Becoming Real

 June 26, 2016 2 Corinthians 4:1-5:10 Becoming Real Ministry Celebration Sunday Today is ministry Sunday. On this Sunday, I want to acknowledge the transitions and changes going on in the life of our church. Today, only some people will be called forward and acknowledged. But this day is for all of us. I want us to look at how far we have grown, how far we have come as a congregation. This is the first time in 7 years that we have been able to have a confirmation class. And yet we have nurtured these young people to this point. Jacquie came to us two years at a student pastor and now it is time for her to move to the next phase in her journey. But none of them got to this point by themselves, and just as God has transformed them, God has transformed each of us. We have all grown in our relationship with one another, and with God. So the lesson for today is that God is not through with us yet, we still have a ways to go. We spend a lot of time talking about the money that we do not have, the things that we cannot do. But we don’t always realize how far God has bought us. 4 years ago, you all were two separate congregations with no thought of coming together. 3 years ago, we agreed to become one church- but had no idea of what that means. Today we are one church, with one mission, working together, understanding that our future is in walking together and accepting the new challenges of life. We are growing, and anything that grows is alive. Being alive means having some good days and some bad days. It means having some ups and down. Being alive means having some pains. As a matter of fact, growth can sometime be a painful process. My inspiration for today’s sermon is this storybook. I have several children’s books on my desk as reference. My favorite is the Little engine that could. But recently I added this one – the Velveteen Rabbit. I am sure we have heard of this story it is a classic. Would someone like to share the story…… When I reread the story I realized that there were a lot of lessons from the bible in the story. I am going to share 6 of those lessons today. 1. Comes from the title of the book – the title is The Velveteen Rabbit – how toys become real. In times of transition, we move from one state to another state. But everything we do in life is in search of a real relationship with God. It is about us becoming real authentic sons and daughters of God. Life is about all of us learning how to become real. All thoughout the book, real is always in all caps – the show us how important that journey is for all of us. 2. The second lesson comes from an important conversation that the rabbit has with an old and wise toy – the skin horse – who has been in the nursery so long – that all of his fur is gone. The Horse introduces the concept of becoming real. What is real the rabbit ask. It is a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long time. It does not often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, who have to be carefully kept. High maintenance people don’t get very far in life. In order to grow you have to be flexible, you have to be open to new things and new ideas. Being open means being vulnerable, being open to criticism, being able to risk being wrong in order to learn what is right. 3. Does it hurt asks the rabbit? Let me asks you – does being alive hurt? Will any of us leave this earth without being hurt in some way? Have you noticed that you more you love, the more pain you feel in life? But have you noticed the to be hurt and to survive makes you a stronger person. When you are real you don’t mind being hurt says the skin horse. 4. Along with the hurt comes scars. Scars can be painful, but they are also ugly to look at. I was just looking at all of the scars that I have on my body, many of which are never going away. Not only we have physical scars, we also have emotional scars, At least the scars have started to heal, but what about the wounds – those parts of us that have not healed. The Skin horse says that by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real, you can’t be ugly except to people who do not understand. 5. In the story, once the boy loves the rabbit for awhile, the rabbit becomes full of himself and is convinced that he is real. Until the day he comes in contact with some real rabbits. Rabbits that move with no motorized parts, and with parts so perfectly made that you cant even see the seams. He gets a vision of what a real rabbit looks like. Lesson 5- is that God will always give us a vision of a better version of ourselves and our lives. God will always show us the future that we can step into. When we get a vision of the future – we feel so inadequate in our present state. And yet that inadequacy can either stunt our growth or it can give us the inspiration to grow and to become more. 6. The end of the story is very bittersweet. The little boy gets scarlet fever, and the doctor tells Nana that they must burn all of old toys, escpecially that old rabbit that still holds all of those bad germs. The rabbit is put in a bag with other toys to be burned. While waiting his fate, the rabbit remembers all of the good times he spent with the boy, and he starts to cry. Out of his real tear – as it falls to ground a flower blooms and a fairy comes out of the middle. She is the fairy of old toys. When toys are old and no longer wanted, the fairy appears and makes them real. When he was useful, he was real to the boy – but now it is time for him to be real to everyone. How many of us have dreams, hopes for the future? How many of us have plans for ourselves, for the church. Dreams start our in a very special place in our hearts. They are real to us, but no one else knows about them. We don’t want them to get dashed, we don’t want them to be attacked