Dancin’ at South Parish: revisiting a brief history 02/21/10
Hasn’t this been a fun service thus far? I think that dance adds a wonderful, joyful component to worshipping God and I wonder why we don’t do it more often. Last year, when we had Heather and her troupe of dancers perform during our worship service, it was the Sunday BEFORE Lent started, but I didn’t think any of you would be offended if we chose, rather than a somber Lenten theme, sacred dance instead and used it as an opportunity to affirm the pride we have in this next generation coming along, and to celebrate their talents, and the good fortune of the church to know that our future lies in their capable creative hands. Last year, I did a sermon about dancing in church in general, and dancing here at South Parish in specific. I have updated that sermon from last year and will give it again, if you all don’t mind. Hearing no objections, I shall proceed.
Last year I researched dancing and Christianity on the internet and found some very interesting information about how the church’s views on dance have weaved back and forth over the years. Clearly, if you read any of the Psalms, you will see that dance was an integral part of Jewish worship from the very dawn of time. And I can tell you after spending two years in that neck of the woods, that Israelis of all ages still LOVE to dance and NEVER pass up a chance to do so. Early Christian writings show that dance was also incorporated into worship from the very beginning and remained integral in Christian worship for the first four or five centuries. It seems, however, that once we began to develop a leadership hierarchy, the Christian church began to slowly turn away from dancing. At first, dancing as part of worship was OK, but the bishops did not participate… feeling it was somewhat plebian and beneath the dignity of their high office. By the time of the reformation, we protestants were a relatively joyless bunch of folks and dance had completely disappeared from worship services altogether. In fact, as the reformation ground on, and reformers and puritans and pilgrims left the shores of Europe and headed to other distant shores in order to practice their increasingly strict and unyielding brand of Christianity, they began to look upon dance – in any setting or venue – even in completely secular situations – to be less than pious. Last year, Don Bailey alerted me to a book found in our own church archives which tells a very gripping and melodramatic story about how dancing nearly ripped this very congregation apart. This book, entitled “Scenes in a Vestry” was written by Daniel C. Weston, an ancestor of current church member Hope Weston’s deceased husband Pete. After I read the book, I was fascinated by the insights it provided into very prominent forefathers of our congregation. Just to start out, for example, in the narthex, mounted right next to one another, are granite plaques commemorating Daniel Stone, who was our FIRST settled pastor, and Benjamin Tappan, who was our long-serving SECOND settled pastor. By the accounts of Mr. Weston, those two men could not have BEEN any further apart in personality or theology and to have their plaques mounted so close together must have them both turning over in their graves. And speaking of turning over in one’s grave… I am quite certain that this morning’s worship service has the skeletal remains of Reverend Tappan spinning like an airplane propeller in his coffin. Let me explain: If we are to believe Mr. Daniel C. Weston – and if he was anything like his descendent, Pete Weston, I see no reason why we shouldn’t – Daniel Stone was a guy who I think I would have really enjoyed getting to know. Weston says – quote- That monastic rigor which, under the garb of superior sanctity, would denounce the innocent recreations of life, met with a constant rebuke from the pious and lamented Daniel Stone, the former pastor of this church. Any attempts, also, to make religion consist in any affected plainness of dress obtained no countenance from this excellent man - unquote.
Daniel Weston was not so kind to Reverend Tappan. And the story that is told in “Scenes in a Vestry”, which I will relate to you in summary form, makes it quite clear WHY Daniel Weston and the rest of the Weston family had a less than charitable view of Benjamin Tappan. The first mention of Tappan in that work is as follows: Quote – Under Stone’s successor, the Rev. Benjamin Tappan, a new order of things was gradually introduced. ULTRA in all his feelings and views, he soon gathered around him a clique of kindred sentiments; and there was commenced a regular encroachment upon the liberty wherewith Christ made his followers free – unquote.
And that encroachment took some time. Benjamin Tappan took over in 1811 and immediately instituted committees of examination for prospective new members and he made sure, that over the next quarter of a century, only new members who shared his theology and who were personally loyal to him were allowed to join. Then, in 1838, he made his big move. He got the church to adopt a resolution that declared it to be the duty of church members to refrain from dancing entirely. We aren’t talking about sacred dance… we aren’t talking about dancing in the sanctuary or even dancing in the parish hall… Reverend Tappan got this church to pass a resolution telling church members that it was their duty to refrain from dancing anywhere at any time… ever. I am pretty sure that this Benjamin Tappan and I would not have gotten along very well. This resolution was not met with unanimous approval on the part of the congregation… several well established family patriarchs spoke out against it. And many families blatantly ignored it, especially in their own family or close social gatherings.
Now, one of the more vocal critics of this resolution was Judge Nathan Weston, father of attorney Daniel Weston, author of the referenced book. Nathan West had married Paulina, the daughter of Judge Cony, the man for whom Cony High School is named. Paulina was a God fearing woman and the mother of Daniel and his sister Catherine and four other children. Daniel, along with his sister Catherine, was a major protagonist in the drama that was to follow. Catherine, by the way, married Frederick A. Fuller and was married to him at the time of the events that I will describe. She was also the mother of Melville Weston Fuller born in 1833, just a young lad at the time of these events. Melville Weston Fuller owned the very volume of his uncle’s book that resides in OUR library and signed it on the front piece at the age of 16 in 1849. Melville Weston Fuller later went on to become the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1910. I have no doubt that the stirring accounts of his grandfather’s and uncle’s brilliant legal maneuverings as documented in this volume were at least somewhat responsible for his choice of careers, and, having delighted in the accounts of those legal maneuvers myself, I have no doubt that Chief Justice Fuller came by his brilliant legal mind quite naturally. But let me get back to the story…
Now, Paulina was the regular host of a sewing society comprised of young girls between the ages of 10 and 15 who would meet twice a month to sew articles of clothing for charitable causes. They would sew all morning and all afternoon, and then, in the evening, they would have a bit of recreation and they danced, and Catherine Fuller would play the piano and Daniel Weston, would play violin as accompaniment to these dances. Now, Benjamin Tappan and his brother, E.S. Tappan, a curmudgeonly bachelor deacon, could not STAND the fact that Paulina was holding these “dance parties” in direct violation of the resolution passed by the church. The Reverend dispatched his brother to the Weston home – conveniently during a time when the good Judge was away riding the circuit – and Deacon Tappan came to the Weston home one evening and confronted Paulina about how aggrieved he was that she would allow dancing to go on within her own home. Paulina was, as I said, a God fearing woman and loved the Lord, and, in her heart of hearts, did NOT believe that there was anything un-Christian-like about dancing. She was very polite to the Reverend’s brother, and explained that she certainly would never want to cause anyone in her congregation grief, but… and I quote her here… SHE WOULD BE GROUND TO POWDER BEFORE SHE WOULD BE DICTATED TO BY THE CHURCH. You tell him, Paulina!
So… Deacon Tappan fumed and blustered and stomped away… and went back and consulted with his brother and some inner circle advisors… and they all decided that they would deny Paulina, Catherine, and Daniel the right to take communion at South Parish until this matter could be resolved by a meeting of the church as a whole. Their desires at that meeting were for the three defendants to humbly apologize to the entire congregation for going against the will of the church, and to promise that they would never do so again. Then, and only then, would they be allowed to join the church around the Lord’s Table. Well… when Judge Nathan Weston got back into town, he and his son Daniel, the brilliant attorney and author, decided that they would not take this lying down. The rest of the book is dedicated to the story of their brilliant, but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stop the Ultra’s at South Parish from dictating their extreme positions on dancing to others, and to prevent them from denying anyone access to communion for failing to agree to those positions. In the end, Tappan’s forces prevailed and the Westons severed their association with South Parish and were welcomed into St. Mark’s Episcopal Church across the street. They did not return to South Parish until sometime after Benjamin Tappan left, in 1849. Daniel Weston does report that this controversy weakened Tappan’s autocratic hold on the congregation, however. That is, at least, SOME good news. I have no idea what sort of pastor Edwin Webb was – who was Tappan’s replacement, but, considering how effective Tappan had been at hand picking members of the congregation for his nearly 40 years in the pulpit, I can well imagine that there was not a lot of dancing going on at South Parish for quite some time… even though I can also well imagine that young men and women could always find the piano and violin playing dance tunes at the Weston home throughout those same years.
I have not, I regret, dug deeply enough into our church’s history to know whether any sorts of dancing were sponsored by the church in our parish hall after it was constructed in 1888, but I DO know that Cony High School did use our Parish Hall for proms and dances at some points during the last century. I have found no record of any dance being incorporated into worship but that does not mean that sacred dance was not used, only that I have not found any evidence thereof. I know that Sammee Quong, whom many of you may remember, occasionally performed sacred dance here in our sanctuary, as a part of worship during Jim O’Brien’s and John Zehring’s ministries. In the past year, we have had fiddle music and dance filling our parish hall, and we have had concerts here in the sanctuary, most notably Rick Charette last year where this room was filled to the brim with children hopping and jumping and wiggling with the joy of dance. And I know what we have done and will do this morning. This is about JOY. God wants us to live JOY-FILLED lives.
This past Wednesday evening, we began our Lenten season with a joint service at Old South in Hallowell. It was a quiet and reflective service. Lent is indeed a time to reflect on the importance of Christ’s presence in our lives and to contemplate our commitment to this Christian path on which we walk. And we will do another joint service with Old South here on April 1st… which is Maundy Thursday… and that is also a quiet and reflective service, but I don’t believe the tenor of those services needs to darken our hearts throughout Lent. Just because we are spending the next forty days contemplating Christ’s journey to the cross, does not mean that we should NOT also contemplate his resurrection and allow the joy of that event to infuse our lives. Christ wants us to see the joy in the world, and to create joy where none exists. We are meant to be happy and joyful… that is what our creator WANTS for us. We can certainly find joy in service. We can find joy in feeding the hungry and caring for the sick and treating every forlorn soul as if he were our brother, as if he were Christ… we can do that… there is JOY in doing that… but, this morning should show us that there is real JOY to be found in worshipping God… There is JOY in dancing to the rhythms that God has embedded in our hearts. There IS a time to dance. There IS a time to dance… and that time is now. Amen.
Transfiguration Sunday is a difficult one for me. This strange event on the mountain top… always celebrated the Sunday before we begin our Lenten journeys… what is the significance of it? What lesson should stay with us from this special Sunday and how should we best use that lesson in our lives? Well… I did some reading on the internet about it. I found some analysis done by a fellow named King Duncan who I have relied upon in the past when I was stuck on a passage. Reverend Duncan helped me a great deal, but then, on Wednesday during our weekly lunchtime discussion, Reverend Susan Reisert, from Old South in Hallowell helped me even more. What follows is what I have come up with after being strongly and gratefully influenced by those two insightful ministers. There is a modern day philosopher named William Irwin Thompson. He has written several highly acclaimed books and volumes of poetry, none of which I have ever had the privilege – or the time or the opportunity - to read. He has several websites devoted to compiling memorable quotes and King Duncan quoted one such passage in his article about the Transfiguration story in Luke. The quote was: "We are like flies crawling across the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We cannot see what angels and gods lie underneath the threshold of our perceptions...." I loved that. Rachel and I spent a day at the Vatican during our week in Rome in the spring of 2007, and while at the Vatican, we visited the Sistine Chapel along with hordes of other people. Mere photographic depictions of Michelangelo’s work on that ceiling do not do it justice. And certainly, photographs taken from before the dramatic decade- long restoration completed in 1994 don’t even come close to revealing the majesty of the work. The thing that doesn’t really come through very well in photographs is the nearly 3-D illusion the work creates. A character reaching out – and down – from the ceiling… down towards the viewer on the floor below, looks as if he can almost grab you. Michelangelo made his hands twice as big as his feet so the exaggerated depth perception creates the feeling that all of the characters are bursting down, up, and out of the ceiling… it is truly remarkable. And the enormous SCALE of the work makes the quote from Thompson even more relevant and accurate. A fly could not begin to understand the scope of what he was crawling over. Even those humans on the floor below have a difficult time taking it all in. And isn’t that true of many great piece of art that we have admired in galleries. Sometimes we need to stand in front of them for extended periods of time before the artist’s intended vision begins to bubble up in our consciousness. Scripture passages are much the same way… and apparently, not just for those of us who are reading them, but, also for those folks living in them… case in point: the reading this morning. Our lesson from Luke's gospel is like a series of four magnificent paintings – a verbal quadriptic, of sorts. The setting for each of the paintings is a mountaintop. In the first panel of the piece, we see Jesus and his inner circle of disciples - Peter, James and John. Jesus is praying. The disciples are sleeping. In the second panel, we see the result of Jesus' prayer. The appearance of his face is changed, and his clothes are as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appear with him. Peter and his companions, once asleep, are now fully awake. Peter is saying to Christ, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." Luke tells us that poor Peter does not even know what he was saying. In the third panel a cloud has appeared and enveloped these men. The disciples, hidden by the cloud, are afraid. A voice is coming from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." In the final panel the voice is now silent, the cloud is gone and so are Moses and Elijah. Jesus and his three disciples are alone once more. Jesus no longer glows white, but is returned to his normal appearance. But there is a strange and mysterious look on the disciples' faces. Luke tells us that they "kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen." So… how shall we deal this morning with this memorable quadriptic from the Mount of the Transfiguration? Shall we peruse the four panels briefly and marvel at the hand of the artist then move on to other notable paintings… move on to the Lenten series of vignettes…with no more thought as to what the artist is trying to say here in this mountaintop scene? Worse, shall we be like flies on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel who see such works of art only as momentary resting places, but have no powers to discern their ultimate worth? Or shall we look for some deeper meaning … some relevant truth about our lives and about our destinies that might be within these images? Another lesson from these four panels: There is more to living than dying. Bob Dylan has a line in his song, “It’s alright Ma” that goes, “he not busy being born is busy dying.” That line always makes me feel vaguely sad. Just think about what desperate, sad, meaningless lives most people in our secular world live. It’s true. We know it. We can hear it in the rhetoric of debate that goes on about the great issues of our time. Never does that debate even touch upon ultimate values, the will of God, or eternal consequences. Why? Because most people live with the expectation that life really does end at the grave. Our whole attitude toward death has undergone a radical change in this brave, new world. Reverend Duncan related a story from the Bush years in the White House that humorously illustrates this in a macabre sort of way. President Bush received a letter inviting him to the funeral of a man described as "a hardworking, patriotic American." The man, however, wasn't dead. His family explained that he was hooked to a life-support machine, and they could pull the plug any time to suit the President’s schedule… death on demand… death with dignity. For the Christian, however, there is another aspect to this. We believe that death has been defeated! There on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples see Jesus and Moses and Elijah. How long had Moses and Elijah been dead at that point? Five hundred years, a thousand years? Who cares? In the spiritual realm there is no measure of time. "God is the God of the living," Jesus proclaimed. There is more to living than dying. Maybe there should be a fifth panel in the painting of the Transfiguration experience. It would show Jesus and these three disciples down from the mountain ministering to the needs of people. Followers of Jesus like us who believe there is a spiritual realm and who believe that death has been defeated are not given the luxury of twiddling our thumbs and idly and inwardly reveling in those great truths. We are called to seek out the least and the lowest and minister to them in Jesus' name. We are called to come down from our mountaintop moment and get to work. That's the real test of every mountaintop experience, isn’t it? Does it actually motivate us to reach out to our neighbor? Does it motivate us to reach down to the least among us? There is no staying on the mountaintop for those who love Jesus. He always calls us to go down into the valley. How about you? How do you feel about these paintings that Luke has given us of Christ's transfiguration? Are you like the art critic who views them with cool detachment and moves on? Worse still, are you like a fly on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with no awareness that there is anything great here? Or are you ready to leave the mountain and head toward the valley? Here we are, three days away from the start of our Lenten journey. We will be following Jesus to Jerusalem, to Gethsemane, to Golgotha, to the garden tomb and ultimately to his victory over death on Easter morning. At any point during this Lenten season, or any Lenten season, or any OTHER season, for that matter, you may very well have yourself a totally unexpected private mountaintop moment with Jesus. I would suggest that you use it as a starting point, not a stopping point. Let it be the beginning of your journey down into the valley, down into the midst of the mass of humanity needing to really see, hear, smell, taste and touch the impact of the Good News of Jesus Christ in action. That is the way to experience the true spiritual nature of your relationship with God… that is the way to know God beyond the input from your five senses. That is the way to live a life that arcs out beyond the grave so instead of being busy dying, as Bob Dylan suggests, we can be busy living… living a life of purpose that will go on long after these earthly vessels we inhabit have turned to dust. And that is what I think about Transfiguration Sunday. I hope that my thoughts today hold some relevance for you… and that they get us all ready to really follow Jesus down from the mountaintop, and all the way to heaven warmly rubbing up against all of humanity every single step of the way. Amen. Today’s scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke provides yet another version of the events surrounding the calling of the first disciples. Interestingly enough, the four gospels all have accounts of the story, but in the four gospels, there are three different versions. In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and sees Peter and Andrew standing in the shallow water near the shore casting nets out into the water… in both of those gospel stories, he calls those two disciples who drop their nets and follow him. Then, immediately thereafter, he comes about James and John, the sons of Zebedee, sitting in their boats working with their father and others who apparently are employees of Zebedee. Jesus calls to them and those two leave their father and his apparently successful fishing business behind and follow Jesus. The Gospel of John tells a completely different story where Andrew and an unnamed disciple are already disciples of John the Baptist and, while walking with John the Baptist, see Jesus walking in the distance and John the Baptist tells them, “Look, the Lamb of God!” at which time they leave him and go following after Jesus. After spending the afternoon talking with Jesus, Andrew goes and gets his brother, Peter, and brings him back. The reading from Luke today is much closer to the Matthew and Mark versions but there are significant differences, and some interesting nuances that we should briefly explore. First off is the subtle, but significant difference in the economic status of Peter and Andrew. In the Matthew and Mark versions of the story, these two brothers do not own a boat and are reduced to standing in the shallow water at the shoreline casting nets into the water. They are inherently limited to only being able to catch those fish that swim in the shallow water very near the shore. In the Luke version, they have a boat... and that is a BIG difference. In Matthew and Mark, it is James and John who have the boats – actually, it is their Dad, Zebedee who owns boats- plural- and has other hired men. And their fishing operation is separate and distinct from that of Peter and Andrew. In Luke, the boat belongs to Peter and Andrew and James and John are their partners. In Matthew and Mark, there are no crowds involved at all. Jesus is shown walking along the shoreline by himself… encountering first Peter and Andrew standing in the water with their casting nets… and then coming upon James and John mending nets while sitting IN their father’s boats. In Luke, Jesus is standing beside the lake and, even at this early stage in his ministry-before he’s gathered any disciples-he is already drawing big crowds. He asks Peter if he can borrow his boat and uses it as a portable lectern and uses the wonderful amplifying qualities of water to help him be heard and seen by the large crowd gathered at the shore. How many of you have ever been at a lakeside camp in Maine on a starry summer night and have been able to hear voices from other camps clear across the lake? That same phenomenon acted as a natural public address system for Jesus as he taught the crowds. In the Luke version, it is only after this teaching session was over, that Jesus directs Peter to put out into the deep water and put down the nets for a catch. Peter complains at that guidance, but it is interesting how he phrases it. Remember that in this version, Peter, Andrew, James AND John have never met Jesus before. Jesus has come up to them at the end of their work day when they were supposedly all done and washing their nets and asks them to borrow the boat. Then he preaches and teaches from that boat… the crowd apparently disperses, and Jesus then tells the fisherman brothers to head back out for more fish, and Peter says to him, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.” After listening to Jesus preach one time from a borrowed boat, Peter calls Jesus “Master”. That’s pretty remarkable in itself. It is also interesting to note that, not too long ago, there was an archeological discovery in Israel where they discovered and excavated a first century fishing boat from the waters of the Sea of Galilee. It was a pretty big boat… it measured 26 ½ feet long from stem to stern, 8 ½ feel wide at the beam, and 4 ½ deep from keel to gunwale. That’s a big boat by today’s standards. And the “Sea” of Galilee is not really a sea, you know, but a lake, and not really all that big of a lake by Mainer’s standards. Here in our state, Moosehead Lake covers an area of about 75 thousand acres. The Sea of Galilee covers an area of just over 41 thousand acres… just a bit more than half as big. Moosehead has a max depth of 75 meters and the Sea of Galilee has a max depth of only 43 meters… just a bit more than half as deep. So it’s not much of a “sea”… not really that big of a lake, for that matter, and a boat that big on a body of water that small would not be an inconspicuous vessel, even now, let alone two millennia ago. Imagine how many fish would fit in TWO of those boats. When the size of the catch became apparent, Peter quickly figured out that the guy who he now referred to as “Master” was not only an inspiring teacher, but he was also a miracle worker. And he said “Go away from me Lord (Lord, no less!), for I am a sinful man”… as he and his brother Andrew and his partners James and John stood there dumbfounded over the enormous piles of fish filling up their rather large boats. And Jesus says to Peter: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” In the space of a few hours, Peter goes from first meeting this strange man, letting him borrow his boat, calling him “Master”, going back out and fishing again at his direction, calling him “Lord”… and then he and his brother, and two other brothers, abandon their boats, filled to overflowing with enough fish to make them rich men in the market place, and they leave EVERYTHING behind… right there on the shoreline… and they go follow Jesus. That’s an amazing story, but, admit it… you have a tough time really relating to it, don’t you? You have a tough time imagining yourself abandoning a boat full of fish – abandoning your livelihood, your family, your friends, your way of life and all the comfort and security that it affords you – and going off to who knows where following Jesus. Most of us would choose to stay behind and continue to clean our nets as Zebedee and the other fishermen must have done. But what if we can clean our nets… continue to do the work of our lives and yet, at the same time, live lives truer to the gospel, given more to God, being more faithful to the same Word that called Peter and his partners away? What if our lives could be transformed right where we are, with the people we love and know? Might our imaginations open us up to epiphanies all around us, wonders that challenge our expectations and present us with little encapsulated miracles? After all, the last thing those tired fishermen were expecting was a showing of God's awesome power right there, at the end of another workday. Why can’t the same be said of our workdays - that they hold the possibility of seeing God's hand at work in our lives and all around us? Why should we be less than attentive to the possibility that Jesus might show up and surprise us at the end of our shift when we are headed home thinking of anything BUT a confrontation with Christ? Even though we might not respond to that surprise by immediately and absolutely abandoning our full lives and our families and professions, we can still find our lives changed forever in very real ways by such an encounter. Even though we might get up and go to work the next morning and, from all outward appearances, nothing would be different than the day before, but WE will know that something HAS changed… something HAS happened, and that day, and all the days that follow it, promises to be subtly yet fundamentally different than all the days that have gone before. Maybe a boat full of fish is not in your plans today or any day, but you know that those sorts of things happen to people. You know of people who have been fundamentally changed by an encounter with Jesus. You personally know people like that – we all do. There are people in this congregation this morning that have been affected in just such a way. So… the next time you have spent the day in a fruitless effort trying to catch fish, or do whatever it is that you do in your workaday world… and, when the quitting bell rings and you’re delighted to be leaving the office and heading back home… and, instead, you are confronted with a totally unexpected opportunity to see Christ looking out at you from the eyes of someone possibly less fortunate who really needs YOU to make THEIR problems more important than getting home in time for cocktail hour. Remember that, when Jesus told Peter to go back out and try and catch more fish, Peter’s initial reaction might have been to complain, and state that he and his crew had already been at it for the whole night before and they had caught nothing…but then he added, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets”. Remember that, when Peter pulled nets full of fish back into his boat, he told Jesus, “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man!” Remember that we are ALL sinful. We ALL are heavily laden with the baggage accumulated throughout our lives of sin and faithlessness and backsliding. Remember that Jesus has been figuratively filling people’s boats with fish for two millennia now… and we could be next. We could be transformed by such an encounter and we should all be sure not to let such an opportunity pass us by. Remember that, after Peter told Jesus to get away, Jesus responded by saying, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people.” Similarly, WE should not be afraid of letting Jesus catch us, and then letting him use us to catch others in his name. That’s what Christians have been called to do from Peter all the way down to you and me… and it is, and has always been such a righteous calling. Amen. Love 01/31/10 I was torn this week. The Gospel reading for this week is from Luke and is a continuation of the story from last week where Jesus is starting his ministry in the hometown synagogue by reading Isaiah and telling the local folks that HE is the living embodiment of the scriptural promise. But this week also had that reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians that is so iconic, so emblematic, that I couldn’t let it pass by. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. I can imagine that everyone here has heard that passage read at nearly every Christian wedding they have ever attended. I know that, with only one exception, I have read it at all the weddings that I have performed over the past nineteen months. It is all about love… and therefore is a seemingly perfect fit for such a romantic occasion as a wedding. But Paul really wasn’t referring to that sort of romantic love at all when he wrote that letter. By now, I am sure that we all have heard that, in Greek, there are three different words that mean love: “eros”, or romantic love, “philia”, or brotherly love, and “agape”, or selfless love. The early Greek texts of Paul’s letters use the word “agape” and not “eros” in this passage. Well… there are many situations where the English language is found wanting when it comes to accurate translations of different language. In Greek, three different words are used to distinguish different variants of love, where in English, additional adjectives are needed to modify the one word “love” to achieve those nuanced distinctions. Perhaps the early Greeks, and the Apostle Paul, had “love” a bit more carefully defined than modern English speakers… Similarly, Eskimos have fifty different words for “snow”. I think that the limitations of the English language make understanding and accepting this passage in particular very problematic for many people. When we hear the word “love, we naturally associate that word with candle light dinners, and valentines, and romantic walks on the beach, a trail of rose petals leading to the bedroom… and then, when Jesus tells us we need to “love” everyone, that seems almost creepy, doesn’t it? And here Paul is telling us how essential love is, what love is, how eternal and enduring it is, and how it towers over faith and hope as THE critical aspect of being a Christian. If we narrow the scope of who gets to experience our love to only those people who we are romantically involved with, we miss the real message of Jesus as related by Paul. And if we confine ourselves to the narrow English language definition of “love”, then spreading out beyond our loved ones to the rest of the human community seems uncomfortable and overly familiar. We really need a word like “agape” in OUR language so that we can fully understand the direction of Jesus and the interpretation of that direction by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians… so that we can “agape” other men and women without feeling like violin music and a bottle of fine wine needs to accompany our feelings. We need to be able to honestly and fervently care about the best interests of others without letting it seem mushy or maudlin or inappropriately romantic. I guess I subconsciously differentiate the sorts of “love” I feel in my life. My love for my wife is different than the love I have for my larger family circle. And my “love” of my neighbors and those less fortunate than me is different still. “Eros” for my wife, “philia” for my family, and “agape” for my neighbors. And then, if we really want to confuse the subject even further, how do we categorize our love for God and for Jesus? I think it is safe to assume that God’s love for us is quite “agape”-like… but, for me anyway, my love for the Lord is different. I stand in awe of him. I am profoundly grateful to him… but sometimes, it seems hard to try and compartmentalize it into one of those three categories. And then, I think about what Paul wrote in today’s scripture reading. I think about how love like Paul is talking about is patient and kind; not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. I think about how it does not insist on its own way; how it is devoid of irritation and resentment. I think about how it wants no part of wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. I think about how it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. When you have that sort of “agape”-like love for the rest of humanity, love ceases to be merely some emotion that you feel, and starts to become something that you DO. Love becomes an action verb. Putting the best interests of others really at the forefront of our lives is something that happens… something that moves us to action.. it doesn’t’ just color our feelings while we sit back and watch from the sidelines. It is much more empathy driven action than sympathy driven heartfelt emotions. So… one might think that the triune God – father, son and holy ghost – does not need us to be putting HIS best interests at heart, does not need to be loved, even in an “agape” sort of way… but then one only needs to remember what Jesus said to Peter when, in the days after his crucifixion and resurrection, he reappeared to his disciples at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee and cooked them breakfast over an open fire. The incident is recorded in the very last chapter of the Gospel of John and the conversation went like this: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.” So… if we want to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, the method for doing so is clearly spelled out for us by none other than Jesus himself. Step out of our comfort zones, quit thinking about LOVE as a valentine and start thinking about it as a fulltime assignment from God. Start thinking about LOVE as something that we DO to all of God’s lambs. Tend to them, feed them, clothe them, talk with them, comfort them, don’t let them become invisible in our lives. Care about them. Put their better interests at the TOP of our priority list. Don’t let moment after moment pass us by where we postpone our charity and our empathy and our “agape”-LOVE for those children of God living in our midst who live their lives in quiet desperation and who so easily and frequently disappear into the shadows of our world. That’s how we can show Jesus we love him. That is how we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind. We can speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, we can have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, we can have all faith, so as to remove mountains, we can give away all our possessions, but if we think that, by doing all of that, we can somehow earn the right to avoid that poor fellow dressed in tattered clothes who looks like he hasn’t bathed in weeks, who has his hand out, who has a hole in his heart and whose eyes meet ours and silently hope for help and a connection, then we are kidding ourselves, and all our tongues and prophetic powers and understanding and faith and even our charity means nothing. If we can’t look that poor fellow in the eye and genuinely feel warmth and affection, if we can’t put his best interests at the top of our priority list, then we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals and we have MISSED the whole point of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. As children, we were inherently, simply, gracefully, honestly selfish and self centered. And we never really figured out this whole loving God business. But God has always had it figured out, and HE has known the content of OUR hearts from day one. We have been fully known by God all our lives… and, even if we only know him in part now, we will know him fully at the last. And we know that faith and hope and love abide… and we know that faith and hope are inward and passive concepts. We can have faith in God and we can hope for peace and health and happiness… we can have faith and hope without getting up from our recliners in the living room. We can have faith and hope without even getting out of bed… but we cannot honestly LOVE our neighbors – we can’t “agape” our neighbors – without ACTING out that love, without DOING that love, without GIVING that love. We can’t tend sheep and feed lambs by merely thinking about it. Faith and hope are important, but the greatest of these is Love…. this season and every season. Amen When was the last time you tried something for the first time?” 01/24/10
Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36) 2/14/10
I think there are a few important lessons to be learned from the mountaintop scenes we just described. First of all, the four panels taken together say that there is more to reality than what we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell. This experience on the Mount of Transfiguration was no ordinary mountaintop experience. It was not simply a matter of Peter, James and John being moved by the beauty of creation as we sometimes are in worship or in nature. Oh, we cherish such experiences, no doubt, but what those fellows experienced on that mountaintop was something more… something beyond our ability to rationally explain or even experience. The events portrayed in the scenes from the mountaintop transfiguration say to us that when we take the sum total of every beautiful and wonderful thing that we have ever experienced through our five senses… when we add up every good feeling we have ever had about friends, family, health and hope… when we include everything this world has to offer us for happiness, joy and peace… there is still more. There is still more. There is a reality that science cannot measure, great philosophical minds cannot fathom, and high tech space probes cannot reach. It is the realm of the spiritual. It is the reality of the living God.
Finally, the message we need to take away from this passage is that we cannot stay on the mountaintop. Many of us have had moments where our faith has been altered and enhanced in memorable and breathtaking ways. Many of us have had encounters with Christ in our lives… in our prayers… in our dreams… and those encounters have deepened and softened and intensified our faith. But we cannot merely sit still and bask in the warm glow of that encounter smiling smugly and secretly like the cat that ate the canary. We cannot stop the journey, sit down on the mountaintop, build a little dwelling, a tabernacle, or a booth, and keep living and reliving our private little moment there alone with Jesus. That is what Peter wanted to do, but, as I told the children earlier, the mountaintop was not a stopping place, it was a starting place.
Boatloads of Fish 2/7/10
In this time of great political drama here in America, we come upon today’s scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke. The reading today starts about a third of the way through the fourth chapter of Luke, but it really is the BEGINNING of the story of Jesus’ ministry. Chapter one deals with the conception of John the Baptist and the divine conception of Jesus. The second chapter deals with the birth of Jesus, the circumcision of Jesus and the story of Jesus staying behind at the temple when he was twelve. Chapter three jumps ahead to the ministry of John the Baptist, and the baptism and genealogy of Jesus. Chapter four starts with Jesus going off to fast in the desert for forty days and be tempted by the devil. The first thing he does when he gets back from the desert is to head back to his hometown of Nazareth where he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath and, when he stands up and is handed the scroll of the Book of Isaiah, he goes right to the place we now call the 61st chapter of Isaiah and begins to read from the start of that chapter:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
As I said, that is from what we now refer to as the 61st chapter of the Book of Isaiah and it is, verbatim, the first two verses of that chapter… almost. Interesting enough, Jesus stops before the last part of the second verse which extends that last sentence as follows:
“…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor AND THE DAY OF VENGEANCE OF OUR GOD.”
Clearly… Jesus was not about days of vengeance, and that second half of the sentence did not fit his mission or his message. But here he is… in his hometown… right after coming back from his forty days of fasting and temptation in the desert… and he stands up and reads that particular scripture out of all the stuff he could have read from Isaiah, and then the Gospel of Luke goes on to say that after he got done reading that passage, “he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is almost like an inaugural address, or better yet, it is even more like politicians’ speeches where they announce they are running for some big office. Here is Jesus, just starting his three year ministry… his three year journey from the synagogue in Nazareth to the top of a hill named Golgotha in Jerusalem, or better yet, to the garden tomb nearby. And here he is telling everyone: I am going to bring the good news to the poor… I am going to proclaim the release of the captives… I am going to make blind people see again… I am going to free the oppressed from whatever it is that’s oppressing them. I am going to proclaim the arrival of a new era where the Lord will favor all men, with a new relationship… a new covenant. That sounds an awful lot like campaign promises, doesn’t it? And like many modern day politicians, Jesus chose to make his announcement in his home town, among family and friends.
I think it is interesting to think about what the Gospel story this morning leaves out. First… the scroll from which Jesus read was written in Hebrew, but the Jews in Nazareth that Sabbath morning spoke Aramaic, so someone, Jesus, presumably, would have had to explain that passage to them. When Luke says, “Then he BEGAN to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, it seems that perhaps we aren’t told what ELSE he said to them in his explanation and expansion and translation of the scripture passage from Isaiah. But he BEGAN, as I said, by telling them, that HE, himself, was the person who was going to do those things. And they had heard that scripture many times before, no doubt, but that was the FIRST time they had ever heard anyone tell them that this prophesy was being fulfilled even as they listened. It must have been like hearing that scripture all over again for the first time.
The other day, I was watching TV and there was an advertisement for some car… and, quite honestly, I have no idea what sort of car it was… so maybe as a car commercial, this wasn’t a very effective one, but as a vehicle for planting an idea in my head that I felt was a natural fit for this morning’s sermon, the commercial was very successful. The commercial shows a guy wielding an ice axe and then zooms out to see him standing at the top of a rocky, snow covered peak… and another guy isfiddling with the controls of something that turns out to be the valves on a hot air balloon rising up in the air… and then another guy is looking down at the magnetic compass in front of a large wooden steering wheel which turns out to the helm of a large two masted yacht cutting through the sea under full sail… and then the voice in the commercial said, “When was the last time you tried something for the first time?” Wow! That’s a great question! And boy, did that question get me to thinking!
I personally can think of a lot of moments in my life where I tried something for the first time. I have never climbed a tall mountain or been up in a hot air balloon, but I can certainly remember the first time that I held the main sheet and the tiller of a small sloop rigged sailboat on a lake in Minnesota and felt the little boat heel over as it surged forward under the invisible power of wind. That very moment made me want to experience life at sea. I can remember the first time I took the conn of a Navy Destroyer in the North Atlantic during a man overboard drill, put the engines ahead flank, threw the rudder over and felt six thousand tons of steel lunge ahead like I was riding over the waves on the back of a speeding porpoise that was moving and turning at my direction. I can remember the first time I saw a green flash at sea. I can remember the first time I ate an oyster. I can remember the first time I looked at Michelangelo’s “Pieta” or his work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I can remember the first time I laid eyes on my wife. I can remember the first time I saw my sons… and they had their umbilical cords still attached. I can remember getting back into town and going over to Maine General to see my daughter for the first time , Katie having been born two days earlier while I was way up north closing camp.
As some of you may know, I am sort of the cook in our family, but Rachel is the menu planner. And she is always scouring magazines and the internet looking for new and interesting recipes for us to try. I can remember thirteen years of trying new and unusual ingredients or combinations of ingredients for the first time and nearly every one of those memories leaves a delicious taste in my mouth. Quite frankly, all the “first times” I just mentioned, and many many more that I don’t have time to mention – they ALL leave a delicious aftertaste in my mouth and on my mind and in my heart.
I can remember the first time that I had to write a sermon. I was seventeen years old and my best buddy, Bill Mellish – who you have heard me speak about on many occasions – Bill and I were asked by Bill’s Dad – our minister - to give the sermon together on youth Sunday. I can remember standing in a pulpit for the first time and feeling unexpectedly comfortable and pleased with myself as I stood there. Little did I know that moment would lead me here just as certainly as that first moment at the tiller of a sailboat in a fresh breeze led me to Annapolis and a Navy career.
So... how many of YOU can remember the last time you tried something for the first time? How many of you can think back to all sorts of wonderful “first times” just like I can?
In today’s scripture reading, we see Jesus trying something for the first time. This was Jesus’ coming out party. It was his campaign announcement speech. It was the first time that he experienced the sensation of trying to tell the people that he had grown up with that he wasn’t the same old Jesus the carpenter’s apprentice anymore. It was the first time that he experienced the sensation of trying to tell the hometown crowd that he was, in fact, the messiah that they had been promised. And it was THEIR first time hearing him speak in that manner. Can you remember the first time YOU heard the words of Jesus spoken? I know that I most certainly cannot remember that specific occurrence in my life. But I CAN remember the first time that I listened to them and I really really HEARD them… that their meaning really struck home to me. How about you? Can YOU remember THAT time? Can you, as an acknowledged Christian, remember when you actually were struck by the power of Jesus’ words for the first time? Now let me ask you this: have you ever read a red letter passage from the New Testament and thought you had Jesus’ meaning all figured out… for the first time, only to have read that same passage at some later date and found yourself figuring it out all over again in a new and different way… for the first time?
I challenge all of you to open your hearts to the possibility of doing just that in the weeks and months ahead. We are quickly approaching the season of Lent. Try hard, if you will, to experience Lent in a new and different way, for the first time. Our search committee is narrowing the field of candidates to be our next settled pastor. There is a very good chance that they have spoken to him – or to her – already and that that minister and our committee, even though they may not know it yet, are already moving towards one another. We will need to be ready and willing and EAGER to experience the Good News of Jesus Christ all over again for the first time when that minister takes this pulpit. Our new minister will undoubtedly offer us repeated opportunities to re-experience Jesus for the first time, in new and challenging ways.
Remember: When Jesus first started his ministry, he told the hometown crowd,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
So… be ready to hear him all over again… for the first time. The good news is for our hearing, and also for our telling. We are the captives that can be released from old ways of looking at things, and we can also do the work of Jesus in helping to release others from captivity. We are the blind who can recover our sight through the word of Jesus and we can also help others to see what we see. We are the ones who are oppressed and shackled by negative thinking and by destructive and selfish behaviors, and we are also the ones who can help others break free from those same shackles. Jesus is proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, and we all can be ready to make 2010 just such a year… for this congregation, for this community and for this world. Really. Let’s all try to make this year the year when we experience Jesus in a whole new way… for the first time, and let’s all let him work his wonderful redemptive magic on us and on all that we do in his name. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer Disassembled 01/17/10
I have been dying to write this sermon for decades… but, even after I got into the fulltime sermon writing business, it’s taken my nearly two years to get the courage to attempt it. I want to spend this morning dissecting the Lord’s Prayer. All of us know it by heart. All of us probably had it taught to us by our parents when we were very small and we have said it literally thousands upon thousands of times since then… and, assuming that you all are like me, we rarely, if ever, take the time to examine what it is that we are saying. So… I decided that I would try to examine each and every phrase in the Lord’s Prayer and suggest what it might mean for each of us today.
