The One Who keeps us all together - Mother's Day

Mother’s Day May 12, 2013 Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 John 17:20-26 The One who keeps us together 7th Sunday of Easter – sort of Year C Lady Wisdom in Proverbs Proverbs 8 speaks of lady wisdom, standing in the busiest places in our lives, in the crossroads of our lives, speaking the truth of God to us, trying to get through to us, but we are too busy to listen. There are too many things going on at the crossroads for us to take the time to listen to what she has to say. That is a vivid image for me, because it reminds me of my grandmother, who as a young teenager used to constantly stand over me day and night giving me advice, and I would constantly tell her to leave me alone, and let me think for myself. It was only after she passed away that I realized that life for an 8th grader was not all that exciting, that I could have been more patient and willing to listen to what she had to say to me. That the wisdom and knowledge that she had to impart to me was invaluable. What is Wisdom What is wisdom? In the dictionary it is defined as “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight, the quality or state of being wise;” So I go further what is wise? Having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing discernment, judgment, or discretion, characterized by or showing such power; judicious or prudent: a wise decision. “”Having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right” I think more importantly, wisdom is a understanding of the things of God. It is realizing that order, structure, and rational thought are a natural part of who God is and what God does. Lady wisdom’s claim was that she was that before God created anything else, he created wisdom. And during the work of creation she was there every step of the way. She witnesses the creation of the land and of the sea. God was a master worker as he created all things. She says “then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” Of all of the things that God created, his greatest joy is you and me, he was most proud of humankind. Thus lady wisdom stands among us today – reminding us to think of the things of God first. Wisdom from mother As a child, I don’t remember neither my mother or my grandmother spending a lot of time in church. As a matter of fact, they sent me to church a lot, but they never went with me. But I do know that they taught me a lot about the order of things, these are things that my mother said all of the time, but I think there are lessons that we can all relate to…. Marlene's Top 20 Life Lessons: (as well as I can piece them together) Life's Lesson Number 20 Is About: The Value A Job Well Done "If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning." Life's Lesson Number 19 Is About: Time Travel "If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to slap you into the middle of next week!" Life's Lesson Number 18 Is About: Logic "Because I said so, that’s why." Life's Lesson Number 17 Is About: Foresight "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident." Life's Lesson Number 16 Is About: Irony "Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about." Life's Lesson Number 15 Is About: Dichotomies "Shut your mouth and eat your spinach." Life’s Lesson Number 14 Is About: Stamina "You will sit there young lady until all that spinach is gone." Life's Lesson Number 13 Is About: The Weather "This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it." Life's Lesson Number 12 Is About: Hypocrisy "If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate!" Life's Lesson Number 11 Is About: The Circle Of Life "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out." Life's Lesson Number 10 Is About: Behavior Modification "Stop acting like your father!" Life's Lesson Number 9 Is About: Envy "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do." Life's Lesson Number 8 Is About: Anticipation "Just wait until we get home." or "Just wait until your father gets home" Life's Lesson Number 7 Is About: Receiving "You are going to get it when you get home!" Life's Lesson Number 6 Is About: Medical Science "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way." Life's Lesson Number 5 Is About: How To Become An Adult "If you don't eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up." Life's Lesson Number 4 Is About: Genetics "You're just like your father, and that's not a compliment." Life's Lesson Number 3 Is About: Wisdom "When you get to be my age, you'll understand." Life's Lesson Number 2 Is About: Justice "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you" and Life's Lesson Number 1 Is About: Three-Year-Old Sons "No Jon, just because you feel your sister move in my tummy does not mean I ate her!" God uses a lot of important voices in our lives to teach us the order and structure of life. and it takes a lifetime to learn to listen to those voices. And to take those messages to heart. We have been studying from the book of John for the Easter season. John is the only gospel who speaks of the presence of creation, and How God is working to restore the order of our lives. Only in the book of John do we hear of the work of creation. Not only was wisdom present in the process of creation, but Jesus was present also. He understood God’s intention for our lives. And he dedicated his life to restoring us to that intention. Jesus is the author of our salvation. The world has gone so far from the intention of God, that Jesus too came to remind us of God’s wisdom. Our Gospel lesson for today – John 17:20-26 is a continuing part of Jesus farewell message to the disciples. He ends that message with a prayer for the blessing of all future generations who are willing to listen to and live according to the