Christmas Eve
December 24, 2010
Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-20
Where do your Presents come From?
Year C
Christmas is a time that is rich in tradition, we have many things that we only do during Christmas. Each family is just a little different.
What are your Christmas traditions……….
I was fascinated to learn that each country does Christmas just a little different.
But even more fascinated to learn that each country has a different person to bring gifts
Where do the gifts come from under your tree – for most of us they come from Santa Claus, or a family member
In the story of the first Christmas – gifts were given because of Jesus a little baby – a child born into the world who will make a difference.
We know the story by heart – but it is easy for us to forget it
Where do gifts come from? Where do babies come from? Where did Jesus come from
Our gifts come from God?
What does Christmas mean to you? – what gift will God bring you this year?
The ultimate gift of Christmas is the knowledge that God will be with us
Kenan stated Jesus is right next to us in the midst of all things.
God is with us in our darkest hour
God is with us in confusion
God does Christmas with others in mind
God does Christmas in spite of opposition
God does Christmas in the nick of time
God does Christmas with lights and music
God does Christmas with one big gift – God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son.
A gift that will last a lifetime
Hectic time of year – whoever did this should be shot
Remember he was crucified, so that you would have life, salvation, strength and support
Accept God’s gift – accept God aware of God, willing to serve and acknowledge God in all things.
Poem by Horward Thurman….
Work of Christmas Begins
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart…
And to radiate the Light of Christ,
every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say.
Then the work of Christmas begins.
-- Howard Thurman, adapted
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Great Dads; Great Sons
December 19, 2010
Year A
Great Dad’s; Great Sons
Isaiah 7:10-16
Matthew 1:18-25
Fourth Sunday of Advent
The image of Hope of Mother and Child
A mother and her baby is one of the most important images of hope that the world knows. Wherever you go, in whatever culture, you can always find that endearing image of the Virgin Mary and her Holy baby.
One of the most precious images of hope that I have seen this season, was not a picture of a mother and her child. It was a picture of a male colleague. He posted a picture of his dad and him when he was a baby. He wanted to honor the man who taught him everything about becoming a man. Not just a man, but a righteous man.
Matthew does the same thing on behalf of Jesus in today’s scripture. He honors the man who taught Jesus everything. It was Joseph who not only gave Jesus his name, he gave him a mission, and a way of life. Joseph was a carpenter – Jesus was a carpenter. Joseph was a descendant of David, Jesus was the son of David.
Jesus went on to become one of most famous men in history, we really have no idea of what ever happened to Joseph. Did he die early in Jesus life? Did he and Mary have other children? Why was he not present when Jesus was crucified. We have absolutely no record of anything beyond the birth stories.
Comparison of the intention of Matthew and Luke
The early church fathers like Paul, were simply not concerned about Jesus life as a baby or a young child. And they don’t say much about his family.
Mathew and Luke are the only two places in the gospel where we hear about Jesus’ birth. And they don’t talk much about it after chapter 1.
Luke is the story of Jesus’ mother – that is the story that we are most familiar with, and the one that gets repeated year after year. Luke is the story of the underdog and the underserved. Luke was concerned about the poor and those who did not have a voice in society. Since Mary was a woman, a person without a voice in which no one cared about – Luke tells her story.
Matthew is a gospel written to the men, those who had status, who were in power and could make a difference. It is not that Matthew did not care about the poor and underpriviledged – but he cared more that the men of the church – did not take their status for granted. He wanted them to be intentional about becoming true disciples of Christ, and to make a commitment to be righteous in whatever they did. He wanted them to learn to always do the right things no matter what.
Luke traces Jesus’ family through his mother, Mathew traces Jesus family through Joseph. In Luke the salvation of the world is brought to us through the actions of Mary, in Mathew it is through the actions of Joseph.
Joseph as Stepdad
Afterall it was just as dangerous for Joseph to raise Jesus as it was for Mary to tell the world that she was pregnant. Even though they were not married, they were engaged. If Joseph were to admit that he slept with Mary before Marrying her, her brothers would have killed him. If he told the world that it was not his baby – then he was just as guilty as she was. If he told his neighbors that he was raising the son of God – they would have killed him
And yet he agreed to do just that – to become the stepdad for God’s son. In today’s world a man who chooses to raise a child that is not his own is pretty common. There are men who adopt children, men who raise foster children, men who marry or live with women with children who raise them, and even men who know that a child is not theirs biologically, but they make the decision to raise the child anyway. This is all pretty normal today. But back then, and even today in middle eastern countries that could mean death.
Joseph’s Dream
And if it wasn’t for a dream – it would not have happen. An angel of the lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him not be afraid.
The angel uses the reference of Isaiah – a virgin shall give birth to a child and name him Emmanuel – God with us.
Joel asks us how do we know that God is with us – our old men shall have dreams and our young men shall have visions.
Matthew is a call to action to our men – to dream, to vision, to carry the dreams of God forward out into the world in whatever you do.
Advent is the chance for all of us to dream, not of the world as we want it, but to dream of the world as God intended. To look at our life, to look at life in general and to take account of what needs to change, and what we need to do to change it.
Dreaming for dreams sake is useless. Our dreams don’t always make sense by themselves. How do we know if our dreams are messages from God, or something that we made up in our imagination.
Joseph and Ahaz
Afterall, the old testament was about a man and his dreams. Ahaz was the king of isreal, struggling with the right thing to do for his country. And he asked for a sign to know God’s will. He was given a sign, but he chose to ignore it.
The sign was the same as Joseph – young maiden would give birth, and by the time the baby was old enough to go to kindergarten the threat would be over and everything would be okay. All he needed to do was trust in the Lord – that the Lord is always in control and will take care of everything.
What was the difference between Ahaz and Joseph? How do we know if our dreams,our visions our signs are really from God?
A righteous Man
The bible calls Joseph – a tsaddik man – a righteous man. A man who is intentional to be faithful in all of his relationships. A man who never turns his back on those in his life. A man who always prays in order to determine in all things what is the right things to do, and what is the wrong things to do. And always intentionally chooses the right thing – no matter what the personal cost. A man who is willing to follow the will of God, even when it is unpopular and puts us at risk in the minds of other people.
As disciples- we are all called to be tsaddik – righteous. And advent is our time to look at our integrity in our relationships and to always do the right things.
The Gold diggers and the new baby
There was a commotion in Roaring Camp. Cherokee Sal, the only woman in this rough, tough mining settlement, was dead after giving birth to a son whose father was unknown. Around the crude cabin where the newborn child lay helpless and crying, the hundred or so hard-bitten goldrush miners gathered in curiosity and concern. Death was so common here, but birth - this was a whole new experience.
Stumpy, a fugitive from justice on charges of bigamy, had by common consent taken charge of the little one's arrival. Shortly he allowed the miners to view the new baby, suggesting that it would be appropriate to make a contribution for the helpless orphan. So they came filing in, unconsciously taking off their hats in the presence of this miracle of new life, and putting their gifts at his side - a revolver, a diamond ring, a sling shot and a silver spoon. But now what to do?
The next day the inhabitants of Roaring Camp met in serious deliberation, and without the usual slugging and brawling, decided that working together they would all help raise this child. Stumpy was designated the particular guardian with a female mule as his first assistant. Strange to say, the little one thrived under their care, and equally strange was the effect on Roaring Camp. The little infant was named "Tommy Luck." His cabin, a filthy mess before he had been born there, was scrupulously cleaned, whitewashed and fixed up. A cradle was packed in by mule, and that made all the rest of the makeshift furniture so shabby in contrast that by common consensus, the whole place had to be done over.
In turn the local gambling joint and bar, the so-called grocery store, had to be spruced up to be in keeping with the Luck's cabin, and before long, the remainder of the settlement followed suit. This, and Stumpy's remarkable but understandable refusal to let anybody hold the Luck unless he was spotlessly clean, shaven and shorn, produced miracles in the miners' appearances. And equally amazing was the change in their conduct. Shouting within sound of Tommy's cabin was forbidden, lest he be wakened, and shortly the usual profanity was practically given up as not right for their boy to hear. From being Roaring Camp, the ugly drunken frontier settlement became, as one Cockney criminal inhabitant expressed it, "kind of 'eavenly." There was talk of further improvement and even of inviting some decent families to live there to benefit Tommy Luck with their presence. Word got around to the outside world of this miracle of change through the pony express riders who would say, "They've a street up there in Roaring Camp that's better than any street in Red Dog. They've got vines and flowers round their cabins, and they wash themselves twice a day ... and they sure worship an Injun baby."
Advent is our chance to become righteous disciples
Advent is your chance to clean up your house for the coming of the new baby. God really doesn’t care about the condition of your physical house – but the condition of your spiritual house.
Is your heart prepared for the coming of Christ into the world? Are you right in all of your relationships? Or is there something that you need to work on. Is your relationship with God the most important thing in your life? Or is there something that you need to put aside?
Finally in Jesus day, there was no such thing as a DNA test to prove whether you were the father of your wife’s baby. A righteous mans word was always the final determination. If the man came forward and claimed the baby as his own – and he was willing to give the baby a name- then the baby was his a part of his family, irregardless of the circumstances, and whether everyone else knew your business.
His destiny named his Emmanuel, his daddy named him Jesus. He promised to be God with us – even to the end of the age. Let us pray…….
Year A
Great Dad’s; Great Sons
Isaiah 7:10-16
Matthew 1:18-25
Fourth Sunday of Advent
The image of Hope of Mother and Child
A mother and her baby is one of the most important images of hope that the world knows. Wherever you go, in whatever culture, you can always find that endearing image of the Virgin Mary and her Holy baby.
One of the most precious images of hope that I have seen this season, was not a picture of a mother and her child. It was a picture of a male colleague. He posted a picture of his dad and him when he was a baby. He wanted to honor the man who taught him everything about becoming a man. Not just a man, but a righteous man.
Matthew does the same thing on behalf of Jesus in today’s scripture. He honors the man who taught Jesus everything. It was Joseph who not only gave Jesus his name, he gave him a mission, and a way of life. Joseph was a carpenter – Jesus was a carpenter. Joseph was a descendant of David, Jesus was the son of David.
Jesus went on to become one of most famous men in history, we really have no idea of what ever happened to Joseph. Did he die early in Jesus life? Did he and Mary have other children? Why was he not present when Jesus was crucified. We have absolutely no record of anything beyond the birth stories.
Comparison of the intention of Matthew and Luke
The early church fathers like Paul, were simply not concerned about Jesus life as a baby or a young child. And they don’t say much about his family.
Mathew and Luke are the only two places in the gospel where we hear about Jesus’ birth. And they don’t talk much about it after chapter 1.
Luke is the story of Jesus’ mother – that is the story that we are most familiar with, and the one that gets repeated year after year. Luke is the story of the underdog and the underserved. Luke was concerned about the poor and those who did not have a voice in society. Since Mary was a woman, a person without a voice in which no one cared about – Luke tells her story.
Matthew is a gospel written to the men, those who had status, who were in power and could make a difference. It is not that Matthew did not care about the poor and underpriviledged – but he cared more that the men of the church – did not take their status for granted. He wanted them to be intentional about becoming true disciples of Christ, and to make a commitment to be righteous in whatever they did. He wanted them to learn to always do the right things no matter what.
Luke traces Jesus’ family through his mother, Mathew traces Jesus family through Joseph. In Luke the salvation of the world is brought to us through the actions of Mary, in Mathew it is through the actions of Joseph.
Joseph as Stepdad
Afterall it was just as dangerous for Joseph to raise Jesus as it was for Mary to tell the world that she was pregnant. Even though they were not married, they were engaged. If Joseph were to admit that he slept with Mary before Marrying her, her brothers would have killed him. If he told the world that it was not his baby – then he was just as guilty as she was. If he told his neighbors that he was raising the son of God – they would have killed him
And yet he agreed to do just that – to become the stepdad for God’s son. In today’s world a man who chooses to raise a child that is not his own is pretty common. There are men who adopt children, men who raise foster children, men who marry or live with women with children who raise them, and even men who know that a child is not theirs biologically, but they make the decision to raise the child anyway. This is all pretty normal today. But back then, and even today in middle eastern countries that could mean death.
Joseph’s Dream
And if it wasn’t for a dream – it would not have happen. An angel of the lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him not be afraid.
The angel uses the reference of Isaiah – a virgin shall give birth to a child and name him Emmanuel – God with us.
Joel asks us how do we know that God is with us – our old men shall have dreams and our young men shall have visions.
Matthew is a call to action to our men – to dream, to vision, to carry the dreams of God forward out into the world in whatever you do.
Advent is the chance for all of us to dream, not of the world as we want it, but to dream of the world as God intended. To look at our life, to look at life in general and to take account of what needs to change, and what we need to do to change it.
Dreaming for dreams sake is useless. Our dreams don’t always make sense by themselves. How do we know if our dreams are messages from God, or something that we made up in our imagination.
Joseph and Ahaz
Afterall, the old testament was about a man and his dreams. Ahaz was the king of isreal, struggling with the right thing to do for his country. And he asked for a sign to know God’s will. He was given a sign, but he chose to ignore it.
The sign was the same as Joseph – young maiden would give birth, and by the time the baby was old enough to go to kindergarten the threat would be over and everything would be okay. All he needed to do was trust in the Lord – that the Lord is always in control and will take care of everything.
What was the difference between Ahaz and Joseph? How do we know if our dreams,our visions our signs are really from God?
A righteous Man
The bible calls Joseph – a tsaddik man – a righteous man. A man who is intentional to be faithful in all of his relationships. A man who never turns his back on those in his life. A man who always prays in order to determine in all things what is the right things to do, and what is the wrong things to do. And always intentionally chooses the right thing – no matter what the personal cost. A man who is willing to follow the will of God, even when it is unpopular and puts us at risk in the minds of other people.
As disciples- we are all called to be tsaddik – righteous. And advent is our time to look at our integrity in our relationships and to always do the right things.
The Gold diggers and the new baby
There was a commotion in Roaring Camp. Cherokee Sal, the only woman in this rough, tough mining settlement, was dead after giving birth to a son whose father was unknown. Around the crude cabin where the newborn child lay helpless and crying, the hundred or so hard-bitten goldrush miners gathered in curiosity and concern. Death was so common here, but birth - this was a whole new experience.
Stumpy, a fugitive from justice on charges of bigamy, had by common consent taken charge of the little one's arrival. Shortly he allowed the miners to view the new baby, suggesting that it would be appropriate to make a contribution for the helpless orphan. So they came filing in, unconsciously taking off their hats in the presence of this miracle of new life, and putting their gifts at his side - a revolver, a diamond ring, a sling shot and a silver spoon. But now what to do?
The next day the inhabitants of Roaring Camp met in serious deliberation, and without the usual slugging and brawling, decided that working together they would all help raise this child. Stumpy was designated the particular guardian with a female mule as his first assistant. Strange to say, the little one thrived under their care, and equally strange was the effect on Roaring Camp. The little infant was named "Tommy Luck." His cabin, a filthy mess before he had been born there, was scrupulously cleaned, whitewashed and fixed up. A cradle was packed in by mule, and that made all the rest of the makeshift furniture so shabby in contrast that by common consensus, the whole place had to be done over.
In turn the local gambling joint and bar, the so-called grocery store, had to be spruced up to be in keeping with the Luck's cabin, and before long, the remainder of the settlement followed suit. This, and Stumpy's remarkable but understandable refusal to let anybody hold the Luck unless he was spotlessly clean, shaven and shorn, produced miracles in the miners' appearances. And equally amazing was the change in their conduct. Shouting within sound of Tommy's cabin was forbidden, lest he be wakened, and shortly the usual profanity was practically given up as not right for their boy to hear. From being Roaring Camp, the ugly drunken frontier settlement became, as one Cockney criminal inhabitant expressed it, "kind of 'eavenly." There was talk of further improvement and even of inviting some decent families to live there to benefit Tommy Luck with their presence. Word got around to the outside world of this miracle of change through the pony express riders who would say, "They've a street up there in Roaring Camp that's better than any street in Red Dog. They've got vines and flowers round their cabins, and they wash themselves twice a day ... and they sure worship an Injun baby."
Advent is our chance to become righteous disciples
Advent is your chance to clean up your house for the coming of the new baby. God really doesn’t care about the condition of your physical house – but the condition of your spiritual house.
Is your heart prepared for the coming of Christ into the world? Are you right in all of your relationships? Or is there something that you need to work on. Is your relationship with God the most important thing in your life? Or is there something that you need to put aside?
Finally in Jesus day, there was no such thing as a DNA test to prove whether you were the father of your wife’s baby. A righteous mans word was always the final determination. If the man came forward and claimed the baby as his own – and he was willing to give the baby a name- then the baby was his a part of his family, irregardless of the circumstances, and whether everyone else knew your business.
His destiny named his Emmanuel, his daddy named him Jesus. He promised to be God with us – even to the end of the age. Let us pray…….
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Who is Your Messiah?
James 5: 7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
Who is your Messiah?
3rd Sunday of Advent
December 12, 2010
Year A
I have a confession to make. I live in fear of Saturdays. No matter what have planned that day, and I try to do very little on Saturday. All that I can think about all day is getting my sermon done. Actually I am always afraid that something will happen and I will not have time to prepare my sermon, and that the sermon that I did three years will just not work. That is a pastor’s worse fear – that Saturday will come and go, and God will give me nothing to say. And will have to come to church unprepared.
