are we preachers! I've probably never done a sermon without asking you a rhetorical question - to which I'm not expecting you to answer.  William Willimon tells about his father-in-law, a Methodist minister who asked a rhetorical question so often one Sunday - that fmal1y a little boy spoke up and said: I GIVE UP PREACHER. YOU TELL US THE ANSWER.

Willimon says there are two general categories of rhetorical questions: THE ANSWER IS EITHER PAINFULLY OBVIOUS -OR IT IS RIDICULOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE.

 

He says he had a professor who used to say: PHILOSOPHY DEALS WITH TWO TYPES OF QUESTIONS:  QUESTIONS TO WHICH EVERYBODY ALREADY KNOWS THE ANSWER, AND QUESTIONS TO WHICH NOBODY HAS EVER KNOWN THE ANSWER.

 

Jesus used both. DOES ANYONE LIGHT A LAMP AND PUT IT UNDER A BUSHEL? CAN YOU GATHER GRAPES FROM THORNS? CAN YOU GATHER FIGS FROM THISTLES? Matthew 7:9 - IF YOUR SON ASKS FOR BREAD, WILL YOU GIVE HIM A STONE?

And then there are impossible questions to answer: What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? If salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Salt is a seasoning - you can't season salt.    Who do you say that I am?

 

One of the presidential candidates was criticized this week for not giving an answer to the question of - when life begins? He said the answer was 'above his pay scale.' Unlike his critics, I thought that was a really good answer. A lot of life's most disturbing questions - are above our pay scale!

 

One of clergies biggest problems is probably trying to answer questions - to which we don't really know the answer. Hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask me What does the Bible say about..     ?          Or what do you think 'God says about..  heavens - I have enough trouble trying to figure out what Jesus would do - let alone - what God would do.

 

One of our members said to me this week that her son is driving her crazy - because he wants answers to the current family crisis - and she said - honestly - quite frankly - truly - there are no answers. Sometimes the best we can do is to learn to live with the questions.

 

Quoting Willimon again, OUR PROBLEM AS CLERGY IS THAT WE PLAY INTO PEOPLE'S DESIRES FOR OBVIOUS, PAT ANSWER, AND THEREBY AVOID THE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTIONS.

 

LOTS OF PEOPLE IN OUR WORLD TODAY - and I would repeat - LOTS OF PEOPLE - WANT A FAITH THAT THEY CAN PUT ON A BUMPER STICKER, THREE SPIRITUAL LAWS, SIX BASIC FUNDAMENTALS, AND FOUR CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY.

BUT OUR GOD IS SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING THAN THAT. JESUS IS SO MUCH LARGER THAN THAT, AND LIFE IS SO MUCH :MORE DEMANDING.

I THINK IT IS SAD, says Willimon, BECAUSE LIFE ITSELF IS LARGE, AND CONFUSING, AND QUESTIONABLE.

 

AS A PASTORI'VE SEEN SOMEBODY WHO HAS GROWN UP STILL LIVING OFF THEIR RATHER SIMPLISTIC ANSWERS OF CHILDHOOD.

BUT THEN WHEN THAT PERSON CONFRONTS THE TOUGH DILEMMAS OF ADULTHOOD, THOSE ANSWERS WILT.

 

And then, I would add, that far too often they will run to a church that will give them only a bumper sticker faith - with three spiritual laws, or six fundamentals, or four principles.

It's tough, it's uncomfortable, it's challenging to live with the questions. Today's lesson points out that it's even tougher when Jesus asks the questions of us. BUT WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

 

We can spend our whole life asking our questions to God, but never really get around to answering God's questions to us. In fact, all of our questions can become a mere diversion from the real question - the only one that makes any real difference in our lives, who do you say that I am?

 

Try answering that question day after day after day - and none of our days will ever be the same again.

And so I repeat my theme: Pray not that your church has the right answers, but can your church ask the right questions?

Oh, and by the way, WHO DO YOU SAY THAT JESUS IS? Amen.

 

 

We've all had those days when we feel tired, exhausted, drained - and then along comes one more problem or request. Or those days when we're just not ready to deal with anyone. We would like to be away from the world, alone for while; don't bother me.

 

That's exactly what Jesus was attempting in our gospel lesson this morning. HE WITHDREW FROM THERE IN A BOAT TO A DESERTED PLACE - BY HIMSELF. Jesus had had one of THOSE days - and he wanted to be alone. You need to know why.

 

Our lesson began: NOW WHEN JESUS 'HEARD' THIS. What he heard; what hurt him so badly; what pained him so deeply - was the brutal death of a friend, a co-worker for the kingdom, his cousin - Jesus had just HEARD - yes - that John the Baptist had been gruesomely beheaded by Herod. "AND HIS HEAD WAS BROUGHT ON A PLATTER." unimaginable brutality.

 

Obviously Jesus was deeply affected; was it a forewarning of his own demise? Jesus was sad, frightened, angry ..... and he just wanted to be alone in some DESERTED PLACE BY HIMSELF. He got in a boat.

 

BUT - the next word in our lesson is - BUT - just then the phone rang - JUST THEN THE CROWDS HEARD WHERE HE WENT - AND THEY FOLLOWED HIM ON FOOT.

Jesus is in a boat headed for a 'DESERTED PLACE' - BUT by the time he reaches the shore - HE SA W A GREAT CROWD - ( ? and so Jesus has them turn the boat around and they headed in another direction) - he can't handle another crowd - don't they understand he wants to be alone - he is in mourning over John. Is that what this amazing Jesus does? No! No!

At precisely a time in his life - when we could fully understand that he would feel sorry for himself - what does he do? He sees the crowd on the shore - AND - verse 14 - my title - HE HAD COMPASSION FOR THEM. An amazing example!

 

I want to quote one of my sources: THAT JESUS 'HAD COMPASSION FOR THEM' IS 'NOTEWORTHY'.   THE FALLEN AND SELFISH INSTINCT IN HIS CIRCUMSTANCE WOULD BE - TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIMSELF.   INSTEAD, HE FELT SORRY FOR THEM!  I WILL KNOW THAT MY CONVERSION HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT STRIDES WHEN THE LATTER REPLACES THE FORMER IN ME.

 

I love that evaluation of our Christian commitment: I WILL KNOW THAT MY CONVERSION HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT STRIDES - WHEN - FEELING SORRY FOR OTHERS - REPLACES - FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF.

What a challenging example Jesus is setting before us!

He is turning a time of SORROW AND SELF-PITY into a time of SERVICE AND SELF -SACRIFICE.

 

Matthew sets this spectacular miracle story - (the only miracle story - that is included in all four gospels) - Matthews places the beginning of the story - at one of the lowest points in Jesus' life - and it results - it ends - in the most well-known - the most recorded - the most miraculous - sign of God's abundance!

 

From the lowest moments of our life can come the most awesome results. From those times when we feel the weakest - and the most helpless - turn it over to God - turn it over to "compassion for others" - and the results can be a hundredfold. Do we believe that?

The disciples are already absolutely amazed that Jesus has given this 'great crowd' his attention - and that he has cured their sick - and that it has taken all day long - 'the hour is now late' - this is a deserted place - Jesus - be reasonable - Now - 'you've had more than a long day!' SEND THE CROWDS AWAY SO THAT THEY MAY GO INTO THE VILLAGES AND BUY FOOD FOR THEMSELVES.

And Jesus - now even more exhausted - and more ready for rest - than before - says - NO, WHY DON'T YOU FEED THEM!

           

WHY DON'T YOU FEED THEM?     We'll tell you why Jesus. Because look - all we

can come up with are these FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISH. And look at this crowd! And picture this - it took only about two or three disciples to hold this small quantity of food - five loaves and two fish - and a crowd of five thousand men, besides women and children.

You know the story. Now picture this - they gather the leftovers - and now it takes everyone of the disciples - all 12 - the story seems to be making this point loudly and clearly ­everyone of these doubters - all 12 - had a basket full of bread to return to Jesus. Picture their faces as they looked down the row and saw the other 11 disciples - all bearing a basket!

 

At one of the weakest and saddest moments of his life - Jesus is able to bring about this amazing abundance - working with God. The same God - one of my sources said - THE SAME GOD WHO CREATED MORE STARS THAN WE CAN SEE, MORE SPECIES THAN WE CAN CATALOG, AND MORE PLANT LIFE THAN WE CAN DISCOVER.

THE SAME GOD WHO REWARDS WITH A GOOD MEASURE, PRESSED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER, AND RUNNING OVER.  THE SAME GOD WHO COMES THAT WE MAY HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY.  THE SAME GOD WHOSE HOUSE HAS 'MANY' ROOMS.

           

Folks, this is a wake up call to our mission on this earth!  If we want to stop feeling sorry for ourselves - start feeling sorry for others. If we want our life to start going better - start having compassion on others. We must stop this navel-gazing - and start focusing on others.

We must stop always looking out for number one and start looking out for others. And when we do - we can tap into this amazing, overwhelming 'abundance' of our God.

 

I WILL KNOW THAT MY CONVERSION HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT STRIDES WHEN FEELING SORRY FOR OTHERS - REPLACES - FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF.

I have begun a little personal experiment - and it hasn't been going on for long - but I'll let you in on it - maybe you will try it to. I have set a daily goal of trying to give something to someone - every day. It might be something I buy and give them; it might be something I already have and they need; it might be as simple as 'time'; it might even be money. (Most all of us here - have plenty.) We have been showered with abundance - truly beyond our comprehension.

I don't know how long this experiment will work; and I guess some days, it won't. I don't know what effect it might have on me. I know it has made me listen and observe other people more closely. Now what could they use? what do they need? How could I show some sense of compassion for them?

 

On Wednesday we had a visitor to the racquetball court; I learned - by listening - that he is unemployed and probably soon to be homeless. As we were wiping our sweat at the end of the game he said, "Boy, I need to get a sweat band." And immediately a little light lit up on my personal experiment. In my bag I had a brand new, still in the wrapping, sweat band. Bingo!

Friday, he never mentioned it, but I noticed that sweat was no longing getting in his eyes. Heart-warming abundance. A small item turned into a reward much larger than its size.

Five loaves and two fish turned into such heart-warming abundance.

 

Jesus looked his disciples in the eye at that precise moment and said, YOU GIVE THEM

SOMETHING TO EAT. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT. YOU. You don't wait for someone else. Don't lay the burden on them. Don't send them away. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING.

And when we do, the results can be miraculously plentiful. Sometimes taking as many as 12 men to carry. Amen.

 

 

 

"Attention Deficit Disorder"

 

You and I are living in a multi-tasking world;

Split-second decisions, rapid sights and sounds at us hurled.

So seldom are we doing only one thing at once;

Many days I feel like a juggler performing stunts.

 

Whatever happened to moments of silence and calm?

Like Gilead of old, maybe what we need is a balm.

Imagine if we planned a time of silence each day,

The joy of solitude into our lives makes its way.

 

Experts warn us we could enter a time of dark ages; We're losing our ability to focus in stages.

A mere 3 minutes till our brains reach a border;

a mere 3 years and a new computer we order;

By now we've all got a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder.

 

From my house to the hospital a five minute ride;

but last week three times I was almost hit in the side.

You all know the ending of this short story I tell,

Because each of the drivers was engaged with their cell.

 

Our brain is slowed down when we give it more than one job;

Safety and performance - quick reaction - we rob.

And yet aren't we proud to do several tasks at one time;

Eating lunch, taking calls, sending e-mails, while writing this rhyme!

 

Gentlemen, take note of this new time-saving advice;

To make daily shaving a shorter time sacrifice;

A man actually tried to put a razor in both hands;

And shaving itself took much less time - just as he planned.

But he forgot the time all the band aids would command.

 

Concentration on homework was a challenge for me;

But interruptions were few you'd have to agree,

Compared to a third of our students today,

Bombarded by '8 media' while at study they say.

 

Playing music, instant messaging, texting friends they do;

There's television, the web, and an e-mail or two.

So distracted - half can't locate New York on a map.

Find Iraq, and for 60% it's a mishap.

 

Two thirds of our children under 6 years of age,

Live in a home where the TV is almost always engaged.

But they look away and back 150 times per hour,

So stimulated - their attention - we devour.

'Junior multi-taskers' robbed of concentration power.

 

Maggie Jackson says we're all 'air traffic controllers' now;

Gazing at so many and varied screens has taught us how.

One in my office, one in my bedroom, one at the bank;

Yes, and even nice restaurants now we can thank.

 

When do we ever get face-to-face attention anymore?

Not with an e-mail, or Amazon, or E-Bay - that's for sure.

I can check-in at the airport, or check-out at the store,

And a warm, smiling face will be nevermore.

 

The epitome may be the teenager upset;

Mother won't answer her cell phone she would fret.

The daughter was upstairs and the mother below;

But, you see, all that distance was too far to go;

Sadly, it could not have happened just a few years ago.

 

If 'multi-tasking air traffic controllers' are we,

If my cell phone seems to be surgically connected to me,

If my attention holds for only 3 minutes or less,

Then how do we begin to make sense of this mess?

 

A Frenchman born in 1848 may have had it right.

In a story titled "In 1965", he predicts our plight.

He describes technologies' impact upon our day;

television, video-phones, and web-cams would lead the way.

 

He predicted the simple pleasures we would miss;

although not miss - since we had never known of this.

The simple pleasure of silence, calm, and solitude.

For these simple pleasures we will have no aptitude;

Since living our disordered lives will these preclude.

 

Silence, calm, solitude seem in such short supply,

In a day when only fancy gadgets seem to satisfy.

So many voices, and visuals, so much to distract,

Can we possibly comprehend technologies impact?

 

Remember Elijah looking for God in the great?

Through wind, fire, and earthquake he had to patiently wait.

But pleasure - or God - was not in any of these,

Something far less - but far more - would finally appease.

 

Silence, calm, and solitude - 'the still, small voice'

Would finally lead old Elijah to rejoice.

So many, many voices vie today for our ears,

So many pleasures to cover over our fears,

Silence, calm, solitude become more attractive with years.

 

So impressed am I by Jesus need to be alone,

So long before ever the ring of a phone.

40 days and 40 nights would begin his career,

His mission - those days - would make abundantly clear.

 

No problem attracting a great crowd ever had he;

Thousands on a hillside overlooking the sea.

Yet always anxious to depart by way of a boat,

Looking for solitude - the next days he would devote.

 

On the night - the toughest decision his life ever would make,

To allow the rulers his very existence to take,

To a garden - and the disciples to leave him alone,

Their attention diverted - tired and weary they've grown,

But there Jesus' precious tears of blood would be sown.

 

Today we need silence, calm, solitude more than we know;

with our lack of attention a new darkness may grow.

The building block of intimacy, wisdom, and progress,

Attention is so crucial for our way to success.

 

Connected are we in so many ways, dot, dot, dot...

Cell phones, computers, e-mails, my grandson's blog-spot.

But yet more diffused, fragmented, detached we may be,

Myriads of conversations, but less faces we see.

 

A 'renaissance of attention' is what the experts call for;

Or a cultural decline is what may be in store.

We must strengthen our skills of focus and insight;

appreciate the gifts of silence and calm would be right;

before solid concentration is clean out of sight.

 

Consider a moment the interruptions each day;

we start in one direction, but are called a different way.

We try to read the paper while listening to the news;

but soon the ticker at the bottom - our eye pursues.

 

We are victims of' continuous partial attention',

 And lest you think that's some crazy new invention,

How often - just now - has your mind begun to wander?

By now - as your speaker - I must begin to wonder.

 

Just how long could you go with your cell phone turned off?

When I forget to carry mine, my children at me - scoff.

"Give me a break! I need some time without the phone."