word of God. In order for new generations to hear the wisdom of God for their lives, Jesus says that there must be unity. We must learn to be one with our brothers and sisters. Jesus says that in order for there to be unity in the church, we have to be as close to God as he is. The same relationship that he has with God, we have to have with God. Jesus was alongside of God when he was doing to work of creation. The good news for us is that lady wisdom was there too. If we listen to wisdom, we can be as close to God as Jesus was. If we are able to be close to God, then we are able to be close to one another. God sends people in our lives even today to be the voice of wisdom for us, to help us to understand the order of God. In many instances that voice has been the voice of a strong woman. Today we are honor the voice of our mothers whom God has given us. Our mother is our biggest advocate, the one who delights in us, in who we become. But we also honor the many women of strength in our lives. The voices of wisdom who reminded us of the order of things. I appreciated this poem of the difference between being strong and a woman of strength. A woman of strength is one who relies not on her power, but on the power of God to go through life. STRONG WOMAN VERSUS A WOMAN OF STRENGTH A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape ... but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape... A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything ... but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear... A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her ... but a woman of strength gives the best of herself to everyone... A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future... a woman of strength realizes life’s mistakes can also be God’s blessings and capitalizes on them... A strong woman walks sure footedly... but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls... A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face... but a woman of strength wears grace... A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey... but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become stron Flowers are a tradition of mother’s day. On the first mother’s day, the daughter who started it all passed out carnations, because that was her mother’s favorite flower. I thought of passing out carnations today- but not only would that have been expensive, I thought of a better flower to pass out. The flower that we have all given to our mothers at some point in our lives. I relate the dandelion back to wisdom – but I can relate it back to the everyday faith of God. The dandelion – some would call it a weed, but I think that it is a flower of faith. a flower of strength. A strength that is with us, and is so common, in so many places there we don’t even pay attention. To the wisdom of God that is all around us. Amen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Make a list of 31 things your wife does for you and the family which you seldom thank her for. Make a point of thanking her specifically for one on each day of the coming month. On each day of the following month pay her a new compliment on one of her good attitudes, character qualities, habits or talents. And be prepared for a better relationship than you've enjoyed in quite a while. think of how often in scripture it is the woman who is the vehicle for ministry. Who prompted Jesus to perform His first miracle? A Woman! Who ministered to Christ during His public ministry? The women! Who anointed the body of Jesus? The women! Who stayed with Jesus throughout his trial and crucifixion? The women! Who were the first witnesses to the resurrected Savior? The women! Who makes up the majority of the population of most churches today? The women! g...

I am Glad to have this Opportunity

May 5, 2013 Acts 16:9-15 John 14:23-29 I am glad to have this opportunity Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C Dreams are the first place the spirit comes to meet us Dreams are an important part of all of our lives. The dreams that we have at night, have a lot to do with what we do in the morning. And have you noticed that we have different types of dreams, some dreams are happy, some dreams are not. Sometimes we dream of the same thing every night, ad yet lately for me, I know that I had a dream, but if I don’t get up and write it down, it is totally gone within minutes. Sometimes our dream is a dream, sometimes it is a vision, sometimes it is even a nightmare. But I truly believe that sometimes what we dream doesn’t matter within itself, what truly matters is what we do with it when we wake up. What feelings are we left with after the dream, what actions did you take because of it? Dreams were the way the spirit talked to the disciples As we have been reading stories from the book of acts, have you noticed that in each of the stories, it begins with a dream. God came to the apostles in a dream. The dream may have ended, but the apostle went on about is day, based on that dream. It was as if the holy spirit spoke to them, and when they woke up they were able to recognize the working of the spirit in their lives. Peter was told in a dream to take care of Dorcas, last week a dream told Peter is was okay to visit a gentile and to eat his food. This week Peter has a dream that someone needs him in Macedonia. Paul is headed for the middle east, but a dream tells him that he is supposed to go somewhere else. Somewhere that he doesn’t know, to do something the he’s ever known, in a situation that looked totally empty. But it was full of the promises of God. He just needed to be open to it. All because He had a vision from God. Vision is in our perspective Rick Warren gives the simplest definition of vision when he