Every Saturday for me is a time of anxious waiting for things to come together and to make sense.
When you think about it, Saturday is a lot like advent. Afterall Saturday is the day between Friday and Sunday. That probably doesn’t mean anything to you – for you Saturday is just another day. But Saturday is the day between Friday and Saturday. Friday – the day Jesus died, and Sunday – the day Jesus rose. Saturday is the day between good Friday and easter Sunday. Saturday is the day with no name, no meaning. Saturday is the day between the promise made and the fulfillment of that promise.
Saturday is the day where all we can do is wait…..
But waiting is not easy for us. We live in a world where everything is getting faster, easier, and quicker. We think we are supposed to have everything right now. In the age of instant coffee, instant television, instant relief from pain – we forget the value of patience. And yet it is in our patience that we learn to most about the nature of God.
Everyday is an unfolding of history and an unfolding of the promise of God. And with each passing day, we are smarter, we understand more and the stories of our lives start to make more and more sense.
One Christmas eve, a squirrel got caught in a families attic. He frantically tried to get out running around like crazy, The more they tried to rescue him, the more frantic he became. Until they set a box next to the attic and waited until things got dark and quiet and the squirrel felt safe enough to climb into the box and to be taken back outside. We have the same patience as that squirrel, when we know that we need to change, we are flailing every way but loose. We fight anyone who get close enough to try. We want to be free – but we are so frantic that every move that we make – seems to put us deeper into bondage. Until we learn to be still and realize that someone bigger than ourselves, someone like God has to come and set us free and make things better.
In our scripture for today – John the Baptist is sitting in prison. He has raised so much sand that he has irritated the King and his family and Herod has arrested him and put him on trial to be be killed. This was not what he expected at all when he signed up to work on behalf of God. He thought he would be rewarded for pointing the way to the messiah – not imprisoned.
I think John the Baptist in prison, is a symbol for us all – we too are imprisoned to our lives, our thoughts, our beliefs, our expectations, our broken dreams. All of those things keep us in bondage to the way things are. We are spending our lives waiting….. and waiting can take its toll on one’s soul and one’s faith. We can become disillusioned about the promises that have been made to us….
How else can you explain Jesus’ biggest proponent becoming Jesus biggest critic. He was disappointed in Jesus. In prison he sends word to Jesus - He ask – are you the messiah – or should I wait for another?
In other words – is this all there is? Or is there something better to come? Because sitting in prison waiting for my life to end – was not what I was waiting for.
The truth is, the Hebrew scriptures talk a lot about the messiah – but no one really knew what that meant, or who he was, or what was really supposed to happen when he came. John’s confusion about whether this was it or not, was the confusion of everyone.
We know the messiah means the Christ, the anointed one. It also means the one who is to come….but what is he supposed to come and do?
Many people voted for President Obama – because they were expecting a change. He promised hope for a better day- something that many of us could believe in.
Two years later many are disappointed. Was Obama really the one, we have waited this long, should we be waiting for another? Did Obama fail to live up to our preconceinved notions – or is it still Saturday – the time between the promise and fulfillment. Is it still advent?
It was not Obama’s promise that our lives would get better, it was God’s Everything happens in God’s time.
Dillusionment is not the same as disappointment. When we are disillusioned that means that we are stripped of our illusions of how things should be, so that we can see clearly how things really are.
John was dillusioned about who the messiah really was and what the messiah is supposed to do. Jesus never answers John’s question about whether he is really the messiah. He says – the blind walk, the prisoners go free, the lame walk. Everything that a messiah is supposed to do, jesus has done – you decide. Jesus has questions of his own. Questions for us – what did you go out into the desert to see? What were you looking for? What was going on in your life to lead you to looking for a messiah, and did you find it in ME or are you still looking?
Jesus tells us that those are questions he cant answer for us, we have to answer them for ourselves.
Did jesus fail to come to us when we rubbed our magic lamp – then perhaps that is because he is not a genie.
Did Jesus fail to punish all of your enemies when you prayed? Then perhaps Jesus is not a cop. Did Jesus fail to make everything run smoothly – then perhaps that is because jesus not mechanic.
It is our disappointments and our disillusionsments about what we expect Jesus to change in our lives – that help us to understand exactly what a messiah is supposed to do for us, but more importantly for the world. A messiah is as a messiah does. Has Jesus done something for you? Or are you still waiting for another? That is a question only you can answer.
The book of James talks about the fulfillment of the promise of God. It addresses a people who were impatient and waiting for Jesus and who started to believe that Jesus was not going to come. James reminds us to be patient. Be patient with ourselves, be patient with life, be patient with one another. Being patient is not idly waiting, but in living responsibly and working faithfully. And waiting expectantly for the one who is to come.
Finally I leave you with a version of chapter 13 of Corinthians for the Christmas season…..
1 CORINTHIANS 13 – - A CHRISTMAS VERSION -
By an unknown author
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights
and shiny balls, but do not show love, I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing
gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not
show love, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I
have to charity, but do not show love, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a
myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on
Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table
linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are
there to be in the way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in
giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
Love never fails.
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but
giving the gift of love will endure.
The way that you wait for the Christ this year is your choice.
The coming season is all about love – its about loving ourselves, it is about loving others, but most important it is about our choice to love God, whatever that means, whatever that leads us, whatever that brings to our lives.
Advent is our chance to wait for the one who comes……
Matthew 11:2-11
Who is your Messiah?
3rd Sunday of Advent
December 12, 2010
Year A
I have a confession to make. I live in fear of Saturdays. No matter what have planned that day, and I try to do very little on Saturday. All that I can think about all day is getting my sermon done. Actually I am always afraid that something will happen and I will not have time to prepare my sermon, and that the sermon that I did three years will just not work. That is a pastor’s worse fear – that Saturday will come and go, and God will give me nothing to say. And will have to come to church unprepared.
Every Saturday for me is a time of anxious waiting for things to come together and to make sense.
When you think about it, Saturday is a lot like advent. Afterall Saturday is the day between Friday and Sunday. That probably doesn’t mean anything to you – for you Saturday is just another day. But Saturday is the day between Friday and Saturday. Friday – the day Jesus died, and Sunday – the day Jesus rose. Saturday is the day between good Friday and easter Sunday. Saturday is the day with no name, no meaning. Saturday is the day between the promise made and the fulfillment of that promise.
Saturday is the day where all we can do is wait…..
But waiting is not easy for us. We live in a world where everything is getting faster, easier, and quicker. We think we are supposed to have everything right now. In the age of instant coffee, instant television, instant relief from pain – we forget the value of patience. And yet it is in our patience that we learn to most about the nature of God.
Everyday is an unfolding of history and an unfolding of the promise of God. And with each passing day, we are smarter, we understand more and the stories of our lives start to make more and more sense.
One Christmas eve, a squirrel got caught in a families attic. He frantically tried to get out running around like crazy, The more they tried to rescue him, the more frantic he became. Until they set a box next to the attic and waited until things got dark and quiet and the squirrel felt safe enough to climb into the box and to be taken back outside. We have the same patience as that squirrel, when we know that we need to change, we are flailing every way but loose. We fight anyone who get close enough to try. We want to be free – but we are so frantic that every move that we make – seems to put us deeper into bondage. Until we learn to be still and realize that someone bigger than ourselves, someone like God has to come and set us free and make things better.
In our scripture for today – John the Baptist is sitting in prison. He has raised so much sand that he has irritated the King and his family and Herod has arrested him and put him on trial to be be killed. This was not what he expected at all when he signed up to work on behalf of God. He thought he would be rewarded for pointing the way to the messiah – not imprisoned.
I think John the Baptist in prison, is a symbol for us all – we too are imprisoned to our lives, our thoughts, our beliefs, our expectations, our broken dreams. All of those things keep us in bondage to the way things are. We are spending our lives waiting….. and waiting can take its toll on one’s soul and one’s faith. We can become disillusioned about the promises that have been made to us….
How else can you explain Jesus’ biggest proponent becoming Jesus biggest critic. He was disappointed in Jesus. In prison he sends word to Jesus - He ask – are you the messiah – or should I wait for another?
In other words – is this all there is? Or is there something better to come? Because sitting in prison waiting for my life to end – was not what I was waiting for.
The truth is, the Hebrew scriptures talk a lot about the messiah – but no one really knew what that meant, or who he was, or what was really supposed to happen when he came. John’s confusion about whether this was it or not, was the confusion of everyone.
We know the messiah means the Christ, the anointed one. It also means the one who is to come….but what is he supposed to come and do?
Many people voted for President Obama – because they were expecting a change. He promised hope for a better day- something that many of us could believe in.
Two years later many are disappointed. Was Obama really the one, we have waited this long, should we be waiting for another? Did Obama fail to live up to our preconceinved notions – or is it still Saturday – the time between the promise and fulfillment. Is it still advent?
It was not Obama’s promise that our lives would get better, it was God’s Everything happens in God’s time.
Dillusionment is not the same as disappointment. When we are disillusioned that means that we are stripped of our illusions of how things should be, so that we can see clearly how things really are.
John was dillusioned about who the messiah really was and what the messiah is supposed to do. Jesus never answers John’s question about whether he is really the messiah. He says – the blind walk, the prisoners go free, the lame walk. Everything that a messiah is supposed to do, jesus has done – you decide. Jesus has questions of his own. Questions for us – what did you go out into the desert to see? What were you looking for? What was going on in your life to lead you to looking for a messiah, and did you find it in ME or are you still looking?
Jesus tells us that those are questions he cant answer for us, we have to answer them for ourselves.
Did jesus fail to come to us when we rubbed our magic lamp – then perhaps that is because he is not a genie.
Did Jesus fail to punish all of your enemies when you prayed? Then perhaps Jesus is not a cop. Did Jesus fail to make everything run smoothly – then perhaps that is because jesus not mechanic.
It is our disappointments and our disillusionsments about what we expect Jesus to change in our lives – that help us to understand exactly what a messiah is supposed to do for us, but more importantly for the world. A messiah is as a messiah does. Has Jesus done something for you? Or are you still waiting for another? That is a question only you can answer.
The book of James talks about the fulfillment of the promise of God. It addresses a people who were impatient and waiting for Jesus and who started to believe that Jesus was not going to come. James reminds us to be patient. Be patient with ourselves, be patient with life, be patient with one another. Being patient is not idly waiting, but in living responsibly and working faithfully. And waiting expectantly for the one who is to come.
Finally I leave you with a version of chapter 13 of Corinthians for the Christmas season…..
1 CORINTHIANS 13 – - A CHRISTMAS VERSION -
By an unknown author
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights
and shiny balls, but do not show love, I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing
gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not
show love, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I
have to charity, but do not show love, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a
myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on
Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table
linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are
there to be in the way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in
giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
Love never fails.
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but
giving the gift of love will endure.
The way that you wait for the Christ this year is your choice.
The coming season is all about love – its about loving ourselves, it is about loving others, but most important it is about our choice to love God, whatever that means, whatever that leads us, whatever that brings to our lives.
Advent is our chance to wait for the one who comes……
Turn Around
Romans 15: 4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Turn Around
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” – Matthew 3:2
2nd Sunday of Advent
Year A
The bible is full of tales of wandering in the wilderness. The bible says that the isrealites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before entering into the promised land. Just before jesus entered into his public ministry he spent some time being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. And then there is the story of John the Baptist. John the Baptist called people to come away from the world and come into the wilderness to be baptized.
The wilderness plays an important part in our spiritual journey. It is a chance to get away from it all and to just hear the voice of God. If you are listening, if not to just be lost. Or to wait for something different.
I can relate to a spiritual time in the wilderness. That’s where I feel that I am right now. Not necessarily because there is something wrong in my life, or that I am extra sad, or depressed or grieving about anything. But because I am waiting. Waiting for that great moment in life. And I realized that I have not had one in a while. That great moment when everything changes. When all of my struggles in life start to make sense, and I feel that I am moving ahead like never before.
Being in the wilderness is a time when you look back at life and realize that you cant really go back to the past, no matter how great things were, things have changed and the past no longer fits you anymore – but on the other hand the future has not been created, and you are not ready to move into it.
You have to realize that what might be, is on the same level as what will never happen. Both as equally possible. You just don’t know what will happen.
Advent is a time of being in the wilderness, of waiting for that change, of waiting for that big moment.
An adult brother and sister were talking. The brother had jus t come from the hospital visiting a friend who had been in a car accident. The brother’s lesson for the day was to always wear his seatbelt. The sister asked – didn’t you know that you were supposed to wear a seatbelt before today- yeah, but seeing my friend reminded me of an old lesson, in a new way, for a new reason. I understand well enough to listen and pay attention.
Advent is our time to renew our lives, our thoughts our attitudes, our intentions. And to live our old life in a new way.
And in every advent there is just one voice that cries out in the wilderness. There is one person who reminds us of the reason for the season. One character, who is the image of advent – do you know who that is?
We would be tempted to say that Jesus us the reason for the season. But you are wrong. Jesus is the center of Christmas season. Jesus us the hope that we are waiting for, the one who will bring about the change in life. But Jesus is not the man of advent.
But we have to remember that we are not in the Christmas season – we are in advent. And the voice of advent is not Jesus. But John the Baptist. Every year, John the Baptist comes to us out of the wilderness. Dressed in his camel cloth clothes, yelling at us at the top of his voice – repent you brood of vipers, for the kingdom of god is at hand. You need to repent. Repent – metanoia – to turn around. Don’t just say that you are sorry for what you are done, but make a commitment to change and be different.
The message of John is to earn, learn, burn and turn! Say it with me – earn, learn, burn and turn. Earn the right to be called a child of God. Stand up for what you know to be right. Take the time to learn the ways of God – read the bible, listen to the word of God, study with others, and most importantly take the time to pray. Burn means not to destroy yourself, but to destroy everything in your life that is not of God. If it stands in the way of your relationship with God then get rid of it. And burn with the spirit of Christ in your soul. The logo of the united Methodist church is not just the cross, but the flame. – the holy spirit which ignites us all. The final lesson is to turn – to repent. Repentance is not just for sinners – it is for all of us. All of us have something that we need to give up in our lives in order for us to be the persons God is calling us to be. We have to turn to God to know what it is. Earn, learn, burn and turn.
John is not Jesus – but every year he stands before us and reminds us that if you want to get to Jesus – you have to go through John. Remember your baptism and repent of your sins. Even if we don’t like to admit what our sins our, this is a good time to get them out and look at them. Because your sins are your ticket to see jesus. It is your opportunity for salvation. There are your chance for the change that you have been hoping for. It is your sins that have been holding you back in the wilderness. If you give them up, give them over to god, turn around – how far could you really go in life?
Advent is the season of hope – hope is a belief that something good is up ahead – In order to be ready for the good to come, you have to face the way things are, and be ready to sacrifice the bad, in order to face the good that is coming.
Electricity did not come to everyone in the nation at the same time. There were some areas in the country, who didn’t get power line for years. All they had to rely on for power was the lightning. Dallas Willard is from Southern Missouri, around where my hometown is. He talks about how in his senior year in high school his town finally got power lines. And his whole world changed drastically. With electricity there was a tremendous difference between light and darkness, day and night, chores and free time. That was the moment that he was waiting for, but didn’t know was coming.
Repent for electiricity is coming to your life – you older people can relate to this, more than the younger ones can. repent from kerosene lamps,ice boxes, scrub boards, batteries that run out and hand powered sewing machines. God has bought us something new.
I remember the say I got my first computer and realized al of the things I could do with it. My first year of ministry I typed my sermons on the typewriter – what a miserable things in comparison to the the computer. When I got my computer, I could store all of my financial records on it, and when I discovered internet – my life has not been the same.
The comparison is a little crude – but it makes the point. Jesus is the power source beyond anything that we could imagine. And it is a source that is eternal, all powerful, and will never run out. But you cant fully realize the power that Christ has in your life,until you come to terms to what you life is like without him. Without him all that you have is your sin, your darkness, your old way of things – with jesus everything changes. All you have to do is turn around – repent. Earn, learn, burn and turn.
Matthew 3:1-12
Turn Around
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” – Matthew 3:2
2nd Sunday of Advent
Year A
The bible is full of tales of wandering in the wilderness. The bible says that the isrealites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before entering into the promised land. Just before jesus entered into his public ministry he spent some time being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. And then there is the story of John the Baptist. John the Baptist called people to come away from the world and come into the wilderness to be baptized.
The wilderness plays an important part in our spiritual journey. It is a chance to get away from it all and to just hear the voice of God. If you are listening, if not to just be lost. Or to wait for something different.
I can relate to a spiritual time in the wilderness. That’s where I feel that I am right now. Not necessarily because there is something wrong in my life, or that I am extra sad, or depressed or grieving about anything. But because I am waiting. Waiting for that great moment in life. And I realized that I have not had one in a while. That great moment when everything changes. When all of my struggles in life start to make sense, and I feel that I am moving ahead like never before.
Being in the wilderness is a time when you look back at life and realize that you cant really go back to the past, no matter how great things were, things have changed and the past no longer fits you anymore – but on the other hand the future has not been created, and you are not ready to move into it.
You have to realize that what might be, is on the same level as what will never happen. Both as equally possible. You just don’t know what will happen.
Advent is a time of being in the wilderness, of waiting for that change, of waiting for that big moment.