or taken away from us. So we hold onto them. We keep them close in our hearts, we protect them, we keep them to ourselves. But the only way that our dreams will become reality is if we let them go and if we let others touch them and help us to make them real. Imagine if God thought like us? Imagine if God had held onto his dreams and never let his son come to earth? To be real, to be alive to be killed? Where would be? The story of the Velveteen Rabbit is a lot like the story of Jesus. The bible says in the beginning was the word, and the world was with God. Jesus was with God in creation. When the angel announced the birthto Mary – Jesus knew whatwas going to happen. On Christmas morning when Jesus sat in the manger, who knew that Easter was coming. He knew that coming to earth meant pain, suffering and death from those he was trying to save. And yet he came anyway. He loved us anyway. Being loved means having you fur rubbed off, being ugly – it is all a part of being a human being on this earth. I am putting word into Jesus mouth – but I can imagine if someone asks him was it worth it – he would have said yes. Did he really need to die on the cross – yes. Was it worth it to try and save ungrateful people? – yes. If he had it to do all over again, would he? What would he do differently? Would he walk away from all of the snide remarks about him? Would he really walk toward Jerusalem or would he walk away? Would he really endure the pain of the cross again? Would he get so close to these people? Would he die for all these ungrateful people? Yes he would do it all again, yes it was worth it to be loved to death. The reward for it all – new life, not just for him but for all people. Not just a renewal of heaven, but all of earth. It wasn’t just about him and his dream but it was God’s dream that his people be saved. Imagine if God was not willing to give his dream away and to trust it to people – where would we be? Imagine if Jesus was not willing to feel pain and to be hurt, where would we be? Being real is always bittersweet – but the reward is eternal life, peace and joy. I want to end with the words of 2 Corinthians. We endure all of this, because it is the only way to eternal life. One day we will no longer have earthly bodies, but spiritual bodies. All of our tears will be wipes away. We will experience a total transformation. But it is our pains, that make the joy of resurrection so great. So make never be afraid to grow, to fail, to live, and to love. Amen. That that doesn’t kill us will make us better persons!

Forgiven alot - loved alot

June 11, 2016 Luke 7:36-8:3 Pentecost Year B This has been a big week for women. Hillary Clinton has finally clinched the democratic nomination for president. And her whole campaign is based on being the first woman to win that endorsement. And I am happy for her achievement. Yet a little dismayed, because she did not get there on her own two feet. There were many other women who have opened doors for her, and have run for president. Many of her forebearers are black women. I am wearing Shirley Chisolm’s campaign tshirt in honor of her 1972 run for president. I remember her campaign well. But I wonder why Hillary needs to pretend that she got here on her own, without the help of those people like Shirley Chisolm. I wonder why this is her victory and not theirs. But we will see if her tone changes over the campaign. I mention that fact because the lesson today in Luke is all about women. We know that the twelve disciples were all men. But Luke tells us that there were many women who also travelled with Jesus, who learned from him and who carried out his message. Unfortunately, we don’t know their names and we don’t know their stories. But we can be grateful for their participation to make a difference and to transform the world. I think more importantly, we can be grateful that Jesus was intentional about making sure that women have a place at the table. Jesus allowed women to follow him and to be a part of his ministry. As I said, a woman is the main character in this story. Jesus has been invited to dinner at the house of a Pharisee. It seems obvious that this man didn’t really like Jesus. But he wanted to impress his guest by inviting someone famous to his party. It would be sort like inviting Gov. Rauner to our church service. I may not agree with everything that he says. But I would welcome to publicity that it would generate by having a conversation with him. And of course when he arrives, I am going to be watching him like a hawk, waiting for him to say or do something stupid so that I can criticize him. That was the position that Jesus was in when a woman walks in and starts to listen to his teachings. The woman has her hair down, so she is not married. When a woman married, she bound her hair up and never took it down again. More than likely, the host invited her in for all of the other guest. But with Jesus being a holy man, he was supposed to push her away. So when she came in an approached Jesus, and Jesus did not turn her away, the host concludes that Jesus must not be holy. He must be a fraud. He had found his criticism. But the good news is the Jesus is a prophet, and he has learned to respect and honor the gifts of women. He knows this woman, and he know her sins and he loves her anyway. I think that it is important to point out that Jesus knows her sins, but we do not. The host assumed that she was a woman of the night, but we have no details to support that. We don’t know who she is but we do know that Jesus loves her and accepts her for who she is. That Woman Is You As many of you know, we are looking for an office administrator. One of the candidates I interviewed caught me a bit off guard when she asked what the members of the congregation would think about