A day, an hour, a minute without it - they have never known.

They know not my voice - as well as my ring tone.

 

All this multi-tasking leaves us quite a deficit;

For doing double duty our mind is just not fit.

Every time we multi-task there is a cost to 'switch',

Driving while phoning has left so many in a ditch.

 

We suffer from disorder, diffusion, and fragment;

Speed and overload do not lead to our content.

Have we lost our skill to focus on what really matters most?

Will such scattered lives cause us through life to coast?

 

A-D-D is now most likely - part of each of us.

To understand our plight - may be the first big plus.

To take away distractions may be a goal to choose;

When 'more' is so much 'less' we are the ones who lose.

I close now with this message - its one of really good news.

 

"Attention, attention, may I have your attention, please."

There is a time and place to appease this disease.

And coming from a preacher, have you any doubt?

Focusing and nurturing is what church is about.

 

In our multi-tasking, interrupt-driven days

Who is the one most likely to calm ~d still our ways?

The one who took demons, and diseases, and storms at sea,

and from disorders and distractions could set them free. -

 

I will end this 'wordy' message in silence, solitude  

And for a time of 'calm' let His presence 'exude'.

Focus, if you will, on the depth of his power;

Focus, if you will, on the mystery of this hour.

Focus, if you will, on the peace that is ours.

 

 

 

 

 

“United”

 

I 'googled' my title! "United" I found 1,140,000,000 results. Sit back, relax, it's gonna be long!

 

A lot of us have flown 'United.' We celebrate this weekend because

13 colonies united. The organization in New York City says our

nations - are United. Our own denomination and many others call

themselves - United. A lot of us are 'united' in marriage.

 

All these millions of uses of the word - the New Testament

uses it but twice. You heard it this morning: In the 6^th

chapter of Paul's letter to the people living in Rome;

WE ARE 'UNITED' WITH CHRIST IN DEATH;

WE ARE 'UNITED' WITH CHRIST IN NEW LIFE.

It means literally - GROWN TOGETHER. Joined at

the hip! From this day forward these three babies among

us will have the 'opportunity' to GROW TOGETHER

WITH CHRIST. That's UNITED. When we were

baptized we were UNITED with Christ.

 

Ann read the lesson this morning - we read it at every

funeral here as well - ON THE DAY WE WERE BAPTIZED

WE WERE BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST

JESUS - WE WERE BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST'S DEATH.

Don't let me scare you, but these three babies

are going to 'die' here this morning. They are going to

die to living BY themselves, and FOR themselves, and

TO themselves.

 

Beginning today - (l) They're going to join a movement

that has been going on now for 2,000 years; (2) they're

going to join a faith that has challenged us, and sustained

us, and in our United Church of Christ - we would like

to say - has 'confused' us for 2,000 years; (3) and they're

going to join a community that numbers at least another

1 billion living people and an even larger communion of

saints - made up of our ancestors.

 

You see, if we had enough water here this morning, -

instead of just this baptismal bowl ­we would put these

children under the water - and some of you here were baptized

that way - and that would represent their death;

and then, of course, we would bring them right back up -

stop depriving them of oxygen - and declare them

baptized Christians - baptized into a new life .. We,

of course, are going to be ever so polite and dainty this morning,

and put only a few drops on them.

 

But after this baptism is the beginning of their 'growing together.'

The beginning of their 'opportunity' to be

ever more closely 'united with Christ.'  And everyone of

them - and everyone of us - has the freedom to handle

that opportunity as we choose. When I think about my

own baptism I realize that way back in 1948 - my

baptism has determined my education, it hast determined

my career, and it determined where I live - and with

whom - I would live my life. 60 years later I am still

living my baptism.

 

At a very minimum these baptisms today will

determine how these children will celebrate the

holidays - especially Christmas and Easter; It will

determine what prayers they might learn; what

communities and organizations they might join; it will

determine in some respects what they will eat; it

may determine who they might choose as a spouse;

what they might do with their leisure time, You parents

are making a major decision for your child this day.

We're going to ask you in a few moments a lot of

questions - the first of which is: DO YOU DESIRE TO HAVE

YOUR CHILD BAPTIZED INTO THE

FAITH AND FAMIL Y OF JESUS CHRIST?         

If so, answer, publicly - WE DO.

 

The very final question I will ask you, by the way, is

'what name is given this child?' ­that question is a carry-over

from the day - and is still practiced in some Scandinavian

countries ­the practice that the name of your child would

not be revealed until that question is asked in this service

of baptism. All three would arrive here nameless - except

in the hearts of the parents. Wouldn't that add some excitement

and anticipation to our service?

 

Now I carefully said that today begins the 'opportunity'

to grow ever closer to Christ. We clergy know very

well our individual freedoms, and we know very

well that some of our children we will never see again

until they call the church office some day for a wedding -

and that's O.K.   In fact in the business we have a

phrase for this casual, cultural - relationship with the

church ­we say that we hatch'em, and then we match'em;

and finally we dispatch'em.

 

And that's O.K. But I must say that from my unique perspective of being with families on all three occasions -

as we hatch'em, match'em, and dispatch' em - being with families at these critical and dramatic and emotional

moments in their lives - and that is a deep privilege -

I must say - that I have never heard anyone express

remorse for spending too much of their time 'growing

together' with Christ. Ask the grandparents - better yet -

ask the great-grandparents of your children - and you all

have some great-grandparents here today - ask them just

how short this span of life really is. We know when

we're 60 and 70 and 80.

 

Today you are opening up for your child - the opportunity

to be united with Christ. Over these coming years you

will offer your children countless and varied opportunities;

so many opportunities.   I pray you will consider today -

one of the best.

 

I end with the words of my favorite Psalm - 103 ­

 

AS FOR US, OUR DAYS ARE LIKE GRASS;

WE FLOURISH LIKE A FLOWER OF THE FIELD; AND THEN THE WIND PASSES OVER IT, AND IT IS GONE, AND ITS PLACE KNOWS IT NO MORE.

BUT THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD IS FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING UPON THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS EXTENDED TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN.  

 

AMEN.

 

 

The Challenge of Sacrifice

 

 

I kind of chuckled on Friday when I called Cally with my title - "The Challenge of Sacrifice" - having just spent two wonderful weeks - more than wonderful, actually - in a gorgeous summer house - with a million dollar view. Having just participated in Ryan and Abby's wedding - which certainly for the majority of the people in this world - would be considered - elegant; extravagant.

 

So what do 1 know about sacrifice? What do hardly any of us know about sacrifice?

 

To give you a glimpse of the wedding - picture a deserted beach, the ocean for a background - a trellis covered in flowers, and a very, very, very - stiff breeze. Abby's mother and I shared in conducting the wedding; although an elementary teacher she is also a graduate of our seminary in Lancaster. Since she was going to make some remarks about our children - I felt compelled to do the same, and so I began this way.

 

"We didn't think our little boy would ever grow up, but he surely did." (I figured every parent there could identify with that.)

 

And then I said: "I didn't think Ryan would ever fall in love with a woman other than his mother, but he surely did." (I figured every mother could identify with that.)

 

And then I added that "I didn't think Ryan would ever become a father ..... but I surely pray to God that he does." (And I figured every grandparent there could identify with that.) I said, "I have one grandchild - and I'm ready for more."

 

That was part of what I said - (with 150 people's hair - now blowing hard in a horizontal direction) .... and I concluded with part of! Corinthians 13 - Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. This love - never ends. (You church people know it.) But before I read Paul's words - I reminded the folks - that the 'love' Paul was speaking about - was not the erotic love of romance - although that's a part of marriage; Paul was not speaking about the 'sisterly-brotherly' love that we share among each other - the 'philos' - ("if you love me, I'll love you back") as in Philo - delphia. City of brotherly love.

 

Paul was speaking, I said, about the highest love, Christian love - the greatest of all love ­-which is 'agape'. Love, I said, that is self-giving love, and self-sacrificing love, love not expecting anything in return - - - and love - that 'yes' - can sometimes even be 'crucifying.'

 

My challenge to us today - is to keep ourselves - more keenly aware of - and more open to - opportunities for sacrifice. Our very human nature helps us fight against sacrifice - and yet, what more powerful lesson and example do we want - than what Jesus did on the cross?

 

Vacation is not vacation unless 1 have a USA Today newspaper to read every day - and my brother-in-law very faithfully delivered one each morning. In the Friday edition was this editorial by the founder of USA Today - who was basically saying - that the war in Iraq - would end much sooner - if we - as taxpayers were made to pay for it - now - instead of putting it on credit - and waiting for our children - and our dear - grandchildren to pay for it. That would require some 'sacrifice', which he said - and I've heard it repeatedly over these six long years –  every war until this one - has required sacrifice - from everyone.

 

And then he mentioned how even Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862 - 'signed our first and very fair income tax law - to pay for what? the Civil War.

 

The levy, he says, was 3% on those with annual incomes between $600 and $10,000 and 5% for those who earned over $10,000.

 

That law was rescinded ten years later - but again in 1913 - in anticipation of World War I - it was re-enacted - and has been in effect ever since. Just another significant figure - (part of another article) if we wanted to payoff our current (and rapidly growing) national debt - it would cost each one of us - are you ready for the bill? $176,000! Now that would be sacrifice!

 

I read a book on vacation - that Linda's sister handed me - that involved some pretty gruesome and disturbing, historical 'sacrifice'.  It was the account of the whaling ship - the Essex - sailing from Nantucket in 1819 - many of you probably know the story - the tragedy that inspired Herman Melville to write "Moby Dick". This rather factual account that I read - of the survivor's 93 days as sea - with little water and even less food - was titled: "The Heart of the Sea." Twenty men;  after they dump the bodies of the first two starved and dehydrated victims overboard - they stop doing something so wasteful - and their desperate mental state turns them into cannibals. Later four of the survivors draw straws to determine who of the four will be sacrificed in order to save the other three. Now that was sacrifice! And for me reading the book obviously - memorable.

 

Am I talking about sacrifice this morning because of a newspaper article and a whaling tragedy two hundred years ago? No - but because of Genesis, Chapter 22, and Abraham and Isaac. "TAKE YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY SON ISAAC, WHOM YOU LOVE, AND OFFER HIM THERE AS A BURNT OFFERING ON ONE OF THE MOUNTAINS THAT I WILL SHOW YOU."

 

Our God said that??? Our loving, and forgiving, and gracious God - said that? Kill the son you waited all your life to hold! A son who is now old enough to walk up the mountain ­side by side with you - and God wants you to kill him? One of my sources said they wonder if Abraham consulted with Sarah before he collected the fire wood!

 

Was Abraham losing his mind in his old age? Was he, some theologians wonder, involved in some family squabbles between Sarah and Hagar? You know he had a wife and a concubine; he had this son, Isaac, but he also really did have another, older son, Ishmael And I would imagine that could cause some family drama. One commentator on today' s lesson says be careful how far you push this as a pastor, BECAUSE WATCH AS SOME CHILD POINTS OUT - AND SAYS IT IS THE SAME IN HIS FAMILY - THAT MY DADDY DOESN'T LIVE WITH US - BECAUSE HE LIKES HIS NEW FAMILY BETTER.

 

Child sacrifice - as you know from your history - was not an uncommon practice among our earliest ancestors. Abraham may just have been among the first to realize that no God worth worshiping would require such a repulsive act. Although that same source I just mentioned said HUMANS HAVE A WAY OF BEING ALL TOO READY TO SACRIFICE THE WEAKEST AND MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US.

 

And he followed that sentence with these disturbing figures: THE AVERAGE AGE OF SOLDIERS WORLD WIDE HAS BEEN REPORTED TO BE FOURTEEN. THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD SPENDS UPWARD OF TEN HOURS ADA Y WATCHING TELEVISION AND BEING TURNED FROM BEING A CHILD INTO A CONSUMER BY THE AGE OF THREE. (USA Today, by the way, had an article on that also - saying that children 12 and older now spend a total of 71 days a years watching television!). CHILD LABOR REMAINS A KEY PART OF MANY ECONOMIES. AND TOO MANY RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS HAVE BEEN SLOW TO RESPOND TO CASES OF CHILD ABUSE IN THEIR MIDST BECAUSE THEY SOUGHT TO PROTECT THE NAME OF THE INSTITUTION. Children are still being sacrificed.

 

Maybe it's time to give this sacrifice thing some additional thought - not child sacrifice, of course - and certainly not the sacrifice of the weakest and most vulnerable - but self-sacrifice. If we really take our Christianity seriously it seems to me we have to work on this sacrifice thing; too much Christianity today is about getting ahead in life, making life smooth and easy and manageable, some on TV even equate Christianity with getting wealthy.

 

I recently heard someone say that it's not the dollars you make in life that counts - it's the difference you make. Not the dollars, but the difference.

 

Some months I think the only sacrifice I make is a pint of my blood to the Red Cross. I see some of you there. Maybe we tend too much to avoid sacrifice like the plague. Let someone else do it; let someone else contribute; let someone else be last; let someone else carry the load. Let someone else get dirty; let someone else do the menial and degrading tasks. Let someone else make a fool of themselves. I'm too busy looking out for number one.

 

And yet all along we claim to worship this fool on a hill. A fool who died the most humiliating death of his day.  A fool who was forgotten, and forsaken, and dumped.

 

I have this gnawing suspicion - having had some vacation time to think about it - having watched how anxious all of us are to 'grab for the gusto' - grab this, and grab that, and almost anything for ourselves

 

I have this gnawing suspicion that the creator of all we know had something profoundly important in mind - when we were given all this body strength, and all these abilities, and all these years of life - - that we were to use ourselves - and give of ourselves - and yes, sacrifice ourselves - for the sake of others. As I have said many times - I would much rather wear my self out - than just rust away.

 

O, that we could somehow be ever more sensitive, and alert, and keen to the needs - the daily - moment by moment - needs - of all those around us. I guess that's what I mean by The Challenge of Sacrifice. Amen.

June 8, 2008

 

"As Good As Dead"

You might remember the story a few years ago of a young hiker by the name of Aron Ralston; he had a most unusual experience while mountain climbing.

 

ARON KNEW HE WOULD DIE BEFORE THE NEXT MORNING'S SUNRISE. FIVE DAYS EARLIER HE'D BEEN WALKING A TRAIL IN A NARROW DESERT CANYON IN UTAH, AND HAD CLIMBED DOWN FROM A LARGE CHOCKSTONE ALONG HIS ROUTE. A CHOCKSTONE IS A HUGE BOULDER THAT'S WEDGED BETWEEN OTHER STONES OR CANYON WALLS.

 

THIS ONE MAY HAVE BEEN THERE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, BUT WHEN RALSTON CAME DOWN, HE SOMEHOW LOOSENED THE BOULDER, AND IT FELL ON HIM.

 

WHEN IT STOPPED, THE STONE WAS WEDGED AGAINST BOTH CANYON WALLS, AND HIS RIGHT WRIST WAS BETWEEN ONE OF THOSE WALLS AND THE BOULDER.

 

FOR FIVE DAYS, THIS EXPERIENCED CLIMBER TRIED A THOUSAND PLANS AND A THOUSAND VARIATIONS ON A PLAN TO GET HIMSELF FREE - USING THE CLIMBING EQUIPMENT HE HAD BROUGHT ALONG, RALSTON EVEN CONSIDERED AMPUTATING HIS ARM, BUT HIS ONLY AVAILABLE KNIFE WAS NOT SHARP ENOUGH.

 

HE HAD WATER AND FOOD FOR ONLY ONE DAY, SO HE TRIED TO RATION IT.

