April 19, 2009
Mountain Climbing
Hebrews 12: 14-25
Repreached from March 13, 2002
Used for the Second Sunday of Easter
Introduction
One thing that an Associate Pastor has plenty of – are sermons for the second Sunday of Easter. There are two things that you can be certain about in life, no Sr. Pastor is ever going to let anyone else preach on Easter. ( I have lots of Christmas Eve sermons). And the Sr. Pastor is always going to take the Sunday after Easter off.
In looking back at my repertoire of sermons, I must really like to preach on resurrection. Those are some of my most memorable sermons. I have gone for two years now, preaching an old sermon only once. It is not that I have not wanted to preach old sermons, its just that when I wanted to preach – I could never find it. I was able to find enough of my favorite sermons, that the theme for the Sunday’s of Easter will be resurrection. I think that sometime we have a lot of misconceptions about why that is an important theme.
Those sermons will be interspersed with some other special Sundays.
The Story of the Young Lion
One of the things that I treasure the most about college was the stories. Stories used to help us think about our college experience and the impact it would have on our families.
When we first arrived on campus, one of our advisors told us the African tale of the young lion - learning to be king of the jungle.
While he was at home, it seemed that everywhere that he went – the jungle inhabitants showed him respect. He was so sure of himself, that he seemed to have confidence wherever he went. But that was before he had to go through his rite of passage ceremony to become a man. You see his people were from the valley, they knew nothing about the mountains. The rite of passage meant that a young lion had to go up into the mountains for one night and learn to survive. Many of the confident you lions came back from the experienced, changed, much more mature. So when the young lion did not return from his mountain trip the next, day, no one thought anything of it. When he was ready, he would return. Soon another day passed, and another, and another – and no triumphant return.
Finally, they sent an expedition out to find the young lion. And they found him frozen to death at the top of the lion. In a strange place – he had no idea of how to survive.
Our advisors told us that story to remind us to hold on to our roots in a new environment. Like the young lion, at home we were king of the jungle – we knew it all. But going off to college meant encountering many strange things. If we were not careful, we could end up like the young lion stranded – without the proper survival skills.
Mountain Climbing
I think that this is a fitting story also for as Christians, as we enter into the Easter season. A time of transformation and new beginnings for us too. Our spiritual journey is a lot like mountain climbing. During lent, we are climbing the mountain in anticipation of an encounter with God. Easter is our time at the top of the mountain. And post Easter is the time to come down off of the mountain. Mountains pay an important part, not only in rites of passage, but also in spiritual encounters with God. In the bible, the prophet Elijah comes in contact with God by passing God by on the mountain. Moses goes up to the mountain for 40 days in order to talk with God and to get the ten commandments. Martin Luther King, a modern day prophet , preaches his last sermon on going to the mountaintop to see God’s will for our nation in the future. He says that he gets the chance to see the promised land. Mountain are an important part of our faith, so my sermon for today is about instructions for climbing a mountain.
First let me ask, if any of you have ever been on a mountain climbing expedition. Most of us have probably not.
I was fascinated as I did a little research on mountain climbing. You probably realize that mountain climbing is very dangerous – but not for the reasons that you would think. You have to be well trained in order to climb a mountain, and there is a discipline that you have to follow very stringently. The consequence for not following the discipline is death.
The text for today come from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:14-25. The major themes of the book of Hebrews are the understanding that we have a complete picture of who God is in the life of Christ, the teachings of Jesus Christ are all that we need to live by, that faith in confident trust in God, and that we grow in our faith through the tribulations of life. Chapter 12 is on the subject of faith. Our scripture teaches us to live right. And to not take the rules that we have been given on how to treat others lightly. The scripture reminds us that encountering God is never something to be taken lightly. The people were afraid of God, which is why they sent Moses to the mountain to talk on their behalf. It is a reminder that mountain climbing is dangerous, and it too should not be take lightly. The text says that you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire…but you have come to mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.
I chose this text, because many of us may not take the time to climb physical mountains, but all of us know about climbing spiritual mountains. All of us here have some mountain in our life to climb. It may be a mountain of fear, of lonliness, of need, or even of despair. All of us have a mountain to climb, and all of us need some instructions on the process.
The Dangers of Mountain Climbing
The real danger of mountain climbing is not from slipping and falling. The real danger of mountain climbing comes from the change in the atmosphere the higher you go up. I bet you also didn’t know that your goal in mountain climbing is not reaching the top of the mountain. You mountain climb is not complete until you get back down safely.
Every day – mountain climbers are given a certain course to follow. You are given strict instructions to follow that course, no matter how physically fit you are, and no matter how determined you are to complete your journey. You are to stop at a designated spot, and to wait until further instructions. The air gets thinner the higher you go up, and there is more stress put on your body. As you go up, if your body has not adjusted to those changes, you won’t realize it, but you are destroying your body internally. So you have to take the proper time to give you body a chance to adjust to those changes before you climb higher.
That is why the goal of mountain climbing is not to get to the top of the mountain. It is getting down the other side safely, and having the strength to climb again.
There are many stories who, just like the young lion got to the summit of the mountain – and never made it down. They did not realize that the closer you get to the top, the thinner the air gets, the less oxygen that gets to the brain, the narrower your vision becomes. It is as if the closer you get to your goal, all you see is that goal. You lose sight of the fact that making it to the top is only a small part of a much larger goal. Your real goal is to live to tell about the experience, not the experience.
That is a good lesson for us this Easter Season. We have come to Easter, but now we are called to move on to something different. During the Lenten season we took a journey to the cross. And yet the cross means nothing with the resurrection. Resurrection means nothing without transformation. If we cant take that transformation into our everyday lives, then Easter means nothing. If we don’t live as witnesses to Christ, then why are we Christians? There is a saying, that today is the first day of the rest of your life. Easter is the first day of the rest of our lives.
The story of the Three People in the Throne Room of God
I learned another story in college, I was told that it was from the jewish tradition. But Paul also uses this story in his teachings. It’s the story of three people who went up to the throne room of God. The first went to the throne room to see God, and was dazzled by all that he saw. He wanted to stay with God for the rest of his life, but God reminded him that his life was not over and that he had to return home. When he got home he was never quite the same. He couldn’t function, because nothing in life compared to his experience with God. He was depressed for the rest of his life.
The second person had all of these expectations of what God would do and what would change in his life as a result of seeing God. When he got to the throne room he was disappointed – he told God that God was not real. Because God was so different from his expectations. He lived out his life as a very bitter, critical disappointed man. He told people that there was no God. The third man was totally elated by his time with God, it was amazing and he savored every moment that he spent with God. Like the other two men, God told him that it was time for his to return to his normal life, because his life was not over yet. He always treasured his time with God, but he also loved his life, his work, his family. When he lived his life he adjusted well- and he went on in total service to the will of God.
We all have a mountain to climb. But our goal in life is not to get to the top of the mountain – it is to get back down in a healthy state of mind, with the strength to go climbing again.
What was the difference between these three people? They all had the same experience, but a very different mind set. The first person was like our young lion, over focused on a goal and couldn’t see anything else, the second was disillusioned when he met that goal.
The third man was just an ordinary person in partnership with an extraordinary God. That man had a clear sense of what it means to be human and what it means to be divine.
He knew that the same God that was with him at the top of the mountain is the same God with him in the valley. He knew that the same God who whispered in his ear and gave him the strength to climb, was the same God who led him along the journey, was the same God who helped hi reach to top of the mountain, was the same God who gave him the peace of mind to get back down the mountain and to resume his everyday task.
The importance of our Faith in our journey
Mountain climbing is a discipline. Just as in mountain climbing, you are given strict instructions before you start on your journey, and you know that your life depends on following those instructions, no matter what you encounter while you are up there. We too, as Christians must follow a strict discipline on our spiritual journey.
We have to read the scriptures to make sure that we live our lives according to what it tells us, we have to listen to God in our prayer life, we have to see God no only our friends, but in the face of all people.
It is important that we not get to Easter Sunday with our new clothes on, the ham in the oven, hunting for Easter eggs, and not know how we got there. Hebrews 12 says “You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to Jesus the mediator. We have to remember that the point is not who we are on Easter Sunday – but who we are on Easter Monday. If we believe that the summit of our faith is Easter, we end up frozen on top of the mountain life the young lion. There are a lot of people in the world frozen at a certain point in time, unable to just get over it and move on. But as the Easter people. We have to remember that God has given us a safety rope to get through the rest of our lives. That is our faith.
We can be sure that Christ is the complete revelation of God. As long as we have Christ on our journey – we have all that we need. Christ always intercede with fate on our behalf. If we believe in Christ, our sins are forgiven, the door has been opened for our transformation. If we truly have faith that Christ will transform our lives, our lives will be transformed. Faith is confident trust that Jesus is working it all out- and that it all will be worked out. Finally, life is a challenge. Whether you climb to top of the mountain, or you walk down the block. Tribulations are going to meet you. Tribulations are in ever life. But if you have faith, then tribulations are not our enemies, but your chance to see the face of God. A chance to grow in faith, a challenge to endure to the end. A chance for us as ordinary people to be in partnership with an extraordinary God.
What about you? Where are you on your journey this Easter season? Are you focused on your goal, or are you are you focused on God? Are you trying to make it to the top, or are you getting back down to the reality of life? All questions for us to ponder this Easter season. Amen.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Jesus Christ, My Lord and Savior - April 12, 2009 - Easter
Introduction
Many years ago now, there was a young boy who loved Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. He faithfully watched both shows every day. One day they announced that Mister Rogers would be visiting the Captain Kangaroo show. Oh my God, this had to be the perfect moment in time – the two things he loved the most in one place. He told the whole family about the upcoming event. He asked every day if this was the day for the show. Finally the day came. The whole family gathered around the tv set with him. The show came on for one minute – and then he walked out of the room. He father followed him thinking something was wrong. The little boy was overcome with emotion – this is just too much. I can’t take it any more. It is just too much goodness in one place I just cant take it all in.
Easter for me
That is how I feel about Easter Sunday. It is just too much to take in. Serving as the Associate for nine years, I have always had to prepare a sunrise service sermon, but that is nothing like having to do the big Easter Sermon. What can I possibly say in this sermon that is so much more special than my other sermons.
My favorite part of Easter is the Easter vigil the night before. Staying up all night, making sure everything is just perfect for Easter morning. Usually I am up all night making sure that all of my easter baskets are complete, making sure everything is ready when the kids come in the morning, making sure breakfast is complete when the sunrise service is over with. And somewhere in the middle of the night I have to get my sermon done. I am nervous that I am not going to have enough time to get everything done.
This year, Holy Week in general was pretty lame. There was no real pressure at all. I did not have to prepare any services during the week, just show up. My sermon was done before sundown on Saturday (that will never happen again, I can assure you), I emailed, Cari, the tenant ahead of time to make sure that I could use her drive way so that I didn’t get a ticket this year for parking overnight, I even picked up the flowers way before the greenhouse was about the close. It appears that Easter will be a pretty normal day this year. Long, but not stressful.
The Resurrection Story
But you know I think that is the Easter message for us in this modern times. We are so accustomed to television dramas – so we think that in order to be special, there has to be stress, there has to be some problem solved, some deep questioned answered. There has to be some earth shattering event that shakes us up and makes us pay attention.
And yet that is not the resurrection story that you find the gospel of Mark. Mark’s story is a very subdued story. A story about a group of women, who came to a friends tomb, actually after the sun had already come up. Preparing to say goodbye and to make sure that he was prepared to his journey into eternity.
A large boulder stood between them and their task of love. Some say that the boulder was so big because it protected the body within. Others say that the boulder was so big because it protected the living from what was inside. The living and the dead had to be kept separate. There had to be some kind of boundary between them. I often what boulders stand between us and Jesus today? What stands in the way of us hearing the resurrection story. What is our boulder of separation between who we are today – and who Jesus is asking us to become. And what angel is going to come along and roll away the stone for us?
What the women found
Ironically the women came that morning looking for Jesus and they found – absolutely nothing. No body, no burial cloth, no resurrection appearance, no voice from beyond. Just an angel explaining that what you came to see it not here. So you might as well just move on, tell your friends that if you want to see Jesus, you need to move on. Go on the galilee and you will find what you are looking for there.
It is interesting that the first witnesses went to the tomb looking for Jesus, and found nothing. And yet Paul, intentionally ran away from Jesus and he saw everything. The verses in first Corinthians is a creed of what Paul came to believe. A belief that changed his whole life, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, rose and appeared to those who believe in him.
Both stories teach a valuable lesson for us today about witnessing the easter story. When we come to the tomb looking for Jesus, what do we see – everything or nothing. It all depends on what we are looking for. The resurrection is not an event that can be explained. It can only be lived. We can never tell what happened on Easter, the truth is we don’t know. We can only tell what we saw in our lives when we came to that event, that Easter morning , for us here at the church sitting together in faith.
Reconcilartion, blessing, forgiveness, healing, life, love, renewal, salvation, joy, peace, grace, hope, good news, holy, resurrection, transformation, new – these are just some of the words of the Easter season.
These are just some of the ways that the resurrection story makes a difference in our lives. Walter Brugeeman says that Easter is not a day – it is a verb – it is what we do to show God’s love in our lives.
Modern Witnesses
Most people, when they are testing a microphone, they say one two three- or some other meaningless words. Billy Graham always recites the scripture For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He says that he does it because if no one gets his message, at least the sound technician will get something. Rachel and Bill work every day jobs, but they look forward to going out on the weekends and participating in RAK - random acts of kindness, they make a point to leave quarters in the landromat, gift cards in the grocery store, water on the bike trail. Anything to help others learn the love of God. Another couple lost their son in a car accident, and now have a website to help other parents with loss, a group of teenagers started a blog to tell other teens the importance of living a spiritual life. What do we do in our lives to witness to the Easter story.
When we live like that as the Easter people, people don’t have to believe in the resurrection of Christ, because they can live it for themselves. The gospel of mark wants us to understand that Easter is not an event – it is a verb It is not something to believe in, it is something to live by. It is not a special day, when we became witnesses to an extraordinary truth. The truth that peace transforms violence. When forgiveness transforms broken relationships, where life, transforms boredom, where confidence transforms fear, when the ordinary becomes holy.
The Messianic Secret
Not by what happened, but by what didn’t happen. Not by what we saw, but by what we didn’t see, not by what we understand, but by what remains a mystery.
We have been studying the book of Mark all year, and I told you that Mark is the story of the messianic secret. Jesus doesn’t want anyone to know who he really is and what he is doing. Mark ends with a bit of mystery in this story. As a matter of fact, Mark ends the resurrection story in without even finishing the sentence. Mark ends by saying that the women fled the tomb and said nothing to no one because they were afraid. He never tells us whether they made it to Jerusalem, whether they say Jesus, or how their lives were transformed. This morning we read the longer version of Mark, which is believed to have been added by a later writer – where Jesus appears and tells them to make disciples of others, and the world is able to hear the message.
Yet Mark intended to end the story in mystery, he left us hanging on purpose. The story is not over until we get out of our seats and become witnesses to the resurrection. Until we realize that this is not all that there is for us. Jesus has gone on ahead of us- and the best is yet to come.
Who Holds the Future
A professor once had to give a speech at a conference on the future. And others have all kinds of speeches on their predictions for the future. What the economy was going to be like, what kind of technology would be developed, what kind of relationships we would have with others. In the midst of all of these predictions, his speech was that he had no idea of what was going to happen in the future. All he knew was that God was already there in the future and in complete control of whatever happened. Just as Jesus is ahead of us in the days to come to show us the power of transformation – if we are willing to be witnesses – but anyway I digress. Ten years later, the professor retired and was looking at all of those predictions – he laughed, because he was the only one who was right about what would happen.
That is the beauty of Mark – he ends his story by saying they were afraid for – for what – no one really knows.
What this means for us
We really don’t know what happened the night – between Jesus death and resurrection, we will never know how it happened – did Jesus just wake up, or did the angels revive him – who knows. But we do know why it happened –
So that we could have the experience of an empty tomb. And have a choice to either be witnesses to nothing – or something. To live in life believing that Jesus is ahead of us – working out our transformation – or not. To become a part of the never ending story – or do nothing at all.
In the coming weeks, during the season of Easter – I will be preaching about the power of resurrection and transformation. The point of Easter is to invite each of us to tell our own stories. Live on in peace! Amen.
Many years ago now, there was a young boy who loved Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. He faithfully watched both shows every day. One day they announced that Mister Rogers would be visiting the Captain Kangaroo show. Oh my God, this had to be the perfect moment in time – the two things he loved the most in one place. He told the whole family about the upcoming event. He asked every day if this was the day for the show. Finally the day came. The whole family gathered around the tv set with him. The show came on for one minute – and then he walked out of the room. He father followed him thinking something was wrong. The little boy was overcome with emotion – this is just too much. I can’t take it any more. It is just too much goodness in one place I just cant take it all in.
Easter for me
That is how I feel about Easter Sunday. It is just too much to take in. Serving as the Associate for nine years, I have always had to prepare a sunrise service sermon, but that is nothing like having to do the big Easter Sermon. What can I possibly say in this sermon that is so much more special than my other sermons.
