Eighth Sunday of Pentecost
July 18, 2010
Year C
Amos 8:1-12
Luke 10: 38-42
A Balancing Act
A woman was vacationing in a quaint little New England village by the seashore; the town had a downtown of cute and unique little shops. She got a taste for a double dipped chocolate ice cream cone, so she goes into the ice cream shop. When she went into the shop, there was only one other person in the shop, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sitting at a table reading the paper, having coffee and a donut. She glanced at the customer, but had to do a double take – it was Paul Newman. Even though he was one of her favorite stars, she didn’t want to be a nuisance, so she pretended not to really see him. She ordered her ice cream cone, paid for it and hurried out of the store. When she got to her car, she had to congratulate herself, she had acted so coolly in the presence of a movie star – she had acted as if this was a normal everyday occurrence for her. But she also realized that something wasn’t quite right, where was her ice cream cone. She remembered getting it from the clerk, but she didn’t seem to have it. So she goes back into the store, and asks the clerk what happened. Paul Newman responds; you put it in your purse with your change.
How many of us would not respond in the same way, if we were in the presence of our favorite star? Under normal circumstances, we are calm and levelheaded people. But there are those circumstances in our lives, and those people who make us nervous, uneasy and distracted. Even in the midst of our trying to calm down, our distracted state makes us do dumb things. This lady ran into Paul Newman at an ice cream shop. Can you imagine how she would have responded had she been told that Paul Newman was coming to dinner? How would you respond if you were told that someone who you admired a lot was coming to dinner? Everything would have to be perfect, the house cleaner than it ever was before, the perfect menu planned, the perfect dessert picked out, the right activities to keep guest entertained. You know that no matter how much you try to get accomplished, as the guest arrive, there is going to be more and more that you realize needs to be done. This would be the perfect opportunity for nervousness and distraction to take over your life.
That is what was happening for Martha, as she prepared for Jesus to come to her house for dinner. She wanted everything to be perfect for him. This story is in John and Luke, in the John version it is clear that this is the Mary and Martha who are sisters of Jesus friend Lazarus. Luke does not specify who these two women are. What we do know is that no matter how hard Martha tried, things were not coming together. All she wanted was a little support from her sister Mary.
Martha means lady or mistress. It is the female equivalent of Lord – meaning she was the female head of the household.
When Jesus arrives, some interpretations of the story say that he told Martha that only a few things were needed, others say that he said that only one thing was needed. And it is not clear whether he was talking about the food, saying that he really did not need a lot to eat, just one dish, not a full spread, or was he saying that it was okay for Mary to sit with him and not help, because it was more important for her to get the word of God in her life.
Jesus acknowledges Martha’s nervousness about the event. He tells her that she is distracted. And just like the lady in the first story- it is her distractedness that makes her act, do and say things that she normally would not.
When I think about this story, my initial reaction is to think that Jesus is on the one hand criticizing Martha for doing the work that any woman would do. Wouldn’t any women be concerned about dinner for guest coming to her house. Wouldn’t any women want everything to be perfect. And in the midst of Jesus telling Martha not to worry about dinner, he and his disciples still expected dinner, and ate with her. Why wouldn’t Martha asked Jesus to pull his sister away from listening and studying. Women were not allowed to go to school, and there was certainly no reason for her to learn, when she was not allowed to teach.
But even 2000 years ago, Jesus knew enough to take us beyond stereotypes of what a woman’s work was. This could have easily been a story about two brothers, Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son, in which the older brother complains about doing all of the work, while his brother got all of the praise.
But jesus is saying that it is not the work that you do, but the state of mind in which you do the work.
Jesus points out that Martha is worried about a lot of things, in trying to make everything perfect, she is distracted from what is most important.
It is interesting that this parable is sandwiched between the story of the good Samaritan, and teaching his disciples the Lord’s prayer. It is in between the advice to get up and act and do the right thing and the advice to sit down and pray. Which is more important – a life of service or a life of prayer. Or are they equally important. Perhaps Jesus is not chastising Martha nor uplifting Mary – but reminding us that God’s work always needs to be done, but don’t forget to listen.
There is a story of a man on an African safari. He needed guides to take him through the rough terrain. They traveled for a few days – and he was enjoying the trip, but all of a sudden without notice the guides stopped. They set up camp and said they would be staying for a few days. The man being a go getter, thought this was a waste of time and he was upset and ready to go. The guides explained that they had been traveling so far, that their bodies had outrun their souls. And they needed to stop for a few days to allow their souls to catch up. They would be staying here until then.
When you think about the pace of our modern lives, how many of us are living lives in which our bodies are steps ahead of our souls. And we just keep going.
Amos addresses the busyness of our lives. I didn’t focus on Amos because it is such a harsh lesson. Amos is coming from a dark dismal place – where there is not hope for the people. They have reached the point of no return. The consequences of their actions has already been determined. God is going to address their sin.
Amos uses the vision of a bowl of summer fruit. Fruit that is good only for today, tomorrow it will be rotten. To show that the time has come, no room to wait, what will happen is already going to happen.
He talks about people who go to church, but even in the midst of service are calculating what they need to do to get ahead in life. He says that their measures are unfair. They raise prices, but give people less and less. I don’t want to call any names, but I have noticed that in more and more restaurants, they have raised prices on things, but decreased the portion sizes. In some instances they even made the plates smaller, so they can give you less. And I often wonder if things will change when the economy gets better, or will they continue to same practice just to make more money.
But here is another way that we use unfair measuring devices – in the way we judge people. We set unfair expectations for them, that we know they cant meet and we judge them when they don’t live up to our expectations. We even draw conclusions about people before we get all of the facts, another unfair measure of others.
We too have gotten so concerned about ourselves that we forget to think of others.
That is why Amos says that there is no second chance – the damage has been done. There is no hope. There will be a famine in the land – but not of food. Martha is still cooking dinner. But of the word of God. We will ask and get no answers, we will hope and get no peace, we will hunger, and even eat – but never feel full. All because we have forgotten how to listen and pay attention.
If you pack ice in a cold place, it will stay forever. In the north they build a lot of ice houses and put sawdust over them so that they will stay. One day there were building an ice house – and one of the builders lost his watch. The watch became a part of the house. When he realized he lost it, he went back into the house to find it – but it had become frozen on the ice, he couldn’t find it. Another man continued the search, and he looked for it – but couldn’t find it. One day, on their lunch break one of the sons went into the house to look for the watch. In fifteen minutes he found it – they asked how he was so lucky. He explained it wasn’t luck – he just took the time to listen for the ticking of the watch and he found it.
The good news of the gospel is that jesus called Martha name – not once but twice. Martha, Martha – stop, listen. Sometime Jesus has to say to me Harriette, Harriette, stop listen, you are distracted. Your are unfocused. You have forgotten your purpose. Few things are needed, indeed only one – your relationship with jesus.
You cant work in a food pantry week after week, dealing with constant hunger,constant need without remembering that Jesus didn’t ask you to stop hunger – but to feed my sheep.
You cant work with kids day after day watching them misbehave and get out of line – without being able to see the presence of Christ in each one of them.
Few things are needed, or indeed only one, Mary has chosen the better portion and it will not be taken away from her.
Every day we have to stop and ask ourselves what do we need to make it through the day.
If I stop and look at that big picture, and survey all that needs to be done in the next five years, within the next year, even within the upcoming week. I can get overwhelmed and have no idea of where to start, or how it is all going to get done.
Perhaps that is why in the next section of this story the Lord teaches me to pray the lords prayer, and teaches me to pray for my daily bread. What do I need to get through today, and how do I learn to not be so concerned about what happens tomorrow.
In choosing to be a disciple of Christ, timing is everything. There is a time to be in faithful service and there is a time to sit and listen at the foot of Jesus.
If Mary was allowed to sit at the foot of Jesus and learn, it was expected that whatever she learned she was to take that out in the world and to teach someone else.
In each of our lives and in each of our days there is a balancing act. We have to act , but we also have to pray.
I want to end with my favorite prayer – that I put in my bedroom to pray every day – sometimes I do and most of the time I forget
I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day, I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me and heavier came each task, who doesn’t god help me I wondered, he said but you didn’t ask. I wanted to see joy and beauty but the say toiled on gray and bleak, I wondered why God didn’t show me, he said but you didn’t seek. I tried to come into God’s presence I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, My child you didn’t knock. I woke up early this morning, and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray. Amen.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
A Good Deed
Englewood and Rust United Methodist Churches
July 11, 2010
Amos 7:1-7
Luke 10:25-37
A Good Deed
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
Examples of the Great Commandment
I know that the gospel lesson is from Luke this morning, but I want to take us to some other scriptures.
In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord you god with all of your heart, your soul, and with all of your mind. That is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it – Love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Every Israelite would have known these commandments and would have followed them. Jesus is quoting the greatest commandment and prayer, the golden rule.
Jews were and still are commanded to pray at all times, and to remember the great commandment – Deuteronomy 6:4 – hear o Israel: the lord our God, the lord is one. Most important. And then Deuteronomy6: 5 – love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.
Jesus says love the lord with all of your mind, and the law says love the lord with all of your strength. The New Testament is written in Greek, and the Hebrew Scriptures are written in Hebrew – so it is difficult to tell why there is a difference in wording. Actually the Hebrew word that is interpreted as strength is meod – which actually means your muchness. Which means your being, your will, your abundance.
Alice in Wonderland as an example of muchness
Did anyone see the new Alice and Wonderland? Anything with Johnny Depp in it is a good movie to me. This movie is not a remake of the old – but a sequel. Alice has been to wonderland before, and they are now in crisis and need Alice to come back to save them. Once they get her to return – the characters get into a debate – which they have to wrong Alice. They called her back because they knew that Alice was the only one with enough nerve to do the right thing and to do what needs to be done to save them.
It’s the wrong Alice – no she insists I am the right Alice – what’s wrong with you then? What do you mean she asks – you have lost your muchness - you are not you anymore. For some reason, your nerve, your commandment, your guiding principle seems to be missing.
For us, we know that the guiding principle of our lives, the great commandment – to love to Lord our God is our muchness.
Repeat after me: Love the lord with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it – repeat after me Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus is challenged
Jesus taught that message to us in many ways. He had been teaching is disciples to go out into the world and to give that message, when a law scholar overheard him as he told them to have joy that their names were written in the annuls of heaven.
Feeling this was a good chance to challenge Jesus and stop the mad talk – he asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life – to live with god forever.
Jesus was not only smart – but he was wise enough to beat the scholar at his own game – you know the law – what does it say? Why are you asking me? We all know the greatest commandment.
The lawyer not wanting to be beat just yet continues his question – who is my neighbor –
Story of the Good Samaritan
A Jesus answer is one of the most well known stories in the bible – the story of the Good Samaritan. Society has co-opted this lesson so much that we don’t even realize that nowhere in the scripture does it say that the Samaritan is good. Or that he even did the right thing.
According to the law – the two men who passed by the man in the ditch were doing to right thing. They were in service for the lord – they were the good ones.
What we also may not realize is that this is not a story about how we treat strangers – it is about how we treat family members.
Samaritans are family members
Samaritans and Jews were part of the same family. Samaritans were confused Jews. As a matter of fact, they were Jews who refused to pray the Shema – they did not believe that the Lord was one. The worshipped other god in addition to Yahweh. They did not want to travel all the way to Jerusalem just to worship the one god, so they built their own altars. For a real Jew – to disrespect the shema – was the ultimate disrespect – it didn’t matter who you – that you were family.
When Jesus would have told this story and asked who was a true neighbor – he was counting on his audience to shutter. To get this sick feeling in their stomachs when they would have had to open their mouth and say Samaritan.
But Jesus to realize that charity starts at home. Sometimes the way we treat our own brothers and sisters is worse that how we treat enemies and strangers. We like to think about how good we are – and we totally ignore the sins we commit at home. A misunderstanding ensues – we don’t understand why our sisters and brothers act the way they do, we think that they can do better, do different, we wonder why they are so lost that they don’t even bother to speak anymore. We get comfortable in our self righteous hole – and we don’t speak to one another or even bother to work out our differences.
Jesus was a Jew – trying to bring his family back together again. In the process – he probably experiences the rejection like that of the Samaritans many times. I remember when I was in Israel – our tour guide told us – it is not that we don’t like Jesus – we don’t understand him –why would he disrespect our tradition so much and change it so much.
Because he realized that the love of the tradition and heritage has started to stand in the way of learning how to love one another. Tradition and beliefs had started to take precedence over unconditional love. Jesus knew the sick feeling any Jew would have gotten in having to admit that an alienated brother – the Samaritan was a true neighbor in this story. Maybe it was time to forget about the law and the prophets and to remember the great commandment - which is? And the second…. Perhaps love should be our guiding principle.
Story of boy wanting to be a brother
8-
I recall a story I read about a man
who had just received a new car from his brother. He went to visit a client in a poor neighborhood and as he returned to his car he noticed a boy with leg braces sitting on the doorstep of a nearby apartment building, admiring his car.
“That sure is a nice car mister! You sure must have a lot of money to afford a car like that!”
He replied, “No, not so much! My car was a piece of junk and my brother gave me
-9-
this one!”
“You’re kidding, he GAVE it to you. Like for FREE! You didn’t have to pay nothin’ at all for it?”
The man smiled, “Yes it was for free. I didn’t have to pay anything at all! ”
What the boy said next blew the man right out of the water, “Wow, I wish -
I wish I could be a brother like that.”
(Pause)
The man quizzing Jesus, according to Luke, was seeking to justify himself.
Most of us would have said I wish I had a brother like that. Jesus is trying to tell us that it is not about the brother you have – it is about the brother you are.
So what would life be like if we could love the lord with all of our abundance – our muchness.
We are the neighbors
Neighbors are not the people out there – neighbors are the people in here. We are the neighbors. In how we treat others in our own family. If can’t love one another in here – what is it that those out there really see in us? The reality is that we treat others the same way that we treat our family. We have to love one another – in spite of our differences. We love those whom god places in our lives – we don’t get to pick our family.
I am not going to touch on Amos too much this morning – other than to say that it echoes the lesson of the gospel. Amos takes a plumb line amongst the people to see if they are really following the great commandment of loving the lord and loving your neighbor. And Amos too needed to point out that the religious establishment had gotten so caught up in doing the right thing – they had forgotten the simple rule of love. It is not so much that the rule for us is love – love is the rule of how we respond to others.
That plumb line – that rule in our lives – is to remind us that love controls every aspect of who we are and what we do.
Love is our muchness – our abundance, our nerve, our strength, our heart, our soul and our mind.
The greatest commandment is…… the second……
We all know that – we have to just remember to live that.
Let us pray…..
July 11, 2010
Amos 7:1-7
Luke 10:25-37
A Good Deed
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
Examples of the Great Commandment
I know that the gospel lesson is from Luke this morning, but I want to take us to some other scriptures.
In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord you god with all of your heart, your soul, and with all of your mind. That is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it – Love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Every Israelite would have known these commandments and would have followed them. Jesus is quoting the greatest commandment and prayer, the golden rule.
Jews were and still are commanded to pray at all times, and to remember the great commandment – Deuteronomy 6:4 – hear o Israel: the lord our God, the lord is one. Most important. And then Deuteronomy6: 5 – love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.
Jesus says love the lord with all of your mind, and the law says love the lord with all of your strength. The New Testament is written in Greek, and the Hebrew Scriptures are written in Hebrew – so it is difficult to tell why there is a difference in wording. Actually the Hebrew word that is interpreted as strength is meod – which actually means your muchness. Which means your being, your will, your abundance.
Alice in Wonderland as an example of muchness
Did anyone see the new Alice and Wonderland? Anything with Johnny Depp in it is a good movie to me. This movie is not a remake of the old – but a sequel. Alice has been to wonderland before, and they are now in crisis and need Alice to come back to save them. Once they get her to return – the characters get into a debate – which they have to wrong Alice. They called her back because they knew that Alice was the only one with enough nerve to do the right thing and to do what needs to be done to save them.
It’s the wrong Alice – no she insists I am the right Alice – what’s wrong with you then? What do you mean she asks – you have lost your muchness - you are not you anymore. For some reason, your nerve, your commandment, your guiding principle seems to be missing.
For us, we know that the guiding principle of our lives, the great commandment – to love to Lord our God is our muchness.
Repeat after me: Love the lord with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it – repeat after me Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus is challenged
Jesus taught that message to us in many ways. He had been teaching is disciples to go out into the world and to give that message, when a law scholar overheard him as he told them to have joy that their names were written in the annuls of heaven.
Feeling this was a good chance to challenge Jesus and stop the mad talk – he asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life – to live with god forever.
Jesus was not only smart – but he was wise enough to beat the scholar at his own game – you know the law – what does it say? Why are you asking me? We all know the greatest commandment.
The lawyer not wanting to be beat just yet continues his question – who is my neighbor –
Story of the Good Samaritan
A Jesus answer is one of the most well known stories in the bible – the story of the Good Samaritan. Society has co-opted this lesson so much that we don’t even realize that nowhere in the scripture does it say that the Samaritan is good. Or that he even did the right thing.
According to the law – the two men who passed by the man in the ditch were doing to right thing. They were in service for the lord – they were the good ones.
What we also may not realize is that this is not a story about how we treat strangers – it is about how we treat family members.