An adult brother and sister were talking. The brother had jus t come from the hospital visiting a friend who had been in a car accident. The brother’s lesson for the day was to always wear his seatbelt. The sister asked – didn’t you know that you were supposed to wear a seatbelt before today- yeah, but seeing my friend reminded me of an old lesson, in a new way, for a new reason. I understand well enough to listen and pay attention.
Advent is our time to renew our lives, our thoughts our attitudes, our intentions. And to live our old life in a new way.
And in every advent there is just one voice that cries out in the wilderness. There is one person who reminds us of the reason for the season. One character, who is the image of advent – do you know who that is?
We would be tempted to say that Jesus us the reason for the season. But you are wrong. Jesus is the center of Christmas season. Jesus us the hope that we are waiting for, the one who will bring about the change in life. But Jesus is not the man of advent.
But we have to remember that we are not in the Christmas season – we are in advent. And the voice of advent is not Jesus. But John the Baptist. Every year, John the Baptist comes to us out of the wilderness. Dressed in his camel cloth clothes, yelling at us at the top of his voice – repent you brood of vipers, for the kingdom of god is at hand. You need to repent. Repent – metanoia – to turn around. Don’t just say that you are sorry for what you are done, but make a commitment to change and be different.
The message of John is to earn, learn, burn and turn! Say it with me – earn, learn, burn and turn. Earn the right to be called a child of God. Stand up for what you know to be right. Take the time to learn the ways of God – read the bible, listen to the word of God, study with others, and most importantly take the time to pray. Burn means not to destroy yourself, but to destroy everything in your life that is not of God. If it stands in the way of your relationship with God then get rid of it. And burn with the spirit of Christ in your soul. The logo of the united Methodist church is not just the cross, but the flame. – the holy spirit which ignites us all. The final lesson is to turn – to repent. Repentance is not just for sinners – it is for all of us. All of us have something that we need to give up in our lives in order for us to be the persons God is calling us to be. We have to turn to God to know what it is. Earn, learn, burn and turn.
John is not Jesus – but every year he stands before us and reminds us that if you want to get to Jesus – you have to go through John. Remember your baptism and repent of your sins. Even if we don’t like to admit what our sins our, this is a good time to get them out and look at them. Because your sins are your ticket to see jesus. It is your opportunity for salvation. There are your chance for the change that you have been hoping for. It is your sins that have been holding you back in the wilderness. If you give them up, give them over to god, turn around – how far could you really go in life?
Advent is the season of hope – hope is a belief that something good is up ahead – In order to be ready for the good to come, you have to face the way things are, and be ready to sacrifice the bad, in order to face the good that is coming.
Electricity did not come to everyone in the nation at the same time. There were some areas in the country, who didn’t get power line for years. All they had to rely on for power was the lightning. Dallas Willard is from Southern Missouri, around where my hometown is. He talks about how in his senior year in high school his town finally got power lines. And his whole world changed drastically. With electricity there was a tremendous difference between light and darkness, day and night, chores and free time. That was the moment that he was waiting for, but didn’t know was coming.
Repent for electiricity is coming to your life – you older people can relate to this, more than the younger ones can. repent from kerosene lamps,ice boxes, scrub boards, batteries that run out and hand powered sewing machines. God has bought us something new.
I remember the say I got my first computer and realized al of the things I could do with it. My first year of ministry I typed my sermons on the typewriter – what a miserable things in comparison to the the computer. When I got my computer, I could store all of my financial records on it, and when I discovered internet – my life has not been the same.
The comparison is a little crude – but it makes the point. Jesus is the power source beyond anything that we could imagine. And it is a source that is eternal, all powerful, and will never run out. But you cant fully realize the power that Christ has in your life,until you come to terms to what you life is like without him. Without him all that you have is your sin, your darkness, your old way of things – with jesus everything changes. All you have to do is turn around – repent. Earn, learn, burn and turn.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Christ the King
Rust Memorial United Methodist Church
Christ the King Sunday
November 21, 2010
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23: 33-43
Christ the King
Year C
We don’t like being told what to do
Most of us are hardheaded, we don’t like to be told what to do. We like to deny any type of authority. we like our freedom. We want to be in control of our lives. We soon forget that it is our need to be free and do what we want that gets us in trouble. The less we respect the power of authority, the longer it takes us to realize that we are never free. We have to be a slave to something. Either it is something or someone who cares for us, or who doesn’t. Someone or something that has our bet interest at heart or not. Somone is always in control – aware of what it is.
Harriet Tubman – who said that she freed thousands of slaves – could have freed more if they knew that they were slaves. What is it that we are a slave to – who is the ultimate authority in our lives.
Who is Jesus for us
Jesus Christ should be the ultimate authority for us in our lives. Who is Jesus for us?
Colossians says
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Supremacy of the Son of God
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Last sermon
If I had one last sermon to preach. The sermon to summarize everything. The sermon to say all there is to say about Jesus
What would it say
What would it address
What prayers would it have for myself and the world?
What bible verse would I use?
What Questions would it address
Who or what rules in our life? When you make decisions about your life, who has the most influence on what you do? Where is Jesus in your life? Who is Jesus for you? What had Jesus done for you to make you feel that way?
By the grace of God – work already done this is the last sermon of the year. A good way to end everything and begin a time of reflection. The verses are from Colossians and Luke
Today is Christ the King Sunday – This is a new concept. Not begun in the early church, but started by a pope in 1925. Before the depression, before world war II. Time when pope began to realize that the world was getting overfocused on the material things in life. All anyone wanted to do was to have a good time and party. No one wanted to think, or do what was right, just wanted to be happy all of the time. Pope began to realize that is not what Jesus taught us at all. Wanted those who followed Christ to take some time out and reflect, and to get back to basics.
Chance for us to reflect on our relationship with Jesus – who is Jesus for us? Colossians makes it very clear. Jesus us the image of the invisible God
What has Jesus done for us – Luke makes it very clear. He forgave and reconciled the world. As Jesus is taken to the cross for claiming to be the king of the jews. One thief mocked him and asked him to save himself. And the other had one humble request – remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus last words to the thief and to us – on this day you will be with me in paradise.
In spite of all that he has done wrong – he was forgiven. He didn’t deserve to go to heaven, yet Jesus promised that to him. We like the thief are all sinners, we don’t deserve to be forgiven for what we have done in life. Depends on which sinner we are – the one who mocks our king, or the one who asks for mercy. Jesus is mercy, just as God is mercy for us.
In order to make all things new- mercy god is mercy
David buttrick quote. God's mercy is not merely therapy for a few individuals beset by guilt....God does not dole out mercy like cookies only for good, repentant children. God's mercy is not conditioned by our response. God is mercy. So, wide is wider than we guess.... Our calling is to live in mercy.... Recalling God's unmerited mercy ... we absolve one another, enacting the good news. 'In Jesus Christ,' we say, 'we are forgiven.' So we look into each other's eyes without illusions; we are sinners all. Yet we embrace each other in the mercy, the wide, wide mercy of God.
Source:
• The Mystery and the Passion
Charlie brown
A Charlie Brown cartoon from years ago showed Charlie and Linus coming from Mrs. ?'s house with a handfull of cookies. Linus says, 'I don't know what I did to deserve these!'
Charlie Brown answers, 'You don't have to do anything to deserve them. She gives us cookies because she's good - not because we are!'
And that is mercy!
In order to reconcile –we have to learn to forgive
1 john 4:18 - perfect love cast out all fear
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
I have noticed that Christmas comes earlier and earlier. Trend in the making for years – no mention of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the beginning of Christmas not end of fall
Christmas time of baby jesus – where we worship the newborn king, and we gift and receive the gifts of God. We remember that Jesus us the reason for the season.
But that is not the beginning of the story for us. We Need to be reminded that our beginning, start with endings. Joy begins with suffering. Our forgiveness begins with sin
The story for us begins not at the cradle, but at the cross. Ends at the cradle.
Christ the king started in world that had gotten comfortable, fat and overindulgent.
We were looking for that king to take care of us. Someone we could look up to, that we could honor.
Story of a king
Bouch, was a waiter at a bar in Chicago. He native country was Morroco. He read an article about his king in the newpaper, he was so impressed, because he say that his king Mohammed the 6th cared for others, did so much for the poor, and even wrote personal letters encouraging his people. If I meet him I will be so happy.
If the king of morocco cares about and takes care of his subject, how much more does Christ our king do for us. We honor a king, not interested in saving himself, but in saving us. We showed power and strength, not by getting down from the cross, but by staying on – so that we would not have to die as a consequence of all of our sins. What kind of King is that?
The UnKing
by John van de Laar
© 2009 Sacredise
We call you 'King', Jesus,
but you're not like any king we've ever heard of;
You don't flaunt your power,
waving your hand dismissively
to change the lives of your subjects;
You don't hoard your wealth,
and tax your people just to grow more comfortable
in your isolated palace;
You don't exploit the weak and unconnected,
or use the ambition of ladder-climbers
to further your control.
No, you are the King who lays down his crown,
to walk among us as one of us;
You are the King who lays down his life,
to bring abundant, eternal life to all who seek it;
You are the King who draws the weak, the rejected, the poor, the child
into the centre of the conversation
and into the heart of where real power lies.
You, Jesus, are the UnKing – the King whose Kingdom,
redefines everything we know
and will continue to do so for eternity.
Amen.
A king who shows us that mercy and forgives is what reconciles the world and brings us all closer to God.
Questions
What Questions would it address
Who or what rules in our life? When you make decisions about your life, who has the most influence on what you do? Where is Jesus in your life? Who is Jesus for you? What had Jesus done for you to make you feel that way?
Is Christ the king of your life?
As the rest of the world enters into the mad dash to Christmas – take another way- and focus on how Christ is king of your life.
Let us pray…..
Christ the King Sunday
November 21, 2010
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23: 33-43
Christ the King
Year C
We don’t like being told what to do
Most of us are hardheaded, we don’t like to be told what to do. We like to deny any type of authority. we like our freedom. We want to be in control of our lives. We soon forget that it is our need to be free and do what we want that gets us in trouble. The less we respect the power of authority, the longer it takes us to realize that we are never free. We have to be a slave to something. Either it is something or someone who cares for us, or who doesn’t. Someone or something that has our bet interest at heart or not. Somone is always in control – aware of what it is.
Harriet Tubman – who said that she freed thousands of slaves – could have freed more if they knew that they were slaves. What is it that we are a slave to – who is the ultimate authority in our lives.
Who is Jesus for us
Jesus Christ should be the ultimate authority for us in our lives. Who is Jesus for us?
Colossians says
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Supremacy of the Son of God
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Last sermon
If I had one last sermon to preach. The sermon to summarize everything. The sermon to say all there is to say about Jesus
What would it say
What would it address
What prayers would it have for myself and the world?
What bible verse would I use?
What Questions would it address
Who or what rules in our life? When you make decisions about your life, who has the most influence on what you do? Where is Jesus in your life? Who is Jesus for you? What had Jesus done for you to make you feel that way?
By the grace of God – work already done this is the last sermon of the year. A good way to end everything and begin a time of reflection. The verses are from Colossians and Luke
Today is Christ the King Sunday – This is a new concept. Not begun in the early church, but started by a pope in 1925. Before the depression, before world war II. Time when pope began to realize that the world was getting overfocused on the material things in life. All anyone wanted to do was to have a good time and party. No one wanted to think, or do what was right, just wanted to be happy all of the time. Pope began to realize that is not what Jesus taught us at all. Wanted those who followed Christ to take some time out and reflect, and to get back to basics.
Chance for us to reflect on our relationship with Jesus – who is Jesus for us? Colossians makes it very clear. Jesus us the image of the invisible God
What has Jesus done for us – Luke makes it very clear. He forgave and reconciled the world. As Jesus is taken to the cross for claiming to be the king of the jews. One thief mocked him and asked him to save himself. And the other had one humble request – remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus last words to the thief and to us – on this day you will be with me in paradise.
In spite of all that he has done wrong – he was forgiven. He didn’t deserve to go to heaven, yet Jesus promised that to him. We like the thief are all sinners, we don’t deserve to be forgiven for what we have done in life. Depends on which sinner we are – the one who mocks our king, or the one who asks for mercy. Jesus is mercy, just as God is mercy for us.
In order to make all things new- mercy god is mercy
David buttrick quote. God's mercy is not merely therapy for a few individuals beset by guilt....God does not dole out mercy like cookies only for good, repentant children. God's mercy is not conditioned by our response. God is mercy. So, wide is wider than we guess.... Our calling is to live in mercy.... Recalling God's unmerited mercy ... we absolve one another, enacting the good news. 'In Jesus Christ,' we say, 'we are forgiven.' So we look into each other's eyes without illusions; we are sinners all. Yet we embrace each other in the mercy, the wide, wide mercy of God.
Source:
• The Mystery and the Passion
Charlie brown
A Charlie Brown cartoon from years ago showed Charlie and Linus coming from Mrs. ?'s house with a handfull of cookies. Linus says, 'I don't know what I did to deserve these!'
Charlie Brown answers, 'You don't have to do anything to deserve them. She gives us cookies because she's good - not because we are!'
And that is mercy!
In order to reconcile –we have to learn to forgive
1 john 4:18 - perfect love cast out all fear
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
I have noticed that Christmas comes earlier and earlier. Trend in the making for years – no mention of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the beginning of Christmas not end of fall
Christmas time of baby jesus – where we worship the newborn king, and we gift and receive the gifts of God. We remember that Jesus us the reason for the season.
But that is not the beginning of the story for us. We Need to be reminded that our beginning, start with endings. Joy begins with suffering. Our forgiveness begins with sin
The story for us begins not at the cradle, but at the cross. Ends at the cradle.
Christ the king started in world that had gotten comfortable, fat and overindulgent.
We were looking for that king to take care of us. Someone we could look up to, that we could honor.
Story of a king
Bouch, was a waiter at a bar in Chicago. He native country was Morroco. He read an article about his king in the newpaper, he was so impressed, because he say that his king Mohammed the 6th cared for others, did so much for the poor, and even wrote personal letters encouraging his people. If I meet him I will be so happy.
If the king of morocco cares about and takes care of his subject, how much more does Christ our king do for us. We honor a king, not interested in saving himself, but in saving us. We showed power and strength, not by getting down from the cross, but by staying on – so that we would not have to die as a consequence of all of our sins. What kind of King is that?
The UnKing
by John van de Laar
© 2009 Sacredise
We call you 'King', Jesus,
but you're not like any king we've ever heard of;
You don't flaunt your power,
waving your hand dismissively
to change the lives of your subjects;
You don't hoard your wealth,
and tax your people just to grow more comfortable
in your isolated palace;
You don't exploit the weak and unconnected,
or use the ambition of ladder-climbers
to further your control.
No, you are the King who lays down his crown,
to walk among us as one of us;
You are the King who lays down his life,
to bring abundant, eternal life to all who seek it;
You are the King who draws the weak, the rejected, the poor, the child
into the centre of the conversation
and into the heart of where real power lies.
You, Jesus, are the UnKing – the King whose Kingdom,
redefines everything we know
and will continue to do so for eternity.
Amen.
A king who shows us that mercy and forgives is what reconciles the world and brings us all closer to God.
Questions
What Questions would it address
Who or what rules in our life? When you make decisions about your life, who has the most influence on what you do? Where is Jesus in your life? Who is Jesus for you? What had Jesus done for you to make you feel that way?
Is Christ the king of your life?
As the rest of the world enters into the mad dash to Christmas – take another way- and focus on how Christ is king of your life.
Let us pray…..
Monday, November 15, 2010
A Glimpse of Tomorrow
Englewood UMC
137th anniversary
November 14, 2010
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 21:5-19
Year C
25th Sunday after Pentecost
A Glimpse of Heaven
Celebrations
Times in our lives, in the world where everything was perfect, and we took to the streets to celebrate as a nation,
The most memorable national celebration – the end of world war II - picture of a sailor and a girl kissing
Modern day – we celebrate when Chicago teams win. Last year, black people who never thought of hockey were buying black hawk shirt, huge event televised
Today we have a big celebration, gift of being in mission and ministry to God.
A lot has changed over time, but the one constant in our lives has been god
The building has changed, the people have changed, but the spirit of Englewood umc has not.
That is the point of the gospel lesson – nothing last forever
Not our situations, our lives, everything changes.
For the past year, we have been following Jesus to Jerusalem, hearing his conversations and teachings along the way, seeing lives change. Completed his journey
Ending for us – the end of the church year. No longer study Luke, but Matthew. Mathew and John
Jesus ends his journey at the temple, for him the important thing is the stories of the faithful people, what are people giving, what are people praying about. His disciples the building.
This is like Englewood a new building, not the original one. Yet still beuitiful. The stones were tons, huge, unmovable in the minds of the disciples. A sign of everything in our lives that is permanent.
There is nothing in our lives that is permanent. But the spirit of god. those stones were destroyed, and moved. Jesus was right, even though there was no way of telling at the time.
The people where the treasure of God, the stories, the relationships with God that mattered.
Disciples asked our question – if things have to end, when, how will we know.
Jesus says that is not what is important – not when, but what does that mean for me and my faith.
With God, things don’t end, they begin again, they are renewed.
God is not in the past – god in the present and the future.
What will the future look like, who will be worshipping here next year, ten years from now, 20 years from now. What is in store for this ministry?
God knows. Not for us to know
Jesus tells us that all that we can do to bring in the future is testify and witness to what God has done for us.
That is the purpose of the past – to give us a chance to witness
And meet God on the otherside.