Usually, I spend a fair amount of time studying scripture and scriptural analysis each week, but this week I decided not to. There are TONS of sermons done on the Lord’s Prayer available online… one guy on the internet discussed the Lord’s Prayer and it took him TEN sermons to get through it. I started to read them, but they were way too academically theological for me. As you know, I am NOT a trained theologian. But I know that, with the exception of Beth Clark and maybe one other, none of you are either. I thought a layman’s take on a prayer we all know would be interesting and valuable for you, so here goes:
First off, I would note that the Lord’s Prayer is broken up into three sections. The first one is sort of an extended formal address… the middle section contains some specific requests for God, and the third is a Doxology of sorts which has the effect of explaining why we think it makes any sense to be making those requests in the first place.
“Our Father, who art in heaven”
The first thing that strikes me is that Jesus said, “OUR Father” instead of “MY Father”. But then, he was teaching this prayer to his disciples… and consequently to us. But, when you think of it, “OUR Father” is still an odd thing for someone to call God when they are praying privately to him…unless we consider that, by saying “OUR Father”, we are reaffirming our understanding that God is the father of us ALL… that his parenthood extends to the entire human family, and when we acknowledge that shared parentage we also acknowledge that we are ALL each other’s brothers and sisters.
The second part of that – “who art in heaven” - should make each of us wonder anew, what and where heaven might really be. As a child, we were taught the rather rudimentary framework that heaven was a pretty place where angels rested on clouds, and where we would go after we died if we were good, and it was somewhere UP above us, and, conversely, hell was some hot and dark place where devils would torment us for eternity if we were bad, and it was somewhere DOWN below us. As we grow and mature in intelligence and in faith, our perceptions of heaven – and hell – change. I would not presume to know what any of YOUR ideas as to heaven might be, but for me, heaven is a place where my soul and my consciousness will survive after this earthly shell has finally worn out…. IF I have earned entrance there, that is. And if I am allowed into heaven after this life, I will then – finally – be able to understand the true nature of God and will be able to understand what Jesus meant when he said that that is where “OUR father” lives.
“Hallowed be thy name”
“Hallowed” is an interesting word. Webster’s defines it using words like “holy, consecrated, sacred, and revered”. But what exactly IS it that is “hallowed”? The prayer says that God’s name is. So… is God’s name “God”, or is that just his title. Like in the court room, is the judge’s name “judge” or is that just HIS title. Is the guy on the pitcher’s mound named Pedro or Kurt, or Lefty or Whitey, or Cy… or is his name “pitcher”. I personally don’t think that Jesus thought his heavenly father’s name was “God” or “Lord”… but rather, I think he thought his name was “Yahweh”. There were lots of competing gods being worshipped in the world of two thousand years ago, but the Hebrews – and Jesus – had a personal relationship with Yahweh… they knew him by name and they felt that name was holy, consecrated, sacred and revered – and they felt that because of Yahweh’s track record of divine and benevolent behavior. I know that I certainly don’t call God “Yahweh”… I call him “God”…but, I also don’t feel comfortable calling a judge in a courtroom anything other than “Judge” or Your Honor” either… so “Hallowed be thy name” really is, for me, equivalent to saying that I acknowledge that God is powerful and omnipotent… that I acknowledge that he is knowable and nameable… that he is holy and sacred and that I revere him… that I stand in awe of him.
“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven”
From my layman’s perspective, this phrase is both redundant and slightly confusing. It seems to me that when God’s kingdom comes, his “will” will be being done on earth, by those of us who are still here when it arrives. That is sort of the definition of God’s kingdom, isn’t it? When the people on the earth all treat each other the way that God wants us to? Clearly, there are others who interpret this passage to refer to the end of times and to the second coming when God will supposedly establish his kingdom here on earth. I don’t see it quite that way myself. I think that we can bring about God’s kingdom on earth by doing the work that Jesus gave for us to do… and that, the more people on earth that do God’s will, the closer we will come to establishing that kingdom. God gives us free will, and I don’t think this phrase suggests that we abdicate that, but that when we align our goals with God’s goals, our free will becomes congruent with his.
“Give us this day, our daily bread”
This passage is the first of the requests contained in the Lord’s Prayer. I think it sort of echoes the story of Moses and the Hebrews in the wilderness receiving daily manna from heaven. Since the Hebrews were not allowed to store up manna from one day to the next, they had to rely on God providing for them on a daily basis. “Give us this day, our daily bread” seems to be saying that we want God to be involved in our lives on a daily basis… that we don’t want him to just give us “bread” every month or every year or every so often, but that we want the bread of heaven – God’s personal involvement, support and sustenance – to be an ongoing continuous part of our lives.
“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”
For me, this is THE most important phrase in the whole prayer, and one that I linger over and repeat in my mind when I am saying the prayer to myself. The literary device used is a simile. It compares God’s forgiveness of us to our own forgiveness of others. Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, we are striking a bargain with God. We are asking for forgiveness of our sins, of our failures, of our mistreatment of others, but we agree that we will take that forgiveness in the same measure as we have been able to forgive those people who have sinned against us, who have failed us, who have mistreated us and slighted us and hurt our feelings or our egos… and if, when we look at our own behavior, we see that we were not forgiving of others, we tell God that it is perfectly OK with us if HE decides to not forgive us either. It is the most concrete acknowledgement from us that WE have responsibilities in this relationship with our creator and it cannot be just a one way street of us asking and God granting our requests. Sure…we can hallow his name, and we can hope that his will is done, but if WE don’t forgive our debtors…if WE don’t love our neighbors with all the fervency and compassion that we can muster, God’s kingdom WON’T be realized. If we keep making the same mistakes week after week, and then keep asking for God’s forgiveness for those mistakes like clockwork each Sunday morning after Sunday morning, but we, ourselves, put some limits on how many times WE will forgive someone for making the same mistake over and over again, we’re kidding ourselves… and if we took the time to really understand what “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” really means, we’d be forced to acknowledge that. Jesus said we need to forgive people seventy times seven times… and we know, from this prayer, that we must do so if we hope to be the recipient of God’s similar unending forgiveness.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”
With this phrase, we are asking God to nudge us when we get close to sticking our finger in the light socket, to whisper to us before we drive off the cliff. We are saying, don’t allow us to succumb to temptation, but, instead, put us on a path away from it. Now…nobody wants to relinquish their God given free will and become an automaton completely directed by God, but, in this prayer, we ask God to watch over us and to suggest course adjustments from time to time to keep us from going too far astray. There is an implied bargain in that phrase as well. If we want God to watch over us and to give us helpful nudges and whispers, we tacitly agree to stay attuned and sensitive enough to FEEL those nudges and HEAR those whispers and to then actually take affirmative action to adjust our courses accordingly.
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever”
That closing Doxology is sort of like saying, we’ve decided to ask YOU, God, to do all these things for us, because we KNOW that you are the MAN! Why are we asking you to do these things? Because we know you’ve got the power! And YOU can actually DO that stuff. We know that it would be sort of stupid to ask Maury the Butcher or Bob the Plumber or Fred the Mailman or Tito the Builder to feed us and forgive us and to deliver us from evil… they can’t do it. Uncle Sam can’t do it. The United Nations can’t do it. Barack Obama can’t do it. Bill Gates can’t do it. Billy Graham can’t do it. Nobody on earth can do it. But YOU, God…YOU can do it. It is YOUR kingdom… and YOU have the power and the glory… and it’s not just for a day or a year or an election cycle or a century or a millennium, but it is FOREVER.
I hope that the next time you all say the Lord’s Prayer, and the next time and the next time and the time after that… you all take the time to listen to what you are saying… and take the time to figure out for yourself what it really means to you… and after really listening to what YOU are saying TO God, be very still and patient and quietly wait to hear what God is saying in reply.
“Amen”
Epiphany Celebrated 01/10/10 Well… if you are students of the church calendar, you know that Epiphany, which celebrates the arrival of the three wise men, actually occurs on January 6th, twelve days after Christmas, but our western tradition holds that Epiphany is celebrated either on January 6th, or on an adjacent Sunday, so that explains why we are still singing Christmas carols two weeks after Christmas. We are in the early stages of the Church year, and this year is year C in the three year lectionary rotation. That means that we will be exploring Luke all the way until NEXT December when we start the process all over and go back to Matthew once again. So… you say… what, then, are we doing reading from Matthew this morning? Well. Epiphany, as I said, celebrates the arrival of the three wise men, and if you look through the four Gospels, you will find that Matthew is the ONLY one that contains the story of the three wise men so here we are. Hear the story again: In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. Besides being the only Gospel that talks about the wise men, Matthew is also unique in that it portrays a much different motivation for Jesus growing up in the town of Nazareth. In Luke, Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth when they are engaged. The well where Mary is drawing water when confronted by the Angel Gabriel is in the town of Nazareth – and is used to this very day, I might add. In Matthew, however, it never says where Mary and Joseph lived before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Luke explains the Roman tax that caused the couple to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem but Matthew says nothing about that at all. It merely places the location of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and says nothing about any inns with no vacancy signs and nothing about any stables and mangers and cattle lowing or shepherds gathering or anything of the sort. It merely says that the Wise men visited the baby Jesus in a HOUSE – and the clear implication is that it is Jesus’ house, and that they gave him the fancy birthday presents. Matthew then goes on to say that the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to escape to Egypt because Herod was out to search for Jesus and kill him. Later on in the second chapter, it says: When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’ Then Joseph* got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’ Matthew would suggest that Joseph and Mary moved to Nazareth after returning from Egypt and that they had not lived there before. That is an interesting distinction but it’s not something I can claim to even begin to understand, and nothing that I think really matters in the story we are concentrating on today. I think that Epiphany is a really interesting Church Holiday. All sorts of extra stuff has sprung up over the years to fill in lots of details about the event and what exactly the holiday was supposed to be celebrating. The names of the three wise men, Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar, are not included in Matthew’s gospel account, and only appeared sometime in the eighth century. I guess folks just couldn’t stand to have them nameless. In some traditions, Epiphany deals solely with the arrival of the Magi in what has come to be referred to as the “Revelation to the Gentiles.” Other traditions have the holiday commemorate a variety of events, from the visit of the Magi, to Jesus’ circumcision and presentation at the temple, to his baptism, and even up to and including the miracle at the wedding feast in Qana. But without getting to far afield, this morning, let’s concentrate on the Magi – that is certainly the epiphany story that our church tradition deals with, and the one that the lectionary reading supports. I think we could benefit from doing a little detective work about those mysterious Magi whatever their names were: WHO were they, WHERE did they come from, HOW did they find their way to the manger, and WHY did they make this journey? First: WHO were they? Above all, they were strangers…strangers that represented a lot of unknown things. They came from beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire. They came a long ways to submit and worship and bow down to the new King of Judea and, in so doing, symbolically slapped the faces of not only the Romans, but King Herod as well. They were high ranking, well heeled members of the ruling classes of some far away land. They had to have caused quite a stir in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem, don’t you think? Imagine if our worship service were interrupted by three high ranking visitors from, say, Burma, who had travelled under great duress to be here…had thumbed their noses at Governor Baldacci and Mayor Katz just to be here with us this morning here in our tiny chapel. It would be unnerving and enthralling. It would be, in a word, Magical. The word “magic” means “of the magi”. Magic. WHERE were they from, exactly? The scriptures say that came from somewhere to the east of Judea….and somewhere in the east, back in those days, meant places like Assyria, and Persia. East of Judea meant places like Midian and Ephah and Sheba – mentioned in today’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah. East of Judea meant the Tigris and the Euphrates…East of Judea meant the Ur of Chaldees – the very birthplace of Abraham… East of Judea meant the Garden of Eden. East of Judea meant Babylon, where 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the Jews had lived in captivity. The magi came from the area that had given birth to the entire Jewish tradition, culture and religion. HOW did the magi come to set out on their journey? How did they find their way? Well, we know that a large number of the Jews held captive in Babylon decided to stay behind when the Jews were set free. That rather significant Jewish community would have certainly come in contact with wise men and learned scholars from those areas East of Judea. Those scholars would have most likely been exposed to many of the scriptures of those Babylonian Jews. Jewish prophets had foretold the birth of the Messiah long before the captivity in Babylon, so the messianic prophesies would have been available to them. As far back as the book of Numbers, the prophet Balaam says: “There shall arise a star out of Jacob, and a scepter from Israel rise up”. We know from today’s reading that God spoke to these Magi in dreams, so it is certainly plausible that God had pointed them as clearly as any star might have. And they knew, when the got to Herod, that they were looking for that one who was born King of the Jews. They knew their scriptural references. They had come, not to merely see him, as if he were some cultural oddity, but they had come to pay homage to him. And they had brought birthday presents. Is it any coincidence that Isaiah says, “And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD.” The third Magi had to use some individual creativity, no doubt and figured that Myrrh would be a nice accompaniment to the gold and the frankincense – good choice, although I might have gone with a perfume with more citrus notes… myrrh is, as the hymn says, awfully bitter. And it makes perfectly good sense that when those wise men had gotten close but were sort of “lost in the neighborhood” they asked directions from the local leader. And the Jewish scholars called by Herod, who were no doubt familiar with the writings of Micah, knew exactly where to send them. “But you, oh Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.” And they were really close, by the way. Bethlehem is less than five miles south of Jerusalem, so they travelled from the golden triangle of Mesopotamia to within ten kilometers of the manger with only a star to guide them. Finally, WHY did they traverse afar? Why did these three wealthy men from the Orient travel all that way? Clearly they were driven by an inspiration…by an event that overwhelmed and overshadowed everything else in their lives. They had heard the early scriptures of the Babylonian Jews living amongst them: “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn”. They had heard God speak to them in dreams…they had seen a star. They were compelled to risk life and treasure to travel on camelback over hundreds and hundreds of miles of inhospitable territory to follow that star…. to seek that little baby…to bestow their treasure upon him…to worship Him. The magi took a journey to find Jesus and to worship Jesus. As the story of Christmas and Epiphany echoes in our ears, we can see and hear many things that enlighten our faith. We hear how God sent a gentle ruler who can softly yet profoundly upset the powers that be and turn the world on end. We hear how God’s message is carried, in the night, by the light of a star and the whispers of dreams to the far flung corners of the world and into the deepest darkest recesses of our own hearts. We can see that a great light has dawned, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” Lift up your eyes and your hearts. See the light. Follow the star. Listen to God’s whispers in your own dreams. We are being called to live our lives bathed in the light of his love, and his grace. Come… Join the magi… gather close to the manger. See the little baby. Touch his cheek. Catch his eye. Feel his gentle yet powerful love for you today and every day. Today we celebrate Epiphany! Let yourself have an epiphany TODAY! Let yourself feel the magic! Amen. I continued my reckless scripture picking behavior again this morning. For over a year and a half, I have followed the lectionary faithfully – some would even say slavishly – but last week, and this week, I am stepping out. The lectionary reading we were supposed to read from the New Testament for this morning is from the 2nd Chapter of Luke and it deals with the time that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem for Passover when he was twelve years old. Heck… that’s like time travel for us this week, isn’t it? He was born late Thursday night, and three days later, he’s twelve years old and amazing the teachers at the temple. I decided to retell the story of his birth on this Sunday and let us all bask in the warmth and tenderness of that first Christmas for just a little while longer. I don’t know about you, but I seem to remember hearing the first nineteen verses of the Second Chapter of Luke every Christmas season my whole life, and I also seem to remember hearing it from the King James Version, for some reason. Hear it again and let it take you back to all those Christmases past: And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart The story of the birth of Jesus never gets old, does it? And I suppose, if you’re anything like me, it also never ceases to create some confusion. Imagining Jesus as a newborn infant has always caused a strange jumbled up set of emotions for me. Imagining Jesus as a little tiny baby has always been the most accessible, approachable vision of Jesus from my perspective. He is not at all as imposing or as awe inspiring as the Jesus walking on water or feeding thousands or preaching to giant crowds or raising people from the dead… or dying on a cross. I have sung the song, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” since I was a child, and I know intellectually that he really does. I find it hard, however, to LOVE the Jesus of Golgotha. I can stand in awe of him… I can worship him… I can be so incredibly thankful that he came into this world to walk in my sandals and show me a better way to live my life, but I have a hard time putting the word “Love” around that set of emotions. But, the baby Jesus of Bethlehem: I can easily love him. I cannot imagine trying to push through the gauntlet of centurions to reach the foot of the cross to be close to the Jesus nailed to it on that first terrible “Good” Friday, but I can easily imagine myself pushing the ox and the sheep and donkeys out of the way and getting close to the tiny little baby Jesus in the manger on that first Christmas night. I can imagine making funny faces at him and trying to make him smile at me. I can imagine holding out a finger and having him grab at it and grip it tightly with his little tiny hands. The Bible doesn’t spend a whole lot of time talking about Jesus as a baby or even as a very young boy - the last seven verses of the first chapter, and all of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and all of the second chapter of Luke…. That’s it. But the picture those few chapters paint is compelling. Everyone can picture the baby Jesus… and everyone loves babies. God makes all babies cute and cuddly and loveable as a survival mechanism: we are so moved by their simultaneous cuteness and vulnerability, we take extraordinary measures to protect them and shelter them, and baby Jesus is no exception. We are all drawn to the image of Jesus as a tiny baby, and loving that tiny baby is a hardwired, instinctive response. I wonder sometimes, when Jesus really figured out who he really was. Did he KNOW, as an infant lying in the manger in Bethlehem who his real father was and what his mission on earth was to be? I mean… Here is the omnipotent creator of the whole world, of the solar system, of the galaxy, of the universe… of EVERYTHING, and he is lying in a pile of straw and he is incapable of controlling his own bodily functions. I sometimes think that God did not reveal Jesus’ real identity to him until much later… maybe that revelation was what caused him to go seek baptism by his cousin John the Baptist, in which case we have Jesus, son of and co-deity with the creator of everything, spending three decades being unaware of his true identity. Of course, we have that one passage in Luke that was supposed to be read today, the passage about Jesus at age twelve when he said, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house?”, but he very well could have been using the word “father” in the same way that WE use the word “father” in the Lord’s Prayer. I actually LIKE the idea of Jesus just being a guy, a religious devout Jewish guy, to be sure, but a regular guy, nonetheless. I like the idea of him having to deal with pieces of wood with unexpected knots in them as he made things… I like the idea of him having to deal with irate customers at his carpenter shop… I like the idea of him having to make breakfast for himself, and live on a budget and do all the other stuff that we have to deal with every day. Joan Osborne had a song a few years back entitled, “What if God was one of us?” The chorus went like this: “What if God was one of us…Just a slob like one of us…Just a stranger on the bus…Trying to make his way home.” I like that. I mean, if what we are talking about is the supreme maker of the universe just wearing a Jesus costume for a brief lark on the planet Earth… if, when he twisted his ankle, it didn’t really hurt; if blisters on his hand didn’t really bother him; if hunger pangs weren’t real for him; if he didn’t really FEEL joy and sorrow and anger and jealousy and all the other emotions we feel every day, then this idea of him walking on the earth in our sandals and sharing our common lot and gaining firsthand experience as to the human condition, well then, that would be sort of a sham. If the scourging by the Roman guards wasn’t sheer agony, if the crown of thorns poking into his forehead didn’t hurt, if the nails through his palms and his feet were painless, then what was the crucifixion all about? What sort of redemption was that? How would that take away any of OUR sins? How would that show us the way to eternal life? I don’t think it would. I think that Jesus was, from the moment of his conception, fully half human from the DNA of Mary, but I think he was nearly ALL human for the vast majority of his life on earth. He may have known, at some point, a bit of what his heavenly father had in store for him, but, we know that even up until the night before his death, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was hoping that he could somehow avoid what was to come. If crucifixion was not a terrible thing for Jesus to endure, why would he ask God to take that cup from him? And if he was totally divine, and merely going through the motions of acting human, what would he have to fear? From my way of thinking, Jesus HAD to be at least partially unaware of his actual identity and what was waiting for him beyond the garden tomb or it would make all of his human experiences a meaningless charade. So… if Jesus wasn’t fully aware of what was to come after his crucifixion before he went to the cross, he obviously didn’t have a clue before he was baptized by his cousin… and he CERTAINLY was totally unaware of it wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in that manger on that first Christmas morning. Can’t you just see him? Isn’t he so darling? Don’t you want to pick him up and hold him and tell him how much you love him? And knowing what you know now… don’t you want to thank him for living that life he lived and for dying that death he endured and for showing us all how to walk through this world with love as our compass? “Child for us sinners, poor and in the manger, we would embrace thee with love and awe. Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly? O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.” Amen “Ordinary Mary Gets the News” 12/20/09 Given the fact that the children captivated us for a time this morning, this will be more of a “sermonette” than a sermon so that you can get out of here fairly close to on time. I must admit that I did something kind of underhanded this morning. As you know, I have relied nearly exclusively on the universal lectionary for the scriptures we read and for the inspiration for my sermons. Well… this morning, I decided to NOT use the New Testament reading from the Gospel of Luke that was in the lectionary, and use a passage from earlier in the 1st chapter. The lectionary reading from Luke concerns Mary, but it is the passage about when Mary – already pregnant with the Son of God - goes to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth who is six months further along in her pregnancy carrying John the Baptist. The lectionary reading contains the long monolog from Mary which has come to be known as the Magnificat that starts with “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” But if I used that reading instead, I would miss the opportunity to preach about the wonderful reaction by Mary to the news that she was to have a magical child. Her reaction to the announcement by Gabriel is really profoundly touching to me and, I would imagine, to all of you as well. When the angel Gabriel gives her the news, she initially responds, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ When Gabriel explains the impending Immaculate Conception, Mary simply says, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Mary, at first glance, would seem a most unlikely choice to be the mother of the Son of God. She was, apparently, a normal, unremarkable young girl. She wasn’t known for her towering intellect or her great beauty or for her wealth or power. She was a simple peasant girl who lived in a sleepy little town called Nazareth… a town off the beaten path, up on a hill at the end of a dead-end road. And God picked her to not just be a surrogate oven where he could bake his heavenly bun, but to be the MOTHER of the Son of God. I don’t know how you view the actual mechanics of Immaculate Conception, but it has always been sort of hazy to me, as to the details of it, anyhow. I went online and there are a wide range of theological theories about it. They boil down to two basically different possibilities, however. One is that God planted a divine zygote into Mary’s womb, and in that version, there is, therefore, no mortal human DNA in the baby Jesus. Another more prevalent theory – and the one that makes the most sense to me – is that God placed a totally divine sperm to hook up with Mary’s totally human ovum. In that case, Jesus is very much the CHILD of Mary, and not merely a divine embryo sent from outer space who hitched a ride in Mary’s womb during incubation. That theory makes the choice of Mary a truly profound one. God sent his Son down to earth to live on earth and share our common lot, and God chose Mary to contribute half the DNA that Jesus would carry as he walked upon this earth. One can join in any number of conversations about nature versus nurture… about how much of who we are we inherit from our parents via their DNA and how much of who we are is learned from our parents and from our surroundings. Clearly, our appearance has a great deal to do with DNA… I look a lot like my father, but I get my musicality from my mother. My oldest son looks a lot like his Mom, but he got that musicality passed down from me and it wasn’t something I TAUGHT him, it was something he was born with. Nature over nurture. On the other hand, I know that I have many personality traits from my father – not all of which I am glad I have – and there can be little doubt that those were not inherited, they were learned. Nurture over nature. In either case, God choosing Mary shows how extraordinary God thought young – seemingly ordinary - Mary really was. He chose her to contribute half the DNA of Jesus the Christ, and he chose her to raise that child from birth until manhood with little to no intervention on God’s part IN that process. As he grew up, Jesus looked like Mary’s son, and he grew to develop a personality that was undoubtedly shaped by Mary’s personality and her parenting skills along with the equally human parenting skills of Mary’s husband, Joseph. There was a great Kingston Trio song from the early 60’s entitled “Shame and Scandal in the Family”. It told the story of a young man in Jamaica who fell in love with a woman and decided to talk to his Dad about marrying her. The father put an immediate damper on the relationship telling his son, “I got to say no, the girl is your sister buy you momma don’t know”. The young man fell in love with another girl and another and another and every time, his carousing father would tell him the same thing – the girl was his sister but his mother was unaware of his father’s indiscretions. Finally, the boy goes to his mother and tells her his tale of woe – how every girl he wants to marry is apparently his half sister. The song ends with the line, “His momma said, son, Go man Go, your poppa ain’t your poppa but your poppa don’t know”. But in the case of Jesus, Joseph – and Mary - knew full well he was not the biological father of Jesus, and, by all accounts, Joseph did not let that stop him from being a good Dad to young Jesus as he grew. He cared very much about him. Young Jesus worked alongside Joseph. Joseph taught Jesus his trade. So…I have to think that Mary’s prior choice of Joseph as her husband-to-be had something to do with God’s choice of her as the mother of Jesus. God must have found favor with Joseph as well… God let Joseph do the daily fathering of young Jesus and insofar as nurturing has any impact – and we know it does – God let Joseph help mold the earthly personality and character of Jesus. Those are pretty big responsibilities to put on the shoulders of a young virgin from Nazareth and her poor carpenter husband. And knowing that God DID place that enormous responsibility on Mary, and to a lesser extent on Joseph, makes ME feel a great deal of tenderness and empathy and thankfulness to her and to him. And I can imagine it does for you as well. It is clear that God feels very comfortable giving seemingly ordinary people extraordinary missions in life. I wonder how many of us feel that, if we had lived back then, God would have found US way too ordinary to be chosen as the parents of Jesus. I wonder how many of us think that today, we are way too ordinary for God to choose to do some mission that furthers his will… something divinely inspired. Clearly, the example of young Mary of Nazareth and her husband Joseph should show us that such thinking is false. I think that, in many ways, God gives all of us important missions all the time and we step up and do his work without even really knowing it. Can anyone doubt, for example, that our choir, choir director and organist are doing God’s will when they fill this sanctuary with such heavenly sounds each Sunday? Or, how about Steve and Sue Gayne and their band of helpers who feed the needy hungry residents of Augusta… can anyone doubt that THEY are working on a mission from God? How about the band of ladies who work tirelessly every year organizing Holly Mart? Or the folks who work so hard to sell chicken pot pies? Or how about the deacons who come in here every Sunday morning and prepare the sanctuary for worship? Aren’t they all doing the work of God? I suggest that each and every one of us is called by God to do his handiwork. I would suggest that, when we are called, we, like young, seemingly ordinary Mary silently respond and say “I am the Lord’s servant”, and then we go out into the world and do our best. That is our calling. Advent is a season to renew that covenant. Advent is a season to welcome Jesus back into our lives all over again. What a delightful opportunity that is! I hope to see you all here on Thursday evening. Merry Christmas! Amen. Chill out! We’ll be singing Christmas carols soon enough! 12/13/09 Here we are… hurtling towards Christmas. This is the third of four Sundays in Advent. The Big Night is right around the corner. Everyone’s thoughts are turning towards our Christmas lists. DO we have all of our shopping done? Did we get everyone on our Christmas lists thoughtful and appropriate gifts which will make them think that we are empathetic caring thoughtful generous people? Are all the Christmas cards mailed out? Is the tree up and decorated yet? Our lives are so jammed up with CHRISTMAS, we don’t really have much time to contemplate ADVENT, do we? What, you say? Isn’t Advent just another name for the run up to Christmas? Isn’t Advent just another word for the pregame show? Isn’t Advent really nothing more than a method to build up the excitement toward the big gift exchange? Everybody wants to get Advent over with and get on to Christmas as soon as possible. Many of you have expressed your wish that we sing Christmas carols all throughout Advent… I understand that…. We are inundated with Christmas earlier and earlier each year. Most retailers at the mall are pumping Christmas music weeks before Thanksgiving. Well… just because America’s retailers don’t really observe Advent doesn’t mean that we need to follow their lead on this issue. There is something really gratifying about the entire Advent story that I think we should celebrate each and every day during Advent and not simply hurry past it in our rush to get to Christmas. So… we’ll hear some Christmas music next Sunday during the Children’s pageant, but for now, try to enjoy Advent for Advent’s sake. Christmas will be here and gone before you know it. In that light…. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we are introduced to Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, the kinswoman of Mary. We read about both of these women becoming unexpectedly pregnant, and then, we don’t hear about Elizabeth and Zachariah’s son, John again until the third chapter which we started last week. Last week, John was found tramping around in the wilderness wearing a fur tunic, eating insects, and baptizing folks in the Jordan River. John quoted Isaiah when he warned the people of Israel to get ready for the coming of the Lord saying, “prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth.” And this morning, that passage continues: John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." That’s a pretty stern warning… apparently, the folks coming to be baptized were overly confident about their worthiness for salvation… apparently, they thought that being an ancestor of Abraham was pretty much all they needed to do but John sternly disabused them of that fallacy. So…the reading continues: So… if we were to ask John the Baptist how to get ready for the coming of the Messiah, he’d tell us we MUST give an extra coat to someone who didn’t have one. He’d tell us we MUST give some food to someone who didn’t have any. If we ran a collection agency, he’d tell us we MUST not take any vigorish. If we were cops, he’d tell us we MUST not be crooked cops and that we MUST not extort money from people by using the power of our position. He’d tell us all to be satisfied with our wages and not keep wanting more and more and more. It seems like John the Baptist is telling us what we need to do in order to simply get ourselves ready to really start listening to what Jesus has to tell us. Doing what John the Baptist tells us to do doesn’t allow us to graduate as good Christians and head off to heaven with certainty. All it does is gain us admittance into the lecture hall where Jesus is speaking. Repenting at the direction of John the Baptist is a good start, but it really only prepares you to listen to the good news that Jesus is talking about. Repenting clears away the clutter and allows Jesus to come into our lives, but they are two separate events, in my opinion. Doing the former doesn’t necessarily allow the latter to occur, but NOT doing the former clearly prevents the latter from occurring. Turning our back on all our negativity, on all our selfishness, on all our conceit, on all our hatred and our prejudice and our hurtful ways is only an act of turning around. It doesn’t MOVE us in any different direction; it merely POINTS us in a different direction. We can repent, and turn our backs on all of our failings, but we are still standing right next to them. We are still surrounded on nearly all sides with them… all sides save one, really, and on that side…the side we have turned towards, lies the path that leads AWAY from all of those failings, all those things that separate us from the love of God. Turning around is one part of Advent, getting ready to MOVE down a new path is yet another. Giving a coat to one who doesn’t have one… sharing food with hungry folks, not extorting from the weak and helpless… those all sound like the things that Jesus tells us to do, don’t they? So why isn’t obeying John the Baptist good enough to earn salvation? Why is John the Baptist not worthy to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandals? John the Baptist had a pretty remarkable birth that seemed to have come about with some degree of divine intervention. Why does he think of himself as chopped liver when compared to the Messiah? What does Jesus say that John the Baptist doesn’t say? Well… Besides the fact that the words that John the Baptist says in the New Testament aren’t really very extensive whatsoever especially when compared with the words of Jesus written in red, one clear difference that jumps out at me is “attitude.” First off, John the Baptist is sort of scary and his words are almost angry threats. Repent or else. Repent now or burn in hell when the Messiah clears the threshing floor and burns the chaff with unquenchable fire. And then, when he gives you direction… giving the coat to the coatless and the food to the hungry person, he just tells you WHAT to do. John doesn’t seem to spend any time telling you HOW you should try to FEEL about those acts of charity. He doesn’t tell you what you should try to feel in your heart. It is like John the Baptist is a mediocre movie director. He tells his actors WHAT to do and WHERE to stand, but he doesn’t tell them WHY they should do anything. He doesn’t tell them about the feelings they need to feel in order to get it right. He doesn’t explain what their motivation might be… the only motivation he seems to use is fear and righteous indignation. If our life is a movie, and Jesus is our movie director, he does a much better job of explaining not only what we should do and where we should go on life’s stage, but also how we should feel about it. Jesus tells us not only the how, but the why. Jesus certainly tells us to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked… Jesus tells us to be charitable… but he also tells us what we should try to feel in our hearts when we do. Basically, what seems to me to be missing from the exhortations of John the Baptist is the LOVE. John the Baptist tells us to give the coatless man our extra coat in an act of fearful repentance in anticipation of the arrival of a judgmental messiah. Jesus tells us to truly love ourselves, and to love our neighbors and to treat them with all the love that we can muster up and, once we can truly and honestly love our neighbor with the same love we give to ourselves, giving him our extra coat is not something we would ever do out of fear, but our love would make it seem an absolutely natural and obvious thing to do. It would be something we would WANT to do. Jesus told us what the greatest commandment was… to love the Lord with all our heart and mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. That is the path that leads away from the failings our acts of repentance turn us from. That is the direction we are going to be headed. Advent gives us a chance each and every year to reaffirm our repentance, to recommit ourselves to paying attention this coming year, to really work at loving ourselves, loving our neighbors and then putting that love into action by the good works we accomplish in our families, our communities and our world as we walk down that path that follows after Jesus. Don’t rush through Advent and miss the chance to get yourself really ready to get it right this time around. Jesus will be here before you know it. Hallelujah! Amen. “Prepare the way of the Lord” 12/06/09 In case you were wondering - and I realize that not many of you probably were - but in case even one of you was wondering why we were reading from the Gospel of John this morning when I had said last week that we were beginning a year-long exploration into the Gospel of Luke… well, I have an explanation. And it is sort of tied into the little game I just played with the children. The New Testament reading from the lectionary for this week is indeed from Luke and it covers the introduction of John the Baptist. I will read it in a second. When I told my son, the choir director, that we would be following the lectionary and doing a passage about John the Baptist this morning, he found that beautiful anthem by Orlando Gibbons that was all about John the Baptist. When I read the lyrics to the anthem, I realized that, while it was indeed relevant to the passage from Luke, it was, in fact, taken word for word from the First Chapter of the Gospel of John. I thought it would be enlightening – or at least interesting - for you to hear the words read and then, immediately after that, to have you hear them sung. But… it doesn’t really matter where you get the story of John the Baptist FROM…. He is mentioned in all four Gospels… and in all four, he is portrayed as a pretty eccentric sort of fellow – Matthew and Mark give the most detail, telling us that John’s clothes were “made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey” – kinda goofy sounding, if you ask me. So anyhow, the lectionary reading for today from the Third Chapter of Luke goes like this: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah – and if you want to go back into the Old Testament to double check that, you can go to Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5 - “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” You’ll recall that John, the son of Zechariah, was a cousin of Jesus. He was only about six months older than Jesus and had “known” his later-to-be-divine cousin since before he was born. Earlier in Luke, the story of how his Mom, Elizabeth got pregnant is told… and how, when Mary got pregnant six months later, she went to Zechariah’s home in the Judean hills to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, and, when she walked through the door, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy. I have often wondered how close Jesus and John were when they were growing up. They were relatives, and their mothers were apparently quite close to one another, so it is reasonable to assume that Jesus and John had gotten to know one another early in life and that their relationship remained close. Remember… before Jesus even began to gather his disciples, his cousin John said of him, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.’” By that passage, it would seem that even though John the Baptist knew Jesus the man for his whole life, it was only after he felt his own calling to announce the coming of the Messiah that he came to realize that it was his own cousin who WAS that Messiah… something he clearly had an inkling of back from within his mother’s womb – if even only subconsciously. And it is clear also that his parents KNEW that young John was destined for this very mission. As you may recall, his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, were getting on in years and had no children. Zechariah prayed one night in the temple and an angel of the Lord told him that Elizabeth would have a son and that the son was destined “to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah questioned the angel and as punishment for his failure to immediately accept the angel’s proclamation, he was rendered mute and did not speak a word to anyone until eight days after John’s birth, when the family gathered for John’s circumcision. Everyone in the family assumed that the young boy would be given the name Zechariah after his father – a custom that the Bozeman family knows a lot about – but Elizabeth said, “NO! He is to be called John.” When they questioned Zechariah - still mute at this point - he asked for a writing tablet and to everyone’s astonishment, he wrote, “His name is John”. And immediately, his mouth was opened and he began to speak, and the first words out of his mouth were a lovely prayer that has come to be known as Zechariah’s Canticle. You can read it in its entirety in the first chapter of Luke, verses 67 through 79. This morning, however, the germane portion of that canticle is this: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Lo and behold… thirty-some odd years passed and John did set out on that very mission, and whether or not he knew of Jesus’ unique heritage as they grew up together, we’ll never know, and it really isn’t important one way or the other regardless. Here was this crazy looking guy, dressed up in a furry tunic and eating bugs… and he was speaking some pretty powerful stuff. And he was using the messianic prophesies from the writings of Isaiah that powerfully resonated with all those Israelites who had been hungering for their messiah for centuries. John was telling them to get ready because the messiah was already walking the earth and would soon burst forth among them. Listening to John the Baptist warn us of the impending arrival of Christ is an essential part of Advent and we’ll do more of it next week. John’s mission and his words give us guidance today as to how we should prepare for Advent… how we should prepare for the coming of Christ the child, Christ the Lord, Christ our savior, into the world, and, more importantly, into each one of our lives. Prepare the way of the Lord. Straighten out our paths through life. Quit our aimless meandering. Stop wasting all our spiritual energies repeatedly climbing giddy emotional mountains and plunging into sad and lonely valleys. Take the rough and jagged edges of our hard hard hearts and make them smooth and supple. LOOK for God’s salvation in the world… in our lives. Look for the “Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”. Advent isn’t just a time for watching and waiting. It is a time for preparation. It’s a time to do stuff, not just sit on the sidelines and wait for something to happen. Preparation means expending some effort. And by that, I don’t mean preparing for Christmas by getting all your shopping done or all your Christmas cards written and Christmas cookies baked. I mean take the time to look at your life… and make straight paths for him. Fill in the valleys. Make the hills and the mountains level. Make crooked roads straight and make rough places smooth. Next week, we’ll hear John the Baptist tell the Israelites how to do that, and you’ll be amazed at how much his words to them foretold the message that Jesus, following right behind him, would preach to those same crowds. And it is the same message that these two guys are telling us today. Get ready. Do the right things – now, not later. Don’t put off being a better person until tomorrow. Don’t wait to practice charity until your next paycheck. Don’t put off being compassionate towards the poor and downtrodden in our midst. Don’t defer loving your neighbor. Don’t defer loving yourself. Don’t put those acts of contrition and reconciliation on the back burner. Don’t delay opening up your heart and getting ready to let Jesus come inside. It’s Advent, after all. It’s what we Christians DO this time of year. Amen. What is Advent really all about? 