said, “Vision is the ability to see the opportunities within your current circumstances.” Perhaps you heard about the Yankee shoe salesman who went to Africa and wired his manufacturer, “I want to come home. Nobody wears shoes in this part of Africa.” So they brought him home and sent another salesman who shipped back order after order. He wrote the home office, “Everybody here needs shoes!” More on the story of Lydia Via Ignatia is a pretty significant highway now – the highway is much more significant and much busier then Phillipi. As a matter of fact if you don’t slow down and intentionally look for the stop on the side of the road you will miss it. It is a five to six hour highway drive to Macedonia from Phillipi. I could only imagine how long it would have taken to walk that journey. But a man appeared in a dream and told Paul that he was needed in Macedonia and he needed to make the trip. So he and Silas set off for Macedonia. On my trip following in the footsteps of Paul, we travelled down the via ignatia. There are two major roads from Rome – the via Appian and the via ignatia. They were actually built in 2BC – they were roads intended to connect all of the roman provinces to Rome. Soldiers followed this road in order to get anywhere they needed to be to keep order, supplies could be transported anywhere. More than 2000 years later- both roads are still used. It makes it pretty easy to follow in the footsteps of Paul. In his travels, Paul went where the people were. He followed the major urban areas of his time in order to spread the gospel. In the beginning, he stayed close to home, close to the middle east. The call to Macedonia was a call to reach out into the heart of the land of the gentiles. To reach people who would not have known Jesus Christ, yet and still knew the Holy Spirit. As I said, Macedonia was six hours away in a car- but he made the trip walking. Along the way he stopped by the river and met a group of women praying. Lyddia was the head of that group – she was not a jew- but she followed the jewish ways, she prayed and she believed in God. And she became Paul’s first convert. Since she was a wealthy woman, once she was baptized, that meant that all of her servants, her relatives and her household also became Christians. Today, you can still visit that place along the river. It has been left alone. I think that I still have water in my refrigerator from that river. And a little ways from the river is a small chapel, it is not a place of worship, it is intended just for baptisms. People come to baptize their babies at the place where Lyddia was baptized. We are all waiting for our destiny. Waiting for that person, the place, that turn down the street, that vision that will change our lives. Lyddia not only changed Paul’s life, but she changed the life of us all. She was the first European to be baptized, she was influential in her community so she was able to bring others to Christ. Phillipi is a long way away from Macedonia – and yet her conversion was proof that Paul was following the way of God. All of Greece followed Lyddia and became Christian. The greek flag is blue and white to represent the sea. But where our flag has 50 stars, the greek flag has a cross. The entire nation is Greek Orthodox. Because one woman praying next to a river saw the presence of the holy spirit in Paul and his message. From the via ignatia – the word spread all over the world. Water from Phillipi I am glad that we are studying this story today. I have had this bottle of water in my refrigerater for years, I have several other bottles of special water from the Jordan River, from Keosha Wisconsin, but I couldn’t remember why I had this bottle. It is from Phillipi. Lydia’s group didn’t have a synagogue to go to, so they worshipped in an empty place by the river. They called it the place of prayer. Where is our place of prayer? Paul must have asked God why he was called to come to an empty space. I think that today may of us feel that way. That we are in a place that is empty. A place where people don’t want to hear about God. A place where people don’t need the church. But the reality was, it was a place filled with the potential of God. God had a plan for the space, God came to Paul I a dream. Paul was in touch with God to believe in that dream. We all dream at night, there are dreams and there are dreams. We all have visions, there are visions and there are visions from God. We all have to know God well enough to discern when God is speaking to us. We have to trust God enough to understand that the Holy Spirit has been working on the situation way ahead of us. The hard work is done – all there is for us to do is to believe. Believe that God has a plan for our situation. Jesus gave us the gift of the spirit If you look at the gospel, once again we lose a part of the story. Jesus is preparing his disciples for the day that he will walk away from them. He is telling them that even though he is absent they don’t have to be afraid. Because the holy spirit will be with him. The disciple Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asks Jesus a question that we always have. Jesus, how is it that we will see you, but the rest of the world does not. It is because we have been trained to recognize the presence of the spirit. Every story that we hear in the book of acts is important, out of all of the things that happened in the life of the disciples, Luke felt that these stories are important for us to know. Lydia was the first European to be baptized, which meant that Christianity was well on its way to reaching the whole world. Jesus said that the gospel would reach beyond Judia and Samaria and reach the ends of the earth. Who were the people who felt that they were supposed to conquer the world – the