AS HIS STRUGGLE CONTINUED AND THE HOURS PASSED, RALSTON REACHED INTO HIS BACKPACK TO GET HIS VIDEO CAMERA, AND FOR SEVERAL DAYS HE RECORDED HIS THOUGHTS, SPEAKING INTO THE CAMERA AND ADDRESSING HIMSELF TO ALL HIS LOVED ONES IN A FAREWELL.  RALSTON FIGURED THAT SOMEONE WOULD EVENTUALLY COME ACROSS HIS BODY AND DELIVER THE TAPE TO HIS FAMILY.

 

AS THE FIFTH EVENING OF HIS ORDEAL APPROACHED, HE FELT CERTAIN HE WOULD DIE THAT NIGHT, PROBABLY OF HYPOTHERMIA.  WITH HIS KNIFE HE ETCHED A DATE ON THE CANYON WALL TO COMPLETE AN EPITAPH HE HAD BEEN WRITING OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS:

 

HE ETCHED:     R-I-P  ARON  OCT 75 – APR 03

 

TO HIS SURPRISE, HOWEVER, HE SURVIVED THE NIGHT, AND IN THE MORNING A NEW IDEA CAME TO HIM - A DIVINE REVELATION - HE CALLS IT.  HE UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE HAD TO DO TO CUT OFF HIS ARM.

 

HE KNEW HIS KNIFE COULD NEVER CUT THROUGH HIS BONES, BUT REALIZED THAT IF HE TWISTED HIS BODY ENOUGH, THE BOULDER AND THE CANYON WALL WOULD FUNCTION AS A VISE GRIP - UNTIL HIS FOREARM BONES SNAPPED.

 

AFTER THAT, HE COULD CUT THE REMAINING MUSCLE AND NERVES.

HE SUCCEEDED.  HE WAS ABLE TO AMPUTATE HIS ARM, WENT LOOKING FOR HELP AND ENCOUNTERED THE SEARCH PARTY THAT WAS LOOKING FOR HIM.

 

You probably remember his story, but I tell it, because WHEN A NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INTERVIEWER ASKED RALSTON ABOUT HIS DECISION, HE REPLIED:

'THE MOMENT WHEN I FIGURED OUT HOW I COULD GET FREE, IT WAS THE BEST IDEA AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE I WILL EVER HAVE IN MY LIFE ....... .IT WAS ALL EUPHORIA - AND NOT A BIT OF HORROR.  IT WAS HAVING MY LIFE BACK - AFTER BEING DEAD.

 

Young RALSTON - like the characters in our scripture lessons - was ­- AS GOOD AS DEAD.

Father - Abraham - featured in both our first and second lessons - at age 100 - HIS OLD BODY - WAS AS GOOD AS DEAD. (and a lot of us can already identify!)

 

The woman with the hemorrhage - for twelve long years - her illness was becoming more

than life ...... .

 

The little girl - who is already dead - the funeral has begun.

 

BUT ALL THREE POSSESS A 'LIVING FAITH', A 'GROWING FAITH', AND EACH OF THEM SENSED THAT GOD WOULD PERFORM A SIGN OF NEW LIFE IN THEM.

Abraham and Sarah never gave up and in faith they went out and eventually -gave birth to a son. - to a nation.

 

The daring woman, literally, reached out in faith and touched Jesus' robe; the hopeful synagogue leader brought Jesus to his daughter - and she lived.

My difficulty with most of you folks sitting here comfortably in your pew - and quite frankly with myself - now that I'm in my 60's - is that we think - our faith journey is over - or at best all but over. My difficulty is that we no longer want our faith to be challenged- we're too old.

 

Our difficulty is that we sit there thinking that God has spoken once and for all - in the pages of the Bible - and that's it - it's over and done; don't push me, don't challenge me, for heavens sake - don't expect me to change,!!!  Don't expect me to have to reason and think things through, don't expect me to grow.  I went to Sunday School!  And at confirmation I graduated from learning. (Even though I wasn't really paying attention even then.)

 

Too many of us carry around our Journal of Faith and the title on the cover is - AS GOOD AS DEAD. Folks the evidence is in - Abraham proves it - our faith must be OPEN and ALIVE and GROWING and CHANGING. Truth must be open and alive and growing and changing.

 

The very theme of our denomination- NEVER PLACE A PERIOD - WHERE GOD HAS PLACED A COMMA. GOD IS STILL SPEAKING.

 

Our ancestor, John Robinson, when he stepped off the Mayflower said - GOD HAS YET - MORE LIGHT AND MORE TRUTH TO BREAK FORTH OUT OF HIS HOLY WORD.

 

God has so much more light and truth - for you - Abraham - at age 75 - at age 100 - so much more light and truth. I loved it a few weeks ago when a Roman Catholic nun on Meet the Press said: TRUTH DOES NOT COME IN A PACKAGE. You can't box it up and put it on a shelf.  God is still Speaking.

 

I'll never forget hearing some one say early in my ministry - that in those early days ­about all we can hope to do with our faith- is skip stones over the surface of the water- like we did as kids. But I hope to God - that after these 33 years in the pulpit - that I am more like a nuclear sub - plumbing the depths of God's vast ocean of truth.

 

A few weeks ago our Monday night study group met at Mary Crockett's house to view a DVD on The History of the Bible. We learned how some folks tend to look at the Bible as a kind of 'supernatural book'. That is, a finished project - that was one day just miraculously ­dropped out of the heavens. Bound in black and ready to read. Written in God's own hand writing, and surely in the language of King James.

 

Whenever I hear of such a definitive description of the Bible- I like to compare that description to plastic flowers - as opposed to real flowers. For a lot of people the Bible is like plastic flowers; it's never going to change; it's never going to grow; it'll look pretty for a long time (like the King James has for 400 years!) - that plastic flower is just as good as dead.

 

For those of us who look at the Bible - differently - the Bible is more like a 'seed' - or a 'shoot' - that was planted centuries and centuries ago - and that seed is still-naturally ­growing and rooting, and strengthening, and changing to this day.  Something a plastic flower can never do.

 

God's word is still very much alive and changing - not because God is changing - but because we are - human beings are - and life is - and life's situations are - changing and growing expanding. You see, God MUST continue to speak.  GOD HAS YET MORE LIGHT AND MORE TRUTH TO BREAK FORTH.

 

I LIKE TO REMIND FOLKS HOW TRUTH HAS CHANGED AND IS CHANGING.  If you don’t believe it, try this for example.  To our ancestors some of us were born to be free and some of us were born to be slaves.  That was the truth and when our ancestors went to the SCRIPTURES to check it out, sure enough, that truth was in the Bible.  When they reasoned about it- why yes, it made good economical sense.  When they looked at TRADITION - why yes, there had always been slaves - it was part of tradition; our grandparents having slaves is very practical.

 

To our ancestors slavery was a God-given truth, but I don't think we hold to that 'truth' any longer. Later then when white Christian pastors were asked to marry a black man to a black woman - they said, "Oh, no, we CAN'T do that." Still later - when they were asked to marry a black person to a white person - they said, "Oh, no, we surely CAN'T do that." And

now today ........... .

 

Our evening study groups continue changing and growing - and maybe others of you will join us in the fall.  We have begun to experience together - the value of sharing life's experiences, and life's challenges, and questions (and there are so many.) Just Monday evening in that little book - "10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You, But Can't Because He Needs the Job" we were on the chapter "What About Homosexuality" - and we discussed how some of your views have been changed and expanded because of study and reflection - and how quickly our society is changing - especially now - with same-sex marriages being approved in California.

 

We can spend our days ignoring these issues - or holding on to old and changeless opinions - but I remind you that this life journey is too soon over..

 

And will we reach the end with a faith - still plastic- as good as dead?  Or with a faith - still growing - (sometimes, miraculously - even blooming) - but for sure - leading us ever and ever into deeper and deeper waters. A living faith - in a living God - who still has so much more to say to us.  For us I pray - that being as good as dead- is not the end of our story. Just remember father Abraham, the little girl, and Aron Rolston. Amen.

 

 

 

Doing Practical Charity

 

Cardinal Emile Leger - in the 1950's - was considered one of the most powerful men in Canada and within the Roman Catholic Church. He was a man of deep conviction and humility. And then one day in 1969 he laid aside his red vestments and stately hat, and disappeared.  A year  later he was found living among the lepers and disabled children in a small African village. When a Canadian journalist asked him "Why", he said this:

 

IT WILL BE THE GREAT SCANDAL OF THE HISTORY OF OUR CENTURY THAT 600 MILLION PEOPLE ARE EATING WELL AND LIVING LUXURIOUSL Y AND 3 BILLION PEOPLE STARVE - AND EVERY YEAR MILLIONS OF CHILDREN ARE DYING OF HUNGER.  I AM TOO OLD TO CHANGE ALL THAT.  THE ONLY THING I CAN DO WHICH MAKES SENSE IS TO BE PRESENT.   I MUST SIMPLY BE IN THE MIDST OF THEM. SO, JUST TELL PEOPLE IN CANADA THAT YOU MET AN OLD PRIEST.  I AM A PRIEST WHO IS HAPPY TO BE OLD AND TO STILL BE A PRIEST AMONG THOSE WHO SUFFER.  I AM HAPPY TO BE HERE AND TO TAKE THEM INTO MY HEART.

 

Today's gospel lesson from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount - according to Matthew - has been described as the difference between LIP SERVICE AND REAL SERVICE. For example, a lot of us talk a good talk about helping Habitat for Humanity - that's Lip Service - but only a small handful of you - yesterday offered Real Service.

 

Our lesson today is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount - and Jesus says - a lot of you are going to spend your life saying "Lord, Lord" - but it's not in saying "Lord, Lord," that you will enter the kingdom - BUT ONLY THE ONE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER.

 

Many of you will say on that day - did we not prophesy in your name? - did some of us not stand in a pulpit Sunday after Sunday for more than 30 years - in your name .... ?

Did not some of us do many deeds of power in your name?

But Jesus will still say to us - GO A WAY FROM ME, YOU EVILDOERS.

 

Jesus, do you get this - is not here speaking to non-church members, he's not speaking to those on the outside who might condemn the church, he's not speaking about Muslims or Jews or Hindu - he is speaking to his own inside people - those who prophesy, those who cast out demons, those who do deeds of power - we may very well be the ones to whom Jesus will say­'go away'. You spent your whole life paying LIP SERVICE, all right - but not REAL SERVICE.

 

I always tell our confirmands - and I've told you a number of times - but they never listen and you never listen - - and quite honestly - I never listen - but we would have an entirely different Christianity - probably a different world - if everyone of us - took ten minutes - every week - every week - to read the Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5,6, and 7. 10 minutes a week - could change your life! Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier on Sunday and read it before coming to church - or here's a challenge - if you drive here with more than one in the car - have someone read it on the way to church.

 

One of my sources summarized this week what we would find in this sermon. WE WOULD SEE AN EMPHASIS ON DEEDS OF LOVE AND SELF-SACRIFICE. DEEDS OF LOVE AND SELF-SACRIFICE.  AN EMPHASIS ON PERSONAL PIETY, NOT POWER.  AN EMPHASIS - and here comes my title - AN EMPHASIS ON PRACTICAL CHARITY - NOT MIRACLES. PRACTICAL CHARITY.

 

Helping lepers in Africa. Driving nails for Habitat. Cooking a meal for the soup kitchen. Dicing onions at the homeless shelter. Walking at Relay for Life ................. you get the picture ---- NOT LIP SERVICE - REAL SERVICE.

 

And then comes the last illustration in the Sermon on the Mount - the one we all learned in Sunday School- about where to build our house. Jesus is still dwelling - even here at the end - on lip service and real service. The verse I want you to remember is the verse that introduces this choice of location - EVERYONE THEN WHO HEARS THESE WORDS OF MINE - that is this whole Sermon on the Mount - EVERYONE THEN HEARS THESE WORDS OF MINE ­AND want did our lesson say next?: AND ACTS ON THEM - AND ACTS ON THEM ­there is Jesus once again - one last time - reminding us of REAL SERVICE and not lip service. Everyone who acts on them.

 

EVERYONE WHO ACTS ON MY WORDS - WILL BE LIKE A WISE MAN WHO BUILT HIS HOUSE ON - ROCK.

 

I don't think Jesus can make it any plainer than that. It's not what we say that counts ­but what we do. It's not in our words, but in our actions. Christianity is not so much on our lips - as it is in our hands. It is not in our positions of power - but in our acts of charity. The good cardinal found it not in his prestige in Canada but in his practical charity in Africa.

 

I urge you - and I urge me to go home and start reading that most mysterious of all sermons - try reading it every Sunday for awhile - and see if it changes your faith - Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Where Jesus plays down LIP SERVICE - and holds up - REAL SERVICE.

 

After our lesson today ends - there are only two more verses left to the sermon. Listen to one of them: AND WHEN JESUS FINISHED THESE SAYINGS, THE CROWDS WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS TEACHING. Some translations say the crowds were IMPRESSED at his teaching. Some say the crowds were AMAZED. The true meaning that Matthew was trying to get across was that Jesus left the crowds IN SHOCK.

 

Go home - and be prepared - to be left IN SHOCK. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

"Same Old, Same Old"

 

35 years of preaching on Palm Sunday, and what could I possibly say that would be newand different, or the least bit exciting? I struggled this week - partly because all of my sourceswere dealing with the "Passion" part of this week - (Matthew, Chapters 26 and 27) and here is

our scripture insert dealing only with the "Palm" part of this week. (Matthew, Chapter 21)

 

If we deal today only with this Palm part - the triumphal entry - and you don't come back to church until the Easter part - the triumphal resurrection - then you have missed the most significant part of our Christian faith. I encourage you with all of my heart to be here Thursday

night for the passion part - give up one more hour of your week to be here.  Please.

 

Today our service is designed to begin with the Palm Parade - and we've sung our Hosanna's, and "All Glory, Laud, and Honor", and "This is the Day" - but we're not going to let you out of here without preparing you for the Passion Part; our last hymn is the very sad

sounding, melancholy, depressing - and if I can borrow a word from my sermon last week - the

'horrible' hymn: "O Sacred Head Now Wounded". We're going to end our service on a downer

- to remember that this was a downer week for Jesus.

 

(As our Lenten devotional said today: HOW ELSE WILL EASTER MAKE SENSE IF

THE LAST SUPPER AND THE CRUCIFIXION HAVE BEEN SKIPPED?)

By my title this morning - "Same Old, Same Old" - I don't mean preaching the same

sermon for 35 years - I mean that our 'human reaction' to this coming week - is pretty much the

same 'human reaction' that Jesus found 2,000 years ago. It's the "same old, same old".

Three points - and I usually don't lay them out this clearly - (1) Jesus found the religion

of his day - 'overly complicated'; (like this three point sermon, perhaps) (2) He found people's

hearts 'overly crowded'; and (3) he found people's lives 'overly protected'.

Overly COMPLICATED; overly CROWDED; and overly PROTECTED. And to

explore that we're going to look at three events in this Holy Week ahead of us - (1) the cleansing

of the temple; (2) the sleeping disciples; (3) and the denial of Peter.

 

Our lesson today describes the crowd on Palm Sunday - as A VERY LARGE CROWD A

VERY LARGE CROWD, AND THEY WERE SPREADING THEIR CLOAKS ON THE

ROAD, AND OTHERS CUT BRANCHES FROM THE TREES AND SPREAD THEM ON

THE ROAD. It was a great and glorious event - and to this day we try to copy it in our worship;

we sing and shout our "Hosanna, Loud Hosannas"! We offer you branches from the trees.

 

The crowd was so excited as this "messiah" entered their city - because do you know where they thought he was headed? They thought he was going straight ahead to the front door of the governor's mansion!  He was going to end this Roman occupation; he was going to set the

people free. Free at last; thank God, almighty, free at last. Hosanna to the Son of David!