Funny thing about celebrations, they don’t last very long. They come and they go. We are there for the moment, and tomorrow it is over.
Isaiah 65 is a time of celebration. When the people will be with God and will be happy. But it is only a glimpse of what heaven will be like. A celebration – we can see for a moment, and then things change and we have to move on.
Isaiah is something to hope for , to wirk for to be in mission for, and to trust in god for.
It is essential to distinguish between hoping and wishing, they are not the same thing. Wishing is something all of us do, it projects what we want or think we need into the future. Just because we wish for something good or holy we think that is hope. It is not. Wishing extends our egos into the fure, hope grown out of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what god is doing, wishing orients us to what we are doing. Wishing has to do with wha ti want from god, hoping is for what god wants from me. Hope means being surposed, because we don’t know what it best for us or how our lives are going to be completed. To cultiviate hope is to put side our wishes. To refuse to fantasize our what we want, to live in anticipation of what god is going to do next?
Wishing is the absence of God, hope is the presence of God
What will be the future of our church? We can only hope and witness, but can never truly know. Whatever it is, gid will be there.
We can hope for the future, we can hope for a better world in our testimony of who God is for us.
If we were to look for god, cant find him, seek god will only reval in time. If were to picture god, it will change in time.
God not in our celebrations, not in our wishes, not in our pride of what we have.
God is on our testimony and our hope.
What we start today – god will finish tomorrow.
137th anniversary
November 14, 2010
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 21:5-19
Year C
25th Sunday after Pentecost
A Glimpse of Heaven
Celebrations
Times in our lives, in the world where everything was perfect, and we took to the streets to celebrate as a nation,
The most memorable national celebration – the end of world war II - picture of a sailor and a girl kissing
Modern day – we celebrate when Chicago teams win. Last year, black people who never thought of hockey were buying black hawk shirt, huge event televised
Today we have a big celebration, gift of being in mission and ministry to God.
A lot has changed over time, but the one constant in our lives has been god
The building has changed, the people have changed, but the spirit of Englewood umc has not.
That is the point of the gospel lesson – nothing last forever
Not our situations, our lives, everything changes.
For the past year, we have been following Jesus to Jerusalem, hearing his conversations and teachings along the way, seeing lives change. Completed his journey
Ending for us – the end of the church year. No longer study Luke, but Matthew. Mathew and John
Jesus ends his journey at the temple, for him the important thing is the stories of the faithful people, what are people giving, what are people praying about. His disciples the building.
This is like Englewood a new building, not the original one. Yet still beuitiful. The stones were tons, huge, unmovable in the minds of the disciples. A sign of everything in our lives that is permanent.
There is nothing in our lives that is permanent. But the spirit of god. those stones were destroyed, and moved. Jesus was right, even though there was no way of telling at the time.
The people where the treasure of God, the stories, the relationships with God that mattered.
Disciples asked our question – if things have to end, when, how will we know.
Jesus says that is not what is important – not when, but what does that mean for me and my faith.
With God, things don’t end, they begin again, they are renewed.
God is not in the past – god in the present and the future.
What will the future look like, who will be worshipping here next year, ten years from now, 20 years from now. What is in store for this ministry?
God knows. Not for us to know
Jesus tells us that all that we can do to bring in the future is testify and witness to what God has done for us.
That is the purpose of the past – to give us a chance to witness
And meet God on the otherside.
Funny thing about celebrations, they don’t last very long. They come and they go. We are there for the moment, and tomorrow it is over.
Isaiah 65 is a time of celebration. When the people will be with God and will be happy. But it is only a glimpse of what heaven will be like. A celebration – we can see for a moment, and then things change and we have to move on.
Isaiah is something to hope for , to wirk for to be in mission for, and to trust in god for.
It is essential to distinguish between hoping and wishing, they are not the same thing. Wishing is something all of us do, it projects what we want or think we need into the future. Just because we wish for something good or holy we think that is hope. It is not. Wishing extends our egos into the fure, hope grown out of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what god is doing, wishing orients us to what we are doing. Wishing has to do with wha ti want from god, hoping is for what god wants from me. Hope means being surposed, because we don’t know what it best for us or how our lives are going to be completed. To cultiviate hope is to put side our wishes. To refuse to fantasize our what we want, to live in anticipation of what god is going to do next?
Wishing is the absence of God, hope is the presence of God
What will be the future of our church? We can only hope and witness, but can never truly know. Whatever it is, gid will be there.
We can hope for the future, we can hope for a better world in our testimony of who God is for us.
If we were to look for god, cant find him, seek god will only reval in time. If were to picture god, it will change in time.
God not in our celebrations, not in our wishes, not in our pride of what we have.
God is on our testimony and our hope.
What we start today – god will finish tomorrow.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Re-member
All Saints Day
Remembering so that we can move forward
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31
Year C
Poem to Remember
Always remember to forget the things that made you sad, but never forget to remember the things that made you glad. Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but don’t forget to remember those who have stuck by you. Always remember to forget the troubles that have passed away. But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.
Definition of Remember
The dictionary definition of remember is to re memor (memoir) – to bring back to mind, to be aware of, to rethink, to look back upon.
But there is a deeper meaning – to literally re –member. We live such fractured lives, where our thoughts are all over the place. We remember the past, not as it happened, but as it is convenient. We remember people with sorrow – for what we should have done, and not for what we do. We can get so caught up on what needs to be done, that we forget to look at the blessings that God has given us in today. I heard a saying that tomorrow is a date on a fool’s calendar. In our fractured state, we worry about what we will do when we have more money, more time, more understanding, never realizing that day will never come. All that we have is today – and who we are and what we have.
Remembering is the task of re membering our lives. Taking all of the parts of ourselves and putting them in one place. Taking our past and our future and making a strong connection with the present. That is all that we have to work with.
History of Englewood
Since coming to Englewood church, I have been fascinated in researching the history of the church. If learning of the young pastor who came on the train to meet someone, they didn’t show up and he realized that there was not a Methodist church in the area, so he gathered the Methodist families and started one. Then there was the newsletter article from the 20’s or 30’s which said the Negros are coming, and a challenge to the church to reach out to them. The building of the new facility in the late 50’s early 60’s as the neighborhood was changing and the facility was starting to age and need care.
I even had a facebook friend who emailed me from Iowa to tell me that a member of his church, James Beebe was also pastor of this church. It was funny because he assumed that because he was pastor in 1910, he must have been the founder of the church. It was fun to email him back to say that this man was five years old when Englewood was founded, so he could not be the founder. Rev. Beebe had a pretty distinguished career, he died pretty early at about 56, but he went on to become president of several seminaries and I think even a district superintendent. And it looks like he had been brought into the conference specifically to run a 1000 member church. He pastured Englewood in its heyday.
In reading the 25th anniversary booklet, Rev. Beebe makes a very powerful statement. It was a celebration of the church and the Sunday school. He say, “It is one thing to be proud of the achievements of our predecessors. It is another thing so to achieve that our predecessors would be proud of us. Let us manifest our pride in the history of our Sunday school, not by boastful words, but by service in our day as faithful and conscientious as the past ever knew. So we too shall enter into the joy of our Lord – and our successors.”
What a wonderful statement of what it means to remember. To connect who we are and what we do in the future, not only with the past, but also with Christ, and the saints that he commissioned before us.
Vision
I was so impressed with his statement, that as I get more and more familiar with Englewood, and I develop the vision and mission for ministry in this area – that is my foundational goal. To remember what was done here in the past, but to create a future that achieves just as much and makes the saints proud.
Ephesians says that in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were first to set our hope on Christ.
We have inherited a purpose, a plan and a hope. We are all saints – people who have been chosen by god for a holy purpose. We have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit – which gives us ability to recognize that God is with us at every moment of our lives, the ups and the downs. Christ is not only the ruler of our lives, but the example of what it means to live holy. The church is a group of saints that have been chosen by god and who belong to Christ.
What it means to be a saint
Being a saint has nothing to do with whether we are good or bad, or even if we are dead or alive, God has different categories than that. It is about whether we listen to the Holy Spirit and we devote our lives to discipleship and service. We are not concerned with making a name for ourselves in the world, but in the eyes of our ancestors who taught us the ways of God.
Discipleship and Service
The second text for today is called the sermon on the plain. Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount that we are familiar with. In Luke Jesus gives 4 blessings to the oppressed, but he also gives 4 woes to those of us who forget to be in discipleship and service to Christ and those whom Christ blesses. You heard it in the new Revised Standard Version, so I will give it to you in another version. Rev. Eugene Peterson, wrote a version of the bible in modern language, called the Message – and once you have the literal version, it breaks it down.
Luke 6: 24-26 says
There is trouble ahead if you think you have made it. What you have is all you ‘ll ever get. And its trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself, your self will not satisfy you for ling, and it is trouble ahead if your think life is all fun and games, there’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it. There is trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others saying what flatters them doing what indulges them. Popularity contest are not truth contest. Look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors. Your task is to be true, not popular.
Usually on all saints day – we spend a lot of time remembering the blessings, remembering that our tears of loss for our loved ones will be comforted, remember that is we are peaceful we will be blessed. Remembering that in our sadness we will be blessed. Remembering is not task of feeling, it is a task of action and work. I think that it is honoring the woes – the trouble ahead that we really honor the saints who gave their lives before us. It remind us of the work in the present that we have to do. Of who we have to be to honor their lessons and to honor the lessons of Christ. Never be satisfied with who we are and what we have. Never look for the truth within ourselves, be true to our values, not to the world. In all things think of what it means to be in discipleship and service. That is the task of remembering – re- membering – bringing the world together in unity with Christ.
And when we complete that task, God moves us on to another task. In another world.
God makes no distinction
For God, life and death is not defined in terms of whether we are physically present in the body. God notes that there a lot of people in the world who are breathing, but are dead, because they have no idea of what their inheritance is and what they were put on this earth to do. And there are a lot of people who are not breathing, and yet have been granted eternal life, because they are faithful. In god’s eyes there is no separation of the past, the present and the future – they are all happening at the same time. In God’s eyes – there is no distinction of the work of the saint, we all work together for a common cause.
Unfortunately we don’t always see things the way god sees them.
We are never alone
A man from Chicago went up to heaven. And walking the streets of God, and visiting the many mansions, he noticed there was a sign on one door which said quiet please. He asked saint peter why the sign asked for quiet.
He said that behind that door there was a group of saints – they were having church service – and the members of heaven had to be quiet, because the saints truly believed that they were all alone – no one was having church but them.
We are never alone – how many other churches are having service and in praise and worship with us right now, how many people who wish they could be with us, but join us in spirit. We are never alone – but we have to have special days like this, to set aside time to remember – to re-member to connect to all of the saints of God. Let us pray….
Remembering so that we can move forward
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31
Year C
Poem to Remember
Always remember to forget the things that made you sad, but never forget to remember the things that made you glad. Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but don’t forget to remember those who have stuck by you. Always remember to forget the troubles that have passed away. But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.
Definition of Remember
The dictionary definition of remember is to re memor (memoir) – to bring back to mind, to be aware of, to rethink, to look back upon.
But there is a deeper meaning – to literally re –member. We live such fractured lives, where our thoughts are all over the place. We remember the past, not as it happened, but as it is convenient. We remember people with sorrow – for what we should have done, and not for what we do. We can get so caught up on what needs to be done, that we forget to look at the blessings that God has given us in today. I heard a saying that tomorrow is a date on a fool’s calendar. In our fractured state, we worry about what we will do when we have more money, more time, more understanding, never realizing that day will never come. All that we have is today – and who we are and what we have.
Remembering is the task of re membering our lives. Taking all of the parts of ourselves and putting them in one place. Taking our past and our future and making a strong connection with the present. That is all that we have to work with.
History of Englewood
Since coming to Englewood church, I have been fascinated in researching the history of the church. If learning of the young pastor who came on the train to meet someone, they didn’t show up and he realized that there was not a Methodist church in the area, so he gathered the Methodist families and started one. Then there was the newsletter article from the 20’s or 30’s which said the Negros are coming, and a challenge to the church to reach out to them. The building of the new facility in the late 50’s early 60’s as the neighborhood was changing and the facility was starting to age and need care.
I even had a facebook friend who emailed me from Iowa to tell me that a member of his church, James Beebe was also pastor of this church. It was funny because he assumed that because he was pastor in 1910, he must have been the founder of the church. It was fun to email him back to say that this man was five years old when Englewood was founded, so he could not be the founder. Rev. Beebe had a pretty distinguished career, he died pretty early at about 56, but he went on to become president of several seminaries and I think even a district superintendent. And it looks like he had been brought into the conference specifically to run a 1000 member church. He pastured Englewood in its heyday.
In reading the 25th anniversary booklet, Rev. Beebe makes a very powerful statement. It was a celebration of the church and the Sunday school. He say, “It is one thing to be proud of the achievements of our predecessors. It is another thing so to achieve that our predecessors would be proud of us. Let us manifest our pride in the history of our Sunday school, not by boastful words, but by service in our day as faithful and conscientious as the past ever knew. So we too shall enter into the joy of our Lord – and our successors.”
What a wonderful statement of what it means to remember. To connect who we are and what we do in the future, not only with the past, but also with Christ, and the saints that he commissioned before us.
Vision
I was so impressed with his statement, that as I get more and more familiar with Englewood, and I develop the vision and mission for ministry in this area – that is my foundational goal. To remember what was done here in the past, but to create a future that achieves just as much and makes the saints proud.
Ephesians says that in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were first to set our hope on Christ.
We have inherited a purpose, a plan and a hope. We are all saints – people who have been chosen by god for a holy purpose. We have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit – which gives us ability to recognize that God is with us at every moment of our lives, the ups and the downs. Christ is not only the ruler of our lives, but the example of what it means to live holy. The church is a group of saints that have been chosen by god and who belong to Christ.
What it means to be a saint
Being a saint has nothing to do with whether we are good or bad, or even if we are dead or alive, God has different categories than that. It is about whether we listen to the Holy Spirit and we devote our lives to discipleship and service. We are not concerned with making a name for ourselves in the world, but in the eyes of our ancestors who taught us the ways of God.
Discipleship and Service
The second text for today is called the sermon on the plain. Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount that we are familiar with. In Luke Jesus gives 4 blessings to the oppressed, but he also gives 4 woes to those of us who forget to be in discipleship and service to Christ and those whom Christ blesses. You heard it in the new Revised Standard Version, so I will give it to you in another version. Rev. Eugene Peterson, wrote a version of the bible in modern language, called the Message – and once you have the literal version, it breaks it down.
Luke 6: 24-26 says
There is trouble ahead if you think you have made it. What you have is all you ‘ll ever get. And its trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself, your self will not satisfy you for ling, and it is trouble ahead if your think life is all fun and games, there’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it. There is trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others saying what flatters them doing what indulges them. Popularity contest are not truth contest. Look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors. Your task is to be true, not popular.
Usually on all saints day – we spend a lot of time remembering the blessings, remembering that our tears of loss for our loved ones will be comforted, remember that is we are peaceful we will be blessed. Remembering that in our sadness we will be blessed. Remembering is not task of feeling, it is a task of action and work. I think that it is honoring the woes – the trouble ahead that we really honor the saints who gave their lives before us. It remind us of the work in the present that we have to do. Of who we have to be to honor their lessons and to honor the lessons of Christ. Never be satisfied with who we are and what we have. Never look for the truth within ourselves, be true to our values, not to the world. In all things think of what it means to be in discipleship and service. That is the task of remembering – re- membering – bringing the world together in unity with Christ.
And when we complete that task, God moves us on to another task. In another world.
God makes no distinction
For God, life and death is not defined in terms of whether we are physically present in the body. God notes that there a lot of people in the world who are breathing, but are dead, because they have no idea of what their inheritance is and what they were put on this earth to do. And there are a lot of people who are not breathing, and yet have been granted eternal life, because they are faithful. In god’s eyes there is no separation of the past, the present and the future – they are all happening at the same time. In God’s eyes – there is no distinction of the work of the saint, we all work together for a common cause.
Unfortunately we don’t always see things the way god sees them.
We are never alone
A man from Chicago went up to heaven. And walking the streets of God, and visiting the many mansions, he noticed there was a sign on one door which said quiet please. He asked saint peter why the sign asked for quiet.
He said that behind that door there was a group of saints – they were having church service – and the members of heaven had to be quiet, because the saints truly believed that they were all alone – no one was having church but them.
We are never alone – how many other churches are having service and in praise and worship with us right now, how many people who wish they could be with us, but join us in spirit. We are never alone – but we have to have special days like this, to set aside time to remember – to re-member to connect to all of the saints of God. Let us pray….
Sunday, October 31, 2010
trick or treat
Rev. Harriette Cross
Englewood and Rust Memorial United Methodist Church
October 31, 2010
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Luke 19:1-10
Trick or Treat….
Year C
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
In search of meaning
Just yesterday, a friend told me that she was at borders, looking for a book, she was at the end of her rope and she hoped that this book would help her get her life together. It was just a self help book, but she needed to believe in something that was going to make a difference and help her to find meaning in her life.
All I could do was respond …hmm, as I sat preparing my sermon on finding meaning in our lives. I responded to her that perhaps it would be too simple to try the best selling self help in the world, the one that has been saving lives not only for years, but for generations …the bible.
From Genesis to revelation it is the story of what it means to be a human being, what it means to be a loved child of God, to move from just being a child of God, to knowing that you are a child of God, and that God is always working in our lives.