11/29/09 Well. Here we are. Advent. The sanctuary looks lovely… the Christmas spirit is certainly in the air… the mall is all set to go. Black Friday has come and gone. Retailers are bracing for the onslaught and hopeful that the economic funk of our nation will be swept aside in the excitement of the season. Advent. But this morning’s scripture reading from Luke sounded a lot more like scary Judgment Day than it did warm and fuzzy Christmas time didn’t it? Remember: the story of the FIRST coming of Jesus, as a baby in a manger full of hay in the town of Bethlehem with shepherds coming in from their flocks after listening to a choir of angels tell them about this miracle taking place in the town nearby… the cattle are lowing… the little drummer boy drumming… the three wisemen… gold, frankincense, and myrrh … that whole scene is certainly described in Luke, but it is back in the second chapter of that book. What are we doing here this morning, all the way in the 21st chapter? This reading doesn’t have a thing to do about the FIRST coming of Christ. This reading seems to be telling us to be ready, instead, for the SECOND coming of Christ. Hear it again: [Jesus said:] “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Be on guard. Be ready. Get things tidied up in your life. Jesus is coming… and chances are, he’s not coming as a little cuddly baby this time. A new year in the life of the church… a new church calendar organized around the life of Jesus and starting today, four Sunday’s BEFORE Christmas… a clean slate. Today’s scripture reading from Luke records a little vignette that happens in the temple grounds. It happens immediately after Jesus’ comments about the widow’s offering. Jesus seems to be talking, not to a large crowd, but only to his disciples and they are asking him a lot of questions. Earlier in the 21st chapter, he has made his prediction about the walls of the temple tumbling down, and his apocalyptic vision continues here. What's more, he said that on that day "They will see," he said, "the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." He goes on to say, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He wasn’t specific about WHEN exactly all this was going to happen, only that it would happen and lots of it was going to happen fairly quickly. He let the disciples know that they personally would see these signs. Which they did, of course ... they did see things "crash and burn" in their generation, didn’t they? Thirty years later, the walls of the Temple did come tumbling down, stone upon stone. Jerusalem was in ruins. People were in prison. Families were torn apart by conflicting loyalties. There were Street corner messiahs ... each one louder than the next ... each one nuttier than the next ... each one claiming exclusive access to the mind of God. So Luke, who wrote his gospel somewhere around 70-90 A.D., when all these things were going on, recalled these words of Jesus as if to say: "Look, Jesus said it was going to get crazy. Jesus said that the light was going to go out of your life and the stars were going to fall from your sky. He said you'd see it. He didn't say when. He didn't know when… just that you'd see it." And they did…and we have. Over and over again… in every generation… in this generation. Which of us hasn't watched it all crash and burn ... which of us hasn't seen the lights go out ... which of us hasn't watched the stars fall from the sky? Jesus doesn't know when it's going to happen… nobody knows when it's going to happen... only that it will happen ... in every generation ... to pretty much everybody in that generation. Am I talking about the end of the earth? Not exactly, but it feels like it sometimes, doesn't it? Things crash and burn. Lights fall from the sky. Terrible things happen. Great leaders are assassinated. Wars are waged. Planes crash into skyscrapers. The economy falls apart. Closer to home, relationships melt down… pregnancies miscarry… loved ones die unexpectedly… careers dissolve without warning… debilitating illness strikes. And we hear ourselves saying: "That's it. No more. It’s all over. I can't go on." So what do we do then? Well… Jesus tells us to look again…look again past the crashing… past the burning… past the anger… past the bitterness… past the tears… past the rubbish, ruin and rubble... past the fallen stars rolling like pearls in whatever direction the floor of our lives happens to be tilting… past the shaking heavenly bodies... past the roaring and the tossing of the sea… past the turbulence that is, at that very moment, shaking our world ... shaking our faith or our life ... even shaking the earth on which we stand or the heavens toward which we gaze. Look past all that, Jesus says. Look through all that, Jesus says. And we will see, amidst the darkness, that the Son of Man IS coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Is he talking about the Second Coming? I think he is. But don’t be confused. The Second Coming need not necessarily mean "final coming" so much as it means "our coming" ... as in the sense of his coming to each of us. Which is why Jesus basically said, “I don't know exactly when it will happen. But this much I do know. People in your generation will see it… because people in your generation will need to see it.” We may not know exactly when the buds on the tree will open up into leaves in the spring, but we know it’s gonna happen fairly soon. We need not be concerned about the exact date of his arrival… we need not be concerned about whether his arrival will signal the apocalypse and the end of days or whether it will simply seem like the end of our days. Will Jesus come again when THE world ends ... or… will Jesus come again when OUR world feels like it is ending? The answer is “Yes”! When Jesus died, his disciples believed that their world had ended. When Jerusalem fell, the church thought that its world had ended. Whenever it was that it happened for you, I don’t know. Except I believe it has. Or it will. Your world will seem to come to an end. I know mine has… on more than one occasion. So what do we do? Well, we watch and we wait. Should we wait fearfully? I don’t think so. Jesus did not talk about the Son of Man appearing in a cloud to frighten his friends, but rather to comfort them. And I think he would say the same to us. What the text today says is that if darkness will not stop him, it need not stop us either. So we have some choices this Advent. We can drive all this talk of Jesus and second comings and advent out of our minds and get down to the really important business of supporting our economy and buying a bunch of stuff for our friends and family and hoping that we get a bunch of cool stuff in return from them… or we CAN think about those times when things DID crash and burn all around us… or think about those times when things WILL crash and burn all around us… and we can go to bed and lie there with pillows over our heads ... Or we can put a parka on over our pajamas and make our way to the front yard at midnight ... candle in hand ... the better to scan the skies for the one whose appearance we cannot yet see. Jesus came to earth the first time as a tiny little baby… and it is so easy to love that child… and Advent and Christmas is a time when we think about that event, that holy night, that wondrous birth… that tiny baby away in a manger. But Advent is also a time when we should think about Jesus coming afresh into our lives… now. We should keep awake. I guess it really doesn’t matter what personification Jesus takes when he DOES come again into our lives… if he is a little loveable baby or the Son of Man coming in a cloud… we really need to keep awake for his arrival. We need to be ready to answer the knock on the door and welcome him in from the darkness. We need to let him light up the room and light up our lives all over again, and again… and again… and again. And that… that… is what Advent is REALLY all about. Amen. The Reign of Christ 11/22/09 Today is sort of the Christian equivalent of New Year’s Eve. Today is the very last Sunday in the Church year. Next Sunday, Advent begins. Next Sunday, the altar clothes will be blue. Next Sunday we will start beginning to light Advent candles and start getting all pumped up for the holidays. Next Sunday we will start a year-long exploration of the Gospel of Luke. Next Sunday is a day for lots of new beginnings. So what will THIS Sunday be all about? Well… you’ll notice on your bulletin that this Sunday is referred to as the Reign of Christ. Some churches call it “Christ the King” Sunday. That tradition has an interesting side story and I’ll share it with you. Making this Sunday a big deal in the church calendar is really a rather recent phenomenon. It is not like some of our earlier determined holidays that were set up way-back-when when the church was trying to get the non-Christian heathens and savages to buy into our faith. I don’t know how many of you internet surfers ever use Wikipedia… I do and I find it quite helpful for stuff like this. Wikipedia’s entry on “Christ the King” has the following paragraph describing the origin of the practice: The name is found in various forms in scripture: “King Eternal” - in 1 Timothy, “King of Israel” - in John, “King of the Jews” – in Matthew, “King of kings” – in 1 Timothy and in Revelations, “King of the Ages and Ruler of the Kings of the Earth” – also in Revelations. The ideological movement of Christ's Kingship was addressed in the encyclical Quas Primas of Pope Pius XI, published in 1925, which has been called "possibly one of the most misunderstood and ignored encyclicals of all time." The Pontiff's encyclical quotes with approval Cyril of Alexandria, noting that Jesus' Kingship is not obtained by violence: "'Christ,' he says, 'has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but his by essence and by nature.'" Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925 to remind Christians – particularly those in Italy - that their allegiance was to their spiritual ruler in heaven as opposed to earthly supremacy, which was claimed by Benito Mussolini. Pope Benedict XVI has remarked that Christ's Kingship is not based on "human power" but on loving and serving others. The perfect exemplar of that acceptance, he pointed out, is the Virgin Mary. Her humble and unconditional acceptance of God's will in her life, the Pope noted, was the reason that "God exalted her over all other creatures, and Christ crowned her Queen over heaven and earth.” So… basically, in a world still shuddering from the cataclysmic War to End All Wars, the church wanted to emphasize the peaceful, apolitical nature of Jesus’ rule over all our lives. And the church decided that doing so on the last Sunday of the church year was a fine way to round out the year, a fine way to summarize the importance of Christ in our lives. And the practice quickly spread from the Roman Catholic Church to nearly every other denomination – including the United Church of Christ. And today, we celebrate Christ’s peaceful reign over our lives… a reign we willingly, gladly, submit to. In that light, I thought it might be a good idea to take a moment this morning to consider just how well we all did as faithful servants of Christ the King during this past church year. I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what we’ve done, what we’ve accomplished, and then, to examine what we might want to consider accomplishing in this NEXT church year. First, from my individual perspective, this has not been what I would want to call a “difficult” year, because it was never burdensome for me in any way. I have loved every minute of my work here. It has been a “full” year, however. This job has taken a lot more of my time than I thought it might, and it has taken a lot more of my emotional and intellectual energy than I thought it might. Monday morning, I start right in and prepare the bulletin for the coming Sunday. I pick out the scriptures and find or copy and/or edit the invocation and the call to worship and I begin to figure out what the children’s sermon will be all about. Tuesday mornings are split between finalizing the children’s sermon and pastoral prayer and visiting a delightful hospice patient down in South Gardiner. Tuesday afternoon is when I sit down and begin studying the scripture readings for Sunday and read the various commentaries on those scriptures from my pretty well stocked pastoral library. Sometime around mid-afternoon, the theme and basic structure of the sermon begin to reveal themselves to me. I begin writing in earnest either Tuesday evening at home, or Wednesday morning when I get to the office. Depending on how far along I am, I try to attend the Lunchtime Bible Study held in the Marge Grover Room. By the end of the day on Wednesday, I am usually more than half way finished with my rough draft. Thursday morning is another hospice patient visit and then more writing. Some weeks, the sermon completes itself by the end of that day. Other weeks, it carries over into Friday, but the process always ends the same way: I am typing away… and at some point, I just stop… look at the last paragraph I just finished, and then type, “amen”. I go back and edit it and revise it, but really not that much. I write in sort of a “stream of consciousness” style, and I have no doubt that nearly every week, God is looking over my shoulder as I bang away on my lap top and HE knows when I’ve said all that I need to say and somehow gets me to stop. I then print it, print the children’s sermon, print the pastoral prayer and then go home. Interspersed in that schedule every month are regularly scheduled evening deacon’s meetings, trustee’s meetings and church council meetings. From the fall until the spring were weekly meetings with the confirmation class. And every Thursday evening is choir practice. There are meetings with families about funerals. There are meetings with couples about weddings. Also interspersed into that schedule are impromptu meetings with parishioners here, in their homes and sometimes in the hospital. More and more frequently, I have meetings with folks from the community that are down on their luck and need some help and some guidance. Oftentimes, I can offer them a Hannaford’s gift card so that they can go get some groceries or just some milk for their little children. Sometimes I can offer them a sleeping bag to ward away the cold as they sleep outside without a roof over their heads. Other times, I can only offer them a ride to the bus station or just be someone to listen to them in a warm office away from the cold. Saturdays during the day I try to keep reserved for me, and then Sunday morning I am here by 8AM worrying about how the service will go… stalking the pulpit area arranging stuff on the podium… checking my microphone… practicing with the choir at 9AM and then, it’s time to go. The services fly by in a blur to me, and then, before I know it, I am saying the benediction and then Rachel and I go home and the next morning, it starts all over again. That’s sort of what I have done for the past church year and will continue to do on into this next. What YOU all do is even more diverse, and truly amazing. You come to church. You make cookies for the coffee hour. You come in early and herd a bunch of children into the lower floor of the CE wing and do craft projects for Holly Mart. You spend all year in your workshops and garages making things for Holly Mart all by yourself. You gather the offerings and tally them and account for them and deposit them. You come in and pay our bills each month. You teach our children in Sunday school. You take time out of your busy week to meet with the tenant renting the parsonage. You come in on your evenings to various board meetings where you make decisions that keep this church pointed in God’s direction. You volunteer your extraordinary talent to do artist’s renderings of what our facility might look like in the future. You design brochures about our stained glass windows. You bake casseroles for home bound members. You visit the sick in their homes and in the hospital. You operate the prayer chain. You spend most of the second weekend of every month cooking and then serving a wonderfully delicious meal for the people in this community who really count on that meal to survive. You come in here every single Thursday evening and sing your hearts out in choir practice. You singlehandedly repair the intricate framework around the beautiful window facing Church Street at the back of our Sanctuary. You come in every week and change the hymn numbers on these hymn boards behind me. You fill the candles and change the altar cloths. You cut up loaves of bread into little tiny squares and fill equally tiny cups with grape juice. You get out your check books and give and give and give, week after week, to the offering. You come to Sunday worship service and you listen to the scriptures and to my sermons, and you sing the hymns and you worship God together with one another. That’s an awful lot. Sitting where YOU do, you see your little piece of all that, and it might not seem like such a big deal to you. Sitting where I do, I get to see ALL of that, and, from where I sit, the dedication and the steady, grinding cheerful perseverance of the members of this church is overwhelmingly gratifying. But no organization gets any better if they are content to rest on their laurels. What do I think that we need to be doing in this new church year we are about to begin? Plenty. I know it’s difficult to ask people to come to worship, but I still think it is something we need to do and I have an idea as to how to make it slightly more palatable. Let’s pick a Sunday in December…say… Sunday, December 13th. And let’s everybody try to ask just one person to come to church that ONE Sunday. Tell them that your minister has been harping on you and, in order to get him off your back, would they please just come to church with you that one Sunday. Our choir is great and they’ll get to hear them. Jay is great and they’ll get a chance to hear him on our wonderful organ. I will gladly give a tour of the sanctuary after church that Sunday for any interested guests and show them all our lovely windows…. And, I promise to preach an extra-short sermon. If we did that every two months or so… just ask one visitor for one Sunday, and tell them that I am hounding you about it… I think we could increase the size of our flock. I think that we can also increase the size of our flock from the surrounding neighborhood. And we can get THEM to attend by you all coming to the public suppers on the second Saturday of each month, sitting with them, introducing yourselves to them, sharing fellowship with them, and inviting THEM to church the next morning. If we do that for them, I am convinced that, pretty soon, more and more of THEM will want to become part of US. The Maine Conference of the UCC is starting up a “Small Church Vitality Initiative,” which is designed to help the smaller churches in our Conference- like us - begin a process to discover ways of bringing new life and health to our church’s ministry. Led by our Associate Conference Minister for Small Church Development, this initiative incorporates laity and clergy involvement in facilitated work sessions as the churches create their own individualized planning for redevelopment and congregational vitality. I think that South Parish needs to get involved in that initiative this next church year and use the insight gained through that participation to help chart our course out into the future. Our search committee is making great progress. They are interviewing candidates and it won’t be too much longer before we have our next settled pastor. Growing this church will certainly be at the top of the list of the new pastor’s priorities, and we will all need to be willing to follow his or her guidance in that initiative… we all need to be willing to tell others what our faith has done for us, tell others what our mission is and how they would benefit by participating in it… we all need to be ready to sit with the folks in this neighborhood and make them feel welcomed here. And besides growing the church, the new minister will undoubtedly open a dialog with all of you about WHERE this church will head in the years to come. You will need to be willing to voice your opinions on that subject. You will need to be willing to change your opinions about preconceived notions and consider new options. And most importantly, you will need to be willing to close your eyes, and listen... really really listen for the soft, still sound of God’s voice whispering to you and nudging you away from the centerline of the safe and complacent path on which you might otherwise travel. I have a great deal of faith and admiration for all of you. I know that this church’s best days are ahead and that we can and will adapt and grow to meet the challenges of this new year and of all the years to come. The reign of Christ is upon us. Jesus is our sovereign and he is guiding us. Jesus wants this church to succeed… to grow in faith and to become a beacon of warmth and acceptance and friendship and fellowship that will beckon our neighbors to join us… to join this kingdom which has no end. Amen And the walls come tumblin’ down 11/15/09 So… in preparation for this morning’s sermon, I spent a great deal of time reading the analysis of Rev. Brent Blair, one of my favorite biblical scholars, and he really helped me to understand today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark. We are nearing the end of Year B in the liturgical calendar, and we are coming to the end of our exploration of Mark’s gospel. Next year, starting on November 29th, the first Sunday of the new church year and the first Sunday of Advent, we will begin our exploration of the Gospel of Luke. But here in the 13th Chapter of Mark, we have Jesus in Jerusalem in the final week of his earthly life, working hard to get as much teaching into his disciples as he possibly can. And today, he makes a prediction that, to the disciples, seems absolutely absurd. And if we were there, it would seem absolutely absurd to us as well, no doubt. As Jesus and his disciples are leaving the temple and heading down into the Kidron Valley and back up to the Mount of Olives on the eastern side of that valley, one of his disciples looks back at the grand temple behind them and comments to Jesus on just what a massive and magnificent structure the temple is. And Jesus tells them that before too long, that temple will be totally dismantled. Now… there are certainly some discrepancies between literary and archeological sources as to the actual size of the temple in Jerusalem… but even the most conservative estimates suggest that the temple was a quadrangle-shaped structure whose shortest side was over two hundred yards long… the longest side was nearly 500 yards long. The stones used to make the walls of the temple were absolutely massive. The Western Wall of the temple, now referred to as the Wailing Wall – which still stands - illustrates the grandeur of the scale. The smallest stones in the Wailing Wall weigh 2 to 3 tons. Many of them weigh 50 tons. The largest existing stone, part of the Wailing Wall, is 12 meters in length and 3 meters high, and it weighs hundreds of tons! The stones were so immense that neither mortar nor any other binding material was used between them. The wall’s stability was attained simply by the great weight of the stones themselves. The walls towered hundreds of feet high over Jerusalem. Inside the four walls were over 20 acres of mountaintop shaved flat and, during Jesus' day, hundreds of thousands of people could fit comfortably within the structure. No stadium in America today comes close in size. And Jesus said that whole thing was all going to come falling down. That had to be hard for the disciples to fathom. Peter, James, and John wanted to know more. They wanted to know when. What would be the sign that this was about to take place? They were scared. The temple was a huge part of their lives – literally and figuratively… and here Jesus was telling them that it was going to come crashing down? Wow. And he was right. A mere thirty-five years later, in 70AD, the temple WAS destroyed by the Romans under the command of General Titus. And that is just about exactly when scholars and historians place the writing of the Gospel of Mark. So the author of Mark was writing down this thirty-five year old prediction of Jesus even as it was being fulfilled… incredible. So… what can we learn today from this prediction and its fulfillment? Perhaps what Jesus was really telling them, and us, was what the real bedrock of faith was, and what it was not. First of all, it seems that Jesus is saying that the bedrock of faith is not in Temples. Try to place yourself in first century Jerusalem. From anywhere in the city you can look up and catch a glimpse of the Temple. The decades-long project of King Herod was the third such Temple on that spot. The temple in Jerusalem had been the center of the Jew’s national life for a thousand years. In the Temple the Jews sacrificed; they confessed their Sins there; they gave their first fruits of the harvest every year there; they sacrificed a lamb for the nations’ sins every year there. It was there in the temple that Passover, Shavuot, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Purim, and Rosh Hashanah were all celebrated. The Offerings of Poor Widows 11/08/09 Do you think that is a coincidence that the United Church of Christ would chose today as Stewardship Sunday throughout the denomination when today’s universal lectionary readings from the Old and New Testaments both deal with poor widows giving until it hurts? I don’t. I am not suggesting that the UCC is attempting to guilt trip anyone into increasing their pledge, but I AM suggesting that we can all learn from the readings today and apply the lesson to our individual charitable practices. So let’s review these two scripture readings and see what, indeed, we CAN learn from them. I will pretty much leave it up to each of you to figure out how you will apply that lesson. The Old Testament reading for this morning from 1 Kings is an interesting one. Chapter 17 of 1 Kings is the first place in the Bible where Elijah is introduced. Chapter 17 starts out with the line: “Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’” You must admit, that is a pretty bold entrance to make. Elijah is a pretty big deal in the Old Testament... and elsewhere. He appears in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Quran, the Talmud and the Mishnah. But he makes his entrance here. After he chastises Ahab in that first verse of the 17th Chapter, the Lord sends him eastward to hide out in a ravine east of the Jordan River where ravens feed him and he drinks the water from the brook. But because of the drought that he had predicted, the brook finally dries up and this morning’s passage begins: Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. Pretty amazing. This widow is so destitute…. She is completely without hope. She has a handful of meal in a jar and a little bit of oil. She is gathering sticks to build a little fire to make a little tiny cake to share with her son, and then she has resigned herself to death by starvation. And Elijah is such a powerful convincing force that she abandons that plan and does as he directs her. She uses what she thinks is the very last of her meal and her oil and gives it to a stranger. But just like the Lord sent ravens with bread and meat to feed Elijah in Kerith Ravine, so did he keep filling the jar of meal and the jug of oil for the charitable widow who gave all she had for a man of God. Later on in the chapter, the charitable widow’s son became ill and died. She felt that Elijah’s arrival – and Elijah’s God – might have caused this calamity… much like last week when Naomi blamed the death of her husband and sons on God. And Elijah “stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him”. And the boy came back to life. Clearly, Elijah is a pretty powerful guy who has God on speed dial. Clearly, God rewards those whose charity comes not from excessive wealth, but from the heart. And now, let’s go to the passage from Mark. It has been called the story of the widow's mite. We are all familiar with this story from the final days of Jesus’ life where a widow gave all the money that she had to an offering in the Temple and thereby received the praise of the Son of God himself. The story is generally perceived to be one about giving and clearly that element is there. In terms of the actual amount that she gave it was a mere pittance... less than one penny in today's money. The extravagance in it was that it represented all that she had. “There was a very wealthy man who had never been known for his generosity to the church. The church was involved in a big financial program and they resolved to pay him a visit. When the committee met with the man one afternoon, they said that in view