Samaritans are family members
Samaritans and Jews were part of the same family. Samaritans were confused Jews. As a matter of fact, they were Jews who refused to pray the Shema – they did not believe that the Lord was one. The worshipped other god in addition to Yahweh. They did not want to travel all the way to Jerusalem just to worship the one god, so they built their own altars. For a real Jew – to disrespect the shema – was the ultimate disrespect – it didn’t matter who you – that you were family.
When Jesus would have told this story and asked who was a true neighbor – he was counting on his audience to shutter. To get this sick feeling in their stomachs when they would have had to open their mouth and say Samaritan.
But Jesus to realize that charity starts at home. Sometimes the way we treat our own brothers and sisters is worse that how we treat enemies and strangers. We like to think about how good we are – and we totally ignore the sins we commit at home. A misunderstanding ensues – we don’t understand why our sisters and brothers act the way they do, we think that they can do better, do different, we wonder why they are so lost that they don’t even bother to speak anymore. We get comfortable in our self righteous hole – and we don’t speak to one another or even bother to work out our differences.
Jesus was a Jew – trying to bring his family back together again. In the process – he probably experiences the rejection like that of the Samaritans many times. I remember when I was in Israel – our tour guide told us – it is not that we don’t like Jesus – we don’t understand him –why would he disrespect our tradition so much and change it so much.
Because he realized that the love of the tradition and heritage has started to stand in the way of learning how to love one another. Tradition and beliefs had started to take precedence over unconditional love. Jesus knew the sick feeling any Jew would have gotten in having to admit that an alienated brother – the Samaritan was a true neighbor in this story. Maybe it was time to forget about the law and the prophets and to remember the great commandment - which is? And the second…. Perhaps love should be our guiding principle.
Story of boy wanting to be a brother
8-
I recall a story I read about a man
who had just received a new car from his brother. He went to visit a client in a poor neighborhood and as he returned to his car he noticed a boy with leg braces sitting on the doorstep of a nearby apartment building, admiring his car.
“That sure is a nice car mister! You sure must have a lot of money to afford a car like that!”
He replied, “No, not so much! My car was a piece of junk and my brother gave me
-9-
this one!”
“You’re kidding, he GAVE it to you. Like for FREE! You didn’t have to pay nothin’ at all for it?”
The man smiled, “Yes it was for free. I didn’t have to pay anything at all! ”
What the boy said next blew the man right out of the water, “Wow, I wish -
I wish I could be a brother like that.”
(Pause)
The man quizzing Jesus, according to Luke, was seeking to justify himself.
Most of us would have said I wish I had a brother like that. Jesus is trying to tell us that it is not about the brother you have – it is about the brother you are.
So what would life be like if we could love the lord with all of our abundance – our muchness.
We are the neighbors
Neighbors are not the people out there – neighbors are the people in here. We are the neighbors. In how we treat others in our own family. If can’t love one another in here – what is it that those out there really see in us? The reality is that we treat others the same way that we treat our family. We have to love one another – in spite of our differences. We love those whom god places in our lives – we don’t get to pick our family.
I am not going to touch on Amos too much this morning – other than to say that it echoes the lesson of the gospel. Amos takes a plumb line amongst the people to see if they are really following the great commandment of loving the lord and loving your neighbor. And Amos too needed to point out that the religious establishment had gotten so caught up in doing the right thing – they had forgotten the simple rule of love. It is not so much that the rule for us is love – love is the rule of how we respond to others.
That plumb line – that rule in our lives – is to remind us that love controls every aspect of who we are and what we do.
Love is our muchness – our abundance, our nerve, our strength, our heart, our soul and our mind.
The greatest commandment is…… the second……
We all know that – we have to just remember to live that.
Let us pray…..
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Good Day Ahead
Englewood/Rust UMC
July 4, 2010
2 Kings 5:1-14
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Pentecost 7
Year C
First Sermon
I think it’s been cancelled now, but at the beginning of the year there was this show that came on ABC – I think it was called Flashback, or something like that. I never really got into the show, but I do remember the line from one of the commercials that has always stuck in my mind. In it a little girl of about six years old woke up in her bed crying. Her mother stood over her and asked – baby what is the matter. She said, mommy I had a bad dream. The mother asked, so baby – what was your dream. She said momma I dreamed that there were no more good days. There are only bad days ahead.
The scene sticks in my head , and I thought there is a sermon in that statement – I immediately thought this little girl was having my bad dream - my nightmare. The nightmare of no more good days. Things are never going to get better for me. You don’t pay bills and the bills pile up, you pay the bills and the bills still pile up. You work as hard as you can, tirelessly every day and there is still someone telling you that it is not enough. You try and things still don’t change, you don’t try and things don’t change. What is the use – there are no more good days. There was a time in my life when I felt that I was moving forward, getting ahead, happy enjoying life. But that was a long time ago – not today.
But you know – I also think that I am forgetting a very important lesson about my faith in Christ.
Namaan must have felt that way when he set out to isreal looking for a cure. There were no good days ahead. We get that way when we feel we have been robbed of the life that we know and understand.
Namaan was the general of the greatest army in the world at the time. The bible says that God gave victory to the army of Aram through Namaan. He was used to people bowing to him and giving him whatever he wanted. He was used to special priviledges, used to invitations from important people, used to being with the rich and famous of his day.
But he lost all of that the day he got a disease – what he thought to be a skin disease. He didn’t know what it was, but he was not taking any chances.
He thought he had leprosy – a skin disease that made all of his friend keep their distance. But really it was something deeper.
Physical symptoms are always a sign of something deeper. Every illness that we have has a physical component, a mental and emotional component and a spiritual component. Physical illness is our bodies way of getting our attention to warn us that something needs to change in our lives and in our spirits.
The second symptom of his deeper illness, of his need for a cure, was in his stuff. In order to take this journey of healing he needed to take 10 changes of clothes, horseloads of jewelry, food and other gifts. He was convinced that his stuff was going to find a cure.
No wonder when he did get to the prophet Elisha, the prophet didn’t even bother to greet him. He just sent a message to bathe in the river.
Elisha knew that Namaan’s complaint was not his problem. Remember physical symptoms are always a sign of a deeper spiritual issue.
Namaan didn’t need to be cured of his leprosy, he needed to be cured of his pride.
Pride that his stuff could bring him healing. Pride that his life was all about him – who he was and what he had. Pride that just because he was important that he was not supposed to suffer.
Elisha didn’t want to have anything to do with his stuff.
Pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives. Humililty opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves, our ego and our pride. Let me repeat that – pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives, humility opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves.
You see this is not a story about Namaan and his high horse, his illness, his unwillingness to listen, his arrogance that just because he has a problem someone is supposed to take care of him.
This is really a story about the miracle of everyday life and everyday people. It is a story about a slave girl who knew of a prophet who could really cure Naaman. It is about a servant who told him the put his pride aside and do what Elisha said, it is about a down to earth prophet – who had spiritual eyes to see what was really going on.
God works through our faith not our pride, we just have to be aware enough to know the difference.
We also have to know that everything that we need in life is contained in the peace of Christ. Peace means justice, wellbeing, wholeness, and joy.
Jesus sends his disciples out into the world 2 by 2 charging them to give peace to the world. He tells them to take nothing for the journey – in other words leave you stuff at home. Peace is not in our stuff, it is in our love for God.
Just like a car needs gas, a spirit needs the spirit of Christ. When the spirit is not connected to God – we are empty. The peace of Christ for a Christian is everything. It is our healing, our teaching, our guiding light, it is our light in a dark spot, our joy in times of trouble, our hope when nothing else works. Most importantly it is our message to the rest of the world that we are all God’s children and everything is going to be okay.
The peace of Christ is the fuel our spirits use, the food our souls feed on – we can’t be happy apart from the spirit of Christ. Christ can’t give us happiness and peace apart from himself – it’s just not possible. Those are not my words – but the words of the famous Christian author C.S. Lewis.
Furthermore, an unhappy, unpeaceful, hopeless Christian is a poor reflection not only on Christ’s church but on God.
Either they are not practicing their faith properly, or their faith is useless.
Unhappy Christians are the world’s biggest argument for staying away from church, and for believing that either God is useless for even that there is no God.
The presence of joy is a sign that Christ is alive in ourselves, our hearts and the world.
When Jesus send his disciples out 2by2, he told them to pass the peace, travel light, heal the sick, and to return with joy. Scripture says – I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, over come the power of evil and nothing will harm you.
Jesus didn’t say the journey would be easy, as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite. But he did say that nothing will harm you and that you will have joy.
Billy Graham tells the story of visiting a carribean island. He was invited to have lunch with one of the wealthiest men in the world. The man was 75 years old – and he seemed close to tears the whole time. I am the most miserable man in the world. He point to his yacht and said that he could go wherever he wanted. He could do whatever he wanted, he could have whatever he wanted – I have all I want to make me happy – but none of it mattered. Nothing gave his life meaning, nothing made him happy. The grahams talked to him and tried to lead him to Christ – to help him understand that true happiness was in the presence of Christ in his life.
Later that day they had dinner with a pastor – 75 also, he too had lost his wife and spent his free time taking care of his sick sisters. But in the midst of it all – he was happy and full of Christ. He loved witnessing to the love of Christ. I don’t have a dime to my name he said, but I am the happiest man on the island. When the Grahams left his house – Billy asked his wife – which one of these men was richer?
We got some tough times ahead – and life really might not get better. There is rejection, failure, and pain in the future – we can be sure of that.
But there are also good days ahead. Personally I praise God that I don’t have to life in the nightmare belief that there are no more good days.
I can celebrate because the glory of God is not in what I do for God- it is in the testimony of what God does for me.
My peace is not in my self, its in Christ. My message to the world is not in my stuff, or lack there of – it is in the witness that I am for God. My joy is in my journey – journey to pass the peace of Christ to everyone I meet. My happiness is not just in what I say – it is in who I am for the Lord. And who the Lord is for me. Let us pray….
July 4, 2010
2 Kings 5:1-14
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Pentecost 7
Year C
First Sermon
I think it’s been cancelled now, but at the beginning of the year there was this show that came on ABC – I think it was called Flashback, or something like that. I never really got into the show, but I do remember the line from one of the commercials that has always stuck in my mind. In it a little girl of about six years old woke up in her bed crying. Her mother stood over her and asked – baby what is the matter. She said, mommy I had a bad dream. The mother asked, so baby – what was your dream. She said momma I dreamed that there were no more good days. There are only bad days ahead.
The scene sticks in my head , and I thought there is a sermon in that statement – I immediately thought this little girl was having my bad dream - my nightmare. The nightmare of no more good days. Things are never going to get better for me. You don’t pay bills and the bills pile up, you pay the bills and the bills still pile up. You work as hard as you can, tirelessly every day and there is still someone telling you that it is not enough. You try and things still don’t change, you don’t try and things don’t change. What is the use – there are no more good days. There was a time in my life when I felt that I was moving forward, getting ahead, happy enjoying life. But that was a long time ago – not today.
But you know – I also think that I am forgetting a very important lesson about my faith in Christ.
Namaan must have felt that way when he set out to isreal looking for a cure. There were no good days ahead. We get that way when we feel we have been robbed of the life that we know and understand.
Namaan was the general of the greatest army in the world at the time. The bible says that God gave victory to the army of Aram through Namaan. He was used to people bowing to him and giving him whatever he wanted. He was used to special priviledges, used to invitations from important people, used to being with the rich and famous of his day.
But he lost all of that the day he got a disease – what he thought to be a skin disease. He didn’t know what it was, but he was not taking any chances.
He thought he had leprosy – a skin disease that made all of his friend keep their distance. But really it was something deeper.
Physical symptoms are always a sign of something deeper. Every illness that we have has a physical component, a mental and emotional component and a spiritual component. Physical illness is our bodies way of getting our attention to warn us that something needs to change in our lives and in our spirits.
The second symptom of his deeper illness, of his need for a cure, was in his stuff. In order to take this journey of healing he needed to take 10 changes of clothes, horseloads of jewelry, food and other gifts. He was convinced that his stuff was going to find a cure.
No wonder when he did get to the prophet Elisha, the prophet didn’t even bother to greet him. He just sent a message to bathe in the river.
Elisha knew that Namaan’s complaint was not his problem. Remember physical symptoms are always a sign of a deeper spiritual issue.
Namaan didn’t need to be cured of his leprosy, he needed to be cured of his pride.
Pride that his stuff could bring him healing. Pride that his life was all about him – who he was and what he had. Pride that just because he was important that he was not supposed to suffer.
Elisha didn’t want to have anything to do with his stuff.
Pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives. Humililty opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves, our ego and our pride. Let me repeat that – pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives, humility opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves.
You see this is not a story about Namaan and his high horse, his illness, his unwillingness to listen, his arrogance that just because he has a problem someone is supposed to take care of him.
This is really a story about the miracle of everyday life and everyday people. It is a story about a slave girl who knew of a prophet who could really cure Naaman. It is about a servant who told him the put his pride aside and do what Elisha said, it is about a down to earth prophet – who had spiritual eyes to see what was really going on.
God works through our faith not our pride, we just have to be aware enough to know the difference.
We also have to know that everything that we need in life is contained in the peace of Christ. Peace means justice, wellbeing, wholeness, and joy.
Jesus sends his disciples out into the world 2 by 2 charging them to give peace to the world. He tells them to take nothing for the journey – in other words leave you stuff at home. Peace is not in our stuff, it is in our love for God.
Just like a car needs gas, a spirit needs the spirit of Christ. When the spirit is not connected to God – we are empty. The peace of Christ for a Christian is everything. It is our healing, our teaching, our guiding light, it is our light in a dark spot, our joy in times of trouble, our hope when nothing else works. Most importantly it is our message to the rest of the world that we are all God’s children and everything is going to be okay.
The peace of Christ is the fuel our spirits use, the food our souls feed on – we can’t be happy apart from the spirit of Christ. Christ can’t give us happiness and peace apart from himself – it’s just not possible. Those are not my words – but the words of the famous Christian author C.S. Lewis.
Furthermore, an unhappy, unpeaceful, hopeless Christian is a poor reflection not only on Christ’s church but on God.
Either they are not practicing their faith properly, or their faith is useless.
Unhappy Christians are the world’s biggest argument for staying away from church, and for believing that either God is useless for even that there is no God.
The presence of joy is a sign that Christ is alive in ourselves, our hearts and the world.
When Jesus send his disciples out 2by2, he told them to pass the peace, travel light, heal the sick, and to return with joy. Scripture says – I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, over come the power of evil and nothing will harm you.
Jesus didn’t say the journey would be easy, as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite. But he did say that nothing will harm you and that you will have joy.
Billy Graham tells the story of visiting a carribean island. He was invited to have lunch with one of the wealthiest men in the world. The man was 75 years old – and he seemed close to tears the whole time. I am the most miserable man in the world. He point to his yacht and said that he could go wherever he wanted. He could do whatever he wanted, he could have whatever he wanted – I have all I want to make me happy – but none of it mattered. Nothing gave his life meaning, nothing made him happy. The grahams talked to him and tried to lead him to Christ – to help him understand that true happiness was in the presence of Christ in his life.
Later that day they had dinner with a pastor – 75 also, he too had lost his wife and spent his free time taking care of his sick sisters. But in the midst of it all – he was happy and full of Christ. He loved witnessing to the love of Christ. I don’t have a dime to my name he said, but I am the happiest man on the island. When the Grahams left his house – Billy asked his wife – which one of these men was richer?
We got some tough times ahead – and life really might not get better. There is rejection, failure, and pain in the future – we can be sure of that.
But there are also good days ahead. Personally I praise God that I don’t have to life in the nightmare belief that there are no more good days.
I can celebrate because the glory of God is not in what I do for God- it is in the testimony of what God does for me.
My peace is not in my self, its in Christ. My message to the world is not in my stuff, or lack there of – it is in the witness that I am for God. My joy is in my journey – journey to pass the peace of Christ to everyone I meet. My happiness is not just in what I say – it is in who I am for the Lord. And who the Lord is for me. Let us pray….
Friday, July 02, 2010
A God Moment
June 27, 2010
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Year C
Last Sermon
The countdown is on 3 days, 17 hours, 7 minutes and 10 seconds until July 1st – and I am free.
While looking for a story to say goodbye to the children in the preschool – I found this one for my sermon.
There’s a big beautiful world out there. It speaks of new experiences and not being afraid.
There's a Big Beautiful World Out There - Nancy Carlson - Viking (Penguin Putman Books for Young Readers), New York 2002
The book was written on september 12, 2001 – the day after the September 11 event – to remind us all that life goes on. Even in the midst of our scariest moments, in the midst of those times when we have no idea of what is next – there is a big beautiful world out there – and that we have to be ready to face it. We have to be ready and prepared for the changes in out life. We have to look forward to the freedom that we have in life to go on.
Paul also reminds us that freedom is Christ means understanding that you are never free of your fellow Christians. Once you are a part of a community of Christians – you are bound to them forever. You never get to walk away. No matter what the relationship – you are still bound to them by love. Through love become slaves to one another. Verse 15 says – if however you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Whatever difference we have, we must forgive and understand and think in terms of love.
Freedom means living under the guidance of the holy spirit- it means letting the Spirit control your life and your emotions and giving patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control to your self and to one another. Paul says that there is no law against such things.