There is this heart shaped hole in the middle of all of our souls, there are times in our lives when we all feel it, we all know that its empty and we are looking for something, or someone to fill it.
The hole in our lives
We fill it with food, we fill it with possessions, we fill it controlling other people, we fill it with working too much, we fill it with relationships that don’t help us, we fill it with reading self help books, and try as we may nothing seems to fill that hole.
Until we realize that that hole was intentionally put there in our hearts, and it is not meant to be filled... it is meant to stay empty... because it is the place where God enters our lives and takes residence in our souls.
It us only when we realize that the things that we put there are not working for us, when we realize our need for salvation.
Zaccheus story
Perhaps that is why Zaccheus found himself out on a limb, up in a tree that day – attempting to get a glimpse of Jesus. He was in search of salvation. He had no idea of where to find it, or what it even meant, but he was hoping that maybe Jesus had a clue to lead him in the right direction.
Jesus doesn’t spend a whole lot of time talking to us in the crowd- he comes straight to Zaccheus. We will never know if Jesus knew this man at all. Or why he would invite himself to lunch with a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector before he was a disciple. There are other references to Jesus working with the tax collector.
Our fascination with greediness
The crowd would have had plenty to say to Jesus. And yet the scriptures show that Jesus intentionally went after these people.
Even though this would have been a traitor who sold out his own people and a greedy cheater who lined his pockets with the money of the poor
There seems to be something in our hearts that admires people that get rich taking advantage of other people.
I just saw in the news where the richest man in the world just built a 27 story house – with three helicopter ports, a parking lot, and a weather making room. A building that towers way above one of the poorest cities in the world. When they did interviews on the street to see how people felt- most just hoped that they would be able to get a job in the house.
And just this year they did a remake of the movie Wall Street – where Michael Douglas plays a stockbroker who enjoys cheating everyone – in order to get rich. Greed is good, is his motto. Greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit, greed in all of it forms – greed for life, for money, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind.
I will agree with him on one point, greed is not just about money. Greed is about trying to fill the unfillable hole inside of our hearts. We can get greedy about our involvement in church, trying to fill that hole which can never be filled.
And isn’t it funny that no matter how close to God we claim to be, how much time we spend in church – we can’t help but to admire the things that greed brings us. We see the things it buys, the people it attracts, the personal power it affords – and we can’t help but to be interested. That is why movies like Wall Street and money never sleeps makes millions of $.
One of the lines from the movie says however, no matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich. Until you learn to fill the hole with the things of God. Until you come to think about what real salvation is.
Salvation
The good news for us is that we don’t have to seek salvation, because God sent Jesus into the world to seek us in the midst of our sin, and to hand us salvation on a silver platter.
Salvation is the choice to let God come into that empty hole in your life. We always have a choice to be greedy or to be right with God. We can play into the things that that world admires the cars, the money, the popularity, and the possessions. Or we can choose to listen to God- and in the long run – have the things that truly make us happy- true love, true acceptance, true beauty, true assurance of salvation.
The prophet Habakkuk
The standard of the world have not changed a bit. Our Hebrew bible lesson for today was from Habakkuk. We don’t know who Habakkuk was, or even what time he was talking about – and yet his words remain because they speak a truth. He complained to God – because he needed to acknowledge the fact that the world was winning. The greedy people truly were conquering the world. They were winning and getting their way by taking advantage of everyone else. What is the point of being righteous, when time and time again the righteous always end up on the bottom as losers?
God answers Habakkuk and God answers us today – he says that may be true- the greedy are getting ahead. But that is only true for today. In the long run... whatever has been acquired from greed won’t last. The only eternal things in the world – are those things that we get from God. Those who choose to live right with God will always have the final word. The righteous choose to live in faith – willing to weather the storm for the only thing that is true – God’s love and salvation.
Jesus tried to talk to Nicodemus – a righteous man, who was stuck in his righteousness and what he had gained from the world. Nicodemus refused to change, and Jesus went on his journey – knowing that if he was not willing to give up his riches, then there was nothing else that he could do- there was no hope for salvation. Jesus talked to Zaccheus, someone that he knew was a thief and a liar, and when Jesus asked him to Change – Zaccheus was willing to help others less fortunate and to pay back what he had took.
Repentance
What was the difference? In honor of Halloween, I will use the example of Frankenstein. When Frankenstein’s owner created him, he treated him with love and affection. So when he went out into the world he was truly hurt when the world did not accept him. He didn’t understand their screams, and need to run away from him. Until one day he went home and looked in the mirror- and he saw just how ugly he was. He saw what everyone else was seeing in him – and he got scared too. He changed his demeanor and his appearance. I some ways you could say he repented of his ways.
Zaccheus was willing to change and repent of his ugly ways. Nicodemus was not.
Salvation came to Zaccheus’ house that day – not to Nicodemus.
Jesus must have known that the name Zaccheus means pure, holy and righteous. He saw Zaccheus for who god created him to be, not what the world had made him out to be. He treated Zaccheus as pure, holy and righteous – and that is who he chose to be?
What about you – do you chose to be what the world makes you- or who god created you to be? Do you get your meaning from filling the bottomless pit with the things of the world, or can you leave it empty and let Christ fill it with the right things? Do you choose greed or salvation? Life is full of choices, some lead us nowhere, and others lead us to life everlasting.
Englewood and Rust Memorial United Methodist Church
October 31, 2010
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Luke 19:1-10
Trick or Treat….
Year C
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
In search of meaning
Just yesterday, a friend told me that she was at borders, looking for a book, she was at the end of her rope and she hoped that this book would help her get her life together. It was just a self help book, but she needed to believe in something that was going to make a difference and help her to find meaning in her life.
All I could do was respond …hmm, as I sat preparing my sermon on finding meaning in our lives. I responded to her that perhaps it would be too simple to try the best selling self help in the world, the one that has been saving lives not only for years, but for generations …the bible.
From Genesis to revelation it is the story of what it means to be a human being, what it means to be a loved child of God, to move from just being a child of God, to knowing that you are a child of God, and that God is always working in our lives.
There is this heart shaped hole in the middle of all of our souls, there are times in our lives when we all feel it, we all know that its empty and we are looking for something, or someone to fill it.
The hole in our lives
We fill it with food, we fill it with possessions, we fill it controlling other people, we fill it with working too much, we fill it with relationships that don’t help us, we fill it with reading self help books, and try as we may nothing seems to fill that hole.
Until we realize that that hole was intentionally put there in our hearts, and it is not meant to be filled... it is meant to stay empty... because it is the place where God enters our lives and takes residence in our souls.
It us only when we realize that the things that we put there are not working for us, when we realize our need for salvation.
Zaccheus story
Perhaps that is why Zaccheus found himself out on a limb, up in a tree that day – attempting to get a glimpse of Jesus. He was in search of salvation. He had no idea of where to find it, or what it even meant, but he was hoping that maybe Jesus had a clue to lead him in the right direction.
Jesus doesn’t spend a whole lot of time talking to us in the crowd- he comes straight to Zaccheus. We will never know if Jesus knew this man at all. Or why he would invite himself to lunch with a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector before he was a disciple. There are other references to Jesus working with the tax collector.
Our fascination with greediness
The crowd would have had plenty to say to Jesus. And yet the scriptures show that Jesus intentionally went after these people.
Even though this would have been a traitor who sold out his own people and a greedy cheater who lined his pockets with the money of the poor
There seems to be something in our hearts that admires people that get rich taking advantage of other people.
I just saw in the news where the richest man in the world just built a 27 story house – with three helicopter ports, a parking lot, and a weather making room. A building that towers way above one of the poorest cities in the world. When they did interviews on the street to see how people felt- most just hoped that they would be able to get a job in the house.
And just this year they did a remake of the movie Wall Street – where Michael Douglas plays a stockbroker who enjoys cheating everyone – in order to get rich. Greed is good, is his motto. Greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit, greed in all of it forms – greed for life, for money, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind.
I will agree with him on one point, greed is not just about money. Greed is about trying to fill the unfillable hole inside of our hearts. We can get greedy about our involvement in church, trying to fill that hole which can never be filled.
And isn’t it funny that no matter how close to God we claim to be, how much time we spend in church – we can’t help but to admire the things that greed brings us. We see the things it buys, the people it attracts, the personal power it affords – and we can’t help but to be interested. That is why movies like Wall Street and money never sleeps makes millions of $.
One of the lines from the movie says however, no matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich. Until you learn to fill the hole with the things of God. Until you come to think about what real salvation is.
Salvation
The good news for us is that we don’t have to seek salvation, because God sent Jesus into the world to seek us in the midst of our sin, and to hand us salvation on a silver platter.
Salvation is the choice to let God come into that empty hole in your life. We always have a choice to be greedy or to be right with God. We can play into the things that that world admires the cars, the money, the popularity, and the possessions. Or we can choose to listen to God- and in the long run – have the things that truly make us happy- true love, true acceptance, true beauty, true assurance of salvation.
The prophet Habakkuk
The standard of the world have not changed a bit. Our Hebrew bible lesson for today was from Habakkuk. We don’t know who Habakkuk was, or even what time he was talking about – and yet his words remain because they speak a truth. He complained to God – because he needed to acknowledge the fact that the world was winning. The greedy people truly were conquering the world. They were winning and getting their way by taking advantage of everyone else. What is the point of being righteous, when time and time again the righteous always end up on the bottom as losers?
God answers Habakkuk and God answers us today – he says that may be true- the greedy are getting ahead. But that is only true for today. In the long run... whatever has been acquired from greed won’t last. The only eternal things in the world – are those things that we get from God. Those who choose to live right with God will always have the final word. The righteous choose to live in faith – willing to weather the storm for the only thing that is true – God’s love and salvation.
Jesus tried to talk to Nicodemus – a righteous man, who was stuck in his righteousness and what he had gained from the world. Nicodemus refused to change, and Jesus went on his journey – knowing that if he was not willing to give up his riches, then there was nothing else that he could do- there was no hope for salvation. Jesus talked to Zaccheus, someone that he knew was a thief and a liar, and when Jesus asked him to Change – Zaccheus was willing to help others less fortunate and to pay back what he had took.
Repentance
What was the difference? In honor of Halloween, I will use the example of Frankenstein. When Frankenstein’s owner created him, he treated him with love and affection. So when he went out into the world he was truly hurt when the world did not accept him. He didn’t understand their screams, and need to run away from him. Until one day he went home and looked in the mirror- and he saw just how ugly he was. He saw what everyone else was seeing in him – and he got scared too. He changed his demeanor and his appearance. I some ways you could say he repented of his ways.
Zaccheus was willing to change and repent of his ugly ways. Nicodemus was not.
Salvation came to Zaccheus’ house that day – not to Nicodemus.
Jesus must have known that the name Zaccheus means pure, holy and righteous. He saw Zaccheus for who god created him to be, not what the world had made him out to be. He treated Zaccheus as pure, holy and righteous – and that is who he chose to be?
What about you – do you chose to be what the world makes you- or who god created you to be? Do you get your meaning from filling the bottomless pit with the things of the world, or can you leave it empty and let Christ fill it with the right things? Do you choose greed or salvation? Life is full of choices, some lead us nowhere, and others lead us to life everlasting.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
We All Have to Stand Before God
October 24, 2010
We all have to stand before God
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
Year C
Introduction – the church leader and the drug dealer
Two people, one a church leader and the other a drug dealer, went into the church to pray. The church leader prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other people, welfare cheats, pornographers, or even like this drug dealer, who had the nerve to step into church. I go to church every Sunday, I tithe, I give time in mission, I even spend my vacation building homes for the poor.
The drug dealer in the back of church could not even look up at the altar. He wrung his hands and said God forgive me, I am a sinner.
Who do you identify with – are you the church leader, or the drug dealer. Most of us would prayer – God I am not like the drug dealer. Now let me ask you another question- which prayer do you think God appreciated more – a prayer of rightouesness, or a prayer of confession?
The Pharisee and the tax collector
In some ways this could be thought of as a modern day version of the old parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
A Pharisee was a lay person, who committed to following the law to the letter. He did what was right all of the time. He tithed, the prayed, he studied the scripture, he lived right.
The tax collector of Jesus day, was not the IRS man of today. The tax collector was thought of as a thief and a traitor. He stole from his own to give it to the government. Sometimes the money made it to the government, most of the time it did not. He kept it in his pocket.
Jesus understood the plight of the tax collector very well – he had lunch with them all of the time. Jesus did not get along real well with the Pharisees. And when we hear the prayer of the Pharisee, thank you lord that I am not a heathen, a woman, or an uneducated man. It is easy for us in this story to say - God I am not as arrogant in my faith as a Pharisee. The truth is, we would be thinking too highly of ourselves. There is nothing wrong with the Pharisee or his prayer. He was praying as he was instructed to do. In Timothy – Paul thanks God that he has always done what was right, even in the midst of trials and hardships, in the midst of persecution, he stayed faithful to the God that was faithful to him. The Pharisee’s prayer that they have done what is right, is a prayer for strength. The Pharisee;s prayer was an example of ordinary and standard faith. Jesus points to him, because he is calling us beyond faith that is ordinary – to faith that is extraordinary. Faith that is dependent of grace. To a life that is dependent on prayer.
Some people pray because it is the right thing to do as a person of faith, some people pray because their lives depend upon it. Everything we have is a gift from God – our wealth, our health, our lives, everything.
The importance of prayer in Luke
Prayer is a major theme of the book of Luke. Luke talks about prayer in all types of prayer. The five major types of prayer, intercession on behalf of others, adoration, confession, petition and thanksgiving. Luke gives models of all of them.
As a matter of fact, there are 3 models of prayer in chapter 18. Last week we heard of the woman persistent in her prayer. – prayers of petition. You could say that the Pharisee was praying a prayer of adoration – even if it was adoration of his own faith. And the tax collector prayed a prayer of confession. Which is a better prayer? Which is better for us to pray? There is no comparison. There are times in our lives when we need to pray all five prayers. The comparison is not with the widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector. The comparison is with Jesus Christ – does the prayer draw us closer to Jesus Christ? Does it help us to acknowledge the need for grace in our lives, as our only source of salvation?
The test of grace
I want us to take a test- everyone get a pen and keep score o you bulletin. This test is to see if you have gained enough points to get into heaven. You don’t need to keep exact score – you can estimate if you would like.
If you have been baptized, you get 25 points. Now give yourself 2 points for everytime you have ever been to a church service in your life – just guess-. Give yourself an extra point if you made a prayer request when you came to church. Give yourself 5 point for each bible verse that you have ever remembered. 10 points for doing a personal devotion for 10 days in a row.
Now you also get points for deeds of kindness. An act of kindness for a neighbor is worth 10 points. If you have ever volunteered at a hospital you get 1 point for each hour worked. If you have never cheated on a test you get 1 point per test. If you have had to turn the other cheek instead of seeing revenge – you get 20 points each time. If you have ever gave someone your coat when they were cold – yo get 25 points. For giving all of your possession to the poor you get 10,00 points. But if all that you had to give away from the start was less than $100 – it is only worth 5 points. If you have ever been on a church mission trip you get 1000 points.
Now you also have to deduct points for incorrect attitudes.
If you have ever gone to church – you get two points for each service. But if you were thinking of something else during the sermon – then you lose 4 points for each service. If you made fun of the pastors clothes or hair- then you lose 2 more points. If you have ever said something unkind or mean then you lose 10 points for each time. If you have ever done something that you knew was wrong then you lose 1000 points for each time. If you have had an argument with a family member – any family member – then you lose 150 points for each time. If you have ever forgot to water your plants – them you lose 100 points for each time.
Now there is a chance to win extra bonus points. If you have are willing to give a million $ toward upkeep of the church – you get a million points. Or if you prefer to donate $3 millions to mission work of the church you get 3 million points.
You need 3 million points in order to get into heaven. Did anyone come even close? I usually give this test to my confirmation classes. It is much more fun to give to youth because they aren’t so stuck on being righteous, and are more willing to admit when they have done things wrong. So they see their point disappearing pretty fast.
The point of the exercise is to realize that no matter who much we do right, no matter how much money we give to god (that doesn’t mean don’t give), no matter how much many good things we do for others, no matter how much we pray – It is not enough to be right with God. never a time in your life when you will have a right to say- I am justified – I am okay. The point is, You can’t earn grace from God Grace is a gift that is freely given.
The pilgrim’s prayer
My favorite prayer in times of trouble is: Lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me a sinner. That is a very old prayer, called the pilgrims prayer. In the 1400’s a man walked the world teaching people that simple prayer that when you don’t know what else to day say it all. Let’s say it - lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me a sinner.
Sometimes that is all we ever want to know, when will things get better, when will we finally see God, when will the peace of God finally come to the world - That was the question behind all of these parables on prayer – we pray because we want to know that God is near us. God is near – in a reign of justice and mercy.
Commentary on Timothy
In our verses from Timothy – we come to the end of the line for this lesson on being a church leader and for Paul. He says that the time for my departure has come. But his words are not about death, but about the beginning of a journey. The greek work for departure is the word for letting a boat off of the dock and freeing it for its journey. What ever happens, he is putting his life in God’s hands. That is what we do when we pray. – we give our lives over to God’s will not ours.
The reign of justice and mercy
There was a conference on religions, and the question came up – what makes Christianity so special? What makes it different from the rest? Is it prayer? No all religions pray in some form of another, is it the incarnation, of god present with us, is it the resurrection? Is it living holy? There are forms of those things in all religions. What does Christ bring that no one else brings?