a secretary who was divorced. I hadn’t really thought about that question. Then a fellow pastor told about the secretary at his church whom he learned had been a prostitute. She was a very good secretary, and very few members of the congregation knew anything about her former life. But she did not feel very good about herself. She despised what she had done and she despised the men who paid her for the use of her body. She also despised the people she believed would condemn her if they knew of her former profession. She was desperately looking for love and acceptance. One week my friend preached on the Gospel lesson for today, and it was the secretary’s job to type up his sermon. When she finished typing it, she asked to talk with the pastor. She didn’t understand the statement he had made that Jesus accepted all people knowing who and what they were. For she could not believe that God or God’s people could accept her, knowing who she was and what she had done. The pastor read her from this text from Luke 7. The secretary got tears in her eyes. "How I wish I was that woman," she said. "That woman is you!" he replied and she cried. "Would you baptize me, knowing what I am?" she asked. He did, and her baptism was one of the most moving events in his ministry. Frank Rothfuss, Begrudging God’s Grace. We all have a history. We all have a story to tell. The good news is the Jesus loves us just the way we are. At a fancy dinner party, the guest would have something to say about all of us, and yet Jesus loves us and forgives us inspite of our story. A Good Judge of Character A certain young woman was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. As she checked out her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy. So she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast. Arriving at the impressive home, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered, poodle. The dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young woman's shoes and followed her around all evening. At the end of the evening, the pleased parents remarked, "Cleo really likes you, dear, and she is an excellent judge of character. We are delighted to welcome you into our little family." It seems that perhaps Cleo was a better judge of bacon grease than she was a judge of character. The Pharisees believed that Jesus wasn't a very good judge of character. Think back to our scripture reading for today. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Another story that has been in the news a lot this week is the story of a Stanford student who assaulted a young woman because she was drunk. The debate is on how little respect he had for this woman, and how other men in his life are justifying his actions. It shows us that attitudes toward women have not changed much since biblical times. And that is why I think it is so important for women to respect one another and who we are. But the good news in this story for all is us is in the words of Jesus to the man, not the woman. He tells the woman that her faith has made her whole. But Jesus tells the man, that he was so concerned about how good he was, that he did not show love, and respect and honor. But this woman who showed nothing but love from the time she was in the room, was the one whom was forgiven. Getting Out of the Pit There is an old legend about Judas that Madeleine L'Engle tells. The legend is that after his death Judas found himself at the bottom of a deep and slimy pit. For thousands of years he wept his repentance, and when the tears were finally spent, he looked up and saw way, way up a tiny glimmer of light. After he had contemplated it for another thousand years or so, he began to try to climb up towards the light. The walls of the pit were dark and slimy, and he kept slipping back down. Finally, after great effort, he neared the top and then he slipped and fell all the way back down to the bottom. It took him many years to recover, all the time weeping bitter tears of grief and repentance, and then he started to climb up again. After many more falls and efforts and failures, he reached the top and dragged himself into an upper room with twelve people seated around the table. "We've been waiting for you, Judas," Jesus said. "We couldn't begin till you came." So many people are looking for a community of forgiven and forgiving sinners. Would they find what they are seeking here? Jimmy Moor, A Place of Welcome Who are you in the story? Are you the righteous host, judging the actions of everyone else? Or are you the woman, who saw nothing in that room but the love of Jesus? Forgiveness is a give and a take. Who do you need to forgive in order to be forgiven? What act of love has God shown you, in spite of who you are? Who in your life is need of that same act of love? Those who have been forgiven much – have much to give. Those who have been forgiven little have little to give. Which are you? Listening to the Noise Some years ago I served as a campus pastor at Oregon State University, and one of the activities we had each week was a Wednesday noon study. From time to time we would pick different topics to discuss, and sometimes we would be hooked. At one of those luncheons we were discussing the book "The Courage to Teach." We were asked by our facilitator on that day to share an experience of a teacher who influenced our lives. Vicki Collins, an English professor, shared an experience of a teacher who changed her life during high school. She says the classroom in which her teacher was teaching was located on the side of the building where a main thoroughfare of the city ran. Traffic was constant, including the sound of emergency vehicles, throughout each day. At the beginning of each class, the teacher would complain to the students about the noise from the