My favorite part of Easter is the Easter vigil the night before. Staying up all night, making sure everything is just perfect for Easter morning. Usually I am up all night making sure that all of my easter baskets are complete, making sure everything is ready when the kids come in the morning, making sure breakfast is complete when the sunrise service is over with. And somewhere in the middle of the night I have to get my sermon done. I am nervous that I am not going to have enough time to get everything done.
This year, Holy Week in general was pretty lame. There was no real pressure at all. I did not have to prepare any services during the week, just show up. My sermon was done before sundown on Saturday (that will never happen again, I can assure you), I emailed, Cari, the tenant ahead of time to make sure that I could use her drive way so that I didn’t get a ticket this year for parking overnight, I even picked up the flowers way before the greenhouse was about the close. It appears that Easter will be a pretty normal day this year. Long, but not stressful.
The Resurrection Story
But you know I think that is the Easter message for us in this modern times. We are so accustomed to television dramas – so we think that in order to be special, there has to be stress, there has to be some problem solved, some deep questioned answered. There has to be some earth shattering event that shakes us up and makes us pay attention.
And yet that is not the resurrection story that you find the gospel of Mark. Mark’s story is a very subdued story. A story about a group of women, who came to a friends tomb, actually after the sun had already come up. Preparing to say goodbye and to make sure that he was prepared to his journey into eternity.
A large boulder stood between them and their task of love. Some say that the boulder was so big because it protected the body within. Others say that the boulder was so big because it protected the living from what was inside. The living and the dead had to be kept separate. There had to be some kind of boundary between them. I often what boulders stand between us and Jesus today? What stands in the way of us hearing the resurrection story. What is our boulder of separation between who we are today – and who Jesus is asking us to become. And what angel is going to come along and roll away the stone for us?
What the women found
Ironically the women came that morning looking for Jesus and they found – absolutely nothing. No body, no burial cloth, no resurrection appearance, no voice from beyond. Just an angel explaining that what you came to see it not here. So you might as well just move on, tell your friends that if you want to see Jesus, you need to move on. Go on the galilee and you will find what you are looking for there.
It is interesting that the first witnesses went to the tomb looking for Jesus, and found nothing. And yet Paul, intentionally ran away from Jesus and he saw everything. The verses in first Corinthians is a creed of what Paul came to believe. A belief that changed his whole life, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, rose and appeared to those who believe in him.
Both stories teach a valuable lesson for us today about witnessing the easter story. When we come to the tomb looking for Jesus, what do we see – everything or nothing. It all depends on what we are looking for. The resurrection is not an event that can be explained. It can only be lived. We can never tell what happened on Easter, the truth is we don’t know. We can only tell what we saw in our lives when we came to that event, that Easter morning , for us here at the church sitting together in faith.
Reconcilartion, blessing, forgiveness, healing, life, love, renewal, salvation, joy, peace, grace, hope, good news, holy, resurrection, transformation, new – these are just some of the words of the Easter season.
These are just some of the ways that the resurrection story makes a difference in our lives. Walter Brugeeman says that Easter is not a day – it is a verb – it is what we do to show God’s love in our lives.
Modern Witnesses
Most people, when they are testing a microphone, they say one two three- or some other meaningless words. Billy Graham always recites the scripture For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He says that he does it because if no one gets his message, at least the sound technician will get something. Rachel and Bill work every day jobs, but they look forward to going out on the weekends and participating in RAK - random acts of kindness, they make a point to leave quarters in the landromat, gift cards in the grocery store, water on the bike trail. Anything to help others learn the love of God. Another couple lost their son in a car accident, and now have a website to help other parents with loss, a group of teenagers started a blog to tell other teens the importance of living a spiritual life. What do we do in our lives to witness to the Easter story.
When we live like that as the Easter people, people don’t have to believe in the resurrection of Christ, because they can live it for themselves. The gospel of mark wants us to understand that Easter is not an event – it is a verb It is not something to believe in, it is something to live by. It is not a special day, when we became witnesses to an extraordinary truth. The truth that peace transforms violence. When forgiveness transforms broken relationships, where life, transforms boredom, where confidence transforms fear, when the ordinary becomes holy.
The Messianic Secret
Not by what happened, but by what didn’t happen. Not by what we saw, but by what we didn’t see, not by what we understand, but by what remains a mystery.
We have been studying the book of Mark all year, and I told you that Mark is the story of the messianic secret. Jesus doesn’t want anyone to know who he really is and what he is doing. Mark ends with a bit of mystery in this story. As a matter of fact, Mark ends the resurrection story in without even finishing the sentence. Mark ends by saying that the women fled the tomb and said nothing to no one because they were afraid. He never tells us whether they made it to Jerusalem, whether they say Jesus, or how their lives were transformed. This morning we read the longer version of Mark, which is believed to have been added by a later writer – where Jesus appears and tells them to make disciples of others, and the world is able to hear the message.
Yet Mark intended to end the story in mystery, he left us hanging on purpose. The story is not over until we get out of our seats and become witnesses to the resurrection. Until we realize that this is not all that there is for us. Jesus has gone on ahead of us- and the best is yet to come.
Who Holds the Future
A professor once had to give a speech at a conference on the future. And others have all kinds of speeches on their predictions for the future. What the economy was going to be like, what kind of technology would be developed, what kind of relationships we would have with others. In the midst of all of these predictions, his speech was that he had no idea of what was going to happen in the future. All he knew was that God was already there in the future and in complete control of whatever happened. Just as Jesus is ahead of us in the days to come to show us the power of transformation – if we are willing to be witnesses – but anyway I digress. Ten years later, the professor retired and was looking at all of those predictions – he laughed, because he was the only one who was right about what would happen.
That is the beauty of Mark – he ends his story by saying they were afraid for – for what – no one really knows.
What this means for us
We really don’t know what happened the night – between Jesus death and resurrection, we will never know how it happened – did Jesus just wake up, or did the angels revive him – who knows. But we do know why it happened –
So that we could have the experience of an empty tomb. And have a choice to either be witnesses to nothing – or something. To live in life believing that Jesus is ahead of us – working out our transformation – or not. To become a part of the never ending story – or do nothing at all.
In the coming weeks, during the season of Easter – I will be preaching about the power of resurrection and transformation. The point of Easter is to invite each of us to tell our own stories. Live on in peace! Amen.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Causes and Cures - March 22, 2009
March 22, 2009
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Causes and Cures
Year B
Fourth Sunday of Lent
What brings more fear to people than the snake. Most of us absolutely hate snakes. Perhaps that is why we make up so many stories about them. As the bad guy. The story goes that is was the snake which bought evil to mankind in the garden of evil, and God instilled a hatred of humans and snakes every since. I don’t know if that satisfies my fear of snakes, but I guess it is a start.
Moses takes up on the story of the fear of snakes when the Isrealites are wandering in the desert, and they start to complain that they want to go back to Egypt. Moses prays and a brood of snakes come into camp and kills them. In order to stop the snake attack, Moses is told to make a statue of a snake and lift it up – if people look up at the snake on a stick, then they would be saved from the snakes at their feet.
That may seem a little absurd, except when you realize that the modern symbol for a physician as one who heals is a snake wrapped around a stick.
We may hate snakes, and even think of it as an evil creature – but it is also the universal symbol of healing. Everywhere in the world – people understand the symbol of a snake on a stick as a symbol for a doctor.
Parasites were a big problem in the ancient world, and in many poorer parts of the world they are still a problem. There is one called the fiery serpent- which will live inside of the body and cause a lot of damage. The only way to get it out – is to cut a slit in the skin, and as it crawls out- to carefully wrap it around a stick. If you are not careful, it could break off a stay inside. The need to get rid of this parasite was so common in ancient times that the universal symbol for someone who could heal you from sickness . So even today, doctors have the symbol behind their name.
In the modern world – our explanations for sickness have changed, the illnesses which affect us are still the same. Many of us don’t worry too much about parasites, even though we don’t realize that they are still the cause of many of our illnesses. But we still do look for people who can heal us and make us better. We still seek the person with the reputation for making things better. We still seek those with the symbol of the snake on a stick.
Perhaps that is why the book of John picks up on the ancient theme of the snake on a stick, but instead of talking about snakes – John says that Jesus himself must be lifted up high so that the people can see.
John is saying that we will look for the sign of Jesus being lifted up on a cross to be healed. In this instance, we are not seeking healing from a physical condition, but a spiritual condition – the condition of sin in our lives.
In our world we are no longer worry too much about being poisoned by snakes, but we can worry about the poison of sin in our hearts. There is the poison of jealousy, greed, and worry in our life. We have to remember that sin is anything in our lives that poisons our thinking and our way of life from what God intended. I think my biggest sin in life write now is learning to be comfortable with stress in my life. When I am stressed out I eat different foods than I would otherwise, my sleeping habits are different, my whole daily routine is different. I forget to take time out for myself and more importantly for my relationship with God. Just yesterday I realized that I am starting to get comfortable with those stressed reactions, so much so, that I am forgetting what it means to live healthy. I can’t even tell the difference anymore.
Lent is that time for us to take time to realize that there is a difference in our lives when we are living with God, and when we are sinning - which means missing the mark of being who God intended us to be.
Luckily for us, lent is the time for us to look for the universal symbol of healing – of Jesus on the cross. (since I am not catholic – I don’t have any symbols of Jesus being lifted up high on the cross) But I do have many symbols of the cross – our source of healing for not only physical illnesses, but spiritual ones as well.
This year we have been focusing in the promises of God. Both Ephesians and John capture that promise very well. Ephesians 4 and 5 say But God, who is rich in mercy, out of great love , even when we were dead in our trespasses, were made alive with Christ Jesus. John contains the most well known verse in the bible – for God do loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whomever would believe in him would have eternal life and have it abundantly. God’s promise to us is that even when we are sinners, we are still loved. God has prepared a place for us in heaven, even before ever realized that there was a heaven to aspire to.
The book of Ephesians is thought to be a book of prayers and instructions for a disheartened community. People who had given their life to the Christian way – but had lost sight of why they had put their faith in Christ. They had been told that Jesus was coming soon, and that all would be better, but they begin to see that was not the case. The comfort of Ephesians is not so much in the words, but in the tone of the words. For a people who are tired of waiting, the author is reminding us that The work of God has already been done. We have already been saved, we have already been given eternal life, we have already been forgiven. So we don’t need to wait for something to happen – it has already happened. God’s healing for us is a gift freely given. It is a gift that has already been given to us, - while we are still stuck in our bad habits.
Eckhardt Tolle – who is not a Christian writer, but is a spiritual writer- has a book called the power of now. He says that we have become comfortable with waiting for things to happen. Waiting for change. Change is something that is going to happen in the future. Our happiness is out there somewhere, things will get better out there at some point. We will live the life we dream about when we are ready for it, it will happen eventually. We will have a better relationship with God and be able to really think about what we are called to do, when life slows down and we have time for it. We have become so busy thinking about change. That we forget that change is here with us – in our relationship with God, with ourselves with others and with the world. We really don’t have to wait for God to come to be with us – because God is already here. God has been with us before we came into being, and God is with us every step of the way.
The message of Ephesians is to get in touch with the now-ness of God. You don’t have to wait for things to change – because the change has already happen.
For instance for me in my own struggle – I don’t have to wait for life to get better to stop living a stressed out life. The healthy vegetables, the 64 ounces of water, even the gym is already present in my life – all I have to do is acknowledge them. You can take the time to think about your own situation, your own habits, your own relationship with God. You can apply the things that you are waiting for in your life. The Ephesians were waiting for Jesus to return before things would change – what are you waiting for?
Ephesians message is that what you are waiting for – it already happen a long time ago. When God made a decision to love you no matter what. And that love started to unfold in history. So stop living as if you are waiting for it to happen, and start living as if it has already been given to you. By grace – you have been saved. And raised up in him and seated us with him in heavenly places.
Jesus Christ just came to deliver the message – that the work had already been done. Jesus too preaches the importance of living in the now-ness of life. We don’t have a moment to lose in waiting – that we have to spread God’s message of love to a world which needs it now.
Speaking of snakes, there is the story of old man John and his two sons, Jake and Joe, who lived out on a ranch out west. They never had much use for the church – until one day when the son Jake was bitten by a rattlesnake. They called the doctor first, but the doctor said that Jake was surely going to die. So they called for the priest to come pray for Jake. The priest’s prayer was Dear Lord, thank you for sending this snake to bite Jake – because it sent him to seek you out and to ask for your grace in his life. I pray for a bigger snake to come and to bite his father John and his brother Joe – so that they too can have an opportunity to seek your salvation.
Depending on where Jake was in his faith journey, that may have not been a comforting prayer for him, seeing that he was destined to die anyway. But I am sure that it scared the heck out of John and Joe.
Snakes have been a source of fear for humans for ages. We have been afraid of their poison for years, rightfully so. I want you to think about where the source of poison is in your life?
The symbol of the snake on a stick has been the symbol of healing for ages. The sign of the cross is our sign of healing. If the symbol of Jesus be lifted up – then all who believe will have eternal life.
What are you doing on your life to lift jesus up – so that others can see that there is a universal sign of healing in the world. It is a sign not of what is to come – but of what is already been done. God’s love for us is s done deal – and there is nothing you can do about it – but go in peace and love. Amen.
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Causes and Cures
Year B
Fourth Sunday of Lent
What brings more fear to people than the snake. Most of us absolutely hate snakes. Perhaps that is why we make up so many stories about them. As the bad guy. The story goes that is was the snake which bought evil to mankind in the garden of evil, and God instilled a hatred of humans and snakes every since. I don’t know if that satisfies my fear of snakes, but I guess it is a start.
Moses takes up on the story of the fear of snakes when the Isrealites are wandering in the desert, and they start to complain that they want to go back to Egypt. Moses prays and a brood of snakes come into camp and kills them. In order to stop the snake attack, Moses is told to make a statue of a snake and lift it up – if people look up at the snake on a stick, then they would be saved from the snakes at their feet.
That may seem a little absurd, except when you realize that the modern symbol for a physician as one who heals is a snake wrapped around a stick.
We may hate snakes, and even think of it as an evil creature – but it is also the universal symbol of healing. Everywhere in the world – people understand the symbol of a snake on a stick as a symbol for a doctor.
Parasites were a big problem in the ancient world, and in many poorer parts of the world they are still a problem. There is one called the fiery serpent- which will live inside of the body and cause a lot of damage. The only way to get it out – is to cut a slit in the skin, and as it crawls out- to carefully wrap it around a stick. If you are not careful, it could break off a stay inside. The need to get rid of this parasite was so common in ancient times that the universal symbol for someone who could heal you from sickness . So even today, doctors have the symbol behind their name.
In the modern world – our explanations for sickness have changed, the illnesses which affect us are still the same. Many of us don’t worry too much about parasites, even though we don’t realize that they are still the cause of many of our illnesses. But we still do look for people who can heal us and make us better. We still seek the person with the reputation for making things better. We still seek those with the symbol of the snake on a stick.
Perhaps that is why the book of John picks up on the ancient theme of the snake on a stick, but instead of talking about snakes – John says that Jesus himself must be lifted up high so that the people can see.
John is saying that we will look for the sign of Jesus being lifted up on a cross to be healed. In this instance, we are not seeking healing from a physical condition, but a spiritual condition – the condition of sin in our lives.
In our world we are no longer worry too much about being poisoned by snakes, but we can worry about the poison of sin in our hearts. There is the poison of jealousy, greed, and worry in our life. We have to remember that sin is anything in our lives that poisons our thinking and our way of life from what God intended. I think my biggest sin in life write now is learning to be comfortable with stress in my life. When I am stressed out I eat different foods than I would otherwise, my sleeping habits are different, my whole daily routine is different. I forget to take time out for myself and more importantly for my relationship with God. Just yesterday I realized that I am starting to get comfortable with those stressed reactions, so much so, that I am forgetting what it means to live healthy. I can’t even tell the difference anymore.
Lent is that time for us to take time to realize that there is a difference in our lives when we are living with God, and when we are sinning - which means missing the mark of being who God intended us to be.
Luckily for us, lent is the time for us to look for the universal symbol of healing – of Jesus on the cross. (since I am not catholic – I don’t have any symbols of Jesus being lifted up high on the cross) But I do have many symbols of the cross – our source of healing for not only physical illnesses, but spiritual ones as well.
This year we have been focusing in the promises of God. Both Ephesians and John capture that promise very well. Ephesians 4 and 5 say But God, who is rich in mercy, out of great love , even when we were dead in our trespasses, were made alive with Christ Jesus. John contains the most well known verse in the bible – for God do loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whomever would believe in him would have eternal life and have it abundantly. God’s promise to us is that even when we are sinners, we are still loved. God has prepared a place for us in heaven, even before ever realized that there was a heaven to aspire to.
The book of Ephesians is thought to be a book of prayers and instructions for a disheartened community. People who had given their life to the Christian way – but had lost sight of why they had put their faith in Christ. They had been told that Jesus was coming soon, and that all would be better, but they begin to see that was not the case. The comfort of Ephesians is not so much in the words, but in the tone of the words. For a people who are tired of waiting, the author is reminding us that The work of God has already been done. We have already been saved, we have already been given eternal life, we have already been forgiven. So we don’t need to wait for something to happen – it has already happened. God’s healing for us is a gift freely given. It is a gift that has already been given to us, - while we are still stuck in our bad habits.