Jesus just told us in the parable – in the Buddhist 8 fold path, Hindu karma, the muslim code of law, even the prayer of the Pharisee – the only salvation you have are your actions, how well you stick to the plan, how good you are. It is up to you to earn divine favor.
We just saw that if our salvation is up to us, none of us will ever get too far. Only through Christ dying for us on a cross are we fully forgiven of our sins, and we know the gift of God’s unconditional love for us. God’s reign of mercy and justice is as close to us as a prayer. Lord Jesus Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Amen.
We all have to stand before God
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
Year C
Introduction – the church leader and the drug dealer
Two people, one a church leader and the other a drug dealer, went into the church to pray. The church leader prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other people, welfare cheats, pornographers, or even like this drug dealer, who had the nerve to step into church. I go to church every Sunday, I tithe, I give time in mission, I even spend my vacation building homes for the poor.
The drug dealer in the back of church could not even look up at the altar. He wrung his hands and said God forgive me, I am a sinner.
Who do you identify with – are you the church leader, or the drug dealer. Most of us would prayer – God I am not like the drug dealer. Now let me ask you another question- which prayer do you think God appreciated more – a prayer of rightouesness, or a prayer of confession?
The Pharisee and the tax collector
In some ways this could be thought of as a modern day version of the old parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
A Pharisee was a lay person, who committed to following the law to the letter. He did what was right all of the time. He tithed, the prayed, he studied the scripture, he lived right.
The tax collector of Jesus day, was not the IRS man of today. The tax collector was thought of as a thief and a traitor. He stole from his own to give it to the government. Sometimes the money made it to the government, most of the time it did not. He kept it in his pocket.
Jesus understood the plight of the tax collector very well – he had lunch with them all of the time. Jesus did not get along real well with the Pharisees. And when we hear the prayer of the Pharisee, thank you lord that I am not a heathen, a woman, or an uneducated man. It is easy for us in this story to say - God I am not as arrogant in my faith as a Pharisee. The truth is, we would be thinking too highly of ourselves. There is nothing wrong with the Pharisee or his prayer. He was praying as he was instructed to do. In Timothy – Paul thanks God that he has always done what was right, even in the midst of trials and hardships, in the midst of persecution, he stayed faithful to the God that was faithful to him. The Pharisee’s prayer that they have done what is right, is a prayer for strength. The Pharisee;s prayer was an example of ordinary and standard faith. Jesus points to him, because he is calling us beyond faith that is ordinary – to faith that is extraordinary. Faith that is dependent of grace. To a life that is dependent on prayer.
Some people pray because it is the right thing to do as a person of faith, some people pray because their lives depend upon it. Everything we have is a gift from God – our wealth, our health, our lives, everything.
The importance of prayer in Luke
Prayer is a major theme of the book of Luke. Luke talks about prayer in all types of prayer. The five major types of prayer, intercession on behalf of others, adoration, confession, petition and thanksgiving. Luke gives models of all of them.
As a matter of fact, there are 3 models of prayer in chapter 18. Last week we heard of the woman persistent in her prayer. – prayers of petition. You could say that the Pharisee was praying a prayer of adoration – even if it was adoration of his own faith. And the tax collector prayed a prayer of confession. Which is a better prayer? Which is better for us to pray? There is no comparison. There are times in our lives when we need to pray all five prayers. The comparison is not with the widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector. The comparison is with Jesus Christ – does the prayer draw us closer to Jesus Christ? Does it help us to acknowledge the need for grace in our lives, as our only source of salvation?
The test of grace
I want us to take a test- everyone get a pen and keep score o you bulletin. This test is to see if you have gained enough points to get into heaven. You don’t need to keep exact score – you can estimate if you would like.
If you have been baptized, you get 25 points. Now give yourself 2 points for everytime you have ever been to a church service in your life – just guess-. Give yourself an extra point if you made a prayer request when you came to church. Give yourself 5 point for each bible verse that you have ever remembered. 10 points for doing a personal devotion for 10 days in a row.
Now you also get points for deeds of kindness. An act of kindness for a neighbor is worth 10 points. If you have ever volunteered at a hospital you get 1 point for each hour worked. If you have never cheated on a test you get 1 point per test. If you have had to turn the other cheek instead of seeing revenge – you get 20 points each time. If you have ever gave someone your coat when they were cold – yo get 25 points. For giving all of your possession to the poor you get 10,00 points. But if all that you had to give away from the start was less than $100 – it is only worth 5 points. If you have ever been on a church mission trip you get 1000 points.
Now you also have to deduct points for incorrect attitudes.
If you have ever gone to church – you get two points for each service. But if you were thinking of something else during the sermon – then you lose 4 points for each service. If you made fun of the pastors clothes or hair- then you lose 2 more points. If you have ever said something unkind or mean then you lose 10 points for each time. If you have ever done something that you knew was wrong then you lose 1000 points for each time. If you have had an argument with a family member – any family member – then you lose 150 points for each time. If you have ever forgot to water your plants – them you lose 100 points for each time.
Now there is a chance to win extra bonus points. If you have are willing to give a million $ toward upkeep of the church – you get a million points. Or if you prefer to donate $3 millions to mission work of the church you get 3 million points.
You need 3 million points in order to get into heaven. Did anyone come even close? I usually give this test to my confirmation classes. It is much more fun to give to youth because they aren’t so stuck on being righteous, and are more willing to admit when they have done things wrong. So they see their point disappearing pretty fast.
The point of the exercise is to realize that no matter who much we do right, no matter how much money we give to god (that doesn’t mean don’t give), no matter how much many good things we do for others, no matter how much we pray – It is not enough to be right with God. never a time in your life when you will have a right to say- I am justified – I am okay. The point is, You can’t earn grace from God Grace is a gift that is freely given.
The pilgrim’s prayer
My favorite prayer in times of trouble is: Lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me a sinner. That is a very old prayer, called the pilgrims prayer. In the 1400’s a man walked the world teaching people that simple prayer that when you don’t know what else to day say it all. Let’s say it - lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me a sinner.
Sometimes that is all we ever want to know, when will things get better, when will we finally see God, when will the peace of God finally come to the world - That was the question behind all of these parables on prayer – we pray because we want to know that God is near us. God is near – in a reign of justice and mercy.
Commentary on Timothy
In our verses from Timothy – we come to the end of the line for this lesson on being a church leader and for Paul. He says that the time for my departure has come. But his words are not about death, but about the beginning of a journey. The greek work for departure is the word for letting a boat off of the dock and freeing it for its journey. What ever happens, he is putting his life in God’s hands. That is what we do when we pray. – we give our lives over to God’s will not ours.
The reign of justice and mercy
There was a conference on religions, and the question came up – what makes Christianity so special? What makes it different from the rest? Is it prayer? No all religions pray in some form of another, is it the incarnation, of god present with us, is it the resurrection? Is it living holy? There are forms of those things in all religions. What does Christ bring that no one else brings?
Jesus just told us in the parable – in the Buddhist 8 fold path, Hindu karma, the muslim code of law, even the prayer of the Pharisee – the only salvation you have are your actions, how well you stick to the plan, how good you are. It is up to you to earn divine favor.
We just saw that if our salvation is up to us, none of us will ever get too far. Only through Christ dying for us on a cross are we fully forgiven of our sins, and we know the gift of God’s unconditional love for us. God’s reign of mercy and justice is as close to us as a prayer. Lord Jesus Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Amen.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Did you say thank you today?
October 10, 2010
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Luke 17:11-19
Did you say thank you, or just keep going?
20th Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
Introduction
Two angels are sent to earth to collect all of the prayers of the people. One was sent to retrieve all of the request, and the other all of the thanksgivings. Each was given a basket to collect the prayers and take them to heaven. Expecting to be overwhelmed with request, the one to collect thanksgivings got a huge basket. It turns out that the one collecting request had to return to heaven time and time again to empty his basket. The angel collecting thanksgivings returned with a basket half full. We all have things to be grateful for in our lives, and we are truly grateful for the gift that we have, so what is it that keeps us from remembering to say thank you each and every day? I think that sometimes it is the very gifts of life that stand in the way of us being grateful.
Explanation of the text
Imagine being a young man, in the prime of your life, just married the woman of your dreams, and one day she notices some white spots on your neck – and your life as you know it is over – because she has to report to the community and the priest that you have leprosy – and have to immediately move away from the community. Or imagine that your first child has been born two months ago – a son to carry on your name – and you too are diagnosed with leprosy- Or after a long period of trying to find your life work – you realize that you want to go into farming with your father – and as you celebrate your new found life – you lose it to leprosy. The laws in the book of Levitcus are very clear – if anyone notices a swelling in his skin or a scab or boil or pimple with transparent skin they are to be brought to the priest for examination. If the spot turns white – or if it looks more than skin deep, then the priest must declare him a leper. It could happen to anyone at any time in life. If they were a leper- the most important thing was protecting the rest of the community from they – so they were to live outside the gates of the city. They were to keep their distance from everyone and to declare to all that they were one of the untouchables. Life as they knew it was over – no family, no job, no meaning in life.
With everything taken away from them, their gratefulness turned into a deep need to be healed. And they knew exactly where to turn to.
No one really knows why Jesus would have been in this no man’s land on his way to Jerusalem. He was somewhere between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee was the home of the Jews, the people he was trying to reach with his message. Samaria was the home of their cousins – those who were no longer considered Jews. Yet Jesus noticed that these were the people most likely to listen to his message and to apply it to their lives. So as he was traveling to Jerusalem, this was the perfect place to stop and to preach. As he passes by the lepers – they cry out – Lord have mercy on us. To ask for mercy is to ask for what it due to you – what you deserve but for some reason it has been denied you- They wanted their lives back – they wanted the right to return back to their lives, their wives, their children, their jobs, their community – all the things that made life worth living. They had heard enough to know that Jesus had the power to give them just what they asked for. With no special potions, no special words – Jesus tells them that they will be healed. All they need to do is to show themselves to the priest, so that they can be restored into community.
They don’t even question Jesus – they immediately go back to their lives. Only 1 returns to thank Jesus for what he has done. Jesus gives him an additional blessing and tells him that his faith has made him whole. The others are healed on the outside – and yet Jesus knows that this one has been made whole on the inside too.
Jesus was in between Galilee and Samaria – his audience was mixed – we really have no idea how many of the lepers were Jewish and how many were Samarian. We never hear what happens in their lives after they return. What we do know that the one who thought to return to thank Jesus was a Samarian. Maybe he did not have a priest to return to. Maybe he did not have a family or life to return to. Maybe his mom had always taught him to say thank you – we don’t know what it was that made this one leper out of ten return to Jesus.
The one who stood out from the rest
What we do know is that this one was different – when all ten asked for mercy – nine were looking for cosmetic changes. Leprosy back then was understood as any type of skin condition. One was looking for changes in mind, body and spirit. Nine lepers were looking to get on with their lives – one wanted to live. Nine were looking for the acceptance of society – one was looking for the acceptance of God. One was looking for their past to be restored – one was looking toward the future. Nine were looking for changes – one was looking to be transformed. He was changed from the inside out. He was not the same person that he had been. He knew that from this moment on, once he had been touched by Jesus – things would never be the same. His life would be so much more than those dreams of the life that had been taken away from him. God had shown him a love that he could never imagine in a million years.
The interesting thing about this story, is that it is not about lepers. Jesus knew that no matter who they were, what was going on in their lives, or where they were from. There was nothing really wrong with them – but that they lives in a community of insiders and outsiders. You were considered a part of the church or not, by how pure you were. And it was very easy to be considered unclean. An outsider. Leprosy is not a deal breaker today – but what is. Many pastors I know are using this Sunday to talk about the large amount of young people who are committing suicide because they are gay – and feel that they have no place in society. Who are the people who stand outside of our lives, who we don’t accept, or talk to or deal with, or even remember to tell them that they are a child of God, thus always welcome.
Gratitude is faith
When you look at your life, which one are you – one of the nine or the one who stood out? Bear in mind that in those days- to say thank you was the last thing that you said to someone when the knew the relationship was over. If you knew you would never see the person again – you said thank you. The nine others had their lives restored – they were a part of the community again – they probably were not quite ready to saw good bye to Jesus – whereas the one – realized that no matter how hard he tried – things would never be the same for him- he could never go back to the man he used to be. That gesture of thanks seemed to really make a difference to Jesus. But this is not a sermon on gratitude – but on faith.
Story of ungratfulness
I can really relate to the story of Edward Spencer – he and I went to the same seminary – Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston. Edward attended that school in 1860 – a little bit before my time. One night, he was woken in the dorm – people were shouting that there had been an accident in the Winnetka harbor. A cargo ship has hit a cruise ship- people were in lake Michigan drowning. Edward was a good swimmer – so he ran the 31/2 miles to Winnetka to do what he could to help. He jumped in the water and started pulling people out- by dawn he had been able to rescue 15 people. He lay exhausted on the beach, when someone yelled that two more people were trapped on the ship. He swam back into the water and rescued them two. 300 people perished in the accident. 98 were rescued – Edward had saved 17 by himself. Unfortunately, Edward was never able to run the 3 ½ miles back down Sheridan Road to Garrett. As a matter of fact, Edward never returned to Garrett. After that night he lost the use his legs. He died an invalid in California. Late in his life, a reporter from the LA times interviewed him about his heroic rescue- he was asked what he remembered most about that night. He said that he remembered that of the 17 people that he rescued – not one of them ever said thank you. At least Jesus did get a thank you from one person. That one person who made all of the difference in the world.
I am sure that we can all identify with those 17 people. Some probably were healed – some did go on with their lives – some were genuinely grateful for being saved on that night, some probably even remembered that courageous seminary student who saved them. They just never got the chance to say thank you in person to him. Having no idea of what difference it would have made in the life story of the one who gave his legs, his hopes, his calling to save them. We are all grateful for the saviors that God has sent into our lives – who have given us life in so many ways. We really are grateful in our hearts – even though we don’t think to say it with our lips. Today is a perfect day to write a note, to make a phone call, to take someone out to lunch – to say thank you for all of the Edward Spencers in our life. But this is not a sermon about being thankful – this is a story about being faithful.
This is not a sermon about the nine lepers who went on with their lives – it is a sermon about that one who had been transformed and given new life by Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Samaritan- that his faith had made him well – not his thank you.
It is our faith that makes us well- not our thank you’s. The more faith is focused on Christ – the easier it is for us to remember to say thank you for each and every gift that we have been given.
Christ is always faithful, Christ always hears our cries of mercy. Christ always gives us love and life, but it is our response to Christ that gives us transformation and new life. It is our desire to say thank you that indeed makes the world a wonderful place to live for all people. What do you have to be thankful for today? How will you choose to live a thankful life today?
Story of thankfulness
In 1973 a missionary had been sent to acapolco to start a church, with no money, no building, no people. It was a struggle, but in the midst of his tears, he would look up on a hilltop every day and see a large cross. It was that cross that kept him focused on what needs to be done. He kept praying for guidance. One day he decided to climb the hill to find out why the cross was there. Expecting to find a church – he found it on top of a hotel. He asked to speak to the owner to say thank you. When he got to the owner, the owner cried. Everyone else stopped by to complain about the cross, he was the first person in five years to say thank you.
What most people thought of as a complaint, one faithful person found to be a source of gratitude. The hotel owner allowed him to have church services, and the Presbyterian church of America was born.
Gratefulness is faithfulness
Gratefulness is faithfulness. Every moment we have on earth brings a gift. Every person we meet is here for a reason, every word that we hear brings a lesson. Even if it is a lesson of faith, to become a stronger person and to receive our blessings in unexpected packages. Let us pray…..
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Luke 17:11-19
Did you say thank you, or just keep going?
20th Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
Introduction
Two angels are sent to earth to collect all of the prayers of the people. One was sent to retrieve all of the request, and the other all of the thanksgivings. Each was given a basket to collect the prayers and take them to heaven. Expecting to be overwhelmed with request, the one to collect thanksgivings got a huge basket. It turns out that the one collecting request had to return to heaven time and time again to empty his basket. The angel collecting thanksgivings returned with a basket half full. We all have things to be grateful for in our lives, and we are truly grateful for the gift that we have, so what is it that keeps us from remembering to say thank you each and every day? I think that sometimes it is the very gifts of life that stand in the way of us being grateful.
Explanation of the text
Imagine being a young man, in the prime of your life, just married the woman of your dreams, and one day she notices some white spots on your neck – and your life as you know it is over – because she has to report to the community and the priest that you have leprosy – and have to immediately move away from the community. Or imagine that your first child has been born two months ago – a son to carry on your name – and you too are diagnosed with leprosy- Or after a long period of trying to find your life work – you realize that you want to go into farming with your father – and as you celebrate your new found life – you lose it to leprosy. The laws in the book of Levitcus are very clear – if anyone notices a swelling in his skin or a scab or boil or pimple with transparent skin they are to be brought to the priest for examination. If the spot turns white – or if it looks more than skin deep, then the priest must declare him a leper. It could happen to anyone at any time in life. If they were a leper- the most important thing was protecting the rest of the community from they – so they were to live outside the gates of the city. They were to keep their distance from everyone and to declare to all that they were one of the untouchables. Life as they knew it was over – no family, no job, no meaning in life.
With everything taken away from them, their gratefulness turned into a deep need to be healed. And they knew exactly where to turn to.
