This is the family of God

June 22, 2014 Genesis 21:8-21 2nd Sunday After Pentecost Year A This is the Family of God Humor: What God Can’t Do A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God's omnipotence. She asked: "Is there anything God can't do?" There was silence. Finally, one lad held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson's point had been missed, asked: "Well, just what is it that God can't do?" "Well," replied the boy: "He can't please everybody." Gary W. Houston, Cowherding Christians, CSS Publishing Company God can do anything. For the summer we read the stories of Genesis. Stories of families of faith. but they are also stories of jealousy, dishonesty,anger, disharmony. We hear these stories, because they are a testimony to how God can take even that negativity and make it a good thing. We can all name the members of our family, but we have to remember that God is a part of that family also. God is a part of what is going on. Thinking that she would never have a child of her own, Sarah allowed her servant to have a son with her husband. But we have to remember that nothing is ever set in stone when god is present. So she does have a son at ninety years old. She takes good care of the baby, and when he is about three years old, she has a special celebration after he has been weaned. She looks and sees that her son is playing with his older brother and it hits her. This is not going to work. As long as Abraham’s older son is a part of the family, her son will never get his just inheritance. She gave permission for the situation that bought this boy into her family, and now it was time to take action to get him out of her family. he and his mother have to go. Sarah speaks it, and Abraham agrees with her. But not only does Abraham agree with her, but so does God. God says that it is okay to just through these two people out into the desert. Sometimes in my life, I have had to ask God, if he knew something was going to happen. And why would he allow it to happen. Remember, in the story of Job. God gave the devil permission to bring bad luck to Job. Now stick with me, because I am going somewhere with this. Why would God allow bad things to happen to his beloved people? If we listen to the story – we will see it clearly. Sarah tells Abraham to send Ishmael and Hagar into the desert to fend for themselves. Now Sarah is having a big feast for her family and friends, but she sends Hagar off into the desert with just some bread and water. Have you ever felt that you were sent out into the desert of life to survive on your own? To come up with your answers? To an unknown future? It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t look over and see the people who banished you to the desert, in the midst of a feast- enjoying themselves, they have provided for themselves very well – but not for you. What Sarah, and a lot of people like Sarah could not see if the midst of her jealousy and hatred is that the desert is the place where God lives and God speaks. The story says that Ishmael cried and God heard his cry. Sometimes we have to separate ourselves from the problem in order to start to see God’s solution. It takes going out into the desert and thinking that we are all alone to realize that we are not alone. Being sent into the desert is the beginning of a new blessing for us. Abraham was not willing to provide an inheritance for is first born son, but God was. God said that is was okay for him to be banished from Abraham’s family, because he would be a great nation in his own right. His life would be okay. What Sarah did not realize, was just because God made a promise to her, that did not stop God from making a promise to others. Why is it that we tend to think that our blessings, precludes the blessings of others. When that is what God does – he blesses us all, in different ways. But sometimes we have to go out into the desert all alone, for us to truly hear what God has in store for us. The lesson in this story is that God’s grace abounds for all of his children. But sometimes he has to send us away into the desert for us to see our blessing. It is the times in our lives when we think God is not with us, that we see that God is not only with us, God is using that situation to make a difference in or lives. The second lesson is that God’s provisions are always enough. The bread and water given to Hagar and Ishmael sustained them in the desert, until they were able to get more. But God does not want any of us to just survive, God intends us to live. God’s provisions lead us to more. We may not ever be rich, but we will be satisfied. The third lesson of this story is that we have every reason to rejoice in God’s grace, but it is never a reason to brag. We can always be grateful for what God has done. But when you have been banished to the desert, and you have struggled, and prayed, and depended on god to bring you through. You are not sitting on your laurels. It was not an easy ride. And you know that God’s grace in the future, does not guarantee that things will be easy ahead. There is nothing to brag about. I really love this story. It reminds me that God’s grace is in the midst of someone else’s jealousy and resentment. Banishment and tough times don’t take away God’s blessing for you. Ishmael means God hears. Remember, God’s name is el - el ishma –God hears. God hears our cries, God hears our needs, God hears our situation, God hears what we need to move forward. This is a story about life, about families, about the good and the bad that happens in our families. That happens in life. The biblical writers wanted to make sure this story was included to remind us that God’s mercy is present in unexpected places. God Is Like a Father For many of us the injustice of this world, combined with the love of the Father, is the best assurance we have of a world beyond this one. Someday, somehow, somewhere accounts must be settled. In Marjorie Rawling's beautiful novel, The Yearling, set in ruralFlorida, there is a scene in which friends and family gather around the grave of a little handicapped boy named Fodderwing. There was no minister present so one of the men of the community offered up this simple but moving prayer: "Almighty God, it ain't right for us to say what is right. But if we had been making this boy we would never have made him with his back bent and his legs crooked. We would have made him straight and tall like his brothers. But somehow you made it up to him. You gave him a way with critters. It comforts us to know that he is in a place where his being bent doesn't matter no more. We would like to think that you have taken that bent back and those crooked legs and straightened them. And Almighty God, if it ain't asking too much, we pray that you will give him some critters to play with maybe a few redbirds and a squirrel or two. Thy will be done. Amen." I don't know what heaven will be like. But I know what God is like. He is like a Father who notices a little sparrow fall from the sky and cares for us much, much more than he cares for sparrows. That means even though we still must face obstacles and crises, we do not face them alone, and someday, somehow all that which is hurtful will be turned into that which is helpful, and we shall live with joy in the Father's house forever. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Amen. Extra illustration…… Your Hair The average woman with a thick head of hair will lose up to 100 hairs a day. Such losses are increased somewhat if the hair is long and becomes entangled in the brush or comb. The average man, shaving every day, removes a beard about one sixty-fourth (1/64) of an inch in length. This means that between the ages of 20 and 65, he removes 23 feet of beard! And to think God keeps track of all that hair! bibleline.org, "Hair," Children's Bible Ministry. Children’s sermon… Display a Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible, and Qur’an. Point out differences and similarities. They are written in different languages. The Hebrew Bible and Qur'an read from back to front while the Christian Bible reads from front to back. Hebrew and Arabic read from right to left. English (if that is the language in which you read the Bible) reads from left to right. Many stories, e.g. stories about Abraham, and Moses, appear in all three. Stories of Jesus appear in both the Christian Bible and the Qur'an. The writers of the stories understand and tell them differently, but all worship one God and consider themselves children of Abraham.

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 ___________________