Eckhardt Tolle – who is not a Christian writer, but is a spiritual writer- has a book called the power of now. He says that we have become comfortable with waiting for things to happen. Waiting for change. Change is something that is going to happen in the future. Our happiness is out there somewhere, things will get better out there at some point. We will live the life we dream about when we are ready for it, it will happen eventually. We will have a better relationship with God and be able to really think about what we are called to do, when life slows down and we have time for it. We have become so busy thinking about change. That we forget that change is here with us – in our relationship with God, with ourselves with others and with the world. We really don’t have to wait for God to come to be with us – because God is already here. God has been with us before we came into being, and God is with us every step of the way.
The message of Ephesians is to get in touch with the now-ness of God. You don’t have to wait for things to change – because the change has already happen.
For instance for me in my own struggle – I don’t have to wait for life to get better to stop living a stressed out life. The healthy vegetables, the 64 ounces of water, even the gym is already present in my life – all I have to do is acknowledge them. You can take the time to think about your own situation, your own habits, your own relationship with God. You can apply the things that you are waiting for in your life. The Ephesians were waiting for Jesus to return before things would change – what are you waiting for?
Ephesians message is that what you are waiting for – it already happen a long time ago. When God made a decision to love you no matter what. And that love started to unfold in history. So stop living as if you are waiting for it to happen, and start living as if it has already been given to you. By grace – you have been saved. And raised up in him and seated us with him in heavenly places.
Jesus Christ just came to deliver the message – that the work had already been done. Jesus too preaches the importance of living in the now-ness of life. We don’t have a moment to lose in waiting – that we have to spread God’s message of love to a world which needs it now.
Speaking of snakes, there is the story of old man John and his two sons, Jake and Joe, who lived out on a ranch out west. They never had much use for the church – until one day when the son Jake was bitten by a rattlesnake. They called the doctor first, but the doctor said that Jake was surely going to die. So they called for the priest to come pray for Jake. The priest’s prayer was Dear Lord, thank you for sending this snake to bite Jake – because it sent him to seek you out and to ask for your grace in his life. I pray for a bigger snake to come and to bite his father John and his brother Joe – so that they too can have an opportunity to seek your salvation.
Depending on where Jake was in his faith journey, that may have not been a comforting prayer for him, seeing that he was destined to die anyway. But I am sure that it scared the heck out of John and Joe.
Snakes have been a source of fear for humans for ages. We have been afraid of their poison for years, rightfully so. I want you to think about where the source of poison is in your life?
The symbol of the snake on a stick has been the symbol of healing for ages. The sign of the cross is our sign of healing. If the symbol of Jesus be lifted up – then all who believe will have eternal life.
What are you doing on your life to lift jesus up – so that others can see that there is a universal sign of healing in the world. It is a sign not of what is to come – but of what is already been done. God’s love for us is s done deal – and there is nothing you can do about it – but go in peace and love. Amen.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
A Command, A Promise, or a Way of Life - March 15, 2009
Exodus 20:1-17
John 2:13-22
March 15, 2009
Year B
Third Sunday of Lent
A Command, a Promise or a Way of Life?
Memorizing the 10 commandments is a rite of passage or all Sunday school students. Who can remember them by heart?
(I can’t)
Teach you a short trick to remember them….
Start with your hands together in prayer. This reminds us that God heard the
prayers of the Hebrew people when they were in slavery in Egypt and freed them
(Exodus 3:7, 20:2). The commandments are a way for us to show our gratitude for
God's love in our lives and to further just and peaceful relationships in God's
world.
1. "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me." Hold up one
index finger for the number one. We worship one God.
2. "You shall not worship idols." Idols, false gods, are not only things like
statues, but anything in which we place our ultimate trust and allegiance-- for
example, money, possessions or weapons. Hold up two fingers. Should we worship
more than one God? No, two is too many! One of them must be an idol, and we
should not worship it!
3. "You shall not take the Lord's name in vain." Use three fingers to form the
letter "W' which stands for "words." Watch your words! God wants us to use his
name in loving, caring ways, as we pray and as we talk about him, not in
swearing or in anger.
4. "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy." Hold up four fingers, and fold
your thumb under to let it rest. The thumb has the right idea. It's the Sabbath,
and the thumb is following the commandment to take a day of rest. God does not
want anyone to overwork or be stressed, so we need a day to rest, to be at
peace, and to worship with others. God also gave us the Sabbath so that working
people would not be taken advantage of by their employers (Deut. 5:14)
5. "Honor your father and your mother." Hold up all five fingers on one hand as
if you are taking a pledge, to honor your parents. God wants there to be peace
and love in all our family relationships.
6. "You shall not kill." Pretend the index finger on your second hand is a gun,
shooting at the first five fingers. God's sixth commandment teaches us not to do
anything that would hurt another person unfairly.
7. "You shall not commit adultery." Hold one hand out flat. The five fingers and
hand become the floor of the church. Two fingers on the other hand are the man
and woman to be married, standing in the church, making
promises to each other. This seventh commandment calls for couples to keep the
marriage promises they make.
8. "You shall not steal." Hold up four fingers on each hand, for the eighth
commandment. If you stretch out your fingers slightly, these become the prison
bars, which hold someone who was been arrested for stealing. Our Study Catechism
says "God forbids all theft and robbery, including schemes, tricks or systems
that unjustly take what belongs to someone else."
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Hold up all five
fingers on one hand and four on the other. Fold your second thumb under and turn
your hand around, so the thumb is hiding. It is secretly going around telling
the other four fingers on that hand lies and rumors about the five fingers on
the other hand. It is "bearing false witness," as it talks behind people=s
backs, spreading gossip, criticizing others without talking directly to the
people involved. Again, our Study Catechism teaches us "Negative stereotyping is
a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse, and violence as
forbidden by the commandment against murder."
10. "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor." Hold out your hands, palms
up, and wiggle all ten fingers to show that they've got the "gimmes." Your
fingers are saying, "Gimme what belongs to my neighbor. I want all those things
my neighbor has." This is not the way God wants us to live.
I bet you didn’t know that catholics, Lutherans, other protestants, and jews have different ten commandements. There are actually 15 commandments that have been grouped in different ways.
A preacher was depressed that he lost his bike…..In a small town there were two preachers, one Methodist and one Baptist.They both liked to ride bicycles around town, and they would greet eachother when they met on their way somewhere. Well, so one day when they met, the Baptist preacher was on foot. Methodistpreacher asked him, "What happened to your bicycle?" Baptist preacher said, "I don't know. I put it somewhere, and can'tremember where. I hope somebody didn't steal it." So the Methodist preacher said, "I know what we can do to get your bicycleback. This Sunday we'll both preach on the Ten Commandments. When we getto 'Thou shalt not steal,' we'll dwell on it long and hard. I'll betthat'll get your bicycle returned." So they proceeded to do this, and one day the next week they met up again,and the Baptist preacher had his bicycle back. "Hello, friend," said the Methodist preacher. "I see one of our sermons didsome good." The Baptist fellow hung his head and said, "Yeah, but not how you'd think.I preached on the Ten Commandments, just like we said, and when I got to'Covet not thy neighbor's wife,' I remembered where I'd left my bicycle!"
That is how we usually use the ten commandments – as a set of rules that we are supposed to obey, with a realization that we will be punished if we disobey. And there are times when it is justified that we are punished. These are social boundaries where there should be consequences if we violate them. These are the basic rules of how we should live in community.
These are the first known rules of community. The story goes that the people did not want to talk with Moses on their own, so they ask Moses to go on the mountain and to bring back those rules to live by.
Today, even with all of the controversy of separation of church and state, they are the basis of our legal system. And play an important in our modern societal boundaries.
I told you that during lent we would be dealing with the 6 promises of God. At first thought, this hardly seems like a promise. It seems more like a list of rules to follow or else.
That is because no matter how well we may remember all of the commandments, we are not told of the first words o Exodus 20:2 – Where God says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
I brought you out of the house of slavery – the promise for us is not a demand a demand of obedience, but a request of obedience. The first promise for us is that we would not be destroyed. In spite of out bent toward sinning. The second promise is that the world would be blessed if we live out of our faith. The promise for today – is that even though we are sinners, even though there are always consequences for our sin, - we have been set free. We are free to be in relationship with God and with one another. Without freedom, there is no relationship – because you are not giving out of your heart.
Without God, where would be be? Without God’s love for us where would we be? Without God opening doors and providing a pathway for us – where would we be? So why would we put other gods before God?
The first 4 commandments teach us how to have a relationship with God, the next six teach us how to have a relationship with one another.
Jesus reminds us that we should love the lord our God with all of our heart, all of our mind and all of our souls. And to love one another as God loves us. To treat one another, as God treats us.
Perhaps that is why Jesus got so upset in our gospel. Because people seemed to get so caught up in following the rules, that they forgot to be in relationship with one another, and with God.
This is another story which is told in all of the gospels. In John’s story – this is the beginning of Jesus ministry – when he comes to the temple – and finds money changers in the temple. He is not so much upset that they are selling worship materials – it is okay for us to have bake sales, and fundraisers in the church. That is not the problem. He is upset because of their attitude in selling products. They don’t care about the people that they are serving – many who can’t afford the prices that they are being charged. Also, they have set up shop in the gentile section of the temple, which means that there are people who are not allowed to come to worship while all of this is going on.
They have turned worship of God into a mockery of all that God stands for. A relationship of love.
Jesus ties some rope together and starts to destroy what they are doing by upturning everything. I love the response of the religious leaders in this story – who gave you the authority to do this?
When I was in Israel, one of the leaders said, it is not that Jews don’t like Jesus, they just don’t understand. It was like he made a mockery of the whole point of Jewish tradition. like he is doing in this scene.
Jesus is reminding us that we are free – we are not bound by tradition, or by circumstances, or by rules. The Lord our God has set us free. And all that God asks of us in return – is to obey – to never forget our relationship with God and to live out that relationship with one another.
The temple in which we worship is not a building (as important as it is), the temple is our relationships with one another and with those in the world. Without a relationship with who we are, what we are doing, and how we affect others – we don’t have anything.
I want to leave you with these words from Meister Eckhart
“as long we look for some kind of pay for what we do, as long as we want something from God in some kind of exchange, we are like merchants. Do all that you can in good works, solely for the praise of God. Live as you do not exist. Expect nothing in return. Then the merchant inside of you shall be driven out of the temple. Let God alone dwell in the temple. This is how the temple is cleared: when a person thinks only of God and honors him alone. Only such a person is free and genuine.
Worship no God but God
Don’t use the lords name in vain
Remember the Sabbath
Honor your parents
Don’t murder
Don’t commit adultery
Don’t steal
Don’t lie
Don’t wish for anything that belongs to another.
No matter what you do – always remember that you are loved, so you are free.
Amen.
John 2:13-22
March 15, 2009
Year B
Third Sunday of Lent
A Command, a Promise or a Way of Life?
Memorizing the 10 commandments is a rite of passage or all Sunday school students. Who can remember them by heart?
(I can’t)
Teach you a short trick to remember them….
Start with your hands together in prayer. This reminds us that God heard the
prayers of the Hebrew people when they were in slavery in Egypt and freed them
(Exodus 3:7, 20:2). The commandments are a way for us to show our gratitude for
God's love in our lives and to further just and peaceful relationships in God's
world.
1. "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me." Hold up one
index finger for the number one. We worship one God.
2. "You shall not worship idols." Idols, false gods, are not only things like
statues, but anything in which we place our ultimate trust and allegiance-- for
example, money, possessions or weapons. Hold up two fingers. Should we worship
more than one God? No, two is too many! One of them must be an idol, and we
should not worship it!
3. "You shall not take the Lord's name in vain." Use three fingers to form the
letter "W' which stands for "words." Watch your words! God wants us to use his
name in loving, caring ways, as we pray and as we talk about him, not in
swearing or in anger.
4. "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy." Hold up four fingers, and fold
your thumb under to let it rest. The thumb has the right idea. It's the Sabbath,
and the thumb is following the commandment to take a day of rest. God does not
want anyone to overwork or be stressed, so we need a day to rest, to be at
peace, and to worship with others. God also gave us the Sabbath so that working
people would not be taken advantage of by their employers (Deut. 5:14)
5. "Honor your father and your mother." Hold up all five fingers on one hand as
if you are taking a pledge, to honor your parents. God wants there to be peace
and love in all our family relationships.
6. "You shall not kill." Pretend the index finger on your second hand is a gun,
shooting at the first five fingers. God's sixth commandment teaches us not to do
anything that would hurt another person unfairly.
7. "You shall not commit adultery." Hold one hand out flat. The five fingers and
hand become the floor of the church. Two fingers on the other hand are the man
and woman to be married, standing in the church, making
promises to each other. This seventh commandment calls for couples to keep the
marriage promises they make.
8. "You shall not steal." Hold up four fingers on each hand, for the eighth
commandment. If you stretch out your fingers slightly, these become the prison
bars, which hold someone who was been arrested for stealing. Our Study Catechism
says "God forbids all theft and robbery, including schemes, tricks or systems
that unjustly take what belongs to someone else."
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Hold up all five
fingers on one hand and four on the other. Fold your second thumb under and turn
your hand around, so the thumb is hiding. It is secretly going around telling
the other four fingers on that hand lies and rumors about the five fingers on
the other hand. It is "bearing false witness," as it talks behind people=s
backs, spreading gossip, criticizing others without talking directly to the
people involved. Again, our Study Catechism teaches us "Negative stereotyping is
a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse, and violence as
forbidden by the commandment against murder."
10. "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor." Hold out your hands, palms
up, and wiggle all ten fingers to show that they've got the "gimmes." Your
fingers are saying, "Gimme what belongs to my neighbor. I want all those things
my neighbor has." This is not the way God wants us to live.
I bet you didn’t know that catholics, Lutherans, other protestants, and jews have different ten commandements. There are actually 15 commandments that have been grouped in different ways.
A preacher was depressed that he lost his bike…..In a small town there were two preachers, one Methodist and one Baptist.They both liked to ride bicycles around town, and they would greet eachother when they met on their way somewhere. Well, so one day when they met, the Baptist preacher was on foot. Methodistpreacher asked him, "What happened to your bicycle?" Baptist preacher said, "I don't know. I put it somewhere, and can'tremember where. I hope somebody didn't steal it." So the Methodist preacher said, "I know what we can do to get your bicycleback. This Sunday we'll both preach on the Ten Commandments. When we getto 'Thou shalt not steal,' we'll dwell on it long and hard. I'll betthat'll get your bicycle returned." So they proceeded to do this, and one day the next week they met up again,and the Baptist preacher had his bicycle back. "Hello, friend," said the Methodist preacher. "I see one of our sermons didsome good." The Baptist fellow hung his head and said, "Yeah, but not how you'd think.I preached on the Ten Commandments, just like we said, and when I got to'Covet not thy neighbor's wife,' I remembered where I'd left my bicycle!"
That is how we usually use the ten commandments – as a set of rules that we are supposed to obey, with a realization that we will be punished if we disobey. And there are times when it is justified that we are punished. These are social boundaries where there should be consequences if we violate them. These are the basic rules of how we should live in community.
These are the first known rules of community. The story goes that the people did not want to talk with Moses on their own, so they ask Moses to go on the mountain and to bring back those rules to live by.
Today, even with all of the controversy of separation of church and state, they are the basis of our legal system. And play an important in our modern societal boundaries.
I told you that during lent we would be dealing with the 6 promises of God. At first thought, this hardly seems like a promise. It seems more like a list of rules to follow or else.
That is because no matter how well we may remember all of the commandments, we are not told of the first words o Exodus 20:2 – Where God says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
I brought you out of the house of slavery – the promise for us is not a demand a demand of obedience, but a request of obedience. The first promise for us is that we would not be destroyed. In spite of out bent toward sinning. The second promise is that the world would be blessed if we live out of our faith. The promise for today – is that even though we are sinners, even though there are always consequences for our sin, - we have been set free. We are free to be in relationship with God and with one another. Without freedom, there is no relationship – because you are not giving out of your heart.
Without God, where would be be? Without God’s love for us where would we be? Without God opening doors and providing a pathway for us – where would we be? So why would we put other gods before God?
The first 4 commandments teach us how to have a relationship with God, the next six teach us how to have a relationship with one another.
Jesus reminds us that we should love the lord our God with all of our heart, all of our mind and all of our souls. And to love one another as God loves us. To treat one another, as God treats us.
Perhaps that is why Jesus got so upset in our gospel. Because people seemed to get so caught up in following the rules, that they forgot to be in relationship with one another, and with God.
This is another story which is told in all of the gospels. In John’s story – this is the beginning of Jesus ministry – when he comes to the temple – and finds money changers in the temple. He is not so much upset that they are selling worship materials – it is okay for us to have bake sales, and fundraisers in the church. That is not the problem. He is upset because of their attitude in selling products. They don’t care about the people that they are serving – many who can’t afford the prices that they are being charged. Also, they have set up shop in the gentile section of the temple, which means that there are people who are not allowed to come to worship while all of this is going on.
They have turned worship of God into a mockery of all that God stands for. A relationship of love.
Jesus ties some rope together and starts to destroy what they are doing by upturning everything. I love the response of the religious leaders in this story – who gave you the authority to do this?