 

Do you remember where he went? Our lesson ended with verse 11; listen to verse 12.

THEN JESUS ENTERED THE TEMPLE - not the governor's house - AND - what?  AND HE

DROVE OUT ALL WHO WERE SELLING AND BUYING IN THE TEMPLE, AND HE

EVEN OVERTURNED THE TABLES OF THE MONEY CHANGERS AND THE SEATS

OF THOSE WHO SOLD DOVES.

 

AND WHEN THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND THE SCRIBES SAW IT - THEY BECAME ANGRY.

 

We thought he was coming to clean out the governor - and here he is cleaning out our own temple. How dare he? AND, of course, THEY BECAME ANGRY.

 

And Jesus dusted off his hands, and HE LEFT THEM, HE WENT OUT OF THE CITY TO BETHANY, AND HE SPENT THE NIGHT THERE. It's a good thing he did.

 

What a surprise, this 'Messiah'! We thought he was coming to get 'them' - and he attacks 'us'. We thought he was coming to overthrow the government - and he overthrows our own church tables and chairs.

 

How typical of human nature!  How same old, same old. We can see the speck in our brother's eye - but not the log in our own!

 

Surely, if Jesus came back - he would clean 'them' out - and not 'us'. He would correct 'their' thinking, and not 'ours'. He would overturn their 'faith' - and not 'ours'. This Palm Parade - and this branch waving - ended in a big and shocking surprise.

 

(2) Three days later - in the garden of Gethsemane - anger toward him is still boiling over in the city - Jesus walks away from his disciple to pray - and when he returns - you remember - he finds them sleeping. He awakens them and walks away again and returns, and

finds them 'sleeping'; and he awakens them again and walks away and returns, and he finds them 'sleeping'! And he questions them: Are You Still Sleeping?

 

One of you told me the other week that you have a sister never, ever misses a Sunday in church; she proudly tells everyone that she worships every Sunday at the church of Saint Mattress! Oh, that temptation to sleep in.

 

One of the sermons I read this week said: SO MANY PEOPLE COMPLAIN THAT THEY CAN'T FIND TIME TO COME TO CHURCH; THEY CAN'T FIND TIME TO PRAY AND READ THE SCRIPTURES.

 

THE REASON THEY DON'T HAVE TIME, this minister says, IS THAT THEY ARE SLAVES TO THEIR OWN SELVES, TO THEIR OWN WILL.

 

IF WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR GOD, THEN WHY ON EARTH SHOULD GOD HAVE ANY TIME FOR US?

 

The attendance around Jesus went from 'a very large crowd' on Sunday - remember that?

- a very large crowd - down to two thieves, a few Roman soldiers, his own mother, and maybe

one or two disciples on Friday.

 

That same source I was quoting says just as Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, so too we can imagine that - Jesus tries to enter our hearts. BUT OFTEN CHRIST IS UNABLE TO ENTER, BECAUSE THERE IS ALREADY ANOTHER KING OF THE HEART OURSELVES.

 

AND HOW DO WE GO ABOUT INSTILLING WITHIN OURSELVES THE ONE THING THAT IS MISSING - GOD?  THE ANSWER IS TO SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF GOD. SURRENDER YOUR LIFE TO THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU LIFE.  He says: WE ARE CONSTANTLY BOUND AND HELD CAPTIVE BY THE TEMPORAL THINGS OF TillS LIFE. WE ARE PRISONERS OF OUR OWN SELVES, OF

TillS WORLD, OF OUR CAREERS, OF MONEY, OF THE POLITICIANS WHO RULE OVER US, WE ARE EVEN SLAVES TO OUR OWN PASSIONS.

 

THE ONLY WAY TO FIND PEACE, TO FIND TRUE HAPPINESS, TO EXPERIENCE TRUE LOVE - IS TO SURRENDER YOURSELF TO GOD.

 

WE MUST TURN OUR HEARTS FROM THE KINGDOM OF THE 'SELF' - INTO

THE KINGDOM OF 'GOD'.

 

Just as the crowds dwindled throughout that week in Jerusalem, so too the place of God in our own crowded hearts - continues to dwindle. It's the "same old, same old."

 

Finally, good, old Peter on Thursday - promised Jesus on a stack of Bibles - EVEN THOUGH I MUST DIE WITH YOU, I WILL NOT DENY YOU. And we all know how well that worked. Good, old self-preservation kicked in. His sincere promises and his best intentions fell out the window - just like the kid, Lucky, we talked about last Sunday.

 

How human is that?  How contemporary is that?  How personal is that?  We've all broken promises - we've all broken promises; (I'll give you a moment to think of one) we've all failed despite our best intentions. The sentence following Peter's promise reads this way: AND SO SAID ALL THE DISCIPLES. And, where were they on Friday? Where are we sometimes

when God needs us? Where are we when our friends and families need us?

 

Many of you comment to me how meaningful - each Sunday - is our prayer of confession.  A minister by the name of Lavon Bayler, a United Church of Christ pastor writes them. I don't know about you, but they cut deep into my heart each week. Some weeks they feel like open heart surgery!

 

Listen again to what we prayed today: HOLY GOD, WE HAVE BLAMED YOU WHEN THE HOSANNAS DIE AND THE PARADE TURNS INTO A MOB SCENE.  WE HEAP OUR DOUBTS ON YOU EVEN THOUGH OUR 'INACTION' ADDS POWER TO THOSE WHO SHOUT, 'CRUCIFY.'  WE REBEL AGAINST THE 'RISKS' OF DISCIPLESHIP.

 

WHY RAISE OUR VOICES AGAINST THE EVIL WE SEE?

'ONE' VOICE SIMPLY BECOMES 'ONE' MORE VICTIM.

O GOD, WE PROTEST, BUT WE KNOW DOWN DEEP THAT THE VICTIM OF OUR SILENCE IS THE WAY OF LOVE, THE WAY OF LIFE.

FORGIVE OUR COWARDICE, AND HELP US TO STAND WITH CHRIST IN A WORLD THAT HAS FORGOTTEN HUMILITY AND OBEDIENCE TO YOU.

O GOD, WE WANT TO BE FAITHFUL.

WHY DOES IT COST SO MUCH?

 

So you see, it's the same old, same old.

(l)We are surprised when we learn that Jesus came to correct 'us', and not 'them'.

(2)We dwindle away when our hearts become so overly crowded with 'self.

(3) And like Peter, Jesus' demands on us, tend to highlight our cowardice.

 

Our prayer says: HELP US TO STAND - THIS WEEK AND ALWAYS - WITH CHRIST IN A WORLD THAT HAS FORGOTTEN 'HUMILITY' AND 'OBEDIENCE'.

 

Let us depart with this glimmer of hope - from our words of assurance: LOVE IS AT THE HEART OF CREATION, BRINGING US TO NEW BEGINNINGS, TO RESURRECTION LIFE IN ALL ITS FULLNESS.  And after we heard those words this morning, we sang together this reminder:

 

MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN,

MY SAVIOR'S LOVE TO ME,

LOVE TO THE LOVELESS SHOWN,

THAT THEY MIGHT LOVELY BE.

O WHO AM I, THAT FOR MY SAKE

MY GOD SHOULD TAKE FRAIL FLESH AND DIE?

MY GOD SHOULD TAKE FRAIL FLESH AND DIE?

Amen.

 

 

March 9, 2008

"On Sleeping in Church"

 

As if our gospel lesson wasn't long enough, I want to lay six more verses next to it. That long lesson is the very well known story of the raising of Lazarus - the other story - which is never part of our lectionary readings is the lesser known story of the raising of a kid by the name of Lucky. And boy was he 'lucky'.

 

The account of Lucky falling asleep in church is found in the 20th chapter of the book of Acts. The Acts of the Early Church - and this section is actually the earliest recording we have of Christians gathering on a Sunday morning for worship. You'll hear that they break bread

together - and then you're going to hear about this long - I mean really long sermon by Paul. It's so long that Paul is still going strong at midnight.

 

And then even after this Lucky kid falls asleep and falls out of a third floor window.  Paul revives him, and that resuscitation so inspired Paul that he gets a second wind - and he goes on preaching till daybreak. I'm not kidding; and you think some of our services are long!  I've never gone past midnight! Listen to this absolutely hilarious story in the book of Acts.

 

ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK (SUNDAY), WHEN WE MET TO BREAK BREAD, PAUL WAS HOLDING A DISCUSSION WITH THEM; SINCE HE INTENDED TO LEAVE THE NEXT DAY, HE CONTINUED SPEAKING UNTIL MIDNIGHT.

THERE WERE MANY LAMPS IN THE ROOM UPSTAIRS WHERE WE WERE MEETING. (I'm not sure why we have to know that, except to imply that the room got very warm from all the lamps.) A YOUNG MAN NAMED LUCKY - (which in Greek is

EUTYCHUS) - THIS EUTYCHUS WAS SITTING IN THE WINDOW, (and that's trouble right there) AND HE BEGAN TO SINK OFF INTO A DEEP SLEEP - WHILE PAUL TALKED STILL LONGER.

 

OVERCOME BY SLEEP, LUCKY FELL TO THE GROUND - THREE FLOORS BELOW AND WAS PICKED UP - DEAD.

BUT PAUL WENT DOWN, AND BENDING OVER HIM TOOK HIM IN HIS ARMS, AND SAID, 'DO NOT BE ALARMED, FOR HIS LIFE IS IN HIM.'

THEN PAUL WENT UPSTAIRS, AND AFTER HE HAD BROKEN BREAD AND EATEN, HE CONTINUED TO CONVERSE WITH THEM UNTIL DAWN; THEN HE LEFT.  MEANWHILE THEY HAD TAKEN THE BOY AWAY ALIVE AND WERE NOT A LITTLE COMFORTED.

 

In six verses this kid goes to church, falls asleep, falls out the window, and dies, and is brought back to life. And good, old, long-winded, Paul never skips a beat.

Folks, that's what's supposed to happen in church. You drag yourself in here on the first day of the week - we're half-dead - and on a good Sunday - God smacks us in the face - and we are revived; we are awakened; we are motivated; heavens sakes some weeks we're even

inspired. AND WE'RE TAKEN AWAY FROM HERE - ALIVE - AND NOT A LITTLE

COMFORTED - BUT REALLY COMFORTED. Sometimes; it doesn't always happen -

but sometimes.

 

We're all kind of like Lazarus and Lucky - ifwe let God smack us around a little bit.

Some weeks, of course, the speaker - that would be me - is so slow and boring; or we haven't had enough sleep the night before -like on that Sunday when our clocks spring forward?, or we're on a new medication., maybe - some weeks we can't help it, we're going to be like Lucky, and nod off. I know, because I watch! We used to have someone who would fall asleep every Sunday, and then start to snore! We would all just wait for it!

 

We all need to be regularly awakened and aroused and alerted to the presence and the power - and as Peter said Wednesday night - even to the miracles of God. The hymn we just sang - said it - LET IT BREATHE ON ME, LET IT BREATHE ON ME, LET THE BREATH

OF THE SPIRIT BREATHE ON ME. We drag ourselves in here on Sunday morning - week after week - hoping that God will breathe on us. And we will leave here comforted - that we can now feel and know - in a slightly keener way - that God's presence, power, and miracles are all around us.

 

I don't want to compare us to a valley of dry bones when we come in here, but Ezekiel does.

THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD: COME FROM THE FOUR WINDS, 0 BREATH,

AND BREATHE UPON THESE FOLKS, THAT THEY MAY LIVE.

I PROPHESIED AS HE COMMANDED ME, AND THE BREATH CAME INTO

THEM, AND THEY LIVED, AND STOOD ON THEIR FEET, A VAST MULTITUDE.

THEN GOD SAID TO ME, 'MORTAL, THESE BONES ARE THE WHOLE HOUSE

OF TRINITY.'

 

Listen to this question and answer about Paul's long church service:

HOW WAS CHURCH LAST NIGHT?

FINE, PREACHER HAD SOME GOOD POINTS TO MAKE ABOUT LEVITICUS,

BUT HE WENT ON TOO LONG.

LUCKY DIED DURING THE SERVICE, BUT PAUL RAISED HIM FROM THE

DEAD AND WE CONTINUED. No big deal, it happens in church all the time! People get raised!

 

I THINK THAT MAY BE ONE OF THE POINTS IN TODAY'S GOSPEL LESSON.

People being raised happens in church all the time.

 

IT'S STRANGE THAT WE READ THIS STORY OF LAZARUS RAISED FROM THE

DEAD DURING LENT, BECAUSE LENT IS THE SEASON OF SUFFERING, DEATH, AND

THE CROSS.

SHOULDN'T WE WAIT FOR EASTER FOR A STORY OF THE DEAD BEING

RAISED?

And the church says loudly and clearly - NO! Every Sunday is a little Easter - and every Sunday presents a possibility for new life.

 

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS MEANS NOT ONLY THAT JESUS IS LOOSE AND ON THE MOVE AMONG US, BUT IT ALSO MEANS THAT WE CAN GET LOOSE.  THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT OUR GOD THAT JUST LOVES TO WAKE PEOPLE UP, SHAKE PEOPLE UP, RAISE PEOPLE UP.  SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GOD'S PREACHERS LIKE PAUL JUST LOVES TO RAISE THE DEAD WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT IN THE SERMON.

 

Plenty of us have fallen out the window, landed on our head, and died. But somehow that bump on our head was not the end of our life - but the beginning of a whole new life. Like Lazarus and Lucky we gained a whole new appreciation for life; a whole new awareness; a whole new avenue of opportunities opened before us. Suddenly the sky looked bluer, the air seemed fresher, the day seemed brighter, and life looked endlessly good again.

 

And as with Lucky, it can all happen within the confines of a worship service. For here it is that we call on God, seek God's presence, and listen for God to speak to us. In the second verse of our final hymn this morning we're going to ask God TO TAKE AWAY THE DIMNESS

OF MY SOUL. TAKE AWAY THE DIMNESS OF MY SOUL.

 

Hopefully that's what happens occasionally in worship. We are awakened to a whole, new wonderful life ahead of us.

 

Listen to the words of one more hymn:

AWAKE, MY SOUL, STRETCH EVERY NERVE,

AND PRESS WITH VIGOR ON.

A HEAVENLY RACE DEMANDS YOUR ZEAL,

AND AN IMMORTAL CROWN.

And finally I share this word of advice, if you're going to sleep in church, - don't sit on the window. . You may not be quite as lucky as Lucky. Amen.

 

March 2, 2008

"So That God's Works Might Be Revealed"

 

 

What happened to us last August, as a congregation, still has the possibility of being the greatest opportunity for our spiritual growth that this congregation has ever had.  I believe it is the very same growth that Jesus was aiming for - in our gospel lesson – with the incident of "a man - blind from birth." We could still have - out of that baffling dilemma the same 'eye-opening growth' that Jesus was urging on his disciples.

 

AS JESUS WALKED ALONG, HE SAW A MAN BLIND FROM BIRTH.  HIS DISCIPLES ASKED HIM (and notice here - their first concern), THEY ASKED HIM, 'RABBI, WHO SINNED, THIS MAN OR HIS PARENTS, THAT HE WAS BORN BLIND?' (The belief back then was that all physical imperfections were caused by 'sin'.)  And so the disciples wanted to know WHO SINNED?

 

Go through the beginning of this story again with me. Let's get the picture. Jesus and his disciples walk by this poor, blind, beggar - he's thin because he's hungry, he's unshaven, he's dirty, he's barely dressed, he's lonely - he's forsaken...he's desperate. What does he need?

 

Does he really need to overhear a conversation by these 'religious' men who happen to be walking by?  Does he need to hear them raising questions about his blindness?  Does he especially need to hear them questioning what caused his condition? - "Jesus, did he sin, or did his parents?"