traffic. The emergency vehicles especially annoyed him with their sirens. After one weekend, the teacher addressed the class at the beginning as he usually did. This day he said he wanted to apologize to the class. He told them that this weekend his wife had an emergency situation. The service that the ambulance provided saved his wife's life and his baby's life. He told his students, "I want to apologize because I was listening to the noise instead of thinking about the lives." The disciples looked at a sinner in the community; they did not see the woman who in her life was reaching out for help. In his external world, the teacher heard noise. The experience with his wife and child caused him to inwardly see that lives were being cared for by those noisy vehicles. As a result of his experience, he gained a better perspective of his experiences with the emergency vehicles. He apologized to his students. Friends, Jesus is helping these disciples, and us, to see that there are lives that need care. Sometimes the "noises" of selfish desires, self-centered desires, greed, or bigotry, keep us from seeing beyond the sin or the wrongly perceived experiences of life. The opportunity we have is that of seeing Jesus' way of seeing people, seeing the possibilities for righteousness in them, forgiving them when they fall short, encouraging them to go in peace. Isaiah Jones Jr., Seeing Beyond the Sin A Way to God Before the Reformation Martin Luther was in his monk's cell weeping because of his sins. His confessor, a young man, simply didn't know what to do, so he began repeating the Apostles' Creed. "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. "I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church; the communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins; the . . . ." "Wait!" Luther interrupted his confessor. "What did you say?" "What do you mean, what did I say?" "That last part. What was it again?" "Oh, that. I said, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.'" "The forgiveness of sins," Luther said as if savoring each word. "The forgiveness of sins. Then there is hope for me somewhere. Then maybe there is a way to God." There is a way to God. Jesus Christ died to provide that way. We may not be a woman of the city but there are sins that break our hearts as well. And there is One who sees those broken hearts and cares, and forgives, and heals, and makes whole. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com The Cookie Thief Today's gospel reminds me of the story of the cookie thief. A woman at the airport waiting to catch her flight bought herself a bag of cookies, settled in a chair in the airport lounge and began to read her book. Suddenly she noticed the man beside her helping himself to her cookies. Not wanting to make a scene, she read on, ate cookies, and watched the clock. As the daring "cookie thief" kept on eating the cookies she got more irritated and said to herself, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd blacken his eye!" She wanted to move the cookies to her other side but she couldn’t bring her self to do it. With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. Then with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half, and he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, "Oh brother, this guy has some nerve, and he's also so rude, why, he didn't even show any gratitude!" She sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look at the ungrateful "thief." She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, reached in her bag to get a book to read and forget about the incident. Next to her book was her bag—of cookies. The cookies they ate in the lounge were his not hers. She had been the thief not him. The cookie thief story reminds us, as we see in today's gospel, that it often happens that the one pointing the accusing finger turns out to be the guilty one, that the complainant sometimes turns out to be the offending party. In the cookie story, the woman believed she was such a wonderful person to put up with the rudeness and ingratitude of the man sitting beside her. In the end she discovered that she was the rude and ungrateful one and the man was wonderfully friendly. In the gospel the Pharisee thinks he is the righteous one who is worthy to be in the company of Jesus and that the woman was the sinful one unworthy to be seen with Jesus. In the end Jesus showed each of them where they really belonged and the woman was seen as the one who was righteous and more deserving of the company of Jesus than the self-righteous Pharisee. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com Who doesn’t love M&M candies! They really do “melt in your mouth not in your hand” (most of the time). They come in a rainbow of colors (though really, where did the tan ones go?). And they offer the option of chocolate all the way through, or a peanut in the middle. To celebrate seventy-five years of this candy, the manufacturers of M&M’s are trying something new. Three new flavors are being “taste tested” on the public. The deal here is that three new flavors are being offered, but only one of the three will become a standard. The other two will “lose out” and be dropped. The three options of these new peanut M&M’s are Honey Nut, Coffee Nut, and Chili Nut. Of course, you and I are supposed to buy all three, taste all three, and then vote for our favorite. As manufacturers, the Mars Candy Company really only cares about the “buy all three” part. Word on the street has it that Chili Nut has taken an early lead. But as Jesus followers, as the first “mix and mingle” crowd, the first M&M’s, we are called to welcome and nurture and embrace ALL flavors of nuts. By the way, NUTS is an acronym that means “Never Underestimate the Spirit.” We might