When I was in Israel, one of the leaders said, it is not that Jews don’t like Jesus, they just don’t understand. It was like he made a mockery of the whole point of Jewish tradition. like he is doing in this scene.
Jesus is reminding us that we are free – we are not bound by tradition, or by circumstances, or by rules. The Lord our God has set us free. And all that God asks of us in return – is to obey – to never forget our relationship with God and to live out that relationship with one another.
The temple in which we worship is not a building (as important as it is), the temple is our relationships with one another and with those in the world. Without a relationship with who we are, what we are doing, and how we affect others – we don’t have anything.
I want to leave you with these words from Meister Eckhart
“as long we look for some kind of pay for what we do, as long as we want something from God in some kind of exchange, we are like merchants. Do all that you can in good works, solely for the praise of God. Live as you do not exist. Expect nothing in return. Then the merchant inside of you shall be driven out of the temple. Let God alone dwell in the temple. This is how the temple is cleared: when a person thinks only of God and honors him alone. Only such a person is free and genuine.
Worship no God but God
Don’t use the lords name in vain
Remember the Sabbath
Honor your parents
Don’t murder
Don’t commit adultery
Don’t steal
Don’t lie
Don’t wish for anything that belongs to another.
No matter what you do – always remember that you are loved, so you are free.
Amen.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
The Rest of the Story - March 8, 2009
March 8, 2009
The Rest of the Story
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Year B
Second Sunday of Lent
Telling of a story that we have all heard before.
Once upon a time there was a little girl, with a read hood. Her mother sent her to her grandmother’s house with some cookies. In order to get the grandmothers house, she had to pass through a forest. Along the way, she met a wolf. She told the wolf where she was going. The wolf seemed intrigued, and wished her well on her journey. She made it to her grandmother’s house – they sat down together with milk and cookies and told stories all afternoon, and both lives happily ever after.
That is not how the story goes. Stories don’t have happy endings – there has to be some drama, some struggle between good and evil, something bad has to happen.
We all know that in the real story – The wolf gets to the house before little riding hood and eats the grandmother and that both have to eventually be rescued, before they live happily ever after.
We want happy endings – but that is not how the story goes.
That is the point that Jesus is trying to make in the gospel for today.
Back up a little, Jesus is talking with disciples and Peter realizes that he is talking with the messiah.
But in his mind the messiah is the happy ending, the triumph, the answer to his prayers. When Jesus starts talk about suffering and dying, and giving up what you have to follow me – Peter is upset and tells Jesus not to talk like that.
Jesus response – get behind me Satan
Reminder that because we want happy endings – that is not the life that we live. Life of suffering, pain and problems.
Jesus not here to be the hero of our dreams – the savior of our lives. The definer of our faith. In order for faith to matter – it has to be connected to real life.
We all fall into the temptation of Peter – Jesus this is who you should be for us. Jesus reminds us this is who he really is. Jesus reminds Peter, and us, that we get out fairy tales and our faith tales confused. We confuse the stories of man and the stories of God. No matter how bright and creative we are, we could never create the stories of God.
This lent we are dealing with the promises of God. The things God said would always be so. God promised Abraham that the world would be blessed for generations to come – because of his son.
We know that this was strange for a couple who were almost in their 90’s. But it happen. And today- Abraham is our biggest example of faith. The story of his life sticks with us. Not because it was a strange story – but because it is a faith story.
Faith is not belief in things that we can’t see, or in things we don’t understand. Faith is being willing to be obedient without reservation. (repeat that again).
In God’s story of faith – are we Peter, or are we Abraham? Do we tell God what God should be doing to fit into our story and make us happy – or do we listen to God, and trust that God knows far more about us that we could ever know?
In our story of faith, where is Jesus? Is he the hero who makes everything perfect for is, or is he an example of what God can do in our lives, or is he the one who stands next to us to support us every step of the way in life.
Most importantly, where are you in God’s story of faith? Does your trust in God enable you to follow instructions, or does it limit your actions?
God asks each of us that question – are you willing to go forward in trust, or do you need to stand back until things go your way. True faith is being able to go forward, even though things are not going as you planned. True faith is knowing that God can make some pretty improbable promises to us – but God is always reliable. The story does not go on the way we would write it, but there are reminders along the way that it is not our story – but God’s story. Life is not a story of happy endings – but a story of faith. Which is a grander story then we could ever imagine………. (the end of the sermon)
The story of faith is not just a story of words – it can be told in many ways. This morning – our word from God will be in song. Songs of faith, of God’s promise of love, and of our response to God’s love in our lives.
The Rest of the Story
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Year B
Second Sunday of Lent
Telling of a story that we have all heard before.
Once upon a time there was a little girl, with a read hood. Her mother sent her to her grandmother’s house with some cookies. In order to get the grandmothers house, she had to pass through a forest. Along the way, she met a wolf. She told the wolf where she was going. The wolf seemed intrigued, and wished her well on her journey. She made it to her grandmother’s house – they sat down together with milk and cookies and told stories all afternoon, and both lives happily ever after.
That is not how the story goes. Stories don’t have happy endings – there has to be some drama, some struggle between good and evil, something bad has to happen.
We all know that in the real story – The wolf gets to the house before little riding hood and eats the grandmother and that both have to eventually be rescued, before they live happily ever after.
We want happy endings – but that is not how the story goes.
That is the point that Jesus is trying to make in the gospel for today.
Back up a little, Jesus is talking with disciples and Peter realizes that he is talking with the messiah.
But in his mind the messiah is the happy ending, the triumph, the answer to his prayers. When Jesus starts talk about suffering and dying, and giving up what you have to follow me – Peter is upset and tells Jesus not to talk like that.
Jesus response – get behind me Satan
Reminder that because we want happy endings – that is not the life that we live. Life of suffering, pain and problems.
Jesus not here to be the hero of our dreams – the savior of our lives. The definer of our faith. In order for faith to matter – it has to be connected to real life.
We all fall into the temptation of Peter – Jesus this is who you should be for us. Jesus reminds us this is who he really is. Jesus reminds Peter, and us, that we get out fairy tales and our faith tales confused. We confuse the stories of man and the stories of God. No matter how bright and creative we are, we could never create the stories of God.
This lent we are dealing with the promises of God. The things God said would always be so. God promised Abraham that the world would be blessed for generations to come – because of his son.
We know that this was strange for a couple who were almost in their 90’s. But it happen. And today- Abraham is our biggest example of faith. The story of his life sticks with us. Not because it was a strange story – but because it is a faith story.
Faith is not belief in things that we can’t see, or in things we don’t understand. Faith is being willing to be obedient without reservation. (repeat that again).
In God’s story of faith – are we Peter, or are we Abraham? Do we tell God what God should be doing to fit into our story and make us happy – or do we listen to God, and trust that God knows far more about us that we could ever know?
In our story of faith, where is Jesus? Is he the hero who makes everything perfect for is, or is he an example of what God can do in our lives, or is he the one who stands next to us to support us every step of the way in life.
Most importantly, where are you in God’s story of faith? Does your trust in God enable you to follow instructions, or does it limit your actions?
God asks each of us that question – are you willing to go forward in trust, or do you need to stand back until things go your way. True faith is being able to go forward, even though things are not going as you planned. True faith is knowing that God can make some pretty improbable promises to us – but God is always reliable. The story does not go on the way we would write it, but there are reminders along the way that it is not our story – but God’s story. Life is not a story of happy endings – but a story of faith. Which is a grander story then we could ever imagine………. (the end of the sermon)
The story of faith is not just a story of words – it can be told in many ways. This morning – our word from God will be in song. Songs of faith, of God’s promise of love, and of our response to God’s love in our lives.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
When We See Rainbows
“What do we see when we see rainbows?”
Genesis 9:8-17
1 Peter 3:18-22
Year B
First Sunday of Lent
My favorite song about rainbows is the Muppet movie – where Kermit sings, why are there so many songs about rainbows. The rainbow connection is a wonderful song about love, beauty, and a belief that one day we will all live in harmony. I think that is what rainbows mean for many of us – harmony and living together.
And Kermit was singing a question that people have asked since the beginning of time. What is it that fascinate about us about rainbows. Almost every culture in the world has created songs and myths of why rainbows are in the sky.
The aboriginal people in Australia believe that in dream time – the time of the creation of the world- that the rainbow serpent created everything. The native Americans believe that the great father used a rainbow to create the world.
The canannites believed that the rainbow was a sign of war. The rainbow was God’s bow that he laid in the sky to signify that he was prepared to fight and that there would be war and fighting somewhere in the world.
Actually this is the story that Noah and his generation would have grown up with. Their God Yahweh was a war God, and he protected them by winning battles. The bow was a sign of his strength and his ability to defeat others.
Rainbows did not give you a warm fuzzy feeling of harmony – but it scared you, worried you . In those days,you took it as a sign that things were about to get serious. And you needed to be prepared.
Perhaps it was this feeling of something bad to come that made Noah start building the ark. We know the story from here – of Noah building the ark and gathering his family and all of the animals and sailing the world – as God destroyed everything in a great flood.
We tell that story on the first Sunday of lent because our theme for the next six weeks will be the promises of God. God made some very important promises to the fathers of faith in the Hebrew bible. His first promise to us was in the form of a rainbow.
I think it is interesting that the Noah story is in the book of Genesis. In the scheme of things, this is a part of the original creation story. As soon as the world was created and man came to understand their place in creation, man started to ruin creation with sin. Within a few years, man was out of control, doing what we wanted, destroying what we wanted, totally oblivious to ourselves and to the world and to the one who created us in God’s image.
Not knowing what else to do, but to kill us and start all over again. We get the story of Noah and the flood. Since this story has come up already twice in one year – I want to save this story to tell you for another time, but there is a wonderful midrash about Noah having to leave his friends behind, and crying as he had to watch them die in the flood, while he and his family was safe in the ark.
Obviously, after the flood was over, - Noah must have shared his grief with God. He must have defended his friends, even though they did not care about their relationship with God- they were still people, they still has a life, they still were wonderful friends, and they did not deserve to die – without a chance to know why they were being destroyed, and particularly without a chance to change.
God agreed – and put a rainbow in the sky – explaining that what was once an ominous sign – is now a sign of hope. God’s promise was not only to Noah, not only to people, it was a promise to all of creation. Scripture says “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and all your descendents after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals.
Speaking of rainbows, we have all heard that leprechauns had access the pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. I bet you didn’t know that the legend actually says that the only person who can get the gold at the end of the rainbow is a man in the nude. Not relevant to the story - but I thought it was a story that would wake you up.
But anyway – the big point of our scripture is that this promise is not just to us – to all flesh. God does not care about us, but about all of flesh.
Lent is about us learning to love the things that God loves, and getting in touch with all of life, to not be so concerned about our needs, but the needs of all of the things that are important to God.
I think that is the importance of this story of destruction being so close to the story of creation. The sin that God was concerned about eliminating was us developing our lives outside of nature. We have developed and eat foods which are made in a laboratory and not in the ground, we drive cars, and live in houses which are destroying the environment. We use everyday products with no regard for how others are affected by those products. I learned this year that there is a garbage heap the size of Texas swirling around in the Altantic Ocean – this heap is filled with water bottles and other debris that people just carelessly through away with no regard for where they end up.
How does God get our attention, and help us realize that our actions are wrong, hurtful and need to be changed? God’s first promise to all flesh was that we would never be destroyed for our wrongdoing.
Lent is a chance for us to think about our actions and how they affect others. A chance for us to put our relationship with God first again, and to remember to care about the things that God cares about. To think about how we are connected to all flesh, and all nature. And even in our modern day living - to take that relationship seriously.
God made a promise to us – what promises have we made to God in return.
On Ash Wednesday, I talked about lent in tough times. The economy is forcing many of us into a period of self denial and reflection already – that goes far beyond the 40 days of lent.
If we are in self denial – how to we impose even more self denial? Lent is about self denial – but it is also about relationship, about promises, about grace, and about our response to grace.
Lent is a promise that darkness will turn into light, that death will turn into life, that winter will turn into spring, that tough times will turn into happy times.
It is God’s ways of getting our attention, of reminding us that our lives have been spared, a request that when things finally do change, that you change too. It is God’s request that you not return to the old habits, the hurtful ways, the insensitivity to how you actions were affecting others. That when good times return – that you will be a better person because of it.
I don’t know what you have planned for the lent season- whatever you do – all God asks is that you learn something. Something about yourself, something about the world, something about God, Something about God’s plan for you.
My favorite rainbow story is the Norse belief that a rainbow is the bridge between heaven and earth. The only ones who can cross the bridge are the righteous. I also bet you didn’t know that no one can see the same rainbow. A rainbow – a reflection is only visible in the eye of the beholder – it is not something that you can reach out and touch in reality.
So the rainbow that I see if not the rainbow that you see – or you see. It is God’s gift to each of us, and God speaks to each of us in many different ways.
During this Lenten season – look for your rainbows, and know that God’s words for you are not far behind.
Let us pray….
Genesis 9:8-17
1 Peter 3:18-22
Year B
First Sunday of Lent
My favorite song about rainbows is the Muppet movie – where Kermit sings, why are there so many songs about rainbows. The rainbow connection is a wonderful song about love, beauty, and a belief that one day we will all live in harmony. I think that is what rainbows mean for many of us – harmony and living together.
And Kermit was singing a question that people have asked since the beginning of time. What is it that fascinate about us about rainbows. Almost every culture in the world has created songs and myths of why rainbows are in the sky.
The aboriginal people in Australia believe that in dream time – the time of the creation of the world- that the rainbow serpent created everything. The native Americans believe that the great father used a rainbow to create the world.
The canannites believed that the rainbow was a sign of war. The rainbow was God’s bow that he laid in the sky to signify that he was prepared to fight and that there would be war and fighting somewhere in the world.
Actually this is the story that Noah and his generation would have grown up with. Their God Yahweh was a war God, and he protected them by winning battles. The bow was a sign of his strength and his ability to defeat others.
Rainbows did not give you a warm fuzzy feeling of harmony – but it scared you, worried you . In those days,you took it as a sign that things were about to get serious. And you needed to be prepared.
Perhaps it was this feeling of something bad to come that made Noah start building the ark. We know the story from here – of Noah building the ark and gathering his family and all of the animals and sailing the world – as God destroyed everything in a great flood.
We tell that story on the first Sunday of lent because our theme for the next six weeks will be the promises of God. God made some very important promises to the fathers of faith in the Hebrew bible. His first promise to us was in the form of a rainbow.
I think it is interesting that the Noah story is in the book of Genesis. In the scheme of things, this is a part of the original creation story. As soon as the world was created and man came to understand their place in creation, man started to ruin creation with sin. Within a few years, man was out of control, doing what we wanted, destroying what we wanted, totally oblivious to ourselves and to the world and to the one who created us in God’s image.
Not knowing what else to do, but to kill us and start all over again. We get the story of Noah and the flood. Since this story has come up already twice in one year – I want to save this story to tell you for another time, but there is a wonderful midrash about Noah having to leave his friends behind, and crying as he had to watch them die in the flood, while he and his family was safe in the ark.
Obviously, after the flood was over, - Noah must have shared his grief with God. He must have defended his friends, even though they did not care about their relationship with God- they were still people, they still has a life, they still were wonderful friends, and they did not deserve to die – without a chance to know why they were being destroyed, and particularly without a chance to change.
God agreed – and put a rainbow in the sky – explaining that what was once an ominous sign – is now a sign of hope. God’s promise was not only to Noah, not only to people, it was a promise to all of creation. Scripture says “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and all your descendents after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals.
Speaking of rainbows, we have all heard that leprechauns had access the pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. I bet you didn’t know that the legend actually says that the only person who can get the gold at the end of the rainbow is a man in the nude. Not relevant to the story - but I thought it was a story that would wake you up.
But anyway – the big point of our scripture is that this promise is not just to us – to all flesh. God does not care about us, but about all of flesh.
Lent is about us learning to love the things that God loves, and getting in touch with all of life, to not be so concerned about our needs, but the needs of all of the things that are important to God.
I think that is the importance of this story of destruction being so close to the story of creation. The sin that God was concerned about eliminating was us developing our lives outside of nature. We have developed and eat foods which are made in a laboratory and not in the ground, we drive cars, and live in houses which are destroying the environment. We use everyday products with no regard for how others are affected by those products. I learned this year that there is a garbage heap the size of Texas swirling around in the Altantic Ocean – this heap is filled with water bottles and other debris that people just carelessly through away with no regard for where they end up.
How does God get our attention, and help us realize that our actions are wrong, hurtful and need to be changed? God’s first promise to all flesh was that we would never be destroyed for our wrongdoing.
Lent is a chance for us to think about our actions and how they affect others. A chance for us to put our relationship with God first again, and to remember to care about the things that God cares about. To think about how we are connected to all flesh, and all nature. And even in our modern day living - to take that relationship seriously.
God made a promise to us – what promises have we made to God in return.
On Ash Wednesday, I talked about lent in tough times. The economy is forcing many of us into a period of self denial and reflection already – that goes far beyond the 40 days of lent.
If we are in self denial – how to we impose even more self denial? Lent is about self denial – but it is also about relationship, about promises, about grace, and about our response to grace.
Lent is a promise that darkness will turn into light, that death will turn into life, that winter will turn into spring, that tough times will turn into happy times.