 

Imagine this from the blind man's perspective - he has been sitting there now in the dirt for maybe twenty five years - he's begging for morsels of food -longing for some attention.  And on this day he hears voices approaching.  Maybe they will drop a few morsels of bread.  Maybe they will take the time to converse with him - maybe they will notice him.  Maybe, Oh, God, please - maybe .

 

And the first thing his sharp, attentive ears pick up - is this question about the cause of his blindness.  Imagine! Are their questions any help to him?

 

Don't miss this ----- their own curiosity about the man came before the desperate, obvious needs of this man. Their first question was why was he blind - and not the compassionate question - how can we help? As one of my sources said, they spent their time in diagnosis, which by itself, accomplishes nothing.

 

He was longing for bread to touch his hands - instead harsh questioning touched his ears.

He was longing for a friendly conversation, instead he was the object of a piercing examination.

By the end of the story - Jesus is pointing out - that now the blind man can see - but his disciples and most especially these Pharisees - are lost in their blindness. They got lost in their questioning and their curiosity about the man - and they never ever - got around to care and compassion for the man.

 

I believe that Jesus is pointing out with this story - that our role - as human beings - our role as mere human beings - we are not God - and so in the eyes of God - our human role - must always be - the role of compassion rather than curiosity. But, oh as human beings, we fail at this so often.

 

Listen to this wonderful and humbling prayer that attempts to get us beyond this failure:

GRANT, O LORD, THAT WE MAY BLESS INSTEAD OF BLAME,

THAT WE MAY CARE INSTEAD OF CURSE,

THAT WE MAY LIFT UP INSTEAD OF PUT DOWN,

THAT WE MAY HOPE RATHER THAN DESPAlR,

AND THAT WE MAY HELP RATHER THAN HINDER.

 

We are somehow develop over the years of life - the unfortunate ability to do the opposite.  We find it more to our liking to blame rather then bless, to curse rather than care, to put down rather than lift up, to despair rather than hope.....

 

We are blind to our own ways.....and as minister, Richard Fairchild says in his sermon on today's lesson - IT IS 'THIS TRAGIC BLINDNESS' - OF WHICH THE ENTIRE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN - SPEAKS.  IT IS A BLINDNESS THAT IS FAR GREATER THAN THE BLINDNESS THAT JESUS ENCOUNTERED ONE DAY AS HE WAS GOING ALONG THE ROAD AND CAME ACROSS THE MAN WHO WAS BORN BLIND.  Fairchild continues: WE ARE PRIVILEGED TO SEE EVEN THE DISCIPLES FLOUNDERING ABOUT FOR CAUSES FOR A CONGENITAL DEFECT - AS IF THIS WOULD SOMEHOW MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THEM OR TO THE MAN.

 

And then Fairchild has this paragraph, which I knew I must read to us, it is the paragraph that I believe contains the greatest possibility for our spiritual growth:  fasten your seatbelts!!!

 

WE ARE FOLK WHO ARE MORE INTERESTED IN BLAME;  MORE INTERESTED IN KNOWING THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY OF THE SITUATION, THAN WE ARE IN THE HELPING, AND THE HEALING, AND THE HOPING THAT CHRIST BRINGS.

 

AND BECAUSE OF THAT WE ALSO HAVE FEAR, AND ANGER, AND INTOLERANCE.

THROUGH IT ALL - WE SEE THE MAN BORN BLIND - RECEIVE NOT ONLY SIGHT IN HIS EYES - BUT SIGHT IN HIS SOUL - AS FIRST HE IS QUESTIONED THEN ATTACKED - AND FINALLY EXCOMMUNICATED FOR DARING TO SPEAK THE TRUTH AS HE KNEW IT FOR DARING TO SAY THAT JESUS HAD HEALED HIM - A MAN BORN BLIND.

 

This ninth chapter is so disturbing - because by the end the blind man can 'see', and those who think they 'see' - can't.

 

THE WORK OF GOD - THROUGH US - (if we are not to be blind) IS THE WORK OF LIBERATION AND OF HEALING, AND OF COMPASSION, AND OF FORGIVENESS....

IT IS THE WORK OF 'LOVE- FILLED' LIVING AND GIVING - THE WORK OF BRINGING SALVATION.  TODAY, Fairchild concludes, WE ARE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN WORLDS OF BLAME AND BITTERNESS.

 

THE GOOD NEWS THAT ALL THIS BLINDNESS – ALL THIS BLAME - THIS BITTERNESS - THIS BONDAGE - CAN BE OVERCOME.

 

And then Fairchild mentions Fanny Crosby - the spiritual giant who wrote such beloved hymns - one we sang just last Sunday - "Blessed Assurance"; she also wrote "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross"; "I Am Thine, 0 Lord"; "Pass Me Not, 0 Gentle Savior" - actually, she wrote 8,500 hymns in all - Bob Sheads was always disappointed that our new hymnal only included 5!

 

Fanny was blind from her earliest days of life as a result of an accident. Here is a short poem she wrote when she was only eight years old; it is poem of blessing - not blame; a poem of caring not cursing, a poem of hope not despair as a little girl - she wrote:

 

OH, WHAT A HAPPY CHILD I AM,

ALTHOUGH I CANNOT SEE.

I AM RESOLVED THAT IN THIS WORLD, CONTENTED I WILL BE.

HOW MANY BLESSINGS I ENJOY THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON'T.

TO WEEP AND SIGH, BECAUSE I'M BLIND,

I CANNOT, AND I WON'T.

 

WHY DID THE CHILDHOOD ACCIDENT BLIND FANNY CROSBY?  WHO WAS AT FAULT?

THESE QUESTIONS MATTER NOT IN LIGHT OF HOW SHE CHOSE TO LEAD HER LIFE.

NOR IN THE END DID THE DISCIPLES' QUESTION ABOUT THE MAN BORN BLIND REALLY MATTER WHY WAS HE BORN BLIND?

 

The answer in the Bible - the answer in the gospel of John is this: SO THAT GOD'S WORKS MIGHT BE REVEALED IN HIM.  Why did we face such a serious dilemma - as we called it - last August? I do not doubt that Jesus would like to look everyone of us in the eye and say: SO THAT GOD'S WORKS MIGHT BE REVEALED IN YOU.

 

I finish with Fairchild's solution - so that you don't think I made this up on my own:

He says: THERE IS BLAME. THERE IS BLINDNESS. AND THERE IS BLESSING.

JESUS CALLS ON US, FOR THE MOST PART, TO OVERCOME THE FIRST - the blame - BY SHOWING FORGIVENESS TOWARDS THE BLAMEWORTHY - AS HE HIMSELF DID ON THE CROSS.

 

TO OVERCOME THE SECOND - blindness - BY ACCEPTING HIS MINISTRY TO US AND DOING AS HE ASKS.

 

AND TO GIVE THE THIRD - blessing - BY DOING THOSE THINGS HE HIMSELF DID, BY SHOWING LOVE, AND MERCY, AND COMPASSION, AND CARE TO THOSE AROUND US.

 

I read the other week that every problem has an easy answer - and it is almost always wrong. Our dilemma here has not been easy for any of us - most assuredly and most especially for the blameworthy....  But I urge you to look Jesus in the eye - and as he did even from the cross - find ways to bless and not blame; find ways to care and not curse; to lift up instead of put down, to hope rather than despair, to help and not hinder.

 

May this experience open our eyes to the ministry Christ intended for us - that God's works might be revealed in us.

Amen.

 

February 24, 2008

"The Bruised and Bleeding Pharisees"

 

I don't want to steal any of Jane Eiker's thunder for Wednesday night - when during our mid-week service she will address the question: "What About Woman?" The question derives from what the Bible says in I Timothy 2: 11-12: "LET A WOMAN LEARN IN SILENCE WITH ALL SUBMISSIVENESS. I PERMIT NO WOMAN TO TEACH OR TO HAVE AUTHORITY OVER MEN; SHE IS TO KEEP SILENT." (Good luck, Jane!)

 

Not to steal her thunder, but in dealing today with the Samaritan woman at the well, we have to touch on the issue of male and female relations in Jesus' day. What Jesus does with this sinful, Samaritan woman at the well is absolutely radical; it is scandalous; it is utterly unheard of in his day. If we miss that - we are missing a major part of the incident.

 

Theologian Barbara Brown Taylor points out about today's Gospel lesson – THAT JESUS TALKS LONGER TO THE WOMAN AT THE WELL - THAN HE DOES TO ANYONE ELSE IN ALL THE GOSPELS -

LONGER THAN HE TALKS TO ANY OF HIS DISCIPLES,

LONGER THAN HE TALKS TO ANY OF HIS ACCUSERS,

LONGER THAN HE TALKS TO ANY OF HIS OWN FAMILY.

SHE IS THE FIRST PERSON HE REVEALS HIMSELF TO IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.

SHE IS THE FIRST 'OUTSIDER' TO GUESS WHO HE IS AND TELL OTHERS.

SHE IS THE FIRST EVANGELIST, JOHN TELLS US, AND HER TESTIMONY

BRINGS MANY TO FAITH. (Verse 39:" MANY SAMARITANS FROM THAT CITY

BELIEVED IN HIM BECAUSE OF THE WOMAN'S TESTIMONY."

 

She is the first evangelist!! And yet to this day - some of our churches will still not grant ordination to women!!! 2,000 years later we can still miss the radical, earth shattering ministry of Jesus.  He was trying so desperately - in a few short years - to change our thinking - and we still don't get it.  Jesus was trying to break down all barriers between human beings – between 'insiders' and 'outsiders' - or as the New Interpreter's Bible puts it - breaking down barriers between 'the chosen people' and the 'rejected people' - and we still don't get it.

 

William Willimon says: I THINK IT'S FAIR TO SAY THAT A CHURCH CAN BE JUDGED BY HOW MANY 'OUTSIDERS' IT GATHERS ON A SUNDAY MORNING.  IF, WHEN WE GATHER HERE TO WORSHIP, WE HAVE NOTHING BUT PEOPLE LIKE ME, 'INSIDERS,' THEN WE ARE NOT THE CHURCH THAT JESUS GATHERS, BECAUSE JESUS HAS DECIDED TO TILT TOWARD THE OUTSIDERS.

 

And Barbara Brown Taylor points out to us that THE WOMAN AT THE WELL WAS A 'TRIPLE' OUTSIDER.  IN THE FIRST PLACE, SHE WAS A SAMARITAN, WHICH MADE HER A HALFBREED AND A FULL PAGAN AS FAR AS THE PURISTS WERE CONCERNED.  SHE WAS ALSO, OF COURSE, A WOMAN. IN JESUS' TIME, WOMEN WERE NOT WHAT YOU WOULD CALL LIBERATED.  THEY WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO WORSHIP WITH MEN; MEN, WHOSE MORNING DEVOTIONS INCLUDED THE PRAYER, "THANK GOD, I AM NOT A WOMAN."

 

WOMEN HAD NO PLACE IN PUBLIC LIFE. THEY WERE NOT TO BE SEEN OR HEARD, ESPECIALLY NOT BY HOLY MEN, WHO DID NOT EVEN SPEAK TO THEIR OWN WIVES IN PUBLIC.  And even worse - and here is where I got my title for this morning; Taylor says ONE GROUP OF PIOUS MEN WAS KNOWN AS 'THE BRUISED AND BLEEDING PHARISEES.'

 

Want to know why? BECAUSE THESE MEN WOULD CLOSE THEIR EYES WHEN THEY SAW A WOMAN COMING DOWN THE STREET, EVEN IF IT MEANT WALKING INTO A WALL AND BREAKING THEIR NOSES!!! They were BRUISED AND BLEEDING PHARISEES.

 

And we think we can trust the Bible on male and female issues - when it was so obviously - written OF the men, BY the men, and FOR the men.

 

This poor Samaritan woman was also an outsider, because she had been married more times than the neighbors could count. That's why she came to the well at noon time in the heat of the day - and the other neighbors (the insiders) came early in the morning.  SO IMAGINE HER SURPRISE WHEN SHE COMES AT THE HOTTEST PART OF THE DAY WITH HER WATER BUCKET BALANCED ON HER HEAD AND SHE SEES A STRANGE MAN SITTING BESIDE THE WELL.  HE COULD BY ANYONE, BUT WHEN HE LIFTS HIS HEAD AND ASKS HER FOR A DRINK, SHE SEES THE OLIVE SKIN, THE DARK EYES, THE STRONG NOSE. HE IS NO HALF-BREED. THE MAN IS A JEW, BUT WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HE DOING THERE?  HAS HE LOST HIS WAY? HAS HE LOST HIS FAITH, TO BE TALKING TO HER LIKE THAT?

 

THE JEWS HAVE ENDLESS RULES ABOUT WHAT THEY MAY AND MAY NOT EAT AND DRINK.  SHE KNOWS THAT MUCH AT LEAST, AND SHE KNOWS THAT THIS MAN WILL BE BREAKING THE LAW IF SHE LETS HIM SIP FROM HER BUCKET.  And so begins the longest dialogue ever recorded in the gospels - by these two most unlikely characters. Barbara Brown Taylor summarizes by saying that BY TELLING THE WOMAN WHO SHE IS - JESUS SHOWS HER WHO HE IS. BY CONFIRMING HER TRUE IDENTITY, HE REVEALS HIS OWN, AND THAT IS HOW IT STILL HAPPENS when Jesus meets us.

 

Think about it - when we - to this day - truly confront the Messiah - when we let the words of our worship - truly wash over us - - when we genuinely feel in the presence of the Messiah - and it may occasionally happen in worship - that is precisely when we know who we really are - the good and the bad, the faith and the doubt, the righteous and the unrighteous.  Here is Taylor's final conclusion: THE MESSIAH IS THE ONE WHO SHOWS YOU WHO YOU ARE - BY SHOWING YOU WHO HE IS. WHO CROSSES ALL BOUNDARlES, BREAKS ALL RULES, DROPS ALL DISGUISES - SPEAKING TO YOU LIKE SOMEONE YOU HAVE KNOWN ALL YOUR LIFE, BUBBLING UP IN YOUR LIFE LIKE A WELL THAT NEEDS NO DIPPER, SO THAT YOU GO BACK TO FACE PEOPLE YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD NEVER FACE AGAIN, SPEAKING TO THEM AS BOLDLY AS HE SPOKE TO YOU.  'COME AND SEE A MAN WHO TOLD ME EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER DONE.'

 

Do you get it? Truly meeting Jesus - is like meeting someone who has known you all your life - who knows all your secrets, who knows all your successes and failures, who knows all your inner-most thoughts - before whom the thoughts of all hearts are disclosed - and through that knowledge of you - he truly frees you - from all boundaries - from all stereotypes. To Jesus she was not just a woman, she was not just a Samaritan, she was not just the wife of many husbands - she was a human being - a child of God - loved equally to all others - and Jesus freed her - completely - so completely - that she could return - to all of those neighborhood ladies - (who talked about her incessantly) - and to all those neighborhood men - (who would rather break their nose - than look at her)!

 

She could return to these very people: THE WOMAN LEFT HER WATER JAR AND WENT BACK TO THE CITY. AND SHE SAID TO THE PEOPLE - "COME AND SEE A MAN WHO TOLD ME EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER DONE."  AND 'MANY' SAMARITANS FROM THAT CITY BELIEVED IN HIM BECAUSE OF THE WOMAN'S - (this woman's) TESTIMONY.

 

This I tell you today - is radical, and powerful stuff. A woman who was three times an 'outsider' - part of a 'rejected' people - is so thoroughly overwhelmed by the knowledge of who Jesus was - that she was to become an evangelist - a messenger of the good news of Jesus Christ.