In preparing for this sermon – I found that it was a Spirit moment – that the two scriptures for my last sermon on Elijah and Elisha and the subject of freedom were actually the subject of my first sermon hear. I was hoping that I could make it easy on myself and just preach that sermon again. It was three years ago. It was entitled cracks in the sidewalk – and talked about times of transition and that fact that freedom is not free. Unfortunately it was a fourth of july sermon – and wouldn’t have the same affect today.
But it reminded us that the story of Elijah and Elisha is a story of transition and change. Elijah knows that he is going to die and he has chosen Elisha to take his place. At one time in his life he felt that he was all alone and that all of his hard work would disappear with him when he left. God not only sends him Elisha – Elisha is ready to take on and do twice as much as Elijah. If you read the bible – you will find that Elisha performed exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did.
The good news is that god never leaves us hanging we always have an heir. – if we are given a job, we are never alone, and our work is not about us – so it doesn’t end with us – it is passed on.
Did you hear in the news of the 66 year old woman who just gave birth to triplets – she got pregnant because her 70 year old husband was concerned that he would not have a heir to pass on his inheritance.
I couldn’t imagine raising triplets at my age – but god’s message to us is that we can dwell on what we don’t have- or we can celebrate what we do. We can live in scarcity and not enough- or we can trust that the spirit is alive and working in our lives. We can dwell on those who are not in out lives, or we can celebrate those who are. Living in the flesh brings anger, strife , jealousy, envy and the list goes on. Living with the spirit brings patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and the like and Paul says there is no law against such things
Seeds of faith are being planted every day. If we are faithful some of those seeds will never bloom, we will never see results, and yet some will grow, some will bloom. Some will plant even more. Not for our sake but for God’s.
So it looks like I end my journey with you, where I started. In transition, thinking about freedom. I don’t have any profound words of goodbye – because I feel that our relationship, our memories, our times together is said in the relationships that we will carry in our heart, the joys and sorrows that need to be acknowledged, the wounds that need to be healed and the memories that need to be cherished. Our journey together is not over, it is just that we have reached a fork in the road and must move in separate directions. Joined together always by the work Christ has given us to do and the spirit that leads us. Our task remains to love the lord our God with all of our hearts, minds and souls and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And to always remember that the rest is up to God – go in peace, Amen.
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Year C
Last Sermon
The countdown is on 3 days, 17 hours, 7 minutes and 10 seconds until July 1st – and I am free.
While looking for a story to say goodbye to the children in the preschool – I found this one for my sermon.
There’s a big beautiful world out there. It speaks of new experiences and not being afraid.
There's a Big Beautiful World Out There - Nancy Carlson - Viking (Penguin Putman Books for Young Readers), New York 2002
The book was written on september 12, 2001 – the day after the September 11 event – to remind us all that life goes on. Even in the midst of our scariest moments, in the midst of those times when we have no idea of what is next – there is a big beautiful world out there – and that we have to be ready to face it. We have to be ready and prepared for the changes in out life. We have to look forward to the freedom that we have in life to go on.
Paul also reminds us that freedom is Christ means understanding that you are never free of your fellow Christians. Once you are a part of a community of Christians – you are bound to them forever. You never get to walk away. No matter what the relationship – you are still bound to them by love. Through love become slaves to one another. Verse 15 says – if however you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Whatever difference we have, we must forgive and understand and think in terms of love.
Freedom means living under the guidance of the holy spirit- it means letting the Spirit control your life and your emotions and giving patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control to your self and to one another. Paul says that there is no law against such things.
In preparing for this sermon – I found that it was a Spirit moment – that the two scriptures for my last sermon on Elijah and Elisha and the subject of freedom were actually the subject of my first sermon hear. I was hoping that I could make it easy on myself and just preach that sermon again. It was three years ago. It was entitled cracks in the sidewalk – and talked about times of transition and that fact that freedom is not free. Unfortunately it was a fourth of july sermon – and wouldn’t have the same affect today.
But it reminded us that the story of Elijah and Elisha is a story of transition and change. Elijah knows that he is going to die and he has chosen Elisha to take his place. At one time in his life he felt that he was all alone and that all of his hard work would disappear with him when he left. God not only sends him Elisha – Elisha is ready to take on and do twice as much as Elijah. If you read the bible – you will find that Elisha performed exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did.
The good news is that god never leaves us hanging we always have an heir. – if we are given a job, we are never alone, and our work is not about us – so it doesn’t end with us – it is passed on.
Did you hear in the news of the 66 year old woman who just gave birth to triplets – she got pregnant because her 70 year old husband was concerned that he would not have a heir to pass on his inheritance.
I couldn’t imagine raising triplets at my age – but god’s message to us is that we can dwell on what we don’t have- or we can celebrate what we do. We can live in scarcity and not enough- or we can trust that the spirit is alive and working in our lives. We can dwell on those who are not in out lives, or we can celebrate those who are. Living in the flesh brings anger, strife , jealousy, envy and the list goes on. Living with the spirit brings patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and the like and Paul says there is no law against such things
Seeds of faith are being planted every day. If we are faithful some of those seeds will never bloom, we will never see results, and yet some will grow, some will bloom. Some will plant even more. Not for our sake but for God’s.
So it looks like I end my journey with you, where I started. In transition, thinking about freedom. I don’t have any profound words of goodbye – because I feel that our relationship, our memories, our times together is said in the relationships that we will carry in our heart, the joys and sorrows that need to be acknowledged, the wounds that need to be healed and the memories that need to be cherished. Our journey together is not over, it is just that we have reached a fork in the road and must move in separate directions. Joined together always by the work Christ has given us to do and the spirit that leads us. Our task remains to love the lord our God with all of our hearts, minds and souls and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And to always remember that the rest is up to God – go in peace, Amen.
Getting to the Getting Over It
Getting to the Getting Over It
1 Kings 19:1-15
Galatians 3:23-29
4th Sunday of Pentecost
June 20, 2010
(not really a father’s day sermon)
Year C
Let me be clear – one of the worst things that you can tell someone in pain – is to just get over it and move on.
But in reality – it is the only answer to any crisis in our lives – life goes on, get over it and move on. It is all in the timing , the way of saying it, and sometimes even the appropriate place for it to be said. Even God realizes that God has to be careful with God’s words even with the most faithful of servants.
We have all reached those moments in our lives when we have done all that we can and things are just not working, and you are ready to throw in the towel and say forget about it all.
We have been looking at the prophetic career of Elijah this summer. He has had some pretty amazing accomplishments. He has done some pretty amazing things.
Last week he challenged the queen of Isreal to a duel. We wanted to prove that his god was stronger than her god. He set fire to an altar and god not only appeared – all of her priest were killed, and she gets a little angry. And threatens to kill him.
Elijah falls into a very familiar trap that prophets still fall into today. We are told to do something by God, we do it because we believe it to be the right thing, and because we are doing what it right, we are expecting praise and affirmation, and instead we get threats our lives and well being. And we are shacked beyond belief. We consider ourselves to be good people and we want people to love us – and we don’t understand what is going on when they don’t. that was enough to take Elijah over the edge.
He had a breakdown and ran. Now Elijah is not the type who scares easy he is a little hot headed in his zeal for the lord Elijah was one to stand up to kings and anyone else he thougth was not doing to will of god. His student was meaner than he was – Elisha sent bears to attack a group of teenagers for calling him bald.
But there was an underlying message in his zeal to prove that his god was bigger than any other god.
The message that he wanted to get across to the world, those in his group and outside – was that there was only one god.
The god of the ancestors is the god of our children to come. The god who enjoys gospel music is the god who loves the anthems of the church. The god of the Chinese and Japanese is the god of the Americans. The god who shone the sun on the convicted criminal this morning is the god who woke you up for church this morning.
God is the same for all of us. Elijahs’s question for us is that if there is only one - why do we have so many different opinions of who god is and what god wants from us.
If God doesn’t change, then things don’t really change for us either. We still need to get the message – of unity and working together. And prophets still get weary of preaching it.
In his time of despair, Elijah needed to go back to the beginning of his faith. The place where moses talked with god.
This is such a rich story of our lives, our feelings , our desire to do the right thing, our desire to see and talk with god face to face in times of trouble.
He went into to a cave, god was not in the earthquake, not in the flood not in the storm but in the silence.
Morse code story….
A group of men answered a want ad for someone to do morse code for the government. they came for the interview one b one, and after about 7 applicants who were waiting - the conversation got to be a little lively. they needed to make sure that it was clear who would be first for the interview, then they needed to talk about who was more qualified for the job, then they needed to talk about who had the most exciting experience in the field. After about ten minutes of constant talking, a woman walks in and sits down - obviously thinking she would be qualified for the hib. As the noise continues, she quietly got up and walked into the office of the interviewer, and 5 minutes later she walked out smiling to announce that she had gotten the job. In the midst of all of the noise of their conversation, the interviewer had sent a orse code over the intercom. It said that the first person to hear this message and walks into the office gets the job. but in the midst of all of the chaos - no one else was paying attention to what was really going on.
God in is everything, in the noise the confusion, the chaos, the arumengs, the fights, the disagreements, the questions, the broken dreams, the hurt feelings
Its just that in the chaos, we get confused, we get torn apart, our minds are not focused on what it right – and we forget the message of one god, for one people.
Another prophet zealous for the lord – had a similar experience. Killing anyone who did not believe in god the way he did – until he met god in Christ and was told that was not the right thing to do.
Christ gave him the message that people are people – they are all children of god, they are all loved, and none of us have to right to exclude others. People are people are god is god.
Instead of making distinctions of what pulls us apart, we need to concentrate on what it is that keeps us together.
The abortion story –
When I was in a church in Aurora - there was an abortion center across from the church. There were demonstrations on our corner all of the time. In a demonstrations similar to those I used to see, there were two groups protesting. One in favor of women's rights, and one against abortion. A stranger came to interview the two sides, and asked one man against abortion why he was protesting - he stted that he remembers his father in world war II. His father used to tell stories of men, women, and children who were killed as a whole village. the one memory that haunted his father the most were the eyes. He could never forget those eyes looking at him seeming to ask what was happening. This man thought of the eyes of the unborn, and felt that he had to do something. The preporter also talked with one of the women on the prochoice side and she was also asked why she was protesting. She remembers her mother, who was told that she should not get pregnant anymore after the 8th child. Her mother did get pregnant again and could not go through the pregnancy. But abortion was illegal at the time. she went to an illegal clinic and aborted the baby. she bled to death in the backroom. it turns out that the lady and the man were married to each other. The man honoring his father, the lady honoring her mother. The reporter asked, if you are married and you love each other, how come you are on opposite sides of this issue? They both said that they were doing what they believed was right. The stranger suggested that maybe they and everyone else should no get so caught up in the issue that separates them and to remember to love the pople involved on either side.
The women and chldren affected by abortion, yrt looking for love and attention in the midst of the situation. what a world we would live in if we could all do that. Love one another more than we love the issues tht divide us.
Paul says in Galatians
As many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer jew or greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are abrahams’s offspring according to the promise.
Elijah mission was not in vain, he won the battle, he proved to the world that he worked for the baddest god the planet – the one god of all. He wanted us to all know that there is only one god, the god of power and might. We should be one people – the people of power and might.
If we go on in this story – as god continue to talk with Elijah – he tells him that he is not the only one zealous for the lord – that there are 7000 others just like him. Who are determined to give the message. God also gives Elijah a helper – Elisha who will listen and carry one the message of the one god for all of the world. He is not alone, doing this all by himself – there are others along with us and others coming after us. The message we have to give is not ours, it is god and god calls us, we don’t call god, there are times when we grow weary in spreading god’s message – but the message is not about us, and our doubts and our fears – it is about the love of god for all people. The message of our lives – but much bigger than any of us. A message that will live on.
God’s final words to Elijah in this story is to get over it and move on. God tells Elijah to go back into the wilderness and to keep working. There are times when we would all like to quit – but as long as we are alive we all have to keep moving on in some way. Let us pray…..
1 Kings 19:1-15
Galatians 3:23-29
4th Sunday of Pentecost
June 20, 2010
(not really a father’s day sermon)
Year C
Let me be clear – one of the worst things that you can tell someone in pain – is to just get over it and move on.
But in reality – it is the only answer to any crisis in our lives – life goes on, get over it and move on. It is all in the timing , the way of saying it, and sometimes even the appropriate place for it to be said. Even God realizes that God has to be careful with God’s words even with the most faithful of servants.
We have all reached those moments in our lives when we have done all that we can and things are just not working, and you are ready to throw in the towel and say forget about it all.
We have been looking at the prophetic career of Elijah this summer. He has had some pretty amazing accomplishments. He has done some pretty amazing things.
Last week he challenged the queen of Isreal to a duel. We wanted to prove that his god was stronger than her god. He set fire to an altar and god not only appeared – all of her priest were killed, and she gets a little angry. And threatens to kill him.
Elijah falls into a very familiar trap that prophets still fall into today. We are told to do something by God, we do it because we believe it to be the right thing, and because we are doing what it right, we are expecting praise and affirmation, and instead we get threats our lives and well being. And we are shacked beyond belief. We consider ourselves to be good people and we want people to love us – and we don’t understand what is going on when they don’t. that was enough to take Elijah over the edge.
He had a breakdown and ran. Now Elijah is not the type who scares easy he is a little hot headed in his zeal for the lord Elijah was one to stand up to kings and anyone else he thougth was not doing to will of god. His student was meaner than he was – Elisha sent bears to attack a group of teenagers for calling him bald.
But there was an underlying message in his zeal to prove that his god was bigger than any other god.
The message that he wanted to get across to the world, those in his group and outside – was that there was only one god.
The god of the ancestors is the god of our children to come. The god who enjoys gospel music is the god who loves the anthems of the church. The god of the Chinese and Japanese is the god of the Americans. The god who shone the sun on the convicted criminal this morning is the god who woke you up for church this morning.
God is the same for all of us. Elijahs’s question for us is that if there is only one - why do we have so many different opinions of who god is and what god wants from us.
If God doesn’t change, then things don’t really change for us either. We still need to get the message – of unity and working together. And prophets still get weary of preaching it.
In his time of despair, Elijah needed to go back to the beginning of his faith. The place where moses talked with god.
This is such a rich story of our lives, our feelings , our desire to do the right thing, our desire to see and talk with god face to face in times of trouble.
He went into to a cave, god was not in the earthquake, not in the flood not in the storm but in the silence.
Morse code story….
A group of men answered a want ad for someone to do morse code for the government. they came for the interview one b one, and after about 7 applicants who were waiting - the conversation got to be a little lively. they needed to make sure that it was clear who would be first for the interview, then they needed to talk about who was more qualified for the job, then they needed to talk about who had the most exciting experience in the field. After about ten minutes of constant talking, a woman walks in and sits down - obviously thinking she would be qualified for the hib. As the noise continues, she quietly got up and walked into the office of the interviewer, and 5 minutes later she walked out smiling to announce that she had gotten the job. In the midst of all of the noise of their conversation, the interviewer had sent a orse code over the intercom. It said that the first person to hear this message and walks into the office gets the job. but in the midst of all of the chaos - no one else was paying attention to what was really going on.
God in is everything, in the noise the confusion, the chaos, the arumengs, the fights, the disagreements, the questions, the broken dreams, the hurt feelings
Its just that in the chaos, we get confused, we get torn apart, our minds are not focused on what it right – and we forget the message of one god, for one people.
Another prophet zealous for the lord – had a similar experience. Killing anyone who did not believe in god the way he did – until he met god in Christ and was told that was not the right thing to do.
Christ gave him the message that people are people – they are all children of god, they are all loved, and none of us have to right to exclude others. People are people are god is god.
Instead of making distinctions of what pulls us apart, we need to concentrate on what it is that keeps us together.
The abortion story –
When I was in a church in Aurora - there was an abortion center across from the church. There were demonstrations on our corner all of the time. In a demonstrations similar to those I used to see, there were two groups protesting. One in favor of women's rights, and one against abortion. A stranger came to interview the two sides, and asked one man against abortion why he was protesting - he stted that he remembers his father in world war II. His father used to tell stories of men, women, and children who were killed as a whole village. the one memory that haunted his father the most were the eyes. He could never forget those eyes looking at him seeming to ask what was happening. This man thought of the eyes of the unborn, and felt that he had to do something. The preporter also talked with one of the women on the prochoice side and she was also asked why she was protesting. She remembers her mother, who was told that she should not get pregnant anymore after the 8th child. Her mother did get pregnant again and could not go through the pregnancy. But abortion was illegal at the time. she went to an illegal clinic and aborted the baby. she bled to death in the backroom. it turns out that the lady and the man were married to each other. The man honoring his father, the lady honoring her mother. The reporter asked, if you are married and you love each other, how come you are on opposite sides of this issue? They both said that they were doing what they believed was right. The stranger suggested that maybe they and everyone else should no get so caught up in the issue that separates them and to remember to love the pople involved on either side.
The women and chldren affected by abortion, yrt looking for love and attention in the midst of the situation. what a world we would live in if we could all do that. Love one another more than we love the issues tht divide us.
Paul says in Galatians
As many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer jew or greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are abrahams’s offspring according to the promise.
Elijah mission was not in vain, he won the battle, he proved to the world that he worked for the baddest god the planet – the one god of all. He wanted us to all know that there is only one god, the god of power and might. We should be one people – the people of power and might.