It is God’s ways of getting our attention, of reminding us that our lives have been spared, a request that when things finally do change, that you change too. It is God’s request that you not return to the old habits, the hurtful ways, the insensitivity to how you actions were affecting others. That when good times return – that you will be a better person because of it.
I don’t know what you have planned for the lent season- whatever you do – all God asks is that you learn something. Something about yourself, something about the world, something about God, Something about God’s plan for you.
My favorite rainbow story is the Norse belief that a rainbow is the bridge between heaven and earth. The only ones who can cross the bridge are the righteous. I also bet you didn’t know that no one can see the same rainbow. A rainbow – a reflection is only visible in the eye of the beholder – it is not something that you can reach out and touch in reality.
So the rainbow that I see if not the rainbow that you see – or you see. It is God’s gift to each of us, and God speaks to each of us in many different ways.
During this Lenten season – look for your rainbows, and know that God’s words for you are not far behind.
Let us pray….
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The Moment Everything Becomes Clear - February 22, 2009
February 22, 2009
Transfiguration Sunday
2 Kings 2:1-12
Mark 9:2-9
Year B
“The Moment when Everything Becomes Clear”
Elijah story
Elijah loves to party. Whenever there was a party – you always knew he would be there. One day while walking down the street he heard a wedding party. Dressed in his street clothes, a drab gown, he walked up to the door and knocked. A man answered, the father of the bride. I see you are having a party said Elijah, can I come in. The man took one look at Elijah and said I am sorry, this is a private party and slammed the door in his face. Elijah was horrified and thought what to do next. He took his gold cane, waved it in the air, and all of a sudden he had a wonderful white tuxedo, hat and of course his gold cane. He wrapped on the door again with his cane. Once again, the father came to the door – I hear that you are having a party. I love to party – can I come in. the man took one look at Elijah and said of course you can come in. Elijah joined the party. He danced and talked for a while. Soon it was time for a very lavish meal. The guest went to different tables to get various types of food. Elijah walked up to the fruit table and grabbed an orange and put it in his pocket. One of the guest saw it, but she did not want to make a big deal of it. He walked up to the dessert table and grabbed a few cakes, and put them into his pocket. People noticed, the even noticed when he started to rub his pockets smashing the cake. People thought he was weird, but no one wanted to say anything out loud, but of course this was a close knit family – so word had spread. Then Elijah went to the meat table, ordered a piece of roast beef and put that in his pocket. Now by this time people were looking and paying attention. So when he went to the drink table and took a cup of fruit punch and poured it all over his white suit – the host could stand it no longer. He confronted Elijah and asked what was going on. I don’t even know you, and I let you into my daughters party, and instead of just fitting in, you are making a nuisance of yourself and ruining my party. How dare you – yelled the host. Elijah yelled even louder – yes you let me into your party. First when I knocked on the door in shabby clothes, you slammed the door in my face. But when I dressed up in this suit – you let me in. So the best I can tell – you invited my clothes, not me. Elijah grabbed an apple, and slammed it into his chest, so I am feeding my clothes – I want to make sure they have a good time at the party. I Elijah have spoken – and he disappeared leaving behind his gold cane.
Elijah is a larger than life figure in the jewish worldview
I am sure that story has a moral – but I tell it to represent the reputation that Elijah holds in tradition. There are many stories of Elijah appearing all throughtout history.
Elijah is one of the few people who did not die – but in our story is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And it is believed that when the messiah comes back to the world – that Elijah will appear and come back to usher in a new age for God.
Elijah represents the faithfulness to God
The other person who had such a faithful relationship with God was moses. But in the moses story – moses grave was never found, but he did pass on. The story says that when Elijah was taken by god, that they searched for his body, thinking God swept it up but dropped it somewhere. But it was never found. Elijah was so faithful and passionate for God in his life, that God continues to use him.
Story of his passing on his knowledge to Elisha
There are many stories of Elijah works on the earth. 1 and 2 Kings are about his life. But there are many stories like the one I told you. The story for today is about Elisha. They know that Elijah is going to be taken by God. Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit – that he can do many of he works that he has witnessed.
I think Elisha was asking for more than that
Elisha gets it
Elisha mourns for someone – who no one knows if he really died.
The new testament story is another appearance of Elijah. He appears to Jesus in the dark of the night.
Tell story of mark.
This is the transfiguration story. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus takes some time to climb a mountain to pray. He takes three of his disciples with him. The disciples witness Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Jesus shines in the night, and a voice speaks saying listen to Jesus.
This is not just about Jesus transfiguring, but the symbol of God presence and faithfulness comes to confer with Jesus and his mission to save the world. This moment shows the disciples that Jesus is indeed not just a wonderful teacher, but he is indeed God’s chosen messiah.
It was a cold and dark night.
It would have been hard to see what was going on in the dark on the top of a mountain. But they noticed that they had night vision, and could see what was going on clearly.
They say that when you descend into the ocean – that you enter into different worlds
Each darker and colder than the one before – until you enter into a strange world – where everything glows.
A world of strange animals, and strange plants. You realize that you are in a place where you could never imagine in your everyday life.
This was not something that happens everyday. Not something that anyone would ever believe How did they get to that place?
How do we get to the place where we listen to God, where we see visions clearly, and things that we are struggling all of a sudden start to make sense.
There is no pathway to that place – we all have to find it for ourselves. God speaks in ways that only we can recognize. Our task during lent is to find those places.
Stories to give us the tools to get through the days ahead. Tools we need are imagination and prayer. Time dreaming of what God would have us to do, praying for God to lead us .
Will start to see God in ways we never imagined
Read poem.
"A person whispered," God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But, the person did not hear. So they yelled,"God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But, they did not listen. The person looked around and said, "God, let me see you" and a star shone brightly. But, the person did not notice. Then they shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But, the person did not know. So, they cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here." Whereupon God reached down and touched them. But, they brushed the butterfly away, and walked on.
We have come through epiphany season – sort of like scuba diving down into the ocean. Going deeper and deeper into darkness and coldness until we reach the bottom of the ocean. Lent is our journey on the bottom – until Easter when we get to revel in the brightness of daylight.
As you enter into lent – remember the tools for a deeper relationship with God. Your prayers, your imagination, your dreams for the future.
Be present when God reveals the divine to you – in so many ways.
This is an Elijah cup Рyou use it for maunday Thursday. Whenever you have dinner for Passover, the jews are supposed to set a place for Elijah at the table. When everyone else gets something to drink Рyou always pour something in the Elijah cup. It is done to remind us that Elijah could come back at anytime. And that when he comes back Рhe is not just passing on his spirit to his prot̩g̩, but to all of us.
That tradition spreads also to Jesus. What would happen this lent, if everytime we set the table, we left a place for Jesus. To come to us, to speak with us , to live with us, to guide us. To be reminded that Jesus is present when we realize it and when we don’t. As we begin our Lenten journey – whatever you plan to do – know that God is with you. Pray for as many things as you can – and look earnestly everywhere for answers.
Finally – a group of middle school girls were talking about inner beauty and the importance of being a Christian. They talked about how they needed to pray for those who needed it and even for those who were mean to them. A teacher asked if prayer changes things – no but prayer does change you and how you look at the situation.
This lent - if you are a faithful follower of jesus – the world may not change, but if you pray – you will. When you change – the world changes with you.
Amen.
Transfiguration Sunday
2 Kings 2:1-12
Mark 9:2-9
Year B
“The Moment when Everything Becomes Clear”
Elijah story
Elijah loves to party. Whenever there was a party – you always knew he would be there. One day while walking down the street he heard a wedding party. Dressed in his street clothes, a drab gown, he walked up to the door and knocked. A man answered, the father of the bride. I see you are having a party said Elijah, can I come in. The man took one look at Elijah and said I am sorry, this is a private party and slammed the door in his face. Elijah was horrified and thought what to do next. He took his gold cane, waved it in the air, and all of a sudden he had a wonderful white tuxedo, hat and of course his gold cane. He wrapped on the door again with his cane. Once again, the father came to the door – I hear that you are having a party. I love to party – can I come in. the man took one look at Elijah and said of course you can come in. Elijah joined the party. He danced and talked for a while. Soon it was time for a very lavish meal. The guest went to different tables to get various types of food. Elijah walked up to the fruit table and grabbed an orange and put it in his pocket. One of the guest saw it, but she did not want to make a big deal of it. He walked up to the dessert table and grabbed a few cakes, and put them into his pocket. People noticed, the even noticed when he started to rub his pockets smashing the cake. People thought he was weird, but no one wanted to say anything out loud, but of course this was a close knit family – so word had spread. Then Elijah went to the meat table, ordered a piece of roast beef and put that in his pocket. Now by this time people were looking and paying attention. So when he went to the drink table and took a cup of fruit punch and poured it all over his white suit – the host could stand it no longer. He confronted Elijah and asked what was going on. I don’t even know you, and I let you into my daughters party, and instead of just fitting in, you are making a nuisance of yourself and ruining my party. How dare you – yelled the host. Elijah yelled even louder – yes you let me into your party. First when I knocked on the door in shabby clothes, you slammed the door in my face. But when I dressed up in this suit – you let me in. So the best I can tell – you invited my clothes, not me. Elijah grabbed an apple, and slammed it into his chest, so I am feeding my clothes – I want to make sure they have a good time at the party. I Elijah have spoken – and he disappeared leaving behind his gold cane.
Elijah is a larger than life figure in the jewish worldview
I am sure that story has a moral – but I tell it to represent the reputation that Elijah holds in tradition. There are many stories of Elijah appearing all throughtout history.
Elijah is one of the few people who did not die – but in our story is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And it is believed that when the messiah comes back to the world – that Elijah will appear and come back to usher in a new age for God.
Elijah represents the faithfulness to God
The other person who had such a faithful relationship with God was moses. But in the moses story – moses grave was never found, but he did pass on. The story says that when Elijah was taken by god, that they searched for his body, thinking God swept it up but dropped it somewhere. But it was never found. Elijah was so faithful and passionate for God in his life, that God continues to use him.
Story of his passing on his knowledge to Elisha
There are many stories of Elijah works on the earth. 1 and 2 Kings are about his life. But there are many stories like the one I told you. The story for today is about Elisha. They know that Elijah is going to be taken by God. Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit – that he can do many of he works that he has witnessed.
I think Elisha was asking for more than that
Elisha gets it
Elisha mourns for someone – who no one knows if he really died.
The new testament story is another appearance of Elijah. He appears to Jesus in the dark of the night.
Tell story of mark.
This is the transfiguration story. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus takes some time to climb a mountain to pray. He takes three of his disciples with him. The disciples witness Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Jesus shines in the night, and a voice speaks saying listen to Jesus.
This is not just about Jesus transfiguring, but the symbol of God presence and faithfulness comes to confer with Jesus and his mission to save the world. This moment shows the disciples that Jesus is indeed not just a wonderful teacher, but he is indeed God’s chosen messiah.
It was a cold and dark night.
It would have been hard to see what was going on in the dark on the top of a mountain. But they noticed that they had night vision, and could see what was going on clearly.
They say that when you descend into the ocean – that you enter into different worlds
Each darker and colder than the one before – until you enter into a strange world – where everything glows.
A world of strange animals, and strange plants. You realize that you are in a place where you could never imagine in your everyday life.
This was not something that happens everyday. Not something that anyone would ever believe How did they get to that place?
How do we get to the place where we listen to God, where we see visions clearly, and things that we are struggling all of a sudden start to make sense.
There is no pathway to that place – we all have to find it for ourselves. God speaks in ways that only we can recognize. Our task during lent is to find those places.
Stories to give us the tools to get through the days ahead. Tools we need are imagination and prayer. Time dreaming of what God would have us to do, praying for God to lead us .
Will start to see God in ways we never imagined
Read poem.
"A person whispered," God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But, the person did not hear. So they yelled,"God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But, they did not listen. The person looked around and said, "God, let me see you" and a star shone brightly. But, the person did not notice. Then they shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But, the person did not know. So, they cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here." Whereupon God reached down and touched them. But, they brushed the butterfly away, and walked on.
We have come through epiphany season – sort of like scuba diving down into the ocean. Going deeper and deeper into darkness and coldness until we reach the bottom of the ocean. Lent is our journey on the bottom – until Easter when we get to revel in the brightness of daylight.
As you enter into lent – remember the tools for a deeper relationship with God. Your prayers, your imagination, your dreams for the future.
Be present when God reveals the divine to you – in so many ways.
This is an Elijah cup Рyou use it for maunday Thursday. Whenever you have dinner for Passover, the jews are supposed to set a place for Elijah at the table. When everyone else gets something to drink Рyou always pour something in the Elijah cup. It is done to remind us that Elijah could come back at anytime. And that when he comes back Рhe is not just passing on his spirit to his prot̩g̩, but to all of us.
That tradition spreads also to Jesus. What would happen this lent, if everytime we set the table, we left a place for Jesus. To come to us, to speak with us , to live with us, to guide us. To be reminded that Jesus is present when we realize it and when we don’t. As we begin our Lenten journey – whatever you plan to do – know that God is with you. Pray for as many things as you can – and look earnestly everywhere for answers.
Finally – a group of middle school girls were talking about inner beauty and the importance of being a Christian. They talked about how they needed to pray for those who needed it and even for those who were mean to them. A teacher asked if prayer changes things – no but prayer does change you and how you look at the situation.
This lent - if you are a faithful follower of jesus – the world may not change, but if you pray – you will. When you change – the world changes with you.
Amen.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
God of Touch, God of healing
February 15, 2009
Year B
God’s Touch, God’s Healing
2 Kings 5:1-27
Mark 1:40-45
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
The word for today is paradox
A Paradox is a situation where one thing is said or done, but another thing is meant or intended, and even though they may be opposites – they both are things are equally true. This lesson today is about the paradox of life, and more importantly of God.
Jesus as healer
The theme of the epiphany seems to be healing. The book of Mark sets out to prove that Jesus was a healer; he made life better for many people. That healing ministry is still true today.
Comes into the world to being healing
Our paradoxical God sent Jesus into the world to bring healing to his people. He saw that there was a lot of pain and suffering in the world. The world which was created as a place for us to be happy and whole, and he sent someone to help us out – to realize how to rise above our sin and to accept healing.
And yet that is the hardest thing for us to accept. We all say that we want to heal – and yet in reality we do everything that we can to stay away from it. We are all sinners, we all do things that are not quite right, not quite in our best interest, and yet we continue to do them anyway. We want to heal, but it takes so much work on our part – it is just easier to live life the way it is.
Once again, the Hebrew bible gives us a timeless story of human nature in an unlikely place. As we hear the story of Naaman.
He was someone whom God found favor on, and wanted to give him the gift of healing.
Syria – is the country to the north of Israel. When visiting Israel and passing by Syria, our guide told us not to even look that way – don’t appear curious of what it going on
The two countries were enemies, as they were long ago. The relationship was so strained, that they do not even associate with one another.
Naaman was the Commander of Syrian army; he was suffering and told the unthinkable – to go to Israel in search of a cure. His slave girl tells him of a prophet who can help him, and the only one willing to even take on skin diseases.
Causes a scandal when he comes to town, but even more so offended when given a cure – he is told to go and bath in the Jordan river seven times.
Why would he insult him by saying such a thing – when there is a river at home that is just as good, if not better.
That is our response to healing – we want to do things our way, and be in control, rather that listen to the advice of someone else. We want magic instead of medicine. We would rather voice our opinion about what is right then be quiet and do as we are told.
The human condition. Bible says that Naaman has leprosy – a skin condition. Today, Leprosy is called Hanson’s disease. It is a very painful incurable skin condition, where the body become disfigured, and you swell. And eventually you die from the disease. The bible uses that word in the old and new testament, but there is no real proof that that illness existed in that part of the world at that time. Leprosy is mostly found in India. And yet Leviticus spends a lot of time talking about a skin disease called leprosy. It could affect your body, your house, your clothes, even your standing in the community. But Some believe that it was not leprosy that Naaman had, or even a physical condition.
It was disease – a spiritual condition – where things were just not falling into place
Sin is the disease of the spirit. Missing the mark, not complete or whole, needing something to make you feel better.
Sin is the cause of us not wanting to heal – eating the wrong foods, not taking care of ourselves, not being in right relationship, not taking care of our lives, doing things that we know don’t help us – but we don’t want to change to get better.
God always wants us to get better. To heal. To feel whole. That’s what a relationship with God brings, and God is constantly trying to bring us into relationship.
That is the story of the bible – the story of God reaching out to us in unlikely ways – to get us to realize that we are whole. – that we are connected to the divine.
The olden culture was afraid of skin disease because they did not understand it. Were afraid that it made all who came in contact with it impure or polluted.
They Believed that the only way to come in contact with a pure and holy God was to be holy. Disease was a symbol of death.
If you Touched something dead, you were polluted and had to be cleansed. Pure and impure determined your access to God.
The temple was designed so that those who were not cleansed, could not go in to be close to God. We have been designing our societies like that for ages- those who were in and those who were out. Those who were polluted and those who were not. Those we could talk to and those we could not.
That is just the way things were but not the way things should be. Our paradoxical God is available to all people no matter who they are, or what condition they are in. God even loves the Syrians enough to bring them healing. God loves us enough to bring us out of what ever our disease it – to bring us to healing.