of his considerable resources they were sure that he would like to make a substantial contribution to this program. "I see," he said, "so you have it all figured out have you? In the course of your investigation did you discover that I have a widowed mother who has no other means of support but me." No, they responded, they did not know that. "Did you know that I have a sister who was left by a drunken husband with five children and no means to provide for them" No, they said, we did not know that either. "Well, sir, did you know also that I have a brother who is cripple due to an automobile accident and can never work another day to support his wife and family." Embarrassingly, they responded, no sir, we did not know that either. Well, he thundered triumphantly, I've never given any of them a cent so why should I give anything to you." He had never given of himself therefore he never gave of his resources. Giving is an outgrowth. It is the inevitable result of a warmed heart. As we enter into a loving relationship with God and with our neighbors then we will want to give not only ourselves but also our resources to God and to his church. It seems sometimes that we have put the cart before the horse. Some of us might say that because we give a lot to this church… that is proof that we are good Christians. I would suggest it is just the reverse. I think we should say that it is because we are faithful followers of Jesus that we CHOOSE to give. The widow outside the gates of Zarephath gave her last handful of meal to Elijah. The widow at the temple gave her last two small copper coins. Both did so with a sense of love and gratitude to God. When we give to the church, love is no longer just an idea, it is an action. Man's law says we cannot give what we do not have. God's law says we cannot keep what we refuse to give away. Think about all of that on this Stewardship Sunday. Amen. Today I will try to blend discussions about both the Old Testament reading and the New Testament reading into one sermon. I do so because both of them were such juicy bits of scripture that demanded my examination and I could not bear to ignore either one of them. First, we have the beginning of the story of Ruth… an absolutely amazing and thoroughly endearing woman, and even though the lectionary only gives you a taste of it, I will read on just a bit further to the place where Ruth wins my heart every time I read it. And then, we have Mark’s rendition of Jesus stating his Great Commandment. I may not give either one the sort of in-depth analysis that I normally give when I am basing a sermon on only one reading, but I hope to give you some added insight into both so that you will come to appreciate these passages as much as I do. The story of Ruth starts out against a backdrop of drought and famine. Elimelech and his wife Naomi decide to take their two sons, leave their home in Bethlehem and go live in Moab. And much like the journey that Jesus was taking last week from Jericho to Jerusalem, this journey from Bethlehem to Moab was one that started at a half a mile or so above sea level, went down in the course of maybe 15 miles to 800 feet below sea level, crossed the Jordan river, and then climbed up the eastern wall of the Jordan river valley to Moab, in the foothills of what is now Jordan. Almost immediately after getting there, Elimilech dies and Naomi is left with two young sons. Soon, however, the two sons – Mahlon and Kilion – married two local Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. But the bad luck continues and soon, both of the sons die as well leaving Naomi, Orpah and Ruth to fend for themselves. Naomi hears, through the grapevine, that things are a bit better back over in Bethlehem and she decides to take her two daughters-in-law and head home. But then, Naomi realizes that such a move, while perhaps the best option for her, would not be the best option for the two young widows. Naomi urges Orpah and Ruth to return to their parents and that is where the lectionary reading for today leaves off. What happens next is a very poignant story. Both Ruth and Orpah initially state that they will accompany Naomi back to Bethlehem and let me read the story as it resumes from there: But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.’ Then they wept aloud again. Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said, - and this is the part I just love - ‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!’ That passage chokes me up a little… it always does. Here this young woman shows us so much affection, so much loyalty, so much faith, such a strong sense of duty… she is simply remarkable. The story of Ruth and Naomi is one of two women who in a sense are strangers coming from two different parts of the world, yet they are bound together in the midst of a hostile world. This is a story of relationships, of family. To be in any family is to venture forth like Ruth and Naomi, without guarantees for the future, but, even in the worst of futures, it is more hopeful and bearable when we bear it with one another. Naomi as described in the beginning chapters of the Book of Ruth comes across as an unattractive character. Although her name means "sweetness," she does not come across as sweet. After the death of her husband and sons she blames God for the emptiness she feels. She feels the loss of her family is the result of divine judgment. She suggests that possibly God is responsible for their deaths. Naomi feels that she left Bethlehem with a husband, two sons, and a promising future, and because of the Lord's doing she is returning empty-handed. But she has a right to be bitter and angry -- after all she has lost her husband and sons. Who wouldn't feel bitter? Anger would be the most logical initial response to such a catastrophe. Anyone who has experienced what Naomi experienced will confess that their first response was one of bitterness and anger. Not only is it logical and understandable, but healthy. Anger in the face of such tragedy should not only be expressed but should also be worked and prayed through. It is part of both the grieving and the healing processes. God does not condemn anyone for expressing anger and bitterness in the face of tragedy – the example of Job comes to mind. Somehow… in spite of all that had befallen her, this grieving, bitter widow was still able to accomplish something that all of us would hope to accomplish. She influenced someone to choose to follow her God. Naomi became the instrument of Ruth's choice to make Naomi's God her God. This did not come about by Naomi putting on a "happy face," but by being her true self. Here is hope for us, as weak and faulty as we may be. God can use us, as God used Naomi in the midst of her bitterness and grief, to accomplish no small part in the work of God in the world. And God was indeed about to work out a remarkable future for Ruth. Ruth wasn't sure what it all meant, but she had the feeling that her life was to have significance and meaning, if she was faithful and loyal, although things appeared mysterious. At this point in her life she is akin to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary knew that something important and significant was about to take place, but she was not too certain about what it all meant. For Mary, her future too was wrapped in mystery and awe. The secret is if we just stick together, trust God through thick and thin, God will use such faithfulness and fidelity to reveal God's purpose and bless others. And he did. So… when Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem, with no means of support, Ruth immediately said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain from anyone in whose eyes I find favor”. And she did just that, working diligently from dawn ‘til dusk following behind workers in the fields gleaning what little she could find from the stalks they left behind. And she so impressed the owner of the field, a man named Boaz who just so happened to be a kinsman of Elimilech from the beginning of the story, that Boaz became smitten by her. And her mother-in-law Naomi helped nurture the fledgling romance, and Ruth, the Moabite, who had followed her widowed mother-in-law to a strange land, became the wife of Boaz, and together they had a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who had eight sons, the youngest of which was a little ruddy faced shepherd boy named David… and we all know what became of him. God used the fidelity and faithfulness of Ruth to bring forth a great king for Israel and then, some twenty-five generations later, that same fidelity and faithfulness came to full flower in Ruth’s greatest descendant, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Both David and Jesus… a pretty powerful line of offspring from the brave Moabite woman who put her faith in Naomi’s God and left everything behind in order to maintain her sense of loyalty to family and her relationship with that God. And that’s the scoop on Ruth. Now… let’s spend a moment examining this morning’s passage from Mark. All three synoptic gospels have similar renditions of this pronouncement by Jesus of his idea as to the greatest commandment. Most biblical scholars will tell you that there are 613 different laws or commandments that were laid down by Moses. That is a huge list. And when the scribe heard Jesus debating with his disciples, he stepped in and asked Jesus “Of all the commandments, which is the most important”. As it turns out, asking rabbinical teachers to summarize Mosaic Law was a fairly common practice. There was a very famous rabbi named Hillel who lived in Jerusalem and was probably the most influential voice of the Jewish faith for a period that started about thirty years before the birth of Jesus. Rabbi Hillel is supposed to have died when Jesus was about ten years old. According to Rabbinical tradition, a gentile once asked Rabbi Hillel to summarize the Law while he stood on one leg. The good rabbi said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary thereof”. So, in the passage from Mark, the scribe approaches Jesus and asks him a similar question. I am a bit surprised he didn’t ask Jesus to stand on one leg while he answered, but nonetheless, the scribe approaches Jesus in a way that seems different from the accusatory “gotcha” sort of traps that we see the Pharisees always setting for him. And I think that this interchange shows a very engaging friendly Jesus with none of the wary defensiveness of other confrontations. But nonetheless, it is a tough question. And the way Jesus answered it shows what a scholar he really was. Think about this… in all the gospel stories about Jesus, we never see him READING or STUDYING, yet he is clearly very well read. It is obvious to me that Jesus must have spent a great deal of time in those 30 some odd years before he started his ministry reading and studying the Torah. If I try to imagine myself back there, being asked that question by the scribe, I might think that it would probably be one of the TEN COMMANDMENTS, and I would be wrong, of course. But Jesus knew the scriptures so well that when the scribe asked for the most important commandment, Jesus reached back and grabbed TWO of them… one from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, which he recited verbatim: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And then he immediately followed it with one from the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, which he also nailed verbatim: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And the scribe congratulated Jesus on getting it right. The scribe said, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” So here is this guy who considers himself to be an expert and he is patting Jesus on the back for getting the answer right… and I really love this part…. And Jesus tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”. Not far? No kidding. How about standing right in front of it talking to God himself? The scribe, of course, didn’t know that yet, but I bet when that scribe looked back on that moment with the knowledge and understanding of the events that took place later that very week on Golgotha and at the garden tomb, he felt kinda stupid… like realizing when you sobered up the next morning that the guy at the bar last night that you tried to stump on basketball trivia was actually Larry Bird. But the scribe was right. It IS really important to understand and accept the infinite power of God, and to worship him solely, with emotion, and objective understanding and to do so with fervor and strength… and it IS also really important to truly care for our fellow men and women and treat them with all the love and concern that we would give ourselves… and that’s a really important piece of that passage that gets lost sometimes. God wants us to love him and to love our neighbors, but he also wants us to love ourselves. God wants us to treat ourselves with care and respect. God does not want us to be too hard on ourselves, but to forgive ourselves like we forgive others, and we KNOW that God will be right there forgiving us as well. When we can look at ourselves and accept ourselves as good and beautiful – and naturally imperfect – creations of God and be happy with that… then and only then will we be able to accept others as being good and beautiful and imperfect as well. And then, when we do, we can more easily have the best interests of others become a priority in our lives. Then we can truly love our neighbor. Then we can truly love God. The scribe asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment. There were 613 to choose from, and Jesus gave us two... and if we can just do THOSE, everything else will fall into place. Amen. Martin Luther and Bartimaeus 10/25/09 Well….today is Reformation Sunday, and I was torn, this past week, as to what to do for a sermon. Should I talk about the reformation and its obvious impact on all the protestant denominations that sprung up in its wake, or should I talk about the passage from Mark where Jesus gives sight back to Bartimaeus on the road outside of Jericho? So… I decided to do both: two sort of “sermonettes” that cover each of those topics. First, let’s do Reformation Sunday. It actually is a pretty big deal in all the protestant denominations, but none more so than the Lutherans, I suppose. We celebrate it this year, today, on October 25th, but actually the real event being celebrated here happened on October 31st, 1517. On that day, a young Roman Catholic Priest by the name of Martin Luther posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, a list of 95 theses, or statements, and requested a meeting of the church leaders to discuss and debate the substance of these 95 theses. At the time, Martin Luther had no idea what drastic changes this simple act would bring upon the church, but posting those 95 theses began a chain reaction that resulted in the events that we know today as the Protestant Reformation. The Christian church was a lot different in those days. Martin Luther grew up in a day and age when the church pictured God as an angry, vindictive God, a God of wrath and punishment who watched over us, anxiously waiting for us to make a mistake so that God could then punish us with eternal suffering in hell. The church taught people to fear God in the worst sense of the word. And then the church used that fear to control the people, to get them to submit to the church and obey all the teachings and rules of the church. And the church used that fear to amass tremendous wealth and power for the Pope in Rome and for the Roman Catholic Church, which was the only church in Europe at the time. Luther was a pretty devout Catholic when he nailed those theses onto the door. In fact, he was an Augustinian monk and a professor at the University of Wittenberg, one of the new and upcoming schools of the Church… and he himself was a bright light in the church seen as having great potential. But he was struggling internally with his concept of faith. He was having a hard time understanding how man, as inherently sinful, could ever escape God’s condemnation. And then, one day, he was preparing for a series of lectures on Paul’s letter to the Romans and, in Chapter 3, he came upon a passage that, when he read it, seemed as if he were reading it for the first time. In his own words he said “It was as though the gates of heaven were opened to me!” Listen to these relevant verses from Romans 3:19-28 that were the great epiphany for Martin Luther and which started his dissident journey away from the Catholic Church: “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed... since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified (put right with God) by God's grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.... For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Suddenly Luther saw the gospel in a different light. He could see that he no longer needed to try to make himself worthy and acceptable before God, something he could never achieve for himself, no matter how hard he tried. Luther could see that all he needed to do was to simply rest in the grace and favor and love freely given to him because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross at Golgotha. Luther came to see that we are not saved, we are not put right with God by being good or obeying the law or going through all the outward rituals of religion or anything else we may try to do to make ourselves worthy before God. Luther came to see that we are saved solely by the love and grace of God generously given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luther could see that salvation comes to us as a free gift of God's grace. Now, if you have been here for any of my sermons last month about the Book of James, you know that I take a bit of an issue with Luther on that particular part of his theology. I understand the gift of grace. I understand that faith is what brings forth that grace, but I also firmly believe, as James said, that “faith without works is dead”. If we believe in Jesus, and we believe in how he told us we ought to live our lives serving one another, then we shouldn’t just sit back and bank on God’s grace and NOT bother to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless. We should have faith; we should be grateful for God’s grace; but then we should DO something about it But, regardless of that minor disconnect with Martin Luther, what he did for the church cannot be measured. I think it is important for us all to recognize the profound impact of that act of defiance 492 years ago and celebrate it today. And we will sing Martin Luther’s hymn for our final hymn this morning as a way of honoring him. And that’s about all I have to say about Reformation Sunday. Now… let’s discuss the passage from Mark a bit: the cluelessness of the disciples continues this week, doesn’t it? Two weeks ago we heard Jesus disappoint the rich young man by telling him that he needed to sell everything he owned give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus as he acted as a servant to all he met… and the disciples didn’t get it. Then Jesus tells them – for the third time in Mark’s narrative – that they are headed to Jerusalem where he will be captured, tortured and killed… and the disciples STILL didn’t get it. They immediately ask him about who will get seats of honor at the palace throne room when Jesus ascends to his earthly throne. And Jesus tells them all AGAIN that this ain’t gonna be no ordinary sort of Kingdom. He tells them AGAIN that, if you want to become great among the disciples, you must be servant to all… he points out that even HE did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Then today’s scripture reading picks up. And it starts in a very cryptic sort of way. “Then they came to Jericho.” “Then they came to Jericho.” And the very NEXT verse says, “As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crown, were LEAVING the city…” He arrives in Jericho with his disciples and leaves with them and a large crowd. Mark completely leaves out any events that took place while they were IN Jericho, but we can assume, can’t we, that something big must have happened. Jesus had to have spoken at some synagogue or public square. He must have healed someone or performed some miracle or maybe just amazed a large crowd of people with the brilliance of his teaching that they all decided to follow him OUT of the city and continue the ever shortening journey to Jerusalem. Jesus is getting near the end of the road. Jericho is only about fifteen miles east of Jerusalem. Interestingly enough, however, the distance UP is pretty dramatic. Jericho lies near the Dead Sea and is at an elevation of 800 feet BELOW sea level, and Jerusalem, only 15 miles west, is at 2600 feet ABOVE sea level. Nonetheless, when Jesus leaves Jericho with his disciples and crowd in tow, he is close to the end of his journey, and the disciples are close to the end of their training. And again, they STILL show that they don’t really understand. Now here is Bartimaeus, a blind man, sitting on his cloak beside the road begging. The naming of Bartimaeus, by the way, is unusual in several respects. For one, the fact that a name is given at all, for another, it’s a strange Semitic-Greek hybrid sort of name, and the author of Mark seems compelled to give us the explicit translation of that hybrid name… Bar-Thimaeus meaning "Son of Thimaeus." Some scholars see a special significance of the story in the figurative reference to Plato's Thimaeus. Plato uses a character named Thimaeus in one of his famous Dialogues, and Thimaeus delivers one of Plato's most important philosophical concepts, which involved sight as the foundation of knowledge. Now, Mark is a Hellenistic gospel, written originally for an audience of Greek-speaking residents of the Roman Empire. The author’s audience would be well versed in the writings of Plato and the reference to Thimaeus – and sight - would be obvious. Regarding Bartimaeus, it would seem that he had not been IN Jericho to witness whatever had taken place there that had raised the large crowd, but nonetheless, Jesus’ reputation preceded him. It would seem that even though Bartimaeus had not had the benefit of countless hours talking with Jesus like the disciples had, he, unlike them, DID fully understand who Jesus was and what he could do. So, as the crowd clamors by, and when Bartimaeus hears that the crowd is all gathered around Jesus of Nazareth, he calls out to Jesus, saying “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Now, one would think that the disciples, having just been schooled by Jesus on the importance of acting as a servant to those less fortunate, might jump at the chance to show their teacher that they had understood his last lesson and to help this blind man, and to facilitate bringing him to Jesus, but none of them attempt to help him in any way. The crowd is equally discourteous to Bartimaeus and Mark reports that many in the crowd “rebuked him and told him to be quiet”. And Jesus’ response is interesting. Rather than walking over to where Bartimaeus is sitting there on his cloak, Jesus says, “Call him”. And Mark reports that they DID call him saying, “Cheer up! On your feet! He is calling you.” And what does Bartimaeus do? He throws his cloak aside. Is that confident or what??? Think about that. Here is a blind guy, sitting on his cloak, begging. That cloak is a pretty big deal for a blind beggar. People throw money onto the cloak, so it acts as a collection basket for his only source of income. That’s pretty important. It acts as his blanket and his shelter from the weather. That’s pretty important. He’s sitting on it in the midst of a crowd that is, at best unhelpful and at worst, hostile to him, and when someone tells him that Jesus is calling him, he tosses his cloak aside, jumps to his feet and comes to Jesus. And when Jesus asks him what he wants, he lays it all right out there and says, “Rabbi, I want to see”. The confidence he shows here is remarkable. It is as if Bartimaeus KNOWS that, after he comes face to face with Jesus, after he asks him to have mercy on him, Jesus WILL show him mercy and WILL grant his request and he won’t need that old cloak anymore after that. And he’s right. After he tells Jesus he wants to see, Jesus replies, “Go, your faith has healed you”. And Mark reports that immediately he received his sight. But the last half of the last verse in today’s reading is, for my money, the most important part of the whole passage. “Go”, said Jesus, “your faith has healed you”. “Immediately he received his sight AND FOLLOWED JESUS ALONG THE ROAD.” He didn’t go run to tell his family. He didn’t go run to celebrate with a cup of wine. He didn’t spend the rest of the day just LOOKING at all those things that had been hidden from his sight. Nope. He followed Jesus along the road. “He received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” Contrast that with the rich young man from two weeks ago. When Jesus told HIM the way to get to heaven was to sell everything he had, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus along the road, the rich young man turned away and did not take Jesus up on his invitation to heaven. Contrast that with yourself. Do you believe, like Martin Luther did, that we are saved solely by the love and grace of God generously given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that having faith in Jesus is all we need to do? Or… do you believe, like Jesus’ brother James, that “faith without works is dead”? Think about that this week. On this Reformation Sunday, we all should be grateful for the courage of Martin Luther, and I am. We all should have faith in Jesus, and I do. But as for me, I’m also gonna try to throw away my cloak. I’m gonna try to follow Jesus along that road and work… work to treat the people I meet along the way with all the love and compassion that I believe travelling on that path demands. Think about THAT this week as well. Amen. Ambition 10/18/09
It’s easy to love the Baby Jesus, isn’t it? 12/27/09
And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
With the Temple so central to their life and worship, this major question then arises: How would the disciples worship God without the Temple? It was a question for which they had no answer. Everyone understandably gets tied to things. Folks develop strong sentimental attachments to them. But the Temple was unique. God himself is said, in Deuteronomy, to be the architect giving to Moses the exact dimension of the altar, the grounds, the walls, the doors, down to the very size of the stones. This was God’s own building.