If we go on in this story – as god continue to talk with Elijah – he tells him that he is not the only one zealous for the lord – that there are 7000 others just like him. Who are determined to give the message. God also gives Elijah a helper – Elisha who will listen and carry one the message of the one god for all of the world. He is not alone, doing this all by himself – there are others along with us and others coming after us. The message we have to give is not ours, it is god and god calls us, we don’t call god, there are times when we grow weary in spreading god’s message – but the message is not about us, and our doubts and our fears – it is about the love of god for all people. The message of our lives – but much bigger than any of us. A message that will live on.
God’s final words to Elijah in this story is to get over it and move on. God tells Elijah to go back into the wilderness and to keep working. There are times when we would all like to quit – but as long as we are alive we all have to keep moving on in some way. Let us pray…..
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Real Wisdom -
Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31
John 16:12-15
Year C
May 30, 2010
Trinity Sunday – Pentecost 2
Wesak Blessing Service
Last Thursday I attended a Wesak Blessing- I didn’t realize that it was a Buddhist service, but felt that I needed all of the blessings that I could get. But I was fascinated to learn that in Nepal, there is this belief that on the full moon in May that Jesus , and God and the Holy spirit and Buddha all come down from heaven and give blessings to all of the people gathered in the valley of the mountains.
So on Thursday when the sun went down we gathered to pray for the earth and to ask for special blessings. In this tradition it is thought that Jesus and Buddha are spiritual brothers both come to heaven to teach wisdom to the people. That can be pretty far fetched and hard to believe, certainly not a part of Christian tradition.
Wisdom comes to us in all kinds of forms
But then again, not a far cry from the Easter story of Jesus appearing to his disciples after the resurrection, not a far cry from Jesus ascending to heaven, and yet coming to us in mysterious ways to help us in life, and to teach us new lessons. God comes to us in many forms to talk to us, to guide us, to help us to grow in our faith. The point is, are we always alert enough to look for God in the details of our lives.
Faith comes to us in times of pain
There is the story of an atheist, who was spending a quiet afternoon fishing on the Loch Ness river. Suddenly the man’s boat is attacked by the loch ness monster. The monster comes at him in the water, and tosses the boat high in the water. And then it opens its mouth ready to swallow the man whole. He cries out to God – Oh God save me.
All of a sudden the whole scene just freezes. Man in the air, waves in mid air too, every thing just stops, and a loud voice booms – wait a minute – I thought that you didn’t believe in me, why should I save you. The man replies – O come on god give me a break – two minutes ago I didn’t believe in the Loch ness Monster either.
But isn’t that the reality for any of us. We have our faith with us always. We believe in God always, but we don’t use our faith, and we don’t think about what our faith really means until we approach adversity. Suffering is the hardest time for any of us to deal with.
It is in the midst of our pain that we start to think about who God is, and how God works in our lives. We start to ask the tough questions of God, such as why is this happening to me? What does any of this mean? And how will I get through it?
For those who don’t believe, there are no answers to those questions, but for those of us who do – the spirit of God comes to us in unexpected ways to bring us hope and clarity for what is ahead.
The life of a Christian means that we will all be tested with some type of pain, we will all have questions, we will all have suffering and pain. But we have to remember that our suffering is never in vain, and that we are never alone.
Jesus final words to us on earth were that we would have a partner. We would have a teacher, we would have the spirit of truth with us that will reveal the words of God in the midst of all circumstance for us.
On this final day of the Pentecost – we linger one more Sunday on the words of the gospel of John. Jesus knew that the disciples were going to enter into some challenging times. Jesus had not even gone to the cross yet. Jesus knew the pain they would suffer, and yet he knew that there were no words to help them understand the pain and persecution they were about the encounter. Even if he told them, his words would not have helped.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me.
For those who don’t believe, suffering is just another part of life, it is another thing to get through, there is no hope for things to get better.
But for the easter people, those who have seen the resurrection, seen the ascencion and hang on to the promises of christ’s return – suffering is our teachable moment – to listen, to learn to trust, to hope.
We have the spirit of truth, which takes the wisdom of heaven and pours it out on us. The spirit doesn’t help us understand, it helps us look beyond our present moment. It doesn’t take away the pain, it helps us trust that the pain will go away. It doesn’t stop our suffering, it reminds us that our suffering is not in vain, and it is never ours alone to bear. We have God and we have one another.
Finding God in our Faith
We look for the God in the story in whatever form God appears, and not the loch ness monster.
The question game
I want to end on a light note – with a much lighter story. A young woman is taking a airplane to new York. It is a late night flight and she is anxious to get some sleep. But it turns out that a boisterous man sits next to her, full of energy and ready to talk. He wants to play a game with her. The game of questions. If I ask you a question and you don’t know the answer then you pay me. If I don’t know the answer you pay me. She is tired and declines. The man not ready to give up, makes it more interesting. If I ask you a question and you don’t know, you owe me $5, if I don’t know I have to give you $500. Now that gets her attention. He goes first – what is the distance from the earth to the moon. Now since they are on an airplane, and she is tired, she doenst even want to think – she just gives him the $5. And hopes to turn over and go to sleep. But know – the man reminds her that she has to ask him a question too. So she asks, what goes up the hill on three legs and comes down on four.
The man thinks about it for a while – he has $500 laying on the line, so he asks for some time to get the answer. A man of means he can use the phone on the plane, he even has internet access. He spends an hour looking for the answer – and finally gives her $500. And she turns over to go to sleep. But wait a minute – tell me what the answer is – she reaches in her purse and gives him $5. And goes to sleep.
True wisdom
The moral of the story for us – we come into this world thinking that everything is suppose to make sense, we are suppose to understand everything about life, that as long as we have all of the answers, life will be okay.
There are things in our lives that we will never understand, will not make sense if we have the answers, and even times when the pain just wont go away. But if our faith is in Christ – we learn to go on, to have hope anyway. True wisdom about life if never about what we know – it is about the God we trust. Let us pray…..
John 16:12-15
Year C
May 30, 2010
Trinity Sunday – Pentecost 2
Wesak Blessing Service
Last Thursday I attended a Wesak Blessing- I didn’t realize that it was a Buddhist service, but felt that I needed all of the blessings that I could get. But I was fascinated to learn that in Nepal, there is this belief that on the full moon in May that Jesus , and God and the Holy spirit and Buddha all come down from heaven and give blessings to all of the people gathered in the valley of the mountains.
So on Thursday when the sun went down we gathered to pray for the earth and to ask for special blessings. In this tradition it is thought that Jesus and Buddha are spiritual brothers both come to heaven to teach wisdom to the people. That can be pretty far fetched and hard to believe, certainly not a part of Christian tradition.
Wisdom comes to us in all kinds of forms
But then again, not a far cry from the Easter story of Jesus appearing to his disciples after the resurrection, not a far cry from Jesus ascending to heaven, and yet coming to us in mysterious ways to help us in life, and to teach us new lessons. God comes to us in many forms to talk to us, to guide us, to help us to grow in our faith. The point is, are we always alert enough to look for God in the details of our lives.
Faith comes to us in times of pain
There is the story of an atheist, who was spending a quiet afternoon fishing on the Loch Ness river. Suddenly the man’s boat is attacked by the loch ness monster. The monster comes at him in the water, and tosses the boat high in the water. And then it opens its mouth ready to swallow the man whole. He cries out to God – Oh God save me.
All of a sudden the whole scene just freezes. Man in the air, waves in mid air too, every thing just stops, and a loud voice booms – wait a minute – I thought that you didn’t believe in me, why should I save you. The man replies – O come on god give me a break – two minutes ago I didn’t believe in the Loch ness Monster either.
But isn’t that the reality for any of us. We have our faith with us always. We believe in God always, but we don’t use our faith, and we don’t think about what our faith really means until we approach adversity. Suffering is the hardest time for any of us to deal with.
It is in the midst of our pain that we start to think about who God is, and how God works in our lives. We start to ask the tough questions of God, such as why is this happening to me? What does any of this mean? And how will I get through it?
For those who don’t believe, there are no answers to those questions, but for those of us who do – the spirit of God comes to us in unexpected ways to bring us hope and clarity for what is ahead.
The life of a Christian means that we will all be tested with some type of pain, we will all have questions, we will all have suffering and pain. But we have to remember that our suffering is never in vain, and that we are never alone.
Jesus final words to us on earth were that we would have a partner. We would have a teacher, we would have the spirit of truth with us that will reveal the words of God in the midst of all circumstance for us.
On this final day of the Pentecost – we linger one more Sunday on the words of the gospel of John. Jesus knew that the disciples were going to enter into some challenging times. Jesus had not even gone to the cross yet. Jesus knew the pain they would suffer, and yet he knew that there were no words to help them understand the pain and persecution they were about the encounter. Even if he told them, his words would not have helped.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me.
For those who don’t believe, suffering is just another part of life, it is another thing to get through, there is no hope for things to get better.
But for the easter people, those who have seen the resurrection, seen the ascencion and hang on to the promises of christ’s return – suffering is our teachable moment – to listen, to learn to trust, to hope.
We have the spirit of truth, which takes the wisdom of heaven and pours it out on us. The spirit doesn’t help us understand, it helps us look beyond our present moment. It doesn’t take away the pain, it helps us trust that the pain will go away. It doesn’t stop our suffering, it reminds us that our suffering is not in vain, and it is never ours alone to bear. We have God and we have one another.
Finding God in our Faith
We look for the God in the story in whatever form God appears, and not the loch ness monster.
The question game
I want to end on a light note – with a much lighter story. A young woman is taking a airplane to new York. It is a late night flight and she is anxious to get some sleep. But it turns out that a boisterous man sits next to her, full of energy and ready to talk. He wants to play a game with her. The game of questions. If I ask you a question and you don’t know the answer then you pay me. If I don’t know the answer you pay me. She is tired and declines. The man not ready to give up, makes it more interesting. If I ask you a question and you don’t know, you owe me $5, if I don’t know I have to give you $500. Now that gets her attention. He goes first – what is the distance from the earth to the moon. Now since they are on an airplane, and she is tired, she doenst even want to think – she just gives him the $5. And hopes to turn over and go to sleep. But know – the man reminds her that she has to ask him a question too. So she asks, what goes up the hill on three legs and comes down on four.
The man thinks about it for a while – he has $500 laying on the line, so he asks for some time to get the answer. A man of means he can use the phone on the plane, he even has internet access. He spends an hour looking for the answer – and finally gives her $500. And she turns over to go to sleep. But wait a minute – tell me what the answer is – she reaches in her purse and gives him $5. And goes to sleep.
True wisdom
The moral of the story for us – we come into this world thinking that everything is suppose to make sense, we are suppose to understand everything about life, that as long as we have all of the answers, life will be okay.
There are things in our lives that we will never understand, will not make sense if we have the answers, and even times when the pain just wont go away. But if our faith is in Christ – we learn to go on, to have hope anyway. True wisdom about life if never about what we know – it is about the God we trust. Let us pray…..
When God Comes to Visit
June 6, 2010
“When God comes to visit”
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
1 Kings 17: 8-24
Luke 7: 11-17
As a pastor I am reminded of an old saying – that in life all of us are either going through something, getting over something or about to go through something. Up until now I have never agreed with that statement – I would like to believe that there are some times in our lives, when things might not be great, but at least things are stable. But the truth is those times never last very long.
For much of our lives we are either going through something or coming out of something.
Grief is something that we are all familiar with. Grief is that mix of emotions that we get when we lose something that is important to us. It may be a spouse or family members, it may be our way of life, it may be a hope or a dream. Grief can come from something as simple as graduating from school and realizing that everything will be new next year, or it can be something as huge as having to say good bye to a trusted friend. At some point in our lives we are going to have to grieve. As a matter of fact, there are consequences in life when we don’t grieve the losses in our lives, then we start to express ourselves in not so healthy ways.
In your bulletins I have inserted an article on the stages of grief. Elisabeth Kubler Ross wrote a book on dying in the 70’s I think. Where she says that not only is grief a universal process that we all go through – but that there are certain predictable stages of grief that we have to go through.
I wont explain what is written in the bulletin – but I will say that the stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventually acceptance.
In life we are all either going through something or coming out of something. My sermon today is not about what it means to go through grief, it is about the process of coming through grief.
Grief is what I see as the common thread between the Hebrew scripture and the New testament this morning. Both stories are about a women who have lost everything and are about to lose their most prized possessions – their son.
Elijah is wandering the countryside – God has told him to go to a certain city and to just be with the people. He stays with a widow about to prepare her last meal so that she can die. There is grief throughout the land because of famine – no one can find enough to eat. Elijah tells her that as long as there is famine, he will be present and she will be able to eat. He keeps his promise of presence. But no sooner than the famine ends, her son falls sick to the point of death. And she does not understand the God of Elijah, but she knows that Elijah is a prophet, and can save her son. After prayer to God, Elijah lays the healed boy into his mothers arms. Proving that God not only has power, but also compassion. God cares about the lives of god’s people. And can bring healing.
As a matter of fact in those days it was believed that God came to visit us in the events of our lives. God could come to reward us with joy, or to punish us with grief. If things were going bad in your life, it was something that you did to anger God. In the story, when her son gets sick she says that Elijah has come from God to remind her of her sin and to take her son. Elijah’s prayer for mercy on this women is what saves her son.
In the New Testament story Jesus is processing one way with his disciples, and a crowd is processing another way grieving the loss of a young man. Jesus interrupts the funeral to see what is going on. He not only sees a young man who has died, but a mother who has lost her only son. A woman who will live in poverty for the rest of her life because she has no one to take care of her. He sees her suffering and scripture says that he has compassion. He enters into her suffering and restores her life, by restoring her son. Just as in the story of Elijah he returns the son back to the mother healed. And the grieving crowd realize that this is a man of God – bringing the presence of God into the situation.
When we are suffering – Jesus enters into our lives also. Jesus is god’s visitation to our lives. No longer does he bring judgement – but he brings mercy and compassion into our pain.
This scripture assures us that in our times of grief Jesus comes to you when you need him the most, extends his word of sympathy and assures victory over death.
Bob Greene tells the story of the death of his wife. He was devastated and had no idea of how to raise the children alone. He had no idea of what needed to be done and how to do it. The day after the news he gets a phone call from his best friend. He didn’t even want to get up that morning, or to think or to go forward. He friend tells him that he is in town.
He goes on to say I know you probably don’t want to see anyone, or discuss this or even think about it. I am not here to talk, I wont be over, I am not trying to solve anything. I have checked into a hotel and will just sit here. I just want you to know that I am in town. If you need me you can call me and I will be over, but if not I will just sit here in my hotel room.
Perhaps the friend did get a chance to rest, or a chance to get some work done. But his real work was the work of presence. Bob never did talk about the loss of his wife, he never did open up about what was going on, he was barely able to say thank you for the support the friend gave in taking care of the kids, but he felt the presence of his friend and it eventually got him through his grief, to the point where he was ready to go on with his life.
We all grieve, we all have to work through the cycle of denial, anger, bargaining, depression until we get to acceptance and we are ready to move on in our lives. It may take a moment, it may take a month, it may take twenty years to get to that final stage of acceptance – where we are ready to move on as resurrected people into the promise of new life. However long it takes that is up to our soul.
The good news is that we can be assured that God has indeed come to visit us at that time. We may never be able to remember the words, or to point to the actions, but we can always feel the presence. God always has a way of reminding us that life is stronger than death, that beginnings always come after endings, and that light is more powerful than darkness.
The day Martin Luther king was assassinated – Robert Kennedy was speaking to a crown and he had to pass on the devastating news. He spoke publicly for the first time about the death of his brother John. He expressed his grief at that loss. In his speech he gave this quote from Aeschylus – a Greek poet. “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
In life all of us are either going through something, coming out of something, or about to go through something. We all experience the grief process at some point. God’s promise is that there will be a comforter, a presence, a sense of compassion, a means of mercy. May the spirit of Christ be with you. Let us pray……
“When God comes to visit”
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Year C
1 Kings 17: 8-24
Luke 7: 11-17
As a pastor I am reminded of an old saying – that in life all of us are either going through something, getting over something or about to go through something. Up until now I have never agreed with that statement – I would like to believe that there are some times in our lives, when things might not be great, but at least things are stable. But the truth is those times never last very long.
For much of our lives we are either going through something or coming out of something.
Grief is something that we are all familiar with. Grief is that mix of emotions that we get when we lose something that is important to us. It may be a spouse or family members, it may be our way of life, it may be a hope or a dream. Grief can come from something as simple as graduating from school and realizing that everything will be new next year, or it can be something as huge as having to say good bye to a trusted friend. At some point in our lives we are going to have to grieve. As a matter of fact, there are consequences in life when we don’t grieve the losses in our lives, then we start to express ourselves in not so healthy ways.
In your bulletins I have inserted an article on the stages of grief. Elisabeth Kubler Ross wrote a book on dying in the 70’s I think. Where she says that not only is grief a universal process that we all go through – but that there are certain predictable stages of grief that we have to go through.
I wont explain what is written in the bulletin – but I will say that the stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventually acceptance.
In life we are all either going through something or coming out of something. My sermon today is not about what it means to go through grief, it is about the process of coming through grief.