Jesus comes in contact with another leper – who is asking to get better. Once again, not the leprosy of modern days – but a social condition, cut off from society, more importantly cut off from yourself. More than like once again the results of our sinfulness. Jesus first reaction is anger –or deep emotion
But eventually he does heal him and sends him back into the world a whole person. Tell no one – he paradox is that he tells everyone. So excited at the gift he has been given.
For us Jesus is a paradox, an unlikely place for healing to occur.
The good news is that Jesus is in the unlikely places of life. Naaman would have never thought in a million years that his healing would have been in Israel. The world never believes that their healing would be in he body of Jesus.
God is always at work in unlikely places and unexpected people. But the only ones who really truly recognize the work of God are those who have been healed by him on some way.
A young monk came to a monastery to study with the grand master – to learn from someone who indeed had that connection to God. On the first day the master told the young monk that his first lesson was to go out into the garden and to stand there with his arms wide open for an hour. The monk stood there vulnerable for an hour- soon it started to rain and not understanding what was going on, he stood there in the rain. After the hour was over with – he went angry to the master – and said I see no point in that exercise – all that it did was make him feel like a fool. The master replied – that was the point – it is an excellent starting point in your relationship with God.
That is what keeps most of us away from a deeper connection with God, from wholeness, from healing. We are not willing to do anything that makes us feel stupid, or like a fool.
The word for today is paradox – The things that we don’t want to feel, are usually the feelings that we most need to deal with in order to heal. The people who we avoid, are the people we need to talk to in order to truly be a whole human being.
The real God – the true God of Israel has never been a god that made any real sense. God is not someone who we can explain or understand, or control, or predict, or even tell what to do.
The God that we worship is a magnificent, mysterious, mischievous God. Our God loves Syrians and Israelites, Our God loves the Steelers and the Cardinals, the Catholics and the Methodist, those who are strong enough to admit their sins, and those who are not even aware that their actions are sinful. God loves us all.
The trick is for us to learn to love us all. Ann Ulanov, a theologian outs it this way.
This task confronts all of us, to deal with what touches us and not avoid it, to collect our missing parts, the neglected and overlooked and banished parts of our inner and outer populations. We are never touched in the abstract, only in the flesh. The marks of our worries, our overweight, our sleepless nights, our neighborhood crime, our neglected land, our polluted air are all a result of our disconnection with God. Our unwillingness to accept our sinfulness. God waits in those parts, waits for us to visit the part left in the prison of repression, waits for us to offer some life-giving water to outcast. All must be gathered in to be one with God. When we are one with our fears, our anger, our frustration and those who cause those emotions, then we are one with God.
What are the things in your life that you need to accept instead of pushing away? Who are the people in your life that you need to tolerate? What are the issues in the back of your mind that you put aside. Become aware of those things, and you will probably also become aware of the sins in your life that you use to deal with those things.
Surrendering those things to God is the first step to being cleansed and being healed and most importantly being whole.
Let us pray…
Year B
God’s Touch, God’s Healing
2 Kings 5:1-27
Mark 1:40-45
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
The word for today is paradox
A Paradox is a situation where one thing is said or done, but another thing is meant or intended, and even though they may be opposites – they both are things are equally true. This lesson today is about the paradox of life, and more importantly of God.
Jesus as healer
The theme of the epiphany seems to be healing. The book of Mark sets out to prove that Jesus was a healer; he made life better for many people. That healing ministry is still true today.
Comes into the world to being healing
Our paradoxical God sent Jesus into the world to bring healing to his people. He saw that there was a lot of pain and suffering in the world. The world which was created as a place for us to be happy and whole, and he sent someone to help us out – to realize how to rise above our sin and to accept healing.
And yet that is the hardest thing for us to accept. We all say that we want to heal – and yet in reality we do everything that we can to stay away from it. We are all sinners, we all do things that are not quite right, not quite in our best interest, and yet we continue to do them anyway. We want to heal, but it takes so much work on our part – it is just easier to live life the way it is.
Once again, the Hebrew bible gives us a timeless story of human nature in an unlikely place. As we hear the story of Naaman.
He was someone whom God found favor on, and wanted to give him the gift of healing.
Syria – is the country to the north of Israel. When visiting Israel and passing by Syria, our guide told us not to even look that way – don’t appear curious of what it going on
The two countries were enemies, as they were long ago. The relationship was so strained, that they do not even associate with one another.
Naaman was the Commander of Syrian army; he was suffering and told the unthinkable – to go to Israel in search of a cure. His slave girl tells him of a prophet who can help him, and the only one willing to even take on skin diseases.
Causes a scandal when he comes to town, but even more so offended when given a cure – he is told to go and bath in the Jordan river seven times.
Why would he insult him by saying such a thing – when there is a river at home that is just as good, if not better.
That is our response to healing – we want to do things our way, and be in control, rather that listen to the advice of someone else. We want magic instead of medicine. We would rather voice our opinion about what is right then be quiet and do as we are told.
The human condition. Bible says that Naaman has leprosy – a skin condition. Today, Leprosy is called Hanson’s disease. It is a very painful incurable skin condition, where the body become disfigured, and you swell. And eventually you die from the disease. The bible uses that word in the old and new testament, but there is no real proof that that illness existed in that part of the world at that time. Leprosy is mostly found in India. And yet Leviticus spends a lot of time talking about a skin disease called leprosy. It could affect your body, your house, your clothes, even your standing in the community. But Some believe that it was not leprosy that Naaman had, or even a physical condition.
It was disease – a spiritual condition – where things were just not falling into place
Sin is the disease of the spirit. Missing the mark, not complete or whole, needing something to make you feel better.
Sin is the cause of us not wanting to heal – eating the wrong foods, not taking care of ourselves, not being in right relationship, not taking care of our lives, doing things that we know don’t help us – but we don’t want to change to get better.
God always wants us to get better. To heal. To feel whole. That’s what a relationship with God brings, and God is constantly trying to bring us into relationship.
That is the story of the bible – the story of God reaching out to us in unlikely ways – to get us to realize that we are whole. – that we are connected to the divine.
The olden culture was afraid of skin disease because they did not understand it. Were afraid that it made all who came in contact with it impure or polluted.
They Believed that the only way to come in contact with a pure and holy God was to be holy. Disease was a symbol of death.
If you Touched something dead, you were polluted and had to be cleansed. Pure and impure determined your access to God.
The temple was designed so that those who were not cleansed, could not go in to be close to God. We have been designing our societies like that for ages- those who were in and those who were out. Those who were polluted and those who were not. Those we could talk to and those we could not.
That is just the way things were but not the way things should be. Our paradoxical God is available to all people no matter who they are, or what condition they are in. God even loves the Syrians enough to bring them healing. God loves us enough to bring us out of what ever our disease it – to bring us to healing.
Jesus comes in contact with another leper – who is asking to get better. Once again, not the leprosy of modern days – but a social condition, cut off from society, more importantly cut off from yourself. More than like once again the results of our sinfulness. Jesus first reaction is anger –or deep emotion
But eventually he does heal him and sends him back into the world a whole person. Tell no one – he paradox is that he tells everyone. So excited at the gift he has been given.
For us Jesus is a paradox, an unlikely place for healing to occur.
The good news is that Jesus is in the unlikely places of life. Naaman would have never thought in a million years that his healing would have been in Israel. The world never believes that their healing would be in he body of Jesus.
God is always at work in unlikely places and unexpected people. But the only ones who really truly recognize the work of God are those who have been healed by him on some way.
A young monk came to a monastery to study with the grand master – to learn from someone who indeed had that connection to God. On the first day the master told the young monk that his first lesson was to go out into the garden and to stand there with his arms wide open for an hour. The monk stood there vulnerable for an hour- soon it started to rain and not understanding what was going on, he stood there in the rain. After the hour was over with – he went angry to the master – and said I see no point in that exercise – all that it did was make him feel like a fool. The master replied – that was the point – it is an excellent starting point in your relationship with God.
That is what keeps most of us away from a deeper connection with God, from wholeness, from healing. We are not willing to do anything that makes us feel stupid, or like a fool.
The word for today is paradox – The things that we don’t want to feel, are usually the feelings that we most need to deal with in order to heal. The people who we avoid, are the people we need to talk to in order to truly be a whole human being.
The real God – the true God of Israel has never been a god that made any real sense. God is not someone who we can explain or understand, or control, or predict, or even tell what to do.
The God that we worship is a magnificent, mysterious, mischievous God. Our God loves Syrians and Israelites, Our God loves the Steelers and the Cardinals, the Catholics and the Methodist, those who are strong enough to admit their sins, and those who are not even aware that their actions are sinful. God loves us all.
The trick is for us to learn to love us all. Ann Ulanov, a theologian outs it this way.
This task confronts all of us, to deal with what touches us and not avoid it, to collect our missing parts, the neglected and overlooked and banished parts of our inner and outer populations. We are never touched in the abstract, only in the flesh. The marks of our worries, our overweight, our sleepless nights, our neighborhood crime, our neglected land, our polluted air are all a result of our disconnection with God. Our unwillingness to accept our sinfulness. God waits in those parts, waits for us to visit the part left in the prison of repression, waits for us to offer some life-giving water to outcast. All must be gathered in to be one with God. When we are one with our fears, our anger, our frustration and those who cause those emotions, then we are one with God.
What are the things in your life that you need to accept instead of pushing away? Who are the people in your life that you need to tolerate? What are the issues in the back of your mind that you put aside. Become aware of those things, and you will probably also become aware of the sins in your life that you use to deal with those things.
Surrendering those things to God is the first step to being cleansed and being healed and most importantly being whole.
Let us pray…
Sunday, February 08, 2009
An Ending Invitation
November 23, 2008
Christ the King Sunday
Year A
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Matthew 25:31-46
An invitation
We are given an invitation to be a part of Jesus Kingdom. We are invited to listen to Jesus.
These are the last words of Jesus
This is the last teaching in Matthew before Jesus is brought to trial.
Not as bad as the rest of the talk
We have been talking about Mathew 25 for the last three weeks. And many would like to talk with Jesus personally to understand why he needed to tell these three parables. This one about separating the sheep from the goat is the final one. This is the one where we are given not just an invitation, but a challenge. – to join either be with Jesus by helping others, or literally become destined for hell.
What is Matthew 25 about? Jesus has been working hard to get us to this point to accept this challenge.
Three parables
The first parable is about ten smart bridesmaids and ten dumb bridesmaids. The smart ones are the ones who keep there lamps burning in preparation for the upcoming but unknown wedding. We are always supposed to live as if Christ is coming back, expecting him, ready to dance at the wedding. The next parable is about three servants who are have prepared treasure for the owner to come back. One made a good choice, one made an acceptable choice, the other made a poor choice – which are we in our service to God.
And today Jesus brings our decision to a head. Either you served or you didn’t. Depending on how willing you were to help others as Jesus asked you to.
Why are we separating the sheep from the goat
What they have in common Both groups are Christians, both want to make it to heaven, both follow the teachings of Christ.
How they are different One group goes out of their way to help.
It is Not what we do – but how we choose to do it - that makes a difference. Are we happy and willing to even sacrifice, or are we grudging?
Story of helping someone else
What was the effect?
Never know
But it is the simple things that change the world
We are to think of what the Kingdom will be like when Jesus comes and we show all that we have done – that is kingdom thinking.
What does the end look like?
It Looks like a beginning.
This is the end of the Christian year, but it is time to get ready for the beginning of advent.
Christ the King Sunday
Year A
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Matthew 25:31-46
An invitation
We are given an invitation to be a part of Jesus Kingdom. We are invited to listen to Jesus.
These are the last words of Jesus
This is the last teaching in Matthew before Jesus is brought to trial.
Not as bad as the rest of the talk
We have been talking about Mathew 25 for the last three weeks. And many would like to talk with Jesus personally to understand why he needed to tell these three parables. This one about separating the sheep from the goat is the final one. This is the one where we are given not just an invitation, but a challenge. – to join either be with Jesus by helping others, or literally become destined for hell.
What is Matthew 25 about? Jesus has been working hard to get us to this point to accept this challenge.
Three parables
The first parable is about ten smart bridesmaids and ten dumb bridesmaids. The smart ones are the ones who keep there lamps burning in preparation for the upcoming but unknown wedding. We are always supposed to live as if Christ is coming back, expecting him, ready to dance at the wedding. The next parable is about three servants who are have prepared treasure for the owner to come back. One made a good choice, one made an acceptable choice, the other made a poor choice – which are we in our service to God.
And today Jesus brings our decision to a head. Either you served or you didn’t. Depending on how willing you were to help others as Jesus asked you to.
Why are we separating the sheep from the goat
What they have in common Both groups are Christians, both want to make it to heaven, both follow the teachings of Christ.
How they are different One group goes out of their way to help.
It is Not what we do – but how we choose to do it - that makes a difference. Are we happy and willing to even sacrifice, or are we grudging?
Story of helping someone else
What was the effect?
Never know
But it is the simple things that change the world
We are to think of what the Kingdom will be like when Jesus comes and we show all that we have done – that is kingdom thinking.
What does the end look like?
It Looks like a beginning.
This is the end of the Christian year, but it is time to get ready for the beginning of advent.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
We Are an Advent People - November 30, 2008
First Sunday of Advent
Year B
November 30, 2008
We are an advent people
Isaiah 64: 1-9
Mark 13: 24:37
The little changes in life are always easy –
We are prepared to change our clocks, know when its time to change our clocks, change the oil in the car
We can even change our minds fairly easily
But it is difficult to know when to change your heart
Advent is time to change your heart and turn it toward the things of God
Advent a time of watching, waiting, working
Advent always starts out backward – with the bad news
But this backward looking is done to prove a point
Advent is not about little baby’s, warm fuzzy moments, and the comfort of families. That is Christmas
Story of a grandfather and his grandson
A grandfather was visiting his daughter’s family. After resting one day, he came downstairs to see his young grandson crying. When he saw him, the young boy immediately started asking his grandfather to come and get him out of the crib. As the grandfather started walking toward the crib – the mother came in and said no- the boy was on punishment and he had to stay in there. But the grandfather saw his grandson’ suffering and he had already said he would do something about it. But he did not want to dismiss the mother’s intention. So instead of taking the boy out of the crib, he climbed into the crib with him.
God comes to us in the midst of our suffering in the life of a baby son.
Advent is a time to get present to the pain, the suffering, the punishment, the pen, life
We look at Life as we live it today
This is to Get present to the reason the world truly needs a change – This is not a campaign slogan
Isaiah a surprising message – Lord will you rend the heavens
The Israelites are asking for a miracle
I have the greatest respect for the Hebrew faith. Because it encourages us to willing to challenge God, to question God
To sometimes even Blame God for everything
So that we can depend on God for everything
We should wait on God in every situation
This has been a strange weekend – the first Sunday of advent is always the Sunday after thanksgiving.
This year I feel like I never really got to enjoy the fall decorations, before realized its time to put out the Christmas decorations.
Things changed literally in the course of one day – literally one night
Ironically in my sermon prep yesterday – talked about not complaining to the congregation about having such a hard weekend. Supposedly not for them to know
This holiday was even stranger than usual because of Bob Hinz’s death. Comforting the family, talking with the family, preparing for the funeral – all in the midst of everything else that needed to be done for the weekend
Death can be an intrusion on life, that reality can be an intrusion in our laid out plans, celebration is always in the face of mourning.
Point Jesus was making to us in Mark – God’s presence in our lives is an intrusion – but that is okay.
Beginning are always endings in disguise, new life is always the other side of death.
Don’t know when the moment will come that will change your life forever – be prepared for that encounter with God. Whether the change is good or bad is all about your perspective.
Be prepared for changes
Don’t need to hold onto the way thing are – hope is always in the things that are to come.
Chapter 13 is about learning the accept the future
In Mark there is no birth narrative
Not Mark’s concern
Matthew concerned about relationships with his people, Mark concerned about the salvations of their souls. Tough words for tough times
This section not a parable or story of life – but apocalyptic. A foretelling of the end times
The people he were talking to, only understood the present, no manyana, no tomorrow – waiting for the day of the lord
Another big word – eschatological - just a fancy word for things to come in our faith.
Kathleen Norris is an author who talks about faith.
Her story…..
I have come to regard the word as life-affirming in ways far more subtle than any dictionary definition could convey. What I mean is this an acquaintance of mine a brilliant young scholar, was stricken with cancer, and over the course of several years came close to dying three times, but after extensive treatment, both radiation and chemotherapy, came to a welcome remission. Her prognosis was uncertain at bet, but she was able to teach and write. “I’d never want to go back,” she told her department head, an older woman, “because now I know what each morning means and I am so grateful just to be alive. When the other woman said to her, We’ve been through o much together for the last few years,” the younger woman nodded and smiled, Yes, she said emphatically, Yes, and hasn’t it been a blessing!”
Things to come
Take Christmas from the bible only take away 4 chapters – hear those chapters over and over again.
Take our advent – waiting, watching, working, trusting God, hoping for change, welcoming the coming generation, the promise of a savior who cares – you eliminate the whole rest of the bible.
Advent is like being led to the very edge of a cliff – looking over and realizing that you are in danger of falling, the consequences of falling will be great – only the grace of God that keeps you stable.
This advent may you clearly see the grace that keeps you from falling. Advent is the time to change your heart. Amen.