And we know that the early Christians continued to worship at the temple and make sacrifices at the temple even after Jesus’ death. Paul even makes an offering there when he comes to town. The importance of the Temple in the Christian story cannot be minimized. It is the place where John the Baptist’s birth was announced. Jesus’ preeminence was recognized there by Simeon and Anna when he was just a little baby and Joseph and Mary brought him there for ritual purification. The temple is where Jesus’ religious intelligence was recognized by the leaders when he was only 12. The temple is where Jesus drove the money changers out years later.
With the Temple so central to life how would the early Christians worship God without it? There is a story told about the famous composer Franz Joseph Haydn and an event that happened in his later years. On a special evening at the Vienna Music Hall, his oratorio “The Creation” was being performed. As the majestic work moved along, the audience was caught up with tremendous emotion. When the passage "And there was light!" was reached, the chorus and orchestra burst forth in such power that the crowd could no longer restrain its enthusiasm. The vast assembly rose and spontaneously applauded in the middle of the piece. Haydn, even though he was weakened by age and confined to a wheelchair, struggled to stand and motioned for silence. With his hand pointed toward heaven, he said, "No, no, not from me, but from thence comes all!" Having given the glory and praise to the Creator, he fell back into his chair exhausted.
Perhaps that is the lesson Jesus would have us learn from today’s scripture reading. Haydn directed the crowd’s attention away from his talents to God’s, away from the beautiful music to a majestic God. Great oratorios, large temples with massive stone walls, or even majestic gothic structures with towering copper steeples and sanctuaries adorned with historic Hook Organs and Tiffany windows are not anything to be worshipped, they are merely things that set the stage FOR worship. This is a lovely room, but my guess is, that the folks who were members of this church back in 1865 thought they had a lovely sanctuary too… and then, one night, a bolt of lightning and the ensuing fire turned it into a pile of smoldering rubble by daybreak. Yet their faith lived on. Their faith caused them to build this marvelous edifice in less than a year. They wanted another inspiring place to worship, but their faith itself was not dependent upon the building. Neither should ours be. They worshipped God, not the building. So should we.
Secondly, Jesus seems to be telling us that bedrock faith is not found in signs. Tell us, the disciples insisted, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they all are about to be fulfilled? It is the greatest of all biblical mysteries… 23 of the 27 New Testament books claim that Christ will one day return, but none of those books give us any indication of when or what will usher it in. The problem with predicting the Second Coming is that most predictions concerning that center on world events. I don’t buy that. I don’t think that world events are indicators of the end of times. Wars, earthquakes, international political instability, famine, persecution…these, says Jesus, are not a sign of the end they are simply facts of life from the beginning Jesus said, “Do not be alarmed these things must happen; the end is still to come.” I have no idea when it’s going to happen, but I do know that if we don’t live with the expectation that Jesus is going to show up again someday, we are missing one of the bedrock teachings of Jesus’ life. Believing in his eventual return will help make us watchful. It will help make us cautious. It will help motivate us to work in this life to better prepare this world and all the people in it for the day when he DOES come again, because we know that no generation of today or tomorrow can sit idly by and NOT prepare for such an event. Our faith tells us that it has never been a matter of “if”, it has always and only been a matter of “when”.
So… the bedrock of faith is not in Temples and it is not in Signs. Christ seems to be saying that the bedrock of faith is within Christ himself. In this morning’s reading, Jesus tells the disciples “Watch out, that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming, “I am he,’ and will deceive many.” And don’t we know that there are a lot of folks out there claiming to have the answers. Lots of folks claim to be doing the right thing. Some of them are truly evil like our Islamic extremist terrorist enemies who attempt to encourage faithful otherwise peaceful Muslims to hate us because of our divergence of beliefs. Some people, like money-grubbing televangelists, would try to twist our own faith for selfish ends and brazenly prey upon those seeking solace. Some false messiahs merely try to get us to concentrate on temporal, material, secular pursuits… suggesting that fashion or recreation or leisure or comfort or affluence or endless acquisition are exalted goals worthy of our attention and effort. History will sweep all those people under the rug. And there will be others, and history will sweep them under the rug as well. We need to live out our faith… we need to put our faith in action, like we did last night at the public supper. We need to stop putting off, even for one more day, beginning to put Christ first in our lives. We need to love the Lord with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds and with all our strength and we need to start this very day loving our neighbors as ourselves. We dare not delay because one day – maybe today… maybe tomorrow - Christ will return and walls will come tumblin’ down all over the place. And we all will stand, not in the bedrock of a Temple made with human hands that is here today and gone tomorrow. Instead, faithful, watchful Christians like us will take our stand with Christ, the true and only bedrock of our faith. Amen.
But there is another element to this story that perhaps we fail to see. Jesus had just been watching the Pharisees in their giving practices. Now, we are talking big bucks. And they were quite open about their giving. Everyone knew their giving record; indeed, they made a point that everyone knew it. It was in that light that Jesus pointed out this widow. Picture Jesus sitting now with the leaders of the temple-the Sadducees- observing the people as they come in and watching their donations. There is no paper money so it all makes a terrible noise as it rolls down this long horn shaped object and falls into the pool of coins. So here comes this little old lady and she has two small coins worth nothing and drops them in. They barely make a noise. You can almost see the Temple leaders as they roll their eyes and hope for better results with the next person who walks in the door. Jesus then calls his disciples over and says, "This poor widow has put more in to the treasury than all the others." To the Sadducees this woman is a waste of time but to Jesus she is just the kind of person that will be integral to building God’s Kingdom on earth. Thus, at its heart, the widow's mite is not a story about giving; it is a story about motivation. Why do we do what we do? What do we hope to achieve by our giving? The Pharisees and Sadducees gave to receive peer recognition. And, said Jesus, they received their reward. People praised them. The woman, on the other hand, gave out of love for God. According to Jesus, she also received her reward.
So… what are our motivations for giving? What are our reasons to participate in stewardship?
The first motivation for giving, I believe, is that we have first given of ourselves. In writing to the young church in Corinth, Paul said, “First we give of ourselves, and then we give of our resources.” There is a theological professor and minister named Brent Blair whose analysis I read from time to time. He has a story that illustrates this quite nicely:
Secondly, our money follows our heart. Jesus worded it this way: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If I were to show you my check book, you’d know what is important to me. Consider how much you give to the Kingdom of God and then compare that with how much you spend on your personnel hobbies. Our money follows our heart. If our commitment to Christ has not yet reached our wallets that means it has not yet reached our hearts.
And this principle is true in other areas isn’t it? Take the stewardship of time for example. Have you ever noticed how your time follows your interests? You get interested in something and you invest in it--both with time and money. The number one reason why people say they do not commit to the church is that they do not have enough time. They really mean to do it, but they're just too busy. Yet, it is really amazing to me how quickly people can clear their calendars for something that they really want to do. Our pledge cards for the past two years have included a place to not only pledge our treasure, but also our time and our talent as well, and those who experience the joy of giving time and talent to the outreach efforts of this church just naturally WANT to give more of their treasure because they have seen firsthand the good it can do. Jesus does not want our money. Not first and foremost. What he wants is our heart. Once we have surrendered our heart, those other matters will fall into place.
The third motive for giving is because it makes God happy. Paul also wrote to the Corinthians, “God loves a cheerful giver”. Dr. James I. McCord, former president emeritus of Princeton University Theological School, once told the story of a man who commented that he was never coming back to a particular church because all they ever talked about in that church was give, give, give. Dr. McCord concluded that he could not think of a better definition of Christianity than that: give, give, give. It pleases me to know that the joy I feel at giving to this church also pleases God.
A fourth motivation it seems to me is to give not because the church bills need to be paid but because we are moved by a sense of gratitude. We create yearly church budgets and they perpetuate the concept that we are to give in proportion to what our church bills are. We should be giving out of a sense of thanksgiving and joy, not merely to pay the bills. If we collected enough money to pay our bills, there would still be so much more that we could be doing to spread the gospel message to those less fortunate people who live in the shadow of this great sanctuary. I am grateful to God for my wonderful children and my lovely wife. I am grateful to God for my health and for all the opportunities he has given me in my life. I am grateful to God for what Christ did for me at Golgotha. My contribution to this church reflects that gratitude.
A bit about Ruth, and a bit about the Great Commandment 11/01/09
On his website, Dynamic Preaching, noted Christian minister, theologian and preacher, King Duncan, has a wonderful article about ambition that quotes today’s passage from Mark. That article inspired me as I wrote this morning’ sermon. I also spent a great deal of time reading and trying to understand the commentary on today’s passage that was contained in the UCC website’s electronic library. I am always inspired and assisted by the insightful nature of the analysis presented by our denomination’s scholars.
So… today’s passage from Mark, on its face, seems like a case of clueless ambition. Clueless? Well we have seen time after time after time that the disciples were totally clueless about the nature of Jesus’ impending Kingdom. They all seemed, right up until the moment when Jesus was taken away in the Garden of Gethsemane, to be imagining some earthly rule, some actual kingdom there in the hills of Judea, and today we hear James and John calling Jesus aside and trying to get themselves seats near the throne.
Last week’s scripture passage ended at the 31st verse of the 10th Chapter of Mark, and today’s passage starts at the 35th. We went from the story of the rich young man last week, to the story of the Sons of Thunder trying to get high level management positions in the new enterprise, Jesus, Incorporated. Clearly, James and John were ambitious. Clearly they were also clueless, and the missing verses…the ones left out of the lectionary that sit in between last week’s and this week’s passage from Mark only serve to highlight how clueless they really were. Hear now, the skipped segue, Mark 10:32-34
They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
So… Jesus tells them – again… for the THIRD time in the Gospel of Mark - that they were headed for Jerusalem where he will be accused, convicted, tortured and executed… And the very next thing that happens is: James and John come on up to Jesus and ask him, almost like kids asking a parent, “Jesus, will you do me a favor? Will you give me whatever I ask for” almost like they want him to agree to it even before he hears what they are going to ask… and they are asking this favor right after Jesus has told them he will be executed in the very near future. I have to believe that the author of Mark was not recording the events of Jesus’ life in some steadily paced chronological manner. Or somewhere, a page got lost. I have to assume that, even if the request from James and John does happen after Jesus’ foretelling of his impending demise, it had to have happened a day or two later, and other things that didn’t make it into the text of Mark happened in between. Maybe they went fishing, maybe they sang a few songs, took some naps… anything. But even if a week had transpired between verse 34 and verse 35, it seems as if James and John must not have been listening to Jesus. And yet,
Jesus is SO patient with them. And, if you recall, James and John were there from the beginning. They were undoubtedly two of the top three along with Peter. James, John and Peter were with Jesus for all of the significant events in Jesus’ ministry. For example, when Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration, certainly one of the more dramatic moments in his ministry, he chose those three to go with him. You’d think that if any of the twelve would be listening to what Jesus was saying, the sons of Zebedee would be in that group. Apparently not.
So… when these two brothers ask this child-like question of their teacher, he of course does not agree to their demands but wants to know what they are asking for first… and they tell him: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” And Jesus warns them, he says, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Most biblical scholars will say that Jesus’ talking about the cup he was to drink and the baptism he would face were metaphors about his impending death. So basically, he was asking these two brothers if they were able and ready to die for him. Both quickly said they were, but we get the feeling that, just like they apparently hadn’t understood what Jesus was talking about before, they don’t really understand what he is telling them now. Then Jesus responds, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant.”
Like most of Jesus’ answers this one is not easily deciphered. Jesus seems to be telling them that they will experience what he experiences, but it might not be what they expect. He will suffer; they will suffer. He will be betrayed; they will be betrayed. He will give up his life in service to the Father; they will give up their lives in service to him. “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with . . .” And I don’t think they have any idea what this means until much later in their lives. In fact, James was the very first of the apostles to die, as recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Acts. He was taken and murdered, beheaded, by Herod the first of the apostles to be martyred. John, his brother, lived a much longer life, but much of it was lived in exile. They would drink Christ’s cup, but they will not get what they are asking for here. Jesus says, “But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.” Sorry, guys, this isn’t going to happen.
When the other ten disciples hear about James and John’s request, they are indignant, as we might expect. Jesus calls them together and turns this into a moment of teaching, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,” said Jesus, “and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
It’s a powerful story. James and John were ambitious. They wanted to be stars in Jesus’ enterprise. They wanted greatness. And that’s exactly what they got. It just didn’t happen in the way they expected. Jesus didn’t ascend to some earthly throne in Jerusalem to rule over Israel and Judea… James and John didn’t get top billing as Jesus’ deputies and fancy seats in the throne room, but they did achieve greatness. After all, here we are talking about them two thousand years later. Do you think anyone will be talking about any of us sitting here this morning 2,000 years from now? They could be . . . if we, too, are willing to drink the same cup and be baptized with the same baptism as Christ. But it’s not an invitation to live on easy street.
What can we learn from the question James and John asked Jesus and what can we learn from Jesus’ response to it? The first thing that we learn is that Jesus did not condemn James and John for their ambition. Ambition, in and of itself, is not inherently evil. Jesus wants his followers to seek after greatness. Why would we ever think that Jesus wants his people living mediocre lives? Set your course, whatever it might be, on achieving stardom. Mother Teresa was ambitious. Booker T. Washington was ambitious. Desmond Tutu was ambitious. Beethoven was ambitious. Be ambitious in seeking to do the sorts of things that you KNOW Jesus wants you to do and do them well. There is nothing wrong with aspiring to be the best we can be at the things we do, as long as these are honorable things. Indeed, this is why God gave us good minds and healthy bodies. Jesus did not condemn James and John for their ambition. Jesus does not condemn US for our ambition. People who achieve great things in this world by definition are ambitious people.
It is important to note, however, that ambition can be misguided. There is a fine line between ambition and ruthlessness… or ambition and greed. Our economy has been crippled and many people have lost big chunks of their life savings over the past year or two partly because some people chose dishonest means to satisfy their ambitions. It’s an old story. Some people will do anything, even to the point of destroying others, to achieve their goals. Bernie Madoff comes immediately to mind. Jesus did not condemn James and John for their ambition. However, it is important to acknowledge that misguided ambition is at the heart of many of the world’s great tragedies. Adolf Hitler was ambitious. Josef Stalin was ambitious. Pol Pot was ambitious. Jim Jones was ambitious.
The primary lesson we can learn from today’s passage is that the path to true greatness is service. If our ambition in life is to truly be some of the greatest people who ever lived, we will need to learn to serve others and to serve God. The story of James and John says to us that it’s all right to be ambitious, though misused ambition can be a dangerous thing. It also challenges us to seek after a greatness that the rest of the world simply cannot understand. It is the greatness exemplified by Jesus who laid down his life for all humanity. If you want to be great, learn to serve… learn to serve. Learn to rejoice in the nourishment your soul receives from the act of service.
We all have the opportunity to serve here at South Parish. If you haven’t already received your annual pledge card, you will soon. Like every year, we will be asking you to pledge funds to support the continuing operation and mission outreach of our church, and like every year, we assume your generosity. And like LAST year, we will also be asking you to pledge your time and your talent… or in other words, we will be asking you to pledge to serve the church, and when you do, you will be so happy you did. It is an ambitious undertaking, but ambitious undertakings in true and faithful service to the Lord are good things. Amen
The red dutch oven 10/11/09
How many rich folks do we have in the congregation today? Raise your hand if you think you are rich. I know… I know… some of you might be thinking that “rich” is a relative term, and maybe it is. But if we look at the world today, if we look at the standard of living today, if we consider that over half the population of the planet has a per capita annual income of less than one thousand dollars, if we consider that we each have more wealth and possessions than 99.99% of all the people who have ever walked on this earth since the dawn of time, then we all have to admit that we are ALL rich. Filthy rich. And today’s scripture readings, both from the Old Testament passage from the Book of Amos and the Gospel reading from Mark paint a pretty unflattering picture of filthy rich folks… folks like you and me.
Amos writes:
“Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate.”
And I think it is helpful to put Amos’ harsh condemnations into some sort of historical context. Because of some geopolitical upheavals during the late 8th century BC, Israel had been able to really prosper by controlling the trade routes between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. An ultra-affluent merchant class had developed in Israel with all the economic benefits and material extravagances that have a lot in common with really wealthy people today. The common folks like Amos, who was just a humble shepherd and fruit grower, did not share in this new wealth. The shrines of Judaism at places like Bethel and Gilgal were crowded with wealthy worshippers who interpreted their prosperity as a sign of God’s favor. And they were generous in their tithing, so the priests at the shrines and sanctuaries benefitted from their largesse and had little reason to expose the hypocrisy of their affluent benefactors.
But Amos is having none of it. Amos tells those rich Israelites that mistreating those least among them will not gain them anything in the long run. He is reminding those who had hopped on the prosperity train to not forget about those folks left on the siding. That is pretty much the message that Jesus tells the rich man in today’s reading:
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
And let’s put this scene into an even broader economic historical context. All of the action in our Bible took place during a time before the rise of what we call the middle class. When Jesus walked the earth, there were two classes of people. There were the very rich, like the rich merchants that Amos was speaking to… and there was everyone else. This young man who confronted Jesus was not just sort of rich, he was REALLY rich… because if you weren’t really rich in those days, you were really poor. There really wasn’t anything in between. And here is this really rich – filthy rich – young man… a man who had followed the rules set forth by God and Moses… a man who had been a devout and observant Jew… a man who, despite all that, clearly felt that something was missing. He came up to Jesus who, at that point in the story was not known by ANYONE as the Son of God. He was not considered part of ANY trinity, Holy or otherwise, at that point. At that point, he was just a rabblerousing young prophet and teacher who had developed a reputation for being charismatic, for being something of a miracle worker, and for having a bit of a chip on his shoulder when it came to dealing with authority figures. And up comes this REALLY rich young man and asks him how to get to heaven. And what does Jesus tell him to do? Sell EVERYTHING he owns, give the proceeds to the poor – which were everyone else, except for his equally really rich friends - and come follow Jesus.
Now, as I said, I understand that, at that point, this pre-Easter point in the story, this is really nothing much more than a really poor guy telling a really rich guy to do something… but his words are still there… recorded in the Gospel of Mark – and the same story is in Matthew and Luke as well… and we can read them… and WE KNOW that Jesus is something more than just a hot shot young prophet. WE KNOW what happened at Golgotha. WE KNOW what happened in the garden tomb. No stone had been moved away when Jesus told the rich young man what to do, but WE KNOW about the stone. WE KNOW about the resurrection. WE KNOW about Easter morning. WE KNOW about who Jesus really was and really is. How, then, do WE react TODAY to the news that the only way that WE will get to heaven is to sell everything that WE own, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Jesus?
Or is that still the case? Is that really true now? Was it REALLY REALLY true even then? Is Jesus speaking in harsh hyperbole again, as he has done so often? I think maybe. If everyone sold everything they owned and quit doing what they had been doing and literally followed Jesus, who would be left to grow the food or build the houses or weave the cloth that would keep everyone else from being hungry, homeless and naked? I am not sure that Jesus expects all of us folks who are, as we figured out earlier, all filthy rich by Jesus’ standards… I don’t think that Jesus wants us all to stop everything that we are doing, sell everything that WE own, quit being productive members of society and spend all our days following Jesus in prayerful meditation. I don’t think that the world would continue to function if everyone did that.