Grief is what I see as the common thread between the Hebrew scripture and the New testament this morning. Both stories are about a women who have lost everything and are about to lose their most prized possessions – their son.
Elijah is wandering the countryside – God has told him to go to a certain city and to just be with the people. He stays with a widow about to prepare her last meal so that she can die. There is grief throughout the land because of famine – no one can find enough to eat. Elijah tells her that as long as there is famine, he will be present and she will be able to eat. He keeps his promise of presence. But no sooner than the famine ends, her son falls sick to the point of death. And she does not understand the God of Elijah, but she knows that Elijah is a prophet, and can save her son. After prayer to God, Elijah lays the healed boy into his mothers arms. Proving that God not only has power, but also compassion. God cares about the lives of god’s people. And can bring healing.
As a matter of fact in those days it was believed that God came to visit us in the events of our lives. God could come to reward us with joy, or to punish us with grief. If things were going bad in your life, it was something that you did to anger God. In the story, when her son gets sick she says that Elijah has come from God to remind her of her sin and to take her son. Elijah’s prayer for mercy on this women is what saves her son.
In the New Testament story Jesus is processing one way with his disciples, and a crowd is processing another way grieving the loss of a young man. Jesus interrupts the funeral to see what is going on. He not only sees a young man who has died, but a mother who has lost her only son. A woman who will live in poverty for the rest of her life because she has no one to take care of her. He sees her suffering and scripture says that he has compassion. He enters into her suffering and restores her life, by restoring her son. Just as in the story of Elijah he returns the son back to the mother healed. And the grieving crowd realize that this is a man of God – bringing the presence of God into the situation.
When we are suffering – Jesus enters into our lives also. Jesus is god’s visitation to our lives. No longer does he bring judgement – but he brings mercy and compassion into our pain.
This scripture assures us that in our times of grief Jesus comes to you when you need him the most, extends his word of sympathy and assures victory over death.
Bob Greene tells the story of the death of his wife. He was devastated and had no idea of how to raise the children alone. He had no idea of what needed to be done and how to do it. The day after the news he gets a phone call from his best friend. He didn’t even want to get up that morning, or to think or to go forward. He friend tells him that he is in town.
He goes on to say I know you probably don’t want to see anyone, or discuss this or even think about it. I am not here to talk, I wont be over, I am not trying to solve anything. I have checked into a hotel and will just sit here. I just want you to know that I am in town. If you need me you can call me and I will be over, but if not I will just sit here in my hotel room.
Perhaps the friend did get a chance to rest, or a chance to get some work done. But his real work was the work of presence. Bob never did talk about the loss of his wife, he never did open up about what was going on, he was barely able to say thank you for the support the friend gave in taking care of the kids, but he felt the presence of his friend and it eventually got him through his grief, to the point where he was ready to go on with his life.
We all grieve, we all have to work through the cycle of denial, anger, bargaining, depression until we get to acceptance and we are ready to move on in our lives. It may take a moment, it may take a month, it may take twenty years to get to that final stage of acceptance – where we are ready to move on as resurrected people into the promise of new life. However long it takes that is up to our soul.
The good news is that we can be assured that God has indeed come to visit us at that time. We may never be able to remember the words, or to point to the actions, but we can always feel the presence. God always has a way of reminding us that life is stronger than death, that beginnings always come after endings, and that light is more powerful than darkness.
The day Martin Luther king was assassinated – Robert Kennedy was speaking to a crown and he had to pass on the devastating news. He spoke publicly for the first time about the death of his brother John. He expressed his grief at that loss. In his speech he gave this quote from Aeschylus – a Greek poet. “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
In life all of us are either going through something, coming out of something, or about to go through something. We all experience the grief process at some point. God’s promise is that there will be a comforter, a presence, a sense of compassion, a means of mercy. May the spirit of Christ be with you. Let us pray……
Saturday, May 15, 2010
No Time Like the Present
No Time Like the Present
Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
Ascension Sunday
Year C
Introduction – story of the faithful collie
There is a monument to a faithful collie at the train station in Fort Benton, Montana. The collies’s master died in 1936. The collie was there at the train station when his coffin was shipped back east to be buried. The collie followed the train as it pulled off, but of course could not keep up. So he came back to the train station and waited. Every time a train pulled up to the station, the collie was there waiting for his master to return. He never left the station. One summer day in 1942, the dog ran in front of a train and was killed. The conductors buried him on a hill and marked his grace. The monument still stands to his faithfulness to his master. No doubt the dog was faithful and loyal and honorable. But he also wasted six year of his life doing nothing. He was never able to move past the moment of his masters death. If his master had ever stepped off one of those trains, would he be impressed that he was still waiting, or would he has wanted him to go on with his life, carrying the memory of their time together and yet still living.
The point if waiting
Jesus has been constantly telling us to be patient, to wait for the holy spirit – but he is not asking us for a passive waiting, but an active waiting. A waiting where we go on with our normal lives, filled with the knowledge that life gets better. We are called to move forward, even in times when we don’t understand, knowing that it will eventually make sense. Even in times when times are hard, with the knowledge that in time things will get better. Even in times when we believe that jesus is coming back – but have no idea of what that even means
Explanation of scripture
In the story of Jesus- the disciples were hoping that Jesus was going to establish a heavenly reign, that he was the Obama of his time- he was the one who was going to change things- he was going to make a difference on the earthly world. Of course dying on the cross put a wrench in that expectation. But he came back – he appeared to them for 40 days. He promised that things were going to get better, and that the holy spirit was coming to bring about that change they were waiting for. It all seemed to make sense. He only appeared to his disciples- but no matter he was still on earth, he was still present, so there was still hope that he was the one. Ascension Sunday was the end of that dream. God takes Jesus back into heaven. If his body is not on earth – then he can’t very well be the one to change the world.
Two men dressed in white
If you follow the Luke’s Easter story – Luke has a fascination with two men dressed in white. They were at the tomb telling the women to move on and not look for Jesus in the grace. Two men are walking to Emmaus when a stranger comes along side them whom they didn’t recognize. And in Ascension story two men are standing among the crowd – and tell the people to move on – not to look for Jesus in the heavens, but to go on with life. Imagine if the poor collie in our story had a caring angel to give him some direction to move on. Imagine if someone had taken the time to teach him the real meaning of goodbye.
Goodbyes
In life there are always goodbyes. There are always endings. Sometimes we are ready for them. And sometimes we need to hold on for dear life. Some we celebrate, some we mourn. Some are easy, some are difficult. Some we were expecting, some come out of the middle of nowhere. Some are insignificant. Some are so devastating that we have no idea of what to do next. We cannot even picture life from that moment. The one thing that we can be sure of is that no one or nothing will last forever. At some point we have to learn to be comfortable with saying goodbye. Ascension Sunday is goodbye Sunday. The disciples not only had to say goodbye to Jesus. They also had to say goodbye to their hopes and dreams for the future. The beginning of acts – in the passage for today – Luke mentions a mysterious man – theophilus. Luke was a lawyer writing Luke and Acts as a proof of the power of Jesus Christ. Acts is written to show the power of the holy spirit. He intentionally demonstrated the transformation of the disciples from people dependent on their teacher for every aspect of life- to powerful witnesses to the presence of the holy spirit. There was one more thing that the disciples had to say goodbye to that day – their fears, their concerns, their comfort with the way things were. Jesus intentionally took that all with him, and replaced it with one thing – the promise of the holy spirit the promise that the holy spirit would make it all clear, give you all the strength that you need, and lead you where God wants you do be.
The whole point of the Easter story- is learning to be comfortable with change. The first step to transformation is always goodbye.
The importance of Easter time
When I used to read the gospels I used to get really depressed when I got to the point when Jesus was gone. What was the point in reading anything that was written about the time after Jesus death. Now I realize that us indeed the whole point of telling the story – to understand what happens after Jesus has moved on. Of Jesus has not left, there would be no story of the disciples, there would be no church, there would be no reason for us to gather today, there would be no hope for those who don’t know the story. Jesus knew that he had to step out of the way in order to let the holy spirit take over. As a pastor, this is my favorite part of the story. The goodbye. The place where the past meets the future, where what we learned meets what we always wanted to do, the transformation for when it is our time to take over and continue the work.
Interestingly enough, in Jesus time it was believed that above important cities was a portal between heaven an earth. And that you had to be in the right place in order to pass from heaven and earth. In the Easter sitings, Jesus travels from Galillee to Jerusalem. The hole to heaven would have been above Jerusalem. So he travels up the tallest mountain above the city and is taken up to heaven. Interestingly, Muhammed also travels to Jerusalem in order to be taken up to heaven.
For us today that portal is in time, not in a place. It is between ascenscion and Pentecost. Next week we celebrate the birth of the church post Jesus.
Goodbyes in the Methodist church
Speaking of goodbyes, as United Methodist we have to learn to become comfortable with goodbyes. Someone asked me if it was difficult to say goodbye to a congregation. After ix times you get used to it. When I am here I am here, when the district superintendent calls and tells me to move on- then I have to get ready to say goodbye. After your sixth appointment you get used to it. As a matter of fact, the one thing that I have learned – is that my ministry has nothing to do with the time that I am here. Everything that I do points to the day that I leave. What is the church going to look like when I am not there. If it is not going to last past the minute that I am there to manage it, then it is really not worth doing. I have learned to spend my entire ministry anticipating saying good bye.
The appointment season is more determined by annual conference. And annual conference is in June because that was the time when it was easiest for people to travel by horseback in order to gather. But I appreciate that we go through the Easter story as appointments are coming to an end. As we reflect on what it means to say goodbye to Jesus, we can reflect on what it means to say goodbye to our leader. As we gather the strength to go on past Jesus goodbye, we gather the strength to redefine ourselves as faithful disciples. We learn to respect the fact that goodbye is not the end of the world – it is the beginning of a new chapter in our faith story.
Story of the chief’s successor
A tribal chief lay dying. He summoned three of his most loyal subjects and told them that it was time for him to choose a successor. He told them to climb the holy mountain and to return with the most precious gift you can find. The first brought back a huge gold nugget, the second brought back a priceless gem. The third returned empty handed, saying “when I reached the mountaintop, I was on the other side a beautiful land, where people could go for a better life. The chief said, you shall succeed me. You have brought back the most precious gift of all: a vision of a better tomorrow.
The Importance of Joy
That is the whole point of the ascension story – to learn to see the good in goodbye.
The last paragraph of the good news for today say “Then he led them out at far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”
They were able to see the joy in the moment. And that joy gave them the strength to go on. To wait in anticipation of a new life in a new world.
On earth – the story was about a middle eastern man, who got a group of friends together to change the mindset of his people. A story that would have been written in time and forgotten in time
In heaven – the gospel is the story of all people in all times. Passed on in the lives of those who listen and sing the story for their times. A Christ for all time and all situations. He is our strength to get us through any and all goodbyes. Let us pray……
Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
Ascension Sunday
Year C
Introduction – story of the faithful collie
There is a monument to a faithful collie at the train station in Fort Benton, Montana. The collies’s master died in 1936. The collie was there at the train station when his coffin was shipped back east to be buried. The collie followed the train as it pulled off, but of course could not keep up. So he came back to the train station and waited. Every time a train pulled up to the station, the collie was there waiting for his master to return. He never left the station. One summer day in 1942, the dog ran in front of a train and was killed. The conductors buried him on a hill and marked his grace. The monument still stands to his faithfulness to his master. No doubt the dog was faithful and loyal and honorable. But he also wasted six year of his life doing nothing. He was never able to move past the moment of his masters death. If his master had ever stepped off one of those trains, would he be impressed that he was still waiting, or would he has wanted him to go on with his life, carrying the memory of their time together and yet still living.
The point if waiting
Jesus has been constantly telling us to be patient, to wait for the holy spirit – but he is not asking us for a passive waiting, but an active waiting. A waiting where we go on with our normal lives, filled with the knowledge that life gets better. We are called to move forward, even in times when we don’t understand, knowing that it will eventually make sense. Even in times when times are hard, with the knowledge that in time things will get better. Even in times when we believe that jesus is coming back – but have no idea of what that even means
Explanation of scripture
In the story of Jesus- the disciples were hoping that Jesus was going to establish a heavenly reign, that he was the Obama of his time- he was the one who was going to change things- he was going to make a difference on the earthly world. Of course dying on the cross put a wrench in that expectation. But he came back – he appeared to them for 40 days. He promised that things were going to get better, and that the holy spirit was coming to bring about that change they were waiting for. It all seemed to make sense. He only appeared to his disciples- but no matter he was still on earth, he was still present, so there was still hope that he was the one. Ascension Sunday was the end of that dream. God takes Jesus back into heaven. If his body is not on earth – then he can’t very well be the one to change the world.
Two men dressed in white
If you follow the Luke’s Easter story – Luke has a fascination with two men dressed in white. They were at the tomb telling the women to move on and not look for Jesus in the grace. Two men are walking to Emmaus when a stranger comes along side them whom they didn’t recognize. And in Ascension story two men are standing among the crowd – and tell the people to move on – not to look for Jesus in the heavens, but to go on with life. Imagine if the poor collie in our story had a caring angel to give him some direction to move on. Imagine if someone had taken the time to teach him the real meaning of goodbye.
Goodbyes
In life there are always goodbyes. There are always endings. Sometimes we are ready for them. And sometimes we need to hold on for dear life. Some we celebrate, some we mourn. Some are easy, some are difficult. Some we were expecting, some come out of the middle of nowhere. Some are insignificant. Some are so devastating that we have no idea of what to do next. We cannot even picture life from that moment. The one thing that we can be sure of is that no one or nothing will last forever. At some point we have to learn to be comfortable with saying goodbye. Ascension Sunday is goodbye Sunday. The disciples not only had to say goodbye to Jesus. They also had to say goodbye to their hopes and dreams for the future. The beginning of acts – in the passage for today – Luke mentions a mysterious man – theophilus. Luke was a lawyer writing Luke and Acts as a proof of the power of Jesus Christ. Acts is written to show the power of the holy spirit. He intentionally demonstrated the transformation of the disciples from people dependent on their teacher for every aspect of life- to powerful witnesses to the presence of the holy spirit. There was one more thing that the disciples had to say goodbye to that day – their fears, their concerns, their comfort with the way things were. Jesus intentionally took that all with him, and replaced it with one thing – the promise of the holy spirit the promise that the holy spirit would make it all clear, give you all the strength that you need, and lead you where God wants you do be.
The whole point of the Easter story- is learning to be comfortable with change. The first step to transformation is always goodbye.
The importance of Easter time
When I used to read the gospels I used to get really depressed when I got to the point when Jesus was gone. What was the point in reading anything that was written about the time after Jesus death. Now I realize that us indeed the whole point of telling the story – to understand what happens after Jesus has moved on. Of Jesus has not left, there would be no story of the disciples, there would be no church, there would be no reason for us to gather today, there would be no hope for those who don’t know the story. Jesus knew that he had to step out of the way in order to let the holy spirit take over. As a pastor, this is my favorite part of the story. The goodbye. The place where the past meets the future, where what we learned meets what we always wanted to do, the transformation for when it is our time to take over and continue the work.
Interestingly enough, in Jesus time it was believed that above important cities was a portal between heaven an earth. And that you had to be in the right place in order to pass from heaven and earth. In the Easter sitings, Jesus travels from Galillee to Jerusalem. The hole to heaven would have been above Jerusalem. So he travels up the tallest mountain above the city and is taken up to heaven. Interestingly, Muhammed also travels to Jerusalem in order to be taken up to heaven.
For us today that portal is in time, not in a place. It is between ascenscion and Pentecost. Next week we celebrate the birth of the church post Jesus.
Goodbyes in the Methodist church
Speaking of goodbyes, as United Methodist we have to learn to become comfortable with goodbyes. Someone asked me if it was difficult to say goodbye to a congregation. After ix times you get used to it. When I am here I am here, when the district superintendent calls and tells me to move on- then I have to get ready to say goodbye. After your sixth appointment you get used to it. As a matter of fact, the one thing that I have learned – is that my ministry has nothing to do with the time that I am here. Everything that I do points to the day that I leave. What is the church going to look like when I am not there. If it is not going to last past the minute that I am there to manage it, then it is really not worth doing. I have learned to spend my entire ministry anticipating saying good bye.
The appointment season is more determined by annual conference. And annual conference is in June because that was the time when it was easiest for people to travel by horseback in order to gather. But I appreciate that we go through the Easter story as appointments are coming to an end. As we reflect on what it means to say goodbye to Jesus, we can reflect on what it means to say goodbye to our leader. As we gather the strength to go on past Jesus goodbye, we gather the strength to redefine ourselves as faithful disciples. We learn to respect the fact that goodbye is not the end of the world – it is the beginning of a new chapter in our faith story.
Story of the chief’s successor
A tribal chief lay dying. He summoned three of his most loyal subjects and told them that it was time for him to choose a successor. He told them to climb the holy mountain and to return with the most precious gift you can find. The first brought back a huge gold nugget, the second brought back a priceless gem. The third returned empty handed, saying “when I reached the mountaintop, I was on the other side a beautiful land, where people could go for a better life. The chief said, you shall succeed me. You have brought back the most precious gift of all: a vision of a better tomorrow.
The Importance of Joy
That is the whole point of the ascension story – to learn to see the good in goodbye.