Year B
November 30, 2008
We are an advent people
Isaiah 64: 1-9
Mark 13: 24:37
The little changes in life are always easy –
We are prepared to change our clocks, know when its time to change our clocks, change the oil in the car
We can even change our minds fairly easily
But it is difficult to know when to change your heart
Advent is time to change your heart and turn it toward the things of God
Advent a time of watching, waiting, working
Advent always starts out backward – with the bad news
But this backward looking is done to prove a point
Advent is not about little baby’s, warm fuzzy moments, and the comfort of families. That is Christmas
Story of a grandfather and his grandson
A grandfather was visiting his daughter’s family. After resting one day, he came downstairs to see his young grandson crying. When he saw him, the young boy immediately started asking his grandfather to come and get him out of the crib. As the grandfather started walking toward the crib – the mother came in and said no- the boy was on punishment and he had to stay in there. But the grandfather saw his grandson’ suffering and he had already said he would do something about it. But he did not want to dismiss the mother’s intention. So instead of taking the boy out of the crib, he climbed into the crib with him.
God comes to us in the midst of our suffering in the life of a baby son.
Advent is a time to get present to the pain, the suffering, the punishment, the pen, life
We look at Life as we live it today
This is to Get present to the reason the world truly needs a change – This is not a campaign slogan
Isaiah a surprising message – Lord will you rend the heavens
The Israelites are asking for a miracle
I have the greatest respect for the Hebrew faith. Because it encourages us to willing to challenge God, to question God
To sometimes even Blame God for everything
So that we can depend on God for everything
We should wait on God in every situation
This has been a strange weekend – the first Sunday of advent is always the Sunday after thanksgiving.
This year I feel like I never really got to enjoy the fall decorations, before realized its time to put out the Christmas decorations.
Things changed literally in the course of one day – literally one night
Ironically in my sermon prep yesterday – talked about not complaining to the congregation about having such a hard weekend. Supposedly not for them to know
This holiday was even stranger than usual because of Bob Hinz’s death. Comforting the family, talking with the family, preparing for the funeral – all in the midst of everything else that needed to be done for the weekend
Death can be an intrusion on life, that reality can be an intrusion in our laid out plans, celebration is always in the face of mourning.
Point Jesus was making to us in Mark – God’s presence in our lives is an intrusion – but that is okay.
Beginning are always endings in disguise, new life is always the other side of death.
Don’t know when the moment will come that will change your life forever – be prepared for that encounter with God. Whether the change is good or bad is all about your perspective.
Be prepared for changes
Don’t need to hold onto the way thing are – hope is always in the things that are to come.
Chapter 13 is about learning the accept the future
In Mark there is no birth narrative
Not Mark’s concern
Matthew concerned about relationships with his people, Mark concerned about the salvations of their souls. Tough words for tough times
This section not a parable or story of life – but apocalyptic. A foretelling of the end times
The people he were talking to, only understood the present, no manyana, no tomorrow – waiting for the day of the lord
Another big word – eschatological - just a fancy word for things to come in our faith.
Kathleen Norris is an author who talks about faith.
Her story…..
I have come to regard the word as life-affirming in ways far more subtle than any dictionary definition could convey. What I mean is this an acquaintance of mine a brilliant young scholar, was stricken with cancer, and over the course of several years came close to dying three times, but after extensive treatment, both radiation and chemotherapy, came to a welcome remission. Her prognosis was uncertain at bet, but she was able to teach and write. “I’d never want to go back,” she told her department head, an older woman, “because now I know what each morning means and I am so grateful just to be alive. When the other woman said to her, We’ve been through o much together for the last few years,” the younger woman nodded and smiled, Yes, she said emphatically, Yes, and hasn’t it been a blessing!”
Things to come
Take Christmas from the bible only take away 4 chapters – hear those chapters over and over again.
Take our advent – waiting, watching, working, trusting God, hoping for change, welcoming the coming generation, the promise of a savior who cares – you eliminate the whole rest of the bible.
Advent is like being led to the very edge of a cliff – looking over and realizing that you are in danger of falling, the consequences of falling will be great – only the grace of God that keeps you stable.
This advent may you clearly see the grace that keeps you from falling. Advent is the time to change your heart. Amen.
Our Hearts are calling
I Samuel 3: 1-10 (11-20)
I Corinthians 6:12-20
Year B
The inauguration
This is a big week for our country everyone is preparing themselves for the inauguration of our 44th president. Barack Obama
All of my friends leaving for Washington DC
This inauguration is a big deal for everyone. I can’t speak to any one my friends about anything this week, because they have all left for Washington DC
Wouldn’t it Be nice if 4 millions people came from all over the world to welcome you and I to our first day of work. There is only one person on the world who gets that honor.
But our lesson for today is that all of us get an inauguration. A new day a new start. This is the season of new inaugurations. New days are actually quite common and come in many different ways. Days when our lives unfold like a picture and we realize new things.
For Jesus it was his baptism, the day that God spoke to him and gave him affirmation that he was on the right trail.
This week, we have a new inauguration story - the story of Samuel.
This is the day that Samuel recognized God speaking to him.
Scripture points out that not only did God not speak very often to others, but Samuel did not know God either.
He was a young man, he didn’t know his own greatness, or his destiny, nor the urgings of his own heart.
God calling him was the beginning of his relationship with God
Wayne Dyer story
Wayne Dyer tells the story of a family with two small children. One very rambumcous 4 year old boy – who was always into everything. When his little brother was born, he was a little happy, but he seemed to think he was a toy to play with. There didn’t seem to be any acknowledgment that the younger child was a human, until one day the mother found the 4 year old sitting over the crib talking with the child. He was asking the baby to remind him of what heaven was like because he was beginning to forget. Children have a special connection to God, as we get older we get more attuned to what is happening in front of us, and we forget to look within ourselves to talk with God.
St. Augustine’s quote also
St. Augustine went on the say that God is within us, but for some reason as we get older, we start to step outside of ourselves our hearts in order to please others. This puts us out of touch, with the one thing that we are looking for – our relationship with God.
The point is that Samuel as a young child, was beginning to look within himself – to be quiet to learn to listen to what God was telling him.
Samuel went on to become the greatest prophet God ever knew, leading them into a new era.
His Journey Started with addressing the situation. He Addressed the sinful nature of his life and the world.
Eli was well intentioned, but his sons had forgotten what it meant to serve God and were literally taking advantage of others, by being priest.
We are good at addressing sin in others, but we are not good at identifying the sin in ourselves.
Paul helps us with that. This is not my favorite verse, but I think one of the most important – summarizes our life at a Christian.
As a Christian, I can do whatever I want, there is nothing wrong, but there are some things that are not in my best interest.
Our bodies are a temple of God, honor it. But not just our bodies, but our minds and our souls. It is our thoughts that determine the state of our minds and souls, and it is the state of our minds and souls that determine what we do with our bodies.
Sin, missing the mark, not doing what is in your best interest is what stands in the way of our relationship with God, our call in the world.
Can’t get rid of sin unless we address it honestly and we realize that our bad behavior is only a stand in for good intentions. We all mean well, we just don’t always do well. Why we need to be willing to listen to God’s call to us.
Paul makes one more important point about the Christian life.
Being called by God is not about you- or what you think is right. Being called by God is about God. A lot of us misunderstand that.
If you find that you are the hero to your own story – you are not being called by God. If you are convinced that you have all of the right answers to someone else’s life you are not being called by God. If you are more concerned about taking away the pain of others – not called, if you need to build yourself up by intentionally discrediting others you are not called by God.
Living the Christian life is never about you – it is about the good of the community. Salvation is being reminded that you are absolutely nothing without being connection to the entire body of Christ.
Mother Theresa’s call
Mother Theresa speaks of her call to go out into the streets of India to help people who had literally been thrown away by society. There was a voice who told her that it would be much easier to just go back to her convent and live in peace for the rest of her life. But she listened to the voice which told her these people needed her, and that she needed to be there for them, to help and heal them and make sure that they knew that no matter what their circumstance they were children of God.
Borden’s call story
William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school in the 40’s. as a graduation present, his parents gave him a trip around the world. He was heir to the borden dairy fortune. While on the trip, he was introduced to the living conditions of others around the world – and he decided that the had to become a missionary. When he went to seminary, he wrote in his bible about his call – no reserves. He had given his life to God. As he graduated, he started bible studies all over America, and still travelled throughout the world – he wrote again in his bible – no retreats. No matter who hard things got, he was not turning around. He served all over the world – in Egypt he acquired spinal mennengiitis. Months before his death at 25 he wrote again in his bible – no regrets. He call led to sacrifice, pain and eventually death- and yet he knew he was willing to follow Christ wherever it led, even to death.
Being called by God is never an easy job.
Called by God there are a lot of days when you don’t have all of the answers, lots of people who are convinced that if they were in your shoes they could do ten times better than you, lots of days when you find that you fail more often then you succeed. All good indications that you are following God.
But through it all – you know that no matter what – you will be faithful and continue to God calling in your heart.
When we live life for others, when we answer their questions, when we take away pain instead of giving them the tools to live for themselves- we deprive them of listening to their call. Of their relationships, and from coming up with the answers for themselves.
God calls us all to be – our best selves, in our best relationship with God. A journey we take together, but we can only take walking on our own two feet.
Final word in this verse is – not said by God or by Samuel – but Eli – the sinner, the one blind and unable to hear
He says: It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.
The Lord is here – doing what seems Good to him –How are we responding.
I Corinthians 6:12-20
Year B
The inauguration
This is a big week for our country everyone is preparing themselves for the inauguration of our 44th president. Barack Obama
All of my friends leaving for Washington DC
This inauguration is a big deal for everyone. I can’t speak to any one my friends about anything this week, because they have all left for Washington DC
Wouldn’t it Be nice if 4 millions people came from all over the world to welcome you and I to our first day of work. There is only one person on the world who gets that honor.
But our lesson for today is that all of us get an inauguration. A new day a new start. This is the season of new inaugurations. New days are actually quite common and come in many different ways. Days when our lives unfold like a picture and we realize new things.
For Jesus it was his baptism, the day that God spoke to him and gave him affirmation that he was on the right trail.
This week, we have a new inauguration story - the story of Samuel.
This is the day that Samuel recognized God speaking to him.
Scripture points out that not only did God not speak very often to others, but Samuel did not know God either.
He was a young man, he didn’t know his own greatness, or his destiny, nor the urgings of his own heart.
God calling him was the beginning of his relationship with God
Wayne Dyer story
Wayne Dyer tells the story of a family with two small children. One very rambumcous 4 year old boy – who was always into everything. When his little brother was born, he was a little happy, but he seemed to think he was a toy to play with. There didn’t seem to be any acknowledgment that the younger child was a human, until one day the mother found the 4 year old sitting over the crib talking with the child. He was asking the baby to remind him of what heaven was like because he was beginning to forget. Children have a special connection to God, as we get older we get more attuned to what is happening in front of us, and we forget to look within ourselves to talk with God.
St. Augustine’s quote also
St. Augustine went on the say that God is within us, but for some reason as we get older, we start to step outside of ourselves our hearts in order to please others. This puts us out of touch, with the one thing that we are looking for – our relationship with God.
The point is that Samuel as a young child, was beginning to look within himself – to be quiet to learn to listen to what God was telling him.
Samuel went on to become the greatest prophet God ever knew, leading them into a new era.
His Journey Started with addressing the situation. He Addressed the sinful nature of his life and the world.
Eli was well intentioned, but his sons had forgotten what it meant to serve God and were literally taking advantage of others, by being priest.
We are good at addressing sin in others, but we are not good at identifying the sin in ourselves.
Paul helps us with that. This is not my favorite verse, but I think one of the most important – summarizes our life at a Christian.
As a Christian, I can do whatever I want, there is nothing wrong, but there are some things that are not in my best interest.
Our bodies are a temple of God, honor it. But not just our bodies, but our minds and our souls. It is our thoughts that determine the state of our minds and souls, and it is the state of our minds and souls that determine what we do with our bodies.
Sin, missing the mark, not doing what is in your best interest is what stands in the way of our relationship with God, our call in the world.
Can’t get rid of sin unless we address it honestly and we realize that our bad behavior is only a stand in for good intentions. We all mean well, we just don’t always do well. Why we need to be willing to listen to God’s call to us.
Paul makes one more important point about the Christian life.
Being called by God is not about you- or what you think is right. Being called by God is about God. A lot of us misunderstand that.
If you find that you are the hero to your own story – you are not being called by God. If you are convinced that you have all of the right answers to someone else’s life you are not being called by God. If you are more concerned about taking away the pain of others – not called, if you need to build yourself up by intentionally discrediting others you are not called by God.
Living the Christian life is never about you – it is about the good of the community. Salvation is being reminded that you are absolutely nothing without being connection to the entire body of Christ.
Mother Theresa’s call
Mother Theresa speaks of her call to go out into the streets of India to help people who had literally been thrown away by society. There was a voice who told her that it would be much easier to just go back to her convent and live in peace for the rest of her life. But she listened to the voice which told her these people needed her, and that she needed to be there for them, to help and heal them and make sure that they knew that no matter what their circumstance they were children of God.
Borden’s call story
William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school in the 40’s. as a graduation present, his parents gave him a trip around the world. He was heir to the borden dairy fortune. While on the trip, he was introduced to the living conditions of others around the world – and he decided that the had to become a missionary. When he went to seminary, he wrote in his bible about his call – no reserves. He had given his life to God. As he graduated, he started bible studies all over America, and still travelled throughout the world – he wrote again in his bible – no retreats. No matter who hard things got, he was not turning around. He served all over the world – in Egypt he acquired spinal mennengiitis. Months before his death at 25 he wrote again in his bible – no regrets. He call led to sacrifice, pain and eventually death- and yet he knew he was willing to follow Christ wherever it led, even to death.
Being called by God is never an easy job.
Called by God there are a lot of days when you don’t have all of the answers, lots of people who are convinced that if they were in your shoes they could do ten times better than you, lots of days when you find that you fail more often then you succeed. All good indications that you are following God.
But through it all – you know that no matter what – you will be faithful and continue to God calling in your heart.
When we live life for others, when we answer their questions, when we take away pain instead of giving them the tools to live for themselves- we deprive them of listening to their call. Of their relationships, and from coming up with the answers for themselves.
God calls us all to be – our best selves, in our best relationship with God. A journey we take together, but we can only take walking on our own two feet.
Final word in this verse is – not said by God or by Samuel – but Eli – the sinner, the one blind and unable to hear
He says: It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.
The Lord is here – doing what seems Good to him –How are we responding.
Knowledge, Lessons, Teachers - February 1, 2009
We all have those days – days when we question God
We all have those days when what we know to be true is not making sense, and is not fitting into our lives.
We all have those days – when we blame God for all that is happening. When we wish we could punish God for what we are going through
Isaiah 40 was written for those days. It takes raw human pain and turns it into poetry.
The Isrealites are so mad, that they are ready literally to take God to court. To charge God with forgetting about them. To accuse God of having no idea of what is going on in their life, and worst of all not caring about them.
For them, it was being kicked out of their homeland, seeing their homes burned and destroyed, and being forced to live amongst people who don’t seem to understand God at all.
For us it could be living in a world where we see people losing their jobs, their homes, theor lifestyle. Not knowing when things will change, not knowing what things will change to. Or it could be a more personal struggle with health, with a relationship, with a dream.
We all have those days, when we wonder.
In those moments – Isaiah 40 starts with a rhetorical question – Have you not known, have you not heard, has it not been told to you from the very beginning.
That God is a God who is beyond our experience? God is bigger than anything good or bad that could happen to us. God looks at us and sees our lives like a grasshopper, small and inconsistent – yet caring and a part of God creation, thus important.
No matter what our religious background – we all know that beauty of God in the little things in life, the sunsets, the miracles, even on our questions. In good times, we are willing to praise and celebrate.
It is in the bad times that we are to remember that God is our refuge but also our strength. That if we trust in God – things will always change.
The serenity prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
There is a second verse.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen
Serenity is always being reminded where our help comes from. It comes from God, from trusting that God will work things out. It is in trusting in God, not in the world in which we live.
Serenity is being willing to wait on God
The end of Isaiah ends with a promise that those who wait on God will run and not be faint, walk and nor be weary,
Our God will make everything right. If we are only willing to wait.
My colleagues this week got into an interesting conversation about what it means to wait – wait for God to make things better.
Unlike the olden days – waiting is a horrible thing. We don’t know how to do it – we don’t see the importance of doing it. It is easy for us to think that the way things are now, are the way things will always be.
One of them commented that Too often people interpret 'wait' as 'twiddle your thumbs'. I think this 'wait' needs to be a seeking and open time. It's an active wait, not sitting on you bum or sticking your head in the sand. For me, now waiting for my next direction, it means having my antennae out for signals as I try a wide range of things open to my participation. So, for me it includes prayer as a foundation but takes the form of being willing to risk.
Another said prayer-full waiting, and waiting with patience silent waiting, and waiting with song centered waiting, and waiting in a world full of distractions persistent waiting, and waiting with a foot tapping impatiently hands-open waiting, and waiting with an open book eyes-open waiting as the sun begins to rise, and waiting in daydreams sitting-still-as-a-cat waiting, and waiting with one's tail about to wagoff We are simply told, over and over, to wait for the Lord,and I personally think all waiting, every kind of waiting, is appropriate.