 

William Willimon's sermon for today has this tricky title: JESUS IS WHERE HE FINDS YOU.  Jesus is the one who finds us - as we are - 'Just as I am' - an outcast, a woman, and a sinner - - and yet loves us as we are - and frees us to become what God meant us to be.  From one who was despised, and rejected, and cast aside, and ignored - to be the first evangelist to understand - and bring many others to believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.  In this longest of all conversations - all barriers between human beings - have been smashed.

 

Amen.

 

Let us pray:

God of all people, God of all creation, God oflove....

We have gathered again, weekly, regularly,

To praise your name, to sing your glory, to refresh our memories....

You alone are God of all Gods, and Lord of all Lords.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Teach us the most difficult lesson oflife....

That all human beings are your children.

That every person with the breath of life deserves the basics.....

Help us bring food to the hungry;

help us provide shelter for the homeless;

help us work for peace for the war-tom;

help us strive for justice for all.

Send us to someone this week who needs comfort, who needs strength, who

needs a glimmer ofhope; move us to remember in special ways these folks who

Need your powerful presence: they are Ashlee Black, Josette Boglio,

Suzanne Harbach, Marie Hoffinan, Kathryn Kepner, Mackenzie Kretz, Syriana Bella Mao, Lena

Miller, Sara Miller, Anna Moser.. Steve McKenna in Baghdad, Tony Mickelson in Basra,

Shaun Benton in Afghanistan .

And still we lift up our prayers for others we can name in silence .

Dear God, wash over us to free us to be your people....

Unafraid to approach the stranger .

Fearless in our pursuit ofjustice .

And untiring in our efforts to relieve human sufferings....

We take this as our calling, since we proudly take on the title: Christian.

As we offer these wonderful words - to prove it... ...Our father, who art in

 

 

February 17, 2008

"A Psalm for Sojourners"

 

When we got home from Hawaii on Tuesday afternoon, I 'googled' the distance from Lahaina to Gettysburg; with all of our sophisticated computer equipment I found out in less than a minute 'that as the crow flies' - a rather primitive way to put it for all of our sophistication - 'as the crow flies' we traveled 4,765 miles; we did that in a little over twelve hours.  Thanks to our modem ability to fly we were shocked into going from shorts and flip flops to winter jackets and boots; from sweating by the pool in the warm Hawaii sun to freezing in the ice and snow; from convertibles on the highways to snow plows.

 

But all in all, I've been telling folks - the weather isn't all that different from Maui to Pennsylvania. Before we landed on January 29 the island of Maui had a winter time snow fall several inches fell on their highest peak - their volcano, Hallehakila - and indeed we could see

the snow-covered mountain as we landed; enough snow that they had to close the only road to the top.  And as snow greeted us there - so too snow greeted us here Tuesday night. The only difference was about 70 degrees; 87 there when we left - and about 17 here. More than a human body should have to bear.

 

I mention traveling not just tell you about our wonderful visit to our first grandchild - and by the way - he is perfect - but because our Psalm today - Psalm 121 - is known as my title says as a Psalm for Sojourners.  I changed the hymns around this morning - and added hymn 466, because it is based on Psalm 121.  A Psalm that is probably the best known - after Psalm 23 - "I

lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come?"  We often read it at funerals - I know I did at Elizabeth Hull's funeral recently - because from her childhood on - she received pleasure and rejuvenation from her yearly visits to their family cabin in the Adirondacks.

 

The first verse raised the question: "from where will my help come?" and then the last 7 verses answer it. "My help comes from the Lord. The same, one God, who made heaven and earth."  It is suspected that the Jews used this Psalm - maybe sang it responsively - as we do to this day - either on their way to the Temple - or as they left the Temple.  They would travel great distances to get to their destination in Jerusalem - they would travel through dangerous territory - one slip or fall could mean serious injury or death ~ and so they reminded themselves that THE LORD WILL NOT LET YOUR FOOT BE MOVED, nor while you rest at night - bandits will not get you - God will be your constant sentinel – WHO WILL NEITHER SLUMBER NOR SLEEP.

 

One of my sources summarized the Psalm in these words: GOD WATCHES OVER US AS

PERMANENTLY AS THE MOUNTAINS MARK THE HORIZON...even when we fly 4,765 miles by jet, or when we walk to the grocery store, or more importantly - as we journey through life - for we are all 'sojourners' - God will be with us.

 

One word in particular stands out in this Psalm - it is repeated no less that six times in eight verses - did anyone catch it? - the word is 'keep'.

HE WHO KEEPS YOU;

HE WHO KEEPS ISRAEL;

THE LORD IS YOUR KEEPER,

THE LORD WILL KEEP YOU

HE WILL KEEP YOUR LIFE;

THE LORD WILL KEEP YOUR GOING OUT AND YOUR COMING IN - it is a Psalm for travelers - as we all travel through life.

 

Over and over the Psalm is a reassurance to us of God's protection, of God's presence.

THE LORD IS YOUR KEEPER; THE LORD IS YOUR SHADE AT YOUR RIGHT HAND. In other words, God is as close and dependable as your right hand; never far away.  And God is like shade to the traveler. Traveling as we do today in 'climate controlled' vehicles we forget the fear of traveling in the heat of the desert sun - or even in the light of the moon.  We also forget that both sun light and moon light were to be feared back then; we have the phrase to be 'moon struck'.?   Our ancestors believed that too much moon light could cause diseases like leprosy or epilepsy.  So this Psalm served to remind the traveler THAT THE SUN SHALL NOT STRIKE YOU BY DAY, NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT. THE LORD WILL KEEP YOU FROM ALL EVIL.

 

Is it a Psalm for travelers? Yes, for it ends by reminding us that THE LORD WILL 'KEEP' YOUR GOING OUT - AND YOUR COMING IN - GOING OUT OF THE TEMPLE ..... COMING INTO THE TEMPLE - FROM TIDS TIME ON AND FOREVERMORE.

Is it a Psalm for every sojourner through life - for everyone of us? Yes. All of us are on this pilgrimage through life. The New Interpreter's Bible points out that Jesus was always encouraging his followers - to avoid - to avoid 'a settled existence' and become a sojourner.

 

In Luke 9:57 a man says to Jesus: I WILL FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU GO.

And Jesus responds by saying - but that won't be easy - why? BECAUSE FOXES HAVE HOLES, AND BIRDS OF THE AIR HAVE NESTS; BUT THE SON OF MAN HAS NOWHERE TO LAY IDS HEAD.

 

To another Jesus said: FOLLOW ME, but he said, JESUS, LET ME FIRST GO AND BURY MY FATHER. And you remember Jesus' response. And to still another Jesus said, FOLLOW ME, but he said I WILL FOLLOW YOU, LORD, BUT LET ME FIRST SAY FAREWELL TO THOSE AT MY HOME.  And Jesus said to him: NO ONE WHO PUTS HIS HAND TO THE PLOW AND LOOKS BACK IS FIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

 

As we see from the story of Abram - in our Old Testament Lesson this morning - God or Jesus never seems to encourage us to get too comfortable with life; to get into a 'settled existence';  but to always look at life as a fascinating journey;  to look at each new day as an opportunity to learn, and grow, and change.  Be sojourners! God says to Abram - "GO". "GO".

Jesus says to his followers, I have nowhere to lay my head. I am constantly on the move.

As Christians I believe we are called upon each day to be on the move - to challenge our assumptions, to question what we always thought was true, to always be willing and ready to step out into new adventures, new challenges, and new opportunities. Strive to avoid as best we can - a 'settled existence.'

 

Recognize that we are sojourners. Our circumstances are always changing.  Opportunities are always presenting themselves. As long as we have breath there is new information to gather, new ways to serve, and better answers to life's most perplexing questions.  And we can face those opportunities - as did Abram and as did Jesus - knowing that we have a God who is always our keeper - a shade on our right hand, one who neither slumbers nor sleeps, one who is with us in our going out and our coming in.

 

Trust in this God - always to lead you.

Psalm 121 is like insurance for sojourners - read it often and fear not - the journey ahead of you.

Amen.

 

Imagining Lent

Ash Wednesday 2008

by David Bowles, Associate in Ministry

 

The biggest holiday of the year in the Muslim world is 'Eed al-Fitr, a three-day-long celebration with lots of food, and family and friends. This holiday comes at the end of the holy month of Ramadhan, and Ramadhan is the Muslim month of fasting. During Ranladhan, Muslims go without food and drink all day long for all 28 days of the lunar month. The fast takes place from

sunrise each morning until sunset each evening. It is customary to have a small meal in the dark of early morning before the day of fasting begins, and it is customary to break the fast each evening by sharing a bowl of dates, followed by a larger meal before turning in for the night.  Because Islam uses a lunar calendar, Ramadhan sometimes falls during the shorter days of

winter, while in other years it occurs during summer's longer days. Today, the exact times of sunrise and sunset wherever you live me available in local newspapers or on the Internet. The traditional means for determining when the fast begins and ends, according to the Qur'an, is to hold one black and one white thread together in your hand. When you can see to tell them apart it is time to begin the fast in the morning, or when you can no longer tell them apart in the dark of evening, it is time to end.

 

I had heard about Ramadhan, so when I first had the opportunity to speak to Muslims in Saudi Arabia, back during the Persian Gulf conflict of 1990-91, I wanted to ask about it. In the faith tradition of my youth, we had a monthly Fast Sunday, no food but a lot of hunger pangs, until dinner Sunday evening. Consequently, I assumed that Ramadhan was a burdensome month

that the faithful awaited with apprehension, even dread. After all, who wants to endure the trouble of going without food and water all day every day for a month? What surprises me is the virtually unanimous opinion among Muslims with whom I spoke that Ramadhan, the month of fasting, was their favorite time of year, in the same way that many of us enjoy the Christmas

season.

 

What in the world is this? Can you imagine having a month of fasting to look forward to instead of Christmas with all its cookies and candy and pies and feasts of ham or turkey or maybe even goose? Fasting during the month of Ramadhan is one of the five so called "pillars" of Islam. It is one of the ways Muslims practice piety, along with witnessing that there is no God but Allah, daily prayer, alms giving, and the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.

 

This evening's scripture from Matthew, which is traditional for Ash Wednesday, begins with these words, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them." There are also three references to hypocrites, and it is clear that we are to practice piety not for praise, but because our hearts are set on heavenly things.  But what is "piety"? And what is it to practice piety?  Our passage cites alms giving, prayer, and fasting. The Greek word here means either

"righteousness" or "justice," so we might think of practicing righteousness or practicing justice.

Our English word comes from Latin, where the sense is about being dutiful.  Piety, then, has something to do with being dutiful about commitment to God, and something to do with acts that demonstrate uprightness and fairness.  This concern with piety now suggests that the Lenten season is more like the Muslim fast than like Christmas.  Although it's clear, isn't it?, that we don't generally think of Lent in terms of our favorite time of year.

 

The English Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke, wrote that anyone who lives in a country and enjoys the benefits that country provides, such as its public roads, agrees tacitly to obey its laws, agrees without signing a contract or taking an oath, to be a good citizen. God's

realm is no different. Jesus, when he begins his ministry, proclaims, "the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the good news." The Kingdom of God is at hand, says Jesus, just as this podium is at hand; it is right here, here and now, not something waiting to emerge at the end of time. And the Greek sense of "repent" is "to change your mind." In other words, at the start of his ministry Jesus proclaims its message in miniature: we are to be persuaded that the

Kingdom of God is here now, and we are to conduct ourselves like we believe it, like good, upstanding citizens in that Kingdom. We enjoy the benefit of God's grace and God's faithfulness, and we are asked to live as though we are genuinely grateful. In this sense, the

practice of our piety is like the exercise of our citizenship in God's realm, and to do this we are to

be dutiful about our obligation to behave ethically and to seek to establish justice for all people.

 

Lent can be a challenging season if we seek to make it one. It can also be a season in which we celebrate our good citizenship in God's realm, a rare season in which we are lively about our devotion to God. It's easy enough to let Lent slide by without any significance, an

unmarked season that precedes Easter, once the biggest day on the Christian calendar, but now

almost lost in the huge shadow cast by Christmas, and for many of us fallen to the third biggest holiday after Thanksgiving, or even the fourth after Independence Day. I imagine for myself how I might look forward to Lent each year in the same way my Muslim friends look forward to the rigors and celebration of the month of fasting. I imagine how I might grow in my commitment to my faith and in my relationship to God through the exercise of piety. I imagine how each year I might reclaim my discipleship by praying with more devotion, by giving as much in alms to the poor as I spend on gifts at Christmas, by renouncing certain things that bring me pleasure in order to turn more of my attention to the Kingdom of God where I am also a citizen, just as I am a citizen of the United States. I imagine if I put as much effort into Lent as I do training for a marathon that it would become every bit as big for me as Christmas, and that Easter, which waits for me at the end of Lent's challenge with its celebration of Jesus' victory over death, might become for me the single most significant day of the year.

 

Friends, Lent is a rare chance for all of us to seek with greater vigor after God's presence in our lives and to show our gratitude through acts of love and compassion. It is a time to be at peace with God, to make things right with God and one another. Each of us decides between ourselves and God what shape our Lenten commitments will take, but together we have this community of faith to encourage all of us along our way. Our Lenten journey is like a pilgrimage, and my prayer is that each of us arrives at a place on Easter morning where our lives are enriched by our Lenten experience and our relationship with God strengthened.  

 Godspeed, and Amen.

 

 

January 27,2008

"Whom Shall I Fear?

 

I have used today's Psalm 27 so many times at funerals that I know it by heart.

THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION; WHOM SHALL I FEAR?

THE LORD IS THE STRONGHOLD OF MY LIFE; OF WHOM SHALL I BE AFRAID?

Those words were impressed on me - some 40 years ago at my aunt's funeral. My uncle,her husband, was a United Methodist pastor; he chose Psalm 27 to be read at her service.  I hadnever remembered hearing those words before; I have never forgotten them since. I was calledout of college to attend her funeral; she was my father's sister.  Her first attempt at suicide was not successful, but her second was.  Her death left a lasting impression on this 20 year old - and Ithink of her every time I read those words.

 

THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION, WHOM SHALL I FEAR?

(At this point on Friday - Linda and I learned that Megan was in labor and was heading for a

C-section - so don't hold me responsible for anything else I prepared!)

(Here I am preparing a message on people who are scared - and I remember how scared

Linda and I were when she went into labor with Ryan.)

 

What I want to do this morning, however, is mention the power of 'fear'; offer an antidotefor fear, and mention how, at least, some people have been able to manage their fear.

 

A German playwright by the last name of Brecht - writing during World War II KNEWHOW FEAR WAS USED TO MANIPULATE PEOPLE INTO DOING THINGS THAT THEY WOULDN'T NORMALLY CONSIDER DOING.  THE NAZIS MADE EFFECTIVE USE OF PROPAGANDA TO MAKE PEOPLE AFRAID OF THE JEWS, AND WERE THUS ABLE TO GAIN THEIR PERMISSION – AND AT TIMES FULL COOPERATION - IN THE EXTERMINATION OF MORE THAN EIGHT MILLION HUMAN BEINGS.

 

FEAR IS A POWERFUL TOOL. ADVERTISERS USE IT TO GET PEOPLE TO BUY THINGS.  GOVERNMENTS USE IT TO CONTROL POPULATIONS, AND YES, EVEN RELIGION HAS USED IT.  Political parties use it - right now there are e-mails going around - I got one yesterday - trying to scare people into the misconception that Barack Obama is a Muslim and that couldn't be further from the truth - he has been a member of our Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for the past 20 years - he has committed his life to Christ - and he was sworn into the U.S. Senate on his family's Bible.