The last paragraph of the good news for today say “Then he led them out at far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”
They were able to see the joy in the moment. And that joy gave them the strength to go on. To wait in anticipation of a new life in a new world.
On earth – the story was about a middle eastern man, who got a group of friends together to change the mindset of his people. A story that would have been written in time and forgotten in time
In heaven – the gospel is the story of all people in all times. Passed on in the lives of those who listen and sing the story for their times. A Christ for all time and all situations. He is our strength to get us through any and all goodbyes. Let us pray……
Sunday, May 09, 2010
One wish, One Dream, One Hope
May 9, 2010
Mother’s Day
Your Hope is Alive in Me
Acts 16:9-15
John 14:23-29
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Year C
I think that we are all waiting for that moment – when we meet that one person, when we will turn down that one street, when God will give us that one vision, when we will come to that once place – where everything changes. Where we know that we have come to our destiny. Where we know that we are following the intentions that God has for us, and from this moment on, things will all fall into place and make sense. Things may not be perfect, but they will at least make sense.
For Paul, the person was Lydia, the vision was from a man from Macedonia, the place was the place of prayer, the street was the Via Ignatia.
Via Ignatia is a pretty significant highway now – the highway is much more significant and much busier then Phillipi. As a matter of fact if you don’t slow down and intentionally look for the stop on the side of the road you will miss it. It is a five to six hour highway drive to Macedonia from Phillipi. I could only imagine how long it would have taken to walk that journey.
But a man appeared in a dream and told Paul that he was needed in Macedonia and he needed to make the trip. So he and Silas set off for Macedonia. On my trip following in the footsteps of Paul, we travelled down the via ignatia. There are two major roads from Rome – the via Appian and the via ignatia. They were actually built in 2BC – they were roads intended to connect all of the roman provinces to Rome. Soldiers followed this road in order to get anywhere they needed to be to keep order, supplies could be transported anywhere. More than 2000 years later- both roads are still used. It makes it pretty easy to follow in the footsteps of Paul. In his travels, Paul went where the people were. He followed the major urban areas of his time in order to spread the gospel. In the beginning, he stayed close to home, close to the middle east. The call to Macedonia was a call to reach out into the heart of the land of the gentiles. To reach people who would not have known Jesus Christ, yet and still knew the Holy Spirit. As I said, Macedonia was six hours away in a car- but he made the trip walking. Along the way he stopped by the river and met a group of women praying. Lyddia was the head of that group – she was not a jew- but she followed the jewish ways, she prayed and she believed in God. And she became Paul’s first convert. Since she was a wealthy woman, once she was baptized, that meant that all of her servants, her relatives and her household also became Christians.
Today, you can still visit that place along the river. It has been left alone. I think that I still have water in my refrigerator from that river. And a little ways from the river is a small chapel, it is not a place of worship, it is intended just for baptisms. People come to baptize their babies at the place where Lyddia was baptized.
We are all waiting for our destiny. Waiting for that person, the place, that turn down the street, that vision that will change our lives.
Lyddia not only changed Paul’s life, but she changed the life of us all. She was the first European to be baptized, she was influential in her community so she was able to bring others to Christ. Phillipi is a long way away from Macedonia – and yet her conversion was proof that Paul was following the way of God. All of Greece followed Lyddia and became Christian. The greek flag is blue and white to represent the sea. But where our flag has 50 stars, the greek flag has a cross. The entire nation is Greek Orthodox. Because one woman praying next to a river saw the presence of the holy spirit in Paul and his message. From the via ignatia – the word spread all over the world.
The good news for us- is that we all have Lydias in our lives. People who paved the way for us, people who believed in us, people who introduced us to our destiny.
There is a story of a king,who wanted to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. There was a great contest throughout the land- and during a festival the four finalist were brought into the court yard. The first was a wealthy philanthropist who had given lots of money to help the poor, the second was a celebrated doctor who had faithfully taken care of many people, the third was a judge who had a reputation for being wise as well as fair. The fourth was an elderly woman. No one quite understood why she was there. No one seemed to even know who she was. She did not look like someone who deserved such an honor from the king. The king even asked here who she was. She pointed at the three distinguished men, and told how proud she was, how she appreciated all that they had grown up to be, and all that they had done for the world. They had taken her message and sped it to great places. Her message – yes, she had been their elementary school teacher. She had taught them all. She had encouraged them all, she had mentored them all. She made a difference in their lives.
Each of us has a person, a place, a time, a turn in our lives that made all of the difference in the world. The message of easter is that Jesus is sending a teacher into our lives. A teacher that will comfort us, will guide us, will support us no matter what.
Let me tell you about a very different kind of mother. Carole, a third-generation Japanese-American, was born in an internment camp during World War II, married a man who had also been born in a camp and they had a baby girl. The child was born with feet that turned inward. Carole was determined to do everything necessary to ensure that her child was able to walk normally. By the age of six, after years in very expensive corrective shoes, she was finally able to walk.
That wasn't good enough for Carole. To ensure continued corrective development, she told her daughter to choose a sport that would strengthen her legs. She chose ice skating and it became her passion. That meant years of early mornings at the rink. It took an incredible amount of time, money and patience but Carole and her husband were happy to give it for the sake of their little girl. After fifteen years, they found themselves standing with the world as their daughter, Kristi Yamaguchi, received the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics.
That mother gave life to her child, not only through the birthing and nursing but by making every necessary sacrifice to give Kristi the dream, the discipline, the resources and the encouragement to claim her full potential.
For many of us – our first teacher, our biggest supporter, the one mot interested in guiding us is our mother.
But today I want us to honor our mothers, but to think of all of the people especially the women in our lives who made a difference. Who formed our destiny, who guided us along the way.
And to honor the fact that all of them were sent by god as a gift in our lives. All of them are proof that easter is upon us and that the holy spirit is at work in the world and in our lives. Where would we be if they were not there to form our destinies., to dream our dreams, to believe ourselves.
In return for all they have given us – let us wish them all the love of God, let us dream for them the grace of God let us celebrate the life they have given to us- by celebrating the life god has given to them.
There are many others who are waiting for their destiny – who are waiting for that one person, that one place, that one vision that will make all of the difference in the world. Let us all pass on the dreams, the wishes, the hopes, the visions that have been entrusted to us on to others. Let us Pray…..
Mother’s Day
Your Hope is Alive in Me
Acts 16:9-15
John 14:23-29
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Year C
I think that we are all waiting for that moment – when we meet that one person, when we will turn down that one street, when God will give us that one vision, when we will come to that once place – where everything changes. Where we know that we have come to our destiny. Where we know that we are following the intentions that God has for us, and from this moment on, things will all fall into place and make sense. Things may not be perfect, but they will at least make sense.
For Paul, the person was Lydia, the vision was from a man from Macedonia, the place was the place of prayer, the street was the Via Ignatia.
Via Ignatia is a pretty significant highway now – the highway is much more significant and much busier then Phillipi. As a matter of fact if you don’t slow down and intentionally look for the stop on the side of the road you will miss it. It is a five to six hour highway drive to Macedonia from Phillipi. I could only imagine how long it would have taken to walk that journey.
But a man appeared in a dream and told Paul that he was needed in Macedonia and he needed to make the trip. So he and Silas set off for Macedonia. On my trip following in the footsteps of Paul, we travelled down the via ignatia. There are two major roads from Rome – the via Appian and the via ignatia. They were actually built in 2BC – they were roads intended to connect all of the roman provinces to Rome. Soldiers followed this road in order to get anywhere they needed to be to keep order, supplies could be transported anywhere. More than 2000 years later- both roads are still used. It makes it pretty easy to follow in the footsteps of Paul. In his travels, Paul went where the people were. He followed the major urban areas of his time in order to spread the gospel. In the beginning, he stayed close to home, close to the middle east. The call to Macedonia was a call to reach out into the heart of the land of the gentiles. To reach people who would not have known Jesus Christ, yet and still knew the Holy Spirit. As I said, Macedonia was six hours away in a car- but he made the trip walking. Along the way he stopped by the river and met a group of women praying. Lyddia was the head of that group – she was not a jew- but she followed the jewish ways, she prayed and she believed in God. And she became Paul’s first convert. Since she was a wealthy woman, once she was baptized, that meant that all of her servants, her relatives and her household also became Christians.
Today, you can still visit that place along the river. It has been left alone. I think that I still have water in my refrigerator from that river. And a little ways from the river is a small chapel, it is not a place of worship, it is intended just for baptisms. People come to baptize their babies at the place where Lyddia was baptized.
We are all waiting for our destiny. Waiting for that person, the place, that turn down the street, that vision that will change our lives.
Lyddia not only changed Paul’s life, but she changed the life of us all. She was the first European to be baptized, she was influential in her community so she was able to bring others to Christ. Phillipi is a long way away from Macedonia – and yet her conversion was proof that Paul was following the way of God. All of Greece followed Lyddia and became Christian. The greek flag is blue and white to represent the sea. But where our flag has 50 stars, the greek flag has a cross. The entire nation is Greek Orthodox. Because one woman praying next to a river saw the presence of the holy spirit in Paul and his message. From the via ignatia – the word spread all over the world.
The good news for us- is that we all have Lydias in our lives. People who paved the way for us, people who believed in us, people who introduced us to our destiny.
There is a story of a king,who wanted to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. There was a great contest throughout the land- and during a festival the four finalist were brought into the court yard. The first was a wealthy philanthropist who had given lots of money to help the poor, the second was a celebrated doctor who had faithfully taken care of many people, the third was a judge who had a reputation for being wise as well as fair. The fourth was an elderly woman. No one quite understood why she was there. No one seemed to even know who she was. She did not look like someone who deserved such an honor from the king. The king even asked here who she was. She pointed at the three distinguished men, and told how proud she was, how she appreciated all that they had grown up to be, and all that they had done for the world. They had taken her message and sped it to great places. Her message – yes, she had been their elementary school teacher. She had taught them all. She had encouraged them all, she had mentored them all. She made a difference in their lives.
Each of us has a person, a place, a time, a turn in our lives that made all of the difference in the world. The message of easter is that Jesus is sending a teacher into our lives. A teacher that will comfort us, will guide us, will support us no matter what.
Let me tell you about a very different kind of mother. Carole, a third-generation Japanese-American, was born in an internment camp during World War II, married a man who had also been born in a camp and they had a baby girl. The child was born with feet that turned inward. Carole was determined to do everything necessary to ensure that her child was able to walk normally. By the age of six, after years in very expensive corrective shoes, she was finally able to walk.
That wasn't good enough for Carole. To ensure continued corrective development, she told her daughter to choose a sport that would strengthen her legs. She chose ice skating and it became her passion. That meant years of early mornings at the rink. It took an incredible amount of time, money and patience but Carole and her husband were happy to give it for the sake of their little girl. After fifteen years, they found themselves standing with the world as their daughter, Kristi Yamaguchi, received the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics.
That mother gave life to her child, not only through the birthing and nursing but by making every necessary sacrifice to give Kristi the dream, the discipline, the resources and the encouragement to claim her full potential.
For many of us – our first teacher, our biggest supporter, the one mot interested in guiding us is our mother.
But today I want us to honor our mothers, but to think of all of the people especially the women in our lives who made a difference. Who formed our destiny, who guided us along the way.
And to honor the fact that all of them were sent by god as a gift in our lives. All of them are proof that easter is upon us and that the holy spirit is at work in the world and in our lives. Where would we be if they were not there to form our destinies., to dream our dreams, to believe ourselves.
In return for all they have given us – let us wish them all the love of God, let us dream for them the grace of God let us celebrate the life they have given to us- by celebrating the life god has given to them.
There are many others who are waiting for their destiny – who are waiting for that one person, that one place, that one vision that will make all of the difference in the world. Let us all pass on the dreams, the wishes, the hopes, the visions that have been entrusted to us on to others. Let us Pray…..
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Sharing Our Differences
May 2, 2010
Acts 11:1-18
John 13:31-35
Year C
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Salma and Lily were best friends at school.
They drew pictures together.
They played on the swings together.
They jumped rope together.
And they ate their lunches together.
But just what they ate was a little different.
Lily ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch.
Salma ate a hummus and pita sandwich every day for lunch.
And although Lily never said it out loud, she thought Salma's sandwich looked weird and yucky. She felt terrible that her friend had to eat that icky chickpea paste every day. EW. Yuck.
And although Salma never said it out loud, she thought Lily's sandwich looked strange and gross. She felt just awful that her friend had to eat that gooey peanut paste every day. EW. Gross.
You will have to wait a couple of months in order to hear the rest of the story. That is an excerpt from a childrens book coming out by the Queen of Jordan called the “sandwich Swap”. It is about her experiences as a child, where she at one type of food and her best friend ate another. Both felt uncomfortable with what the other was eating. But it was through food that they came to understand one another and developed a closer relationship in the process.
A perfect story for our scriptures this morning. Peter prided himself on being a good jew and making sure that everything that he ate was kosher. He considered that to be a part of what God called him to do – that is until he heard from God – which told him something different. That in the name of trying to understand others, he was free to eat whatever god’s people ate. There was nothing wrong with it
But not everyone of the disciples heard that same voice, and they criticized Peter, until he explained it for them. Once again this is a demonstration of how the holy spirit works in our lives It takes something that makes sense to us (in this case food- we all understand food) in order to explain something that doesn’t make sense to us. (in this case how to get along with other people)
This fits in with the gospel lesson which talks about love- Jesus tells his disciples to strive to love one another as you have been loved. – we know that there are 10 commandments – many say that this is the 11th commandment from God – to love. Love is not a concept unique to Jesus – because there are many commandments to love – love the lord the god with all of your heart, mind body and soul. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, there is even a commandment for Esau and Jacob to love one another as brothers.
Jesus is just trying to get them to follow the law of love in a brand new way. Not to love because you are supposed to, but to love because you have been loved. Not to guess what love means, but to know what love means. To realize that love is not about what you do – it is about the relationship that you have. In order to love somebody, you have to identify with that person, get into their lives and know what it going on, and be willing to eat with them. For instance Peter could very well have refused to eat with the gentiles and kept his kosher habits. But somewhere along the way he realized that his relationship was more important than his beliefs. And that it was the relationship that changed him and transformed the situation. The gentiles became a part of the family, the outsiders became insiders. All because the holy spirit took something that made sense and used it to teach something that they otherwise would not have understood.
Finally – I while teaching a class on Methodist studies for the district a few months ago – and one of the things I came across is a list of the signs of a United Methodist – you might be a United Methodist if….
The ones that I found a few months ago are much more positive, but here are some that I found last night…
You might be United Methodist if you raise your hand and promise your pastor that you have read the 17th chapter of Mark as part of the introduction to a sermon on truth telling. (Note: Mark only has 16 chapters. You might be United Methodist if you did not know that
You might be United Methodist if you think "Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego" is the name of a rap group from Detroit.
You might be United Methodist if you are a Siamese twin - well connected.
You might be United Methodist if you think you have to have a potluck dish to get into heaven
You might be United Methodist if you clapped in church last Sunday and felt guilty about it all week.
You might be United Methodist if you think the epistles are probably the wives of the apostles.
You might be United Methodist if you think the Holy Land is Nashville.
These seemed to concentrate on the negative things about United Methodist – making fun of where we may be lacking in faith. I thought it interested the author of the website said these were all statements submitted by United Methodist clergy.
But the list go worse when I looked for signs of a Christian. The only place where I could find the marks of a Christian were written by an atheist. Here are some examples.
1. You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
2. You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
3. You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history, but still call yourself a Christian.
But seriously, if you read and listen to the book of Acts this Easter season, you will learn the marks of a true Christian as one who follows Jesus, who trust in the teachings of Jesus, one who looks for the presence of the holy Spirit in their lives and is willing to follow it, and one who puts Christ as the center of their lives, allowing the spirit of Christ to dwell and live in them.
In an interview with John Travolta in 1995 he speaks about the love of Christ. He said “I love people and I have compassion and empathy for them, I am alive to the degree that I am able to do that. I have lost a lot of people that I love, but I guess that I have learned that when it comes to living people, you really don’t have a choice. Jesus knew the risk that he was taking in living the world.. he know it would come to disappointment. Love, the particular kind of love that God demonstrates in Jesus remains the most difficult thing we are called to do, but it’s the only thing that makes existence meaningful.
Love is the 11th commandment – love one another as I have loved you. Love can be painful – but it still makes a difference, it still transforms people – one relationship at a time. Love is a way of speaking, a way of doing, love is who you are in Christ. Love is the one mark of a true Christian. They know we are Christians by our love. Let us pray.
Acts 11:1-18
John 13:31-35
Year C
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Salma and Lily were best friends at school.
They drew pictures together.
They played on the swings together.
They jumped rope together.
And they ate their lunches together.
But just what they ate was a little different.
Lily ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch.
Salma ate a hummus and pita sandwich every day for lunch.
And although Lily never said it out loud, she thought Salma's sandwich looked weird and yucky. She felt terrible that her friend had to eat that icky chickpea paste every day. EW. Yuck.
And although Salma never said it out loud, she thought Lily's sandwich looked strange and gross. She felt just awful that her friend had to eat that gooey peanut paste every day. EW. Gross.