What then, does this passage really mean for us? Do we just ignore it? Do we continue our headlong pursuit of all things material? Do we continue to buy the newest cars and the biggest High Definition flat screen TV’s and the newest snowmobile or that fancy putter we saw advertised on the Golf Channel that is supposed to cut lots of strokes from our score? Do we continue to accumulate stuff? Always buy the latest fashion, the hippest new purse, the coolest new running shoes that we don’t even wear to run, but instead wear to walk around the mall looking for other great bargains at sale prices on stuff we never really needed in the first place. Is there some middle ground acceptable to Jesus in between selling everything we own and buying everything that we can?
Rachel and I have an old enamel coated six quart cast iron dutch oven that we bought in the first year of our marriage. We call it our “wonder pot” because everything that we cook in it comes out perfectly. It is looking a little shopworn … some of the enamel is chipped and the inside surfaces are stained by years of exotic cooking experimentation… and I’ve never been a big fan of the mustard yellow color… but it is STILL a wonder pot and we DO love it. So why would I want to buy another one? I dunno… I just DID. I wanted a newer one, a prettier one. Well… a friend of ours who knew I had been looking at dutch ovens called me this past week and told me that she had seen a bright RED SEVEN quart Cuisinart dutch oven at TJ Maxx and, what did I do? I immediately drove up to the turnpike mall and put down SEVENTY dollars for a dutch oven that I coveted for no practical reason whatsoever. And I did that during a week when I was writing THIS SERMON!!! When I got home, I put the new one on the kitchen table next to the old one and couldn’t wait for Rachel to come home and see it. When she did, she was not very impressed. Her first reaction was, “What do we need two dutch ovens for?” And then when I told her this new one would replace wonder pot, she said that she didn’t want to give up wonder pot… it had made so many great meals for us… and she didn’t care whether or not it wasn’t the hippest color or that it was stained and chipped. Well… I must tell you that I was so ashamed of myself that, by the next day when I came into the office to continue writing this sermon, I couldn’t. I couldn’t until after I had gone right back home, gotten the beautiful new red seven quart Cuisinart dutch oven and returned it. When I got to the counter at TJ Maxx, the clerk asked me if something was wrong with the product, and I said, “No… something was wrong with me”. But that doesn’t mean that my house is not still filled to overflowing with all sorts of toys and gadgets and THINGS that I hardly ever use and don’t really need. I have been horrible in my life when it comes to accumulating THINGS. My quest for things… for the latest and greatest things has not made me any happier or more contented. It has sapped my soul in an incremental insidious way that has left me much poorer in spirit than all the people I used to think would be impressed with my vast array of toys… people I used to assume were envious of me and all that I had achieved and acquired in my life.
In his book “Ethics for the New Millennium”, the Dalai Lama writes that when traveling in the USA, he is frequently invited into the most luxurious mansions imaginable. He says those who reside in those mansions want for nothing. They have it all, according to the world’s standards. And yet, he says, he feels loneliness and sadness in those mansions in a way that he never feels it when he is visiting the poor little villages of impoverished countries, including his native Nepal. He says members of these tiny communities in what we call "The Third World" don’t feel the same greed, envy and deprivation that we do, because everyone is in the same boat, and keeping body and soul together is a common goal. In Western societies based on consumerism, we look to THINGS to make us happy instead looking to each other. We believe that the latest iPod, the newest fashions, and a cable TV hookup with five hundred channels will somehow fulfill us… somehow make us happy. And we suffer for it, because when the thrill of a new acquisition wears off, we feel a vague, nagging sense of dissatisfaction. And so we look for new products to buy, rather than examining the deficits in ourselves and our relationships.
Jesus knows that the Dalai Lama has got it right on this issue. Jesus KNOWS that our passionate love affair with the newest and fastest and biggest and prettiest stuff will keep us from connecting with the world and all the people in it with love and compassion. Jesus knows that we can be simultaneously rich in things and poor in soul. I don’t really believe that Jesus wants us all to sell everything we own, give the proceeds to the poor and then follow him. I do think, however, that he might want us to buy less, consume less, share more of what we have with those who have not, give more of our time, talent, and treasure to the mission of this church than we did last year. I think that if we start doing those sorts of things, or do more of those sorts of things, we can follow Jesus from here all the way to heaven.
And for me, a big red dutch oven will act as a signpost on the way hopefully pointing me in a new and better direction. I pray that a big red dutch oven, or something like it will be a similar epiphany for you as well. Amen.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E 10/4/09
You may or may not know, but I actually try pretty hard to make my sermons fairly uniform in length. I try to make the ones that I give on non-communion Sundays about two thousand words long. The ones on communion Sundays, I try to make about seventeen hundred to eighteen hundred words long. I have no quantitative data that would let me know whether such planning actually makes the worship service feel like the right length, or not… I just got in the habit of trying to roughly hit those numbers and I see no reason to change. Well… I SAW no reason to change until I realized what the passage from Mark was all about this week. I was tempted to cut this one much shorter. Preaching a sermon about Jesus’ position on divorce is problematic for me. As you probably know, I have been involved in two divorces in my life before I finally found the absolute love of my life the third time around. So… I ask myself, how in the world can I sit here and have any credibility whatsoever regarding this passage? Hear it again:
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." (And then the passage abruptly moves in a different tangent) People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
I honestly thought about just ignoring the first part of that passage altogether and concentrating instead on the last portion about children, but I realized that would be a pretty big cop out. The lectionary puts scriptural passages before us for a reason, and we ignore them at our own peril. I realize that, unlike me, many ministers are happily married to their first wives, but regardless, it’s hard to imagine any UCC minister anywhere in America this morning who is facing a congregation where NO ONE has experienced the painful process of divorce, so, across our denomination anyway, ministers this morning are either struggling with the very real possibility of reminding parishioners of painful memories while simultaneously castigating them for their failures, or they are preaching on an alternative lectionary passage… like the one from Job, or perhaps the passage from the Book of Hebrews, which I will admit I seriously contemplated doing.
As you’ll recall, I have spent the last five weeks preaching on passages from the Book of James, my favorite book in all the Bible, and I did so because of my affection for that book, not because of some aversion to those statements from Jesus that Mark had been covering in the Gospel passages for those weeks. Honest. Looking back, however, I see that my exploration of James did cause me to miss some rather “difficult” pronouncements from Jesus… but none that I can see that were any more difficult than the one today. And I don’t want you to think that I have spent all this time telling you why I am going to talk about Jesus’ pronouncements on divorce as some sort of dodge to limit the time I have to spend actually talking about it…. honest… well… maybe just a little.
Jesus says some tough stuff sometimes, doesn’t he? Last week, if we would have read the lectionary reading from Mark, we would have heard Jesus say:
If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
Tough stuff… and next week we’ll hear even more, and it won’t get any easier. The fact is: Mark clearly shows us that on his way to Jerusalem, to his suffering and death, Jesus speaks hard words to his followers, but yet he promises that "with God all things are possible". I personally struggle often with the duality of Jesus… how he was born a very human baby… raised a very human boy… grew up to be a very human young man who took quite some time to figure out who he was, or who he was becoming. We think of him as the Son of God, but there are many times when he speaks that he sounds very much like a man, and sometimes, not even a very nice man. I need only look to the story of the woman with the sick daughter. Mark calls her the Syrophoenician woman and Matthew refers to her as the Canaanite woman… but in both versions, Jesus basically calls her a bitch… it is as if Jesus is talking, not from an eternal divine perspective, but as a man, very much a part of the social fabric of his time. When Jesus walked the earth, women were considered property. When the Pharisees in today’s passage try to trick Jesus with their question about divorce, they are directed, by Jesus to the Law of Moses. God talked to Moses about divorce, and the conversation was recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy as follows:
Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife. Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.
That is the context of the question from the Pharisees this morning… and Jesus clearly speaks hard words about divorce, but it is interesting to see how he changes the topic of discussion from the legalities of divorce to the timeless ideals of marital unity. He makes the discussion less about legal escape clauses and more about embracing the unity of partners that reveals the creative design of God. And then, Marks goes further and reveals the follow-on discussion that Jesus supposedly had with his disciples when they were alone “in the house”. On the UCC website, there is a page called SAMUEL, which is an acronym for Scripture and Mission: A UCC Electronic Library. It’s a great preaching tool that I read quite often. Samuel contains theological analysis of that week’s scripture readings, and in the one for this week, I found out something interesting about Mark’s use of those “in the house” discussions. Theologians have surmised that, maybe Jesus didn’t SAY all those things that Mark has him saying “in the house”, but that “in the house” discussions were actually records of the early church struggling with Jesus’ message. And today’s passage is a good example of this. Mark has Jesus speaking of something that wasn't even practiced in ancient Judaism, that being a wife divorcing her husband. That didn’t happen. Yet Mark has Jesus saying that it did…”in the house”. The early church that Mark served was wrestling with the Greco-Roman culture around them which DID allow such things, and that debate is reflected in the way they "record" Jesus' private conversations “in the house”.
But, what are we to make of the “outside the house” portion? Jesus is asked a legal question, a technical, down-to-earth, question about every day, lived reality, and he answers with an ideal that is, to be honest, almost impossible to achieve, at least for everyone. As we have said, Jesus has been known to speak this way before, and he will again. At first, it might sound too easy just to say that Jesus was holding up the ideal of marriage in response to the Pharisees' preoccupation with divorce. But isn't that exactly what needs to happen in our own time: don't we need strong voices that lift up the ideal, the intention of God from the very beginning, of two people joined together for life, faithfully loving each other? It didn't take long (in Genesis itself) for things to change, and for men (revered patriarchs included) to start collecting multiple wives, with no word of judgment from the Scripture. Yes, divorce came along, too, because of "hardness of heart” that Jesus mentions. As in every subject he addressed, Jesus seems to wrench our attention from the technicalities to the heart of the matter. I believe that the statements of Jesus today might very well be a blending of two different phenomena: Jesus’ use of hyperbole, and the human social historical environment that Jesus, the man, was a part of. And, we know that all things are possible with God, so I choose to not beat myself up too much about the fact that, according to a literal interpretation of this passage in Mark, Jesus is telling me that I am an adulterer twice over. I choose to consider that, society has changed a great deal since those times… society no longer views women as property. We now realize that people who enter into marriage are equal partners. Society – and the church – now sees that maintaining an unhealthy, destructive, marriage simply because Jesus spoke against divorce is short sighted and harmful to the spirits of everyone involved. But, rather than focusing on the evils of divorce, can’t we find ways for us in the church to focus more energy on the ideal of lasting, faithful, loving unions that are a sign of God's love in the world? We could strengthen our support systems for married couples and our marriage preparation programs, and perhaps even consider a measure of holy hesitation before marrying every couple that asks to get hitched. Maybe we could read today’s scripture passage not as an indictment against divorce, but rather as a celebration and an exultation of just how good marriage can be and nurture, celebrate and acknowledge all those different aspects of it that make it so special.
On New Year’s Eve, 1996, standing next to a roaring fire in our living room, Rachel and I were joined in holy matrimony by John Zehring, in front of a small but important group of family and friends. When I look at how much BETTER a person I am today than I was then… when I look at how much BETTER a father I am, how much BETTER a husband I am than I ever was before… I have absolutely no doubt that God is PLEASED with our marriage and what we have accomplished in it and because of it. I refuse to live my life looking in the rear view mirror feeling guilty about the distant past, and I don’t believe God wants me to either. I think that every one of us can wake up tomorrow morning with a renewed attitude, a renewed commitment to make our marriages and ALL our relationships more in line with the life and teachings of Jesus. And I have to believe that Jesus will be pleased when we do. Amen.
As I think most of you know, Rachel and I are anxiously planning our impending retirement to the city of Merida, Mexico, a lovely colonial town near the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. Why are we going to Merida? Well… it is a long story that I won’t bore you with today, but the reader’s digest version is that, after my heart attack in 2006, we decided that postponing retirement any longer than necessary was a bad idea. We knew that in order to retire earlier, we would have to retire to somewhere where my Navy pension and social security would allow us to live well enough to enjoy ourselves. And… we also knew that we really wanted to go somewhere where there was no winter to speak of. I love Maine, but quite honestly, the winters have been sapping my soul for years now. Rachel and I don’t ski or snowshoe or snowmobile. All we do in winter is stay inside as much as possible and only go out to move the snow out of the way of our cars so we can safely leave the warm inside of OUR house and go to the warm inside of someplace else. So… we started looking at Mexico and we have bounced all around in our investigation of that country - San Miguel, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, Xalapa, Playa del Carmen, and finally, Merida. And each of those towns has websites that extol the virtues of their respective communities. And each website always has a travel poster-like photograph gracing its homepage. San Miguel highlights its beautiful zocalo, or central square. Guadalajara shows off its modern looking downtown with wide boulevards, Oaxaca showcases its rugged mountainous terrain. Xalapa features its beautiful flowers and hillside views. Playa shows off the Caribbean beach scenes, and Merida showcases native Mayan dancers and its beautiful cathedral. It is as if each location tried to distill the essence of how they wished to be viewed by visitors into one picture… one travel poster. You see that in airports all the time too… posters for cities around the world that distill the experience of visiting and living there down to one lasting, captivating image.
My question for you this morning is, what would be on the poster for the universal Christian church? What would be on the poster for South Parish Congregational Church? If we had to have a photograph that distilled what it was like to be a Christian down into one picture, what would that picture contain? What would that poster look like? While doing research for today’s sermon, I came across an article by a noted Methodist theologian and preacher named Maxie Dunham and he suggested that the Book of James offers us a crash course in practical Christianity and that James, especially here in today’s reading, which are the last eight verses of his Epistle, distills the essence of who we Christians are and what we do down into three things that should definitely be included in any poster that purports to accurately portray Christians as a church. Those three things are: Praying, celebrating, and caring. Let’s examine how James lays those out for us:
First, there is praying. The reading starts out this morning, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray," James says. But not just let him pray, listen to verse 14 - 15: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."
The Church is a praying place and we are a praying people. Prayer is pretty amazing, when you think about it. It really accomplishes three things simultaneously: prayer does something IN us; prayer does something FOR us; and prayer does something THROUGH us. Think about those three truths: prayer does something IN us – it softens our hearts and prepares us to hear God’s whispers. Prayer does something FOR us – it refocuses us on Jesus and on our relationship with God. And prayer does something THROUGH us – it heals the wounded hearts of others. It stems the tide of illness in others. We have a prayer chain where we pray for members and friends and relatives of members who are sick and there are numerous reports of the positive benefits of those prayers. That is what praying does. The Church is a praying place and the Church is praying people. James makes that point over and over again. James says that the prayers of faithful people can heal the sick. The prayers of righteous people are powerful and effective. So… our poster should somehow show us praying.
Second, there is celebrating. The Church is a celebrating place and a celebrating people. Listen to James: "Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise." From the very beginnings of our faith, Christians have always been folks ready to burst into song. From the beginning, the Christian Church has been a singing church and our singing has always been a sign of our joy in the Lord. Our joy is rooted in our confidence of God’s salvation, His enabling presence in our lives and his expected return. Jesus himself gave his early followers – and us – a warning and a promise. In the 16th chapter of John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be joyful; I have overcome the world". With that kind of assurance, it is no wonder that G. K. Chesterton said that joy "is the gigantic secret of the Christian."
I have a friend who many of you have met. His name is Bill Mellish. He has been my best pal since we were six years old. Bill’s father was my minister from the time I was 6 until I was 21 and Reverend Stan Mellish remains one of my most valuable mentors to this day. His son, my friend Bill, has always been the most exuberant, uninhibited, joy-filled person I have ever known. Joy and a full tilt zest for life burst forth from Bill Mellish nonstop so that sometimes, he couldn’t contain it and he would run around in circles leaping and jumping with uncontrollable laughter bursting from within him. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. His diagnosis brought ME into a severe selfishly motivated depression, but Bill never ONCE lost his joy. Jesus was right. Bill did have tribulation, but he remained joyful because Christ has overcome the world. Bill maintained his joyous optimism throughout his series of radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and, just as he seemed to know all along, at the end of his treatment, he was declared cancer-free and remains so to this day. As far as Bill was concerned, his life as a believer of Christ was a life that demanded he acknowledge and express the joy that such belief brought to him. I can remember being a little bit embarrassed sometimes, as a child, when Bill would break forth in a joyful exuberant display and I felt constrained, for some reason, from fully joining in the dance. I can imagine that many of you have felt the same way from time to time. Every day life offers all sorts of reasons for joy and celebration. But most of us don't see them, and even when we do see them, we control ourselves. We squelch our emotions, we clench our hands rather than clap them; we hold our lips tight lest we surprise others with an unexpected and perhaps inappropriate shout of gleeful, joyful, exuberant, and yes, sacred excitement.
Our church is poised on the brink of exciting new adventures, and challenges. Our search committee is deep into the examination of candidates for our next settled pastor. Our choir is back and sounding better than ever. Our board of mission and service is gearing up for another season of successful and inspirational public suppers. Our nursery school is filled with laughing happy children. We ought to feel the urge to run and dance and jump and shout coming on. We ought to celebrate the wonderful belonging feeling of our community of faith. The church is a celebrating place and a celebrating people. Our poster should somehow capture the joy of Christianity and the way we, as Christians celebrate our faith.
And finally, the Church is a caring place and a caring people. Our passage from James is shot through with that dynamic. "Is anyone suffering...pray. Is anyone sick, call the elders... Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another.” And listen especially to verses 19 - 20 of Chapter 5, the very last words in the Book of James: “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
There was a touching little vignette that Maxie Dunham spoke about and I did some internet Google searches and found the Los Angeles Times article that reported it. On February 24th, 1989, United Airlines flight 811, a 747 jumbo jet, took off from Honolulu bound for New Zealand with 355 people on board. Shortly after takeoff, a 10-by-20-foot rectangular hole tore open on the right side the plane, sucking nine passengers to presumed death at 20,000 feet and injuring 18 others. The incident, which began with what a number of passengers said seemed like an explosion, occurred 20 to 30 minutes after the jet left Honolulu International Airport. Despite the fact that two of the plane's four engines subsequently failed, the jet's veteran pilot was able to fly 50 miles back to Honolulu, where he made an emergency landing. Kerry Lappan, a young woman, age 31, was sitting by the fateful hole, and later told reporters, "the whole plane was falling to pieces, and I thought, 'This is it!', but there was a man in front of me. I don't know who he was -- a wonderful, wonderful man. He held my hand and he comforted me. It was so loving and so comforting to have someone's hand to hold." She never found out who the man was, but I certainly have no doubt that the man was a Christian who understood that CARING is one of the primary things that Christians do.
Reaching out and offering a hand to hold is what we Christians are compelled to do, isn’t it? It is so comforting to us to have someone’s hand to hold, and not only when our life is threatened but many other times as well. When, as a teenager, we feel we’ve lost the love we thought was forever... when, as a parent, we are fearful as our children are trying to spread and test their wings… when a spouse has died… when we’ve lost our job and our bank account is dwindling… when someone has spoken a harsh word that has wounded our hearts. There are all sorts of occasions when it feels so comforting to have someone’s hand to hold. There are all sorts of occasions when it feels to right and fulfilling when we reach out to hold someone ELSE’s hand.
The church ought to be that kind of place -- where people hold the hands of people in need. And more...where people who care reach out in love and concern to persons outside the Church. People who need the saving power of the gospel and the sustaining fellowship that the church has to offer will most likely not receive it unless it is received from the hands of genuinely caring folks… folks like you and like me. Our poster needs to somehow show how much we can care.
And there it is: the three main pieces of James' word-picture of the Church- a triptych of sorts. I don't know how we would present it on a poster to put on a website or hang in an airport. A Praying, Celebrating, Caring Place and People. Come to think of it, maybe we don't need a poster on a webpage or in the airport or anyplace else. You be the poster, and I'll be the poster.
A small boy, after being tucked into bed for the night, cried out. "Mommy, I'm afraid to be alone in the dark. I want somebody to stay with me."
His mother responded, "Don't be afraid. God is with you."
The little boy then said sadly, "I want somebody with skin on his face."
Jesus was God with skin on his face. And now, you and I can do the work of God… act as the presence of God with skin on our faces. So, we'll be the posters -- the living posters that show the world with our actions and our words what amazing things that praying, celebrating, caring Christians can do here on earth. Amen