 

BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT AS A PEOPLE OF FAITH - WE ARE CALLED OUT OF FEAR INTO FAITH.  AS OUR PSALM THIS MORNING MAKES CLEAR - THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR IS NOT ARMAMENTS, NOT PROTECTION, NOT AGGRESSION, BUT FAlTH. "THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION, WHOM SHALL I FEAR?" I have read that often enough to really make that into a serious question: WHOM SHALL I FEAR?

 

A few weeks ago in the Christian Century magazine the editor, John Buchanan, in a short piece entitled: "Fear Not" - used this quote from poet, Robert Frost. Frost said: THERE'S NOTHING I'M AFRAID OF - LIKE SCARED PEOPLE.

 

And then Buchanan quotes Thomas Friedman who wrote just a few months ago that: 9/11 HAS MADE US STUPID.  I HONOR AND WEEP FOR ALL THOSE MURDERED THAT DAY.  BUT OUR REACTION TO 9/11, MINE INCLUDED, HAS KNOCKED AMERICA OFF BALANCE AND IT'S TIME TO GET THINGS RIGHT AGAIN.

 

IN THE WAKE OF 9/11 WE NEED NEW PRECAUTIONS.  BUT WE ALSO NEED OUR OLD HABITS AND SENSE OF OPENNESS.

Buchanan says: WE HAVE JUST CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF A CHILD WHO BRINGS A NEW KINGDOM.

 

KINDNESS, FORGIVENESS, LOVE AND PEACE ARE THE DYNAMICS OF THIS KINGDOM.

AND THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR. IN THAT CHILD'S BIRTH ULTIMATE ISSUES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED.

 

THE COMING OF CHRIST INTO HUMAN HISTORY, TO LIVE OUR LIFE, TO DIE OUR DEATH, TO DEFEAT THE POWER OF DEATH IN HIS RESURRECTION, MEANS THAT THE FINAL BATTLE HAS BEEN WON.

IT'S TIME TO STOP LIVING OUT OF OUR FEAR - AND TO CALL THE NATION TO DO THE SAME.

 

Peter Gomes, a professor of religion at Harvard, and author of the new and fascinating book, "The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus" says we live with fear - because we - even Christians have an unrealistic view of life.  He says: IT IS A DANGEROUS NOTION THAT CHRISTIANS, EVEN FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS, HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT A

TURMOIL-FREE EXISTENCE, THAT SOMEHOW WE ARE ENTITLED TO A 'GET OUT OF JAIL FREE' MONOPOLY CARD.

 

WE SOMETIMES ASSUME THAT IF ONLY WE GO TO CHURCH, OR BELIEVE IN THE RIGHT THINGS, OR DO THE RIGHT THINGS, ALL WILL BE WELL.

 

WHERE DID WE GET SUCH AN IDEA? THIS IS A PROFOUND MISREADING OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, AND AT THE VERY LEAST IT IS AN INCOMPETENT READING OF THE BIBLE.

 

WHAT IS DANGEROUS ABOUT THIS VIEW OF THINGS - THAT WE CAN HAVE A TURMOIL-FREE EXISTENCE - IS THAT IT TENDS TO MAKE AN IDOL OUT OF PROSPERITY, AND WE ARE TEMPTED TO WORSHIP THE BLESSING AND NOT THE SOURCE OF THE BLESSINGS.

 

FROM THAT WE SOON COME TO BELIEVE THAT WE DESERVE THE BLESSINGS, THAT WE HAVE EARNED THE BLESSINGS, AND THAT THEY ARE A RIGHT - LIKE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

WHEN WE ARE FORCIBLY REMINDED THAT 'TRIBULATION' AND 'ADVERSITY' ARE THE 'RULE' AND NOT THE 'EXCEPTION',

 

WE COME TO REALIZE, IF WE ARE AT ALL REALISTIC, THAT A GOSPEL OF SUCCESS AND A RELIGION OF PROSPERITY FAIL TO PREPARE US TO DEAL WITH ADVERSITY.  WE ARE EXPOSED TO WHAT SAINT PAUL CALLS THE "FRAILTY OF OUR OWN HEARTS.'

 

IN TIMES OF PROSPERITY, WHEN WE APPEAR TO BE IN CHARGE, 'EITHER' WE MAKE A GOD OF PROSPERITY OR WE DISCOVER THAT WE CAN DO WELL ENOUGH WITHOUT GOD OR RELIGION, BUT WHEN WE ARE KNOCKED FLAT, WHEN WHAT WE MOST VALUE OUR SENSE OF SECURITY AND INVULNERABILITY - WHEN THAT IS TAKEN FROM US, WE WILL ASK, 'WHERE IS GOD WHEN WE NEED HIM TO DO OUR BIDDING?"

 

HOW EASY IT IS TO FORGET THAT WE WORSHIP GOD NOT BECAUSE OF

WHAT GOD DOES FOR US, BUT BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS.

 

IT TAKES A STURDY FAITH TO REMEMBER IN THE MIDST OF TRIBULATION WHO GOD IS; SUCH A FAITH IS LIKE A DEEPLY ROOTED TREE THAT CAN HANDLE BAD WEATHER AND NEGLECT.

 

FOR MANY AMERICANS, Gomes says - ALAS, IN THE DAYS AFTER SEPTEMBER 11TH, FAITH PROVED TO BE LESS LIKE A TREE AND MORE

LIKE A VASE OF CUT FLOWERS, BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD, MAGNIFICENT IN ARRANGEMENT, BUT POSSESSING ONLY A TEMPORARY, IMPERMANENT BEAUTY.

 

Is our faith then - like a tree - deeply rooted and ready to withstand the storm, or is our faith more like a vase of cut flowers - temporary and impermanent?  How do we improve our lot?  How do we handle the 9/11's of our life? Peter Gomes tells in his book how he was visited one day by a very distraught young woman who was just diagnosed with cancer.  She was asking Peter for some help in understanding God's mercy and her own mortality.  His suggestion to her was this: that she go home and read through the Psalms, all 150, preferably in one sitting, maybe two, and then return to him.

 

She did, and Peter writes: SHE WAS AMAZED BY THE RANGE OF EMOTION AND INTENSITY IN THE PSALMS.  'WHOEVER WROTE THEM,' SHE SAID, 'HAD EXACTLY MY SAME SENSE OF UPS AND DOWNS, EXALTATION AND DESPAIR. SHE FELT SECURE IN KNOWING THAT SOMEBODY ELSE HAD HAD THE

SAME SET OF ROLLER-COASTER EMOTIONS, AND THAT IT WAS ALL RIGHT TO FEEL ANGER, JOY, CONSOLATION, FRUSTRATION, PEACE, TURMOIL, AND RESIGNATION, OFTEN AT THE SAME TIME, FOR THEY WERE THE EMOTIONS OF THE PSALMIST.

 

ALL THE PSALMS SHE HAD KNOWN BEFORE THIS ENCOUNTER WERE QUIET AND PASTORAL, SUCH AS THE TWENTY-THIRD, OR PRAISE PSALMS SUCH AS PSALM 100.

THE OTHERS, SHE DISCOVERED, WERE ALSO WRITTEN BY A REAL HUMAN BEING WHO HAD DIFFICULTIES WITH GOD AND LIVED IN A WORLD RIDDLED WITH UNFAIRNESS AND AMBIGUITY.  SOMEHOW THE INNER STRENGTH OF THE PSALMIST CAME THROUGH AND PROVED HELPFUL TO HER.

 

Gomes concludes: READING THE PSALMS DID NOT MAKE HER CANCER GO AWAY- THIS WAS NOT A NEW FORM OF MEDICAL THERAPY - BUT IT DID SUGGEST THAT OTHERS WHO HAVE SUFFERED HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND IN AND THROUGH THEIR SUFFERINGS - A WAY TO GOD'S INNER STRENGTH WHEREBY THE OUTER TURMOIL IS MANAGED.

 

Billy Graham claims the Psalms as his source of strength; he reads three every morning thus

reading through them every 50 days.

With a strong and abiding faith and trust in God - what is there to fear?  I have come to realize that with a God who has so sustained and surrounded me through all my days of life – God will be with me - and there is indeed nothing - absolutely nothing - to fear.

 

FOR THE LORD IS MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION, WHOM SHALL I FEAR?

THE LORD IS THE STRONGHOLD OF MY LIFE, OF WHOM SHALL I BE AFRAID? Amen.

 

January 20, 2008

"So Sow"

 

In our Gospel lesson this morning John the Baptist points to Jesus - and says to Andrew "Here is the Lamb of God!" And then Andrew introduces his brother, Peter, to Jesus with the words: "We have found the Messiah." Peter, of course, goes on to become the rock on which the church is built. And thus begins the long, long chain - of passing on the story of Jesus.

From John the Baptist, to Andrew, to Peter - wouldn't it be amazing to know - or to be able to see - all the people involved in getting this message to ours ears. I think we sometimes take that chain of people for granted - but it took generation after generation after generation.

Where all did they live? How did the message get from Rome or Jerusalem to us? Who told the people who told us? How in the world did the message survive with periods of persecution, and periods of neglect. How well are we doing out part to pass it on? I asked the Monday night study group - will there be people sitting in this room - doing a Bible study - 100 years from

now?  Will there be people worshiping in this sanctuary 100 years from now?  There were 100 years ago.

Our lectionary lessons early in the Christian year - we've gone from Advent to Christmastide and - into Epiphany - they tend to deal with the formation of Jesus' ministry and his calling of the disciples. Today it was Andrew and Peter. Next Sunday - James and John.

Our lessons are an early, annual reminder - that it is now our responsibility to pass on this message of Jesus Christ - the Lamb of God - the Messiah - the Anointed.

That was the focus of our discussion on Monday night - when we looked at the parable of the sower - in the Gospel of Mark.  I'm finding the study fascinating - as the group can tell by my underlining.  The parable where the sower went out to sow - you remember it - and some seed fell on the rocks, some among the thorns, some got eaten by the birds, and some - a little produced.

The author says don't let our modem agricultural methods shatter Jesus' metaphor.

Farmers back then weren't expecting anything close to 100% germination.

But what fascinated me was how the author spent this whole page - impressing upon us that you and I were created to sow. The primary reason God put us here - was to sow the words of Jesus about God.  Every living human being needs God - and how are they supposed to find out about God if we don't tell them. We are the very people God is depending on; we are the

disciples - and there are crowds of people out there - who know very little about God.

Jesus told this parable to encourage us to sow the word - and that's where our job ends.

God will take care of the growth - we are the sowers. Just like a stalk of corn - we can't make it grow - all we can do is plant. Over and over the author says we are the sowers - not the growers.  Listen to one of his paragraphs: WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR JESUS REMINDS THE DISCIPLES THAT THE ONE WAITING TO GROW WHAT THEY SOW - IS SO

CAPABLE THAT ALL THEY NEED TO DO AFTER THEY THROW THE GOSPEL

ON THE GROUND IS TO GO TO BED!

"WHILE YOU SLEEP, THE GOSPEL WILL GROW," JESUS SAYS WITH A

GLIMMER IN HIS EYE, "AND YOU'LL NEVER FIGURE IT OUT!"

STOP CALCULATING, STOP WORRYING ABOUT DESIGN AND STRATEGY, STOP TRYING TO CRUNCH RESULTS. SCATTER WHAT YOU HAVE AND HIT THE SACK.

In fact the Greek word used to describe this growth - is the very word from which we get our word: automatic.  Plant the seed and hit the sack.

Of course, all of us were confessing Monday night how little sowing we have done; I think we have innocently done far more than we imagine - but we all need encouragement to sow.

So much so - that I want to read part of this author's advice - and he says we have to remember - that when Mark was writing his gospel - about 70 AD - the early church had already become 'bone-weary' of spreading the word.  They were complaining - like we do today - about attendance - but this author says - don't crunch the numbers - don't get into statistics - that's God's job - not yours - you plant - God grows. Some of your seed is going to fall on the rocks, and among the thorns, and get eaten by the birds - that's O.K. - just keep sowing.

The author says - by the way his name is Richard Deibert -

DISCIPLES, he says - SOW AND LEAVE THE GROWING TO GOD.

DISCIPLES, DON'T DESPAIR, SOW! YOU'RE THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE SEED.

NOT SOWING IS LIKE HIDING THE LIGHT OF A LAMP AFTER YOU BRING IT INTO A ROOM! JUST BRING IT IN AND LET IT SHINE. TRUST THE GROWER.

DON'T TRY TO GROW AND SOW, JUST CONCENTRATE ON SOWING!

DISCIPLES, DON'T DESPAIR, SOW! SOWING IS YOUR PURPOSE, YOUR REASON FOR BEING, YOUR LIVELIHOOD. IT IS BY SOWING THAT YOU ARE, SO KEEP SOWING. THIS MYSTERIOUS SEED CAN ONLY BECOME WHAT IT IS IF IT LEAVES YOU. TO HOLD ON IS TO LOSE IT. SOW!

DISCIPLES, DON'T DESPAIR, SOW! THE CROP IS NOT A MATTER OF YOUR TECHNIQUE AND EXPERTISE! JUST SOW AND SLEEP SOUNDLY. JUST SOW AND LET GO.

DISCIPLES, DON'T DESPAIR, SOW! DON'T' WORRY ABOUT POOR SOWING.

EVEN IF YOU SOW POORLY, THE CROP IS NOT IN YOUR HANDS. THE KINGDOM

OF GOD DOES NOT ABIDE BY THE STANDARD RULES OF AGRICULTURE.

THE GROWER CAN TAKE ANYTHING YOU SOW - ANYTHING - ANYWHERE YOU SOW IT, ANYWAY YOU SOW IT, AND YIELD A BUMPER CROP. SO SOW.

 

The best comparison I found all week - as to the enthusiasm and regularity with which we should be sowing - yes I said - enthusiasm and regularity - keep talking to people - about God the crowds need to know - and you have the knowledge - don't worry about what words you will use or how you will say - God can take anything - and make a bumper crop the comparison for the enthusiasm and regularity for sharing words about God - has to do with what I and Linda are

about to become!

Right! A grandparent. What do you carry around after the baby is born - right? A picture!  Sometimes even a whole album. You can't imagine how many pictures of perfect babies I've seen over the years. Do we carry them around and never get them out? Of course

not. We're only too ready and anxious to show them to anyone who will look.

And even if we're kind of quiet and shy - just ask about the grandchild - and we'll tell you story after story after story.

Could we somehow translate that enthusiasm into sowing seeds of God's love? Sowing reminders of God's presence.  Sowing seeds of God's power.

Don Blevins was speaking for all of us Monday night - when he said - he thinks he's fallen far short of sowing seeds. And I thought for a moment - and I thought of his occupation as a state policeman - and I thought of an experience I had with one about 35 years ago - and I said, Don, certainly you did for someone what that policeman did for me - and I remember it to this day - and it's taught me that there's always hope.

I was traveling east of Lancaster early one Sunday morning in February - trying to get from my home in Red Lion - to a church outside of Princeton - where I was temporarily serving as organist - I probably left late - and so you can guess what I was doing - and why the policeman stopped me. But he checked my driver's license; he asked me where I was going in such a hurry - and of course, that didn't hurt my situation - he thought for a moment - and then said. "Oh, it's too cold out here to write a ticket."   If you want his exact words, you'll have to ask someone in the study group.

He planted with me a seed of 'forgiveness' that I remember 35 years later. We can all be sowing, and sowing more.  Deibert says OUR PURPOSE, OUR VERY REASON FOR BEING, IS SOWING.

So sow!