I would say that Waiting on God is being willing to live life as a prayer – a devotion to God.
It is understanding that the world we see now – is never God’s final word.
When they isrealites looked at the destruction of their world they could never see the restoration in store. When we look at the economy – today we cannot see recovery. I thought it interesting in a story of how the economy is shrinking and how people are losing their jobs- the it always expands and returns without us realizing it.
When we look at the world – we would never understand resurrection. When we hear of Jesus life and all that he taught us – there is nothing in the world that teaches us that his most important lesson is resurrection.
Nothing comes from waiting, everything comes from waiting on God.
In crisis – when we wait – God delivers us – we mount up with eagles wings
In busy times – when we wait – God delivers us – we run and do not grow weary.
In the routine times of lives when we wait – We will walk and not faint.
Waiting on the Lord is all that we have to do in life. Waiting of God us our lives, our beliefs, our hopes, our dreams, Our Christ.
Christ is the human example of what it means to wait on the lord and what difference it makes to us and to the world. Waiting is living the Jesus life in the world.
Phillip Yancy talks of living the Jesus life by practicing an ancient form of prayer called statio
Means being willing to stop one thing before beginning another. Rather than rushing from one taks to the next, take the time to pause and recognize the moment. Before talking on the phone – take the time to think about the person you are calling and the conversation you are about to have. After reading a book take the time to think about what you just read and its impact on you. Even after doing something as mundane as watching television – how did what you just saw contribute to your understanding of life? Reading the bible – ask the spirit for guidance. Do this often enough, and we start to see God in the midst of even the smallest details of our lives.
We learn that waiting is not a idle process of darkness, but a active process- where we see the miracle of life, the magic of God in our experiences.
The flying Roudellas, a group of trapeze artists explain that in a trapeze performance there is the flyer, the one who lets go and the catcher. And a very special relationship must exist between the two to be successful.
As the flyer flys high above the crowd, there is a point in which he or she must let go of the trapeze. But his job is not to reach for the catcher. The job is to let go and remain perfectly still in the air and to wait for the catcher to reach out and catch him or her.
I imagine that must be a very scary moment – to stay still in the air in perfect trust. But our lives are like that, those tough moments in our lives are like that – moments when we are still, serene enough to wait for God to pluck us from the circumstance and bring us to the other side.
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Amen.
We all have those days when what we know to be true is not making sense, and is not fitting into our lives.
We all have those days – when we blame God for all that is happening. When we wish we could punish God for what we are going through
Isaiah 40 was written for those days. It takes raw human pain and turns it into poetry.
The Isrealites are so mad, that they are ready literally to take God to court. To charge God with forgetting about them. To accuse God of having no idea of what is going on in their life, and worst of all not caring about them.
For them, it was being kicked out of their homeland, seeing their homes burned and destroyed, and being forced to live amongst people who don’t seem to understand God at all.
For us it could be living in a world where we see people losing their jobs, their homes, theor lifestyle. Not knowing when things will change, not knowing what things will change to. Or it could be a more personal struggle with health, with a relationship, with a dream.
We all have those days, when we wonder.
In those moments – Isaiah 40 starts with a rhetorical question – Have you not known, have you not heard, has it not been told to you from the very beginning.
That God is a God who is beyond our experience? God is bigger than anything good or bad that could happen to us. God looks at us and sees our lives like a grasshopper, small and inconsistent – yet caring and a part of God creation, thus important.
No matter what our religious background – we all know that beauty of God in the little things in life, the sunsets, the miracles, even on our questions. In good times, we are willing to praise and celebrate.
It is in the bad times that we are to remember that God is our refuge but also our strength. That if we trust in God – things will always change.
The serenity prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
There is a second verse.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen
Serenity is always being reminded where our help comes from. It comes from God, from trusting that God will work things out. It is in trusting in God, not in the world in which we live.
Serenity is being willing to wait on God
The end of Isaiah ends with a promise that those who wait on God will run and not be faint, walk and nor be weary,
Our God will make everything right. If we are only willing to wait.
My colleagues this week got into an interesting conversation about what it means to wait – wait for God to make things better.
Unlike the olden days – waiting is a horrible thing. We don’t know how to do it – we don’t see the importance of doing it. It is easy for us to think that the way things are now, are the way things will always be.
One of them commented that Too often people interpret 'wait' as 'twiddle your thumbs'. I think this 'wait' needs to be a seeking and open time. It's an active wait, not sitting on you bum or sticking your head in the sand. For me, now waiting for my next direction, it means having my antennae out for signals as I try a wide range of things open to my participation. So, for me it includes prayer as a foundation but takes the form of being willing to risk.
Another said prayer-full waiting, and waiting with patience silent waiting, and waiting with song centered waiting, and waiting in a world full of distractions persistent waiting, and waiting with a foot tapping impatiently hands-open waiting, and waiting with an open book eyes-open waiting as the sun begins to rise, and waiting in daydreams sitting-still-as-a-cat waiting, and waiting with one's tail about to wagoff We are simply told, over and over, to wait for the Lord,and I personally think all waiting, every kind of waiting, is appropriate.
I would say that Waiting on God is being willing to live life as a prayer – a devotion to God.
It is understanding that the world we see now – is never God’s final word.
When they isrealites looked at the destruction of their world they could never see the restoration in store. When we look at the economy – today we cannot see recovery. I thought it interesting in a story of how the economy is shrinking and how people are losing their jobs- the it always expands and returns without us realizing it.
When we look at the world – we would never understand resurrection. When we hear of Jesus life and all that he taught us – there is nothing in the world that teaches us that his most important lesson is resurrection.
Nothing comes from waiting, everything comes from waiting on God.
In crisis – when we wait – God delivers us – we mount up with eagles wings
In busy times – when we wait – God delivers us – we run and do not grow weary.
In the routine times of lives when we wait – We will walk and not faint.
Waiting on the Lord is all that we have to do in life. Waiting of God us our lives, our beliefs, our hopes, our dreams, Our Christ.
Christ is the human example of what it means to wait on the lord and what difference it makes to us and to the world. Waiting is living the Jesus life in the world.
Phillip Yancy talks of living the Jesus life by practicing an ancient form of prayer called statio
Means being willing to stop one thing before beginning another. Rather than rushing from one taks to the next, take the time to pause and recognize the moment. Before talking on the phone – take the time to think about the person you are calling and the conversation you are about to have. After reading a book take the time to think about what you just read and its impact on you. Even after doing something as mundane as watching television – how did what you just saw contribute to your understanding of life? Reading the bible – ask the spirit for guidance. Do this often enough, and we start to see God in the midst of even the smallest details of our lives.
We learn that waiting is not a idle process of darkness, but a active process- where we see the miracle of life, the magic of God in our experiences.
The flying Roudellas, a group of trapeze artists explain that in a trapeze performance there is the flyer, the one who lets go and the catcher. And a very special relationship must exist between the two to be successful.
As the flyer flys high above the crowd, there is a point in which he or she must let go of the trapeze. But his job is not to reach for the catcher. The job is to let go and remain perfectly still in the air and to wait for the catcher to reach out and catch him or her.
I imagine that must be a very scary moment – to stay still in the air in perfect trust. But our lives are like that, those tough moments in our lives are like that – moments when we are still, serene enough to wait for God to pluck us from the circumstance and bring us to the other side.
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Amen.
What are we Waiting for?
We all have those days – days when we question God
We all have those days when what we know to be true is not making sense, and is not fitting into our lives.
We all have those days – when we blame God for all that is happening. When we wish we could punish God for what we are going through
Isaiah 40 was written for those days. It takes raw human pain and turns it into poetry.
The Isrealites are so mad, that they are ready literally to take God to court. To charge God with forgetting about them. To accuse God of having no idea of what is going on in their life, and worst of all not caring about them.
For them, it was being kicked out of their homeland, seeing their homes burned and destroyed, and being forced to live amongst people who don’t seem to understand God at all.
For us it could be living in a world where we see people losing their jobs, their homes, theor lifestyle. Not knowing when things will change, not knowing what things will change to. Or it could be a more personal struggle with health, with a relationship, with a dream.
We all have those days, when we wonder.
In those moments – Isaiah 40 starts with a rhetorical question – Have you not known, have you not heard, has it not been told to you from the very beginning.
That God is a God who is beyond our experience? God is bigger than anything good or bad that could happen to us. God looks at us and sees our lives like a grasshopper, small and inconsistent – yet caring and a part of God creation, thus important.
No matter what our religious background – we all know that beauty of God in the little things in life, the sunsets, the miracles, even on our questions. In good times, we are willing to praise and celebrate.
It is in the bad times that we are to remember that God is our refuge but also our strength. That if we trust in God – things will always change.
The serenity prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
There is a second verse.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen
Serenity is always being reminded where our help comes from. It comes from God, from trusting that God will work things out. It is in trusting in God, not in the world in which we live.
Serenity is being willing to wait on God
The end of Isaiah ends with a promise that those who wait on God will run and not be faint, walk and nor be weary,
Our God will make everything right. If we are only willing to wait.
My colleagues this week got into an interesting conversation about what it means to wait – wait for God to make things better.
Unlike the olden days – waiting is a horrible thing. We don’t know how to do it – we don’t see the importance of doing it. It is easy for us to think that the way things are now, are the way things will always be.
One of them commented that Too often people interpret 'wait' as 'twiddle your thumbs'. I think this 'wait' needs to be a seeking and open time. It's an active wait, not sitting on you bum or sticking your head in the sand. For me, now waiting for my next direction, it means having my antennae out for signals as I try a wide range of things open to my participation. So, for me it includes prayer as a foundation but takes the form of being willing to risk.
Another said prayer-full waiting, and waiting with patience silent waiting, and waiting with song centered waiting, and waiting in a world full of distractions persistent waiting, and waiting with a foot tapping impatiently hands-open waiting, and waiting with an open book eyes-open waiting as the sun begins to rise, and waiting in daydreams sitting-still-as-a-cat waiting, and waiting with one's tail about to wagoff We are simply told, over and over, to wait for the Lord,and I personally think all waiting, every kind of waiting, is appropriate.
I would say that Waiting on God is being willing to live life as a prayer – a devotion to God.
It is understanding that the world we see now – is never God’s final word.
When they isrealites looked at the destruction of their world they could never see the restoration in store. When we look at the economy – today we cannot see recovery. I thought it interesting in a story of how the economy is shrinking and how people are losing their jobs- the it always expands and returns without us realizing it.
When we look at the world – we would never understand resurrection. When we hear of Jesus life and all that he taught us – there is nothing in the world that teaches us that his most important lesson is resurrection.
Nothing comes from waiting, everything comes from waiting on God.
In crisis – when we wait – God delivers us – we mount up with eagles wings
In busy times – when we wait – God delivers us – we run and do not grow weary.
In the routine times of lives when we wait – We will walk and not faint.
Waiting on the Lord is all that we have to do in life. Waiting of God us our lives, our beliefs, our hopes, our dreams, Our Christ.
Christ is the human example of what it means to wait on the lord and what difference it makes to us and to the world. Waiting is living the Jesus life in the world.
Phillip Yancy talks of living the Jesus life by practicing an ancient form of prayer called statio
Means being willing to stop one thing before beginning another. Rather than rushing from one taks to the next, take the time to pause and recognize the moment. Before talking on the phone – take the time to think about the person you are calling and the conversation you are about to have. After reading a book take the time to think about what you just read and its impact on you. Even after doing something as mundane as watching television – how did what you just saw contribute to your understanding of life? Reading the bible – ask the spirit for guidance. Do this often enough, and we start to see God in the midst of even the smallest details of our lives.
We learn that waiting is not a idle process of darkness, but a active process- where we see the miracle of life, the magic of God in our experiences.
The flying Roudellas, a group of trapeze artists explain that in a trapeze performance there is the flyer, the one who lets go and the catcher. And a very special relationship must exist between the two to be successful.
As the flyer flys high above the crowd, there is a point in which he or she must let go of the trapeze. But his job is not to reach for the catcher. The job is to let go and remain perfectly still in the air and to wait for the catcher to reach out and catch him or her.
I imagine that must be a very scary moment – to stay still in the air in perfect trust. But our lives are like that, those tough moments in our lives are like that – moments when we are still, serene enough to wait for God to pluck us from the circumstance and bring us to the other side.
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Amen.
We all have those days when what we know to be true is not making sense, and is not fitting into our lives.
We all have those days – when we blame God for all that is happening. When we wish we could punish God for what we are going through
Isaiah 40 was written for those days. It takes raw human pain and turns it into poetry.
The Isrealites are so mad, that they are ready literally to take God to court. To charge God with forgetting about them. To accuse God of having no idea of what is going on in their life, and worst of all not caring about them.
For them, it was being kicked out of their homeland, seeing their homes burned and destroyed, and being forced to live amongst people who don’t seem to understand God at all.
For us it could be living in a world where we see people losing their jobs, their homes, theor lifestyle. Not knowing when things will change, not knowing what things will change to. Or it could be a more personal struggle with health, with a relationship, with a dream.
We all have those days, when we wonder.
In those moments – Isaiah 40 starts with a rhetorical question – Have you not known, have you not heard, has it not been told to you from the very beginning.
That God is a God who is beyond our experience? God is bigger than anything good or bad that could happen to us. God looks at us and sees our lives like a grasshopper, small and inconsistent – yet caring and a part of God creation, thus important.
No matter what our religious background – we all know that beauty of God in the little things in life, the sunsets, the miracles, even on our questions. In good times, we are willing to praise and celebrate.
It is in the bad times that we are to remember that God is our refuge but also our strength. That if we trust in God – things will always change.
The serenity prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
There is a second verse.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen
Serenity is always being reminded where our help comes from. It comes from God, from trusting that God will work things out. It is in trusting in God, not in the world in which we live.
Serenity is being willing to wait on God
The end of Isaiah ends with a promise that those who wait on God will run and not be faint, walk and nor be weary,
Our God will make everything right. If we are only willing to wait.
My colleagues this week got into an interesting conversation about what it means to wait – wait for God to make things better.
Unlike the olden days – waiting is a horrible thing. We don’t know how to do it – we don’t see the importance of doing it. It is easy for us to think that the way things are now, are the way things will always be.
One of them commented that Too often people interpret 'wait' as 'twiddle your thumbs'. I think this 'wait' needs to be a seeking and open time. It's an active wait, not sitting on you bum or sticking your head in the sand. For me, now waiting for my next direction, it means having my antennae out for signals as I try a wide range of things open to my participation. So, for me it includes prayer as a foundation but takes the form of being willing to risk.
Another said prayer-full waiting, and waiting with patience silent waiting, and waiting with song centered waiting, and waiting in a world full of distractions persistent waiting, and waiting with a foot tapping impatiently hands-open waiting, and waiting with an open book eyes-open waiting as the sun begins to rise, and waiting in daydreams sitting-still-as-a-cat waiting, and waiting with one's tail about to wagoff We are simply told, over and over, to wait for the Lord,and I personally think all waiting, every kind of waiting, is appropriate.
I would say that Waiting on God is being willing to live life as a prayer – a devotion to God.
It is understanding that the world we see now – is never God’s final word.
When they isrealites looked at the destruction of their world they could never see the restoration in store. When we look at the economy – today we cannot see recovery. I thought it interesting in a story of how the economy is shrinking and how people are losing their jobs- the it always expands and returns without us realizing it.
When we look at the world – we would never understand resurrection. When we hear of Jesus life and all that he taught us – there is nothing in the world that teaches us that his most important lesson is resurrection.
Nothing comes from waiting, everything comes from waiting on God.
In crisis – when we wait – God delivers us – we mount up with eagles wings
In busy times – when we wait – God delivers us – we run and do not grow weary.
In the routine times of lives when we wait – We will walk and not faint.
Waiting on the Lord is all that we have to do in life. Waiting of God us our lives, our beliefs, our hopes, our dreams, Our Christ.
Christ is the human example of what it means to wait on the lord and what difference it makes to us and to the world. Waiting is living the Jesus life in the world.
Phillip Yancy talks of living the Jesus life by practicing an ancient form of prayer called statio
Means being willing to stop one thing before beginning another. Rather than rushing from one taks to the next, take the time to pause and recognize the moment. Before talking on the phone – take the time to think about the person you are calling and the conversation you are about to have. After reading a book take the time to think about what you just read and its impact on you. Even after doing something as mundane as watching television – how did what you just saw contribute to your understanding of life? Reading the bible – ask the spirit for guidance. Do this often enough, and we start to see God in the midst of even the smallest details of our lives.
We learn that waiting is not a idle process of darkness, but a active process- where we see the miracle of life, the magic of God in our experiences.
The flying Roudellas, a group of trapeze artists explain that in a trapeze performance there is the flyer, the one who lets go and the catcher. And a very special relationship must exist between the two to be successful.
As the flyer flys high above the crowd, there is a point in which he or she must let go of the trapeze. But his job is not to reach for the catcher. The job is to let go and remain perfectly still in the air and to wait for the catcher to reach out and catch him or her.
I imagine that must be a very scary moment – to stay still in the air in perfect trust. But our lives are like that, those tough moments in our lives are like that – moments when we are still, serene enough to wait for God to pluck us from the circumstance and bring us to the other side.
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)