No one really knows why Jesus would have been in this no man’s land on his way to Jerusalem. He was somewhere between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee was the home of the Jews, the people he was trying to reach with his message. Samaria was the home of their cousins – those who were no longer considered Jews. Yet Jesus noticed that these were the people most likely to listen to his message and to apply it to their lives. So as he was traveling to Jerusalem, this was the perfect place to stop and to preach. As he passes by the lepers – they cry out – Lord have mercy on us. To ask for mercy is to ask for what it due to you – what you deserve but for some reason it has been denied you- They wanted their lives back – they wanted the right to return back to their lives, their wives, their children, their jobs, their community – all the things that made life worth living. They had heard enough to know that Jesus had the power to give them just what they asked for. With no special potions, no special words – Jesus tells them that they will be healed. All they need to do is to show themselves to the priest, so that they can be restored into community.
They don’t even question Jesus – they immediately go back to their lives. Only 1 returns to thank Jesus for what he has done. Jesus gives him an additional blessing and tells him that his faith has made him whole. The others are healed on the outside – and yet Jesus knows that this one has been made whole on the inside too.
Jesus was in between Galilee and Samaria – his audience was mixed – we really have no idea how many of the lepers were Jewish and how many were Samarian. We never hear what happens in their lives after they return. What we do know that the one who thought to return to thank Jesus was a Samarian. Maybe he did not have a priest to return to. Maybe he did not have a family or life to return to. Maybe his mom had always taught him to say thank you – we don’t know what it was that made this one leper out of ten return to Jesus.
The one who stood out from the rest
What we do know is that this one was different – when all ten asked for mercy – nine were looking for cosmetic changes. Leprosy back then was understood as any type of skin condition. One was looking for changes in mind, body and spirit. Nine lepers were looking to get on with their lives – one wanted to live. Nine were looking for the acceptance of society – one was looking for the acceptance of God. One was looking for their past to be restored – one was looking toward the future. Nine were looking for changes – one was looking to be transformed. He was changed from the inside out. He was not the same person that he had been. He knew that from this moment on, once he had been touched by Jesus – things would never be the same. His life would be so much more than those dreams of the life that had been taken away from him. God had shown him a love that he could never imagine in a million years.
The interesting thing about this story, is that it is not about lepers. Jesus knew that no matter who they were, what was going on in their lives, or where they were from. There was nothing really wrong with them – but that they lives in a community of insiders and outsiders. You were considered a part of the church or not, by how pure you were. And it was very easy to be considered unclean. An outsider. Leprosy is not a deal breaker today – but what is. Many pastors I know are using this Sunday to talk about the large amount of young people who are committing suicide because they are gay – and feel that they have no place in society. Who are the people who stand outside of our lives, who we don’t accept, or talk to or deal with, or even remember to tell them that they are a child of God, thus always welcome.
Gratitude is faith
When you look at your life, which one are you – one of the nine or the one who stood out? Bear in mind that in those days- to say thank you was the last thing that you said to someone when the knew the relationship was over. If you knew you would never see the person again – you said thank you. The nine others had their lives restored – they were a part of the community again – they probably were not quite ready to saw good bye to Jesus – whereas the one – realized that no matter how hard he tried – things would never be the same for him- he could never go back to the man he used to be. That gesture of thanks seemed to really make a difference to Jesus. But this is not a sermon on gratitude – but on faith.
Story of ungratfulness
I can really relate to the story of Edward Spencer – he and I went to the same seminary – Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston. Edward attended that school in 1860 – a little bit before my time. One night, he was woken in the dorm – people were shouting that there had been an accident in the Winnetka harbor. A cargo ship has hit a cruise ship- people were in lake Michigan drowning. Edward was a good swimmer – so he ran the 31/2 miles to Winnetka to do what he could to help. He jumped in the water and started pulling people out- by dawn he had been able to rescue 15 people. He lay exhausted on the beach, when someone yelled that two more people were trapped on the ship. He swam back into the water and rescued them two. 300 people perished in the accident. 98 were rescued – Edward had saved 17 by himself. Unfortunately, Edward was never able to run the 3 ½ miles back down Sheridan Road to Garrett. As a matter of fact, Edward never returned to Garrett. After that night he lost the use his legs. He died an invalid in California. Late in his life, a reporter from the LA times interviewed him about his heroic rescue- he was asked what he remembered most about that night. He said that he remembered that of the 17 people that he rescued – not one of them ever said thank you. At least Jesus did get a thank you from one person. That one person who made all of the difference in the world.
I am sure that we can all identify with those 17 people. Some probably were healed – some did go on with their lives – some were genuinely grateful for being saved on that night, some probably even remembered that courageous seminary student who saved them. They just never got the chance to say thank you in person to him. Having no idea of what difference it would have made in the life story of the one who gave his legs, his hopes, his calling to save them. We are all grateful for the saviors that God has sent into our lives – who have given us life in so many ways. We really are grateful in our hearts – even though we don’t think to say it with our lips. Today is a perfect day to write a note, to make a phone call, to take someone out to lunch – to say thank you for all of the Edward Spencers in our life. But this is not a sermon about being thankful – this is a story about being faithful.
This is not a sermon about the nine lepers who went on with their lives – it is a sermon about that one who had been transformed and given new life by Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Samaritan- that his faith had made him well – not his thank you.
It is our faith that makes us well- not our thank you’s. The more faith is focused on Christ – the easier it is for us to remember to say thank you for each and every gift that we have been given.
Christ is always faithful, Christ always hears our cries of mercy. Christ always gives us love and life, but it is our response to Christ that gives us transformation and new life. It is our desire to say thank you that indeed makes the world a wonderful place to live for all people. What do you have to be thankful for today? How will you choose to live a thankful life today?
Story of thankfulness
In 1973 a missionary had been sent to acapolco to start a church, with no money, no building, no people. It was a struggle, but in the midst of his tears, he would look up on a hilltop every day and see a large cross. It was that cross that kept him focused on what needs to be done. He kept praying for guidance. One day he decided to climb the hill to find out why the cross was there. Expecting to find a church – he found it on top of a hotel. He asked to speak to the owner to say thank you. When he got to the owner, the owner cried. Everyone else stopped by to complain about the cross, he was the first person in five years to say thank you.
What most people thought of as a complaint, one faithful person found to be a source of gratitude. The hotel owner allowed him to have church services, and the Presbyterian church of America was born.
Gratefulness is faithfulness
Gratefulness is faithfulness. Every moment we have on earth brings a gift. Every person we meet is here for a reason, every word that we hear brings a lesson. Even if it is a lesson of faith, to become a stronger person and to receive our blessings in unexpected packages. Let us pray…..
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Alone in a crowd, fulfilled by only one - World Communion Sunday
Rev. Harriette Cross
Englewood and Rust
October 3, 2010
A repreach of October 7, 2007
World Communion Sunday
Psalm 137
Luke 17:5-10
Alone in a crowd, fulfilled by only one
Year C
The first Sunday in October is always world communion Sunday, this is a time when we know that we are united with Christians all over the world in a common task- and we can think of the power that we have to build God’s kingdom and celebrate that it is working – the world is changing. The power of transformation is in our unity – in what we are able to do together.
Every first Sunday is a Sunday where Christians all over the world are taking communion. But we don’t think about it- we don’t think about our brothers and sisters in other churches in this neighborhood, in our community as doing the same thing as us. We get caught up into our own little bubble of understanding.
while thinking about unity this week , I was struck with an email that I received from another pastor. She was asking for prayers for her cousin, Danny – who felt isolated and alone in Thailand. She says,
Dannie is an American and a cousin of a friend of mine. His wife is Thai
(she isn't a Christian). She became homesick for her village in Thailand
so Dannie agreed to move. I spoke of Dannie last year on World Communion
Sunday because he had sent an e-mail that touched my heart so very much.
It read, "Keep me in your prayers. Believe me, I need it. It's so hard
to be alone as a Christian. But I do talk to my Lord a lot." Because of
his request for prayers, members of my church committed to praying for
him. When I relayed that to Dannie, his response was, "I am sitting here
in tears. I can feel the prayers of my brothers and sisters. I praise
God and I give Him the glory. Now the prayers that I and so many other
Christians who are alone need are coming to fill us with the joy of Jesus
Christ. Please let the people who are praying for me know that they are
also in my prayers."
That was a year ago. The e-mail I just received read, "I will take
Communion 'with you'. I will be alone, but not alone in spirit. Jesus is
with me everywhere I go. There are no churches in the mountain village
where I live. No missionaries either. Your prayers are important to me.
I do try to 'walk the walk' and I have been able to witness several times.
This is a hard land for Christians, but it is full of wonderful people."
I was touched by the email – because I think that it is important to always remember the other side of unity – isolation. We don’t have to be stuck somewhere alone in a foreign land to feel a sense of isolation- that we are out there all by ourselves.
I got in trouble at a church once, when a lady made a comment that you cant be a Christian on a desert island. People tell me all the time that they are Christian. They are very spiritual, but not are religious, but they don’t want to go to church. To believe that is to totally miss the point of all of Jesus teachings. I truly believe that the only way to be a Christian is to go to church – to be in community.
It is real easy for any of us to sit at home and to read the bible, and to watch the latest televangelist on tv, and to believe in our heart that we love everybody. That is not the faith that Jesus called us to. When you go to church and you sit on a church board, and you deal with someone who is always arguing and disagreeing with you. When you have to deal with someone who you don’t like and you don’t understand. When you are asked to do something, that you know is impossible. And you stick with it, and you find a solution, and you are a witness to what God can do in spite of you – that is the faith that Jesus Christ calls us into. Our faith is only challenged, and thus only grows when we are around people- people that we don’t understand, people that we don’t agree with, people that we have to learn to love.
And yet we have all had those moments in our lives when we have felt like Danny – we felt lonely and alone – not necessarily by chance – but by situation. We have all had our moments when life didn’t make sense. Times when the normal things in life that gave us so much comfort – are painful because they bring back memories of the way things used to be- when they are no more. All summer, we have been following the plight of the isrealites. They have been threatened with exile from their land because of their sin. Well the moment happened – the Babylonians didn’t let them starve, they went in to the city and led some of them away. Those who had money, and power are taken away. The remnant is left to survive. Those who are taken captive are fed, they are taken care of, the young are even educated – but as they sit by the canals of Babylon – dreaming of the rivers of Isreal – they become keenly aware that they are not at home – God has broken the promise to them – that they would always have a home. They got such joy in singing songs of praise- songs that celebrated God’s promise to them. To make a bad situation worse – their captors taunt them – seeing their grief by asking them to sing. But how can we sing the songs of zion in a foreign land.
There are many people in the world today – who are just like Danny, just like the isrealites – wondering how to maintain their faith in a foreign land. On this world communion Sunday – let us remember those who are in exile from their countries – like those from Darfur, in Africa who are escaping famine and a government who are killing them. There are many in Africa who have to escape widescale genocide. There are those who are in Pakistan who are still trying to escape the effects of an earthquake. Those from Cuba, who come to America seeking a life of freedom.
But you know there are also a lot of people on this block, on the block we live on, in our lives, who don’t come to church, because they feel isolated. They wont fit in, no one will understand them. They are insecure because they feel that that don’t have the same faith that you have. We remember these people and many more today – because they are a part of the Christian family – when we take communion – we are solidarity with their situations and we pray for God’s healing of their situations.
Exile is a physical situation, but it is also a spiritual situation. There are times when we can feel cut off from God and what God has called us to do. Many years later, when the isrealites were able to return to community, jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples. Jesus was reminding them of the importance of forgiveness. No matter what happens to us – it is okay to feel our grief. To refuse to sing the songs of praise. But as some point we have to move on, and the only way to move on is to forgive our brothers and sisters. The disciples were a lot like we are – how do you just forgive, when someone has done you wrong. We are faitfhful people – but reality always challenges our belief of the way things are supposed to be. They asks Jesus a question that we have to ask everyday. Can you increase our faith – because as it stands – we are not able to do what you asks of us. We want to be able to forgive and forget, but we just cant. We are inadequate, there are still things that we need to learn and understand, it will be a minute before we have the energy to move on, right now – we are still in our grief and we still need time to heal.
Jesus tells the disciples – that they don’t need to increase their faith. Any amount of faith at all with make a difference. Jesus tell them that the faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. A friend of mine says that she used to go outside and try to will the mountains in her back yard to move. Of course nothing would ever happen. Yet the real focus of this story is the power of our faith. Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to increase our faith – we can witness the power of God with what we have – even if it is just a small glimmer of hope. That glimmer can change our life – and is enough to change the world. Faith is not about our positive thoughts – faith is our willingness to trust that God will take care of us. God always does all of the work. Faith is a willingness to let God do the work without us needing to be in control.
A small congregation on the smoky mountains built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a member. Before the church opened, the building inspector came to the church to tell them that they could not open because the parking lot was not sufficient. The only way to expand the parking lot was to move a mountain behind the church. We all know by now that mountains don’t move. The pastor was determined to see the church opened. So she held prayer meetings every day. After the last amen on Friday – she told them that the church would be open on Sunday. Later that day – some men came to the church, explaining that they were building a shopping mall and they needed some dirt to build the foundation. They needed to get started immediately, if they could just take the dirt from the mountain. The mountain was literally moved, so that the parking lot could be built and the church could be opened.
It only takes a little – to make a big difference. Most of us – in this area of the country it would be safe to say that none of us have a mountain in our back yard that needs to be moved. But all of us have prayers, all of us have dreams, all of us have hopes that something in the world will be different. We don’t know how things will change, we don’t know what we need to do to change things. We just have a little bit of faith – that things should change. It is that small glimmer of hope that will make a difference-God will do the rest. God wants us to remember that each and everything that we do in life is about God. Every situation that we find ourselves in, we need to ask – what does this have to do with God. Every challenge that we have we need to ask – how is God at work in this situation. We don’t need to increase our faith – we just need to use the little that we have. Even in the toughest of situations, remember that all things are possible with God.
As we celebrate world communion Sunday, we are all keenly aware that unity amongst all Christians is not a reality – our differences still separate us. Even in our own church family – we all can’t work together on everything. There are many people who are not in exile from the Christian community, we still feel alone in a crowd. Who feel that no one is listening to them, no one cares for them. There are those who are suffering from grief. There are those who ask - how can I sing the songs of Zion, when I am amongst strangers. How can I praise God – when I have nothing to celebrate.
Jesus request to us all – is to just sing, just pray, just hope, just go forward, just celebrate our unity – God will do the rest!
The power of the gospel, of our belief in Jesus Christ is that it takes us from where you are now – to where God God wants you to be. Where you are – to where God wants you to be.
The gospel saves, brings you to life and offers you life everlasting. Salvation is restoring your life back to what it was meant to be.
God has big plans for you – for you to move on from where you are to live faithful, and compassionate. In return we can expect big things from God – the strength to go on, much farther than you were expecting. That is what faith is all about.
Let us pray…..
Englewood and Rust
October 3, 2010
A repreach of October 7, 2007
World Communion Sunday
Psalm 137
Luke 17:5-10
Alone in a crowd, fulfilled by only one
Year C
The first Sunday in October is always world communion Sunday, this is a time when we know that we are united with Christians all over the world in a common task- and we can think of the power that we have to build God’s kingdom and celebrate that it is working – the world is changing. The power of transformation is in our unity – in what we are able to do together.
Every first Sunday is a Sunday where Christians all over the world are taking communion. But we don’t think about it- we don’t think about our brothers and sisters in other churches in this neighborhood, in our community as doing the same thing as us. We get caught up into our own little bubble of understanding.
while thinking about unity this week , I was struck with an email that I received from another pastor. She was asking for prayers for her cousin, Danny – who felt isolated and alone in Thailand. She says,
Dannie is an American and a cousin of a friend of mine. His wife is Thai
(she isn't a Christian). She became homesick for her village in Thailand
so Dannie agreed to move. I spoke of Dannie last year on World Communion
Sunday because he had sent an e-mail that touched my heart so very much.
It read, "Keep me in your prayers. Believe me, I need it. It's so hard
to be alone as a Christian. But I do talk to my Lord a lot." Because of
his request for prayers, members of my church committed to praying for
him. When I relayed that to Dannie, his response was, "I am sitting here
in tears. I can feel the prayers of my brothers and sisters. I praise
God and I give Him the glory. Now the prayers that I and so many other
Christians who are alone need are coming to fill us with the joy of Jesus
Christ. Please let the people who are praying for me know that they are
also in my prayers."
That was a year ago. The e-mail I just received read, "I will take
Communion 'with you'. I will be alone, but not alone in spirit. Jesus is
with me everywhere I go. There are no churches in the mountain village
where I live. No missionaries either. Your prayers are important to me.
I do try to 'walk the walk' and I have been able to witness several times.
This is a hard land for Christians, but it is full of wonderful people."
I was touched by the email – because I think that it is important to always remember the other side of unity – isolation. We don’t have to be stuck somewhere alone in a foreign land to feel a sense of isolation- that we are out there all by ourselves.
I got in trouble at a church once, when a lady made a comment that you cant be a Christian on a desert island. People tell me all the time that they are Christian. They are very spiritual, but not are religious, but they don’t want to go to church. To believe that is to totally miss the point of all of Jesus teachings. I truly believe that the only way to be a Christian is to go to church – to be in community.