Europeans. The holy spirit knew what needed to be done to get the work done. The book of acts is our guide to learning to listen to the working of the spirit in our lives, and in our situation. My gift of the spirit this week, and there have been many; was a conversation with a woman that I met at the planning session for the green festival. I told her I was a pastor, and we started talking about her church. I asked her what church she went to, and she said that she went to a small church that took the book of acts seriously. She said that her church intentionally tried to live out the book of acts. She said that they speak I tongues, and cast out devils and display all of the power of the holy spirit demonstrated in the book of acts. I laughed – because I thought we don’t get to read all of those stories about casting out demons, and speaking I tongues. But I told her that I am preaching on the book of acts, because I want my church to be an acts church too. A church that believes in the power of the holy spirit, and understands that power is available to them. The spirit is all around us, it is inside of us, it is behind us, it is in front of us. it is working on our behalf. We just have to believe in its power in all situations. Even our places of prayer – the places in our lives where we think nothing is happening. Starting a new ministry in the heart of an old place is daunting, going out amongst hostile people and believe that God is there is hard – but possible. A Greater Power Watching There was a nature show on television about a black bear that gave birth to two cubs. One cub died right away. Three weeks later the mother died and the remaining cub was left to fend for itself. An orphaned cub in that condition is like a walking buffet for predators. And of course the camera immediately showed a hungry-looking mountain lion. One day the orphan cub encountered a giant male black bear. The little cub cowered at the bear's sheer mass. The larger bear peered around and seemed to realize that the mother bear wasn't anywhere to be found. He gave the little cub a friendly nudge. The camera then showed the little bear happily trailing along after the larger one. The adoption papers were signed, sealed and registered at the county seat in that nudge. Papa bear proceeded to show the cub how to grub for insects and how to catch fish and how to scratch his back against a tree. One day the two bears became separated. The cub began to cry and looked frantically for his new father, but couldn't find him anywhere. The cub approached a stream where he'd learned to fish and something caught his attention. He looked up to see a mountain lion ready to pounce. That same mountain lion had stalked the cub for the entire show. There was no way that mountain lion would've gone for that cub with Papa bear around, but now.... The camera zoomed in on the cub. He automatically mimicked the posture of his adopted father when threatened. He stood on his hind legs and bared his teeth. Then, in the exactly the same way his new father would have done, this cub let loose a mighty growl that should have reverberated throughout the forest. But, only a tiny bear cub squeak came out. Well, you know what was coming. But, to everybody's astonishment the mountain lion lowered his head and ran off in the opposite direction. The camera panned back to the proud little cub still standing tall on his hind legs. And then all the viewers saw what that little cub Could Not: a few yards behind him, at full, ferocious height, his sharp, white teeth bared in a snarl, stood Daddy bear. He may not have made a sound, but he was there. And even though the cub couldn't see his father, his father stood guard, protecting his young. The little cub had power available greater than anything he could produce on his own. There was a greater power watching over him. Jesus said, [21] "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." Billy D. Strayhorn, What Difference Does It Make? The devil is watching and waiting to get us each and every day. Waiting for that moment when we are all alone, and he come in peace to destroy us. Jesus has taught us how to protect ourselves, how to make it through. If we believe start to see the presence of the spirit in our lives, if we start to do what we see the spirit do – that power is always with us in ways we may not even know. If we are willing to go through the motions. Then the spirit will do the work. ________________________ A Place of Peace Jesus was preparing his disciples for tough times. He was about to ascend to the Father and they would be on their own -- left to find their way through this world alone. And yet, they would not be alone. For he would be with them in the presence of the Comforter, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit. In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan battled for an entire year to find a passage around South America. There at the very tip of the continent, in its icy waters he encountered some of the worst weather anywhere on earth. Raging seas, towering ice floes, and a mutinous crew plagued his efforts. When he finally made his way through those straits (which today bear his name -- the Straits of Magellan), he entered into a great body of water that lay beyond, and as he and his men lifted their faces to heaven and gave thanks to God, he named the new ocean "The Peaceful One -- the Pacific Ocean." In his words this morning, Jesus desires to lead us in the same way to a place of peace. It is his hope to direct our feet and steer our lives from the paths that would lead to hell to his place of peace. "Let not your hearts be troubled," he says, "neither let them be afraid." Lee Griess, Sermons for Lent/Easter, CSS Publishing Company ___________________