Way back in 70 AD they were already worried about the numbers, they were bone weary but growing the numbers is God's job. Our responsibility is to sow. With God even a remnant, even a stump, even a seed as tiny as a mustard seed is enough.

You and I are here this morning because John the Baptist told Andrew, and Andrew told Peter, and Peter told and on and on and on.

Would that we could maintain the enthusiasm of a new grandparent when it comes to planting God's word.

Would that we could fully understand the value of planting those words here, there, and everywhere; planting with carefree abandon - knowing that God will bring about the growth when and where God wants - some thirty fold, some sixty fold, and some a hundred. So, sow!

Amen.

January 13, 2008

"Wade in the Water"

 

Today's sermon - may give new meaning to the phrase: Preaching to the Choir. Because the choir on Wednesday night was filled with questions about today's anthem: "Wade in the Water."   I compliment our choir director, Ann Gerlitzki, for choosing this anthem on this Baptism of Our Lord Sunday, and we'll know more by the end about why she chose it.

 

Our first dilemma might be to ask what this spiritual - Wade in the Water - meant to the Negro slaves who introduced it.  I shared this bit of information in the choir room this morning - in order to 'energize' the choir - really get them involved in this anthem - because - because this anthem - with these words - was to the slaves - a matter of life and death! They undoubtedly sang it with a driving force, with passion, with determination and they sang it to one another - and to their children - over and over and over. "Brothers and sisters, children - listen - you must wade in the water."

 

Anyone have an idea - why?

Right - if you were a run away slave - and this was a spiritual that developed during the time of the underground railroad - what was one of the surest ways of hiding your trail – of hiding your scent from the blood hounds - right - Wade in the Water! Be sure you spend time either crossing a creek - or walking in the water of a creek or a stream - brothers and sisters - if you want those blood thirsty dogs to loose your trail- Wade in the Water!

 

Remember, these slaves couldn't read or write - the only way they had to communicate was by word of mouth - and so they alerted one another with spirituals. The message was so life and death - it was so important - the spiritual was repetitious - as was our anthem - wade - wade wade - don't forget to wade - or those hounds will surely get you.

 

Other spirituals during the Underground Railroad: "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" - waiting for a chariot - to carry me North. Another was "The Gospel Train is comin'." - pretty obvious it had to do with escaping. There was also a spiritual titled: "FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD."

 

Any ideas? It meant - follow the great, drinking gourd in the sky - and it will lead your North - it meant - follow the Big Dipper. They traveled at night. These were life and death messages inlpressed on them by the repetition of spirituals.

 

"Wade in the Water" was not composed to be a nice Sunday morning, harmonized anthem - for a sweet Caucasian church choir - to delight the congregation - it was a driving, serious warning - that either you do this - or the dogs - when you're comin' up through Virginia

to Pennsylvania - will rip you to shreds!

 

Now the other dilemma Wednesday night - and see, I am preaching to the choir - was what's this about 'troubled' waters.  If the waters are going to save lives - why call them 'troubled.'  It's another important word - because we repeated it over and over and over - in fact

we made a wonderful chord out of it - starting with the basses - trouble - tenors - trouble - altos trouble - sopranos - trouble - the water........

 

I admit - I had forgotten its source - from the gospels - but also from the Old Testament -

Deuteronomy - but there in Deuteronomy - only referring to the Jordan - and the fact that Moses

will not be allowed by God to cross over the Jordan into the promised land -

 

In the New Testament - the 'troubled waters' are part of a healing miracle in the Gospel according to John - in the 5th chapter - see if you remember this: John 5- starting with verse 2 NOW THERE IS IN JERUSALEM BY THE SHEEP GATE - A POOL, WHICH HAS FIVE PORTICOES - sounds like the seven pools on the road to Hana on the island of Maui - and to this day it serves the same purpose as did this pool in Jerusalem.  IN THESE FIVE PORTICOES

AROUND THE POOL - LAY A MULTITUDE OF INVALIDS, BLIND, LAME, PARALYZED.

 

ONE MAN WAS THERE, WHO HAD BEEN ILL FOR 38 YEARS.

WHEN JESUS SAW HIM AND KNEW THAT HE HAD BEEN LYING THERE A LONG TIME, HE SAID TO HIM, 'DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?"

THE SICK MAN ANSWERED HIM, 'SIR, I HAVE NO ONE TO PUT ME INTO THE

POOL WHEN THE WATER IS_________ , AND WHILE I AM GOING - ANOTHER STEPS DOWN BEFORE ME.

JESUS SAID TO HIM, "RISE, TAKE UP YOUR PALLET AND WALK."

AND AT ONCE THE MAN, WAS HEALED, AND HE TOOK UP HIS PALLET AND WALKED.

 

The incident turns out to be a healing miracle for Jesus - but the point is - we are introduced - to this 'healing pool' - and the belief was - that when God's angels - 'troubled' the waters in the pool - if you were the first to enter these 'troubled' waters - - it only applied to the

first - you indeed would be healed. This poor man - in 38 years - never got to be first BECAUSE,

JESUS, I HAVE NO ONE TO PUT ME INTO THE POOL - WHEN THE WATER IS TROUBLED, TROUBLED, TROUBLED, TROUBLED.

 

Now go back to the Underground Railroad - if you had the courage during your desperate escape to enter the troubled waters - you could be saved - you could escape.

 

Does that help make sense of the words - WADE IN THE WATER, CHILDREN. WADE IN THE WATER GOD'S GONNA TROUBLE, GOD'S GONNA TROUBLE, GOD'S GONNA

TROUBLE THE WATER.

The 'troubled waters' will be your very salvation!!

 

THEN JESUS CAME FROM GALILEE TO JOHN AT THE JORDAN, (says our lesson today) TO BE BAPTIZED.

AND JUST AS HE CAME UP FROM THE TROUBLED WATERS....SUDDENLY....

DO YOU DESIRE TO HAVE YOUR CHILD BAPTIZED INTO THE FAITH AND

FAMILY OF JESUS CHRIST.

BLESS BY YOUR HOLY SPIRIT, GRACIOUS GOD, This WATER....in this bowl this

troubled, healing water the water with which we were all baptized .

I BAPTIZE YOU, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

 

Last Sunday I spoke to one of our children's Sunday School classes about baptism - it's always fun to begin by asking if they remember their baptism. Why are we so anxious to baptize them as infants - because it reminds all of us - that we receive God's great love and God's great mercy - even before we know about it - even before we can begin to understand it.

 

I said to them - God is like your parents - and your parents didn't wait until a year or two after you were born - and then decide whether or not they would love you - you were born - and bingo.  And it's bingo with God.. In fact, Linda and I are already in love with a baby - not even born yet!  And so it is with God - I knew you in the womb!

 

But then - let it up to William Willimon to throw a wrench into this whole, beautiful story - Willimon says in his sermon for today - BUT IF THIS BABY IS EVER GOING TO GET BACK TO GOD - after baptism - IT WILL TAKE A MIRACLE.

 

And then I think of all the children I baptize here - and then we never see them again.

You - the congregation - promise in that service to support them and love them - but you never

see them again. A miracle - yep, Willimon, you're right - a miracle.

 

But he's not really referring to their attendance regularity - or the level of their participation - he is referring to what is true for all of us For each of us to get from the day of our baptism - back to God -

 

for each of us to get from that day of our baptism - back to a full awareness of God's love and mercy for us  

for each of us to get from the day of our baptism - back to understanding that God loves us like we already love that grandchild to born in Hawaii -

 

back to understanding - that God ain't never gonna let us go - God ain't never gonna let us go - God ain't never gonna let us go - to get there - we need a miracle.

 

Because when we finally - eventually - some day - and maybe it has already happened when we have a full revelation of who God is - a recognition of who God is.

 

Willimon says: WHEN IT IS A REVELATION, A RECOGNITION - AND WHEN IT'S ABOUT GOD - IT'S ALWAYS A GIFT. A MIRACLE.

 

ITS GOT TO COME 'FROM HEAYEN.' Willimon says: I CAN'T PREACH IT, YOU CAN'T HEAR IT, EXCEPT AS MIRACLE.

 

Some of us have received that miracle; some of us still wait for that miracle; some of us aren't quite sure we've had the miracle; some of us wait for a clearer sign - but at some moment in life - probably - when we least expect it - the heavens will open for us - and we will

understand allover again for the first time - what was done for us at our baptism - that God loves us, God loves us, God loves us, you are my Beloved child.

 

On this Baptism of our Lord Sunday - our anthem introduced us to the water of baptism wade in that water just as Jesus did in the Jordan - just as our African American brothers and sisters did during the days of the Underground Railroad .

 

Our anthem reminded us of the water in that pool in Jerusalem - the water that became the troubled - healing - waters - it reminded us of the water in the rivers and streams that are south of the Mason-Dixon line - that became the troubled - healing - waters – of the slaves .

 

All of which serves to remind us of the water of our baptism - waters that drenched us with God’s unending and unconditional love and mercy. Oh, how our life changes on the day we recognize that we are beloved by God. That recognition is indeed a gift; it is a miracle. Amen.

 

 

"Why Were They Wise?"

  

We are fortunate this year that January 6 falls on a Sunday; often we would call this Sunday the second Sunday after Christmas - or the first Sunday after Epiphany - but this year we are here on the Sunday when we can celebrate the visit of the Wise Men to the new born king.  And so our last two hymns have referred to their gifts - and so also will our last hymn - and our gospel lesson from Matthew described their visit.

 

Some fallacies to get out of the way before we go any further - (1) they were not "We Three Kings of Orient Are" - they were simply wise men, or professional scholars - probably experts in astrology.

 

(2) We don't really know how many there were - maybe three - maybe 30 - all we know is

that they brought 'three' gifts.

 

(3) They most likely didn't arrive at the manger in Bethlehem - as our crèches seem to imply - but as our lesson said today - THEY ENTERED THE HOUSE - the house and saw the child with Mary.

 

And (4) they saw a 'child' and not a 'baby', because most likely they arrived in Bethlehem about two years after Jesus was born.

 

So why do we remember them as wise? At the beginning of this new year I think we can learn at least four things from these travelers - and from them our lives could definitely benefit.

 

(One) The wise men were obviously adventuresome - and they sought wisdom; they were open and looking for something new - something they didn't understand.  How easy it is for us in our fast paced society today - and as we age - to fall woefully behind; we think we know enough and we don't bother to be adventuresome to learn more. How many of us could benefit, for example, by making a new year's resolution to learn more about the computer?  I am making a pledge to you - that we will switch in the church office this year from Word Perfect - to Microsoft Word.

 

One of my sources also asked how many of us - on getting something 'new' begin to try to use it - or assemble it - before we read the instructions; we can do, we don't need instructions and then eventually we fall back on that age old wisdom -that when all else fails - read the instructions.

 

My favorite line in '07 was that I find myself so far behind - that I can't even buy light bulbs. We're running out of places at the parsonage - to put all of my mistakes. Some look blue; some look pink. Some are too dim. What ever happened to good, old - white?

Let us learn from the wise men to be more diligent in our search for knowledge. Seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.

 

(2) The wise men set forth in 'faith' to find what the star pointed to.  They set out risking their very self in a new activity. They set out risking their entire reputation.  Like Noah and the ark, they must have traveled by people who thought they were crazy.  You're following a star to a what?  They had no idea how long it would take - and it took years.....They had no idea where

it would lead them - and it led to a little, insignificant town called Bethlehem.

 

How patient are we - and how trusting? For far too many people a faith journey - is the work of someone else.  Let those crazy people who go to church every Sunday do it; my grandmother was a good church member - I can ride on her coattails.  Our journey of faith through life is something we each have to do for ourselves - can we become more diligent in reading our devotionals?  more regular in our church attendance?  more dependable with our prayers?  Like the wise men - we don't know where those lessons will lead us; we don't know how long we may have to wait for answers, but we keep up the journey, we keep up the pace, we

keep up the dedication.

 

Three: And this is probably most especially for the men - they weren't afraid to ask for directions. They weren't afraid to ask for help. They weren't afraid to rely on others. WISE MEN FROM THE EAST - CAME - ASKING.

 

I can't emphasize enough how meaningful our evening study groups have been; we have a chance there to ask questions about life; about our faith. We have a chance to listen to the thoughts of others.  I think I could safely say that there hasn't been a one of us who hasn't taken

a thought or a comment from those studies - and dwelt on it for days, weeks. There's not a one of us who doesn't - to this day - give thanks for the wisdom and the faith and the uncertainty of a man like Bill Wolfe, who told us that he knows less about his faith today than he did 50 years ago.  How fortunate we were to have that time spent with Bill and Alida before they had to leave us.

 

And yes, that's a plug for you to screw together the courage - and to find the time to join " us tomorrow night in the parlor - as we look at Jesus' life through the gospel of Mark.  Don't worry that you don't know enough to be there; don't worry that you'll ask the wrong question you don't have to open your mouth if you don't want to.  Just join us - acknowledging that all of us have a long way to go on this journey; and certainly the more time and effort we give it - the

richer our lives will become.

 

And Fourth - They accepted the surprise they found - like the hymn we sang last Sunday God surprises earth with heaven - coming here on Christmas day. They were looking for a king - they found a toddler; they were looking for robes and riches; they found the son of a carpenter; they were looking for wisdom and might; and they found a child who could barely walk and talk.  But they indeed found the greatest gift ever given this world.

 

One of my sources said how often we emphasize the gifts they gave - and we can all name them without any difficulty - but how often do we really reflect on the gift they received.

That source says: SO MANY OF US HAVE A HARD TIME ACCEPTING WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN IN THE FORM THAT HE GIVES IT.

BECAUSE WE ARE WAITING FOR A GIFT FROM GOD - WE LOOK FOR GREAT

MIRACLES, INSTANT HEALINGS, SIGNS AND WONDERS, TRUMPET CALLS AND 21

GUN SALUTES.

 

WE MAY PRAY TO GOD FOR A SPECIAL BLESSING - AND THEN TURN AWAY

AT OUR DOOR A PAN-HANDLER WHO IS LOOKING FOR A MEAL, OR A NEIGHBOR

WHO IS DROPPING BY UNANNOUNCED, OR A CLIENT WHO SHOWS UP JUST WHEN

WE ARE PREPARING TO LEAVE WORK FOR THE DAY.

 

WE HAVE THIS IDEA FIXED IN OUR MINDS THAT GOD DOES NOT, OR SHOULD NOT, APPEAR TO US IN THE ORDINARY ASPECTS OF OUR LIFE.  WE DO NOT EXPECT GOD TO SHOW UP WHILE WE ARE AT WORK IN OUR

OFFICE, OR SITTING IN A CLASSROOM, OR DOING DISHES AT THE KITCHEN SINK.

WE HAVE A HARD TIME CONSIDERING THAT GOD'S ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS CAN BE FOUND IN A 2000 YEAR OLD BOOK, OR ON THE LIPS OF OUR EMPLOYEES OR OUR FRIENDS, OR THAT A DREAM WE HAVE HAD DURING A LONG AND TROUBLED NIGHT IS, IN FACT, A MESSAGE FROM GOD.

 

WHY WERE THEY WISE?

(1) THEY SOUGHT OUT WISDOM;

(2) THEY WERE WILLING TO JOURNEY IN FAITH;

(3) THEY DID NOT HESITATE TO ASK FOR HELP ALONG THE WAY;

(4) THEY ACCEPTED WHAT THEY FOUND - EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SUCH A

SURPRISE.

 

SIMPLE STUFF - THIS WISDOM - BUT WISDOM NORMALLY IS SIMPLE STUFF.

SIMPLE, BUT WHEN USED - AS THE WISE MEN USED IT - IT LEADS US TO GOD.

MAY GOD BLESS US ALL WITH THIS KIND OF WISDOM.  AMEN.