You will have to wait a couple of months in order to hear the rest of the story. That is an excerpt from a childrens book coming out by the Queen of Jordan called the “sandwich Swap”. It is about her experiences as a child, where she at one type of food and her best friend ate another. Both felt uncomfortable with what the other was eating. But it was through food that they came to understand one another and developed a closer relationship in the process.
A perfect story for our scriptures this morning. Peter prided himself on being a good jew and making sure that everything that he ate was kosher. He considered that to be a part of what God called him to do – that is until he heard from God – which told him something different. That in the name of trying to understand others, he was free to eat whatever god’s people ate. There was nothing wrong with it
But not everyone of the disciples heard that same voice, and they criticized Peter, until he explained it for them. Once again this is a demonstration of how the holy spirit works in our lives It takes something that makes sense to us (in this case food- we all understand food) in order to explain something that doesn’t make sense to us. (in this case how to get along with other people)
This fits in with the gospel lesson which talks about love- Jesus tells his disciples to strive to love one another as you have been loved. – we know that there are 10 commandments – many say that this is the 11th commandment from God – to love. Love is not a concept unique to Jesus – because there are many commandments to love – love the lord the god with all of your heart, mind body and soul. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, there is even a commandment for Esau and Jacob to love one another as brothers.
Jesus is just trying to get them to follow the law of love in a brand new way. Not to love because you are supposed to, but to love because you have been loved. Not to guess what love means, but to know what love means. To realize that love is not about what you do – it is about the relationship that you have. In order to love somebody, you have to identify with that person, get into their lives and know what it going on, and be willing to eat with them. For instance Peter could very well have refused to eat with the gentiles and kept his kosher habits. But somewhere along the way he realized that his relationship was more important than his beliefs. And that it was the relationship that changed him and transformed the situation. The gentiles became a part of the family, the outsiders became insiders. All because the holy spirit took something that made sense and used it to teach something that they otherwise would not have understood.
Finally – I while teaching a class on Methodist studies for the district a few months ago – and one of the things I came across is a list of the signs of a United Methodist – you might be a United Methodist if….
The ones that I found a few months ago are much more positive, but here are some that I found last night…
You might be United Methodist if you raise your hand and promise your pastor that you have read the 17th chapter of Mark as part of the introduction to a sermon on truth telling. (Note: Mark only has 16 chapters. You might be United Methodist if you did not know that
You might be United Methodist if you think "Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego" is the name of a rap group from Detroit.
You might be United Methodist if you are a Siamese twin - well connected.
You might be United Methodist if you think you have to have a potluck dish to get into heaven
You might be United Methodist if you clapped in church last Sunday and felt guilty about it all week.
You might be United Methodist if you think the epistles are probably the wives of the apostles.
You might be United Methodist if you think the Holy Land is Nashville.
These seemed to concentrate on the negative things about United Methodist – making fun of where we may be lacking in faith. I thought it interested the author of the website said these were all statements submitted by United Methodist clergy.
But the list go worse when I looked for signs of a Christian. The only place where I could find the marks of a Christian were written by an atheist. Here are some examples.
1. You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
2. You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
3. You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history, but still call yourself a Christian.
But seriously, if you read and listen to the book of Acts this Easter season, you will learn the marks of a true Christian as one who follows Jesus, who trust in the teachings of Jesus, one who looks for the presence of the holy Spirit in their lives and is willing to follow it, and one who puts Christ as the center of their lives, allowing the spirit of Christ to dwell and live in them.
In an interview with John Travolta in 1995 he speaks about the love of Christ. He said “I love people and I have compassion and empathy for them, I am alive to the degree that I am able to do that. I have lost a lot of people that I love, but I guess that I have learned that when it comes to living people, you really don’t have a choice. Jesus knew the risk that he was taking in living the world.. he know it would come to disappointment. Love, the particular kind of love that God demonstrates in Jesus remains the most difficult thing we are called to do, but it’s the only thing that makes existence meaningful.
Love is the 11th commandment – love one another as I have loved you. Love can be painful – but it still makes a difference, it still transforms people – one relationship at a time. Love is a way of speaking, a way of doing, love is who you are in Christ. Love is the one mark of a true Christian. They know we are Christians by our love. Let us pray.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sheep and Shepherds
April 25, 2010
John 10:22-30
Psalm 23
Sheep and Shepherds
The Fourth Sunday Of Easter
Good Shepherd Sunday
Year C
It was winter-- the festival of Dedication is what we call Hanukkah.
"Hey Jesus! Come on now. We want a straight answer, not just
hearsay, not just 'signs.' We don't want to take therisk that your
actions may be our answer. We don't like ambiguity. We want a
notarized, authorized, sworn and signed statement that you are the
Messiah. Tell it to us straight, Jesus of Nazareth."
"I did tell you. I told you very clearly by changing water into wine,
by healing a blind man, by walking on water, and by saying 'I am' 6 or
8 times in all kinds of different ways. But y'all want it straight?
Okay, here it is. You're not called by me. Yeah, I AM the Messiah,
but obviously, if you don't get it by now, you're not going to. You
don't want my kind of Messiah. Because I'm the shepherd who will
actually feed the sheep, not just feed myself on the sheep. I'm the
real shepherd who is going to expose your hypocrisy and overrule your
injustices. See all these people following me? The ones you ignored,
ridiculed, and mistreated? They're following me, because they can
hear God through me. They are the sheep of shepherd. And just
wait til you see how I treat them. No more trampled down fields for
them to graze in, no more dirty water for them to drink. I know each
and every one of them, and they're listening to what I'm telling them.
And you can't take them away from me, no matter what you try. This
is what God is doing through me, because the Shepherd and the shepherd
do the same thing-- we are the same thing."
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing question for all of us – who is Jesus Christ for us and exactly what kind of relationship should we have to this man who calls himself the son of God anyway?
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing answer – Jesus Christ is the messiah – the one who comes to bring health, wholeness and happiness to us all. He is like a shepherd who cares for us and we are like sheep – in need of someone to look over us and to take care of us. He is the head of Christ and we are the body of Christ. He leads, we follow.
And yet that endearing questions remains – why a shepherd, and why are we sheep. The easy answer is that is the culture that the Hebrews would have understood. They were a nomadic people, traveling from place to place with their animals. It was so ingrained into their way of life was that was all that they understood – caring for sheep. That was how they understood any relationship – that was the language that they spook. The language of sheep.
The harder answer perhaps is that we are reminded that in the midst of all of our sophisticated thinking as people- our ability to think for ourselves, our ability to know right from wrong, our ability to take care of ourselves – that God is reminding us that we are still just as helpless and dependent on God as the sheep. That in spite of all of our knowledge and abilty to learn new things – that what we know is nothing compared to what God knows. That we are to remember that life is not about us and what we want, it is about god and what God wills.
The language of shepherd and sheep is the language of faith in God. It is a language that goes beyond our relationship with God and is present all throughout the church. Whenever the bishop is present and presiding- he or she brings in their shepherds crook and puts it in stand to remind us that He or she is the shepherd and we as the community of believers are the shepherd. In an individual congregation – the pastor is the shepherd and the congregation are the sheep. The pastors job is to lead and the congregations job is to trust, listen, and follow.
It is a relationship much like the one in our scripture, where the question is asked – how do we know that you are the one to lead us? When a pastor comes into a congregation how do you know that pastor is the one to lead? How do you know whether that pastor is knows what they are doing? In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
I wont go into my answer – because in many ways those are questions that cannot be answered in words. Jesus himself says that it is not about knowledge, or data or proof – it is about belief. You have to believe within your spirit that this is the pastor called by God to lead in this particular place. It can be easy for us to get caught up into the humanness of the church, the personal flaws, the judgements and agendas of individuals. And to forget that underneath all of that is god’s saving acts in the world. Why should we follow a certain leader – because that is the person that God sent into the situation, to do a certain task. Whether we are in the role of shepherd or sheep – our role is not to know. Our role is to listen, trust and follow. Follow not man, but to follow god. And yet Jesus in his own words reminds us that God came to us in the flesh of a human being, to guide us, to take care of us and to save us from ourselves. Jesus himself says that his work and God’s work are one in the same for those who believe and follow his voice.
How do we know that we are doing the right thing? How do we know when we are trusting the right person, how do we know if a certain person is of God?
We have to be clear in our own faith, determined in our own spirits to follow God, and commited to following our own path. It is not always our job to judge another’s call or relationship with God – it is our job to know our job and our relationship with God.
Barbara Brown taylor writes – to be where God is - to follow Jesus – means going beyond the limits of our own comfort and safety. It means sharing the life we have been given.
Being a sheep means to be where God is – follow Jesus. To find God in all things. To be faithful in our own lives. To hear the voice of Jesus guiding us, and forsaking all other voices. We find that voice in song, in art, in beauty, and most importantly in other people. The good news is that when we listen for that voice – we hear it in some way.
John 10:22-30
Psalm 23
Sheep and Shepherds
The Fourth Sunday Of Easter
Good Shepherd Sunday
Year C
It was winter-- the festival of Dedication is what we call Hanukkah.
"Hey Jesus! Come on now. We want a straight answer, not just
hearsay, not just 'signs.' We don't want to take therisk that your
actions may be our answer. We don't like ambiguity. We want a
notarized, authorized, sworn and signed statement that you are the
Messiah. Tell it to us straight, Jesus of Nazareth."
"I did tell you. I told you very clearly by changing water into wine,
by healing a blind man, by walking on water, and by saying 'I am' 6 or
8 times in all kinds of different ways. But y'all want it straight?
Okay, here it is. You're not called by me. Yeah, I AM the Messiah,
but obviously, if you don't get it by now, you're not going to. You
don't want my kind of Messiah. Because I'm the shepherd who will
actually feed the sheep, not just feed myself on the sheep. I'm the
real shepherd who is going to expose your hypocrisy and overrule your
injustices. See all these people following me? The ones you ignored,
ridiculed, and mistreated? They're following me, because they can
hear God through me. They are the sheep of
wait til you see how I treat them. No more trampled down fields for
them to graze in, no more dirty water for them to drink. I know each
and every one of them, and they're listening to what I'm telling them.
And you can't take them away from me, no matter what you try. This
is what God is doing through me, because the Shepherd and the shepherd
do the same thing-- we are the same thing."
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing question for all of us – who is Jesus Christ for us and exactly what kind of relationship should we have to this man who calls himself the son of God anyway?
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing answer – Jesus Christ is the messiah – the one who comes to bring health, wholeness and happiness to us all. He is like a shepherd who cares for us and we are like sheep – in need of someone to look over us and to take care of us. He is the head of Christ and we are the body of Christ. He leads, we follow.
And yet that endearing questions remains – why a shepherd, and why are we sheep. The easy answer is that is the culture that the Hebrews would have understood. They were a nomadic people, traveling from place to place with their animals. It was so ingrained into their way of life was that was all that they understood – caring for sheep. That was how they understood any relationship – that was the language that they spook. The language of sheep.
The harder answer perhaps is that we are reminded that in the midst of all of our sophisticated thinking as people- our ability to think for ourselves, our ability to know right from wrong, our ability to take care of ourselves – that God is reminding us that we are still just as helpless and dependent on God as the sheep. That in spite of all of our knowledge and abilty to learn new things – that what we know is nothing compared to what God knows. That we are to remember that life is not about us and what we want, it is about god and what God wills.
The language of shepherd and sheep is the language of faith in God. It is a language that goes beyond our relationship with God and is present all throughout the church. Whenever the bishop is present and presiding- he or she brings in their shepherds crook and puts it in stand to remind us that He or she is the shepherd and we as the community of believers are the shepherd. In an individual congregation – the pastor is the shepherd and the congregation are the sheep. The pastors job is to lead and the congregations job is to trust, listen, and follow.
It is a relationship much like the one in our scripture, where the question is asked – how do we know that you are the one to lead us? When a pastor comes into a congregation how do you know that pastor is the one to lead? How do you know whether that pastor is knows what they are doing? In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
I wont go into my answer – because in many ways those are questions that cannot be answered in words. Jesus himself says that it is not about knowledge, or data or proof – it is about belief. You have to believe within your spirit that this is the pastor called by God to lead in this particular place. It can be easy for us to get caught up into the humanness of the church, the personal flaws, the judgements and agendas of individuals. And to forget that underneath all of that is god’s saving acts in the world. Why should we follow a certain leader – because that is the person that God sent into the situation, to do a certain task. Whether we are in the role of shepherd or sheep – our role is not to know. Our role is to listen, trust and follow. Follow not man, but to follow god. And yet Jesus in his own words reminds us that God came to us in the flesh of a human being, to guide us, to take care of us and to save us from ourselves. Jesus himself says that his work and God’s work are one in the same for those who believe and follow his voice.
How do we know that we are doing the right thing? How do we know when we are trusting the right person, how do we know if a certain person is of God?
We have to be clear in our own faith, determined in our own spirits to follow God, and commited to following our own path. It is not always our job to judge another’s call or relationship with God – it is our job to know our job and our relationship with God.
Barbara Brown taylor writes – to be where God is - to follow Jesus – means going beyond the limits of our own comfort and safety. It means sharing the life we have been given.
Being a sheep means to be where God is – follow Jesus. To find God in all things. To be faithful in our own lives. To hear the voice of Jesus guiding us, and forsaking all other voices. We find that voice in song, in art, in beauty, and most importantly in other people. The good news is that when we listen for that voice – we hear it in some way.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Blessed are Those who See and Believe
April 11, 2010
Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5
John 20
Blessed are those who see and believe
Year C
What did Jesus say when he arose from the grave? Tada!
Resurrection was God’s great joke on the devil. A trick that he played- when he wanted to the devil to know that no matter what was tried, he could never win. He would never have the final word. That God has the power to triumph in the midst of even the worst situation. On the cross even though we heard Christ in agony and suffering, he was in on the joke – what else was there for him to say – but tada. It worked in spite of it all.
Easter is not a day – Easter is a season. It takes us awhile to get on board and to let the joke settle in for us. It takes several appearances, several sermons, several life experiences before we finally get the joke and are willing to laugh.
This second Sunday of easter is Holy humor Sunday – the day we get to laugh and sing and dance, and settle into what Easter means for us and for the world.
So in honor of holy humor Sunday, I want to give you a short test of faith. Answer whether you think these things are true or false….
Would you believe that:
Most lipstick contains fish scales. (T)
More real money is printed in the world than Monopoly money each year. (F)
No piece of square paper can be folded more than seven times. (T)
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. (T)
The Kea bird from New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows. (T)
The weight of all the termites in the world is 10 times heavier than the weight of all the world's humans put together. (T)
The longest bout of hiccups lasted ten years. (F. Charles Osborne had them for 69 years!)
A cockroach can live several weeks without a head - afterwards it will die of starvation. (T)
Toenails grow faster than fingernails. (F) fingernails grow 4 X's as fast as toenails.
The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. (T)
The themes for today are doubt, belief and witness. I plan for us to focus on the lessons of acts and John for the year – and those are the themes of the day. Doubt, belief and witness.
The gospel lesson for today is always focuses on the story of Thomas. Some call him doubting Thomas – because he did not believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead- until he had proof for himself. The nails in his hands, the hole in his side. All of which Jesus was able to provide for him. But the word for this story that we interpret as doubt actually means more distrust. He didn’t doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead, he just want not able to accept that fact right off, without some further understanding. Sort of like I would need to believe that no square piece of paper can be folded for more than 8 times. That might actually be true – but I will have to try that for myself in order to really believe that is it true.
Jesus days that blessed are those who believe but have not seen. He is not criticizing Thomas for asking for proof. He is saying that there will be times when we will have to answer whether something is true or false- and we wont have time to look at the encyclopedia – we will just have to use what we have to answer the question.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead – true or false. Do you believe that was the greatest trick that God could have played ? True of false. How do you know your answer is true or not?
It all comes down to what you believe about Christ. In researching this sermon - I came across this question – what do you think is the greatest joke that God ever played on us. It is a yahoo question, and people recorded their answers. Some people said to make everything that we enjoy a sin. Someone else said making us all different colors, races and believing in different religions. Someone else said George Bush. I think that the greatest joke that God every played on us is Easter. Forcing us to believe in the impossible, forcing us to celebrate a phenonmen that we don’t understand. Asking us to believe something that we will never see. Did Christ really conquer death and come back to life. We will never get the chance to see the nails and the hole. We cant see – we can only believe. We can only trust the witness of Thomas, Mary and Peter.
Easter is not about what happened to Jesus, it is about how those who saw what happened responded. In Each Easter appearance Jesus gives them the holy spirit and they respond. When Thomas receives the spirit he declares that Jesus is his lord and his God
During the seven weeks of Easter – we read from the book of acts – the book of what the holy spirit did. Usually it is stories of how the church grew, but this year it is stories of how individuals were affected when they came in contact with the holy spirit.
After Jesus was crucified, the disciples were told that they were to forget all about this man and what he did (as if that were really possible), yet they needed to be witnesses for the spirit an tell others what they saw. So they were jailed. When questioned their defense was that they were doing what God told them to do and they had to do what God said and not what man said. One lone Jewish leader – Gemeliail defended them, saying that if what they were doing was from God, then who could stop them, if it was not then it would stop itself. An angel freed them and they continued to be witnesses for God. Telling others that jesus was alive. God demands that task of all of us – to be witnesses of the Easter Jesus. To doubt Easter, to believe Easter and to witness Easter- tell the world what we saw when Jesus appeared to us in Easter.