It is real easy for any of us to sit at home and to read the bible, and to watch the latest televangelist on tv, and to believe in our heart that we love everybody. That is not the faith that Jesus called us to. When you go to church and you sit on a church board, and you deal with someone who is always arguing and disagreeing with you. When you have to deal with someone who you don’t like and you don’t understand. When you are asked to do something, that you know is impossible. And you stick with it, and you find a solution, and you are a witness to what God can do in spite of you – that is the faith that Jesus Christ calls us into. Our faith is only challenged, and thus only grows when we are around people- people that we don’t understand, people that we don’t agree with, people that we have to learn to love.
And yet we have all had those moments in our lives when we have felt like Danny – we felt lonely and alone – not necessarily by chance – but by situation. We have all had our moments when life didn’t make sense. Times when the normal things in life that gave us so much comfort – are painful because they bring back memories of the way things used to be- when they are no more. All summer, we have been following the plight of the isrealites. They have been threatened with exile from their land because of their sin. Well the moment happened – the Babylonians didn’t let them starve, they went in to the city and led some of them away. Those who had money, and power are taken away. The remnant is left to survive. Those who are taken captive are fed, they are taken care of, the young are even educated – but as they sit by the canals of Babylon – dreaming of the rivers of Isreal – they become keenly aware that they are not at home – God has broken the promise to them – that they would always have a home. They got such joy in singing songs of praise- songs that celebrated God’s promise to them. To make a bad situation worse – their captors taunt them – seeing their grief by asking them to sing. But how can we sing the songs of zion in a foreign land.
There are many people in the world today – who are just like Danny, just like the isrealites – wondering how to maintain their faith in a foreign land. On this world communion Sunday – let us remember those who are in exile from their countries – like those from Darfur, in Africa who are escaping famine and a government who are killing them. There are many in Africa who have to escape widescale genocide. There are those who are in Pakistan who are still trying to escape the effects of an earthquake. Those from Cuba, who come to America seeking a life of freedom.
But you know there are also a lot of people on this block, on the block we live on, in our lives, who don’t come to church, because they feel isolated. They wont fit in, no one will understand them. They are insecure because they feel that that don’t have the same faith that you have. We remember these people and many more today – because they are a part of the Christian family – when we take communion – we are solidarity with their situations and we pray for God’s healing of their situations.
Exile is a physical situation, but it is also a spiritual situation. There are times when we can feel cut off from God and what God has called us to do. Many years later, when the isrealites were able to return to community, jesus was on the way to Jerusalem with his disciples. Jesus was reminding them of the importance of forgiveness. No matter what happens to us – it is okay to feel our grief. To refuse to sing the songs of praise. But as some point we have to move on, and the only way to move on is to forgive our brothers and sisters. The disciples were a lot like we are – how do you just forgive, when someone has done you wrong. We are faitfhful people – but reality always challenges our belief of the way things are supposed to be. They asks Jesus a question that we have to ask everyday. Can you increase our faith – because as it stands – we are not able to do what you asks of us. We want to be able to forgive and forget, but we just cant. We are inadequate, there are still things that we need to learn and understand, it will be a minute before we have the energy to move on, right now – we are still in our grief and we still need time to heal.
Jesus tells the disciples – that they don’t need to increase their faith. Any amount of faith at all with make a difference. Jesus tell them that the faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. A friend of mine says that she used to go outside and try to will the mountains in her back yard to move. Of course nothing would ever happen. Yet the real focus of this story is the power of our faith. Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to increase our faith – we can witness the power of God with what we have – even if it is just a small glimmer of hope. That glimmer can change our life – and is enough to change the world. Faith is not about our positive thoughts – faith is our willingness to trust that God will take care of us. God always does all of the work. Faith is a willingness to let God do the work without us needing to be in control.
A small congregation on the smoky mountains built a new church on a piece of land willed to them by a member. Before the church opened, the building inspector came to the church to tell them that they could not open because the parking lot was not sufficient. The only way to expand the parking lot was to move a mountain behind the church. We all know by now that mountains don’t move. The pastor was determined to see the church opened. So she held prayer meetings every day. After the last amen on Friday – she told them that the church would be open on Sunday. Later that day – some men came to the church, explaining that they were building a shopping mall and they needed some dirt to build the foundation. They needed to get started immediately, if they could just take the dirt from the mountain. The mountain was literally moved, so that the parking lot could be built and the church could be opened.
It only takes a little – to make a big difference. Most of us – in this area of the country it would be safe to say that none of us have a mountain in our back yard that needs to be moved. But all of us have prayers, all of us have dreams, all of us have hopes that something in the world will be different. We don’t know how things will change, we don’t know what we need to do to change things. We just have a little bit of faith – that things should change. It is that small glimmer of hope that will make a difference-God will do the rest. God wants us to remember that each and everything that we do in life is about God. Every situation that we find ourselves in, we need to ask – what does this have to do with God. Every challenge that we have we need to ask – how is God at work in this situation. We don’t need to increase our faith – we just need to use the little that we have. Even in the toughest of situations, remember that all things are possible with God.
As we celebrate world communion Sunday, we are all keenly aware that unity amongst all Christians is not a reality – our differences still separate us. Even in our own church family – we all can’t work together on everything. There are many people who are not in exile from the Christian community, we still feel alone in a crowd. Who feel that no one is listening to them, no one cares for them. There are those who are suffering from grief. There are those who ask - how can I sing the songs of Zion, when I am amongst strangers. How can I praise God – when I have nothing to celebrate.
Jesus request to us all – is to just sing, just pray, just hope, just go forward, just celebrate our unity – God will do the rest!
The power of the gospel, of our belief in Jesus Christ is that it takes us from where you are now – to where God God wants you to be. Where you are – to where God wants you to be.
The gospel saves, brings you to life and offers you life everlasting. Salvation is restoring your life back to what it was meant to be.
God has big plans for you – for you to move on from where you are to live faithful, and compassionate. In return we can expect big things from God – the strength to go on, much farther than you were expecting. That is what faith is all about.
Let us pray…..
Sunday, September 05, 2010
how well do you know that God knows you?
September 5, 2010
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139 1-6; 13-18
How well does God know you?
Year C
15th Sunday after Pentecost
Let me ask you, what is it that you know for sure about life? You know your name, you know your address, you know where you work or go to school, you know where you spend your time and your money; you even know that 2+2 = 4. Those are the facts, but I want to ask you again, what it is that you know about life? What is it that you know for sure?
The French actually break it down for us; they have two words for our word know. Savoir and connaitre. In English we say that we know that 2+2=4, but we also say that we know sally, or Johnny, or Pete.
In French you savoir facts - you know what your name is, and most of the time you are right about that fact. Connaitre is only used for people, and the direct interpretation of the word is to be acquainted with. You can give birth to a person, you can marry a person, you can live with a person, you can talk with them every day – but you can never truly say that you know a person. You can know a lot of fact about a person, but you can never truly know the inner being of a person, or what is really going on in the inside of their mind. No matter how deep your relationship with someone, the best you will ever do is to be acquainted with them. And that is not a bad thing – because if we truly knew one another, and we knew what we were going to say, there would be no reason to talk or to listen. We would get bored with one another pretty quickly.
And yet the psalmist says that God knows each of us in just that way. God knows our inner being; God knows our thoughts and words before we do. God can search our lives and know when we are lying and when we are telling the truth. God not only knows us – God formed each of us for a reason, and has a purpose and an intention for us.
The problem is that God knows us, but some of us don’t know that God knows. We live our lives as if we are in control. God gave us free will, we know how to use that – but we don’t know that our free will works best when it is in obedience with God’s will – which has been determined way before we were ever born.
This week's lectionary psalm (Psalm 139) begins, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me." As one continues to read the psalm, it is an affirmation of how much God loves us, cares for us, and will abide with us. Unfortunately, though God has searched our souls, sometimes we fail to do so. When we do not live a life of self-examination, as God has put before us, then we will wander from the holiness of the Spirit into the passions of the flesh.
Ben Roethlisberger, the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, for years lived the unexamined life. And as we know, it has brought him lawsuits, physical injury, and suspensions. His former coach with the Steelers, Bill Cowher, tried to mentor the young athlete -- but it was to no avail. Though Cowher often cautioned Roethlisberger about his off-field behavior, the response he would receive was always the same: "But we're winning games. We're winning championships." Cowher then would try to explain, "Yeah, but there's more to it than that. It's the whole body of work. It's you as a person, what kind of legacy you want to leave." Cowher, who is now retired from coaching and works as a television analyst, thinks that Roethlisberger's most recent suspension may finally have taught him that lesson. One can only hope. One can only wait and see.
God examines our lives; we are to examine our own lives; and godlike individuals will examine our lives, offering invaluable advice. Through self-examination that is informed by the scriptures and highlighted by the insight of others, we can live according to biblical principles and have a positive self-image. Then we will be able to say, as the psalmist does, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
***
You never know about some people and their free will – will they ever truly get it? You can only hope and pray……
That story about winning points, actually out another point. That is that you can’t win a football game by yourself. You have to play as a team. So it is okay to think about our personal relationship with God, but we also have to think about our corporate relationship with God, who are we as a people and what is God saying to us.
Jeremiah was pondering this issue one day, as he probably went to pottery row to get something repaired. They didn’t have china or glass in those days. Everything was made of pottery, and when it broke, you needed to go to a pottery shop to fix it. In a large city like Jerusalem, there would have been a whole street of pottery shops.
The potter starts to do his job, putting the clay on the wheel and shaping it, but it doesn’t come out right- so he just balls the clay up and starts all over again.
And he realizes that God is talking to his people about the need to repent and start all over again.
God is holding the people accountable and saying that you are just like clay – if you don’t do right, I will crush you and recreate you. We think that holding people accountable when they have gotten out of hand is wrong. But it is the nicest form of love to help someone get back on the right track when they have strayed. Or else they continue down the same path and never get back to right relationship with God.
Yesterday God was talking to the people of Israel, Today I believe God is talking to the church.
The church is dying; our way of doing church is dying. Not just here but the whole Methodist Church. Not just the Methodist church, but the Presbyterian Church, the Lutheran church, even the Catholic Church. And as quiet as it is kept, the Baptist church was growing a few years ago, but it is on the decline also. We are not reaching people the way we used to.
And yet God does not change, God’s message for the world does not change. So what is it that is going on? What is the problem?
Perhaps God is telling us that it is time for us to be reformed, reshaped, and reenergized. We live in a time when all of our institutions are being questioned; those which are not relevant are disappearing.
The good news is that clay is a forgivable medium. If you sew a dress and you cut it wrong and sew it up, it is still useless you can’t use it. If you knit a scarf and you make a mistake, you have to unravel it and start all over again, if you paint a picture and you make a mistake, you paint over it so you can’t see it, but the mistake is still there.
But with clay, if you knead it, and work with it to get pliable and easier to work with. If you are making something and it doesn’t quite work out, then you ball it up and start all over again. The shape is gone, mistake and all is gone.
Clay is pliable, forgivable, and undoable. It never loses it clayness – it still is what it is. But it is willing to be shaped.
Every time I think about this verse, I keep telling myself to go to the store and get the real clay that I used to play with in grade school. Play dough doesn’t have the same sticky consistency of real clay. But it will have to do for now.
God is telling us that the condition of our hearts needs to be as pliable and willing to be shaped as clay. God is telling us that we have to be obedient and willing to be used just like clay, we have to be flexible enough to be balled back up and reshaped into a new thing.
Our sins, our mistakes, our bad ideas, our unwillingness, our hatefulness, our misjudgments, or beliefs about the way things are, our need to hang on the what we understand, all need to go back into the ball. So that we can be used by God to do a new thing in the world today.
What happens in your life what you don’t listen to God? You go back on the potter’s wheel – what happens when you do listen to God? What is it that you become? I know in my heart that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Let us pray……
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139 1-6; 13-18
How well does God know you?
Year C
15th Sunday after Pentecost
Let me ask you, what is it that you know for sure about life? You know your name, you know your address, you know where you work or go to school, you know where you spend your time and your money; you even know that 2+2 = 4. Those are the facts, but I want to ask you again, what it is that you know about life? What is it that you know for sure?
The French actually break it down for us; they have two words for our word know. Savoir and connaitre. In English we say that we know that 2+2=4, but we also say that we know sally, or Johnny, or Pete.
In French you savoir facts - you know what your name is, and most of the time you are right about that fact. Connaitre is only used for people, and the direct interpretation of the word is to be acquainted with. You can give birth to a person, you can marry a person, you can live with a person, you can talk with them every day – but you can never truly say that you know a person. You can know a lot of fact about a person, but you can never truly know the inner being of a person, or what is really going on in the inside of their mind. No matter how deep your relationship with someone, the best you will ever do is to be acquainted with them. And that is not a bad thing – because if we truly knew one another, and we knew what we were going to say, there would be no reason to talk or to listen. We would get bored with one another pretty quickly.
And yet the psalmist says that God knows each of us in just that way. God knows our inner being; God knows our thoughts and words before we do. God can search our lives and know when we are lying and when we are telling the truth. God not only knows us – God formed each of us for a reason, and has a purpose and an intention for us.
The problem is that God knows us, but some of us don’t know that God knows. We live our lives as if we are in control. God gave us free will, we know how to use that – but we don’t know that our free will works best when it is in obedience with God’s will – which has been determined way before we were ever born.
This week's lectionary psalm (Psalm 139) begins, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me." As one continues to read the psalm, it is an affirmation of how much God loves us, cares for us, and will abide with us. Unfortunately, though God has searched our souls, sometimes we fail to do so. When we do not live a life of self-examination, as God has put before us, then we will wander from the holiness of the Spirit into the passions of the flesh.
Ben Roethlisberger, the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, for years lived the unexamined life. And as we know, it has brought him lawsuits, physical injury, and suspensions. His former coach with the Steelers, Bill Cowher, tried to mentor the young athlete -- but it was to no avail. Though Cowher often cautioned Roethlisberger about his off-field behavior, the response he would receive was always the same: "But we're winning games. We're winning championships." Cowher then would try to explain, "Yeah, but there's more to it than that. It's the whole body of work. It's you as a person, what kind of legacy you want to leave." Cowher, who is now retired from coaching and works as a television analyst, thinks that Roethlisberger's most recent suspension may finally have taught him that lesson. One can only hope. One can only wait and see.
God examines our lives; we are to examine our own lives; and godlike individuals will examine our lives, offering invaluable advice. Through self-examination that is informed by the scriptures and highlighted by the insight of others, we can live according to biblical principles and have a positive self-image. Then we will be able to say, as the psalmist does, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
***
You never know about some people and their free will – will they ever truly get it? You can only hope and pray……
That story about winning points, actually out another point. That is that you can’t win a football game by yourself. You have to play as a team. So it is okay to think about our personal relationship with God, but we also have to think about our corporate relationship with God, who are we as a people and what is God saying to us.
Jeremiah was pondering this issue one day, as he probably went to pottery row to get something repaired. They didn’t have china or glass in those days. Everything was made of pottery, and when it broke, you needed to go to a pottery shop to fix it. In a large city like Jerusalem, there would have been a whole street of pottery shops.
The potter starts to do his job, putting the clay on the wheel and shaping it, but it doesn’t come out right- so he just balls the clay up and starts all over again.
And he realizes that God is talking to his people about the need to repent and start all over again.
God is holding the people accountable and saying that you are just like clay – if you don’t do right, I will crush you and recreate you. We think that holding people accountable when they have gotten out of hand is wrong. But it is the nicest form of love to help someone get back on the right track when they have strayed. Or else they continue down the same path and never get back to right relationship with God.
Yesterday God was talking to the people of Israel, Today I believe God is talking to the church.
The church is dying; our way of doing church is dying. Not just here but the whole Methodist Church. Not just the Methodist church, but the Presbyterian Church, the Lutheran church, even the Catholic Church. And as quiet as it is kept, the Baptist church was growing a few years ago, but it is on the decline also. We are not reaching people the way we used to.
And yet God does not change, God’s message for the world does not change. So what is it that is going on? What is the problem?
Perhaps God is telling us that it is time for us to be reformed, reshaped, and reenergized. We live in a time when all of our institutions are being questioned; those which are not relevant are disappearing.
The good news is that clay is a forgivable medium. If you sew a dress and you cut it wrong and sew it up, it is still useless you can’t use it. If you knit a scarf and you make a mistake, you have to unravel it and start all over again, if you paint a picture and you make a mistake, you paint over it so you can’t see it, but the mistake is still there.
But with clay, if you knead it, and work with it to get pliable and easier to work with. If you are making something and it doesn’t quite work out, then you ball it up and start all over again. The shape is gone, mistake and all is gone.
Clay is pliable, forgivable, and undoable. It never loses it clayness – it still is what it is. But it is willing to be shaped.
Every time I think about this verse, I keep telling myself to go to the store and get the real clay that I used to play with in grade school. Play dough doesn’t have the same sticky consistency of real clay. But it will have to do for now.
God is telling us that the condition of our hearts needs to be as pliable and willing to be shaped as clay. God is telling us that we have to be obedient and willing to be used just like clay, we have to be flexible enough to be balled back up and reshaped into a new thing.
Our sins, our mistakes, our bad ideas, our unwillingness, our hatefulness, our misjudgments, or beliefs about the way things are, our need to hang on the what we understand, all need to go back into the ball. So that we can be used by God to do a new thing in the world today.
What happens in your life what you don’t listen to God? You go back on the potter’s wheel – what happens when you do listen to God? What is it that you become? I know in my heart that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Let us pray……
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