have a personal favorite, but that does not mean we vote all the others out of existence. Justified in Christ, as we live a sanctified life, waiting for the final glorification of God’s Kingdom through Christ, we must always remain a mixed bag of nuts. ERMON ILLUSTRATION Are Women More Religious? It's not true that women are more religious than men. It's just easier in our society for them to express religious interest outwardly. Mark Galli, Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 1. Object: A box of crayons and a coloring book. Lesson: Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you like to color? (Let them answer.) What are some of the things you color? (Let them answer. Hold up crayons and book.) I brought some crayons and a coloring book this morning. There are all types of coloring books to choose from. We can color in the coloring books, or we can take a piece of plain paper and draw our own pictures. My parents always told me to color in a book or on paper. They said never to color anything else, but I decided to see what it would look like if I colored on my bedroom walls. I knew that it was wrong, but I thought I could hide it if my parents ever came in. Have any of you ever done anything you were told not to do? (Let them answer.) It was a terrible thing to do, but I drew a small picture on my wall. Then I tried to wash it off so my mother and father wouldn't get mad at me. I found I couldn't wash it off. In fact, when I tried to wipe it off, it smeared and even got messier. I was really sorry I had disobeyed them. They found the drawing on my wall and were very angry. I had to stay in my room all day. I told my parents I was sorry, and that it would never happen again. Have any of you colored on a wall when you were not allowed to? (Let them answer. Give crayons to one of the children.) Would you color on the church's walls? (Let the child answer.) Why not? (Let them answer.) Of course, we all knew it would be wrong. Sometimes we all do things we know are wrong, but even though our parents or our teachers are angry with us, they always forgive us. They know that we are sorry. When we disobey our parents, it is wrong! When we disobey Jesus, it is a sin. We sin when we do things Jesus has told us not to do. But even Jesus forgives us. Jesus forgives the worst sinners. We must ask Jesus for forgiveness, just like we ask our parents for forgiveness when we do something wrong. We have to tell Jesus that we are sorry, and we have to promise him that we will try to never sin again. If we are really sorry -- if we really try to do the right things, Jesus will forgive us, just like your parents will forgive you when you do the wrong things. Jesus tells us that if we believe in him and try to do the right things, he will forgive us. I hope you will never try to write on a wall with crayons -- but remember, your parents love you and will forgive you if you do something wrong. Jesus loves you and will forgive you when you sin. If you believe in him, all your sins will be forgiven. The next time you are coloring, remember what happened to me. Don't color on anything but a coloring book or paper, and remember that Jesus forgives us for all the sins in our lives. Amen.

Who do you trust with Life and Death?

June 5, 2016 1 Kings 18:20-46 Luke 7:1-10 Who has the power of life and death in your life? Year C In the lectionary for the summer, the Hebrew bible lesson will be about the life of the prophets. So I am planning on concentrating on the important life lessons these great men (and they only tell us the stories of the men). But they teach us some great lessons. Last week we started the story of Elijah. Elijah just shows up one the scene one day, walking down the road on a journey one day. When his journey is done, he disappears from the scene in much the same way. But today I want to start by pointing out that Elijah’s ministry started out in a drought. Elijah’s first job as a prophet was to tell the people that there would be neither rain nor dew for a few years until God said so. Elijah realized that there were some things that needed to be corrected in their attitude. I feel like I am going through a little of a drought in life myself, where things are just not falling into place. But I am realizing also, that this is not a time to despair, to give up. It is a time to reach within my spirit, and to realize what is there. Who am I, what does God expect me to overcome, where does my help amd my strength come from. But this is not just about me, when I listen to the headlines I think they we are in a time of drought also. It is supposed to rain today – but I think that we are in a spiritual drought. A time when we have a whole lot of problems, but not a whole lot of solutions. A time when people are questioning everything. It seems like all of the coverage on the problem of violence is making it worse. Instead of people putting the guns down, they are even more encouraged to used them. This year we seem to be losing our heros and role models at an alarming rate. But the most telling part for me they we are in a societal drought is the way we make collective decisions, and work together. Or in reality, we don’t work together.Even at general conference, I felt that this was the second time in 8 years where we were so afraid of making a definitive decision about anything, so afraid of alienating people with what we think, we didn’t think about anything. Even at the local annual conference level it was announced that there would be no new legislation. We are going to meet for three days, but there will be no debates, no discussion, no real decisions. We are so afraid of different opinions, we don’t talk. This is a national election year, and our nation is at the same point. People are questioning wether to vote for either candidate. Some say that they are satisfied with neither. Paul Ryan said that the Republican party must united before the fall. Someone said that it took them a minute to realize that he was talking about uniting before autumn, and not before the total decline of the republican party, and ultimately our whole political system. Elijah asks his people a question, but he asks us the same question – How long will you hobble between two opinions. If the Lord is God then follow God, If Baal is God then follow Baal- the people gave no answer. I think that every generation is faced with that same choice. Who do your trust with your life? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. We know that answer- but we still have a problem with making a choice. No matter how one sided the race really is- we still want to feel that we have a choice. But as long as I have a choice, I don’t have to make a choice. Or I can make a stupid choice in order to spite others. Now I know that you are going to say – Pastor making a choice for God, and making a choice between Hillary and Donald are not quite the same. And you are right, but the point that Elijah was making, was that in a time of drought, we have a problem making a solid decision at all about anything. In the 1 Kings story Elijah challenges the Gods of Baal to a test to see which God is the strongest. The King of Israel, Ahab who should believe in God, has married Jezebel who worships another God. She has introduced her religion into Israel, and the people don’t know what to believe. So Elijah challenges to the priest of Baal. Let us see whose God is the strongest. They create an altar to see which God will consume the sacrifice. God comes in a fire - and the people are able to chose God as their God. What will it take for the people of today to chose God as their God. What will it take to see the power of God in our lives? What will it take for people to learn how to make decisions – healthy decisions about their own best interest? What will it take for people to see their their health, wellbeing, and strength all come from God? What will it take to see that aside from God’s choices, it is next to impossible for us to make a choice. Bear in mind, God had called the drought, and it was the conditions of the drought that made it hard for the people to choose right from wrong. And yet God said that until you choose me, the drought will continue. God is still asking us to choose God. God is still asking us to put God first as we make our decisions. No matter how much Hillary, or Bernie, or even Donald talk about themselves – they can do nothing outside of the power of God. Meanwhile, we still have to make a decision. In order to get the people to see clearly enough to make a decision, Elijah did three things. First he rebuilt the altar of the Lord. I think that it is so hard for our kids to see God at work in the world, because so many of our sacred places in life have been destroyed. The family is not sacred anymore, the church is not sacred, respect is not sacred. If you don’t know anything about the church, there is no place in our society for people to come and to encounter God. We have to rebuild our altars, so people can encounter God. Second of all Elijah prayed- he called upon the Lord in the midst of the situation. He said Lord I am your servant, and if your are really God then answer me. We have to pray for rain I the midst of a drought. We have to pray for change, We have to pray for common sense, It is too late to choose new presidential candidate, we can pray that God will prevail. Last of all, Elijah knew for sure when God had finally arrived. It rained, and Elijah praised God for the rain. Text Illustration: God’s Grace Is Like Lightning and Transforms Whoever it Strikes Martin Luther found that out. Walking through the forest one day, praying and working through spiritual torment, literally, the lightning did strike close by. And he felt that as the summons of God. Luther came closer, and when God sent the lightning strike, it was grace. It was what he needed to turn his life around. John Wesley found it out. Serving as a missionary in the Georgia penal colony, he was a miserable failure. He sailed home in distress, not sure what he would do with the rest of his life. But in a little chapel in Aldersgate Street in London, listening to someone comment on the Scripture, Wesley says that he "felt his heart strangely warmed, and did know that Christ was his savior." Wesley came closer, and when the lightning struck and God got his attention, he found that it was grace, all grace, and hope. Jim Vaus found it out. As a professional criminal, working for the Cohen gang in New York City, Vaus chose to steal, swindle, maim, or even kill to get what he wanted. But there was a nagging feeling inside that it meant nothing. The things that do not satisfy. The FBI arrested Jim Vaus and he was sent to prison. But in prison he heard the gospel, and knew that it was for him. The last I knew, Jim Vaus, ex-criminal, ex-con, was running a youth ministry in a place aptly called Hell’s Kitchen. The lightning struck, and it was grace. From a sermon by Joseph Smith, Standing Close to the Lightning Strike, 11/19/2009 Sometimes God sends a drought in our lives, to help us to open our hearts and souls to the needs for God in our lives. Sometimes God sends us situations where we may have to actually think about our choices and come out of our automatic decisions, and we have to put serving God first as our priority. But if we are faithful, if we wait on the Lord and we trust that the Lord is coming- God will be God- the real God in our lives and in the lives of the world. Let us pray… Children’s Sermon: Have the children make a choice and tell why they made a choice.