My favorite story of easter and how it affects us is the story of the families of the coal miners in West Virginia. I remember in 2006, watching the tv constantly for word of what was happening to the miners. I was there when they announced that the had been found alive, and I was awake at two in the morning when the story broke tht they had been found dead. The nation went into mourning. This time there was not the same emotional coverage as there was then, but they did keep us up to date on what was going on. All day Friday they told us what they were doing to look for the 4 miners who may be still alive. The told us when they were going on and how they were going to do it. I was not near a tv when they finally announced that they had found the 4 and they they were not alive. I could imagine the roller coaster ride of all of the families, as they had not told who was dead and who was alive. And now hope was gone – they were all gone. The governor’s emotional words – we were hoping for a miracle – and it did not happen. The journey has ended and now the healing must begin.
That is what easter is all about – is being able to find hope in the deepest darkest moment and knowing that God has demanded that life must go on. Even in a tradgedy – the living Christ is there – and is saying tada – death does not get to have the final word. Because the holy spirit has a job to do. To be a witness of what God can do. God can turn darkness into light, despair into joy, a bad moment into a good, hopelessness into hope. Just as God bought jesus back to life, god does all of the work – but someone has to testify and witness that they saw the work done.
What about you – what is your easter story ? as you look for the green grass, the growing flowers, the budding trees – how do you see God at work? At play? Telling jokes, some of them funny – all of them joyful. Remember – some of god’s greatest miracles start out in the form of a question, an occasion for distrust, an opportunity to ask God how are you going to work that one out – a chance not to nessarily doubt god – but to distrust what your senses are showing you. You know jesus is alive in that situation – when you believe – believe that your lord and your savior is speaking to you, and asking for a witness that the holy spirit is at work in your and in the world – bringing about a transformation. A change- a new risen savior. Let us pray….
Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5
John 20
Blessed are those who see and believe
Year C
What did Jesus say when he arose from the grave? Tada!
Resurrection was God’s great joke on the devil. A trick that he played- when he wanted to the devil to know that no matter what was tried, he could never win. He would never have the final word. That God has the power to triumph in the midst of even the worst situation. On the cross even though we heard Christ in agony and suffering, he was in on the joke – what else was there for him to say – but tada. It worked in spite of it all.
Easter is not a day – Easter is a season. It takes us awhile to get on board and to let the joke settle in for us. It takes several appearances, several sermons, several life experiences before we finally get the joke and are willing to laugh.
This second Sunday of easter is Holy humor Sunday – the day we get to laugh and sing and dance, and settle into what Easter means for us and for the world.
So in honor of holy humor Sunday, I want to give you a short test of faith. Answer whether you think these things are true or false….
Would you believe that:
Most lipstick contains fish scales. (T)
More real money is printed in the world than Monopoly money each year. (F)
No piece of square paper can be folded more than seven times. (T)
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. (T)
The Kea bird from New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows. (T)
The weight of all the termites in the world is 10 times heavier than the weight of all the world's humans put together. (T)
The longest bout of hiccups lasted ten years. (F. Charles Osborne had them for 69 years!)
A cockroach can live several weeks without a head - afterwards it will die of starvation. (T)
Toenails grow faster than fingernails. (F) fingernails grow 4 X's as fast as toenails.
The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. (T)
The themes for today are doubt, belief and witness. I plan for us to focus on the lessons of acts and John for the year – and those are the themes of the day. Doubt, belief and witness.
The gospel lesson for today is always focuses on the story of Thomas. Some call him doubting Thomas – because he did not believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead- until he had proof for himself. The nails in his hands, the hole in his side. All of which Jesus was able to provide for him. But the word for this story that we interpret as doubt actually means more distrust. He didn’t doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead, he just want not able to accept that fact right off, without some further understanding. Sort of like I would need to believe that no square piece of paper can be folded for more than 8 times. That might actually be true – but I will have to try that for myself in order to really believe that is it true.
Jesus days that blessed are those who believe but have not seen. He is not criticizing Thomas for asking for proof. He is saying that there will be times when we will have to answer whether something is true or false- and we wont have time to look at the encyclopedia – we will just have to use what we have to answer the question.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead – true or false. Do you believe that was the greatest trick that God could have played ? True of false. How do you know your answer is true or not?
It all comes down to what you believe about Christ. In researching this sermon - I came across this question – what do you think is the greatest joke that God ever played on us. It is a yahoo question, and people recorded their answers. Some people said to make everything that we enjoy a sin. Someone else said making us all different colors, races and believing in different religions. Someone else said George Bush. I think that the greatest joke that God every played on us is Easter. Forcing us to believe in the impossible, forcing us to celebrate a phenonmen that we don’t understand. Asking us to believe something that we will never see. Did Christ really conquer death and come back to life. We will never get the chance to see the nails and the hole. We cant see – we can only believe. We can only trust the witness of Thomas, Mary and Peter.
Easter is not about what happened to Jesus, it is about how those who saw what happened responded. In Each Easter appearance Jesus gives them the holy spirit and they respond. When Thomas receives the spirit he declares that Jesus is his lord and his God
During the seven weeks of Easter – we read from the book of acts – the book of what the holy spirit did. Usually it is stories of how the church grew, but this year it is stories of how individuals were affected when they came in contact with the holy spirit.
After Jesus was crucified, the disciples were told that they were to forget all about this man and what he did (as if that were really possible), yet they needed to be witnesses for the spirit an tell others what they saw. So they were jailed. When questioned their defense was that they were doing what God told them to do and they had to do what God said and not what man said. One lone Jewish leader – Gemeliail defended them, saying that if what they were doing was from God, then who could stop them, if it was not then it would stop itself. An angel freed them and they continued to be witnesses for God. Telling others that jesus was alive. God demands that task of all of us – to be witnesses of the Easter Jesus. To doubt Easter, to believe Easter and to witness Easter- tell the world what we saw when Jesus appeared to us in Easter.
My favorite story of easter and how it affects us is the story of the families of the coal miners in West Virginia. I remember in 2006, watching the tv constantly for word of what was happening to the miners. I was there when they announced that the had been found alive, and I was awake at two in the morning when the story broke tht they had been found dead. The nation went into mourning. This time there was not the same emotional coverage as there was then, but they did keep us up to date on what was going on. All day Friday they told us what they were doing to look for the 4 miners who may be still alive. The told us when they were going on and how they were going to do it. I was not near a tv when they finally announced that they had found the 4 and they they were not alive. I could imagine the roller coaster ride of all of the families, as they had not told who was dead and who was alive. And now hope was gone – they were all gone. The governor’s emotional words – we were hoping for a miracle – and it did not happen. The journey has ended and now the healing must begin.
That is what easter is all about – is being able to find hope in the deepest darkest moment and knowing that God has demanded that life must go on. Even in a tradgedy – the living Christ is there – and is saying tada – death does not get to have the final word. Because the holy spirit has a job to do. To be a witness of what God can do. God can turn darkness into light, despair into joy, a bad moment into a good, hopelessness into hope. Just as God bought jesus back to life, god does all of the work – but someone has to testify and witness that they saw the work done.
What about you – what is your easter story ? as you look for the green grass, the growing flowers, the budding trees – how do you see God at work? At play? Telling jokes, some of them funny – all of them joyful. Remember – some of god’s greatest miracles start out in the form of a question, an occasion for distrust, an opportunity to ask God how are you going to work that one out – a chance not to nessarily doubt god – but to distrust what your senses are showing you. You know jesus is alive in that situation – when you believe – believe that your lord and your savior is speaking to you, and asking for a witness that the holy spirit is at work in your and in the world – bringing about a transformation. A change- a new risen savior. Let us pray….
Sunday, April 04, 2010
An Idle Tale
April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
Psalm 118
Luke 24:1-12
An Unlikely Tale
Year C
Woodrow Wilson’s butler called him one night to tell him that the tax accountant for the government had died. Sir, I was wondering if it s okay with you if I could take his place. Now mind you this is the middle of the night – butler- tax accountant. President Wilson responds – you know it doesn’t matter to me if you want to take his place – but you should probably ask the funeral director if it is okay.
The women in Jesus life have gathered to go to the tomb of Jesus. They want to anoint the body. That’s what you do when you are family – you show love and care to the body by rubbing it in spices. They have been through a hard ordeal, traveling with the teacher, believing and being inspired by his message, watching him beaten and killed for all of the wrong reasons, seeing your family fall apart from the stress, feeling like you have to do something – only to witness the final insult – his body is gone.
Bodies don’t just disappear on their own, they don’t just walk away on their own, - something had to have happened. After all they have done to this man – how could they have deprived Jesus of his final resting place? Seeing two men near the grave – she says – sir if you have taken him, just give him back, so that I can give him that final dignity of resting in peace.
The two men were really angels. And they ask her an important question. A question that certainly should have been asked of Woodrow Wilson – but needs to be asked of us today – why do you continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
If there was a body to speak of everything would be different now. If he had a final resting place- if there was a place we could go to honor his memory – we wouldn’t need to come today or any Sunday.
Even as those who come together to celebrate the resurrection – we still find ways to look for Jesus among the dead. Knowing that we will never find him – but we look anyway.
When we seek comfort instead of righteousness – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are in constant pursuit of pleasure and forsake joy – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we seek security and what is best for us, instead of reaching out to help others – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are much more willing to listen to what the world says, and forget what god says – we are looking for life in the midst of death.
Looking for the living amongst the dead. There are times when we have to do that. I think of the recent Haiti disaster. I have a picture here of the cross that survived, when the church was destroyed. (I will pass it around).
There were people in that disaster and many others – who had the task of looking for the living amongst the dead. Who had to go through that rubble of each fallen building – and look for life in the midst of death. Who had to examine every body for signs of life. And at any sign of life, they had to stick with that person until they were taken to safety. No matter how the faint the sign may be- if they are alive then they have to be nurtured back to health. We have that type of obligation to life.
Things would have certainly been different if they had found a body. If we had found a body. Our obligation to death and to life are very different. Death can take care of itself – but it is in life that we have an obligation to carry on. In the midst of our circumstances of life, our troubles, our hardaches, our questions, our destiny. Death can give us easy answers. But when we are still alive, and we don’t know what to do, or what comes next, or how things will work themselves out- that’s when we need a resurrection faith.
Faith in an empty tomb – faith in a promise of new life, faith in divine intervention in a way that makes no sense, faith that death has been conquered, so that we will have to strength to go on in life. Faith that God will succeed and conquer all.
Lenin fashioned himself as a savior of the people. He told them that communism would save them. He told them that there was no need for faith. It didn’t do anything but give false hope. He promised his people a better life, he even took the time to teach people a new way of understanding. And then he died. At his death – the question was asked – what do you do with a God who has failed you? They actually did the same thing that the women at the tomb were planning to do with Jesus. Anoint his body with spices, preserve it, give it a nice home, and put it on display as a monument so that people from generation to generation could come and see death. And yet remember to point he was trying to make. Why do we continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
The empty tomb is a witness to a God who does not fail, but who has won the ultimate victory. The triumph of life over death. There is no body for us to remember and show respect to, there is no principle for us to be reminded of.
There is a life that we are to live. There is a story that we are to tell, there is an event that we are to witness to. There is no body – there are only people. People who choose life over death anyday.
When the women went to tell the disciples what they had witnessed. No one believed them. It couldn’t be- God never intercedes like that, no one has ever been resurrected. No one who had died, has ever come back to life. Peter even went to the grave himself – he saw the empty tomb. He saw the proof for himself that the body was gone – it had indeed just walked away. And yet he didn’t believe. It didn’t make sense. He did not see the life in such a tragic event.
The world is the same – the world sees proof everyday of a god who won – a living faith. And yet they refuse to believe.
It is easier to believe in easter bunnies, and chocolate, and eggs, than it is to believe in life over death. The good news is that Easter is not a day or an event – Easter is life unfolding, and God revealing, each and every day.
Jesus came to each an every one of them – to reveal the truth and to show them proof of the resurrection. With each passing day – they understood a little bit better, and they saw a little more clearer.
The good news is the Easter is still unfolding, God is revealing, Jesus Christ is alive an still appearing to his disciples, and we still get the chance to choose life over death. There is not body – only people. When we celebrate and sing Hallelujah God wins. When we live as if we believe that Easter is a life changing event – God wins. Otherwise this all is just another idle tale- as his own disciples believed long ago.
Let us pray…
Lord,
the resurrection of Your Son
has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people
in pursuit of the Ways of Christ.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it.
New Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book
Amen.
Easter Sunday
Psalm 118
Luke 24:1-12
An Unlikely Tale
Year C
Woodrow Wilson’s butler called him one night to tell him that the tax accountant for the government had died. Sir, I was wondering if it s okay with you if I could take his place. Now mind you this is the middle of the night – butler- tax accountant. President Wilson responds – you know it doesn’t matter to me if you want to take his place – but you should probably ask the funeral director if it is okay.
The women in Jesus life have gathered to go to the tomb of Jesus. They want to anoint the body. That’s what you do when you are family – you show love and care to the body by rubbing it in spices. They have been through a hard ordeal, traveling with the teacher, believing and being inspired by his message, watching him beaten and killed for all of the wrong reasons, seeing your family fall apart from the stress, feeling like you have to do something – only to witness the final insult – his body is gone.
Bodies don’t just disappear on their own, they don’t just walk away on their own, - something had to have happened. After all they have done to this man – how could they have deprived Jesus of his final resting place? Seeing two men near the grave – she says – sir if you have taken him, just give him back, so that I can give him that final dignity of resting in peace.
The two men were really angels. And they ask her an important question. A question that certainly should have been asked of Woodrow Wilson – but needs to be asked of us today – why do you continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
If there was a body to speak of everything would be different now. If he had a final resting place- if there was a place we could go to honor his memory – we wouldn’t need to come today or any Sunday.
Even as those who come together to celebrate the resurrection – we still find ways to look for Jesus among the dead. Knowing that we will never find him – but we look anyway.
When we seek comfort instead of righteousness – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are in constant pursuit of pleasure and forsake joy – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we seek security and what is best for us, instead of reaching out to help others – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are much more willing to listen to what the world says, and forget what god says – we are looking for life in the midst of death.
Looking for the living amongst the dead. There are times when we have to do that. I think of the recent Haiti disaster. I have a picture here of the cross that survived, when the church was destroyed. (I will pass it around).
There were people in that disaster and many others – who had the task of looking for the living amongst the dead. Who had to go through that rubble of each fallen building – and look for life in the midst of death. Who had to examine every body for signs of life. And at any sign of life, they had to stick with that person until they were taken to safety. No matter how the faint the sign may be- if they are alive then they have to be nurtured back to health. We have that type of obligation to life.
Things would have certainly been different if they had found a body. If we had found a body. Our obligation to death and to life are very different. Death can take care of itself – but it is in life that we have an obligation to carry on. In the midst of our circumstances of life, our troubles, our hardaches, our questions, our destiny. Death can give us easy answers. But when we are still alive, and we don’t know what to do, or what comes next, or how things will work themselves out- that’s when we need a resurrection faith.
Faith in an empty tomb – faith in a promise of new life, faith in divine intervention in a way that makes no sense, faith that death has been conquered, so that we will have to strength to go on in life. Faith that God will succeed and conquer all.
Lenin fashioned himself as a savior of the people. He told them that communism would save them. He told them that there was no need for faith. It didn’t do anything but give false hope. He promised his people a better life, he even took the time to teach people a new way of understanding. And then he died. At his death – the question was asked – what do you do with a God who has failed you? They actually did the same thing that the women at the tomb were planning to do with Jesus. Anoint his body with spices, preserve it, give it a nice home, and put it on display as a monument so that people from generation to generation could come and see death. And yet remember to point he was trying to make. Why do we continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
The empty tomb is a witness to a God who does not fail, but who has won the ultimate victory. The triumph of life over death. There is no body for us to remember and show respect to, there is no principle for us to be reminded of.
There is a life that we are to live. There is a story that we are to tell, there is an event that we are to witness to. There is no body – there are only people. People who choose life over death anyday.
When the women went to tell the disciples what they had witnessed. No one believed them. It couldn’t be- God never intercedes like that, no one has ever been resurrected. No one who had died, has ever come back to life. Peter even went to the grave himself – he saw the empty tomb. He saw the proof for himself that the body was gone – it had indeed just walked away. And yet he didn’t believe. It didn’t make sense. He did not see the life in such a tragic event.
The world is the same – the world sees proof everyday of a god who won – a living faith. And yet they refuse to believe.
It is easier to believe in easter bunnies, and chocolate, and eggs, than it is to believe in life over death. The good news is that Easter is not a day or an event – Easter is life unfolding, and God revealing, each and every day.
Jesus came to each an every one of them – to reveal the truth and to show them proof of the resurrection. With each passing day – they understood a little bit better, and they saw a little more clearer.
The good news is the Easter is still unfolding, God is revealing, Jesus Christ is alive an still appearing to his disciples, and we still get the chance to choose life over death. There is not body – only people. When we celebrate and sing Hallelujah God wins. When we live as if we believe that Easter is a life changing event – God wins. Otherwise this all is just another idle tale- as his own disciples believed long ago.
Let us pray…
Lord,
the resurrection of Your Son
has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people
in pursuit of the Ways of Christ.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it.
New Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book
Amen.
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